|
How to advertise websites. Methods of internet advertising and promotion. Here are some advertising methods that you may have considered to promote websites.
>General guide All information on these pages are for guidance only.
Latest information:- http://www.acomputerportal.com/advertising_methods.html
Notes: Google state that they are Searching 8,058,044,651 web pages and receives more than 200 million search queries a day, more than half of which come from outside the United States. Peak traffic hours to Google.com are between 6 a.m. and noon PST, when more than 2,000 search queries are answered a second. So you could estimate the odds of any site being found. These odds depend on your site content and the Keywords/Phrases people searching on at any particular time. Other search engines have different numbers of websites and people using that search engine. Some Search Engines feed their results into other Search Engines.
Notes: On most Search Engines Paid for listings distort these odds and the chances of sites being found. Therefore; a good listing of any website does not indicate a link to a good website.
Notes: Search engines sometimes change the rules about which websites they list and how they are listed. Different search engines may use different methodologies for listing websites, one method may work well with one engine but not so well with another. Even Paid listing rules have been known to change with very little warning. Think about your audience; that is who you need to view your website. Some search engine may make a charge to list your site in other countries, this may sound good but is your site in that countries language, are you able to accept payment from there and can you deliver, (if so are there extra charges or laws to consider).
Ask yourself why pay for traffic from abroad when you don't plan to make any sales there. Who is your target audience? Younger age group or more mature? Male or Female, Lower economic status or higher. Are you targeting a particular profession? Ask yourself who you think is going to be more likely to subscribe to your e-zine, download your trial software, purchase your product...? Someone who has read a short description of your site and decides to click to your site out of their own curiosity and interest? OR someone who is forced to view your site automatically? The answer must surely be someone who has read a short description of your site and decides to click to your site out of their own curiosity and interest? This is one of the main reasons that some of the advertising methods below are not recommended.
Hosted by a free service. These may receive a lower rank than websites which have there own URL, website name. Some search engines may use the URL to help find that website and a good website name would be easier for people to remember. For example the URL name for "Compare Bargains" (http://www.comparebargains.com ) is about comparing bargains, discounts and finding the best prices. The URL name in this case gives the user and some search engines an idea of the content of the website before the user even accesses the website.
Sites under construction. Just a blank page is not recommended but most sites are changing, adding more links improving information all the time. Some search engines improve ranking to websites which improve their content. Also users are more likely to use the website again, (returning visitors), or recommend the site to friends if the site provides useful information and content.
Remember they are two basic ways to view search engines:-
As a user looking to find information that is relevant to their search quick and easy.
As a website promoter, also looking for the above, but also looking for a good return on any investment.
Advice: Don't expect instant results. Possibly offer discounts for people who have used the website so that you are able to gauge the success of any campaign. Internet users are hoping for some form of saving and a discount would help encourage them in making a purchase. Use the Internet to advertise. Your competition is using the internet to improve their Brand Image so you need to do likewise. Do some Market Research before paying for larger amounts of advertising. Check your Traffic log files to find out if the method you chose is providing the levels of unique visitors and returning customers you expect to obtain. Give a method time to generate Traffic. Submission Tips; submit to FFA sites re-submit at least every day. Once a week for Classified Ad sites and Message Boards and submit to Search Engines once a month.
Traffic
Traffic; this is the term given to the number of times your website is accessed. Targeted Traffic; When a person searches on a Keyword they find your site listing if your site relates to that Keyword. For example using Excite to search on Compare Bargains will list our site relating to compare bargains. Site relating to totally different products should not be displayed. This has a number of advantages:-The user finds the item they are looking for quicker and easier. The user is more likely to click on that link because they have found a related product to there search.
Targeted Traffic may also apply to e-zines or emails. The e-zines or email, (generally not recommended), is only sent to opt-in users who are known to have an interest in the e-zines or emails product or service. Also Pop-ups, banners and other methods listed could be Targeted, only displayed when the user is searching a site for that type of product or service. Some Traffic measurement methods may state the number of Hits you may expect. Hits may mean the number of times the server accesses an each individual item on your page. Example, say a website page has 10 separate graphics on it, each visitor to that page will account for 10 hits. So if you were you are lead to believe that you are getting 1,000 Hits per day this actually equates to just 100 visitors. You need to know the number of unique visitors and returning customers.
Traffic is not Sales. Visitors may view your site, (a visit you may have to pay for), but may not make a purchase. They may wish to visit your site a number of times before buying. This is something you may need to consider before advertising.
Advise: Do some Market Research before paying for larger amounts of advertising. Check your Traffic log files, see Traffic Statistic, to find out if the method you chose is providing the levels of unique visitors and returning customers you expect to obtain. Give a method time to generate Traffic.
Traffic Statistic, Measuring how many visitors. A single user can generate many requests by viewing lots of different pages or images, or by viewing the same page many times. The total number of files downloaded, including graphics. Each image may be counted as a request or a Hit. You can't find out the true number of visitors or visits you've had. Some statistics report Unique Visitors but they may not be able to do it accurately. Referrers are those URLs that have lead to your site, that is where the Traffic has come from. The vast majority of Referrer requests are made from your own URLs, since most HTML pages contain links to other objects such as graphics files. If one of your HTML pages contains links to 10 graphic images, then each request for that page may produce 10 more hits with the Referrer specified as the URL of your own HTML page. Care should be taken when using any form of measurement. Many users can appear to come from a single site, and they can also appear to come from many IP addresses so it should be used simply as an approximate number of visitors to your site.
Distinct Hosts may be a better measure. This is the number of Computers that connected with your website and includes dial-up POP servers. An ISP may have a number of users connecting to each of its local POP's, and this may result in Unique Visitors being a much bigger number than Distinct Hosts.
