Advertising: Is Internet Classified Advertising Dead?

Is Internet Classified Advertising Dead?

Written by Erik A. Olsen

As little as two years ago, classified advertising on repparttar

internet was HOT! Believe it or not, up until then I had generated thousands of dollars in affiliate program sales utilizing free internet classifieds and services known as Free For All (FFA) Links pages. But, alas, things change, and it is necessary to change with them. Free classifieds and FFA's have all but lost 99.9% of their effectiveness due to abuse by programs known as "auto-submitters". These programs post to thousands and thousands of free classified ad sites and FFA's, usually for a fee. The problem with using such services is thousands of other people are using them as well, not to mention repparttar 101199

fact that they rarely post an ad to any sites which receive repparttar 101200

targeted traffic you're looking for. What do you think is more important...posting thousands upon thousands of ads to site which NO ONE (except for repparttar 101201

auto-submitters) ever visit, or posting a handful of ads to sites that receive repparttar 101202

quality, targeted traffic you need? So is classified advertising dead? In a word....NO! The "secret" to effective online classified advertising is not really a "secret" at all, but more a case of common sense. As of March, 2001, almost 90% of internet users found repparttar 101203

sites they are looking for through repparttar 101204

use of search engines. Now you might be thinking, "Great, but what does that have to do with classified advertising?" It's Simple! Search engines send targeted traffic to repparttar 101205

sites listed within them, but can also be your best tool to find repparttar 101206

high traffic sites that offer low-cost classified advertising that both receives repparttar 101207

traffic your looking for, and repparttar 101208

targeted customers you NEED to make sales! Here's what you do: Go to any MAJOR search engine ( www.google.com , www.yahoo.com, etc.) and do a search using a phrase someone searching for your product or service would look for (i.e. if you're selling golf supplies, do searches such as "golf supplies" , or "golf gear", etc.). You can find some excellent alternative phrases by looking at each engine's results, which should contain additional search advice (i.e. "people looking for golf supplies also search for; etc.) Take a note of repparttar 101209

top 20 sites that come up in each search. Check out each of these sites, and if they offer paid classified advertising, THAT IS WHERE YOU WANT TO BE! I've actually advertised on sites that sent me 100-300 unique visitors per day for LESS THAN $30 for a whole month of advertising!

Mama, I Ain't Spending Another Dime!

Written by Gauher Chaudhry

I remember repparttar

days when

Internet was new and companies were charging an average of $35 to run advertisers' banners on their web sites for 1,000 impressions.

Boy, times have changed.

In repparttar 101199 early days, advertisers use to enjoy click-thru rates of about 15% on their banners. Today repparttar 101200 average click-thru rate is only 0.5%. So why hasn't repparttar 101201 average price to purchase banner impressions dropped at repparttar 101202 same level?

Major web sites depend on banner revenue to continue operating, and as long as their are big advertisers such as IBM, Dell, etc. who can afford these overinflated prices, repparttar 101203 costs will remain unrealistic.

What happened to repparttar 101204 banner market? It started to drop drastically to a point that authors were writing articles that repparttar 101205 banner industry was dead. With an average click-thru ratio of only 0.5%, advertisers could not afford repparttar 101206 steep price for banner impressions. Likewise, web sites selling banner ad space could not afford to sell banner impressions at a discounted price.

Advertisers started using other means of advertising such as ezines. Ezine advertising took off a few years ago, but even repparttar 101207 enthusiasm for this advertising medium has since then leveled off as readers started becoming immune to repparttar 101208 print ads or sponsor messages.

But things are changing now.

Advertisers do not want to pay for unguaranteed results anymore. They want to pay only for performance. Companies that provide advertising are now realizing that selling advertising is not a one way transaction anymore.

Companies have to become partners with their advertisers if they want to truly succeed. I saw this trend about a year ago and that is why I offered to critique my advertisers classified ads.

Many of my advertisers were submitting poor copy and I knew that their ads were not going to perform well in my ezine. I figured that if I rewrite their ads or offer suggestions on improving their ads, they will get a better response.

Of course some of my customers wrote great classified ads and I didn't edit them, but repparttar 101209 sad fact is that majority of my advertisers do not know how to write an effective classified ad.

Not only did this differentiate my ezine from other ezines, it showed my customers that I cared enough to see them get results.

Who do repparttar 101210 advertisers blame when their ad copy does poorly? They blame repparttar 101211 ezine publisher. I depend on repeat business, so I took it upon myself to make sure that they got results. Results mean repeat business.

Who doesn't love repeat business? :)

But once again repparttar 101212 market was getting tougher. Advertisers were still demanding better results. How could I keep my advertisers happy so that they would keep coming back to purchase more ad space?

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