Marketing Magic For Limited Budgets

I work frequently with small business owners who are scrambling for creative ways to keep their business visible and vibrant on a very limited budget.

Many of them are asking:

It is possible to remain competitive while spending less on marketing?

Answer: Yes!

What Kind Of Magic Is This?

Update Your Website and Change Your Hosting Plan

In a land of nearly non-existent human attention spans, it has become more important than ever to refresh your Website and make sure that it is concise, informative and relevant.

Since a website is one of the most cost-effective ways to disseminate core information about your business – keeping your site tidy and up-to-date is essential for your success.

Web Hosting (the storing of your site on “servers” that keep your site live) can be notoriously overpriced. I would suggest that you look carefully at your plan and see if you can save some money there.

If you think you are being overcharged for web hosting, contact us and we’ll take a look.

Start A Blog

If you want your Business to have it’s own voice on the Internet, then setting up a Blog is the fastest, easiest way to get started.

Even with no marketing budget at all, you can set up a free hosted Blog at Wordpress.com.

So, you are only making excuses for yourself if you are saying “I can’t afford to be on the Internet”.

You can’t afford FREE??

Evaluate Your Message

Surely every small business owner knows how important it is to stand out with memorable marketing messages.

But as things become even more competitive, you’ll need to step up quickly – and have something NEW to say today; preferably something relevant to the current economic climate.

Just remain focused on your customers, and adjust your advertising to address their current interests and needs.

Look at your core marketing message: what are you really saying to your clients and customers?

Get Some Social Media Buzz

Twitter, Facebook, Stumble, Digg…

There are seemingly endless varieties of social media networks that help get you some media buzz FAST.

If it is true that over half of the global internet population visits social networks, then why would you NOT use one of these free social media tools?

Network Like Crazy

Rather than complain about “how slow business is”, why not use any extra time to network with other small business owners in your area.

Reaching out and being helpful in these difficult times can generate a lot of positive feedback for your business.

Get it right the first time.

Build long-term relationships with your customers, and this will increase your sales while reducing your customer acquisition costs.

And what could be better than that!

A Website Or Blog For 2010?

Here’s a question I get asked a lot:

As a small business owner, should I have a Blog or Website?

My answer: both.

Blog2010

The way I see it, there is never a reason not to have as much presence on the Internet as possible – especially when you can have both for about the same amount of money.

Having 2 different websites (1 a “Blog”, 1 a “website”) under 2 different domain names is a great strategy for broadening your online presence for next to nothing.

You can also have a website with “Blog” features like RSS, updated/archived articles, YouTube videos, etc.

All it takes is careful planning and you can have your own Blog and a nice looking Website for about $100 per year.

Ingredients: Wordpress and a robust Web Hosting Plan.

Looking for Web Hosting With Quality Support? 24/7 Support Via Phone, Live Chat, and Email!

You can use Hostgator as your Web Host (we do), and sign up for their Baby Croc plan.

This plan offers unlimited domains, disk space, and bandwidth.

It also comes with a free website builder that allows you to easily create a professional looking website.

A Blog (a contraction of the term “web log”)[1] is a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. –Wikipedia

Don’t forget that having a Blog will take some work.

Someone will have to write the articles for it.

If you don’t like to write articles (and you don’t want to pay for articles), then maybe you’ve answered the question already: a Blog is probably not for you.

  • What will you write about?
  • Do you really have the time?
  • Are you willing to write an article at least once a week?

Still on the fence?

A web consultant can help you work out the details – but take my word for it: having a Blog and Website should be considered even if you are on a tight budget.

The Two Faces Of Wordpress

So you have been hearing a lot about Wordpress, and you want to know what all the fuss is all about.

WordPress is a blog publishing application and content management system.

As of September 2009, Wordpress is used by 62.8 million websites in the US and 202 million websites worldwide.—Wikipedia

What Is A Blog?

theblog

This is a Blog!

A Blog is just a type of website that is frequently updated with articles (“posts”) on topics that the Blogger wants to write about.

Wordpress is one of the most popular Blogging applications, and it is available in two different versions:

  • The Wordpress.com version
  • The Wordpress.org version

Both versions use the same FREE Blogging Software.

Wordpress.com

Wordpress.com is the version I call the “newbie” version.

If you are an absolute Beginner Blogger, this would be the version I would recommend to you because it is so easy to set-up and use.

Additionally your Blog is hosted for free by Wordpress.

Free and Free. What’s not to love?

The major drawbacks of this version?  You will not be able to monetize your Blog directly with advertisements and Banners, and customization of your Blog is extremely limited.

But if your goal is to set up a quick hobby, family, or even a simple business Blog – you can do it easily with Wordpress.com

There is nothing for you to buy – just set up an account and BLOG!

Wordpress.org

Wordpress.org is the version I call the “professional” Wordpress.

It is referred to as the “self-hosted” version – because you will need to find a Web Host for your Blog.

You will also need to register your own Domain Name.

However, you will also have much more control over your Blog!

With the .org version you will be able to:

  • Upload & Customize Various Blog Themes
  • Add Plug-Ins and Custom Widgets
  • Monetize your Blog with Advertisements
  • Alter your Blog in any way imaginable!

If you will be using your Blog as a way for you to make money online with Google Adsense or other forms of advertising – you will need the self-hosted version of Wordpress (the .org version).

Then you will need to set-up your Hosting account and install the software on your Host Server.

I’ll show you how to do this in later posts.

For tips on making money with your Blog, visit ProBlogger.net.

Afterwards, you can get ideas for your Blog by browsing tons of them at BlogCatalog.com.