I'll admit that I haven't actually started an online advertising campaign yet, and that's probably reason why I am my site's most popular visitor. But I'm already guessing that when I do, I'm going to run into same kind of dumb-and-dull ideas that just don't work for me, or for anyone probably either.

So I'm planning ahead. I'm going to find a method of marketing that is effective - even if it isn't conventional.

My advice is simply this. If you can't attract visitors to your site doing things net-acceptable way, why not try doing things your own way. Be your own Internet superstar!

It's easy to use multitude of available resources in unique and fabulous ways. Create your own systems. Design your own codes. Write your website copy so that you are impressed.

Forget about what everyone else does. When you're happy, what else matters? The worst thing that can happen is that you could go from 10 visitors a month to 6. Well, big deal! But best thing that could happen to you is that you could go from 10 visitors a month to a thousand!

Case in point, companies like Virtumundo, Inc. (they are a pioneer in performance based market) are now willing to charge nothing upfront in many cases for an advertising campaign and to just do a revenue share with you on back end; this is typically 20-40% of your SRP, will vary depending upon your goods and/or services. And, they will do a test campaign prior to a full-bore campaign to make sure that response rates will be worth their investment.

Another key benefit to any business that wants to leverage shifts occurring in performance-based marketing is its inherent ability to be highly targeted. You can tie a marketing process (campaign) to web site, newsletter or pay per click search engine (Overture and now via Google's Ad Words Program) with specific demographics that are highly qualified and targeted. Contrast this again with traditional print medium where you can target to a certain extent; but not like performance-based marketing. Consider an add again (for example) in sports section of USA Today - it will clearly deliver a sports enthusiast, but not a male who plays tennis that lives in Western US, etc. And, better targeting will always deliver better results, assuming all other issues are on a level playing field.

Search Engine Marketing still a Mystery to Many

I hate to say it but most of web sites we analyze still don't have basic HTML fundamentals (Title, Keywords, Description) in-place so their sites can/will be indexed (reviewed by an automated bot/software agent) properly. Their title is wrong (don't repeat your company name), there are too many keywords (you want 8-12) or wrong keywords and description of company is either poorly written or reads like yet another "mission statement" that has been developed by CEO/CFO and three Senior VPs. This is basic block and tackling marketing and should be setup properly when a web site is designed.

Be prepared to deploy some marketing resources for quality Search Engine Marketing - it's fiercely competitive for web site rankings; you've got 3-5K web sites coming online every single day of week and many are trying to drive market awareness via S/Engine ranking. What's a rule of thumb of what to pay for standard S/Engine Marketing Services: i.e. Title/Description Development, Keyword Analysis, Content Rewrites, etc.? Costs can vary tremendously, depending on your market segment, web site size, what type of services you outsource, competitive issues, etc. Generally expect to pay $3-6K for a basic 3-4 month campaign and then some modest fee for ongoing maintenance (say $200-500.per month). There are alternative sophisticated S/Engine processes that cost much more than this, but these are typically suited for companies that have a good sized marketing budget and or a large web site that necessitates a different approach.