Advertising Information

16 Methods for Getting Free Advertising

2011-09-30T13:56:00.000+05:30

1. Place copies of your circular on bulletin boards throughout your community, such as in coin-operated laundries, grocery stores, barber shops, etc. Concentrate of Fridays and Saturdays when shopping increases.

2. Check with local newspapers. Before going to press, many smaller newspapers have space left that needs filling.. Your ad may be just the right size to occupy this unfilled space and they will run it free.

3. Place your circulars on windshields of parked autos, Youngsters will be happy to do this for you for a dollar or two. Check first with city ordinances to see if this is permitted in your locality.

4. Leave sales literature on doorsteps of homes & businesses in your area. Do this on weekends in residential areas; weekdays for businesses.

5. Have your best pulling 1 inch or 2 inch ad made into a rubber stamp. Stamp this on envelopes of all of your outgoing mail.. Check rubber stamp dealer's ads in current mail order publications for price information.

6. When you have envelopes printed with your return address, have them also print your best ad directly beneath your address. It costs noting additional to have this printed on the front of your envelopes.

7. If you publish a mail order magazine, newspaper, adsheet, etc., contact other publishers, If your circulation is equal to theirs, many will be happy to exchange an equal amount of ad space with you.

8. Many publishers will give you free adspace for mailing a few copies of their publication. Simply write to them and ask if they will give you a free 1 inch ad in exchange for mailing 50 to 100 copies of their pub.

9. Write informative articles for mail order trade publication. Most publishers will give you free ad space for the use of your article.

10. Take advantage of advertising specials. Many publishers offer ads on a 3-for-the- price- of -2- basis, or 4-for-the-price-of-3, etc. This saving is the same as getting one ad free of charge.

11. Some publishers offer a free classified ad with your first display ad. Watch for such specials. Use the free ad and pocket the savings.

12. When starting a new publication, many publishers will offer reduced ad rates to help fill space. Watch for ads regarding such offers.

13. In your ads, request a SASE. Then insert some of your other offers in regular outgoing mail. This is the same as getting free advertising.

14. Become a mailer. Get your printer's lowest price for printing circulars on both sides of the sheet. Contact other dealers and state you will print and mail their circulars for this price with no conflicting ads on the back. Then print your circulars on the reverse and distribute them with your outgoing mail. There is no extra cost for postage and envelopes, and your side of the circular is paid for by your customers.

15. Offer a free commission circulars. Print one of your regular offers on one side; a commission offer on the reverse, leaving space where the mailer can rubber stamp his name & address, Your offer gets a free ride.

16. If you use a postage meter machine, use the ad space directly left of stamp imprint for a free message.

Copyright 2004 by DeAnna Spencer

Note to editors:
To show my appreciation to the editors that use my articles, I offer a free solo ad. Simply send an email to me by using the form on the contact me page on my website to tell me the url the article was used on or send me a copy of the ezine it was used in.
This article may be redistributed freely on the Internet as long as the resource box remains intact.

DeAnna is the publisher of the ezine, Prospecting and Presents.
Subscribers get one free ad per week.
Subscribe today by visiting http://www.pnewsletter.com

You can make Great $$$ in a week from free advertising

2011-09-30T13:55:00.000+05:30

by: eiffel internet

“Promote one Affiliate Program is the Key to your Success!”

There are a lot of affiliate marketing programs out there that claim to make you more money than you could possible spend; when in true reality, you’ve just sign up to be another person that the company can send you emails to buy their products!

Well the KEY to really making an affiliate program work for you is just by sticking with the one program you’ve signed up for. It gets quite easy to keep signing up for program after program in hopes that you will finally hit pay-dirt. What has happened is that now you are spread so thin in your ability to market a single program effectively.

Your goal is to send tons of traffic to that site URL and then in turn change those visitors into paying customers; further, your goal is to turn those customers or visitors into a down-line group that will help you build an extra layer of residual income on top of your regular commissions.

Believe or not when you promote your affiliate's website directly ..Its more effective
than you put the same affiliate's link in your website...

You can make $2000 in a week from free advertising for only one affiliate...

When you collect your efforts in marketing your affiliate site by only some free
advertising with more working,,,I will guarantee you will earn at least $2000
in a week ....

My important free marketing which I will show you when you use it ,,you will
ensure earning $$$..

1- submit to search engins

http://www.easyblaster.com/
http://penneypalace.ws/page6.html
http://getmassivehits.com
http://blaster-boys.com/bbna1.html
http://payperclickuniverse.com/prefunded.php
http://www.payperclickuniverse.com/pay-per-click-search-engines-special-deals.php

2- Post to free marketing discussion lists
http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html
http://www.discussionlists.com/
http://www.tile.net/
http://www.websuccessmaker.com/internet_information/internet_marketing_discussion_forums.htm
http://www.websuccessmaker.com/follow-up_fine-tune/follow-up_fine_tune_resource_index.htm
http://www.wilsonweb.com/cat/cat.cfm?page=1&subcat=me_Newsletter
http://everydaybusinessonline.com/dboards.htm
http://www.supertips.com/forums/list.htm
http://www.howtocorp.com/forum/
http://www.ozemedia.com/cgi-bin/webbbs/webbbs_config.pl
http://www.williecrawford.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi
http://www.network54.com/Forum/184615
http://www.talkbiz.com/cgi-bin/mlm.cgi
http://www.auctionhints.com/message/webbbs_config.pl
http://www.mcpromotions.com/webbbs/config.pl
http://www.mlmwoman.com/wwwboard/
http://www.escribe.com/computing/neatnettricks/bb/
http://www.network54.com/Forum/87014
http://homebusiness-websites.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi
http://www.network54.com/Forum/184615

3- Write a good article and submite it :

http://www.ezinearticles.com/submit/
http://ezinearticles.com
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://www.marketing-seek.com
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.netterweb.com
http://www.isyndicate.com
http://www.articlecentral.com
http://homeincome.com/writers-connection
http://www.web-source.net/syndicator_submit.htm
http://www.clickforcontent.com/writersadd.htm
http://www.aracopy.com
http://www.dime-co.com
http://www.zinecast.com
http://www.writebusiness.com
http://www.etext.org
http://www.zinos.com
http://www.addme.com
http://www.makingprofit.com
http://www.vectorcentral.com/ezine-question-answer-form.htm

4- Post your affiliate site to some Press Releases:

http://www.ebookbroadcast.com/submit.html
http://www.pressblast.com/
http://www.press-release-writing.com/
http://www.trashproofnewsreleases.com/

Try it an hour a day and you will be glad you did.......... ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Eiffel internet ... super affiliate since 1996...
My Great affilaite site http://www.telebay.com/eiffel/mall-general.html
E-mail : eiffel@soficom.net

Why Your Online Advertising Traffic Leaves as Soon as It Arrives

2011-09-30T13:53:00.002+05:30

by: Joel Walsh

Why Your Online Advertising Traffic Leaves as Soon as It Arrives

by
Joel Walsh

Online advertising traffic leaves when advertisers don't make it easy to stick around.

Business website owners who buy online advertising often get frustrated when most of their

expensive traffic leaves as soon as it arrives--i.e, it "bounces."

Why does traffic from online advertising bounce? Think about it: you've done the same thing many

times. You've searched on a search engine, clicked on a result, then left that page less than ten

seconds after you arrived. You did that again and again until you found what you were looking for.

You might easily have left a trail of bounces on the server logs of a dozen websites, for a dozen

website owners to worry over.

Why did you keep leaving? Because you weren't finding what you were looking for on those websites

within the first ten to thirty seconds of arriving. Experience had taught you that you'd find what

you were looking for faster clicking on other search results, one of which was bound to have what you

were looking for, than sifting through the pages of a website that didn't look very promising from

the start.

That's how everyone searches, and how everyone treats online advertising. You have to work with this

behavior rather than against it.

How to Catch Your Online Advertising Traffic before It Bounces

So how do you keep online advertising traffic from bouncing? Think about why you bounced. What made

you doubt that the website had what you were searching for? If you were using a search engine, you

had searched on a keyword--let's say you searched on "small business website content." Without

realizing it, you were scanning each page for the keyword, "small business website content," or

something very close to it.

A website that talked about "small business web copy" might have been what you were looking for, but

if you didn't know that "web copy" is just another term for "website content," you'd have hit the

"back" button. You’d keep hitting the "back" button until you arrived at a page that had that keyword

in the page title, page headings, and in the first few lines of the body, maybe in boldface to make

it easier to find.

Of course, if you arrived at the page via a link from another website, you weren't looking for a

search engine keyword. You were just looking (hoping) for something that had to do with what made you

click on the link in the first place. If the page title and the first page heading resembled the text

of the link you had clicked on, you'd feel like you had found what you were looking for--no worries

about this being one of those pages that changed after the other site started linking to it.

But if the link promised no. 72 monkey wrenches, you'd feel let down if it brought you to the

homepage of a hardware store. Experience tells you the store might have stopped selling no. 72 monkey

wrenches long ago and never bothered updating its inbound links. Experience also tells you that even

if the site does have what you're looking for, it may be more trouble than it's worth to find it. Why

search through a website when search results from the entire world wide web are just a click of the

"back" button away?

Thanks to the "back" button, on the web, no one has to feel let down for long. Except advertisers who

let visitors down.

About the author

Joel Walsh is a website copywriter at UpMarket Content, a website content provider for small and medium-sized businesses. He has written as a staff writer for books published by Barnes & Nobles and St. Martin’s Press, as well as numerous online publications. Website: http://upmarketcontent.com

Why Radio Advertising Could Be The Best Thing

2011-09-30T13:52:00.000+05:30

by: Michele Pariza Wacek

In the marketing world, radio has earned the reputation of being the odd step-cousin. You know the one. No one knows quite what to do with him. Especially at family gatherings when everyone tries hard to avoid sitting with him. (After all, who knows WHAT he'll start talking about.)

Much of that reputation comes from radio being tough to track. On one hand, radio does work. Businesses do notice an increase in sales when they add radio to the mix. However, radio doesn't test well. In surveys and other tracking methods, radio tends to be the one with the dismal scores.

A good friend of mine, who's also a marketing consultant but before that she sold radio for many years, has a theory about that. She says radio works on a subconscious or unconscious level. People remember the ad, but not that they heard it on the radio. So, they tend to credit a different medium for the ad, like the yellow pages. Yellow pages gets a boost while radio drops a few points.

Regardless, radio should not be ignored because it does work. And many marketing consultants will probably tell you radio is an excellent medium to reach a local market.

However, I feel there are possibilities beyond merely reaching local customers.
Internet radio shows are starting to take off in a big way. That means advertising and sponsorship opportunities are also taking off. In addition, "offline" methods have been shown to be pretty effective at driving traffic online. If increasing Web traffic is your goal, using traditional media outlets to increase traffic should be a part of your mix.

If people already know you (which they might in your local market) they're more likely to be loyal. And they're more likely to send other customers to your site. Depending on the costs of radio in your community, radio may be a very affordable way to get a good viral campaign going. (A viral campaign is what happens when other people pass around your business' e-mails to their friends and family, or send them to your Web site.)

Below are some other positive reasons to use radio:

* Affordable -- when you compare spot to spot, radio tends to be one of the least expensive media out there. However, one spot ain't going to do it. To reach your target market, you need to purchase several spots. That's why radio can also turn into one of the more expensive media. However, there are ways to keep your costs in line yet still reap the benefits of radio -- for instance, buying less spots but running them all in one or two weeks, so your customers are more likely to hear your message.

