Are you kidding me...It was driving me crazzzy this tag dilema.
Check Elizabeth blog and start tagging your blogs
Blogging - What's in it for Me?: Technorati Tags Made Easy!
20 April 2006
Improving Your Results => Building Traffic to Your Affiliate,Blog or Website - Site
So you have done your research and built a nice Affiliate site and the next step is to start marketing your site and getting some traffic.
This is the difficult part, but there are some basic techniques that many people use to get a decent flow of potential buying customers to their sites and then onto their Merchant's sites!
This tutorial will take you through the basics of getting that traffic to your site.
Natural SEOGetting traffic from the search engines is one of the best ways to get quality traffic to your site. This means adhering to what the search engines want from a good website.
For a primer on how to optimize your own site for the search engines, be sure to check out our tutorial on Search Engine Marketing for Affiliates.
If you adhere to the general rules of SEO when building your site, you should get a reasonable amount of traffic to your Affiliate pages.
Post in Forums Finding forums about the topic area of your site is an easy way to get a little traffic to your site. But there are a few things to REMEMBER.
Just posting in forums saying "Visit my site" is considered SPAM and you should not do it. Most forums will however, allow you to put a signature in each post which is basically just a line or two about you at the bottom of each post you make. That is where you can usually put a link to your site. If you have an interesting signature related to the theme of the forum, then people will visit your site. As for participating in the forum, just be helpful by answering other people's questions and joining the conversation in a constructive way.
Get Listed on DirectoriesThere are thousands of directories on the internet and getting listed on them is one way to drive a little bit more traffic to your site.
Just go to Google and type in "Directory" to find a list of potential candidates. You could also try typing in the keywords of your site along with the word "directory" to see if there are any industry-specific directories that might be worthwhile submitting your site to. Most of these sites will have a directory submission page where you can let them know about your site.
Get Incoming Links Getting incoming links to your site is possibly the most powerful way to get traffic to your site. (It can also help with SEO). There are several ways to go about this (getting links from directories is one). Swapping links with other relevant sites is a pretty common strategy. You can also email other webmasters to ask if they would like to link to your site or a page on your site (do not SPAM random emails asking for this) or give you a plug in their blogs etc.
Write Articles Writing articles for free article directories is a great way to get traffic and incoming links to your own site. We have written before about writing articles to promote Merchant programs directly, but you can also use the exact same technique to promote your own site too.
The amount of traffic you get from this technique is really only limited by how many articles you can write.
PPC Paying for traffic to your site is another option for drawing in potential customers. Be sure to do the maths before utilising this strategy as it can be quite expensive to get a lot of targeted visitors to your site using PPC search engines. The bright side is that PPC campaigns will usually drive specifically targeted visitors to your site who are already interested in the topic at hand.
Email Signatures An often overlooked method to get a few extra visitors to your site is email. More specifically, placing a link to your site in the signature link of your email is an easy and effective method to get people visiting your site. Of course, the success of this tactic will very much depend on how much you use your email from day to day, but it is something that is well worth doing as it takes very little effort.
These are some of the basic strategies that I been using to build well-trafficked sites promotion. While this list isn't exhaustive, it is a good start to help you on the road to driving some sales through your Affiliate account or any website.
Much of this contect of this article was drawn from www.clixgaloretutor.com
This is the difficult part, but there are some basic techniques that many people use to get a decent flow of potential buying customers to their sites and then onto their Merchant's sites!
This tutorial will take you through the basics of getting that traffic to your site.
Natural SEOGetting traffic from the search engines is one of the best ways to get quality traffic to your site. This means adhering to what the search engines want from a good website.
For a primer on how to optimize your own site for the search engines, be sure to check out our tutorial on Search Engine Marketing for Affiliates.
If you adhere to the general rules of SEO when building your site, you should get a reasonable amount of traffic to your Affiliate pages.
Post in Forums Finding forums about the topic area of your site is an easy way to get a little traffic to your site. But there are a few things to REMEMBER.
Just posting in forums saying "Visit my site" is considered SPAM and you should not do it. Most forums will however, allow you to put a signature in each post which is basically just a line or two about you at the bottom of each post you make. That is where you can usually put a link to your site. If you have an interesting signature related to the theme of the forum, then people will visit your site. As for participating in the forum, just be helpful by answering other people's questions and joining the conversation in a constructive way.
Get Listed on DirectoriesThere are thousands of directories on the internet and getting listed on them is one way to drive a little bit more traffic to your site.
Just go to Google and type in "Directory" to find a list of potential candidates. You could also try typing in the keywords of your site along with the word "directory" to see if there are any industry-specific directories that might be worthwhile submitting your site to. Most of these sites will have a directory submission page where you can let them know about your site.
Get Incoming Links Getting incoming links to your site is possibly the most powerful way to get traffic to your site. (It can also help with SEO). There are several ways to go about this (getting links from directories is one). Swapping links with other relevant sites is a pretty common strategy. You can also email other webmasters to ask if they would like to link to your site or a page on your site (do not SPAM random emails asking for this) or give you a plug in their blogs etc.
Write Articles Writing articles for free article directories is a great way to get traffic and incoming links to your own site. We have written before about writing articles to promote Merchant programs directly, but you can also use the exact same technique to promote your own site too.
The amount of traffic you get from this technique is really only limited by how many articles you can write.
PPC Paying for traffic to your site is another option for drawing in potential customers. Be sure to do the maths before utilising this strategy as it can be quite expensive to get a lot of targeted visitors to your site using PPC search engines. The bright side is that PPC campaigns will usually drive specifically targeted visitors to your site who are already interested in the topic at hand.
Email Signatures An often overlooked method to get a few extra visitors to your site is email. More specifically, placing a link to your site in the signature link of your email is an easy and effective method to get people visiting your site. Of course, the success of this tactic will very much depend on how much you use your email from day to day, but it is something that is well worth doing as it takes very little effort.
These are some of the basic strategies that I been using to build well-trafficked sites promotion. While this list isn't exhaustive, it is a good start to help you on the road to driving some sales through your Affiliate account or any website.
Much of this contect of this article was drawn from www.clixgaloretutor.com
Affiliate Marketing Primer For Beginners - Please Read This First!
If you are just getting started with your Affiliate marketing program, this quick tutorial will get you up to speed with what Affiliate Marketing is all about as well as the terms that are used.
Affiliate marketing is a way for Merchants on the internet to allow others to promote their products and pay a commission for sales. Terms - Who's Who!
Merchant - The company that is selling a service or product.
Affiliate - The company or individual who promotes and markets the website of the Merchant.Affiliate Network - The company that provides the service by which Merchants and Affiliates are connected
The Affiliate Network is usually the creator of the software and websites that track transactions between the Merchant and Affiliate.
Terms - Program Types%Sale - Where a Merchant pays a set % of every transaction to the Affiliate who sent the customer.
Per Sale - Where a Merchant pays a set $ fee of every transaction to the Affiliate who sent the customer.
Per Lead - Where a Merchant pays a set $ fee to an Affiliate who sends a customer that fills out a lead form. Per Click - Where a Merchant pays every time a customer clicks on their advertisement on an Affiliate's website.
Much of this contect of this article was drawn from www.clixgaloretutor.com
Affiliate marketing is a way for Merchants on the internet to allow others to promote their products and pay a commission for sales. Terms - Who's Who!
Merchant - The company that is selling a service or product.
Affiliate - The company or individual who promotes and markets the website of the Merchant.Affiliate Network - The company that provides the service by which Merchants and Affiliates are connected
The Affiliate Network is usually the creator of the software and websites that track transactions between the Merchant and Affiliate.
Terms - Program Types%Sale - Where a Merchant pays a set % of every transaction to the Affiliate who sent the customer.
Per Sale - Where a Merchant pays a set $ fee of every transaction to the Affiliate who sent the customer.
Per Lead - Where a Merchant pays a set $ fee to an Affiliate who sends a customer that fills out a lead form. Per Click - Where a Merchant pays every time a customer clicks on their advertisement on an Affiliate's website.
Much of this contect of this article was drawn from www.clixgaloretutor.com
17 April 2006
Reasons Why People Don't Buy From You
1. You don't make people feel safe when they order. Remind people that they are ordering through a secure server. Tell them you won't sell their e-mail address and all their information will be kept confidential.
2. You don't make your ad copy attractive. Your ad lists features instead of benefits. The head line does not attract at your target audience. You don't list any testimonials or guarantees included in your ad.
3. You don't remind people to come back and visit. People usually don't purchase the first time they visit.The more times they visit your site, the greater the chance they will buy. The most effective way is to give them a free subscription to your e-zine.
4. You don't let people know anything about your business. They will feel more comfortable if they know who they are buying from. Publish a section called"About Us" on your web site. Include your business history, profile of employees, contact information etc.
5. You don't give people as many ordering options as possible. Accept credit cards, checks, money orders, and other forms of electronic payments. Take orders by phone, e-mail, web site, fax, mail, etc.
6. You don't make your web site look professional.You want to have your own domain name. Your website should be easy to navigate through. The graphics should be related to the theme of your web site.
7. You don't let people read your ad before they get your freebie. When you use free stuff to lure people to your web site include it below your ad copy or on another web page. If you list the freebie above your ad they may never look to see what you're selling.
8. You don't attract the target audience that would buy your product or service. A simple way to do this is to survey your existing customers to see what attracted them to buy. This information will help you improve your target marketing and advertising.
9. You don't test and improve your ad copy. There are many people who write an ad copy and never change it. You have to continually test and improve your ad copy to get the highest possible response rate.
10. You don't give people any urgency to buy now.Many people are interested in your product but they put off buying it till later and eventually forget about it. Entice them to buy now with a freebie or discountand include a deadline date when the offer ends.
1. You don't make people feel safe when they order. Remind people that they are ordering through a secure server. Tell them you won't sell their e-mail address and all their information will be kept confidential.
2. You don't make your ad copy attractive. Your ad lists features instead of benefits. The head line does not attract at your target audience. You don't list any testimonials or guarantees included in your ad.
3. You don't remind people to come back and visit. People usually don't purchase the first time they visit.The more times they visit your site, the greater the chance they will buy. The most effective way is to give them a free subscription to your e-zine.
4. You don't let people know anything about your business. They will feel more comfortable if they know who they are buying from. Publish a section called"About Us" on your web site. Include your business history, profile of employees, contact information etc.
5. You don't give people as many ordering options as possible. Accept credit cards, checks, money orders, and other forms of electronic payments. Take orders by phone, e-mail, web site, fax, mail, etc.
6. You don't make your web site look professional.You want to have your own domain name. Your website should be easy to navigate through. The graphics should be related to the theme of your web site.
7. You don't let people read your ad before they get your freebie. When you use free stuff to lure people to your web site include it below your ad copy or on another web page. If you list the freebie above your ad they may never look to see what you're selling.
8. You don't attract the target audience that would buy your product or service. A simple way to do this is to survey your existing customers to see what attracted them to buy. This information will help you improve your target marketing and advertising.
9. You don't test and improve your ad copy. There are many people who write an ad copy and never change it. You have to continually test and improve your ad copy to get the highest possible response rate.
10. You don't give people any urgency to buy now.Many people are interested in your product but they put off buying it till later and eventually forget about it. Entice them to buy now with a freebie or discountand include a deadline date when the offer ends.
14 April 2006
Ways To Sell Your Products Now
1. Make your reader visualize they have already bought your product in your ad. Tell them what results they have gotten and how it makes them feel. They'll already become emotionally attached before they buy.
2. Turn your ad into an article. It could be a story,or how-to article. This will lead them into your adwithout them knowing it's an ad. They'll already be interested when they get to your sales pitch.
3. Make sure you show your reader that they are getting a bargain. Tell them the usual price you sellyour product for is $99. Then tell them if they order today they can buy it for $69.95.
4. Direct your ad headline to your target audience.Your readers will feel important and belong to aselect group of people who buy your product.
For example; "Attention! Accountants, Discover A New Way To Increase Your Client Base!"
5. Tell your reader how fast they can receive your product or service in your ad. Their buying decision may be based on how fast they can receive your product. They may need it by a certain deadline.
6. Use bullets to highlight your product or services benefits. Benefits are the key to selling anything,make them stand out in your ad. You can use dots,dashes, or circles to highlight them.
7. Give a money back guarantee that surpasses a normal one. Instead of the normal timed guarantee, give them extra back. Tell them they can keep the free bonus or give them double their money back.
8. Tell your reader they'll receive surprise bonuses.This will raise your reader's curiosity and make them want to buy so they can find out what the surprise bonuses are.
9. Let your reader know this specific package willnot be offered again. You must create urgency so people buy now. You may always sell the sameproduct but not with the same bonuses or price.
