If you are reading this, it is because you care. You care about scuba marketing, and by joining this newsletter about Scuba Diving Websites, you are obviously interested in understanding options and ways to invest and get maximum benefit from your website by using online advertising.
The big question is: With so many websites out there... where should you invest? Where and how? And why, or why not?
So, let?s start facing these questions step by step.
1. Where to invest?
If you visit DMOZ Directory you will find 70 Scuba Diving Resource websites. Each offers different services and all of them (of course) are ready to offer you the sky and moon for your money. Many of these websites will guarantee results, amazing traffic and an overall wonderful price/service relationship.
The big question you have to ask yourself is: What sort of people is this website targeting?
At first sight you could believe that any scuba diving resource and/or major website, gets the same sort of visitors: Divers. But in reality the answer is way different. Sites with interesting traffic usually get visitors mainly from the same areas, usually communities built based on common locations, experiences and even colloquial language. So, unless you are a major online retailer, selling scuba masks world wide, you really want to consider if the traffic that you are getting is useful for your site.
What is your main objective with that advertising? Brand awareness or transforming clicks into customers?
2. How much to invest?
Usually the price of the advertising you are purchasing is set by the website owner, company or webmaster. What you have to think and analyze is, how unique is the website you are purchasing services from?. Quick Example: If you are a rebreather manufacturer, www.rebreathersworld.com is a clear "must" for you. Why? They are the one and only top rebreather website.
Only in this case is a serious investment worth it. When the website you are hiring gives you a value that no other site can offer.
Quick Example No 2: You pay for advertising in www.ScubaBoard.com (one of the webs biggest scuba diving discussion boards) knowing that the traffic and click-trough of your campaign can be almost guaranteed based on the ranking and reputation of Scuba Board.
So you should invest only as much as you think the traffic and results from your advertising campaign will bring back to you in customers and future business relationships. There is no point in investing 1000 US dollars if you are only going to get back 55 visitors that represent at the end of the day, 3 new customers that arrive to your dive shop. (Unless each of them buys a full scuba gear package!)
3. Things you are not supposed to do....
In the late 90's websites use to charge for inclusion.
"My website is great and if you want to add your link you need to pay"
Now days, this sort of service is crazy... but guess what? Many websites out there still do it, and many dive operators still pay for the service. Let's see the example of DiveGuide.com.
The first time I discovered Diveguide.com I enquired about rates and traffic. 400 US per year (may be cheaper now...).
Ok: 400 for a site inclusion. So what do I get for my money? A small block of information and 2 photos linking to my site. Ok. Great. But let's wait 10 seconds, and try to see beyond this offer. After a quick analysis of DiveGuide.com we see that Dive Guide Google Ranking is 0/10. Mmmm.... not good. This means that Dive Guide link to my site is not going to improve my Google ranking. Then I tried to see what else Dive Guide offers... a Forum. Cool! I love forums. I visited the forum and surprise, not many posts at all. Strange. Isn't it? So, no Google ranking, and not clear evidence of an active traffic. My conclusion not the best way to invest 400 US.
Why?
Well, because 400 US can help me quite a lot in investing small amounts in different sites.
Let see a hypothetical case of Multi Investment:
I decided to invest 30 dollars in Diving Obsession website. With 30 dollars I get over 300 clicks of my banner. Not bad. 300 visitors is quite nice for 30 dollars.
I'm adding my Dive Center to Diver Link as a sponsor I decided to pay 30 dollars again. And guess what.. now, I will appear in the main site. Sweet. Not a lot of traffic because Diver Link is a small site, but some traffic will come from it.
I decided to go crazy and invest 50 US adding my site to the virtual map of TopDiveCenters.com www.topdivecenters.com this is for 2 years and the site offers a promotion that gives me 20.000 credits of exposure of my dive center banner in www.scubawebmasters.com a banner exchange website. I guess for just 50 I can't go so wrong...
Now, I go to http://www.scubadivesites.com and I pay 29.95 for 6 months to have my banner in the main site. It looks nice, I'm happy... well done! Good prive for a Google PR +4.
How much so far? 139.95! Mmm still 260.50 to make up to the 400 US. More than enough to open a Google Ads Account ( https://adwords.google.com/select/ ) and target my dive center by paying 30 cents per click. This will give me over 800 visitors interested in my key word for my 260.
So with my 400 I can easily estimate that I will get over 1800 visitors that are in fact interested in my topic or business. Also the multi investment will give me the opportunity of measuring different websites and understanding which sites bring the best results for my site.
At the end of the day: Multi investment 1 vs. DiveGuide.com 0
By saying this, I don't want to bury Dive Guides quality and traffic potential, but if you have a budget (like many of us do...) it is important to consider how to invest and how to be sure that money you put into one site brings you equal amount (or more) than the traffic that small and smart investment can bring you in the same period of time.
So, go out there... use Google, visit websites, send emails and get some rates, do your homework, ask for traffic, make some contacts... the diving websites are a new market where you can always get great bargains.... good offers and in some cases positive leads and successful traffic.
Next Month: Talking about Scuba Directories / Search Engines.
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Short note about the author
David Gonfrier, scuba instructor and expert in diving marketing.
