Question: Tell me some new ways to advertise my business online.

Answer: There is no doubt that the world of online advertising is simply exploding. Therefore, we need to explore some untapped advertising hot spots in our quest for growing our wallets. Not every ‘idea’ is worth your time though. That’s why I’ve gathered some of the best opportunities for you to explore this year. An online entrepeneur myself, I spend 10 hours a day on the computer doing somewhat tedious work. Time that I could spend doing something more productive. What I’ve learned is that it’s fine to have a great web site with quality content.

The key to success is positioning yourself in front of a qualified audience of eager individuals interested in what you have to offer. This is no more true than in the world of blogging and blog promotion for businesses. To begin exploring, lets look at the Top 3 Lesser Known Online Advertising Mediums.

BlogAds

For years, critics have stereotyped blog readers as nerdy teenagers and young adults. More and more, and as the internet continues to grow, we see that blog readers are in the $45,000 per year and above category with high buying power. Blog readers are anyone from journalists, business people taking a break from their work schedule, authors, professors, and more. To better understand BlogAds and their potential check out the two graph links below.

- This graph by eMarketer shows why people read blogs in the first place.
- This graph by eMarkter shows how many people click on blog ads.

The people that go to blogs are interested in ‘text’. They come to the blog to read something and the idea of placing text based advertisements on blogs to confuse readers into clicking on contextual ads is up to debate. Personally, I would believe that after reading a long exaustive article that a blog reader would psychologically look for a person’s face or an image on the web site to ease their mind. Graphical based advertising on a blog might be a good idea. We should really do a test on this theory.

The world of blogging is becoming widely influential on the world of advertising. With the buying power of these blog readers you might be wondering how your business can tap into the world of BlogAds. The first thing to do is:

- Sign Up with BlogAds
- Start Advertising on PFBlog.com, BlogShares.com, and others.

You also might want to check out the Creative Weblogging Network which has over 5 million unique page views per month. They have a variety of blogs and blog topic sites to help target your audience.

CPA Programs

With how the Google Adwords program has miserably failed to prevent click fraud, one has to wonder what is next in the world of online advertising. The answer comes in form of the CPA - Cost per action. In this advertising model, you only pay the publisher when a qualified visitor converts to a sale, registration, or sign up on your web site. The benefit of the programs are less risky and more profitable. Unfortunately, publishers will suffer in the long run from this form of advertising.

To start a CPA - Cost per action campaign you must first choose a company to advertise through.

-  AzoogleAds - The top CPA network. You can use their network to advertise on web sites such as True.com, Stamps, Blockbuster, and more.
-  ClickBooth - Gain access to thousands of web site publisher’s advertising hot spots.
-  Hydra Network - Reaches over 100 million internet users

Comparison Shopping Engines

If you currently sell products online then your main advertising sources should be comparison shopping service engines. Most online sellers do not use this untapped advertising medium though. If you sell products online and do not currently use one of the following, click a link below and get your company signed up. Sellers undervalue the benefits of this advertising option but buyers use these comparison shopping networks frequently.

-  Yahoo Shopping
-  Google’s Froogle

Google’s Froogle will actually let you do a ‘bulk upload’ of all your products in one large excel file. I did so at the online Costume Shop I used to work for. We uploaded 3,000 costumes after arranging an Excel file in under 3 hours. The thing about comparison shopping engines is that you can position your product based on a number of factors. We quickly learned that we could put our products on top by adjusting our prices, user rating, relevancy, and click through rate. We did so by adding columns to our Excel file for categories and keywords. Google’s Froogle has a huge section on columns you can add to your Excel worksheet of products to help optimize your listings.

Froogle is free too. Start with Froogle and watch qualified visitors come straight to your web site prepared to buy.