SEO vs. SEM ...
 

What do you think guys, in order to obtain an good image on the internet that will produce traffic and sales, should we direct all our efforts towards SEO or paid advertising?
SEO or SEM ? :pimp
thanks,

Both SEO and SEM take a lot of knowledge.. I have found that you will pay more to someone for SEM than SEO and in the long run the SEO has better lasting results.

IMHO:

SEM = short term strategy, seasonal/promotional strategy, ones that need to be launched asap

SEO = medium to long term strategy, ROI is higher

Just to clariify, Daniel was using this as a forum for discussion relating to the industry in general, not webcams.com specifically. :thumbsup

IMO paid advertising is great if you have the budget and are looking to brand something. If you have something really cool you just launched and want to spread the word, then you should use SEM. For example, if you have a new idea that will make people say "Oh Shit I wanna try that!" SEM would probably better suit your needs.

On the other side of it, with half the money you'd spend on a SEM campaign you could hire a new-age professional SEO company who could work wonders for generating relevant/paying traffic. I would recommend this option if you are looking to build your customer base or don't mind waiting for your ROI.

read this maybe it helps.

http://www.semguide.com/

AS mona_klixxx correctly pointed out, SEO is a long term strategy. Change your meta's and it could take 2 weeks for them to propagate through Google and if they are still not right, this could take months of tweaking in itself.

SEM is the best tactic to get traffic quickly but can be expensive if your keyword selection, placement positioning and advertising messages don't appeal to the right sort of customer. However if your get your proposition right, you will be rewarded with traffic and the next challenge would be to convert guests into members. Neither SEO or SEM can provide you with that.

Good Luck

I agree that SEO is for long term, though SEM involved money (for its more on paid) I think theres an advantage on each strategies and it will depend on the implementation of it. Both are good option.

SEM to start, find out what keywords convert then do an SEO strategy around that. no point in wasting time and money in SEO if they keywords dont convert for you