Tools for Marketing Home Based Business

Marketing home based business is essential. Here are some tools that I use. There is not one best choice, it always depends...

It depends on your business, on your budget, on the time you have to get results. But there is one thing for certain, there is one way to get a home based business lead that needs to be part of your toolbox, no matter what: referrals or word of mouth.

Google AdWords

If you are using the Internet to promote your business, you will not get around Google AdWords. When you do a Google Search, the results will display relevant ads (based on the keyword used). They are the ones on the right of the organic results (and sometimes above).

I have used Google AdWords mainly for testing. It is simple to set up and highly flexible. The process is basically this:

• You write an ad and specify a landing page for it.
• You choose the keywords you want the ad to appear for.
• You define who you want to show the ad to (by geographic location).
• You bid a maximum price you are willing to pay for someone clicking on your ad (you only pay when people click on your ad).
• You specify your daily budget (once that is reached, your ad will not be shown any more on that day).

There are more functions (like having multiple ads to test which one works better), but basically this is the process. So very easy to set up and control (you can stop it with a click of the mouse).

My experience has been that the leads that come through Google AdWords are not that likely to purchase something (or take an action). A lot are just looking (and I am sure some of them are your competitors as well).

Yahoo Search Marketing

Pretty much the same thing as Google AdWords. I have to admit that I have not used Yahoo Search Marketing yet. Mainly because I knew how to use Google, so I stuck with it.

If you want to earn money on your site by having Google place advertising on it, use Google AdSense.