Cross Promoting Techniques that Work
By Ahmad Nazri Nordin
Cross promotions are not a new idea. They have been
used by businesses for a very long time. For example,
a real-estate company may promote a certain lawyer to
close a sale, as the lawyer will promote that agency
in his firm. The system is somewhat similar to the
primitive barter system, where people traded items
rather than using money. How can anything primitive
fit into the online world of Internet marketing? Very
easily. Cross promotions are, simply stated, a trade
of advertising space. Instead of paying for
advertising space on a site, you would place their ad
on your page and yours on theirs. There are many ways
to use cross promotions in your internet business that
can be an effective and cost efficient way to
advertise.
One way is to use link exchanges. This is very
effective when doing cross promotions with a company
that is similar to yours, however you should be sure
and never link to a page that is in direct competition
with yours. One of the best things about link
exchanges is that some search engines are factoring in
hits from the sites that are linked to your page to
when determining the ranking. Therefore linking to a
more popular site, can not only increase your
advertising, and traffic, but also increase your
search engine ranking.
When customers or potential customers subscribe to
your ezine you can use this as an opportunity to use
cross promotions. On the same page that the customer
subscribes to your ezine, make available the
opportunity to subscribe to another company's ezine.
You can even exchange ad space in ezines, and provide
recommendations for those whom you cross promote with.
You might even want to exchange column space in one
another's ezines.
Writing free articles that inform customers or
potential customers with information that is useful
and accurate can create a reputation for you and your
business. Soon readers will come to know you as an
expert on the subject. In these articles the author
uses a byline to help promote his site. Bylines can
be a way to use cross promotions as well. You can use
part of the space in your byline to recommend
another's product.
If you have been considering writing an ebook, a joint
venture could mean increased profits for you and the
person you are partnering with. Cross promotions
through ebooks are an excellent way to allow for a
wider topic and to promote both your business and your
partner's business. The ebook should contain
information that will benefit both businesses and
still be helpful to the reader. A good example of
using cross promotions through an ebook is to a site
selling used video games partnering with a site
selling gaming devices. These are two subjects that
would interest the same reader and most likely lead
the reader to both sites.
You should keep in mind that the recommendations that
you make are a direct reflection of you, so choose
your cross promotional businesses carefully. Also
keep in mind that it would be nice as a shopper to be
able to link from one site to another as a way to
"shop around." Since this is usually not beneficial
to you, never link or recommend a site that is in
direct competition with you. Instead, recommend those
who are similar, such as health and life insurance
