Internet Advertising

History

In terms of efficiency, the advertising industry is now starting to rise out

of its century-long infancy. The new era of innovative advertising can be
called as “the new Wanamaker era”. John Wanamaker was a devoutly
Christian merchant from Philadelphia, who in the 1870s not only invented
department stores and price tags but also became the first modern
advertiser. He was the first advertiser who bought space in newspapers to
promote his chain of stores. He brought a much needed revolution in the
advertising world. A few years ago, when the Internet hit the market,
advertising industry got a new medium. And soon whole advertising world
was taken by storm in capitalising on this media.

According to a recent advertising industry survey, it was revealed

that Internet advertising will be generating $428 billion revenues this
year. This is a whooping amount in comparison to the last year’s $220
billion. It has been now proved that approximately 21 percent of Internet
users consider online advertising to be the most relevant advertising
system. Internet advertising has overtaken other traditional advertising
media such as newspapers, magazines, and radio.

With new platforms for advertising evolving on a continual basis, it can be

complicated to choose the right medium. By having a solid understanding
of certain aspects of Internet advertising, companies can find the right
media mix that works. To achieve success in Internet advertising, you
ought to have a clear knowledge of the basics of Internet functioning.
Additionally, you should try to understand that some media can work for
you better than others depending on your type of customers and the
products you offer. Internet advertising would work wonders if your
customer base can be from any part of the world and transaction can be
handled well over the Internet. It also works well with certain types of
products and services and also depends on certain regions. While Internet
advertising can directly relate to sales, it can have huge effectiveness on
exercises of brand awareness, recognition and networking.

Majority business owners worldwide know that the Internet has now
become an essential tool when it comes to running their businesses
successfully. However, you should also understand the role played by the
Internet in the lives of their customers. You should be capable to locate
people who are using the Internet; their key interests in the time spend on
the Internet and their preferences to purchase products and services on a
daily basis.

Source:- http://www.exchange4media.com/e4m/bottombarfiles/Internet-
Advertising.asp

Introduction

Most people are still not aware of the formidable potential of the Internet.
If your business has not started harnessing this growing phenomenon, its
time to act now! Why? The Internet is growing at such a phenomenal rate
and that it is reaching a far wider audience faster than most known
mediums, Internet Advertising is fast becoming one of the most effective
way of advertising for businesses. Currently, it is predicted that there are
more than 1 million new first-time Internet users monthly and over 900
million people using the Internet worldwide. Any small, medium or large
company that wish to boost its sales should go online to reach the targeted
audience using techniques involved with Internet Advertising, Web
promotion and Internet marketing.

On the Internet, getting the right prospective clients is important. To

embark on the most effective Internet Advertising techniques, your
Internet advertising consultants must target your advertisements to the
right and ready group of prospective clients. On with the effective Internet
Advertising will your sales ratio reach higher rates and better results!

In addition to the major effect internet marketing has had on the

technology industry, the effect on the advertising industry itself has been
profound. In just a few years, online advertising has grown to be worth
tens of billions of dollars annually. Price water house Coopers reported
that US$16.9 billion was spent on Online marketing in the U.S. in 2006.
This has caused a growing impact on the United States' electoral process.
In 2008, candidates for President heavily utilized Internet marketing
strategies to reach constituents. During the 2007 primaries candidates
added, on average, over 500 social network supporters per day to help
spread their message. President Barack Obama raised over US$1 million in
one day during his extensive Democratic candidacy campaign, largely due
to online donors.

Several industries have heavily invested in and benefited from internet

marketing and online advertising. Some of them were originally brick and
mortar businesses such as publishing, music, automotive or gambling,
while others have sprung up as purely online businesses, such as digital
design and media, blogging, and internet service hosting.

Why Internet Advertising?

Traditional media, in today's highly competitive world, has proved to be

insufficient in fulfilling any advertisers' exacting standards - of efficiency
and customer interaction. The interactive Internet is the solution to the
your requirements, since it is a two-way interpersonal communication
medium, with key distinguishing factors of feedback and interaction in real
time. It is Interactive, Interpersonal & Cost effective - these are but a few
of the many advantages that the Internet, as an advertising medium
offers. The Internet offers unlimited low cost space compared to the
expense and limited capacity of traditional media and the ability to
accurately measure audience usage. Every day millions of new users spend
increasing amounts of time online. And that's where the opportunity lies -
for every minute spent online is an advertising opportunity for you.
Internet advertising is very similar to TV and radio advertising. The
programs are offered as a free service; commercial advertising pays the
expenses. The same is true of Internet advertising. The information is free,
with the costs defrayed by advertising. A major advantage of Internet
advertising is the ability to attract a specific target audience. This
advantage is limited or nonexistent in other forms of media advertising.
With the Internet, ads are directed towards the right group of people.
Internet ads are known as banners. Virtually all banners are links to other
sites, but there are still those few that are just meant to be seen, like
billboards. One advantage of Internet advertising is that it opens new
possibilities to spread messages to a targeted audience. By advertising to a
particular group, chances of success are indeed great.

How Internet Advertising works?

There are various Internet advertising techniques: 
1. The ad owner pays a fixed amount for each person who visits the page
with the ad. 
2. The ad owner pays a fixed amount for each click on an ad that links to
the advertisers' web site. 
3. The ad owner pays a fixed rate to have his advertisement posted for a
specified duration.
4. The ad owner has the option of either promoting their product or service
through survey based contests on our site.

Source:- http://www.galatta.com/advertising/internet_advertising.asp

Types of Internet Advertising

By:
SamiFab
People opt for internet advertising methods because practically half of the
world's population knows HTML. If you have your own business, you have
to decide on what internet advertising method works for you. Ask yourself
what are you going to avail of: the expensive internet advertising methods
or the cheap ones? Others will pipe in "expensive!" immediately, but they
don't know cheap internet advertising method attracts great benefits as
well.

Here's the lowdown and a comparative look on the cheap and expensive
internet advertising methods:

The Expensive:

1. Pop-ups. Not only is this expensive, but also outright annoying that
visitors close pop-up windows without even bothering to know what
they're all about. This is an internet advertising method that you can do
without. 

Fly ads are derivatives of pop-ups which are also equally irking to the
visitors.

2. 1. Pop-ups. Not only is this expensive, but also outright annoying that
visitors close pop-up windows without even bothering to know what
they're all about. This is an internet advertising method that you can do
without. 

Fly ads are derivatives of pop-ups which are also equally irking to the
visitors.

