Social networking sites (such as Myspace, FaceBook, and Orkut) allow Internet users to form communities online quickly and easily, from groups of friends to business networking. These groups of networked individuals, often in similar demographic groups, have become a virtual gold mine for Internet marketers, who can place their message in front of members of their target market on social networking sites for little or no cost.

Social networking sites have also become an easily abused Internet marketing tool, forcing social networking sites to crack down on new types of spam (such as message spam and bulletin spam on Myspace). This spam is a result of people artificially inflating “friend” counts (the number of other members in their social network) through mass-adding and bots. The owners of these profiles will then sometimes market their own products, or charge others to have their URLs blasted to the bulletin board of thousands of other members.

Why Social Networking Spam Doesn’t Work

Simply put, social networking spam doesn’t work. That’s not to say there won’t be any conversion for the marketing effort, but rather that it very rarely will offer a decent return on investment in comparison to other marketing tactics. Here’s why:

1. Huge social networking accounts rarely are filled with targeted members. Therefore, those seeing the message won’t likely be members of the target market (unless someone’s marketing something like a Myspace resource site, or a band marketing to legitimate fans, which are two exceptions to the rule)

2. Many of these paid posts (often in “bulletin” form) are only highly visible in limited quantities, based on post time, and only when a member is logged in. Therefore, most members blasted won’t ever even see the message.

3. Even if targeted members of a market do see the message, actually open the message, and actually read it, there’s still the traditionally very low response rate common in most direct marketing methods.

Ways to Use Social Networking Effectively for Internet Marketing

1. Build a highly targeted “friend” list, rather than using bots.

2. Personally welcome any new members of your network, or at least as many as possible.

3. Time bulletins and messages to when members of the target market will likely be online.

4. Offer something of value (like news or exclusive information) in the posts, rather than simply sending links.

5. Contact members regularly to keep the message in front of them, but don’t overdo it, to the point of looking like a spammer.

6. Join groups on social networking sites related to the niche, and promote in them where it doesn’t violate group rules.

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is the process by which webmasters and online business owners get their websites to rank highly in SERPs (search engine results pages) for keyword phrases that are both heavily searched for and related to their industry or niche. Two of the biggest types of SEO work are keyword optimization and link-building (increasing the number of incoming links to a website or specific page).

Here are a few SEO tips to keep in mind when thinking about keyword optimization for a new website or online business:

1. Use keyword suggestion tools to research keyword phrases related to the website’s or online business’ industry or niche topic.

2. Don’t focus exclusively on very general (often one-word) keywords or keyword phrases that would be very difficult to earn a high search engine placement for. At the same time, don’t focus on keyword phrases that no one is searching for. It’s sometimes better to be a “big fish in a smaller pond” than a “little fish in big pond” where you can’t likely rise to the top.

3. Include keyword phrases throughout a page, with particular emphasis on titles, highlighted subheadings, and early in any text areas.

Building incoming links to a website or online business is also an important part of SEO and improving search engine rankings. This is because search engines look at incoming links almost like a “vote” where another website is saying the site, or some page within the site, is of high enough quality to recommend to its visitors. Obviously, link-building can be manipulated in many ways that don’t equate to “votes” (such as by purchasing banner ads or text links on another website). For this reason, some incoming links are considered more valuable than others. Here are a few link-building tips to keep in mind, to build higher quality incoming links:

1. Try to achieve incoming links that are one-way, rather than reciprocal (a one-way link looks more like an honest “vote” than a trade does).

2. Build incoming links from relevant websites (of a similar topic or niche), rather than from generic link farms.

3. Get incoming links from “authority websites” (high quality and popular websites) whenever possible.

4. Look for one-page content-based text links if purchasing links, rather than site-wide banner advertisements (makes the link seem more natural).

5. To get a specific article or internal Web page to rank well in SERPs, build links to that page rather than only the site’s homepage.

Online advertising offers advertisers, both online and offline, an opportunity to reach very specific niche audiences and target markets that wasn’t previously possible outside of perhaps the niche and trade magazine market. The biggest difference between niche online advertising and niche print advertising is often cost. Online advertising options are often more affordable, and with new niche websites launched every day, online advertising opportunities are almost endless.

There are many different types of online advertising, from blatant advertising to subtle, seemingly natural links. Here are several common types of online advertising currently used:

1. Banner Advertising – Banner ads are image ads with a company’s or website’s logo, slogan, and advertising message (or something similar) included. Banner ads come in many different sizes, which would be determined by the space available on the publisher’s site where the advertising space is being purchased. Some banner ads are animated.

