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As little as two years ago, classified advertising on the internet was HOT! Believe
it or not, up until then I had generated thousands of dollars in affiliate program
sales utilizing free internet classifieds and services known as Free For All (FFA)
Links pages.
But, alas, things change, and it is necessary to change with them. Free classifieds
and FFA's have all but lost 99.9% of their effectiveness due to abuse by programs
known as "auto-submitters".
These programs post to thousands and thousands of free classified ad sites
and FFA's, usually for a fee. The problem with using such services is thousands
of other people are using them as well, not to mention the fact that they rarely
post an ad to any sites which receive the targeted traffic you're looking for.
What do you think is more important...posting thousands upon thousands of ads
to site which NO ONE (except for the auto-submitters) ever visit, or posting
a handful of ads to sites that receive the quality, targeted traffic you need?
So is classified advertising dead? In a word....NO!
The "secret" to effective online classified advertising is not really
a "secret" at all, but more a case of common sense. As of March, 2001,
almost 90% of internet users found the sites they are looking for through the
use of search engines.
Now you might be thinking, "Great, but what does that have to do with
classified advertising?"
It's Simple!
Search engines send targeted traffic to the sites listed within them, but can
also be your best tool to find the high traffic sites that offer low-cost classified
advertising that both receives the traffic your looking for, and the targeted
customers you NEED to make sales!
Here's what you do:
Go to any MAJOR search engine ( www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, etc.) and do
a search using a phrase someone searching for your product or service would
look for (i.e. if you're selling golf supplies, do searches such as "golf
supplies" , or "golf gear", etc.). You can find some excellent
alternative phrases by looking at each engine's results, which should contain
additional search advice (i.e. "people looking for golf supplies also search
for; etc.)
Take a note of the top 20 sites that come up in each search. Check out each
of these sites, and if they offer paid classified advertising, THAT IS WHERE
YOU WANT TO BE!
I've actually advertised on sites that sent me 100-300 unique visitors per
day for LESS THAN $30 for a whole month of advertising!
Here's a specific example:
Let's say you're a member of a network marketing company or similar home business
and you want to drive traffic to your referral website.
Go to the above major search engines and type in the phrase "work at home"
or "work from home" (there are many more search phrases you could
use, I'll just use these two as an example).
The #1 site for both Google and Yahoo for the phrase "work at home"
is a popular site called "Work at Home Moms" (www.wahm.com) If you
take a look at that site, you'll notice they offer low cost classified advertising
($25 a month or less if you buy several months at a time). An ad placed at that
particular high-traffic site sent more than 100 unique visitors a day to our
site!
What's more, the visitors we received were the type of TARGETED visitors that
are worth their weight in gold.
If you need some relatively cheap, targeted traffic to your site, give online
classifieds a try-you won't be disappointed!
About the Author:
Erik A. Olsen is the Editor and Publisher of the Internet Marketing Commando®
, a weekly ezine DEDICATED to bringing you no-nonsense, battle-tested tips and
tricks to making your internet business a smashing success. To subscribe, go
to http://www.internetmarketingcommando.com , or send an email to subscribe@internetmarketingcommando.com?subject=subscribe |
