Earth Day Special – 7 Steps Towards Green Marketing

And so this is Earth Day… and what have you done?
As millions of people across the planet are doing their bit to keep it green, by waving goodbye to those ugly plastic bags or by recycling their old cadmium rich AAA batteries, I’m going to ask you, fellow Internet marketer, what have you done to save the planet?  Here are 12 steps that you and I can easily follow to become green marketers indeed:

1.When seeking a hosting provider,  don’t just look for the cheapest deal out there. Look for its green credentials. Server farms eat up tons of electricity to run and to keep cool, so it’s a no-brainer to go green here.  Hostgator & Dreamhost could fit the bill to name just a few.

2.Books and DVDs are great and it’s always fun to have a package delivered at your doorstep but come on, isn’t it time we stepped into the digital era and stopped offering post deliveries on our sales pages? Or at least offer it only as a last resort? That would reduce packaging & printing materials as well as cargo pollution. Ebooks, music, videos, images, audio replays – are all downloadable. And you get them quicker!

3.When uploading your files to the server, keep them light. This way the site will run smoother, your buyers will be pleased to get their items quicker and you’ll eventually be doing Earth a favour : Smaller files means less hosting servers hungry for power juice and air conditioning.

4.When promoting affiliate offers, CPA offers or any other products be responsible and don’t just sign up for any program under the sun. Check some environmental background about the company. Are they friends of the Earth? If you realize that the company is high on CO2 emissions, for instance – move on to the next one.

5.More webinars, podcast and calls rather than live conferences and seminars would give your audience their share of interaction with you without requiring them to travel and fly. CO2 emissions are cut down and Mother Earth is over the moon..

6.I’ll share a little secret here. I’m a graphic designer but I have no printer. OK I do have but I hardly ever use it. The reason? There’s no need! When I need to print anything I print ‘to PDF’. Why would I need to have more jungle trees chopped down when I need most of the data digital anyway? PDF is lightweight and is handy. For Macs this ability is built in when you send to print. Windows users could install PDFcreator for free.

7.Should you choose to work from a cafe with your laptop, like many of us do, don’t ask for a tree-cutting-takeaway-cup each time. OK, I know you don’t want a mug ’cause maybe it’s not always clean. Fine! Bring your own tumbler. Or buy one there. You’ll even get a few cents off your drink in many places!

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