Cache, (a temporary memory store, local or remote, used to store commonly used data), may be local or sever biased and this may store pages or images, or even just a few of the images on any particular web page. This could mean that a page with 10 images may not need to make a request that number of times, at a later time all the images may need to be requested because the Cache memory has been cleared.
Robots, (automatic programs), from search engines may visit your site and this could trigger a number of Hits. These are not people and are not going to buy anything from your site. (Not selling anything? Sure you are even if it's just your words, ideas or thoughts) .
Advice: Don't rely on Traffic Statistic results too much. Only use as an approximate measurement of visits to your site. A better way to gauge Visitors may be to use Pay per Performance and check your sales levels. Read Why web usage statistics are (worse than) meaningless
Cookies
These are small text files which are saved to the users own computer hard drive. The Cookie may be used to help understand the users preferences while using a website. This information could therefore be used at a later time to provide that user with a more content relevant site based on that users past interest.
Advice: Only use Cookies if they are able to provide the user with real benefits. Some users have a fear about their privacy when Cookies are used and may avoid sites which use them. Some very well known sites use Cookies e.g. Google, etc. Cookies may improve generally your experience and help you find more relevant products to the users search using method such as Organic Search.
Many sites are still contravening the Anti-Spam and Privacy Laws which came into effect in December 2003. Officially titled The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, these new laws aim to protect customers privacy and control spam. Briefly the directive covering Cookies is:- The introduction of controls on the use of cookies on websites. Cookies and similar tracking devices are now subject to a new transparency requirement - anyone that employs these kinds of devices must provide information on them and allow subscribers or users to refuse to accept them if they wish.
Take note of the Spyware and Adware issues Organic Search
Highly targeted traffic using a greater level of content analysis than target traffic search and recommendations. Analyse the users searches and matching the content returned, dynamically change the content of the page, to that search.
Advise: Don't use this method to try to promote your website to search engines. Once your site has been found this method should improve click through because the results returned should be more relevant to what the user is interested in. Therefore this method may be worthwhile when used with Affiliate marketing for example.
Keyword & Keyword Phrases
Words and/or phrases that relate to your product or service that people are likely to search for. Keywords are is the name given to the words and phrases that people are searching for. Some Keywords are more popular than others. Generally people are more likely to search on a Keyword phrase than a single Keyword, (Compare bargain may result in different results to Bargains Compared) . Using the correct Keywords could increase the Traffic to your site. More Information and links about Keywords.
Advise: Use Keywords and/or phrases. Do some Market Research. There could be a lot of competition for popular Keywords. To use such popular Keywords could therefore be expensive. Depending on the level of the budget you are able to spend and the levels of Traffic you wish to obtain consider similar but less expensive Keywords. Consider Exchanging Links with sites which use the Keywords you would like to use.
Harvesting There are computer programs which are able to search the internet for websites with email addresses and then send spam emails to these addresses. As with any spam these methods may get you banded by your host.
Advise: Don't use this method to try to promote your website.
Spam Laws United States, European Union, Other countries.
LEGAL: Many sites are still contravening the Anti-Spam and Privacy Laws which came into effect in December 2003. Officially titled The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, these new laws aim to protect customers privacy and control spam. View http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk and http://www.dti.gov.uk for more information. There also the CANSPAM Act.
Spam Laws. Controls on unsolicited direct marketing now include unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE or Spam) and SMS to mobile telephones; The receiver is now required to have agreed to receive the information in advance, except in the context of an existing customer relationship, where companies may continue to email or SMS to market their own similar products on an 'opt-out' basis.
Spam is the term given to junk email. If you have used a use a separate email account to try to reduce the receipt of spam emails but you still get them. This is because spammers are able to guest your email from your website name, or use harvesting to get your email. This could be a sign that your website is being found. Spammers are willing to sell your email to other spammers and so the level of spam you receive may increase. All you can do is try to filter out such spam. Do not request to opt-out as this may be used to show spammers that your email is working. You may see an option to remove your email address from a spam email list. We recommend that you do NOT use this option. Some spammers use this method to demonstrate that the email address used works and is worth posting even more spam, junk mail, to. They may, probably will, sell your email address on to other spammers who will also sent spam to your email. This increases the spam even more.
You may use software, some free, to help filler out spam emails. View links to Freeware, Shareware. Perl, CGI, Java, web masters tools, etc. Small and quick shareware to download. ( http://www.downloads.ukprofessionals.com ) If is also possible to Spam Search Engines by submitting web pages too often, different search engines may have different policies. The average level is about once a month, anymore than this should be avoided. SPAM is anything that misleads the viewer into believing they are going to see something they are not and/or e-mail that is sent using means with the intent of hiding the sender. Spam may also be defined as sending bulk, (many), emails indiscriminately. To Target emails to one or more types of groups e.g. business provider may also be classed as Spam. To say it is Targeted to any one or more particular group is not enough.
Advise: Don't use this method to try to promote your website. There are laws against Spam and heavy fines or prison may be used against those using this method. Don't assume so called opt-in lists are alright to used they may contain incorrect information that could land you in court. Laws against Spam are being increased all the time.
Example.. Microsoft has launched lawsuits against alleged email spammers in the United States and Britain. The defendants are accused of flooding Microsoft's computer systems and its customers with more than two billion unsolicited messages.
LEGAL: Spam Laws United States, European Union, Other countries
Many sites are still contravening the Anti-Spam and Privacy Laws which came into effect in December 2003. Officially titled The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, these new laws aim to protect customers privacy and control spam. View http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk and http://www.dti.gov.uk for more information.
