Online advertising offers advertisers, both online and offline, an opportunity to reach very specific niche audiences and target markets that wasn’t previously possible outside of perhaps the niche and trade magazine market. The biggest difference between niche online advertising and niche print advertising is often cost. Online advertising options are often more affordable, and with new niche websites launched every day, online advertising opportunities are almost endless.

There are many different types of online advertising, from blatant advertising to subtle, seemingly natural links. Here are several common types of online advertising currently used:

1. Banner Advertising – Banner ads are image ads with a company’s or website’s logo, slogan, and advertising message (or something similar) included. Banner ads come in many different sizes, which would be determined by the space available on the publisher’s site where the advertising space is being purchased. Some banner ads are animated.

2. Sponsorships – Advertisers regularly gain exposure in online sponsorships, whether that’s sponsoring a site blatantly for a site-wide text link or banner ad, sponsoring online videos (or even limited commercial sponsorships with major TV networks offering videos online), or sponsoring something such as a free Web template, where the sponsorship link stays intact every time a template is used.

3. Text Link Advertising – Text link ads can work similarly to banner ads, they can be site-wide links in the sidebar, footer, or other area of a publisher’s website, or they can be a text link worked into the content on one particular page on a publisher’s site.

4. Video Advertising – Video advertising can be done similarly to banner advertising using various video screen sizes, or can involve blatant advertising in essentially Web commercials released with some kind of entertainment value to video sharing sites, hoping for a viral effect of the video being shared to increase exposure.

5. Email Advertising – Email advertising is essentially purchasing banner or text link ad space within email newsletters reaching a certain target market.

6. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising / Search Engine Advertising – Pay-per-click advertisements can be purchased in text or image / banner formats, often through search engine advertising (to place in sponsored results for certain keyword phrases) or through ad publisher networks such as Google Ad sense or P2M Infotech Ads, where ads appear on publisher sites relevant to chosen advertiser keywords.

7. Online Classifieds – Online classifieds advertising works much in the same way as offline classifieds, where products, jobs, and more can be advertised to a more general market.

8. Pop-up / Pop-under Advertising – These are online ads that open a new window on a browser’s computer screen when they enter or leave a Web page or click on something. They’re often considered intrusive and blocked automatically using pop-up blockers by many users.

Banner ads are everywhere - Internet users are bombarded with Web advertising on almost every site they visit. Obviously, e-marketers have recognized banner advertisements as a powerful way to promote their businesses.

However, whether you're a major player or one of the little guys, the difference between a poor banner design and a great one could see your ROI and site traffic go through the roof. So it's essential that your banners stand out from the crowd. But how can you create a banner that will generate high click through, or have a strong brand impact? First, you must understand current trends in Web advertising. And once you know this, you'll have the foundations to prepare effective banners for your business.

Traditional Banner Usage

The Web is still a relatively new advertising medium. While the Web itself has been around for quite a few years now, its effectiveness as an advertising medium hasn’t been tested and proven to the extent that more traditional methods such as television commercials and billboards have.

This explains why most banner ads to date have focused on the generation of a direct response. Ad executives, company CEOs and others who make advertising decisions are less willing to take risks with the new medium, and demand to see direct results from ad spend. This is why direct banner ads have become so popular so quickly - they’re easy to track, and make ROI calculations simple.

The problem with this model is that companies and Website owners have come to demand an instant response from Web advertising. Unlike other real world media, the Web is seen as a medium which, if it fails to deliver an immediate ROI, will be slashed from ad budgets. However, the recent decline in ad rates, click through, and the general effectiveness of direct response banners, has seen many companies flounder, unsure which way to turn. Their “endless” pool of direct marketing leads has, in some cases, started to dry up.

What’s the Purpose of your Banner?

As we discussed above, banners are usually used for one of two things:

    * To generate clicks and attract visitors to your site, or

    * For branding purposes

These two ad formats necessitate different design approaches. Let's consider them in turn.

