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It is an interesting ordeal, online marketing. There really are not too many sources of information on the topic; viable resources anyway. Almost everything you see is published by a marketing company or the partner of the company, and it somehow touts their products as being the best. All with a cost involved. — For $99 we will stream 10,000 targeted visitors to your site a month… right, let me get my wallet out.. –

But somehow companies are pulling it off day in and day out.

When we sit down to examine the options of online marketing, they are pretty straightforward. Also, please excuse me if I start talking like a publisher, or someone who puts ads on a site to make money. I have to wear both hats pretty often and the fine line between the two skills can get muffled..

To yield the highest results, you basically have these choices:

• Websites
• Text Links Ads
• Banner Ads
• Keyword Targeted Ads (Adwords)
• Email marketing
• Press Releases
• Viral Marketing (This is the big one)

Each of these areas will allow you to advertise your business, but some are clearly better than others. I want to take a second to define some implications of each area from what I see on the internet today. I also want to throw my two cents in on how it will be changing. (A hint: it is the last part of the above list. And for all you bloggers, that means you!)

Website

Obviously, a company needs to have a website. It doesn’t matter whether they have things to sell online or not, but in my opinion, everything needs a web presence. It is growing more and more that way as we proceed. In fact, the other day my brother had an out of town football game, and I checked the Internet to see what their opponents record was, where they were located, etc. I found nothing.

Banner Ads

Banner ads used to be terribly effective. If you wanted to get your message out there, find the ugliest colors on the planet, figure out how to mix them together, and make them dance. The new thing is the whole “interactive media” form of banner advertisement. Sometimes if done right, this may be entertaining and effective. For example, in one of my rare visits to Myspace, I saw a rocket fly from one banner into another. It was really cool. I couldn’t tell you the product it was advertising, but it was cool nonetheless.

Keyword Targeted Ads

Targeted ads are still the trend. They are the easiest way to set up online marketing, possibly the cheapest (although I have had my far share of high bills with some of my online ventures), and typically the most effective. If you are interested in following this cause of action, do your research. Go to Yahoo’s keyword search tool and make sure that the keywords you are inputing into the ad are actually words that people search. If not, its wasted money.

The biggest mistake of online advertisers when they utilize this tool, they do not have an optimized page that lets the viewer see what they clicked the ad for. For every ad you place, you should dedicate a page on your site that the viewer will be forwarded to showing only the most relevant information. If you don’t do that, it is wasted money because the person will click right out and continue searching.

Email Marketing

This is not a tactic that I have ever used. You see all those get rich quick scams and somehow email marketing is usually involved. I do know that it drives me crazy to see things I didn’t request in my inbox. I can understand if you have an opt-in list that you can send newsletters or whatever to, but anything other than that is not good business practice.

Press Releases

Press releases are very useful in terms of getting the word out there. There are a ton of online press release companies that you can use, some of them are free, some of them are not. The better ones charge you for it, but your traffic may get a nice spike. It is what you do with it that makes the difference. Once again, it comes down to optimizing your site to make the best of the traffic.

Viral Marketing

For all you bloggers and forum owners, this may lead to a source of revenue for you in the near future!

I am going to sum up viral marketing as not just word of mouth marketing, but any marketing done online where users are involved. Viral marketing is taking the stage to come back bigger and better than it ever has been. Think Youtube, Myspace, Facebook, etc. Those companies started by viral marketing. It no longer takes sponsoring the high schoolers in California with new t shirts and sneakers to get your brand going. It is getting a popular blogger to talk about your company, getting a clip on YouTube with a hot model saying something about your product, and so on. That is what has started driving the traffic on the web.

I plan on doing more research in this area and will post my findings in a few follow up articles as well. I think it is definitely something to be concerned about for anyone doing what we do!

It is not so much about banners and text links anymore. It is the power of opinion and influence that will make your online company grow. Truly, the viral medium will continue to flourish for quite a while. I guess that is one of the many powers of this new internet, Web 2.0.

tags: marketing, business, startups, advertising, ads, business building, technology, internet, blogging, bloggers