10. Give them a couple tips in your ad that will help them with their problem. This will give your business credibility and gain your readers trust to buy your products or services.
2. Turn your ad into an article. It could be a story,or how-to article. This will lead them into your adwithout them knowing it's an ad. They'll already be interested when they get to your sales pitch.
3. Make sure you show your reader that they are getting a bargain. Tell them the usual price you sellyour product for is $99. Then tell them if they order today they can buy it for $69.95.
4. Direct your ad headline to your target audience.Your readers will feel important and belong to aselect group of people who buy your product.
For example; "Attention! Accountants, Discover A New Way To Increase Your Client Base!"
5. Tell your reader how fast they can receive your product or service in your ad. Their buying decision may be based on how fast they can receive your product. They may need it by a certain deadline.
6. Use bullets to highlight your product or services benefits. Benefits are the key to selling anything,make them stand out in your ad. You can use dots,dashes, or circles to highlight them.
7. Give a money back guarantee that surpasses a normal one. Instead of the normal timed guarantee, give them extra back. Tell them they can keep the free bonus or give them double their money back.
8. Tell your reader they'll receive surprise bonuses.This will raise your reader's curiosity and make them want to buy so they can find out what the surprise bonuses are.
9. Let your reader know this specific package willnot be offered again. You must create urgency so people buy now. You may always sell the sameproduct but not with the same bonuses or price.
10. Give them a couple tips in your ad that will help them with their problem. This will give your business credibility and gain your readers trust to buy your products or services.
If You Are Not Blogging You Are Losing OUT ...
I've been researching more about how to get that #1 spot with my blogs and the more I read the more I learn.
I'm going to address today is this:
If You Are Not Blogging You Are Losing OUT BIG TIME!
You are losing the biggest market growth to advertise your business to. You are losing ground in getting in on this NEW internet land rush. Why do I say this?
Let me refer to a company, Technorati, a blogging directory and a little more, and let you see what they are seeing. In summary:
* Technorati now tracks over 27.2 Million blogs
* The blogosphere is doubling in size every 5 and a half months
* It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago
* On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day
* 13.7 million bloggers are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created
* Spings (Spam Pings) can sometimes account for as much as 60% of the total daily pings Technorati receives
* Sophisticated spam management tools eliminate the spings and find that about 9% of new blogs are spam or machine generated
* Technorati tracks about 1.2 million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour
* Over 81 million posts with tags since January 2005, increasing by 400,000 per day
* Blog Finder has over 850,000 blogs, and over 2,500 popular categories have attracted a critical mass of topical bloggers Did I just post right?
Technorati now tracks over 27.2 Million blogs? Now, granted, there are some blogs that should not exist or just waste digital space.
Don't confuse 'MySpace' as a blog either. It is a community with a blog feature within. So all of the teen ranting you see there will not be accounted for as legit blogs.
Anyway back to Technorati. The State of the Blogosphere is Strong OK, I'm paraphrasing from a more famous speech (Bush-2006) that happened January 2006, but the truth is that the blogosphere continues to grow at a quickening pace.
Technorati currently tracks 27.2 million weblogs, and the blogosphere they track continues to double about every 5.5 months. The blogosphere is over 60 times bigger than it was only 3 years ago. New blog creation continues to grow.
Technorati currently track over 75,000 new weblogs created every day, which means that on average, a new weblog is created every second of every day - and 13.7 million bloggers are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created. In other words, even though there's a reasonable amount of tire-kicking going on, blogging is growing as a habitual activity.
In October of 2005, when Technorati was only tracking 19 million blogs, about 10.4 million bloggers were still posting 3 months after the creation of their blogs. In addition to that, about 2.7 million bloggers update their blogs at least weekly. A News Cycle Measured in Megahertz Moving beyond spam, the number of people reaching out and reaching each other continues to grow. Daily Posting Volume tracked by Technorati continues to grow, and the blogosphere also reacts to world events.
Technorati tracks about 1.2 million posts each day, which means that there are about 50,000 posts each hour. At that rate, it is literally impossible to read everything that is relevant to an issue or subject, and a new challenge has presented itself - how to make sense out of this monstrous conversation, and how to find the most interesting and authoritative information out there.
The Continued Rise of Tagging In January 2005, Technorati launched its tagging service, based on the rel=tag microformat, which is a simple way for bloggers to associate their posts with topics, and to make it easy for people to find interesting posts on a given subject.
Today, they have tracked over 81 million posts with tags or categories - and over 400,000 new tagged posts are created every day. Tags for Blogs There was still a major problem, however - how to easily find the most interesting blogs on the subjects that you cared about. So, in September 2005, Technorati launched Blog Finder, a tags-based way for people to find the most authoritative blogs on a particular subject, allowing bloggers to tag their blogs with the subjects they felt were most relevant for themselves.
In 4 months, over 850,000 blogs have been put into Blog Finder, making it the most comprehensive directory of blogs on the web.
Over 2,500 categories have already attracted a critical mass of influential bloggers writing about them, from Politics and Technology to Gardening or Erotica. And more are created every day, making it easier for people to find the most interesting blogs in the topics they care about. So with all of this information about blogging how can you ignore the inevitable?
Blogging is here and here to stay. The longer you wait to start the more behind the pack you will be.
I'm going to address today is this:
If You Are Not Blogging You Are Losing OUT BIG TIME!
You are losing the biggest market growth to advertise your business to. You are losing ground in getting in on this NEW internet land rush. Why do I say this?
Let me refer to a company, Technorati, a blogging directory and a little more, and let you see what they are seeing. In summary:
* Technorati now tracks over 27.2 Million blogs
* The blogosphere is doubling in size every 5 and a half months
* It is now over 60 times bigger than it was 3 years ago
* On average, a new weblog is created every second of every day
* 13.7 million bloggers are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created
* Spings (Spam Pings) can sometimes account for as much as 60% of the total daily pings Technorati receives
* Sophisticated spam management tools eliminate the spings and find that about 9% of new blogs are spam or machine generated
* Technorati tracks about 1.2 million new blog posts each day, about 50,000 per hour
* Over 81 million posts with tags since January 2005, increasing by 400,000 per day
* Blog Finder has over 850,000 blogs, and over 2,500 popular categories have attracted a critical mass of topical bloggers Did I just post right?
Technorati now tracks over 27.2 Million blogs? Now, granted, there are some blogs that should not exist or just waste digital space.
Don't confuse 'MySpace' as a blog either. It is a community with a blog feature within. So all of the teen ranting you see there will not be accounted for as legit blogs.
Anyway back to Technorati. The State of the Blogosphere is Strong OK, I'm paraphrasing from a more famous speech (Bush-2006) that happened January 2006, but the truth is that the blogosphere continues to grow at a quickening pace.
Technorati currently tracks 27.2 million weblogs, and the blogosphere they track continues to double about every 5.5 months. The blogosphere is over 60 times bigger than it was only 3 years ago. New blog creation continues to grow.
Technorati currently track over 75,000 new weblogs created every day, which means that on average, a new weblog is created every second of every day - and 13.7 million bloggers are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created. In other words, even though there's a reasonable amount of tire-kicking going on, blogging is growing as a habitual activity.
In October of 2005, when Technorati was only tracking 19 million blogs, about 10.4 million bloggers were still posting 3 months after the creation of their blogs. In addition to that, about 2.7 million bloggers update their blogs at least weekly. A News Cycle Measured in Megahertz Moving beyond spam, the number of people reaching out and reaching each other continues to grow. Daily Posting Volume tracked by Technorati continues to grow, and the blogosphere also reacts to world events.
Technorati tracks about 1.2 million posts each day, which means that there are about 50,000 posts each hour. At that rate, it is literally impossible to read everything that is relevant to an issue or subject, and a new challenge has presented itself - how to make sense out of this monstrous conversation, and how to find the most interesting and authoritative information out there.
The Continued Rise of Tagging In January 2005, Technorati launched its tagging service, based on the rel=tag microformat, which is a simple way for bloggers to associate their posts with topics, and to make it easy for people to find interesting posts on a given subject.
Today, they have tracked over 81 million posts with tags or categories - and over 400,000 new tagged posts are created every day. Tags for Blogs There was still a major problem, however - how to easily find the most interesting blogs on the subjects that you cared about. So, in September 2005, Technorati launched Blog Finder, a tags-based way for people to find the most authoritative blogs on a particular subject, allowing bloggers to tag their blogs with the subjects they felt were most relevant for themselves.
In 4 months, over 850,000 blogs have been put into Blog Finder, making it the most comprehensive directory of blogs on the web.
Over 2,500 categories have already attracted a critical mass of influential bloggers writing about them, from Politics and Technology to Gardening or Erotica. And more are created every day, making it easier for people to find the most interesting blogs in the topics they care about. So with all of this information about blogging how can you ignore the inevitable?
Blogging is here and here to stay. The longer you wait to start the more behind the pack you will be.
How To Stimulate More Business Part 1
In fact, there are seven strategies that can help you stimulate new business, increase business from existent customers and build repeat business. You may not be able to use all of them in your business but you can certainly use some of them.
#1) A system of frequent buyer rewards. Today all major airlines and many hotel chains are using this technique to capture repeat business from their clientele. In Phoenix the Weiss Guys Car Wash uses this same idea.
They issue each customer a little plastic punch card. After the customer pays for a certain number of washes, recorded on the card, they can then redeem the card for a free wash.The idea of the frequent buyer type incentive is to encourage the customer to return to your business rather than spreading his business around. In order to make this type of incentive even more effective you can tie it to an expiration date so that the points have to be accumulated and redeemed within a certain time period.
#2) Discounting is probably the most commonly used marketing strategy in business. Just about every business in America uses discounts at various times in various ways. One word of caution about discounting, if it's overused it loses its effectiveness.The retail furniture industry, for example, is finding that 'special this weekend only' sale type advertising is losing its effectiveness the more they use it.Also artificial discounting is very dangerous in the long run.
The American automobile industry did itself great, apparently permanent damage with artificial discounting so that today everybody knows that the sticker price on a car is meaningless and every price is negotiable.It's important to have a logical reason tied to a discount opportunity. Otherwise you are essentially admitting that your regular prices are excessive. Inventory overstock, an anniversary, a holiday celebration, an introductory offer for new customers, a special offer on a new product or service, these are all examples of logical, acceptable reasons for discounts.
#3) The use of premiums, which I believe is a much better way to incentivize your customers and prospects to buy. We'll be covering this in detail in the next Successful Marketing Strategy that you'll be receiving in just a couple of days.
Dedicated To Multiplying Your 1ncome
#1) A system of frequent buyer rewards. Today all major airlines and many hotel chains are using this technique to capture repeat business from their clientele. In Phoenix the Weiss Guys Car Wash uses this same idea.
They issue each customer a little plastic punch card. After the customer pays for a certain number of washes, recorded on the card, they can then redeem the card for a free wash.The idea of the frequent buyer type incentive is to encourage the customer to return to your business rather than spreading his business around. In order to make this type of incentive even more effective you can tie it to an expiration date so that the points have to be accumulated and redeemed within a certain time period.
#2) Discounting is probably the most commonly used marketing strategy in business. Just about every business in America uses discounts at various times in various ways. One word of caution about discounting, if it's overused it loses its effectiveness.The retail furniture industry, for example, is finding that 'special this weekend only' sale type advertising is losing its effectiveness the more they use it.Also artificial discounting is very dangerous in the long run.
The American automobile industry did itself great, apparently permanent damage with artificial discounting so that today everybody knows that the sticker price on a car is meaningless and every price is negotiable.It's important to have a logical reason tied to a discount opportunity. Otherwise you are essentially admitting that your regular prices are excessive. Inventory overstock, an anniversary, a holiday celebration, an introductory offer for new customers, a special offer on a new product or service, these are all examples of logical, acceptable reasons for discounts.
#3) The use of premiums, which I believe is a much better way to incentivize your customers and prospects to buy. We'll be covering this in detail in the next Successful Marketing Strategy that you'll be receiving in just a couple of days.
Dedicated To Multiplying Your 1ncome
Innovative Ways To Use Your Autoresponder
Collect leads with your autoresponder. You will get an e-mail digest of everyone's e-mail addresses whore quests information from your autoresponder.
Publish a price list of all the products and services that you offer. You could also include order forms,product descriptions, and other sales material.
Publish free reports in auto responder format. The reports should be related to your business or web site. Giving away free stuff will quickly increase your traffic.
Collect vital customer satisfaction information by publishing a survey in auto responder format. This type of information will help you serve them better.
Instead of answering every customer question that'se-mailed to you, publish " Frequently Ask Questions" in auto responder format. This will save time and money.
