Advertising – The Key to Success

by: Julie Martin

You have got a great idea, and your website is now complete. You are ready to open for business but where are your customers? Simple – you are going to have to go out and get them. It sounds easy, but advertising can be a pitfall that can cripple many e-businesses. There are several methods of advertising on the Internet. Some are free, some are low cost, while others are insanely expensive. The first thing you will need to look at is how much you are willing to pay for traffic, and how far your advertising dollar can go. One of the most effective, and cheapest, methods of advertising is through e-zines. There are thousands, if not millions of e-zines published every single day. The best way to approach e-zines for advertising is to join a couple that fit your product profile and that you find interesting. Most e-zines offer incentives to new businesses signing up, and will even run your ad for free just for subscribing. You can find many e-zines that offer ads for as little as a dollar. It is a fantastic way to reach thousands of people who are already interested in your type of business. In fact, you can utilize e-zines to promote your product for free, if you can write an informative article. E-zines are desperate for content, and will often offer to publish your article in exchange for a link back to your site. If you go this route, make sure that your article is informative and not just a sales pitch. For example, if your e-business deals with making money from home, an article about how working from home decreases stress would be very well received. You can rely more on making a good impression with the article and a simple link back, than a hard sell that might not even make into print. Link exchanges are another free alternative to costly advertising. Be prepared to get lost in the shuffle if you choose a popular site. The best way to make use of this method is by running your own link exchange from your site and offering a free posting in exchange for a link back to your site. My links page, for example, can be found athttp://www.iscaweb.com/Links.html Targeted advertising is by far the best way to bring in traffic to your website. By using targeted key words, your customers are not just stumbling into your website. Half the work is already done by the key words. You just need to supply the information. Google Ad Words can be used very effectively as well as other targeted key word companies. Most of these operate on a pay per click basis, so you will need to research your key words and supply the best possible words to ensure a good cost-to-click ratio. Press releases are a great way to get the word out about your site and possibly create media buzz. While this method is more expensive than the above methods, it has the potential to bring in substantial traffic. Before sending out your release, make sure that it is formatted correctly and contains a powerful first paragraph. News editors are inundated daily and you do not want to get lost in the shuffle. When writing your press release, it is important to make it news worthy, instead of a plain announcement. Using our example above, if a recent study is released about stress management and working from home, it would be a perfect time to send out a press release that mentions the study and your business. Be prepared to receive phone calls and answer questions if your release is a hit. You don’t necessarily have to wait for an event to happen to send out your release. If all else fails, get creative! There are many ways to tie in your business to current events, all you need is a little imagination. We have covered just a couple of ways to effectively advertise your new or existing e-business. The best advice is to start wisely, plan your advertising budget accordingly and get the word out as effectively as possible. About The Author Julie Martin © Julie Martin is the publisher of “Iscawebs Internet Income eZine” a weekly eZine dedicated to increasing your online profits, no matter what you are selling. Julie also uses the “Plug-In-Profit” system to GREAT effect! To subscribe to the eZine, or to learn more about the Plug-In-Profit system visit:http://www.iscaweb.com

Advertising - Does it matter?

by: Gert Ljungqvist

When advertising, you need to sell your opportunity, your products, and yourself. What sets you apart from everyone else? Maybe you produce a newsletter with a specific content where there is a demand from a particular group of people, or you promote your own special product that no one have not yet seen. That´s a huge benefit! That´s what you need to sell in your ad campaign, and those are the things you need to do in order to become successful. You don´t have to be worried that network marketing prosperity is difficult. It isn´t. In fact, it has never been so easy to make a decent second income or even a full time. But it takes time, persistence and uniqueness. The people looking at your ads and reading your follow up letters are going to judge you and your whole business not only by what the materials have to say, but also by their appearance. Be sure you send a powerful, positive and convincing message. Invest some time and money on your marketing materials, the payoff will be well worth it. Look at others ads in the Internet, See what´s attracting you, this will most likely attract others too. Do you see what I mean? Your advertising campaign will be the propel to your business success. By now you think "How do I create one of those successful ads?" After all, it´s the words that sell your opportunity. Write a good ad and it´s taking you to the top. Let your friends take a look at it and say what they think. Now where to put your ad? If you place your ad in a pets publication and the ad is promoting toys for children you might not get a single response. But placed in the right publication it will be a winner. It´s very important that you from the beginning know exactly where to put your ad. Just think about you having spent hours on that ad and then you put it in the wrong publication and get no response at all, that´s a big waste of time and effort. My best advise is that you always work on your ads. Write them down, leave them for some time, go back to look at them again, let others look at them and after a while you will see the picture of your ad and you will see if it´s working or not, if not then you have to start from the beginning and write a new one and follow the same procedure again. The Internet are full of ads, start clicking around and read others ads, this is the best way to learn what is working or not. You probably can tell instantly when an ad is good or not at least after a while. Now I wish you good luck with your marketing. Gert Ljungqvist - Mailto:gertljungqvist@runbox.com Learn How to Develop $6,569 a month With 30 days of step-by-step Training From Experts by visiting: http://www.EliteTeamMarketing.com/37698 About the Author Gert Ljungqvist works as a Internet Business Entrepreneur part time. He also work with economy in the Swedish Church