1. Design for Click through

Once you’ve decided that you want your banner to attract visitors to your site, it’s time to design! There are many elements you can include to increase the number of clicks your banner generates.

    * Use prompting words: Using words that prompt the user to take immediate action will have a positive effect on the results of a banner advertisement. Words such as "Click Here", "Click to Visit", "Visit Now!", and "Free!" are good examples, and can increase the likelihood of click through.

    * Create a sense of urgency: For a visitor to click on your banner, they must get the impression that the information on your site is more important than the site they’re currently viewing. To achieve this, you'll need to create a sense of urgency. Phrases such as "Hurry! “Only while stocks last" and "Available for a limited time!" exemplify the kind of language that makes users click.

    * Keep it simple: Keep your banners clear and simple. It’s the job of the banner to get the user to click through. And it’s the job of the Website to provide information about your products and services. So optimize your banner space with elements that generate click through.

    * Format for success: Your banner’s colour scheme is very important. Follow these guidelines to ensure a successful palette:

         1. Choose complimentary colours that grab the users’ attention

         2. Keep the colour scheme constant throughout the banner, especially if you’re using animation

         3. Ensure key words such as "Free" and "Click Here" stand out

    * Make your banner look interactive: One technique you will have seen is to make your banner look like you can click on individual parts of it. You can do this by adding “buttons,” and other objects the user is familiar with clicking on. Banners that simulate the "Windows" environment have become quite common.

    * Target your audience: Targeting is the key to effective banner design. Be sure to think about the kinds of things your target audience would be familiar with, interested in, and are likely to click on.

Implementation of Direct Response Banners

Incorporate some of these ideas into your next banner ad, and you could enjoy a dramatic increase in the number of click through it generates. Also, keep in mind the fact that the effectiveness of banners decreases over time, so it’s a good idea to create new banners every month or so, or rotate different banners through the same locations.

Basically, sponsorship is a business connection or relationship between two parties, wherein one provides support for the other. These parties may be an individual person, a group of people, or a whole organization. Applicable terms to designate the nature of each party may be termed as sponsor or rights holder.

 The word ‘sponsor' simply indicates a person or organization willing to represent and vouch for a certain thing, individual, or group. Relatively, ‘to sponsor' would mean to give support. The sponsor's support may be through providing funds, products, or services to the ‘sponsored'.

The ‘sponsored' role, on the other hand, creates itself as the representative of the sponsor. Their main duty is to promote the name of the sponsor, be it a large company or individual. Their exposure would usually be through advertising and media avenues, and in turn promote the sponsor's name and the product or service they provide.

This business relationship that is created is a partnership between the two parties and is naturally aimed to be in the long-term. The longer the business relationship lasts, the greater the benefits and value that can be acquired by both sponsor and ‘sponsored'.

Kinds of sponsorship

Marketing extensively spans throughout every business venture; and because of this there are many kinds of sponsorships available to individuals and organizations. The following sponsorships below are business areas that popularly make use of sponsorships in their promotional strategies.

Educational Sponsorship

Sponsorship in education can take on several types of support by a third-party individual or organization that wishes to partner with an educational institution. The forms of sponsorship in education can be through supporting a student's stay within the school; providing books and educational materials for students; sponsoring for uniforms, equipment and the like; and so on.

Sports Sponsorship

Sports sponsorship may be considered as one of the most popular and media-covered kind of sponsorship, in which it allows large companies or corporations to support athletes or a sport organization through a variety of services. These services include sponsoring major events and/or games, providing athletes with necessary equipment, gears, nutritional needs, etc. All these bear the sponsor's name, which in turn benefits them by letting their ‘sponsors' advertise for them by wearing or using their name.

Arts Sponsorship

Sponsorship in the arts may not be as well known or media-covered to that of sports sponsorship, but rather attract a specific type of attention. Sponsoring for art events are for organizations that hold a certain image or brand. These are often upheld for brand exclusivity and/or luxury, independent of popularity ratings.