You could publish your testimonials or endorsements in autoresponder format if you don't have the room in your ad copy. It's more effective to include all of them.
Provide back issues of your e-zine archives in auto-responder format. This will give your subscribers and web site visitors easy access to them.
Publish your entire web site in autoresponder format. Sometimes visitors don't have enough time read your entire site. They could print it out and read it offline.
You could offer your ebook in autoresponder format.Your visitors won't have to download it or have the software to read it right away.
You could publish the terms and conditions to any business transactions in autoresponder format. This could include return policies, purchases, refunds etc.
Publish a price list of all the products and services that you offer. You could also include order forms,product descriptions, and other sales material.
Publish free reports in auto responder format. The reports should be related to your business or web site. Giving away free stuff will quickly increase your traffic.
Collect vital customer satisfaction information by publishing a survey in auto responder format. This type of information will help you serve them better.
Instead of answering every customer question that'se-mailed to you, publish " Frequently Ask Questions" in auto responder format. This will save time and money.
You could publish your testimonials or endorsements in autoresponder format if you don't have the room in your ad copy. It's more effective to include all of them.
Provide back issues of your e-zine archives in auto-responder format. This will give your subscribers and web site visitors easy access to them.
Publish your entire web site in autoresponder format. Sometimes visitors don't have enough time read your entire site. They could print it out and read it offline.
You could offer your ebook in autoresponder format.Your visitors won't have to download it or have the software to read it right away.
You could publish the terms and conditions to any business transactions in autoresponder format. This could include return policies, purchases, refunds etc.
Accelerate Your Profits
Proven Ways:
1. Make copies of your web site in many different languages. This'll allow foreign speaking people toread your web site and advertisements.
2. Give your customers a surprise bonus for buying.When you give customers more than they expect, there is a good chance they will b.uy from you again.
3. Send greeting cards offline or online to customerson holidays. You'll get the chance to increase your orders by including your ad inside the card.
4. Market your products or services to your targetaudience. For example, don't try to sell a footballin a cooking magazine.
5. Give people the option of buying other productsor add on products when they decide to b.uy your main product or service at the point of sale.
6. Think of new ways to attract people to b.uy yourproducts or services. You could add on extra free bonuses , delivery options , payments options, etc.
7. Give other businesses the option of selling yourproduct. It could be a simple joint venture affiliate/associate program.
8. Follow-up regularly with all your prospects andcurrent customers. When people see your ad morethan once they are more likely to buy.
9. Learn sales ideas from reading and studying otherbusiness' advertising and marketing material. Itcould be ads, brochures, tv ads, sales letters, etc.
10. Educate yourself with new strategies to i.ncreaseyour sales. You could take classes, subscribe toe-zines and magazines, read books or ebooks, etc.
1. Make copies of your web site in many different languages. This'll allow foreign speaking people toread your web site and advertisements.
2. Give your customers a surprise bonus for buying.When you give customers more than they expect, there is a good chance they will b.uy from you again.
3. Send greeting cards offline or online to customerson holidays. You'll get the chance to increase your orders by including your ad inside the card.
4. Market your products or services to your targetaudience. For example, don't try to sell a footballin a cooking magazine.
5. Give people the option of buying other productsor add on products when they decide to b.uy your main product or service at the point of sale.
6. Think of new ways to attract people to b.uy yourproducts or services. You could add on extra free bonuses , delivery options , payments options, etc.
7. Give other businesses the option of selling yourproduct. It could be a simple joint venture affiliate/associate program.
8. Follow-up regularly with all your prospects andcurrent customers. When people see your ad morethan once they are more likely to buy.
9. Learn sales ideas from reading and studying otherbusiness' advertising and marketing material. Itcould be ads, brochures, tv ads, sales letters, etc.
10. Educate yourself with new strategies to i.ncreaseyour sales. You could take classes, subscribe toe-zines and magazines, read books or ebooks, etc.
09 April 2006
Free and Low Cost Ways
To Generate Traffic To Your Site
By Kim Thomas
It is not enough to simply submit your site to the search
engines. Generating traffic to your site takes a little
work, however, it doesn't have to cost you money. I'll
show you several free and low cost ways to drive traffic
to your site.
1. Exchange Ezine Ads - Ezine ads have become a very popular
and successful way to promote your website or newsletter.
People subscribed to a particular ezine are interested in
that subject and are more apt to reply to ads that interest
them. One way you can exchange ezine ads is to approach the
author of your favorite ezine and simply ask them if they
would swap ads with you. Or you can find reputable, targeted
ezines to exchange ads with using the following resources:
List City's Ezine Ad Exchange Directory -
http://www.list-city.com/adexdb.html
Comprehensive directory of ezines interested in exchanging
ads with other ezine owners
Ezine Publisher Trading List -
http://www.bizpromo.com/ezinetrades.htm
Page of ezine publishers that would like to exchange ezine
ads. List your ezine on the page for free
2. Offer Free Software - Everyone loves freeware or
shareware. You can find some incredible tools and utilities
if you look around. Find software that relates to the theme
of your website. Use the software on your site or provide a
link for the software in your ezine. Here are a couple of
sites that offer a great selection of software tools and
utilities:
http://www.completelyfreesoftware.com
http://www.tucows.com/
http://www.freewarefiles.com/
3. Sponsor a contest on your website or in your ezine.
Contests are extremely popular. The contest should tie into
and promote your business, products, and services. By having
the contest monthly, weekly, or daily you will generate
repeat business. Here are a few places where you can sponsor
a contest:
Websponsors.com
http://www.websponsors.com
Earn a commission for contests that you sponsor on your
website. They offer co-branding tools, top offers and more.
Commission Junction
http://www.cj.com
One of the largest online affiliate program directories. You
choose which contests or sweepstakes you want to offer, and
then earn affiliate commissions.
These are just a couple of ideas to get you started. You can
find a lot of free, creative ways to promote your site on
the internet.
Good luck!
"Advertising Exposure News" reveals affordable, high
quality Internet advertising resources for promoting your
business online, at reasonable cost. Subscribe for free at
http://www.adexposurenews.com
The Do's and Don'ts of Classified Advertising
Classified Advertising
Below you'll find a "classic" how to report about the do's and don'ts of classified advertising. Even though we live in the age of information and technology, many lessons can be learned and applied from some these old classic how to reports and articles. Enjoy!
The DO'S:
DO WRITE OUT ALL DETAILS in your ad offer. Read it, edit it, and re-write it for a shorter, money saving effective ad. "Think small".
DO FOLLOW ALL THE RULES when writing your classified ad. Use these ideas.
AID A FORMULA: Attention, Interest, Desire & Action
DO USE A NAME with each classified ad including your envelopes.
DO NOT CHARGE for sales letters or circulars.
DO BE HONEST with all your classified ad claims.
DO IDENTIFY your product.
DO WRITE YOUR CLASSIFIED AD simple, clear and direct.
DO USE WORDS EVERYONE KNOWS and everyone will understand what your are saying.
DO USE A WORD that will benefit a reader.
DO NOT OVERPRICE your product.
DO ADVERTISE FREQUENTLY. Constant exposure creates a familiar offer with better response.
DO OFFER A MONEY BACK GUARANTEE in your classified ad, salesletter or circular if possible. An excellent sales technique!
DO TEST YOUR AD in 2 or 3 smaller, low cost publications. Record results. Code each ad.
DO READ PUBLICATIONS that relate to your product. Write for ad rates, paid circulation, discounts and closing dates. Keep records.
DO HAVE ALL YOUR LITERATURE AND PRODUCTS ready for mailing when your ad appears in the publication of your choice. Do not delay in responding.
DO USE THE COPYCAT METHOD. Do what other successful advertisers are doing. Only with a slight twist, idea or offer.
DO RUN SEVERAL ADS worded differently. Keep records of results.
The DON'TS:
DON'T OVER ADVERTISE. It can be expensive. If you want to, do it gradually.
DON'T PRETEND YOU KNOW ALL THE ANSWERS. Because you don't. Take time to find out what you need to know.
DON'T TRUST YOUR MEMORY. A thought will leave you as quickly as it came. Always write down a good idea. NOW!
DON'T PLACE YOUR AD in the wrong classification.
DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY on ad words to amuse or entertain, but use words to persuade, inform and sell your product.
DO USE A SHORT BUSINESS NAME. Make it easy to pronounce and remember.
DON'T FORGET THE M.E.D.I.C.S. Motivation. Enthusiasm. Desire. Image. Creativity. Success!
DON'T GIVE UP. If your ad doesn't pull after a fair exposure, try re-writing it. One or two different words may do the trick.
DON'T SPEND THE PROFITS. Re-invest the money in more continuous advertising.
DON'T FORGET, an ad that offers "FREE DETAILS" means writing a sales letter or circular.
AVOID HIGH TYPESETTING COSTS AND MISTAKES
Getting your price lists, brochures, catalogs or newsletters typeset does not necessarily have to be a costly procedure. Keep in mind that the main cost in typesetting is the time involved in setting type. By minimizing the time needed to create a typeset piece you can effectively keep your cost down. The following suggestions can help reduce your typesetting expense.
Know what you want the FIRST time around. Have a picture in your mind. Trial and error can be costly. Don't have a typesetter set it one way, then decide a different format would look better.
Reduce and eliminate author's corrections by thorough proofing and re-proofing.
Avoid minimum charges by combining small jobs and having them set at the same time.
Try to use one family of type to save time and money by avoiding font changes. The consistent look is better.
Give explicit instructions on marking up copy: type styles, column widths/margins.
With a large job, such as a brochure or annual report, request a style setting proof sheet to get approvals before the entire job is done.
Avoid super rush jobs, especially if you don't really need them.
Avoid lengthy corrections on the phone. You might end up paying for corrections later that could have been avoided if you had done your editing on proof sheets.
Get the layout finished and approved before having type set...the same goes for copy, of course.
Avoid the use of "run-arounds" (reducing the width of the copy to make room for a photo in the column, for example). If you do use them, use simple shapes, boxes, squares.
Avoid the use of curved or angular type. Type reading left to right on a page (for example, this report) is faster and less expensive to set than copy that is set in a curve or running sideways on the page.
The use of unjustified text and captions is less expensive than justified because it sets quicker, costing less time. Don't depend on the typesetter to read your mind. Be specific.
Below you'll find a "classic" how to report about the do's and don'ts of classified advertising. Even though we live in the age of information and technology, many lessons can be learned and applied from some these old classic how to reports and articles. Enjoy!
The DO'S:
DO WRITE OUT ALL DETAILS in your ad offer. Read it, edit it, and re-write it for a shorter, money saving effective ad. "Think small".
DO FOLLOW ALL THE RULES when writing your classified ad. Use these ideas.
AID A FORMULA: Attention, Interest, Desire & Action
DO USE A NAME with each classified ad including your envelopes.
DO NOT CHARGE for sales letters or circulars.
DO BE HONEST with all your classified ad claims.
DO IDENTIFY your product.
DO WRITE YOUR CLASSIFIED AD simple, clear and direct.
DO USE WORDS EVERYONE KNOWS and everyone will understand what your are saying.
DO USE A WORD that will benefit a reader.
DO NOT OVERPRICE your product.
DO ADVERTISE FREQUENTLY. Constant exposure creates a familiar offer with better response.
DO OFFER A MONEY BACK GUARANTEE in your classified ad, salesletter or circular if possible. An excellent sales technique!
DO TEST YOUR AD in 2 or 3 smaller, low cost publications. Record results. Code each ad.
DO READ PUBLICATIONS that relate to your product. Write for ad rates, paid circulation, discounts and closing dates. Keep records.
DO HAVE ALL YOUR LITERATURE AND PRODUCTS ready for mailing when your ad appears in the publication of your choice. Do not delay in responding.
DO USE THE COPYCAT METHOD. Do what other successful advertisers are doing. Only with a slight twist, idea or offer.
DO RUN SEVERAL ADS worded differently. Keep records of results.
The DON'TS:
DON'T OVER ADVERTISE. It can be expensive. If you want to, do it gradually.
DON'T PRETEND YOU KNOW ALL THE ANSWERS. Because you don't. Take time to find out what you need to know.
DON'T TRUST YOUR MEMORY. A thought will leave you as quickly as it came. Always write down a good idea. NOW!
DON'T PLACE YOUR AD in the wrong classification.
DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY on ad words to amuse or entertain, but use words to persuade, inform and sell your product.
DO USE A SHORT BUSINESS NAME. Make it easy to pronounce and remember.
DON'T FORGET THE M.E.D.I.C.S. Motivation. Enthusiasm. Desire. Image. Creativity. Success!