There also the CANSPAM Act. Spam Laws. Controls on unsolicited direct marketing now include unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE or Spam) and SMS to mobile telephones; The receiver is now required to have agreed to receive the information in advance, except in the context of an existing customer relationship, where companies may continue to email or SMS to market their own similar products on an 'opt-out' basis.
Filing of the first major industry lawsuits under 2003's the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM). These are the first major industry lawsuits being filed under the new law. America Online, Earthlink, Microsoft and Yahoo! today jointly announced that their spam-prevention efforts. Here are some of the basic rule you or a service you use should abide by:- No Misleading Headers or Other Masking of Email Origin Email Ads Must be Clearly Identified as Advertisements Email Shall Not Contain a Falsified or Deceptive Subject Line Effective Method of Opt-Out of Future Mailings Opt-Out Requests Must Be Purged Within 10 Business Days No Sale or Transfer of Opted-Out Email Addresses No Sexually Oriented Material in Email Messages No Unlawful Retransmission of Emails Opt-In E-Mail or Safe Lists and other Bulk E-Mail methods (Spam) The email address used to post to have given their permission, opt-in or so called Safe Lists, to receive e-mails. This often occurs when people, or more usually software, submit websites to FFA, free for all, sites to be listed. Most people who give emails either use a dummy e-mail address or when the emails are received they're automatically filtered to the trash bin and therefore never read. These email addresses may also use a system which replies back to you with junk mail, more spam, about their own websites.
Some people have to pay, at least on-line telephone time, to receive these emails. So there has been some discussion to make these methods illegal.
Software programs and other methods set up by many ISPs are able to block Safe List, opt-in emails. This may be done with out informing the emailer so that the emailer is paying for emails that never get delivered. More people are campaigning against spam techniques and more people are willing to report such tactics.
Email Marketing is claimed to be one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to promote your products and services. For the numbers posted too this could be true. The problem is that most emails will probably never be read and will just be deleted. This is just like binning your money.
People change there minds and their interests so even a good quality opt-in list may prove problematic if posted to too often or is if not kept upto date. Advise: Don't use this method to try to promote your website. New anti-Spam legalisation is being introduced and you may find your self facing legal action. A lot of Hosting or ISP companies will remove websites that use these methods. There are laws against Spam and heavy fines or prison may be used against those using this method. Don't assume so called opt-in lists are alright to used they may contain incorrect information that could land you in court. If you are not sure the list you are using is legitimate, here are a few guidelines:1.Do not buy lists from email Spam advertising you received from services that do not have a real working return email address in the senders field. 2. Before purchasing make sure you can call them and talk to a real person. 3. Ask for a list of other Businesses which have used their services and check with them to see how successful the service has been. 4. Go to Spamhaus.org and search their listing of Spam Support Services. WORKING TO PROTECT INTERNET NETWORKS WORLDWIDE Spamhaus tracks the Internet's worst Spammers, known Spam Gangs and Spam Services, provides realtime anti-spam protection for Internet networks, and works with Law Enforcement Agencies to identify and pursue spammers worldwide.5. Fight Spam on the Internet! Reports on Spammers etc... and National Antispam Registry. Spam Laws United States, European Union, Other countries
LEGAL:
Many sites are still contravening the Anti-Spam and Privacy Laws which came into effect in December 2003. Officially titled The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, these new laws aim to protect customers privacy and control spam. View http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk and http://www.dti.gov.uk for more information. There also the CANSPAM Act. Spam Laws. Controls on unsolicited direct marketing now include unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE or Spam) and SMS to mobile telephones; The receiver is now required to have agreed to receive the information in advance, except in the context of an existing customer relationship, where companies may continue to email or SMS to market their own similar products on an 'opt-out' basis.
Ezines
The term Ezines comes from Electronic magazine. Like magazines they should be about a particular subject with good content which is of interest to the user.
There are some quite good ezines which do provide useful information to users.
The problem is that there are also a lot of poor quality ones which are very similar to spam emails and mainly just list a number of websites without any meaningful content. Some systems post these ezines out far too often and as with Opt-In E-Mail, Safe Lists and other Bulk E-Mail methods (Spam) they may never be read because they are automatically deleted.
Ezines tend to email HTML pages which appear like a website in a users email inbox. These ezines can be quite large and users may not like this method if they are paying for telephone time to receive them. Also some email accounts are able to block emails that are over a certain size.
Advice: Worthwhile if a good quality ezine that provides meaningful contents to the reader, which is not too large and which is not sent too often will probably be more effective than other email methods.
Note Opt-In E-Mail or Safe Lists and other Bulk E-Mail methods (Spam) above. Make sure any service has a strict opt-out policy, after all you will waste everyone's time and effort posting to people who don't wish to view your e-zine.
These have some potential however they usually won't generate high levels of traffic and they take a while design and implement. Banners may be more important in the way they may subliminally suggested the message to viewers. The more people see a product the safer they feel about buying that product at a later date. Most banners will be 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high and should be limited in file size for faster display. Depending on the Banner Exchange program banners may be used via your own host or sometimes they may be loaded to the Banner Exchange site host. You may save some Bandwidth if your banner is loaded to the Banner Exchange site host. Also a banner on your own host may register as a Statistic Hit because it is an image that requests loading.
Banners may cause pages to load slower and this may prevent some people viewing the site displaying the banner.
Advice: This could be worthwhile. May not produce be immediate results, or website results, (could encourage off-line sale more) . Add code to your site similar to that in the Text Box above to make it easier for people to link to you. Text link exchange
Some sites are willing to add a text link to you in return for a text link back to them. This should be more effective that banners. This increases the number of places a link to your website may be found by both search engines and people and should help improve your search engine ranking and traffic.
