Online marketing can be done on several channels.
Each offers unique benefits and with every marketing method one can explore a wide range of opportunities.
There are social platforms, PPC, SEO and there are a whole host of marketing methods like guest blogging, content marketing etc.
Any marketing method is worth doing as long as it brings positive ROI.
However, there are certain online marketing methods that backfire, it is just best to stay away from those.
In this article, we will discuss several of these online marketing things that should be avoided.
1) Out dated marketing methods:
There was a time when a particular marketing method was in huge demand. It was a primary marketing method that was used and abused over the years.
It’s been ages now.
People still do it.
They get penalized in the process.
That marketing method is known as directory submission. It’s a highway for spam and once you do a bit of it, you pretty much get the penalty from the search engines.
There are several other marketing methods like this, for example article submission etc. that have all run their course and it’s just way too late for those methods now.
2) Spam
This does not need explaining, spamming is something which was bad in the ages past, and it will always remain so.
The only difference now, is how strict we are towards it. This is 2014 and the anti spam technology is pretty good. Even average content is getting the same slap that spam used to get a few years back.
If you are planning anything spammy, it’s best to drop that plan.
3) Over Optimization
Over optimization always back fires. Anything you over optimize, like anchor text, stuffing keywords, building too many links etc. will have a negative effect.
Try to keep things normal, keep it under the radar. Every marketing activity still works, even the ones that we discourage, if done at a very low amount.
4) Crazy link building
Link building was very important a few years back. Online marketers were just crazy about links. The idea was to get as many links as possible.
Links were the virtual assets, and the sites having most links used to rank at the top.
All that has changed now.
At this point of time if you build too many links, chances are that you will get penalized by search engines. What now matters is how related the links are, the authority of the sites that are linking to you etc.
5) Article marketing
Article marketing was a method by which a marketer used to get a few low quality articles written up and submitted to various article directories. Most times these articles were re-written and spun garbage, or simply duplicate content submitted across hundreds of article directories.
Later, the search engines went ballistic over these directories and banned them.
At this moment article directories no longer ranks on the search engines, and submitting content on them has very little seo value.
6) Low quality content
If you are planning anything that involves low quality content, its best to drop that plan.
Any marketing activity, like guest blogging, article marketing, content marketing etc. will bring more negative effects than anything good, if the content used in those campaigns are of low quality.
Content is the base for all marketing activities and the ultimate decider for a campaign’s results depends on the content. Low quality content is a quick way to mess up any marketing campaign.
7) Guest Blogging for Links:
Any online marketing activity that is specifically done to gain links is a bad strategy. And guest blogging is no exception.
There is still plenty to gain from guest blogging, like branding, traffic, sales and conversions, list building etc. and yes, even backlinks. But if you’re primary goal is to gain backlinks then it won’t work.
Links are always best and natural when they are earned, rather than built.
8) Mass posting blog comments:
Blog commenting helps a lot with online marketing.
Comments can be used to gain backlinks, gain traffic and build readership and audience and doing a few hundred comments a day to achieve all this is still all right. The problem with blog comments is not just in numbers but it is mainly in the quality of the comments. Posting a hundred comments a day and still maintaining quality is a great marketing strategy, sacrificing quality and doing mass commenting will get your blog and your email id blacklisted and your comments will end up on the spam queues.
9) Faking your Success:
Posting fake screenshots or income reports is a quick way to gain a lot of attention. However, it backfires big time once everyone knows that you were just trying to fake your way through.
Rather focus on things that are constructive, time tested and more stable and scale-able.
By Brian Newmark
