Going Beyond Banner Advertising

by: R.M. Blackledge

Going Beyond Banner Advertising R.M. Blackledge ©Copyright 2005 A major stumbling block for many internet marketing newbies is the false belief that the placement of a banner ad on a web page is all that's required to immediately start making a few sales. This is a false premise. There are a couple of key principles of internet marketing that can prevent any newbie from falling into this enticing trap. No. 1) Choose A Relevant Affiliate Program Let's hope at least that as a newbie you have chosen an affiliate program to promote that has relevance to your online interests. As an example, if you have placed a website online that discusses the care of young infants, it is certainly easy enough to find affiliate programs that deal with infant health, nutrition, clothing, or even security, such as baby monitors. The affiliate program doesn't have to exactly match your website content, but it should be very closely related. If your site is about infants why on earth would you want to promote rock videos? Only perhaps, if you think your own child is a future musical prodigy. Yet, many first-time internet entrepreneurs make just such a mistake. Even an affiliate program that deals with teens or preschoolers is not close enough, because the people coming to your site, presumably are not seeking information about those subjects. Tiny infants are not preschoolers. Of course you might make a sale or two, by virtue of blind luck, but that is not the way to run an internet business. You want at all times to be lean and focused. Don't waste effort promoting anything that is going to be a hard sell. Your effort is best spent elsewhere. No. 2 ) Write Informative Articles and Testimonials Using the same example above, let us propose that you have wisely chosen an affiliate program that relates to young infants. Now what? You've had your banners up for a month or two, and you just aren't making many sales. This despite the fact that your site receives a reasonable amount of traffic. One of the problems you've unwittingly created for yourself, is that banner ads are too easily ignored. They are like background music. Each hour online, anyone who surfs the web is going to be bombarded with banner ads, such that they become invisible. And it doesn't matter even if the banner ads are of excellent quality. They are still banner ads. Text-based ads are a much more effective advertising method, although at first glance it would seem exactly the opposite. But, let's look at this idea more closely. Banner ads say out loud that you're attempting to sell something. One of the major precepts of internet marketing is that people DO NOT WANT TO BE SOLD. People are online to gather knowledge. Even if they are online as a time for recreation and pleasure, they are still interested in learning. Human beings are innately curious. This is a plus for you, as you attempt to make a sale. Here's how. One way to introduce text-ads into your web site is to write articles. Or to write a review of the very product that you're trying to sell. { you aren't trying to market something you haven't purchased yourself, are you? } Testimonials are an extremely effective advertising device. That's why so many web merchants place testimonials on their site, and frequently on the very first page of the site, where the testimonials are most likely to be viewed. Also, testimonials are a form of "aggressive" advertising, that doesn't look aggressive at all. This is because testimonials deliver valuable information to the consumer. Thus, the consumer is more likely to make a purchase because they never form the negative impressive in their mind, that they are being SOLD something. A person who is feeling negative is much less likely to decide to make a purchase. ~~~~~~ One final point before we conclude this article. Banner ads are not going to disappear. They can still serve a useful purpose. Sometimes a banner ad or two, can help dress-up a drab, uninspired-looking site. You don't want your website to resemble a plain white term paper. A little sizzle is okay. But, NEVER let banner ads be your main advertising method. Also, if every other affiliate is using the same banner ads, then the impactof the ads on your site will be further lessened. The key to online marketing success is to be unique. Online, as opposed to the offline world, uniqueness is an endearing trait. Don't plaster those same ads all over your pages everyone else in your marketing niche is using. Write your own articles. The customer will become comfortable that you know what you are talking about. This gives them a reason to return. { a key factor as people rarely make a purchase the first time they ever visit a website. } Stay on your toes, don't become complacent, and never miss an opportunity to improve the content, relevance, and usefulness of your site. If you have a thought or an idea about something. Then place it online. You're always more likely to receive a click-through from a well-written informative article than from some flashy banner ad. Give the customer more of what they want, without trying to sell them. That is the simple key to increasing the overall marketing effectiveness of your website. R.M.B. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Resource Box: R.M. Blackledge is the owner of TheWorkAtHomeBlog.Com. Additional articles and important, up-to-date home business news and information is available almost daily at the following url: http://theworkathomeblog.com/index.html contact: http://theworkathomeblog.com/contact.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ About the Author R.M. Blackledge is the owner of TheWorkAtHomeBlog.Com and is the publisher of numerous business and self-help articles.

General advertising and promotion - Multiple streams of Traf

by: Eric Koshinsky

You are free to publish this article online in your ezine website, ebook, or other online publication. The full resource box, including 'By line' must remain intact and be published with the article. If you publish this article, please contact me and let me know where you are using it. Contact at: artpub@newbie-guides.com --- **Article info** Word count: 1085 approximately Hard-wrapped at 65 characters --- General advertising and promotion - Multiple streams of Traffic: PART II There are a variety of ways that you can advertise and promote your site or products. In this, Part II of the 'mini-series' on Multiple streams of traffic, I'd like to take a look at a couple of the more commonly known methods of online promotion. Some are much better than others, and some are more suitable than others. Our goal then is to look a little more closely at them to determine if they are suitable for your needs. Read on for more... Banner ads Using banner advertising and displaying banner ads on your site has changed a lot in the last 2 years. The cost and value (benefit) of banner advertising has dropped significantly. I won't talk about them too much other than to say that their main use is now principally as 'branding' tools. A way to get your name/product/site in the front of people's faces quickly. For the average person, it is nearly impossible to get the kind of reach required to really get much benefit from banners. That being said, if you can get good exposure in a niche that fits your market, go for it, it won't hurt. On the other side of things, displaying banners on your site as a source of revenue is only worthwhile if you are getting thousands upon thousands of hits/month. The average CPM is now only about $2.00 (that means you earn $2.00 for every 1000 banners displayed!). Considering that when you display a banner on your site you are promoting a product or site that is not your own, you are giving visitors an exit that does not generate income for you. It isn't any wonder that the top online marketers (Cory Rudl, Jimmy D. Brown, Ken Evoy etc.) don't display ANY ads (banners or anything) from any other site. I am not knocking banners here. They serve a purpose. You just need to be sure that they suit your purposes. I have found that the FastClick Ad Network provides very good service for all your banner advertising needs. FFA's and traffic swaps Let me be very blunt about FFA's. They are a waste of time for anyone except the person who owns it. No matter what the claims may be, they will not produce traffic. Traffic swaps and exit exchanges have to potential to produce reasonably large amounts of traffic, however the problem is that for the most part it is untargeted. Most traffic swaps are based on a system of credits, where your site gets a visitor in exchange for displaying the traffic swap link on your site, or visiting a member site yourself. The real problem is that much of the traffic is simply other webmasters trying to boost their own credits. They are not interested in visiting your site except to get the credit. I'm sure you can see the problems with that. In a way, you can think of traffic swaps as an online equivalent of a highway detour. Lots of traffic gets re-directed your way, but it doesn't really want to be there. If you are interested in learning more about traffic swaps, you can go here to take a look at a popular one. More recently, a slightly different breed of traffic swap has emerged. These focus on generating ezine subscribers. The way they work is basically the same as the a normal traffic swap, however because they are directed specifically at getting subscribers, they don't create junk traffic. Every time you display the pop-up containing the ezine registration form, you earn an impression for your subscription link on another site. When visitors see the pop-up with the links, they choose to sign up for your ezine. There are still very few of them around, so they are very effective and produce good results. There are a few services that provide opt-in services for a fee (usually in the range of $1.00/subscriber), but I prefer free ;-). I have had very good results with this service. It is 100% free and generates dozens of subscribers a week. Ezine advertising Ezine ads (both solo and classified ads) can be very effective if done right. They can also be utterly useless. The key is to get your ads in ezines that are very closely related to your product(s), and that don't run tons of ads. There are literally thousands of ezines out there that are essentially advertising rags. Their only purpose is to run ads for you and every other person willing to spend $15. Before you advertise in any ezine, get some information about the ezine. A decent publisher will know their subscriber base and be able to tell you with reasonable accuracy how responsive the subscribers are, how many ads they run, and if someone has recently run an ad like yours (similar products). If they can't do that, you might want to think twice about advertising with them. Realistically what you want is an ezine with a reasonably large subscriber base (1000 or more), that is closely related to your product, and only accepts limited advertising (e.g. 1 ad/issue). Stephan Peirce's book goes into great detail on how to find good ezines and what to look for and what to avoid - it costs less than a solo ad in a decent ezine, and will save you tons of money in avoided mistakes. A final comment: Anyone who claims they can provide you with 100,000 (500,000, whatever) guaranteed visitors is selling junk. Think of it this way, if it were so easy to get that many targeted visitors (and you only want targeted visitors), you can bet companies (scammers) wouldn't be selling them because they would be raking in millions in profits by directing those visitors to their own products and sites! Do a little math, 1% conversion (a very low rate) from 100,000 visitors = 1,000 buying visitors. Sell a $10 product and you have $10,000. If such a profit is possible, why the hell is this kind of traffic sold for $50-$200? Quite simply because it is junk traffic, frequently created by piggy backing on traffic exchanges and FFA's. In the next section of the series we will start to look at some of the less well known methods of traffic generation, and how you can put them to use to generate a more stable and consistent base of traffic for your own sites. --------------------------- Eric Koshinsky: webmaster and guide at Newbie-guides.com We aim to provide useful tips and guidance for those who are new to personal online marketing. Learn more about programs, techniques, and software that can help you reach your online marketing goals. Come on by and have a look. http://www.newbie-guides.com/?aa Join our newsletter: news@newbie-guides.com About the Author Eric Koshinsky: webmaster and guide at Newbie-guides.com We aim to provide useful tips and guidance for those who are new to personal online marketing. Learn more about programs, techniques, and software that can help you reach your online marketing goals. Come on by and have a look. http://www.newbie-guides.com/?aa Join our newsletter: news@newbie-guides.com

