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Profitable
Home Based Business Tips - Pre-Launching Your Home
Business.
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 Pre-Launch
Phase - Launch
Your Web Site's Success.
Like it or not, your web
site will remain virtually invisible to the bulk of the
Internet unless you take the proper steps to draw
attention to it. But take heart, driving qualified
prospects to your site is not difficult if you plan
properly. A proper plan for launching your web site will
take into account all four phases of a successful
launch: preparation, pre-launch, launch and post-launch.
Preparation
This phase could also be
called the research phase and should begin at least
three months in advance of your launch date. The
preparation phase should include:
- Develop your advertising
campaign. Create banner ads, text for posting to
classified ads and full page text ads. Be sure to
follow the rules of good ad development and test
market the ads for effectiveness.
- Competitive
research. This means gathering information on
the competition. Who is ranked highly in the search
engines? Visit their web sites, analyze their page
structures, utilize what you learn to hone your web
pages. CAUTION: Copyright law on the Internet is not
always clearly defined. Be sure your research does
not extend to "borrowing" your competitors
keywords or copy.
- Research the
publications and media outlets specific to your
product or service. Develop a press
release.
Make sure it is newsworthy. NOTE: Just stating
"Web Site XYZ Now In Business" is not
usually considered newsworthy. The editors of these
publications are looking for items of interest to
their readers. Give details, explain the who, what,
when, where and why of your product or service.
- Identify businesses
in complementary industries that also have a
presence on the Internet.
Continued
below.....
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Continued...
Pre-Launch
It is usually adequate to
begin the pre-launch phase about sixty days prior to the
launch of your web site. The pre-launch phase should
contain, at a minimum:
- Submit your optimized
web site to the search engines and directories.
Excite, Infoseek, WebCrawler, Lycos, Alta Vista,
Hotbot and Yahoo account for better than 80% of the
searches performed on the web, focus your attention
here.
- Develop strategic
alliances with the businesses you identified as
complimentary in the previous phase. These alliances
should include cross-promotion of products and
services, reciprocal linking, and editorial
recommendation, if appropriate.
- Submit your press
release to to the media. Remember, the goal here is
to develop a relationship with the media. Make
certain your press release is newsworthy and do not
harass the editors in attempt to get them to publish
your information. Done properly, this is an
efficient, low cost way to get a large amount of
attention for your web site.
Launch
The third phase of the
plan is the web site launch. Essential elements of a
successful launch include:
- Strategic
advertising.
Arrange to run banner ads on major portal sites. If
possible, pay by the click through, not by the
impression. Submit ads to several high traffic
classified ad sites. Run ads in ezines on subjects
related to or complimentary to the specifics of your
product or service. Develop a method of identifying
which ads are drawing traffic. This information will
be invaluable in the post-launch phase. Make sure
all advertising and tracking is in place by the
launch date.
- Begin your direct mail
campaign. Only use true opt-in email lists! Spamming
is the most certain way I know to lose your email
account, web site, ISP and your reputation, both
personal and professional. The best way to have a
true opt-in email list is to gather it yourself by
asking visitors to your web site to join your
mailing list. Maintain records of all subscriptions.
Always make it at least as easy to unsubscribe from
your list as it was to subscribe.
- Post announcements in
related newsgroups. Not all newsgroups allow
business postings. Be sure to familiarize yourself
with the rules of the particular group before
posting your announcement. The consequences of
newsgroup spamming can be as severe as the those
pertaining to email spamming.
Post-Launch
A few weeks after the
launch of your web site, it is time to do an evaluation.
Having tracked the statistics both prior to and after
the launch, you should be able to see improved traffic
and increased sales. Now is the time to take stock of
what is working and what is not, what needs fine tuning
and what should be left alone. After the evaluation, it
is time to begin the cycle again.
Clearly, the process I
have described is not a recipe for over night success.
It is, however, a methodical and practical means of
organizing your promotion efforts to build the kind of
long term success that should be the goal of any true
business person.
About The Author: Tony
L. Callahan is president of his own Internet marketing
company, Link-Promote http://www.link-promote.com.
He also publishes Web-Links Monthly, a newsletter full
of tips, tricks, tools and techniques for successful web
site promotions. To subscribe, send e-mail to: web-links-subscribe@topica.com.
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