PDA

View Full Version : Where Would I Advertise IT Educational Products At?



KingHippo
11-09-2008, 11:17 PM
I've never done any "real advertising" before. I have IT educational products almost ready and I need to think about how I'm going to advertise. Also, I'm not too familiar with how much I need to spend to advertise. My products are only going to sell for around $49 - $99 each. Can someone point me in the right direction? Has anyone used Google Adwords successfully?

Steve B
11-10-2008, 02:24 AM
Google adwords has worked very well for me.

I think more details about your product would help get better answers for you. Are you interested in selling locally, nationally, internationally? Is it software? What is your target market - kids, adults, small business owners? Do you have a website already?

Watchdog
11-10-2008, 06:19 AM
The adwords set up is "trial & error" you have to choose the proper keywords to be successful and keep it affordable, you need to set up a budget which you'll set up anyway for advertising - an advantage is that you can set your daily limits too. So if you set up 300.00 per month, I think you can choose to only use 10.00 of it per day...sounds easy to me, you just ahve to get the right keywords so it becomes efficient and effective advertising.

I stopped using adwords a few months back, as everytime I turned around I had to pay more for the keyword I wanted to use. But then again, I was on a shoestring budget and the "fraud click throughs" hype was going around so I just dropped out of that...

vangogh
11-10-2008, 11:57 AM
Who's you're market? Are you products geared for newbies or IT professionals?

AdWords is definitely one way you can advertise. It'll come down to managing your campaigns and choosing appropriate phrases to bid on. It's still similar to what you need to do even if you don't use AdWords.

Figure out where your market spends it's time and be there. If your market is IT professionals they probably are spending time online and reading industry magazines, etc. If your audience is newbies they'll be spending time in different places. They may not even be online so much since they are newbies.

Where to advertise comes down to understanding your market and knowing where they spend time and what media they consume.

KristineS
11-10-2008, 12:30 PM
Vangogh's advice is exactly right. The first thing you need to do is figure out where your audience is and how you can be in those places. If you're advertising where your audience isn't, you're just wasting your money.

I don't think there's ever a "need" to spend number for advertising. The best way to determine what your budget should be is to figure out how much you can comfortably spend and then determine how much of what you bring in will be allocated toward advertising spending. Be realistic about this. If you plan to spend too much you could put yourself out of business.

Also, keep in mind there are some low or no cost ways to help get the word about about your products. They may not be as fast as a huge advertising blitz, but sometimes slow and steady wins the race.

Watchdog
11-10-2008, 07:15 PM
I've never done any "real advertising" before. I have IT educational products almost ready and I need to think about how I'm going to advertise. Also, I'm not too familiar with how much I need to spend to advertise. My products are only going to sell for around $49 - $99 each. Can someone point me in the right direction? Has anyone used Google Adwords successfully?


What exactly is your IT product. Write an article / blog about it on our new MyShopPass.com (it might not seem busy yet, but it's a pretty sure bet in time)

Another new site I seen that might help out is ActionsTalk (http://www.actionstalk.com) - it's all about new start ups...

KingHippo
11-20-2008, 10:44 PM
What exactly is your IT product. Write an article / blog about it on our new MyShopPass.com (it might not seem busy yet, but it's a pretty sure bet in time)

Another new site I seen that might help out is ActionsTalk (http://www.actionstalk.com) - it's all about new start ups...

To be more specific, the first product I made is a video tutorial DVD for HTML.

mortgage loan
11-21-2008, 01:02 AM
If you are planning to run your campaign for short time than i must suggest Google adwords,
For long term go for SEO.
My SEO guy has managed very well my both campaigns, in staring i need help of adwords but with time he brought very good results for my websites and now i am feeling lucky about it.

Paul Elliott
11-21-2008, 07:47 PM
King, what problem/s do you solve for what persons in the IT field?

Those should be the fundamental answers to obtain before looking into the other issues.

Paul

KingHippo
11-22-2008, 01:50 AM
King, what problem/s do you solve for what persons in the IT field?

Those should be the fundamental answers to obtain before looking into the other issues.

Paul

I solve the issue of "Oh my god, I have to read another boring, complex 1000+ page computer book in order to learn <insert technology here>." By watching my video courseware, you can learn in 3 - 10 hours what you could learn by spending weeks or months reading books.

Paul Elliott
11-22-2008, 02:32 AM
I solve the issue of "Oh my god, I have to read another boring, complex 1000+ page computer book in order to learn <insert technology here>." By watching my video courseware, you can learn in 3 - 10 hours what you could learn by spending weeks or months reading books.

OK, I'll play the Devil's Advocate.

If a person can truly read, it is unusual that such a person reads more slowly than a video will teach. So, a well-written book will give me more information in a shorter time than a video. While I may be entertained by a video, if I want information, I want it in written form.

Granted, a video will illustrate the process and perhaps in a way that would cut out some reading of the description, but I can still more information faster from a book.

I do understand that some people would simply prefer video learning, a la classroom lectures, and that may be your market. However, you still haven't defined your market and your product well enough for me to see that there is truly a problem you are solving for the market you hope to reach.

What is your USP (unique selling proposition)?

Paul

Watchdog
11-23-2008, 06:51 PM
Paul, many folks can do the work, but can not easily comprehend what they're reading. I'm in the process of putting together videos for pattern development and they go over what I have written in the past. Which I too think it's important to have something to follow along with.

Would he be adding a workbook of any kind? This would give a more 'complete study system".

vangogh
11-24-2008, 10:53 AM
People learn in different ways. Some may prefer reading books while others prefer audio or video tutorials. Ideally you'd offer both to people, but there are markets for both.

Have you thought about offering shorter versions of the videos for free on your site? You could run AdWords or other advertising to a landing page which contains short video tutorials that display what someone could find in greater detail when they make a purchase. The free videos should still be complete in themselves. You could also upload these short (5 minute?) videos to YouTube and other similar sites.

If you do the free videos well they should help convince people to buy the full videos and they should also generate links into the site to help with search rank.