Let's consider advertising in todays world. Keep in mind this will be a little self serving.

I sell custom printed promtional items. You know, the items you keep at your desk, or use to write with
on a daily basis, or hang on the wall in a certain place year after year, after year (aka calendars).

Now, keeping in mind that all wisdom is selfishly pointed at my brilliant deduction on advertising, let's ask an
open question, shall we?

Unless you are a collector of advertising memorobilia, do you have any items on your desk, or in your pocket book,
or in your glove compartment, that you can recall the name of that's printed on the item? I bet you can.

Here's my for examples; I have a leather coaster on my desk that has been in the same location since 1997.

I know the name on the coaster and the telephone number, even though I no longer use this company's services.

I also have a 6-in-1 screwdriver tool that I received as a THANK YOU gift for purchasing a car from my dealership, that of course accompnay's their logo and that I use on a weekly basis. As a matter of fact I have it close enough where I can touch it right now.....there I just did.

I bet you can name a few items around your office, or home, that are your favorite logo-carrying items. I bet you can name them without even looking for them to find what name is on them. How do I know that? Well, even though I'mthe guy who sells customed printed items, I'm also participant in this thing we refer to as "LIFE," as you are, which leads me to believe that we have similar tendancies. And if we have similar tendancies we are likely to use similar items.

So, when considering advertising (even though most have dropped any form of advertising because the the economic
situation we're in) keep in mind two simple things:

1). What advertising avenue will carry your name and message longer than any other advertising form? (I'll slip in my answer hereand go with nothing, as newspaper, magazine, Internet, direct mail are viewed only for a millisecond, but I'm not trying to persude you).

2). Ask yourself, is the promotional item I want to distrubute with my company's name and message, something I would use, and do I see other people already using it?
If you would use it and you see others using the same thing then roll with it!

Scott Rauber, Authorized Kaeser & Blair, Inc Distributor for the past 12 years.
www.TheJavelinPen.com

With virtually everyone using or having access to a computer in today's world, the way of selling is changing. It's actually becoming more of a "please fulfill my order" society.
We want something, we open our Internet service and search for it.

Recently I discussed this issue with an industry veteran who prints what I sell. He and I both agreed that people
who want to find an item(s), or information on items, or topics or what have you are turning to the Internet almost exclusively.

Obviously that's not earth-shattering news. I heard you say, "welllllllllllllllll duh!." I gotcha.

If you're in sales, knowing that, the question I have is; why don't more and more people capitalize on being there when the prospect searches for them,
instead of cold-calling, cold-visiting and direct mailing techniques?

Maybe you have no clue on how to build a website. I didn't either. I still don't. I talk with the people at GoDaddy.com. I do. You can too.
The reason I use them is because their customer service is exactly that. You call, ask questions, they answer......LIVE! I could easily turn this into
a shameless plug for GoDaddy.com, and pretty much am, knowing well in advance that I get NOTHING for doing so. NahDah!

Now, whether or not you use GoDaddy.com is not a concern of mine, the main thing you need to grasp is niche.
People search with words they know to find what they want.
If a brand name is unknown to them how can they search for it?

The simplicity is creating a domain name and website built around the throngs of searched for words. For example, if a customer needs a roofing
company to repair a leak or install a new roof, will they search for brand name roofer? Only if they can recall it. If they can't, and I suspect most of us can't
recall roofing company's names because of short attention to detail memories, they'll log on to a search engine eg: Yahoo, Bing or Google and type in
words like: roofing company _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (insert your town's name in the spaces). Or they'll search for roofer _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ (again insert town name).
Or they may search for: how to repair roof leak.

The magic is if your domain name and website match the searched for words you stand a much greater chance of being in one of the top positions as a natural result for the search.
No it's not building a brand, rather it's building a niche website that matches a focused, narrow search.

When you can build a website like that you'll generate leads and sales from how people search for what THEY WANT!! You'll then capitalize on the "please fulfill my order" request!