How to Promote Your Business Online

How to promote your business online? This has almost become a perennial question.

There are so many options out here these days. Shall I work with a web designer and create an online presence – my virtual storefront. Do I set up a Facebook page for it so I can have engagement with customers? Will I tweet and engage that way? Post on Instagram? Post on Pinterest?

What will be my budget to put all this out there? Will I outsource and get some expert to do it for me? Will I try to do it myself so that I have control of the whole process? How am I going to carve out time to add all this to an already busy life? Is this going to upset the delicate balance I have almost gained between work and family?

Is your head starting to spin? My biggest barrier is making time to do it. I spend at least half an hour each day in meditation. Most days I manage an hour. I work shifts. Some days I have early morning starts (0530). Other days I start late in the morning (1100). Couple this with a rural property of close to 3 acres with the work that takes and I sometimes wonder how I get to sit at the computer and create the content that helps to promote the affiliate business I’m building here. Yet I know I must. And I like the creative process.

What Do You Do?

So you now know the business I’m in is affiliate marketing. You know what I’m promoting. What do you do? Based on what I’ve learned in 13 years online I can help others build a similar business or show them tools to expand what they already have.

Whatever you are doing it will fall into the category of a material product, a service, or a combination of these. All of these can be promoted online with the right tools.

Tradesman, Salesman, Teacher, Retailer, Coach, Consultant, Doctor, Nurse, Vet, Healer, Manager, Minion, Artist, Lawyer. Each of these and others I haven’t mentioned here, may offer services and/or products online. Something has brought you to this site. So you’re perhaps looking for something to help you in your endeavours. You have a story to tell about who you are and how you’re going to promote your business online.

It all starts with a story…

How Do You Promote It Online?

This is one of the prompts in Wealthy Affiliate‘s content creation platform SiteContent. Blog posts are a starting point for your promotion. What can you tell your potential customers about what you do? How did you get into the business? What prompted you to get into the service you are promoting? Is there something interesting to pass on to your clients about the products you offer? How do you promote it online?

If you are creating a niche-based affiliate marketing business you can provide product or service comparisons. There is probably a story about how you evolved into your niche. How did your fascination with your niche arise? If there are products associated with the niche, perhaps you started off at the lower end of the market. As the interest developed further, maybe you began looking at higher-end products. These are areas to explore in creating reviews and comparisons for your websites.

Links to these reviews can be placed on your Facebook pages or can be created within Facebook itself if you have a presence there. The same with LinkedIn. Provide a link or build your content right on the platform. Tweet them. Use the images to post on Pinterest and Instagram and link to articles on your blog. Make video presentations of your products and service and upload them to Vimeo or YouTube.

Don’t feel the need to explore a range of social media options all at once. Pick one for getting your story out there and become fluent in it and familiar with the way it works. When the traffic begins to flow, that is a sign that a particular option is gaining traction. Stick with it or if you feel the need then add another to your arsenal.

What Other Tools Do You Need and Where Do You Find Them?

All these different social media platforms where you can engage and connect with others are tools. They help move your business forward. Platforms that were initially set up for one thing (YouTube – video) have evolved their platforms to include a social media aspect. What other tools do you need and where do you find them?

There are training platforms out there where you can not only learn things relevant to your niche but also add your training to the collective. Many universities are creating platforms and adding training to them that can be accessed for free. Think EDx, a collaborative venture between Harvard and MIT. Or, Coursera, which brings together open courses from the likes of Stanford, Yale, Google, and IBM amongst others. These have evolved out of formal institutions. They’re just the tip of the iceberg.

The platforms where you can provide and receive training include, Udemy, and Skillshare. LinkedIn started off as a social media platform for professionals and has developed its offering to include training and job search. If your business has a training aspect Kajabi offers a platform for building, marketing, and selling your course online.

I’m building this website by following the training of the Wealthy Affiliate platform. Their training focuses on all the aspects you may need in learning to create and build an affiliate marketing business.

Whether your creating your own site or using another platform on which to post, images are important. The places to access free images are Unsplash, Pixabay, Pexels, Freepik. Paid images can be sourced on the likes of Shutterstock, Getty Images, and Adobe Stock.

Once you have bought, downloaded or if you have your own images you’ll need some way of editing them. I have a few online options I use. Canva, Fotor, Pizap, and sometimes Pixlr. Each of these has similar functions. They all have templates that make it easy for you to create graphics for your creations.

Canva is great as an all round graphic creator. They have a comprehensive range of templates that you can adapt for your own use. You can also create a design size that suits you rather than fitting into some of their sizing. Once you’ve uploaded your photo it’s drag and drop and then add what you require in the way of text.

Fotor has similar functionality as well as the ability to resize and crop your images manually. I find I’m able to do that quickly and then download to my computer to be uploaded to my site.

Pizap is a great option if you like funky fonts to add to your images and it also has a meme creator as well that you can have fun with.

If you need to create a png file one of the easiest ways I’ve found to do that is in PowerPoint if you have Microsoft Office. There is a remove background function in the application. Open a picture in a blank slide, select, and then use remove background. Right mouse click on the image that remains and ‘save as picture’. You’ll have a png file to use.

Outsourcing Options

Perhaps you haven’t the time but have some discretionary income you can put towards growing an online presence. If you have a clear picture of what you want and can articulate it you can post a job with any of the following.

Guru, Upwork, Fiverr.

Websites, mobile apps, graphic design, writing, editing, social media advertising. There’ll be someone on any of these to help you build and promote your dream.

Get Help with the Basics

Are you keen to have a go yourself? To start growing your dream. Wealthy Affiliate has all the tools and training you need to start your online presence whether you already have a business or have an idea or passion you want to share with the world. Get help with the basics. Dip your toes in the water. Start with a free membership and build a free website.

Blessings