Archive for May, 2011
PPC Advertising Fraud
Very often big business houses fight about the quality of their products in advertising media. It is a sign of bitter competition and these fights are settled somehow in or out of the court. On the Internet, where detection is difficult due to it being a virtual medium, the competition takes a different pitch. Here the competition is killed by fraudulent means.
Internet has always been a thriving place for fraudsters, for instance, dubious websites pretending to be the legal websites of other businesses or organizations, extracting personal details like credit card data of online users only to siphon off money from their accounts. The reason for such proliferation of fraudsters is the masked protection offered by the medium itself.
In PPC advertising, frauds happen in the form of unknown individuals or groups clicking the advertisement with no intention of buying the services, only to deplete the account of the advertiser. The malicious intention is to kill the competition by depleting the advertisement budget, thereby making the businesses removed from the advertising space. It is estimated that 20% of all clicks are fraudulent.
Just who is involved in these frauds? Sometimes it could be some strange individual clicking at an advertisement for unknown reasons. The reasons could be behavioral anomalies, just like addictive shoplifting, a complete dissatisfaction of the products leading to take such action, etc. The above case would be rare and the effect minimal. The effect would be disastrous when it is organized.
A big business with a huge advertisement budget may organize this crime by hiring people (IndiaTimes, a daily in India, reported about this in an article) or with the help of software, just to click at the advertisements of the competitor in order to remove it from the host site. It could also be the service provider who is doing the same to generate revenues. In any case, the victim is severely drained of the resources without the energy or a way to fight back.
What are the mitigation strategies? The host sites provide unique IP tracking software that would detect multiple clicks from the same IP and therefore not deduct money from the account. At the individual or business level, it is advised to track the budget and if the account is depleted suddenly by a huge amount without any sales being realized, to take up the matter with the host, to get a refund, and to keep mining the log files of the server for the purpose of identifying multiple clicks. When it is not possible for businesses to do it by themselves, specialized services are available who keep track of clicks, report to the websites and get refunds. Software is available that sends a warning message to the IP address from whence the fraudster is working.
By: Marcus Peterson
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Advertising and Public Relations India
Want to create a favorable image amongst audience, if your answer is yes; then simply go for companies offering advertising and public relations in India. There is a very thin line of differentiation between advertising and public relations in India as both are the means of getting popular. However, this is a wrong conception as advertising is basically done to sell and market the product and services whereas public relations is done create a positive image about the company.
In recent times advertising and public relations in India has come a long way and now it has become more competitive and also effective. If we look into advertising service we come to know that it is a very complex business which primarily emphasizes on new innovations, ideas, technologies and even lifestyle trends. However, public relations depend upon the foolproof planning and also popularity. If we compare the two costs wise you will come to know that both are of approximately same cost as both have their own significance.
While selecting advertising and public relations in India people are ought to a lot of extensive research as both are the best medium so selecting the best among two involves a lot of work. If we talk about advertising, it is somehow difficult to measure or even predict the response of the audience whereas, in public relations at times you get instant feedback and also it is done with other back up plan too. Both have their own share of advantages and disadvantages that’s why people select them according to their needs and requirements.
According to few experts, advertising has a cutting edge over public relations as it can be done in television, radio, newspaper and now even internet. Public relations are done on same ground but somehow lacks in that required punch.
Both advertising and public relations in India are equally important and also very helpful in creating a favorable image amongst public. If you wish to have a positive image so that you can further reap profits then it is wise to select the company providing best and competitive advertising and public relations in India. If you wish to know details and updates regarding advertising and public relations in India then Pitch is there for you.
Therefore, for more information on advertising and public relations India, advertising and marketing services, effective public relation and media public relations please visit www.pitchonnet.com .
By: Anurag Batraa
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Advertising Your Internet Home Business
Free Advertising:
There are thousands of free advertising resources available online and there are also lots of web sites that offer reciprocal linking, which basically means that you put a link to their site on your Internet home business website and they will put a link to your site on theirs.
Be wary of websites that offer to “blast your ad to millions of sites”, as this is basically spamming and a major no-no for advertising an Internet home business, especially if you are an affiliate for some company. It is a sure way to lose your position in any company and you could also lose your hard earned commissions.
Submitting articles to Article Directories is probably one of the most effective ways of getting free advertising for your Internet home business and the benefits are long term free advertising and being recognised as an authority on the subject of your choice. It can be very time consuming submitting articles to individual sites so if you can afford it I would recommend that you purchase some article submission software which will automate a great deal of the work for you, or subscribe to a service that does it for you.
Take advantage of your email programs and set up a signature with your link to be added to all outgoing emails as another free way to advertise your Internet home business. Another great way to use signatures is through forum posting where you add your signature with your links when you set up your profile, and every time you create a post or reply to one you signature will be added to the posts. This is very effective for long term free advertising as your posts will be available for however long the forum stays online.
There are lots of free advertising websites but I have found the vast majority of them to be a waste of time and effort, and a lot of them insist that you accept emails from other members with their offers as a part of your membership. Consequently your inbox can be flooded with unwanted offers and promotions creating more unnecessary work for you having to scan through your mailbox for your personal email.