2. Sponsorships – Advertisers regularly gain exposure in online sponsorships, whether that’s sponsoring a site blatantly for a site-wide text link or banner ad, sponsoring online videos (or even limited commercial sponsorships with major TV networks offering videos online), or sponsoring something such as a free Web template, where the sponsorship link stays in tact every time a template is used.

3. Text Link Advertising – Text link ads can work similarly to banner ads, they can be site-wide links in the sidebar, footer, or other area of a publisher’s website, or they can be a text link worked into the content on one particular page on a publisher’s site.

4. Video Advertising – Video advertising can be done similarly to banner advertising using various video screen sizes, or can involve blatant advertising in essentially Web commercials released with some kind of entertainment value to video sharing sites, hoping for a viral effect of the video being shared to increase exposure.

5. Email Advertising – Email advertising is essentially purchasing banner or text link ad space within email newsletters reaching a certain target market.

6. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising / Search Engine Advertising – Pay-per-click advertisements can be purchased in text or image / banner formats, often through search engine advertising (to place in sponsored results for certain keyword phrases) or through ad publisher networks such as Google Adsense, where ads appear on publisher sites relevant to chosen advertiser keywords.

7. Online Classifieds – Online classifieds advertising works much in the same way as offline classifieds, where products, jobs, and more can be advertised to a more general market.

8. Pop-up / Pop-under Advertising – These are online ads that open a new window on a browser’s computer screen when they enter or leave a Web page or click on something. They’re often considered intrusive, and blocked automatically using pop-up blockers by many users.

Online PR (online public relations) is about using the Internet to connect with a website’s or business’ key publics or audiences, to build awareness and increase exposure, to build and maintain an image and brand trust, and to communicate to solve crises. Online PR works much in the same way as traditional public relations, only with a different set of PR tools. Here are some of the benefits of adding online PR efforts to a company’s public relations strategy:

1. Messages can be disseminated (or sent out) very quickly, whether it’s breaking news or a response to a crisis situation.

2. Online PR tools can connect companies and websites directly with their target audiences, rather than having to communicate to massive groups through the media.

3. Direct target audience reach can make the evaluation of an online PR campaign easier, as data can be gathered immediately from viewers, listeners, or readers (online PR allows for direct interaction).

4. Online PR tools and methods can be more accessible to small and online businesses than offline public relations tools.

There are a variety of online PR tools available for a website’s or company’s public relations efforts, including:

Press Releases – Press releases can be used in online PR, much as they’re used in offline PR. While there’s no substitute for manually targeting quality, relevant media outlets and pursuing media relationships, online press release distribution allows a website or company to distribute their news to news engines (such as Google News and Yahoo! News), where it may be seen directly by members of their target audience.

Blogs and Forums – Blogs and forums or online communities are wonderful online PR tools for building and maintaining a reputation as an expert or authority source. Rather than using these community atmospheres as a place to make a blatant sales pitch, the idea is to use a “soft sell” technique of providing quality content or answers to others’ questions in a niche, to build trust and respect, which often later converts to business or site visitors naturally.

Article Distribution – Writing and distributing expert articles on a niche subject to online article directories is another method of demonstrating expertise and building trust.

Search Engine Optimization – SEO is often mistakenly classified as a “marketing” tool, but is in fact a narrow niche in online PR. The whole purpose of SEO is again that soft sell approach of building exposure and raising awareness, specifically through placements in search engine rankings, which eventually will lead to natural website traffic and / or sales.

Email Newsletters – Email newsletters can be targeted to any of a website’s key publics or audiences, as a direct means of communication to maintain an image and keep awareness of a brand strong.

Podcasts and Webinars – While seminars are an effective offline PR tool, podcasts and webinars can reach the same end, and serve as yet another tool for building a reputation based on demonstrating expertise in a niche.

Drafting an Internet marketing plan is an important step in launching a website or online business. Understanding the site’s target market, competition, marketing budget, strengths, and weaknesses allows for the best Internet marketing tactics to be chosen to get the most visitors or profit with the least amount of time or money. Here is a sample Internet marketing plan outline:

I. Executive Summary
Just like in a regular marketing plan, an Internet marketing plan should have an overall summary, called an Executive Summary. This summary of the entire Internet marketing plan will be the first marketing plan element, but will be the last section written.

II. Situational Analysis / Market Analysis
Give background information on the market the particular website or online business is participating in, including target market demographics, a mention of the biggest competition and a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that the website will face).

III. Marketing Goals and Strategies
Once the basic market background is covered, and the competition is analyzed, lay out the marketing goals for the website or online business in the Internet marketing plan, in addition to the general strategies for achieving those goals, and the more specific Internet marketing tactics that will be used (even map Internet marketing tactics out on a calendar for planning).