2. Pod casts.

Broadcast is to TV as pod cast is to internet. It's one sophisticated internet

advertising method that can somehow hamper your budget. But if you're
thinking results, pod casting is worth the money.

3. Paying the search engines.

How does this one work? When someone types in a keyword related to
your site, your URL is automatically included in the first page of the top
results. Fixed payment for the search engine allows just that. Expensive,
yes, but if we're talking about Google and Yahoo search engines here, then
don't give it a second thought.

This is associated with another internet advertising method: the pay-per-

click system.

The Cheap:

1. Blogging.

Go along the bandwagon and blog about your website. This is an internet
advertising method that is popular as of the moment, so you never have to
worry that this will never spur outcome. All you have to do is sign up for a
blogging account, post and voila! You don't even need to pay! 

2. Submit to not-so-big search engines.

This is cheap and dependable. If you submit your site to smaller search
engines, you have bigger chances to get bigger results. Remember that the
search engine giants can dwarf and overlook your site easily, so this
internet advertising method might just be the right one for you.

3. Text links.
This is not just cheap...this is virtually free! Let someone text link your site
and return the favor.

Cheap versus expensive, that's always the question that hounds on

whenever we're trying to get something. In the field of internet
advertising, just be wise enough to figure out what will suit your needs.
Go for what you want as long as there are visible results.

online advertising is profitable than advertising in real world, so you can

earn much profits from less investments. But do you know how they are
targeting the ads in this virtual world.

I’m not talking about the type ad ads like banner ads, CPC, CPM etc., i’m
going to discuss here about the nature of working of Ads .

In my opinion basically there two types of Internet based Ads.

1. Target Advertising [Static Ads]

2. Behavioral Advertising [Dynamic Ads]

Target Advertising
This is very common method as you all know it very well. These Ads are fixed on
the basic of content of that particular webpage or keywords used on that webpage.

For Example -

If you are viewing a webpage or article about “tips for bloggers“, the Ads on that
page will be of blogging, SEO and hosting related one which depends on the
keyword and its density of that particular web page.

This type of ads are said to be “target advertisements” because these are
already targeted relevant to the content or keywords of the webpage.
Behavioral Advertising
This is recent time improvement by google. These are dynamic Ads which can able
to change from user to user.

Example -

If you are traveler and love to travel  and discover new things. You will be frequently
searching for travel related websites from your browser via search engine.

Now google will store your interest as “travel” in its cookie. Now whenever you surf 
websites or blogs you can see google Ads relevant to “travel” and not based on the content
of that particular web page as we discussed in target advertising.

This type of working style of Ads is known as “Behavioral Ads“. Which is dynamic, based
on the user interest of what they are searching the web. This type of Ads will provide them
more relevant results and make the advertiser to reach their customers very easily.

http://www.technoskillonline.com/2010/09/different-types-of-internet-or-online-
advertising/

The Eight Essential Types of Internet

Promotion
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, E-Commerce Consultant
Web Marketing Today, June 12, 2000
This article contains older information. Go here for newer information
on advertising and affiliate marketing.
Sometimes your head can be so abuzz with all these Internet marketing
details that you feel overwhelmed. You don't know where to start. You
can't see the forest for the trees. While there is a lot of depth to be
understood, I think that Internet promotion can be distilled down to eight
essential types. Wrap your mind around these basic concepts and you can
grasp what Internet promotion is all about. Here are the eight:

1. Search engines 5. Traditional media

2. Linking strategies 6. E-mail publishing
3. Viral strategies 7. Networking
4. Public relations 8. Paid advertising

Everything can be subsumed under these eight types of Internet

marketing. If it's detail you want, read my article "The Web Marketing
Checklist: 27 Ways to Promote Your
Website"http://wilsonweb.com/articles/checklist.htm or Susan
Sweeney's book 101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site(Second Edition,
Maximum Press, 2000).
http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/188506845X/wilsoninternetse
But if it's simplicity you crave, I've tried to pare it down to the eight
essentials.
1. Search engines

Many people, perhaps even a majority of people, will use search engines
and the Yahoo! directory to find what they're looking for on the Web. So
the place to start in promotion is to design webpages that will be indexed
well by the search engines, using descriptive titles and accurate META
tags. When you're ready, submit your site so that search engines will index
("spider") it, using a submission tool such as the All4One Submission
Machine http://www.all4one.com/all4submit/ or JimTools.
http://www.jimtools.com/ Getting a listing in the Yahoo! Directory is the
most important task -- and the most difficult. You may even have to pay
them $199 to agree to consider within one week whether to add your site.
Search engines are important. Be persistent. If your site doesn't show up
within a few weeks, submit again ... and again ... and again.

But with hundreds of millions of webpages, and only 15% to 20% of them
indexed, it's very easy for your site to get lost. The remedy (which adds to
the clutter) is to create a set of doorway or gateway webpages, each tuned
to score high on a specific search engine for a specific search word or
phrase. While there is excellent software available for search engine
positioning, Web Position Gold http://www.webposition.com/d2.pl?
r=AQH-55E7 for $150, I recommend that small businesses outsource this
task for $1000 or so, plus a $100 to $150 per month "maintenance" fee.
The task is very time intensive; it isn't really a spare-time project. More
info in the Search Engine Marketing section of the Web Marketing Info
Center. http://www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket/searchengine.htm
2. Linking strategies

Linking strategies are a second essential type of site promotion. The more
links pointing to your site, the more traffic you'll experience (and the
greater perceived "popularity" will rank you higher in the search engines).
To get someone to link to your site you need to ask. The simplest way is to
find complementary sites, link to them on a linking page, and ask them to
link to you. The key, of course, is for your site to have content that so good
that it's worth linking to. No one wants to link to a nothing website.
Ask for links on sites that cover your industry, as wells from associations
your business belongs to. One twist on this is to join a Web Ring with each
member site linking to the next member site along the chain.
http://www.webring.org/ Other approaches are to offer the best (and
most trafficked) websites an "award" that consists of an award logo with a
link pointing back to your site. Another popular method is to join a banner
exchange. For every two banners displayed on your site promoting other
businesses, one of your banners will be shown an another member site.
The biggest exchange is Microsoft bCentral LinkExchange.
http://adnetwork.bcentral.com/ I've given up on the so-called Free For All
(FFA) linking sites; don't even waste your time there. Another important
form of linking promotion involves paying affiliates for sales resulting from
links to your site, but we'll cover that under paid advertising.

