I have been ezine publishing for about a year and have found this promotion method to be one of most effective ways of advertising at no cost. I am talking about ad swapping.

Ad swapping is beneficial in many ways.

*Free Advertising- This is obvious benefit. You get your ad in quality ezines at no cost.

*Building Relationships- You connect with other publishers and form business and sometimes personal relationships, which is a good way of networking you and your business. And making new friends is always a plus!!

*Provide Content for Your Ezine- Many of ads I get in return are helpful resources, which I need for my ezine. My ad swaps are inserted in either my ezine section or my resource section. Thus, more information and resources for my readers.

If you are having trouble locating other publishers for ad swaps, there are many resources for you to use.

Ad Swap Lists:

Today, most webmasters join one or more "banner exchanges" to get additional traffic to their websites. However, it's a common mistake to believe that this will EVER give you a significant increase in number of visitors to your website. Please read on, and I'll explain why.

A banner exchange works like this: When joining a banner exchange, you enter your banner ad into exchange. Then, you place a html code on your website, that displays a banner every time you get a visitor to your site. The banner exchange has lots of other websites with this html code on them, so they can display a significant volume of banners throughout network of member sites.

Then, there is an "exchange" of banner impressions: For every two banners you show on your website (every two visitors/hits/page views you have on your website), your banner will be displayed once on another banner exchange member website.

So, how does this give you traffic? If you have 200 page views/visitors/hits on your website, your banner will be displayed 100 times on other websites in banner exchange.

If we assume that your banner has a CTR (Click Through Ratio) of 1%, which is quite normal, one out of 100 people who sees your banner will click on it, and visit your website. With your banner displayed 100 times on other websites in banner exchange, you will get 1 - ONE - extra visitor as a result of 200 banners you displayed on your website. In other words: For every 200 visitors you have to your website, you will get 1 - ONE - extra from banner exchange.

OK, let's say you have 1000 visitors/hits a day on your website: This will give you an extra 5 - FIVE - visitors a day from banner exchange.

Actually this is a 0,5% increase in traffic to your website. Would you call this banner exchange a "great traffic builder"? I wouldn't! The only website that benefits from this, is website that OWNS banner exchange, and get to sell all extra banner impressions that's left from "1 for 2" exchange of banner impressions throughout entire network of banner exchange member websites! Hey, what a great business!

So, What's deal with "self replicating advertising webpages"?

A self-replicating advertising webpage works like this: When you join, you get your "own" self replicating advertising webpage, displaying six classified ads or links. Your link or classified ad will be in "first position" of this webpage.

To see what a self-replicating advertising webpage looks like, go here: http://www.homebiznet.nu/explode.html

Whenever someone visits "your" advertising page, and signs up to get her/his own, they will get a page with their ad in pos. 1, and your ad in pos. 2.

When someone signs up from this "new" page, they'll get a self replicating advertising webpage with your ad in position 3.

As time goes by, this cycle will repeat over and over again, creating loads of advertising pages in your "downline" with your ad in position 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6!

So, why is a self-replicating advertising website better than ANY banner exchange? Let's take a look at numbers we used earlier: Say you still have a website with 1000 visitors a day. Now, drop banner exchange! Simply place a banner or a text link to your Self-replicating advertising webpage on your website instead!