Get More from Search - Trends in Search & Social Media

Everyone’s turning toward the Internet to advertise for their products and services. And with good reason. The idea of online advertising is enticing. Once an online ad campaign goes live, your company has the potential to reach millions of people – almost immediately. As the statistics and case studies are showing, advertising on the Internet can be an important step for just about any company. But is it the right time for your company to shift away significant budgets from traditional advertising to focus your gains on the virtual landscape? Don’t fail to plan: jumping in without proper planning will most certainly not yield you the best return on investment.
Even though your company may be a relative newbie in the online realm, your customers almost assuredly aren’t. Savvy web users demand well-organized, easily navigable and searchable sites that make them feel more than comfortable that your business deserves their dollars and their trust. Becoming a repeatable destination for your prospects and customers means good site architecture including persuasive copy and navigation, as well as a stellar customer service policy and easy access to your inner workings – i.e. your employees – even though transactions take place or are facilitated online.

Thus, the first step is to either establish or recreate your web presence to capture the interest of your advertising respondents. In traditional advertising, what your audience sees in print or on TV must be backed up by the product on the shelf, the customer service agent on the phone or the information package delivered to their door – otherwise, there’s “no deal.”

Similarly, your web site performs that function of engagement with intent to develop a mutually profitable relationship. So unless you’re a very small business and your sales cycle dictates only in-person and/or phone conversations with prospective customers, before you advertise – get your company’s face to the world ready to capitalize on every dollar you spend. And don’t try to go it alone – there are numerous third party consulting services available that will analyze your site, reorganize your value propositions for the best ROI, rebuild your site architecture and plug in the latest verbiage and persuasion wisdom to prepare you for the new prospects that will show up at your virtual door due to your online ads. The best ones have the case studies to prove their value. Don’t just redesign your site – make it appealing to your knowledgeable audience, and then you’ll be ready to rack up the profits.

A few of our favorites include: http://www.futurenowinc.com (persuasion architecture), www.marketingprofs.com (free and inexpensive articles, case studies and seminars for online marketers), http://www.marketingexperiments.com< (for learning what really works), and http://responsys.com (full marketing and email services lifecycle marketing).

Fox is streaming its prime-time shows on MySpace.com, Cars.com is sponsoring six NBC shows on NBC.com for the fall and Google is buying YouTube.com. It looks like more people are looking at the internet to bring them more entertainment. They have already used it to play games, get updates on the news and weather, and now as companies look toward the future it seems to be toward streaming video. Could this mean soon we will be watching the new movies over the internet instead of going to the theater or watching your favorite sports team online? New advertising campaign will most likely feature streaming video in some aspect whether it is the ads for the television shows or marketing a new product on the internet instead of on the television.

Some of the top bloggers at the top blog sites like DIGG, del.icio.us, Reddit and NewsVine write upwards of 250-400 articles a month, for free.  Notice I said free.  Why?  Well, they enjoy sharing their knowledge of the web and appreciate being a “leader” or “expert” in their online communities.  WOW – that’s dedication.

It is not easy to become a top blogger. You can’t just be a great writer, you need to have clout.  You need to have a network of “followers” who consistently keep your articles pushed to the top of the posts.  This takes votes, or “diggs”, and lots of votes means you need lots of people to get you there.

That network is a commodity in and of itself.  And a valuable commodity.  If an upstart company wants promotion and thousands of clicks to its site, the holy grail of viral promotion online is to “please” one of these bloggers and get them to post about your site.

Until now, there was no monetary reward for “being the best” blogger.  I really can’t think of any sport or a business that does not pay to “be the best.”  Amazing how the web can work that way. But is it abuse?

The blog sites make their money because of these expert writers.  It is an awesome business model for the blog companies.  Free writers, huge followings – little cost to run the site.  Isn’t it time something was done about all the free labor?

And so enters the innovation that comes from competition.  Jason Calacanis, the CEO of Weblogs, Inc., also one of the web’s largest blog network sites, has put out a call for top bloggers.  And he is willing to pay.

$12,000 a year in fact.  $1,000/month for a minimum of 150 posts.  Now if I was a top blogger, with a network and a following (which I’m not), I wouldn’t even think twice about this offer.  I’m doing the work anyway – because I love it – might as well get paid too.

Cool thing is, this is just the beginning.  Many other companies will follow suit.

As technology continues to change the face of the planet, a whole new world is opening up for people who do what they love.  Dig deeper online.  Find out what motivates you.  You might just get paid for what you love to do too.

I know I will.