Introduction:
This is a series of articles about marketing and advertising. There are different ways you can reach an audience of millions of individuals all around the world. I show you on this series how to implement profitable strategies in your marketing career.
It has been said that “what matters is not what you sell but how you promote it.” So, the secret to success lays within your marketing techniques. That’s why it is very important for business owners to develop skills which allow them to increase the sales of their products.
One of the most important skills you must have is the ability to reach a lot of people quickly. To do this you need to realize how powerful media is an how it can drastically increase your revenues.
– Classified ads –
Free classified ads are another way you can advertise online at no cost to you. They represent on the Internet what a newspaper ad represents on the streets. You can post ads to thousands of web sites and reach millions of internet users.
The drawback of this strategy is that it is time consuming, but once you get used to it you will realize which are the easier ad sections to post to and the most effective ones. It may take some time though before you discover those that fit you well.
You can post your ads to the following websites:
http://classifieds.excite.com/
http://finditclassifieds.com
http://washingtonpost.com
Among others.
– E-zine promotion –
You can post an add to a vast amount of individuals by submitting it to many different e-zines at once. This is simple and free. Just go to http://www.subscribeme.net/ read the information they provide for you there and complete their form.
Your ad will be displayed in hundreds of e-zines all over the Internet. There is a combined amount of more than 1,000,000 subscribers at those web sites, so you will gain a lot of exposure from them.
I think it is better if you use an alternate e-mail address for this purpose. You can get a free email address from Yahoo. When I joined the list I received many messages every day.
This technique could bring you additional traffic. The only problem I see is that most other individuals also join the list to advertise to other people as you do. So, the goal of most subscribers is to sell products, not to buy them.
I think though it is a good way to diversify your trading strategies. You could give it a try and see if it works for you. Remember to use an alternate email address and read their terms and conditions first.
– Safe lists –
Safe lists are lists of e-mail addresses from people who have requested to receive messages and information about a specific topic. As you probably already know to deliver comments or advertisement via e-mail to others without their consent or authorization is called spamming and is illegal.
Also if you spam others do not expect to receive a reasonable response rate from them. What do I mean? I mean that you can send a message to millions of individuals, but if they are not interested in what you are selling and they didn’t requested that information from you, then you will probably make very few sales, plus you will receive a lot of complaints from hundreds of them.
Then what is the smart way to advertise using e-mail addresses? The answer is safe lists. Think about it. This people are looking for information related to the products or services you are selling. Many of them are even getting paid to read your messages. This technique is also called advertising to targeted opt-in mailing lists. You can create your own list of subscribers.
You can join Yahoo groups http://groups.yahoo.com/ or Google groups http://groups.google.com/ and start your own newsletter. The way you get subscribers is by posting valuable information there that your visitors would like to read. You can also join any of the companies bellow:
Bravenet
http://www.bravenet.com/
Topica
http://www.topica.com/
Zinester
http://www.zinester.com/
Your mailing list provider
http://www.yourmailinglistprovider.com/
Coollist
http://www.coollist.com/
Now, keep in mind that building your own list of subscribers takes time. Some people prefer to pay others for the privilege of advertising on their lists. For example, www.e-mailpaysu.com offer you the opportunity to advertise to their subscribers for a fee. This is just an example. There are many other companies like these on the Internet today and their prices vary.
As you can see, this techniques can increase your exposure and help you get more clients. You can read about other effective marketing techniques from my other articles on this series.
EasyWebRiches © 2006
Advertise to millions -#2- Classified ads, e-zine promotion, safe lists.
Affiliate Marketing is One of the Most Cost-Effective Ways to Advertise your Business
Ever heard of affiliate programs? These are forms of Internet advertising that rewards the affiliates for driving traffic to the advertiser or for other transactions. The advertiser pays the affiliate to place a link on their website, and the affiliate sends traffic to the advertiser in return. Simply put, it's about paying commissions to people who help you make sales. It's that easy.
Affiliate marketing has its ups and downs. It could be draining if you are not armed with updated information and the technical how-tos. But this article's sole objective is to reach out to you and not to badmouth affiliate marketing.
Here are the following reasons on why web marketers go gaga over affiliate marketing as a form of Internet advertisement.
1. Low cost
Many are scared to go on a home based business because of the capital required. In affiliate marketing, you don't have to spend much to start raking in moolah.
