Know the internet and its huge resources better
Here is an exercise that every internet marketing expert must participate in at least once in a week. Use a discovery engine like Stumble Upon and visit at least five new websites in a week. Using a discovery engine will help because you can make sure that the websites are not linked to each other. Of course, you are free to use any other solution or online resource as you deem fit. The basic idea is to visit five new websites that you otherwise would not have visited in course of your work or leisure activities.
Now, why should you do this? What are the advantages of adopting such an approach? Using a random process to visit new websites will help you visualize the sheer number of websites hosted on web servers in the world today. The basic idea is to create a situation where you end up thinking “God, there are so many websites on the Internet.”
Now all these websites will need design, content and marketing services. Think like an online marketer. A 5% conversion ratio means that you will convert five visitors out of a hundred into clients. A 5% conversion rate per month will be enough to sustain the website and its activities for a long time. Can you not try to achieve the conversion target of 1% of the websites you visit? If you visit a hundred websites in a month, can you try to convert at least one website into a client for your online marketing service?
This approach may seem too glib and too easy to succeed. Well, even a conversion rate of 1% is going to be very difficult to achieve when you are starting out. However, one advantage of this approach is that every new client you cater to will, sooner or later, bring in references and new clients for your firm. When that happens, you will get a steady supply of new clients without even searching for more work.
Until you reach this golden phase, you should continue looking out for new clients. Another advantage of adopting this Stumbling around approach is that you will automatically learn more about the different marketing strategies being used by websites on the Internet. Some may be using a flashy website to attract visitors while others may be going in for heavy keyword optimization to get the job done. Some sites may be an obvious front for a private blog network while other sites may be all about relevant and newsworthy content.
The more you search, faster will you learn the nuances of online marketing. I admit that this process seems very simple and very easy when one reads it on the screen. Doing this will require a lot of effort and discipline. Chances are high that you may be too busy to complete your target of five sites per week. Chances are high that you may become too engrossed with the site you stumble upon to analyze it from the marketing perspective.
You will have to be patient and rough it out. You should also maintain a database of sites that impressed you with its design, content or marketing strategies. You should reinvent your strategy on a constant basis. This is an ongoing process and there is no such thing as ‘The Ideal Way’ to execute this plan. You will have to develop the confidence of searching the web at random to learn more about marketing.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that online marketing is all about searching for websites and stumbling upon them. You may quickly realize that you are not visiting as many good quality sites as you had earlier hoped to. You should be prepared to make changes to your strategy as and when necessary. However, this approach and this strategy is certainly a good one when you are trying to master the basic aspects of internet marketing.
You may be tempted to rely on solutions like Stumble Upon. However, it is very important to ensure this process does not become a boring and standard ritual. If you spend the last five minutes before closing down for the weekend visiting five sites at random, then it is obvious that your strategy is not going to succeed.
Every once in a while, try to challenge yourself to do something different. Ask yourself how you would improve a particular website. Would you focus on its design? Would you do something about the content? Or would you just change the way the website is being marketed? What would you do? Try to contact the webmaster with your suggestions. You never know how and when you may succeed in getting a new client.
The basic logic underlying this exercise is to try and push yourself to become better at internet marketing. This will be possible only if you are constantly innovating with new solutions.
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