Free Web Advertising - searchEstate – The search engine adve

by: Michael A Fowler, M.B.A.

Free Web Advertising - searchEstate – The search engine advertising solution for free web traffic. searchEstate is the ultimate Internet Advertising Solution, optimised for Internet Explorer and Firefox. To those who are not aware of searchEstate; It’s a Major Search Engine that PAYS YOU to advertise and gets free web traffic to your website through its free web advertising ... Quote: “searchEstate is an Internet Advertising Solution based on an Internet search engine. We are member-based and share our advertising spaces and revenues with our members.” About searchEstate... searchEstate is an inversion of the ‘pay-per-click’ model employed by the major search engines. It’s like having your own SEO Company working for you 24/7. searchEstate is becoming known as ‘the peoples search engine’ because it allows the individual to profit from Internet advertising, instead of the major corporations. searchEstate gives fast search results and you can even share revenue from the free web advertising. Internet advertising fees that the searchEstate search engine generates, is shared amongst its members.. The Difference... Until now, free web advertising was only available to those who knew the search engine optimisation techniques required for top placement. searchEstate is a search engine that changes the way you advertise. Now it is possible, without specific technical knowledge, to attain top search engine rankings and get free web traffic to your site. The Alternatives... searchEstate has two modules, free and pro versions. The free version allows you to build a Free Web Advertising network that rotates around the search engine on millions of pages, thus giving your business great exposure. The more people that are in your free advertising network, the greater that exposure becomes. SearchEstate search boxes are now starting to appear on many websites. The Pro version of searchEstate offers a great deal more. A thousand automatically mailed ads each month. Twenty advertisements with 100 keywords and strategic exchanges with the top Internet search engines. Commissions on paid members through an affiliate program. Logo ads, Banner Ads, Text Ads and Search Engine Ads are all catered for and tracked by the searchEstate program. Quote... “The key to success is to sponsor others into searchEstate. You can do it by yourself or we can do it for you via our amazing Advertising Co-op. For a limited time, we help you build your downline easily through our 1000 fresh leads each month.” Summary... It seems that now there is an alternative and complete Internet Advertising Solution to paying the major search engines! As we are told, the best route to success is to actually own your own business. Your own Internet Advertising Solution is a great way to promote your main business. Quote... “What if we were to tell you that we can strategically go in and place ads in your billboards that other people will pay for? What if, say, the average pay-per-click fee was $0.10? Something really low cost, just to be on the safe side. Well, for 100,000 ad billboards, just having 1 ad get 1 click per day will net you $1,000 per day, minus our 5-10% service fee!” Well, that’s certainly something I could live with! After a very concise conversation with the CEO, it seems a very viable proposition. A true “Swiss Army Knife” sort of business solution. Why pay for your advertising when you get nothing in return? searchEstate seems the perfect solution. Why use anything else? The major search engines are fat enough already. Of course, there will be sceptics. That is why I took the trouble to talk about searchEstate with its founder and joint CEO. When someone actually shows you how it works, it’s a lot different to just telling you. There is no limit to a search engine database. It is not reliant upon sustained memberships. It is only reliant upon advertising. Isn’t it nice to know that now the Internet user can grab his/her share of some of the revenues generated? From the inside, this certainly looks very lucrative. The Beta-Testing has shown amazing and consistent results on the Major Search Engines. searchEstate is certainly capable of achieving it's promise of free web advertising. About the author: Michael A Fowler, M.B.A. Helping people online since 1998. Creator and Author of 'The MBA Way' system. Expert Author and Web Writer. Online Trainer and Coach. E-Mail - Goldcard43@aol.com Website - http://www.the-mba-way.com/freewebadvertising.htm

Free Reprint Articles - Inexpensive Advertising For Your Bus

by: Fisher Swanson

Publishing articles and making them available for free can be a very effective way of promoting your business or website without spending a lot of money. This article contains some tips and resources that I have discovered by publishing free reprint articles over the last 5 years. Marketing With Content Marketing with content, or free reprint articles, gives you an inexpensive way to get your message in front of a lot of people. It is one of the most effective, free, advertising methods that I have found. All that it costs you is time it takes you to write an article and make it available to publishers. You may have already written an article that can be repurposed as a free reprint article, which will cut down on the amount of time required dramatically. What Content Works The best content is valuable information. It doesn't need to be directly related to your product, service or website, but it does need to be useful. It's best to write about a topic you are familiar with and for which you can offer unique insight. For example, if you are trying to market your real estate website, you could write an article about preparing your home for sale. Or you can write an article about which home renovation projects will make a house more desirable on the market. Your article doesn't need to be overly long. Don't confuse quantity with quality. Keep your points as concise as possible. You don't want people to fall asleep before they get to the bottom of the article. After all, they need to get to the bottom of your article to see your byline which is the point of writing a free reprint article in the first place. One way to get the most out of your free reprint articles is to write about a topic with staying power. I have 4 year old articles that are still being picked up by publishers to this day. Your Byline The payoff for providing publishers with free content is the byline. You don't want an essay or multiple paragraphs, just a short description of yourself, your website, and your link. You can also post your email address and phone number for people to contact you. However, the most important address is your web address. People who are online are much more likely to click on your link to find more information than they are to email or call you. Additionally, when you post your email address on the internet, it can dramatically increase the amount of spam you get at that address. If you have an ezine that you want to encourage people to subscribe to, you can post your subscribe address, but make sure your list is double opt-in to prevent invalid subscribers. In my experience, 90% of subscribers added by single opt-in are invalid addresses. Formatting Your Article Formatting your article is very important. If you are posting your article to an email distribution list you should hard wrap your article at 65 words or less per line. Try to avoid posting articles with spelling or grammatical errors. The higher the quality of the content you provide, the more people will publish it. Each new publisher that picks up your article could represent thousands of impressions of your byline. I have one article that has been published more than 100 times over the last 4 years. Submitting Your Articles - Where to Start The best and most gratifying result of writing a free reprint article is seeing it published in an Ezine or on a website that has readership that is likely to be enticed by your byline. Submitting your articles directly to editors of Ezines or websites that you know publish quality information related to your topic is the first thing you should do. Many sites have publishing guidelines and encourage content submissions. Submit your article according to their guidelines with a personal message to increase the likelihood of it being published. Keep track of publishers that use your articles and submit your new articles to those publishers first. Article Depots - Let The World Know I have found that submitting articles to depots isn't quite as effective as contacting publishers directly but still WELL worth the time. Most of the depots are well indexed by Google which provides a valuable link back to your site and increases your link ranking with search engines. Here are some free reprint article depots (there are many more): Cumuli Content - Community of Ezine Publishers http://www.cumulicontent.com Article Hub - Content Directory http://articlehub.com/ Go Articles - Article Search Engine and Directory http://goarticles.com/ Yahoo Groups The best Yahoo Groups to post your free reprint articles can be found at: http://www.All-In-One-Business.com/groups/ EzineArticles.com EzineArticles appears to charge for submissions now but does offer 10 free submissions. http://ezinearticles.com/ Protect Your Reprint Rights Just because you are giving your content away for free doesn't mean you shouldn't expect something in return. Make sure to have clear terms of use at the top of your article. Here are the Terms of Use that I use: "You are free to publish this article online or in print as long as the byline is included and the url in the byline is hyper-linked wherever possible. This article should not be used in anything that could be considered spam. If you are using this article, please send a brief message to fisherswanson@gmail.com stating where it was published." Happy publishing! About the author: Copyright 2005 Fisher Swanson Fisher Swanson is the co-editor of ThriftyFun.com, a site that publishes ways to save money. He can be contacted at fisherswanson@gmail.com http://www.thriftyfun.com

