The Value of FREE ADS in Internet Business
Do You Get What You Pay For?
We have heard the saying "You get what you pay for," but I don't think that theory
applies to Internet Marketing. Yes, there is tons of free advertising available
on the net and there are millions of people using free advertising to promote their
businesses, but is it effective? I think when you try to judge the effectiveness
of Free Online Advertising, you have to take into consideration all that you can
get for free.
Placing Free Ads
- For one thing, placing free ads will help you learn whether or not marketing online
is for you at all; if you hate promoting your offer and placing ads, find other
work.
- Placing free ads can teach you about writing ad copy; if you can't write copy
that gets someone's attention on a free site, you definitely should not pay for
ads.
- Free advertising also teaches you to read the terms of service before you sign
up for a service; most of us have unknowingly agreed to receive mail from thousands
of FFA network members everyday as a result of posting a free ad.
Free Resources
You can, in fact, get a crash course in a whole new career with very little out
of pocket expenses. The key here is using every free resource available to you and
paying very close attention to your results.
- You will need web site statistics, this is your best way to know if your ad is
effective. If you don't get statistics with your free web site, you can still get
free statistics- by following simple instructions to insert a bit of code onto your
site.
- Ad tracking statistics are another great free value, especially if you have an
affiliate site that does not offer web site statistics. You can use these to test
different ads at the same location, different types of ads (like a banner versus
an email ad), as well as the same ad at several locations. They can even provide
different URL's to help you place your ad more than once on an ad site that only
lets you post your URL once.
- Use all of the free advertising tools available to you. Most people do not realize
that there is more to free ads than FFA links and Classified ads. Today it is possible
to use banner advertising, email advertising and viral marketing totally free. Always
start with free before you invest in paid advertising.
Begin With What You Have
It is possible to begin to build a business on the Internet with no or very low
investment. There are many free tools and resources available on the Internet, the
hard part is taking the time to find and evaluate them. Don't even think about spending
a lot of your hard earned money until after you have learned to get some visitors
to your site. Until then, do and learn as much as you can for FREE!
Two kinds of Advertising for a Marketing Strategy with Free Ads
Advertising is the lifeblood of any business. If you do not learn how to advertise
your products and services both efficiently and effectively, you won't be in business
long. While the Internet has lessened or eliminated many of the costs normally associated
with starting and running a small business, and it's now easier than ever, you'll
never realize significant profits if you don't grow your business through effective
marketing.
There are really just two kinds of advertising - that which you pay for and that
which you get for free. And both should have their place in your overall marketing
strategy. The problem arises when one does not understand how or when to use each.
Everywhere we look it seems that someone is claiming you can get rich online by
taking advantage of the free advertising the Internet offers.
Unfortunately, as anyone who has tried posting zillions of free ads on the Internet
will tell you it just doesn't work that way. What you really need to know about
posting free ads online is that for the most part it's a waste of time - unless
you're targeting other marketers - because an overwhelming majority of people who
visit free ad sites are other online marketers like you who are trying to promote
their own business.
Effective "free advertising" strategies do exist, but they aren't what the average
online marketer thinks of when hearing this often hyped-up phrase.
Free advertising is the laziest way to promote your site!
You don't really think that Yahoo became the most popular web site on the Internet,
getting millions of visitors per day, by using free advertising strategies do you?
Heck no. Among other things, they spend millions of dollars per year on things like
buying advertising on other big sites and advertising on both radio and television.
Now before you say you don't have millions per year to spend on advertising, allow
me to show you how you can apply these concepts to your business on a smaller scale.
The good news is that if you use the right approach you can start with a few dollars.
It doesn't really matter what you're marketing, but let's assume that you sell artwork
at your web site. How could you utilize paid advertising profitably?
Now before I scare you off with the thought of having to spend lots and lots of
money on advertising, there's something that you need to realize. And it's a basic
concept you should be able to immediately agree with:
If you spend $50 on advertising and it generates more than $50 in net profits, that's
a good investment.
Simple right? Well, through the use of proper testing and a "scientific" approach
to advertising, there's no reason you can't turn your original $50 ad into millions
of dollars in profits. It's just a matter of developing a system that creates a
profit, and then reinvesting your initial profits back into your business in order
to further expand your advertising.
Remember the artwork? Assume that through proper tracking of your website you're
able to determine that 1 out of every 100 visitors to your site buys artwork. Let's
also assume that on the sale of every artwork you make a $50 profit. Do you see
that any ad you buy which delivers more than 100 visitors to your site per $50 spent
is a profitable investment?
Promoting a site should be approached with this type of a scientific or mathematical
attitude. Any advertising you do is either profitable or not, and you need to know
which it is so you don't waste time and money.
Here's a somewhat simplistic strategy that you could use to get started:
Use a combination of free or low-cost strategies to promote your web site, generating
initial traffic which will serve as a starting point. Through proper tracking of
your site, determine the exact "value" of a visitor in terms of dollars and sense.
This is absolutely critical. Utilize paid advertising that proves to be profitable
according to step 2, based on the value of a visitor and the number of visitors
generated. Through ongoing testing, tracking, and tweaking, try to increase the
value of a web site visitor as well as response to your advertising. Repeat steps
2-4 as necessary - or forever. The power of this scientific or mathematical approach
to web site promotion is that once you have completed the steps you will have an
almost automated advertising campaign that can literally send you all the traffic
you need. Rather than spending hours and hours each day promoting your site, you
simply buy more advertising.
The bottom line is that there are only 24 hours in a day and there's only so much
you can do during that time. Free advertising strategies can be effective, but normally,
anything that's "free" is going to "cost" you time.
On the other hand, if you could spend $1,000 a day on advertising to make $1,000
a day in profits -- without spending hours doing it -- why wouldn't you just do
that? It's not hard at all. Consider Overture.com for example, where you can buy
click-thrus for as little as 1-25 cents.
That fits the formula quite nicely. Overture alone won't send you enough traffic
to make you rich, but it's a good example of effectively promoting your site without
spending much time doing it. There are lots of others.
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