Promoting your Business at Coastshop

Advertising on CoastShop can be a very powerful way of directing potential customers to your web site. People are coming to CoastShop looking for tourism information and places to shop online. Make sure they consider your business when making their purchases by advertising at CoastShop. We get over 90,000 unique visitors each month (page ranking 5 on Google!) We have the pulling power to send customers to your website.

To generate business and attract visitors to your website, your website needs the exposure of a continual stream of targeted potential customers with an interest in your product or service. Our core business is to help you get that exposure and business.

This page uses a Question & Answer format, written in plain English free from hype and jargon, which allows you to make a decision based on the facts.

Select Your Topic or Question

What's in it for me?

  Paid Advertising at CoastShop is commission-free.

  High exposure of your business on websites visited by 90,000 plus targeted visitors per month. We are in the top 1,000 Australian websites based on number of unique visitors per month and also ranked 406 for all shopping sites in the world (source: ranking.com March 2009 )

  Choice of different promotions according to type, location and price

  CoastShop can promote your "special offers" (conditions apply)

  Access to free consulting advice to help you get better results from your web site (conditions apply)

  Increased link popularity for your own website because of CoastShop's high rankings in popular search engines

  Low cost website designs for businesses starting up on the web

  Redesigns and repairs of existing websites that are not performing.

  Opportunities for long term partnering

Back to questions

How successful is CoastShop in attracting eyes to customer advertising?

Our websites consistently attract an average of 90,000 visitors per month. These are "targeted" visitors who have already expressed an interest in Australian and New Zealand accommodation, entertainment, shopping or tourism related topics, etc... that is how they arrived on CoastShop in the first place! We have the statistics to prove it !

CoastShop enjoys exceptional rankings with all the major search engines and directories for our targeted search words and phrases. You will be able to run those same searches yourself and confirm all our top rankings.

So what does this mean for the potential advertiser? The following example may be more meaningful after you have reviewed the CoastShop website.

Q.. Of the visitors seeing my advert how many are likely to click on it and go to my website?

A.. It will vary, but the average is 1:10 across the whole advertiser mix. Some advertisers get as high as 1:4 which confirms the value of targeted traffic at CoastShop.

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I have my own domain and website, why do I need CoastShop?

A website should be built around targeted keywords, eg..."Sydney bed & breakfast accommodation", "Gold Coast luxury apartment" , and so on. When the web user runs a search using those words or phrases, the sites containing those words on their web pages stand a good chance of being seen.

Thats fine for those keywords... but what about the thousands of potential customers who use other keywords in their search? There is every possibility they will never see your website. How are you going to reach them?

This is where CoastShop comes in... we have a far greater range and variety of search enquiries (using many hundreds of keywords) than your individual business website can ever achieve by itself. CoastShop can significantly improve your viewer base and at the same time, introduce your business to those additional potential customers.

At CoastShop the focus is on "findability" by the widest possible audience, but without losing focus on quality, targeted traffic. When the major search engines acknowledge CoastShop with a #1 rating, a best-of-the-best classification, then all the businesses being promoted on CoastShop gain from the additional exposure.

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How will CoastShop promote my business & what are the costs?

Advertisers can choose from several advertising options, and unique value added promotions such as "special offers".

Accommodation

We advertise a number of accommodation properties that include:

Apartments
Hotels
Bed & Breakfast
Motels
Caravan Parks
Farmstay accommodation

Accommodation Example

Promote Strong Selling Points

This example highlights the major attractions of an absolute beachfront location with views and beach access.

The 'Visit' link to the property provides direct access to your website for further information about you accommodation property. The text component is used to provide a brief snapshot of the property profile.

Advertisement Is suitable for:

Advertisements of this type can be placed on any preferred page. The link is always to the customer's own web site. Combo deals are available for placing enhanced adverts on multiple web sites.

Holidays & Tours

Guided tours
Bus trips
Cruise ship holidays
Outback Adventures
Extended overland tours for adventure travellers

Holiday advertisements

Travel businesses and tour operators have the opportunity to promote specific holiday and tour packages. Accommodation properties can combine their accommodation with holiday packages Each package receives a custom designed highlights page, and links to the company's own website. An entry in Holidays Online automatically qualifies for an entry in Tours Online if the customer so chooses.

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Is CoastShop just another online directory ?

No... CoastShop is a whole-of-Australia information resource that attracts a huge numbers of people specifically seeking information about Australian accommodation, entertainment, shopping, holidays, travel, tourism, places to stay etc. This approach makes CoastShop visible to a far wider audience than is the case with promoters offering a listing in a directory. It also means that the visitors to CoastShop represent a qualified, target audience with a strong interest in advertisers products.

Once the viewer is on the CoastShop site, we then provide opportunities for the promotion of products and services such as yours to those potential customers.

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How will I know if my advertising is working?