Free Ezine Advertising On Steroids!

by: John Colanzi

Free ezine advertising has been with us for some time now. As the ezine explosion continues, publishers are scrambling to keep pace in the battle for new subscribers. Freebies have become the order of the day. Free Ebooks Free Software Free Training Courses Free Advertising This has created an extremely favorable environment for subscribers. They can pick and choose from the freebies of their choice. Many have hopped on the Free Ezine Advertising Bandwagon. But as the Free ads became more common place, Free Ezine advertising began to lose it's pulling power. Sure you could draw a lot of leads if you posted enough to ezines, but the process is time consuming and still doesn't come close to the pulling power of paid advertising. You had the choice of either spending time or money. If you were short on cash you had to spend the time. Now that's all changed. Imagine getting Free Paid advertising. I know what you're thinking, "John that's a contradiction." Guess What? It's not! There's a new system that will help the average marketer earn Free sponsor and solo advertising. The scramble for new subscribers has created an opportunity for you to cash in. If you have a list of contacts or an extremely active downline you can take advantage of Free Paid Advertising! How does it work? Publishers looking for new subscribers are paying readers in advertising credits for referring new subscribers. It's a win - win situation. The publisher gets a wider circulation and you earn Free sponsor and solo advertising. You can put your advertising into high gear, absolutely Free. If you'd like to see how this system works visit: http://www.listpartners.com/cgi-local/addpartner?360 It truly is Free Ezine Advertising on Steroids! Wishing You Success John Colanzi publishes the "Street Smart Marketing". To subscribe mailto:ezmailer-subscribe@listbot.com If you'd like to see how John uses this strategy to make money in network marketing visit: http://johncolanzi.com/cash.html

FREE ADVERTISING FOR EZINE OWNERS

by: Bob Hansen

Add Swapping for free with other new letters and ezines. Add swapping is a great way to be seen on the net. I hope you will have a better understanding of the need and the importance of good advertising by the end of this article. It's helped us to get noticed. If you're already making money hand over fist then you know alot of the many secrets of e business. There are those who haven't a clue though when it comes to successful ezine. I know I was once one of the many. After several failed attempts to gain support I made the switch to free advertising. That's right free! Why free? Well keep reading to learn about this well kept secret. There are several sites who would love nothing more than to place a simple 3 line entry in a well placed ezine. We here at Cameo Clothes News provide that to all new ezines. In return we have our add placed in theirs as well. This is much like the old banner exchanges, you show mine and I'll show yours. Difference is IT'S ALL FOR FREE. With the Opt In email you have your target gathered already, they've come to you directly. These are people who have signed up for, and have already been part of an ongoing ezine, the other nice part about it, it's absolutelutly painless to you. Remember nothing ventured nothing gained. By sharing space you have all there is to gain, exposure. By now your wondering how you find these great lists right? Well, we stumbled across a site long ago that had several exe files available that explained much of what I'm telling your now, and best of all, it was you guessed it FREE information. Care to learn more you can. I would love to charge money for this information but just like others out there. I believe this should be readily available just for the asking. That's why I have no problem with telling you these great tips. http://cameoclothes.com/ezine.htm is the answer to your ezine questions. We have all the files available for downloading right now. Ok you're still confused about why free and not for money right? Remember when you first started out and you signed up for every conceivable new letter that you thought would help you get to where you are today? Well, these same new starters are in that very same spot now. By not only helping them you've helped your own self by getting your add in front of your competition faster and more often with less time spent. I can't stress it enough, It's just that simple. So work on a standard 3 line add keep it simple and start sending it out to everyone on the list now. You can get updates as well and offer your space every month. Who knows by next month you'll have more traffic than you'll know what to do with. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Here's another tip not many people consider to gather new subscribers. Using web forms are a great way to meet your visitors and guests who come into your site. Alot of the older sites already know this technique. As much as we hate spam mail we are subject to it by simply listing with that site. You can do virtually the same thing with your form by using an auto responder. If your site doesn't have that much traffic coming in then you simply can use the email address gained from your forms an send out a "Canned" letter about your ezine through your ezine host. To simplify this use your email template feature and then copy and paste to your hosts invitation area. You'll want to use your subscribe address in the TO: block also. If you wish to add it in the body of the letter itself then be sure proceed it with mailto: this will then make your address a hypertext link for your readers to use. Be sure to also include a REMOVE address as well generally remove@website.com works well if you have an alias option from your web host. If not you can open a free mail account to handle this mail and then delete the names as they come in if need be. Keep a separate list of the addresses in your email program of all your contacts and periodically compare it to the subscribers. Resend these people an invitation in a few days explaining why your ezine is the best for them to join. Good Luck with your subscriptions and happy ezining Bob Hansen is the editor and webmaster for the following sites and has been doing it now for well over 6 yrs. His knowledge and expert advice has helped many new web designers bring in more traffic than they thought possible. Cameo Clothes News - http://cameoclothes.listbot.com Renaissance Costumes & Wedding attire http://cameoclothes.co

Five Unique Ways To Get Free Advertising

by: Dan Brown

Here's 5 POWERFUL ways to get some free advertising 1. Give Testimonials When you purchase a product or service and it exceeds your expectations e-mail the business a testimonial. Tell them in the testimonial the benefits you got from the product or service. Give them permission to publish the testimonial on the web site if they include your sig file at the end. 2. Leave A Message When you visit a web site with a discussion board leave a message. You could post a question, interesting content or a compliment about their web site. Include your signature file at the end of the message. Some discussion boards let you post your banner ad or text link. 3. Sign Guest Books When you visit a well designed web site leave a compliment on their guest book. You could give them a compliment on their content, ease of navigation, graphics etc. When you post your compliment include your sig file so other people will see it when they sign the guest book. 4. Write A Review When you visit a web site you enjoyed a lot write a review for the web site Write about the benefits you gain from the site, the web site design, interesting online services it offers etc. E-mail the review to the web site. Tell them they can publish it on their web site if they include your resource box at the end. 5. Send An E-mail To The Editor When you read a good article or enjoy a certain e-zine, e-mail a compliment to the editor. Give the editor permission to publish the compliment in their e-zine if they include your signature file at the end. The editor may post it on his or her web site. About the Author Dan Brown has been active in internet marketing for the past 4 years. Dan currently is working with the Zabang search engine introducing their new affiliate program, which is due out July,2005. http://www.zabangaffiliate.com/

