Online advertising is experiencing exponential growth as more and more people use the internet for their everyday needs and businesses realize the power of leveraging this medium.
The beauty of Online Advertising is that the seller can reach a truly international audience, rather than just their local town or region within the footprint of the chosen radio or television station. With social networking and ‘share’ options, these ads are often still circulating long after the initial ad has been discontinued and it’s this ‘word of mouth advertising that really provides excellent value for money. However, Online Advertising is not just a matter of posting an advertisement and sitting back and waiting for the purchase orders to come rolling in. There are some basic principles necessary to first create a compelling advertisement and secondly, drive traffic to your site. After all, no traffic is just like having a sign up on an unused road, where no one will drive past and see it. So, today’s article will discuss some of the key principles of creating a compelling Online Advertisement and also how to drive traffic to your site.
Online advertising – A good advertisement
The What’s In It For Me Principle. If all you do is try to go the hard sell, human psychology dictates that most people will become skeptical or suspicious and not take the time to consider the detail of your product. If you apply the What’s In It For Me Principle and offer a FREE benefit to the reader, listener, or viewer your chances of catching their attention and them searching for more information are greatly increased. By offering something for FREE, you demonstrate that you have real confidence in your product. In other words, you need to GIVE before you ask/receive.
The Power of Story. Stories are a great way to highlight the success and the benefits of your product. A word of warning here though, the story must be ‘the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth’ otherwise you will be guilty of misleading and deceptive conduct.
Use the Power of Vice and Virtue. Human traits such as the Vices of Greed, Envy, and Pride; or Virtues like Charity, Patience, and Kindness appeal to the psyche of the reader and some of their deep desires or ambitions. It’s these emotions that often drive their call to action.
Online Advertising – Driving traffic
A fantastic advertisement is absolutely useless if there is no traffic driving past it. To be truly successful you must find a way to 1) Achieve higher priority in Search engine search results than the millions of other advertisements, and 2) build your reputation and brand.
The power of Keywords is a FREE method of achieving higher priority in Search Engine search results. Another way is paid to advertise like Pay Per Click (PPC) advertisements with Google or even Facebook. By combining the two you will have a very powerful and visible advertisement on the Internet.

There are literally hundreds of other ways to drive traffic to your landing page. Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Global share are fantastic options and business sites like LinkedIn are also great. You can create free individual or company pages, blogs, and forums, all with links back to your website, or you can write articles about your product and in the Resource section provide a link back to your landing page. These options provide great mediums for interested parties to follow your progress and stay up to date with developments within your company or industry.
Conclusion
Online advertising is just like any other form of advertising in that you must first create a compelling advertisement and secondly, it must be positioned correctly to achieve maximum views. If you get Online Advertising right, the whole world suddenly becomes your market.
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