Surfing for credits is another way to get free advertising but this is also time consuming and basically hard work. I would suggest using Avant Browser for tabbed browsing if you do decide to use this method as you can have multiple windows opened tiled horizontally, simultaneously clocking up quite a lot of credits at five to ten times the speed of Internet Explorer for example.
Start Your Own Blog:
Set up a blog with links to your Internet home business … blogging has become one of the most popular forms of advertising online and there are free blog resources available that will allow you to set up your blog for free. [blogspot.com is my favourite] The trick to blogging successfully is to add some content on a daily basis to attract search spiders from Google and other search engines, and this is another good way to get listed free with search engines for your Internet home business. To really maximise your blogs potential for free advertising every time you add a post to it make sure to ping it using pingomatic.com. What this does is notify a bunch of blog listing services about your blog and they will send spiders over to your blog to index the content and link it to their networks!
Pay Per Click:
Google Adwords and Yahoo are probably two of the most effective ways of advertising your products and your Internet home business where you set your maximum budget and you only have to pay when someone clicks on your ad … hence the term Pay Per Click [PPC].
Some Internet home businesses have built their fortunes entirely with PPC but you can also lose a lot of money if your campaign and your click through rate are not effective. So again you should do some research by surfing the Internet and taking notes of campaigns that look good to you and use Overtures free keyword research tool from Yahoo to check successful keywords. Overtures will prove to be very effective and save you lots of time with this research.
Yahoo and Google operate completely differently in this area where the objective is to have your campaign displayed nearest to the number one spot as possible. Google rewards you here for how effective your campaign is worded and how relevant the keywords are, where Yahoo gives the top positions to the highest bidder.
Ezines And Newsletters:
Ezines and newsletters are another extremely cost effective and beneficial way to advertise your Internet home business and for as little as a few dollars your campaign will reach an audience of thousands. There are also countless ezines and newsletters that offer free advertising for your Internet home business
Targeted Solo Ads have been my favourite and have always been a good investment for me; usually paying dividends many times over once the email is constructed properly. Most publications ask you to format you ad with between fifty and sixty characters per line to make for an easier read on the eyes, and they all have differing lengths and amounts of words you can use so you should always check their individual rules for submitting ads before composing anything and wasting more precious time. Use bullets and numbering to highlight the benefits of your offer and I usually only use the hyperlink twice throughout the ad. Finish it off with your name and your email address or the hyperlink to your promotion.
Another effective method are classified ads that are displayed in the paid advertising sections of publications and are published repeatedly for however long you choose to pay for. The advantage to this is that readers will see your ads in consecutive issues of the ezines and newsletters and you will gain credibility with them giving you a better chance of them clicking on your links and becoming customers. Classified ads are usually about five or six line ads so you really need to devise a thought provoking campaign to grab readers’ attention and get them to click on your links for your Internet home business.
This article may be reprinted as long as the by line and authors details and all links in it are included.
By: Denis Menton
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Advertising to Children
Children represent a great target for advertisers and marketers across the world. Not only are they easily swayed by advertising, they are great at encouraging parents to buy these products. If a child wants something in their kid’s locker, they will prod and annoy their parents until their decorative shelving has what they want. Anyone who has seen a kid pester their parents knows the lengths kids can go to, and all it takes is a little suggestion from a single advertisement to send them on their way.
The food company of McDonald’s at one stage advised employees to specifically target children. In a campaign titled, “Kid’s are the Star” employees were encouraged to pay special attention to the children in the restaurant, and make sure they have a positive experience while they are eating at McDonald’s. The reason for this, naturally, was not because the McDonald’s corporation cares deeply about the well-being of children everywhere, but that the pester-power that children have is extraordinarily effective at bringing parents back.
The way that advertisers target children is simple. Big, bright lights, happy people and animated characters are all that is needed to encourage children into thinking a certain product is something they want. This is because children are so naïve; they genuinely believe what an advertiser tells them about the place they are selling. They do not realize that Ronald McDonald is just a guy in a costume and make-up, and that out the back of every McDonald’s are a bunch of kids working in uncomfortable conditions for low pay.
It brings up a real moral dilemma for those who make the advertising decisions, or at least it should. While manipulating children into believing lies, especially encouraging them to eat unhealthy foods, is obviously bad, the money that can potentially be made is just so good. How do you say no to an opportunity to have such a wide audience of children, who act as advertisers themselves when they encourage other children and their parents to use a certain product?
One of the problems with today’s society is we think in terms such as those used in the paragraph above. There is a belief that the impact on children in experiencing damaging media can be “weighed up” against how much money can be made and power can be gained. When thinking like this is involved, it is no wonder the world of today is rife with so many problems.
The superficial reactions they get from eating McDonald’s last about as long as they are at the place. This is not a coincidence; it is a deliberately created ploy. The goal is that kids arrive and consume high amounts of caffeine, salt, sugar and fat. Their body gives an instant positive reaction, and by the time they’re “coming down”, you’re on the way home.
If you want what’s best for your kids, keep them away from the television as much as you possibly can. It is bad for their brain, and ultimately bad for your wallet! Take them outside, not to McDonald’s but to the beach or somewhere they can enjoy life.
By: Connor R Sullivan
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