Not two weeks ago I had a chat with someone (an SEO) about some online media buying and although the figures made an infinite amount of sense (6 figure monthly page views – prime location banner purchase for less than £90 per month!), he said, “but there is no SEO value from the banner link” (it was JavaScript)! Astonished, I spent the next hour arguing the case for buying the coverage, but it would seem that the majority of SEOs just don’t see the value of applying traditional marketing techniques to the web – they just don’t “fit” into the SEO mindset.

What is really bizarre though is that while the optimisation industry doesn’t see the value in some less search engine focused marketing techniques, they will pay a veritable fortune for paid links. The likes of ReviewMe (www.reviewme.com) change up to $250 for a single “review” (which is SEO speak for a plain text link not so subtly hidden in a purpose written article). One text link. One! Not just that, but a single text link on a new page that has no PR (and will maybe only will ever receive minimal PR filtered through from other page links)!

For that $250 (around £150) there are so many different options you could aim for. While a lot won’t have any direct SEO benefit, we still need to consider traffic and branding benefits.

$250 would allow me to buy banner advertising on a niche site / forum / blog for a limited amount of time. Depending on the type of site and its subject area you could be looking at a decent amount of traffic, enquiries and exposure – certainly enough to justify the cost.

An alternative would be to spend the money on a directory listing on a site such as TheBestOf (www.thebestof.co.uk) – £10 per month for a year and you get a full page listing (written by your local contact), an audio advert where you can pitch your service, inclusion in a high traffic site and a direct (SEO friendly!) link back to your site. A link AND qualified traffic – that’s like SEO Christmas!

Online marketing professionals do focus on SEO a lot and that isn’t a bad thing – it just isn’t the only thing and you should be looking to spend your budget wisely and spread your marketing scope.

(c) 2008 Colin Meunier

All products need marketing. However, a few years ago, marketing your products was limited to your state, country or a few countries in the neighborhood. The Internet has changed all that, and Internet Marketing is today seen as a very good way to market your products. There is a learning curve to everything, and the same goes for Internet Marketing.

Internet Marketing is one of the most scalable, conventional and easy to use kind of marketing. Almost any individual or institution can take the advantages of Internet Marketing for their business. But what is the way to market your product or skill on the Internet? What is the success rate of Internet marketing? Can it work for any product? Here are some secrets to Internet Marketing.

Secret to Internet Marketing Success # 1: Blogs

Blogs are the superstars of Web 2.0, and web 2.0 is the future of the Internet. It is therefore only right to spend some time and resources into getting your own blog about the product or service that you are offering. One secret of having a very successful blog is the content. Duplicate and plagiarized content is a sacrilege over the Internet, and should be avoided at all costs. Also, ensure that the blogs are not too commercial, and do not hype the product or the service too much. Internet marketing and Web 2.0 work on originality and freshness.

Secret to Internet Marketing Success # 2: Non Intrusive

The Internet is the true democracy, and anything plopped onto website visitors will be criticized, ignored and forgotten – in that order. You know that you have to sack your Internet advertising and marketing company the moment they say these words: Pop Ups, Pop Unders, ‘Installed on the User’s Computer’. In fact, try to ensure that none of your Internet advertising concepts intrude or obstruct the Internet user’s experience.

Secret to Internet Marketing Success # 3: Non Obtrusive

Never, ever, obstruct the Internet user’s experience. The best example of non obtrusive and non intrusive ads is text ads. Text ads are, in fact, the latest fad in internet marketing and signing up with a good text ad program is one of the many secrets of Internet Marketing success.

Secret of Internet Marketing Success # 4: No Spam

The most important factor of Internet marketing is the right of the Internet and website users to decide whether they wish to view the Internet marketing advertisements. E-Mail marketing is an important part of Internet Marketing. One secret of E-Mail marketing is to send e-mails only to people who have opted for e-mails from you and your e-mail address.

Secret of Internet Marketing Success # 5: Article Marketing

With the advent of Web 2.0, Article Marketing has come up as a very good option over traditional and traditional Internet marketing. Article marketing means you hire good writers, who specialize in writing for the Internet, and then upload their articles, with a link to your website, over the Article Marketing directories. Most of the Article Marketing websites offer free space for articles, and if you can write yourself, article marketing comes up as a way to advertise your products over the Internet.