3. Viral strategies

An increasingly important process is to design a strategy that encourages

others to carry your marketing message via e-mail, using their own
network of relationships -- and preferably their own resources. This is
called "viral marketing" after the way viruses multiply rapidly in a cell,
commandeering the cell's resources to do the virus's bidding. The classic
example is HotMail.com, a free e-mail system. Each e-mail message (sent
by definition to a person's own friends and associates) carries a message
encouraging the recipient to sign up for a HotMail account, too. Another
example is postcard or greeting cards, each of which carries a message
encouraging the recipient to send a card to a friend -- carrying the
siteowner's marketing message. If you can write quality articles, you can
offer them to others to use on their websites or in their newsletters, each
article carrying a link to your website. Public relations to get press
coverage is a kind of viral strategy, if you think about it. More at the Viral
Marketing Section of the Web Marketing Info Center.
http://www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket/viral.htm
4. Public relations
Public relations, the task of getting press coverage, is still a vital type of
site promotion. If you can get a news release picked up by several print
and/or Internet publications you'll get a tremendous boost in traffic, all for
"free," letting the news periodical's network carry your marketing
message. Of course, nothing's really free. You'll need to have a truly
newsworthy event, contest, free service, chat room -- orsomething -- or no
decent publication will consider it news. Coming up with "free" services
and events isn't inexpensive, but the ensuing publicity can be excellent --
you may get an unbiased editorial recommendations that you couldn't
purchase for any amount of money. While there are free news release
services, expect to pay several hundred dollars to have your news release
sent to hundreds of subscribing periodicals. More at the Public Relations
Section of the Web Marketing Info Center.
http://www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket/pr.htm
5. Traditional media

Don't discount traditional media in promoting your website -- news

releases, of course, as well as paid advertising. A very effective way to
promote your site is to place a small display ad in a targeted trade
publication, offering some teaser copy and pointing readers to your URL or
an autoresponder e-mail address for more information. This way your site
serves as an online brochure, providing full information to interested
shoppers day and night. A no-brainer is to make sure that all your
company's literature, cards, letterheads, and envelopes carry your website
URL. If you're immersed in the Internet, you may have forgotten that most
people still get the majority of their marketing messages through
traditional channels. An excellent way for small businesses to learn how to
use traditional advertising media is from Jay Conrad Levinson's Guerrilla
Marketing(3rd Edition; Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0395906253/wilsoninternet
se
6. E-mail Publishing

If you're smart you won't even think of developing a business website

without marrying it to an e-mail publication. The website is the shy partner
who passively waits for people to come to him. But the e-mail publication
is the bold, active partner who goes out to where people are and invites
them to come meet her groom. Together they make a great couple.

E-mail publishing is primarily a way to conserve the people who have

shown some interest in your business by coming to your website or
responding to one of your offers. One of the highest priorities of your
website MUST be to get your visitor to sign up for your free newsletter or
discussion list or updates publication. Offer a variety of inducements --
entry into a contest, a free gift, a free coupon -- whatever you must do to
insure a steady stream of subscribers to your newsletter. Once they are
subscribers -- if you give them content they enjoy and learn from -- they'll
stay with you for years, and you can gently build their trust month after
month. When they're ready to make a purchase, your site is at the top of
their mind, and they'll probably buy from you. Figure the lifetime value to
you of a single subscriber. When you've completed this exercise, you'll
know why beginning your own e-mail publication is so vital to marketing
your business. More info in the Newsletter and Discussion List Marketing
Section of the Web Marketing Info Center.
http://www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket/email-newsletter.htm
Though some Internet marketers focus on sending stand-alone e-mail ads
to their mailing lists, I shy away from that. With so much SPAM
(unsolicited e-mail) abounding, it's too easy for recipients to mistake your
promotion for just another ad, and unsubscribe forever. Though an
occasional promotional e-mail may be okay, your marketing messages in
the context of news and helpful information is much more effective, and
builds loyalty that you can never gain by just bombarding your customers
with ads.

Of course, you probably know by now that sending out mass e-mails to
huge lists of e-mail addresses is a no-no. It violates the principle of
Permission Marketing that says people respond better to a marketing
message they have agreed to receive. Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail (UCE)
also runs contrary to a long-standing Internet tradition that responds to
SPAM with angry flames and enough returned e-mail to cause your ISP to
shut down your account very quickly. If you're interested in building a
long-term business based on trust, don't send SPAM. See the E-Mail
Marketing Section of the Web Marketing Info Center.
http://www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket/email.htm
7. Networking

An extremely important way to promote your website is through

networking. Small business members of a local Chamber of Commerce
know how making friends, being introduced, meeting new people at
mixers, and being featured in the Chamber newsletter can help build your
business. Networking isn't quick, but it's the basis of relationships that will
grow your business through word-of-mouth over the years.

On the Internet, networking is done primarily through news groups and e-

mail discussion lists such as John Audette's venerable I-Sales Discussion
List. http://www.audettemedia.com/i-sales/ In discussion lists, people in
an industry carry on a conversation about various current issues. After a
while, you get to know the regular participants from reading their
comments week after week. Regular participation fosters trust and builds
your reputation. You don't brazenly hype your business in this kind of
venue -- that's considered rude. But the "signature" at the end of every e-
mail message identifies you, and tells people about your business and how
to contact you. If you aren't using a signature in your e-mails, begin today.
Search out the newsgroups and discussion lists in your industry and take
an active part. This will result in increased traffic, as well as referrals and
recommendations by list members to their other friends who might need
your products or services. More info in the News Group and Mailing List
Marketing Section of the Web Marketing Info Center.
http://www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket/newsgroup.htm
8. Paid advertising

You'll notice that most of the first seven types of Internet Marketing can be
done in-house relatively inexpensively (with the possible exception of
search engine positioning). Of course, you may be able to find a marketing
firm to which you can outsource some of these functions, but you can
probably do a fine job yourself -- after all, it'syour business, and you are
the one who can promote it most effectively.
But there comes a point that to get wider exposure, to break into the
consciousness of the thousands of people who never haunt your end of the
Web, you may need to resort to paid advertising. You'll be paying high
traffic sites or Internet publications to include a graphic or link that will
channel large numbers of people to your site. There are several popular
forms of paid advertising, with new approaches cropping up all the time:

 Banner ads have been around the longest. Typically these are 468x60
pixel animated and linked graphic ads that appear at the top of a
commercial webpage. They are usually sold on a CPM (cost per
thousand page views) basis. Targeted sites may get CPM rates of $35
to $50 or more, but banner ads to reach general audiences are priced
$1 to $10 CPM. Banners that pop up on search sites triggered by a
keyword can cost $20 to $30 CPM. 

