What are the best forms of advertising online?
Pam asks:
What are the best places to advertise online?
Here is my response:
Well, this is going to be a long one. You may want to print this page.
I cannot comment on forms of advertising that I do not use but here is a list of the ones that I DO actually use that produce effective results.
1. Article Marketing
This is my number one honcho at the minute. Creating and writing articles targeted to your particular internet niche are the most effective way to grow your site and visitors short and long term. I use article submissions services to submit my articles to the article databases. I mostly write my own articles but occasionally pay someone, a ghostwriter, to write them for me.
You can hire someone to write articles for a few dollars each from Elance.com or Rentacoder.com. This is especially useful if you are building sites in a market about which you know little to nothing.
Putting keyword phrases as your linking text in the resource box of your articles create instant traffic and also increases your standing in the search engines, increasing your rankings over time.
2. Pay Per Click Search Engines
a) Google adwords
I occasionally use Google adwords to send traffic to my sites. Google Adwords is based on a pay per click system. You can pay anything from a few cents to a few dollars per click, depending on your budget. If you are not experienced this is a sure way to lose a lot of cash, quickly.
You can set up a Google adwords account for free. If you are contemplating using Adwords read Perry Marshalls Definitive Adwords Guide first. There is a free 5 day course available from his site.
b) Yahoo Search Marketing
Formally named Overture this is another program similar to Adwords although I find the traffic to be of lower quality. The upside is that you will not pay as much per click and can find some highly competitive search terms for a few cents per click.
3. Participating in Online Discussion Forums
Answering and asking questions at the numerous online discussion forums is a great way to get some free traffic. Most forums will allow you to post a signature files in which you leave a link back to your site. Then, when you participate in the forums readers will see your site address at the end of each of your posts.
Depending on how heavily you participate and the quality of your posts, PLUS your standing in the particular forum, the traffic can really add up. The downside is that you have to post daily and regularly to make this effective. Spending too much time in online forums can also hamper your progress.
My favorite Internet Marketing forum and most frequented in the Warrior Forum.
4. Free Traffic Exchanges
This is another free way to promote your site. Free traffic exchanges like Trafficswarm will send traffic to your site in exchange for visiting sites in it’s network. This can take up a lot of your time. There is a better way to do it though and that is by referring other members. That way when they surf you get a % of their surfing credits.
DO NOT send free traffic like this directly to your website. It is much more effective to use squeeze pages. These are email capture pages offering something free like a free ebook. You can see what I mean here 
Trafficswarm Squeeze Page. That is the squeeze page I use for Trafficswarm. As you can see there is very little on the page other than my free offer, this is done purposely. The main point of the page is to encourage free traffic exchange users to add their email address. I then promote my affiliate products and services to the list that I gather through the squeeze page.
Using Traffic Exchanges any other way is a waste of time.
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5. Blogging
That is basically what I am doing through this blog. I write posts, the blog sends a signal out(pings) that a new post has been made and the search engines visit to index my new page. Blogs are a fantastic way to attract search engine visitors and to promote your products or services. You can get many, many tips on how to do it just by browsing this site.
In my experience, it is much better to write original content than post content that you can find online, for instance at Ezinearticles.com. Do not over analyze though, whether original or duplicate content is better. The important thing is to get started.
6. Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking sites are simply a way for members like you and me to save our favorite websites online. Like many other sites, they are not setup to be used for online advertising but can be used to do so, without abusing them or angering other members.
Social bookmarking is a relatively new way to market your sites online. Sites like http://del.icio.us are now being seen as a great way to advertise your website and create backlinks to increase your search engine rankings. The important thing when posting to these sites is to stay within their rules. DO NOT spam.
Social bookmarking sites use tags which the user chooses when posting to their favorites. This is a good opportunity to add your sites keyword phrases. Each tag that you create will produce a new web page complete with your links on the bookmarking portals.
There are programs such as Anthony Ellis’ Auto Social Poster which will post each of your blog posts to numerous social bookmarking sites at once on auto-pilot. I use this extensively on many of my blogs.
7. Video Marketing
Again, video sites were not setup to provide marketing methods for online entrepreneurs. But hey, where there’s a will there’s a way 
.
One method that I have used recently was to create a short tutorial on a simple internet marketing method using Camtasia Video Creator, posted a watermark on the video using the same software and posted it to Youtube.
If it is something really usedul then there is the possibility that your video will get passed on. If it is useful AND funny then there is even more chance that your video will go viral. That is the aim of posting videos on Youtube and other video sites.
If your video DOES get passed on then each viewer will see the watermark in the video leading back to your website and may visit. Like all forms of online marketing, the more your employ this method the greater the rewards will be.
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This is just a short rundown, being as concise as possible, to outline my most effective forms of advertising. I employ each of these tactics, if not daily, then as often as time permits.
Please leave your comments below. I may have missed some other effective ways to market online and value your feedback.
If you have found this tutorial useful please visit and consider buying my recommended product for today: Dayjob Killer
Mal Keenan
Tags: online advertising, internet marketing, internet advertising, website promotion
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