It is estimated that Internet advertising will become the largest ad medium, at nearly $63 BILLION by 2011. You read correctly - BILLION!
Compare that to a measly $16.9 billion for the full year of 2006 or lame $7.134 billion in 2001 (Industry Survey Conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and Sponsored by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)), and you can’t ignore the Internet advertising tsunami on the horizon!
The shift of advertising dollars to the Internet marketplace has the media business turning on its head!
Newspapers as well as electronic media are scrambling to promote and monetize their online presence. The marketing landscape is in upheaval and changing so rapidly, that if you ignore the obvious signs, you’ll feel sideswiped and dazed when your business legs start to buckle.
What does this mean for advertisers currently using the traditional media of radio, television and print? Simply this: If the Internet is not part of your advertising arsenal, you are losing business to those who are aggressively using online marketing to promote their goods and services. I say “aggressively” because if you believe as many website owners do, that “if you build it they will come,” you are hugely mistaken. Check these numbers. Here’s what the Internet universe looks like:
Using 2006 numbers, there are approximately 100 MILLION WEBSITES serving up somewhere between 15 and 30 BILLION web pages. It is estimated that over 30,000 web pages go up every single day. Not only is it difficult to wrap your head around those statistics, but it is currently impossible to asses the full impact this is having on consumer buying habits.
Clearly, companies must embrace the power of the Internet to compete not only locally, but also globally! So where does that leave your company’s website? Well, here’s the bitter truth.
Unless you are ranked on the first or second page of any given search engine, your website is virtually invisible.
Yes, you may have spent thousands of dollars on your not-so-search-friendly-flash-driven-website - but nobody knows you exist because you haven’t made search engine optimization part of your website construction. In fact, no amount of creative website design, graphics or cool effects will help you with firstpage ranking on Google.
How can you compete?
Here are two choices.
1. You can start promoting your web site both offline using traditional media and online using PPC (pay per click advertising, banner advertising etc…)
and/or
2. You can have some search engine optimization done on your site so that you get first page ranking on the major search engines for the keyword search terms that are most related to your business.
I mention above, and/or because even if you get first page ranking on Google and the other search engines, you should still continue using offline media to direct people to your site.
Website ranking is key if you want to stay in the game!
I advise my clients who have first page ranking, to do exactly this. It gives them an opportunity to do what no other advertising medium does quite as well as the Internet.
For example, when you direct a primed radio listener or newspaper reader to your site:
1. You welcome a receptive visitor and prospective client who will respond much better to the sales copy on your web pages.
2. You can show and sell using video clips as mini infomercials.
3. You can actually make a solid connection and build a long-term relationship with your visitor.
Using powerful promotions to capture their email address, you can build a list of eager buyers that you can sell to over and over again!
To find out more on how to harness the Internet using website optimization, read this special article: SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and what your Web Designer Won’t Tell You.
Search Engine Optimization - It’s something you should really be thinking about!
[Keywords: search engine optimization, seo, page ranking, website optimization, site optimization, search engine, first page ranking, ranking, google ]
November 8th, 2007
By Peter Parks
This interesting article addresses some of the key issues regarding Affiliate Marketing Websites. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about Affiliate Marketing Websites.
Sometimes the most important aspects of a subject are not immediately obvious. Keep reading to get the complete picture.
There are some myths in affiliate marketing, which attract a lot of people to it believing they are true. First is they think managing an online business is easy and second, they think that one can make a fortune through online marketing in an instant.
Probably not even 10% of those who are into affiliate marketing became rich overnight. There may be some who fortunately achieved overwhelming success in just a short span of time after setting up an affiliate program, but not a majority of them can confidently say they only had luck.
Anyone who is successful in this kind of business would say he worked hard to get to where he is right now. Success in affiliate marketing takes time and hard work, but it’s worth it.
If you are planning to start an affiliate program, one of the things you have to consider is having your own website, not just an ordinary website but a professional looking one. How do you build an affiliate marketing website? What are the easy steps to build one?