DON'T GIVE UP. If your ad doesn't pull after a fair exposure, try re-writing it. One or two different words may do the trick.
DON'T SPEND THE PROFITS. Re-invest the money in more continuous advertising.
DON'T FORGET, an ad that offers "FREE DETAILS" means writing a sales letter or circular.
AVOID HIGH TYPESETTING COSTS AND MISTAKES
Getting your price lists, brochures, catalogs or newsletters typeset does not necessarily have to be a costly procedure. Keep in mind that the main cost in typesetting is the time involved in setting type. By minimizing the time needed to create a typeset piece you can effectively keep your cost down. The following suggestions can help reduce your typesetting expense.
Know what you want the FIRST time around. Have a picture in your mind. Trial and error can be costly. Don't have a typesetter set it one way, then decide a different format would look better.
Reduce and eliminate author's corrections by thorough proofing and re-proofing.
Avoid minimum charges by combining small jobs and having them set at the same time.
Try to use one family of type to save time and money by avoiding font changes. The consistent look is better.
Give explicit instructions on marking up copy: type styles, column widths/margins.
With a large job, such as a brochure or annual report, request a style setting proof sheet to get approvals before the entire job is done.
Avoid super rush jobs, especially if you don't really need them.
Avoid lengthy corrections on the phone. You might end up paying for corrections later that could have been avoided if you had done your editing on proof sheets.
Get the layout finished and approved before having type set...the same goes for copy, of course.
Avoid the use of "run-arounds" (reducing the width of the copy to make room for a photo in the column, for example). If you do use them, use simple shapes, boxes, squares.
Avoid the use of curved or angular type. Type reading left to right on a page (for example, this report) is faster and less expensive to set than copy that is set in a curve or running sideways on the page.
The use of unjustified text and captions is less expensive than justified because it sets quicker, costing less time. Don't depend on the typesetter to read your mind. Be specific.
WORKING THROUGH OBSTACLES AND CHALLENGES
When an obstacle or challenge arises, there are generally three responses from which you can choose:
1) you can give up;
2) you can work through it; or
3) you can work around it. A common obstacle for new affiliates trying to set up Doorway pages or place banner ads is the failure of a banner (a graphic image) to show up on the page or in the ad.
At some point in every Internet marketing career, one stares helplessly at that infamous "X" showing up where the banner image should be.
In order to successfully place a graphic image, you have to first download the image from its source. Then you have to upload it to the server you are using. Then you have to insert the "image source" code exactly right in the HTML code where you want the image to appear. If any single character is wrong or left out, either in the name of the image file or in the display code, the picture will not to show up.
You must have the "path" to the image's location on the server exactly right in the code also. On their first few attempts—even though they have gone over and over it—many affiliates just can't get the graphic image to display. It can be very frustrating! Your response to this frustration could be to give up.
If it's going to be this complicated, why bother?
You could give into your feelings of frustration and discouragement and quit. Or,...you could try to work through the problem. The first step in working through any problem is to carefully define what the problem is. In this case, the affiliate is either using the wrong method or is making a typing error. There are really two problems here. One is that the image does not work and the other is that you are expending too much time trying to fix it.
The affiliate is unsure whether the problem arises because the method they have been given is wrong or because, while the method may be right, they are just being careless with the details. It is time consuming to painstakingly proofread every character to make sure you are doing it accurately. You think to yourself that since you may not be employing the right method in the first place or since the image may be in the wrong place on the server, why bother with all that proofreading?!
There are so many different ways you could be getting it wrong. How do you know? You need to remind yourself that there are only two questions here. Am I employing the right method? Am I employing the method accurately?
To work through the problem, you will have to allocate the time necessary to think it through, explore, experiment, consult experienced affiliates, and study over the training materials on the subject.
It may turn out that you were just leaving one quotation mark out of the code. It may turn out that you have placed the image in the wrong directory on the server. It may turn out that the code you were trying to use is not correct—you got it from an uninformed source or it is intended for an entirely different situation. Whatever the problem is, you can ultimately find and fix it. With persistence and patience, you can ultimately solve the problem and get your image to show up properly. When you do this, you will have worked through the problem. You will have overcome the obstacle.
WORKING AROUND OBSTACLES AND CHALLENGES If,
on the other hand, you simply do not have the time to study the problem out fully, you may want to take the work-around approach. Instead of using a banner ad, use a textual ad. While it may not be quite what you had planned, it still gets the job done—a Doorway has been created or an ad placed.
You can then continue to work on the banner image problem as time allows, without losing your momentum in getting your promotional campaign started. It is not always possible to work through every problem that may arise, but you can almost always find an acceptable work-around. Although a work-around may be a slight deviation from your plan, at least you are not quitting. You still have your momentum.
You are still moving toward your goals. For another example, let's say that you have placed some "work-from-home opportunity" ads on some free classified ad sites. What you expected to happen is that some number of people would respond to your ad with an e-mail to your posted e-mail address and that, upon further follow up, you would persuade some of these people You are somewhat pleased to see that you do immediately get a large number of e-mails in response to your ad.
You begin to become frustrated, however, when you discover that nearly all of these e-mails are trying to get you to join various other programs. You soon realize that not a single one of these replies is seriously interested in joining your program—they are just promoting their programs to you. How do you deal with this?
Again, the first available response would be to simply give up. You could harbor feelings of being mislead (because you have read in the training that free advertising can work and yet it doesn't work for you).
You could feel that you are not being treated fairly by anyone involved and that you have no hope of making any of this work for you...
Obviously, again, that response is not the successful one. Alternatively, you could proceed to correspond with these people who responded to your ad in hopes of convincing them that your program was more worth their efforts than the program they were promoting to you. In this case, unless you are very creative and convincing, you would likely have unpromising results. You soon decide that this is a waste of effort. Thus, you have been unable to "work through" this problem.
But, as Thomas Edison said, "Just because something didn't do what you planned it to do in the first place, doesn't mean it is useless." So, you look for a "work-around" to this problem. The first step in finding a work-around (just like the first step in working through a problem) is to clearly define your problem.
Here, your problem is stated rather simply. The problem is that free classified ads produce numerous insincere responses to the posted e-mail address (and most free classified ad sites do not allow you to post anything other than an e-mail address). You don't want to spend your limited time reading through insincere responses and yet you don't want to miss that rare response that is interested.
So, the question becomes what to do about it. One answer would be to set up an autoresponder for the e-mail address that you use in the ads. You could draft a message to be sent by the autoresponder that invites the person to join your newsletter and gives a URL (Website address) from which they could do just that.
This way, those few who were genuinely interested could go to your Website and join your newsletter. Then, you would have ample opportunity to follow up with them in your newsletter. Those who were not genuinely interested would simply ignore your e-mail and that would end your involvement with them. Over time, if you seek out the right places to place your ads, you will gain affiliates this way. Some of these affiliates may produce commissions for you for years to come!
AVOID FRUSTRATION
Never expect anything to work as smoothly as you may have hoped at first. By keeping your expectations realistic, you will be less likely to experience frustration. Try to look forward to each new obstacle and each new challenge that comes along. It is in overcoming these obstacles that you will find true success. Always believe that you can work through or at least work around any obstacle that may come your way. Allow yourself to enjoy the process.
LEARNING FROM YOUR SETBACKS
Whether you work through an obstacle or work around it, every obstacle is a learning opportunity. If all else fails and an obstacle does appear to defeat you, at least you have learned what doesn't work and now know what to avoid. Just be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Define very narrowly what you are eliminating as undoable and continue to look for something similar that does work. Most importantly, do not be afraid of failures. No one succeeds without having failed a number of times first. Einstein, one of the most renowned physicists ever, whose name has become synonymous with the word "genius," spent several years of his life working on theories that ultimately proved incorrect. To quote Thomas Edison one more time: "If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward...."
P.S:You cannot have success without setting goals and developing plans to reach those goals. Rely on your own efforts in reaching the goals that you set. Make your goals realistic but optimistic. Expect to encounter obstacles, challenges, and difficulties in Internet marketing as you would expect them in any part of life. Approach these challenges with enthusiasm and look for ways to work through or work around the problem. When you do encounter setbacks and failures, learn from them. Most importantly, always think positively and enjoy the challenge.
1) you can give up;
2) you can work through it; or
3) you can work around it. A common obstacle for new affiliates trying to set up Doorway pages or place banner ads is the failure of a banner (a graphic image) to show up on the page or in the ad.
At some point in every Internet marketing career, one stares helplessly at that infamous "X" showing up where the banner image should be.
In order to successfully place a graphic image, you have to first download the image from its source. Then you have to upload it to the server you are using. Then you have to insert the "image source" code exactly right in the HTML code where you want the image to appear. If any single character is wrong or left out, either in the name of the image file or in the display code, the picture will not to show up.
You must have the "path" to the image's location on the server exactly right in the code also. On their first few attempts—even though they have gone over and over it—many affiliates just can't get the graphic image to display. It can be very frustrating! Your response to this frustration could be to give up.
If it's going to be this complicated, why bother?
You could give into your feelings of frustration and discouragement and quit. Or,...you could try to work through the problem. The first step in working through any problem is to carefully define what the problem is. In this case, the affiliate is either using the wrong method or is making a typing error. There are really two problems here. One is that the image does not work and the other is that you are expending too much time trying to fix it.
The affiliate is unsure whether the problem arises because the method they have been given is wrong or because, while the method may be right, they are just being careless with the details. It is time consuming to painstakingly proofread every character to make sure you are doing it accurately. You think to yourself that since you may not be employing the right method in the first place or since the image may be in the wrong place on the server, why bother with all that proofreading?!
There are so many different ways you could be getting it wrong. How do you know? You need to remind yourself that there are only two questions here. Am I employing the right method? Am I employing the method accurately?
To work through the problem, you will have to allocate the time necessary to think it through, explore, experiment, consult experienced affiliates, and study over the training materials on the subject.
It may turn out that you were just leaving one quotation mark out of the code. It may turn out that you have placed the image in the wrong directory on the server. It may turn out that the code you were trying to use is not correct—you got it from an uninformed source or it is intended for an entirely different situation. Whatever the problem is, you can ultimately find and fix it. With persistence and patience, you can ultimately solve the problem and get your image to show up properly. When you do this, you will have worked through the problem. You will have overcome the obstacle.
WORKING AROUND OBSTACLES AND CHALLENGES If,
on the other hand, you simply do not have the time to study the problem out fully, you may want to take the work-around approach. Instead of using a banner ad, use a textual ad. While it may not be quite what you had planned, it still gets the job done—a Doorway has been created or an ad placed.
You can then continue to work on the banner image problem as time allows, without losing your momentum in getting your promotional campaign started. It is not always possible to work through every problem that may arise, but you can almost always find an acceptable work-around. Although a work-around may be a slight deviation from your plan, at least you are not quitting. You still have your momentum.
You are still moving toward your goals. For another example, let's say that you have placed some "work-from-home opportunity" ads on some free classified ad sites. What you expected to happen is that some number of people would respond to your ad with an e-mail to your posted e-mail address and that, upon further follow up, you would persuade some of these people You are somewhat pleased to see that you do immediately get a large number of e-mails in response to your ad.
You begin to become frustrated, however, when you discover that nearly all of these e-mails are trying to get you to join various other programs. You soon realize that not a single one of these replies is seriously interested in joining your program—they are just promoting their programs to you. How do you deal with this?
Again, the first available response would be to simply give up. You could harbor feelings of being mislead (because you have read in the training that free advertising can work and yet it doesn't work for you).
You could feel that you are not being treated fairly by anyone involved and that you have no hope of making any of this work for you...
Obviously, again, that response is not the successful one. Alternatively, you could proceed to correspond with these people who responded to your ad in hopes of convincing them that your program was more worth their efforts than the program they were promoting to you. In this case, unless you are very creative and convincing, you would likely have unpromising results. You soon decide that this is a waste of effort. Thus, you have been unable to "work through" this problem.
But, as Thomas Edison said, "Just because something didn't do what you planned it to do in the first place, doesn't mean it is useless." So, you look for a "work-around" to this problem. The first step in finding a work-around (just like the first step in working through a problem) is to clearly define your problem.
Here, your problem is stated rather simply. The problem is that free classified ads produce numerous insincere responses to the posted e-mail address (and most free classified ad sites do not allow you to post anything other than an e-mail address). You don't want to spend your limited time reading through insincere responses and yet you don't want to miss that rare response that is interested.
So, the question becomes what to do about it. One answer would be to set up an autoresponder for the e-mail address that you use in the ads. You could draft a message to be sent by the autoresponder that invites the person to join your newsletter and gives a URL (Website address) from which they could do just that.
