Advertising Where do I Start?

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by Erika of Simply Websets.com

You`ve started up your business and it`s ready to show to the world...now what? A good place to start is to build yourself an advertising plan of action.

Here are a few steps to ensure you`re off to a good start:

Find your target market
If you are selling handmade crafts it wouldn`t make much sense to advertise on a website that sells fly fishing equipment. Why? I would assume that the visitors that website generates would be mostly men.
You`d do much better to spend your ad dollars on a site that is targeted towards women or mothers.

Let`s take this site as another example:
I wouldn`t want to advertise my website on a site that sells ebooks about how to fix your car... Sure, I might get a few hits to my site, but I would do better to place advertising for my site on other places that attract moms who are in home business--since that is what my site is all about!

Save yourself time and money and find your target market before purchasing advertising anywhere!

What`s Your Budget?
Just because you pay more, doesn`t necessarily mean that your ad campaign will do better at first. The key is to spend within your advertising budget and as your business becomes more successful, opt to go to on and offline sources that have a high circulation or traffic rate for added visibility.
Start small, but dream big! What do I mean by that statement?
Get yourself established and let people see your business name several times. Once you begin to get a solid reader/visitor base, go ahead and take some of your profits and get better ads in more prominent places. And for crying out loud--don`t stop advertising!!! Keep your name out there, in front of the world to see; it takes an average of a person seeing your ad seven times before they will click on your ad, so don`t give up!

Remember, networking is one of the best free forms of advertising you could possibly have! Join message boards that have to do with your target market and post a link to your website in your signature line. You might even make a friend or two along the way. Write articles for reprint and submit them to places that will freely distribute your content. You will gain visitors by utilizing your author byline.
The more people you network with in the business world, the better--make good use of free advertising!

What Type of Ads Should You Purchase?
There seems to be a controversy over which ads give a better return;
Text Ads or Button/Banner Ads.
In my experience, text ads seem to do much better online.
I think that people are so overwhelmed with graphics on the internet that they tend to block out the banner ads.

A text ad can do wonders if executed correctly!
Write yourself an attention grabbing, short and to the point text ad and you`ll do well for yourself.
Newsletters, blogs, and websites most always offer text ads.

I`m not against banner or button ads--especially when they are placed correctly such as at the top of a high traffic page and it`s the only banner ad on that section of the page.

Ultimately, it`s up to you. Go ahead and test both methods and see which form of advertising works for you.

Integrity
Pay attention to the site you are about to advertise on...
What kind of reputation do they have? Are there lots of work at home scams listed on their site? How long have they been in business? What are there site stats? What have you heard about the site--good or bad?
Just do your homework before spending your hard earned advertising money. It`s your good business name that`s on the line, and you wouldn`t want to be a part of some fly by night, shim-sham, scam center that only prey on innocent moms who are looking to work from home.
If integrity matters to you--pay attention to the site you are thinking about doing business with before getting involved.

These are only a few bits of advice to help you with your advertising techniques, but I feel those are the most vital to start with.

I cannot stress this enough--Find your target market first!! Don`t waste your time advertising on places that are not interested in what you have to offer.
If you can take that one principle and put it into practice, you`re one step closer to a successful ad campaign...

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