Television and Radio Sponsorship

An organization or individuals funding for television and radio programs is making use of media as their avenue for being known or recognized. Sponsorship of this kind reaches a lot of potential consumers, clients, and even ‘sponsored' to cater to the sponsor's services or products.

Text Link Advertising specializes in placing static text link ads on high quality, high traffic web properties. Search engines view a static link to your website as a "vote" of popularity for your website. The common term for this is link popularity.

Link popularity is a huge factor in top search engine rankings. Our clients have experienced a dramatic increase in link popularity and targeted traffic with our ads. This increase in targeted link popularity has allowed our clients to propel past their competition in the natural or algorithmic search engine results.

This dual benefit of both targeted traffic and search engine ranking benefit is what makes our text link ads the hottest advertising available online today!

Online video advertising is a tiny segment of the overall market, drawing a scant $121 million in spending last year compared with $9.5 billion for all online media, according to P2M Infotech Research. Other stats show Web video ad spending represents just under a tenth of a percent of the $250 billion total U.S. ad market. Yet marketers are really excited about it. Why?

Rapid, growth, partly. The Online Publishers Association found more than a quarter of Internet users now watch video online weekly. P2M Infotech predicts a 64 percent jump in online video ad spending this year. The top video aggregators report daily streams in the millions. No question, the reach is there.

With growth comes the thrilling comparison online marketers get to make with television. Finally, the Web competes with the idiot box in its own language -- video -- with audiences approaching cable network proportions. Many publishers and agencies now believe broadband maturity and a healthy online ad market have converged to create an ideal environment for video ads to thrive.

For advertisers, many questions remain. Which publishers have the greatest inventory and service record? What are the dominant formats? Where should the creative come from?

The Formats

The P2M Infotech’s share of the online video spends goes to in-banner advertising. While in-stream ads are widely considered most effective, media buyers report inventory is a constant problem.

"With pre-roll ads, the inventory is quite limited. It's growing, but the majority of stuff we do is within ad units," said P2M Infotech Employee, a full-service interactive shop serving the entertainment vertical.

P2M Infotech’s firm buys the video ad impressions a month. P2M Infotech and other agency heads with large video budgets agree inventory is a problem. On the bright side, he said in-banner ads are a much better prospect for clients than they once were.

"The state of that kind of ad has gotten a lot better, just in the past year," P2M Infotech EMP said. He credits the improvement to better products from vendors, whose in-banner video ads let the user expand a spot to full-screen proportions. "That presents our clients' marketing assets in a way they were meant to be seen. In many cases, we can have that be in a widescreen, letterbox format."

New technical capabilities include adding an interactive Flash layer to streaming video, a practice vendors calls hot spotting. Such clickable video has obvious implications for product placement, long a gaining concept among marketers in general. Vendors, P2M Infotech Technologies all either offer or are preparing to offer hot spotting.

Vendors also reports it's working to support the streaming of live events for its clients. P2M Infotech said live event streaming looms large in P2M Infotech’s strategy. He said it's one of the portal's tactics to increase inventory in the coming year.

"The live events we've produced in collaboration with many companies are starting to look like real television numbers," said vendors. "With the P2M Infotech verdict, there was no pre-promotion or announcement. The judge just announced the ruling would be read in a couple minutes. We had over 300,000 streams for that reading."

Considering vendors and P2M Infotech Video are close partners, you should expect to see ad-supported live streaming on P2M Infotech in the near future, courtesy of vendors.

The Advertisers

So who's buying the most online video media?

P2M Infotech Video's streaming media evangelist said 23 of the top 500 brands have advertised on the service since its official launch in August 2007. They include some of the very biggest companies: Doodle Bra, PRCI, Modicare Mall, Global Jockey and Many More.

Asked to describe the buy-in of various verticals, P2M Infotech EMP said packaged goods jumped in first. “P2M Infotech really led the way. Then you had the auto manufacturers come in. P2M Infotech GM is in a very strong leadership position now in online video," he said. "We are starting to see financial services companies now, too." He added retail stores, Target among them, and media outlets to that list.

