Whether you use the term search engine marketing, advertising, online advertising, banner advertising or pay per click advertising, there is a common misconception by owners of new websites that the best way to get noticed is to jump in with both feet and immediately compete with the big boys of advertising.
This thinking has left many would-be online entrepreneurs frustrated and feeling like their product or service is either inadequate or the cost barrier associated with marketing it is just too high. These misconceptions bear very little resemblance to the truth. There are several reasons why new Internet ventures fail to gain the attention they deserve. To all the early stage would-be success stories, I offer five pieces of solid advice.
(1-Dont Be Too Eager To Directly Compete With The Big Boys -) Competing with the big boys is definitely the future goal of any business, but it must be done in a smart way. Much like a prize fight, the challenger should have a few victories before declaring an all out battle with the big boy of the industry. If you have a large ego and that statement offends you, you are exactly who I am writing to.
The big boys are called the big boys because they have a financial advantage. Dont allow your pride to cause you to make ill-advised decisions. Be smart. If you cant out bank roll them, out think them and out maneuver them. By that I mean, dont attempt to advertise on the same websites and in the same way as they do. You probably cant afford it anyway. We choosing your initial advertising spots, choose smaller websites that are looking for advertisers. They are usually much cheaper and allow you to determine what works for your particular product marketing. While you may only get fifty to one hundred visitors per month from a lower traffic website, it allows you to grow unhindered, under the radar of larger more competitive firms.
(2- Avoid Depending On Advertising Auto Pilot Too Soon-) The mind frame that you can simply set your advertisement in place and watch the dollars roll in holds true for very few early stage websites and products. That tactic works best once you have created a flawless website sells interface. It needs to be a fool proof and proven path to buying your product.
Despite what you think, you dont know that you have a smooth buying interface until your customers have tested it. Buy buying interface I dont just mean credit card processing. It includes the wording and the pages that lead to the credit card processing as well.
Remember, it is not enough for you to be impressed with your web property. Spend time early-on finding out what your customers think. Doing this can prevent lots of frustration and confusion, while increasing your websites ability to make sells earlier. There are web services that allow you to ferret out any problem with your website and advertise really easily. I will speak more about this later.
(3- Avoid Blindly Following Other Advertisers -) Advertising method saturation is when so many people are doing the same thing that only the big guys benefit on a large scale. Dont get caught up in the me-tooism of advertising by only using the advertising methods currently being used by big companies. This has doomed would-be success stories more than anything.
As a particular advertising method becomes more popular, the price of using it typically goes up. This is simply due to the rules of supply and demand. Get a bunch of people wanting the same thing and bid wars begin. You have to be innovative and embrace new types of advertising early. New ways of advertising and marketing spring up all of the time. For instance, advertising in online games like Typobounty dot com puts you in a high traffic area with better quality visitors that want to read your entire site.
(4- Initially Focus On Quality Rather Than Quantity-) Quality of visitors is much more important than quantity of visitors. I am not so much referring to the targeting of a particular demographic. I mean a person that is ready to buy and able to buy is more desirable than a click through by someone that has none of these traits. I mean, think about it. The term (visitor) has lost its meaning in online advertising.
Some webmasters believe that every click though is a visitor. Not so fast. Let me ask you something. If you drove from Galveston Texas to Dallas Texas, would you say that you visited Houston Texas? No! Most sane people would say that they passed through Houston on their way to Dallas. Stopping for fuel does not constitute visiting Houston.
When a potential customer comes to your website, skims over its content, and then leaves, the shear fact that your content didnt catch their eye and slow them down, fueled their desire to go elsewhere for what they are looking for. Dont let your website be a gas station for web surfers. The object is to get potential customers to stop and focus on your websites content. Not simply to pass through on their way to buy a product. Incorporating your advertisement into online games gives visitors the incentive to stop and read every word of a websites sales pitch.
(5- Make Every Advertising Penny Benefit Your Business In Some Way -) It is a simple principle of business. In order to succeed at whatever your organizations goal may be, you must take more money in than you put out. Sure, some would conclude that I have simply stated the obvious, but I disagree.
If it were obvious, there wouldnt be so many marketers doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Stop solely depending on the hit or miss arena of pay per click. When your advertising budget is small, pay per click is not your friend.
Early on, find low cost monthly fee advertising opportunities and scoop them up. Game sites like TypoBounty dot com allow advertisers to draw attention to their products while simultaneously cleaning up their website errors. So, every visit ends in a sell, helps the site become better or confirms that everything is in order. That is making every advertising penny count towards the success of your business.
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By: million558 | 07-07-2008
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Phorm illegal interception also copyright of websites visited.
By: illegal | 03-07-2008
You have a child with their own computer, this child is not the ISP account holder a webwise page pops up this child spots the name webwise and associates this with the BBC program he uses at school so clicks to allow. This child has just been allowed to alter the T&C of the ISP account while under the age of being allowed to give informed consent, The ISP now is profiling a minor without parental consent, changed the customers T&C without his verifiaction. Would this fall into invaision of privacy since the person consenting was mislead by false advertising yes Phorm selected an alreadyb known and trusted name by children used by the BBC. 1. Would this be breaking the law? 2. Why does the account holder have to verify wioth password to login or even talk to the ISP about anything but a child can change the T&C without any way to verify it is the account holder? 3. Interception of the browser is illegal so how can Phorm suceed without breaking the law? 4.Websites you visit all have copyright you can visit but are not supposed to copy, proccess for material gain this phorm will do who wil pay the website owners for breaching their copyright? 5. Why will phorm not follow the robots.txt for its own instead of googles? 6. With such as google I can delete cookies and any tracking they are doing is stopped, with phorm it is on my connection so can never turn it off 100% have tot ake the word of one person who has no reputation since he has been hijaking browsers illegally for years would you trust this knowing that?
A tide of public awareness?
By: www.mywebusage.com | 02-07-2008
you seem to be confident that these changes are only taking place on a corporate side. I fear that this assumption could be a little shortsighted. How do you propose that advertisers can counteract the rise in public awareness of advertising technologies which were previously operated "under the covers". After all how many people are prepared to stop and talk to marketing or PR enquiries on the high street? when people are given the option they invariably decide to opt-out.How can the "marketing intelligence industry" tackle this rise in "public awareness"?
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