Cross promotions are not a new idea. They have been

used by businesses for a very long time. For example,

a real-estate company may promote a certain lawyer to

close a sale, as the lawyer will promote that agency

in his firm. The system is somewhat similar to the

primitive barter system, where people traded items

rather than using money. How can anything primitive

fit into the online world of Internet marketing? Very

easily. Cross promotions are, simply stated, a trade

of advertising space. Instead of paying for

advertising space on a site, you would place their ad

on your page and yours on theirs. There are many ways

to use cross promotions in your internet business that

can be an effective and cost efficient way to

advertise.

One way is to use link exchanges. This is very

effective when doing cross promotions with a company

that is similar to yours, however you should be sure

and never link to a page that is in direct competition

with yours. One of the best things about link

exchanges is that some search engines are factoring in

hits from the sites that are linked to your page to

when determining the ranking. Therefore linking to a

more popular site, can not only increase your

advertising, and traffic, but also increase your

search engine ranking.

When customers or potential customers subscribe to

your ezine you can use this as an opportunity to use

cross promotions. On the same page that the customer

subscribes to your ezine, make available the

opportunity to subscribe to another company’s ezine.

You can even exchange ad space in ezines, and provide

recommendations for those whom you cross promote with.

You might even want to exchange column space in one

another’s ezines.

Writing free articles that inform customers or

potential customers with information that is useful

and accurate can create a reputation for you and your

business. Soon readers will come to know you as an

expert on the subject. In these articles the author

uses a byline to help promote his site. Bylines can

be a way to use cross promotions as well. You can use

part of the space in your byline to recommend

another’s product.

If you have been considering writing an ebook, a joint

venture could mean increased profits for you and the

person you are partnering with. Cross promotions

through ebooks are an excellent way to allow for a

wider topic and to promote both your business and your

partner’s business. The ebook should contain

information that will benefit both businesses and

still be helpful to the reader. A good example of

using cross promotions through an ebook is to a site

selling used video games partnering with a site

selling gaming devices. These are two subjects that

would interest the same reader and most likely lead

the reader to both sites.

You should keep in mind that the recommendations that

you make are a direct reflection of you, so choose

your cross promotional businesses carefully. Also

keep in mind that it would be nice as a shopper to be

able to link from one site to another as a way to

“shop around.“ Since this is usually not beneficial

to you, never link or recommend a site that is in

direct competition with you. Instead, recommend those

who are similar, such as health and life insurance