When it comes to advertising, too many webmasters are content with paying thousands of dollars to place their ads with only the most recognizable websites on the Internet. This is certainly understandable, as the most recognizable websites in your industry can add credibility and are certain to produce some results. However, a truly successful marketing campaign will reach far beyond advertising with the most recognized websites. A truly successful marketing campaign will effectively harness the many high-impact, low-cost opportunities available.
By advertising with only the most recognized websites can create a “burst” marketing campaign. Because few website owners have the financial resources to sustain marketing with the most expensive advertising venues, they take short bursts of advertising and recover from the cost of advertising over a few months. After a few months, they may purchase another burst of advertising.
This way of advertising reduces the effectiveness of an ad campaign. Campaigns that show consistency have proven themselves to be more effective in gaining new customers and building a recognized name in your industry. Rather than purchase advertising with only the most recognized websites in your industry, look for low-cost, high-impact advertising with websites that receive quality traffic, but may not be the most popular in your industry. These websites will often have a substantially lower cost of advertising that you will be able to maintain consistently from month to month. Also, they will often give you a better return on your investment than advertising with the most popular website in your industry. Because they are not the most popular, you will have fewer competing ads to deal with as well.
A good marketing campaign for any website will include several resources that are very low cost (if not free) and are extremely cash-flow friendly. Successful websites get the majority of their sales outside of expensive ad campaigns, they get their sales through new, lower end advertising opportunities.
Where you go to find these advertising deals depends a lot on your specific industry. However, we were able to dig a few resources up that we believe are some of the best marketing deals on the Internet today.
TOWERSEARCH http://www.towersearch.com/add/add.htm
TowerSearch is very much like a pay per click search engine in that advertisers are given the opportunity to list their website under keywords they choose. Unlike pay per click search engines, TowerSearch advertisers do not pay for every click. Rather, they pay a flat monthly fee.
Without a bidding system in place to determine the ranking of websites under a keyword or phrase, TowerSearch relies on a process that guarantees that every advertiser will have an equal opportunity at the top position. This means that if person A searches for your keyword, you may appear as the 5th site listed. If person B then searches for that same keyword, you could just as easily appear as the 1st site listed. Your position changes with every search performed.
Our experience with TowerSearch has been a good one. Their traffic has grown considerably over the past few months. When asked what caused the spike in traffic they responded informing us that they had recently signed on several new partner websites, which is always a good sign. We are paying considerably less than we would with a traditional pay per click search engine, and most importantly, we have a consistent presence.
ExactSeek http://exactseek.com/add_priority.html
ExactSeek blends innovative search and listing techniques with the traditional search engine model. At the core of ExactSeek is a Meta-tag search engine using site titles and meta-tags to classify sites under keywords and phrases. However, unlike a traditional meta-tag search engine, the most important aspect of your ranking (under their priority listings) is the amount of traffic you provide to their site.
ExactSeek Priority Listings use a system of “Search Points” to determine a site’s ranking. A single search point is equal to 20 searches provided within a day. As your listing accumulates more and more search points, your site rises in their listings. And, of course, as your site rises in their rankings, you will see more and more traffic.
When you add your site to their listings, you will certainly want to participate in their Priority Listings as it guarantees your site a place among the top 100 search results for the keywords in your site title and meta tags. Of course, your position within the top 100 will continue to improve as you send more traffic to them.
With over 30,000 new site submissions daily (yes, that’s 30,000 site submissions per day), ExactSeek is quickly making its impression on webmasters across the globe. Also, visitors are able to search for more than just websites. They can search for images, mp3 files, images, comparison shopping sites and email addresses.
The only downside to ExactSeek is that it requires you to place a search box on your site. This is, however, a minor inconvenience if it results in high quantities of quality search engine traffic.
LookListings http://looklistings.looksmart.com
One of the main problems pay-per-click search engines have presented to advertisers is the “ego bidder”. This is the bidder who bids so much higher than what everyone else is willing to pay that all competition is effectively cut off. The negative consequence of this is that the bid price is artificially inflated and all advertisers suffer less traffic or higher bid prices.
To avoid the ego bidders, and to provide all advertisers with a fair price for their listings, LookListings charges a flat per click fee of just $0.15. Try finding a quality keyword on Overture or Google for $0.15 – I promise you will not be able to find one.
This system has worked very well for them and their advertisers. Because there is no bidding process, advertisers are able to concentrate more on how their listings read and what keywords they are listed under rather than focusing on whether they have been outbid, are paying too much for their listing, or other time-consuming activities.
LookSmart was already recognized for being a top search engine before launching LookListings. Since LookListings became available, LookSmart has added MSN, AltaVista, About, Excite, Netscape, InfoSpace, Cnet, and RoadRunner to participate in their program.
LookListings will probably be the most expensive option out of the three search engines presented here. In addition, if you use LookListings, you will probably run into problems with maintaining a consistent presence in their listings.
Mark Daoust is the owner of Site-Reference.com. Discuss this article futher in our Search Engine Forums