But banner ads can be expensive. Do the math with me. If you're
paying $10 CPM and the click-through rate is an industry average of
0.5%, then it costs you $10 to get 5 people to your site, or $2 each. If
only 5% (or 1/20th) of the visitors to your site make a purchase, then
the "customer acquisition cost" is $2 x 20 or $40. You need a fairly
high transaction total to pay out $40 per sale for advertising. Your
strategy, however, may be to pay a higher initial customer acquisition
cost but get a customer you can keep and market to for the next
several years. You may lose money on the first sale, but make it up on
the second, third, fourth ... and 20th.
 Paid Listings in Portal Sites. To get noticed, your online pet store may
need to pay for a listing under the "Pets" category at Lycos Shop. For
this you may pay a flat fee or a percentage of the sale. Consider it the
equivalent of paying rent to enjoy the foot traffic that a suburban mall
might attract. More at the Banner Ads Section of the Web Marketing
Info Center. http://wilsonweb.com/webmarket/ad.htm
 Sponsorships are longer term paid ads on websites or e-mail
newsletters.
 Pay-per-Click Links can be purchased on search engines such as
GoTo.com http://www.goto.com The price per click for the top spots
depends upon what your competitors are willing to bid. ValueClick
offers banner advertising on a per click basis. http://valueclick.com
  Pay-per-Sale Advertising is popularly known as an Affiliate or
Associate Program. The merchant signs up a number of affiliates who
place a link or linked graphic on their site. If a sale is made to a
customer coming through that link, the affiliate earns a commission,
typically 5% to 15% of the transaction total. This can be an effective
-- and safe -- way to advertise, since you only have to pay when a sale
is made. You can purchase software to run your own program, but I
recommend outsourcing this to a service bureau such as Commission
Junction, that charges an initial set-up fee and then 20% of the
commission you pay your affiliates. http://www.cj.com/go.asp?
69320 More info in the Affiliate Program Section of our E-Commerce
Research Room. http://www.wilsonweb.com/research/associate.htm
 Paid ads in targeted e-mail newsletters can be very effective. There
are hundreds of thousands of e-mail newsletters, many of which have
very modest advertising fees. Click through rates are likely to be in
the range of 1% to 3%. You'll find several e-zine directories in
the Doctor Ebiz Directories of E-zines page.
http://www.doctorebiz.com/vol1/000329c.htm
 Opt-in E-mail Advertising involves sending a stand-alone ad for your
business to individuals who have (hopefully) volunteered to receive
information from your kind of business. These are called "opt-in" lists,
since the list members have agreed to receive information. Avoid
"opt-out" lists where recipients are placed on a list involuntarily and
then invited to unsubscribe if they want to. Opt-in lists can be quite
targeted, with ads getting a 1% to 3% click-through rate. Expect to
pay about 15 cents to 30 cents per name; the list broker will do the e-
mailing on your behalf. You'll find a list of brokers in the Targeted
Direct E-Mail Lists Section of the Web Marketing Info Center.
http://www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket/lists.htm
Certainly, there are many more types of paid advertising, but these are
some of the most common and most effective.

Internet promotion can seem overwhelming. But hopefully it's more

understandable since we've outlined the eight types that comprise
effective website promotion. Here they are, once again:

1. Search engines 5. Traditional media

2. Linking strategies 6. E-mail publishing
3. Viral strategies 7. Networking
4. Public relations 8. Paid advertising

http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/plan-4promotion.htm
Advantages & disadvantages

Today, majority of the people spend their work and leisure time in front of their
computers on the Internet. As social networking sites replace meeting up with
friends and searching the Internet for information rather than going through books
becomes the norm, advertisers are seeing a huge potential for marketing and
advertising various products and services on the Internet. 

When we use the term Internet advertising, it comprises of a lot of things. Email

advertising, web banners, advertisements on social networking sites,
advertisements on manufacturer's own site, pop-up advertisements,
advertisements through Internet affiliates - these are all a part of online
advertising. Scroll down to know the advantages of Internet advertising...

It is a well known fact that for websites to get traffic to push the owners
online business forward that Internet advertising is a fast way to get the
traffic they need to increase both their website popularity as well as the
potential value the site has to bring in profits to the site owner.

As with everything that provides a variety of benefits there is always going

to be disadvantages associated with the product or service. Internet
advertising is no different.

I am sure you will have your own opinions but these are my thoughts on
both advantages and disadvantages to just a few internet advertising
methods.

Internet Advertising Advantages

This is a fast way to drive traffic to new sites to build there popularity and
increase revenue in the shortest time frame possible.

Internet Advertising Disadvantages

Requires a great deal of research to be done to know where your target

audience is and selecting the most appropriate program to get your ads in
front if the right people that your site needs.

Pay-per-click Advantages
Gets high exposure across a variety of search terms providing the easiest
way to get in front of the largest audience possible using combinations of
search engine exposure as well as additional exposure via content
networks.

Pay-per-click Disadvantages

Can be time consuming just managing the ad campaigns, testing and tweaking ads
to get the best return, to low a bid price will give limited exposure and has the
highest competition across all internet advertising methods making harder to be
profitable.

Banner Advertising Advantages

Plenty of banner exchange networks that will get you exposure across a lot of
similar websites making it easy to select the audience you need to attract and
allows you to control which websites have your banner ad displayed. Selecting the
appropriate category ensures your visitors are targeted and interested in what your
site has to offer and is cheaper than most methods of advertising.

Banner Advertising Disadvantages

If your not a graphic designer then putting the ads together can be daunting. There
are guides but most will focus around photoshop and gimp which I just can't get the
hang of and don't have the time to try and learn how to design and edit graphics.
Another disadvantage is that the people that do know how to get banners together
can sometimes charge quite a bit so even out sourcing can be too expensive to get
a decent return.
Benefits of Internet Advertising

Wide Reach
When it comes to reaching a wide range of customers, no other medium can beat
Internet. By advertising on the Internet, a small manufacturer in one part of the
world can find customers in the other. Internet advertising has broken all
geographical restrictions that existed with other mediums. Global companies, small
local businesses, anybody and everybody can increase their product sales and
profits by online advertising. This is definitely one of the exclusive advantages of
advertising on the web. 