This way, those few who were genuinely interested could go to your Website and join your newsletter. Then, you would have ample opportunity to follow up with them in your newsletter. Those who were not genuinely interested would simply ignore your e-mail and that would end your involvement with them. Over time, if you seek out the right places to place your ads, you will gain affiliates this way. Some of these affiliates may produce commissions for you for years to come!
AVOID FRUSTRATION
Never expect anything to work as smoothly as you may have hoped at first. By keeping your expectations realistic, you will be less likely to experience frustration. Try to look forward to each new obstacle and each new challenge that comes along. It is in overcoming these obstacles that you will find true success. Always believe that you can work through or at least work around any obstacle that may come your way. Allow yourself to enjoy the process.
LEARNING FROM YOUR SETBACKS
Whether you work through an obstacle or work around it, every obstacle is a learning opportunity. If all else fails and an obstacle does appear to defeat you, at least you have learned what doesn't work and now know what to avoid. Just be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Define very narrowly what you are eliminating as undoable and continue to look for something similar that does work. Most importantly, do not be afraid of failures. No one succeeds without having failed a number of times first. Einstein, one of the most renowned physicists ever, whose name has become synonymous with the word "genius," spent several years of his life working on theories that ultimately proved incorrect. To quote Thomas Edison one more time: "If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is often a step forward...."
P.S:You cannot have success without setting goals and developing plans to reach those goals. Rely on your own efforts in reaching the goals that you set. Make your goals realistic but optimistic. Expect to encounter obstacles, challenges, and difficulties in Internet marketing as you would expect them in any part of life. Approach these challenges with enthusiasm and look for ways to work through or work around the problem. When you do encounter setbacks and failures, learn from them. Most importantly, always think positively and enjoy the challenge.
OVERCOMING OBSTACLES —WORKTHROUGHS & WORKAROUNDS
ARE YOU ON THE PATH TO SUCCESS?
The American Heritage Dictionary defines "Success" as "the attainment of something planned, desired or attempted." Thus by definition, you cannot have success without having first planned, desired, or attempted something. We all desire things—that comes naturally. From basic needs to extravagant luxuries, we are all, as humans, familiar with the experience of desire. Occasionally, even without plans or directed effort on our part, something happens along that fulfills one of our desires.
When this occurs, we consider it a successful event—or, if we recognize that it occurred randomly despite our lack of planning and effort, we more accurately call it a "lucky event." Most of us, however, are not satisfied with the random satisfaction of occasional desires dependent upon luck.
We want to take our fate into our own hands, at least to some extent, and thus we make plans and expend effort attempting to obtain the things that we need and desire. Without planning and effort there can be no real success—only occasional luck. Thus, to be on the path to success, you must have a plan and you must expend effort. You must set goals and you must plan the efforts you will invest to obtain those goals. How carefully you plan and how faithfully you direct your efforts in accordance with your plans determines how successful you will be. This is as true in Internet marketing as it is in any aspect of life.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EXPECTATION AND FRUSTRATION
Frustration, in this context, is the feeling of discouragement that we experience when our expectations are not met. Frustration is an unhappy feeling of helplessness when our actions are not leading to our goals. Frustration saps our motivation. It makes us less likely to continue our efforts to reach our goals, whatever those goals may be.
We set our expectations when we set our goals. If we set our expectations unreasonably high, we are setting ourselves up for frustration. If we set our expectations based upon what we expect others to do for us, rather than upon what we intend to do for ourselves, we are also setting ourselves up for frustration.
While we have no real control over what other people do or don't do, we can control our own actions. Thus, we should set our goals based upon reasonable expectations of what we can expect to achieve for ourselves through our own efforts and our own determination. As we achieve these reasonable goals through our own self-reliance, we gain confidence. With this confidence, we can then set higher and higher goals. Ultimately, it is truly astounding what can be accomplished when this path is followed.
ENJOYING THE CHALLENGE
While it is beyond the scope of this nuts-and-bolts course on Internet marketing to delve much into philosophy, psychology, or spirituality; a couple of additional points do merit brief mention here: First and foremost, you should have fun with your challenges! Life without challenges would be thoroughly boring. However, we don't have to worry about that because there will never be a time as long as you are in this world when the challenges stop coming. Eliminating obstacles and challenges from ever arising again is not the secret to success—no one ever accomplishes that.
If you are waiting for the obstacles and challenges to stop coming so that you can be successful and happy, you will always be waiting...and will never be successful or happy. When you learn to find success and happiness despite constant obstacles and challenges, you have indeed found the secret.
POSITIVE THINKING
The other "secret" to success is to understand the power of positive thought. The first step to successful action is thought. If you can succeed in your mind, you can succeed in the world. If you believe you can overcome your obstacles and challenges, you will overcome them. If you believe there are opportunities for you, you will find opportunities—even in the worst of situations. The secret to success is to think successfully. Use the power of your thoughts to plan your success. Then, use the power of your thoughts to fortify your belief in your plan. Anticipate obstacles and challenges. Enjoy the efforts involved in overcoming them. Never give up. Make it happen!
The American Heritage Dictionary defines "Success" as "the attainment of something planned, desired or attempted." Thus by definition, you cannot have success without having first planned, desired, or attempted something. We all desire things—that comes naturally. From basic needs to extravagant luxuries, we are all, as humans, familiar with the experience of desire. Occasionally, even without plans or directed effort on our part, something happens along that fulfills one of our desires.
When this occurs, we consider it a successful event—or, if we recognize that it occurred randomly despite our lack of planning and effort, we more accurately call it a "lucky event." Most of us, however, are not satisfied with the random satisfaction of occasional desires dependent upon luck.
We want to take our fate into our own hands, at least to some extent, and thus we make plans and expend effort attempting to obtain the things that we need and desire. Without planning and effort there can be no real success—only occasional luck. Thus, to be on the path to success, you must have a plan and you must expend effort. You must set goals and you must plan the efforts you will invest to obtain those goals. How carefully you plan and how faithfully you direct your efforts in accordance with your plans determines how successful you will be. This is as true in Internet marketing as it is in any aspect of life.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EXPECTATION AND FRUSTRATION
Frustration, in this context, is the feeling of discouragement that we experience when our expectations are not met. Frustration is an unhappy feeling of helplessness when our actions are not leading to our goals. Frustration saps our motivation. It makes us less likely to continue our efforts to reach our goals, whatever those goals may be.
We set our expectations when we set our goals. If we set our expectations unreasonably high, we are setting ourselves up for frustration. If we set our expectations based upon what we expect others to do for us, rather than upon what we intend to do for ourselves, we are also setting ourselves up for frustration.
While we have no real control over what other people do or don't do, we can control our own actions. Thus, we should set our goals based upon reasonable expectations of what we can expect to achieve for ourselves through our own efforts and our own determination. As we achieve these reasonable goals through our own self-reliance, we gain confidence. With this confidence, we can then set higher and higher goals. Ultimately, it is truly astounding what can be accomplished when this path is followed.
ENJOYING THE CHALLENGE
While it is beyond the scope of this nuts-and-bolts course on Internet marketing to delve much into philosophy, psychology, or spirituality; a couple of additional points do merit brief mention here: First and foremost, you should have fun with your challenges! Life without challenges would be thoroughly boring. However, we don't have to worry about that because there will never be a time as long as you are in this world when the challenges stop coming. Eliminating obstacles and challenges from ever arising again is not the secret to success—no one ever accomplishes that.
If you are waiting for the obstacles and challenges to stop coming so that you can be successful and happy, you will always be waiting...and will never be successful or happy. When you learn to find success and happiness despite constant obstacles and challenges, you have indeed found the secret.
POSITIVE THINKING
The other "secret" to success is to understand the power of positive thought. The first step to successful action is thought. If you can succeed in your mind, you can succeed in the world. If you believe you can overcome your obstacles and challenges, you will overcome them. If you believe there are opportunities for you, you will find opportunities—even in the worst of situations. The secret to success is to think successfully. Use the power of your thoughts to plan your success. Then, use the power of your thoughts to fortify your belief in your plan. Anticipate obstacles and challenges. Enjoy the efforts involved in overcoming them. Never give up. Make it happen!
FREE ADVERTISING STRATEGIES - PART 2
ONE MORE TIME
Let me also say this one more time (because it is so important). Do not just look for a list of sites that someone else is using. Like the blackberry bushes from the last lesson or a good fishing hole, a good free ad site only works when a few people use it at a time. Learn the process to find your own free advertising sites.
In fact, I would suggest this: Go ahead and find all the lists of free ads sites you can find. Talk to everyone and get all their suggestions and add them to your list as well. Search for "free classifieds" on a major search engine and write down all the links that show up on the first three pages. Then use this list as a list of places NOT to place ads on at first! (You will eventually want to place ads on some of these sites, but make it a point to not do so at first.)
Why do I make such an outrageous suggestion? Two reasons. First, I suggest this because it will save you a great deal of time in your searching process. If you see that you have found one of these recommended sites, move on. You are not there to be searching for the obvious. You are there to be searching for the hidden treasure. This will help to keep the process moving quickly for you. Secondly, I suggest this because it will save you frustration and maybe even save you from giving up on affiliate marketing altogether. Far too many people spend countless hours posting to these obvious and frequently listed free ad sites. Then, after those long hours of work, they become discouraged when the ads produce no results. They decide that affiliate marketing doesn't work and they quit. I don't want that to happen to you. I want you to post your first few ads on effective sites, so you will know that affiliate marketing does work. It will take a little more time to find these sites, but you will save that much time and more in the time spent posting ads.
OK, OK, OK! SO WHAT IS THE PROCESS?
The way most people approach the process is to use the Search Engines.
If you are an advertiser, you have a product or service to sell or you are attempting to recruit people to your affiliate program. We will discuss the products or services later and focus now on recruiting affiliates
FOLLOWING THE RULES
A common obstacle is that many sites allow you to submit for "possible inclusion" and have very strict and sometimes complicated rules about the types of submissions they will accept. Let me give you an example.
Using the search phrase "my own home business," I searched on Google. It didn't lead to anything promising until the third page where I encountered a link that led to a page with a "Submit Your Home Business" link. Problem was that right on the form it stated that you must own all the rights to the information that you were submitting and the Website you listed. Since I don't own all rights to the SFI furnished ads or the SFI Gateways, I could not have used this site if I did not have my own domain name and my own personally created ads for my own domain.
Some of the sites get pretty tedious with their rules and restrictions. For each site, you have to make a judgment whether it is appropriate to post your ad there and whether it is even worth the trouble to read and learn their rules and fill out their complicated forms.
It is a good idea to take notes as you go through the process. If a site looks like it might be promising but is too tedious in its rules and forms, jot down the URL and perhaps come back to it later. The point is to keep the process moving.
Another obstacle is that many sites will allow you to add your URL, but require a reciprocal link in return. Many require a special button or banner be displayed on your site and in a certain way. If you are just using SFI Gateways, you cannot add links to your site. Even if you have your own Website, you could not use very many of these because you would not have room for all the buttons and banners at the places they required them to be placed on your site. You want to keep control over the design of your own site.
You definitely do not want it cluttered with all these buttons and banners to other sites. So, these sites you must also pass over, just making a note that it might be worth coming back for a second look later.
(Reciprocal links are a good idea, but they must be done in the right way. Only agree to reciprocal links when you can put the other site's link on your "Links" page--as opposed to your home page. Searching for reciprocal link sites is a different process from searching for free ad sites, though. Don't try to do both at the same time--other than making quick notes if you find something promising. Come back to it when you are searching for reciprocal link sites.)
Here's a tip that will save you some time: Many of the classified sites are just front ends for a limited number of back-end classified databases.
That is, there are a few companies that provide the opportunity for Webmasters to include classified ads on their Websites. The sites are customized by each Webmaster and look to be part of their own Website, but in fact they just tie into the classifieds database of the providing company. When you post to one of these sites, your ad will show up on all of them. So, there is no need to post on the other Websites that use the same database.
To determine if this is the case, look for a "powered by" or similar graphic on the classified site. If you find one, you can see the ultimate database in which your classified will be posted. When you see this same "powered by" graphic on other sites, you do not need to post there also.
Yet another catch to this process is that many sites limit the free listings to "non-commercial" ads. The notion is that if you are advertising a yard sale or trying to sell your old guitar online, it's OK to post for free. If you are an affiliate selling Internet Service or Cell Phones or recruiting other affiliates, it will be considered "commercial." You can often get around this problem if you have your own Website and advertise it as providing free information.
Let me also say this one more time (because it is so important). Do not just look for a list of sites that someone else is using. Like the blackberry bushes from the last lesson or a good fishing hole, a good free ad site only works when a few people use it at a time. Learn the process to find your own free advertising sites.
