Got any ideas

[i-meals]

Hello,

I have searched threw web ads on if you pay me $200 you will receive 100,000 hits, I have heard those are rip offs, and I can totally see how it is. My question is what are people's opinions on the best way to market a website?

Isaac Meals

[Artashes]

Isaac,

This is one of the most demanding marketing questions of our time. :)

Well, some people have/prefer different strategies. If you ask any reasonable professional - he would more likely prefer a CPC (cost per click) or a CPA (cost per action/lead/sale).

CPC is good because you can actually predict the campaign amount and make smart budgeting. It is also much easier to analyze the results of such campaigns, rather than a CPM (cost per impression) method.

CPA is even better (although usually more expensive to the advertiser) because you pay a commission only when the sale took place. You gain results and you pay a certain % or fixed $ commission that leave you in profit. Its good for advertisers - its NOT always good for publishers, unless they target your product to the right customer.

If you are the advertiser, you can always find good CPC solutions through specialized search engines like Overture.com or Google AdWords. From what I hear - Google AdWords gets all the votes.

CPA method without a doubt will cost times more since such providers like Commission Junction, LinkShare or BeFree have setup fees, monthly minimums, required minimum credit, etc. Although remember that with all the fees you get an access to sometimes hundreds of thousands of manually approved web site owners that are ready to take your ad online. And that counts.

If you run a small/medium sized project - I think Cost per Click would be most effective. I personally would not recommend looking for such deals on eBay, instead try to make a search for "CPC search engines" and give a few of them a test-drive with a small amount and see how it goes.

Best,

[i-meals]

I have recently talk to some grants about doing a Cable TV adertisement, I am interested in seeing how much vistors I got by that.. I think that maybe a way some people want to go. Cause it catches more eyes, then paying for some company to set up a pop ad that is deleted with out a look.

Thanks for your comments... and your suggestions.

[Artashes]

Well, I don't know how a TV ad would be effective, unless your goal is to brand the site like Progressive.com did, Orbtz did or eBay did. Note that even for eBay it was quite an expensive tool to use and spread the word out.

Even if you run 1-2 ads - they will have almost no effect. I think you have to run them at least 10 runs. (I've worked in broadcasting industry before). Well, say, you spend good $5-50K with a few runs, people are still away from their PC and by the time the program is finished - they will forget to visit your web site unless your product is really really unique and demanding, and unless they can actually remember the web address... :)

So, I think it would be more wise to hit the Advertising Networks (many have a minimum of $500-$1000 contracts) with the same budget because in the end - you'll get REAL potential and targeted visitors to your site. And the cost of getting one visitor to your site through a banner click is way more cost-effective than it is through a TV commercial - the last I've heard.

If you could share what your advertising budget is - it may be more helpful.

Best,

[Christian_SEO]

The "pay for hits" offers deliver what they say... they send traffic to your site. The problem is, if you're not selling something everyone wants, not many people are going to take advantage of what you are offering.

PPC programs can work, but they're like crack. If you want the fun to continue, you have to pay and pay. If your cost-per-sale is low enough, it can be worth it.

But in my opinion, search engine optimization (SEO) is the #1 most cost-effective method of Internet marketing (Disclaimer: it's what I do...).

You can do SEO yourself or hire a company to do it for you. It can cost from a couple of hundred dollars to many thousands. But you should expect to pay between $300-900 to get a experienced pro to do the work. And you'll want to do a little research to know what you are buying. I would avoid and company that tries to sell you on-going monthly maintenance.

You can also run PPC programs if you want and it does not conflict with the SEO.

And you should also do other forms of marketing both online and off. I'd love to get into some radio and TV advertising, but it can be costly if not done correctly. Lucky for us, there's a lot of info and how to run this methods if you search around.

Thanks,
Christian

[EvilHaider]

Are there any good places where you can run a CPA campaign? I'm looking at my options for promoting a Template sales website starting within the next couple of weeks.

[Artashes]

Originally posted by EvilHaider
Are there any good places where you can run a CPA campaign? I'm looking at my options for promoting a Template sales website starting within the next couple of weeks.

Great question! I've seen a couple of low-cost solutions (networks of publishers) recently. I'll be researching into this topic and will report as I find something good.

If money is not an issue though, you can always try Comission Junction or LinShare.com - those are top of the line Networks, but very expensive.

Best,

[EvilHaider]

Ive heard about FineClicks.

Does any1 have experience with them?

[EvilHaider]

Just visited commission junction, and holy c$@p they're expensive. hehe

Need to find other alternatives.

[Artashes]

All right, here is the list of marketing/advertising pools of publishers for your screening:
http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Marketing_and_Advertising/Internet/

Not all of them offer systems like Commission Junction, but some of them do and they are more affordable.

Best,

[seobook]

SEO is the best thing to do as far as ROI goes, but you can use extremely targeted Google AdWords accounts to help determine if your conversion rate is where it should be and how much demand there is for different ideas.

PPC provides fast feedback loops but creating good ideas that want to spread and augmenting that with SEO is where real good ROI will come into play.