Nowadays, a lot of people are clicking into the Internet daily. A good number of this activity has a lot to do with online advertising and blogs. The actual effect of online advertising and blogging can be gauged by the continuously increasing number of participants whether as individuals or organizations.

Traditional and Online Advertising

As compared to a traditional advertising, online ads produce quick results at low cost. Business entrepreneurs going into online advertising aim to attract more visitors to their websites. Once the desired traffic is established, follow-up is necessary to convert these viewers into customers or buyers.

Through the follow-up promotional technique, people tend to buy more even if it was not the original intention of the customer. People who have purchased once will buy again if a timely follow-up is made. When a person trusts a particular product or service, he/she continues to buy primarily due to the satisfaction they get. Follow-up and follow through is very important. It is a good practice in sales to get a customer to ensure that they are happy and contented with their purchase. This can also be an opportune time to present the customer with a follow-up offer but selling should only be secondary to customer service inquiry.

There are several online advertising methods and strategies which can be used to generate more visitors, subscribers and buyers into a website.

An Affiliate Program or Associate Program can be used to get interested visitors to go into a site while having other people do the legwork. This means that other people will do the job of promoting the products and services. The program starts when affiliates send visitors to a site with the use of text referrals, logos, banner ads or anything used for promotion. These visitors are then traced and tallied in a special software. Once these visitors turn into buyers, the affiliate is paid a commission. This is a sure win since affiliates are paid only for sales made. There is absolutely no risk because payment is made only when interested customers actually buy the product or service. There is no cash out unless there is actual cash received from the sale of product or service. What is important here however is that affiliates should be well paid for their efforts since unattractive incentives will fail to provide the needed motivation. Additional incentives, such as rewards or bonuses will do the business good and will surely increase sales.

The Pay Per Click (PPC) Strategy is the powerful and fastest way to bring targeted traffic into a website. With this PPC method, it is easy to attract visitors who are interested with the products and services through the use of the proper keywords. As the name implies, payment of premium is made every time a visitor clicks in a link. This strategy if correctly done is very profitable. However, lots of money can be lost if not used properly and carefully. Many people believe that the only way to develop a successful pay per click ad is to get to the number one position. However, being number one does not necessarily mean being the best. There is no wisdom in being ranked number one if it will translate to more expenses. To be successful with PPC engines, bids should be kept as low as possible.

Advertisers cannot afford to waste money on ineffective buys. When ad response is very low, there is a need to concentrate on improving the creative of the ad. Before choosing any advertising idea, goals must be defined and clear objectives stated. Identification of sites relevant to any product or service is required to get started. Effective sites are those which appeal to target customers and users. Messages need to be able to go through. They should be easily understood especially by the target audience. Promotional messages must be strong and specific and rich media may be used to expand it. This could add more depth to the creative and expand the capacity of responses. Another way is to design ads as if it belongs to the site where advertising is placed. Multiple versions of ads can be created by as much as 3 to 4 versions. This can be achieved by changing the promotional message, color schemes or text fonts. Do not be afraid to experiment as adjustments on the ads based on initial reactions can still be made. There should be no room in settling for poor responses as ads should be made to work.

Online entrepreneurs are always on the lookout for effective and affordable online advertising tools. In the process of searching for the right advertising tool, so much time, money and effort are devoted. These online advertising tools can create and generate vast number of traffics, but if visitors are not converted into buyers, the time, money and effort are all wasted. It is therefore very important that adequate attention be given to online ads that will convert viewers into paying customers. The most vital tool to track performance is the sales report copy. The percentage of buyers over the total number of visitors will determine whether or not a business is doing well. If the percentage of conversion is not good then sales technologies and strategies should be improved.

Some website operators erroneously use the traditional brick and mortar advertising technique in developing their sales copy. This causes sales copy to be ineffective as an online advertising tool. Traditional advertising is designed to get shoppers into a retail store where the sales person would take up the selling process. This is not true for Internet ads. Ads attract visitors but there would be no sales personnel to meet them as in brick and mortar stores. The sales copy is the sales person. In this case, the sales report is not only an advertising tool but also an online sales tool. Actual advertisements should include website page titles and descriptions. The rest of the copywriting should be sales oriented. Without a website copy acting as a sales tool, the use of the best online advertising tools on the net to attract traffic will be fruitless.

Blogs and Advertising

Increasing the readership of blogs take time, patience and hard work. Blogs that have good quality content as well as interesting and original, are those which attracts more readers. A good blog design is of vital importance if a blog is to create a good first impression. With several blogs and sites around, a good weblog lay-out counts. It is also necessary to link to other blogs and interact with readers. Having interaction with others invites involvement with readers and produce repeat visitors. Active participation in web forums and discussion pages may allow for addition of a signature to the post and raise the profile in the process.

Position is a key element in successful advertising. A billboard positioned along a busy intersection will not produce the same result as a billboard in a road where no one drives. The design and position of ads is likewise relevant. If they are out of sight they will never get clicked on. All business bloggers aim to have their site found to initiate what would hopefully be a continuous business relationship.