Is it possible to promote site without paying for marketing?

[kuszeras]

Hello,

do you think it is possible to promote a site (a good one, whatever that means ) with no funds for marketing or is that rather impossible? Do we live in times when good content defends itself or rather in times when the money rules them all?

Cheers!

[Stevie D]

Some of it comes down to how competitive a field your site is in ... if it's a niche where you're not fighting against a lot of other big sites then, obviously, it's going to be easier to rank more highly.

There's also the question of the value you put on your time. If you have a budget of absolutely nothing and you can't spare any of your own (or your staff) time to market the site, you're could well struggle. If you can put in the time, but just no cash for advertising, then you've got a much better chance of success.

[ralph.m]

do you think it is possible to promote a site ... with no funds for marketing ...?

Don't forget about social media, like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like. If you have energy, you can go a long way with these. And you can go out and talk to people, form relationships, get them talking ... and publish articles in ezines ... and go to televised football games and wave your placard (don't know if that's legal these days, but meh ...) Well, there's a lot you can do.

[kuszeras]

Waving is a great tip . With a little bit of luck and maybe some crazy haircut you can get shown on the SuperBowl final .

Still I think the world is missing cool places to promote new sites without the cost and let people evaluate if they are good or not.

[John_Betong]

Hello,

do you think it is possible to promote a site (a good one, whatever that means ) with no funds for marketing or is that rather impossible? Do we live in times when good content defends itself or rather in times when the money rules them all?

Cheers!

>>> or rather in times when the money rules them all?

Money does help but some of the very big players failed to promote their new sites and the sites are now either dropped or still not been successful.

[timesheet]

Hello,

do you think it is possible to promote a site (a good one, whatever that means ) with no funds for marketing or is that rather impossible? Do we live in times when good content defends itself or rather in times when the money rules them all?

Cheers!

I would say its not possible, unless you can put in your own efforts into social media and some blogs and forums. In this case, you dont have to spend any money, but will have to put some effort and time into the process.

BTW, nothing is impossible.

[ralph.m]

the world is missing cool places to promote new sites ...

New sites are available on the web for everyone to find. OK, so they are hard to find maybe. But if you have a site, or sites, for promoting new sites, they would quickly become as crowded as the internet itself, meaning that you are back to square one in terms of promotion.

If you get noticed by a big site, perhaps they will write an article about you.

[benbob]

... I think the world is missing cool places to promote new sites without the cost and let people evaluate if they are good or not.

Such a place is already there, it's called: the internet.
If you provide enough interesting, useful and original information about a sufficiently interesting subject, you will appear #1 not just on Google, but on all relevant searchengines, without spending a single dollar on seo/promotion.

[me4all55]

You can use lots of Free Marketing Strategies. As everyone say money is in the list. Grab every visitors who visit your site. This way you can increase returning visitors.
Ask your visitors to like your fan page / follow on twiiter / build email list /
provide quality content everyday and send it to your list. You will rock.

[kuszeras]

Such a place is already there, it's called: the internet.

I don't agree it is also a matter of being found and noticed there... I am really struggling with that now... Especially if you are for example from outside of the US and would like to attract some US visitors - social media will not work as I have no US friends unfortunately :/

Ehh... Google does not like my site either - I hope it turn his mind but to rank high in SERP I guess I need much more backlinks and not only great content .

[benbob]

Such a place is already there, it's called: the internet....

I don't agree it is also a matter of being found and noticed there... I am really struggling with that now... Especially if you are for example from outside of the US and would like to attract some US visitors - social media will not work as I have no US friends unfortunately....

You were a bit selective with you quote; you left the crucial bit out.

Such a place is already there, it's called: the internet.
If you provide enough interesting, useful and original information about a sufficiently interesting subject, you will appear #1 not just on Google, but on all relevant searchengines, without spending a single dollar on seo/promotion.

My site is from outside the US, in a competetive, commercial market (my keywords return typically between 100,000 and 1,000,000 results) and I get a fair bit coming up on the first page, and a dozen or so at #1 on page1.
None of my top pages have had a penny spent on artificial links or any other form of paid promotion; it clearly can be done.

