Profit Maximization Through Internet Marketing(2)

Search Engine Optimization is the art of raising the profile of a Web site legitimately to increase your site’s visibility, and to do that you definitely require the services of consulting firms that are into Internet marketing. If you own a Web site, for instance, about African dishes, your site’s Google ranking will improve as other sites link to it. The more links to your site, especially those from other African cooking-related sites, the higher your ranking. In a way, what Google is measuring is your site’s popularity by polling the best-informed online fans of African cooking and counting their links to your site as votes of approval. Though, you have to be mindful of consulting firms that uses illegitimate tricks or use malicious links to artificially inflate your site’s visibility to improve search engine rankings, like link schemes, because the penalty for getting caught is that your company will sink in search engine results.

Another important part of Internet marketing is Affiliate Marketing; in Affiliate Marketing advertisers hire persons called affiliates to help them with marketing. Often, the advertiser and affiliate do not have a direct relationship. Rather, a company establishes an affiliate network, and the advertiser deals directly with the company instead of the affiliates.

Commission Junction is one of the largest companies that oversee an affiliate network. There are different ways to conduct affiliate marketing. The affiliate bids on keywords related to an advertiser’s product and develop the language for an impression. To a consumer, the impression appears to be direct links to an advertiser’s website. When a user clicks on that affiliate’s impression, the user is seamlessly taken through a number of websites before reaching the advertiser’s website.

This process enables Commission Junction to determine which affiliate generated the ‘click,’ so that commissions can be properly paid. In the other way, an affiliate establishes its own website. When a consumer clicks on an impression, the consumer is taken to the affiliate’s website, which contains links to an advertiser’s website for product purchases. At times, an affiliate’s website will contain advertisements from competing companies to present the consumer with different choices.

Advertisers who use the Commission Junction network enter into a Commission Junction Access Advertiser Service Agreement (the “CJ Advertiser Agreement”). The agreement authorizes the use of the advertiser’s web links, trademarks, and service marks for the purpose of promoting the advertiser.

These rights are then sub-licensed to affiliates.  The agreement also authorizes advertisers to terminate an affiliate who fails to comply with an advertiser’s program details or who breaches an advertiser’s intellectual property rights. The termination only precludes the affiliate from working on the advertiser’s account. It does not terminate the affiliate from the Commission Junction network.

The CJ Advertiser Agreement further specifies that the parties to the agreement shall be independent contractors and nothing in the business dealings shall be construed to make them joint ventures or partners with each other.

In turn, affiliates who join the Commission Junction network enter into a Commission Junction Publisher Service Agreement (the “CJ Affiliate Agreement”). Under this agreement, the affiliate agrees to abide by an advertiser’s program details. It agrees that none of its promotional materials will contain objectionable content.

The affiliate further warrants that its website will not infringe another’s rights under any promotional methods. The affiliate also agrees that it shall remain solely responsible for any and all Web sites owned and/or operated by [it] and all of [its] promotional methods.

After positioning your website as stated above, the following Google tools can enhance your business online:

Google AdSense

The Google AdSense program enables websites in the Google Network of content sites to automatically serve text and image ads that are precisely targeted to site content – so well matched, in fact, that readers actually find them useful. Targeting can be based on search results or on web content. The revenue generated from these ads is shared with partner publishers. Most of the websites that make up the Google Network sign up online, and some are directed to sites with significant traffic, under agreements that vary in duration. For network members, Google offers:

• AdSense for search. This enables websites of any size to generate additional revenue by serving relevant AdWords ads targeted to search results.

• AdSense for content. This program enables website publishers to generate revenue from advertising by serving relevant AdWords ads targeted to web content. Automated technology analyzes the meaning of web content and serves relevant advertising. AdSense for content can help websites offset publishing costs or even become a primary revenue stream. There is no charge for websites to participate in this program. Using automated sign-up process; web sites can quickly display AdWords ads on their site. Majority of the revenues generated from clickthroughs are shared on these ads with Google network members that display the ads.

Google AdWords as stated above is a global advertising program that enables advertisers to reach the people who are interested in their products or services. Advertisers use automated tools, often with little or no assistance from Google, to create ads, place bids to serve their ads, select the types of sites where they would like their ads to appear, and set daily spending budgets. AdWords features an automated, low-cost online signup process that enables advertisers to implement campaigns that can go live in 15 minutes or less.

AdWords ranks ads for display in one of two ways: either by CPM (Cost Per Thousand) or a by combination of the maximum cost per click (CPC), which is set by the advertiser, together with clickthrough rates and other factors used to determine the relevance of the ads. This process favors the ads that are most relevant to users, improving the experience for both the person looking for information and the advertiser looking for interested customers. AdWords has many features that make it easy to set up and manage ad campaigns for maximum efficiency and effectiveness.

Google Analytics

This tool is Free to all advertisers, publishers, and site owners, Google Analytics helps you identify the keywords, ads, referrals, and campaigns that contribute the most to your bottom line. Recently redesigned, the program can reveal even more about where visitors come from and how they interact with your site. Using Google Analytics can lead to better ads, strengthened marketing initiatives, and websites that convert more effectively.

In conclusion, I can categorically say that Internet marketing is no longer an option for a commercial organization. Whoever  is not advertising  on  the Internet  is actually  living  in  the  past, because  Internet advert can  be  location  specific. It is too cheap and effective to be ignored. A Nike sneaker shoe of about $100 that was advertised on Facebook during the world cup got close to 10 million ‘clicks’. Nike needed only 5 % of those clicks (though they got more) to make $50 million. This  is  just  one  product, then tell me  why Nike won’t spend $10 million annually  to advertise with Google. High end companies ranking  on Google’s top 10 sponsored  links   like AT&T, eBay etc spend  close to $3 million  monthly  on  Google  ads alone, and  those ads translate  into  profit.  Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/business/13search.html?_r=2&scp=2&sq=jc%20penny&st=cse

We  now  have  a  new  economy, institutions  and  products  are fast adapting to  the  new  economy. In this 21st century, because  of  the  flexibility  of  the  institutions  in  our  markets, it  is  very  difficult  for  the intrinsic  value  of  a product  to project its market  value. Value as we know is divided into two, the brand value and the image value. The brand value  or  the intrinsic  value is  actually   what  the  product can offer, and  the image value  is what  you tell the  market  the product  can  offer. In this  modern  technological age, it  is  the  Internet  that can  project  the  image value   of  a  product to the  market. Remember if you are not advertising on the Internet, it means your marketing strategy is outdated