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Online marketing
refers to the process of generating traffic/ exposure
through online means. The Internet (the "online
world") is gaining ground over the "real world" and, as
this happens, marketing experts will shift their
attention accordingly.
The first step in online marketing is
to establish an online presence, either through a
website or through a web page. Once you have
established your website, the next step is to draw
attention to it.
This can be done in many ways:
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Maximizing a website's search engine ranking for
targeted keywords/ expressions (SEO
& SERP).
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Promoting a website through a
pay-per-click
(PPC) campaign.
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Promoting a website through a
pay-per-impression
campaign.
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Promoting a website through a
pay-per-action
campaign.
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Article
submissions, directory submissions, online press releases, and
paid
online reviews.
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Promoting
a website through a
pay-per-play campaign.
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Promoting
a website through partnerships with other similar
sites or blogs. The Web is big and there is no
point in being stingy and standing alone.
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Promoting
a website through services such as
EntreCard.
EntreCard is a promotional service mainly for blogs,
although websites can also use it. It is based
on the idea of exchanging business cards online.
When you go on a blog, you can drop your card.
That will earn you one credit. With credits,
you can buy exposure on another person's blog.
When you host EntreCard on your blog, people can buy
exposure on there by spending credits to buy ad
space. Another way to buy credits is to spend
money. The EntreCard system is a good way to
gain exposure on some influential blogs for free if
you're patient enough to accumulate credits.
A word of
advice, do not rely on only one method of marketing.
Diversify. Traffic is the lifeblood of a website.
You cannot leave all your hopes in the same basket.
Many webmasters, for instance, make the mistake of
relying on SEO to draw traffic to their sites, until the
day they suddenly lose their rankings for whatever
reason. Google, Yahoo, or MSN have their own
agenda and you cannot take for granted that good
rankings in search engines will last.
Try many
alternatives and see what works best for you.
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