Internet Advertising

There are two primary ways to advertise on the Internet:

1.Register your Web site with major search engines so Internet

visitors can find you.

2.Place an "ad banner" for your site on another Web site that has a

lot of traffic (viewers). Ad banners allow viewers to link to your

site when they click on the banner.

Internet Advertising Advantages

Relatively cost-effective. The costs can also be independent of

the size of the audience. For example, a Web presence will cost

the same regardless of how many viewers your site has. (You will,

however, need to make sure your Internet Service Provider can

handle the volume of viewers you anticipate having.)

Advertisers can target specific types of viewers by positioning

an ad banner on related Web sites. For example, if you're

targeting people seeking information on a specific topic, you can

purchase ad space on Web pages that are related to this category

in the major search engines (Yahoo, Infoseek, Lycos, WONET -

The Women's Online Network, etc.). So, an organic herb farmer

selling through mail order might advertise through the "organic

foods" or "gourmet cooking" category. The indexing structure of

these sites allows you to target your audience by geographic

location and related interest area.

Messages can be timely because editing the content is often easy

and instantaneous.

Ads on the Internet can be interactive. You can request viewer

feedback, take orders or answer questions instantly.

Ad banners can run with as much frequency as you choose. The

Internet is constantly available!

Internet advertisers can potentially reach a global audience. Aside

from language barriers, anyone at any location in the world can

access information about your products or services.

Internet Advertising Disadvantages

Internet advertising should not be approached in a vacuum.

Instead, it should be one component of a comprehensive Internet

Marketing strategy.

Although the popularity of the Internet is rising remarkably, it is

difficult to gage the impact of advertising on the Internet.

The range of costs to advertise on the Internet can vary greatly. It

is best to compare a number of highly-frequented sites to

determine the best way to spend your advertising dollars.

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