Advertising on the Internet: Establishing a Different Kind of Relationship:

Pushing a customer toward our product is scarcely an option anymore: the customer of today need not listen to TV commercials, radio commercials, need not sift through print ads to find information, need not sift through a phonebook to find a number, is on the 'no-call' list. Let's face it: the consumer of today is enabled. Everything in the world is available, every bit of information, every book, every periodical, every feature comparison, every government rating, every industry statistic, annual statements for many public companies, everything is on the Internet: available in a blink of an eye by key word search.

The landscape in advertising has changed. Make no mistake, if you want to be in business, ANY BUSINESS, in the world that is coming, you need to be findable on the first page results on the major search engines for some combination of words describing something someone searches for!

Please, those of you who get angry when I say this: do not get angry at me. I did not create this rapid change we all contend with now, it just happens.

Ok now the good news; it is doable. It is doable in basically two ways:

1. To buy 'Pay per Click' style advertising which has become the convention online, where you buy display advertising in the margins of the search engines results, BY BIDDING AGAINST EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD FOR THE CLICK-THROUGHS FROM SPECIFIC SEARCHES.
2. To actually achieve first page positioning in the top ten 'organic' returns (actual search results which are not for sale) for specific key word searches, on multiple search engines, without paying the search engines.

The former favors the media (the search engine) more than the advertiser (you) because when there is profit potential, the cost of the words goes up, moving the profit from you to the search engine.

The latter, first page 'organic' or free search engine recognition, takes time, takes effort, costs less than any other kind of advertising considering the reach (and the future), and is 'where it is at' today ;-)