Marketing Your Home Based Business Online

Like many women out there – I have to market my home business.

I advertise both online and offline….networking with other women….and word af mouth.

But today I want to talk about specifically online advertising.

My first, obviously way to advertise online is through my own websites.

MoneyMakingMommy.com has a great direct sales directory that gets 1000′s of visitors a month. So I have my business promoted there and of course the MoneyMakingMommy message boards are a good place to post specials that I might have.

I also place my business in TheWAHMConnection.com direct sales directory as well.
A lot of exposure for little money.

Articles….
Writing articles is a good way to promote your products and business. Letting people read about how you run your business, what it takes as far as time and effort – and your income level and goals. Giving people true insight is invaluable. This also helps build rapport and bridge the gap that the internet can sometimes create since you’re not talking to someone in person.

As I said before – message boards are a great way to advertise for no cost. You just want to make sure you understand the rules of each board and that you don’t just spam boards with your ads. You’ll get banned….not a good thing!

Yahoo groups….
Create one or join one that sparks your interest.
But set your rules up front….and stick to them!!

I get so irritated with one of my WAHM yahoo groups for The WAHMConnection. Every week….same ole people, with the same ole ads…..over and over again. They never contribute any “real” info – they are just hell bent on getting THIER “specials” out. I certainly don’t mind ads – but I state clearly in the description that it’s a list to help women grow their business by offering advice, suggestions and tips. It was never meant to be a recruiting forum! Now if I get more than one ad a week from a member – it’s deleted. Plain and simple. The list now has more to offer and the real members like it much better!

Starting your own yahoo group might be a fun way to connect with others that have the same interests as you. It’s free – so doesn’t hurt to try. Just keep spam under control or your members will jump ship.

Finding low cost ad options like 2 Buck Ads can work for some. I have used it and it’s worked well for me. He has been around forever and seems genuine.

Look around for wahm sites that have GOOD exposure. A LOT….and boy, do I mean a lot of wahm sites are create every day. So if Sally Smith starts a website and slaps it on the internet tomorrow – and offers $5 for a lifetime ad – well…….who is seeing your ad? She’s not getting any traffic, she has no google page rank…..she’s not in the search engines…
So be careful of these LIFETIME ads. Ask what you’re getting for the money, their traffic and stats and research yourself where they rank in the search engines under key terms that you think your potential cusotmers are looking under.

You really need to sift through the real wahm sites and the wannabes.

Create a marketing budget and plan. Try to stick to it. Make sure you track ALL ads to find out where your dollars are being spent best. That way you can discontinue the ones that aren’t working and use that money to try something else or get more exposure or time with something that was working.

I would go into it strategically and stay on top of it. Otherwise you’re kinda shooting in the dark.

Tagged as: marketing home based business, marketing online, online advertising, wahm advertising