Re: Search Engine Promotions

From: Michael Martinez <Michael_at_xenite.org>
Date: Wed 07 Mar 2001 12:32:56 -0600

MICHAEL MARTINEZ <Michael_at_xenite.org> WROTE:

> A search engine is a poor man's advertising campaign.
> Search engine promotions should NOT be the
> foundation of most business Web site promotional
> strategies.

TO WHICH LINDA ROCCO <GUMMYLUMP_at_aol.com> REPLIED:

>Would you please expand on this. I'm interested to see
>where you're going with this and what you see as the
>advertising alternative for "the poor man."

>I hope you're not going to say that print advertising
>will drive visitors to web sites faster than search
>engines. Maybe you meant that comment in relation to
>businesses who also have a brick and mortar store?

Frankly, I'm not sure of what I was referring to when
I wrote the above. I suspect, based on long-held
principles which I've shared freely in numerous forums,
I was speaking strictly of the resources that brick-and-
mortar businesses can bring to bear in terms of promoting
their Web sites.

If you're already doing business with people, you probably
are having all sorts of printed material created, from
sales receipts to invoices to freight labels to brochures,
etc. I would put my URL on everything, even a cash
register receipt (if the cash register would print it --
but a lot of retail businesses have set up computer
printers with terminals combined with cash register drawers
-- so they can print anything).

Any business which is already purchasing traditional
advertising would be nuts NOT to mention its Web site in
those ads, and I have seen more and more advertisements
(print and boadcast) which mention URLs. I even hear
them on radio ads these days.

Basically, if you're already in contact with people off the
Internet, you can build your Web presence by telling all
the people you have contact with where to find your Web
site.

A Web-based business faces a lot of challenges. Adding
to the burden of online promotions by taking up expensive
media campaigns doesn't make much sense to me. However,
a few years ago I did experiment with targeted classified
ads in print magazines and had a good response. I suppose
a lot of people are putting Web sites into the classfieds
these days, so that may no longer work as well as it once
did.

My problem has always been that as soon as I come up with
a neat idea, other people adopt it and the idea gets burned
out quickly. And, of course, there are other great minds
out there thinking like me, too.

Michael Martinez
Science Fiction and Fantasy info_at_xenite.org
Visualizing Middle-earth, a book for all Tolkien fans
http://www.xenite.org/



Received on Wed Mar 07 2001 - 12:32:56 CST