IV. Financials
One of the most important parts of an Internet marketing plan is the budget. Determine how much money will be spent on Internet marketing efforts, and when certain money will be spent on specific Internet marketing tactics. Also include projections (or forecasts) detailing what revenue or sales figures are anticipated as a result of the planned Internet marketing efforts.

V. Evaluation
Describe how marketing successes or failures will be measured against the marketing goals, or any evaluation methods to prove the effectiveness of any Internet marketing tactics (surveys, focus groups, etc.).

VI. Addenda
Include any additional information, charts, graphs, or other material that couldn’t be included directly in the text of the Internet marketing plan.

Whether you’re launching a simple website or a large e-commerce website, identifying a website’s target market from the start is an important step in business planning. Successful websites put their effort into reaching a very specific target market, sometimes without even realizing it. A webmaster can increase their chances of success by identifying their website’s target market before jumping into any marketing tactics or online advertising to increase traffic and monetize their websites.

What is a Target Market?

A target market is the main audience or group of visitors (or buyers) that a webmaster or online business owner wants to visit their website. A target market can, and should, be identified and described in detail before launching a website. This is to help tailor the site’s Internet marketing plan and marketing tactics around that target group to maximize the return on investment (ROI), which basically means getting the most for your time and money.

A target market is described by its demographic and or psychographic profile. Demographics and psychographics include many personal and social details, such as:

1. Age groups
2. Genders
3. Nationalities or ethnicities
4. Income levels
5. Marital status
6. Education levels
7. Location
8. Whether or not they have children
9. Social or professional groupings (job, industry, social class, etc.)
10. Interests (could be a hobby, musical preference, favorite sport, etc.)

When choosing or identifying a website’s target market, there are a few things to keep in mind:

1. The size of the target market.
2. Whether the target market is growing or shrinking.
3. Whether or not there’s a demand for the website or online business in the particular target market.
4. Whether or not is would be easy to monetize the target market. (For example, you wouldn’t sell high-end electronics to a low-income target market, and you wouldn’t run a content site exclusively on ad revenues if your target market is traditionally “ad blind.”)
5. Things that influence members of the target market. (For example, would they be more responsive to paid advertising on other websites, or would they be influenced more by a referral from a friend, whereas a focus on viral marketing would be best?)

After identifying a website’s market, specific target marketing tactics can be modeled around their influences and behaviors, saving time and money when marketing a website or online business.

Email marketing includes much more than just sending email newsletters to website visitors. Email marketing is an important type of Internet marketing, and allows webmasters and online business owners to use inexpensive direct marketing and relationship marketing tactics quickly and efficiently.

Here are some uses for email marketing:

1. Email newsletters
2. Email offers and coupons to past customers or visitors
3. Email surveys for market research and to measure customer satisfaction
4. Additional income stream with email advertisements or email list rentals
5. Marketing through ads purchased in others’ email marketing campaigns

Spam laws put restrictions on email marketers, from how email marketing lists can be built or gathered to the rights of email list subscribers to unsubscribe from future mailings. Follow these email marketing tips to stay out of trouble with anti-spam laws, and to build an email list with the best potential for conversions to sales, ad clicks, or more, by focusing on subscribers genuinely interested in the message.

1. Make the email list double opt-in (subscribers will sign up for the email list from a form on the website, and will have to confirm the subscription through an email before the subscription becomes active).

2. Include an ‘unsubscribe’ link at the bottom of every email sent to the email list. Never make it difficult for someone to unsubscribe from the list.

3. Try to gather the email marketing list independently, through on-site subscription forms or subscription options being included in the online order process for customers.

4. If purchasing or renting an email marketing list, purchase only from reputable email list distributors, and purchase lists highly targeted to the site’s target market to improve the rate of interest in the email campaigns.

5. If subscribers are slow to come naturally, offer an incentive, such as a free e-book, articles, reports, software, or something similar of interest to the target readership that can be included with a welcome email or in a download.

6. To increase the probability that email newsletters and similar mailings will be read, offer both an HTML and a plain text version to account for readers who use non-HTML email providers or programs.

7. If using email newsletters for email marketing efforts, try to keep email campaigns regular, but not so often that they become a nuisance to the subscribers.

When running a website or online business, it’s important to choose the best Internet marketing tactics, which will offer the biggest reward in traffic or income compared to the amount of time or money invested. This is called getting a good ROI (return on investment) from your Internet marketing tactics.

