Most people marketing online continue to operate with the assumption that conversion is based on some magic formula of pay per click or mass emailing. Return on investment is their holy grail. In the offline world, companies pay for branding, sponsorship, product placement, and endorsement. In the online space, very few are willing to pay for these tried and true concepts. They prefer to make the Big 2 search engines richer. Think about owning a piece of the rock of the top 20 authority sites in your vertical that already get the traffic. You’ll be amazed at how inexpensive it is to go direct.