By Jeffrey Spencer
It is possible to succeed and profit on the Internet without a
website. I have been marketing online for over 2 years, most of that time
without a Web site. I have sold well over $10,000 in product using nothing more
than an e-mail account.
You can achieve this kind of success on the Internet if you
look at cyberspace as an extension of mail-order marketing. The Internet is an
additional promotional tool for getting prospect leads and selling products.
Here are nine ways to succeed on the Internet without a web
site. In each case, the goal is to direct people to your e-mail account to
obtain more information.
1) Place classified ads (similar to print classifieds) in the
commercial on-line services including America On line (keyword: classifieds),
CompuServe (Go classifieds) and Prodigy (Jump classifieds). Do you promote a
specific product or service off line? Advertise it with an online classified
and have people contact you via e-mail for more information. Send sales info by
return e-mail or regular mail.
2) Place classified ads in Web classified malls.
3) Use autoresponders. These are e-mail robots that
automatically send information to the person that sent e-mail to the
autoresponder. You will also receive a digest of the e-mail addresses and the
messages sent to your autoresponder. Save this information for follow-up
marketing.
4) Use Internet Newsgroups to network and locate target
customers. Offer items for FREE such as a catalog, report or article. Be careful
of blatant advertising. You want to offer information of value to users. At the
end of your FREE article or report, briefly tell people what you do and how to
contact you for more information.
5) Advertise in e-mail newsletters and online mailing lists.
Just like a magazine or newspaper, you can advertise in other people's e-mail
publications. This is a great way to reach your customers directly by e-mail.
Visit http://www.liszt.com for information on thousands of e-mail lists. Send
e-mail to adrates@infoback.net for advertising information in my e-mail
newsletter.
6) Buy solicited e-mail lists. Similar to direct mail, you can
send advertisements about your products directly to people's e-mail accounts
along with instructions on how to get more information. However, be careful
about renting unsolicited e-mail lists. This can be very damaging to your
business if used incorrectly. Visit http://www.postmasterdirect.com
for
information on solicited e-mail lists.
7) Build your own "house" customer e-mail list. Save
the e-mail address of anybody that contacts you via e-mail. These people are
good prospects to contact for follow-up marketing. They've already shown an
interest in your business. When sending follow-up marketing messages by e-mail
you incur no costs for postage or printing. Great! Integrate your e-mail
list-building with all forms of marketing, both on and offline.
8) Get FREE publicity online with press releases and articles
you have written. At the end of an article, offer something FREE to readers via
e-mail.
9) Host online Forums. On America OnLine and CompuServe there
are numerous forums covering almost every topic. Contact the administrators of
these and propose to be a guest expert for a future forum. This establishes you
as an expert. People who participate in the forum might contact you about doing
business.
By putting these ideas to work, you can build your business on
the Internet with only an e-mail account. HBM
Jeffrey Spencer is the publisher of the nationally recognized
newsletter "Internet Profits!" and author of dozens of internationally
published articles. E-mail your name & mailing address to ssimail@ix.netcom.com
for newsletter information plus his special FREE report:
"How to Really Use the Internet to Make Your Business More Competitive,
Profitable and Successful!" Join his FREE "Weekly Success Tip"
e-mail newsletter by sending e-mail to ssimail@ix.netcom.com.
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