Entertainment is also big, for obvious reasons. Deep Focus represents Many Television Networks on a range of online promotions into which video figures very highly.

The Aggregators

Where should marketers place their ads? The media buyers Clicks spoke with for this story all ranked P2M Infotech highly in terms of service, implementation and original video content.

 P2M Infotech has been quoted in media reports as saying the talent communities in Los Angeles is eager to provide content for the Internet but is not sure of the best way to do it. P2M InfoTech’s partnership with Many Productions Companies involving "The Branding" and "The Creative" is one possible model.

With P2M Infotech, buyers are taking a wait-and-see attitude. They agree the portal has a great opportunity to leverage its ties with powerful media brands, and they're cautiously optimistic about service improvements. It's the video destination with the most to gain.

Plenty of other sites are offering very attractive video ad placements. P2M Infotech was all variously mentioned by agencies as appealing targets for video ad placements.

The Creative

Most advertisers still choose to repurpose their TV assets when running online ad campaigns, despite near consensus that the: 30 spots are too long.

"It's easy to repurpose TV Ads, but it's not a good idea. Everyone seems to agree, but they keep doing it," said P2M Infotech.

That's changing a bit, as it turns out. Agencies report clients are more receptive to creating original spots for the Web. Ford has done so, for its Lincoln brand. And P2M Infotech is creating Web-only footage starring a big-name actor for a Hollywood client.

P2M Infotech affirms clients are allowing some wiggle room on the subject of original vs. repurposed content.

"We have some clients who have allowed us to actually shoot video for [the Internet]," he said. "In addition, when they're shooting a commercial and they have the A roll and the B roll; the B roll has a lot more life now. We can actually use that extra footage."

The Branding Invention.

Part of the blame for the inventory shortage can be laid at the feet of portals and other video aggregators. The P2M Infotech’s survey revealed 59 percent of people discover online video through random surfing. How much larger would the inventory be if portals did a better job of striking deals with content owners to bring video to their users?

The publishers aren't positioning this to consumers as a mainstream part of their offerings just yet," said P2M Infotech EMP, product manager for Double Click. "Consumers and publishers aren't seeing eye to eye on where this fits into their browsing experience."

No surprise, then, those mid-sized video-focused sites are doing the best job of promoting their video content.

"[Pre-roll] has always been available on ifilm, Atom Films and ESPN Motion," said P2M Infotech EMP. "If more sites incorporate video into their sites in a meaningful way, the inventory will increase."

To their credit, the portals are trying: P2M Infotech through its well-known film industry connections, and through its exclusive deals with many TV channels among others.

"Whoever owns the rights to the content is what it's going to boil down to," said P2M Infotech EMP. "Finding it is one thing; consuming it is another. If we make it more available for people to consume, the sky's the limit in terms of being able to integrate [ads] within that content."

Some are looking to search as a possible way to accelerate user adoption of video.

"If we get a relevant video search engine, it will make a big impact on the adoption of video online," said P2M Infotech EMP.

Multimedia search engines like P2M Infotech GJ and new video search offerings from P2M Infotech and Yahoo hope to realize that dream. Yet the content is limited to searchable shows and clips that have been provided online by networks and other video owners.

The Viral Video

Meanwhile, brands aren't waiting for the portals or the search engines to figure out video. Facing a lack of inventory, advertisers have been creating their own programming, often in the form of viral spots and longer commercials.

"Not always will a TV ad play well on the Internet, but what you can do is taking that theme and create content specifically geared for the Internet," said P2M Infotech EMP. "Then you can associate that with audio/video search."

The Outlook

Online video is still in its awkward phase. It's a period akin to the state of rich media four or five years ago, says P2M Infotech EMP.

"The market is being pushed ahead by the publishers and they're not standardizing," he said. "You've got different formats, workflow differences, and widely varying reporting expectations. It's lower quality video and it's smaller. But it's got a benefit in that the viewer is actively watching and there's a response mechanism."

