Expert: Emmett Smith - 2/28/2009

Question
Hello, im a travel organzier and im currently in the process looking for clients for my travel organizer business. Right now im in the process of constructing a website. I have explored many options on advertising/marketing, Im looking for clients locally, across america and abroad, I was wondering if you had any different ideas on how to reach travelers via internet (maybe google) ad words and ideas on creative marketing techniques. What about blogging? How can BLOGGING be as a benefit to my website and or profit? Do you know the process on EMAIL ADVERTISING or EMAIL BLASTING? Can email blasting be effective at seeing results? Do you have any other ideas for advertising/marketing that could be effective?

Answer
The fastest way and most expensive way to attract possible clients to your website is through paid advertising with google, yahoo, or MSN. Depending on how effectively you choose your adwords, this can be cost effective, but you also can waste a lot of money. Once a possible client is attracted to your site, your site has to do a good job of selling. Here is a free book on adwords. http://ewebsmith.com/awmadeeasy.pdf

A blog is a website and visitors or possible clients have to also be somehow attracted to a blog. In your case, I could imagine a blog that posts articles about travel to different places and the things that could happen if the travel is not arranged properly ahead of time. You would have to avoid too much free information in order to get people to want to pay you. People who post in your blog might give the information away for free that you want to sell. Perhaps a site with a series of stories on different types of travel might be more effective. Most blogs allow you to post on topic responses with your website link to attract people to your website for free.

As with any website the second most effective way to attract people to your site is through search engine optimization. Here is a free book http://ewebsmith.com/seo_madeeasy.pdf

You can also post articles in thousands of free article sites with a link to your site. You can post on topic responses to online news articles with your link as long as it is relative.

Any unsolicited email is considered spam and can get your website shut down if you arbitrarily blast out emails. Emailing is usually used to maintain a client base after they have signed up to receive news or updates from your site. There should be a place for people to sign up to your mailing list on your site. Even after people have signed up, you must give them a way to easily opt out of your mailing list with each email that you send them. You can download a free email management package from Group Mail from this page. http://ewebsmith.com/13.html It will allow you to automatically send out individually addressed emails. The only email blaster using opt in lists that I have every had any luck with is Blast4Traffic from this page. http://ewebsmith.com/15.html

Safelist mailings are another free, but less effective way to attract possible customers. http://ewebsmith.com/10.html The other methods on this page are less effective than safelists but many people use them. These can hurt your website ranking if you don't use them properly  http://ewebsmith.com/OLBus/freetraffic.html

These are the ways to promote your site, but the most important thing is that your site must be created effectively. It must sell and promote your service.