The website you have exchanged links with will probably be trying to generate traffic to their page. This increases the places and chances of your link being found. Text, may sometimes, be modified to fit your site content better.
See what Google's website say about links http://www.google.com/technology/
Advice: This is worthwhile if you are willing to add good links back on your site. Exchanging links can improve your rating with some search engines and improve traffic to your site. Also Generally this option is free. Add code to your site similar to that in the Text Box above to make it easier for people to link to you.
Pop-Ups, Exit or otherwise.
A pop-up is the term given to when an extra window which opens while the user is viewing a website or just after a user leaves a website i.e. exit pop-us. While these may be used to provide important information to a user some websites may use far too many pop-ups resulting in the user having to close many pop-up messages. This usually results in users not reading such pop-up messages and becoming annoyed. Software exists which will help prevent pop-up being displayed. If you pay for pop-up's each one will generate a click to you which you will pay for. Users will hardly ever follow the pop-up to your site because as soon as they see the pop-up loading they will close it. This generates false hits, as the pop-up is loaded and close, false hit which you pay for. As the Pop-Up loads you pay for that click but the visitor just closes the Pop-Up without visiting your main site. It is our view most Internet users just find them totally irritating and annoying. They just close the pop up window without evening reading it. The user is left alienated to the site serving the Pop Up and may never access the site again. What does a Pop-Up or Fly-In Ad Look Like? These can be made to appear as a user loads a page, after a time delay or after a users has closed the page.
Advice: We don't recommend this method. Only use Pop-Ups to provide important information to users. This method may get initial traffic put user off going on sites in the longer term.
For free anti-pop-up tools, (Tool Bars), see Freeware, shareware and software links and software links and software links. Perl, CGI, Java, web masters tools, etc. Computer languages and Programming code. Other website promotion and traffic boosting. More Webmaster tools. Small and quick shareware to download. http://www.downloads.ukprofessionals.com
Fly Ads.
These are a type of Pop-Up, (see above), which moves across the users display.
It is our view most Internet users just find them totally irritating and annoying. They just close the, (Fly Ad), pop up window without evening reading it. The user is left alienated to the site serving the Pop Up and may never access the site again.
We believe Fly ads are even more irritating than normal Pop Ups. These can be made to appear as a user loads a page, after a time delay or after a users has closed the page.
Advice: We don't recommend this method. Only use Pop-Ups to provide important information to users. This method may get initial traffic put user off going on sites in the longer term.
For free anti-pop-up tools, (Tool Bars), see Freeware, shareware and software links and software links and software links. Perl, CGI, Java, web masters tools, etc. Computer languages and Programming code. Other website promotion and traffic boosting. More Webmaster tools. Small and quick shareware to download. http://www.downloads.ukprofessionals.com
Mousetraps.
Website windows that open new windows, (similar to Pop-Ups but often full screen, of full website, pages), or methods which resist being closed. Sites which prevent the user clicking the Back Button, etc...
Advice: Don't use this method. Users will be unlikely to return once the have managed to close the links to the sites opened. Most users will get annoyed by such methods. Windows Messenger Service. Windows Messenger Service is able to send messages to people. This was meant for the Systems Administrator to send alerts to users. For example that the network was closing down for back up of files. Their is software available which claims to be able to use Windows Messenger Service to send messages, (could be used for adverts), to anyone who has Windows Messenger Service. These messenger alerts appear like Pop-Ups on the users display.) Although hyperlinks are not possible, so far as I know.
Advice: We don't recommend this method. Only use Windows Messenger Service to provide important information to users.
Blogger
Blogger allows you to publish to the web instantly. Blogging has grown with web users publishing what are called weblogs, or "blogs." This is a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically. The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly. Blog posts are like instant messages to the web. Many blogs are about what ever the person is thinking at any particular time. Others blogs may be group efforts about a specific subject, a bit like Forums . Some blogs are for play, others for work. See Blogger.com and Blogroots for more information.
Advice: Some users claim good results but we don't recommend this method. Sounds like the frequently updated posts act a bit like FFA pages. Other issues may be more suited to specialized Forums. Some posted issues may be more useful so could be worthwhile. Don't just Spam them with adverts about your site. Free For All, FFA, sites. Submission to. (see below) Free For All sites, of which they are many thousands, allow users to place a description and link to their website for free. These sites list a limited number of links. As newer links are posted older ones are removed. Their are programs which are able to submit descriptions and links to Free For All site. These sites are termed as high traffic because so many links are being posted to them, tens of thousands, by software. Your description and link may only be displayed for only a short time before being rotated off the site as new sites are posted. The main point of these Free For All sites is not to provide a link to you but to email you with advertising when you supply your details. This is counted as Opt-in emails an one method that Opt-In E-Mail or Safe Lists and other Bulk E-Mail methods use to send emails to you.
Free For All sites are sometimes known as reverse advertising because they are not their to advertise you but to advertise there own products or services when they email you. These sites are not usually visited by real people but only by the software which posts details to them. Sometimes real people may view there pages to see if their own site has been listed and could if your timing is lucky see your link. Reverse Marketing is the term giving the FFA pages because these site are not really there to promote your website but to promote the products and service of the FFA website owner when they email you. Your email details may be sold to other services increasing Spam to your email. Sometimes some search engines will find FFA temporary links to your site. This may help increase link popularity to your site. Some FFA sites are better than others.
Some FFA sites don't even display pages, I assume this is because too many submissions are being made for the bandwidth of the site. Some FFA sites require conformation of your email address before they will list your site. Returning emails may be posted as soon as you suggest a site or after sometime after.
