Marketing Tips

If you go looking, you will find a lot about online advertising and all kinds of wonderful ways to get traffic to your web sites. The reality is that most of this is baloney - and the rest is hype!

We have been marketing on the web for over 10 years.

Here’s what works:

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

This is the science of getting the major search engines to rank your site in the top 10 (or so) results when someone searches for a keyword related to your topic. So when someone types “small business logos” (for example) into a Google search box, you want your site to be right up there in the top 10. If it is not, it is invisible. That’s harsh, I know, but that is how the Internet works.

This topic is far too complex to get into here. Instead, check out the following resources to help you get started:

http://www.bruceclay.com
http://www.searchengineguide.com
http://www.searchenginedictionary.com

2. Contextual Advertising

This is about paying for ads only when those ads are shown to people who are likely to be interested in what you are selling. Makes sense doesn’t it. You don’t want to be paying for ads that have no chance of producing sales.

The two big players in contextual advertising are:

Google AdWords
http://adwords.google.com/
Yahoo Search Marketing
http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/

There are many others, but these are the two worth your time.

For a bigger list of “pay per click” search engines and to learn more about getting the most out of contextual advertising, check out this very comprehensive web site:

http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com/