2. Inventories not included
Product management fuss could be very stressing. An inventory is not asked to be maintained. The merchant does the maintenance required.
3. Unlimited income through leverage
When you have a paid job, your monthly income mainly relies on whether you go to work or not. With affiliate marketing, your affiliates could all just lead traffic to your site without having to lift a finger after providing them your ad copy and links. Though not every web marketer earns limitless, it still is a fact that all the necessary matters for the advertiser or Internet marketer are all there to be successful.
4. Go worldwide
With affiliate marketing, you are dealing with a global market place. All you have to do is choose a niche product and prepare all the necessary tools for your affiliates to lead traffic from just about anywhere to your website.
5. Low risk
The very main reason for Internet marketer's enthusiasm with affiliate marketing is its having a low risk factor. Especially for those with low budget set aside for advertising, affiliate marketing is just the way to do it.
6. No closing time
With affiliate marketing, your business works every single second of the day while targeting a worldwide market! What could be better than that?
But all of these will be put to waste if you don't have the right niche product and all the other important tools to make it big in affiliate marketing, i.e., well-SEO-ed website. So better work on this first before ever considering those benefits.
Advertise, no matter if you are big or small
What is your attitude as a small town businessman when it comes to advertising or taking help of an advertising design agency to provide creative design solutions? I bet, more often than not it is on the lines of "What ever is left over, we'll use for advertising". Well, you are not alone. Most of the small town businessmen treat advertising as such, as they feel that they know most of their customers who will come back, advertising or not.
Fair enough, but what if you have a competitor within the town or even without in the form of E-commerce ensuring doorstep delivery and definitely much larger choice. You getting the point?
Competition or not, you always need to remind your customers that you are there and what value you bring to them. This way you not only ensure that loyal customers remain so, but you net new customers. Remember marketing and advertising is an investment, not an expense. Without enough money put aside for advertising your sales can go down and you suddenly have less and less for promotion. You advertise most when you need business. You advertise more when you don't.
A small-budget advertiser doesn't have the ''deep pockets" to develop big advertising campaigns or go for top shot advertising design agency. In this case you need to break the rules to be noticed. Avis did it by admitting they were "Number 2" in the car rental business and that campaign took them from 6th place to second place.
Now you must be wondering is there any sure shot way of advertising which not only is cost effective but has maximum impact. To be sure, there isn’t any readymade formula for bull’s eye hitting creative design solutions but this article proffers some tips to get this sort of marketing in place. Before we get to the tips let's look at the basic strategies of successful advertising.
* In order to be successful, your advertising must provide a consumer benefit or solve a problem.
* That benefit or solution must be wanted by the consumer.
* The product or service you are offering must be tied directly to that benefit or solution.
* The benefit or solution must be distinctly communicated through medial advertising. In other words, be clear, forget the advertising glitz and make sure the message isn't lost in the ad.
Average cost of advertising is usually 1 to 5% of gross sales, which can vary according to location, local advertising rates, and industry. Budget conscious advertisers must achieve top results for their advertising dollar. Expand your dollars by adopting some creative techniques.
Some Tips
* Place your ads in off hours or in unusual locations on discounted rates. This will help you in containing the cost. Many times you can still reach your target market with these spots.
* Instead of a one-time big splash ad, be consistent with frequent small ads that work to keep reminding your customers of your presence.
* Consider advertising in regional issues of national magazines. The costs are lower and you can reach your target market. TV Guide is also a good choice. It stays around for at least a week.
* Sponsor a community event if you can like a fun-run, golf tournament, or other event that will be well publicized in the community. Your name may not be prominently displayed but sometimes the positive exposure in the community will bring in new customers.
* Exploit the media you choose to the fullest. If your message is verbal, you don't need TV. Use radio, billboards and newspapers to the fullest.
* Consider direct mail. A letter and brochure before customer contact can increase business.
*Hire an advertising design agency which might not be top of the heap, but can get creative and specializes in interactive campaigns to provide you with creative design solutions.
I hope these tips will help your business grow. Not all may be relevant to your particular situation. Hopefully, they will illustrate the importance to plan and control your advertising budget.
Advertise to millions -#6- Multiple marketing techniques.
