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The Online Advertising Confusion
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by:
Ieuan Dolby
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The
World Wide Web was an enormous step for mankind, a step not seen since
Neil Armstrong sullied the surface of the moon. The idea behind the WWW
came across as a veritable information highway where documents, data
and info could be rapidly sent and accessed by millions the world over.
The potential behind the web is enormous and even now the scope is not
fully utilized. The possibilities for growth, for extended usage, are
available and enormous yet the system is stagnating and it is very
possible that people will soon turn away. The average person seeking
information may well return to old-fashioned libraries and the good old
book to find the information that they require if the face and image of
the WWW is not altered very soon and in-line with customer demand.
The ability of any user to gain information from the Internet is
enormous, simple and with positive results. But the information
received is increasingly becoming that which a paying body prescribes
and thus is advertisement biased or pointed towards the end purchase of
a product. Hotels advertise a city or holiday resort with the point of
view of potential tourists coming to stay. A detailed description of
moon cakes in Taiwan although complete and detailed would certainly be
with aim to make people buy some from the store hosting the website
involved.
Initially the Internet was heralded as a one-stop point for gaining any
type or form of information with the click of the mouse. This is
certainly true except with regard to loose information that has no
affiliation towards an end purchase or a users change of heart.
Certainly this type of information is available and millions of
websites exist but unless a user has prior information on how to access
this site then the chance of it being found amongst the masses is
minimal. Most web users find or locate information by using a search
engine. Most web users input their request and wait for results to come
up as prescribed and ordered by the search engine system. If for
example a request was entered for “travel tales on the sea” many,
possibly thousands of choices will appear in return. Number one in the
pole position will probably be Amazon.com who feels certain that
anybody looking for a story would probably find it amongst their
collection – naturally obtainable at a price. The next on the list
might be Ebay who feel that certain travel products might appease the
searcher or it might be goarticles.com an articles selling service who
would assume that travel tales of the sea would be somebody looking to
buy such from them and for their own use.
Certainly each and every result that is produced on the first page
would point the user towards large companies who are selling an item of
one sort or another. The user though may in fact just want to read some
Travel Tales of the Sea without having to fork out cash or to issue
his/her credit card information over the Internet.
In the bowels of the search results in pages that are covered in dust
will reside some very comprehensive and useful websites, eg:
http://www.seadolby.com a website that is filled with free and in-depth
Travel Tales of the Sea. The possibility of any user keeping interest
long enough to get to this web site listing is minimal and long before
it is reached the user has either fallen asleep or entered another
search on a different note. In short the average user does not get past
the first page of a search engines results and probably not past the
first three that come up: e.g. amazon.com, ebay.com and goarticles.com
Although not-for-profit informational web sites are many and filled
with amazing and detailed info these sites ability to gain attention on
the world stage is difficult unless money is poured in to boost their
ratings and rank positions on the search engine results. Nowadays many
search engines have entered the pay-per-click arena with companies
putting forward money to buy keywords that will most likely be used to
boost their website. Some company buys the word “Travel” and this word
is then basically lost forever to the lone free-for-all info site who
cannot afford to pay money to boost their popularity.
The art of advertising and paying for positions on search engines is
only available to the sites that can afford the exorbitant fees. Should
a lone site owner who has built his site-up decide to fork out of his
own pocket the money to boost his ratings this will only be achieved on
one or two search engines or directories and the amount required to
compete with the mega-sites is far beyond any hobbyist can afford.
Naturally the ability to submit ones site on free inclusion pages and
directories is available but as the webmaster and author behind
Seamania found out, so much energy and time is spent on advancing the
ratings of his site that not enough time is given to the writing of
travel tales of the sea, which of course is the basis and sole point
behind the website in the first place.
Large for profit websites can afford to hire web-orientated staff to
control, advertise and spend time on boosting the rankings of their
particular website. Single owner for profit websites can afford to pay
marketing specialists and to buy keywords at exorbitant rates. The lone
not-for-profit website owner can either spend all day and all week
controlling and submitting his site to the thousands of ever changing
search engines and directories and suffer from a serious loss of
updated content on his/her website or place emphasis on building up
content and never have a visitor to his portal.
Many other factors go towards reducing the effectiveness of the
individual website than just search result rankings. Many single
website owners operate outdated and very slow computers, use old or
outdated software and only perform on odd occasions when not playing
with their children or busy at work. Many other free info sites have
found that subscribing to some lists to boost their rankings has
in-fact reduced them to near invisibility. Google and now other search
engines condemn sites for using link pages that they themselves do not
agree with, so by simply subscribing or joining one of these sites
Google may drop a future crawl of the website involved. It is also
impossible for the lone not-for-profit website to keep up with ever
changing trends and policies. Where payment is made for a lifetimes
inclusion in a search engine, the next year may see the demise of this
particular engine or its partnering up with another – thus the
lifetimes inclusion becomes null and void and to prevent being dropped
from the listings another fee is required – read the small print!
Other means to increase visibility is often initiated by offering
advertising space to companies like Google, Barnes and Noble or other
directories or affiliates. This can result in a slight income for
websites (The Seamania website made 40US dollars over the last three
months) but never enough to afford placement on search engine results
or to purchase keywords. It is also against the grain for many
free-info website owners to have to place advertising on their websites
as not only is it taking up valuable space it detracts and reduces the
free effect the content within. Furthermore should a website choose one
companies advertising it may boost their rankings within one search
engine but equally so reduce it in another’s e.g. allowing Google
advertising space on an index page may increase the page rank in Google
but seriously reduce it in Yahoos search results and possible exclusion
from their Yahoo Directory.
From the point of view of an Internet User in search of free and
not-for-profit biased information he/she does not want to see endless
sites where a visa card is required to proceed further. It would be
very nice to see the advancement of such directories like Zeal.com who
divide their listings into those for profit and those who generally
provide valuable and non-profit orientated formation. Naturally the
question arises as to how such a search engine would manage to cover
the costs of these listings but generally with the amount of people
available who regard the Internet as a toy and a hobby projects such as
Editor of a category volunteers should not be hard to recruit. The
other way would be to have search engines run and operated by
governments like public libraries are or built and operated by
universities as part of study programs – something practical for
students to involve themselves with.
Directories abound whose content is managed by volunteers, the Open
Directory Project being the most famous. But sites such as Seamania
have found to their detriment that trying to get noticed in amongst the
debris found in these directories is not easy. Seamania was originally
listed as a Personal website in the boating category but over time the
emphasis and content of the website has evolved to become a general
travel website. It has though proved impossible to change the location
of the site in the Dmoz directory to a travel listing rather than a
boating listing.
If at all possible and to prevent users who are sick of being asked for
their credit card information or being given 30 different porn sites
upon entering Travel Tales of the Sea into a search engine, it would be
nice to see a shift in emphasis in the way that the search engines
operate their listings.
Certainly the idea of switching on a computer and being faced with two
choices, one for sites that are-for-profit and one that points towards
not-for-profit sites would be a dream come true. To enter in a search
request and to not find amazon.com or ebay.com in the first few results
would put cheer to any searchers hopes of finding what he wants. And
maybe in this way a true exchange of information may be facilitated and
the mass exodus of searchers back to the public library for information
may be halted.
About the author:
Author and Webmaster of Seamania.
As a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy he has sailed the world for
fifteen years. Now living in Taiwan he writes about cultures across the
globe and life as he sees it.
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