Five Characteristics of Highly Effective Advertising

by: Jeremy Cohen

Have you ever spent a small fortune on advertising that generated disappointment rather than sales? Many small business owners have been down the road of flat advertising results and are at a loss when it comes to developing new ideas to improve the response to their ads. Whether you run ads in your local newspaper, your industry’s top periodical or on-line, you need your investment in advertising to pay for itself, and then some, in order to justify its cost. If your ads aren’t generating the interest you want in your products and services they may be suffering from one of the five common mistakes small business owners and professional service providers make when developing and delivering their advertising. Here is a list of five qualities common to successful small business advertising campaigns. Zero in on Your Best Prospects Many small business owners make the mistake of thinking bigger is better when they choose a medium in which to run their ads and opt to spend their advertising dollars to reach a larger but less focused market. For example, if your company specializes in helping law firms reduce the cost of long, ongoing cases and you choose to run a series of full page ads in the New York Times instead of the New York Law Journal you will likely be disappointed by the response to your campaign. Despite reaching the considerably larger audience of the New York Times your would be missing the focused attention of the legal minded readership of the New York Law Journal. Be sure to zero in on your market. You will increase the likelihood that the readers who see your ad will actually have a need for your service. Set Yourself Apart from the Crowd Unless your business sells a product or service that is completely unique and faces no competition your ads need to set your products or services apart from the crowd of your competitors. If you are the owner of a pet supply company and your ads simply say, “We Sell Pet Supplies” they will be passed over along with every other bland advertisement for Fido’s food. On the other hand, your ads will stand out and attract much more attention to your shop if you state that you sell, “King Sized Bones and Bowls for the Royalty in Your Family.” By focusing your ads on the owners of large breed dogs you distinguish yourself from the crowd of pet shops that simply sell pet supplies and make it clear to the owners of large dogs that you sell what they need. Be sure the copy of your ads has the effect of making what you offer unique. Your highly targeted prospects will reward you by noticing the difference in your ads and buying from you. Demonstrate Value Another property of a highly effective advertisement is that it demonstrates the value your products and services provide. By demonstrating value in your advertisements you give your prospects a clear idea of the benefits you provide and a clear reason to buy from you. Demonstrating value can also help you set yourself apart from you competitors. How can you change your ads to demonstrate the value you provide? What special offers can you make to set yourself apart from the pack? Focus on client problems Consumers buy products and services because they fill a need or solve a problem. If your ad copy does not address your prospects’ problems they will never know that you provide the solution they need. If you are recovering from knee surgery and need to work with a physical therapist to regain your full range of motion, would you be more likely to choose a therapist who advertises his new and modern equipment or the one who advertises that she will have your knee working and feeling like new again in just three weeks? Be sure to focus your ads on your clients’ problems. You will win more business as more and more prospects come to see you as the solution to their problem. Require Action The final aspect of a highly effective ad is a call to action. If you’ve done your job up until this point, your prospect has read your ad. If your ad does not finish the job and inspire your prospect to contact you for more information or visit your store or your web site, it is not worth the money you spent to have it published. Don’t assume that your prospects know what they should do next. You need to tell them to be sure they know. If you’ve gotten their attention, demonstrated your value and shown them that you are the solution to their problem, don’t waste your good work by neglecting to instruct them to take the next step and contact you. If all this seems like a lot to accomplish in one advertisement, you need not worry. A well-written marketing message will take care of most of the details of writing a highly effective ad. Do you have a marketing message you can use to consistently deliver effective ads and position your business as the solution to your client’s problems? You should. The author, Jeremy Cohen, helps small business owners and professional service providers attract more clients, grow their business and be more successful with his marketing and web site enhancement coaching service and his marketing guides. Get his free guide: Jumpstart Marketing: More Profits, Clients and Success at: http://www.bettermarketingresults.com/marketing-services.asp

Ezines Are Effective In Advertising Your Online Business?

by: Alan Cheng

'Ezines are the most cost effective way to advertise your business opportunity'. I'm sure you’ve heard that phrase many times if you’ve been marketing on the internet for a while. But is that a myth or a fact? An Internet Marketer once advertised that he can guarantee $1,000 profit for the user within weeks if he used the techniques outlined in his ebook. And the secret of the ebook - advertise in Ezines using $2,000 and you are guaranteed success unless your product is useless. Well I didn't try it at the time because I couldn't find $2,000 lying about in the house or in my bank account. However, it does show the belief people have with Ezines. There are 3 types of ads in Ezines: Classified Ads These are small ads which you can find at the bottom of newsletters. There is limited space in these ads therefore your ads have to be eye-catching. Classified Ads in ezines are cheap and sometimes free due to its limited space and location which is at the end of the ezine. Sponsor Ads These ads are placed at the top of the newsletter and sometimes in the middle. Some ezines have more than one sponsor ads. Sponsor ads are more expensive than Classified ads and can contain more words so your ad can be more descriptive. Sponsor ads are more effective than Classified Ads as their position in the newsletter is better. Solo Ads Solo ads is the most effective way out of the three type of ads for generating response. Solo ads fills up a whole email which only contains your advertisement. The newsletter is sent on your behalf to its subscribers. Thus your ad will have the biggest exposure. Solo ads are more expensive than Sponsor ads but more effective. 'Great. Super. Fantastic. So what's your advice Alan?' My advice is advertising in Ezines do work. And they work very well. Some people don't think so because after placing some ads and seeing very little or no response they think they have proven that Ezine advertising is a lie used by Ezines Publishers. Well I can tell you now that they are getting poor responses because they have not followed the rules for advertising successfully in Ezines. Rules in Advertising in Ezines Successfully 1. If you can, save money and advertise using Solo ads. They have the best chances of being read by the subscribers and they have no other ads distracting or competing against. 2. Work on your subject line. Even with Solo Ads, people will not open your email if the subject is of no interest to them. Subjects which promises massive fortunes in a few days will get deleted with second thoughts. 3. Work on your Content. After the subscribers open your email, your next task is to try and get them to read the content. So make damn sure your content is interesting and enticing enough for them to take some action. Believe the saying “Content is King”. 4. When you’re advertising other peoples’ products using affiliate programs do not send the visitors to the product’s website. I think people are crazy when they do this. The reason is that you are sending traffic to other peoples websites and if they won’t buy you’ve lost that lead for good. Therefore the aim of you ad is to capture their email address so that you can advertise to them again and again. If they don’t buy product A then you can advertise Product B to them. Now don’t you think that makes more sense? 5. Advertise in well known Ezines and which are related to the topic you are advertising. Advertising stock recommendations to Golf enthusiasts will surely give you a terrible response rate. 6. For Classified ads, make sure you are advertising in large numbers such as 100,000. Not many people read Classified ads and you will be listed among other ads as well. However, you might get lucky if your headline is attractive enough. To end this article I’m going to share a secret with you on what I think is the best and cheapest way to advertise in Ezines. That is to write your own articles and ask the Ezine Publishers if they are interested in sending out your articles in an issue of their newsletter. Now let’s think about this for a moment. Your own article is published in ezines and placed on their websites. People who write articles are given more respect and are trusted more. Plus your articles will stay on some websites for years which also means that it will generate traffic for years. The traffic is generated with a resource box you can put at the bottom of your article. You can put your URL here and also write a little bit of background about yourself. You are creating a name for yourself on the internet scene and you are also generating leads which you can email your recommendations to. There is no cost for you when Publishers decide to include your article so the only cost coming out of you is the time needed to write the article. In my opinion, writing articles for ezines is the most effective way to advertise using ezines. Not to mention it’s cheap and will generate traffic even after many months. If you want to know which ezines to advertise in, the cost, number of subscribers and what services are available that can help you in publish your articles, please send an email to my autoresponder at mailto:ezineart@onlinemoneymachine.com Alan Cheng, is the owner of http://www.onlinemoneymachine.com the membership site to help beginners setup a profit generating online business. With all the right tools to setup your website and advertise effectively. You can contact Alan at mailto:alan@onlinemoneymachine.com.

