A Great Tool, And A Great Lesson In Marketing

Do you appreciate genius? Man, I sure do!

Well then, take a look at this online color scheme generator.

Why is this an example of genius?

Well, for one, the obvious answer, especially if you're a designer (which is one of the hats I wear), is that it's a very useful tool for finding color harmonies, which are colors that look good together (most Websites out there could use a lot of help in this area).

If you're not a designer, you may not appreciate the usefulness of this, but let me tell you, it's very useful!

So Mr. Choloschemer (my pet name for the site's owner) has created a FREE online tool that will draw designers to his site like flies to honey.

This is where the second part of genius comes into play, because visitors to the page will see his main product offering on the right side of the page. That product is more powerful than the online version, plus he sells it for $$!

In other words, the free tool brings them to his site, and once there, he exposes them to the paid version. Since the visitor felt their needs compelled them to use the free version, chances are that the more powerful, paid version will be something that they just can't live without! Does that make sense?

I love this kind of creative marketing genius.

I guess my point here is that traffic to your site is the lifeblood of any site/online business, and there a number of ways of getting traffic to your site besides the often-used realm of keywords, incoming links, Google Adwords, and so on.

Here are just a few ideas to consider:

• A valuable report - A free ebook that addresses a concern that those in your market have/experience. Links in the ebook will lead them to your site for more info.
• A free instructional video - Something that helps your target audience using sound, text, and animation.
• A forum - A gathering place where people with similar interests can exchange ideas.
• A buzz marketing tool - Morgan Westerman created, just on his spare time and for fun, The Interview With God presentation. A few people found it, watched it, and they began sending it to others. As a result of it getting passed around, interest in it exploded! Morgan realized he was onto something, and he turn his fun 'experiment' into a million (yes million!) dollar business. 
• A blog - Provide valuable content on a regular basis, and people have a reason to visit.
• An online tool (such as the online color scheme generator) - If you sell a piece of software, is there a stripped-down version you can offer for free online or via a download?

There are more, but you get the idea. Discover something unique and interesting you can do to draw traffic to your site. The results will astound you.