Introduction:
This is a series of articles about marketing and advertising. There are different ways you can reach an audience of millions of individuals all around the world. I show you on this series how to implement profitable strategies in your marketing career.
It has been said that “what matters is not what you sell but how you promote it.” So, the secret to success lays within your marketing techniques. That’s why it is very important for business owners to develop skills which allow them to increase the sales of their products.
One of the most important skills you must have is the ability to reach a lot of people quickly. To do this you need to realize how powerful media is an how it can drastically increase your revenues.
– Newspaper ads –
Americans read their newspapers a lot, that’s a fact. Check the statistics and you will realize that the newspaper have always being a good place to advertise. Depending on the kind of products or services that you sell you could use the American’s newspapers to generate new sources of income for your business.
It doesn’t matter whether you live in the USA or not. For example if you own an international e-business this could bring you good profits. I think this is another way you can diversify your marketing strategies.
There is a website called Nationwide Newspapers http://www.nationwideadvertising.com/, which allow you to post your ad in thousands and even millions of papers all around the country for a low fee. Imagine how much publicity you can get from that! You choose your budget and everything. They have different advertising packages to suit different business needs.
Whatever you choose to market, always use powerful phrases in your messages. The most effective ads are brief but they have the ability to act upon the feelings of the readers. Motivate them, intrigue them, make them feel the heat. Always remember that short phrases with a strong emotional impact are the most effective ones.
– Highway billboards –
If you want to advertise outdoor some companies may help you with this project like for example http://www.billboard-ads.com/. Keep in mind that this is an expensive type of advertisement. To rent an ad space on a well populated area will usually cost you a few thousand dollars per month.
On the other hand, I think the best choice you have is to buy a piece of land in or near a mayor highway and set everything up by yourself. Learn about the laws and regulations in your specific state. Probably the most important agency you will have to contact is your state Department of Transportation.
Visit http://www.tdot.state.tn.us/links.htm to find your state agency. They can give you specific information about this subject. Basically you will have to fill out an application where you affirm that you own the land where the billboard will be placed and you will pay an annual fee which may range from $100 to $500 depending on the state you live. To have someone design and create the ad for you will cost you $1,000 to $3,000. That’s a one time fee you will pay.
How much publicity can you get from this? A lot! But it all depends on your ad’s location. If your ad is next to a highway with a high traffic volume, let’s say that on average 45,000 different drivers travels through said highway everyday, then there will be more than a million individuals watching it every month.
That’s a lot, but to be honest with you, this kind of advertisement works better for local businesses like nearby restaurants or real estate Companies than for other kinds of businesses. Also transnational corporations with a large advertising budget, which would like to build reputation would want to have many billboard ads across the nation.
Small business owners usually prefer to market their products using other less expensive techniques. Anyway, I included this information here because I thought some of you would like to read about it. After all this is another way you can reach a vast amount of individuals in an everyday basis.
– TV Commercials –
To advertise on television will have a powerful impact on your business revenues. Different factors will determine how much this marketing strategy will cost you. For example the price vary depending on the channels you choose, how often you will advertise, etc.
There are some Companies which can help you reach your clients easily. I think the two most popular are http://www.nationaltvspots.com/ and http://www.metromarkcorp.com/. In National TV Spots some marketing packages start as low as $26 for a 30 seconds spot. This is other way to diversify your marketing techniques.
– Magazine Ads –
You can advertise on magazines and save up to 80% off the regular price. There is a company called Media Bids - http://www.mediabids.com, which allow you to meet other marketers as well as to choose among different marketing packages available. The service is free. You only pay for an ad if you choose to make a purchase.
As you can see, these techniques can increase your exposure and help you get more clients. You can read about other effective marketing techniques from my other articles on this series.
EasyWebRiches © 2006
7 Ways To Advertise Your Business For Free
1. Free directories: directories are perfect for customers that are searching for a particular topic. What’s great about them is that you only have to post once and they are good for long periods of time. It saves a lot of your time when you don’t have to resubmit your information every week or every month. The bad news is most of your traffic won’t come from here. I still feel it is worth it to get your link out there. Just take one day and set it aside for posting to free directories. You won’t need to do it again for at least 6 months.
