Monday, December 1, 2008

When To Use Free Vs Paid Online Advertising

By Kylon Trower

The fact that you are wondering which type of advertising is better leads me to believe that you understand marketing is clearly the life blood of your online business. The large majority of your time should be spent advertising and promoting in some form or another. Let's talk about which is better between paid vs free marketing methods.

Just so that we are clear, I don't believe in free advertising. It's not that you can't advertise your business without pulling out your credit card but you can't advertise without paying a price. It's either time or money and ultimately both have a price you'll have to pay.

For the sake of this article, let's call them automated (paid) vs. manual (free) advertising. That said, there are many ways you can use both methods and neither is necessarily better than the other. The real key you must first determine is what works best for you and what are you comfortable with.

Either way there are inherent advantages to any form of marketing you choose to do. The main key should be your marketing effectiveness. Are you getting the results you're looking for? Advertising without the desired goal of achieving profitable sales will leave you disgusted and eventually put you out of business.

Let's look at the upside when it comes to free advertising first. Free advertising gives you hands on experience and the necessary background to make more informed decisions when you decide to use paid methods. It also allows you to get a feel for the marketplace and become an expert in areas which drives up your perceived value in the online community as well.

With paid advertising on the other hand, there are also some strong arguments as well. Typically with a paid advertising you can consult with vendors to determine the
expected outcome based on their experience. It is leveraged so it saves you time that can be used building your business in other ways.

Now regardless which way you decide to go I recommend you set up tracking systems so you can test your results. Not knowing what's working and why it's working is one of the worst positions you can be in as a marketer. When you understand the source of your results you can make wiser decisions with both your time and money.

Your time and budget will ultimately determine which advertising methods are best for you. I suggest trying a few methods that interest you and use them until you feel comfortable and somewhat proficient. Don't try to do a little bit of everything as this does not work. Pick something, stick to it and then move to another method while tracking your results throughout. - 15485

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