Breakout of the Classified Ocean - With Alternative Promotion MethodsWritten by Joe Bingham
So, you just can't seem to write an effective ad? Either that or there are just too many other classified ads out there, and nobody really pays attention to them anymore. Have you ever felt like this? Well, fortunately, there are alternatives. You don't have to rely solely on classified advertising to promote your business. Here is a discussion, including advantages and disadvantages, of a few other ways of getting your promotional job done. YOUR OWN AFFILIATE PROGRAM A very popular alternative, and it's popular because it can really work, is to start your own affiliate program. By sharing profits of your business with those who get business for you, you essentially access promotional territory of everyone who signs up as your affiliate. When a person signs up, he or she will promote your opportunity to all of their contacts, and across Net in a variety of ways. This is an excellent way to get promotion without having to pay for it until you share a sale with your affiliate. Obviously, if you are simply promoting an affiliate program this is not an option. Also, you still need to get people to your site to sign them up for your affiliate program in first place. There is still an advantage to offering one, though, because all that do sign up will be promoting for you. WRITE ARTICLES FOR EZINES If you are a good content writer, you can promote your business for free through writing articles that are of value to ezine editors and webmasters. The content should be valuable to readers, so that editors will want to use it, and should also be related to your business. Then, at end of article, you attach a resource box that has your name, a brief description of your business, and a link to your site. If you do your job right, content of your article should lead right in to content on your web site. However, do not just make a direct sales pitch. You have to write something of value or it will not be read, or even published. The difficulty here is getting published enough to make it worthwhile. If you write one article and nothing more, you may have trouble competing with those who have built a name by continually writing articles. Also, if you can't write a decent ad, you may not be interested in writing articles either. The good part of this tactic is that it is free, and that it can continue to bring you traffic for a long time if article is good enough to be passed around a lot. FREE E-BOOKS Another method of promotion is to offer free e-books. You can write your own if you can produce content, or put one together from free reprint sources, or download free e-books from others and offer them as promotional resources. Again, you have to get people to your site to offer them your e- book, or you have to advertise it. Plus, you may not want work of writing or putting one together. The advantage being, that people who download your e-book will be re-exposed to your offer when they read e-book, if it's your own. Also, it can help to persuade people to visit your site to begin with. LINK EXCHANGES Contact other webmasters and offer to exchange links with
| | What is wrong with FFA-Links SubmissionsWritten by Ross Reyman
FFA-Links are networks of web sites that accept one line ads to be published. They are usually free and many dealers believe that they are making money from them.During last few months, there has been over eight of these exchanges go out of business. One dealer stated that there were too many teenagers pulling pranks with ad that were fake. He pointed out a teacher who students ran ads for her that were borderline x rated. He also pointed out that some links last just 4 hours (the truth is some are 2 hours, but most are 2-7 days). But those who advertise still brings in 80-160 replies for many dealers with 20 minutes work. Here are some comments that should help those using them. 1) KEEP A DIARY OF SUBMISSIONS. How can I know they are honest? Get a separate email address. and use it only first time you use a submission source. 2) Get a separate email address for acknowledgements. This way you will not be overloaded with emails from your personal mail. 3) Be realistic about results. An Englishman wrote me telling me that he put an ad in one link site and he got nothing. You have to submit to multiple site. If you put an ad in a newsmagazine with 100,000 circulation, you might get 25-50 replies and pay for them. With FFA sites, you put your link in 40,000 daily to get 80-160 hits if your headlines is proper. It is free if you are willing to invest 20 minutes time.
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