New site, unsure how to advertise

Quote: I am still about a month or 2 away from wanting to spend time/money on the advertising, but i thought its never too soon to start to think about this..

It's always good to think ahead.

Quote: Ordered a package on using Google adsense and will be reading through that this week, but i have heard that is not a very cost effective method.

Whether or not Google is a good advertising option for you really depends on your site. You should try a small campaign with $50 and see how it goes.

Quote: Have also found some places that will send ads to X amount of emails for a certain price..in some cases it seems way too good to be true.

Probably just spam emails. Not worth the money, and also very risky to your reputation.

Quote: But if someone can help point me in the right direction, and where maybe to start to look for good backlink sites that would be great too

If you want to find links exchanges, LinkPartners.com is a good place to start looking. Also, take a look at some of your competitors sites, and see who they have for link partners. This might give you an idea of which sites you want to apply to. For more information on reciprocal linking, take a look at http://www.associateprograms.com/reciprocal-links.shtml.

Some other things you might want to consider are submitting some of your articles to article databases (such as articlez.com, article-emporium.com, etc.), and optimizing your site for search engines (click here to learn how).

OptionBlock wrote: I have been working on an investing site, my first real site, and i have gotten to where i am almost ready to start to recieve daily visitors but i am unsure where to go for marketing.

Well, I'm just maybe 3 months ahead of you. My site is launched, it's been working for 2 weeks, and I have 31 members. Here is how I got them:

15 or 16 members: came from family & friends. This was the initial "seeding" of my site. These are not all people I know. What I did was I sent an email to everyone in my own personal address book. I told them about the site before it was even launched, and asked them to be beta testers. Then after it launched, I emailed them again and told them to tell a friend.

3 or 4 members: are webmasters from forums like this one. I post messages, and I'm always sure to include my signature (which, btw, you don't seem to have -- you should add that right away). Most webmasters just stop by, they're curious. But a few stuck around and posted once or twice to the forums, just to help out a fellow geek.

5 or 6 members: are writers from writing sites (forums just like this, but with writing/poetry as the theme). I do the same thing there that I do here. I make a few posts, I'm always certain to include links to the site in my signature, etc.

5 or 6 members: from Google Adwords. Boy, this was a bummer. Google sends me 15 people a day. If I'm lucky, one will sign up. This is a bummer because it's targeted -- my ads only appear for writers & artists. But even with the ad hitting the right market, the few people who do click on the ad usually look around for a few minutes and disappear.

1 or 2 members: from Slashdot. Slashdot is a technology forum, and I post comments there. This is both disappointing and expected -- my posts to Slashdot generate the most traffic of all, but the fewest members. I expect this because, well, my site is for writers, and Slashdot isn't for writers. But it is still interesting to make a post to Slashdot and watch my little visitor chart peak almost right away.

Basically, brace yourself. Aside from friends & family, you are probably not going to ever get more than a 1% or 2% signup rate. If you show an ad to 10,000 people, only 1% (or 100) will actually click it, and only 1% of that (or 1) will actually signup or buy whatever you have.

I think the most successful things for me will be the few things I have yet to try. On Monday, I'm issuing a press release with PRWeb. That may get me some more interest, and hopefully an interview or two. In a few weeks, I'll contact the editors of printed magazines and see if I can run some ads or otherwise exchange some promotional stuff for free. I think those ideas hold the most promise.

I set up a google adwords campaign for my uncle's real estate business. He only wanted to put in $1 dollar a day, but that got him 2 inquires in 5 days. For real estate, google adwords is very cost effective.

Much a case of testing with small amounts of investment and seeing what returns you get (if any).

Also word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool, you're doing all the right things aboyd

the best way to advertise a site without actually paying any money is to build up your rank in search engines. another great way is to find a niche forum and become a regular poster and put you site in your post signature. Sites like CBS Marketwatch or even smaller sites - if you provide good advice to people, they may just check out what else you have to offer.

Or find a site with banner advertising that is in your target market. But the 10,000 impressions earning 1 signup is even fairly high for some.

Although I think that a lot of the problem may be with the lack of payment standards. No one wants to fill out a cc form for a $5 sale. So Paypal, Stormpay, E-Gold are the best options. When I advertised inside of Stormpay I got a conversion rate of 4% or better of clickthroughs... which makes me think if everyone just offered Stormpay and Paypal we could actually get impulse sales rather than fighting tooth and nail for every single sale.

Clearly with time Stormpay and Paypal will be the standard on the internet and then sale volumes will increase when payment options are no longer a question. I believe after those ad results with Stormpay.

Check out SearchEngineSubmission.ws

I am using them for the last 6 months and very happy with the results.

Cheers,

WebServant

The paying for search engine submission is all well and good but you can do exactly the same by submitting it yourself!
As long as you re-submit every month in case of rejection you'll of saved yourself money.

WebServant.. some might consider what you posted there spam....

Another way is to become active in investing boards. Not posting spam, but genuinely helping others by answering questions and participating in discussions. Then, just make sure there's a link to your website in your signature. Those who you help will be interested in getting more information from you, and can follow your link.

That takes some time, but it is free.