Back in the 90s, many internet companies were making their money solely off advertising. They would create content for a site, but then not sell anything but advertising on the site. And the companies paid for the advertising. Any company would advertise on any type of website. The point of the game back then was getting your banner on as many sites as possible.
Then came the dot-com bubble bust. And companies started pulling out everywhere. Investments, staff, everything. Paying for banner ads was no exception to the rule. An overall lack of effectiveness of remaining banner ads caused the advertising method to slowly die out.
Well, almost.
Crafty marketing individuals had watched the whole thing carefully. With banner ad pricing dropping across the board, now was the time to get the best bang for their buck. But how could it possibly work Banner ads had been shown to be largely ineffective.
Two words: Targeted marketing. These advertisers knew that it was just plain dumb to advertise your Christian a cappella groups website on a flash games website. No, you needed to advertise it on the website of a Christian publication.
See, those who make banner advertising work for them today knew the whole time that banner ads are, in many ways, no different from other types of advertising. Mass marketing to the population as a whole is largely unsuccessful. Banner ads were no exception to the rule. However, careful, selective targeted marketing can prove useful in any form.
So if you are thinking about getting a banner ad on a website, consider the following:
1. Is the demographic of this website the same as the demographic of mine
2. Does this website get enough traffic to make the cost worth it
3. Is your target demographic large enough to make banner ads wise
As with any marketing plan, banner ads should never be your only method of promotion for your website. However, combined with other methods, targeted banner ads can still prove effective.
Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, .
When I launched my very first blog, I would get really excited when just one soul visited after several days. I was very lucky to get three regulars (two nice young ladies and a gentleman - bless you wherever you are) very early on, who came calling almost daily. Actually my first site was a fiction blog which I updated daily - or at least I tried to.
Had it not been for those early visitors, I am certain that my fiction blog would never have been finished and my experiment with blogs would have ended prematurely. This article would never have been written. And I would not have grown to become as knowledgeable on traffic generation as I am today.
But thats just the point - the early days of any business are so critical and if nothing happens chances are that it will get abandoned and that will be the end of it all.
The tricky part of it all is that when a blog or site has just been launched it isnt so easy to generate traffic to it. Search engines have not indexed pages yet and if you are a novice, you really have no idea what you are doing.
I was lucky in that I started using articles shortly after my first three regulars came on the scene. The result was that my traffic swelled to such an extent that I have long finished writing this fictional blog but it still receives an amazing volume of traffic and contributes to my income from programs like Adsense. Lots of experiences later, I have still not found a better way to launch a new site and I doubt if anybody ever will. But there is a special way in which you need to use the articles to make them work for you (more on that later).
Why Promotional Articles Are Your Best Bet
Promotional articles have many advantages for a new blog or site. To start with they do double duty. Firstly they give you valuable content for your site and secondly they are capable of generating very targeted traffic to your site.
Then there are numerous advantages of using promotional articles for a new site. To start with it is free and utilizes something a new entrepreneur usually has plenty of as they launch their business - time. There are usually no clients yet to spend plenty of valuable time with sorting out problems and issues that have arisen. There is also no cash to account for or receivables to follow up on.
Articles are a good foundation that will continue to get you traffic for years to come. I recently landed a client who read an article I wrote and posted two years ago! Articles will remain online forever, in blogs, search engine rankings and article directories.
But the truth is that many have tried to use articles without much success. Actually if you just write and post articles without a special strategy to ensure that as many folks who read the articles as possible visit your site, then you are short-changing yourself. Chances are high that you will probably fail.
There is a special way to use articles so as to reap maximum benefit from each article you write. Heres how
You Must Get People To Visit Your Site
Many articles have a serious problem in that when you read them, they are complete in themselves and therefore there is really no point in visiting the site.Others do not have a resource box that is effective enough to get readers eager to visit their sites for more information.
Both articles fail miserably because they will hardly get you the traffic you require. The first skill you will need to acquire is that of compiling a resource box. Then you will need to use a certain system when writing and posting your articles. This idea is repsonible for a very huge chunk of my traffic.
Christopher Kyalo is a successful online entrepreneur. Read the rest of this article in his free email newsletter. Subscribe now by sending a blank email to . You can also visit his .