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| Marketing through Business Directory Websites |
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There is another way to market products
and businesses through the Internet. This type may be called business
or product directory marketing. They are generally inexpensive to
promote, since major ecommerce websites are willing to post business
and product information for data collection.
Let’s look at websites that provide free service for product listing.
For instance, Froogle from Google is a typical example of one. While
there are rules and regulation on the type of products allowed to
advertise, most goods may be listed free of charge. Then there are
others that offer listing services for a commission. eBay is an
excellent model of this where the merchant is charged only when a
transaction between the customer and advertiser takes place. Yahoo has
a marketing program for local business listings and the customer pays
on a monthly basis. Other ecommerce websites that derive their income
via subscriptions are: Verizon’s Super Page and PacBell’s Yellow Page.
Within the Internet lies other business directory websites that
specialize in the focused market as well. BeautyStaffs.com is a good
example of an online company’s focus on a specific area such as
cosmetics, beauty and body care. Most in the industry have a dominant
directory website that generated significant traffic. ThomasNet.com is
a major contributor in industrial directory listings and Lawyers.com is
a preferred website among lawyers, for example. While the volume of
traffic generated from directory site is not significant compared to
that from search engine, subscription fee of directory service leaves
the cost of traffic generation low.
The final example of business directory listing for the Internet is Dun
& Bradstreet. Such company offers free business listing, and generates
revenues by selling leads and details of credit ratings. Thus, business
owners have to make sure their business keywords are properly indexed
and their information updated in the D & B. Otherwise, the last thing
business owners would want is for their customers to receive a poor
credit rating due to sloppiness on their part.
By James Lee
LoyalStaffs, Inc |
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