A lunchtime lesson on print advertising

by: Gary Watson

I promise you’ll be able to finish this article before you finish the first half of your PBJ. Are you sitting down? Good. Because I have some startling news for you. Print ads are here to stay. That’s right. Those dusty, musty, fusty old relics of the century past are still with us. And despite the ubiquity of commercials on radio and TV; despite the onslaught of banners, pop-ups and all manner of intrusive online ads; newspapers and magazines are, and always will be, a mainstay forum for mainstream advertising. There’s something about the readiness, the handiness, the heft and feel of a magazine or a newspaper that appeals to the nature of human beings. Yes, flat screens that glow with vivid colors are attractive. Especially when they’re displaying something we specifically asked to see. But as we page through a magazine or a newspaper while enjoying our lunch or riding a commuter train, we don’t mind at all if a surprising or intelligent or just plain appealing ad – even one in black and white – suddenly grabs our attention. We expect it. We secretly look for it. We even welcome it as a break from all the dull gray type we’ve been slogging through. Why? Because – let’s face it – a really good ad is a delight to behold. Is this the kind of ad your target audience is seeing? Do your ads stop them and make them smile…think…take in your message and make a mental note to look closer at your product or service? Maybe even go to your website for the kind of information that could lead to a sale? Think carefully about this. If your ad doesn’t stand apart, doesn’t attract, appeal or grab; if it doesn’t delight in some way, the readers you want to capture and bring into your world will simply turn the page and plow on through the dull stuff . . . until they bump into your competitor’s delightfully different ad. And then they’ll stop – and, unfortunately for you – pay attention to the message. So take a close look at your company’s ads. Do they stand out from the crowd of other ads? Are they different from your competitor’s ads in a powerful and relevant way? And most important, do they convey your core message in an engaging, persuasive and delightful manner? If so, let them run and run, because they’re bound to bring you business. If not, better change your approach soon. Before the competition eats your lunch. Gary Watson writes ads for companies that want to add to their bottom line. He also does product/service naming, slogans/tag lines, billboards, web content, sales letters (print and email), etc. etc. He can be reached at Gary@GWCopy.com.

80% of All Advertising Is Wasted Due To This Common Mistake

by: John Jantsch

You’re flipping through this publication as you wait for your latte, when suddenly you decide to stop and read an ad. What made you stop? I’ll bet it was an attention grabbing headline. It is a scientifically proven fact that 5 times as many people read headlines as read the body copy of an ad. So with the headline, an advertiser has spent about 80% of their advertising dollar. It doesn’t take a genius to realize then the headline is the most important part of any ad. Yet, most small business advertising is wasted for lack of an effective headline or, worse yet, no headline at all. Don’t make this same mistake. The headline is the first thing that your reader or prospect sees when they open your letter, browse a magazine, or flip your postcard. In that moment, (about 3 seconds) your reader decides whether or not to read any farther. So first and foremost, any advertisement you produce must have a headline and your headline must grab your reader's attention immediately. If you don't grab them by the throat and hold them right away, you never will. Writing powerful headlines takes some hard work but it can be done if you follow some simple guidelines. 1. Your headline should give the reader a reason to stop and read now instead of later – a carefully chosen word or two can create urgency 2. Your headline should communicate something the reader considers valuable – they need to be able to justify the time spent reader your ad 3. Your headline should scream how you might offer something that is unique or at least interesting 4. Your headline should point to something very specific for the reader – use facts and how to’s Using these points as a guide to create your headlines allows you to create headlines that hook your reader quickly, offers them a benefit they want, and gives them a reason to read on. Never use boring, conventional or overused statements and never use a headline to trick your reader into looking on. Attention Getting Power Words for Your Headlines Look at powerful headlines and you will see that many contain one or more of the following words that sell. Discover Easy Free New Proven Save Results Introducing At Last Guarantee Bargain Easy Quick Sale Why How To Just Arrived Now Announcing Start of by writing some headlines that clearly communicate your promise, benefit or USP. Then look for ways to make them even more powerful by adding a power word or two and checking if they contain at least 3 of the guidelines provided above. Copyright 2004 John Jantsch John Jantsch is a marketing coach and creator of the Duct Tape Marketing System. You can get more information about the Duct Tape System and download your free copy of “How To Create the Ultimate Small Business Marketing System in 7 Simple Steps” by visitinghttp://www.DuctTapeMarketing.com

