Once upon a time there was a "brilliant" marketing mind who came up with the following idea:
"Wouldn't it be great if I could advertise to all those people who log on to the Internet every single day, start up their web browser and have set their browser's home or start page to a special Internet address, the address / URL of MY website? Of course, this will not attract many people, folks won't love it if I try to sell them, they need an incentive to view all the ads, so what if they get credit for viewing an ad? Yes, I think this is going to work. I will start up a free service consisting of a group of advertisers where all members are credited just for viewing other members' ads and in exchange their ads are also shown on the network. My service is free to join so it will attract loads of members even though they are all ADVERTISERS."
This brainchild was the birth of traffic exchanges aka startpage programs and since that time they have been springing up like mushrooms all over the net. Hardly a day goes by they don't suck in newbies like a Texas twister.
Why are they so popular?
First and foremost, they are free to join and offer any aspiring or wannabe Internet marketer with no advertising budget an opportunity to promote their business or affiliate program for free. So why not give it a try.
You hopefully join the program, enter the URL (link) of your affiliate program you'd like to be seen by other members, choose a unique user name that identifies you (unless it's automatically generated) and then you click "submit."
But are you aware that all other members of the traffic exchange have done the exact same thing? Yes, all these advertisers have the URLs for THEIR ad pages listed in the exchange, too. Welcome to the club! You are now in a "pool" of advertisers. Just think about it and breathe it in! You are not advertising to normal folks or real surfers, you are advertising to ADVERTISERS!
And 99% of them are from the "get rich quick brigade" trying to promote another person's affiliate program or "cookie cutter page," you know that nice looking and self-replicating page all affiliates are given as a "promotional tool" after joining. Very unlikely that the affiliate program you belong to hasn't been seen yet by all other members unless it's brand new.
But you still believe you can make money on the net, so you keep trying and viewing other members' websites / affiliate pages in exchange for traffic. Traffic exchange rates vary, but typically you are required to view 2 exchange members' ads each for 30 seconds to receive 2 credits or 1 hit to your ad page. That's 60 seconds for just one hit or 1 hour of your life clicking for only 60 hits.
Soon you'll realize you have to click your little heart away to get a single sale or sign-up for your affiliate program. So you listen to some self-proclaimed "startpage gurus" who tell you that you have to join a bunch of other traffic exchanges and use "turbo surf tools" like "tabbed browsing" to get the most out of your surfing efforts and reach as many potential customers as you can.
But the sales are still not pouring in. So you begin to apply some gurus' "startpage secrets" and set up nice little attention-grabbing "lead capture pages." You already know it's virtually impossible to make a single sale on traffic exchanges so you go for your visitors' email address and offer a valuable freebie that meets the needs of advertisers.
Now you have a nice contact list and you think your prospects are far more likely to buy something if you build a "relationship." So you follow up and follow up, send them useful educational articles and a offer once in a while, and you know what? They are still reluctant to buy anything.
And that's no surprise. They are on your list just because of your freebie. Nearly all traffic exchange members are FREE members, and the ONLY reason they joined is to show THEIR ads to YOU -- for FREE! They joined for free because they have no money to spend on advertising. And the pro / paid members (less than 1%) who can shell out money never see your page because they don't need to surf.
So, in a nutshell, here is what traffic exchanges aren't telling you:
* ALL members are ADVERTISERS.
* ALL members are looking at the ads of OTHER ADVERTISERS.
* ALL members are NOT INTERESTED in seeing OTHER ADVERTISERS' ADS.
This is the brutal reality. All members are trying to sell you something even if they offer you something for free using the "soft sell approach." And did I mention that the majority are NOT webmasters? These folks are unable to create unique content or ad pages and do NOTHING to differentiate themselves from all the others trying to sell the same thing. Their favorite keyboard keys are CTRL-C and CTRL-V to copy and paste their affiliate / reseller link. So most members see the same ads over and over again.
I am sure all traffic exchanges wouldn't exist any longer if all members were required NOT to submit an affiliate link but a unique website. They simply had to close their gates because they wouldn't get enough members.
