Balancing

Hi everyone! My name is Eileen. I am the proud owner of hopeezinetoday.com. I am working on creating a non profit. I just wanted to share some of the things I do online to promote both that cost money and that don't. You won't find Walmart and Target and one I learned now is Hospitals and Medical groups, joining surfing sites, joining social and business networking site - they straight pay for advertising if they didn't advertise they wouldn't be where they are today. I was talking to a marketing person (as I was telemarketing for refis a while back UGH) she worked for a very large medical org. She said it is amazing how much traffic they "buy" for their website and the millions of dollars they spend each quarter on ads. Another tip she gave was to updated your website regularly, that well maintained sites or ones that are updated regular get pulled up by search engines more often than those that sit for months. I network around the social and business pages. Talking posting etc.. Engaging with other is one of the best ways to promote your site. I also play on game sites and in my profile I list three things I am working on, hopeezinetoday.com and my son's radio show, "Kids with Autism Speak" and that we are always hopeful "quality" advertisers. I have had great conversations with people this way and yes sold a few ads. I try regularly to repsond to posts but that can be a bit tedious with the number of site I belong to. I use some traffic and safelist sites too. By the end of the summer I hope to double my traffic and I notice with a traffic stats tool how long people are on the site and where they are from ( no personal data) how they entered my site "referral". What is exciting as even those dull autosurfs bring people that are on the site for 20-30 minutes. Which is really good of course. I added an external forum to the site but hope to be adding a built in one and a monthly newsletter subscription for $2.00, we shall see how that goes when I get the script up. Advertising offline - I have submitted news stories to local papers ( i know this is more personal interest, but if I eventually want to grow into a real resources for others then I need to do those. If you visit the Southtown Star you can search for autism and our story comes up. I post flyers and I talk to business owners in the area. Some of that costs mine of course but I try to do as much printing at home and not pay for it. I know some people put magnetic lettering on their cars but I don't have a car. I am interested in what other people do so fire away. Top This!!!! Eileen