Advice: We don't recommend this method. (Sites related to increasing website traffic are probably more likely you produce results) . Although May be used but make sure you use a separate email account which is automatically deletes all emails to it. The Spam emails you get will increase if you submit to FFA sites even if you use a separate email account.
Use a program such as Traffic Seeker ( http://www.zip.ip3.co.uk/ ) which is able to post to lots of FFA pages as well as to the Major Search Engines. Submit to FFA sites re-submit at least every day. You are not likely to receive any significant Traffic using this method of listing your sites. Not many actual people visit them and your link may only be displayed for a few minutes before being rotated off the list. You may get a few visits, if you submit to every day via the scheduler in Traffic Seeker ( http://www.zip.ip3.co.uk/ )
Their are so many FFA sites that Traffic Seeker ( http://www.zip.ip3.co.uk/ )(http://www.zip.ip3.co.uk/ ) is probably the best way to submit to them automatically. You need to set up a junk email account say with Yahoo or Hotmail. Use this when submitting to FFA websites. This will need emptying from time to time, set filters to delete all emails except any you wish to confirm. The amount of Spam you receive, (even to none Junk email addresses), will increase because of techniques such as harvesting emails. Once a day is the normal level of submitting to FFA sites. FFA links don't give much benefits in improving traffic to your website, most FFA links are manly used to email you with you with advertising emails. There main purpose than to collect your email address, which they may sell to other advertisers. They may also place your email on opt-in list or so called safe lists.
Most, not all, search engines don't list FFA sites and the temporary nature of links will probably not help website ranking. See our notes on Spam Reverse Marketing. Free For All, FFA, sites. (see above) Free For All sites are sometimes known as reverse advertising because they are not their to advertise you but to advertise there own products or services when they email you. These sites are not usually visited by real people but only by the software which posts details to them. Sometimes real people may view there pages to see if their own site has been listed and could if your timing is lucky see your link. Reverse Marketing is the term giving the FFA pages because these site are not really there to promote your website but to promote the products and service of the FFA website owner when they email you.
Your email details may be sold to other services increasing Spam to your email. When these are used the submitter may get flooded with confirmation emails most of which they may delete or ignore. Some systems use delayed email sending. This is when the submitter receives the returned email some time later, in the hope that the submitter is already deleted the previous emails and has more time to read these.
Advice: We do not recommend this method. Do not use a FFA sites to send advertising, spam, to users. Some hosts do not allow this and will remove your hosting account if done. You will require a large bandwidth because of the automatic nature of submissions. Most emails will be ignored anyway. Your business will get a poor reputation. See notes; Opt-In E-Mail or Safe Lists and other Bulk E-Mail methods (Spam) . See our notes on Spam Classifieds Sites Some methods may be used to post links to thousands of these Classifieds Sites. Real people do sometime visit these Classifieds Sites. With our Traffic Seeker ( http://www.zip.ip3.co.uk )(http://www.zip.ip3.co.uk/ ) method we still post to these sites because a small number of people still use them. Some of these people may visit your site. As with Free For All, FFA, sites posting to these may generate emails back to you which contain advertising.
Advice: May be useful but not likely to provide a lot of Traffic. Make sure you use a separate email account which is automatically deletes all emails to it. Submit once a week for Classified Ad sites and Message Boards. See our notes on Spam
Web Rings
A piece of code which is added to a site which allows a person to find similar sites which belong to the same Web Ring. People using the Web Ring may find and follow a link to your site. They are Web Rings covering many different subjects and some subjects may have a number of different Web Rings.
Advice: Might result in some Targeted Traffic. Look for Web Rings which allow some level of searching. Submission to Major Search Engines (Yahoo, Goggle, Alta Vista, etc) Search engines continue to be one of the major forces on the internet. Most internet users have of the major search engines. There are thousands of websites competing for the same keywords. To get any large amount of traffic from these sites you may need to be listed in the first or second page. Campaigns to achieve this can be very expensive in time and money.
Please note that it is still worth while to submit to such websites using our methods because even a lower listing should generate some traffic to your site.
Becoming more an more expensive as search engines charges increase. Some of these major search engines are using the Pay per Click system to generate an income and stay in profit. Some may require a payment per year to list you.
Advice: An absolute must if you wish your website to be found. If you are not listed by any search engines then the chances of anyone finding you are very remote. Traffic Seeker ( http://www.zip.ip3.co.uk/ ) is able to submit to all the Major Search Engines. Some search engines may only direct traffic to the language or country relating to the website. It is also possible to Spam Search Engines by submitting web pages too often, different search engines may have different policies. The average level is about once a month, (anymore than this should be avoided), Traffic Seeker ( http://www.zip.ip3.co.uk/ ) will help avoid this. Also view the General guide Submit to Search Engines once a month. It could take some time before your site is listed, (unless you are willing to pay for a listing, over eight weeks is not unusual), be patient. Which pages should you submit? Submit all pages, but wait about five weeks between each submission, your different pages are probably about different subjects so submit to different categories. Use Meta Tags for each individual page.
Submission to Smaller Search Engines Bigger search engines may receive a lager amounts of Traffic but then the may also list more websites reducing the odds of your site being found. Being listed with smaller search engines may also improve your ranking with the larger search engines. Some smaller search engines may be more specialised and more suites the type of traffic you wish to receive. Also larger search engines usually charge more for a good listing.
