The Free Feast is Over
Why are so many surprised?

From the date the Internet was finally recognized as a commercial medium, every astute business person knew that the days of "free" were going to come to an end. Free search engine listings, free Email services, free directory listings... they were all bound to come to an end.

Oh, I know that these "free" services are still available, but they are mostly geared towards non-commercial or personal use or, worse yet, a way to get spyware installed on your system.

Free Email is really for the private consumer, no decent commercial account would want to send mail from yahoo.com, gmail.com or any other generic domain. Having your own domain for a Web site and for Email signifies that you are a legitimate business.

Since the dawn of the commercial age of the Internet - around 1996 - every business has been trying to figure out the best way to use the media for advertising purposes. Banner ads were first introduced once browsers were able to interpret graphics and bandwidth allowed for a reasonable download time. It was quickly evident that the cost of these banners would have to drastically be reduced because Internet users had a way of ignoring them, selectively filtering them out of their view. Today banner ads still exist, but they sell for far less than when they were first introduced.

Pop-ups became the craze for awhile until everyone decided to invest in the free toolbars offered by the major search engines to block them. Pop-ups worked great for the search engines. Once installed, the Internet searcher was far more apt to use the search bar provided by their preferred search engine to conduct searches. The pop-ups did little to ingratiate themselves to the advertisers who used them, however.

GoTo.com came on the scene with a novel approach - pay-per-click. Sounded reasonable and many advertisers decided to give it a try. After all the price was only pennies per click. GoTo.com became Overture and search engines were switching algorithms at such a furious rate, that advertisers decided they needed the pay-per-click service to keep their site in front of Internet searchers. Only now the price is far more than just a few pennies per click. In many cases the cost for a site visitor exceeds one dollar.

Pay-to-include programs became popular for awhile. These were programs that guaranteed that a major search engine would review your site. They did not guarantee that they would include your site in their index, however. Even so, Internet marketers felt that paying for this service would help ranking for their sites and it usually did. Today only SiteMatch, Yahoo Directory, and MSN Small Business Directory exist and none seem to have much impact on rankings.

Throughout all of this grew a service industry of Internet marketing firms offering services from search engine optimization to help get your site indexed, to managing pay-per-click campaigns. This industry, now over 14 million strong, continues to grow in spite of the setbacks thrown at them by fickle search products with changing algorithms, rising minimum bids, restrictive listing guidelines, mergers and acquisitions. They have had to modify their services reacting to the ever- changing environment of search and they have had to offer more and more personalized service.

All of the changes, investment in software, and personnel have forced reputable Internet marketing firms to increase the cost of their services. Gone are the days when a single person moonlighting could manage a search engine optimization campaign to the satisfaction of a commercial account.

While many commercial accounts may feel that the pay-per-visitor model of advertising is increasing at an alarming rate, it still is nowhere near the cost of advertising in other media. In fact, according to a report submitted at the Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago, IL B2C companies surveyed indicated Website leads were 62% more profitable than other media. Putting your eggs all in one basket - free natural Search Engine results - is extremely fragile. Today you're there, tomorrow who knows? The best way to maximize your marketing budget is to integrate search marketing -- that means including it in your advertising budget and allocating funds for it. The days of cheap, free search engine marketing programs are now relegated to nostalgia - like the 25 cent loaf of bread.

In Previous Issues...

Pay-To-Include Search and Directories. Are they worth the money?
click here

Number Crunching: Getting a handle on your Internet Marketing Program
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Conversion Tracking- Do those numbers give the whole picture?
click here

Content Managed Sites
The Pros & Cons of Doing it Yourself
click here

Getting Noticed - is your important criteria being seen?
click here

Power Of The Press
click here

Principled Profit
Marketing that puts people first
click here

Web Site Insurance
click here

Managing Internet Media
click here

The WWWWW & H of your Web Site
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Sponsored Placement or Pay-For-Inclusion which is right for you?
click here

The 8 Second Decision!
click here

Guerrilla Marketing vs Panther Marketing
click here

The Art & Science of Search Engine Optimization
click here

The Cost of Internet Marketing
click here

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