Please, do yourself a favour and STOP using traffic exchanges. All you get in return is untargeted traffic. The only person that wins is the traffic exchange owner selling "guaranteed hits" packages to some poor souls. As you already know, these hits won't do much for your business but lots of frustration and disappointment.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Saturday, January 20, 2007
2 Sure-Fire Ways To Fail Miserably In Internet Marketing
I already told you that submitting your ad to FFA sites is a complete waste of time. If you haven't read yet my last posting, I urge you to do it now. FFA ads are not profitable at all. By no means you should use this kind of poor advertising. It won't bring you any traffic.
Click here if you are still using FFA's!
Since I've also been there, done that, I know very well how it feels to get nothing in return for all those useless marketing efforts. I've been involved with Internet Marketing since 2002 and quite frankly I'm fed up with all the hype and nonsense about "how to drive your website traffic through the roof and explode your sales" doing NOTHING.
I tell you this: Despite what you can read everywhere online, it's virtually impossible for anyone, even those with a good understanding of the Internet, to make a substantial income from any online business opportunity without putting in a lot of hard work - and even then it's doomed to fail when you spend time and money on obsolete marketing techniques and tools that no longer work.
I feel sorry for all the ones who are just starting out and thinking that submitting their ads to FFA sites is the "magic pill" to gain worldwide attention or popularity. Nothing could be further from the truth!
There are some FFA site owners out there that use the FFA site system as a vehicle to educate all the people using their free service. In itself this is a nice thing to do and a very pragmatic approach. These FFA site owners tell you this: "In order to benefit from an FFA site, you must OWN the FFA site and become a paid member. As an FFA site owner you can send email ads to everyone that uses the free service."
It's a thing called "Reverse Marketing." If you own an FFA site, then you can advertise to all your advertisers. Wow, sounds great. THOUSANDS of ads that are posted to your site are YOUR prospects. Your emails will automatically go to them when they post to your site.
But in today's junk mail environment, most people are deleting their junk mail especially if it arrives with the flood of emails from their FFA ad submission. Wouldn't you do the same? As far as I am concerned, I was pretty well disgusted with all those confirmation emails filling up my mailbox so quickly. So, what I did, I set up a free email account with a spam filter, and, within days of posting my ad, just let the ads pile up in my junk folder and deleted them later without ever reading them.
And, in my opinion, that's exactly what nearly all FFA posters are doing and prevents the "Reverse Marketing" system from working. Sure, there will be a certain percentage that scans through the emails they receive in return for their posting. But remember these folks are all advertisers already promoting their own business opportunity or affiliate program and not actually looking for another program. They want to sell, not to buy. So, owning an FFA site will produce very, very low results for you (if any) no matter how catchy your subject line or irresistible your ad copy. Of course, if you are a top salesman who is able to sell refrigerators to Eskimos, you may get a sale once in a while, but that's not the norm.
Now, there are some FFA site owners, let's call them the "Big Dogs," that use the "shot gun" approach and own a couple of FFA sites and want you to do the same in order to get any significant results with that kind of advertising. So, if you want to become a legitimate spammer, and if that idea excites you, go ahead and sign up for more than 10 FFA sites. It costs you over $200 every month and the bogus traffic these sites generate will not guarantee you any return of your investment.
The funny part is that a growing number of FFA posters are discovering "Reverse Marketing" for themselves. That means, as soon as they have clicked on the link in their confirmation email and validated their email address, they switch their free email account to "vacation mode" and an autoresponder message goes out in reply to every email from the FFA site owners. They simply spam them back with their offer and the owners have to deal with a lot of junk mail, too. How smart they are now?
One last word: From the ethical point of view it's more than questionable to promote a "service" that provides no real value but hype. For example, imagine you were the owner of a large pond, and you know exactly there are NO fishes in your pond, BUT you offer all visitors who come by the "great" opportunity to catch fishes in your pond absolutely free. You even provide fishing-hooks for free. However, all your fishermen are required to listen to your commercial ads coming from a loudspeaker at the beach. I am sure all your "customers" would abandon your service very soon, or they would use ear plugs... and hope and hope at least one fish will bite.
So, my advice to you: Don't bother with FFA sites. Don't post, and don't host. Avoid them like a plague. It's a giant waste of time and resources. If you want traffic to your site, start a blog, write articles or participate in forums. It's all free and will give you much better results.
Click here if you are still using FFA's!
