Ive recently launched our new site http://www.ScottRothEvents.com and have read alot about the use of flash and frames working against SEO…but i learned the work arounds which was time consuming but beneficial. So now that the site itself and the SEO related to it is done….its time for the real work which integrating the promotion of the site as close to FREE as i can lol
With that said….incorporate a blog into your site (you NEED to have a site that allows html coding etc. one that you have control over….i used to use vistaprint and it limited the use of personal touch such as social networking sites, etc)….incorporating a blog into your site gives your site an area that is regularly updated….blog about areas of the wedding business you want to focus on. DONT just link to your blog from your site…cause then the site that hosts your blogs gets the benefit of the regular updates and not yours. (look into the difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org……..ORG is what you want to use)
Once you have a good strong site, and a blog somewhere on your site….utilize social media where you can. look into stumbleupon, digg, facebook, twitter, linked in, etc….and link them all so that when you update your blog and status…they ALL update.
I wouldnt worry to much about pay per click with google as you really have to have the above in place for it to be beneficial……however i WOULD do facebook advertising as you can direct market to FEMALES who are ENGAGED 🙂
I would also utilize Merchant Circle for coupons and promotions and link your MC account to your blog and other Social accounts….so each time you put up a coupon, the other sites show it off 🙂
I would also add free listings to
directcatering.com, decidio.com, eventective.com, and a few others.
THEN….add $25 to your accounts there. you will get leads emailed to you and can pay for the contact info of such leads you feel you can sell (that way unlike google adwords…spending $1-$2 gets you direct contact information)
The above sites do have paid listings but are NOT really needed
i would however recommend paying for advertising on:
alltimefavorites.com (even the free listing will increase web traffic…….they are hidden GEM. )
mypartyplanner.com (the benefit to them is that even though you have one listing…..the search engines read each category its put under as a seperate listing, which increases the amount listed links to your site….so having a paid listing allows you to put some of that info in bold, etc…which helps that much more )
weddingwire.com, njwedding.com, and theknot.com – (these are beneficial to have paid listings on because they have a bunch of other sites that are associated with them that will also have your paid listing showing…such as weddingbee.com and projectwedding.com, etc)
with the above mentioned exposure,,,you’ll be able to get your feet wet, and get some good working relationships in the business and ultimately get personally referred by them …….then just dump the whole website lol
most importantly….have FUN…….cause thats what you’re selling and its important to let people know that 🙂
Scott Roth
http://www.scottrothevents.com