The major disadvantage of using free website marketing methods is the time required vs when you pay for advertising. So what we will do is look at the pros and cons of some of the most popular free promotion methods, and then I will make a comment about the time factor that is related to each of these methods

1. Blogging. One of the top things you can do to promote your website it is to start a blog using one of the free blogging services such as Blogger.com. Post short news pieces about new developments on your website and link to it with keyword-rich anchor text.

Pros: It takes very little time to set up a blog on Blogger.com. Blogger is owned by Google which means your blog will get lots of attention from the Google search engine. You can also add Google Adsense to Blogger blogs which is a plus because you can earn some cash from your blogging.

As far as time is concerned, blogging doesn’t need to be too time consuming as a blog post can be as short as 100 words so you can be reasonably flexible with how much time you devote to your blog articles.

Cons: Blogger.com is fee but it is owned by Google so you do not have complete control over it. If Google doesn’t like what you are doing, or if you are in breach of their terms of service, you could unexpectedly find that your blog has been closed down.

2. Social Networking. Social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and others can be easily used to direct highly targeted traffic to your website.

Pros: This allows you to socialize and develop a personal relationship with your followers and to reach a very wide audience. You can attract a closely distinct audience by using demographic targeting (Facebook), hashtags (Twitter), or other keyword-based techniques.

Cons: It is very easy to send too much time being social and loose sight of what you are trying to achieve.

3. Traffic Exchanges. A traffic exchange is a membership site where you post web pages that you want other members to view. Most are free to join, but offer significant advantages if you upgrade You must get credits, to participate which you can do either by viewing  other members’ web pages or by purchasing credits. The biggest traffic exchange on the net is EasyHits4U, which currently claims to have 500,000 members.

Pros: Easy to use and a fast way to get traffic.

Cons: It is time consuming to earn credits as a free member as the “surfing ratio” can be as low as 1:3. For example, you have to view three pages to have one person view yours.

The traffic is not highly targeted and conversion rates are notoriously low. I have found the best use for these programs is to build a list rather than as an attempt to sell your products.

4. Article Marketing. Writing articles and distributing them on article directories is a tried and tested formula for generating targeted traffic. It is important to place a link back to your website in the signature file.

Pros: Good quality articles can direct highly targeted traffic to your website for months or even years after they have been distributed.

Cons: Unless you are a prolific writer with a wealth of knowledge on your subject, writing and distributing articles is a time-consuming business. Otherwise you can spend an inordinate amount of time researching material for your articles.

If you are operating with a limited budget these 4   free website marketing methods are excellent ways to promote your website. In addition you can discover the secrets the pros use to get loads of FREE traffic to your website. Simply click FREE Report and you can begin using these powerful strategies in the next 10 minutes.

You can locate a lot of people these days wanting to start an online business of their own. For any person that has this dream, it is essential to learn the steps required to make it happen for you.

The only one that can make your dream of owning an internet business come true is you. That is why you have to follow these steps to help you start the perfect business for you.

The first step is to figure out the type of business you will enjoy building to be profitable and successful. There are business ideas everywhere you look online, so narrowing down your options is going to save you a lot of time in selecting the best business to begin.

You can begin by making a list of the hobbies you enjoy, any skills you have and your interests. This list will be where you are going to start your search.

Be sure to choose the ideas from the list that you enjoy the most so you can find a business you will truly enjoy. This will make you look forward to working on your business because you love what you do and it will also make it so much simpler to make a great income from it.

After you have some idea of what type of business you are searching for, the next step is to begin your search. Use any major search engine, blogs, articles (look in the resource boxes), forums and anywhere else online that you can think to search.

Locate a number of ideas and set them aside until you have completed your search. Once you are done searching the business ideas to be found on the internet, then you can move on to step three, which is to thoroughly go over the ideas or opportunities you have chosen.

It is important to do your homework on each idea to learn more about it. This information will tell you if the idea is a good fit for you or one that you are not as interested in as you first thought.

This will take time, but it is a necessary step so you can narrow down your wide selection of business ideas online to the perfect one for you.

After you have completed all of this, the last step is to carefully make your selection. Just remember to take your time and really think about the type of business you will enjoy so you make the right choice from the very start.

Now that you have all of these steps in your mind, you are more prepared to start an online business of your own. The sooner you get started using these steps the closer you will be to making a profit from the comfort of your own home.

I would like to wish you and your loved ones a Merry Christmas and all the best wishes of the Holiday Season. . Please take some time to reflect on the meaning of Christmas.

What about Christmas is important to you, not to others? Is it choosing that perfect present for someone special? Is it sharing time with family and loved ones?

Whatever it means to you, slow down for a while. Your business and the everyday events of your daily life are important, but take some time out and
enjoy time with family and friends. Enjoy a quiet moment over a cup of coffee or tea or call a friend you haven’t seen for some time. You might even consider sharing your holiday meal with someone who has no one to share with.

However you choose to spend the Holidays, may your dinners be tasty and your family gatherings not drive you crazy. And wherever you are have a great time, and remember to give more than you receive.

Wishing you the happiest of Holidays, and a healthy and prosperous New Year.

One of the most difficult challenges facing most internet marketers, especially if you are a newbie, is how to promote your home-based business website.

