Doing something innovative and creative online, as well as using the latest technology, will always getattention.  For example, adding animation, flash, or a photo can create a buzz about the product or service that you’re selling.  Just as e-mail, which contains jokes and strange pictures, gets forwarded all around the planet so too can your marketing message make the rounds.  Come up with a marketing message and then forward it to family, friends, and anyone else you know.

Any time that you can get someone else to forward your e-mail to others you get the information out there about your website and the product or service you’re selling.  One key to great internet marketing is remembering that quality, not quantity, counts.  Avoid buying e-mail lists and focus instead on building your own with people who are actually interested in what you’re selling.  Today internet marketing isn’t about how many people you get to your website or how many people are on your e-mail list.  Today internet marketing is all about how people react to your website and what it is that you’re selling.

Personalizing Your Website

Even if you’re not selling a product or service that is for a specific target audience you need to have a website that is personalized.  For example, even though Amazon sells products that appeal to all target audiences they have still managed to create a personalized website that fits every customer.  This is the goal of personalization technology.

Try to limit the number of products or services that you’re offering to your customers.  “Information overload” is one of the biggest problems on the Internet.  If you give your customers too many choices they’ll have a hard time making a decision.  The key to avoiding information overload is organization as well as making sure that products and services are directed towards your customers.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that internet marketing stop when you generate a sale. Your current customers are the ideal way for you to reach new customers.  You want to get leads from your customers by using marketing concepts such as “tell a friend” e-mails.

One mistake that many small online businesses make is to focus only on self-promotion.  The bottom line is that customers don’t care about you.  They only care about what it is that you’re selling and what you can do for them.  When someone visits your website you have about ten seconds to get their attention before they move on to the next website.  That means that you have ten seconds to tell this person why it is that they need you.  The home page of your website should tell people why your service or product is just right for them.  Your home page should include information about your company and/or have a personal bio about who you are.

If you’re not sure about whether your website is reaching the right people, ask them.  If you provide something of value to people who visit your website they’ll give you information.  Things of value include contests, coupons, and free products.  Make sure that you let them know they can trust you by including a privacy policy on your website that states you won’t share any personal information they provide with anyone else.  Stick to your policy and never sell the information your customers provide you with.  Otherwise you’ll lose and abuse their trust.

Once you know the demographics of your customers you’ll know how to spend your marketing budget.  You can focus your online promotions using targeted marketing strategy.  Even though you may end up with fewer people visiting your website, targeted internet marketing is the way to go.

Come back for part 3 of the 10 part series on target traffic generation.

General Marketing Methods

One of the best ways to get leads on the Internet is by getting a product mention or a free link on another website.  Effective internet marketing is all about putting your product or service in front of potential customers at the exact time that they are looking for it.  This technique is known as “pinpoint marketing”.
Pinpoint marketing is much different than advertising on radio or television, which are known as “interruptive marketing” techniques.  Interruptive marketing costs a lot more than pinpoint marketing and is less effective for the simple reason that you’re attempting to put your product out there in front of everybody instead of pinpointing those potential customers who want to find out more about you and your business.

Pinpoint Marketing: Pinpoint marketing is the process of sending the right message at the right time so that it produces actual results.  For example, if you’re at a ball game and are eating a bag of popcorn. Just when you take a handful of popcorn the Coca-Cola logo appears on the big screen.  The next you thing you know you’re looking for the first vendor who can sell you a can of Coke.  However, if an advertisement for a new car appears on the big screen while you’re watching the game and eating popcorn, you’re less likely to be interested since it’s not something you’re looking for at that moment.  Interruptive marketing isn’t really targeted because it’s not something that you are actively looking for.  People who use the Internet are usually looking for a solution to a problem.  When you put your product in front of them at the right time you’ve reached a potential customer.

Day-part Marketing: The placement and timing of ads on the Internet has become so important to internet marketing that some companies, such as Yahoo!, are selling advertisements in “day-part”.  Day-part is something that has always been done in television advertising.  Day-part marketing works like this – specifying at which time of the day certain ads are viewed so that you can effectively target your customers.

Embedded Marketing Messages: These days, more people than ever are using the Internet to research a product before they buy.  As well, most Internet users are becoming more serious about the amount of time that they spend online.  Studies show that users are spending less time on the web and that the time they do spend surfing is focused and deliberate.  Many users bookmark their favorite websites so that they can access information fast and easily.  When people want a solution to a certain problem, such as a health issue or taking a vacation, they often look online for the answers.  This is why it’s important for you to put your product or service right in front of them whenever you can.

Come back for part 2 of the 10 part series on target traffic generation.

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The idea behind Text Link Ads is to provide a marketplace for website owners to increase web site traffic by linking with other websites. Consequently, this linking strategy helps them increase their search engine rankings. The website also provides blog owners and webmasters, an opportunity to place ads of different websites on their web pages, to get a consistent fixed monthly income.

Why Text Links?

Text Link Ads, as the name suggests, exclusively deals with linking different websites by placing static text. Why? Because, major search engines such as Google give high value, in search engine rankings, to the websites which have quality links from related websites. Therefore, if you want a high search engine ranking, text linking with other websites is a successful strategy which not only gets you noticed by the search engines but also attracts traffic from the links imbedded in those websites.

The Advantages of Text Links

Advertisers, who want to place a text link on another website, should know that search engines put a great deal of emphasis, on a link that is placed on a website relevant to your content. For example, if you have a hotel booking website, it is a good idea to place text link on a hospitality related website.

Also, if your text links resides in a web page of Yahoo, it is likely to be more valuable then if it is linking to a lowly ranked website. Simply put, the higher the traffic of the website that you are linking to, the better an image with search engines. In fact these are not the only criteria. This doesn’t mean that a link with a low tired website will not be noticed by the search engines. If it is a relevant link, it will eventually boost your search engine rankings.

What is in it for you?

Don’t worry about the dynamics of search engine rankings, traffic and the text links. Just remember, your job is to place a relevant high quality link with other websites that match your content. If you do so, the traffic and search engine ranking will continue to soar, overtimes. And, this is precisely where Text-Link-Ads comes in….

Text-Link-Ads

It provides advertisers, just like you, to pick from hundreds of publishers who are willing to put your text link on their websites. Advertisers get a free account and an online dashboard where they can search hundreds of offerings from publishers. You as an advertiser are able to view multiple profiles of a publisher which includes the publishers page rank, Alexa rankings and price, among others. For publishers, the web site provides a great opportunity to earn extra income, at no cost to them. Just one sign up can be enough to take care of the domain, maintenance and networking fee.

Text Link Ads has three different programs to choose from. The graphical display on the main page is handy enough to give a potential advertiser an overview of the entire text linking scheme. It doesn’t hurt to join. It’s free. Once signed, you know that you will be dealing with a reputable company that has pioneered the mechanics of text linking. For a very limited time, Text Link Ads is giving away $100 of free ads for purchasing at least $125 worth of text links. Think about it! It is almost 60% discount on your first purchase. You can’t beat that!

What do you think? Have you used them?