Advice: Highly recommend. Traffic Seeker ( http://www.zip.ip3.co.uk )is able to submit to the Smaller Search Engines. Some search engines may only direct traffic to the language or country relating to the website. It is also possible to Spam Search Engines by submitting web pages too often, different search engines may have different policies. The average level is about once a month, (anymore than this should be avoided), Traffic Seeker ( http://www.zip.ip3.co.uk/ )will help avoid this. Also view the General guide Submit to Search Engines once a month. It could take some time before your site is listed, (unless you are willing to pay for a listing, over eight weeks is not unusual), be patient. Which pages should you submit? Submit all pages, but wait about five weeks between each submission, your different pages are probably about different subjects so submit to different categories. Use Meta Tags for each individual page. Trusted feeds A Trusted Feed is a method of getting the information from your website directly into search engines such as MSN and Ask Jeeves. A trusted partner will feed information to a Search Engine rather than just a search engines finding that information.
Advice: Recommend if your site is difficult for Search Engines to find, and you are able to feed good quality data which is acceptable. May require quite a lot of care and maintenance to produce acceptable feeds.
Pay per Clicks
Usually a type of search engine which charges an amount for every time a person clicks on your link. You bid on the Keywords that you wish to people to find your product or service under. When a user searches using for these Keywords they will see a listing and brief description of your site. You will only pay if that user decides to click on your description and follow the link to your actual site. Remember that the user has searched on Keywords that relate to your site and seen your description. This indicates that they have least have an interest in your products and service. Different amounts may be bid on different Keywords and large numbers of Keywords may be used, so long as they relate to you product or service. You have a lot of control over how high you wish to be listed for each Keyword. You may start or stop at any time. Requires a non-refundable deposit. You will bid against other users for Keywords so the amount you pay for popular Keywords may be expensive, remember you will pay this every time someone follows your link. Some advertisers may make higher biding to try to discourage competition. Some sites advertise prices as low as 1cent, (US dollars), per click but because of the biding process to be listed higher the realistic charges per click could be much higher e.g. $2.00 to $5.00 per click on popular keywords.
The more you bid the higher your listing. A high bid value could place you in the top positions for the PPC search engine website. Some PPC engines also supply data to and receive Traffic from partner networks. A top positions on partner sites may require a high bid. This could increase Traffic and charges substantially. Remember that the No.1 spot receives about three times to five the amount of traffic as the No.3 spot, and this would result in three to five times the charge.
Advice: Becoming a must do. (Some links to PPC engines) . Even major some search engines, including Google, use some form of this method. We recommend this method because of the level of control, (most PPC engines allow the option to change bidding amounts and Keywords at short notice) . Could result in some Click Fraud. PPC can turn out to be very expensive because other users are bidding so high to also improve brand image. When submitting to pay-per-click search engines, it is important to keep in mind that you pay for every click-through. Therefore it is recommended that keywords, title and description relate to your site and the products or services you sell in order to avoid irrelevant clicks. You may also be charged for Test clicks when you may wish to test the link. PPC engines which receive Traffic from other site will increase the chances of your site being found but you will also be charged for clicks from these other sites. Using Popular Keywords could result in an extra-potential charge because these Popular Keywords generally have higher bids and therefore cost more per click as well as being click on more often, (because they are popular) . Also Popular Keywords are more likely to be listed on the PPC partner sites generating even more clicks and a greater charge. Start with smaller bids on less popular and fewer Keywords.
Affiliate marketing Pay per Performance or Pay per Action
With this method you pay if a customer actually purchases a product or service from you. Usually this is commission based say 5% to 50% of the product or service price. This sound great and we think this method is one of the better ones. The main problem is that it usually requires a large non-refundable deposit and an amount to be paid to the service which implements the service for every time someone follows a banner or link to your site. Takes a lot to implement the tracking code and payment which is reflected in the deposit required. This method can be very effective for people with a lot of products or service which users are likely to purchase. This method is known also as affiliate marketing, pay-for-performance advertising or performance-based advertising. This method is known a affiliated marketing, because of the tracking code used to link to your site this method may not increase your website ranking which could be improved because of links to your site. You are On-line and you wish to find a website about a specific subject, how do you do it? You probably use your favourite search engine and do a search then click on the top three page links that have the best description matching your search. This means that search engine optimisation is important to try to improve your listing and traffic to your site. Search engine optimisation is different for different engines and not every one uses Google to find stuff so different Keywords, etc. may produce different results. Remember that once you have found a site that looks relevant to your search you may follow links, (which are paid for to that site owner) . These links may not be well listed with search engines but because they are found on a number of sites these websites are found by users. This is done via affiliated marketing and not via search engine optimisation.
Advice: Use if you have a high turnover. As it could be very costly. Could result in some Click Fraud. A top quality listing with a number of search engines would probably be very expensive so affiliated marketing could prove more cost effective for those who require higher Traffic levels and are able to generate enough sales to cover the costs. You may also be charged for Test clicks when you may wish to test the link. Also websites which post your link may need to Test click the link to you, you may also be charged for this. You should allow a budget for least six months because of the time it will take to implement the system and for webmasters to find your details and include an affiliated link to you. Webmasters are busy people so they may expect a link to remain and return an income for at least this length of time.
Affiliated agents usually allow you to have a choice of who you want to link to you and should be able to advise you on the expected charges.
Running your own affiliated scheme could prove more costly because of the maintenance, (removing fraudulent sales, etc), may cost your business.
It could be difficult to estimate the level of Traffic, and therefore the costs, from other sites. Make affiliated payment for confirmed sales promptly.
This method generally does not have the same level of control compared to that of Pay Per Click engines.
Off-Line Advertising
People still read newspapers and magazines. They still watch television and listen to the radio. If you use this method it may take a lot of advertising to increase your brand image. Can take time to implement. Don't discount it though because the famous Yahoo search engine has been known to sponsor television programs and advertise at football matches. Some options; Advertising hoardings, billboards, busses (inside and out), pens and other gifts.
