Much like a newspaper Classified Ad section, there are
hundreds if not thousands of places online you can submit a
“website promotional” classified Ad to promote your business.
Unfortunately, the format of these things simply invites severe spamming as a
few hundred webmasters out there will continuously spam each single Ad
millions of times, sometimes daily, to the same directory!
You may have never seen one of these things because they are hidden away
where human eyes would not likely go. They are most usually stumbled upon
from the other side, when some scam artist sells a newbie an “Ad Blasting” or
some similar ploy guaranteeing that the poor guy’s listing will be posted in
thousands of different places.
On the bright side, such a listing is placed in a category so that any resulting
traffic would be semi-targeted. Also, Ads are instantly posted to these automatic
boards, so any traffic would be instant as well.
But that’s where my enthusiasm ends. Since there are so many Ads coming in,
yours will only stay on the top page for a few seconds, if that long. To my
knowledge, no one has ever read one of those horrible, spammy ads and no one
in their right mind ever will.
Search Engines avoid these locations like the plague and being found in them
can actually HURT your Search Engine rankings! Quite likely, these listings will
likely do more harm for your site than good.
I highly recommend keeping your distance.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Craigslist - (A Subset of Link Building)
Craigslist is a hugely popular classified Ad site (a true
exception to the other classified ads on the web) that started
out as a simple bulletin board to be shared between a few
friends in San Francisco. It has grown so large and so varied that it reached #24
in Alexa last year! (Currently # 46)
It achieved this by offering a no-frills simple classified-ad listing that was Specific
to your Metropolitan area. If you go and visit Craigslist.org right now, you’ll get
to choose your nearest big city… Naturally a lot of advertisers feel that it’s not
worth their time to place ads to one city at a time, so it really helps promote a
spam-free atmosphere.
Placing your classified ads on Craigslist actually works pretty well, all things
considered. You may have to place your ads in the top 5 or ten largest cities, all
by hand, one at a time, but it clearly had brought a steady albeit skimpy stream of
traffic that sticks around for weeks.
If you’re curious, go to the main page and click under the:
“Your City Craigslist” > “small biz ads” –This is the only clearly marked area
that you’re allowed to post Ads in, although you see them often in other areas as
well. Below is a list of the January 2007 top 20 most-trafficked subdomains at
Craigslist, according to Alexa.com.
• sfbay.craigslist.org - 14%
• newyork.craigslist.org - 10%
• losangeles.craigslist.org - 9%
• seattle.craigslist.org - 4%
• boston.craigslist.org - 3%
• sandiego.craigslist.org - 3%
• vancouver.craigslist.org - 3%
• orangecounty.craigslist.org - 3%
• chicago.craigslist.org - 3%
• portland.craigslist.org - 2%
• denver.craigslist.org - 2%
• washingtondc.craigslist.org - 2%
• phoenix.craigslist.org - 2%
• atlanta.craigslist.org - 2%
• lasvegas.craigslist.org - 2%
• toronto.craigslist.org - 2%
• minneapolis.craigslist.org - 2%
• dallas.craigslist.org - 2%
• sacramento.craigslist.org - 2%
• austin.craigslist.org - 1%
Craigslist is a hugely popular classified Ad site (a true
exception to the other classified ads on the web) that started
out as a simple bulletin board to be shared between a few
friends in San Francisco. It has grown so large and so varied that it reached #24
in Alexa last year! (Currently # 46)
It achieved this by offering a no-frills simple classified-ad listing that was Specific
to your Metropolitan area. If you go and visit Craigslist.org right now, you’ll get
to choose your nearest big city… Naturally a lot of advertisers feel that it’s not
worth their time to place ads to one city at a time, so it really helps promote a
spam-free atmosphere.
Placing your classified ads on Craigslist actually works pretty well, all things
considered. You may have to place your ads in the top 5 or ten largest cities, all
by hand, one at a time, but it clearly had brought a steady albeit skimpy stream of
traffic that sticks around for weeks.
If you’re curious, go to the main page and click under the:
“Your City Craigslist” > “small biz ads” –This is the only clearly marked area
that you’re allowed to post Ads in, although you see them often in other areas as
well. Below is a list of the January 2007 top 20 most-trafficked subdomains at
Craigslist, according to Alexa.com.