Since I've also been there, done that, I know very well how it feels to get nothing in return for all those useless marketing efforts. I've been involved with Internet Marketing since 2002 and quite frankly I'm fed up with all the hype and nonsense about "how to drive your website traffic through the roof and explode your sales" doing NOTHING.
I tell you this: Despite what you can read everywhere online, it's virtually impossible for anyone, even those with a good understanding of the Internet, to make a substantial income from any online business opportunity without putting in a lot of hard work - and even then it's doomed to fail when you spend time and money on obsolete marketing techniques and tools that no longer work.
I feel sorry for all the ones who are just starting out and thinking that submitting their ads to FFA sites is the "magic pill" to gain worldwide attention or popularity. Nothing could be further from the truth!
There are some FFA site owners out there that use the FFA site system as a vehicle to educate all the people using their free service. In itself this is a nice thing to do and a very pragmatic approach. These FFA site owners tell you this: "In order to benefit from an FFA site, you must OWN the FFA site and become a paid member. As an FFA site owner you can send email ads to everyone that uses the free service."
It's a thing called "Reverse Marketing." If you own an FFA site, then you can advertise to all your advertisers. Wow, sounds great. THOUSANDS of ads that are posted to your site are YOUR prospects. Your emails will automatically go to them when they post to your site.
But in today's junk mail environment, most people are deleting their junk mail especially if it arrives with the flood of emails from their FFA ad submission. Wouldn't you do the same? As far as I am concerned, I was pretty well disgusted with all those confirmation emails filling up my mailbox so quickly. So, what I did, I set up a free email account with a spam filter, and, within days of posting my ad, just let the ads pile up in my junk folder and deleted them later without ever reading them.
And, in my opinion, that's exactly what nearly all FFA posters are doing and prevents the "Reverse Marketing" system from working. Sure, there will be a certain percentage that scans through the emails they receive in return for their posting. But remember these folks are all advertisers already promoting their own business opportunity or affiliate program and not actually looking for another program. They want to sell, not to buy. So, owning an FFA site will produce very, very low results for you (if any) no matter how catchy your subject line or irresistible your ad copy. Of course, if you are a top salesman who is able to sell refrigerators to Eskimos, you may get a sale once in a while, but that's not the norm.
Now, there are some FFA site owners, let's call them the "Big Dogs," that use the "shot gun" approach and own a couple of FFA sites and want you to do the same in order to get any significant results with that kind of advertising. So, if you want to become a legitimate spammer, and if that idea excites you, go ahead and sign up for more than 10 FFA sites. It costs you over $200 every month and the bogus traffic these sites generate will not guarantee you any return of your investment.
The funny part is that a growing number of FFA posters are discovering "Reverse Marketing" for themselves. That means, as soon as they have clicked on the link in their confirmation email and validated their email address, they switch their free email account to "vacation mode" and an autoresponder message goes out in reply to every email from the FFA site owners. They simply spam them back with their offer and the owners have to deal with a lot of junk mail, too. How smart they are now?
One last word: From the ethical point of view it's more than questionable to promote a "service" that provides no real value but hype. For example, imagine you were the owner of a large pond, and you know exactly there are NO fishes in your pond, BUT you offer all visitors who come by the "great" opportunity to catch fishes in your pond absolutely free. You even provide fishing-hooks for free. However, all your fishermen are required to listen to your commercial ads coming from a loudspeaker at the beach. I am sure all your "customers" would abandon your service very soon, or they would use ear plugs... and hope and hope at least one fish will bite.
So, my advice to you: Don't bother with FFA sites. Don't post, and don't host. Avoid them like a plague. It's a giant waste of time and resources. If you want traffic to your site, start a blog, write articles or participate in forums. It's all free and will give you much better results.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Are FFA Ads Profitable?
Do you remember when you first ventured out in the online business world?
Posting to FFA link pages was probably one of those insane activities you desperately tried out in order to get "massive" free advertising or exposure for your affiliate program or service.
How many times have you posted to those pages...
...with little or no results at all?
Or are you still using FFA's? But no matter how hard you try, how much you do... all you get in return is your mail box clogged up with all those "confirmation" emails from the FFA page owners.
Please STOP!
This may come as a surprise to you...
...but it's a complete waste of time!
See... you've been misguided, lied to, robbed, and manipulated by all those "We'll Put Your Ad On 1 Million Sites!" companies who just want to take your hard earned money and sell you their latest "state-of-the-art" (useless) "blaster" software just to fatten their wallet even more!
