Do you have to be unique to make it online?
Here’s a concept I’ve thought about a lot lately and how unique or new does your business have to be to be online? On the one hand you have the very big hits like the Million dollar homepage which was a unique idea perfectly marketed, it was even in the newspapers where I live! The problem with many great web ideas is that they don’t have the marketing strategy behind them to turn them into money spinners. I remember the guy on the million dollar homepage got a lot of publicity at first by contacting radio stations and newspapers about his site, he then sold some of the space at first to family and friends. People often underestimate the value of the hype because this site would never have started with it.
In some ways, it depends exactly on the idea you are trying to bring to fruition, as not all sites compete in the same type of market. However, the principle of making known what you do to influential people remains firm, whatever the subject of your site. For me, the basics are:
Reach out to other bloggers, don’t just ask for a link but explain what you are doing and why you are doing it.
Forums are a great way to connect with real people. But not just any forum, try to find one that is related to your industry, you need people engaged.
Twitter / Facebook / Youtube have changed the game in terms of how quickly you can become popular. It’s now possible to reach millions of people in a matter of hours, but only if you have viral content (that’s a big if).
You see if you are the manager of Coca Cola or your local mechanic trying to rank your site in your hometown, the principles are the same, it’s just the scale that changes. At the heart of this gaming web promotion is a popularity contest and there are a million ways to become popular (just like in the real world).
The reason I am highlighting all of this is that so many people have great and unique ideas for websites and ways to make money. But unless you have your 100% marketing / SEO / ppc strategy, you will fail. The problem remains that even in 2011 internet marketing is web design after the fact. Honestly, I prefer to spend ΒΌ of the budget creating the website and the rest of the promotion, at least that way I have a real chance of making money.
So that’s it for this post, what crazy methods do you have to promote your idea?