Affordable Online Marketing

Many businesses are now establishing themselves as purely web-based. These businesses can maximize thier marketing efforts by taking advantage of several types of online marketing at little or no cost to them.

There are several ways to market for free on the internet. One simple way to keep visitors coming back to your site is asking them to bookmark the businesses URL. This allows for easy access to a website. Businesses should also take advantage of forums and blogs by posting on those that relate to the products or services the business offers. Online companies can also set up their own blogs where customers can post comments, opinions, ideas, etc. Another easy way to market online is through a mailing list. This allows companies to send promotions, coupons, updates and offers for free using an email account.

Online businesses can also use the web to market at a minimal cost. Google and Yahoo ads are placed on result pages related to the words the user searched for so they reach a target audience interested in specific words a company pays for. A direct e-mail list costs some money but is directed at a target audience. Companies can also advertise on e-zine sites and online shopping websites. By using these methods of online advertising, companies can develop a diversified and very directed marketing mix to reach their target audiences.

Google being sued for YouTube

Today, MTV's parent company Viacom filed a lawsuit against YouTube and its parent company Google. Viacom is seeking more than one billion dollars in damages, for thousands of alleged copyright infringements. A complaint filed by Viacom claims that almost 160,000 clips of its programming have been made availiable on YouTube without authorization, and those clips have been viewed 1.5 billion times. A spokesperson for Viacom was quoted to say, "There is no question that YouTube and Google are continuing to take the fruit of our efforts without permission, and destroying enomorous value in the process." Google's plans to combat piracy on YouTube might be too little too late, if Viacom were to get its way. If the lawsuit swings in Viacom's favor, Google's momentum with YouTube will definitely be slowed, as competitors such as AOL Video and iFilm try and steal the show.
As many of you already know, YouTube is a great revenue, marketing, and publicity tool when used legally and appopriately. It seems that Google, in the beginning, did not take proactive steps to curtail infringement ontheir YouTube site. My guess is that they were concerned at first, just with generating site traffic and revenue. Maybe Google wasn't expecting YouTube to endure so much success and popularity. Unfortunately, for Google it looks like they might have to pay the price for their failure to follow infringement laws. If Viacom is to win this massive lawsuit, YouTube's future could be in limbo. I am not saying that Viacom's winning of this lawsuit is going to jeopardize Google, as a company, but it will definitely turn some heads and change the makeup of YouTube as we view it today. Will just have to wait and see!

Online Shopping and ID Theft

If you are one of the millions of online shoppers you may want to think twice about giving out personal information on the internet. According to a recent E-commerce Times article on the perils of online shopping, online shoppers are strongly advised to use a credit card for their purchases. Debit cards and checks are not recommended because if identity theives get a hold of your routing number and account information they can print new checks and completely drain your checking account. It is also harder for banks to recover stolen money from checking accounts and it usually takes longer to report. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, banks are the ones responsible for paying for any stolen charges, not the credit card holder. The article also warns people not to click any links to websites and to shop only at places where you type in the orginal URL.
Identity theft is very common and it affects millions of people every year. E-marketers need to be aware of the threat of online identity theft and take precautions to make their clients feel safe about shopping online. They should not ask for any additional information beyond where to ship, what to ship and how the customer is paying for it. E-marketers must realize that while information technology has created new and easier ways to reach customers, online shopping also creates many new risks in the form of identity theft.