Since the Covid-19 pandemic, many businesses have had to close up shop or change their ways of operating. Some have even had to relocate to make way for the needs of the many. The same could be said of online marketing; many traditional methods of attracting customers to small businesses have been shifted to the online sphere.
While some industries have seen a boom in digital marketing and sales thanks to the reach of the internet, others have seen smaller traffic and conversion figures. Why? Simply put, the online world is a lot more competitive than ever before. It can be difficult to stand out from the crowd online when you’re trying to grow your business. That’s why many companies and brands have resorted to dubious tactics to try and grow their business.
Pay-Per-Click Campaigns
Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing is one of the most popular online marketing tactics used to generate traffic to websites. Basically, you pay for each click on your ads on social media sites like Google AdWords. Your ads will appear in the form of sponsored content or display ads on social media sites. When a person clicks on your content or display ads, you pay the social media network based on that click. You can use PPC to promote your products and services, and you’ll usually see results within a few months.
The issue with PPC is that it can be very costly and there’s always the chance you’ll be wasting money if the person clicking on your content or display ads is not interested in your services. In most cases, you’ll see only modest results from PPC, at best. Despite this, the practice continues to be heavily relied upon by many marketers and companies.
Shady Affiliate Marketing
While PPC is something you might consider to get the ball rolling with regards to online marketing, affiliate marketing is something completely different. With affiliate marketing, you essentially sell a product or service (usually a digital or physical product) and you get paid when someone clicks a referral link or buys the product you’re promoting. You don’t have to actually sell the product to make money through affiliate marketing; you just have to create a relationship with potential customers and build a trust fund.
The great thing about affiliate marketing is that you don’t need to have an overly complicated or large website to get started. You can start a blog in just a few minutes offering tips and advice on some subject you’re passionate about. You then build up the content on your blog over time and eventually, you’ll start to see some revenue.
The downside to affiliate marketing is that it’s quite a bit more complicated than PPC when it comes to drawing in a steady flow of customers to your site. Building up a reliable and trusted following can take some time, but it’s vital in order to succeed as a digital marketer. This is also why many ‘big-brand’ companies now turn to affiliate marketing; they know it’s a reliable and easy way to bring in new customers.
Content Farms And Plagiarism
In the world of digital marketing, content is everything. If you want to succeed, you need to find ways to produce content that is both engaging and valuable. One way to do this is to look at other platforms and see what content they’re producing. The problem is that content farms have sprung up around the world of digital marketing, offering almost every possible genre and topic you can think of. It’s a lot to sift through, so you have to be careful to make sure the content you’re seeing is actually worth your time and effort.
With regards to the latter, you have to be careful not to plagiarize other people’s work. If you’re using a blog platform like WordPress, you can easily find the sources of other people’s content and identify any instances of plagiarism. For this reason, you should always be careful when copying and pasting other people’s content; you should always try and find the original source of the content you’re using or paraphrasing. Even if you do manage to avoid plagiarism, you’ll probably still end up being accused of ‘fake news’ or being ‘clickbait’ by critics. Whatever you call it, the public is certainly taking a closer look at how articles are produced now and they’re not impressed. To be effective, content must always be unique and of value.
Scamming And Bootlegging Websites
In the world of digital marketing, one of the biggest challenges is to build a good reputation for yourself while avoiding being scammed by people trying to defraud you. The best way to do this is by being extra careful about the companies you do business with and the products you promote. If you’re being offered help with SEO or a cash rebate for signing up to a newsletter, you’re being played. Never, ever, do business with people you don’t know or have never heard of.
One of the most infamous cases of SEO scamming was the London Taxi Scam. Apparently, a group of SEO spammers (they called themselves ‘SEO experts’) took advantage of a glitch in the Google Maps API and began offering to fix your website’s location, so it would rank higher on search engines. The problem was, they didn’t actually do the work and they took advantage of the fact that they had your email address to send you all kinds of spam. As you might imagine, this isn’t a tactic that will likely earn you many loyal customers.
Similarly, many’make money online’ programs prey on people’s desire to succeed in digital marketing or online sales and they prey upon human nature by promising huge returns for very little effort. These types of promises often end up being lies. Instead of giving you a way to make money, you’ll end up investing your time in something that doesn’t even appear to have a return on investment. It’s a big difference, but it’s vital in order to succeed as a digital marketer that you understand the differences between what is real and what is fake when it comes to earning online.
In short, trust is fundamental to any successful business relationship in the online world. You have to be careful about who you do business with and you have to ensure that your interests are looked after first and foremost. That means avoiding people and companies that lack integrity and chasing down those that do. It also means being selective about the businesses you do business with and the products you promote. Look for online businesses that are established, have a good reputation and are known to be doing honest work. If you can find these qualities in a company, you’ll be able to avoid many of the pitfalls that come with online marketing. You’ll have more opportunities to succeed and grow your business. All it takes is a little bit of research and a lot of common sense.