2. Classified Ads: These are great for work from home businesses. Think about it. Where do people go when they are looking for a job? That’s right-the classifieds. The only downside to classified ads is that you have to resubmit them quite frequently. Once you find which classifieds bring you the most traffic you can concentrate on them and weed the others out. So it is really more time consuming in the beginning, and doesn’t have to be later on when you get the hang of things.
3. Free article submissions/ezines: The best way to inform others about your product or service is to write an article about it. In your authors resource box, you can tell readers about yourself and where they can go to check out your product or service. This is also an excellent way to get free links to your site if you have one. There are a lot of webmasters out there who are looking for good articles they can post on their site. If they post yours, that is another site that is doing the advertising for you. All for free.
4. URL Submissions: Probably the quickest and easiest thing to do to advertise your site. Just type “Free URL submission” in your search engine. When you get a list just enter the URL you are promoting and click submit. That’s it. It only takes a few seconds and your done. Just set a day aside once every 3 months and do this.
5. Forum Posts: Put your product or service website in your signature file when you sign up on some forums. It will be displayed every time you make a post. Try to look for topics that you have some knowledge on, and can give a relevant answer too. Do not spam anyone, you will get kicked off the forum and you will get a bad reputation. Get involved asking and answering questions that pertain to your area of business. Forums are great because once you make a post it stays there forever. It will get moved to the archives eventually, but someone could still find it if they were searching the archives. Yes, there are many people who do.
6. Traffic Exchanges: Probably the most time consuming way to advertise for free, but definately the most effective. Most forums I have visited have said in many posts that they received a lot of their profit from traffic exchanges. If you don’t want to spend the time surfing for credits, you do have the option of buying them. I would look into a program that lets you surf multiple websites at once like crazy browser. There are others and they are free to download. That way you can just spend one hour a day and get all your surfing in at once.
7. News-groups: Become involved in a group that has to do with your kind of business. You can usually mail the group once per day, but I would encourage you to find something fresh to talk about each day. People will tune you out if they see the same message all the time. Remember to never Spam anyone. Only join groups with the same interests as yours. In other words, don’t sign up for a recipe swapping group when you are advertising shaving cream.
Advertise the Smart Way
If you have your own web site and want to get the word out on your products or services, there are a few things to do in order to advertise the smart way. No matter what size business or product that you are selling, you can draw lots of traffic to your site by advertising correctly.
Many web developers throw money around without doing the proper research and analysis on who their customers really are. Before you throw money around make sure that you have put plenty of thought and analysis into which ways are the best way to advertise your product. Here are a few tips.
Make sure you know who your customers are. A lot of web developers place their advertisements on the wrong types of web sites, which bring them little if any traffic. If you decide to use techniques such as email and popup advertisements, be forewarned that these types of advertising are considered nuisances to many customers. Many advertisers make the common mistake of advertising in one big shot instead of growing a market and following trends. So the next time you commit to an advertising campaign, make sure that you are advertising the smart way.
Advertise Your Car
Whenever someone needs to sell a car, it can be a very stressful experience. It can be difficult to know how to go about trying to sell your car and the whole process can seem quite overwhelming. Advertising your car is the most crucial first step in selling any car. Without advertising, no one will even know that your car is even for sale. When advertising your car, two of the most common places to turn are the Autotrader magazine or by online car advertising.
By advertising your car in Autotrader, you will get an advertisement that will run for two weeks. This advertisement includes one small photo of the car as well as two hundred characters of text. There are many regional editions of the Autotrader and the owner of the car can choose which region they would like their advertisement to run in. Advertising in the Autotrader is fairly expensive though.
Although there are many advantages to advertising your car in the Autotrader, there are some disadvantages. The first being that you have limited circulation and a limited shelf life; you also only have two hundred characters to describe the car. This is not a lot and will cause you to have to cram as much information as you can into a very small space. Also, because you only get one picture, you need to make sure that you capture the total essence of your car in that one photo. This is most often impossible to do.
For these reasons, many people prefer to advertise their car online. There are many advantages to advertising your car this way. One of the biggest advantages in advertising your car online is that it’s significantly cheaper than advertising in print. This is because bandwidth and disk space are much cheaper than paper, ink, and magazine distribution. This makes for big savings that can be passed on to the seller.
The other advantage to advertising your car online is that there can be much more information included in the advertisement. Also when advertising your car online, you are usually allowed more than one picture in your advertisement. This can make a true portrayal of your car and can interest more buyers. Also, on many sites you can advertise your car until sold for far less than you can advertise it for two weeks in a car magazine.
