8 Old Internet Marketing Tools That Still Work

June 27, 2008 by ian

I went and saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last night. It was bad. Awful. Root-for-the-army-ants-because-they-might-end-the-movie-sooner awful.

Seeing a great old franchise turned to so much stinking manure me to thinking about some old things that do still work for us internet marketers:

1. Blogging Carnivals. I always seem to forget about this, but if you want to build links and network with like-minded folks, blog carnivals are fantastic. Try BlogCarnival.com if you want to see what it's like. Very little involved in getting started, and the payoffs are enormous.
2. Pay per click marketing. Yes, it's more expensive. But no other internet marketing tool beats PPC for control, targeting and the ability to manage ROI.
3. Search engine optimization. You knew I'd bring this one up. Shoemoney may think I'm a git for believing in it but low-key, visibility-focused SEO is a relatively small investment, and search engines still have the same reason for living: To deliver relevant stuff.
4. Writing. See, pretty pictures are great, but they don't tell me a hell of a lot. Two lines of well-written copy will get you more sales than any video, talking-head animation or cheesy design.
5. Analytics. After everything I've written on this blog about analytics, if you don't have Google Analytics or something else on your site yet, I give up.
6. Directories. Yes, directories are still around. Sites like shop5.com don't charge you and list your site where folks come looking for your services and products. It's true that spamming your link out to 1,000 directories probably won't help as much with SEO as it used to, but directories are still nice traffic drivers.
7. E-mail. E-mail marketing is still an amazing direct marketing tool, if you do it right. Don't ignore the house list.
8. Old farts. I'm old, or at least approaching old: 40 in 3 weeks. In the last year I've ruptured 2 discs, cracked teeth, had my eyes go even worse, have hair falling out faster than ever, and I've got freckles that are no longer called freckles - they're "age spots". But I'm still pretty useful. Fire off a question now and then and I'll do my best to answer.

So, my recommendation: Skip Indiana Jones. Work on your website instead.

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