Ezine Article Advertising & Marketing Blunders

by: Joel Walsh

Ezine Article Advertising & Marketing Blunders

Interested in advertising and marketing your web business with ezine articles? Make any of these blunders and you may cut your response in half.

Blunder Number 1: Not including an author's resource box/ezine advertisement

Yes, there are really authors who don't remember to include an author's resource box (the biography/advertisement at the end of the article). That box is the whole point of distributing articles in the first place. Even if the body of your article has a link to your website, you'll be losing all the clicks from dedicated ezine readers who look for that box at the end of articles they like.

Blunder Number 2: Not including a link in your ezine article's author's resource box

There are a shocking number of author's who use an author's resource box to include their email address, telephone number, street address, gym locker combination, and everything else but a link to their website. This is a big waste for two reasons:


1.Few people will contact you directly without seeing your web page first. At that point, people just aren't motivated enough. All they know about you is that they liked an article you wrote.

2.Search engines rank web pages in part based on "link popularity" i.e., the number, quality, and relevance of links to a website. You may not care about search engines now, but if you ever do in the future you will be pretty upset at having wasted all these opportunities for link popularity.

Blunder Number 3: Not including an HTML-formatted link with "anchor text" in your ezine article's author's resource box

As much as reasonably possible, you want to encourage publishers to publish your author's resource box with the link in HTML, using your chosen anchor text (i.e., the text you click on to follow the link, traditionally displayed in blue and underlined), if it's going to be shown in a web page or HTML newsletter. If the article is being distributed as plain text, you can include a link to an HTML-formatted version on your website. There are three reasons for this:

1.A link that says "discover widgets" is going to get more clicks than a link that just says "http://www.widgets.com" Your call to action (e.g., "discover widgets") is much more powerful when the reader can read it and act upon it in one split second, since there is not that crucial extra split-second of pause while moving the mouse. In that split-second pause your reader might get second thoughts. With advertising (and the author's resource box is an advertisement), impulse is everything.

2.Anchor text, like bulleted lists, boldface text, headlines and subheadings, has a higher chance of being read than the rest of the text. People tend to scan computer screens rather than read text word for word. Eyes will be much more likely to slow down from scan mode and actually read anything that stands out from the page, especially hyperlinks. This phenomenon and the psychological power of putting a call to action in the anchor text together mean well-written anchor text might easily double the click-throughs you get on your author's resource box link in HTML newsletters and web pages.

3.A web page will rank higher for a keyword in search engine results if the anchor text of links to that page has that keyword.

Blunder Number 4: Only including an HTML-formatted link with "anchor text"

You really want that anchor-text link, but it is foolish only to provide that link. No matter what you do, a substantial number of publishers will reformat your article as plain text, and your link will simply disappear. That's why you need to have both an HTML link with anchor text and a URL written out in this format: http://www.yoururl.com/page

"But I'm only interested in getting my article on web pages so I can gain link popularity," you say. Well, a large number of plain-text email newsletters will be archived on the website of the newsletter publisher. These newsletter-publisher webmasters won't usually remember at that point to get your HTML version to post online. The standard approach is just to automatically convert the URL to a link using special software.

Remember: the publisher may be operating dozens of ezines and websites, so this whole step will be partially or completely automated, without anyone stopping to check for an HTML version. If you don't have a URL written out in your article, that link will simply be lost.

Besides, think of all the traffic you might have gotten from plain-text newsletter readers. Who would say no to free targeted traffic--isn't that why you want to rank high in search engines in the first place?

In fact, with paid online advertising going for more than a dollar a click on average, you really are throwing money away if you make any of these ezine article marketing and advertising blunders.

About the author
Joel Walsh is the head writer of UpMarket Content (http://www.upmarketcontent.com). Visit upmarketcontent.com to promote your website with professionally written ezine articles

Essential Guide To Pay-Per-Click Advertising

by : Michael Low

Which Engines Should You Use?

Following Goto.com's (now known as Overture) phenomenal success
with pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, more than 160 PPC startups
have sprung up.

Out of these 160 PPC engines, only a few may actually have the
search volume to generate a respectable number of clicks for your
site.

Most PPC startups require between $10 to $25 of setup fee which
can be applied to clickthroughs. They offer low minimum bids of
$0.01. But with limited search volumes, they may bring you only a
few clicks each day!

My recommendation is to go for established PPC engines with high
search volumes that can generate higher clickthroughs. The big
boys are Overture (previously known as Goto) at
http://www.overture.com, Sprinks at http://www.sprinks.com,
FindWhat at http://www.findwhat.com.

Overture is the best because they serve over 2 billion search
queries monthly through their partnership with major search
engines such as America Online, Lycos, Altavista, Netscape,
Hotbot and InfoSpace.

You can test the startup PPC engines but commit only the minimum
setup fees. If they generate decent traffic, you can always top
up your account. That way you minimize your risk to only $10 to
$25 per PPC engine. For a list of over 160 PPC engines, see
http://www.payperclicksearchengines.com

How To Find Relevant Keywords?

Since you are paying for each clickthrough on your bid, it makes
good sense to ensure that your keywords are relevant to your
target audience.

One of my favorite tools is Overture's Search Term Suggestion at
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

Enter a keyword and it shows the number of times the word was
searched - which indicates its popularity. The more popular the
keyword is, the higher are your clickthroughs. Overture also
generates a list of similar keywords and their search counts in
the previous month.

Overture's tool is one of the best ways for finding good keywords
to bid on. Another alternative is to download Good Keywords at
http://www.softnik.com/products/gkw/index.htm

Enter a keyword into this free software and it will display a
list of relevant search terms and their search counts across
multiple PPC engines.

You can also try JimTools' Keyword Toolkit at
http://jimworld.nu/keywords.html

JimTools can generate a list of related keyword possibilities,
some with search counts, from Goto, Google, Magellan and
WebCrawler.

How Much Do I Bid?

The bigger PPC engines such as Goto and Sprinks require a minimum
bid of $0.05. Startup engines have lesser minimums of $0.01.

How much to bid depends on your return-on-investment (ROI)
calculations.

For example: If you bid $1.00 per visitor, and 1 in every 10
visitors buys your product, your cost-per-sale is $10.00.

So if each sale of your product produces a gross profit of $15,
then your net profit will be $5.00 ($15 gross profit minus $10
cost-per-sale).

Your return-on-investment (ROI), before non-marketing expenses,
is 50.0% ($5.00 net profit / $10 cost-per-sale). Always price
your bids to achieve a positive ROI!

A great tool that you can use to compare bids for a specific
keyword across multiple PPC engines is at
http://www.compareyourclicks.com

To read about how you can maximize your returns from PPC engines,
go to http://internetmarketingfocus.com/article.php?sid=53

You'll learn how to reduce your bids while still maintaining the
same ranking or get a top 3 position for maybe just 1 cent more!

How Do I Track Clicks?

Most of the time, you'll notice that the number of clicks tracked
by yourself is between 15% to 30% more than the clicks the PPC
engine reports.

This is because reputable PPC engines such as Overture have
installed anti-cheating mechanisms that prevent your competitors
from repeatedly clicking on your listings and wasting your bid
fees!

They will count multiple clicks within a specified timeframe from
the same computer as only one clickthrough while your own log
will usually register the multiple clicks.

There was once when I noticed that my log was registering less
clicks than Overture's reports. They were experiencing some bug
which prevented clicks from being properly delivered to the
advertiser's website.

Because I was tracking my clicks, I notified them of the problem
and they credited my account for the bad clicks. Tracking your
clicks give you a more reliable picture of how well your PPC
campaign is performing.