* Psychological, if you voice the commercials yourself -- hearing your voice makes people feel like they "know" you. (Hence the popularity of audio on Web sites. In fact, marketing gurus claim just by adding audio to a site substantially increases how many people buy.)
People tend to buy from people and businesses they know and trust. Hearing your voice helps them feel as if they know you. These psychological aspects may be another reason to consider running a few radio ads in your local market even if you have an Internet business.

* Speed -- you can get your spot up and running in no time.

* Loyalty -- listeners choose stations based on the music or shows they like and they tend to be quite loyal to that station. If you know what your customers enjoy listening to, it's an excellent way to reach them. (I include both music and talk shows in this.)

* Good support medium -- radio works really well when paired with other marketing mediums (like print, direct mail or television).
But for every positive, there's a negative. In the spirit of being objective, here are a few for radio:

* Background medium -- radio tends to be on in the background, which means it tends to be ignored. Generally, your target market needs to be exposed to your ad more times than other marketing media before they'll act upon your message.
some of the marketing gurus say. But, here again my marketing consultant friend differs. She thinks it's that subconscious thing again.
And if you can write a spot that creates pictures in your customers' heads, you can actually work this to your advantage. In fact, according to my friend, if the picture is defined enough, not only will people remember it better, but they'll also think it was a print ad instead of a radio ad. (More on the art of creating pictures using words in later issues.)

* Hard to track – it's impossible to know exactly how many people are tuning in at any given time.
A final note: Because radio is subconscious, keep that in mind when crafting your ad. Repeat your business name a lot and any other branding info, so it gets into your customers' heads. Don't put in phone numbers. Instead, purchase a memorable Web site domain name and repeat that. And remember to create "pictures" whenever possible.

Creativity Exercise -- How can you use radio in your business?
Would radio work for your business? Let's find out.
Take out a sheet of paper and a fun pen. (I'm partial to gel pens.) Draw a line down the center.
On one side, put the header: Why advertising on radio is a good idea for my business. On the other side, put the header: Why advertising is a bad idea for my business.

Now pick a side and start writing down reasons.

You might be more comfortable starting with the side that's easiest for you. Then when you work on the other side, you can simply turn the reasons around.

For instance, let's say you started with the bad idea. One of your reasons was: My product is completely visual. You could turn it around by saying "Because my product is so visual, I'll have to work harder to create pictures in my customers' minds. And because the customers create their own pictures, they're more likely to remember them."

Or what if you started with a good idea, and one of the reasons was: "Because my business is local." You could turn it around and say "Because radio is holding me back -- I'm only reaching this local market." (Ah, now I'm even going against what I said earlier. Maybe with this statement you could look for ways to get your customers to spread the word outside the area about your business.)
As you saw by my last example, you'll be amazed at what comes out when you do this exercise. Even if you don't change your views on radio advertising, you may come up with new and powerful insights to your business.

Michele Pariza Wacek owns Creative Concepts and Copywriting, a writing, marketing and creativity agency. She offers two free e-newsletters that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at www.writingusa.com.
Copyright 2004 Michele Pariza Wacek.

michele@writingusa.comk

Why Hire an Advertising/Marketing Consultant?

2011-09-30T13:50:00.000+05:30

by: Mary Ellen Martelli

As a business owner, you have the option of taking several different approaches to handling your Marketing and Advertising. You may choose to handle the responsibility yourself, with the idea that no one understands your business quite the way you do.. You may also consider hiring a full time marketing manager or even assigning the tasks, as they arise, to someone already working within your organization. Consider this When your business needs plumbing work do you do it yourself? Hire a plumber to be on staff full time? Or ask your accountant to handle it?

Call in the Experts.

Though some advertising and marketing ventures seems simple enough to be handled in house, nothing is as costly as a marketing misfire. Not only may you be sending out the wrong messages, to the wrong markets, but also by the time you catch it, your budget may be in no shape to recover and redirect. The truth is, no one can do the job as effectively and efficiently as someone who lives and breathes the industry everyday. Plus, the added perk of consistent media contacts that will prove to be financially beneficial to your business.
Seeing the forest and the trees.

When you hire a consultant you hire an objective opinion, as well as a fresh point of view. Sometimes a business may lose perspective on itself by being too heavily immersed in the day-to-day operations, and lose itself in the big picture, missing the small details or vice-versa. Sadly, sometimes a businesss marketing will clearly reflect this. The president of a private jet companys focus is on the bells and whistles of his fleet. Its what he sees as important in his view of his business. Inevitably, his marketing may also focus on this portion of his business, ignoring what he is really selling to his potential clients: The feeling and the status of private jets.

If you add another ball, technically it is juggling.

If you, as a business owner, or an employee take on the added tasks of the marketing of the business, attention is being taken from other projects and responsibilities. Inescapably, focus and demands are bound to pull from one and take away from others until something falls to the floor. Consultants are dedicated to one, and only one, portion of your business. Their focus is committed, and they allow you to keep yours where it should be.

The Gumby Factor.

Consultants are very flexible. Immediately ready and available to take on assignments at a moments notice. Accessibility to getting a new project off the ground is just a phone call away. On the other hand, trying to hire a new employee specifically to handle your marketing needs takes valuable time to places ads; conduct interviews and then sort through applicants, hoping to find the right person for the job.

The M Word Money.

When you total up the actual cost of bringing on a new employee, you will most likely find that hiring a consultant is much more cost effective. The hourly rates may seem to favor a full time employee, but when you factor in employee benefits, training time, vacation/sick time, 401(k), the added overhead involved in situating a new employee, and the sheer fact that you may be paying full time wages for something that may not need full time attention, the cost effectiveness will fall in favor of a consultant. Which bring us to....

The C- Word Commitment.

Hiring a full time employee is a commitment. And bringing on an employee to handle a special marketing project, or set up an initial marketing plan, may in the long run leave you scrambling to find a new project or position for that employee. Or worse yet, you find yourself paying a full time marketing director to do basic maintenance. Hiring a consultant requires no long-term commitment. When a consultant completes a project, they have the flexibility to move into whatever position you need them, from quarterly analysis, to basic maintenance, to completely out of the picture, but on the sidelines when youre ready to take a new step forward.

"There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still." -Franklin D. Roosevelt
Mary Ellen Martelli is President of MareMax Consulting, a full service Advertising, Marketing & Website Consulting firm, located in the Southern New Jersey / Philadelphia area. You can reach her via her website http://maremaxconsulting.com/ or email: maremaxconsulting@comcast.net

Where is online advertising going?

2011-09-30T13:49:00.000+05:30

by: Peter Prestipino

Discusses t he brief history of online advertising through specific ad strageis and discusses where online advertising is headed.

Is there such a thing as “traditional” online advertising? If there is, it started with banners, moved to FFAs, took a step backwards with SPAM, a hard right with classified advertising and then shot forward with pay per click search engine. So how do you know where to spend your advertising budget in the current market? If you’ve been responsible for your company’s web advertising efforts over the years you might agree that the traditional means of advertising worked; as least for a little while. So as new types of advertising penetrate the market with increasing frequency, what do you do with those proven stand-by methods of generating links and traffic? Throw them out? Keep them around for posterity? Maybe give them a facelift? Let’s review those traditional ad models then look at some experimental models. TRADITIONAL ONLINE ADVERTISING MODELS

Banners
Banner ads in the form of animated gifs are the most common and widely used form of online advertising today. Banner ads reach the widest possible audience because practically 100% of Internet users can view them without any special plugins. Web marketers, advertisers and promoters have quickly realized that banners under 12k in file size puts the ad in front of the visitor as quickly as possible, increasing the chance of click-through even though surfers are growing increasingly immune. New styles and shapes of banners (such as skyscraper ads) have grown in popularity recently, which is addressed in the “Experimental Advertising” section below. SPAM

What does SPAM stand for? It’s not “Stupid Pointless Annoying Message” (which in some cases it could be) but rather “Sending and Posting Advertising Messages.” It’s hard to believe SPAM is effective, but unarguably, it is. While click-through rates continue to fall and legislation begins to rise, it is a savvy advertiser’s best bet to stay away from it, unless of course you’re selling Pasta Pots or Viagra. Rich mail – “Fancy SPAM”

Most likely, the e-mail messages you receive on a daily basis are text only. Rich mail, on the other hand, allows graphics, video and audio to be included in the e-mail message. When you open up a rich e-mail your e-mail client automatically calls up your Internet connection and launches an html page in your browser. E-mail clients that are offline will invite you to click on the link when you have your Internet connection open again. If your e-mail client does not support graphics you will receive the e-mail in text only. While SPAM is still SPAM, rich mail has proven to be much more effective than standard text messages. Pop-Ups/Pop-Unders:

This creative, yet completely obtrusive and annoying means of advertising was once celebrated in some circles as the most innovative ad concept since banners. It only took a short time before many users, sick of being trapped in a never-ending onslaught of such ads, voiced their rejection. One can only wonder when advertisers will recognize the public dissatisfaction and move on to another more effective means to promote their companies. Institutional Advertising:

While institutional or “in-house” advertising has been available since the inception of the Internet, few companies have made an effort to utilize the many different aspects of online advertising in one format as has 7Search.com with its Direct Pay-Per-Text advertising. 7Search, a leader in the pay per click search engine arena, has recently introduced this program which enables its advertisers to advertise outside of its search return lists using the same titles and descriptions seen on its search engine. The pay-per-click model enables interested advertisers to leave behind the CPM impression model and focus on the click conversions. Direct Pay-Per-Text is a patent-pending concept from 7Search which will be released to the general public in the coming months. Pay-Per-Click Search Engines

It’s hard to think of PPC search engines as a “traditional” means to advertise online, but the ratio of those advertisers who do versus those who don’t is staggering; in fact the majority have at least tried their hand at leasing traffic. In a PPC agreement, the advertiser only pays for qualifying clicks to the destination site based on a prearranged per-click rate. The response on ads with well-written titles and descriptions targeted to the users query pull response rates unseen in the ad industry previously. The greatest advantage arguably is the ability to measure precisely the rate of return versus your investment. Some of the most popular PPC search engines are FindWhat.com, 7Search.com, Ah-ha.com and the industry leader Overture. EXPERIMENTAL ONLINE ADVERTISING MODELS Traffic Exchange Advertising:
Hit exchanges, actually a form of banner exchange, are a recent phenomenon on the Internet. You will visit the site of a member of an exchange, and in exchange, another member of the exchange will visit your site. The recent explosion of hit exchanges on the web has diluted the effectiveness of such a method of advertising. There have also been many instances of cheating, in which a script is used to generate visits to a site. However, if you have a product that is of interest to webmasters, and is low cost or has a free version, there is no harm in giving hit exchanges a try. Shockwave ads
Shockwave is best suited for campaigns that want to utilize out-of-banner real estate, such as applets, trading cards, and games. Director and Flash provide the ability to embed interaction, video, and audio within the file, making Shockwave files some of the richest ad units on the Web. Viral marketing and strong brand interaction are two of the key strengths of Shockwave ads. As these ads are typically “bandwidth monsters” the adoption has been slow and will most likely remain that way. Other downsides include development costs and the fact that it just won’t work without the Shockwave plug-in, which (though downloaded by millions of users) is far from being a mainstay. Interstitial ads
Interstitials are ads that play between pages on a website, much like television ads play between sections of a program. There are several variations on the interstitial model: some play in the main browser window, while some play in new, smaller windows; some are pre-cached, while some stream ad content as it plays; some provide the ability to create very rich ads, while some focus on smaller, faster-loading ads. Whatever the format, nearly all interstitial ads perform very well if measured by both click-through rates and brand recall.

