Thursday, November 27, 2008

How To Decide Between Or Paid Online Advertising

By Kylon Trower

You understand that advertising is the key to building a successful online business so you are light years ahead of many of your competitors. Most of your time should be spent (I'd say up to seventy percent) promoting and marketing your business. In the paragraphs that follow, we'll be looking at which type of advertising is better for you.

Just so that we are clear, I don't believe in free advertising. It's not that you can't advertise your business without pulling out your credit card but you can't advertise without paying a price. It's either time or money and ultimately both have a price you'll have to pay.

For the sake of this article, let's call them automated (paid) vs. manual (free) advertising. That said, there are many ways you can use both methods and neither is necessarily better than the other. The real key you must first determine is what works best for you and what are you comfortable with.

There are upsides and downsides to any form of advertising that you do which is why your main focus should be on effectiveness. By this I mean it must work and produce the desired result. Advertising for advertising sake is a recipe for disaster and will leave you burned out and broke.

First, let's look at free methods of advertising and how you can benefit there. This method gives you a level of "in the trenches" experience that will go a long way if you decide to use paid methods in the future. The hands on aspect of it gives you an understanding of the marketplace and how it responds to certain messages which is invaluable.

When it comes to paid advertising you can definitely benefit there as well. The ability to consult with marketing companies that will run your campaigns will give you a broader view of the marketplace based on their experience. It also saves you a good amount of time which allows you to reap returns in other areas of your business too.

Now regardless which way you decide to go I recommend you set up tracking systems so you can test your results. Not knowing what's working and why it's working is one of the worst positions you can be in as a marketer. When you understand the source of your results you can make wiser decisions with both your time and money.

Your time and budget will ultimately determine which advertising methods are best for you. I suggest trying a few methods that interest you and use them until you feel comfortable and somewhat proficient. Don't try to do a little bit of everything as this does not work. Pick something, stick to it and then move to another method while tracking your results throughout.

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