13 Free or Cheap Effective Advertising Methods

by: Donnie Baird

Advertising is the life blood of any business, no matter how big or how small. No advertising usually means no business. Large companies have an almost unlimited source of advertising dollars. Small business owners on the other hand, are limited in the amount of money they have for advertising. So, the problem is how to make ones advertising dollar get the most bang for the buck. It's not enough to advertise. Your advertising must be effective. So, once you have a website or an ad to advertise, check out the following ways to advertise for little or no cost. 1. Advertising coop- Many businesses, especially work at home businesses, offer advertising coops. They will send people to your business for a fee. Usually the fee is relatively small. This is nice because you already know that these people have at least some interest in your business. Although they may not spend a penny with you, you at least get the exposure. 2. Website-The age of the internet has expanded the possibility of owning your own business to an almost unlimited number of people. It also has expanded the advertising audience to a tremendous amount of new people, world wide, who otherwise you would never have been able to reach. Although websites will cost you to get hosted, you can advertise it many ways for free. Things like link exchanges and article submissions allow you to get exposure to your website with no cost except for you time. And as we will see in a moment, your website can be advertised many other ways for free. The advantage of a website is that it centralizes all your business and products into one central location. It gives you somewhere to send people so that you don't have to do as much selling because you let your website do the selling for you. 3. Answering Machine-Change the message on your answering machine to reflect the fact that you are now in business for yourself. You could say something like," Hello. You have reached the home office of John Doe of My Business.com….." That way when you call that person back, they may ask you about your business and thus the door is open to discussing your business. 4. Put a sign in your front yard or in the yard of a friend or relative with your name and website address on it. This is a good way for your neighbors to find out about your new business as well as any people that ride by your house. 5. Place a magnetic sign or bumper sticker on your car. Now, when you are riding down the road, sitting at a stop sign, or leaving your car parked at the mall or grocery store, you are getting free advertising. 6. Wear your ad-Place your website on a sweatshirt, tee-shirt, or a hat. So, when you are out in public, people will see you ad and again it will open up the door to discussing your new business. 7. Flyers-There are many places that will allow you to place a flyer about your business. Businesses like grocery stores, libraries, laundromats, hair salons and others will let you place a free ad on their public bulletin board. 8. Business cards-Don't leave home without them. You never now when the chance to hand one out will happen. You may see an old friend, meet someone looking to get out of the 9-5 rut or who is in need of a new opportunity. 9. Free Classifieds-Use the internet and the many free classified ads on it to advertise your business. A search using "free classifieds" will give you an almost limitless number of places to submit your website and ad. 10.Ezines or electronic magazines are also a good place to advertise your business. Some charge a fee for placing your ad in the best location, some let you advertise for free. Again a web search will allow you find numerous ezines to place you ad in. 11.Place your web address in your e-mail signature. 12.Place a flyer or business card in your out going mail. 13.Word of Mouth-The least expensive form of advertising and maybe the most effective way to advertise your business is word of mouth. Simply tell those you come in contact with that you are in business for yourself. They will tell others and they will tell others and it can go on and on. Sooner or later someone will take a look at what you are doing. Obviously, there are many more ways to advertise your business for little or no money. The point is you don't have to have the big bucks to successfully advertise you business or product. There are many people who have started and become extremely successful in their business on a shoe string advertising budget. There is hope for the small business owner. All you need is a website or add, a little creativity, a little time, and you too can advertise your way to success without going to the poor house. About the Author Donnie Baird has been involved with work at home businesses for 4 years and is the webmaster/owner of http://internet-work-at-home-opportunity.com . He lives in North Carolina with his wife and two children.

