People get easily bored and even irritated when seeing the same old boring thing over and over again.
In your advertising campaigns, try to use something that grabs and holds attention in a unique and exciting way.
With all the millions of web sites and advertisements ask yourself the following: Why will people react on my ad and choose it above the million others ?
Your ad must be visible to as many targeted people as possible, and not as many times to one person as possible. Who enjoy receiving junk mail ? Nobody.
Target your ads to the correct audience. If your web site sells for example books on pets it is better to advertise in publications dealing with subjects such as dogs, cats, pet keeping, domestic animals etc.
Your ad must not create a false impression, but it must create a desire to buy the product from you. It must state what need will it fill and what the benefits will be if the person buys it. Once desire is created, the person must be prompted to take action.
Do some mathematics
Work out your budget. How much can you afford to spend on marketing ?
How many of your products do you need to sell before the costs involved is absorbed and you start making making a profit ? If your advertisements cost you $700 and the profit you make with each product is $10, you need to sell 70 products to cover only the cost of your advertisement. Anything less and you are working on a loss. And do not forget your other costs such as the subscription to your ISP, telephone bill, cost for sending your products to your customers etc.
Test which of your advertisements is generating the most sales for you, and get rid of the ones that prove to be a loss
Also take care and do your planning so that you do not budget too little for your marketing. Be prepared to pay for a good advertising campaign.
Some good free or cheap advertising methods are available, but are likely to take a lot of your time. More on that later.
Where can I advertise ?
Your primary concern on where to advertise must be to reach the correct targeted audience that you can afford
If you run an advertisement on TV during the soccer world cup, you will reach millions of people and some more, but it is probably way beyond your budget. Rather run your advertisements in publications like newspapers and magazines that your web site/products have something in common with
If you start with a small budget, classifieds in a newspaper or magazine will be a good and more affordable start. The readers of your ad will also be more targeted. Someone looking for a second hand vehicle will more probably search the "Automobiles" section in the classifieds, than "Interior Decorating".
Experiment with the different publications to see which provides you with the greatest response and sales.
You can run advertisements on the Internet according to related keywords such as Google advertisements. Again experiment to see which one is the best.
When you advertise on the Internet, make sure the site receives a lot of traffic. People must see your ad. Same with newspapers and magazines. Find out how many people read each publication weekly/monthly etc.
What about free advertising?
Remember that your marketing must be unique in order to grab and hold the attention of possible buyers of your products? Free advertising can help you, or can mean absolutely nothing for your website. Let's take a closer look.
Before embarking on a free advertising campaign, try to ask others what they think of it and how did they experience it. Did they get results or not? Most likely a LOT of people will be using a free advertising service which means your ad can get lost between millions of other ads, and might well never be noticed by a single person.
Services that promise to put your ad on 100 000 websites or something like that, for free, must be closely inspected. Fact: You are not the only one that will post your ad to them. Say only 1000 other people is also using the service. Your ad will be lost. Some of these services have more than 100 000 members and some even toppled a million. Your ad will be put on top according to a rotation basis? If the ad stays on top for only 1 day and there is 1000 members it will take approximately 2 years and 9 months for your ad to be put on top. And for 100 000 members 237 years and 11 months. (Should mention your ad in your testament.) Mostly in return for the free service your Inbox will end up full of ads. You end up reading ads like mad and nobody is seeing yours.
There is hope, however, for free web site marketing. Traffic exchange programs that implemented measures to prevent software from doing all the work is a good option you might want to consider. It works almost like a 'pay-per-click' system but if you don't have a budget to pay for clicks to your web site, you can visit other member's sites and earn credit. For example if you visit 50 sites, your site will be showed 50 times to other people.
If traffic exchange/click-for-credits programs have the following features I found it most likely to succeed if:
It has a working system in place that prevent software programs (also called robots or automated systems) from clicking at best speed for credits without an actual person visiting the page.
It put the pages of members in different categories so that members surfing for credit can visit pages that they have an interest in, which means more targeted traffic to your site.
There is a minimum time limit in place that must elapse before a member can click for the next page. This prevent members from cheating and ensure your page is seen.
From your side you can do the following to ensure that it is a success:
Ensure your start page do not take ages to load. A good time is when the first text is seen within 3 to 5 seconds, even with the older slower connections and modems.
Avoid therefore too much graphics and music files on your web site's first page that take long to load without anything showing.
Design your website in such a way so that the first text/pictures/graphics that is coming up is already attracting attention.
Ensure your web site is not 'breaking frames'. On top or the sides of your page will be buttons or a timer of some sorts that you must click to visit the next page. If your site is 'breaking frames' it will fill the whole screen and the buttons/timer will not be working anymore. It annoys other members and your page is likely to be removed.
***My latest findings with click-for-credit programs: Why do I visit other pages via the program? To earn credits. If I spend hours visiting other sites and visited 500 sites, my site will be shown 500, or maybe only 250, times to other members. Why do the other members see my page? They click for a credit so that again other members can see their page when they click for credit. Some folks do not have time to surf for credits, so they pay for a certain amount of clicks to their site. Who see their page? The people surfing for credits. The result: LOTS of traffic to your website, BUT nobody is interested in buying anything because the aim of the people surfing is to earn credits so that their own site will get more traffic. Everybody surf for credits. Everybody get streams of traffic after exhausting hours of surfing. Nobody is interested in buying. More than 10 000 visitors to your website, no sales, lots of bandwidth wasted.
You get the wrong type of targeted traffic. People see your page because they want a credit so that other see their page. The correct type of traffic is people visiting your page with a desire to get your products, credit card ready in their hands.
Some points to consider to help succeed with free advertising methods
How many words can your ad consists of?
Can you use graphics/pictures/sound/animations? With some banner exchange programs you can design a good attention grabbing banner. Lots of graphics is not necessary. The aim is to get people to visit your web site.
Will someone actually see your ad? How many?
How long will it take before your ad appears and for how long will it be posted and visible?
When your ad expires, can you post a new one? When?
What is involved from YOUR side in order to post your ad for free? Must you put a banner on your site in exchange? Visit other pages? Read advertisements? Receive e-mail and read it? Is it only free as a bonus when you purchase something else?
Will you have enough time to read other ads, visit sites, read e-mail or what is required of you?
If it is required that you put a banner on your site, do you know how to insert the code?
Can you upgrade to a paid system when you see it is working well?
Do your ads generate sales or is your bandwidth just being wasted? A good written copy and design for your site will ensure better sales as long as the ad get targeted customers so far to visit your page.
Do not lose track of the other aspects of your online business while marketing it. Be a Jack of All Trades.
Get your FREE ClickBank Portal
and promote the best affiliate
programs with just one link.
Get unlimited URL rotators, banner
rotators, URL tracking and strong
viral system to skyrocket your
affiliate commissions!
How to start, operate and profit your business on the Internet
Get your FREE ClickBank Portal