Like most of you, I spend the majority of my time finding ways to generate traffic through search engines. Lately I have been spending more and more time thinking further down the line about my ultimate goal. In the past my goal was always to have the top positions in search engines for my targeted niches. But I’m starting to think the goals should be a little higher.

When we fight for search engine or PPC positioning we are in direct competition with other sites and offers. It’s a constant battle against both the search engines and our competitors. But what if we actually had a brand that even our mothers knew to type-in to get what they wanted within our niche? Isn’t that the ultimate goal? Doesn’t that essentially eliminate most of our competition? Doesn’t it remove the control that search engine algorithms have over our destiny?

To me it is a no-brainer. While I will continue to fight the search engine wars in order to generate my day-to-day income, I am spending a lot of time learning about the economics of traditional advertising platforms such as radio, television and newspaper in order to attempt to ultimately create a brand that people will recognize and type-in. I’m not talking about a brand that the internet addicted among us will recognize. I’m talking about a brand that your mother will recognize. So far I have concluded that it is certainly possible if the economics of your niche are favorable.

Essentially there are two types of offline advertising for internet sites. 1. Advertising that attempt to create a brand so it will be in your conscious when you need that product, and 2. Advertising that is designed to elicit an immediate response by the consumer (visit my site shortly after seeing my ad). The work at home ads we see on infomercials where they are promoting a website like 36getrich.com are of the “direct response” variety. The good part about offline advertising is that it is actually possible to do both at the same time if you have the right product, message, and medium. With the right strategy you may be able to build your brand through repeated exposure while at the same time turning a profit through the direct response angle.

I’m not suggesting that tomorrow you should run out and spend a fortune to get visitors to type-in the domain of your free jokes site or anything. What I am suggesting is that you take a hard look at your various niches, become familiar with the economics and scalability of offline advertising, and at least consider setting a future goal of having a brand able domain that my mother will be inclined to type-in when she is looking for a product in your niche.  Think about it.