Tools and Resources

Here you will find various tools and resources to aid you in your online endeavors!

Looking for free and low-cost ways to get traffic to your site or to help you in business, period? Here are a few that I use.

Video Marketing

This is the "new" craze! I say new because it wasn't around when I was marketing back in the early 2000's. But it seems to be really effective. It's like having your own "commercials" on the highly -popular YouTube site that people will find for months and even years down the road! I found my mentor there and I remember distinctly telling her that I don't think I'll be going that route! Never say never! Now people are finding ME there! LOL! If you haven't seen my videos, you can check them out here: www.youtube.com/user/cheriemking

The thing about using videos is that, in this day and age of marketing, people are no longer looking for the best business or the best compensation plan...they are looking for (or at least SHOULD be looking for) the best person to get aligned with! The person who will be there for them, support them, and coach them.

So, the videos are an EXCELLENT way to brand yourself...to make a name for yourself and let people who are drawn to YOUR type of personality come to you rather than people who will possibly clash with you and not vibe well with you! Makes perfect sense...so start video marketing and start branding yourself today!

Here are a few resources to get you started:

Video Marketer's Tool Kit
I was introduced to this great resource from my mentor to help with my videos and I mean, it's INSANE how much you learn about video marketing with this! So, check it out!

BuzzShed
You can create video campaigns and advertise on BuzzShed! They have a range for any budget whether your budget is $5 or $50,000! People get paid to watch videos and you can get in on some of this action by promoting your videos here.

Traffic Exchanges

Basically, you are exchanging traffic with other sites because you have to view their sites in order to earn credits. Your credits are what's used to get views to YOUR site(s) of choice! So, the more credits you earn, the more times your site is viewed ...traffic to your website!

Yes, I realize that many top marketers would say that these are "old school" and not very effective because everyone who uses them is marketing and not necessarily SEEKING information. But I look at TE's as "training ground"...test your lead capture pages to make sure they are compelling enough because let's face it, if you can catch the interest of someone who isn't even LOOKING for what you have to offer, then you know you're doing something right and got a good thing going!

I've actually gotten opt-ins from using TE's so, they can work in your favor!

There are free and paid options available for each of these...if you decide to go 'free', then you "pay" with a little of your time each day (I generally dedicated at least one hour per day to 'surfing' sites to earn credits) - but if you decide to pay for the upgrades or purchase credits, then you save time because you don't' have to surf for credits! So, there are options for all budgets and even for NO budget!

Should you decide to sign up with any of the following TE's from this website, email me and let me know (along with your username) and I'll send you a neat "system" to help you really utilize these efficiently!

Traffic Swarm
There's a new, fully automated traffic-generation system that can send 1000s of targeted prospects to your web site, every single day, for FREE! It takes just 5 minutes to set it up, and it's totally "viral". Check it out and create a FREE account at Traffic Swarm!

Traffic Hooplah
This is like a "central station" of traffic exchanges!

Expired Domain Traffic

Ever typed in or clicked on a website domain name only to be taken to a page that says it's expired YET, there are ads on that page? That is expired domain traffic and you can have your site listed on such pages! It's SUPER cost-effective to get traffic, no monthly fees...you buy what you want. I have gotten MEGA-traffic from an "investment" of just under $8 at:

Traffic Wholesalers

Safelists

A safelist is an email list where the members who join have agreed to receive email ads from one another! When you read the emails and click on the CREDIT link inside, you get credits that are applied to your ad, banner, etc. As with Traffic Exchanges, you can opt to upgrade or purchase credits if you don't want to have to receive, read and click on emails.

I HIGHLY suggest you have an alternate email set up ...actually, you'll need two - one as a "contact" email for the owners/operators of the safelist to contact you with important information and the second one as your "list" email that all of the other member's emails will come to. Both of these accounts should be different from your main email account. I recommend Gmail.com

Should you decide to sign up with any of the following safelists from this website, email me and let me know (along with your username) and I'll send you a neat "system" to help you really utilize these efficiently!

Here are some of the safelists that I use the most:

GOTSafelist
Members are rewarded for reading your ads. Each time a member views your ad they receive GOTCredits but in order for them to be rewarded they will have to look at your site. As a result, viewers will see your ad and as well as your website. Hence, double the exposure!!

AdTactics
A free, very responsive, credit-based safelist with over 5200 active members

Adsolutionline
Simple, Fast, Effective and Spam Free way to promote your business, get referrals and even gain business partners from around the world!

Global Safelist
Global Safelist's automated system tracks the length of time your ad is visited so you are guaranteed to get traffic to your website via your advertisements! You get quality safelist email advertising AND visitors and traffic directly to your advertised sites!

Ad Placing

Rather free or solo, ads still have their place in online marketing, believe it or not! I read somewhere that a certain free ad site (will shall be named momentarily) is LOVED by Google and that they tend to index sites on this free ad site especially if good key words are used. Email ads are still effective and I just recently started back using those! So, here are a couple of places that I recommend...

US Free Ads
This is the place I was talking about a minute ago that Google seems to love. But you never know...it just may be effective in other ways too! Their free ads, I admit, are VERY limited (you can't even put a link to your site or email in them) but their paid ads are very, VERY reasonably-priced - starting at under $15 for a year!

Rent-a-List
I just recently started using these guys. I was impressed at the way they took my little text ad and created a beautiful, colorful HTML ad and their prices are right on the money! They have promotions often too so you can save up to 60% off of their (already low-cost) ad packages and get your ad sent to a highly targeted list of people looking for what you have to offer!

Craigslist
Craigslist is one of the most visited websites on the internet and has become extremely popular for advertising businesses on as well. However, due to a lot of people abusing it and spamming it and finding ways to break the rules, they have really cracked down on the ads placed there. There are many books, programs and systems out there that claim to help you get listed and STAY listed. There are even services now that will post ads for you because the average person may not 'survive' long on there!

BackPage
Similar to Craigslist, but not quite as popular (yet) this site is also a good place to test ads (as with Craigs IF you can get an ad to stick - and even Safelists) before you invest in a paid advertising campaign.

While the idea is to be an Internet Marketer, you can still use offline methods of getting the word out about your website, business, etc.

Drive Traffic to Your Site While Driving in ...Traffic!

I.D.IT Plates
This is an exciting, and inexpensive way to advertise your business offline.  Imagine literally driving traffic to your site just from driving in your car!  Tailgaters become customers/members; going to a ball game and coming home to hits from the people who saw your company name/website URL on...you guessed it - YOUR CAR! This sleek, elegant-looking alternative to the old bumper sticker will bring MASSIVE attention and traffic to your business.

 

Promote Your Business with Free Business Cards

VistaPrint
I'm sure by now that everyone has heard of VistaPrint as they've been around for quite some time now. But I think that many don't really take advantage of what they have to offer. You can get beautiful cards printed up either for free (just the cost of postage) or you can get Premium cards for very low cost. And VistaPrint is always having offers and sales where you could even get Premium cards, brochures and more for free! So, don't forget about them because you'll be sorry the day that you're out and about and someone asks you what it is that you do and you tell them you have a business (online or offline) and they ask for a card and you come up empty-handed!

Promote Your Business with Your own Gear

CafePress
What a cool way to market yourself ...having YOUR business name and website on a t-shirt, a tank top, a sweat suit, your own magnets, stickers and a whole HOST of other items! Depending on what your business is, you may even be able to have other people advertising for you with your merchandise as I am here: www.herspecialhair.com/shop.htm People purchase my merchandise and they are promoting my website because my website is in smaller print on the shirt along with the slogan!