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Internet Marketing Methods Definitions List

This page holds definitions of the many marketing methods available on the internet today. I have ranked each method from 0 to 10 for effectiveness, 0 being ineffective and 10 being the most effective. This will ensure you waste little time and money on methods that produce little or no results, you will find the ranking number next to each heading.

Advertising  7

Paid advertising can be placed in all of the above as well, however it can be expensive. When starting your advertising campaign make sure you have some sort of system in place to track performance and results of each campaign.

Affiliate Programs  9

Affiliate programs allows other people (third parties) to advertise your product (ebook, educational course, membership program, software etc) on their website usually via text or banner links which you have supplied. Interested customers then click on one of these links and are brought to your website to view your product’s or product.

If one of these customers purchase a product, the third party is then paid a commission due to the fact the customer originated from their website. Of course, the larger number of affiliates you have in a program, means increased exposure over the internet. To run an affiliate program you need affiliate software and if you wish, a management service.

Banners 1

Banners would be by far, one of the most used methods of gaining traffic. The general idea is to place a banner on another person’s site, which is then linked to your site. When the person clicks on the your banner, your home page is shown. There are many banner exchange companies, which offer to place your banner, usually at a ratio of 2 to 1. This means two banners are placed on your site while one of yours is placed on someone else’s.

Books  10

If you have time, this is the best way to learn how to create traffic and the most inexpensive.

Bulletin Boards (Forums)
Post On 6

Pretty much self explanatory. Post messages to bulletin boards and hopefully some may read them.

Build Your Own: 7

On a new page on your website or by purchasing a new domain name you run your own free bulletin board, notice board or discussion group about your business area. This allows anyone wanting to discuss this topic, a place to view or give out information.

At the top of bulletin board you then place a banner stating: Proudly Sponsored By (name of your business). As most boards do not allow advertising, except that of the owner or sponsor, the benefits are two fold. People will click on your banner as it is the only one, but most importantly, the boards allows you to keep up with clients point of view, needs and wants.

Comprehensive Services & Packages  4

There are many sites around offering professional advice, services, automation software, many of the items listed on this page all rolled into one. Of course the questions is, are they of value and will they really improve web traffic to my site? The answer is yes to both, especially  if you use the larger, well known companies.

Anyone claiming you can make a millionaire dollars in a month (with their $500 package), I would definitely give a miss.  The only foreseeable problem with a package is that once you’ve purchased it, if the services and products are not quite what you expected, your stuck with them.

It is therefore important to read all the promotional literature and if you’re still uncertain, email the company before you purchase. I have listed several decent packages in ultimate links.

Ebook
Write your own 8

E-books can attract traffic in two ways. Write an e-book and place references within it regarding your website, this will increase traffic and also earn you money. Secondly, you can offer the e-book freely in return for customers visiting your site or subscribing to your ezine. (Also see “Site Content”)

Education  10

There are quite a number of sites on the web offering courses on internet marketing. Basically the more knowledgeable you become, the more money you can make.

Email
Opt-In 9

You can obtain lists of individuals and businesses email addresses wishing to except  emails on your product, then send out bulk emails to these firms with information about your company and products. These lists, which you purchase are called opt-in lists.

Ezines
Wrting Articles For 9

A great way to create traffic while enhancing your writing skills is to produce articles and then submit them to newsletters and ezines. You don’t need to be a gifted writer, just imparting knowledge on a given topic is enough. Articles you submit will not be published by every ezine, however the articles that are published will have your reply website and email address at the bottom thus creating traffic. If this method is one that you wish to use more often, email software will be of great help.

In addition to this, you could then place your articles directly on the internet using a separate page on your current site or under another domain name (Joe Smith Articles). Under  the heading you then place a banner link stating: Proudly Sponsored By (your company name), as people come to read your articles, some will click onto your site.

Advertising In 7

All you need to do is find listings of ezines or newsletters that are in your field. Decide what your budget is, then advertise. It is wise to keep stats of how many referrals you receive from each ezine so you can optimize your spending budget.

Start Your Own 8

Design and implement your own ezine to new and existing customers. If your articles are interesting and of value to the readers, word of mouth will do the rest and you should have many flocking to your site.

Linking 9

A link can be in the form of simple text, short captions or ads, banner ads which you place on other peoples websites and these then direct the customer back to your own website. Linking can either be single or reciprocal and some common methods of finding link partners are by using link companies and utilizing search engines.

Offer Freebies 8

This section should probably be under site content, however I thought it important enough to make it stand out. Free services, products or tools is an excellent way of making customers spend more time on your site, thus they will feel your site is more valuable and will return more often. Another name for offering freebies is to make a website “sticky”.

Partnerships 8

Partnerships can come in many various forms. These include promoting websites, designing and selling ebooks, shared revenue schemes, reciprocal advertising etc. Even affiliate programs can be termed as a type of partnership.

Search Engines 8

Over ninety percent of all web sites searched are done through search engines, therefore it extremely important to be in the most well known engines. Just submitting is not enough as this usually means that your web site will probably be positioned in the thousands when someone submits a search. The only real way of optimizing search engines is to be in the top ten positions otherwise traffic you will receive will be minimal.

Pay Per Click Search Engines 7

Pay per click or PPC search engines are a variation on normal search engines. Instead of being ranked by spider software, with PPC search engines you actually bid on the keywords you require. If you are the highest bidder on a given keyword, you are placed in first position for that keyword search.

Every time someone hits your link, you are charged the amount you bid. Most PPC Engines have a minimum bidding price of 5 cents however for popular keywords (internet marketing), bids can range from 50 cents to over 2 dollars per bid.

Ranking - Your Own Initiative 8

It is quite possible to acquire high placement on the SE’s through your own initiative and without using ranking software or services. To do so you will need a decent sized website that has good content, decent metatags that are easily read by SE spiders, strategic links and not be advertised on ffa’s, etc.

The closer your domain name comes to your first choice of keyword, the better. The more advertising material you have all over the internet the better, you can achieve this through writing an ebook, starting your own newsletter, writing articles, partnerships and many other small tricks you learn through reading marketing books.

Ranking Services 8

There are many services that will not only submit your site to the major search engines, but also help you gain a respectful position on them. If using a ranking service, be sure that placement will be on the SE’s first page for given keywords and that the ranking is with the main search engines only.

Site Content 10

Is site content important, you bet. Don’t take my word for it, just go by your own experience. How annoying is when you visit a site that is messy, complicated, over crowded, lacking information, doesn’t do what the introduction states or simply bad on the eye. Do you return? Not usually. If you are designing your own site, ask as many people as possible to comment on your site and if it can be improved.

While building the website, you also need to consider what’s called “stick-ability”. This means to keep your customers on the site for a longer period of time while also encouraging them to revisit. Ways to accomplish this is through offering:

Free Products/Information/E-books
Ezine Subscription
Notice Boards
Forums
Site Questionnaires
Useful Links
Credit Card Services

Viral Marketing 8

An internet marketing term similar to word of mouth, networking or leveraging in the normal business world. Examples of viral marketing are writing articles and allowing others to use them, creating an email course which others promote on their website, affiliate programs, etc.

Website Name 8

Having a domain name that closely describes your products and or services is extremely helpful for marketing purposes, customer attraction and SE ranking.