There are many common, and general, forms of Internet marketing, and most can work for a wide variety of websites and online businesses through the different Internet marketing tactics available in each. These are some of the basic types of Internet marketing:

1. Email Marketing – email newsletters, coupons and offers, etc.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – link-building, keyword optimization, etc.
3. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – search engine advertising, etc.
4. Viral Marketing – video / file-sharing, tell-a-friend, etc.
5. Affiliate Marketing – having others sell your products for a percentage
6. Online Advertising – banner ads, text link ads, sponsorships, etc.
7. Online PR – online press releases, blogging, etc.

There are a few steps in choosing the best Internet marketing tactics for a website or online business:

1. Choose a niche or industry.
2. Identify the target market.
3. Determine what most influences that target market.
4. Evaluate the competition’s strengths, weaknesses, and their marketing tactics.
5. Create an Internet marketing plan, including a marketing budget.

As a part of creating an Internet marketing plan, list all possible Internet marketing tactics that fit your budget and have the potential to reach your target market. Once you have a master list of potential Internet marketing tactics, run each through the following checklist to narrow down the best options, and create your final list of Internet marketing tactics for your website or online business:

__ Will reach the target market.
__ Will be able to influence the target market.
__ Has been used in this niche or other niche’s targeting a similar market successfully before (better if it’s been used to target a similar market, but never exactly done in the current niche)
__ Will set the website apart from the competition.
__ Will fit within the Internet marketing budget for the site.

Branding, or brand marketing, is a basic concept in marketing. Essentially, branding involves marketing materials and tactics that help to build and maintain an image with a company’s, or website’s, target market. Branding on the Web is about building recognition of a website, and giving visitors or customers a specific feeling or attitude about the site, based on the message the owner wants to convey. Examples of online branding materials include:

1. A website’s official name.

2. A domain name.

3. A logo.

4. A color scheme.

5. Packaging materials on any products being sold.

6. Images on banner ads for the site.

7. A site slogan.

Building brand recognition, even online where branding materials can be in front of a target market regularly, takes time. Here are some keys to effective branding online:

1. Ensure that all online branding elements actually appeal to the target market.

2. Online branding materials should be memorable, and should portray the company’s intended image.

3. A website’s message to its target audience should be consistent throughout all of its branding materials.

Building a brand image for a website or online business isn’t enough. A webmaster or business owner has to constantly reinforce their branding efforts with their target market. Here are some Internet marketing tactics that help to reinforce brand marketing efforts:

1. Online Advertising (Using the company logo, slogan, color scheme, and message in advertisements when possible keeps a brand visually in front of members of a target market.)

2. Email Marketing (Including a logo and slogan on all email correspondence reinforces branding, while regular communication with members of a target market keeps that message fresh in their minds.)

3. Online PR (Announcing regular news related to a website through press releases or blogging can keep a website’s name and message in front of the target audience. It also provides a way to build and maintain trust in a brand by letting webmasters and online business owners display their expertise in the niche through blog posts and press release quotes.)

Article marketing involves the process of publishing articles to article directories, e-zines, or websites as a marketing tactic. The two biggest marketing benefits of article marketing are link-building and reputation-building within a niche. Here are the basic steps of article marketing:

1. Write a niche article (generally in the niche of the writer’s own website or industry in which they work), or hire someone to write a niche article.

2. Create a “resource box” at the end of the article, with the author’s or professional’s byline, and a short bio, which often includes one or more hyperlinks to the author’s website(s).

3. Distribute the article through article directories (for mass publication) or through e-zines and/or niche websites for links or exposure.

How to Use Article Marketing for Link-Building

Article marketing allows a webmaster or online business owner to build a potentially large number of one-way incoming links to their website. This is often done by using article directories, which are large collections of articles.

Article directories generally require an author to grant distribution permissions which allow visitors to the article directories to use those articles on their own websites, e-zines, or elsewhere online. Many directories then require users of the articles (or publishers) to maintain the resource box, including live links.

Every time an article submitted to an article directory is re-published, it provides an additional backlink to the author’s website. Article directories generally allow an unlimited number of publishers to re-publish the content submitted to the site.

How to Use Article Marketing for Reputation-Building

Using article marketing for reputation-building is very similar to using article marketing for link-building. An author would often follow the exact steps as in the previous case, but with a different end goal in mind. The links included in the resource box would point to their business website (such as a lawyer writing legal articles, and then linking to their law firm’s website). In this case, the authors would write on topics in their area of expertise. The idea is to build trust with readers, and their reputation as an expert in the subject matter, to hopefully encourage visits to their business site from potential clients.

Another option for article distribution when using article marketing for reputation-building is to keep the distribution more limited. Some authors will write only for one authority website in their industry or niche, which allows them to include a resource box or otherwise link to their business website. Some authors will distribute an article only to hand-picked niche outlets, although to none exclusively. Still others will distribute their articles through e-zines that reach a targeted email list of potential clients.