Floating ads and DHTML

Types of floating ads include DHTML sponsorships, in which advertising objects "fly" across the page on a preset course; cursor sponsorships, in which the cursor turns into an advertising image; and scrolling ads, in which an advertisement moves up and down the edge of a page as the user scrolls up and down. Floating ads give the advertiser and publisher the flexibility to achieve nearly any effect. However, as this is one of the more daring types of online advertising, advertising and content must be balanced on any given page. Floating ads (especially DHTML and cursors) are best run for short periods to create brand awareness—running them for longer periods can bring negative user feedback. It is important to understand that online advertising is only effective if it generates significant response and this applies to both traditional and experimental ads. Unfortunately, the only way to discover the efficiency of your campaign is to test in every format at least once with as many ads as you are able.

About the Author
Pete Prestipino is the founder and CEO of SCG - Swirling Circle Group, a consortium of online marketers, promoters, SEO's, web designers, and Internet consultants. For more information visit: www.SwirlingCircle.com

What is Advertising - and What Does it Mean on the Internet

2011-09-30T13:47:00.002+05:30

by: Bret RIdgway

Today’s Quick Tip answers the question “What is advertising?”

“Advertising is salesmanship. The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its
actual sales.”

- Claude Hopkins, one of the early masters of advertising and author of My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising.

This #1 issue of Copywriting Classics Quick Tips focuses on the late, great Claude Hopkins and how you can apply his decades old marketing wisdom to your online efforts today.

Jay Abraham, renowned as 'America’s Number One Marketing
Wizard' said this about Hopkins. “Claude Hopkins is the master
of them all. His influence has easily added over $6 million to my personal Income…and still counting.”

So, what else did Claude have to say about advertising in addition to the quote above? Hopkins said “Advertising is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the people. It is not primarily to aid your other salesmen. Treat it as a salesman. Force it to justify itself.

Compare it with other salesmen. Figure its cost and result. Accept no excuses which good salesmen do not make. Then you will not go far wrong.”

So how many of us do a good job of this in the online world?

Obviously the only way you can know if your advertising is profitable is to be able to accurately track its results.

How many of us have thrown money at the concept of branding - of keeping our name before the people? Just hoping we'd get some results. I know I’ve been guilty of it in the past.

So when you’re getting ready to place that banner ad, or pay for some online or offline directory listing, or bid on that keyword at Overture.com, how are you going to track the cost and result?

And don’t delude yourself into thinking that any advertising is
“free.” The most valuable resource any of us have in our marketing arsenal is probably our own time.

What do you value yours at? $25 - $50 - $100 - $1000 per hour? Or more? So be sure and include the cost of your time or whoever you’re paying to perform that advertising task into calculating the true cost of your advertising.

This is truer then ever in the Internet world. So, know your costs
and measure your results. There are online tools available to help you do this, so don’t get careless or lazy. The effectiveness of your online advertising can only be measured by its actual sales.

Your task: Analyze all your advertising to determine its true
effectiveness. If you're not tracking your results you have to figure out a way to do it now. Why? Because Claude told you so.

Next week – you’ll get some more thoughts from Claude Hopkins. This time about how long you should make your ad copy in order to make the sales. Until then, my best wishes for success in all your marketing endeavors.

© 2002 TWI Press, Inc.

****************************************
The Copywriting Classics Quick Tip is written by Bret Ridgway. To subscribe
send a blank email to subscribe@twipress.com . Portions of this issue are excerpted from the Claude Hopkins’ book My Life in Advertising/Scientific Advertising.
You can locate the complete text of Scientific Advertising in various locations online. Or, it is available as part of the package set with My Life in Advertising at the following page: http://www.twipress.com/productpages/MyLifeAd.htm
**************************************** ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bret Ridgway is President of TWI Press, Inc., supplier of hard-to-find classic marketing books via the http://www.twipress.com website. He provides a copywriting and advertising resource center at internet marketing conferences for well known internet marketers like Carl Galletti, Jonathan Mizel, Michael Penland, Ron LeGrand and Fred Gleeck.

Web Surfers Revolt Against "Pushy" Advertising

2011-09-30T13:46:00.000+05:30

by: Jim Edwards

(c) Jim Edwards - All Rights reserved http://www.thenetreporter.com ===================================== As the Internet continues to populate with websites trying to turn a buck, two drastically different schools of thought have developed on how to advertise online - "Push" and "Pull."

"Push" advertising involves the use of "in-your-face" advertising tactics such as pop-up windows and direct email. "Pull" advertising entails using search engines and posting articles that literally "pull" interested consumers to a website on their own terms.

As web surfers revolt against pushy advertising, site owners who understand how to pull consumers to their sites will come out the long-term winners.

"Push" advertising tactics worked in the past because they had not reached a saturation point. Since not everyone used pop-up windows, a site owner could use them without fear of backlash. Now it seems pop-up windows hit consumers from every angle and even multiple times from the same sites.

The cycle of events with online advertising always unfolds the same way. Someone finds something new that works and people immediately jump on the bandwagon. As a technique saturates the 'Net and loses effectiveness, instead of finding an alternative, site owners just do it more!

Result: instead of pop-up windows going away, many site owners just run more pop-up's - more often!
Well, if recent developments indicate anything, they show that consumers have said "enough" to pushy advertising.

AOL, infamous for their pop-up ads, has agreed to cut down on the intrusions even though their earnings could use a boost right now.

Major ISP (Internet Service Provider) Earthlink even offers a "pop-up killer" feature on their new service.
Almost all email programs come with filters to fight unsolicited email and many email add-on services have sprung up to help consumers eliminate the unsolicited offers for pornography, business opportunities, and promises of instant riches.

This "anti-spam" sentiment has also caused an unintended consequence for legitimate marketers. Many major newsletters have found their emails blocked by spam filters intended to stop unsolicited email. Through no fault of their own, legitimate email marketers have found themselves casualties of the war on spam.
The future of the Internet lies in "Pull" advertising driven by consumer wants and needs.

The successful Internet companies of the future will invest in search engine promotion and in providing valuable, on-demand information consumers receive only when they ask for it and want it. When a web surfer goes to their favorite search engine and enters the keyword phrase "MP3 Player" or "tax advice" that means they are receptive to information on those subjects.

If they read an article about using vitamins to improve health and click a link for more information, only then they will they be truly receptive to a marketing message about vitamins.

Consumers have taken back control of Internet!

Not with laws or more regulations, but simply by flexing the muscles of their wallets. By pulling money away from advertisers who annoy them and putting it with those who meet their needs, the average web surfer has brought the Internet powers to their knees and will continue to reshape the Internet into an effective, consumer-driven communications vehicle.

Any site owner who wants to have a thriving online business and survive the next year had better take this fact to heart!

About the Author

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links...
Simple "Traffic Machine" brings Thousands of NEW visitors to your website for weeks, even months... without spending a dime on advertising! ==> http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com

Web Site Promotion-Advertising Your Website For Profits.

2011-09-30T13:45:00.000+05:30

by: Tom Worsley

Making money with your web site is the dream and goal of millions of webmasters all over the internet including myself. In order to reach this goal you need a variety of web site promotions running all at the same time.

Search engine optimization is still my number one traffic generator. I receive more traffic from Google than any other source on the internet. But it is becoming increasingly more and more difficult to achieve a top ten placement on Google or any other search engine as the internet grows and more webmasters compete for the same key words. There once was a time when I could rely on Google to provide me with all the traffic I needed but not any more. I need to promote and advertise my web site elsewhere if I expect to continue receiving good quality traffic to my web site.

Writing articles like this one is just one of the ways I use to promote my web site. There are literally thousands of sites on the internet that will allow you to submit articles such as this one. Your article will remain in their database or directory and as long as you allow re-print instructions along with your author bio you may also see your article on other sites that you did not even submit to. Make sure your web site URL is in your author bio and make sure the URL is active. Some sites will only post your article with static URL’s which will not be quite as effective. You can also use anchor text for your URL to help your search engine rankings. Use your targeted key words as your anchor text and you should see an increase in your search engine optimization efforts.

Number three on my list of web site promotions requires some cash. The majority of people I talk to about getting good quality traffic to a web site all want to do it for FREE without any advertising dollars spent. Although it is possible to promote a web site for FREE with no money, I highly recommend some form of pay per click campaign using Google adwords or Yahoo search marketing (formerly Overture). There are also a host of other smaller pay per click engines that I have used in the past including Findwhat and 7Search.

Press releases on the internet are gaining in popularity recently and you can actually get a press release published and listed on Google and Yahoo news search within 24 hours. For guidelines and how to get published visit the following web page. http://www.prweb.com/

Reciprocal linking has dropped off of my priority list of web site promotions but it can still be a very important means of web site promotion if done properly, and back links to your site are also essential to a good search engine ranking with Google. First of all you are not going to want to trade links with just anyone. Make sure the page’s your links are going to be on are actually indexed by Google. If you do not have the Google toolbar get it. It will tell you if a page has been indexed or not. Also ask the webmaster you are trading links with how many links they have per page. If they put more than 30 links on a page chances are your link will be lost and never clicked on.

Free classified advertising is another way to promote your site for free. But as the internet grows so too does the amount of webmasters submitting to these free classified sites. And the more people there are posting the less likely your ad will be seen. The key to good free classified advertising is testing your results. Test everything you do. When you find a good classified site that is giving you traffic keep using it but follow their guidelines on how often you should post.

Last but not least you need to be collecting e-mail addresses from your web site. Start a newsletter and ask your visitors to subscribe somewhere on your site. Once you have built up a good subscriber base you can e-mail your subscriber base a weekly newsletter that has to do with your web site’s theme or subject matter. Always include UN-subscribe instructions in case your visitors change their mind and no longer would like to receive e–mail from you.

I have just touched the surface on a few of the different techniques that I have used to promote my own web site. There are actually hundreds of other offline and online methods to promote a web site. Use your imagination and do not be afraid to try new things. Test everything you do and when you find something that works keep doing it.

About the Author
Tom Worsley is a successful work from home Internet marketer and independent representative for Strong Future International (SFI), Owner and Webmaster for http://kawarthapublishing.com.

Watch Out for Misleading Pharmaceutical Advertising

2011-09-30T13:44:00.002+05:30

by: Charles Essmeier

In 1997, the Food and Drug Administration relaxed the rules for drug advertising on television and radio. Since that time, the airwaves have been flooded with commercials for all sorts of drugs. Some of them are vague, with a simple “Ask your doctor if drug x is right for you”; others spell out what the drug is used for and devote the commercial to telling you how much you will appreciate your product. Most consumers will probably assume that these commercials are honest, that the drugs will do what the ads say they will do, and that there are no side effects other than those mentioned in the ad. That may not be true, and consumers should be aware that the ads may not tell the whole story, and that they may be misleading.

