OK, once you have tackled the three items above, (see SPN issue
#55) you're all set up to do some ad buys.
I have tried many strategies online and here's the straight
scoop on what works and what doesn't. I've ranked nine online
advertising strategies as follows...
Poor: Don't waste your time.
Fair: Worth a try at least once or twice.
Good: A solid way to spend ad dollars.
Excellent: Should be a regular staple in any online marketing budget.
OK, here they are...
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1. FFA submissions (Free for all links pages)
You know, those interfaces that say "submit to 50,000 websites
for a few bucks. Well, save your few bucks. FFA's had their
time in the sun. They worked great when they were first
introduced. Now they are not worth a dime. Heck, even if you
can do a free submission it's probably not worth your time.
The last three tests I ran submitted my URL to nearly a half a
million sites. I got four visitors. 'Nuf said.
Rating: Poor
2. Bulk email
Sure, you CAN get website traffic using bulk email. You can do
it yourself or hire a company to hide behind. But the fact is,
you risk your business reputation and you'll anger a ton of
folks. Your domain will end up blocked by many ISPs and could
even get sued. Unsolicited bulk email is not worth the
trouble.
Rating: Poor
3. Safe lists
This is a twist on opt-in email marketing where you pay for
the privilege of being able to send email to a list of other
marketers who have done the same. While I have not tried this
personally I can comment on it simply because lots of my
subscribers have tried it. And I have not heard one good thing
about it other than from people reselling it. The folks that
have used it have found that while safe list "members" have
agreed to be on the safe lists, most never actually read
messages or buy anything.
Rating: Poor
4. Banner Advertising
This is an "old school" advertising strategy that I have been
testing again now that prices are lower. And early indications
are that there is a solid reason for the still-declining prices
of banner advertising. My own click-through rates have been less
than 1% so far, with a few exceptions. But I do have some
decent size banner ad runs planned for the coming months at
some busy, targeted sites. Time will tell if I'll continue
with this strategy. If you DO want to try banner advertising,
ask the site you plan to advertise at what the average
click-through rates are and what banners perform best. That
may get you up to two or three percent. If that will take
you into profit, give it a whirl. But most small and home
businesses may be better served using one of the five
advertising methods remaining.
Rating: Fair
5. Opt-in list rental
There are plenty of companies that will rent you email
addresses that have opted in to receive commercial email.
And if the recipients are not being paid to read the messages,
that is they are genuinely interested in the offers they
signed up to receive, this strategy can be profitable. The
problem is you'll pay from ten to twenty cents per address
and mailing to a list large enough to get results from can
be quite expensive. But if your budget can handle it, you
can generate some great targeted traffic.
Rating: Good
6. Paid Search Engines Submissions
While I highly suggest submitting to all the major search
engines that are still free (AltaVista, Lycos, Google, HotBot,
DMOZ and Direct Hit) this article is about "paying" for
advertising. And there are two paid search engine services
I have had very good luck with...
a. Inktomi's Search/Submit at $30 a year, which gets your
URL into AOL, iWon, MSN and the Looksmart directory within
48 hours.
b. Yahoo! Business Express and sponsored site listings. The
business express service
costs $199 for non-adult sites, and gets you Yahoo!
consideration. While $199 is a little pricey for some small
business owners, a good listing at Yahoo! brings quite a bit
of extra traffic. Once you are listed, consider taking
advantage of the "sponsored site" offering for an additional
monthly fee. I am sampling this currently and it paid for
itself within the first few weeks. My results may decline as
more sites are added into the sponsored sites area but I'll
keep an eye on things.
Rating: Good
7. Pay per click search engines
This advertising model offers a way for you to bid on search
terms and pay only when someone clicks through to your site.
I've been advertising with www.goto.com and findwhat.com using
this method and have had decent results. It's easy to control
costs and your visitors are targeted precisely.
If you are not in a super-competitive keyword arena you can do
well with pay per click engines. For example, if you sell web
hosting, good luck getting traffic for less than a few bucks a
click. But if you have a smaller niche, this strategy
represents a great opportunity and is worth trying.
And if you DO find that this model works well for you, more
than 75 additional Pay per Click
search engines can be found at Alan Gardyne's super-duper directory...
Rating: Good
8. Personalized Email Series
Here's one that many marketers don't talk about much. It's
actually a secret weapon among many of the big name marketers.
You offer a freebie at your site and when your visitors claim
it they are not only added to your opt-in list they are added
to a series of personalized follow-up messages that you
pre-program. If you write a powerful and effective series this
marketing strategy can be one of your top sales producers.
Rating: Excellent
9. Ezine Advertising
Still the one. Some people think I recommend ezine advertising
because I have an ezine and I'm trying to sell my own ad
space. On the contrary, I've been trying NOT to sell my ad
space for the last few years. That's why my own rates are so
high! I can run my own offers or affiliate offers and make
much more than I can selling the ad space. Many other ezine
editors are finding the same thing. While this has resulted in
rising ezine ad costs over the last few years, one fact
remains... ezine advertising is still one of the most
effective ways to get targeted traffic -- cheap. Just visit an
ezine directory and search for ezines in your niche market.
Subscribe to a bunch and start reading them. Look for larger
circulation ezines that have a good following. If you like the
content then the thousands of other readers probably do too.
Place an ad and you'll make a profit, nearly every time. Top
sponsorships work best if you can swing it.
Rating: Excellent
