Often times people think of advertising and marketing as one and the same.  It’s no wonder!  We watch new stories and articles that talk about marketing strategy while at the same time we’re hit with advertisements on just about any medium you can think of: the back of the tray table in an airplane, on the side of a bus, on your mobile phone, in your web browser, on television … the list goes on!

But the distinction between the two is important, especially for business owners.  Advertising is a component of marketing.  It is the deliberate packaging and delivery of a message to the general public intended to influence the decision making process.

Marketing, on the other hand, is a catch-all word that covers all activities related to causing a buy/sell transaction to occur … that includes advertising!

For some additional reading, check out the Wikipedia entries for Advertising and Marketing.

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I was inspired to write this post after a recent personal experience (names and industries have been changed to protect the innocent!).  I was researching accountants (ok, so I wasn’t, but remember, I changed the names/industries to protect the innocent!).  I googled “accountants Tampa” and up came my list.  I reviewed the top 5 results and was very impressed by one accountant in particular.  Their website was informative, eye-catching and well-designed.

I narrowed down my shortlist to 3 of the top 5 accountants and began making phone calls.  I talked with one of them and left a message for the next.  Not wanting to bias myself any further, I saved the accountant with the great website for last.  Was I surprised at what happened next!  An auto-attendant answered.  No problem.  I listened to the directory choices and input the number for the person I was trying to reach.  After a long pause, the auto-attendant said “no one is answering at that extension.  Press 1 to leave a message in the general mailbox.”  So I pressed 1.  Then I heard “You cannot leave a message for this person.  The mailbox is full.”

Now keep in mind that I was calling around 11 AM on a weekday (not Monday!), so there should be no reason that the mailbox would be full if it were regularly tended to.  And what happened to the accountant that was not answering his/her extension and had no voicemail set up?

I walked away from that experience with a reaffirmed belief that having a great website is a “must” but is not the “only”!  Sure, the website caught my attention, but then it was downhill from there.  The best companies are those that have a strong brand, great customer service, broad and relevant experience and a flawless reputation.  Oh…AND a great website!

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Have you ever wondered how you can go about getting your website noticed, so you can make oodles of online money and become just like the "Rich Jerk"?
 
There are five top ways to get your website noticed, driving all that traffic right to your virtual door. 
 
1) Keep a blog. Blogs are the hot Internet-age way of communicating, commenting, opinionating, and ranting. Search engines pick up blogs faster than other content, as well, since blog posts are often fresh. You can earn yourself a loyal readership and have plenty of linkbacks to your website by blogging. You’ll want to keep your blog constantly updated with new content and links for it to work for you.
 
2) Create and submit free articles. There are tons of articles and content websites that always want new material. Search Warp, Articles Base, Ezine Articles, and Helium are but a few of these. When you submit your articles to these sites you include a linkback to your website. These articles are read by people seeking free information online, and some content sites let people post the articles at their own websites, too. You’ll be spreading yourself all across the Internet and building yourself a reputation as an expert in your field, too. 
 
3) Go to forums. Forums can be a lot of fun, highly informative, and a great place to network to get more traffic to your website. Search the Internet for forums that are about topics that relate to your business and for those that write about things of interest to you. Join these forums and start making interesting posts. Include your website in your signature with every post. You can also join the site Links Referral, which is a special forum and attached website where you review other members’ sites and they review yours. If you use it right you’ll get yourself about 20 free new website visitors daily just from there.
 
4) Use social bookmarking. Every time you update your website or make a new blog post, Twitter about that. Whenever you have an article published, Digg it, and get people to Stumble Upon it. Also make friends at these Internet socializing sites so that you can build up a loyal following. Using social bookmarking greatly increases your exposure.
 
5) Submit your website to website directories. This gets your site categorized and indexed, and makes it easier for the webcrawlers to find you.
 
Getting your website noticed takes perseverance, dedication, patience, drive, and determination. And most importantly of all: make your website a quality site. Keep it fresh, make it dynamic, make it be singular and unique. Websites today are as common as a pair of sneakers. Yours has to be different or it will get lost in the shuffle.

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