First, you must have already decided on the theme or niche of your website. It would be better if you already have an idea what products or services to promote as this would help you plan the design and lay-out of your web pages. The next thing to do is to choose a domain name and get it hosted.
The domain name is a unique name used to label the actual address of your website on the Internet. In deciding what domain name to register, look into the type of products you are endorsing and the theme of your site. Having the right keywords in your domain name would give you better chances of drawing more visitors to your website. Also, choose a top level domain or extension, such as .com because it is more popular. In selecting your web host, consider the security of servers and up time guarantees.
Now, you can start creating your webpages. Don’t be disheartened when you know a little in this field. There are page generation tools and fast launch sites available online; you just have to search for them.
Countless online sources could help you build an affiliate marketing website, though you might need time to study and learn the whole process. This is one of the reasons why your site or the products you are going to promote must match your interest. Building your marketing website for the first time would be a lot more fun if you know very well the theme of your site. If you don’t have time to make your own website, you can use templates or purchase readily available websites. The latter, however, is a more expensive option.
Creating an affiliate website on your own would be cheaper and more interesting. In the process of building your website, you may also increase your knowledge in Information Technology and the use of computers, softwares and the Internet. As you educate yourself in these fields, you are increasing your advantage against other affiliate marketers.
It helps a lot, though, if you already know the basics in web page development like programming languages and graphics softwares because you can make your site extra corporate-looking, more convenient to use or easier to navigate. Furthermore, if you are knowledgeable and skillful in this area, you can already concentrate more on the content of the page rather than the design.
The key to draw visitors to your website is to have high quality content; thus, the next thing you must pay attention to in building your marketing website is this. There may be several other factors that contribute to the success of your affiliate marketing site, but a good content tops the list.
This is precisely the reason why users choose to enter your site. They want to get information and so when they don’t find it, they would definitely go elsewhere. Write interesting articles related to your theme as this would make them frequent your site. If you have already looked for affiliate programs that complement your site, add links to the business sites and other very good informative sites.
Links contribute to how well you will be listed in major search engines as well. Also, create pages for the products you are endorsing, but don’t just promote the products by putting hyped-up ads. Keep your readers interested by injecting lots of relevant and useful information. This would make them click the link to the business site and buy the product. Remember that no good content means no frequent visitors, no sales and ultimately, no commission.
Make your site simple yet not without a touch of class in order to make it appear more of a business website rather than a personal website. This would be pleasing to the eyes and more interesting to browse. To help you with the design, you can check some successful online stores to get an idea on how you can make your site look better.
Make sure you don’t place too many banner ads since these could distract some site users; and thus, instead of clicking your ad, they might just leave your site and look for other interesting websites. After all, banner ads are not the only means of advertising your products. Now your website is complete, submit its URL to major search engines to increase your traffic.
Grow from where you started. Learn about use of keywords for search engine optimization and apply them in your content. Update your site regularly or add new webpages. Make sure to inform your prospects about the latest updates in your site. You can use newsletters to accomplish this. The Internet offers a huge source of information about just anything, make use of it. Continue to educate yourself on how to improve your website and soon you’ll find yourself successful in affiliate marketing.
This article’s coverage of the information is as complete as it can be today. But you should always leave open the possibility that future research could uncover new facts.
Discover The Inside Secrets That Affiliate Marketers Use To Double Their Traffic And Triple Their Profits On Autopilot!
Affiliate-Commissions-In-24Hours
You have the right to reprint and use this article on your websites, blogs, and to send out to your list. I only ask that you please leave the links intact and live pointing back to my site with the keyword phrase used.
[Keywords: Affiliate-Commissions, Affiliate Marketers, search engine optimization, banner ads, major search engines, marketing website, Information Technology, affiliate marketing website, page generation tools, Technorati, Technorati Popular Blogs, make money online, make money, online income, home business, home based business ]
August 19th, 2007