See... everyone and his dog is using "blasters" as a means of getting traffic because "It's so easy! Just push a single button and your ad is blasted to a million sites!"
See... you are in direct competition to THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of other advertisers who are doing the exact SAME thing!
Blasting and blasting and blasting...
They are all using FFA's to advertise... and NOT to view your ad!
In fact, FFA sites get SO MANY continual postings that your ad may not even remain on their site for more than a few minutes.
Even if people did want to look at your ad... the chance of getting noticed would be next to ZERO!
It's a proven fact that your ad is NEVER seen by human eyes!
Sure... FFA sites are high traffic sites, but all their traffic is ONE way.
People don't "visit" FFA sites to read your ads, they "come" for one purpose only... to post ads.
So, if you do nothing else today, take this information to heart and STOP posting to FFA's!
Virtually NO ONE sees your ad!
Click here for more details!
Posting to FFA link pages was probably one of those insane activities you desperately tried out in order to get "massive" free advertising or exposure for your affiliate program or service.
How many times have you posted to those pages...
...with little or no results at all?
Or are you still using FFA's? But no matter how hard you try, how much you do... all you get in return is your mail box clogged up with all those "confirmation" emails from the FFA page owners.
Please STOP!
This may come as a surprise to you...
...but it's a complete waste of time!
See... you've been misguided, lied to, robbed, and manipulated by all those "We'll Put Your Ad On 1 Million Sites!" companies who just want to take your hard earned money and sell you their latest "state-of-the-art" (useless) "blaster" software just to fatten their wallet even more!
See... everyone and his dog is using "blasters" as a means of getting traffic because "It's so easy! Just push a single button and your ad is blasted to a million sites!"
See... you are in direct competition to THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of other advertisers who are doing the exact SAME thing!
Blasting and blasting and blasting...
They are all using FFA's to advertise... and NOT to view your ad!
In fact, FFA sites get SO MANY continual postings that your ad may not even remain on their site for more than a few minutes.
Even if people did want to look at your ad... the chance of getting noticed would be next to ZERO!
It's a proven fact that your ad is NEVER seen by human eyes!
Sure... FFA sites are high traffic sites, but all their traffic is ONE way.
People don't "visit" FFA sites to read your ads, they "come" for one purpose only... to post ads.
So, if you do nothing else today, take this information to heart and STOP posting to FFA's!
Virtually NO ONE sees your ad!
Click here for more details!
Sunday, January 7, 2007
2000 Profit Building Tips & Ideas to Help You Earn Maximum Income From Your Internet Business
One possible reason why your business is failing is that you don't offer free original content at your website.
What about top quality articles or tips you could provide your website visitors on a daily basis?
When was the last time you wrote your own articles for this purpose? Like most of us... chances are, you haven't. Why haven't you? I know, I know... it's a pain, right?
Not anymore!
Just add the following link to your website ("Tip Of The Day") and you can help out your website visitors with killer business tips RANDOMLY chosen from my ultimate collection of 2000 profit building tips & ideas to model, study and learn from:
http://www.traffic4ever.com/businesstips.php
All those tips are short, straight to the point, and very effective. Just one tip could be the difference between success and failure.
You'll get many benefits from helping online business newbies. You will feel good knowing that you had a part in helping them build their business. You can sit back and say, "I had a part in their success." Another benefit you could receive is you might gain some valuable referrals from them because you can replace the Ultimate Traffic System affiliate id in the resource box directly following each article with YOUR affiliate id AS LONG AS you are in my downline. So, for instance, if your id is 22267, and if you are in my downline, you are allowed to add your affiliate id to the URL above:
http://www.traffic4ever.com/businesstips.php?id=22267
Don't like my default color settings? Try this and add the following string to the URL above:
?id=22267&a=white&b=black&c=red&d=ffffe0&e=ffffe0
Click here to see the difference!
Color Parameters:
a - Background
b - Border
c - Headline
d - Headline Background
e - Text Background
Don't like the form buttons? Try this:
http://www.traffic4ever.com/businesstips.php?f=0
So you see, giving away content is a powerful way to get free advertising. The resource box at the end of each article acts as an ad. In return, you get free advertising. It's a win/win situation for both you and your website visitors that view your free content.
