What's the best way that you've found of promoting and marketing your services? Do you target a specific audience? I know that there are other threads that are kind of about this, but I wanted to get some specific answers. What are the best services/optimizations of spending your resources?

Thanks!

Word of mouth is really the best advertising.

I have a small team of friends who just happen to be web developers and they get me a lot of clients. And I return the favor for people who need sites built, a win win.

And then otherwise, you could sponsor some forums or major sites for a banner ad. I have only explored this, and haven't actually moved on it yet.

And then advertising in forums where it's allowed.

Search engine promotion is the most effective way because mass percentage of targeted customers use search engines for finding services / products.

if you have good Writing skills you can compile free article and submit it in directory.

If you tell me what id you niche, we can advice for you.

But most important thing is these:

On page SEO
Content

Word of mouth is the best by far. The hosting market is so saturated...

It depends on the market you are after, if you have a niche audience it would be easier and cheaper to market.

Organic search is very powerful if you can take the necessary steps to create optimized web copy. Blogging about your industry and using social media to spread the word "among friends" is also viable if you execute a well-developed and targeted strategy.

We have a blog on our site as well as twitter, which is very nice since we are in such a niche market.

Word of mouth is definitely the most powerful, valuable and important marketing and promotion tool you can have and a good way to get that is by starting with a target audience. Whether it's bloggers, photographers or even families, pick an audience you can identify with and try to cater your service and marketing towards that group without pigeon-holing yourself.

I also think that hosting message forums can be a very effective and successful way to market. Not only does it give you the opportunity to advertise your service, it gives you the opportunity to directly market yourself as a person and that can be a powerful tool for gaining a positive word of mouth buzz.

Absolutely agree. This plays into the Trust emotion, and perception of value.

If you want to increase you website traffic, the only way you can do this quick and effective, is using keywords that are specific to the website main theme. In this way, you target specific search queries, what makes possibility to get a click on your website higher.

So if you have a health related website, there is no point to use general keywords, as "medicine" or "pharmacy". Because there are hundreds of millions of webpages that have this words. And if your website has a page rank less than 10, it will just get lost in search results and their will never be a click from the search engine.

Example: there is a purpose to increase traffic of a webpage http://medicationssuppliers.com/add-...directory.html from the health oriented companies.

There is no use to write "submit URL for FREE!!!!!!!"
We write "add medical URL for free", "add medical supplier for free to health directory"
It is also useful to add words as "Blood Pressure Management" or "Diabetes Care Products" - specific words that are included in the directory.

Only thousands are writing "Diabetes Care Products" and people, are looking for this are really looking for diabetes care products. This way there is a chance for a website with PR 3.

If you add a word "Immunoglobulins" to your keywords, there is a chance, that there will be a click one your website. To the webpage with PR less than 10 and with keywords "Submit URL" - there will never be a click!

This way chance to get a click from a search engine is more than 0.

Totally agree. By having such a blog you can not only advertise your services but actually show your potential customers what level of service they will be getting. Post about interesting news, specific guides to you site, post your own experience and reviews of things.

Hello,

You can optimize you website two seo techniques one is Off page and on page optimization. but i would prefer off page optimization and 25 % i would say on page because back links really help to improve your ranking on top search engine.

I think Search engine promotion is the most effective and responsive way because mass percentage of targeted customers use search engines for finding services, products etc etc.