Are you totally overwhelmed with all the confusing information about marketing your business online Do you want to advertise smarter and not lose your shirt Marketing your business online can be a daunting prospect if you dont have the tools to work the system in your favor.
I am not going to promise to show you easy strategies to making millions on the internet. If you are a regular reader of marketing articles, you have probably learned by now that what they mean by easy is either spam or unethical ways to make some money online. What I am going to show you is the best way to spend your advertising money and how not to get scammed. I am going to show you how to do the work yourself and put your advertising dollars to work doing what they should be doing, advertising your business, not lining the pockets of others making promises they never intended to keep.
Having a good marketing plan can not only build your business in a solid predictable way, but it can save you hours of struggling and thousands of dollars in lost revenue and poorly spent advertising dollars. Ask any professional marketing expert. The most important way to keep more of your profit where it belongs, in your pocket, is to start with a solid marketing plan. Solid does not mean complicated. Set some goals. Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals will help you to keep your focus on whats important for your business. This can simply be a journal with some lists, you can make it as simple or as complicated as you like. I suggest keeping it simple. Use the K.I.S.S. method and keep it realistic. How much money do you have to spend on advertising Write it down and stick to it.
Google adwords and adsense are an invaluable advertising tool. Google has rapidly taken over the online search engine world. You simply cannot run an online or a brick and morter business without considering using Google as an advertising tool. Google adwords can bring traffic to your site overnight. It can also drain your bank account if you do not take the time to learn how keywords work. Take some time to use the Google search, research what words are being used to search for what you are selling. What businesses are using Google and how they write their ads. Google is an invaluable tool not only for advertising but for reasearch as well. Take the time to read everything in the FAQ at Google, dont just throw money at it and expect great business to mysteriously come your way. It takes time and research, if you take the time to understand how Google works, it can take your business to the next level.
Yahoo advertising can be as much of a drain on your funds if you are not careful. The system works a little differently than Google does. With Google you pay as you go whereas with Yahoo you have to pay them up front. You still pay per click with both systems depending on what you bid per keyword and this means that the research you do for Google can be extremely helpful when putting together ads for Yahoo. Keywords are the key so to speak. Understanding how the public searches for what you offer and using keywords effectively will keep your advertising dollars in check.
This brings us to link exchanges and search engine rankings. I put these two together because they feed off eachother. The more places your site is linked to, the more the search engines see it. In the case of search engines that use spider bots, this means higher rankings as they crawl your site more often. You may have heard the term content is king the best way to be sure your content is relevant is to use the keywords you have chosen from all your research for Google and Yahoo. Choose 4 or 5 keywords that are the most relevant to your site and use them all over the page. Do not simply list them repeatedly as good spider bots recognize this as an attempt to fool them, and they will work against you. Rather, use them within the content. Writing good content is not difficult, make it personal. Open up the doors for your readers so they feel welcome as though they are invited guests into your home. This is when it is time to do more research. Find other sites that are relevant to yours. Not necessarily the same products but similar or complimentary and ask to exchange links with them. Start a blog and write about your site and others, linking from your blog and getting links from other blogs. Do not be taken in by companies offering to get you linked to every site on the internet. You can do this yourself with a little effort.
I have shared with you some important lessons in the world of online marketing. We have learned that Google is probably one of the most valuable tools you can have, it can also be a huge drain on your budget if you do not do your research. I have shared with you how to research effectively and use keywords strategically. I have also discussed with you how to work link exchanges without hiring someone who is merely going to do the same thing you can do for yourself, or do nothing at all but drop your money into their bank account. Internet marketing is not a big mystery. It takes patience and research. Anything worth doing is worth doing right.
November 29, 2005Authors Bio:Katy is owner and proprietor of Working and living in southern California with her four children. She can be reached for questions or comments about this article or her site at
As I started advertising using various methods, I noticed my capital dropping like a rock. Then I began to thinkI wish I had more capital to keep on advertising. I wanted to advertise big; give my site a huge exposure so I can reach out to tens of thousands of merchants at a time. Advertising was easy, but getting the results I wanted wasnt. If I had enough capital like other comparison shopping websites, I was sure my site could be successful. However, with the capital that I had leftover, there was no way I could stay up on search engines for long. I was basically competing with large companies so small and medium size merchants dont have to. And that couldve been easier if I had merchants to start off with, and adding funds to their account, but I started out with zero. This was a major setback.
The letters that I personally typed up and mailed out showed a close to 1/100 conversion rate. The companies emailed me with interested, and with questions. Most of their questions were: What type of marketing are you doing to get new buyers and Are you able to accept FTP uploads of listings and daily updates to reflect prices and in-stock changes That second question got me all confused. I didnt know they meant by FTP uploads of listings. Then I contacted Relmax.com Lesson V.
Email marketing by RelationServe showed no results whatsoever. I dont even know if they sent out the promised emails to 10,000 online merchantsa test package they offered. I wasnt able to track back the visitors that their emails brought me, and out of those 10,000 opt-in online merchants, ZERO merchants signed up for FREE.
Yahoo! Search Marketing, although quite costly, got me merchants to sign-up and submit products to my sites directory. Their Fast Track program provided me with effective keywords and descriptions that got me good search page positioning at affordable cost-per-click fee. Their service was quite effective with my affiliated website, and it didnt disappoint me this time either.
Google Adwords, on the other hand, was a repeat disappointment. It was too expensive, and their Jumpstart program came up with very broad, general keywords for my purpose, which gave me high cost-per-click rates. The more general keywords are, the more advertisers use them to gain exposure, the more competitive it is to get higher positioning. Thanks to their general keywords, I was paying over $2.00 per click to be on the first page of search results. Why compete for the first page Because majority of search engine users stop looking after the first page. I personally use Google a lot for personal use to do research, but Google Adwords really disappoint me.
After advertising in many different categories, I felt like I was cheated out of money in most of them. The only service that didnt put me down was Yahoo! Search Marketing, and their Fast Track program. After learning these expensive lessons, I wish I had invested all my capital into Yahoo!
If you would like to share any of your advertising experiences, please feel free to email me at writings@imbae.net
By Anthony Bae
Raising Money for Charity by Selling Links to Online Advertisers