Ways You Can Generate Tons of Leads Using Free Internet Marketing Platforms

When it comes to making an online business successful, there are a number of internet marketing strategies to choose from. Among the most popularly used ones are article marketing, pay-per-click advertising, forum marketing, and email marketing. To achieve success through these internet marketing platforms, an online business owner needs to diligently track click-through and conversion rates. The more people are converted into actual paying customers, the more successful these platforms are considered to be.

Today, social media sites have become popular among internet users. It is for this reason that they have also become very attractive platforms for internet marketers. Through such sites, online business owners can easily reach out to a wide variety of active internet users and attract them through more engaging means. Among the most popularly used social media platforms are video sharing and social networking websites.

If you have a well-developed online business website but no one seems to know that it exists, you will surely find it difficult to make money online. For this reason, you need to make the most out of internet marketing platforms to generate as much traffic as you can. Keep in mind that getting a continuous flow of targeted traffic is the best way to gain tons of sales leads. That can be difficult to achieve, however, especially if you are new to the field and do not yet have the money to spare for engaging the services of internet marketing professionals and utilizing paid internet marketing platforms. If you are in such a situation, you can start out by making use of free yet effective internet marketing platforms. Some of the most effective ones are listed below:

1) Niche Forums

Look for popular forums with tons of active users. The trick to this marketing platform is not to think about it as just a means to generate traffic. If you do, you might end up seeming like you're doing nothing but trying to make money out of the forum's active users. Your goal should be to share as much knowledge as you can and spark the users' interest through your expertise. By actively participating in such forums and using your signature as a link to your website, you can easily gain a good reputation and naturally encourage other users to patronize your online business. Although it may take a while for you to establish your reputation in popular forums, forum marketing does count as a very effective but free way to increase your website traffic and generate leads.

Great resources to locate niche social networks are: findasocialnetwork.com and socialmediaanswers.com/niche-social-networking-sites

2) Press Releases

Press releases allow you to announce the existence of your online business website and its offerings. While there are paid press release services, you can make use of free ones until you have enough money to spend on professional press release syndication. To ensure the effectiveness of your press release, write it in a manner that makes your online business newsworthy. Highlight the features of your products and services and elaborate on how your offerings can benefit your target market. As long as your press release is compelling enough, it will have the potential to be picked up and published by leading news sites and various blogs allowing you to gain even more traffic from various sources.

3) Classified Ads

Online classifieds can be a good source of regular and targeted website traffic. Try to make sure that you are visible in the relevant categories of popular classifieds such as Craigslist. By doing that, you can leverage the traffic that these popular sites are already getting. Also, note that people who find your ads in relevant categories already show an interest in your niche. Website traffic from such sources will then be easier to convert into actual paying customers.

4) Video Sharing

Video sharing websites like YouTube have become known as the launching pad for aspiring artists, directors, singers, comedians, and other performers. However, online businesses have much to gain from such sites too. In fact, many business owners have achieved success solely because they made it a point to produce entertaining yet professional videos and posted them on video sharing sites for internet users to view. Product demonstrations that highlight benefits to customers have become quite popular as well.

Some great video sharing sites are: YouTube, blip.tv, Metacafe, Revver, Google Video

Time-saver Tip: Be sure to check out tubemogul.com as a way to post to multiple video sharing sites with one post.

Good videos become popular on video sharing sites not only because there are already a number of users looking out for new videos but also because these sites have made it easier for videos to be spread virally. They can be easily be tagged as favorites so that more users will be prompted to view them. Videos are also easily shared through social bookmarking and social networking sites as well as through email. Furthermore, should a video be relevant to other people's businesses, they can easily be published in other websites and blogs. Because online business owners have higher potential to attract people online as well as allow its offerings to spread virally, video marketing has proven to be a crucial element in any internet marketing campaign.

If videos are attractive or interesting enough, people can leave comments that online business owners can read through to gain consumer insights on their offerings.

5) Social Networking

Online business owners can use social networking sites as an alternative to email marketing campaigns. It is through these sites that internet marketers can regularly share relevant content that can engage users enough to prompt them to follow the brand or make it a part of their network.

Among the most popular social networking sites are: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and MySpace.

Time-saver Tip: Be sure to check out ping.fm as a way to post to multiple social sites with a single post.

Logging in to social networking sites everyday has practically become a way of life for many internet users. Using these sites to promote an online business, however, is not as simple as building a network of random people and advertising products and services to them. Online business owners should treat such sites as a means to build relationships with users rather than as just another advertising medium. Similar to video sharing websites, social networking sites can prove to be one of the most invaluable sources of customer feedback for any business.

Through such sites, internet marketers can encourage comments from users and converse directly with people within their network. They can then gain powerful consumer insights as well as manage the reputation of their online businesses. What is even more attractive to internet marketers is that being active in social networking sites gives their brand a higher potential to spread virally among people who share the same interest. This, consequently, allows them to spend less on brand building and customer acquisition.

Don't forget about Social Bookmarking as an important part of your Social Networking activities.

Among the most popular social bookmarking sites are: Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Mixx, Del.icio.us, About.com, Google Bookmarks. This list is pretty darn large.

Time-saver Tip: Be sure to check out onlywire.com as a way to send bookmarks to multiple social bookmarking sites all at once.

With today's popularity of social media, internet marketers can now direct more of their focus and energy on branding and building a solid reputation for their online businesses. For this reason, click-through and conversion rates are considered only as secondary means to track success. More important are the number of conversations incited around the brand and the business' offerings as well as the number of followers gathered through these platforms. The idea is to get more and more people to talk about an online business and keep the brand at the top of their minds so that internet users will be more likely to patronize it or to share it with other people.

These free platforms are ones that you can use yourself to increase your website's targeted traffic and consequently generate leads for your online business. Once you make use of these platforms effectively and start making money online, you can begin exploring paid platforms to allow your online business to grow even bigger.

Above, I've listed some of the top places for you to participate in to enhance your brand and increase exposure. However, my #1 recommendation is always to have a business blog as your core communications and information portal. Period. It is the top solution I tell all my clients to incorporate into their overall internet and social marketing strategy. If you do nothing else, do this. My favorite is to use self-hosted WordPress sites and premium themes to build entire websites/blog.

Andrea Kalli Virtual Trainer and Assistant, LLC offers a wide variety of business services. As a Certified Internet Marketing Virtual Assistant, she specializes in social media optimization to increase organic search rankings through brand awareness and community building strategies. Edit audio/video for podcasts, teleseminars, audio books. Create products to sell & teasers for marketing. She supports your internet marketing needs such as Website Analysis, Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing, and Article Marketing. With a background in corporate productivity and team training for Outlook and SharePoint users, she offers video training tutorials through her e-learning site.

Outlook / SharePoint training and support, Podcast / audio editing, Certified Internet Marketing Assistant
Affordable training courses for today's business professional. Outlook, SharePoint, Word, PowerPoint, Social Marketing, Blogging with Wordpress, Photoshop, and much more.

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