If you have access to your CGI directory, I recommend LnkinLite,
a small yet powerful tracking software that can track clicks to
your site in the background. Get it at
http://www.dtp-aus.com/cgiscript/lnkinlte.shtml

Otherwise you can consider free online trackers at
http://www.hypertracker.com or http://www.linkcounter.com

About the Author

Michael Low is a widely-published marketing consultant. He
provides top-notch press release (PR) services at affordable
rates. Check out his full-range of PR services at
http://www.prbuilder.com/pr.cgi?a003

Email Advertising Doesn't Get Any Cheaper Than This

by: Micah D. Cranma

What is the most powerful marketing tool a web site owner has? I'll give you a hint - it's not banner advertising! It's e-mail - nothing else even comes close. Have you ever really considered just how many people use e- mail? There are millions upon millions of people out there who, if they're anything like me, just plain love to get e-mail and communicate with others using this wonderful medium. Part of the beauty of e-mail is that people pay attention to e-mail. People will actually read your advertisements if they're mixed with information that's valuable to them. E-mail is the ultimate marketing tool. How to Harness the Power --------------------------- "Great," you say, "but how do I use this 'awesome power?'" There are an unbelievable number of innovative and really effective ways to use e-mail to advertise yourself and your business on the Internet, but for the scope of this article, we're going to focus on one. E-mail Signatures -------------------------- E-mail signatures, or "sigs," are one of the easiest and most effective ways for an Internet marketer to promote his web site (or other people's sites, for that matter.) For those of you who don't know what an e-mail signature is, here's an example of one I use on a daily basis: Sincerely, Micah D. Cranman Sybren Design http://sybren.net ======================================== Would you like to tap the money making potential of the Internet with a powerful website? If so, contact Sybren today for a FREE consultation! http://sybren.net | mdc@sybren.net | 770-971-9868 ======================================== (NOTE: Signatures can also be an effective tool when used in newsgroups, discussion groups, or message boards. Use them anywhere possible!) Signatures can be easily set up in any e-mail program that's worth something, and usually very easily. Just look in the "help" section or browse around the program menus and you should be able to figure out how to set them up pretty quickly. I personally use Microsoft Outlook Express, and have found it to be totally sufficient for my needs. (www.microsoft.com) Others swear by Qualcomm's Eudora Pro, (www.eudora.com) and still others by other programs. Just pick one that suits your needs. Now, there are three key components to a signature, each with a different purposes: 1. The closing of the letter - this is the first four lines you see in the signature above. It's purpose is two-fold: to avoid having to type a closing to save time (which can really add up if you get a lot of e- mail), and to provide information about yourself, and possibly, some contact information. 2. The advertisement - this is where you try to generate interest for whatever you're trying to promote in the recipient of the e- mail. It should in someway catch the reader's eye or stir up some emotion that will impel them to act. (Note: FREE works especially well as an attention grabber. Try to offer something free in your signature.) This "ad" of sorts should be no more than 5 or 6 lines long, and should probably be separated in some way from the rest of your message, as seen above. 3. The information which shows the reader how to act - you have to include some form of information about how an interested reader can access a deal, contact someone, visit a web site, or whatever else you're trying to get that reader to do. So, offer them a way (or several ways) to go about "taking action," with contact info, a web address, a phone number, etc. How to Use "Sigs" ------------------- Signatures can be a powerful tool for the budget-conscious web site owner, if used effectively. If used poorly, they're simply a waste of time and effort. So, in order to use signatures in a manner that will produce positive results, here are a few things that you should do: a) Use as many different signatures as you can. Don't just send one signature you've developed over and over again to the same people. Think of several different ones you could use for your business, and alternate. Also, signatures are an excellent tool for promoting an affiliate program that you're involved in. Again, have as many as you can, and rotate. b) Test the effectiveness of your signatures. Don't just keep sending the same group of signatures if it hasn't generated good results. Try some new ones, testing each particular signature for a little while to see if it's working better than other sigs you've tried. And once you've improved on your initial results, don't just stop experimenting. KEEP trying to improve upon your signatures more and more and eventually, you'll really be generating some good results. c) Have a signature for every "type" of message that you send. If you make a signature for every different situation and "type" of e- mail you encounter, you can boost their effectiveness. For example, since most of your friends probably don't want to hear about your business or some affiliate program you're promoting, think of something else that they would like and would benefit them. Here's an example: you ever hear of those "get paid to surf" programs? Well, since it would be unprofessional for me to try to get people to sign up for them on this site, I promote the programs to my friends through the use of e-mail signatures. I could use something like this: Regards, Micah P.S. Have you heard of those new "get paid to surf the web" programs? Well, I signed up with one called AllAdvantage.com, and they really work! I got a check for like $30 last week in the mail. If you want to sign up for one, just go to: https://www.alladvantage.com/joinsecure.asp?refid=ASU-673 See how effective that could be? And that applies for ANY e-mail "situation" you might encounter. Get to Work! ------------------- Now that you're aware of all the benefits of using "sigs," you have no excuse not to start. So, start thinking about a few signatures that you could use. Jot them down on a piece of paper, revise them, edit them, and USE them. Good luck! About the Author Micah D. Cranman owns and operates Sybren Design, a web design firm specializing in helping small businesses build effective and attractive websites. Visit Sybren today at http://sybren.net or call 770-971-9868.

EMAIL ADVERTISING

by: Joseph Robert Neil James.

Sending out emails these days is fast becoming a joke. To achieve an order is getting harder and harder because of the large quantity of email needed to sent out, to secure an order, My research has indicated that with a click thru rate of just 1% of all emails sent out, at a conversion rate of 2% - on average - one order should be achieved every 5,000 emails sent out. Keeping in mind that Spam filters block, at least 39% of emails being sent out. This means, if you can purchase 5,000 emails at $0.001 each, which equals $5 per 5,000 – and is very good value for money, providing you are selling a product or service for about $20. However, the click thru rate can fluctuate, depending on how good you are at writing headlines, to promote your product or service. The reason why it’s necessary to send out so many emails, to secure an order, is because most people avoid quoting their prime email address, when submitting their website to directories or classifieds because usually once a website has been submitted to a directory of classifieds, the website owner receives hundreds of emails in return, within a short time, which is a little annoying. If people could be persuaded to use their prime email address when submitting their websites, the 1% click thru rate would increase dramatically because many more emails would be read, instead of being classed as junk mail and discarded, unread. Recently I discovered two new programs that offered me the opportunity to submit my website and only receive one email in return, from each. The name of the programs are Search-o-Rama.com and OnSeek.com - When I submitted my website via my prime email address free, to their comprehensive directory, I only received just one email in return, from both programs. Search-o-Rama.com and OnSeek.com - also invited me to purchase 5,000 emails at a low purchase price of $5, which is $0.001 per email and send out my adverts via their own system. Search-o-Rama and OnSeek.com - are unique, quality and uncomplicated programs, with a first class easy to set up, affiliate program. There are also facilities for monitoring advert statistics i.e. click thru % rate ECT. To submit your website free to – Search-o-Rama.com and OnSeek.com – directories, please click the following links: http://search-o-rama.com/jrnjames.htm http://onseek.com/jrnjames.htm About the Author perpetual@m999.fslife.co.uk http://www.finitesite.com/jrnjames/article.html Joseph Robert Neil James - resides in Warwickshire, England and is an author, husband, father, grand father, and Great Grand Father. Having spent many years in the "Direct Mail Advertising" business, whilst living with his wife and four children in Australia - joseph is now retired and enjoys working with his computer and reseaching with a Pendulum.

Eight Steps to Increase Your Newsletter Advertising Revenue

by: Howard Minsky

As the newsletter market becomes increasingly more competitive, it's important to follow several key steps in your pursuit of potential advertisers. Simple steps such as providing basic information and practicing timely follow-up can contribute to the success of your overall advertising revenue.

Follow these tips to quickly boost your advertising revenues.

1. Contact Information - Always place contact information toward bottom of your emails and articles. Include Company Name, Contact Name, Tel, URL, Email, Fax, and Address. Buyers prefer to purchase ad space from companies and individuals that are easy to contact and have a physical location. List an email address for purchasing advertising (Ex. advertise@TheAdStop.com).