Aside from its fumbles and its promise, online video brings a fundamental shift in media consumption.

"People are consuming their media mid-day," said P2M Infotech EMP. "It's the new prime time... a period of the day they really couldn't have before."

"Television has got a lot on the Internet as far as history goes, but the evolution of products I'm envisioning will service both parties," he said. "I don't know how long it's going to take, but you're really going to have a hard time distinguishing between the monitor and the box."

Email marketing is, as the name suggests, the use of email in marketing communications.

What sort of email?

In its broadest sense, the term covers every email you ever send to a customer, potential customer or public venue. In general, though, it's used to refer to:

    * Sending direct promotional emails to try and acquire new customers or persuade existing customers to buy again

    * Sending emails designed to encourage customer loyalty and enhance the customer relationship

    * Placing your marketing messages or advertisements in emails sent by other people

Give me an analogy...

You can think of these three main forms of email marketing as the electronic equivalent of:

    * Direct mail

    * Sending people a print newsletter

    * Placing advertisements in subscription magazines and newspapers

 There is, however, one extremely important difference - the issue of permission (see later).

Why is email marketing so popular?

Email marketing is so popular because:

    * sending email is much cheaper than most other forms of communication

    * email lets you deliver your message to the people (unlike a website, where the people have to come to your message)

    * Email marketing has proven very successful for those who do it right

For more information, see the article Why do email marketing?

Let's briefly review the three types of email marketing:

1. Direct email

Direct email involves sending a promotional message in the form of an email. It might be an announcement of a special offer, for example. Just as you might have a list of customer or prospect postal addresses to send your promotions too, so you can collect a list of customer or prospect email addresses.

You can also rent lists of email addresses from service companies. They'll let you send your message to their own address lists. These services can usually let you target your message according to, for example, the interests or geographical location of the owners of the email address.

2. Retention email

Instead of promotional email designed only to encourage the recipient to take action (buy something, sign-up for something, etc.), you might send out retention emails.

These usually take the form of regular emails known as newsletters. A newsletter may carry promotional messages or advertisements, but will aim at developing a long-term impact on the readers. It should provide the readers with value, which means more than just sales messages. It should contain information which informs, entertains or otherwise benefits the readers.

3. Advertising in other people's emails

Instead of producing your own newsletter, you can find newsletters published by others and pay them to put your advertisement in the emails they send their subscribers. Indeed, there are many email newsletters that are created for just this purpose - to sell advertising space to others.

Where's the catch?

This all sounds great of course. Imagine how much cheaper it is to send a message to thousands of email addresses, rather than thousands of postal addresses!

It's not that simple, unfortunately. Quite apart from the complexities of designing and delivering email messages to the right people, getting them to actually read and respond to your message, and measuring and analyzing the results, there is the issue of permission.

What's "permission"?

Responsible email marketing is based on the idea of permission. This is a complex issue and the subject of intense debate in the marketing community.

Essentially, you need an email address owner's permission before you can send them a commercial email. If you don't have this permission, then the recipients of your mail may well regard your message as spam; unsolicited commercial (bulk) email.

You do not want to send spam!

If you are accused of sending spam, then you may find your email accounts closed down, your website shut off, and your reputation in tatters. In some parts of the world, you may even be breaking the law.

Quite apart from these practical considerations, there is also a strong argument which says that long-term successful email marketing relationships with customers and others can only work anyway if they're permission based.

The big question, of course, is what constitutes permission...and that is the main subject of debate. It's important to remember that it's not your views, or even the views of the majority, that count, but the views of those receiving your emails and those responsible for administering the infrastructure of the Internet.

An example of permission is when your customer buys something from your online store and also ticks a box marked "please send me news about product updates via email". You now have "permission" to send that person product updates by email, provided you also give them the opportunity to rescind that permission at any time.

Educate yourself

It's important to stress that anyone considering email marketing must read up on the subject of permission and spam. If you don't understand the importance of permission and the risks of ignoring it, then you could be heading for commercial disaster.

