Online marketing expertise needed

Well, you have me engrossed already, but no link to your website...

Yeah, spamming newsgroups is one way. Do you know anyone with an established website that google crawls regularly? Ask them to link to your site for a few months. What you put into marketing is what you get out. If you have a small budget, you will have to get out and pound the pavement (virtual).

The Google cost per click avenue is reasonably priced and you only pay for the times your ad is clicked. (These are the ads on the right side of the search results under 'Sponsored Links.) I suggest you stay away from general interest sites (e.g. newspaper sites) as your product is very niche and they price on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis. You'll be lucky to get five clicks out of a thousand impressions. Perhaps advertising on food blogs if they offer a conglomeration (Like the Liberal Blog Network) or on recipe sites (Epicurious.) The CPM may be higher but the readers would be "qualified." Best of luck.

I would also check into the possibility of having your website posted in the back sections which can appear similar to newspapers "classifieds" of cooking magazines such as Bon Appetit, or Cooking Light. I think that can be done fairly cheap. I also know that doing PR with a press release and sending to such magazines can sometimes create the "buzz"possibility that they would do a write up or a review and a product mention in the magazine content directing them towards your product.

Thanks for some awesome ideas. Also, I didn't list the site in the original query because it seemed so... well... self-serving. If you're interested, it's at http://www.popupchef.com. If you visit, any feedback on the site or the idea would be appreciated.

That's so cute! Have you approached Ronco?

Nice pimp job, self serving too. Joking, gyrom. Good idea, I'll look for you on the Food Network or HSC.

You could try contacting http://www.lifehacker.com/ or http://www.gizmodo.com/ to see if it interests them at all. It's not the sort of thing they usually put on their blogs, but I don't see what you'd lose by trying. I like the idea, and the website is very well designed.

I'd suggest you keep your eye out for blogs and discussion areas where this would go well. An example, though perhaps not perfect, the Cool Tools website. If the name of the game is eyeballs on your product then you have 2 goals. Improve your google (or whoever) rankings and get direct exposure. An example of both: I do craft fairs with http://www.nicemirror.com and have met some people there who do interesting things. One makes http://www.rebound-designs.com/. When I saw a boingBoing post about a http://www.boingboing.net/2005/09/22/purse_made_from_keyb.html I was reminder of her stuff so I submitted it. It's been a big success for her in immediate sales but I expect it'll also mean a better google ranking.... without being a doucebag and gaming the system. If you're not aware, your rank is greatly impacted by the number of places linking to you and also impacted by their rank. Grab a cup of coffee and go read one of the many books on the subject in Borders.