Marketing vs. Advertising: What's the Difference?

You will often find that many people confuse marketing with advertising or vice versa. While both components are important they are very different. Knowing the difference and doing your market research can put your company on the path to substantial growth.

Let's start off by reviewing the formal definitions of each and then I'll go into the explanation of how marketing and advertising differ from one another:

Advertising: The paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products to its existing and potential customers.

Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer of products.

After reading both of the definitions it is easy to understand how the difference can be confusing to the point that people think of them as one-in-the same, so lets break it down a bit.

Advertising is a single component of the marketing process. It's the part that involves getting the word out concerning your business, product, or the services you are offering. It involves the process of developing strategies such as ad placement, frequency, etc. Advertising includes the placement of an ad in such mediums as newspapers, direct mail, billboards, television, radio, and of course the Internet. Advertising is the largest expense of most marketing plans, with public relations following in a close second and market research not falling far behind.

The best way to distinguish between advertising and marketing is to think of marketing as a pie, inside that pie you have slices of advertising, market research, media planning, public relations, product pricing, distribution, customer support, sales strategy, and community involvement. Advertising only equals one piece of the pie in the strategy. All of these elements must not only work independently but they also must work together towards the bigger goal. Marketing is a process that takes time and can involve hours of research for a marketing plan to be effective. Think of marketing as everything that an organization does to facilitate an exchange between company and consumer.

source : By Laura Lake, About.com

How To Find A Proven Legitimate Online Business

If you are looking for a proven legitimate online home business there are a number of things you can do to try and establish whether the opportunity is legitimate or a scam. This is not always easy but it is to your advantage to invest some time in researching the opportunity before parting with any money.

There are thousands of scams on the Internet as well as legitimate online home businesses and for new visitors to the Internet the task of trying to distinguish between the two can be very overwhelming.

Often the scam sites look so attractive and offer such great incomes or rewards that it is hard to believe that it is not legitimate, hence the reason so many people fall prey to the scammers.

So one thing to be wary of is those sites that make huge income claims, like earn $10 000 in your first week or month with an online business. This really is totally unrealistic and if that amount is perhaps fives times your current salary, do you really think it is possible to earn such a huge income in such a short period of time with no prior experience with this type of Internet business?

If the online business opportunity is legitimate then it would not be unreasonable for somebody who has been in the business for a couple of years to be earning a huge income. But be warned that nearly all the business opportunities on the Internet advertise the income of their top earners who have been working hard for a couple of years. They rarely advertise the income of those just starting out in the business. An online business is like any other business, you will need to work hard at building it up over a period of time to produce a good income.

So then do not get carried away with excitement when you find a Website making such unrealistic income claims. The Internet does not have magical powers to enable us to earn magnificent incomes overnight.

One can get so caught up in all the hype that it is easy to sign up for an online business opportunity that does not live up to its promises and this can result in huge disappointment, so a Website that is not promising the Earth is probably a safer Internet business route to take.

When you find a Website offering an online business opportunity that appeals to you, spend some time going through it and do not jump in immediately and part with your money.

Have a look on the Website to see if there is any contact information, either an email address or a Contact icon like an envelope, and send a short message expressing your interest in the Internet business and see if you receive a response. Check also to see if there is a physical address on the Website as this adds credibility.

Look for logos on the Website of the respectable bodies on the internet like the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Truste.org, Alexa Ranking, i-Cop.org click on these logos and you should see information about the site. You could also look up the domain on the DomainTools.com (previously called Who is) Website and you will see the registration details, spend time to see if they look legitimate. For example you do not want to see a phone number listed as 1234567890. You will find a lot of information from this Website, so it is advisable to spend time doing some research.

Check on the Website to see if any guarantees are offered, such as a 30-day 100% money-back guarantee or perhaps a 14 or 30-day free trial offer. It is also a good idea to see if any training is offered, as this is really important if you are new to Internet marketing.

There may also be the opportunity to sign up for a free Newsletter, which will give you the opportunity to not only learn from what the newsletter offers but also enable you to get a general feel for the online business opportunity and put you in touch with your referrer.

At the end of the day, once you have researched the Internet business opportunity thoroughly, sleep on it and take heed of your gut feel and all being well you will learn how to use the Internet to generate an income with your own legitimate online business.

source from Cynthia Minnaar, for About.com

How To Find A Proven Legitimate Online Business

Avoiding Internet Business Scams

From Cynthia Minnaar, for About.com

If you are looking for a proven legitimate online home business there are a number of things you can do to try and establish whether the opportunity is legitimate or a scam. This is not always easy but it is to your advantage to invest some time in researching the opportunity before parting with any money.

There are thousands of scams on the Internet as well as legitimate online home businesses and for new visitors to the Internet the task of trying to distinguish between the two can be very overwhelming.

Often the scam sites look so attractive and offer such great incomes or rewards that it is hard to believe that it is not legitimate, hence the reason so many people fall prey to the scammers.

So one thing to be wary of is those sites that make huge income claims, like earn $10 000 in your first week or month with an online business. This really is totally unrealistic and if that amount is perhaps fives times your current salary, do you really think it is possible to earn such a huge income in such a short period of time with no prior experience with this type of Internet business?

If the online business opportunity is legitimate then it would not be unreasonable for somebody who has been in the business for a couple of years to be earning a huge income. But be warned that nearly all the business opportunities on the Internet advertise the income of their top earners who have been working hard for a couple of years. They rarely advertise the income of those just starting out in the business. An online business is like any other business, you will need to work hard at building it up over a period of time to produce a good income.

So then do not get carried away with excitement when you find a Website making such unrealistic income claims. The Internet does not have magical powers to enable us to earn magnificent incomes overnight.

One can get so caught up in all the hype that it is easy to sign up for an online business opportunity that does not live up to its promises and this can result in huge disappointment, so a Website that is not promising the Earth is probably a safer Internet business route to take.

When you find a Website offering an online business opportunity that appeals to you, spend some time going through it and do not jump in immediately and part with your money.

Have a look on the Website to see if there is any contact information, either an email address or a Contact icon like an envelope, and send a short message expressing your interest in the Internet business and see if you receive a response. Check also to see if there is a physical address on the Website as this adds credibility.

Look for logos on the Website of the respectable bodies on the internet like the Better Business Bureau (BBB), Truste.org, Alexa Ranking, i-Cop.org click on these logos and you should see information about the site. You could also look up the domain on the DomainTools.com (previously called Who is) Website and you will see the registration details, spend time to see if they look legitimate. For example you do not want to see a phone number listed as 1234567890. You will find a lot of information from this Website, so it is advisable to spend time doing some research.

Check on the Website to see if any guarantees are offered, such as a 30-day 100% money-back guarantee or perhaps a 14 or 30-day free trial offer. It is also a good idea to see if any training is offered, as this is really important if you are new to Internet marketing.

There may also be the opportunity to sign up for a free Newsletter, which will give you the opportunity to not only learn from what the newsletter offers but also enable you to get a general feel for the online business opportunity and put you in touch with your referrer.

At the end of the day, once you have researched the Internet business opportunity thoroughly, sleep on it and take heed of your gut feel and all being well you will learn how to use the Internet to generate an income with your own legitimate online business.