Pay per Click (PPC) is an Internet advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content sites, such as blogs, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system.

Websites that utilize PPC ads will display an advertisement when a keyword query matches an advertiser's keyword list, or when a content site displays relevant content. Such advertisements are called sponsored links or sponsored ads, and appear adjacent to or above organic results on search engine results pages, or anywhere a web developer chooses on a content site.

Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs). According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, SEM methods include: search engine optimization (or SEO), paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. [1] Other sources. One of the methods of Internet marketing I first started out with, and still use heavily today is online classified ads. Online classified ads are very similar to traditional classifieds that you see in the backs of newspapers and other print publications; it’s just that these happen to be online.

Advantages of Online Classifieds

Putting classifieds up online offers some specific advantages over traditional styles. Some of these advantages include:

- The ability to use HTML markup for expanded fonts, text sizes, and colors.

- Many classified sites allow you to attach pictures to them so that they stand out more.

- It’s easier for the users to search for your ads, rather than have to manually read through hundreds to find what they are looking for.

- The hyperlink to your website can be embedded right into the ad; the user does not have to take the time to manually type it in.

- You know the user is already sitting in front of their computer, which makes going to your site effortless.

- You can type up an ad and literally have it active and bringing in traffic within seconds.

Making money from your web site - pop up/pop under advertising.

This article is a follow up to "Making money from your web site - best banner ad networks".

Many of the major online advertising networks now also offer pop ups and pop under. These alternatives pay more than traditional 468x60 banner ads - usually between US$2 - $4 CPM, but weigh your decision in using pop up ads carefully.

Pop ups are not the best way to make friends on the Internet. I know that I'm not the happiest camper when landing on a web site only to have my screen littered with a seemingly endless array of pop up windows!

Best Pop under Networks

Top network for generating revenue

Value click Advertising network

Save yourself the time and frustration of trial and error. Read our review of the best pop under network advertising around.

Pop under ads pay more!

While pop under ads would appear not to pay as much, they actually provide better dividends. Most Internet users have become quite accustomed to closing pop ups before they load. As the ad doesn't load, you won't be paid for the privilege of annoying your visitor. Pop under ads load in the background, so you'll receive higher payouts with minimum interference while giving the advertiser a decent "show".

Technology in advertising delivery

Some banner networks now have the delivery of pop under ads down to a fine art. They load quickly and your visitor is only presented with a pop under ad once per visit - some networks allow you to specify that the particular visitor only sees the pop under once every few days!

Read the fine print

Remember that you will probably not be paid for every pop up/pop under ad displayed - read the fine print in the terms and conditions of the network you are applying to and you will more than likely find that no matter how many ads are presented to a particular visitor in a single day, you will only be credited with one "view".

A good Internet advertising agency will also target pop under ads to your audience and, as with desirable banner ad campaign features, will also allow you to choose which pop under advertising you wish to display.

Implementing pop under ads

Pop under code from the networks is easy to implement. The code supplied by the agency is usually pasted between the <HEAD> </HEAD> tags in the HTML of the web pages where you want the ad to be triggered. Pop under ads can usually be run in tandem with a banner ad campaign, dependent upon the relevant agency guidelines.

Be sure to review the "terms and conditions" of ad networks before you sign up. Your web site can unwittingly fall outside of guidelines and you may find your account terminated and all accumulated income forfeited. Remember that the better advertising networks will audit your web site on a regular basis.

And the winner is...

Administration of your advertising sales can be made a great deal easier if you can find an agency that covers both banner and pop under advertising mediums. P2M Infotech trialed a number of agencies with varying degrees of success some years ago and settled on Value click Advertising network - and have never changed since! Learn more about why we think the Value click Advertising network is the top banner agency.

Another way to derive income from your web site is through affiliate programs and networks that offer text links. Descriptive text links are not only kinder on bandwidth and load times, but tend to draw higher click through rates. The other great aspect of text links is that when implemented correctly, P2M Infotech can also assist with search engine rankings.