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My friend and I want to set up an online business where local companies pay us to advertise on our website.
Does anyone have any ideas or tips for advertising and any general advice? We have a website, name etc but a budget of like...nothing.
So any help would be great please.
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Want to answer more questions in the Technology category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Internet & Web Design?
The key thing is to get people coming to your site. Eyes and clicks will be your stock in trade, and that's what you need to develop.
A budget of zero hurts. You'll have to be very smart and use other resources to make up for that lack. That means you need to make your site a place that local people - particularly the people who are most likely to spend money locally - will want to visit daily, or even many times a day.
Which means it's time to do some serious research. The good news is that you can do that for virtually no cost, beyond your own time and efforts. The bad news is that it WILL take time.
Notice that I didn't include "effort" in the "bad news"? That's because if you want to be a success, effort had better be something you ENJOY.
The first thing to study...is practically everything. Here are some things you'll need to know:
- What topics or services local people are most interested in - particularly ONLINE people.
- Which local businesses are most successful. A business that's losing money is not going to be able to spend money on your site - or at least, not for long.
- How to generate the kind of online content that local people want to see. That may mean writing material yourselves. It may mean recruiting writers and content creators. Since you have a budget of zero, you'll have to start by trying to find other inducements to those content creators. Some might do it just for the ego-boost...but the best ones will probably start wanting more tangible benefits pretty quickly.
- Everything else. In this situation, knowledge is power - and you NEED power. The more you learn, the better your chance of finding out odd bits of information that could mean the difference between success and failure.
- One thing that's likely to make a difference is your business model. Will you charge businessess that advertise with you by the "click"? Some won't find that appealing. They'd probably prefer to give you a cut of any proven additional business that you drive their way. Either model has technical challenges. There may be other models as well. You need to research this.
Good luck!
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Like any business, you are going to need people to know about you and what you do. That can be done through advertising [ironic eh?]. You could start off by posting bulletins in local places people go to like grocery store, gym, train stations [if any], hospitals, etc. If that doesn't get too much people interested, go out and ask any local company if they would be interested.
Get an ad in a few local newspapers as well. Make sure you are clear about what you do and who you are looking for. E-Mail anyone and everyone you know about it and ask if they are interested or know anybody that is. Good luck.
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