Cross Promoting Techniques that Work

Cross promotions are not a new idea. They have been nused by businesses for a very long time. For example, na real-estate company may promote a certain lawyer to nclose a sale, as the lawyer will promote that agency nin his firm. The system is somewhat similar to the nprimitive barter system, where people traded items nrather than using money. How can anything primitive nfit into the online world of Internet marketing? Very neasily. Cross promotions are, simply stated, a trade nof advertising space. Instead of paying for nadvertising space on a site, you would place their ad non your page and yours on theirs. There are many ways nto use cross promotions in your internet business that ncan be an effective and cost efficient way to nadvertise.

One way is to use link exchanges. This is very neffective when doing cross promotions with a company nthat is similar to yours, however you should be sure nand never link to a page that is in direct competition nwith yours. One of the best things about link nexchanges is that some search engines are factoring in nhits from the sites that are linked to your page to nwhen determining the ranking. Therefore linking to a nmore popular site, can not only increase your nadvertising, and traffic, but also increase your nsearch engine ranking.

When customers or potential customers subscribe to nyour ezine you can use this as an opportunity to use ncross promotions. On the same page that the customer nsubscribes to your ezine, make available the nopportunity to subscribe to another company’s ezine.
You can even exchange ad space in ezines, and provide nrecommendations for those whom you cross promote with.
You might even want to exchange column space in one nanother’s ezines.

Writing free articles that inform customers or npotential customers with information that is useful nand accurate can create a reputation for you and your nbusiness. Soon readers will come to know you as an nexpert on the subject. In these articles the author nuses a byline to help promote his site. Bylines can nbe a way to use cross promotions as well. You can use npart of the space in your byline to recommend nanother’s product.

If you have been considering writing an ebook, a joint nventure could mean increased profits for you and the nperson you are partnering with. Cross promotions nthrough ebooks are an excellent way to allow for a nwider topic and to promote both your business and your npartner’s business. The ebook should contain ninformation that will benefit both businesses and nstill be helpful to the reader. A good example of nusing cross promotions through an ebook is to a site nselling used video games partnering with a site nselling gaming devices. These are two subjects that nwould interest the same reader and most likely lead nthe reader to both sites.

You should keep in mind that the recommendations that nyou make are a direct reflection of you, so choose nyour cross promotional businesses carefully. Also nkeep in mind that it would be nice as a shopper to be nable to link from one site to another as a way to n“shop around.“ Since this is usually not beneficial nto you, never link or recommend a site that is in ndirect competition with you. Instead, recommend those nwho are similar, such as health and life insurance.