At each month end, our site log files provide information on the number of visitors who access the pages carrying your advertisement and how many of them clicked through from the advertisement to your website. That information is closely monitored and customers are welcome to request the figures at any time.

Your website will have its own statistical reporting system that should show which other websites have 'referred' visitors to your site. Just look for our domain name to see the independent confirmation of the visitors we have sent you.

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Can CoastShop help with my special promotions?

Yes.... all advertisers are entitled to submit their special deals for inclusion into our 'specials' pages.

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Can CoastShop help me fix my existing under-performing site?

Yes....this is one of our specialist areas. There are several possible reasons why websites do not perform well. The most common one is a site that has been developed for visual appeal but is lacking relevant content. The result is a site that never appears when the viewer uses a search to find a relevant website.

The second most common reason is that your site has not been submitted to the major search engines. Knowing which search engines to use, where to find them and how to submit to them is the key. This is not a task for enthusiastic amateurs and if you cannot accomplish it, you need to seek assistance.

In the highly competitive quest for top rankings, it is not uncommon to find websites using techniques that attempt to deceive the search engines and the viewer. The term for this is "spamming". It takes many forms and it nearly always, sooner or later, results in the offending site either being dropped or penalised in the rankings and in the worst case, banned outright. Recognising spammed sites and remedying the situation is part of the value add service we offer.

Getting a website placed into the search engines used to be free. Those days sadly are gone, and while some free options still exist, website owners now need to pay to get acceptance of their sites. Understanding the issues involved in these payments, and submitting correctly, is a now a necessary part of successful web site management.

We have been through all of the above many times for our customers. We have learned the lessons of how to build an effective website and which search engines to submit to. The number of visitors to CoastShop is a testimony to our success in getting web sites seen by the intended audience.

This skill is part of the free consulting we make available to all our customers. It's worth is often far greater than any amount paid to us by way of advertising costs.

Most websites get more traffic by the inclusion in a good regional information source that provides lots of relevant information to the viewer. CoastShop is able to make its regional information available to customers wishing to enhance their websites.

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Can CoastShop offer cost effective site designs/redesigns?

Yes.... We can offer you 'value for money' wedsite design services using our specific knowledge of Australian tourism and our other specialist knowledge.

As website design is not our core business but rather a value adding service for new and existing advertising customers, we believe our prices for website development to be the lowest available for work of similar standard.

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Why is website management so important to the success of my site?

Ask yourself these questions:

  how many of the major search engines know your site exists?

  how long since your website was resubmitted to the search engines?

  who checks if it is still in the search engines

  what are the ranking results for your primary keywords?

  has the page design been optimised for best ranking results or is the focus on visual appeal?

  do you know how to read statistical reports (not "hits" or counters both of which are of little value)

If the answers are "no" or "don't know", then we suggest that you review the ongoing management of your site. It is widely acknowledged that management is the key to all successful web sites, they are an asset and need to be managed. We appreciate that while many customers are satisfied with the level of service they receive from their webmasters, there are also many who are dissatisfied with their internet results but do not have the time, skills or inclination to undertake their own site management.

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Are there cheaper options than CoastShop?

Yes... there are a lot of web promotion companies and/or regional and trade organizations offering to enter your business into their regional directory or similar. A few are successful in delivering enquiries, the majority are not. The old adage of "you get what you pay for" applies just as much to website promotion as any other activity.

Our approach is to provide genuine opportunities for quality exposure together with levels of service, support and management that are necessary for a web promotion to be effective. In short, we focus on the return on investment.

By all means compare prices.....all we ask is that you rate us against a comparable level of quality presentation and choice, service and support functions and a willingness to put meaningful performance results.

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Will the CoastShop state and regional pages stay as they are?

No... the site pages are subject to ongoing improvements as updates and additional information becomes available. As the popularity of CoastShop increases, more and more contributions are received from people keen to see their town or region receive a full and accurate description plus appropriate recognition of their local attractions.

All such submissions are considered for inclusion into CoastShop as we are committed to making it the best resource of its type on the internet.

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Are there referees that I can contact?

Yes.... we do not put a list of individual customer names into public circulation but upon receiving an enquiry from you we will direct you to a minimum of 2 referees.

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What else should I know about?

Every commercial website is dependent on search engines (Yahoo!, Google, Alta Vista, Lycos etc) for their exposure. Search engines prize web sites that demonstrate quality presentation and original content. These features help them retain a loyal band of users thereby making the search engine attractive to big dollar corporate advertisers. CoastShop is very strong in the quality and content areas which is reflected in some of the top 5 search engine positions we have achieved.

Bottom line?.... if you are going to choose a web site to promote your business, doesn’t it make sense to use the one that is going to receive the most favourable treatment by the search engines? That is key to a successful website.

If you need further information, contact us by email now I need more information

Alexa toolbar ranking for Coastshop