Adverting is vital for any Business

Several years ago, the founder of Wrigley Chewing Gum was on a flight from New York to his home in Chicago. The passenger in the next seat recognized the chewing gum tycoon and asked him a question. "Mr. Wrigley, I know your company enjoys over 90% of the chewing gum market. Yet, last week I read where you are increasing your advertising budget by over 30%. With such a large share of the market, why do you continue to spend so much on advertising? Why not save that money or use it for something else?" Mr. Wrigley replied, "how fast do you think this airplane is flying?" The man answered,"oh, I guess about 600 miles per hour." Mr. Wrigley responded. "I think that's fast enough, don't you?" The man agreed that indeed, it was fast enough. "Well then," asked Mr. Wrigley, "why doesn't the pilot turn off the engines and save all that expensive jet fuel?"

This little story, is to illustrate just how vital a consistent flow of advertising is to any business. It doesn't matter if that business is online or offline. It doesn't matter if that business is a small one-person operated web site like yours or a giant like Mr. Wrigley's. To be successful all businesses must advertise, advertise, advertise. If the advertising is weak, in either quality or quantity, the company's revenue will be weak. You must have well written ads and you must get your message in front of a lot of people. Selling is a numbers game.

The Internet offers a wide array of advertising venues: ezine ads, classified ads, FFA (Free For All) ads, email ads, banner ads and links on other web sites. Many of these venues are free and those that are not, are very inexpensive compared to the cost of offline advertising. By the way, offline advertising for your online business can be very effective, but it is very expensive.

In summation, I leave you with my mantra:

Promote, promote, promote! After you have set up your web site, it is time to make it work for you. There are various methods of promoting on the internet for free. In fact the more effective methods are free.

"We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny, but what we put into it is ours."
*-- Dag Hammarskiold