Online Advertising Methods
By Trina L.C. Schiller

When selling a merchandise , or service off line, it seems that your selling options are pretty straight forward. You can make use of newspapers, magazines, telephone directories, business cards, direct mail, radio and even television, if your budget allows. None of these options are difficult to understand, or implement. But when it comes to branding online, its a whole new ball game, isnt it?


There are so many more selling options online, and every venue claims to be the best; so where does one initial ? What options really are the best? Lets beginning by looking at what is available.


safe lists
traffic exchanges: initial page programs, exit programs, etc..
backlink exchanges
banner ads
classifieds
FFAs (free of price for alls) backlink farms
bulletin boards
bulk mailing
ezine ads
RSS selling
article publication
press releases
ad swapping
paid to read, paid to click, paid to surf...
The list could go on, but I am going to focus on these methods, being the most popular and well known options. For the sake of thoroughness, and space, this article is the first in a series, examining all of these methods of promoting, starting with email selling .

The options that fall into the category of e mail advertising are: safe lists, ezines, bulk mailing, and article submissions.

Safe lists are an option bywhich you sign up to be a part of the list you are going to send mail to. Most have different membership levels, which dictate when you may send, how many you might send to and how much mail you will receive in return. As a costless member to a safe list, you are going to receive a lot of mail, all ads from other members of the list.

Since free of cost members do get a virtual ton of mail, most free of cost members dont bother reading much, if any of it. Therefore, it is preferrable to purchase paid memberships to these lists. Paid members usually receive mail from other paid members only, reducing the amount of mail received, and increasing the chances of grasping your advertisement read.

Using safe lists requires stamina. In order to utilize them effectively, other than purchasing a membership, one must mail to them each and every day, without fail. You must utilize attention acquiring headlines, and your copy must be in top form, because the competition is fierce.

Ezine ads come in a few of different forms. There are classified ads, sponsorship ads and solo ads, as well as article submissions.

Classified ads are typically grouped together, just as they are in print publications, while sponsorship ads occur throughout the actual copy of the ezine. Price is dictated by the position of the advertisement within the copy. Top sponsor ads costing more than ads placed in the middle, or near the finish . Alternately, you might purchase a solo advertisement , which is mailed separately from the actual ezine, without other advertisements.

Article submissions are a sizeably successful way to get free marketing within ezines, because publishers are always looking for quality content to give their readers. Just be sure that what you are submitting is an article and not a solo advertisement , and you will do fine.

Ezine selling has been, and still continues to be, the most popular and affordable method of e mail marketing. Basically, you are renting the publishers list, which is much easier than trying to establish your own list to mail to. However, because of bulk mailing, all email branding, ezine advertising as well, has become less good than it once was. The competition here, is in the number of emails in the inbox of another. Again, you must have an attention grabber for a headline, and dazzling, solid copy to go with it.

Bulk mailing was popular until the CAN-SPAM ACT came along. Actually, the CAN-SPAM Act is the direct result of over zealous bulk mailers. It is not a selling method I recommend. It is expensive, risky, and the liklihood of taking your advertisement read is slim to none, even if you do manage to get through the filters, managing the inboxes of the net.

These are the basic e mail advertising options available. However, you can always create and publish your own ezine, and take a stab at building your own list.