Target Oriented
On the Internet, you will find websites which cater to a particular group of people
who have some specific interests or who belong to a particular age group. There are
sports websites, medical websites, technology websites, social networking sites
which are mostly frequented by youngsters, religions websites, travel websites, etc.
Thus, Internet marketing and advertising gives businesses an opportunity to reach
people who would be specifically interested in buying their product. For instance, a
new cellphone in the market can find it's potential customers if advertised on a
technology or a social networking site. 

Quick Conversion
One of the foremost advantages of Internet advertising is that the conversion time
of the advertisement into a sale is very less. Most of the advertisements on the
Internet have links which allow the customers to purchase the product then and
there. This in a way hikes the sales and profits of any given business. 

Highly Informative
From the consumer point of view, one of the advantages of advertising on the
Internet is that they can know in detail about the product, its features, durability,
method of use, etc. With some advertisements, there are consumer reviews
available which help a customer to make an informed decision with regards to
buying a product. 

Cost Effective
Another of the advantages of Internet advertising is that it is very cost effective.
With other mediums of advertising, be it television or print, you can not say for
sure whether the customer who is watching or reading the advertisement is actually
going to buy the product. But through "pay per click advertising", a marketer is
actually paying only when the potential customer visits his website or looks through
the product that is being sold. So, comparing from this point of view, Internet
advertising costs are much less. 

Easy to Use
All type of businesses, even the ones which have just started out, will find
advertising on the Internet much easier. With other advertising mediums such as
television and print, businesses need to hire the services of an advertising agency
to create appropriate advertisements for them and also to buy advertisement space
in newspapers or televisions. With web advertising, all these headaches do not
exist. So, one of the main Internet advertising advantages is that even a business
which is just a day old can advertise it's products and services online, by starting
it's own website. 

These are some of the advantages of Internet advertising. Although, this

advertising technique is not without it's own share of flaws. On the Internet, there
is a very high potential of a customer being fooled into buying a product which is
not even remotely similar to what the product details given in the advertisement
make it out to be. Moreover, there are very high chances that the potential
customers might miss the advertisement while surfing the Internet. Nevertheless,
in spite of these drawbacks, in this age of Internet, advertising online is one of the
growing mediums to watch out for!

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/advantages-
of-internet-advertising.html
Do You Know the Latest Trends in Online
Advertising?

Latest Online Media Advertising Trends

 
Online media advertising is one of the upcoming and growing segments in Indian
advertisement sector. Internet is one such medium which is accessible by anyone and
everyone and that too in any part of the country. This is the reason why online media
advertising is catching up with the audience. With its vast accessibility and reach it is
easy to reach millions of users at one go. Seeing this latest fad we can say that India is
certainly experiencing online media advertising boom.

Sensing its reach and importance many online business publications or magazines have
taken online media advertising as a hot topic and keep a close look at the changing
trend. Being the newest and hottest field online media advertising has become the talk
of the town. According to the experts this new advertising mode carries a lot of potential
and will surely rake the moolahs. Also they think that online media advertising is in a
transition period and soon it will outshine other media with its reach and sustainability.

Various publications are keeping a close look on it and exchange4media is one of

them. exchange4media is one of the upcoming magazines which are keeping a close
eye on the changing trends in online media advertising. With Indian market and
economy opening up online media advertising will surely be expanding its wings. Lately
a positive and encouraging growth has been witnessed in the number of businesses and
the way business was popularized has now been completely changed. People now prefer
to popularize or publicize their business online as this decision is backed by certain
 benefits.

exchange4media is keeping a close eye on online media advertising and

simultaneously keep informing the user about the latest changes occurring in it. By this
user can redefine or set his goals for maximum benefits. This media magazine provides
up to date information about the changing and emerging trends in online media
advertising and also keep a track of them. exchange4media has online media
advertising as one of its focal areas and keeps noting the changes occurring in it.

Online media advertising is a hot fad and exchange4media carries latest news and views
and analyses about this fast emerging medium. Thus, if you are new to the business and
looking for more ways to popularize your business then online media advertising is best
for you. Therefore for more information on online media advertising, advertising and
marketing services, Indian advertising agency and Internet advertising please
visit www.exchange4media.com.

http://www.masternewmedia.org/top-internet-trends-2010-a-guide-to-the-best-
predictions-from-the-web-part-2/

you are looking for the top internet 2010 predictions, anticipations and trends
from the top bloggers, the tech thought leaders and the top new media sites out
there, you have landed in the right place. In part 2 of this MasterNewMedia guide to
the top Internet trends for 2010 (Part 1), you will find indeed some of the most
interesting and provocative anticipations about new media, and about the future of
online marketing and communications on the Internet.

Photo credit: Katrina Brown

Here some of the top 2010 trends and highlights emerging from this Internet
predictions roundup:

 Content formats: One of the main difficulties of the web is being able to
really track a story as it develops and creating engaging formats for long-
form articles. In 2010, news organizations and publishers will design stories
that are more suited to the way readers consume online content. As a result,
other formats that are either engaging and eye-catching will gain momentum
in 2010, like the blogozine.
 Content nesting: In 2010 your own content will spread on multiple
locations more rapidly than you can imagine. That is why your website
content needs to be nested in as many content aggregation sites as possible.
Social media, RSS / blog directories and influential websites should be your
main target. Why is this really important? Picture this: If you have a video on
your website that is not on YouTube, people on YouTube will not bother
searching for your website, because they simply do not need to go
elsewhere. For them, YouTube already represents the total number of videos
available on their topic of interest. Got it?
 Social media marketing: A survey by VerticalResponse, Inc. shows
that 68% of small businesses plan to increase social media marketing. Social
media will indeed continue to be a great way for marketers and brands
to create conversations with customers. So, be sure to make 2010 your year
to test content that attracts repeat and referral business. Customers are
more likely to respond to social media marketing because they already know
you and trust you based on feedback from other people or their prior
purchases.
 Online reputation: With more and more consumers making decisions based
on what they find online, small business owners will have to pay greater
attention to track the buzz around their brands. As consumers prove to
be highly influenced by online reviews and comments, business owners that
do not monitor their brand mentions may have a hard time to prevent
negative word of mouth. In 2010 expect those that will invest time protecting
their online identities to succeed, and others to fail.
 Paid / free content: A recent Forrester report stated that 80% of U.S.
consumers will not pay for online content. Another survey by BCG showed
that most people will pay a maximum of $3 per month for online paid
subscriptions. What this means is that brands of 2010 are going to be built
through a different model, based on consumer demand, the endless supply of
content and the free distribution systems we all have.
 Online video: In 2010, online video will keep growing, keeping pace with
the good trends of this year. Online video is interactive, memorable, widely
accessible, cheap to create and highly shareable, that is why entrepreneurs
and business owners are willing to invest even more on video. It is crucial
though, that you do not overlook your text content for video. As powerful as
video can be, it can be more cumbersome than text because you cannot scan
a video as quickly as you can scan a page of headlines, links and text to
quickly find the exact information you need.
  Online video advertising: Pre-roll ads will continue to dominate online
video advertising. No innovation from Hulu, YouTube or Vivaki will prove as
effective as a 0:15 or 0:30 coupled with a companion ad (here IAB video ad
formats). YouTube only gains massive market share with its abundance of
pre-roll and unless a brand new alternative is developed in the coming
months, expect pre-roll to stay.
 Business models: Expect new business models to emerge clearly in 2010.
While alternative monetization opportunities have already sprung in 2009, it
is next year that new business models will reach maturity and become a
serious option for Internet entrepreneurs. Whatever you may choose, your
main goal should be to increase, extend and diversify the range of your
revenue-making channels. Entrepreneurs that have bet all their horses on a
single business model may find unpleasant surprises, so start acting now.
 Hyper niches: As already written, in 2010 content will be more and more
ubiquitous and accessible. Those that will have the best content next year
will float to the top, while everyone else will make less money and have
fewer opportunities. It will be much harder to compete with big brands,
which means next year the focus will be on niches and what John
Arnold of Entrepreneur defines "hyper-niches." People will have to
really narrow down their market niche in order to stand out and succeed.
 SEO:  Conversion rate optimization will dominate  SEO next year. Still the
most under-utilized and highest  ROI activities in the marketing department,
conversion rate optimization will reach more awareness and brands will focus
on improving conversion over time. Online businesses can generate so much
revenue from this, yet few invest. 2010 will establish this trend.

In part 2 (part 1) of this guide to the top Internet predictions and trends for 2010,
you can have a peek at what these coming months may indeed have in store for
you.

If you are into exploring what's coming up next before it hits you unprepared
this is a perfect place to start.

Link: http://www.masternewmedia.org/top-internet-trends-2010-a-guide-to-the-
best-predictions-from-the-web-part-2/#ixzz1HEyDOuYH

http://msmdesignzblog.com/2011/03/internet-advertising-trends-to-look-out-for-
in-2011/
Home » Internet Advertising Trends to Look Out for in 2011

1digg

If you’re like the majority of our readers, you’re a business owner looking for more
effective ways to advertise your website.  There are several things you can do this
year to give your business a boost in the right direction. As we are closing in on the
first quarter of 2011, here are a few Internet advertising trends to look out for.

Desktop usage will decrease. The amount of time users spend on mobile devices
will certainly increase. I believe this comes down to convenience more than
anything else. People are on the go. Users are not strapped down to desktops
anymore leaving them immobile. The current smart phones and now the tablets
such as the Apple iPad and Motorola Xoom make searching the web, exchanging
emails and social networking as simple as snapping your finger. Can be done
anytime and any place. And frankly, I find myself even using my laptop less. 
Mobile activities. The top activities on mobile devices will include shopping and
sharing information. With so many great apps that are currently available and new
apps in the works, the mobile device continues to keep the user occupied and
excited. Besides the apps, companies are understanding the importance of making
their websites mobile friendly. This will certainly increase traffic and sales if it offers
ecommerce. And since the new tablets are displaying websites just like your
desktop browser would, online shopping couldn’t be easier and more convenient.
Users are browsing while grabbing coffee, waiting in line, riding the train, etc. All of
these users become potential buyers!
Social media ads. More businesses will begin to use social media ads on sites like
Facebook to increase the traffic to their website. Facebook advertising marketplace
is becoming more like a social media search engine. Industry experts suggest using
catchy titles and buzz words within ads to attract consumers.  Social media ads are
also very intelligent. Have you noticed while on Facebook that the ads appearing
within your profile page or news feed are geared towards your hobbies or
interests?   This isn’t a coincidence. This is a very strategic tactic now used within
the social network. And it is brilliant since the ad impressions are not being wasted
on users who would have no interest in your product or service. This all comes
down on how your personal information is being shared. That is a whole different
topic in itself. But it is a fact that targeted advertising works and in this
environment, it’s well worth the small investment to purchase ad space.
Content is still king. The content that you use to attract your target audience can
make or break your web presence. Make sure your content immediately engages
your readers. Web users are less patient than ever before. It is better to use less
words to describe your product or service than long 500-800 word web pages. This
also ties in with mobile device users. Imagine what a 500 word page would look like
on your 3 or 4 inch smart phone screen!? You just lost that potential consumer.
Demographics. According to eMarketer, more than 95 percent of teenagers will be
using the Internet in 2011. This includes Internet usage through mobile phone
devices as well. From ages 3 to 17, it is estimated that almost 39 million are
internet users. Only 10 years ago, there were only 11 million teens online. That is a
huge increase and there are no signs of that number declining.
Based on the above, social media and mobile advertising will play dominate roles
for web marketers this year. Business owners who utilized social media and mobile
advertising in 2010 have noticed a significant increase in the amount of business
they attracted to their websites. With this new trend, this is an important area for
marketers to focus on in 2011.

Conclusion
Editor’s note: The following is a guest post by  Eric Clemons, Professor of
Operations and Information Management at The Wharton School of the University
of Pennsylvania. In it, he argues that the Internet shatters all forms of advertising. 
“The problem is not the medium, the problem is the message, and the fact that it is
not trusted, not wanted, and not needed,” he writes.  The views he expresses are
his own, and we present them here to foster debate.  (Obviously, we hope there is
a place for advertising on the Internet since it pays our bills).  Update This post
has obviously touched a nerve. Clemons responds to his critics below at the bottom
of the post.

1. There Must Be Something Other Than Advertising:

The expected drop in internet advertising revenues this year was neither

unpredictable nor unpredicted, nor was it caused solely by the general recession
and the decline in retail sales.  Internet advertising will rapidly lose its value and its
impact, for reasons that can easily be understood.  Traditional advertising simply
cannot be carried over to the internet, replacing full-page ads on the back of The
New York Times or 30-second spots on the Super Bowl broadcast with pop-ups,
banners, click-throughs on side bars.  This might be a subject where considerable
disagreement is possible, if indeed, pushed ads were still working in traditional
media. Mostly they have failed. One newspaper after another is going out of
business across the United States, and the ad revenues of traditional print media,
even of highly respected magazines, is declining. The ultimate failure of broadcast
media advertising is likewise becoming clear.