Advice: Display your website address at every opportunity; emails, letters (inside and out), on cars or vans, etc. Use paid methods if you have a high turnover. As it could be very costly. Avoid Fly Posters and other dubious methods you could face legal action.
Viral Traffic
Using any method that encourages people to pass details of your website, products and services. This strategy has resulted in exponential growth for some websites, (although this is quite rare) . One person tells 2 people, those 2 tell 4, those 4 tell 16 and so on; growing extremely rapidly.
Claiming to offer payment, or other rewards to people who pass on the information. Sounds like a Pyramid scheme to me. Could involve a lot more work than implied. A few people to join under you because you will earn a % of the traffic they send or others under them send. If you join the programs and then send a few people to join under you, you could easily have a clamed 100,000+ page views of your web page EVERY WEEK or even EVERY DAY the more people you have join under you the better you will do!!
Advice: We cannot recommend this method. May work if you have the time to and ability to convince other to join. It could be very time consuming. Could be only short lived, i.e. a website about a particular major news event. Pyramid scheme could be illegal.
MLM, Multi-Level Marketing
A combination of different marketing techniques. Most of those listed above.
Advice: May be useful if you have a very high turnover and large product range. As it could be very costly and has resulted in some bad press for this reason. Click Fraud This occurs when a website receives invalid clicks on paid listings. This may be done by a competitor or individual who has no intention of using your services. This is done with the sole purpose of costing you money or financial harm. Click Fraud may occur from competing advertisers or simply individuals just wanting to harm or frustrate others. There is some form of monetary predation on all engines. Most advertisers experience some form of click fraud, even if on very low levels. Software may also be used to try to simulate clicks and cost money. Note that some potential customers will may wish to view your site an number of times before making a purchase. Each time they view your site you may be charged for that click.
Advice: Watch your Traffic Logs for signs of fraud for example repeated clicks from on user and no purchases. Most search engines use special programming code to prevent repeated erroneous clinks to prevent Click Fraud. Remember that some Traffic may be because of Test clicking by webmasters who list your site legitimately. Doorway Page Sites A doorway page is a page designed to try to get a high ranking, more optimised for ranking, with search engines. This pages link to the main site.
Advice: Not recommended for main search engine listings, as some search engines are able to spot this methods and block the site. Traffic Seeker ( http://www.zip.ip3.co.uk/ )is able to produce doorway pages for your site. These doorway pages could be useful for listing on FFA, Free For All, sites.
Content Doorway Pages Cross Population Traffic Producer
Click here (http://www.solutions.ukdots.com/content_doorway_pages.htm ) to find out a way round this, a way that is very likely to get you listed.
Advice: Recommended for search engine listings. Will provide links back to your sites. You have control over content etc. Will cost for hosting of new website, website name, maintenance and promotion.
Cloaking
A method of using dynamic software into automatically trying to fool search engines in to believing their are more links, and similar to doorway page more optimised for ranking, than if a person loads the page.
Advice: Not recommended as some search engines are able to spot this methods and block the site.
SpyWare and AdWare
A program sometimes attached to other programs, (or installed without the users knowledge, or where the user is tricked in to accepting something which they are lead to believe will be useful to them) . The program then tracks users keystrokes and information entered to analyse their preferences and/or displays, (usually un-requested), advertisements, or forces links/Pop-Ups to other websites.
Advice: Don't use. Legal issues, more Legal issues and more Legal stuff.Spyware removal tools at Freeware, shareware and software links. Perl, CGI, Java, web masters tools, etc. Computer languages and Programming code. Other website promotion and traffic boosting. More Webmaster tools. Small and quick shareware to download. http://www.downloads.ukprofessionals.com
Meta TagsMeta Tags: These are not displayed to the user. Some search engines may still use these to help find that page.
Advice: Recommended use Meta Tags. Some search engines may still use them. Only ever use relevant Meta Tags that relate to your web page. They should never be abused or over used. Traffic Seeker ( http://www.zip.ip3.co.uk/ )is able to produce, insert and upload the meta tags for your website. Meta Tag use by search engines are used less because of PPC and other paid method. Some search engines don't rely on meta tags much because they don't trust the information in them. Also see robots.txt Don't rely on Meta Tags to stop users form viewing information. robots.txt
Some search engines may look for and analyse its contents of a text file named robots.txt in your main directory. The robots.txt file is may be used to tell search engines which directory's they should not search in. If the search engine is able to find robots.txt it will analyse its contents. Some search engine may have specific codes to prevent that particular search engine from searching a website. Google uses a spider that Google sends out is called 'Googlebot'.
Advice: Recommended use robots.txt. Some search engines may list sites quicker or be able to improve site ranking for sites which use them. Only ever use relevant robots.txt that relate to your web page. They should never be abused or over used. Also see Meta Tag Don't rely on robot.txt to stop users from viewing information.
Pay-to-surf programs
Some website systems may pay users or reward users with Traffic to there site for the user viewing other sites.
Advice: Not recommended. This could be a very time consuming method and would not be expected to return good results. User's may view the each site but they are not very likely to click on any links on the site because they are just waiting for the next site to be displayed so they are able to earn payment or receive traffic in return.
Content Management
Software that allow you and members of your team to make website changes as a team. A website Content Management system allows everyone in a team to make supervised changes to a website. This helps keep content fresh and current.
Advice: May be worthwhile, if you have a lager remote team who need to make changes a website. Changing website content can help keep your site fresh and boost your website ranking. Time consuming need a team who are able and willing to provide new website content. Other already established software may be able to do the job almost as well with a bit of planning.
Competition
Although any competition is only a click away and the levels of that competition is extremely high people who use the internet generally like to use the internet as a form of research before purchasing for this very reason.
