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Free Advertising vs Paid Advertising Campaigns (Part 1)Maximize Your Online Advertising Dollars (part 1) How much do you spend advertising your online business? How much money are you making from your online business? The two are directly related.
The adage, "You have to spend money to make money..." is an undeniable truth. You can't very well sell products if people don't know about them, and the way to tell people about what you've got, is to advertise.
ADVERTISING COSTS MONEY.
Big corporations spend millions of dollars to advertise their products. Now, they wouldn't spend all of this money on advertising if it didn't generate more in revenue than they originally spent. The key here is to put your advertising dollars where they will be the most effective. You must target your audience.
Think about this:
Why do you always see cereal and toy commercials during Saturday morning cartoons, but you never see beer commercials in the same time slot? Because Saturday morning TV viewers are children. Kids eat cereal and play with toys. They don't drink beer.
The commercials are targeting the children because they are selling children's products. Once a kid has it set in his mind that he has to have that cereal, or toy, the advertiser's job is done. The child then goes to his parents and creates his own sales pitch to Mom and Dad. And we all know how persuasive children can be when they want something.
Tip! Link exchange. Exchanging links is a great way to get free advertising while also helping your websites search engine ranking.
Beer commercials, on the other hand, are slotted for prime time TV, because that is when adults are watching.
Maximize your advertising dollars by targeting your audience. Sell to those who are looking to buy what you have to offer.
Why spend money on advertising, when there are so many free advertising options available? Before I answer that question, let me ask another...
Do you ever see advertisements for Miller High Life, or Coors on a traffic exchange? No. The marketing executives for these companies know where their market is; not in front of a computer screen, but in front of a television. They spend millions of dollars for a Super Bowl ad, because they know that a large portion of Super Bowl viewers are also beer drinkers. That investment generates tens of millions of dollars in sales. I doubt anyone would be moved to buy a case of beer, from viewing an ad on a traffic exchange, or a classified. These companies purchase targeted advertising because it works!
So what about free advertising?
1. Free advertising isn't really free. It takes a great deal of time to post free advertisements all over the net. Most people who rely on free ad sites spend hours and hours, each day, to post their ads.
Tip! For free advertising space, many publications will write an article about you or your product if you purchase advertising space with them. One way publications sell advertising space is to agree that if the advertiser purchases the ad, he will also receive a certain amount of free editorial space.
So what's your time worth, $10, $15, $20 per hour? Let's say that you spend 20 hours per week, posting to free ad sites. At $15 per hour, you've just spent $300! That's right, $300 in just one week.
How many sales have you made?
2. Free advertising online does nothing to target your audience. In most cases, free advertising venues are actually counterproductive. You are promoting your products to sellers, not those who are looking to buy your stuff. This is about as effective as running an ad for a diaper service in, 'Hot Rod Magazine,' or classic car parts in, 'Ladies Home Journal.'
Free advertising, for the most part, is expensive and wasteful. In this case, you've spent $300 worth of your time promoting to the wrong people. Again, how many sales have you made?
Tip! Classified Ads are another way of getting free advertising for your business. In this you can highlight the benefits of your site and/or offer a special to get people to come to your site.
If you want to make money, you've got to spend it. And what's more, you've got to spend it in the right place.
Target your market, and sell to buyers. The best way to do this is to first establish who your market is, and then get yourself into the search engine results for that market, based on the keywords they are using in their searches.
Consumers do not sign up to traffic exchanges to find what they are looking for. That would be an incredible waste of their time, surfing sites for hours on end, hoping to find what they need. They do go to search engines to locate what they're after. So, it just makes sense to spend some of your advertising dollars, getting yourself in front of your market through search engine placement.
Take that $300 of your time and convert it into cash. Spend it on a targeted advertising campaign, and make money selling your product to those who are indeed looking for it. You are sure to yield a better return on your investment, and it will cost you less, in the long run, than spending hours plugging away at posting free ads everywhere, or surfing for traffic.
Tip! Link exchange is a good way to get free advertising and looks good for the search engines. You can do this in a couple of ways but you need to do what is right for you! There are link exchange programs out there that are for free and some you pay for.
Copyright © 2006
The Trii-Zine Ezine
http://www.ezines1.com About the Author: Trina L.C. Schiller
Publisher - The Trii-Zine Ezine - Internet marketing and home business resources and information. Serving online professionals since 2001.
http://www.ezines1.com/triizine Publisher - AdsOnQ - Article Distribution and Syndication On Quikonnex http://www.ads-on-q.com
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