However, I’d trade social media for Big Media any day. For example, yesterday one of our sites got onto Digg’s front page and got mentioned in a Fox news article. Two different articles. In my view the one that got on Digg’s front page was much better and more interesting.

But, the article that got on Fox News ended up sending more traffic.

The fact of the matter is that most online users still gravitate to only a few sources of information. And those sources tend to be Big Media. Yahoo, MSN, Foxnews… to name a few.

At the end of the day, if I could consistently get a mention by Big Media, I’d do it. But since it’s very unpredictable, the easiest way to get in front of Big Media is to promote good content through social media.

But if social media isn’t conducive to the message that you are trying to market, you may need to turn to more traditional advertising. So how do you advertise on blogs without wasting money?

At the end of the day, the key is to identify your goals and then do a careful cost/benefit analysis.

If your goal is to brand a new product or service, then you should use a popular blog advertising service like BlogAds sidebar ads or PerformancingAds 125×125 blog ads. There are three things you need to consider when purchasing an ad on one of these sites:

1. Location of the ad on the site

It does you very little good to have an ad that’s hidden, out of view, at the bottom of the blog. You want the ad to be front and center, as much as possible. For sidebar ads, this means the ad should be visible when first loading the site.

2. Influence of the blog

You want to target blogs that have a high daily readership of devoted fans. Look for sites that have a lot of traffic and seem to be fairly well known in their topic. You can use directories like EatonWeb to find the best ranked blogs in any particular category.

3. Cost

Sometimes you can get more bang for your buck by targeting a large number of B-list and C-list blogs rather than the A-listers. If the A-listers are demanding too much for their premium spots, then you can go straight to your target audience by spending your ad budget on the B-list and C-list blogs.

The important thing about branding is that you want to reach critical mass. You want everyone who reads about your topic to be familiar with your brand.

At SeaWaves we refer to these 1,000 or so blogs as key distribution points. Your goal with blog advertising and marketing should be to find a way to get your message heard at distribution points and let the natural dynamics of the web go from there.

Let me explain a bit.

The web is setup in topical hierarchies. There are a handful of blogs on any given topic that everyone else reads and references. In politics it’s Drudge, HuffPo, Politico, DailyKos, etc. In sports it’s ExtraMustard, DeadSpin, SportsCrunch, With Leather, etc. In auto it’s AutoBlog, Jalopnik, Edmunds, etc.

Everyone else blogging on these topics reads and references these sources. So, you’re goal should be to get the word out on these distribution points, and let the message flow downhill.

That’s why social media marketing works so well. Create content that will be irresistible to these distribution points. Get it in front of their eyes on Digg or Reddit. Email them too.

It works. You gain influence by strategically targeting distribution points and let your message flow naturally across the web.

The attraction of social voting marketing (SVM) is that you can get a lot of traffic to your site with (seemingly) minimal effort. Depending on your skill, SVM can lead to a massive amount of quality backlinks. Andy Hagans, a search expert, says SVM (he calls it “link baiting”) gives the best ROI for your link building efforts.

However, there are many challenges with SVM. It looks easy for the experts but for someone just starting out the learning curve is very steep. I’ve gone through a lot of learning pains with SVM. I’ve had multiple social voting accounts banned because I was too aggressive. I’ve had submissions flop because I didn’t spent enough time promoting them.

Here is a list of four challenges to watch out for. If you can deal with these things in your SVM campaign, you’ll reap traffic, links, and even improved branding. However, if one of these things is lacking, your campaign will probably flop.

1. Building a Network of Voters

Just like networking offline takes time, so does networking on social voting sites. You need enough people voting for your stuff because most submissions need a push to get noticed.

2. Understanding The Different Audiences

A common mistake is to treat each of the sites in the same way. However, an article that goes viral on Digg may not go viral on StumbleUpon. It takes time and effort (and oftentimes a lot of trial and error) to research each site where you want to promote your content. You’ll need the votes of the site’s audience so spend time at the site to see what kind of content gets many votes.