In fact, I would suggest this: Go ahead and find all the lists of free ads sites you can find. Talk to everyone and get all their suggestions and add them to your list as well. Search for "free classifieds" on a major search engine and write down all the links that show up on the first three pages. Then use this list as a list of places NOT to place ads on at first! (You will eventually want to place ads on some of these sites, but make it a point to not do so at first.)
Why do I make such an outrageous suggestion? Two reasons. First, I suggest this because it will save you a great deal of time in your searching process. If you see that you have found one of these recommended sites, move on. You are not there to be searching for the obvious. You are there to be searching for the hidden treasure. This will help to keep the process moving quickly for you. Secondly, I suggest this because it will save you frustration and maybe even save you from giving up on affiliate marketing altogether. Far too many people spend countless hours posting to these obvious and frequently listed free ad sites. Then, after those long hours of work, they become discouraged when the ads produce no results. They decide that affiliate marketing doesn't work and they quit. I don't want that to happen to you. I want you to post your first few ads on effective sites, so you will know that affiliate marketing does work. It will take a little more time to find these sites, but you will save that much time and more in the time spent posting ads.
OK, OK, OK! SO WHAT IS THE PROCESS?
The way most people approach the process is to use the Search Engines.
If you are an advertiser, you have a product or service to sell or you are attempting to recruit people to your affiliate program. We will discuss the products or services later and focus now on recruiting affiliates
FOLLOWING THE RULES
A common obstacle is that many sites allow you to submit for "possible inclusion" and have very strict and sometimes complicated rules about the types of submissions they will accept. Let me give you an example.
Using the search phrase "my own home business," I searched on Google. It didn't lead to anything promising until the third page where I encountered a link that led to a page with a "Submit Your Home Business" link. Problem was that right on the form it stated that you must own all the rights to the information that you were submitting and the Website you listed. Since I don't own all rights to the SFI furnished ads or the SFI Gateways, I could not have used this site if I did not have my own domain name and my own personally created ads for my own domain.
Some of the sites get pretty tedious with their rules and restrictions. For each site, you have to make a judgment whether it is appropriate to post your ad there and whether it is even worth the trouble to read and learn their rules and fill out their complicated forms.
It is a good idea to take notes as you go through the process. If a site looks like it might be promising but is too tedious in its rules and forms, jot down the URL and perhaps come back to it later. The point is to keep the process moving.
Another obstacle is that many sites will allow you to add your URL, but require a reciprocal link in return. Many require a special button or banner be displayed on your site and in a certain way. If you are just using SFI Gateways, you cannot add links to your site. Even if you have your own Website, you could not use very many of these because you would not have room for all the buttons and banners at the places they required them to be placed on your site. You want to keep control over the design of your own site.
You definitely do not want it cluttered with all these buttons and banners to other sites. So, these sites you must also pass over, just making a note that it might be worth coming back for a second look later.
(Reciprocal links are a good idea, but they must be done in the right way. Only agree to reciprocal links when you can put the other site's link on your "Links" page--as opposed to your home page. Searching for reciprocal link sites is a different process from searching for free ad sites, though. Don't try to do both at the same time--other than making quick notes if you find something promising. Come back to it when you are searching for reciprocal link sites.)
Here's a tip that will save you some time: Many of the classified sites are just front ends for a limited number of back-end classified databases.
That is, there are a few companies that provide the opportunity for Webmasters to include classified ads on their Websites. The sites are customized by each Webmaster and look to be part of their own Website, but in fact they just tie into the classifieds database of the providing company. When you post to one of these sites, your ad will show up on all of them. So, there is no need to post on the other Websites that use the same database.
To determine if this is the case, look for a "powered by" or similar graphic on the classified site. If you find one, you can see the ultimate database in which your classified will be posted. When you see this same "powered by" graphic on other sites, you do not need to post there also.
Yet another catch to this process is that many sites limit the free listings to "non-commercial" ads. The notion is that if you are advertising a yard sale or trying to sell your old guitar online, it's OK to post for free. If you are an affiliate selling Internet Service or Cell Phones or recruiting other affiliates, it will be considered "commercial." You can often get around this problem if you have your own Website and advertise it as providing free information.
FREE ADVERTISING STRATEGIES - PART 1
FOUR ELEMENTS OF AN ONLINE ADVERTISING STRATEGY
Online advertising strategy involves four elements. You need an ad. You need a URL (Website address) or an e-mail address to which the ad will point. You need to be prepared for the posting process. And, you need a location to place the ad.
PICKING YOUR AD
POINTING YOUR AD
Note:
You should not just use an ordinary e-mail address, however. Most of your responses to an e-mail address in an ad will be insincere. It is very common, when you use free advertising, to receive numerous e-mail responses to the effect of "I saw your add and see that you are interested in making extra income. I would like to talk to you about that." Such responses are nothing more than someone trying to get you to join their program. These e-mails, which are automatically generated, really are not interested in information about your program. Thus, your ad needs to point to a Website where the serious responders can sign up immediately or to an autoresponder that will automatically send them further e-mails pointing to your URL. Otherwise, you would have to work your way through all those e-mails to find those who are serious and then point them to your gateway manually.
The argument for pointing to an autoresponding e-mail rather than a Website URL in your ad is based upon the fact that many people will not sign up on the first encounter with anything. People need time to mull it over in the back of their minds. Some studies suggest that it takes seven to 11 contacts before most people will commit to anything online. Setting up an autoresponder to send out seven to 12 messages over time increases the odds that someone will sign up.
In my opinion, it is better to have your ad point to your own Website and then let the Website have a sign-up form for further contact--i.e. a newsletter or e-mail series--than to use an autoresponder in your ad. This reduces the odds of spam complaints and is a bit more professional manner of creating the additional contacts needed to achieve the signups. (I can't help but envision these autoresponding e-mails still triggering each other and still trying to convince each other to sign up for something long after the humans who set them up are dead and gone.) The more personal your communications, the more effective they will be.
PREPARING FOR THE POSTING PROCESS
Secondary E-Mail AddressWhether your ad is designed to point to a URL or an e-mail address (autoresponder or not), all ad locations will require that you submit an e-mail address to the site host in order to post an ad. It is absolutely essential to obtain a secondary (often called "throwaway") e-mail address for this purpose. Posting ads will result in your e-mail getting farmed by the spammers and you will receive tons of spam. Do not expose your primary e-mail address to this! You can acquire e-mail accounts fairly easily these days from your ISP or from one of the free e-mail services, such as Yahoo! or Hotmail. You have to give an e-mail address to post ads anywhere, so create a new e-mail account just for this purpose.
Physical Address And Phone NumberMany sites also require you to give an address and phone number. Although these are "required fields" in the form to post the ad, many people get away with just typing "N/A" or similar text in these fields. There are ethical issues here that you will have to resolve for yourself. The ad posting service is being provided in exchange for your information. In a real sense, you become a lead for the host site. It would not be ethical to provide false information to acquire the service. Some people even set up secondary post office addresses and phone numbers (like the secondary e-mail) to avoid this ethical problem. Others do provide their primary contact information and deal with any resulting telemarketing or junk snail mail as it arrives.
Tracking SystemAlso essential is to set up a tracking system. Tracking is crucial. Without it, you do not know which sites are working and which are a waste of time. At a minimum, each ad you place should have a tracking code in it that exclusively identifies the location you placed the ad. With some tracking systems, you can also code for the specific ad used, the date and time you placed the ad, and other variables. For each advertising campaign, you will need to pick the gateway or Website that will be the target of your ad. Then you will need to pick the ad you will be using. Then you are off to find some places to post the ad. For each place you post, remember to keycode the ad's URL and record the location of your ad on your keycode list.
PREPARING YOURSELF FOR THE QUEST FOR AD SITES
The big issue is where to place the ads.
Do not think of this issue as being one of acquiring a list of Websites from someone or someplace and then placing your ads on those Websites. It doesn't work that way, and I will explain why in a moment. Instead, you must think of it as a process. While others can't tell you where to place the ads, they can teach you the process of finding sites on which to place your ads.
Let me make an analogy. Let's say that you are in a group of 15 people who are going blackberry picking.
The field that you go to has more than enough blackberries for everyone. But, the bushes are spread out over a large area and each has only a few blackberries on it. It would make sense for everyone to spread out with much distance between each person and each go from bush to bush in their area picking the blackberries.
What would not make sense would be for everyone to stay clumped in a group and, as soon as anyone found a bush, all 15 try to pick from the same bush at the same time. Only the first two of three people would get any blackberries and the other 12 or so people would only serve to be in the way and to stomp down the nearby bushes before anyone could pick from them.
In a way, many of the Websites that accept free ads and are effective are like those blackberry bushes.
They have a limited capacity to produce results. They only work for anyone because everyone is not posting there. No matter how unselfish affiliates who have found effective advertising sites may be, it is not in anyone's interest to publish the site on a list somewhere for all to use. That usually only serves to kill the sites effectiveness for everyone.
So, your task is to learn the process to use to continuously find new and effective advertising sites. Some sites, while very effective at first, have a limited audience and thus a limited capacity to produce results for your ad. You will likely need to move from site to site as the sites' capacities are exhausted.
The Internet is vast and constantly changing. New sites crop up all the time to replace the old ones as they lose their effectiveness. Thus, the process of searching for places to place your ads is a continuing process. Fortunately, it is also a very interesting and exciting process.
CONCLUSION
Free online advertising can work for affiliate marketers provided they are properly prepared and approach the process in the right way. To be prepared, you need to have an effective ad, you need a target URL to which the ad will point, and you need to be prepared for the posting process. This includes having a secondary e-mail account and a tracking system in place. Finally, you need to understand the process of finding effective locations to place your ads.
Online advertising strategy involves four elements. You need an ad. You need a URL (Website address) or an e-mail address to which the ad will point. You need to be prepared for the posting process. And, you need a location to place the ad.
PICKING YOUR AD
POINTING YOUR AD
Note:
You should not just use an ordinary e-mail address, however. Most of your responses to an e-mail address in an ad will be insincere. It is very common, when you use free advertising, to receive numerous e-mail responses to the effect of "I saw your add and see that you are interested in making extra income. I would like to talk to you about that." Such responses are nothing more than someone trying to get you to join their program. These e-mails, which are automatically generated, really are not interested in information about your program. Thus, your ad needs to point to a Website where the serious responders can sign up immediately or to an autoresponder that will automatically send them further e-mails pointing to your URL. Otherwise, you would have to work your way through all those e-mails to find those who are serious and then point them to your gateway manually.
The argument for pointing to an autoresponding e-mail rather than a Website URL in your ad is based upon the fact that many people will not sign up on the first encounter with anything. People need time to mull it over in the back of their minds. Some studies suggest that it takes seven to 11 contacts before most people will commit to anything online. Setting up an autoresponder to send out seven to 12 messages over time increases the odds that someone will sign up.
In my opinion, it is better to have your ad point to your own Website and then let the Website have a sign-up form for further contact--i.e. a newsletter or e-mail series--than to use an autoresponder in your ad. This reduces the odds of spam complaints and is a bit more professional manner of creating the additional contacts needed to achieve the signups. (I can't help but envision these autoresponding e-mails still triggering each other and still trying to convince each other to sign up for something long after the humans who set them up are dead and gone.) The more personal your communications, the more effective they will be.
PREPARING FOR THE POSTING PROCESS
Secondary E-Mail AddressWhether your ad is designed to point to a URL or an e-mail address (autoresponder or not), all ad locations will require that you submit an e-mail address to the site host in order to post an ad. It is absolutely essential to obtain a secondary (often called "throwaway") e-mail address for this purpose. Posting ads will result in your e-mail getting farmed by the spammers and you will receive tons of spam. Do not expose your primary e-mail address to this! You can acquire e-mail accounts fairly easily these days from your ISP or from one of the free e-mail services, such as Yahoo! or Hotmail. You have to give an e-mail address to post ads anywhere, so create a new e-mail account just for this purpose.
Physical Address And Phone NumberMany sites also require you to give an address and phone number. Although these are "required fields" in the form to post the ad, many people get away with just typing "N/A" or similar text in these fields. There are ethical issues here that you will have to resolve for yourself. The ad posting service is being provided in exchange for your information. In a real sense, you become a lead for the host site. It would not be ethical to provide false information to acquire the service. Some people even set up secondary post office addresses and phone numbers (like the secondary e-mail) to avoid this ethical problem. Others do provide their primary contact information and deal with any resulting telemarketing or junk snail mail as it arrives.
