Clifton W. Bonney
I have been promoting websites on the NET for
some time now, and have seen many marketing strategies come and go. You've seen
it, Expert A(Dr. Know-It-All) told you to go to his website for the very BEST
promotion on the net. "I''ll do everything for you"
the Dr says. He must know, right? So, you send lots of money,
and wait for the traffic. Hmmm... didn't happen. No increase in
hits. Well, it must have been Dr. Know-It-All. I'll try Expert
B, Dr. No-You-Don't. Surely HE will be better than the last because....Yahdah...Yahdah...Yahdah! Again, some big money
sent...few results. So, out of desperation and a huge pain in my
wallet, I finally formed my own company that I KNEW would be
uncommonly useful through my trial and error experience.
Hence...Clifton Enterprises' website called Click City was born.
All of the information in this article is available at the
City.....So................ If you are planning to keep up with
what's working NOW, I suggest the following six ways to assure
success with your advertising dollars.
1. E-Zines The most amazing and under-used tool
is the POWER of the e-zine! Think about it: How many times have you deleted an
E-Zine because you didn't have time, or you assumed there was nothing in it for
you. Wrong on both counts. Most online magazines have subscriber bases of over
one thousand, many have more. If you place your ad in several of these @
$15-75/ad, you have substantially increased your visibility without much output.
The more subscribers, the more people see your message. Choose e-zines with a
good base for maximum exposure, and subscribe to several at once. Read them,
decide which to advertise in, and go for it. It's very inexpensive promotion.
You'll find one at Click City-at end of article!
2. Opt-in lists Opt-in lists have become one of
the fastest growing promotional tools available lately. There are pitfalls,
however. If 20,000 people join a list, and only 10% post their ad to YOUR email
daily. Do you think anyone is reading YOUR ad? I think NOT! What's going to
happen to your mailbox? So..... Join several lists and send your message to
thousands DAILY. There are many free lists with hundreds and hundreds of
members, however don't expect your message to be read. Find lists with
memberships of 100-1000! You have a better chance of being seen. I wouldn't join
any list with more than 1000 members unless there were other benefits of
membership.
3. Free Links and FFA Pages Most people
just submit to these, but you really need to consider owning one or two. Surely
you have been to the Free Links Pages where you submit your URL, and your web
page remains on the top, then scrolls off as others are added. The scroll-off
time depends on the traffic at the
particular web page you submit to, usually 1-2 days...and yet
sometimes 10 minutes. One of my FFA pages delivers me 400-600 emails every day-
people waiting to receive my ad. Can you imagine how large my database has
become, just from one service?
4. Free and paid Classifieds Placing Classified
adds requires
more than just submitting your URL. You need to be able to
create a SHORT, but exciting description of your
business/service. You only have a few seconds to GRAB your
readers before they click away to someone else's ad. Classifieds
do last longer than FFA's- sometimes as long as 3 months, and
can be edited if your program changes. There are thousands of
places to submit your classified ad... some free and some where
you must pay. Always use a combination of both. Nothing works
well by itself. Adland.com is great and free!
5.Replicating Websites These will work as long as
you are willing to promote them. Place your ad, then the entire page is
duplicated. The company will send you a URL to promote, along with any other
programs you are involved in. Your ad stays on top.
6. Offline Advertising You can not have a total
promotion package without it. By offline, I definitely DON'T mean sell your
product or
service to all your relatives and friends. Never a good thing to
do! You can promote offline easily by purchasing inexpensive
items to place on your vehicle, window, or anywhere. I have
found a terrific tool that is inexpensive... Web-Decals-
Place these in your car back window-advertise while driving:
http://webdecal.com
****************************** OK- follow the examples above for
a COMPLETE promotion package you can put together YOURSELF at a
reasonable cost.
About the author:
Clifton W. Bonney/BA in Communications Publisher of The Linker Trader Digest, a
weekly E-Zine for business owners-5000 subscribers. His 20 years+ experience in
the communications field has yielded high rewards online. Please feel free to
email him with comments or suggestions: cliftonent@webtv.net
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