An
unbiased commentary on
Internet Promotion Methods
Over the years we have examined the various methods of web site promotion and have come to certain conclusions. The following is our analysis of the various types of internet advertising.
Pay per Click Search Engines
Highly Recommended
Pay per Click search engine advertising is
currently in the embryonic stages and offers tremendous
opportunities for the entrepreneur!
Here's how it works:
You need to determine the search words that a potential client or
customer is likely to use when searching the Internet for your
product or service. Once those search words are determined you
register them with the Pay per Click search engine. You then place a
bid on each search word or phrase. The bid is designed to buy a
position on the Pay per Click search engine and their affiliates.
Under this method you can choose to be at the very top of the search
engine for the search words and phrases of your choice.
How long does it take:
Dependent upon the search engine your ad can be online anywhere from
five or ten minutes to five or six days after it's placed.
The bottom line:
Pay per Click search engines not only provide a tremendous
advertising vehicle, but also a market research tool to make an
early determination of the degree of success of both your Web Site
and product or service
(Learn More).
Organic
Search Engine Submissions
(highly recommended)
For the best bang for the buck we do recommend search engine submissions. About 90 percent of all sales are made as a result of the use of the searching facilities of the various search engines. When your potential client or customer arrives at your web site through the use of the search engine, it is because he or she performed the search with that search engine by using certain search words that related to your web site. In other words they used targeted search words. An example of this would be as follows. Henry Smith owns a drugstore in "Small Town Tennessee", he creates a web site advertising his drugstore. Peter Doe, surfing the Internet is looking for a drugstore in "Small Town Tennessee". He enlists the aid of the Yahoo search engine and does a search using the words "drugstore small town Tennessee". The likelihood is that the web site of Henry Smith will appear early in the list for results of that search.
Top of Page
For those who have a family web site or hobby web site, free search engine submissions may well be appropriate. But all of the free search engine web site submissions that we have seen are unlikely to produce much more than a listing of a web site on a particular search engine. In other words, expect to spend a considerable period of time effectuating your listing and also don't expect to be ranked within the first three pages of any of the search engines to which you submit.
Top of Page
"Pay per Click" submissions are the panacea for determining
the success or failure of your web site for a reasonable investment
of time and money.
Through the use of "Pay per Click"
search engines, your .web site can be spread over the Internet
in short order (1-5 days). Your search words can be as
targeted as you like and you can rest assured that the people who
visited your web site got there because they were interested in your
product or service.
Within a short period of time you will know
whether you have a winner or loser. You will also know what
the best form of Internet advertising there is for your product or
service.
A word of caution. "Pay per Click"
search engines charge for each visitor that arrives at you website
from their search engine. It would serve you well to hire a
professional to select the correct "Pay per Click" search
engine for your web site and constantly monitor the prices per click
and your position on the Internet.
Submissions to Enough Engines
Submissions should be made to as many engines as practical. While the number of search engines is somewhat limited there are many other engines which will provide links to your web site. Part of the ranking determination made by the search engines is based upon the number of links to a web site. Therefore it is important, at the time of submission, to also submit to potential link sites, other than search engines, so that links can be secured even though they might be only temporary links).
Top of Page
Keyword Optimization
Determining targeted keywords or phrases based upon the frequency of use (by surfers) on the search engines relative to the number of competitors using that keyword or phrase.
Allowing up to 20 Keywords or Phrases per Page
20 or 21 keywords or phrases per page is a good limit on the number of keywords to use for most search engines to avoid penalties for over use of keywords or phrases.
Top of Page
Customization of Categories for DMOZ
DMOZ require special categories for the various web sites. The category should be highly targeted and reflect the true content of the web site. While this is time-consuming, it pays.
Meta Tag Optimization
Meta tags are extremely helpful for many of the search engines. Some of the most important parts of the meta tags are the Keywords, Description and Title.
Personal Contact
We have observed that many of the web site submission companies do not provide for telephone numbers or personal communication. They frequently want your telephone number so they can call you but do not provide you with their telephone number. We believe that personal contact with the clients is a must. The company must be constantly available for customer support.
Top of Page
Doorway Pages
Doorway pages are a necessity to effectively boost the number of visitors to a website. In the creation of the doorway page, the meta tags need to be optimized. The keywords need to be optimized and targeted as above stated. The doorway page may be designed either for individual or multiple keywords dependent upon practical considerations of the client's product and goals.
Customized Submissions
Many web site submission services seem to provide either specific plans or One General Plan. We believe that specific plans should be provided as well as a custom plan. The custom plan should consist of an agenda that meets the clients needs, from both a budgetary and promotional standpoint.
Secured SSL Order Forms
We all want to protect our credit cards from credit card fraud. A secure order form is a must.
Top of Page
The Internet is so replete with banners that most users of the Internet have learned to tune them out completely. Therefore the price of banner advertising has been lowered accordingly. We periodically try minimal amounts of banner advertising for some of our clients and have found that the response is so low that, for all practical purposes, the money spent was money thrown into a bottomless pit. Our contact with banner advertising has recently been limited to highly targeted banners. We have found that even highly targeted banners did not bring the desired class of people to the web site. Therefore, we do not recommend banner advertising to our clients.
Top of Page
Bulk E-mail
(unacceptable not recommended):
Bulk e-mail has the potential of bringing many visitors to your web site. However, anyone who does bulk e-mail seriously risks the loss of their domain host or Internet service provider. The reason for this is simple. The recipients of bulk e-mail fall into two classes. They are either recipients who are being spammed because they have not requested or given permission to the sender of the e-mail, or they are within the class of "opt--in" recipients. One can expect to be flamed (receive nasty or threatening e-mail from recipients) by either class. Those who have not requested or given permission to the sender of the e-mail are clearly being spammed and will respond accordingly. Those "opt in" recipient's, while not being spammed, have frequently forgotten that they ever gave permission to anyone to send them e-mail. How many times have you received e-mail that contained a link, you clicked on the link and found that the web site was no longer available. Clearly that web site was removed by either the Internet service provider or the web host.
Top of Page
Home Page
