SuperTips Ezine: Issue 13
IN THIS ISSUE
2. "Targeting Free Classified-Ads
Links"
3. Readers Forum 4. Special Report: Ken Evoy 5. Free Gifts from SuperTips 6. Next Issue
1. Greetings! As some of you may know it was indeed a hard disk crash that stopped this issue going out last Wednesday. And my PC is only 5 weeks old ! On the positive side I learned some very useful tips from the recovery operation and I'll write about these in next week's issue. ------------------- Have you ever posted an ad in the free classified-ads sites ? There is the one great advantage that your ad stays longer than if say, it was posted in a newsletter, but the submission process can be quite tedious. So it's good to have Russ Swan show us some useful ways to simplify the operation in today's article. But if you really want to get frustrated how about submitting your site to the search engines ? There are just so many conflicting rules:
- Use 3 keywords, use 10, use 30. I dallied so long in trying to appease these rules that I found my site actually appearing in the search engines before I had even registered with them. I guess this was because they were picking up my Url from sites that had links to mine. But when this happened I was very surprised by the volume of traffic that they were bringing in. So this made me think: if I really tuned my pages for the engines and followed the right submission procedures this could be the most rewarding method of bringing visitors to my site. What I needed was for someone to come along, cut through those confusing rules and come up with a definitive approach. But, as the engines continually evolve and their search algorithms change, this is an impossible task. Or so I thought. Because that someone has now come along, as you will see.
2. "Targeting Free Classified-Ads Links" Posting your ads at the FREE classified-ads site on the World Wide Web (WWW) has at least one advantage over most other forms of advertising. The advantage is that your ad lasts LONGER. Because of this, posting your ads on the WWW should not be overlooked. You can use those multiple site classified-ad autosubmitter systems or services, but some of these can be a bit hit-and-miss. Sometimes several, or even most postings end up in inappropriate categories. Or some glitch in the software makes your ad text read like gobbledegook! The surest way is to do it manually. But this has its limitations as described in a separate article 'Advertising On the World Wide Web' available on autoresponder at: mailto:hbb2_mar99@GetResponse.com?Subject=Send or send blank email to: hbb2_mar99@GetResponse.com Most people use the Free Classifieds websites such as Icemall, Grandfather, Uran, Yahoo etc. You will find hundreds of links at these places, but they can't cater for everybody. You will probably find maybe half to two-thirds of the listings are not suitable to YOU at these websites. I mean if you have health or nutritional products, there's not much point in posting in an 'automobile' or 'horses' website! And you will have spent a lot of time loading up each website, only to find you have wasted your time. But you can make it easier on yourself, and eventually a whole lot less frustrating. Make your OWN list of Free Classified Ad sites that are applicable to YOU... to YOUR particular market. Whenever you find a classified ad site that is suitable for you to use, and at which you can safely comply with the rules for that particular website, copy and paste the URL into a word-processing document. By trial-and-error, you can compile your list of free class-ad sites from the bigger websites above, or from tips published in ezines from time to time (such as HomeBizBuildr), or by using a search engine on the net. You probably only need a couple of hundred, which will be enough if you are manually entering classified ads every night. Posting between 5 and 10 a night is perhaps sufficient for most purposes, because there are other ways to advertise that you should attend to as well. If you use those nifty little time saving software programs, you'll finish it in no time. For more details on this check this autoresponder: mailto:olcfom@GetResponse.com?Subject=Send or send blank email to: olcfom@GetResponse.com Most importantly, and this IS important... You can eventually refine your list to only those advertising sites that are EFFECTIVE, e.g. where there are high visitor counts, or where you notice that you consistently get responses from. Your list then becomes gold-plated to you because you will start getting better returns for your efforts. Going to the bigger free class-ad sites and posting ads willy-nilly is a bit like using a shotgun while wearing a blindfold. Find out where to shoot to get the best results! Some wp programs such as Microsoft Word even have a 'Insert Table' which makes columns and rows for you. You can then insert the dates you posted ads against each website URL. You won't have to keep visiting the site to see if your ad has expired! There are now two ways you can use your compiled list of free classified ad sites. ONE: Copy and paste each url directly from your wp document directly into your internet browser. Post away, then copy and past the next url, and so on. TWO: Use your wp as above, but also set your list up as a separate webpage and linked to your website. This I would recommend as you can then get more traffic to your site by drawing 'targeted' visitors who want to place ads, and who just might check out the rest of your website while doing so. In conclusion: The benefits of making your own 'Free Classified Ad List' are: 1. You will build a targeted list of effective free classified ad sites at which you can post your free ads. 2. You will save time by only needing to go to sites where you KNOW you can post an ad according to the rules at the site. 3. You will save yourself heaps of frustration which can kill your motivation... it's no longer a pain-in-the-backside to do an ad posting session, especially if using time saving software. 4. You can set up your own mini pseudo free class-ad linking site, and draw visitors to your primary website. Sometimes the simplest ideas are really good, aren't they!
