Online Marketing Donts

There are over 200 million people worldwide connected to the Internet, with over 64 million regular users in America. It's no wonder that such a vast audience has made online marketing one of the fastest growing industries in the world. However, half the trick of conducing successful ecommerce is finding a way to get people to your site in the first place-hence online advertising.

Internet advertising generated an astounding $1.92 billion in 1999, double from the amount generated in the previous year.

According to the Association of National Advertisers, nearly half of all American companies are selling online. The American City Business Journal reports that businesses that use the Internet grow 46% faster than those that don't.

Online advertisers beware; marketing trends in this industry often become outdated faster than you can say "pop-up". Here are some of the most common outdated online marketing techniques that should be avoided:

- Pop Ups Ads- Pop-ups ads are like the billboards of the information superhighway-you can't go anywhere without seeing at least one. The Internet has become so saturated with pop-ups that overall web traffic times are slowing down. Most web users are downloading software that eliminates them from their system, so they are not the best way to reach prospective consumers.

- E-commerce sites- Internet stores have become way too abundant, especially when likely 99% of what you're looking for can be found at Amazon.com, the site that boasts "Earth's Biggest Selection". Unless your product is so extremely unique that it can't be purchased elsewhere on the Web, an e-commerce site may just be a waste of time and money.

- Re-selling E-books- E-books seem like a great idea. However, most of the sites that sell them offer the seller the right to resell the book to others. Therefore, the market has become saturated with books that are often available for free from some sites. And why would someone want to buy an e-book from you that they can get for free elsewhere?

- Safelist Advertising- Like e-books, this is theoretically a good idea. Safelists are groups of members who have opted to receive ads from fellow safelist members. This form of marketing loses its effectiveness due to the fact that most members just mass-delete their bulk emails without reading them. Everyone wants others to read their ads, yet no one will stop to read other people's ads.

- 'Free For All' pages- FFAs will post your ad in one of seven categories on their page. Like safelist advertising, the idea is that the thousands of others that post ads will see your ad and click to your website. Again though, everyone goes to FFAs to post, and not to access ads. On top of this waste of time and Internet space, your email account will get flooded with massive amounts of spam if you sign up with one of these sites.

Jessica Klein is a member of the 'Mount Real Research Team', whose aim is to seek out and distribute business information to the virtual public. She is a freelance writer based in Montreal, Canada who loves writing about anything from accounting to zebras.

For more info about Mount Real, visit http://www.mountreal.com.