Ok so step one for you is complete, and that is finding your niche as to what your business is all about. Step 2 is getting the word out there, and to do so in a cost effective manner.
Welcome to the Internet. The place where anything is possible and the medium that levels the playing field, or so you would think, to the point where the super stars such as Walmart look no bigger online then you.
Obviously being a startup business and on a tight budget you want to be able to reach as many people in your target market as possible, and at the least amount of cost.
So how about getting your advetising in front of 112 million people and more? How about exposing what it is you sell and offer to nearly a billion people world wide and do so for just pennies?
Sounds crazy and unrealistic right? Well it is not. With the formation of Web 2.0, which is really just a fancy tech term describing the way the Internet has evolved into a medium where people connect, the estimated, according to Technorati, 112 million bloggers may be the best way to go these days.
There are literally thousands of blog hosting companies out there. These companies have customers who do nothing more than post their reviews and opinions on a subject, in what they call their Blogs.
Our company has written dozens of articles on blogging to educate, not only our customers, but the Internet community in general. If you would like to learn more about blogging, check out our articles on our website. For now, in this multi-part series, we are going to concentrate on how to use bloggers as your means of advertising.
Bloggers are always looking for ways to fill up that "white" space they have on their blogs. A great way to do that is to place some type of advertising there. It fills a need they are looking for. It also allows them to make some extra money, and you as the advertiser, get to put your product or service in front of literally millions, for pennies.
There are two ways you can go about this. You can contact every blog related to what you are offering and ask them to advertise. With 112 million blogs to choose from, you should start immediately right? Well option two is signing on with a company whose main focus is handling advertising on Blogs. These companies, such as ours, focus in on having bloggers post small snippets of code on their blogs that will display a series of different advertisements that their blog readers can look further into by clicking on the link.
Your advertisement will appear on blog websites and when a reader clicks on your ad, will be taken to further information on what you are offering. What you need to look for in an ad program such as this is hidden costs.
You want to stay away from programs that charge you a fee each time someone clicks your ad. When you participate in, what is called, a pay per click program, that then leads into bidding for the ad space. Basically, whoever is willing to pay more, will appear more often. That concept basically defeates the entire purpose of the level playing field, now doesn`t it?
We will continue this discussion in part two of our article segments on how to maximize your advertising spending with minimal output and at the same time reach your target market.
