When you go to internet websites

When you go to internet websites that activate pop-up screens in
your browser, what you usually see are text and picture
combinations that you usually ignore and close immediately
because they are bothersome and not really interesting. You do
pause and look at the pop-up screen if it contains some animated
pictures or flashing images. When you pass by a store that sells
television sets while walking, you look at the screens that have
something playing or displayed in them. Between these
comparisons, you will find the difference between still and
animated images in terms of grabbing a person’s attention.

A still picture will remain a still picture no matter how long
and which way you stare at it. An animated picture or video, on
the other hand, will grab your attention by arousing your
curiosity. Usually, it’s because you want to find out what
happens next. It’s all about arousing curiosity.

The internet as it is today allows for streaming video
technology that will let you view a whole movie online if you
want to. In being able to use this technology to grab a person’s
attention, advertisers are getting more and more creative with
their strategies. I will look at a moving image because I want
to know what it is and what will happen to it. Advertisers know
that I will do this and so will the majority of other people
browsing the internet.

Even so, unless the individual viewing the animation or video is
interested in the advertised product at that time, advertisers
will fail to convince a person to spend money. Of course, this
is beside the point. The immediate goal of an advertiser is to
grab attention. Sometime in the future, the individual will
remember seeing the advertisement and will most likely make a
purchase because of that simple memory. The memory of it is
carried subconsciously and will resurface at a time when you
need the product or see the product as you pass by it in the
shelves of your favorite grocery store.

To compare to other forms of videos that grab attention, early
infants and older children are fascinated by learning modules in
video form. A story book with still pictures is just not enough
to grab a child’s hyperactive mind. Again, video grabs attention
by acting on the curiosity of the viewer.

Curiosity is perhaps the most powerful motivator in a person.
For example, the “Stargate SG1” television series shown by the
Sci-Fi channel in the US is not available for viewing in some
countries. Video grabs a person’s curiosity faster than you can
blink (that’s because you won’t be blinking).

Animated pictures and videos are very powerful advertising
tools. If an advertising video upon its creation is imbued with
humor, a bit of suspense and, finally, relevance to the general
public, its effects will be visibly seen in the black ink
accountants’ use in their books to indicate income.

Being able to send attachments

Being able to send attachments together with an email message
is very helpful especially when you need to send important
documents. The limit on the file size you can attach depends on
the limit that your email service provider imposes on your email
account as well as the limitation on the email account storage
size that the recipient has. While it is now possible to send
several MP3 files as email attachments because of the general
increase in email account storage sizes, sending larger sized
files like videos and movies may cause you to encounter problems
unless you and the recipient have a paid email account which
gives you several gigabytes of storage space.

In any event, sending video files through email may force you
to compress and split the file into two portions in order for it
to be accepted by the recipients email account. Then too, you
will probably have to wait for the recipient to remove the first
portion from their email account before you can send the next.

This is a problem for people involved in internet marketing as
they know that videos are the most effective advertising tool in
the world. Never let it be said that they have no creativity
though, because, they managed to find a way around the system.

One way to circumvent this problem is to attach a capture image
from the video file onto the email message. This capture image
will serve as a preview of the video and embedded in the file
will be a link to the video itself. Of course, you have to bear
in mind that you are asking a person to view an advertisement. I
wouldn’t do it, and most won’t either. You will need to give the
customer an incentive to click on that link.

Webpage designing programs and utilities now allow for viewing
multiple pictures in a single webpage. This picture cascade is
similar to an automatic slide show presentation. You can capture
several images from the video itself, compile them and send your
message through.

If the customer does click on the image or slideshow, you have
to options of how to let him view your video. The first one is
already mentioned above. When the customer clicks the image, a
new browser window opens and your video loads onto it. The
second option is to use streaming video where, the video is
stored in your storage device and the link on your email
newsletter activates the video stream. In this manner, the
customer is not displaced from his/her current browser, thereby
causing you to avoid annoying your customer.

A few years ago, we saw the megabyte standard hard drive
replaced by the gigabyte hard drive. In 2 to 10 years, the
terabyte may become the standard storage size for a personal
computer’s hard drive. How big is it? One letter or character
including spaces and punctuations is equal to 8 bits. 8 bits
equals 1 byte, 1,000 bytes equals a kilobyte, 1,000 kilobytes
equals 1 megabyte, and so on and so forth. With this potential
for increased storage capacity, email service providers may
decide to increase account storage capacities again. This next
increase will definitely accommodate an entire video file as
an attachment to email messages.

In the meantime, creativity needs to take over where technology
has deficiencies. To be able to send the best in quality
video to your customers, you will need to go about it the
most efficient way.

Affiliate programs are marketing tools

Affiliate programs are marketing tools used by vendor sites such
as amazon.com. Basically, you need to sign-up for the program
and they will give you an affiliate ID number. You will receive
instructions on how to create links to their website from your
own website or written article. You can even create links to
specific products on their website. When a person clicks on the
link you made, the vendor site takes note of the reference
number and your ID number. If the customer buys from the vendor,
you are given a commission. In short, you promote their website
and products. Once you have it set up, you just wait for the
money to come in. Also, affiliates get discounts and bonuses
based in the quantity of traffic that they are able to direct to
the vendor site.

Autoresponders are the answering machines of the internet. Say,
you have a number of products on the internet up for sale. These
products are technologically challenging to most people so you
will need to provide detailed information on how to operate and
maintain the devices. If you do this on your website, chances
are you will have a design problem since this will require large
amounts of space on the webpage. With autoresponders, you can
place a link for all the nitty-gritty stuff and a pre-composed
email message will be sent to the one who requested it. You can
place a form where they can write down their email address and
place the link below it. You will need to do the
pre-composing of those automatic replies too.

Autoresponders can be used in many ways. Aside from answering
queries for detailed information requests, autoresponders can
also be used as correspondence trackers. Different websites
offer autoresponders with different functions. Some of these
sites offer autoresponder services for free.

If you happen to have an existing website, you can correspond
with another website to have your banner placed on their site.
In exchange, you will need to accommodate their banner on your
site. The same is true for links. You can place a link to
another site while the webmaster of that site can place a link
to your site. If you don’t have a banner, you can search for
free or paid banner maker utilities in the web.

Internet classified adds are an available option for promoting
your website. Some classified ads websites give away their
services for free.

If you want to become a big vendor site, the way to go about it
is through e-commerce. This entails setting up shopping carts
for your customers so they can note down their orders. You will
also need to analyze your payment system. Of course, you will
need to accept payments from major credit cards but you can
allow or deny payments made by check, paypal or money order.

Electronic magazine or E-zines are newsletters that get sent
regularly to a list of e-mail recipients. These recipients are
subscribed to the E-zine so spamming is not an issue. You need
to have an article about your product handy and several links
embedded within it just in case the subscriber decides he wants
your pocket knife.

With mailing lists, you send out a bunch of emails to a target
audience. This is where spam usually comes from. One form of
mailing list let’s the consumer decide whether he/she wants to
be in your mailing list. This is called the opt-in mailing list.
I like this list.

There are still a number of money making ideas and utilities
that have not been covered here. To tell you frankly, there are
just too many of them to mention. Why not browse around and take
a look for yourself. Researching and reading material can be a
tedious a process, but the knowledge that you gain it from it
might be just what you need to set-up or improve your own
internet business.