What about top quality articles or tips you could provide your website visitors on a daily basis?
When was the last time you wrote your own articles for this purpose? Like most of us... chances are, you haven't. Why haven't you? I know, I know... it's a pain, right?
Not anymore!
Just add the following link to your website ("Tip Of The Day") and you can help out your website visitors with killer business tips RANDOMLY chosen from my ultimate collection of 2000 profit building tips & ideas to model, study and learn from:
http://www.traffic4ever.com/businesstips.php
All those tips are short, straight to the point, and very effective. Just one tip could be the difference between success and failure.
You'll get many benefits from helping online business newbies. You will feel good knowing that you had a part in helping them build their business. You can sit back and say, "I had a part in their success." Another benefit you could receive is you might gain some valuable referrals from them because you can replace the Ultimate Traffic System affiliate id in the resource box directly following each article with YOUR affiliate id AS LONG AS you are in my downline. So, for instance, if your id is 22267, and if you are in my downline, you are allowed to add your affiliate id to the URL above:
http://www.traffic4ever.com/businesstips.php?id=22267
Don't like my default color settings? Try this and add the following string to the URL above:
?id=22267&a=white&b=black&c=red&d=ffffe0&e=ffffe0
Click here to see the difference!
Color Parameters:
a - Background
b - Border
c - Headline
d - Headline Background
e - Text Background
Don't like the form buttons? Try this:
http://www.traffic4ever.com/businesstips.php?f=0
So you see, giving away content is a powerful way to get free advertising. The resource box at the end of each article acts as an ad. In return, you get free advertising. It's a win/win situation for both you and your website visitors that view your free content.
Monday, January 1, 2007
A Quick And Unique Way To Get Free Advertising
One possible reason why your business is failing is that you don't offer free original content at your website.
What about a top quality article or tip you could provide your website visitors on a daily basis?
Just add the following link to your website and you can help out your website visitors with a powerful marketing tip which is randomly chosen from a database of more than 100 articles:
http://www.traffic4ever.com/marketingtips.php
You'll get many benefits from helping online business newbies. You will feel good knowing that you had a part in helping them build their business. You can sit back and say, "I had a part in their success." Another benefit you could receive is you might gain some valuable referrals from them because you can replace the Million Dollar Traffic affiliate id in the resource box directly following each article with YOUR affiliate id. So, for instance, if your id is 7455, just add this detail to the URL above:
http://www.traffic4ever.com/marketingtips.php?id=7455
I am aware that not all people will love my default color settings. Try this and add the following string to the URL above:
?id=7455&a=navy&b=silver&c=red&d=ffe400&e=ffe400
Click here to see the difference!
Color Parameters:
a - Background
b - Border
c - Headline
d - Headline Background
e - Text Background
Don't like the form buttons? Try this:
http://www.traffic4ever.com/marketingtips.php?f=0
So you see, giving away content is a powerful way to get free advertising. The resource box at the end of each article acts as an ad. In return, you get free advertising. It's a win/win situation for both you and your website visitors that view your free content.
What about a top quality article or tip you could provide your website visitors on a daily basis?
Just add the following link to your website and you can help out your website visitors with a powerful marketing tip which is randomly chosen from a database of more than 100 articles:
http://www.traffic4ever.com/marketingtips.php
You'll get many benefits from helping online business newbies. You will feel good knowing that you had a part in helping them build their business. You can sit back and say, "I had a part in their success." Another benefit you could receive is you might gain some valuable referrals from them because you can replace the Million Dollar Traffic affiliate id in the resource box directly following each article with YOUR affiliate id. So, for instance, if your id is 7455, just add this detail to the URL above:
http://www.traffic4ever.com/marketingtips.php?id=7455
I am aware that not all people will love my default color settings. Try this and add the following string to the URL above:
?id=7455&a=navy&b=silver&c=red&d=ffe400&e=ffe400
Click here to see the difference!
Color Parameters:
a - Background
b - Border
c - Headline
d - Headline Background
e - Text Background
Don't like the form buttons? Try this:
http://www.traffic4ever.com/marketingtips.php?f=0
So you see, giving away content is a powerful way to get free advertising. The resource box at the end of each article acts as an ad. In return, you get free advertising. It's a win/win situation for both you and your website visitors that view your free content.
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