Some choose to try the “paid” route, but if you have no experience in internet marketing, how do you know which advertising program is the right one for your website? You could end up wasting money on advertising and just get a few sales, if any at all.

Others look for free or low-cost marketing methods to avoid over spending their budget. However, if you aren’t familiar with the ins and outs of internet marketing you may end up failing to generate any sales. True, you won’t have wasted any money, but you will have wasted a lot of time, which is more precious than money because it can never be redeemed.

So, let’s look at a few free and easy methods of promoting a home-based business website.

1. Set up blogs and feeder sites. Your best choice is free services such as Blogger, or WordPress to create one or more blogs that support your main website. This allows you to segment your niche market into sub niches and use each blog to promote one specific sub-niche. Whatever blogging strategy you adopt, join Technorati and register your blog with them. Technorati is the Internet’s biggest search engines for blogs.

2. Squidoo: This is a free resource where you can set up a single page site, called a “lens”. The idea here is to create a series of closely focused lenses on Squidoo, one for a different area of your market niche. Use the lenses to provide background information and advice relating to your niche market.

Squidoo lenses can be set up in ten minutes and will attract visits from other squidoo members. You can make an excellent lens in 40 minutes or less and they do quite well on the search engines.

3. Set up a Twitter account for your business. Then search for Twitter users who may be interested in your market area and follow them. Some will follow you back. Offer value to your followers by tweeting tips and advice about your niche. Be nice to them by retweeting interesting tweets to generate goodwill. When you update your website, or blog, make a Squidoo lens, etc. post a link to it on Twitter.

4. Social Networking Sites: Apart from Twitter, make sure you have a business presence on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Plus. If you already have a personal account on Facebook and want to keep personal and business activities separate, set up a Facebook business page and use the privacy settings to keep them apart.

5. Go Local: One of the great things about the Internet is that it gives you a worldwide market. Even so, you should not neglect your local community. It’s highly possible you may find it much easier to establish yourself as the local expert simply by ensuring that your web business is visible in the community. All you have to do is set up an account on Google Places and Yahoo Local.

6. Offer a Service: For example, if you enjoy writing you could offer this service on a site such as elance.com. This is a great way to build your reputation and your business, and generate some income at the same time. As you develop satisfied customers you will find that you have created a good lead in to introduce them to your major business services.

7. Write Articles: Make it a habit to write articles and distribute them to article directories such as EzineArticles. Post a link back to your website and offer an incentive for the reader to click through, such as a free report

8. Whenever you create a new product or service, publish a press release using a service such PRLeap or PRWeb.

9. Email Signature: Set up a signature file in your email account with a link back to your website with a brief, catchy, publicity phrase about what you do. Update it often and set it so it will appear on the bottom of you emails.

These are 9 free and easy ways to promote your home-based business website.

You can discover how the pros get tons of  free website traffic with this Traffic EBook  and also receive my FREE traffic course. Simply sign up HERE for this FREE report to learn the top 25 ways to get free traffic for your website.

There are many benefits to be derived from ahome based internet business that a traditional off-line business simply cannot provide. To begin with it requires much less capital to start an online business than it does a conventional bricks-and-mortar business.

The chief thing you need to begin is a computer with internet access. This gives you two immediate advantages over a conventional business. First, you will have the ability to promote to a worldwide market. Second, your business will remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

However, neither of these two advantages will guarantee your success. There are six important steps that you need to take to stand a good chance of success with a home-based business on the Internet.

1. Focus on a niche. The Internet is a very competitive market place so it makes sense to narrow your focus and find a specific niche market, one that is of interest to you and which offers a reasonable prospect of making money.

It will also help if you have some expertise in the subject; although this is not an absolute. Short of that; select something that you can feel passionate about. This will give you the opportunity to do something you enjoy and allow you to benefit from what you already know.

2. Choose a product. You have a head start should you have a product you can sell online. However, the majority of us do not. Not to worry; because another great thing about the Internet is that you can find a myriad of products to sell.

The most common way to make money selling something online, especially for beginners, is to join an affiliate program. Clickbank, and Amazon are two of the more popular programs and are free as is Google Adsense.

You can also make money with pay per click (PPC) advertising, cost per action (CPA) programs.

3. Select a domain name for your website. Here you have several options. One is to use the name of your product. Another is to use the primary keywords that best describe your business, and finally you may choose to use your own name.

Always go for “.com” as your first choice for the suffix for your domain. If it isn’t available “.net” would be my next choice.

4. Set up website hosting. You can check on Google for ratings of hosting companies and there are many. It is important to select a reliable one and a couple of popular companies I can recommend are BlueHost.com and HostGator.com.

5. Set up your website. This can be very difficult if you have no experience in this area and it can also be costly. This sometimes causes people to hesitate getting started online. However, an easy and inexpesive way to do this is to install WordPress on your web hosting site.

Most good quality hosting companies have an easy WordPress installation program in your CPanel admin area. You can use that to set up a WordPress blog with just a few clicks of your mouse.

6. Promote your business. This is the most important thing you need to do. You can have the most attractive website with great sales copy, but if no one can find it to read it, it will make you very little if any money.

Look for my next article where I’ll give you some ideas for promoting your internet home based business. Read the rest of this entry