Tracking SystemAlso essential is to set up a tracking system. Tracking is crucial. Without it, you do not know which sites are working and which are a waste of time. At a minimum, each ad you place should have a tracking code in it that exclusively identifies the location you placed the ad. With some tracking systems, you can also code for the specific ad used, the date and time you placed the ad, and other variables. For each advertising campaign, you will need to pick the gateway or Website that will be the target of your ad. Then you will need to pick the ad you will be using. Then you are off to find some places to post the ad. For each place you post, remember to keycode the ad's URL and record the location of your ad on your keycode list.
PREPARING YOURSELF FOR THE QUEST FOR AD SITES
The big issue is where to place the ads.
Do not think of this issue as being one of acquiring a list of Websites from someone or someplace and then placing your ads on those Websites. It doesn't work that way, and I will explain why in a moment. Instead, you must think of it as a process. While others can't tell you where to place the ads, they can teach you the process of finding sites on which to place your ads.
Let me make an analogy. Let's say that you are in a group of 15 people who are going blackberry picking.
The field that you go to has more than enough blackberries for everyone. But, the bushes are spread out over a large area and each has only a few blackberries on it. It would make sense for everyone to spread out with much distance between each person and each go from bush to bush in their area picking the blackberries.
What would not make sense would be for everyone to stay clumped in a group and, as soon as anyone found a bush, all 15 try to pick from the same bush at the same time. Only the first two of three people would get any blackberries and the other 12 or so people would only serve to be in the way and to stomp down the nearby bushes before anyone could pick from them.
In a way, many of the Websites that accept free ads and are effective are like those blackberry bushes.
They have a limited capacity to produce results. They only work for anyone because everyone is not posting there. No matter how unselfish affiliates who have found effective advertising sites may be, it is not in anyone's interest to publish the site on a list somewhere for all to use. That usually only serves to kill the sites effectiveness for everyone.
So, your task is to learn the process to use to continuously find new and effective advertising sites. Some sites, while very effective at first, have a limited audience and thus a limited capacity to produce results for your ad. You will likely need to move from site to site as the sites' capacities are exhausted.
The Internet is vast and constantly changing. New sites crop up all the time to replace the old ones as they lose their effectiveness. Thus, the process of searching for places to place your ads is a continuing process. Fortunately, it is also a very interesting and exciting process.
CONCLUSION
Free online advertising can work for affiliate marketers provided they are properly prepared and approach the process in the right way. To be prepared, you need to have an effective ad, you need a target URL to which the ad will point, and you need to be prepared for the posting process. This includes having a secondary e-mail account and a tracking system in place. Finally, you need to understand the process of finding effective locations to place your ads.
THE GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE
GOOGLE'S ALGORITHM
Unlike Yahoo!, which uses humans to rank its listings, Google uses software. The ranking algorithm used by Google is its trademarked "PageRank." The key to a high ranking on Google is to have lots of links to your site from other high ranking sites. That is, you need lots of sites linking to yours, which in turn have lots of sites linking to them.
Unlike Yahoo!, which uses humans to rank its listings, Google uses software. The ranking algorithm used by Google is its trademarked "PageRank." The key to a high ranking on Google is to have lots of links to your site from other high ranking sites. That is, you need lots of sites linking to yours, which in turn have lots of sites linking to them.
Google is one of the most useful sites for those searching the Internet and has sophisticated and effective ranking and searching software. At the time of this writing, Google does not sell placement within the ranking. Thus, sites are ranked with pure objectivity and results are usually quite relevant to your search. For the marketer, however, this makes it extremely difficult to manipulate your ranking. To get a high ranking in Google, you have to have a content-rich site that is already popular as expressed by links from other popular sites.
ADVERTISING ON GOOGLE
If you do not have a lot of links to your site yet, you can still buy textual ads to appear to the side of the Google search listings. These ads are keyword specific and you can pay by impressions or by clicks on your site's link with Google's "AdWords Select" program.
Google also has a "Premium Sponsorship" program where your textual ads appear at the top of the search results page for the chosen keywords. Google does not allow any images in the ads. (Textual ads, if properly placed, have proven to be more effective than graphical banners anyway, so this restriction is not so bad.)
Google touts that its ad results are five times greater than industry averages. One competitive edge that the Google AdWords Select program has at the time of this writing is that it only charges you the minimum necessary to hold your ad's position. That is, if you hold the second spot for a certain key phrase and the advertiser below you in the third spot reduces the amount of his or her bid for that phrase, your amount will be reduced to the amount just necessary to hold your second spot. This occurs automatically, saving you the time of constantly monitoring the bids for your search phrases as you have to do on other, similar sites.
SUBMITTING YOUR SITE TO GOOGLE
If it took any significant time to submit your URL to Google, we would say, "don't bother." Google only ranks sites that it finds from following links on the Internet with its spider, Googlebot. Even though Google may have your site in its database from your submission, your site will have no ranking until some other included site links to it...and Google's spider finds that link. The only advantage of submitting your site to Google before it is found by the spider is that your site will show up if someone types in the URL or the exact description of your site in a Google search. Since it takes very little time to submit your site to Google, you should do so for that purpose.
Although it may be rare that people will type in your URL or an exact match of your description, they are the very ones you do not want to miss while you are waiting for your site to be spidered.
To submit your site to Google, go to http://www.google.com/ and click the Advanced Search link. At the top right of the resulting page, click All About Google, then the Submitting Your Site link on the resulting page. At the time of this writing, you can also simply go straight to http://www.google.com/addurl.html. Enter your site's complete URL (that is, include the "http://" in your Website address) in the appropriate field and type a short description of your site for the comment. Check your typing and spelling and then click the Add URL button below.
SUBMITTING TO DMOZ CAN GET YOU INCLUDED IN GOOGLE
If other sites link to your Website, Google will find it pretty quickly. Google currently spiders the entire Web at least once a month. Rather than waiting for the spider to find you, however, the best way to ensure inclusion in Google (as well as Netscape, AOL, AllTheWeb, Alta Vista, HotBot, Lycos, and Northern Light) is to submit your site to the Open Directory Project.
Google, as well as the other search engines listed above, include data from Netscape's Open Directory Project, which uses human indexing like Yahoo! does. Thus, Google uses its own software-driven spidering technology and supplements it with the dmoz's human indexing. Since you cannot manipulate the results of the spider technology (other than to create a high-quality popular site), your submitting efforts are best placed with dmoz. A good ranking with dmoz can ensure your inclusion in several major search engines. Submitting to the Open Directory Project will be the subject of our next lesson.
CONCLUSION
If you have a Website with lots of links to it from popular Websites, Google will find it and give you a good ranking without any effort on your part. If you have a new site that does not yet have a lot of links to it, you should submit your URL to Google, but you should focus your submitting efforts on the Open Directory Project (dmoz). A good ranking by dmoz will earn you a good position in Google as well as other major search engines. You should also consider placing an ad with Google if your budget allows.
SUBMITTING YOUR WEBSITE
FIRST AND UNIQUE
Yahoo!, the original search engine on the Web, continues to be unique among search engines and directories. Yahoo listings are maintained by humans rather than algorithms. Each site submitted for inclusion is accepted or rejected by a Yahoo editor who actually views and evaluates the site.
This is in contrast to other search engines, which often use automation programs (called spiders) to gather site information for the listings, as well as to evaluate and rank sites.
Because of the limited time available for editors to make choices about all submitted sites and a desire to keep the directory unique, Yahoo is quite picky about the sites it includes. Thus, having your site in Yahoo's site listings is a coveted accomplishment, especially since Yahoo generally ranks as the most visited search engine on the Internet.
You should NEVER use any type of automatic submission software or service to submit your site to Yahoo They build their directory by hand on Yahoo's end, so you should submit your site by hand on your end. However, the most important factor affecting the review of your site by the Yahoo editors is whether you have a high quality site with original content.
CATEGORY MATCHES VS SITE MATCHES VS WEB PAGE MATCHES
In order to properly submit your Website to the Yahoo search engine, you should first have some understanding of how Yahoo works. When you input a search into Yahoo, you can get up to five kinds of results: Inside Yahoo Matches, Sponsor Matches, Category Matches, Web Site Matches, and Web Page Matches.
The first two, Inside Yahoo Matches and Sponsor Matches, are not relevant to our discussion because a site submitted for inclusion in the Yahoo directory is not listed within these two categories. Therefore, we'll cover only the three categories that matter—Category Matches, Web Site Matches, and Web Page Matches.
The difference between Web Site Matches and Web Page Matches is that Web Site Matches include only sites listed in the Yahoo directory. Web Page Matches pull results from one of the spider-based engines (Google.com at the time of this writing) to supplement the Yahoo Web Site Matches.
So, even if your site is not listed in Yahoo as a Web Site Match, it may be found in a search through Yahoo if it is listed in Google. Since you have to click on Web Page Matches link to see this list of results, however, it is important to have your site listed on Yahoo (as well as Google) if you can obtain a listing there.
Yahoo displays Category Matches before the Web Site Matches and Web Page Matches (and after Inside Yahoo Matches and Sponsor Matches). If the search word or phrase is in the category name, that category will be included in the results of a search. As most people click on a category if one shows up, it is important in preparing your submission to Yahoo to select a category that includes your most important keyword or key phrase.
Thus, when people search with your main keywords or phrases, they will be presented with, and likely click on, a category that includes your site. When they get to the category listing, they will see your site, provided it ranks high enough to show on the first few pages of the category listing.
Yahoo is able to create Category Matches because it groups the various Websites in its directory under various subject headings, thus creating a hierarchy of categories. The broad initial categories are divided further and drill down into more and more specific subject areas.
For example, Web sites dealing with the subject "business opportunity magazines" are found in the following hierarchy:
Business and Economy > Business to Business > Business Opportunities > Magazines
Sometimes, you may have difficulty finding a category to match your particular subject. Recall the example of a doorway page listing senior discounts discussed in an earlier lesson in this course. If one were submitting such a site to Yahoo, there would be a problem picking the right category. When you search for "senior discounts" on Yahoo, no Category Matches occur. This is because that particular phrase does not appear (at the time of this writing) in any Yahoo category.
On the other hand, 17 Site Matches show up when you search for "senior discounts." Those 17 sites are organized under 15 different categories! (Note again that none of those 15 categories show up as Category Matches when you make that search, but when you look at the Site Matches, you see the categories under which those sites are individually organized.)
The most relevant site for "senior discounts" shows up in this category:
Society and Culture > Cultures and Groups > Seniors > Web Directories
However, some of the sites which show up for "senior discounts" in the Yahoo Site Matches are
in the following categories:
Recreation > Travel > Seniors > Airline Programs
Business and Economy > Shopping and Services > Health > Senior Care
Business and Economy > Shopping and Services > Coupons > Discount Cards
And 11 more categories, which we will not list here.
Many sites listed in Yahoo are only listed under one category (even though they may logically fit under several different categories). Other sites are listed under two different categories when they fit well under both categories. In the situation above, however, Yahoo lists the "senior discount" sites across 15 different categories. This means that there is no way you could drill down through the Yahoo categories to find a place where all senior discount sites are listed.
This is a situation in which you may want to suggest a new category to Yahoo. A good proposal would be
Business and Economy > Shopping and Services > Seniors
Yahoo does provide an area where you can propose new categories. However, the directory receives tons of suggestions daily, so don't count on having Yahoo act on your suggestions automatically. You would have to convince the editors at Yahoo that the directory would be improved by adding such category—and you would have to do so within the limited communication available. You would also still have to select an existing Yahoo category for your site in the very likely event that your suggestion for a new category is ignored.
Even among the existing categories, the Yahoo editors—being human—may or may not accept the category you have chosen for your site. Picking the most appropriate category in your submission, however, improves your chances of inclusion and will affect the traffic you receive if included in the directory. You make the editors' work easier by submitting your site under the right category. Thus, they will look more favorably on your site in the review process.
Take the time to become familiar with the Yahoo categories relevant to your site. Choosing the correct category while submitting your site is crucial, both for your chances of inclusion in the directory and for strategic placement of your site within the directory, if included.
SUBMITTING YOUR SITE TO YAHOO
Now that you're familiar with the process of picking the right category for your site, you're ready to select the Suggest A Site link FROM THE CORRECT YAHOO CATEGORY to begin your site's submission process. Just drill down through the categories from Yahoo's main page until you come to the appropriate category for your site. Then, on that page, select the Suggest A Site link. (It's down at the bottom of the page.)
You'll now see a page where you can choose between a Standard Submission and Yahoo!Express.
The Standard Submission is free.