The pharmaceutical industry spends $9 billion per year advertising their products, and the money they spend on television and radio ads is probably the most effective. Doctors may be skeptical of a product touted by a salesman, but consumers are easily swayed by television ads that show people living happy, productive lives while being treated for an ailment using the advertised product. Unfortunately, these ads may not be completely honest. In 2004, the FDA investigated thirty-six ads for drugs that the agency found to be misleading or incomplete in their descriptions of side effects. Consumers might think that the commercials must be honest, since the FDA wouldn’t allow dishonest commercials to air. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. The FDA does not require pharmaceutical companies to provide screening copies of their advertisements prior to airing. The FDA doesn’t actually see the ads until the consumers do. Several months may pass before the FDA takes action. In the case of misleading advertising, the most the FDA can usually do is ask the companies to either stop running the ads or to change them. These requests aren’t always timely, however. In the last five years, the FDA has asked the drug companies to stop running several ads that had already stopped running!

What this means for consumers is that some doubt should be exercised while viewing a commercial for a new drug. If you think an advertised product may be useful to you, discuss it with your physician, but ask if they know of any problems associated with the product. Research the product on the Internet. When your health is at stake, a little caution may be a good idea.

©Copyright 2005 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including http://www.Bextra-Info.net, a site devoted to the withdrawn drugs Bextra and Vioxx.

Top 5 Mistakes In Ezine Advertising

2011-09-30T13:43:00.003+05:30

by: Alessandro DeBarros

Top 5 Mistakes In Ezine Advertising

By Alessandro DeBarros

Ezine advertising has been glorified by experts the world over as the last refuge for the little guy/gal to make a buck online. Well, I hate to deliver bad news, and please don't shoot the messenger, but there are some draw backs to ezine advertising and many of the Inner Sanctum E-Letter subscribers are making them daily. Let's look at the most common mistakes and their solutions.

Mistake #1: Not Tracking Your Ads

Many business owners have no idea how they can track every ad they place. Whether for an affiliate program or their own product, they just don't know. Not knowing what ad is working and producing the sale will cost you and your business thousands of dollars. When you know what ad produces and what ad doesn't you can cut the worst of the ads and only keep the ad/s which is producing for your business.

--Solution--: If you own your own website and domain name, you can track every ad by creating a special redirect link that is only used in that ad. Or you can add a question mark to the end of the URL and check that on your stats page.

A simple, http://www.yourdomainname.com/pagename.html?trackingcode will suffice in most cases. Check with your web host to see if you have access to your web site stats log. Or sign up for one of the free/fee tracking services online.

Mistake #2: Writing Me-Too Ads

When writing your ad you must take your ego, your desire to boast about you and your company, out of the equation. An example of a me-too ad:

"Acme Law Offices have been in business for 20 years. Our staff of lawyers all graduated from Harvard Law School with honors. Call us at 1-800-acme-law today!"

--Solution--: Write benefit and results oriented ads. Example:

"Guaranteed Settlements! Win your settlement guaranteed and save 43% on attorney fees by calling ACME Law Offices at: (blah, blah, blah)"

This ad focuses completely on the end result, the main benefit. Guaranteed Settlements. Which ad do you think would pull more responses?

Mistake #3: Running Classifieds

Since they don't cost much, business owners tend to use classifieds to save costs. Classifieds are cheap, $5-$20 per ad, and in most cases run faster than solo or top sponsor ads because the ezine publisher runs 10-20 per issue.

What's not so commonly known is the fact classified sections are often times scanned by the reader (I scan past them every time) and get very little eye time.

--Solution--: Run Solo or Top sponsor ads. These ads get more exposure. They are exclusive (solo mailings) or only have 2-3 (sponsor ads) per issue spaced out between the content.

Mistake #4: Going for Large Subscriber Bases

Large subscriber stats are impressive. 30,000 subscribers is a ton of eye balls and the potential to return a profit is greatly increased. Well, this is completely untrue.

A recent test we ran took our breath away. We spent $180 on a solo ad to a subscriber base in a general marketing publication of 30,000 subscribers. We ran that same solo ad for $65 in an ezine about website design strategies with a subscriber base of 1200.

Ad #1 to 30,000+ brought back $0!

Ad #2 to 1200 specifically targeted subscribers brought back $900 in pure profit!

--Solution--: While tons of subscribers may seem like the right way to go, before you invest money, check out smaller, highly targeted ezines and test your ads in those. You'll save money and odds are your returns will be greater.

Mistake #5: Running Your Ad Once

When I first started advertising in ezines, I would run one ad one time. If it didn't produce results, I would switch ezines and run the ad again. This was how I tested the ad. Many business owners are doing the same thing today. By running the ad only once, you're cutting your chances to profit in half.

Running it 2-3-4 times, even if the first run didn't make a profit, gives your ad more exposure. Readers will "think" it's producing because you ran it more than one time, therefore other subscribers must have thought it was worth looking at, helping your ad produce.

--Solution--: Run every ad at least twice. Then instead of switching ezines, switch ads. Run that ad twice. Do this with all your ads. You'll be suprised to find the ezine actually produces profits for one ad but not another. So now you can run that ad 4-5-6 times and squeeze more profits from the ezine.

Ezine advertising is profitable. It takes testing, tracking, solo or top sponsor placments and more testing to pin point ezines with high sales ratio's. Don't give up on the ezine just because a successful ad from another test didn't work. Place another ad, test it, test another and so on.

All you need is 5-10 profitable ezines and you'll increase sales and profits for your business.
About the Author
Alessandro DeBarros is a web marketing specialist for BrandBlast http://brandblast.com , a CT based firm whose cutting edge hosting services is quickly being recognized around the world as a leader in its field. At a current base of 5,000 clients, BrandBlast specializes in small to medium business hosting, providing small businesses with the services and support they need at affordable prices.

To Increase Your Advertising Effectiveness – Stop Selling!

2011-09-30T13:43:00.000+05:30

by: Karon Thackston

by Karon Thackston © 2001
http://www.ktamarketing.com

How many times have you heard the old adage, “The customer doesn’t want a drill, he wants a hole in his wall”? While I may disagree with parts of that phrase, one thing is for sure… if you want to increase your advertising effectiveness, you have to stop selling what YOU want the customer to buy and start solving his problems.

What exactly does that mean? For starters, it means finding out who your customers are and what challenges they face. It also means that your ad copy, your tag line, your Web site design, your brochure, your customer service plan and your support need to all work in concert to provide the solutions to those challenges.

The most effective advertising pieces don’t sell… they fulfill. They don’t talk about the company… they talk about the customer. They don’t push price… they provide solutions.

When you focus on the customer in your advertising copy, when you get inside the mind of your customer and speak to their emotional needs, you will see greater results.

Here are 7 tips for creating copy that does not sell… but provides a solution.

1. Talk TO the customer, not ABOUT the company. Yes, you have to mention your company name so they’ll know who you are. But the majority of your copy should speak to the customer and his/her needs. Not: “ABC Web Site Designers has been in business for 13 years. We do great work. Our clients think this or that. We provide design, java and cgi. Our customer service can’t be beat. ABC is the best and you should use us.”

2. Use “you” and “your” and write as if only one person were reading your ad or site. Make your copy personal.

3. Get Real! Use real-life examples in your copy. Reach your customers on their level by identifying with them. Instead of something like, “You can get more organized and stay that way” say “You’ll be able to find your keys in 5 minutes or less and never again wonder if you or your spouse is supposed to pick up the kids today.”

4. Get emotional! Most buying decisions are emotional. Your ad copy should be, too! Bring out their frustration, their anger, their greed. Whatever the situation calls for, use those emotions in your copy. Example: “After you throw the plunger across the room and SCREAM… call ABC Plumbing.”

5. Benefits, benefits, benefits. I know you’ve heard it 1,000 times, but you simply must fill your copy with benefits. Always answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”

6. Show them they’ll get results. Tell your customers what life will be like AFTER your product or service solves all their problems. By showing them that they will get their desired end result, you make a very persuasive argument for your product.

7. Be their friend. Let your copy portray you as “easy-to-like”. Show your customer that you’re their friend who is willing and able to help instead of just another business who wants them to buy.

When you put the focus on the people with the money… the people who keep your business up and going, you can work wonders with your copy. You’ll see your sales improve if you just quit selling! ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Most buying decisions are emotional. Your ad copy should be, too! Karon is Owner and President of KT & Associates who offers targeted copywriting, copy editing & ezine article services. Subscribe to KT & Associates' Ezine "Business Essentials" at
join-businessessentials@lyris1.listenvoy.com or visit Karon’s site at
http://www.ktamarketing.com.

Three Proven Steps to Improve Your Home Business Advertising

2011-09-30T13:42:00.003+05:30

by: Bob Markovsky

Newspaper advertising is a tremendous source of new business that for so many businesses doesn’t ever reach its true potential. These 3 steps will help you change that forever!
You’re about to find out the mistakes that your competitors keep on making, and to start using techniques proven to grab your prospect’s attention and draw out responses that turn your ad into the 'customer producer' you always knew it should be.
Small Business Realities
All business owners want to increase sales, generate more customers, and make more money. Yet few take the necessary actions to do so. Providing a quality product or service is simply not enough.
Many business owners think they need to set an advertising budget, send out a few sales letters, put a few coupons in the local circular, run a newspaper ad, hand out flyers, and do a bunch of other things 'trying to get their name out there'.
The problem is... a small business that uses that approach wastes a lot of potential. Spending money on this type of exposure is known as advertising. The goal of advertising is to establish a brand name, build an image, and achieve top of the mind awareness. These are some fancy terms taught in business school, but unfortunately they steer everyone in the wrong direction.
You see, small businesses aren't supposed to advertise. Advertising is all about repeating exposures and building an image. Think about all of the many McDonalds commercials you see on television in a week. That's 'high frequency'. Don't they all seem to show a feeling of friendship, eating happily with family ("we love to see you smile")? That's image.
Do you think they intend to get you up out of your seat and go to your local McDonalds right as you're watching the commercial? Not really. OK, they hope you might, but that’s not what they intend. They are paying to have you see their message so many times that when you are ready to buy their product you will remember them and go there. Now,let’s get to work on your steps to advertising success.
Proven Step #1
So what method will work for your business? It's called direct response marketing. Here’s an example. Have you ever bought anything after watching an infomercial? Even if you haven’t, infomercials work, they make a lot of people a lot of money. It might surprise you, infomercials are not advertising - they don't try to build an image or get you to remember a brand, the products aren't even sold in stores!!
What do they do?
** They take a receptive audience.
** They get them excitedly to pick up the phone and buy. They create action!
This is why most newspaper ads don’t deliver big results. Most newspaper advertisers choose the commercial, but you want the infomercial. Your one and only goal in newspaper advertising is to create action.
In the usual types of Newspaper Directory ads you're dealing with very targeted prospects. These are people looking up your company type and ready to call you. That's the beauty and the curse of Newspaper Directory ads. The beauty is prospects can find you easily, the curse is that your competitors are right there with you!!
So how do we get them to pick up the phone and dial your number?
Use direct marketing...which is:
** Directly target a group of people who are in the market for your product or service.
** Offer them what it is they want.
** Generate a response by forcing them to respond to your offer.
Proven Step #2
Your competitors probably waste a lot of money because they're charged for people who will never even consider their offer. There is a definite and specific market for your service and these are the only people that you should aim your offer to.
For example, if you repair dental equipment you want to market your service to dentists, oral surgeons, etc.. But it's not generally that easy.
Consider a Home Cleaning Service in a suburb of Cleveland that advertises in the Cleveland Plain Dealer due to the tremendous readership. If 75% of the cleaning company's clients and target prospects are 3 person families and larger, with incomes of $100,000 per year, living in suburbs A, B and C., they've wasted a big chunk of money. Here’s why.
They just spent a lot of money for an ad that will be seen by college students, low-income families, and others that would never consider using their services anyway. Their high percentage prospects make up only a small readership of that paper. Who knows what percentage of those people will see the ad?
Maybe there's a magazine or community mailer that caters to middle/upper class families in a county neighboring Cleveland or in one of the many suburbs. Sure, maybe the readership is nowhere near as large but the lower cost and targeted readership will generate a much greater return on the company's investment.
A mailing list of 3-person households and larger with incomes above $100,000, who moved to such-n-such city or county within the last year can be purchased. Direct marketing targets the people most likely to respond to your offer.
Proven Step #3
Most advertising has no offer. And so the prospect has no incentive to respond right now. Direct response always tries to get a response by offering something of value to your prospect right now.
Using the home cleaning service in the example above, you could offer a free hour of cleaning, 20% off the first job, a free pack of sponges and a bottle of Simply Green or anything of value that will cause a person to act.
Since the offer is subject to your terms, you set a date when the offer expires, a number they have to call, a letter that they must bring in, a form that they must fill out.
So, at the end of your promotion you know exactly how much was spent reaching how many people. Also, you will know how many people responded and how much business was generated.
Most of your competitors don’t do this little analysis! They repeat campaigns that cost more than they bring in. So they are forced to set advertising budgets that limit the amount of advertising they can run each year.
But, if every one of your promotions cost you $55 and brought in $225 in business, why would you need a budget? Wouldn’t you just keep repeating the promotion over and over?
Your goal should be to repeat and improve what works for you. If you do, you will not need a budget and you will be able to predict what kinds of repeat and new business each promotion will generate.
Bob Markovsky

