Any ideas how to market/advertise a new website affordably, as in FREE ads? I am on a very limited budget!?

My business is specialhomeproducts.com. I am getting a pretty good number of visitors, but not very many sales yet. Site has been up since August. I know it takes awhile for the search engines to really pick up your keywords, metatags, etc., but want to get this moving as quickly as possible. Any help given would be much appreciated. I am disabled, and am trying to supplement my disability income with this part-time at home business...as so many hopefuls try and many fail...I don't want to be one of those statistics that fail!! I REALLY need this extra income....anyone out there on disability will understand what I mean by that!! Plus, I need this at home work to keep myself going, and not to get depressed all the time. Thanks for your input.
Additional Details
Getting some great ideas from you all....thank you so much. Imisidro....I especially appreciate your comments...unfortunately, I am pretty much "locked in" to the website format I have, due to the hosting company who partners with my supplier...they will only allow me to show a MAXIMUM of 8 products on my homepage. Wish I could show more and had more flexibility with the look of the site, but they won't allow it....have considered starting over and having someone else build another site with the same products, but that would leave out the advantage I now have with this company, in that they keep track of inventory, what is in stock and out of stock, etc. for me...I don't have to do any
"cutting and pasting" of the products pictures or descriptions.....so there are
drawbacks and good points at the same time with this company I am working with. I have already been submitting articles to articles sites....(another suggestion made)....started submitting to the press releases today!

First thing -- improve your site design.

Having a description of what the site is all about is important -- but it does NOT need to be 1 page long. Your info is wayyyyyy too long.

Study how the big retailers do it -- e.g. Target.com, Sears.com -- and see the difference with how your site is configured. Their products are up front and center -- unlike yours that is located way down the fold. A user has to scroll down to see what it is you offer -- especially since your text is just too long winded.

Even your banner is a waste of space. That is valuable retail space you are giving to

"Special Home Products
Inspirational Gift Ideas | Home Decor
Where Every Home and Family is Special!"

In my screen it is showing in 5 lines -- 5 precious lines that you could use up to show your featured product. Fix your website design, and it will make your site more appealing to buyers.

Remember, you need 2 things: attract TARGETED visitors interested in what you are offering; and CONVERTING these visitors into buyers. Getting traffic is meaningless if they will not buy from you

You can use pay per click advertising in the search engines to reach audiences looking for your products. You can use Google Adwords http://www.google.com/adwords or Yahoo http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com

Here are some shoestring marketing ideas that can help you get the visitors you need at the least cost possible:

1. Create the best content you can with the best products you can possibly offer. Your content is your best advertisement - if visitors love your content, then they will go back and spread the word to others.

2. Make it easy for users to recommend your site. Viral marketing is very important -- and easy to tap on the Web. But give your users the tools. Get a Recommend this Site script from websites such as cgiscripts.com and similar directories of scripts. Some even go as far as giving incentives to those who recommend the site to their friends. If only 10 people go to your site, but these 10 people invite 10 more - that's additional traffic that you get for FREE!

Recommend Site Scripts (various) http://php.resourceindex.com/Complete_Scripts/Website_Promotion/Recommend_Site/
Big Nose Bird Recommend this Site http://bignosebird.com/carchive/birdcast.shtml
CGI Resource Index http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/Website_Promotion/Recommend_Site/
Hostscripts http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Site_Recommendation/index.html

3. Rank well in the search engines (organic search results, not the pay per click). SEs can be a big source of traffic. The key is to create the best content in your niche. If you have good content, other websites will gladly link to you and offer your site as a resource to their audience. Check the on-page factors and be sure to get linked from authority sites in your topic area.

If you are going to read only one piece on search engine optimization, I suggest you read Brett Tabke of WebmasterWorld.com's "Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone: 26 steps to 15k a day." http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2010.htm

4. Send out press releases. While outfits charge as much as $650 per release, there are free press release submission places on the Web. Press releases allow you to (a) attract media attention; (b) get more back links to your website without sending each website an email request; and (c) get more visibility especially if your press release gets in Google News or Yahoo News.

http://www.prleap.com/sign_up.html
http://i-newswire.com/
http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi
http://www.pr.com/press-releases
http://www.prfree.com/
http://www.clickpress.com/releases/index.shtml
http://www.theopenpress.com/
http://www.przoom.com/
http://www.prweb.com
http://www.newswiretoday.com/
http://www.free-press-release.com/

5. Submit articles. Write articles and submit them to websites accepting author submissions. You get exposure for your business; establishes you as an authority in your field, and allows you to get backlinks for your website. If 50 websites publish your article and it contains a link back to your website, then you easily get 50 links from a single article. The more links you have, the greater your chances for increasing your search engine rankings.

