Promoting a consumer oriented e-commerce site

From: Alex Tillman <alex_at_webtillman.com>
Date: Fri 08 Feb 2002 22:03:16 -0500

First, let me say thanks to all those who took the
time and responded to my post about sponsorships and
forum posting. Your information (while sometimes
running contrary to each other) has been very helpful
in sorting out my ideas on this. I genuinely
appreciate the assistance.

Taking this discussion one step further, what I am now
wrestling with is what options, besides traditional
banner ad networks, are there for promoting a consumer
product oriented e-commerce site that has been
moderately successful in SEO placement? (I am shying
away from banner ads because; my bosses don't like
them (understatement), and I am not convinced they are
the best way to spend my limited ad dollars. *PLEASE*-
as tempting as it may be to show me, in excruciating
detail, the errors of my ways on banner ads, the
decision has already been made, so that's not the type
of response that will help me now. And if this post
somehow backs us into another CPA vs. CPM debate, I
apologize in advance!)

Bottom Line:
What I really want to know is- if you were running
Widgets.com, you offered no services on your site
whatsoever- just middle-of-the-road priced widgets for
consumers, you couldn't/wouldn't use traditional
banner ad networks, you had a modest budget of say
$1,500 per month, and you needed to double your sales
by June, and quadruple them by the end of the year...
what would you do? (Aside from weeping openly and
upping the dosage on your meds, which, let's pretend,
has already been adequately taken care of.) Specifics
are fine, but I am truly hoping to get some strategic
tactics here- methods of attacks, if you will.

So, is this group up to the challenge helping a poor
schmuck keep his job?

Note: For those of you offering advertising services
that you would just LOVE to pitch to me and are
thinking of firing off an email directly to me, please
don't bother. If you have something of value to offer
and can post a legitimate message here (one that is
helpful and objective enough to get past the
moderator), I might very well check it out and contact
you back if I am interested. (Plus you may pick up
some other doomed individuals reading these posts and
in the same boat as me) But I am much more interested
in the strategic approach outlined than any individual
particular service, and there is simply WAY too much
snake oil out there for me to start responding to
unsolicited emails.

Thanks in advance for anyone offering their $.02 (less tax)



Received on Fri Feb 08 2002 - 21:03:16 CST