| To find out what makes advertising on the Internet far | | | | search engine rankings you need a plethora of high |
| more “interesting” than any other type of | | | | quality links coming into your Website. |
| advertising, let’s take a look at some of the | | | | Now, as many of you will appreciate, this is not an |
| underlying assumptions that go into traditional | | | | easy thing to accomplish. For many small businesses, |
| advertising, in order to see how our current mindset | | | | just one link from a well know, popular site could make |
| affects the way we communicate with our potential | | | | all the difference between success and failure. A site |
| customers. Let begin by imagining how a conventional | | | | which has millions of visitors a month that links to small |
| advertising transaction works: | | | | business could ostensibly send thousands of potential |
| 1) A business will initially decide to disseminate some | | | | customers over to their linking partners – and |
| sort of promotional material to the public | | | | thousands of customers visiting anyone’s site is |
| 2) They will either go directly to an advertiser (TV or | | | | a licence to print money (provided they pick up what |
| Radio Station, Magazine, Newspaper etc) in order to | | | | you put down). |
| place their ad, or | | | | But, the catch is that big businesses are not inclined to |
| 3) They will hire a firm to perform a market analysis, | | | | just link to any old site – especially when they are |
| draw up a campaign and execute and run this | | | | charging thousands of dollars for people to place ads |
| campaign on their behalf | | | | on their WebPages that link to their Websites. So how |
| 4) Finally, the advertisement is exposed to the market | | | | in the world does one go about obtaining high quality |
| This all makes a lot of sense and is exactly how | | | | links from big Websites? The answer is: |
| businesses have reached their customers for | | | | You have to make your own big Website and have it |
| hundreds of years now. The problem is it’s | | | | link to you! |
| based on the assumption that the client is simply the | | | | At this point, you may be growling something to the |
| recipient of the advert and can not participate or | | | | effect of “If I could build my own big Website, I |
| interact with said material. You know what’s | | | | wouldn’t be reading this article”. Well, |
| coming next… | | | | I’ll admit that it probably isn’t too easy to |
| The Internet, of course, has changed everything and | | | | build one by yourself, but you and five thousand other |
| turned conventional marketing conventions on their | | | | people in the same position could. All you would need is |
| heads! Or, has it? Actually, so inured in the standard | | | | a central meeting point that you could all link to – |
| way of doing things are we that we have simply | | | | this central meeting point would then have tens of |
| transferred the advertising convention from traditional | | | | thousands of incoming links from businesses all over |
| media to the Internet, without any regard for how we | | | | the show. Ask anyone how highly ranked a site with |
| can utilize the unique opportunities that the World-wide | | | | say 5000 incoming links would be and I’m sure |
| Web provides. | | | | they would jump at the chance to link to it. |
| The “unique” opportunities I am referring to | | | | But where is there such a site? Well, to my knowledge |
| in this instance arise from the fact that unlike television, | | | | there is only one – [ (along with its sister sites). |
| for example, the Internet is fully inter-active. In other | | | | Gridverts.biz lists adverts from customers who have |
| words, if I see an advert on TV, I can either buy the | | | | to submit to a certain code of standards and |
| product or not, the advertiser has no way of telling | | | | encourages its advertisers to link back to them. In this |
| whether I was sleeping through the ad, listening intently, | | | | way, as the number of customers grows, so the |
| or doing something else entirely. With the Internet, | | | | number of incoming links grow, and in turn the |
| however, I can respond to the ad, endorse the product, | | | | popularity of the site blooms. |
| sell it onwards, or affiliate with the company, buy the | | | | As the popularity of the site increases, so does the |
| product, critique it, ignore it… whatever! | | | | visibility of the adverts because GridVerts.biz starts |
| What’s more, using the Internet as a medium for | | | | showing up in more and more searches. With the |
| advertising gives us the ability to accurately measure | | | | increased popularity in search ranking comes the |
| the impact and visibility of the advert. So how precisely | | | | inevitable increase in traffic, which in turns benefits the |
| are we using the Internet at present? The following list | | | | advertiser. So the cycle continues – more and |
| discusses the “slight” improvements in the | | | | more links from more and more advertisers means |
| way we do things: | | | | more and more traffic and everyone benefits. |
| 1) Increased ability to isolate target audience that is | | | | Looking at how this affects the shape of advertising: |
| predisposed to buying certain products (i.e. Google | | | | 1) Customers use search engines to locate what they |
| Ads) | | | | want |
| 2) Enhanced ability to track advert coverage and | | | | 2) Search engines return the popular websites on their |
| exposure | | | | front pages |
| 3) Ability to engage customers interactively through | | | | 3) These popular websites are visited and recommend |
| forms and links | | | | the businesses that are advertised |
| Advertising on the Internet obviously has some | | | | 4) These businesses in turn are linked to the popular |
| advantages that make it worthwhile for companies to | | | | Website and refer their own customers to the |
| divert marketing dollars online. It’s easy to say | | | | Marquee, increasing the overall traffic of the |
| this because everyone knows that the Internet | | | | community |
| advertising industry is growing rapidly and already | | | | This “tent or marquee” principle that relies |
| represents billions of dollars each year. But why does | | | | on reciprocal linking from thousands of advertisers is |
| this method still fall short of the actual | | | | going to revolutionize the way in which advertising is |
| “potential” of the Internet as a medium for | | | | done because it works on a community basis. In other |
| advertising? | | | | words, it builds up a community of advertisers who |
| The answer lies in the unique way the Internet has | | | | would otherwise be excluded from the Internet |
| developed. People find the information they need, by | | | | mainstream because of their lack of funds or size. |
| and large, through search engines such as Yahoo and | | | | GridVerts.biz is the Internet’s way of levelling the |
| Google. As a result of this it has become important to | | | | playing field between those large organizations with |
| feature highly on these search engines in order to | | | | large budgets and those with more modest means. |
| maintain a certain level of visibility on the Internet. But, | | | | In order to encourage participation in the GridVerts.biz |
| no one really knows exactly what makes a site rank | | | | Marquee, they offer up to $80 000 in refunds for their |
| number one because no one is privy to the exact | | | | top clients as a way of rewarding those community |
| algorithms that Yahoo and Google use to rank pages. | | | | members who evangelize the Website the most. Using |
| What we do know is that there are a variety of | | | | a referral system, GridVerts.biz measures who has |
| factors which are “important” if you wish | | | | brought in the most money and at the end of the |
| to compete in the rankings stakes. One of the most | | | | buying period (the site should be over 80% full) refunds |
| important factors is linking – the more links you | | | | them a set amount – regardless of whether they |
| have coming into your site, the higher your perceived | | | | have spent $50 or $5000 in advertising on the site. |
| popularity. To stop everyone cheating, the search | | | | If you are not convinced then all I have to say is |
| engines analyze the relation the linking sites have to | | | | “Have a little faith – it will work if everyone |
| each other and the perceived quality of all the sites | | | | acts together. |
| involved. What this means is in order to fare well in the | | | | |