Here is a comprehensive list of where to submit your articles http://answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylt=AhzreGmnCUicOoyedqypscUjzKIX?qid=1006022407481

6. Improve your conversion. Getting visitors is one thing; getting them to buy your products is a whole different story. Read the article " How To Sell More on the Web: 30 Tips To Increase Conversion Rates For An Ecommerce Site " http://www.powerhomebiz.com/092006/ecommerce.htm for tips on how to improve your conversion rates.

7. Post a link to your site for free where it is allowed (always read the Terms of Use). Examples are:

Craigslist http://www.craigslist.com
Google Base http://base.google.com
Classifieds for Free http://www.classifiedsforfree.com/...
Text Link Exchange http://www.txtswap.com/
Recycler.com http://www.recycler.com/
Yahoo Classifieds http://classifieds.yahoo.com/
US Free Ads http://www.usfreeads.com/

That all costs money. You have to pay the search engine (google, yahoo, etc) for your website to come up first.

Best CHEAP ideas? Get a big magnet for your car and advertise there. People can see your car and look at the website. They might log on, they might not, but they will see it and remember. Maybe tell a friend. The big magnets aren't very expensive.

Another idea is to make flyers and post them in the market.

Another idea is to sell some of your stuff on Amazon.com or eBay. I'm not sure what it is you are trying to sell, so that's all the ideas I have for now.

Join other websites were people browse you web page such as tickle.com and myspace.com example my tickle page page so far has had more than 400.000 visiters

check out my blog
http://extramula.blogspot.com/
also advertise in forums join as many free ones as you can!!

Try putting a couple of your offered products in a FREE AD publication. In my area, I believe there's one called PennySaver, etc... I think the ad is free if the product is under $50.00... anyway, just list something and add you website at the bottom... Another avenue would be to ask other web owners that aren't selling products such as yours, if they could examine your site, and if they approve, to add a link on their site... in exchange, if you recieve a buyer from their link, you can offer them a discount or gift. Hope this helps. Oh! Hows this sound? Send me a tee shirt (XL, Blue or Black preferred) with your company logo and/or website, and I will (after I see your site) wear the tee shirt once a week for a month. NO CHARGE! If someone buys something by my referral, I will keep the shirt in my wardrobe! This would work best if you do of couse have a way to track referrals! If you don't, just keep in contact with your buyers from time to time, and ask tham how they got word of your site!
OK, i'm done rambling! Have a good one, The AdverMan

Article Marketing will bring your site to the top of the Search engines faster than any other FREE Advertizing method. Just search the word ADVERTIZE and see what comes up.

You can post free ads. here:
http://www.hits2u.com/?149843
http://goldbizz.localads.co.uk
http://www.trafficswarm.com/go.cgi?48605...

Good luck with your venture! i hate to start on a bad note, but I tried to check out your site and couldn't find it, either with or without a www prefix. So the first thing you should do is make sure you're giving the correct address and if you are, make sure your site is on a reliable server.

I'm not really an expert in this subject, but here's a couple of ideas: If you're getting a lot of visitors, you might try a banner or link exchange service. The way it works is you show banners for other sites on your site, and in exchange, they show your banner on theirs. Enter "free banner exchange" in a search engine and you'll get plenty of possibilities. Here's one:

http://www.neobanners.com/

(That's not a recommendation, just one example)

Another way to get things going with immediate sales is to put your products up on eBay. You don't have to attract the customers to eBay, they're already there! If you can sell some items through eBay, you can then include some promotional materials with the shipments encouraging customers to visit your site, perhaps even offering coupons or special discounts. It might even be worth selling some items on eBay at a break-even price or even at a loss in order to start building a customer base.

Hope that helps. Good luck!

not on disability but close enough (unemployment benifits + diagnosed with a mild form of Autism Spectrum Disorder = crap income!).

Contact me, I am thinking of making a page to inform other people about my own diagnosis (on geocities since that's free and I could use the webspace I had for a previous site there) - you'd be surprised how many people don't know anything about autism! - and I could put up a sections with links to other disabilities and "disabled persons" sites (quotations marks since i somewhat dislike the term). What's your disability btw, if you don't mind me asking?

Jo

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