Millennium Services Group

Start Your Own High Profit Cleaning Business

http://www.Cleaning-Biz.com

Millennium Services Group has been assisting people to start and succeed in their own cleaning businesses since 1999.
Article copyright Millennium Services Group - 2004

There is no such thing as Free Advertising!

2011-09-30T13:42:00.000+05:30

by: TBA ~ Tricia, Billie and baby Ashley

There is no such thing as Free Advertising.

Yep, you read right. There is NO such thing as FREE Advertising. The only kind of advertising you can get is inexpensive or expensive, good or bad, but you can’t get FREE advertising.

Why do we say there's no such thing as FREE advertising?

Because you’re advertising is paid for with either time or money. You either pay someone for advertising OR you take your time putting advertising up.

Whichever way, you’re paying for your advertising. There are some things you need to consider when advertising, whether you’re paying in time or money.

Groups Advertising - Is the group active? Do the group rules allow advertising? Is the group targeted to your target audience?

Signature Lines Exchanges - Does the other business compliment yours? Are they in different groups than what your in so you get more exposure.

Link Exchanges - Make sure the site has traffic; one way to find out is to ask. Make sure the site compliments your product. Make sure it has a Google ranking of at least a 3. Does the site target your audience?

Site Advertising – What are the site stats? Ask the Webmaster if you can't find it on the site. Check Google page ranking. Check to see if the site is updated with new information regularly. Does the site target your audience? Does the site compliment your product?

Ezine Advertising - Again ask for the stats, don't just ask how many subscribers they have. Ask how many are reading their newsletter. Make sure the ezine is geared towards your targeted audience.

We keep coming back to the check this and check that because you want to make sure that ezine or site is worth your payment, rather it be in money or time; because our time is valuable too.

So be selective in how you spend your time, just as you would in spending your money, when advertising your business.

About the Author
Written by TBA. TBA stands for Tricia Billie and baby Ashley. We are a mother, daughter, & granddaughter WAH team. We own and operate TBADeals.us

The Quest In Advertising Your Website

2011-09-30T13:41:00.002+05:30

by: Michael Keenan

Website advertising the unending quest of every web site builder. And Free is a word i work towards. But free on the net has many different meanings and many of them or most of them are not free at all. The most effective means of advertising i have found as i am sure many of you also have discovered are the traffic surfing sites. You register your site on a few or many of them. Advertise your main site as well as put a few of the traffic sites themselves in advertising rotation. In the event that you can get people to sign up to the traffic surfing sites, you gain for yourself a constant stream of credit which constantly show off your main website. Add into your main website free banners that also gain credits and in time you will gain a consistent flow of free advertising. This is one of the methods I use and it really does provide a constant flow through to my main website. Getting people to view your site isn't really that hard. The ideas that you can use are really endless. Getting people to purchase products if you are in affiliate sales ect is a whole different article, many articles really. So we will leave that one too next time. Bye for Now.

About the author:
Michael J. Keenan (CEO - SitePromotionNow) Worked in affiliate sales and website construction for over 5 years. email: mickyk703@hotmail.com website:

The Psychology of Colors in Advertising and Marketing.

2011-09-30T13:40:00.005+05:30

by: Kurt Geer

The Psychology of Colors in Advertising and Marketing.

© Kurt Geer

Are you stimulating emotions while marketing with your
business logo, stationary, business cards, brochures, signs
and with your website?

If you know it or not, colors speak very loud to our
subconscious and have a positive or negative reaction within
90 seconds. On the web you have less that 30 seconds to make
a good first impression.

Are you using the silent language of color to impress,
motivate, divert and persuade your prospects to buy from
you?

BLACK suggests authority, power, boldness, seriousness, is
distinguishing and classic. Business wise it's great for
creating drama and is good for a background color (except on
websites, it is very hard on the eyes). It is ideal for text
on a light background. Black also implies submission and is
associated with evil.

BLUE suggests security, authority, faithfulness and dignity.
For business it suggests sanctuary and fiscal
responsibility. It is the most popular and the second most
powerful color. Blue can also be cold and depressing. People
are more productive in blue rooms.

BROWN suggests richness, politeness, helpfulness and
effectiveness. In business it suggests less important items.
Solid, reliable brown is the color of earth and is abundant
in nature. Light brown implies genuineness while dark brown
is similar to wood or leather.

GRAY suggests authority, practicality, earnestness and
creativity. Business wise it is traditional and
conservative.

GREEN suggests health, fertility, freedom, freshness,
healing, tranquility and jealousy. Businesses use it to
communicate status and wealth. It is the easiest color on
the eye and can improve vision. It is a calming, refreshing
color.

ORANGE suggests pleasure, cool, excitement, cheer,
endurance, strength and ambition. For business it is good
for highlighting information on charts and graphs.

PINK suggests femininity, gentleness, well being and
innocence. For business you must be aware of it's feminine
links and implications.

PURPLE suggests spirituality, royalty, luxury, wealth,
sophistication, authority and mournfulness. In business it
is upscale and works with artistic types. It is also
feminine and romantic. However, because it is rare in
nature, purple can appear artificial.

RED suggests excitement, strength, sex, passion, vitality,
aggressiveness and commands attention. Business wise it
associated with debt, is great for boldness and accents. The
most emotionally intense color, red stimulates a faster
heartbeat and breathing.

WHITE suggests refined, purity, devotion, contemporary and
truthfulness. For business it can be sterile and refreshing.
The best color on the web for a background color. Doctors
and nurses wear white to imply sterility.

YELLOW suggests warmth, sunshine, cheer, happiness, jealousy
deceit and cowardice. Business wise it appeals to the
intellectual types and is a good accent. Yellow enhances
concentration, hence its use for legal pads. It also speeds
metabolism. It is the most difficult color for the eye to
take in, so it can be overpowering if overused.

Green, brown, and red are the most popular food colors. Red
is often used in restaurant decorating schemes because it is
an appetite stimulant.

People respond more to non verbal cues than verbal ones.
Make sure you use the psychology of colors in all your
marketing, especially when you can't be face to face. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kurt Geer has been helping folks online since 1999.
The Internet if used properly can be a
VITAL source of profits, not Instant Riches.
Visit for more info.

The Power of Reverse Advertising

2011-09-30T13:40:00.002+05:30

by: Steve Tanner

How many times have you heard that posting on FFA sites are a complete waste of time? Are FFA sites really a complete waste of time? ...Yes they are!
Then why do millions of people still post on FFA pages every single day of the year.
It sure beats me!
The ONLY people gaining from FFA sites are the people that 'HOST' them.
"WHY?"... I hear you ask. Well listen very carefully.
Everytime somebody wants to post on a FFA site, they have to receive an email confirmation and agree to receive ONE email from the person who hosts the FFA page.
So, let's say I wanted to post on YOUR FFA page. I submit my link on your page and receive an email confirmation.
Now, apart from the confirmation link, can you guess what else may be in that confirmation email?
That's right my friend... YOUR AD promoting YOUR product!
This is what's known as 'Reverse Advertising' and is an ingenious form of advertising for the FFA host because it is a REQUIREMENT that they open your confirmation email sent to them by YOU, 'the FFA host', before their AD can be placed.
This doesn't count towards your daily ad, so you can still send one MORE email to this lead. Therefore, the person who originally posted on your FFA page is now receiving YOUR ads.
Now imagine this... you OWN a couple of FFA sites that get thousands of posts every single day with your ads going out to thousands of people in the confirmation email as well as sending ONE daily email to your leads the day after.
You are receiving 'guaranteed' massive advertising by including your advertisement in the confirmation email.
This is exactly what I do and the other savvy marketers do to generate up to 50,000 targeted visitors every day and rake in thousands of sales every month.
This form of advertising is 'Permission Based Advertising' and allows YOU to email thousands of targeted prospects at NO charge and without ever being accused of spamming!
This my friend is "The Power of Reverse Advertising".
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steve Tanner created the best seller 'Instant JV Letters' which he later sold. If you would like an amazing FREE eBook showing you how to generate huge amounts of targeted traffic then go to:
http://www.OneForce-Marketing.com

