Internet Marketing for Dummies

Contents

Introduction

About This Book

Well-Attended Conventions

How This Book Is Organized

Part I: Getting Started with Internet Marketing

Part II: Marketing on the World Wide Web

Part III: Marketing with E-Mail

Part IV: Even More Internet Marketing

The Internet Marketing For Dummies Internet Directory

Part V: The Part of Tens

Icons Used in This Book

Part I: Getting Started with Internet Marketing

Chapter 1: Getting Net-Savvy

Marketing on the Internet

Introducing the Web

E-mail and mail lists: Unsung online heroes

Newsgroups: The threat and the promise

America Online and online services

Online advertising

Wireless access

Do You Need to Market on the Internet?

Finding Your Online Market

Internet user profile

Working in the Online World

Chapter 2: Market Size Matters

Using Internet Marketing Resources

Building up your bookmarks

Search tips and tricks

Following the experts

Sizing Up a Market

Identifying customer characteristics

Customer characteristics and the Internet

Sizing up the competition

Chapter 3: Your Internet Marketing Plan

Assessing Your Overall Marketing Effort

Assessing your current company-level marketing efforts

Internet marketing at the company level

Assessing current product marketing efforts

Marketing your product on the Net

Net marketing for the sole proprietorship

Matching Your Customer Base to the Online Community

What if my customer base is typically not wired?

What if my business is local?

What if my business is global?

Assessing Your Competitors' Net Work

Creating a comparison chart

Using your completed chart

Sizing up your Net-only competition

Sizing Your Internet Marketing Effort

Creating a Written Plan

Implementing Your Internet Marketing Plan

Chapter 4: Mastering Your Domain

Choosing an ISP for Online Marketing

Discovering How Domain Names Work

Breaking down domain names

The competition for domain names

Why domain names are so important

Possible new domain names

Choosing Your Domain Name(s)

Domain name follies

Good and bad domain names

Choosing a company domain name

What if you're local?

Registering Your Domain Name(s)

Registering your domain name yourself

Having an ISP or Web-hosting service register your domain name for you

Part II: Marketing on the World Wide Web

Chapter 5: Planning a Business Web Site

Guiding Principles for Business Sites

Specifying Your Site Content

Creating a Look and Feel for Your Site

Having Your Site Done for You

Getting engaged

Projecting your management style

Beating the wrap-up

Chapter 6: Creating a Basic Web Site

Deciding Whether to Do It Yourself

Steps to creating a site

Who does the work?

Putting it all together

Creating a Web Page

Should you do it?

How to do it

Making Smart Graphics

Chapter 7: Marketing on Your Web Site

Your Web Site as a Marketing Vehicle

Coordinating your Web site with your overall marketing plan

Designing your Web marketing effort

Marketing Information on Your Site

Understanding the vital role of press releases

Putting product information online

Telling Web surfers where to buy

News on Your Site

Chapter 8: Getting the Most Out of Your Web Site

Gathering Information about Site Visitors

Techniques for gathering visitor information

Uses for visitor data

Improving Your Site

Getting Found with Search Engines

Registering for Yahoo!

Getting found by active search engines

Publicizing Your Site

Developing an effective publicity strategy

Expanding your publicity efforts

Part III: Marketing with E-Mail

Chapter 9: E-Mail Marketing 101

E-Mail: The Common Denominator

Basic E-Mail Netiquette

The Elements of E-Mail Marketing Style

Write "dressy casual"

Be polite

Don't be afraid to be forwarded

Making Every E-mail Do Its Share

Chapter 10: E-Mail by the Pallet

Processing E-Mail by the Pallet

Planning for the flood

The 24-hour rule

Delivering E-Mail by the Pallet

Creating an e-mail mailing list

Creating the right message

Getting the mechanics right

Spam: Cons and a Few Pros

Why spam offends

Avoiding the spammer label

Chapter 11: Building Community with E-Mail Lists

What's an E-Mail List?

Subscribing to an e-mail list

Variations on an e-mail list

Finding and Using the Right E-Mail Lists

Benefits of participating in an e-mail list

Participating in discussion lists

Creating Your Own E-Mail List

Benefits of creating an e-mail list

Determining which type of list to start

Setting up a simple list server

Maintaining Your E-Mail List

Promoting Your E-Mail List

Part IV: Even More Internet Marketing

Chapter 12: Speaking Up with Discussion Groups and Chat

Understanding Usenet Newsgroups

News over the "back fence"

Organized side-to-side and top-down

Setting Up a Newsgroup Reader

Finding and Mining Discussion Groups

Finding the right Usenet newsgroups

Finding the right non-Usenet discussion groups

Monitoring discussion groups

Participating in discussion groups

Marketing to Discussion Groups

A Few Words About Chat

Chapter 13: Controlling the Message with Internet Advertising

What Are Your Goals?

Driving the Right Ad Vehicle

Banner ads

Site sponsorships

E-mail lists

Search engine keywords

Making the Ad Buy

A few words about words

The purchase process

When to call in a professional

Measure by Measure

Chapter 14: Spreading the Word with Internet PR

Whom Do You Want to Influence?

Targeting the right contacts

Using the right touch

Planning an Internet PR Campaign

Messages are key

Excuse me, did you say something?

Internet PR agency or not?

Getting Your Release Distributed

Ready for release

Putting it on the wire

Tracking Your Released Release

Watching the wires

Pay for play

Part V: The Part of Tens

Chapter 15: Ten Advantages of Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing Has Low Barriers to Entry

Internet Marketing Is Informational Marketing

The Online World Enables You to Respond Rapidly

The Internet World Highlights Marketing's Role

Internet Innovations Are Marketing Opportunities

The Internet Makes Research Easier

The Online World Is Forgiving of Misteaks

The Internet World Is Currently U.S. Centric . . .

. . . and English centric

Internet Marketing Removes Geographic Barriers

Chapter 16: Ten Disadvantages of Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing Is Different

Internet Bandwidth Is Crowded

Internet Efforts Can Get Expensive

Online Marketing Doesn't Reach Everybody

Getting Online Can Be Difficult

The Internet Increases the Pressure on Marketing

Justifying the Cost of Net Marketing Efforts Is Hard

Making Misteaks Online Is Easy

Guilt by Association

The Uncertain Future of the Online World

Chapter 17: Ten Offline Marketing Resources

Crossing the Chasm and Others

Trade Associations

Marketing: An

Introduction

and Marketing For Dummies

Trade Publications

Statistical Abstract of the United States and American Demographics

News Radio

Anything by Ries and Trout

Any Big Magazine Rack

Permission Marketing

Television Advertising
The Internet Marketing For Dummies Internet Directory D-1 About This Directory D-3

Advertising D-3

Business Owner's Resources D-4

E-Mail Lists D-5

Government and Law D-7

Marketing D-9

Periodicals Online D-11

Search Engines and Directories D-12

Technology Resources D-14

Web Tools D-15

Miscellaneous D-16

Appendix