Advertising your car online allows for many more potential buyers to look at your ad. Because it’s online, anybody with an Internet connection will have access to the advertisement. This will mean that not only are more people looking at the ad but there will be potential for many more bids among interested buyers. This could mean getting a much better price for your car.
Another advantage to advertising your car online is that your ad will be up and running much more quickly than submitting it to a print magazine. The turnaround time between submitting an ad and seeing it run is generally much shorter. This means that it will be available for the public to view much more quickly as well. This could help get your car sold more quickly.
Advertise, Advertise, Advertise
Many people sign up for affiliate programs with the hopes of making some serious money. They advertise a few places and then wait for the money to start pouring in. When it doesn’t, they blame it on the program and quit.
I am convinced the only way to make money online is to have a consistent Advertising plan. A plan you are willing to work hard on and commit to for a selected period of time. When making this plan, you need to do two things. First, you should pick a few affiliate programs that are of interest to you. Second, you need to decide how long you want to work these programs. Once you decide on a time period (I recommend 6 months to a year), you must make a promise to yourself that you will not stop advertising until that time period is up. This is perhaps the most important factor in your success.
Next, you need to consider your advertising options: traffic exchanges, classified ads, e-mail campaigns, ezine articles, posting to forums or message boards, chatting with others who are interested in what you have to offer, and posting flyers around your town. Now you see the many possible advertising avenues you can choose from. I recommend doing all of them. It may sound like a lot of work, but when broken down into a plan, it is not.
One possible plan may look like this: Traffic Exchanges-1 hour per day. Post 15 classified ads per day. Make 5 posts to a message board or forum per day. Submit an article once per week to an ezine. Visit chat rooms and distribute flyers as you have extra time during the week. This all can be accomplished by spending 2-3 hours per day. You will be surprised how much you get done when you have a plan. You may also choose whether you will work 5 or 6 days per week. Make a checklist for each day of the week, and mark each task off as you finish it. That will keep you on focus, and will make you feel good that you are one step closer to reaching your goal.
Make a commitment to your new plan and don’t get involved in any other programs until your current programs are making you money consistently. Don’t give up. Sticking with this plan will significantly improve your success. Remember, Advertise, Advertise, Advertise.
Advertise your site – New fun way to do it
The success of getting new customers is dependent on several factors. One of the most important factors is the channels of advertising.
There are 3 key factors in choosing the right advertisement system:
1. Clear ad visibility and straight forward call to action of your advertisement. The ad should be clearly viewed and should have the option for simple and straight call to action.
2. Price to Appearance ratio; this means that appearance should as high as possible to the price you pay; as much as this ratio is smaller than the advertising system is better for you, the publisher.
3. Scalability of the advertising options; improving the number of viewer’s easily by paying small upgrade fees or spreading the link very easily.
Today there are some common techniques to advertise your website or business. They are versatile and start from SEO (Search engine optimization) techniques, which usually this will require skilled and professional internet marketing people.
Pay per click advertisement which you advertise such as Adword from Google, Yahoo and MSN.
Directories which you can place your ad for very small amount.
There is a new revolutionary system that can upgrade your advertisement way of thinking and get you a great exposure. It is called the ‘Best value deals machine’.
The best value deals machine works on simple basics (read full instruction – www.best-value-deals/how.asp):
First your ad will be always on the first page of the site, this means your site advertised always gets a link from a high page rank. If your ad is the most popular it will be on top which attract instantly the eyes of a visitor. You can help it be on top, how? , spread it out and let people come and see your ad. This will cause your receive points and it will go up. Not only do you put a verbal advertisement but you can put an image as well , this is a great way to attract more visitors to your site.
I would like to remind you that if you get link on the first page your link to your site get a higher weight by the search engines, since the ranking and score which is calculated by the search engines, is higher on the home page on a domain. This will improve your site rank immediately (few days) and will attract more customers.
Advertise to millions -#1- Write articles
Introduction:
This is a series of articles about marketing and advertising. There are different ways you can reach an audience of millions of individuals all around the world. I show you on this series how to implement profitable strategies in your marketing career.
It has been said that “what matters is not what you sell but how you promote it.” So, the secret to success lays within your marketing techniques. That’s why it is very important for business owners to develop skills which allow them to increase the sales of their products.
