In fact, Internet boom all started with search during initial public offerings of Yahoo!, Excite, Infoseek, and Lycos in 1996 and 1997. Since then, search has “reinvented’ itself several times - from search engine, to portal, to traditional media partner, to struggling .com’s, to re-emerging survivors. Ironically, four years of “progress” reached this tipping point: search is now a business, not just a feature.

A Web search is like a three act play: it starts with consumer who would like to make search, who then uses software and other technology in Act Two which makes search possible, and ends with protagonist’s arrival at web page that was searched for. Value is added to this interplay when consumers are able to easily find information they are looking for. Consumers gain value from arriving at sites that fulfill their needs or suit their interests; destination sites derive value from an inbound flow of visitors who are interested in what they have to offer; and search hosts and intermediaries extract value from making introduction and link between two.

It is estimated that approximately 60 million households, or 90% of online audience, use Web search services each month. Internet users typically conduct about 6 billion Web searches with over 10 million different search terms employed regularly. The most popular search sites today are Google.com, Yahoo!.com, Microsoft’s MSN, and AOL. The most-used search technologies are offered by Google, Inktomi, FAST, and AltaVista, which are cannibalizing each other at an alarming rate.

Paid Listing Phenomena Many online advertisers are finding that performance of Web banners, pop-ups and other forms of Internet advertising including e-mail is declining. Customers are starting to ignore anything on a page that looks like an advertisement. Because of decreasing effectiveness of these forms of advertising, paid search engine placement has emerged as an effective, important but controversial, alternative because they are not necessarily perceived as ads.

These paid listings allow you to truly buy your way to top of major search engines. All you have to do is bid on search terms related to your product or service, and then provide a listing for search results. The amount of traffic you bring to your site is limited primarily by how much you bid.

Here is a summary of many unique advantages of paid listings:

• They generate large volumes of site traffic easily. • They let you avoid complexities of web pages search engine optimization. • They give you immediate, measurable results. • You only pay for listings that get clicked on, so it’s a cost- effective way to do targeted marketing. Overture, Findwhat, Kanoodle, Espotting and Sprinks, are top-rated companies handling paid listings. You’ll find their listings showing up on most of major search engines, portals and directories except for Google.Google has a proprietary paid listing program that’s highly rated as well.

How can you capitalize on a paid- listing program? • Choose web site pages and offers you want to promote with paid listings • Calculate your average profit-per-purchase for items or services on these pages • Find keywords and phrases consumers are most likely to use to find your listings • Write paid-listings results that include your search phrase • Place listings using a link to your landing pages that can be easily tracked • Figure ROI by monitoring cost of your listings against sales • Re-write your ads and adjust your placement bids on a continuing basis to keep them in optimal position in marketplace

And good luck!

By Yatin Patel Published in http://www.siliconindia.com June 2003

6. Include international postage costs

If you're selling anything through e-mail or your Web site, cater for international orders, whether you expect them or not. Find out cost of international postage and shipping, and publish costs for your customers.

This is a complex area because of variety of options, depending on source and destination countries, methods and speed of delivery, customs and duties, and more.

Simplify this as much as possible for your customers. It's better to start with something very simple (for example, one postage price for all international orders, regardless of destination) and adapt it with experience. Or eliminate postage costs entirely, as Rachel Green does on her site by offering free postage anywhere in world:

http://www.rachelgreen.com

7. Explain your currency

If you use a currency that's common to other countries - such as dollars - make it clear which version you mean. Some Web sites quote their prices in American dollars as a kind of "universal currency", but most use local currency.

Include a link to a currency converter on your Web site to make it easy for your international visitors. Here's one to use:

http://www.xe.com/ucc

8. Be aware of time zones

If you're writing a time (for example, time when you're available in a chat room) for people in specific time zones, include their local times as well. When writing for an international audience, include time in GMT (Greenwich Mean Time).

Include a link to a time zone converter on your Web site - for example:

http://www.timeanddate.com

9. Use icons carefully

Choose icons on your Web site carefully. For example, not everybody understands what a "STOP" sign means; and a "thumbs up" sign can offend people from some cultures.

In fact, it's so easy to misunderstand icons - even within a culture - that you should always supplement them with clear descriptions.

10. Tolerate mistakes

The more you use Internet, more you'll communicate with people who don't speak or write English as well as you do. Be tolerant of poor spelling, bad grammar and typing mistakes when you receive e-mail or take part in Internet discussion groups.

Of course, this is just common courtesy, but again it's surprising to see how many people attack others when they think they can hide behind safety of their keyboard.