Web Advertising & Promotion

Promoting Your Website

Online advertising opportunities abound for enterprising website owners. Some marketing services are free while others are fee-based. If you have a Web site, there is a plethora of marketing companies ready to promote it for you. But there is much you can do yourself to improve sales or attract business with just an e-mail address.

A vital method of creating awareness for your website is to use other sites to direct their audience to your site. Recommendation like this and word-of-mouth work well on the Net.

You can advertise on other popular/relevant sites or request/pay other sites point to yours.

Other sites will point to yours if they believe your site is relevant to theirs (the audiences are complementary) and if you offer reciprocal links. Having other sites list you also improves your listing on the search engines.

Internet advertising isn't cheap, but if done correctly, it's an effective way to promote your product and make your presence felt on the Web. Shop around and try out some of the promotion companies to see which ones generate the most site visits and hence the most income for you or your company.

Affiliate Programmes

Affiliates or associates are partner sites, usually independent operators who have a regularly visited site. They want to share their visitors with you – at a price.

Affiliate programs allow anybody with a web site to apply to promote the product or service of another company in exchange for a commission on any sales. These result from people who follow the affiliate’s links to the site of the merchant.

For companies selling products or services on the Internet, affiliate programs offer a low cost method of increasing brand awareness as well as a more effective alternative to banner advertising. You are able to recruit a commission-only sales force at low cost.

You must beware of some of the undesirable methods of promotion used by affiliates. But this risk is outweighed by the opportunity to increase sales and expand your customer base from having dozens of affiliates selling your product or service.

You can set up your own affiliate programme but it is much easier to use the existing operators. They have the experience, the sophisticated back up and tens of thousands of potential affiliates.

On the other hand, you will have to pay them a commission, typically 30%, to manage the programme for you. Also, you will not gain from the affiliate link in terms of your search engine position, the operator gets that benefit.

The bigger operators include beFree and Commission Junction. Either of these programmes will explain how the process works. 

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Banner Advertising

Advertising on a popular site that attracts your target audience can be very effective. An advertisement is displayed in the form of an advertising banner. A banner displays a message about your company, much like a poster. The banner is clickable so that the browser can access a target site from the advertising banner.

Banners are colourful, sometimes animated, Web page graphics that incorporate a marketing message to attract people to your site. You see them on almost every commercial Web page because they work.

Rates for banner advertising vary and you can usually negotiate a much lower rate than the initial asking price, especially for a one-month trial period. The cost is usually based on a rate per thousand impressions delivered (i.e. you pay for the ad to be "seen").

It is important that the banner is created such that it looks like a gateway to the target site and not just a part of the host site. This can be achieved by explicitly stating "click here..." on the banner. The information on the banner should also clearly state what the product or service is. It is also important to change the banner frequently on the sites you are advertising. This will retain the attention of your target audience.

Typically, the purpose of a Web banner ad, like a direct response ad, is to get people to act - in the Web's case, to click on a banner and go to the advertiser's site. For that reason, Web advertising experts say a strong call to action and a strong message are the most important elements of an effective banner.

Classified Ads

You can list your company's products and services with many online business directories and classified-ad sites, usually for free. Use your banner to post a classified advertisement. The greater your Internet presence, the easier it will be for potential clients and customers to find you.

Several places on the Internet, apart from Search Engines and Directories, will list your advertisement free of charge, But you must track them down and complete an online submission form for each one.

Links to dozens of them are available from Lycos  if you click on "Classifieds" in the Webguides listing. Be warned, however, that taking a free classified ad can result in your receiving dozens of unwanted e-mails.

Website Promotion Services

Website promotion companies are available to list your web site with search engines and classified directories for a not-unreasonable, regular charge. While they charge a fee for their services, they complete all the necessary forms and submit your company information to high-traffic sites.

Alternatively a number of programmes are available to do the job for you on a semi-automated basis.