Internet Marketing Basics: What is Display Advertising?

If you’re a business owner with a nationwide company, or just a local business here in Thousand Oaks, CA, you may have heard the term “display advertising.” You may not have known exactly what it is, but know that it has something to do with online advertising. But I’m willing to bet you’ve seen a banner ad while surfing the internet. That right there is the most common form of display advertising online.

So for those of you new to online or just a business owner looking to know more about online marketing, you’ve come to the right place. In this post, we will help you understand what display advertising is. If you have any questions, or would like to set up a personal, free consultation, call Don at 805-262-2518. No automated tellers here, just personal, professional consulting based in Thousand Oaks, CA.

So What is Display Advertising?

The Internet Advertising Bureau has this definition for it: it is “a form of online advertising where an advertiser’s message is shown on a destination web page, generally set off in a box at the top or bottom or to one side of the content of the page.”

Display advertising originated in print, mainly in newspapers and periodicals. What does that mean? It means those banners that appeared in newspapers were the first form of display advertising. We won’t bore you with the history of all this print ads, but know that once the internet became more prominent, this meant there was more space for advertising. So basically, display advertising is just a form of online ads. The most common of course, is the banner ad.

Banner Ads: Friend or Foe?

Anyone that has spent any time online has probably (more…)

What is a QR code?

What are those strange bar codes?

So you may have seen a strange or weird bar code in various forms of advertising. Maybe in a magazine ad, or a billboard, a sign or somewhere printed on something. You may be wondering what the heck is going on with that? Well, we here at your Thousand Oaks Internet Marketing company, WSI ePro Marketing, are here to help, as those are part of an online, internet marketing campaign.

They look like this:

Those bar codes are called QR codes

QR stands for “quick response” code. They are a bar code that you can scan with your phone, tablet or other mobile device. Once scanned, you are directed to a webpage or some other landing page online.

How do you scan a QR code? (more…)

Resources – What is My IP Address?

A lot of people may try to implement their own internet marketing and internet marketing strategies on their own rather than calling the experts or talking to a consultant. This is all well and good and we encourage people to do things DIY (do-it-yourself). And anytime you need a hand, we’re here to help.

As you’re creating your internet marketing campaign, you may find that you need to know your IP address. For a lot of beginners, this may be all greek to them. However, there are a couple easy ways to find out your IP address.

First of all, what is an IP address?

IP stands for “Internet Protocol.” Basically the IP address is a set of numbers that indicates a computer’s location, just like a street address.

To Find Your IP Address:

There are a couple different ways. One you can go to the website whatismyipaddress.com, and find out your information there. Second, like any good search engine should do, Google will tell you your IP address if you do a search for “what is my IP address?” Pretty handy. If you’re a beginner at internet marketing this can be helpful, and even if you are an expert like the folks at WSI ePro Marketing, this can be a handy tool for all sorts of projects.

For more information about internet marketing or the internet in general, give us a call at 805-262-2518. We can chat about your needs or set up a free consulation. WSI ePro Marketing, your Thousand Oaks Internet Marketing Company is always here to help.

Internet Marketing Basics – Directing People to the Right Place

Are you a small business owner looking to get started marketing your business online? You’ve come to the right place. In this post, we’ll discuss where you are sending you customers in your advertising, whether that is through internet marketing or traditional advertising. If you have any questions, or would like to set up a personal, free consultation, call Don at 805-262-2518. No automated tellers here, just personal, professional consulting based in Thousand Oaks, CA.

You Advertise. But Where Do You Send Customers?

Every business owner knows you have to advertise. So when you advertise, do you direct people to the homepage of your website? And we don’t just mean internet marketing. We’re talking about all kinds of advertising here, including online and traditional.

Flyers you pass out in your local area. Online advertising, including pay-per-click (PPC). Local newspaper ads and yellow book ads. So if you send customers to the home page of your site, they may not be taking the action you want them to take. What is your goal? I mean, your home page most likely gives a big picture, broad overview of your company and your services. However, your pay per click ad, or the flyer you distribute, or your ad in the local paper is probably a lot more specific: “15% Discount this Week Only!”