Pushing a message at a potential customer when it has not been requested and
when the consumer is in the midst of something else on the net, will fail as a major
revenue source for most internet sites.  This is particularly true when the consumer
knows that the sponsor of the ad has paid to have this information, which was
verified by no one, thrust at him.  The net will find monetization models and these
will be different from the advertising models used by mass media, just as the
models used by mass media were different from the monetization models of theater
and sporting events before them.  Indeed, there has to be some way to create
websites that do other than provide free access to content, some of it proprietary,
some of it licensed, and some of it stolen, and funded by advertising.

The idea that content has a price and net applications should find ways to earn a
profit without providing free access to other people’s content gets explosive
reactions; when virtual reality pioneer and tech guru Jaron Lanier suggested in
a New York Times Op Ed that authors deserved to be paid for their content he
actually received death threats.  But other models are possible and several
suggestions for alternative forms of monetization are offered below.

2. Advertising will fail:

The internet is the most liberating of all mass media developed to date.  It is
participatory, like swapping stories around a campfire or attending a renaissance
fair.  It is not meant solely to push content, in one direction, to a captive audience,
the way movies or traditional network television did.  It provides the greatest array
of entertainment and information, on any subject, with any degree of formality, on
demand.  And it is the best and the most trusted source of commercial product
information on cost, selection, availability, and suitability, using community
content, professional reviews and peer reviews.

My basic premise is that the internet is not replacing advertising but

shattering it, and all the king’s horses, all the king’s men, and all the creative
talent of Madison Avenue cannot put it together again. To analyze this statement
we need a working definition of advertising, and I proposed the following, which is
as general as I could make it:

Advertising is using sponsored commercial messages to build a brand and paying to

locate these messages where they will be observed by potential customers
performing other activities; these messages describe a product or service, its price
or fundamental attributes, where it can be found, its explicit advantages, or the
implicit benefits from its use.

It is frequently argued that the advertising industry will provide sufficient

innovation to replace the loss of traditional ads on traditional mass media.  Again,
my basic premise rejects this, suggesting that simple commercial messages,
pushed through whatever medium, in order to reach a potential customer who is in
the middle of doing something else, will fail.  It’s not that we no longer need
information to initiate or to complete a transaction; rather, we will no longer need
advertising to obtain that information.  We will see the information we want, when
we want it, from sources that we trust more than paid advertising.  We will find out
what we need to know, when we want to make a commercial transaction of any
kind.  The conventional wisdom is that this is exactly what paid search helps us to
do, but all too often they are nothing more than a form of misdirection, as I explain
further below.  Instead, we will use information that we trust, obtained at the time
that we want to see it.

Better targeting of ads using individual interests and individual behaviors will
ensure that we do not bore or annoy as many people with each ad, but cannot
address the trust issue. As for paid search, it is closer to other mechanisms that
allow a website to sell access to potential customers. It works effectively as a
revenue source for Google, of course. But it surely is not replicable for the average
content website.
 3. Advertising will fail for three reasons:

There are three problems with advertising in any form, whether broadcast or
online:

 Consumers do not trust advertising. Dan Ariely has demonstrated that

messages attributed to a commercial source have much lower credibility and much
lower impact on the perception of product quality than the same message
attributed to a rating service.Forrester Research has completed studies that
show that advertising and company sponsored blogs are the least-trusted source
of information on products and services, while recommendations from friends and
online reviews from customers are the highest.
 Consumers do not want to view advertising. Think of watching network
TV news and remember that the commercials on all the major networks are as
closely synchronized as possible.  Why?  If network executives believed we all
wanted to see the ads they would be staggered, so that users could channel surf
to view the ads; ads are synchronized so that users cannot channel surf to avoid
the ads.
 And mostly consumers do not need advertising. My own
research suggests that consumers behave as if they get much of their
information about product offerings from the internet, through independent
professional rating sites like dpreview.com or community content rating services
like Ratebeer.com or TripAdvisor

Yes, both network executives and their ad agencies have noted that we are not
watching traditional ads, and they attribute this to the fact that we have moved
beyond newspapers, televised network news, and broadcast movies, to video
games, iPods, and the internet.  Porting ads to a new medium will not solve the
three problems noted above.  The problem is not the medium, the problem is the
message, and the fact that it is not trusted, not wanted, and not needed.

4. Alternative models for monetization are available:

Again, my research suggests that there are three general categories for creating
value that can be monetized, including selling real things, selling virtual things, and
selling access. Some websites exist solely to sell real things.  Many of the best-
known perform aggregation of demand, so that there will be enough customers to
justify stocking and selling items for which there is only limited demand.  Amazon is
merely the best-known example.  Sites like Amazon and Zappos are especially good
for long tail items … where else do you go for a copy of the Green Sea of Heaven,
Elizabeth T. Gray’s magnificent translation of the Ghazals of Hafiz, or for a pair of
 size 20 basketball shoes?  Selling real things online has been studied since the
advent of interest in eCommerce and will not be discussed further here. Other
websites sellvirtual things.  These activities fall into three categories:

 Selling content and information, from digital music to news and

information.  Some of these sites are funded by subscriptions, like Gartner
Research; some are by direct micropayments for purchases, like iTunes; and some
currently attempt to fund themselves through advertising, like Business
Week or The New York Times, while still searching for a more effective business
model.
 Selling experience and participation in a virtual community, including
Second Life and World of Warcraft, Facebook and MySpace, Flickr and YouTube, or
LinkedIn.  Not all of these have found a way to charge for participation.
 Selling accessories for virtual communities, like completed homes and
stores,furnishings, clothing, and pets in Second Life or characters and
accessories that would be difficult to earn in World of Warcraft, although this
behavior is generally despised by serious World of Warcraft players.

Finally, some websites create and sell access to customers.  Again, this can be
divided into multiple categories.

