The Great Web Advertising Debate

Written by Michael Bloch


What happened torepparttar World Wide Web?

The answer is atrepparttar 101108 end ofrepparttar 101109 article........

One ofrepparttar 101110 most common debates around is over web advertising.

Some sites that you visit have so many animated banners that it looks like a shooting gallery! Others will throw up 20 windows of ads when you try to exitrepparttar 101111 site. I call these tactics "scumvertising". I know of a number of people who have stopped usingrepparttar 101112 World Wide Web due to scumvertising. Some say, "The Internet should be free of advertising!"....

.... pardon? Why?

The very nature of life on this planet is dependant on advertising. A pretty big statement for me to make, so here's a simplified justification:

Inrepparttar 101113 animal world,repparttar 101114 strongest survive. The most aggressive,repparttar 101115 most brash ofrepparttar 101116 species will haverepparttar 101117 tendency to be most successful in reproduction.

Inrepparttar 101118 plant world, some plants use elaborate ornamentation to assist in their reproduction. Some flower perfumes are so strong, they can be detected from miles away which attractsrepparttar 101119 necessary insects to assist in pollination.

Inrepparttar 101120 world of business, those organisations who attractrepparttar 101121 most paying customers grow. The ones that hide their candle under a bushel, no matter how goodrepparttar 101122 product or service is, will die. Successful businesses advertise. They userepparttar 101123 World Wide Web to do so. They pay others to display their ads which creates income for thousands of web masters. The ads also generate competition amongst businesses. The victor inrepparttar 101124 competition gains sales. The sales generate employment. The competition leads to lower pricing and refinement of product.

OK, sorepparttar 101125 comparison is taking it torepparttar 101126 extreme; but we seem to be living in a society of rampant consumerism, where we want everything for nothing if possible, and we want it now. If it wasn't for advertising, such as seen onrepparttar 101127 World Wide Web:

- my computer would have cost more and I probably wouldn't have it -repparttar 101128 commercial software on my computer - as above - my internet connection - as above - freeware would not exist inrepparttar 101129 levels available today - I may not be able to afford to offer as much information as I do to others - for free

Without advertising on our sites,repparttar 101130 World Wide Web would be elitist - available to onlyrepparttar 101131 rich,repparttar 101132 government and academia. The Internet andrepparttar 101133 World Wide Web, while having it's pitfalls as any human system does, is probablyrepparttar 101134 best thing to happen to our species in a very long time. And it has been onrepparttar 101135 back of advertising thatrepparttar 101136 WWW has grown atrepparttar 101137 phenomal rate it has.

In stark contrast, my dreams ofrepparttar 101138 perfect world dictate there would be no need for advertising as money would not exist - but in my perfect world there would also be no need for computers. I loverepparttar 101139 Internet, and computering in general, but I would trade it in any day for a world without crime, pollution and crowding. The Internet has provided me with a living, computers helped me to emerge fromrepparttar 101140 gutter and to learn to exist in our society. I now not just survive, I thrive. It has allowed me to communicate my message to an audience of thousands, and to learn many valuable lessons in life from others.

The World Wide Web is slowed down by advertising you say? Yes, that's correct. But not as slow as needing to leave my premises to go torepparttar 101141 library to carry out research. It's not anywhere as near as slow as usingrepparttar 101142 postal service to deliver documents.

Internet connections are too expensive - Yes, there is still more room for improvement. But it's not as expensive as calling Interstate or International viarepparttar 101143 telephone to get technical information for products; and at least you can print out your results straight offrepparttar 101144 screen. Connectivity equipment, telecommunications services and Internet access has dropped incredibly in price overrepparttar 101145 last 5 years. How have these price drops occurred? As a direct result of advertising. Think about it based onrepparttar 101146 model I mentioned earlier.

Purchasing web site traffic.

Written by Michael Bloch


With increasing competition for visitors, a number of options are available for increasing traffic to your web site, but they come a cost. Is it worth it? Previously, I published an article on pay-per-view search engine options. This article can be viewed at:

http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles/payperview.htm.

Another popular ploy to encourage "eyeballs" (visitors) is to purchase site exit traffic. In this strategy, you pay a web site to redirect traffic to you when a visitor leaves their site. This usually occurs with a pop-up window. Is it effective? I guessrepparttar best way to answer this is with another question. How do you feel when you leave a site and 20 pop-up windows litter your screen? While utilising this strategy may increase page views according to your server logs, I don't think that you'll make many friends or encourage sales. This option is usually charged "per view" i.e, every time someone exitsrepparttar 101107 site involved, you are charged. I can think of better ways to spend your advertising budget.

Yet another strategy that marketing agencies may convince you to try is buying redirects from defunct sites, or from domain names owned by them. The domain names they own are usually generic terms, words that web surfers may type into their browser address bar inrepparttar 101108 hope that they will find something of relevance. Some clever individuals and companies have made a great deal of money through this scheme. They buy thousands of domain names, preferrably those that have existing traffic and redirect those visitors to their customers. Unlessrepparttar 101109 domain name that traffic is redirected from is specific to your line of business, it will probably be "low quality" (visitors not interested in your product) and once again serve only to annoy internet surfers. Again, this promotion method will "appear" to be successful as your site will gain thousands of hits. But unlessrepparttar 101110 product you are offering has broad appeal,repparttar 101111 money you spend may not be justified.

Still one ofrepparttar 101112 best and most ethical ways of purchasing web site traffic is utilising pay-per-click options offered by many major search engines. It can be very expensive; so you will need to do your maths first in order to justify it. Most of these search engines require you to bid on key words or phrases that users type in. The highest bid getsrepparttar 101113 highest ranking onrepparttar 101114 search results andrepparttar 101115 advertiser paysrepparttar 101116 amount bid every time someone clicks on their link. In this option, you will want to be listed inrepparttar 101117 first page of results in order to be noticed.

Some advertisers go overboard in their bidding. As an example, a search I carried out today onrepparttar 101118 the term "computer" on Goto.com (now known as Overture.com) showed thatrepparttar 101119 no.1 advertiser has bid US$10 forrepparttar 101120 privilege. The number 2 position was held by an advertiser prepared to pay US$.77 per click. It's a huge difference. Coupled withrepparttar 101121 fact that not everyone who clicks onrepparttar 101122 link will purchase, it becomes an extraordinarily expensive marketing exercise.

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