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.

I used that tag for months with pretty mediocre results. I blamed it on poor economy and fact that most webmasters have a tendency to think writing is easy and anybody can do it, so why pay?

But that wasn't entire problem, as I discovered when I tweaked tag by adding this line:

"Get a free content analysis report on your site when you request an estimate."

Shazzam! Serious clients started taking me seriously, overnight.

Turns out webmasters care much less about my years of writing experience than they do about possibility of getting help to improve their sites and getting it on house. It also gives them a chance to see if I know my stuff before they commit to hiring me.

The sex-appeal of free could work for you too. But be prepared - there will be inevitable lollygaggers and time wasters. There will be cheapskates who use your great ideas without hiring you... who take your free samples and make a meal out of them.

It happens, it's cool, it's all part of wonderful world of free. As those nice grocery store ladies can tell you, you have to dish out a LOT of cocktail wieners before somebody buys a package.

But point is that even nibblers might be back someday because your free gift left such a good taste in their mouths. And when they do, you'll have a second chance to get your product or service into their shopping carts.