Internet marketing complete simple for the trainee

By: Christopher Enders

There are so many internet marketingpossibilities for promoting an online business, or even a traditional business. The ability to engage in internet marketing has truly opened the door for women in business and has made working from home a lot easier than it used to be.


Internet marketingcan be much less expensive than traditional marketingand it can reach a huge, precisely targeted audience. Because there are no geographic barriers in internet marketing, it is truly possible to do business worldwide and to sell anything from anywhere, even from the comfort of your own home. Following is a simple explanation of some of the most common internet marketing options that you can use to promote your business.


Article Distribution


Distributing professional articles with a resource box that directs readers to your websiteis a very valuable and effective method of internet marketing. The articles can be given away with permission to reprint at-will under the terms that the article content and resource box cannot be changed. Many websiteoperators will post these articles on their websites which will direct visitors to your website
as well as enhancing your internet marketing link campaigns.



Directory Listings


Directory listings are a form of internet marketing that can be very useful. Directories are a lot like search engines, only listings in the directories are anaged and ranked by people rather than by automated, electronic means. Many directories accept directory listings free of charge, so they can be an inexpensive and effective form of internet marketing.


Email Marketing


Email marketingis a viable internet marketing technique that is very similar to direct mail. Generally, it is best for internet marketing messages sent via email to be sent to opt-in or subscriber lists. However, third party lists can be purchased for the purpose of email marketing.


If using third-party lists, check into how the emailaddresses were collected and make sure that they are truly targeted lists with content gathered from individual who opted to receive information relevant to what you are sending.


Ezine Advertising


Ezine advertising, as an internet marketing option, is a lot like advertisingin a magazine; only the "magazine" is delivered to subscribers electronically rather than through the mail. Companies that distribute online newsletters often sale advertising in their newsletters as well, and some may even trade out for an advertisement in your newsletter.


Link Campaigns


Building links to your website from other websitesthat have information relevant to your target market should be a part of your internet marketing plan. Link popularity, the number of links coming in to your website, and link relevancy, the relevance of the website that is linking to you, can improve your website ranking in the search engines as well as directing targeted traffic to your site.


Pay-Per-Click Search Engine Marketing


Pay-per-click search engine marketing is one of the most successful forms of internet arketing.
Basically, pay-per-click search engine advertising is a process whereby you bid on specific keywordsthat will direct targeted trafficto your website. You are listed in the search engines based upon the amount you bid for the keyword. You are charged the bid price each time a visitor clicks on the search engine listing, through to your website. This is a good internet
marketing option because you only pay for successful click-throughs which result in traffic
to your website.


Portal Listings


Portals are similar to directories but are generally specific to a topic or industry. Because visitors to portals have interest in the topic, getting listed in a portal that is relevant to your business can be a very effective internet marketing technique for driving targeted, qualified traffic to your website.

Search Engine Marketing


Search engine marketing is a much preferred internet marketing option because the majority of visitors to just about any website come via the use of a search engine. Search engines use what is called spiders or crawlers which are really just software programs that index websites and determine their relevance, based on the search engine's rules, to the information a person using an internet browser is looking for.


There are also meta search engines that draw from the results of other search engines, and specialty search engines that are geared to a particular topic or industry. To get listed in search engines, a website needs to be optimized and submitted to the search engines. Major search engines include Google, Yahoo!, MSN, Alta Vista and others.