2. Target market - List your target market and demographics. If you have not yet performed a survey of your subscribers, then list your perceived target market. To gain actual demographics, email your subscribers a simple survey. This allows you to not only learn about your subscribers, but will also aid in efforts to increase subscriber base. A survey will also help you to develop editorial content geared towards your readers main concerns or interests.

3. Subscriber Numbers - Numbers are important when considering an ad purchase. Don't hesitate to list the number of subscribers to your newsletter as well as the average monthly percentage of growth rate.

4. Follow Up - This may be one of the most valuable steps in increasing advertising revenue. After a sale, be sure to communicate with your advertiser. It's a lot easier to re-sell ad space than find a new ad buyer. If the advertising run is a one-issue purchase, email the advertiser the day before the newsletter goes out to remind the advertiser when it's scheduled to run. Then telephone or email the advertiser after the ad run to learn of the effectiveness. If the advertiser is happy, resell them on the spot for a longer term. If the advertiser was unhappy with the results, ask "why" and then encourage them to buy another advertisement at a discounted rate. If the advertiser decides to purchase another run, be sure they make changes their ad copy. The effectiveness of the ad often depends on the ad copy itself.

If Advertisement is run for multiple months or issues, email the advertiser weekly asking their feedback. Telephone your advertiser once per month. Also, you should always email the advertiser to inform them of an approaching renewal time and attempt to renew their run. If there is no answer, call two or three days later and try to sell over phone.

5. URL Tracking - Have advertisers create a tracking URL to verify advertising was included and allowing analysis of the gains achieved from ad placement.

6. Credit Cards - Allow advertisers to purchase ad space with credit cards. It is inexpensive and presents a very professional organization. Better yet, it is easier to re-sell as the advertiser only needs to say YES. The easier you make it to buy the more sales you'll make.

7. Partnerships - Increase the size of your advertising offerings by partnering advertising sales with similar newsletters and Ezines. Partnering allows you and partners to collectively sell advertising space. The larger subscriber base will attract larger advertising buyers. Provide a 15% commission to the selling party, which could be you or your partner(s). This works well for newsletters with under 10,000 subscribers.

8. Ad Networks - List your ad offerings with one or more Ad Networks. Gain a professional sales force with extensive resources to sell your space. Realize, you will earn less per subscriber, but you will most likely sell-out your advertising space. This also allows you to concentrate on marketing and content which is usually the main interest. Also, many Ad Networks do not require exclusives, so you can continue to sell your own space with an assurance that advertising sales will occur for every issue.

Follow these eight easy steps and you'll quickly see an increase in advertising revenue. Good Luck!

Howard Minsky
Co-Founder
www.TheAdStop.com
List your Internet Advertising information on www.TheAdStop.com Have tens of thousands of media buyers, site owners, advertisers and marketers learn about your advertising offerings. It is always FREE and very easy to do.
5868 North Plum Bay Pkwy, Tamarac, FL 33321 USA
T: 954-722-0454
F: 954-532-2355
Howard@TheAdStop.com

Common Advertising MISTAKES

by: jim Peters

One of the mistakes most often made, is not looking at your productor service announcement from the point of view of your customer.Stand back and look at what you are offering, how can you presentthat service or product in such a way that it will appeal to you. Ifyou are offering a service, why should someone buy it from you,rather than the other 1000 people offering that same service?Sometimes it's a little tough to be objective when looking at yourown ad copy. I look at ad copy everyday and to be honest I'm reallyshocked at some of the things that I see.

I'll save space here by not repeating all of them. Rather I willlist a few ways to get your offer, be it newspaper,direct mail or e-mail, thrown in the trash immediately. There may be some things hereyou don't want to hear or believe, but take my word for it thethings I'm listing can make the difference in success and failure.

I will talk only about your initial contact advertising, follow upcontact takes a completely different tack. Listed here, notnecessarily in their order of importance, but rather in the order inwhich they can get your message trashed are just a few of thoseMistakes.

1. Not addressing your offer to the recipient. (I know, you can'ttake the time to address all that mail)I would say at least 50% ofthe people receiving e-mail not addressed specifically to them, willimmediately hit the delete key. If your offer is so fantastic thatyou can loose 50% of your audience right out of the gate, by allmeans send out mail with your self, both as the sender and therecipient. Or addressed to friend@whatever.com. You get the idea.You will also find this tactic addressed in the anti spamlegislation. ( Note: This does not apply when sending mail to an optin list. )

2. Using a vulgar or unrealistic sender address, I'll leave thevulgar to your imagination. As far as the unrealistic,dontmiss@this.com or just4u@me.com again you get the idea. You willalso find this tactic addressed in the anti spam legislation. Forthe sake of ease (math was never my long suit) let's say this tacticlooses you another 10%.

3. No Subject or a subject that causes an immediate delete. Now whatcould be a subject that could cause that? Well, how about. EARN AMILLION DOLLARS WITH JUST 1 TIME INVESTMENT OF $20. 00 or anyvariation of that theme. Again you get the idea. Now you may well besaying to yourself, but that's what my program offers. That'swonderful, but in order to get someone interested in that program, adifferent approach is needed. Something like:Income Opportunity 5minutes of your time could be the difference. or:Home businessopportunity! Let's Talk. What can a grandiose subject line cost you,we'll say another 10%.

4. The cc: field filled with dozens of addresses or the To: fieldfor that matter. If you need to send the same e-mail to more than 1recipient use the bcc: field. If your mail program does not offer abcc: field GET ONE THAT DOES! There are so many reasons for this itwould take another entire article to address all of them. But themain one in my opinion is you do not have the right to advertisethose addresses to the world. It is very bad netiquette. You looseanother 10%

5. HTML other than url's. There are many, many people out there thatdon't have the $10,000 set up that you have, and their mail programsDO NOT translate HTML into anything but gibberish. If you want yourmessage to be read, write and send it in plain text. The percentagehere is probably higher but again we'll say 10%.

6. Sending e-mail the size of War and Peace. Here again there are anumber of reasons not to do this. Besides the main one, there are alot of people out there that are limited in the amount of spacetheir mail server will allow. Mine (yes, I still maintain one ofthose free addresses) for example is 2000k. When my inbox, savedmail and drafts exceeds that amount my mail STOPS. Not 1 day goes bythat I don't receive at least one 75 to 100k e-mail. 20 of those andI'm out of business. The other important reason, the recipient justwon't take the time to read a book in there e-mail. A message ofthat length needs to be on a web page. Opp's we lost another 10%

Ok, let's examine what happens when we make all those mistakes insending out 1000 of our e-mail ad's. Right off the bat we loose 50%by not addressing our offer to the recipient. That reduces ourmailing to 500. We loose another 10% for our return address. Weredown to 400. 10% more for no subject, now were at 300. We decided toadvertise those addresses our up-line sent us to the whole world andlost another 10%. Now were down to 200. Our new e-mail program isreally neat and we put flowers and red, white, and blue stripes onour outgoing messages, now were down to 100. We had such a greatstory to tell and we were just so excited about all the neat stuffwe spent 2 whole hours writing down every detail. You just lost yourlast 100 potential customers.

Granted, I have never received a single e-mail that contained all ofthose mistakes, but it only takes 1 or 2 to significantly reduceyour response rate. You can't afford to let all your efforts andhard work go to waste by making these easily correctable mistakes.

"Your Success Is Our Success"

jbp

About the Author
[ jim Peters is Manager of HREF="http://NetServeInt.com">NSI "SOLUTIONS". NSIspecializes in custom website design,promotion, maintenance, HREF="http://registeryourdomainforless.com">domainregistration ,sitehosting ,site and graphic design, as well as e-commercepackages for small to medium sized companies. In other words"SOLUTIONS".]

Cheap Advertising Methods That Work!

by: BB Lee

Advertising is necessary to get name recognition for your business and attract customers. But, what steps can you take to advertise your business if your promotion budget is limited?

Plenty!

The following methods are some of the best and cheapest ways to promote your business online.