Your competition is using the internet to improve their Brand Image so you need to do likewise.
ROI, Return On Investment
If you pay for advertising then you would like to see some ROI, Return On Investment. This is say if you pay $50.00 then you would hope to generate say $25.00 extra profit i.e. a turn over of $75.00.It should be noted that any extra profits may not only occur just from any direct sales on a website. A number of sales may occur because customers contact you directly after they have found out about your products and services via the website.
To establish your website and to become known, increase your Brand Image, you may have to be willing to make a loss on advertising at first, could be used as a Loss Leader.
Banner Advertising are usually priced per thousand impressions with a low click through rate.
Email marketing usually priced per thousand, or even claimed million, with a low click through rate. (May receive a negative reaction) . Pay Per Click may cost $0.05, or more, per click. Only pay for a click, not a sale. Some may have a minimum required click through rate and therefore cost.
Pay per Performance or Pay per Action: Affiliate marketing will probably cost even more than Pay Per Click. This method is likely to get your website linked to, (not just on search engines), to and clicked on from more websites, because you pay commission to that website for a sale.
Advice: Don't expect instant results. Possibly offer discounts for people who have used the website so that you are able to gauge the success of any campaign. Internet users are hoping for some form of saving and a discount would help encourage them in making a purchase. Remember that some advertising is more subliminal e.g. Banners may not get many clicks but the message may be noticed. Traffic is not Sales. Visitors may view your site, (a visit you may have to pay for), but may not make a purchase. They mat wish to visit your site a number of times before buying. This is something you may need to consider before advertising. Do some Market Research before paying for larger amounts of advertising.
Hidden Expenses
Remember there may be other expenses for increased Traffic to your site such as higher bandwidth charges.
An increase in Traffic will probably result in an increase in Spam, Virus and Hacking attacks, (Firewalls, AntiVirus, AntiSpam programs ), this will cost you staff time.
Marketing, advertising, promotion, etc... Telephone charges. Extra maintenance cost, updating the website to keep it fresh, changing prices. Changes in currency exchange rates may have a negative impact. More orders could lead to more returns and the need to handle these. An increase in staffing cost to handle Customer Services and Queries. Cost of people, recruitment and training. Stock and warehouse charging.
Merchant Banking may reduce some charges for higher sale but others could charge more. Charge Backs, Fraudulent or incorrect payments could reduce any profits. (A chargeback occurs when the bank that issued the debit or credit card to a person who bought goods from your business, reverses the transaction, even though it had previously been cleared. A chargeback can happen at any time, sometimes months after the transaction took place, and for a number of reasons. Sometimes the shopper claims that he never received the goods, or that the goods were defective in some way. Sometimes the transaction is reversed because a stolen card number was used to purchase goods.) Click Fraud, false clicks (read above).
Bank Charges, interest on loads, etc. Currency conversation charges.
Tax, customs, export, import charges, etc.
Legal fees, contracts, etc.
Training charges and time to learn, tools, web hosting and ISP expenses, stationary, travel expenses, postage, accommodation, etc.
Posters, leaflets, Gifts, Presents and Corporate Incentives, etc.
Website, documentation to foreign languages, see Translation.
Loss on paid advertising which does not provide a return on investment.
Insurance charges, for Staff, liability and products. Loss leaders. Electricity. Printing costs, ink and toners.
PPC engines which receive Traffic from other site will increase the chances of your site being found but you will also be charged for clicks from these other sites. You may also be charged for Test clicks when you may wish to test the link. Also websites which post your link may need to Test click the link to you, you may also be charged for this.
Business Advice and Support. (http://www.bosslinks.com/ )
Website listings, On-line and off-line advertising.
Firewalls, AntiVirus, AntiSpam programs.
Damaged goods that require replacement.
Useful Links
Compare Bargains Internet Advertising, (http://www.comparebargains.com/internet_web_tools.html ) Website advertising and promotion. Internet Marketing. Internet, Web tools, Traffic, Hosting links. Internet, internet directory, internet provider, internet marketing, internet service, cheap internet, internet service provider, broadband internet, web tool, web master tool, web design tool, web site tool, web site management tool, traffic, web site traffic, increase traffic, hosting, web site hosting, web page hosting, cheap web hosting, unix hosting, ftp hosting, domain hosting, domain hosting, web hosting services, seo, (search engine optimisation) company, internet marketing, web site marketing, web marketing, advertise online. This site has lots of advertising links to sites which indicate special offers, discounts and bargains and therefore allows you to choose from and compare any special deals.
Traffic Seeker (http://www.zip.ip3.co.uk/ )The automatic program. Posts to 800,000 places including all the Major Search Engines like Yahoo, Google, Excite, Hotbot, AltaVista, Lycos, InfoSeek, Directhit, Splat, Northernlight, Whatuseek, Webcrawler, Scrubtheweb, Rex, Overture, Infomak, Searchit, Snooper, Searchcity, Voila, Canada, Anzwers. PLUS lot's of other places >>>> Make Doorway pages. Rank checking and more... Free updates. Program details of how to Automatically achieve this while you sleep... (http://www.zip.ip3.co.uk/ )
Freeware, shareware and software links. Perl, CGI, Java, web masters tools, etc. Computer languages and Programming code. Other website promotion and traffic boosting. More Webmaster tools. Small and quick shareware to download. http://www.downloads.ukprofessionals.com
Business Advice and Support, Grants for businesses, business law, exporting, importing, Paten protection, Government advice, fraud and crime protection. (http://www.bosslinks.com/ )
Gifts, Presents and Corporate Incentives (http://www.comparebargains.com/gifts_presents.html )
Latest information:- http://www.acomputerportal.com/advertising_methods.html
|
|
