Here's a report that might help you out. This is
the latest update on what works and what doesn't
in online marketing (Dec. 2000).
I will take you through what doesn't work, first.
1. Blasting your ad to FFAs
Avoid these with extreme prejudice. Nobody ever
visits these anymore. Plus your ad is listed for
only minutes.
2. Classified ads boards.
These don't work either. At least not for Biz Opps
Even in Yahoo! They don't work at all. Waste of
time.
3. Blasting your ad to free opt in lists.
Don't work. You'll get 2 to 3 responses. this wont
guarantee sales. Free opt-in list work only if you
use a particular method described below:
http://verdeneon.net/$3gets$10/
4. Blasting your ad to paid opt in lists.
Don't work. In order for them to work you must
chose new lists, no older than a month and with
under 500 subscribers. And even then you only
get under 10 responses.
If you're thinking about these "1,000,000 subscriber"
companies, think twice a about paying your $39.95 to
these companies. These are just a bunch of useless
free opt-in lists that everyone else is blasting to and
not really paying to much attention to. Again you only
get10-20 people per blast. It really isn't all they make
it to be. It's all hype and emotional style propaganda.
5. Ezine advertising.
Doesn't work. If you're submitting your classified
ad to ezines, you're a complete fool. You need a top
sponsor ad and you need ezines that have a large loyal
following and increases in subscribers at least 100
per week. If this isn't happening, then you've wasted
your time and money.
You must take in consideration that an ezine is viewed
completely the first few issues, then the subscriber
just scans the issue for any relevant topics, disregarding
the ads completely.
Plus you need your top sponsor ad in several ezines
just to break even. This can be very expensive and there
are no guarantees on the success of your ad campaign
even on large subscriber ezines.
6. Ezine Solo ads.
Don't work. Again, same as above. Veteran subscribers
do not read solo ads. In fact, they are annoyed by them.
Only new subscribers read solo ads, so the ezine must
be increasing in subscribers every week.
7. Banner exchanges.
These don't work. Unless you already have lots of hits
to your site. If you have 1:1 exchange and you have 200
hits a day to your site, then that's just 200 impressions
you get on other sites, but it's not guaranteed hits to
your site. So just forget that idea.
8. Banner Ad campaigns.
Don't work. Some people say they do some say they don't.
I'll tell you that you need a lot of impressions to make
a "good impression" We're talking about 5 million to start
with. This is really expensive. At a $1 CMP (cost per thousand)
that's $5,000. This will guarantee aprox. 20,000 hits
It's pretty good if you have $5000 hanging around.
9. Search Engines and Directories
Don't work. They might have worked 6 months ago or earlier.
I'll tell you why they don't work. URL submission to search
engines is like throwing a basketball from one side of
the court to the other and trying to make it in while there
are a thousand other people trying to make it in as well in
the same basket at the same time. It's ludicrous and useless.
Then once you're in, you have to be sure your listing is in the
top 3 or you lose. It's that simple. So if there is a
submission company that can guarantee top 3 for a popular
keyword or keywords in the 5 major search engines and
directories, then you have a chance to get some extra hits
a day.
Note: All these variable must be there or you lose:
Top 3; the right keywords; 5 major search engines.
Again, taking all the variables plus what I mentioned before,
it's riduculous to even try. Another thing is that it usually
takes week even months to get listed. Forget about it!
10. Ad swaps.
Don't work. Unless you swap strategically and even then
you need to swap with many other websites to get a decent
number of hits. And since you need to put the other site's
ad on your site/ezine, your biz will look like a classified
ad section of the newspaper and no one will want to visit
your site again.
Ok, what works? There's only one thing you need:
100% GUARANTEED TARGETED VISITORS.
Any company that can guarantee a specific number of hits
in a particular time frame is a "winner" in my eyes. This
is crucial for any online business. You have to get results.
You need guaranteed traffic. Once you have that traffic
it's up to you to get the visitors in a confident buying mood.
But I will say from experience that traffic is the key.
The biz with the most targeted visitors wins. That simple.
You can control everything that happens on your site,
from ad copy to delivery. So that is your job; to get
everything on your site working smoothly. You must
now get control of your traffic.
That's the only way to succeed online:
100% GUARANTEED TARGETED VISITORS.
About the Author
Carlos Arenas is the CEO of VERDENEON Online Marketing
Network and the Director of CA Design.
Get 2000 Visitors Guaranteed in One Week or Your Money Back!
Click Here for Details >>> http://verdeneon.net/cadesign/