Most people think of websites as “passive marketing”.  Websites are passive marketing tools because customers have to come to the website on their own.  Websites do not find new customers, the serve customers that find you.  That’s not a completely true statement, but it is mostly true.
Passive Marketing
Passive marketing methods are dependent on people finding your website.  If we use that term liberally, then we can say that passive marking would include common search engine optimization (SEO), link exchanges, listings in link directories, word-of-mouth, business cards, etc.
Passive marketing strategies, such as search engine optimization, are very important.  I encourage you to use all those techniques. In this article, we are going to build on the concept with more aggressive “Active Marketing” techniques.
Active Marketing
Active marketing is nothing new.  This is how businesses have promoted themselves for years.  This is the standard marketing stuff that’s been done for years.  But for some reason, website owners are stuck in passive marketing mode and never consider these proven strategies.
Simply put, know who your target audience is, then go where they are and advertise there.  If you sell products for teens then you should definitely have a MySpace.com web page and a YouTube.com presence.  If you have B2B services, you must not neglect LinkedIn.com, Plaxo.com, etc.
Social Networking
There are numerous social networks that attract varying age groups and interest groups.  Many of these social networks offer groups, have a friending system, and allow you to customize your profile page in ways that will help you promote your business.
Join one or two social networking groups and get started.  Make as many friends as possible.  Try to make friends with people in your target audience, but accept anyone who wants to be friends.  You never know who knows who.  I never turn down a friend request on these system.
Once you get a feel for it, add more social networking sites to your online presence.  You will learn where to stay and where to fade away.  For my business, I use Plaxo.com, LinkedIn.com, Tweeter.com, FaceBook.com, and I’ve just started playing with Seesmic.com.
How to Network Online
Networking online using social networks is very similar to networking in local networking groups.  If you are a member of BNI, Rotary, or the local Chamber of Commerce, then you know that meeting people, helping people, and just making friends with people are key to making deals happen.  It is exactly the same online.
Online networkers are slightly different though.  They tend to prefer friendly talk to business talk.  Start advertising and they will tune you out right away.  Talk to people, make friends, and let them know what you do in a more subtle fashion.   I always mention that I’m an internet marketing professional, however I rarely sound like I’m advertising.
More Marketing
Okay, there are books full of information on marketing.  This article will hardly cover it all.  My objective is to get you to start networking online.  But there are many other techniques for driving business to your website.
Ebay.com – sell products on ebay.com and work those customers to visit your website.  You’ll make quick sales and begin building a list of customers.
Craigslist.com – run commercials here.  It’s free and there are software programs to help you do this.
Squidoo.com and HubPages.com – These sites let you setup “expert” pages on the subjects of your choice.  Go out and declare yourself the expert and you can generate sales that way as well.
Google Adwords – this is not free, but these paid advertisements work.  It’s the fastest way to get customers to your website … as long as you don’t mind paying for it.
Joint Ventures – This is critical.  If you have a mailing list, I want you to promote my stuff on your mailing list.  In exchange, I’ll promote your stuff on my list.  Find other companies with newsletters for similar sized companies with similar target audiences and start cross-promoting each other.
Yahoo Answers – Ask and answer questions on Yahoo.com’s Answers feature.  Put your link in those messages.  Curious people will click.  It works better if you answer questions in your industry.  Your intelligent answers will result in customers.
Virtual Assistants – Hire a virtual assistant to help you do all this stuff.  First, you do it so you learn how, etc.  Then hire someone to do this stuff for you and you can show them exactly what you want done.