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Click on Me: The Truth about Internet Advertising

 - by Todd Jensen

(c) Todd Jensen - All Rights Reserved
http://www.theprofitengineer.com
http://www.freebusinessstartupinfo.com
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I want to own MSN

I read somewhere that up to 90% of internet users have
their home pages set to MSN. I can’t verify that statistic,
but I know I use my MSN home page daily.
 
Why wouldn’t I? I set up my MSN homepage to show me
exactly what I want to see every day. Weather forecasts,
local and national news, movie times at my local theater,
and even my favorite comic strip!
 
My home page also rotates a constant stream of interesting
articles, just waiting for me to click and read.
 
Please understand. Those tempting titles and snippets of
information are designed for one purpose, and one purpose
only.

Advertising.

Every time you open one of those great little
articles, you are hit with multiple banner advertisements
for the next greatest thing. Banner advertising has become
so prominent that most long-term internet readers ignore
them, and zoom their eyes directly to the article title and
contents. We even ignore the insistent flashing and
commands to “Click Here.”

 
But don’t despair! Most MSN articles take a break
midstream, allowing us to view even more text advertising
smack dab in the center of the article! And, by design, you
will typically read a few of those ads before groping for
the scroll bar, frantically moving down to the rest of the
article content.
 
But don’t forget the insidious text link! The highlighted
blue text just begs to be clicked! I rarely read an article
without clicking through at least one text link.
 
If you don’t know this by now, MSN gets paid for all of
this advertising. Pennies for each impression or click on
all of these banner ads, text ads, and text links ads up to
thousands and thousands, if not millions of advertising
dollars each day.
 
You may think I am complaining about all of this
advertising. In truth, I think this is genius at work!
 
MSN would not publish all these great articles if they did
not get paid. They run a business, and business requires
revenue to operate. You cannot operate any business long
term without an adequate stream of revenue. I like the
articles, and I really don’t mind scrolling past the ads in
exchange for the information and/or entertainment.
 
Internet advertising has revolutionalized the advertising
industry. 

Instead of spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars
to place a print ad, business owners can use pay-per-click
or pay-per-impression internet advertising to spread the
word about their company. Internet advertising makes
national advertising campaigns possible for every business.

 
For writers, internet advertising allows us to get paid to
pursue what we love. Writing takes time away from other
income producing activities, whether it  be a business or a
job. Internet advertising allows writers to be rewarded
financially for their efforts. And since internet
advertising is paid based on readership, better or more
useful writing efforts will be paid accordingly.
 
If you write, consider using Commission Junction
(www.cj.com ) or LinkShare (www.linkshare.com) to find
advertising opportunities to support your writing efforts.
 
If you own a small business, test your ads using Google
Adwords (http://adwords.google.com) or Yahoo! Search
Marketing
(http://sem.smallbusiness.yahoo.com/searchenginemarketing/)
before you launch a large banner campaign. You may also
want to consider some of the smaller pay-per-click
advertising companies reviewed on PayPerClickSearchEngines
http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com.
 
Used correctly, internet advertising can be good for both
business and consumers. Most consumers are happy to find
out about new products and services. And all businesses can
benefit from the opportunity to share their products and
services using a relatively low cost advertising medium.
 
Instead of whining about the commercialization of the
internet, learn from MSN. Create great content, and the
clicks, along with dollars, will follow.

 

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Todd Jensen, "The Profit Engineer", has helped hundreds
of business owners make their business more successful
and profitable.  For tips and strategies on how to
boost your business success as well as increase your
profits, visit
http://www.theprofitengineer.com or
http://www.freebusinessstartupinfo.com

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