So Why Are You Directing People to Your Homepage? (more…)

Internet Marketing Basics – Anatomy of an Adwords Ad

Are you a small business owner looking to get started marketing your business online? You’ve come to the right place. In this post, we will help you figure out what an Adwords Pay-per-click ad is, what all the parts of the PPC ad are and some of the benefits of running a PPC campaign. If you have any questions, or would like to set up a personal, free consultation, call Don at 805-262-2518. No automated tellers here, just personal, professional consulting based in Thousand Oaks, CA.

An Adwords Ad. What’s the Deal?

So you’ve decided to run an Adwords pay-per-click campaign. Let’s take a look at writing one of these suckers and what’s going on in one.

In the screenshot above, you will see an example of a PPC that we’ve run for WSI ePro Marketing, Your Thousand Oaks Internet Marketing Company. There are a few different parts to a PPC ad, so let’s examine them one by one.

1. Headline. This is your headline. This is the first thing a user searching for your product or service sees. It’s important that it’s relevant. Whatever keyword you’re using with the ad, you’re going to want to make sure that it’s in your headline. Otherwise a user will think that the ad is for something they’re not searching for. In this example, our keyword is “Internet Marketing.” Including spaces, you can have 25 characters in your headline.

2. This is your URL. This shows a user where he is going to go when they click your ad. However, what you see is not necessarily where you go. A lot of PPC ads send you directly to a product page, which might have a long, elaborate URL. You don’t want to confuse the user, so you’ll want to list your main site, but direct them to where you want them to go. You can have 35 characters for your display URL. You must use an extension (.com, .net, .org). It does not need any prefix.

3. Description. This is the meat of your ad. (more…)

Internet Marketing Basics – Homepage Design

Are you a small business owner looking to get started marketing your business online? You’ve come to the right place. In this post, we will help you figure out basic website homepage design. If you have any questions, or would like to set up a personal, free consultation, call Don at 805-262-2518. No automated tellers here, just personal, professional consulting based in Thousand Oaks, CA.

Focus Your Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is such a vast topic, it’s hard to know where to get started. A lot of small businesses here buzz words like search engine optimization, SEO, pay-per-click and, sometimes on the advice of so called “internet marketing experts,” focus their online marketing on developing techniques (some might say tricks) to get their website ranked higher in search engine results.

The best rule is to not try and find the “magic key” or outsmart the people who create search engines and search engine algorithms. Instead, focus on what you can control: creating high-quality, interesting content that appeals to your customers, potential customers and audience.

Basic Homepage Web Design: Design for Optimization and Make it Easy to Use

There are some really simple, valuable things you can do to optimize your site. (more…)

Internet Marketing Basics – Landing Page Design

Are you a small business owner looking to get started marketing your business online? You’ve come to the right place. In this post, we will help you understand what landing pages are and their basic design. If you have any questions, or would like to set up a personal, free consultation, call Don at 805-262-2518. No automated tellers here, just personal, professional consulting based in Thousand Oaks, CA.

What is a Landing Page?

Today we’re going to talk about the design of your landing page. What is a landing page you ask? (more…)

Internet Marketing Basics – Google Places

Are you a small business owner looking to get started marketing your business online? You’ve come to the right place. In this post, we will help you get your business registered in Google Places. If you have any questions, or would like to set up a personal, free consultation, call Don at 805-262-2518. No automated tellers here, just personal, professional consulting.

One of the first places to get started online is to make sure your company is registered in “Google Places,” formerly known as “Google Maps.” Google Maps is still around, (more…)

What is Internet Marketing? – Part Two

Let’s Start at the Beginning. What is Internet Marketing?

Not all small business owners come from the same place. They do have varying areas of expertise. This includes knowledge of the internet. So if you’re new to marketing online, or the internet in general, we’re here to help you get started.

Last time in part one of our beginner’s guide to internet marketing, we talked about the definition of internet marketing. We also, gave a brief definition of some of the online tools that are available to you including Pay-per-click (PPC or Adwords), Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Mobile Marketing and Email Marketing.

This time (more…)

What is Internet Marketing? – Part One

Let’s Start at the Beginning. What is Internet Marketing?

Not all small business owners come from the same place. They do have varying areas of expertise. This includes knowledge of the internet. So if you’re new to marketing online, or the internet in general, we’re here to help you get started.

Basically, internet marketing is using the internet to market your business, product or service. It is also known as digital marketing, web marketing, online marketing or search marketing. The important thing to remember is that it is still just marketing in general. (more…)