Paid Advertising Options

In previous articles we looked at how improving search engine rankings can provide sustained benefits for any on-line business. However, the results from undertaking search engine optimisation can take some time before they become apparent. There are various other advertising options available to businesses looking to achieve more immediate results. While not all of these would be suitable for every specific business, marketers are increasingly looking at including some of these options as part of an overall marketing strategy.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising
This has become one of the main components for most internet-based businesses. As the name implies, a fee is paid for every time someone clicks on your ad/link. There are numerous search engines that operate under this model with Overture being the largest and most well known. Businesses effectively bid against each other to achieve higher rankings for the various keywords. This can also extend to paying for sponsorship or advertising space on search engines results pages for certain keywords (e.g. Google Adwords).

Paid Inclusion
Some search engines offer a paid inclusion service where website owners can pay a fee and in return receive a guarantee that their site will be placed in the relevant search results within a certain time period. Note that this doesn't provide a guarantee of any ranking preference, only guaranteed inclusion into the results. This model has lost favour with most of the larger search engines/directories with Yahoo the main operator still offering this service.

Web Traffic
Web traffic encompasses several different methods that produce potential visitors to view your site or advertisement. These methods include pop-ups, pop-unders, fly-ins, redirected visitors, and expired domain traffic. This is a relatively low cost option that can potentially produce good and immediate results for certain business types.

Affiliate Programs
Many businesses have developed affiliate programs to sell their products or services. This basically involves offering a fee or commission to someone else that sells or promotes the product or service for you.

Newsletters and E-zines
Advertising in newsletters or e-zines (electronic magazines) is one of the most effective marketing options for many on-line business types. Obviously the relevancy of the publication will affect potential rates of return.

Banner Ads
Banner ads are normally small graphic-based ads that could be displayed on various sites or pages. Once the basis of many advertising campaigns, banner ads have gradually lost favour due to perception regarding their lack of effectiveness. They still can be effective though for many business types depending on the relevancy and demographics of the site that they are displayed on.

Email Marketing
Marketing through email has become very popular over recent years. It’s effectiveness has been reduced somewhat by the large amount of spam received by most web surfers. However, email marketing through legitimate sources, such as opt-in marketing sites, can still provide excellent exposure and sales potential.

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