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Advertising, we probably all think of different forms of advertising, the most prominent forms of advertising are probably those we have lived with the longest, and those forms of advertising continue to be effective today due to their subtle nature. We are not actively analyzing the ad but it is working on us in all sorts of different ways. Somewhere, deep inside our heads, it is changing our perspective on things or maybe altering our opinion of a program, product or service somewhat.

What we don’t know can help us succeed, let me tell you a little story about the power of association…there are some sites that we know of, and there are some sites that stick in our heads, why do they stick in our heads? The reason is because we have either

1. Grown up with these websites and watched them grow
2. Seen these websites succeed at doing something and admired them
3. Discovered these websites doing something new and loved it

Of course there are so many more reasons why websites stick in our heads, I could go on and on about the power of subtle advertising, catch phrases, repetition, jingles, that logo you cannot forget, that theme you wish you had, the power of branding etc… But at the end of the day commonsense advertising is one of the most effective ways to look at things, tomorrow I put up an ad on John Chow’s site, it lasts for 30 days and it is in the “Sponsors” section. Visitors going to John Chow see my site, day after day, week after week, they check it out, maybe once or twice, and the next month they might not do so.

BUT, the site is still there in their heads, and the fact of the matter is that the ad I used at John Chow was an image and we know that visual things are much more easily remembered by humans than text. So, one jolly day, that same person goes to my site and visits it on their own accord…why? They remembered it. Now, I am not saying that all sites will be remembered, buy I am leading into advertising effectiveness.

This is probably one of the most crucial elements of advertising, we all know that we have to advertise well…but most of us never put it into action. As bloggers many of us are unaware of business trends and we do not know the basic fundamentals of good (successful) advertising. This is what puts a few bloggers ahead of other bloggers, they have the skills. Now, do you see that knowledge is truly power and that the creative craft comes from the analysis of humans and what they like and do not like. Any form of association or partership that is created between consumer and the producer will stay and the bond will only strengthen.

So…what should you do next? The next time you plan an advertising strategy, remember these key elements which I have mentioned above, they are some of the most basic, fundamental and simplest tips you will find, but they are a rare commodity. The next time you design a banner ad for a product, a service or a website, remember to create an association or partnership between readers, to guarantee you return customers.

Think all of this information is false? Think again. Think again. Think again. It is not false, because if it works on me, an average, everyday human being who does normal stuff, I am pretty sure it will work on many more. To emphasize this point I give you an anecdote.

Darin and Dev, who are they? Do you know them, have you heard their names somewhere? I am sure they might ring a bell, especially if you are one of those people that give John Chow some of his 300,000 page-views per month. Yes, they advertised at his site, Darin for a month and Dev won a contest to advertise for one day. So they both have ad spots, and they have both succeeded to make an imprint in my brain.

Why? It is the power of association at work, it is not about the quality of their blogs, it is not about anything like that, it was about that little 125 x 125 square which was spinning Darin.cc and that simple and innocent looking Daily Moolah square that makes me go back to both of these blogs quite often, just to see what’s happening. Caught in the irresistible trap of advertising.

…Oh and it was that other thing too, they were on a site that makes thousands of dollars per month, has 14,000 RSS subscribers and has his face everywhere, what does my brain do? It puts two and two together and says, this is a reputable site, these advertisers have the cash to advertise on this reputable site, the advertisers are associated to the site, so it gives me yet another incentive for me to lock it into my long term memory.

If you believe you do not have the creative talents to make your own advertising…guess what? Hire someone. Just make sure you guide them every step of the way telling them exactly what you want, show them a sketch, do a drawing in paint, just ensure that you have brainstormed every part of that image. Question yourself

• Why am I making my banner red? Because it is striking!
• Who am I targeting for my banner? The age bracket of 15 to 30?
• Why am I targeting that age range? Because red is associated with danger, fire, evil, cars etc…
• Why am I targeting those things? Because most people in that age bracket take a lot more risks than your average 45 year old person

A few final words: Remember, before you do any form of advertising, brainstorm, get your target audience, market to that target audience and create a simple step method to achieving success. For example…

After you have designed your ad,

1. Today I will advertise at John Cow
2. In the next 3 months if finances are good I will go to Chow
3. If finances are better, I will request a review at Cow, Chow and Tuttle
4. The next 3 months after that I will get some more reviews to spread the word
5. I will do an aggressive campaign and buy ad spots at five more well known blogs

Good content or reasonable content, once a site is stuck in your head, if it serves any kind of purpose whatsoever, you will probably go back there. Of course good content plays an important role in deciding whether or not you will head back or not, but the gist of things are, if you check the site out once and it sticks in your head, you will probably be heading back.

Want to Contest these findings? No problem, I am welcome all comments and criticisms. I say this because I know so many people have varied opinions and may have a very different perspective on advertising, I focused a lot on visual advertising today, but I will post again about text and maximizing your traffic potential from text links.

Tags: advertising, colour association, darin carter, dev basu, memory retention advertising, online advertising