-Start An Ezine That's right! Start your very own ezine. This is an excellent way to get immediate recognition for your business without spending a dime. It's easy to start a special interest ezine on the Internet. Several free list hosting services will handle all the emailing duties and subscribers. Here's one source below:

http://www.topica.com

Ad Swaps...Once you have an ezine start swapping ads with other ezine owners. You will score big time if you swap ads with a major player.

-Trade Links..trade links with similar sites. Your search engine rank will increase if your site links with many sites. Leading to more website visitors.

-Search Engine Submission. Submit your site to the top search engines. Pay close attention to meta tags and headings to get a higher listing. Sprinkle a few keywords in your web page copy. Here's a few sources to automatically submit your website to search engines.

http://www.addpro.com
http://www.urlsubmitter.com

-Write Articles. Compose articles on popular topics. Submit your work to online article directories. If your articles are popular, you will get immediate free promotion, and recognition as an expert in your field. Here's a good guide to writing articles for the Internet.

Confessions Of An Ezine Writer:

http://hop.clickbank.net/?xy123/johncolanz

-Write An Ebook! Great free promo idea. Need I say more? Write an ebook on a unique topic and give it away to website visitors. Encourage them to distribute to online associates. Include links in the ebook leading to your website.

How to Write your own eBook in 7 Days! http://hop.clickbank.net/?xy123/7dayebook> Click Here

-Signature Files! This is your opportunity to promote your business or affiliate links. Include them in all your emails. Example Follows:

----------------------------------------------------------------
BB Lee is the editor and publisher of SmallBizBits Newsletter.
Visit: http://www.angelfire.com/zine/smallbiz
----------------------------------------------------------------

-Free Classifieds are more important than you think. They give you experience writing copy before you plunk down hard cash on more extravagant ads. Many marketers still manually post their ads and browse the free classified afterwards. A few interested readers will visit your site.

-FFA Links are important too. When you submit to the ffa pages your website's search engine position increases because it links to more sites. (Although it is temporary and you'll have submit on a regular daily basis.) This will circulate your name to a wider Internet market. And before submitting to the ffa pages, get a free email account to receive the multitude of ffa responses. You certainly don't want these responses mixed with your regular email account.

That's it! Experiment with the methods above! And have fun learning what works for you!

BB Lee is the editor and publisher of SmallBizBits Newsletter.

Join SmallBizBits Today And Receive Your 5 ebook bonus package.

To Subscribe!...mailto:Smallbiz-subscribe@topica.com

Visit: http://www.angelfire.com/zine/smallbiz

Contact BB... mailto:smallbiz@angelfire.com

Can Knowing The Basics of HTML Boost Your Email Advertising

by: Treci Cauthen

Thousands of Internet marketers are using email as a major part of their advertising campaign. This is not the most effective form of advertisement due to the fact that there are lots of websites that offer online email software that allows promoters to reach thousands to millions of prospects using their safelist programs. Due to overwhelming response from promoters to use their lists we now face the issue of Spamming (emailing in bulk or by single mailing, about a product/service to anyone who has not specifically requested the information directly from you or flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it).

But no need to fear their is a proper way to reach lots of interested buyers and co-afiliates without becoming black listed as a spammer. You need to deal with companies that will sell you fresh email lists that haven't been sold to hundreds or thousands of people. Email list websites

http://www.email-lists.biz/
http://www.thetrafficstream.com/?source=k
Now stands the battle between Text vs HTML email formatting tactics for the fall 2004. Tests have been conducted and Ross-Simons' Internet Marketing Director Anne Driscoll said "We tested HTML when years ago just like everybody else, and it was four-times as effective as text. However now we're testing to see if text can convey an urgency that's not necessarily there in HTML."
Turns out it's "as effective or even more effective than standard HTML" for an urgent reminder that a sale is about to end. "It's less to do with deliverability and more to do with the way a customer interprets a message," notes Anne.1
What's the difference?
When you see colored text, graphics, words that are underlined (besides hyperlinks), bold text, etc., in an email, you are looking at an HTML email message. HTML allows you a variety of ways to format your message text, graphics and color.
plain text message looks like something written in a basic text editor. Notepad, which comes loaded with your PC’s operating system, is a great editor for sending text messages. Most professionals who send text messages use Notepad to edit their copy.
"Both formats can work very well in email marketing. A well-written text message without any graphics can perform very well and deliver results. Text messages are easy to create and closely follow the format of a professional sales letter which many marketers are already familiar with. HTML campaigns can capture their audience with a few well-placed visual focus points."
"Well-written copy sells better than weaker copy with fancy graphics. If you’re new to online marketing, my suggestion is to start with text. If you really want to use HTML, you need a good designer. Collect some examples of HTML email advertisements you have responded to and model your campaign after them."2

Where to learn the basics of HTML websites:
http://www.htmlbasix/. com/
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4204/html.htm
You also need to have a few sales letters ready to get the ball rolling.
Sample letters
Sample #1
[Date]
[Mr./Mrs./Ms./Dr.] [Customer's Full Name]
[Title]
[Company Name]
[Address] [City], [State] [Zip/Postal Code]
Dear [Mr./Mrs./Ms./Dr.] [Customer's Last Name]:
Don't lose this letter, or you'll lose your free gift!
[Name of Your Store] is having our [Name of the Sale] Sale, and we want you to be there, for outstanding savings on everything in the store.
And a FREE gift everyone will love.
Beginning [First Day of the Sale, Including Month, Day and Year] and Ending [Customer's Last Day of the Sale, Including Month, Day and Year], [Name of Your Store] will have huge discounts, up to [Highest Percentage Customer Can Save During Sale]% on items like these:
[Highest Percentage Customer Can Save During Sale]% off all [First Type of Product On Sale at the Highest Discount]. or [Highest Percentage Customer Can Save During Sale]% off all [Second Type of Product On Sale at the Highest Discount]. or [Highest Percentage Customer Can Save During Sale]% off all [Third Type of Product On Sale at the Highest Discount].
And not only will you save, but if you bring in this letter during the [Name of the Sale] Sale, we'll also give you a [Name of the Free Gift], absolutely free.
Mark your calendar now for the [Name of the Sale] Sale: [First Day of the Sale, Including Month, Day and Year] - [Customer's Last Day of the Sale, Including Month, Day and Year]. Come to the sale early, and don't forget to bring this letter, because our [Name of the Free Gift] supplies are limited.
And there's no telling when we'll run out.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Title]
[Your Company Name]
P.S. Tape this letter to your door--mail it to yourself--put it in the glove compartment of your car--just don't lose it or you won't get [Name of the Free Gift] for free.
Sample #2
[Date]
[Mr./Mrs./Ms./Dr.] [Customer's Full Name]
[Title]
[Company Name]
[Address] [City], [State] [Zip/Postal Code]
Dear [Mr./Mrs./Ms./Dr.] [Customer's Last Name]:
NEW! We've just received a shipment of thousands of new [Name of the Product] and we need to get them moving!
So we've knocked off the price about [Percentage Customer Can Save By Ordering the Product from You]%--you can get your [Name of the Product] right now for just $[Price of Product].
We've never offered [Name of the Product] before, and we don't know exactly how you will respond to them. That's why we're offering them at such a low price.We'll keep this low price for as long as we can, but if the demand is high, we'll be forced to raise our prices.
Sorry, but those are the laws of supply and demand.
So order yours now, while we're still offering this incredible introductory price--just $[Price of Product]. Call [Phone Number Customers Call to Place Orders, Preferably a Toll-free or 800 Number] right now, and give our brand new [Name of the Product] a try.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Title]
[Your Company Name]
P.S. Don't forget about our return policy. Return any product to us within [Number of Days the Guarantee Lasts] days, and we'll refund your purchase price.3 Finally you need to decide which method works best for you. Getting The Big Picture?

reference
1. Anne Holland http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2848
2. Jason Lexell http://www.businessemaillists.com/articles/text-vs-html.asp
3. Sandi Stevens http://www.bizine.com/salesltr.htm

Copyright © 2004
About the Author
Treci Cauthen is a Writer/Internet Marketing Coach.
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