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3. Readers Forum 3.1 Getting help on the Net You can get great help on the Net if you know where to look. In past issues I have mentioned two lists where you can post questions and, if published, they will get answered by the publisher or by other subscribers. These are ANSWERS: To subscribe <mailto:answers-on@mail-list.com> I-SALES HELP DESK To subscribe visit http://www.audettemedia.com/lists/subscribe/ I would like to expand this list to provide a useful resource for all our readers to get help on any aspect of online marketing whether it be business oriented , using software tools or whatever. If you provide or know of a discussion list, newsletter, web site or other resource offering such help please let me know.
3.2 Request for Superman No-one managed to find me an icon of Superman, to match my site name, following my appeal last week. One of our readers, Joyce Smith, has advised that 'Superman/Superwoman are probably proprietary figures that are licensed [like Disney characters]' and that I 'could get slapped with a very hefty lawsuit by the owner of the character'
Now that's an idea. That would attract great publicity for my site and
get customers rolling in. On second thoughts maybe not such a good plan. Besides, the Search Engine solution is coming up ....
4. Special Report: Ken Evoy Those of you who have been with this newsletter from the start will know that we have always endeavoured to provide free information in the form of useful articles and tips to help you profit on the Net. There have been no adverts. You will see an occasional unobtrusive plug for products that I promote, but you don't see me 'shouting' (in upper case letters) about a product. The newsletter arrives every Wednesday (apart from the recent PC problem) and you don't get special one-off editions at other times urging you to buy this or that. So I would hope that you feel that if I do come across a product and give it special praise then this will indeed be genuine. Well such a product has now arrived and I am going to give it the accolade (in upper case letters) - OUTSTANDING ! You may have read about it in other newsletters and wondered what all the fuss was about. It's a book about online marketing by Ken Evoy called "Make Your Site Sell". You may be interested in what others have thought:
The book is downloadable in Adobe Acrobat format (also a printed version is coming soon). Don't worry if you don't have Acrobat - Ken has thoughtfully set up a link so that you can download it (it's free). This is well worth your while anyway as more and more books will be written in this format. Acrobat provides the facilities to include graphics and to easily click to different sections of the book. Ken Evoy started out trying to sell over the Net a product which was completely unsuited to online marketing due to its' high cost, exclusivity and the fact that it could not be offered on trial. The experience he gained from making this a success formed the background to enable him to write this book. The book is 495 pages of unbelievable professionalism in terms of its faultless layout, syntax, grammar and brilliant graphics. The effect is stunning. Rather than have me trying to describe the book to you Ken can make a much better job. You can see a preview explaining the contents in detail together with chunks of the book. But now for two astonishing facts. You will have seen online marketing books and courses advertised with the claim that the original price was something like $599 and is now reduced to a mere $299.
Ken's book is priced at $17. And if you are trying to convert that to your local currency he has made it easy for you: there's a simple button at the site to give you the figure.
Now one problem with a downloadable E-book is that you cannot 'return'
it if you are not satisfied. Consequently you would be lucky to see for example
a 30-day money back guarantee on such a book. Ken has also produced another book "Traffic Building". He lists and rates all the methods of bringing traffic to your site and concludes that the best way by far is to use search engines. He then devotes the bulk of this 196 page book explaining in detail and with real examples exactly how he designed his sites for the search engines, experimenting, progressing and improving from one phase to another. Even when he was placed high in the engines and pulling in thousands of visitors he was not satisfied because there was always the possibility of dropping down as the search algorithms changed. Finally he came up with a set of simple 'timeless' principles which will be valid for all search engines no matter how they change their rules in the future. They contain no special tricks and no conflicting rules. And so, my plea has been answered. My quest for a straight forward and effective solution to designing for the search engines has been solved. This material alone is worth a three figure purchase.
So is this Ken's devious plan ?
Well, here is the second astonishing fact.
To sum up: Now if I told you that he has written another book "Products that Sell" and is also throwing that in for free you would not believe me, so I won't mention it. All that remains is the Url. So hurry here. On a final note, what I found just as impressive as any of the above: I have written to Ken on three occasions, once with questions about the book, most recently to get another 'copy' after the first was lost with my hard disk. Each time I received by return of Email a most helpful and comprehensive reply.
5. Free Gifts from SuperTips Hidden away at the SuperTips web site is a free gift which has proved so popular that we've moved it to it's own page. It's a selection of some 100 newsletters which are free to join. There is no laborious form filling, you just click on whichever ones you wish to receive. The topics include
* Internet marketing So pop over now and get some great reading here.
6. Next Issue The next issue will now be published on Wednesday week. If you thought that your PC is securely backed up and that recovering from a disaster will be a problem-free operation then read about a man who's been there ! If you have any suggestions to improve this newsletter so that we can make it a great resource for all our readers please drop me a line.
Thanks,
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