Website Advertising

Dear MamaJen,

I own a website dedicated to women and their journey through life. The heart of the site is our forums where we are able to share our joys and concerns with each other in a safe and compassionate environment. It started because I don’t have a lot of friends locally and am alone a lot of the time. A few ladies I knew online were having the same problem so we created a website that I now own and operate. My problem is that I don’t have a lot of extra money for advertising, and while the few of us that are active are very close and love having our website it just isn’t active enough for the cost. I don’t want to have to close the site down because it is so important to us few who use it. How do I get our name out there and get more members without having to pay money?

-Memberless

Dear Memberless,

Let me first give credit to my following advice. I used to work for a company that built and maintained websites. Part of the services we offered there was advertising space on these websites. And of the various jobs I had there, I spent about 2-3 years doing sales programming and ad trafficking.

All that being said, I do not have a degree in marketing.  Although I have some experience in web advertising, I cannot claim to have any background on selling theory or marketing strategy. What I am advising is based on my experience during those 2-3 years, and my attempts at marketing my own online ventures.

Lets throw about some basic marketing terms, shall we?

1. Logo a logo is an image, letter, design that symbolizes your product.
2. Product what you are selling.
3. Branding the promotion of a product through association via it’s brand.

Let’s review branding for a moment. When you think of getting some fast food, what restaurant (and I use that term loosely) first jumps out in your mind? Likely, that restaurant would be McDonald’s. They have made themselves almost synonymous with “fast food.” They did that through branding; making their brand the first one you associate with their product.

Well done, McDonald’s. But how did they do it? Gold. I don’t just mean the money thrown into advertising, although that certainly didn’t hurt. But I am also referring here to the great logo; those majestic golden arches. That symbol that represents Happy Meals and red-haired clowns. That symbol that has been plastered from one side of television to another… on benches, on billboards, on broadcasts.

And yes, on the internet.

One does not simply advertise on the internet. The internet is a network, and as such, you can’t simply build a page or a site and expect that people will know about it. you have to have links to it from other pages, by hook or by crook.

Let’s take a look at “by crook” first. Here are some more marketing terms, this time in relation to internet advertising.

1. CPI- cost per impression. An impression is when a logo, ad, or something product related appears on a site (making a subconscious impression on the user). Cost per impression would be how much you pay for each time an impression is made (how much you pay for each time your ad is displayed).
2. CPM- cost per thousand impressions. Because subliminal messaging only works through repetition, CPM is the standard impression purchasing unit.
3. CPC- Cost per click-through. Just what it sounds like- how much you pay when someone clicks on your ad.

Almost all ads on the web are in units of CPM. The goal of internet advertising is not to get someone to go to your site. Have you ever gone to McDonald’s site? No. I’m not even certain they HAVE a site. Yet you purchase their burgers because your brain has been accosted by thousands of impressions of McDonald’s golden arches telling you that fast food IS McDonald’s.

People pay a lot of money for this kind of subliminal messaging. Because it works.

The less mainstream, not ad based, and thus free way to promote something is by word of mouth. The mouth on the internet is big and gossipy, if you tap into all the gossipy sites. And by gossipy sites, I mean social networking.

Facebook allows pages to be created. Twitter lets you post links. Blogs let you talk about your product. For all of these, you will need readers (or followers and fans). You will need people willing to buy into your product, and in doing so, be more likely to talk about and discuss your product. Web rings (groups of internet sites joined by a common theme that promote each other) are a good way of getting people to the site to start possible conversations. Cross promotion (wherein you post a link to a site that has in turn posted a link to your site) is another good way of doing this. People naturally trust places they have already chosen to be, and that trust will carry over to sites their trusted sites trust.

Unfortunately, there is only one good way for this to get started in any of the above listed ways of getting the word out to others. You have to be the first to talk about it.

If you believe in your product, it’s not such a big deal. But it’s somewhat reminiscent of religious people who knocks door to door, asking if you’ve heard of their system of worship. No one wants to be that annoying person on the front stoop. No one likes the narcissistic horn blower constantly talking about themselves and their products. No one wants to be a salesman.

But if you don’t sell it, who’s going to sell it for you?