The Online Advertising Scandal

2011-09-30T13:38:00.003+05:30

by: Ieuan Dolby

The World Wide Web was an enormous step for mankind, a step not seen since Neil Armstrong sullied the surface of the moon. The idea behind the WWW came across as a veritable information highway where documents, data and info could be rapidly sent and accessed by millions the world over. The potential behind the web is enormous and even now the scope is not fully utilized. The possibilities for growth, for extended usage, are available and enormous yet the system is stagnating and it is very possible that people will soon turn away. The average person seeking information may well return to old-fashioned libraries and the good old book to find the information that they require if the face and image of the WWW is not altered very soon and in-line with customer demand.
The ability of any user to gain information from the Internet is enormous, simple and with positive results. But the information received is increasingly becoming that which a paying body prescribes and thus is advertisement biased or pointed towards the end purchase of a product. Hotels advertise a city or holiday resort with the point of view of potential tourists coming to stay. A detailed description of moon cakes in Taiwan although complete and detailed would certainly be with aim to make people buy some from the store hosting the website involved.
Initially the Internet was heralded as a one-stop point for gaining any type or form of information with the click of the mouse. This is certainly true except with regard to loose information that has no affiliation towards an end purchase or a users change of heart. Certainly this type of information is available and millions of websites exist but unless a user has prior information on how to access this site then the chance of it being found amongst the masses is minimal. Most web users find or locate information by using a search engine. Most web users input their request and wait for results to come up as prescribed and ordered by the search engine system. If for example a request was entered for “travel tales on the sea” many, possibly thousands of choices will appear in return. Number one in the pole position will probably be Amazon.com who feels certain that anybody looking for a story would probably find it amongst their collection – naturally obtainable at a price. The next on the list might be Ebay who feel that certain travel products might appease the searcher or it might be goarticles.com an articles selling service who would assume that travel tales of the sea would be somebody looking to buy such from them and for their own use.
Certainly each and every result that is produced on the first page would point the user towards large companies who are selling an item of one sort or another. The user though may in fact just want to read some Travel Tales of the Sea without having to fork out cash or to issue his/her credit card information over the Internet.
In the bowels of the search results in pages that are covered in dust will reside some very comprehensive and useful websites, eg: http://www.seadolby.com a website that is filled with free and in-depth Travel Tales of the Sea. The possibility of any user keeping interest long enough to get to this web site listing is minimal and long before it is reached the user has either fallen asleep or entered another search on a different note. In short the average user does not get past the first page of a search engines results and probably not past the first three that come up: e.g. amazon.com, ebay.com and goarticles.com
Although not-for-profit informational web sites are many and filled with amazing and detailed info these sites ability to gain attention on the world stage is difficult unless money is poured in to boost their ratings and rank positions on the search engine results. Nowadays many search engines have entered the pay-per-click arena with companies putting forward money to buy keywords that will most likely be used to boost their website. Some company buys the word “Travel” and this word is then basically lost forever to the lone free-for-all info site who cannot afford to pay money to boost their popularity.
The art of advertising and paying for positions on search engines is only available to the sites that can afford the exorbitant fees. Should a lone site owner who has built his site-up decide to fork out of his own pocket the money to boost his ratings this will only be achieved on one or two search engines or directories and the amount required to compete with the mega-sites is far beyond any hobbyist can afford. Naturally the ability to submit ones site on free inclusion pages and directories is available but as the webmaster and author behind Seamania found out, so much energy and time is spent on advancing the ratings of his site that not enough time is given to the writing of travel tales of the sea, which of course is the basis and sole point behind the website in the first place.
Large for profit websites can afford to hire web-orientated staff to control, advertise and spend time on boosting the rankings of their particular website. Single owner for profit websites can afford to pay marketing specialists and to buy keywords at exorbitant rates. The lone not-for-profit website owner can either spend all day and all week controlling and submitting his site to the thousands of ever changing search engines and directories and suffer from a serious loss of updated content on his/her website or place emphasis on building up content and never have a visitor to his portal.
Many other factors go towards reducing the effectiveness of the individual website than just search result rankings. Many single website owners operate outdated and very slow computers, use old or outdated software and only perform on odd occasions when not playing with their children or busy at work. Many other free info sites have found that subscribing to some lists to boost their rankings has in-fact reduced them to near invisibility. Google and now other search engines condemn sites for using link pages that they themselves do not agree with, so by simply subscribing or joining one of these sites Google may drop a future crawl of the website involved. It is also impossible for the lone not-for-profit website to keep up with ever changing trends and policies. Where payment is made for a lifetimes inclusion in a search engine, the next year may see the demise of this particular engine or its partnering up with another – thus the lifetimes inclusion becomes null and void and to prevent being dropped from the listings another fee is required – read the small print!
Other means to increase visibility is often initiated by offering advertising space to companies like Google, Barnes and Noble or other directories or affiliates. This can result in a slight income for websites (The Seamania website made 40US dollars over the last three months) but never enough to afford placement on search engine results or to purchase keywords. It is also against the grain for many free-info website owners to have to place advertising on their websites as not only is it taking up valuable space it detracts and reduces the free effect the content within. Furthermore should a website choose one companies advertising it may boost their rankings within one search engine but equally so reduce it in another’s e.g. allowing Google advertising space on an index page may increase the page rank in Google but seriously reduce it in Yahoos search results and possible exclusion from their Yahoo Directory.
>From the point of view of an Internet User in search of free and not-for-profit biased information he/she does not want to see endless sites where a visa card is required to proceed further. It would be very nice to see the advancement of such directories like Zeal.com who divide their listings into those for profit and those who generally provide valuable and non-profit orientated formation. Naturally the question arises as to how such a search engine would manage to cover the costs of these listings but generally with the amount of people available who regard the Internet as a toy and a hobby projects such as Editor of a category volunteers should not be hard to recruit. The other way would be to have search engines run and operated by governments like public libraries are or built and operated by universities as part of study programs – something practical for students to involve themselves with.
Directories abound whose content is managed by volunteers, the Open Directory Project being the most famous. But sites such as Seamania have found to their detriment that trying to get noticed in amongst the debris found in these directories is not easy. Seamania was originally listed as a Personal website in the boating category but over time the emphasis and content of the website has evolved to become a general travel website. It has though proved impossible to change the location of the site in the Dmoz directory to a travel listing rather than a boating listing.
If at all possible and to prevent users who are sick of being asked for their credit card information or being given 30 different porn sites upon entering Travel Tales of the Sea into a search engine, it would be nice to see a shift in emphasis in the way that the search engines operate their listings.
Certainly the idea of switching on a computer and being faced with two choices, one for sites that are-for-profit and one that points towards not-for-profit sites would be a dream come true. To enter in a search request and to not find amazon.com or ebay.com in the first few results would put cheer to any searchers hopes of finding what he wants. And maybe in this way a true exchange of information may be facilitated and the mass exodus of searchers back to the public library for information may be halted.

About The Author

Ieuan Dolby - Author and Webmaster of Seamania. As a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy he has sailed the world for fifteen years. Now living in Taiwan he writes about cultures across the globe and life as he sees it.
seadolby.com
ieuandolby@seadolby.com

The Online Advertising Confusion

2011-09-30T13:38:00.000+05:30

by: Ieuan Dolby

The World Wide Web was an enormous step for mankind, a step not seen since Neil Armstrong sullied the surface of the moon. The idea behind the WWW came across as a veritable information highway where documents, data and info could be rapidly sent and accessed by millions the world over. The potential behind the web is enormous and even now the scope is not fully utilized. The possibilities for growth, for extended usage, are available and enormous yet the system is stagnating and it is very possible that people will soon turn away. The average person seeking information may well return to old-fashioned libraries and the good old book to find the information that they require if the face and image of the WWW is not altered very soon and in-line with customer demand.

The ability of any user to gain information from the Internet is enormous, simple and with positive results. But the information received is increasingly becoming that which a paying body prescribes and thus is advertisement biased or pointed towards the end purchase of a product. Hotels advertise a city or holiday resort with the point of view of potential tourists coming to stay. A detailed description of moon cakes in Taiwan although complete and detailed would certainly be with aim to make people buy some from the store hosting the website involved.

Initially the Internet was heralded as a one-stop point for gaining any type or form of information with the click of the mouse. This is certainly true except with regard to loose information that has no affiliation towards an end purchase or a users change of heart. Certainly this type of information is available and millions of websites exist but unless a user has prior information on how to access this site then the chance of it being found amongst the masses is minimal. Most web users find or locate information by using a search engine. Most web users input their request and wait for results to come up as prescribed and ordered by the search engine system. If for example a request was entered for “travel tales on the sea” many, possibly thousands of choices will appear in return. Number one in the pole position will probably be Amazon.com who feels certain that anybody looking for a story would probably find it amongst their collection – naturally obtainable at a price. The next on the list might be Ebay who feel that certain travel products might appease the searcher or it might be goarticles.com an articles selling service who would assume that travel tales of the sea would be somebody looking to buy such from them and for their own use.

Certainly each and every result that is produced on the first page would point the user towards large companies who are selling an item of one sort or another. The user though may in fact just want to read some Travel Tales of the Sea without having to fork out cash or to issue his/her credit card information over the Internet.

In the bowels of the search results in pages that are covered in dust will reside some very comprehensive and useful websites, eg: http://www.seadolby.com a website that is filled with free and in-depth Travel Tales of the Sea. The possibility of any user keeping interest long enough to get to this web site listing is minimal and long before it is reached the user has either fallen asleep or entered another search on a different note. In short the average user does not get past the first page of a search engines results and probably not past the first three that come up: e.g. amazon.com, ebay.com and goarticles.com

Although not-for-profit informational web sites are many and filled with amazing and detailed info these sites ability to gain attention on the world stage is difficult unless money is poured in to boost their ratings and rank positions on the search engine results. Nowadays many search engines have entered the pay-per-click arena with companies putting forward money to buy keywords that will most likely be used to boost their website. Some company buys the word “Travel” and this word is then basically lost forever to the lone free-for-all info site who cannot afford to pay money to boost their popularity.

The art of advertising and paying for positions on search engines is only available to the sites that can afford the exorbitant fees. Should a lone site owner who has built his site-up decide to fork out of his own pocket the money to boost his ratings this will only be achieved on one or two search engines or directories and the amount required to compete with the mega-sites is far beyond any hobbyist can afford. Naturally the ability to submit ones site on free inclusion pages and directories is available but as the webmaster and author behind Seamania found out, so much energy and time is spent on advancing the ratings of his site that not enough time is given to the writing of travel tales of the sea, which of course is the basis and sole point behind the website in the first place.

Large for profit websites can afford to hire web-orientated staff to control, advertise and spend time on boosting the rankings of their particular website. Single owner for profit websites can afford to pay marketing specialists and to buy keywords at exorbitant rates. The lone not-for-profit website owner can either spend all day and all week controlling and submitting his site to the thousands of ever changing search engines and directories and suffer from a serious loss of updated content on his/her website or place emphasis on building up content and never have a visitor to his portal.

Many other factors go towards reducing the effectiveness of the individual website than just search result rankings. Many single website owners operate outdated and very slow computers, use old or outdated software and only perform on odd occasions when not playing with their children or busy at work. Many other free info sites have found that subscribing to some lists to boost their rankings has in-fact reduced them to near invisibility. Google and now other search engines condemn sites for using link pages that they themselves do not agree with, so by simply subscribing or joining one of these sites Google may drop a future crawl of the website involved. It is also impossible for the lone not-for-profit website to keep up with ever changing trends and policies. Where payment is made for a lifetimes inclusion in a search engine, the next year may see the demise of this particular engine or its partnering up with another – thus the lifetimes inclusion becomes null and void and to prevent being dropped from the listings another fee is required – read the small print!

Other means to increase visibility is often initiated by offering advertising space to companies like Google, Barnes and Noble or other directories or affiliates. This can result in a slight income for websites (The Seamania website made 40US dollars over the last three months) but never enough to afford placement on search engine results or to purchase keywords. It is also against the grain for many free-info website owners to have to place advertising on their websites as not only is it taking up valuable space it detracts and reduces the free effect the content within. Furthermore should a website choose one companies advertising it may boost their rankings within one search engine but equally so reduce it in another’s e.g. allowing Google advertising space on an index page may increase the page rank in Google but seriously reduce it in Yahoos search results and possible exclusion from their Yahoo Directory.