3. Understanding The Different Webmasters

If you want links not only do you need to understand the audiences, you have to understand the webmasters within those audiences. These are the ones that can give you links. You can write an article that gets a lot of votes and sends massive traffic. However, you may not get many links. Do some research by checking the backlinks of different popular articles and see which ones get links. I like using Yahoo’s backlink checker, Site Explorer.

4. Monetizing The Untargeted Traffic

One of the biggest complaints about SVM is that the visitors don’t stick around. They may show up in huge crowds but never come back. They are untargeted traffic. They’re not looking to buy. This is fine if your primary monetization method is CPM (cost per impression). However, what if you’re monetizing through selling products or contextual ad clicks?

One of my sites got 4000 visitors from StumbleUpon. It makes money through AdSense. I only made $5 from those 4000 visitors. Figure out a way to retain some of the traffic to monetize them later. You can encourage them to subscribe to your RSS feed or even better, join an email list.

Final Thoughts

SVM looks easy at first glance, but it’s definitely not a piece of cake.

We still market through social voting sites here at Sea Waves. Check out our social media campaign service. But we don’t just hit social voting sites. We use our connections to hit all kinds of social media sites including forums and blogs.

Also, SVM works better if you have a general site because the social voting sites with lots of traffic cater to a wide variety of general topics. For example, a general real estate site will do better than a site about flipping houses in Dallas, Texas.

If you have a site in a more narrow subject, try our link building service. It’s oftentimes easier to get high rankings with narrow niche sites because their keywords usually have less competition.

While SeaWaves does a fantastic job with web promotion and link building for smaller companies and entry-level projects, our services don’t scale up to the corporate level. But that’s ok. Because we trust the team at Performancing to do the very best job possible if you’re looking to hit an instant homerun with your website.

Performancing offers three great services, which cover all the bases for getting the widest possible exposure for your website.

The first service is called Social Media Marketing. That’s just a fancy name for Massive Traffic Builder! With their Social Media Marketing product, you’ll see both a massive influx of visitors and long-term growth for your website.

The second service is called Blog Management Services. As the name implies, Performancing can create a powerful, well designed blog and run it too. Now that’s what you call “turnkey” – from design and optimization to launch and weekly maintenance, Performancing’s team of professionals will help you develop a maximally effective blog for your business.

The third service is called Authority Builder, and personally, it’s our favorite. Why? Because we truly believe that to become successful on the Internet, you need to establish authority and respect. But why put in all the hard work yourself, when you can easily fail? Performancing does the hard work for you, and delivers exactly what you should want out of your businesses online presence.

Because we believe so much in this product, and think that it really is the key to online success, SeaWaves is proud to be a partner with the very best in the business – Performancing Services. If you want the best, don’t look anywhere else.

Networking is incredibly important today especially with driving traffic to your site. With social media sites having one of the fastest growing audiences on the web, they’re an excellent place to get traffic for your site. However, to use social media effectively, you need people to vote for you. You could pay people to vote for you. However, that’s not very efficient or cost-effective in the long run. When you network, you’ll find friends that can vote for you. But not only that, they have friends too. And those friends oftentimes become your friends and start voting for your stuff.

In some sense, networking scales well if you target people that are well-connected. Imagine if you befriended a popular blogger in your niche. You could ask them to promote your product or content. This leads to traffic, links, and profits. And through your relationship with this popular blogger, you will meet other popular bloggers.

Networking helps you to get free links. These links may be reciprocal, but at least, you can ask for a contextual link, which will give more link juice and brings higher quality traffic than a sitewide or blogroll link. And as you grow your network, you’ll be able to build more one-way links because many webmasters have multiple sites in different niches. You could link to someone’s celeb blog from your celeb blog in exchange for them linking to your tech blog from their tech blog. You could also consider guest posting.

Also, don’t forget the free advice that comes from webmaster friends. Whether it’s technical tips, domain names, or how to write a certain piece of content, the advice from other webmasters is very valuable.

Networking makes online business more enjoyable. We are social creatures and online business can be a lonely job. When you have someone to IM or email about your struggles and accomplishments, internet marketing becomes more enjoyable. And the more you enjoy your work, the better you will do in your business.

How has networking helped your online business?