 Misdirection, or sending customers to web locations other than the ones for
which they are searching.  This is Google’s business model. Monetization of
misdirection frequently takes the form of charging companies for keywords and
threatening to divert their customers to a competitor if they fail to pay adequately
for keywords that the customer is likely to use in searches for the companies’
products; that is, misdirection works best when it is threatened rather than
actually imposed, and when companies actually do pay the fees demanded for
their keywords.  Misdirection most frequently takes the form of diverting
customers to companies that they do not wish to find, simply because the
customer’s preferred company underbid.  Misdirection also includes
misinformation, such as telling a customer that a hotel is sold out when, indeed it
is still available, if the hotel has chosen not to pay a promotional fee, and then
allowing the guest to choose an alternative property.  Misdirection is, regrettably,
still a popular business model on the net, although for reasons I explored in
an earlier TechCrunch post on Google it seems ultimately to be unsustainable.
More significantly from the perspective of this post, it is not scalable; it is not
possible for every website to earn its revenue from sponsored search and
ultimately at least some of them will need to find an alternative revenue model.
 Evaluation, assessment, and validation. The opposite of sending a
customer someplace other than where he wants is providing the customer enough
information for him to make an informed choice on his own. Recommendations on
TripAdvisor.com allow potential guests to evaluate and validate recommendations
provided by Hotels.com; not surprisingly, Hotels.com originally owned TripAdvisor,
and benefited greatly from it.  Since Hotels.com did not attempt to influence or
censor TripAdvisor content the website was (and is) trusted and helped put
recommendations from Hotels.com at a level of trust comparable to those from an
experienced travel agent.  There are at present only a few other examples of
website symbiosis like this, where community content on one site adds
considerable value for another; consider also the relationship between the
Beeryard’s list of new beers andRatebeer.com, where clicking on the name of a
newly arrived beer at the Beeryard will allow you to examine reviews on
Ratebeer.com.
 Social search. Social search is a way of tailoring search based on the user’s
network of friends.  Rather than searching for any hotel in Chicago, or for any
hotel that paid for the keywords “hotel” and “Chicago” I would like to be able to
ask for the hotel where my friends stay when they are in Chicago.  This invades no
one’s privacy, avoids the annoyance of pushing ads at me when I am not
searching for something to buy, and provides more relevant results than paid
search usually can deliver. There are many problems with this, including the fact
that my friends may not be on Facebook or other networks yet and those that are
may not post their hotel or automobile or restaurant preferences. Most seriously,
while it is clear how Microsoft might benefit from this, using its Facebook
connection to undercut Google sponsored search, it is not clear how Microsoft or
any other firm could monetize this directly.
 Contextual mobile ads.  At present contextual mobile ads delivered by SMS
appear to offer much promise.  Imagine a hypothetical all-knowing information-
based firm that (i) knows your location because you have registered to have the
information from your in-phone GPS shared with your friends and (ii) knows that
you like Thai restaurants because it monitors the content of your email and your
online restaurant searches and (iii) knows that you are hungry because you just
said so in a text message or Twitter post you sent from your phone.  What a great
time for them to text you an advertisement for a nearby Thai restaurant, sent
directly to your phone.  But why would you trust this?  I remember when
Hotels.com used to refer me to the same hotel, albeit at different prices, when I
asked for a two-star or three-star hotel close to my office; I was never sure which
was more amusing, the 80% price increase for the same hotel when I was willing
to splurge on a three-star for my visitor, or the fact that there were comparable
hotels 20 blocks closer to my office.  I suspect that my hypothetical all-knowing
 firm will similarly be providing sponsored content; perhaps I will take a couple of
additional seconds in order to find the restaurant I really want. This probably does
not work as a form of advertising.

Of course no one knows yet, but if I had to guess, based on

my meatspace experience, I would offer the following guesses for successfully
monetizing the net in the future:

 Selling Virtual Things:  People will pay for superior, timely,

original content and for superioronline experiences.  Presently I willingly pay
for the Financial Times, The Economist, andForeign Affairs, I value the content,
and, indeed, I feel I need it; I will continue to pay for them online.  Perhaps I
would not be willing to pay for archive material, which I expect that I would be
able to find elsewhere, but I will cheerfully pay for the newest content online. 
Similarly, I willingly pay the cover change for my favorite jazz clubs in New York,
and expect that I would cheerfully pay to participate in Second Life or World of
Warcraft if, indeed, I had any interest in those virtual experiences.  I guess,
ultimately, if we compete for status through our purchases of accessories, clothes
and homes in meatspace we will probably continue to purchase  virtual
accessories in Second Life, though I can’t say I fully understand this yet.
 Selling Access. Misdirection will fail totally and completely.  I use a Mac, but
I have abandoned Safari for Firefox.  I have an iPhone and an iPod but I have
never used the little white earbuds, preferring instead to purchase a pair of Shure
E500 phones that I think sound vastly superior. Similarly, I would be equally
happy to purchase a search service that worked for me, rather than accept a free
one that works both against me and against the firms I patronize.  In contrast,
while people will continue to value community content andsocial search, these
will be difficult to monetize.  Finally, contextual mobile ads will, likewise be
difficult to monetize.  With information easily available, I will make my own
restaurant choices, irrespective of those pushed at me via SMS, especially when I
know that those pushed at me have been pushed for a fee, rather than based on
an impartial assessment of my preferences.  Yes, I can imagine SMS ads initially
succeeding if they provide discounts, but ultimately this leads to little more than a
bidding war for traffic and benefits no one other than the firm that provides the
text messaging services.  I can think of a few commercial SMS services that will
benefit everyone, such as letting the most loyal guests of a restaurant know when
it is still possible to get a reservation if they act immediately, eliminating the
inefficiency of empty tables, but the restaurant will do this itself, using its email or
cell phone contact lists.  I don’t see this as advertising, or as being monetized by
any intermediary. Of course, in an age before texting and email restaurants would
 have welcomed the all-knowing intermediary as the only mechanism available for
communicating quickly with its most loyal customers. Now, restaurants have lists
of their most loyal customers and can send out real time messages of interest. If
the Blue Note were to text me on some night that I am in New York that it is still
possible to get a table for two for Clark Terry, or Tria were to text me on a day
when I was in Philadelphia that, surprisingly, there was no wait for an outdoor
table right now, I’m sure I would respond to both. Of course there is no
intermediary for this interaction, and this is more like direct communication than
paid advertising.

The internet is about freedom, and I suspect that a truly free population will not be
held captive and forced to watch ads.  We always knew that freedom comes at a
price; perhaps the price of internet freedom and the failure of ads will be paying a
fair price for the content and the experience and the recommendations that we
value.

http://techcrunch.com/2009/03/22/why-advertising-is-failing-on-the-internet/