From the point of view of an Internet User in search of free and not-for-profit biased information he/she does not want to see endless sites where a visa card is required to proceed further. It would be very nice to see the advancement of such directories like Zeal.com who divide their listings into those for profit and those who generally provide valuable and non-profit orientated formation. Naturally the question arises as to how such a search engine would manage to cover the costs of these listings but generally with the amount of people available who regard the Internet as a toy and a hobby projects such as Editor of a category volunteers should not be hard to recruit. The other way would be to have search engines run and operated by governments like public libraries are or built and operated by universities as part of study programs – something practical for students to involve themselves with.

Directories abound whose content is managed by volunteers, the Open Directory Project being the most famous. But sites such as Seamania have found to their detriment that trying to get noticed in amongst the debris found in these directories is not easy. Seamania was originally listed as a Personal website in the boating category but over time the emphasis and content of the website has evolved to become a general travel website. It has though proved impossible to change the location of the site in the Dmoz directory to a travel listing rather than a boating listing.

If at all possible and to prevent users who are sick of being asked for their credit card information or being given 30 different porn sites upon entering Travel Tales of the Sea into a search engine, it would be nice to see a shift in emphasis in the way that the search engines operate their listings.

Certainly the idea of switching on a computer and being faced with two choices, one for sites that are-for-profit and one that points towards not-for-profit sites would be a dream come true. To enter in a search request and to not find amazon.com or ebay.com in the first few results would put cheer to any searchers hopes of finding what he wants. And maybe in this way a true exchange of information may be facilitated and the mass exodus of searchers back to the public library for information may be halted.

About the author:

Author and Webmaster of Seamania. As a Chief Engineer in the Merchant Navy he has sailed the world for fifteen years. Now living in Taiwan he writes about cultures across the globe and life as he sees it.

The Long Term Benefits From Pay Per Click Advertising

2011-09-30T13:37:00.003+05:30

by: Kevin OHara

The long term benefits from pay per click advertising.
Businesses are starting to look closely at the long-term benefits from pay per click advertising. Pay per click search engines are primarily used for sales in the now time frame, but they are also being used to build a business identity that their customers will remember. This form of brand awareness can be applied to a company of any size, large or small. If you take a look at a traditional magazine or newspaper ad, the companies are using that advertising to increase their brand awareness. The purpose of the ad is to direct the customer to their products or services but there is no chance to make a sale immediately. They are referred to a website or a retailer. When search engine advertising, as potential customers search the web looking for a product or service and see the same site come up in their searches time and time again it begins to create that same brand awareness for that product or service.
Over 85% of all searches on the Internet are done through search engines and they are the best tools for enhancing a company’s identity. They are identity builders, and they direct targeted consumers who are looking for your product or service right to your doorstep. In the long term, brand awareness can bring visitors to their site without additional advertising. By using the power of search engines you can use the Internet to deliver a targeted prospective customer who is actively looking for your products or services right to your doorstep and build long term brand awareness at the same time.

Kevin OHara Pres. & CEO buzzseek.com

http://www.buzzseek.com

kevin54321@optonline.net

The jewel of the advertising world

2011-09-30T13:37:00.000+05:30

by: Florie Lyn Masarate

What is the most-read advertising medium when traveling? It is not the map. And definitely not the newspaper. It is the one they called the Brochure.

Brochures have become considered the "gem" of the advertising world. What added to the interest of brochure is that not only did they serve as guide for those who have no idea whatsoever, they are also used as marketing tools for businesses and companies alike. It can be noted that not all brochures are effective in these purposes, which leads to the questions: What should be in a brochure to make it effective, all the while interesting?

The main thing to be considered is the cover of your brochure because it is the first thing that people sees upon holding them. The message that should be written there should entice the reader to look inside and read more. Graphic designs can also be an added factor. Captivating pictures and life-like images are sure capturers but they do not really explain what the brochure is about. Designs are just first hand insights. The main key is the words you use. Using words to attract and provoke curiosity are like hypnotizing them to do whatever you want them to do next. And that next thing would be to read further into the brochure.

Another approach that people use in a brochure is the "pity" approach. This type of approach entices the emotions of the readers. The guilt feeling coupled with a hint of curiosity make them go through the brochure. Graphic images can only heighten their already intense emotions. Take, for example, brochures that present malnourished children or poverty stricken places and even beggars sleeping on streets. The initial reaction to this is pity. And with conflicting emotion of compassion and apathy, the readers tend to look for and see what all was that about. See how a simple picture can be effective marketers?

And lastly, the most important contents that should not be left out in brochures are the details about your company or business. Besides the name of course, contact details should be prominently put in all the right places. Sometimes the owners forget to put in information like contact numbers and operation times. These details pertaining to the owners are the next important things in a brochure. After reading the brochures, the readers have the tendency to look for information about the owners. This is their way of checking for credibility and background on the owners and the people advertising these brochures.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit http://www.ucreative.com

About the Author Florie Lyn Masarate got her first article printed in the school newsletter in the third grade. Her hobbies include reading any book she can get her hands on.

The Importance of Advertising Your Home Business

2011-09-30T13:36:00.002+05:30

by: Kevin Purfield

The most important aspect of any business is selling the product or service. Without sales, no business can exist for very long.
All sales begin with some form of advertising. To build sales, this advertising must be seen or heard by potential buyers, and cause them to react to the advertising in some way. The credit for the success, or the blame for the failure of almost all ads, reverts back to the ad itself.
Generally, the "ad writer" wants the prospect to do one of the following:

Visit the store or website to see and judge the product for himself, or immediately write a check or use a credit card and send for the merchandise being advertised.
Phone for an appointment to hear the full sales presentation, or write for further information which amounts to the same thing.

The bottom line in any ad is quite simple: To make the reader buy the product or service. Any ad that causes the reader to only pause in this thinking, to just admire the product, or to simply believe what's written about the product - is not doing its job completely.
The "ad writer" must know exactly what he wants his reader to do, and any that does not elicit the desired action is an absolute waste of time and money.
In order to elicit the desired action from the prospect, all ads are written according to a simple "master formula" which is:

Attract the "attention" of your prospect.
"Interest" your prospect in the product
Cause your prospect to "desire" the product
Demand "action" from the prospect

Never forget the basic rule of advertising copywriting: If the ad is not read, it won't stimulate any sale; if it is not seen, it cannot be read; and if it does not command or grab the attention of the reader, it will not be seen!
Most successful advertising copywriters know these fundamentals backwards and forwards. Whether you know them already or you're just now being exposed to them, your knowledge and practice of these fundamentals will determine the extent of your success in your home business.

Discover more Home Business Tips - subscribe to my newsletter- wealthsystemonline@getresponse.com. Kevin Purfield owns the Wealth System Online Resource Directory where you can find everything you need to start, run and grow a home based internet business at: http://www.wealthsystemonline.com/

kpurfield@wealthsystemonline.com

The Future of Advertising

2011-09-30T13:35:00.003+05:30

by: Jon Wuebben

Advertising is a medium that constantly evolves. It changes with the times. It adapts to new technologies. It is unrelenting in its desire to find new and better ways to reach an ever-growing consumer marketplace.

But its not simply advertising that evolves. Consumers and consumer behavior are changing too. As we look at the future of advertising, it's important to look at how the two interact and change together over time.

Without a doubt, the Internet has revolutionized the industry. It has taken the world - and the advertising world by storm. And it has only just begun to make an impact. The Internet has become a global medium with massive potential. Forty years ago, television was considered new media. Fifteen years ago, it was cable. Today, people spend increasing amounts of time online at the expense of other media. The first evidence of this audience migration appeared in 1998 in a Forrester Research report.

The researchers asked PC users which activities they were giving up to spend more time on their computers. 75% of the respondents said they gave up television.

Interactive. That is the real key behind the power of the Internet in advertising. The Internet is really the only medium where we see true interactivity. In addition:

• It means greater viewer involvement.
• It means users can access services according to their interests and their tastes.
• They can request and receive specialized product information, make an instant purchase, all the while saving time and expense.
• The effectiveness of Web advertising appears to relate to the fact that surfing the web is an actively engaging experience, similar to reading magazines.

Consumers also have the choice to "opt-in" to receiving additional information on a particular product or service. In Seth Godin's groundbreaking book, Permission Marketing, he said, "By reaching out only to those individuals who have signaled an interest in learning more about a product, Permission Marketing enables companies to develop long-term relationships with customers, create trust, build brand awareness- and greatly improve the chances of making a sale."

All the Rage: Pay Per Click and Natural Search Using SEO

It's no secret what has taken over the business world, in industry after industry. Pay Per Click and Natural Search Using Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Today, being on the first page for your most popular keyword phrase is like having the most memorable prime time television commercial in 1973.
Pay per click advertising on search engines allows you to choose keywords you would like your site to appear under when a potential customer engages in a search. You decide how much you are willing to pay each time a person clicks on the search results. But it can be competitive – and expensive if you are trying to use keywords that are very popular.
Natural Search or Organic Search is the non-biased, non-paid results that come up when you do a search. This can be influenced heavily by what's called "Search Engine Optimization" – the complex and time consuming practice of ensuring that your website is doing all the right things in order to rank high for certain search terms. In this arena, smaller companies can out maneuver large corporations, so there's a lot of excitement generated because of this.
Essentially, that's where the power of advertising is going. It's all about Search. And Search is only going to become more important over the next ten years. If you can get on that coveted first page organically, well then, more power to you!
Web Sites, Banner Ads, etc..

The other forms of on-line advertising vehicles are of course, web sites, banner advertising placed on others sites, newsletters, ezines, and email. They are used in many different combinations, for different purposes at different times. But most savvy companies are using all of them. The value of banner ads has been hotly debated for a number of years. Opponents argue that the click-through rates have gone down so much, that banner ads are nothing but wasted money. But research clearly shows that banners are very effective in building brand awareness. On-line users may not click on a banner, but if they see it enough times, the company's name is drilled into their head. When its time to shop, that product or service is first in their mind. Simply being exposed to the brand as one surf's the web is enough to make a big impression.

The impact of banners on brand awareness was tested for the first time in fall 1996 by Millward Brown International. Three brands were tested including a men's apparel brand, a telecommunications brand and a technology company. The findings were significant and conclusive for each brand. Awareness was significantly greater among the banner-exposed (test) group than the non-exposed (control) group. Specifically, exposure to the ad banners alone increased brand awareness from 12% to 200% in a banner-exposed group.

The study also compared the impact of the banner ads in this test to television and magazine norms from prior Millward Brown studies. The findings were remarkable: Single exposure to a Web banner generated greater awareness than a single exposure to a television or print ad. Rather, the effectiveness of Web advertising seems to stem from the fact that Web usage is an actively engaging exercise.

Newsletters and Ezines

Most smart marketers out there have either a newsletter or ezine nowadays. These types of customer communication and advertising tools will only continue to grow in use and importance. It goes back to the whole "what's in it for me?" issue. The customer wants to be part of the process. They want to learn something. Or keep themselves updated on the latest news. Most of all, they want to get something out of the relationship. They want to do more than buy something, they want to improve their lives in some small way – and they want you to help them do that.

