What an Average People Think of Internet Marketing
I may have briefly mentioned I went back to school. I decided online was the ONLY way to go, and went with University of Phoenix like a good chunk of other adult learners going back. For those curious, I’m majoring in English because I plan to put my writing experience to good use (I took a look at my resume – I’ve been writing for EIGHT YEARS! Can you believe it?! I sure couldn’t!) .
Part of the “online learning experience” is a “discussion forum”. This week the subject of researching online was brought up. Oh boy…some passing off information as fact in the online business world was a little scary. There were two main things I felt the need to correct them on, and they are as follows…
1. Domain extension meanings
I spotted one giving us the “meaning” of .com, .net, .org, and .edu. They were correct saying .edu would be school of some type. They were NOT correct about the rest having specific meanings and purposes. Apparently the average Joe doesn’t know that the rest can be purchased by ANYONE and used for WHATEVER they want.
2. Search results are paid for
WRONG. Yes someone actually said this. I was floored, and yes, I had to correct them. My own knowledge of search engines would just not let that one slide. I explained that “sponsored links” in search results on Google are in fact paid, but the “organic” results are not. Granted SOME may have had SEO professionals help with ranking, but saying “they paid for that spot” is very, very wrong. Search engine results are based on a lot of things, but money isn’t one of them!
I do realize that these things aren’t exactly common knowledge. Why would you know if you aren’t involved with websites? However, it does scare me a little that this information was being pushed as fact. Keep this in mind overall when your marketing your site to the average person – they don’t always know what’s true and what’s false!
Your fellow WAHM in success,
Kara
Topics: Business Stuff | 1 Comment »
January 12th, 2011 at 9:04 am
Hi there… Whoa, I guess it goes to show that some things that are common knowledge aren’t known by all.
In another sense, companies have spent a lot of money getting to the top of the organic search results – so in a sense it was paid for. But that’s not what they meant
Did it not used to be true once upon a time that .org was intended for organizations, as opposed to companies – even if it was never legally required?