Marketing Online: A Primer for Newbies : shopping online

Marketing Online: A Primer for Newbies
by John Stevenson

Marketing online can be tough for those with years of experience, let alone those just starting out. The concepts behind Internet marketing range from simple to extremely complex, but the most important aspect is usually the one that is hardest to grasp for the beginner. What is it? The need to figure out what works in the least amount of time. Most beginners can come up with a bunch of ideas on how to market on the internet. Where they struggle is determining which method is effective. Now that we know the challenge, I will attempt to outline some of the more effective techniques which can help a business owner to begin his own Internet marketing venture.
Creating a Website One of the most important steps for starting an Internet marketing campaign is to create an effective website. It is important to put your best foot forward. If you don't have a top notch website you don't stand much of a chance competing on the internet. I'm not saying that you can't develop it yourself or that you need to spend thousand of dollars. If you do not have experience in web design, there are quite a few software packages which make it easy for those with no web design experience to develop a top notch website. However, I strongly recommend hiring a web designer to design your website. The time you will spend to learn the software and develop an effective website will be better used on other aspects of your business. Click Here to view my website. There is no way I would have ever been able to develop a site like that on my own. Remember, you want to focus on marketing...not web design. This is just one of many tasks that you as a business owner can outsource.
Newsletters Sending out e-newsletters can also be a part of an effective Internet marketing strategy. E-newsletters are essentially emails which may contain informative articles, useful quizzes, relevant advertising or any other information that would be useful to your target reader. The importance of these newsletters is that they can be used as an effective tool which is not viewed by the recipients as an advertisement. One way to do this is to incorporate links to your website or other soft sale approaches like a sprinkle of reference to your business into the copy of the e-newsletters. However, keep the links and references at a minimum so your newsletter doesn't look like an advertisement.
Pay Per Click Ads The number PPC ads on the internet has skyrocketed in recent years. This can be an effective way to market if you know what you are doing. There are two main aspects to consider: traffic and cost. You want to make sure that you maximize your traffic at the lowest possible cost. But, be careful. You are looking for targeted traffic. If you sell dog collars it will do you no good to pay for a visitor looking for an acne cure. The lowest cost is not always the best option here. Spend some time and do some keyword research before you jump in.
Video One very effective but under utilized method to advertise on the internet is with videos. Youtube has become hugely popular and many marketers are beginning to realize the profit potential from sites like this. A highly effective strategy is to create a video that is clever, humorous or generally entertaining and post it to Youtube. Try not to make it appear as a blatant advertisement. Just include a simple reference to your company or website. If it is a popular video, you could have thousand of visitors to your site. The best part about this is that it is free to post videos to Youtube. Another use of video is to incorporate it directly on your webpage. This allows you to not only highlight some of the key aspects of your product but tends to keep viewers on your page for a longer time. Click Here to see an effective use of video incorporated on one of my sites.
SEO Finally, optimizing your website for search engines is a critical aspect of an Internet marketing campaign. Hundreds of books have been written on this topic so consider this just a brief introduction. Search engines rank websites according to the quality and relevance of information on the page for particular search terms. Many Internet users value search engines to find the best websites on a particular subject. This means the Internet users are more likely to visit websites which rank high with search engines. Therefore if your website is not high ranking, you are missing out on traffic that your competitors are getting. Top ranking websites are likely to obtain the most traffic from search engines and all websites falling on the first page of the search engine results will typically enjoy moderate to high traffic flow. For more information for beginners on how to make money on the internet please visit The New Cash Cow.