Internet Marketing
Internet marketing can be split into the following categories:
- Search engine marketing
- Social networks
- Paid banners, affiliates and comments
1. Search Engine Marketing (SEM)
Search engine marketing includes Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Paid Search, also called PPC (Pay per click) and search engine marketing (SEM), go figure.
1.1 Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Search Engine Optimisation is the reengineering of your website to make it more search engine friendly and relevant enough for search engines to rank it highly in search results that will bring traffic. Although the search engine traffic is free, there is generally a cost to making the changes to your website and as this is a specialised area, it is generally advisible to use consultants. I would ofcourse say this as a consultant myself.
1.2 Paid Search or PPC
Paid search requires bidding on certain keywords and if the bid is sufficient then a text ad appears either above or to the right of the organic search results. Cost per click will depend on the keyword competitiveness and number of clicks. Paid search is easy to set up and get going, but requires specialist skills to do well. Paid search done badly can get very expensive.
2. Social Networks
Social Networking can drive traffic to websites usually via word of mouth but the success is largely dependent on the network, for example, if you have a Facebook page with no friends, there is no one listening…..
2.1 Social Networking websites
Facebook, Myspace etc. Set up a page, invite your friends and communicate online. You need to build a community to be of value and even then, pushing products is a sure way to reduce your community.
2.2 Socal Networking
Twitter, Jaiku, BrightKite etc. Just set up an account and send snippets of information to your followers. If you have no followers this is a problem. You have to add value to earn the right to share. Lots of followers bring losts of traffic.
2.3 Social Media
Youtube, FlickR etc. Share your videos, pictures with the world or just those who care. Getting them to rank or show for certain keywords can drive some traffic and branding.
3. Paid Banners and Comments
Get a popular website to put your banner on their page and you may get a click here or there but some branding will occur. Similar to a newspaper I guess. Getting an article or blog to write or link to your site can also provide valuable clicks and in certain cases some Page Rank value.
Banners are usually served through ad networks, requiring some code in a iframe on your website and are then rotated as appropriate. The cost and quality of the ad network is directly dependent on the websites it serves ads to, as they will attract the eyeballs.
As a publisher you need substantial traffic to quality for an ad network. Depending on the network this may start at 5,000 uniques per week upward. The CPM or fee paid per impression is usually low, so volume is key.
4. Affiliate Marketing
Set up an affiliate program with one of the more reputable affiliate networks. As a website seeking traffic you can elect to pay per lead, pay a commission on the percentage of a sale or pay a fee per click. As a publisher you can place these banners or ads on your site and receive income when someone follows them. Very valid for smaller websites seeking traffic, one needs to watch the quality of the affiliate websites as you are very often judged by the company you keep.