Yahoo!Express costs $299 (at the time of this writing; $600 for adult content sites). For commercial sites, that fee will be charged on a per year basis. That is, each year after your commercial Website's inclusion in the Yahoo directory, Yahoo will review your site and charge you another $299 for your site's continued inclusion in the commercial directory. This yearly charge went into effect for commercial sites submitted through Yahoo!Express after December 28, 2001.
Note that Yahoo!
Express does not guarantee you a listing in the Yahoo directory! It's pretty darn arrogant of Yahoo to take $299 from you and then reject your site, but they will do just that if your site has no original content or is unprofessional. Also, there is no refund if your site is rejected! Yahoo gets away with this because of the unique traffic-generating capabilities the directory and search engine is able to provide. It's worth the money just to have them review your site for inclusion.
For your $299, you get a guarantee that Yahoo editors will look at your Website within seven business days and make a decision one way or the other to include your site.
Prior to February of 1999, all submissions to Yahoo were reviewed without charge. The submissions became so numerous that the existing staff could never review even a significant portion of them within a reasonable time. Thus, Yahoo!Express submission was created to generate the funding for the additional staff needed for timely review of the submissions.
Yahoo!Express is required for commercial sites and available for all sites.
After selecting your submission method, you are asked to confirm a number of things about your site.
The most notable of these confirmations (at the time of this writing) is as follows:
"My site contains substantively unique content that is not already accessible from the Yahoo directory. (For example: a user who submits multiple URLs to the same content is not submitting substantively unique content.) "
This is a warning that you will waste $299 if you submit multiple pages with only minor details changed or try to submit a doorway page or a banner page that has no unique content. Take heed. Yahoo likes only quality sites with unique content. If you do not have one yet, do not waste your money on the submission.
After you complete this section by checking all the boxes to confirm things about you site, you will proceed to a page where you'll provide your site title, URL, geographic location, and a description.
(If you have not already done so, read the previous Internet Income lessons about preparing keywords, titles, and descriptions before completing this part of the submission process!) Follow the same principles as discussed in these lessons about meta tags.
Remember, Yahoo doesn't use the meta tags, but it does use what you submit here. Be sure to take care to match your keywords with the desirable Yahoo category names as well as desirable search terms.
Also, note that Yahoo list its sites alphabetically by title (for the most part). Remember that when choosing a title. However, obvious attempts to artificially gain alphabetical advantage (such as "AAA Discounts") are disfavored by Yahoo.
Next, you'll be asked to provide a login name and contact information. The final section is for additional information.
There have been situations where submitting some additional information got sites listed on Yahoo within a couple of days (even though it was submitted through the standard submission, which usually takes weeks).
In one instance, the site host was scheduled to make a public appearance with a celebrity to promote the site.
Making that known to Yahoo made for a fast and favorable determination. Thus, it's a good idea to use the Additional Information box to submit any information that may add to the quality and popularity of the Website but may not be obvious from a review of the site.
WHAT IF YOU GET REJECTED?
If your site is rejected by Yahoo, when should you resubmit?
There is a clear answer to this question:
Resubmit your site only when the quality of your content has been significantly improved. That is, the only fruitful response to being rejected by Yahoo is to work hard to improve your site. If your site has not improved, the mere passage of time or a different staff member reviewing it will not likely improve your odds.
CONCLUSION
As Yahoo generally ranks as the most visited search engine on the Internet, it is important to carefully submit your site for possible inclusion as a Yahoo Site Listing. Make the submission by hand rather than using an automated service or software. Carefully pick the category under which your site should be included and make your submission from that category. Carefully pick and fill out the site title, URL, and description. Be sure to add any important additional information to help in the review of your site.
Yahoo!, the original search engine on the Web, continues to be unique among search engines and directories. Yahoo listings are maintained by humans rather than algorithms. Each site submitted for inclusion is accepted or rejected by a Yahoo editor who actually views and evaluates the site.
This is in contrast to other search engines, which often use automation programs (called spiders) to gather site information for the listings, as well as to evaluate and rank sites.
Because of the limited time available for editors to make choices about all submitted sites and a desire to keep the directory unique, Yahoo is quite picky about the sites it includes. Thus, having your site in Yahoo's site listings is a coveted accomplishment, especially since Yahoo generally ranks as the most visited search engine on the Internet.
You should NEVER use any type of automatic submission software or service to submit your site to Yahoo They build their directory by hand on Yahoo's end, so you should submit your site by hand on your end. However, the most important factor affecting the review of your site by the Yahoo editors is whether you have a high quality site with original content.
CATEGORY MATCHES VS SITE MATCHES VS WEB PAGE MATCHES
In order to properly submit your Website to the Yahoo search engine, you should first have some understanding of how Yahoo works. When you input a search into Yahoo, you can get up to five kinds of results: Inside Yahoo Matches, Sponsor Matches, Category Matches, Web Site Matches, and Web Page Matches.
The first two, Inside Yahoo Matches and Sponsor Matches, are not relevant to our discussion because a site submitted for inclusion in the Yahoo directory is not listed within these two categories. Therefore, we'll cover only the three categories that matter—Category Matches, Web Site Matches, and Web Page Matches.
The difference between Web Site Matches and Web Page Matches is that Web Site Matches include only sites listed in the Yahoo directory. Web Page Matches pull results from one of the spider-based engines (Google.com at the time of this writing) to supplement the Yahoo Web Site Matches.
So, even if your site is not listed in Yahoo as a Web Site Match, it may be found in a search through Yahoo if it is listed in Google. Since you have to click on Web Page Matches link to see this list of results, however, it is important to have your site listed on Yahoo (as well as Google) if you can obtain a listing there.
Yahoo displays Category Matches before the Web Site Matches and Web Page Matches (and after Inside Yahoo Matches and Sponsor Matches). If the search word or phrase is in the category name, that category will be included in the results of a search. As most people click on a category if one shows up, it is important in preparing your submission to Yahoo to select a category that includes your most important keyword or key phrase.
Thus, when people search with your main keywords or phrases, they will be presented with, and likely click on, a category that includes your site. When they get to the category listing, they will see your site, provided it ranks high enough to show on the first few pages of the category listing.
Yahoo is able to create Category Matches because it groups the various Websites in its directory under various subject headings, thus creating a hierarchy of categories. The broad initial categories are divided further and drill down into more and more specific subject areas.
For example, Web sites dealing with the subject "business opportunity magazines" are found in the following hierarchy:
Business and Economy > Business to Business > Business Opportunities > Magazines
Sometimes, you may have difficulty finding a category to match your particular subject. Recall the example of a doorway page listing senior discounts discussed in an earlier lesson in this course. If one were submitting such a site to Yahoo, there would be a problem picking the right category. When you search for "senior discounts" on Yahoo, no Category Matches occur. This is because that particular phrase does not appear (at the time of this writing) in any Yahoo category.
On the other hand, 17 Site Matches show up when you search for "senior discounts." Those 17 sites are organized under 15 different categories! (Note again that none of those 15 categories show up as Category Matches when you make that search, but when you look at the Site Matches, you see the categories under which those sites are individually organized.)
The most relevant site for "senior discounts" shows up in this category:
Society and Culture > Cultures and Groups > Seniors > Web Directories
However, some of the sites which show up for "senior discounts" in the Yahoo Site Matches are
in the following categories:
Recreation > Travel > Seniors > Airline Programs
Business and Economy > Shopping and Services > Health > Senior Care
Business and Economy > Shopping and Services > Coupons > Discount Cards
And 11 more categories, which we will not list here.
Many sites listed in Yahoo are only listed under one category (even though they may logically fit under several different categories). Other sites are listed under two different categories when they fit well under both categories. In the situation above, however, Yahoo lists the "senior discount" sites across 15 different categories. This means that there is no way you could drill down through the Yahoo categories to find a place where all senior discount sites are listed.
This is a situation in which you may want to suggest a new category to Yahoo. A good proposal would be
Business and Economy > Shopping and Services > Seniors
Yahoo does provide an area where you can propose new categories. However, the directory receives tons of suggestions daily, so don't count on having Yahoo act on your suggestions automatically. You would have to convince the editors at Yahoo that the directory would be improved by adding such category—and you would have to do so within the limited communication available. You would also still have to select an existing Yahoo category for your site in the very likely event that your suggestion for a new category is ignored.
Even among the existing categories, the Yahoo editors—being human—may or may not accept the category you have chosen for your site. Picking the most appropriate category in your submission, however, improves your chances of inclusion and will affect the traffic you receive if included in the directory. You make the editors' work easier by submitting your site under the right category. Thus, they will look more favorably on your site in the review process.
Take the time to become familiar with the Yahoo categories relevant to your site. Choosing the correct category while submitting your site is crucial, both for your chances of inclusion in the directory and for strategic placement of your site within the directory, if included.
SUBMITTING YOUR SITE TO YAHOO
Now that you're familiar with the process of picking the right category for your site, you're ready to select the Suggest A Site link FROM THE CORRECT YAHOO CATEGORY to begin your site's submission process. Just drill down through the categories from Yahoo's main page until you come to the appropriate category for your site. Then, on that page, select the Suggest A Site link. (It's down at the bottom of the page.)
You'll now see a page where you can choose between a Standard Submission and Yahoo!Express.
The Standard Submission is free.
Yahoo!Express costs $299 (at the time of this writing; $600 for adult content sites). For commercial sites, that fee will be charged on a per year basis. That is, each year after your commercial Website's inclusion in the Yahoo directory, Yahoo will review your site and charge you another $299 for your site's continued inclusion in the commercial directory. This yearly charge went into effect for commercial sites submitted through Yahoo!Express after December 28, 2001.
Note that Yahoo!
Express does not guarantee you a listing in the Yahoo directory! It's pretty darn arrogant of Yahoo to take $299 from you and then reject your site, but they will do just that if your site has no original content or is unprofessional. Also, there is no refund if your site is rejected! Yahoo gets away with this because of the unique traffic-generating capabilities the directory and search engine is able to provide. It's worth the money just to have them review your site for inclusion.
For your $299, you get a guarantee that Yahoo editors will look at your Website within seven business days and make a decision one way or the other to include your site.
Prior to February of 1999, all submissions to Yahoo were reviewed without charge. The submissions became so numerous that the existing staff could never review even a significant portion of them within a reasonable time. Thus, Yahoo!Express submission was created to generate the funding for the additional staff needed for timely review of the submissions.
Yahoo!Express is required for commercial sites and available for all sites.
After selecting your submission method, you are asked to confirm a number of things about your site.
The most notable of these confirmations (at the time of this writing) is as follows:
"My site contains substantively unique content that is not already accessible from the Yahoo directory. (For example: a user who submits multiple URLs to the same content is not submitting substantively unique content.) "
This is a warning that you will waste $299 if you submit multiple pages with only minor details changed or try to submit a doorway page or a banner page that has no unique content. Take heed. Yahoo likes only quality sites with unique content. If you do not have one yet, do not waste your money on the submission.
After you complete this section by checking all the boxes to confirm things about you site, you will proceed to a page where you'll provide your site title, URL, geographic location, and a description.
(If you have not already done so, read the previous Internet Income lessons about preparing keywords, titles, and descriptions before completing this part of the submission process!) Follow the same principles as discussed in these lessons about meta tags.
Remember, Yahoo doesn't use the meta tags, but it does use what you submit here. Be sure to take care to match your keywords with the desirable Yahoo category names as well as desirable search terms.
Also, note that Yahoo list its sites alphabetically by title (for the most part). Remember that when choosing a title. However, obvious attempts to artificially gain alphabetical advantage (such as "AAA Discounts") are disfavored by Yahoo.
Next, you'll be asked to provide a login name and contact information. The final section is for additional information.
There have been situations where submitting some additional information got sites listed on Yahoo within a couple of days (even though it was submitted through the standard submission, which usually takes weeks).
In one instance, the site host was scheduled to make a public appearance with a celebrity to promote the site.
Making that known to Yahoo made for a fast and favorable determination. Thus, it's a good idea to use the Additional Information box to submit any information that may add to the quality and popularity of the Website but may not be obvious from a review of the site.
WHAT IF YOU GET REJECTED?
If your site is rejected by Yahoo, when should you resubmit?
There is a clear answer to this question:
Resubmit your site only when the quality of your content has been significantly improved. That is, the only fruitful response to being rejected by Yahoo is to work hard to improve your site. If your site has not improved, the mere passage of time or a different staff member reviewing it will not likely improve your odds.
CONCLUSION
As Yahoo generally ranks as the most visited search engine on the Internet, it is important to carefully submit your site for possible inclusion as a Yahoo Site Listing. Make the submission by hand rather than using an automated service or software. Carefully pick the category under which your site should be included and make your submission from that category. Carefully pick and fill out the site title, URL, and description. Be sure to add any important additional information to help in the review of your site.
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