Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I am beseaching the hallowed halls of Startup Nation. My wife and I have been building home theater Media Center Computers (these machines are wonderful "convergence devices" that manage all of your home media needs) for about nine months and have hit a plateau. We had a website built (albeit, not the best design) and have been advertising in the local and internet classifieds.

We have VERY limited resources (I am disabled and on fixed income) and can not afford to spend much money on advertising. Does anyone have some ideas on marketing on a nonexistant budget?

This week I have contacted local home theater businesses offering our product to their product lines. And I have started a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Gossimo-Pro-Home-Theater-Computers/193173760041 for blogging and informational service.

I have also been placing ads, weekly, on craigslist.org: http://dallas.craigslist.org/dal/sys/1449102424.html, using vflyer.com to build my flyer.

What else is there to do? What would you all do in my situation?

 

Thanks in advance for everyone's input.

Justin Goss

www.gossimopro.com The Ultimate Home Theater Enterainment Solution!

justin@gossimopro.com

903-830-3048 Cell

 

 

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Justin Goss

Hi Justin,

I have had a look at your website, for which to have proper SEO marketing you would ideally need a new design and build.

My advise would be to try Pay Per Click, this will get you on relevant search results and you can keep within a budget. If you have any knowledge on web design and coding I would highly reccomend editing your exsiting design to lower the image count and make your site more content readable. Try Google local business, you can get on there for free and it can help you get some organic traffic.

Hope this helps.

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I am currently  learning html in school, so in the near future, I plan to make many revisions to the site... BTW the site has a 98.9% SEO rating. On the "pay-per-click", is this a google service or a general marketing service. If so, whom do you recommend?

 

Thaks for the advice,

Justin

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Justin Goss

As you have limited resources you can find a lot of the latest free marketing resources, insights and information on these topics on this new site http://marketinginnovationtoday.com/

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Google does offer pay-per-click service called AdWords. Sign up, create your ad campaign, and set how much you want to pay per click. Your ad will be displayed on relevant websites and you will only pay when someone clicks on your ad and goes to your website.

This is just a rough explanation of what pay-per-click is, but you can visit the Google AdWords website and find out more information.

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Small Business Tips and Advice - My own personal blog.
PB Consulting Group - Small Business Consulting

There are numerous strategies to help you market your company and products that are either free or low-cost. Here are a few that come to mind.

• Networking. Call or email all of your family, friends, past co-workers and acquaintances and go out and meet new people.

• Donate your product or lend it to a local religious, civic or non-profit organizations in exchange for free advertising in their publications.

• Write an article on home media for your local newspaper and encourage the paper to publish them. Also, publish your articles on a free weblog or blog (see www.wordpress.com and www.blogger.com ).


• Ask previous customer to submit positive reviews about your company and product on review sites such as www.angieslist.com, www.citysearch.com, www.measuredup.com, www. local.yahoo.com, and www.yelp.com .

• Get Referrals! One of your best sources of new business is referrals from existing clients.

• Contact other local companies like contractors, remodelers, handyman services etc. and see if they are interested in offering your product to their clients. 

Good luck!

Mend broken homes ... start a handyman business

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Looks like a fascinating business ... have you tried co-op marketing with businesses that cater to the same market? Maybe work a commission deal with a woodworker who designs custom home entertainment theaters. Perhaps a local home electronics retailer can promote you for a percent?

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NYC magician Hijinx! Amazing & Amusing Magic Shows for Parties and Events. Hijinx! www.hijinx.tv 877-688-3133

You guys have given me some really good thoughts and advice. I am looking into the adwords solution and seriously considering it. I wonder where i could find some good statistical date on adwords so sell my type of products. As far as partnering, I think this is a great idea... In fact if there are any related businesses here that are interested I would be happy to talk to you.

I am working on some blogging and will keep you updated!

Thanks again,

Justin

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Justin Goss

Has anyone had success selling with Amazon.com? Is it worth the hassle of obtaining UPCs for my products? They are completely unique so there are no products exactly like them on Amazon.

Thanks,

Justin

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Justin Goss

Google has a tool for adwords that can give you an estimate of how much traffic you can get with certain keywords and pricing.

https://adwords.google.com/select/TrafficEstimatorSandbox

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Small Business Tips and Advice - My own personal blog.
PB Consulting Group - Small Business Consulting