10 Tips for Successful Ezine Advertising

by: Michael Southon

When it comes to advertising, I've tried just about everything. I tried free classified ad sites, I tried FFA sites, I tried banner exchange programs. The results? Not much. I was tired of hearing that the Internet is the largest market in human history. Maybe so, but how could I reach those millions of people? The answer, I discovered, is ezine advertising. Ezines are sometimes called 'opt-in' lists because everyone who receives an ezine has chosen to do so. And that's why ezine advertising gets results. People read ezines and they'll read your ad. And if you've matched the ezine to the product you're selling, you've reached your target audience. There are currently around 90,000 ezines being published every month. So whatever you're selling, there's more than likely an ezine that will take your ad straight to the audience you want to reach. Ezine advertising is not only effective, it's cheap as well. A 5 line ad in an ezine that goes to 3000 people will cost you between $5 and $20 per issue. As a general rule, you'll always get back at least the cost of the ad, and usually much more. So there's very little risk. But there are some tips for successful ezine advertising. Here they are: 1. The first and most important rule is: "Track your Ads!" Say you place an ad in 5 different ezines and get a hundred responses. If you don't track your ads, you won't know which ezines were pulling responses and which weren't. But how do you track your ads? The simplest method is to place a key or a code at the end of your email address: yourname@yourdomain.com?subject=ezineA Then, when you get a reply with 'ezineA' in the subject field, you'll know which ezine it came from. For a URL, it's the same principle: http://www.yourdomain.com?ezineA However, if you're going to code your URLs, you'll need a good webstats program to track the coded URLs. These two programs are excellent and they're both free: Here's another way to code your URLs: for every ezine ad, create a duplicate of your homepage and name the page after the ezine that your ad will appear in. So, if the ad is appearing in EzineA, this is the URL you'd place in that ad: http://www.yourdomain.com/EzineA 2. Target your audience. It may seem obvious but some advertisers overlook this. If you're selling a web-marketing course, don't advertise in an ezine that deals with stock options; they probably won't be interested. Use the 'subject categories' in any ezine directory to find ezines that relate to the product you're selling. You can find a list of 56 ezine directories in 'The Free Directory of Ezines' at: 3. Once you've chosen a number of ezines that target your audience, subscribe to them and examine the ads closely. If you see an ad that keeps repeating issue after issue, you can be pretty sure that it's getting results. You've found a good ezine to advertise in. 4. Check to see how many ads are in the ezine. You probably won't get much response from an ad in an ezine that has 15 or 20 ads per issue. Readers of those ezines have become hardened to the ads and have learnt to skip them. 5. Check to see if the ezine publisher has a policy of never running ads for two similar products in the same issue - your ad will be much more effective if it's the only one of it's kind in that particular issue. 6. Small ezines Vs. Big ezines: bigger is not always better. The big ezines with 1000's of subscribers tend to have more ads than the small ezines. Also, small ezines with only a few hundred subscribers often have a much more targeted audience than the big ezines. 7. Repeat your ads. Research shows that off the Web, an ad has to be seen about 21 times before someone acts on it; on the Internet it's about 9 times. If your budget allows, try and have your ad repeated at least three times in a particular ezine. Most ezines offer discount packages for bulk advertising. 8. Email address Vs. URL. The advantage of giving an email address is that it gives you the opportunity to send a powerful sales letter to the person who responded to your ad. It's also much easier to track your ads with an email address than a URL. 9. Offer something free in your ad copy. It'll often tip the balance between a response and no response. 10. Keep your ads short, even if you're not using the number of words you're allowed. Short ads are more likely to be read. Keep your sentences short too; they pack much more power. Use the word 'You'. Don't describe your product but tell the reader what your product can do for them. Michael Southon is the publisher of 'The Free Directory of Ezines'http://www.netmastersolutions.com/ He is also the Editor of 'FreeZine Express', a twice-monthly newsletter that brings you details of new Ezines added to the TFDE as well as Articles and Tips on Ezine Advertising and Ezine Publishing. To subscribe, send a blank email to: mailto:FreeZineExpress-subscribe@topica.com

