How would you promote this site?

[mwd2000]

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Hi,

I'm a newbie so please be gentle :-)

I have created a new site, Bargain Tipster UK, which is Yet Another bargain / voucher site (don't all groan at once! :-D)

Due to its nature it's very time intensive (finding the latest deals, posting them, etc.) so I would like to get some pennies back for my investment but I'm stuck on how to get traffic to it, bar PPC.

I'm not even convinced that PPC will work as the visitor would have to be in the mindset of buying the latest deals featured on the site, which, I guess, would happen very rarely.

Last week I experimented with PPC ads to specific deals (i.e. the landing page was a post on the site) as I thought that even if they don't go to the merchant site they would at least browse around the site, hopefully coming back to it but that didn't bring me any success (it was a very brief experiment though).

Today I've started with a PPC campaign to the site itself, i.e. keywords bargains and vouchers so I'll see how that gets on.

Does anybody have further recommendations on how to market this site? Do you even think it is a 'goer' ?

So far I've made a demoralising 0.61p and my hits, the few that I have, are declining, so any advice will be appreciated.

Is it just a case of sticking with it or is this type of site over saturated and would I better off working on smaller, build 'em and leave 'em type sites?

Thanks,

Martin

[Greavsie]

Hi Martin

firstly i would say, don't expect to make loads of money quickly (its competitive) and don't get demoralised - we've all been there, and we all struggled at the beginning.

Advice
1. Read the posts and blogs i.e. Kieron's, Jess's and all the other. Some very useful tips i.e. one being, dont spend loads on CPC in the beginning - find out what works
2. If you are going to do PPC. which engines are you using, Google is more than Yahoo, who are more than MSN. But you also have MIVA (ask me about them privately and i'll help you get them working).
3. be more targeted with you PPC, maybe just certain towns and cities. maybe be good in one sector, rather than all i.e. Car Accessories, Retail etc.
4. Read up on SEO, get some good organic results. do not go for discount and vouchers but maybe more niche keywords.
5. Friends/Family/Email are all great ways to generate traffic for free or at least cheaply.
6. Web optimisation/Usability. In my humble opinion you are affecting the conversions byt having too many adverts i.e. adsense and banners running. Get the content and look right, users will come. Play around with a few new layouts if you have the time.

There are hundreds of other things you can do. Hopefully i speak for everyone in saying - it takes time, but it is worth it so don't worry. 69p will be £69 soon, then £699 and so on.

Good luck. Oh and i'd join LinkShare to

[MrCatz]

Hi Martin,

You are doing the right thing on your PPC - experimentation! PPC is a trial and error campaign. Always test the water before jumping in. Be cautious on how much you bid at first, weigh first what keywords convert in your niche after a test run so you will know what works and what doesn't. There are two ways of bidding - the agressive (high) and conservative (low). This will greatly depend on how much budget you are willing to put in.

You should also try out other PPC providers for more reach on your campaign and to test what PPC platforms works best for you as different PPC providers gives you different sources of traffic.

Always remeber that getting targeted traffic from PPC is just the initial step, conversion will still depend on how well you match your visitors' needs with what you are offering them.

IMO marketing your website start with your content. Providing useful and relevant content in your niche is very crucial. Here are my top 5 picks:

1. Great content - be it information, service, products... providing relevance and usefulness gives you higher chances of making a visitor into a customer
2. Forum and blog posting on relevant niche - you participate constructively and learn new things while promoting your site via signature.
3. Pay-Per-Click - done properly, best at getting target traffic faster on a direct marketing approach to your potential clients.
4. Targeted Link backs - another premium way of getting the right traffic.
5. Article marketing - useful and relevant articles to your niche is a nice way of link baiting.
6. Posting on Classified Ads - another free way you could use to draw more visitors to your site

Hope that helps Best of luck!

[mwd2000]

Thanks, guys - I really appreciate your input, lots of great ideas there.

I think this 'niche' is a particularly tough nut to crack quickly as I'm not really offering quality content that a search engine would devour (a few paragraphs about a bargain or discount code) so I guess its about retaining the visitors that do pass by, and giving them reasons to do so again by offering quality features / services.

My current plan is to spend on PPC ads for one week per month and to hopefully let the site grow organically for the rest. Pondering over a forum but its probably too early due to the very low level of traffic. AdSense is achieving a good CTR so yes, I will eventually drop the underperforming banners and replace them with some other features I plan to develop.

Thanks again for your feedback.

Martin

[Matt.Lovett]

Hey Martin,

Great site, ive added it to my bookmarks.

I know loads of voucher sites, but yours is really nice and easy to use.

Great work!

Matt.

[mwd2000]

Thanks for the kind words, Matt.

I'm hoping to add a few more features soon so keep checking back :-)