Ever wondered how people find web sites. Then the following results from the June 2000 Forrester Research Inc. "UK Internet User Monitor", may interest you:

• search engines: 81%
• viral marketing (word of mouth): 56%
• guessed URL: 41%
• Radio: 19%
• link from another site: 59%
• TV: 48%
• online advertising: 20%
• Direct mail: 10%

Other less effective methods of web site promotion include:

• direct email mailouts
• web site sponsorship
• email signatures
• stationery - letterheads, business cards and brochures

There is no reason why a web site owner cannot attempt to carry out some of these services by themselves on a no-cost basis. Be aware though that it is not uncommon for web sites to demand some form of payment for the creation of a link from their site to yours. On the other hand you may also encounter difficulties when trying to create a FREE link from another site, as it may take weeks to register or it won't even register at all.

This is where the experts come in. Online companies such as Sinewave and BondiGold have the specialised knowledge to get the largest number of hits to your web site. They consider the most important aspect to Internet marketing is search engine optimisation, as 80% of all web sessions begin with a search engine and users will nearly always click on one of the top 10 sites returned from a search engine. Search engine optimisation ensures that your web site is listed as high as possible on appropriate search engines, relevant to your products and services. Reports are generated by these companies as needed and provide an extremely detailed analysis of your search engine entries.

This rather complex but extremely effective solution does have one down side; the cost!!! They recommend that if a client would like to set up a good Internet marketing campaign for 6 months, it would cost a minimum of $10,000. For those of you who don't have that kind of money, there really is no other option other than to let us try submitting your URL to the search engines or try it yourself. If you are not sure who to submit your web site to, follow the link to the 'Top 100' site below, as this gives you the top 100 search engines currently being used in Australia. This page is updated constantly so it might pay to revist it every now and then to see who is at the top. Then simply follow the link on each search engine to 'Add a URL' or 'Help'. Make sure that you do not repeatably resubmit your web site to your search engines, as they may ban your site from their database indefinately.

If you decided that you might want to spend $330 on Internet marketing, another valuable option is to submit your web site to the Looksmart search engine as a 'Express Submission'. LookSmart's Express Submit is a new service that guarantees your submission will be reviewed within 48 hours. Sites that meet LookSmart's Submission Guidelines will be included in the LookSmart Directory and distributed across the LookSmart Network.The Network consists of partner sites that use the content of the LookSmart Directory in their directory search results. The LookSmart Network reaches 58 million people, or three out of four US Internet users. Partners include more than 370 ISPs and the following top portals: NineMSN, Excite and AltaVista.

Another extremely handy tip and a good way to get more hits to your site is get Yellow Pages online to add your web site to their online database. This listings also get a priority response as apposed to those that have only a complementrary listing. This means that if somebody uses Yellow Pages online to search for a business in a particular area, usually the top 10 response will be those businesses who have additional information such as a web site link in their database. To add a web site link on the Yellow Pages site, it incurs a annual fee of about $600. If you want your URL listed in the actual Yellow Pages book, this costs about $130 per year, per book.

If you still have some unanswered questions, please contact our office and arrange for a consultation or follow some of the links below.