Many people are confused by the different types of advertising techniques online. In today’s blog post, my aim is to classify all the techniques into 5 main types. I will also discuss the key to success in each of them.

Ready? Here we go……

1) Content Advertising

The first type of advertising technique is content advertising. It basically uses content to draw visitors’ attention. It is the main type of advertising technique because the entire internet is made up of content (or information).

The following traffic strategies all fall under content advertising technique:

- Submitting articles to article directories
- Posting articles to Squidoo, Hubpages or Blogger
- Posting articles to your own blog or content website
- Press release
- Paid reviews at other people’s website
- Yahoo answers
- Social bookmarking at Digg, Propeller etc
- Post videos in video sites
- Posting comments in forums

In content advertising, you draw traffic from 2 sources. You either get the traffic from the website where the content is posted or from the search engine.

Existing traffic from the website is given. There is nothing much you need to do other than making sure that your content is good and your title is interesting.

The real challenge lies in getting traffic from the search engine. Your aim is to get high ranking in the search engine and direct the traffic from the search engine to your content and then to your website. This is done through careful keyword research and search engine optimization.

2) Link Advertising

This type of advertising technique typically uses a short link with some description to attract the visitors directly to your website.

The following traffic strategies all fall under link advertising technique:

- PPC advertising
- LeadsLeap advertising
- Classified advertising
- Submission to directories
- Link exchange partnership
- Banner advertising (image version of link advertising)
- Craigslist advertising
- Email signature

In link advertising, you draw traffic from just 1 source, that is the existing traffic from the website where your link is posted.

The key in link advertising is your OFFER.

Many advertisers expect people to click on whatever link they post. When no one clicks, they wonder why people are not responding.

Remember, people are NOT AT ALL interested in your ad. They are only interested in how they can benefit. If your ad fails to convey the idea that you have something good for them, they simply won’t click!

3) Viral advertising

This kind of advertising technique is similar to word of mouth advertising in the offline world. The idea is to encourage your existing traffic to bring more traffic to your website.

The following traffic strategies all fall under viral advertising technique:

- Offer your products’ affiliate program, including finding joint venture partners
- Place a “Tell-a-friend” script on your website
- Distribute viral screensaver, software or ebooks

Success in viral advertising depends a lot on your ability to create a buzz in your community. You need to package your product into something that is unique and interesting so that people are interested in spreading the words for you. Viral advertising can hardly work for a “me-too” product.

4) Incentivized advertising

The forth type of advertising technique is incentivized advertising where the traffic is rewarded to visit your website.

The following traffic strategies all fall under incentivized advertising technique:

- Traffic exchange programs
- Auto-surf advertising
- Paid to read advertising
- Safelist advertising

Success in this type of advertising depends mainly on your offer and the way you present it. Most advertisers who fail either do not have a good offer or they fail to deliver the benefit of their offer across to the target audience.

5) Obtrusive advertising

The last type of advertising technique is obtrusive advertising where the traffic is forced to view your ad. The most typical examples are popup and popunder advertising.

The first rule in obtrusive advertising is to avoid untargeted traffic, which happens to be quite common in this kind of advertising. If your ad is shown to a pool of people who are not interested in your offer, you are simply barking up the wrong tree!

If the traffic is targeted, your success in obtrusive advertising depends mainly on your offer and the way you present it, similar to incentivized advertising.

Final note……

As you can see, online advertising is not as complicated as what it seems to be. I hope that by understanding the main types of advertising techniques, you can be better prepare your advertising campaign. All the best!