Top 7 Paid For Website Marketing Ideas

Using paid for advertising to market your website can be very expensive. Here I present what I consider to be 7 of the best ways of spending your money.

1) Pay Per Click - using services such as Google and MSN, you can select a variety of search keywords that people might be searching on and pay to be in the adverts column next to (and sometimes above) the results. You can usually control quite carefully the budget and pause or cancel the advert is you are spending too much and it can produce quick results. So a good one to start with.

2) PopUnders - this is one that is very controversial in some ways! With these, when someone opens a website, a new window opens in the background displaying another website. Because you know what sites are being used as the trigger, the advertising can be accurately tardetted. But there are so many popup blockers about that most people must have at least one - my computer has one built into the browser, one within the Google toolbar and one within the Alexa Toolbar - popunders don't get through! So with so many popup blockers available, will these services work? Well my thoughts are that with so many blockers availahle, if you don't have one installed, that is almost a conscious decision to allow them through. Therefore you are probably happy to receive them. Popunders are usually cheap, so another good starting point for marketing a website.

3) Expired Domain Traffic - this one is also cheap and cheerful, but at the moment in my experience many providers are struggling to provide UK traffic. With these, when a person tries to visit a site that has been deleted by the owner they are instead sent to a similarly themed website. The idea is that with a careful choice of sites you can generate plenty of well targetted traffic. Very cheap, rapid delivery usually, but stuggling with UK traffic at the moment,

4) Paid Directories - paying to be listed in a directory can be quite expensive and does not necessarily get a quick result. I have tried many directories and some are worse than the free directories! I now go by the theory that if they are phoning me and hassling me for business, then can they be that good? But there are some usful directories out there - you just need to see where your competitors are advertising and research whether those directories will be good for you.

5) Fliers - these can be useful but are often overlooked. A well designed and printed flier, made available directly to your customers can be used by them at a later date to recall your website address and visit it when they need it. Depending on your target audience there are many ways of distributing leaflets - handing them out on the street; handing them out in a shop; door to door posting; leaving on car windows; mailshot etc.

6) Magazine Adverts / Printed Adverts - advertising in the daily press or relevant magazines can rapidly get your website noticed by many people. By advertising in these your website gains credibility with the readers and some respectibility as you are advertising in a publication they trust. On the upside is that your advert can be seen by thousands of readers. In the downside is that this exposure comes with a cost. If advertising this way, make sure that your advert is professionally designed - even if it's only a couple of column inches. Whatever space you use, you want the advert to stand out and the costs of a designer can be recovered with a well produced advert that pulls in more customers.

7) Affiliate Marketing - and finally the 'big one'. Not necessarily just for big sites. As long as you can cope with the traffic then getting a team of marketeers working for you on a commission only basis could be just what your business needs. A lot of networks have large monthly charges and setup fees, so if your marketing budget is small start out with a network that avoids these, but they usually involve setting up everything for yourself. All that the network does is act as a contact point for affiliates and to help with the reporting of sales.