10 Ezine Advertising Strategies For Starters

by: Diane Hughes

Copyright 2005 Diane Hughes If you're like most ezine advertisers you wish to generate FAST Sales by sending your message in front of thousands ezine subscribers. Some spend hundreds in ezine advertising hoping to generate a BIG profit...  but it ends up costing them more than they earn. Yes, ezine advertising works, but if you really want to WIN the ezine advertising GAME you must take in consideration the strategies below: 1. What do you plan to advertise? e.g. an affiliate product, your own product, a course by e-mail, an ebook, etc. You must know exactly what you want to promote in other ezines before advertising in them; ask yourself these questions: Is the product related to your target audience? Is the product valuable? Does the seller offer a money-back guarantee? Does the Web Site make you want to purchase the product yourself? Does the Web Sales Letter convert into Sales? 2. Who is your target audience? The product you plan to promote in other ezines must be related to a certain niche (target audience) so don't make the mistake to think that everyone needs or wants what you promote. e.g. if your product is related to dog lovers, don't advertise in ezines related to cat lovers because you won't make any sales. 3. Where to find the 'BEST' ezine to advertise in? The 'BEST' ezine to promote a product in is the one targeted to your audience. The more specific your target audience and the ezine TOPIC, the more sales you could receive. Also, the 'BEST' ezine to advertise in is the one where the publisher has already built TRUST with his/her subscribers and they purchase regularly from their recommendations. Ezine Advertising List http://www.probiztrack.com/go/p.cgi/ezines 4. What's your BUDGET? If you only afford $300 to spend on ezine advertising, you don't want to spend it all on one ezine. Try to invest your money wisely, step-by-step. Have you seen a publisher claiming their ezine has 90,000+ subscribers and they sell advertising for $25 - $50 or so? If these offers sound too good to be true, maybe it is! 5. How many subscribers does the ezine have? Numbers don't count, the quality of the ezine CONTENT itself is what makes the difference; if a publisher sends too many ads to their subscribers, I suppose you imagine there are not too happy seeing all those ads. The more CONTENT and less advertising an ezine has, the better RESULTS you could receive from your advertising. 6. Who wrote your Ad Copy? You know exactly the 'BEST' ezine to advertise in, how much you want to spend on advertising, but your ad copy is weak ... try to improve it yourself or ask a copywriter to rewrite it. How to make your Ad Copy bring in GREAT results? - write an eye-catching headline or no one will read your WHOLE ad copy; - use powerful / action words in your headline & ad copy like 'INSTANT', 'FREE', 'GET', 'CASH', 'UNLIMITED', 'TURN', 'BOOST', 'CREATE', etc. - write your ad copy to promote a FREE offer like a FREE course by e-mail, a FREE ebook or a FREE sample of a product. 7. Don't want to track your Ad? Why not? How will you know that the ezine you advertised in is profitable or not? Most advertisers don't track their ads. Just look in other ezines and you'll see their regular Web Site link, no tracking URL available. A tracking URL will show you how many clicks your ad receives and how many sales it makes from those clicks. http://www.probiztrack.com 8. Don't want to use autoresponders in your Ad Copy? Autoresponders are one of the SMARTEST internet marketing tools simply because they allow you to follow-up with your leads and send out more promotional offers automatically. You only write your messages once and then put them on the autoresponder sequences to be delivered at pre-determined intervals like 1, 2 or more days. You can even use autoresponders to build your own mailing lists of leads and customers. Instead of sending prospects to your main Web Site page, direct them to a Web Page where they can GET a FREE course by e-mail. Use this course to educate them and build a relationship with them, gain their trust. 9. Want to play with 'SPAM'? Don't do it if you are SMART. Search on your favorite search engine for "spam laws + email marketing" and you'll get a picture of what 'SPAM' is and how you can protect yourself! Make sure you read about the CAN-Spam law if you want to know how to legally send commercial emails. Also, don't forget about the FTC laws on e-mail marketing! 10. What ads are 'BEST'? If you want to sell something directly from your ad, try Solo Mailings (one e-mail sent to all subscribers with no other ads in competition!) If you want to TEST your ad or want to promote a FREE offer, try Classified, Top Sponsor or Bottom Ads. They are much cheaper than Solos and could bring 'POOR' results. If you invest in Solo Ads, make sure your ad copy is short and to the point, don't bore your prospect with long ad copy. About the Author Diane C. Hughes * ProBizTips.com FREE Report: Amazingly Simple (Yet Super Powerful) Ways To Skyrocket Your Sales And Build Your Business Into A Tower of Profits! ==>> http://madmarketer.com/diane