While the benefits of online advertising are many, and the temptation to create an internet viral marketing campaign is real, there are three main drawbacks to advertising online, and the largest, which involves internet spam and email, affects both advertisers and users.

The three main drawbacks of advertising on the web are these:

• Monitoring is Important. You wouldn’t place a print ad without a previewing (or ‘proofing’) it, so you shouldn’t initiate an internet advertising campaign without examples of your banner or video, its placement, and the type of page where it will be featured. Additionally, once your ad campaign has begun it is up to you to confirm that it is functioning correctly, and that click-throughs are being tracked accurately.

• No Economy of Scale. In a PPC (pay-per-click) campaign directing more traffic to your site will not improve the price of your keywords. More traffic may result in more clicks, as well, which you must pay for if your campaign is not based on CPA (Cost per ACTION).

• Spam. Unsolicited email to your posted web address, spoofing of your email address (changing email headers to make it look like YOU are sending something questionable), and fake registrations from ‘customers’ who just want to have fun, or are using your online forms to post their links.

Of these, it is the last that is the most costly, as it affects your customers as well as yourself, and can result in long hours of sorting through email, or working with software designed to trap spammers.

Online Evils to Watch For

While web advertising is not the only cause of internet spam and email fraud, clickable banners and text-based ads have helped to spread such internet evils. The ‘net nasties are not limited to your email, however. Here are descriptions of the most common internet evils to watch for:

• Spam doesn’t have an official definition, which is why it can be so difficult to combat. While the most prevalent form of online spam (the word, by the way, is a reference to an old Monty Python sketch) arrives in the form of unsolicited email messages, some of which looks amazingly like ‘real’ email. Spammers get your address from a variety of sources, including web forms you’ve completed, or reputable businesses who sell their information databases, and spam can go beyond email to whole junk websites, where the only content is a string of text ads for other sites.

• Adware is also known as spyware, and it is generally a small script, sometimes called a cookie that is installed on your hard drive when you visit a website. Not all cookies are bad, some merely retain basic information so that you (or rather, your computer) will be recognized when you revisit a website, but some track your path through the net, some will redirect you to THEIR site when you try to get to a search engine, and some will go so far as to track your keystrokes and report them to the person who generated the cookie, thus stealing your password.

• Viral Marketing. While the case can be made that internet viral marketing is simply “word of mouth” for the digital age, some forms of it can be considered a drawback, if not an outright evil component of an internet presence. The most basic form of internet viral marketing is the email chain letter, and it escalates from there. Hotmail used viral marketing to become one of the most prevalent email services on the net, and gain a captive audience. Google’s GMAIL with it’s content-based text ads works in a similar fashion. Showier versions of internet viral marketing include undercover campaigns, like the brand-less billboards on the real-world highways directing browsers to “theymissyou.com” which is really a website devoted to selling a sleep aid.

• Click Frauds are more specific, targeting PPC advertisers. What is click fraud? Basically, it involves the use of software to imitate clicks and generate false charges which must be paid. It’s a very messy issue, because it involves advertisers as well as advertising networks, and has been made a penalty in California, and parts of the United Kingdom.

How to Stay Safe

While surfing the internet may never be completely without risk, there are steps you can take to protect yourself from the worst of the internet evils.

Use Common Sense.

While it’s nice to get email, you should never open a message from someone you don’t know, and if there’s an attachment, never, EVER, open those without using a virus scanner first. Be especially wary of email that purports to be from your bank, or a bank you don’t use, or from a company such as ebay. Legitimate email will NEVER ask you for a password, or specific account information, and will always address you by name, or include some other identifier, and never provide your information, or follow the links in such a message.

As an advertiser, consider making your email address normal text instead of a hyperlink on your website. For example, instead of having it read [email protected] you could put info AT mycompany DOT com. Human beings will understand how to translate this into a working email address.

Recognize the Signs

Learn to recognize the signs that you may be a victim of internet spam and email fraud. If your computer is suddenly running much more slowly than usual, if websites you visit frequently are not responding correctly, if you misspelled your name a certain way on an online form and are now getting tons of email with that misspelling, you may be a victim.

As an advertiser, you can help protect your clients, by posting and adhering to a privacy policy, never selling your database, and checking your website frequently to make sure everything is working correctly.

Protect Yourself

Most internet security issues can be prevented by installing and using antivirus and anti-spyware software. The big names in security software, Symantec (Norton) and McAfee have stand-alone products and security suites that include firewalls if your operating system and ISP don’t already have them in place. Think of these sorts of programs not just as a smart business investment, but as a sort of insurance policy for your computer. Using them won’t mean you will never have to deal with internet spam and email issues, but it will help ensure that the only internet viral marketing you have to face is the kind you choose to use.