Archive for June, 2008
Where to Network?
Knowing where to effectively market will take a little research. Knowing your target market will have a big benefit as you find places that you can use your networking skills, but may also bring you some sales. Social sites, forums, and blogs are great ways to get free publicity and put your expertise to work.
Social sites have become all the rage. One such site that is built to help other work at home Mom’s is www.MyWAHMSpace.com. Networking needs to be your focus even though there is room for more personal information as well. Join in groups and really get into the social sites. Not only do these sites have many members, but the visitor traffic is very high. Use your profile page and site blogs to get across what you are an expert in and make the best use of the traffic to your page with clickable links to your sites and blogs.
Forums have been around as long as internet marketing. I love the forums that I frequent. I have learned invaluable information and made lifelong friends on these forums. Every friend I have made is now another marketer for me because when someone asks about a subject in my area of expertise, my friends will send them to me and vice-versa. Forums are where you have to be careful of looking like a spammer. It is important to be active in the forums and make helpful posts. My favorite forum is www.MommysHelperCommunity.com. It is a friendly environment that is all about working from home with just enough personal talk to get me away from business for a few minutes a day. No one likes a spam and go poster. So find some forums that are a good fit for you and visit them weekly. It only takes a few minutes a week to get some good posts up. And don’t forget to use your signature line to it’s fullest with taglines and links.
Blogs are an easy way to work on finding networking opportunites. Find your target market and do a search for that term with the word blog added to the end. For example: women’s weight loss blog. Now I can find some blogs specifically about that topic. I’ll comment on those that I feel I can leave some good information at and a link back to my women’s wellness blog will be included in the reply post. Make sure that you are actually leaving information, not a simple, “great information, thank you for the post” comment. Those are also considered spam and many bloggers won’t approve your post without relevant information included.
These three quick networking areas can help you get a big jump on targeted traffic to your site. Use them appropriately and you will see heavier traffic to your site. Targeted traffic will bring you more sales because they knew what they were clicking to get more information about.
Network with Your Expertise
We’ve talked on how networking is all about talking with other people and not being pushy. Then you should be sharing ideas and not just selling your products and services. Now consider the expertise you can bring to conversations and really make people want to read your blogs and message board posts, therefore signing up for your newsletters to get more info.
Map out all that you do in regular life and in business. You will be amazed at how much you know how to do. Just because it isn’t something in your field of business does not mean you can not promote your ideas and therefore promote your business link. Some of you are much better housecleaners, organizers, or cooks than the rest of us. Every time you post a recipe it leads people to your signature line on message boards or to your blog with new traffic.
Research your field of expertise. Now that you have a list of things you enjoy or are already good at, do some research. I like to set up google alerts to be sent to my inbox so that I know the latest news on topics of my interest. This in turn gives me ideas to write about or share. It may be as simple as a quick google search to get you a couple of newsletter or magazine articles to dissect with your opinion.
Write articles and post them to your forums and to article directories as much as possible. Make up a good bio line that talks about yourself and your business expertise. This will bring a ton of traffic back to your business as others use your article to add great content to their sites and blogs. This is also more targeted traffic, which is the best kind. You know if they liked your article enough to click the link in your bio then they are looking for more information in your area of expertise. Keep an eye on your stats to see which articles are bringing you the best traffic and then you know what people are hungry for.
Being an expert does not require a degree. Being an expert can happen through life experience and research. Make the most of what you know and people will look to you for more info on your favorite topics.