[John_Betong]

@Ben Bob;

The 100,000 plus visitors you claimed are theY an average daily, weekly or monthly basis and what type of site?

[kuszeras]

I can just congratulate. How much time did it take you to achieve that?

I am somewhere thinking it is not possible as I struggle to attract anyone to my site .

[benbob]

Google search for keyword returns 100,000 plus hits, not visitors.

[John_Betong]

Google search for keyword returns 100,000 plus hits, not visitors.

Where are you getting the information about the plus hits? I believe "hits" relates to the number of files on a single page.

I have looked at GWT and the nearest "Search for keywords" is the "Search Queries" page. If you mean the results from this page then I would have thought that the number of clicks was far more important than the impressions.

Personally I think the most important statistic is the number of daily visitors and viewed pages.

[Stevie D]

Where are you getting the information about the plus hits? I believe "hits" relates to the number of files on a single page.

Sorry if I'm misreading this but I think @benbob ; is referring to the number of results that Google returns for that keyword search. In other words, he has got to #1 when competing against a lot of other sites, not just for trivial queries where there are only a handful of other pages listed. Of course, just because Googlegives a hundred thousand results doesn't mean that you have a hundred thousand competitors!

[benbob]

Stevie's got it. Twice in fact; 100k returns is not the same as 100k competitors. Nobody knows how many unique sources are behind those returns, but if it is 6-7 digits, it's a lot of competition, that's for sure.

[John_Betong]

I have misleading results from a Google search which I think the browser pushes results to the top if the search item keyword is found in the cache.

To get a more realistic view it is best to search in a browser that is not used for day today usage.

A far more acid test would be to know the keywords and the relevant site.

[benbob]

I have misleading results from a Google search which I think the browser pushes results to the top if the search item keyword is found in the cache.
To get a more realistic view it is best to search in a browser that is not used for day today usage....

Best way to get representative figures, is to do this kind of research on a computer nearby, but in no way connected to your own e.g. internet cafe, bar/hotel with wifi, library etc.
Another way it use a separate browser with all the settings left blank. Not quite as good, but will do for day to day use.

...A far more acid test would be to know the keywords and the relevant site.

Sites don't have keywords in this respect; it all depends what users type in, and a lot of users are not computer literate.
The best one I ever got on my heating engineer's website was: "My boiler is broken. I live in London. Can anybody help?"

[ralph.m]

I have misleading results from a Google search which I think the browser pushes results to the top if the search item keyword is found in the cache.

Also, if you are logged in to Google in any way, they know who you are and serve up results based on your prior history.

[benbob]

Also, if you are logged in to Google in any way, they know who you are and serve up results based on your prior history.

Not to mention location, which is a fairly heavy factor these days.

[ralph.m]

Not to mention location, which is a fairly heavy factor these days.

Indeed, yes. That's why it can be handy to get someone somewhere else in the world to do the search as well. It's amazing how different the result can be.

[kuszeras]

Is the private mode in Firefox helpful for that? Does Firefox act then as if no info was stored on the user side?

[benbob]

Massive differences. I found this out earlier in the year when others claimed my site wasn't visible in the first few serps, whilst on my computer it came up #1.
Clearly, Google interpreted the large amount of searchers in my cache and the zero distance location as vitally important for my search. Downloades abnother browser, made sure I didn't log in............ gone was my site from the serps.
Still good to though, even if it was bad news.

[Stevie D]

I have misleading results from a Google search which I think the browser pushes results to the top if the search item keyword is found in the cache.

What you have described is completely impossible, although there is a vaguely similar process happening.

Your browser can't interpret or change the results in any way. Google sends a page of results, and that will be displayed by your browser as it was sent (give or take the usual caveats about cross-browser compatibility) ... your browser can't choose the move results up and down the page. Nor can Google access your browser's cache, that would be a humongous security risk if it could!

What actually happens is that Google uses what it knows about you to adjust the results to be personalised to you. That only happens if you are logged into your Google account – it keeps a track of what you've searched for and what you've clicked on to build up its picture of you, and then uses that to prioritise results that it thinks will be of particular interest to you.