One of the most important skills you must have is the ability to reach a lot of people quickly. To do this you need to realize how powerful media is an how it can drastically increase your revenues.
– Write Articles –
Writing articles is one of the easiest and most effective methods used to advertise on the Internet today. This technique works as follows... You need to write a short one page or one and a half page article and submit it to article banks. Then web masters and online publishers will copy it and paste it on their web sites, newsletters, e-zines, etc.
At the bottom of each article you will attach a small biography about yourself which is called the author’s resource box. That will be your ad containing your contact info, which could be your name, phone number, e-mail address or web site URL.
Why and how does it work? It works because web masters, affiliates, online marketers and publishers need valuable content to attract visitors to their web sites. Then they go to article banks and borrow free content (the articles) from people like you who provide said content for free.
That way they profit from your efforts and you profit from theirs because when their visitors go to their web sites and read your article many of them will contact you when they read your ad at the bottom. So publishers get free content while you get free publicity. The middle guys are the article banks which also benefit from this activity. It is a win-win situation for everyone.
Now, I will explain how this technique can increase your exposure exponentially. Some of the web sites bellow have as many as 15,000 publishers per site. So let’s say that you submit to 10 sites and on average 500 publishers per site are interested in your article within approximately one month.
If that’s the case (which is probable), then your article will be published on about 5,000 different web sites (500 publishers × 10 article banks = 5,000 web pages). Do you understand what it means to have thousands of pages linking to you?
Let’s say that those 5,000 web sites receive on average 1000 visitors per month each. That would be 5,000,000 potential prospects that can now come across your products or services each and every month. To be realistic though, not all of the visitors will find your articles. Not all of the publishers will publish what you write. And this process doesn’t happen overnight. It takes some time.
On the other hand, this is one of the best methods if not the best one you can use to increase your exposure on the Internet. It is free, easy and doesn’t consume too much time. Ask any Online Marketing Guru and you will find out that they will have a similar opinion.
If you write a few articles and submit them to 10 of the best e-zines, you could be receiving thousands of new visitors per month within a few months. Keep in mind that the more you write and submit the more visitors you will receive. If you write just one article and submit it to one web site only, it won’t bring you many clients.
This is a numbers game. It is a Mathematical thing. I really like this technique because it makes my publicity grow exponentially. You make an effort once and it multiplies for many years into the future. You place your articles on a few web sites and they stay there forever.
New publishers find them every month. So it grows exponentially. It reproduces itself like a virus. This is what it is called viral marketing and it really works. You might need to have some patience because it may take some time before you start reaping the rewards from this activity, but it is really worth it! If you do this your articles will work for you as your sale agents announcing your products and services to the world.
For example, I wrote once three articles and submitted them to www.goarticles.com. Three days later I checked them out on that web site to see how they were doing. I was amazed to discover that one of the articles had been downloaded by 100 people already. How come? I had submitted it there only three days before.
That’s for you to have an idea how many people out there are desperately seeking fresh new content for their web sites. The other two had been downloaded about 40 to 50 times. Two weeks later my best performing article had been downloaded 197 times. Could you believe it? Try it an see the results for yourself.
This will definitely increase your exposure because you don’t only receive new visitors from the publishers’ web sites but also your search engine rankings increase, which makes you receive more potential clients from search engines too.
If you don’t like to write then you can hire a ghost writer and have him/her write the articles for you. Go to www.getafreelancer.com and post a project on that web site. Freelancers will bid on your project and you will be able to choose the one that will work for you. One page articles may cost you from $10 to $20 each and can bring you many benefits as stated above.
You can submit your articles to thousands of free article banks, but submitting them to about 15 or 20 will be OK. I think you should not skip the most popular ones, those with several thousands publishers like www.articlecity.com, www.goarticles.com, www.ezinearticles.com. Just make sure you read the authors’ bylines first.
If you don’t want to do this manually you can join www.thephantomwriters.com. They claim to have a list of more than 12,000 publishers to which they submit your articles to periodically. The drawback of this technique is that they charge a fee, while the web sites mentioned above are free to join.
As you can see, this technique can increase your exposure and help you get more clients. You can read about other effective marketing techniques from my other articles on this series.
EasyWebRiches © 2006