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Internet Marketing & PromotionsTraditional MarketingI am going to lead with this topic because it is so easy to get caught up in the technology and miss what actually works. Use your traditional marking techniques and include your web site in everything. Place the web address on the brochures, the flyers, the business cards, especially the adverts. Go further, create marketing exercises that direct people to the web site. That way, attention is directed to the web address in the advert, and if there are responses, they don't consume your staff's time, the Readers go to the site! It may go further, if the publication has an online edition that includes the advert, you then have a reputable web site pointing to your site which is one of the measurements search engines use when deriving 'relevance rankings'. Search Engine OptimisationSearch Engine Keyword AdvertsThe adverts displayed beside search engine results are purchased through the search engine You bid for a keyword (price varies with popularity) and then your advert appears in the 'sponsored ads' section, usually the slightly different displays above or to the right of the natural 'organic' results listing. These are usually a 'Pay Per Click' PPC marketing scheme where your allocated budget is consumed only when someone actually clicks on your advertising link. This allows you to accurately target specific keywords or phrases and usually there is a reasonable level of surety as to the costs involved. Internet Derived IncomeBanner Advert SystemsThese are the advertisements that you see across the upper portion of the screen when you visit many web sites. Content Matching SystemsThis is an advertising model where adverts are displayed on pages within your web site The ad-network providers attempt to select adverts that they match the context of the 'content' material displayed at your site The major players in this field (as of 2007) are Google AdSense and Yahoo! Publisher Network You receive a return each time someone clicks on the advert (note: not on the display) Affiliate RevenueThis is where you provide a sales module on your web site which sells items derived from an Affiliate Sales Network. A good way to bulk out a site. For example, if you provide services in a specific arena, there may well be software, books, or similar non-conflicting products that are available for purchase in that arena, each sale returns to you a percentage. To the the visitor it looks like you have a wide range of facilities to offer, or are at least a cool place to find stuff. Marketing eBooksYou can use your web site to sell your own eBooks. This is here you write your own 'book' or booklet, then store it as an electronic file at the web server. Usually a PDF document is used for the file format so that it is universally readable, and Adobe Acrobat can add document protections. People decide they would like to buy it, you charge them, then send the electronic file (usually as a download) If you are the type of person who is comfortable with writing and developing a continually growing body of 'books' then this is quite a good option - even better if other people find the information in the books useful and worth paying for Once you have this system in place, you can also market other people's writings - this could also accompany an agreement between you and the other party for cross-hyperlinks which would feed into your search engine ranking (especially if the hyperlinked book titles contain your keywords) |