If you have ever visited a bookshop/store like Popular, Times, Borders or Kinokuniya, you would have realized that they have a dedicated “self-help” section.
In this section, shelves would be aligned with grooming guides to books on improving EQ. There would also be books for Casanova wannabes (Pick-Up Artist guides, or rather, PUA guides). The most popular books would be on achieving success (whatever that means) and more specifically – How to be a millionaire. All these books are highly theoretical and some even lack empirical evidence (scientific backing). I am not saying that the content is objectionable, just how we should be discerning enough to not take them at face value - reading a book by a successful entrepreneur will not make you rich.
So how different is this blog entry from balderdash? Since I am not a prolific blogger, much less an award bagging marketer? For two good reasons, I am only sharing thoughts and observations and there is nothing to lose from reading this. And before I proceed, I must highlight that I will try to present unbiased facts for most parts of the article. All my personal comments will be explicitly noted with an asterisk *
Though Im a novice marketer, I can safely claim that I am an experienced net user and have had some training in web-related technologies. At the very least, I have surfed so many websites and seen how people can attract plenty of unique visitors even though the content falls nothing short of (my apologies), nonsense. What do these websites have in common that makes them so irresistible to the average Internet surfer? Perhaps at this point of time you should think deeper and note down the similar traits between such websites. Many of these sites have vastly different content; appeals to different crowds yet at the same time command a religious following.
The Internet has revolutionized the imparting of such knowledge as many such books are now available online in the form of e-books and websites. Well this has greatly enhanced the interactive value of good ol boring texts and at the same time increased knowledge diffusion but it does not change the fact that you will not become a millionaire overnight unless you win the lottery.
There are Internet marketing "gurus" like Stuart Tan and Ewen Chia who swear by marketing through the use of Internet (affiliate, link exchange). However, most of these tactics are more than a decade old (Ewen Chia first used these in the late 90s) and I can attest them to be more of bloated truths. Indeed if there is money to be made you still have to be the “best” in this field. “Best” here does not refer to just technically inclined or gifted. You have to be unafraid of the attention and use it to boost your popularity because this gives you more credibility (well, somewhat) and reach to the vast internet audience. You also have to be incredibly innovative or die trying.
In exchange for your popularity on the Internet, you would be able to effectively use the various marketing techniques and tools to sell your products/services or help your sponsors advertise theirs.
So what exactly is Internet Marketing? By definition from wikipedia: Internet marketing, also referred to as i-marketing, web marketing, online marketing, or eMarketing, is the marketingof products or services over the Internet.
This does not shed light on what exactly Internet Marketing is and how we can use it to our advantage. Reading on - Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization(SEO), banner ads on specific websites, e-mail marketing, and Web 2.0 strategies. In other words, even random email spamming can be considered as a type of web marketing.
Many marketing companies now use search engine marketing and search engine optimization in a bid to manipulate the results that search engines like Yahoo, Google and Microsoft’s Bing come up with when a user enters a word. The higher a particular link appears on the search would mean that a higher likelihood of a user going to that particular website. On a side note, search engine companies are always trying to improve on the accuracy of searches - which means they change their algorithms very often and these algorithms are never revealed to the public as they are the means and commercial secrets for search engine companies to earn dollars
This gives the companies a chance to pitch their products to the unsuspecting consumer who may not know that the search was rigged. Well, of course this is an unscrupulous practice which is becoming less apparent, not that this is no longer in use. Search engine companies sell links and banners to companies which are displayed during ongoing related searches. Google for example, makes money by packaging advertising products (such as Adwords and Adsense), and gives a portion of the money for Internet users to display dynamic links on their blogs and websites. Therefore the most popular search engines will have more regular users and this will provide a regular income stream for search engine companies.
On a separate note, different words command different prices. Generic words/string of words such as “pizza” or “Korean television” are worth much more than strings of rarely used/unpopular words such as “plucky duck chair” or any other unintelligible terms.
With more of such generic words being used by competitors for businesses and websites (and also banning of use of some words by some countries – for example, the use of Temasek in Singapore is disallowed unless approved), you are left with not many choices. One can only seek short and easy to remember strings of words yet nothing too extraordinary as business and domain names. Do not fret however, as this might prove to be the wisest move*.
The one aspect which you can toy with is to use non-generic words for your website/business. Although generic words are those that come to mind first for most people, it helps if you are able to establish a brand from scratch. One example would be “BreadTalk” which is obvious enough that it is a joint-word. “BreadTalk” was unlikely to immediately evoke any understanding as compared to “BreadShop” (until now). Another thing to note would be the less costs of buying up search engine banners and links if your target market is niche and your domain-name/business/product/service, unique.
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