Online Advertising Methods
By Trina L.C. Schiller

When advertising a merchandise , or service off line, it seems that your selling options are pretty straight forward. You might use 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 advertising online, its a whole new ball game, isnt it?


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


safe lists
visitors exchanges: beginning page programs, exit programs, etc..
link exchanges
banner ads
classifieds
FFAs (free for alls) hyperlink farms
bulletin boards
bulk mailing
ezine ads
RSS advertising
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 advertising, starting with email advertising.

The options that fall into the category of electronic mail branding 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 may 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 costless members do get a virtual ton of mail, most free of cost members do not 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 ad 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 getting 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 end. Alternately, you may purchase a solo ad, which is mailed separately from the actual ezine, without other advertisements.

Article submissions are a grand way to get costless selling 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 ad, and you will do fine.

Ezine promoting has been, and still continues to be, the most popular and affordable method of electronic mail selling . 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 selling , ezine branding as well, has become less workable 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 sizeably good, 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 grasping 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 email selling options available. However, you may always create and publish your own ezine, and take a stab at building your own list.