Email Advertising

Email is another of the big three Internet advertising mediums. Companies like Got Marketing, OptinBig.com, and N5R are providing new and exciting email marketing solutions for thousands of progressive firms. Their results are impressive. Consider response rates that average 10 to 20 times those of traditional direct mail. Or campaign Network marketing referral rates as high as 40%. The bottom line is that programs they put together have produced millions of leads for clients. And it's surprisingly affordable. This means that almost anyone can now utilize this advertising medium. But it has to be done smartly, because you don't want your emails to end up in spam filters. That is one inherent problem with email advertising, especially in the past two years.

N5R in particular is now one of the leading direct marketing agencies in North America. They develop innovative one-to-one marketing campaigns that drive a measurable, positive ROI on behalf of their clients by driving acquisition and conversion to trial and purchase for their clients. They have developed award-winning strategies in five major industry sectors. These include Internet Marketing and Online Contests/Promotions, Permission Based Email Marketing, Text Messaging, Success Based Email.

In Internet Marketing and Online Contests/Promotions, marketers can gather and compile behavior and preference data from prospects and customers and use this information to send targeted and relevant information. Developing ongoing programs of one-to-one communication is cost effective and measurable. Contests are the quickest and most effective way to gather this data and build relationships with customers. It's very possible to build a permission-based database of over 50,000 prospects in only 6 weeks, increase web site traffic by 900%, improved online sales revenue by 1,000%, and achieve $40 million in sales from leads generated by an online promotion.

With Permission Based Email Marketing, loyal clients are just an e-mail away. Where traditional marketing campaigns fail, e-mail can shine through. E-mail marketing allows companies to speak one-to-one with their audience in a respectful, intelligent and creative way. It is extremely cost-effective, provides the foundation for future marketing initiatives, and delivers measurable results.

Text Messaging or SMS (Short Message Service) is a technology that allows people to send and receive short (up to 160 characters) written messages on cellular phones. It is already hugely popular in Europe and Asia and is growing rapidly in North America. SMS marketing offers the following benefits:

One-to-one communication with your target group, anywhere, anytime reach, low campaign cost, and very measurable data. Imagine if your mobile phone received an email message, "You're only a block from a Starbuck's; stop in for a 20% discount on your latte." The data is available and marketers are starting to tap into these resources.

Success Based Email is free email deployment where companies only pay for results. This "pay-per-click" approach is based on the premise that companies will only pay for each email that receives a "click-through" from the recipient. Not only does the new approach enhance the value of marketing dollars spent on such campaigns, the move will likely trim total dollars spent.

For example if 100,000 emails are sent, 70% are opened and 15% of the recipients actually click on a link in the email then clients will only be charged for the 15,000 people that clicked on the link, not for the other 85,000 that didn't. The return on investment (ROI) or cost savings inherent in this new approach will be very appealing to permission-based marketers. The bottom line is that marketers will now pay for real, measurable results.

The Next Step

Compared with other media, the Web is still limited in its bandwidth offerings. But it's getting better every day. With the continued improvement of bandwidth development, we will soon be positioned well to create full-featured multimedia advertising on the Internet. Once a majority of consumers have DSL capability and the computer power to access it, there will be some incredible things happening. Sites like tvtonic.com are already offering some very compelling visual and audio imagery in the form of movie trailers and music videos.

Market researchers, futurists and industry experts predict that interactivity through multiple technologies and devices will change how consumers interact with marketers. Interactive advertising will soon be everywhere. So, in effect, it could be considered the age of mass customization in advertising. Advertisers will have the tools to narrow their targets and address Web ads to individuals and not to a demographic or psychographic group. Why market a commercial to 1 million people, most of who aren't in the target audience, when the same ad could be shown to 10,000 people who are very interested in the product or service? Most of those will even give their name and address.

Interactivity will also be a part of television. Interactive TV will be the norm in the near future, and this too is another exciting opportunity. There will be total integration between TV channels and advertisers web sites. While we are watching TV, we will be able to interact with what we are seeing, ordering hamburgers from the McDonalds down the street or communicating with the local car dealer that we are interested in buying a car. Clicking on products we see in TV shows and ordering them will be easy. Your TV will keep track of what you are watching. Your TV will even know what kind of car you own because you'll tell for the free oil change you're offered in exchange. The oil change will be compliments of DirecTV, and it is only good at Jiffy Lube, which has paid to be the official oil-change provider for DirecTV." That's the way it will work.

Service Initiative Advertising

Another major trend is what I call "Service Initiative Advertising". Let's face it; consumers are tired of advertising as usual. Many people say they hate commercials. The success of Tivo and satellite radio can attest to this. They want more from their advertising. And who could blame them? People are inundated with advertising today- every where they go. Service Initiative Advertising takes the whole process one step further. Essentially how it works is that it requires advertising to offer some value to the consumer.
For example: Kraft Foods creates a website that offers busy mothers a source for quick recipes for the family evening meal. The idea isn't to push Kraft products, but to promote Kraft as a brand that offers a service to customers. There have been companies who positioned their entire marketing strategy on this tenant. Now, it will become a key part of advertising for almost everyone. The consumer wants to know you care.

It's important to realize that advertising mediums of the past will still be here. But, they may look a little different in the future. Direct mail will always be around as long as people like to receive mail. And despite external challenges, the U.S. Postal service will still be around. TV and radio will be here too.

But the future is here. And advertising will never be the same.

One thing that is certain is that it will continue to be as exciting and dynamic as it has been in the past. But now, the consumer is a part of the process.
Copyright © 2005 Jon Wuebben
About Jon: Jon Wuebben is a professional Website Copywriter, SEO Copywriter and Advertising Copywriter with 10 years experience in B2B & B2C copywriting and marketing. He has provided copy for a number of organizations including Ford Motor Company, Kia Motors America, Harmon Kardon, JBL, Infinity, Advertising Agencies, small and medium sized businesses and pro bono for a variety of non-profit groups. He can be reached at (909) 437-7015, or online at http://www.CustomCopywriting.com for any copywriting project you may have or if you would like more articles or a Complimentary Website Copy analysis. Need a custom newsletter or e-zine article written? Call Jon Today at (909) 437-7015 or email jon@customcopywriting.com for a professional Website Copywriter, SEO Copywriter, or Advertising Copywriter.

The Deception of FFA Advertising

2011-09-30T13:35:00.000+05:30

by: Dan J. Fry

FFA, or Free For All sites are the next generation of internet
marketing. Or at least that's what many want you to believe.

FFA sites are places where anyone can post a short ad with a
link, as long as they agree to accept emails from the site owner.
Some of the most popular sites are

(1)ffanet.com
(2)myebiz.com
(3)prolinks.com
(4)kiosk.com
(5)ffamailblaster.com

At first thought this seems like a remarkable way to advertise.
But, there are major problems here.

First off, the only way for the advertisement to work is for
people to visit the FFA site where it is posted. But the only
people it seems that visit these sites are those that post an ad.
To make matters worse, 99% of posts are done now through
autosubmiters. So who actually sees your ad? Absolutely no one.

You may have received emails from FFA site owners of claiming
that advertising via an FFA is worthless unless you actually own
the site. Their flawed reasoning (which I will explain shortly)
is that as the owner, you get to post your own ads on the site,
and better yet, collect the email addresses of everyone posting.
Moreover, you receive commissions on anyone signing up to
purchase an FFA site of their own.

But wait! It gets better. The same people will claim that when
submitting your ad, create a separate email account to store the
large number of autoresponder messages you will receive and other
advertisements. So, if you don't want your primary email account
to fill up, create a secondary account and simply delete the
emails as they come in.

Now i'm really confused. If people who submit to my now owned and
paying monthly FFA site, create a secondary email address to
submit when posting, only to delete all of the advertisements
they receive, why exactly do I want their email address?

The entire logic of using FFA's for increasing site traffic and
advertising is severely flawed. What's even worse is that most
search engines rank these sites lowly if at all. So where
exactly then do you advertise your FFA site?

I performed a very simple test. I created a simple E-Zine sign up
form, separate from my site, and used a well known autosubmit
software to "Blast" my add to the entire FFA network, which
claimed millions of page views per day. Submission was done once
per day, at the same time for a period of 1 week. How many
responses? 1! A single response that did not even sign up.

FFA sites for advertising are worthless. You'll hear many argue
that they work if your careful. I would like to believe it would.
Definitely easy to submit to and the exposure would be
phenomenal. The cold hard truth is that they do not.

Below are a few of what I find to be comical ad headlines posted
at FFA sites. Enjoy!

(1)"Get your classified ad in 5,000,000 emails and 111,000
websites everyday for free without spamming". (If you follow the
link you find that what is being promoted is another FFA site!)

(2)"$1.67=massive income" (I wonder if they know that this is not
an equality?!)

(3)"Getting 5,000 opt-in leads daily." (1 year amounts to
150,000 subscribers. Just about the population of a small town!)

(4)"Delivers an endless flood of traffic!" (Perpetual motion?!)

(5)"Retire in months for only $6!" (The state of Florida is about
to get an incredible population boost)

(6)"The secret to getting a million visitors to your site!"
About the Author
Dan J. Fry is an independent researcher and owner of
e-Kinetic.com, a site devoted to providing resources for small
budget home businesses. He has a PhD in Physics and is married
with two daughters and two cats. Subscribe to his free E-Zine on
home business resources at mailto:e-kinetic@GetResponse.com or by
visiting his site at http://www.e-kinetic.com . He can be reached
at mailto:comp@e-kinetic.com .

The Basics Of Pay Per Click Search Engine Advertising

2011-09-30T13:24:00.003+05:30

by: Kirk Bannerman

Not long ago, Forbes magazine has reported that pay per click ad sales are expected to increase to at least $8 billion by 2008.
There are three fundamental elements that form the basis of a successful pay per click ad program and they are constant monitoring, response analysis, and refinement.
Pay per click search engines offer a way to buy your way to the top of search results for any term you wish. With proper management, and a clear focus, pay per click search engines can offer some of the most well targeted and economical advertising on the Internet.
Pay per click advertising works through a bidding process, and the ads appear prominently on the results pages of search engines such as Google and Yahoo. The highest bidder for a particular word or phrase receives top placement, and depending on the engine, the top three to five bidders also generally also receive placement on the first page of unpaid search results.
Fundamental questions to be addressed when formulating a pay per click search engine strategy include the following:
When is the top pay per click bid necessary for highest conversion, and when will bidding for a second or third place position create a more attractive return on investment (ROI)?
How can you keep your PPC bids from cannibalizing your search efforts on other (non pay per click) search engines?
What percentage of your pay per click budget should go to each search engine?
Does either Google Adwords or Overture work better for your particular product or service? Or, perhaps neither one is appropriate from a return on investment (ROI) perspective.
It is of critical importance to focus sharply on identifying the search terms that convert most frequently for your particular site, eliminating those that don't perform, and most importantly, calculating and maximizing your return on investment.
The cost structure of pay per click is action-driven and each time a user clicks your ad, the pay per click engine deducts the amount of your current bid from your account. Pay per click offers a high level of assurance that your ad is reaching the proper target.
Pay per click campaigns, however, are not perfect. Without CONSTANT monitoring, you sometimes risk incurring advertising costs that can spiral out of control, focusing on terms that don't convert well for your product or services, or falling way down in position during a bidding war.
PPC advertising can be a great help to a site's success, but only with very close supervision and a thorough knowledge of the unique characteristics of each PPC search engine.

About The Author

Kirk Bannerman operates a successful home based business and coaches others seeking to start their own home based business. Visit his website at http://www.business-at-home.us for more details.