• sfbay.craigslist.org - 14%
• newyork.craigslist.org - 10%
• losangeles.craigslist.org - 9%
• seattle.craigslist.org - 4%
• boston.craigslist.org - 3%
• sandiego.craigslist.org - 3%
• vancouver.craigslist.org - 3%
• orangecounty.craigslist.org - 3%
• chicago.craigslist.org - 3%
• portland.craigslist.org - 2%
• denver.craigslist.org - 2%
• washingtondc.craigslist.org - 2%
• phoenix.craigslist.org - 2%
• atlanta.craigslist.org - 2%
• lasvegas.craigslist.org - 2%
• toronto.craigslist.org - 2%
• minneapolis.craigslist.org - 2%
• dallas.craigslist.org - 2%
• sacramento.craigslist.org - 2%
• austin.craigslist.org - 1%
Doorway Sites - (A subset of Link Building)
Old timers will remember this phrase with very negative
connotations. Around the year 2000, a “Doorway Site” meant
a “fake” site that looked just like the site you were going to,
which existed just to fool the Search Engines into thinking
that they are multiple sites with different keywords, yet humans wouldn’t know
that they were separate at all. (They could cover more keywords that way.)
That trick is so obvious to every Search Engine now that no one even attempts it
anymore. They’d get their IP address banned for sure.
Nowadays, a lot of Internet Marketers are reviving the phrase to mean a slightly
different, much more SE-friendly strategy of link building.
These new ‘Doorway Sites’ are usually just blogs or informational websites such
as an “AdSense Farm” site. However, its main purpose, whether it displays Ads
on it or not, is just to exist as an on-topic link to the owner’s primary website!
The fact is that websites are so cheap and easy to spit out these days, even with
well placed keywords and content, that it’s actually worth the time of a dedicated
webmaster trying to build lots of relevant, one-way links to make these websites
just for the linking value alone.
Obviously this is a long-term strategy that won’t be getting you any clicks or even
rank improvement this week. To do it right you’ll need to make this doorway site
with well-placed keywords, semi-fresh content, and submit it to all the link
directories before linking it to your primary website.
Still, if you’re in it for the long-haul, imagine what 50 or more of these pointing to
one site will do for it’s ranking, all targeting a different primary keyword on topic.
One serious concern is that Googlebot checks IP addresses. A few of these
websites sharing the same IP address at your server host is fine… But there is
an upper limit and Google isn’t telling us exactly what that limit is.
If you get serious about this technique, you may find yourself spending a lot of
money on hosting in order to purchase IP addresses on separate “class C
blocks,” which will fool any Search Engine into thinking that the separate sites
aren’t owned by the same person.
Another approach is to make your websites in lots of different free blogging or
free website platforms, like Blogger, Wordpress, Freewebs, etc… Naturally this is
much more time consuming because of the variation.
Keeping it a small operation, perhaps 10-50 or so sites pointing to one primary
website shouldn’t be a real concern at any rate. Just a lot of work.
connotations. Around the year 2000, a “Doorway Site” meant
a “fake” site that looked just like the site you were going to,
which existed just to fool the Search Engines into thinking
that they are multiple sites with different keywords, yet humans wouldn’t know
that they were separate at all. (They could cover more keywords that way.)
That trick is so obvious to every Search Engine now that no one even attempts it
anymore. They’d get their IP address banned for sure.
Nowadays, a lot of Internet Marketers are reviving the phrase to mean a slightly
different, much more SE-friendly strategy of link building.
These new ‘Doorway Sites’ are usually just blogs or informational websites such
as an “AdSense Farm” site. However, its main purpose, whether it displays Ads
on it or not, is just to exist as an on-topic link to the owner’s primary website!
The fact is that websites are so cheap and easy to spit out these days, even with
well placed keywords and content, that it’s actually worth the time of a dedicated
webmaster trying to build lots of relevant, one-way links to make these websites
just for the linking value alone.
Obviously this is a long-term strategy that won’t be getting you any clicks or even
rank improvement this week. To do it right you’ll need to make this doorway site
with well-placed keywords, semi-fresh content, and submit it to all the link
directories before linking it to your primary website.
Still, if you’re in it for the long-haul, imagine what 50 or more of these pointing to
one site will do for it’s ranking, all targeting a different primary keyword on topic.
One serious concern is that Googlebot checks IP addresses. A few of these
websites sharing the same IP address at your server host is fine… But there is
an upper limit and Google isn’t telling us exactly what that limit is.
If you get serious about this technique, you may find yourself spending a lot of
money on hosting in order to purchase IP addresses on separate “class C
blocks,” which will fool any Search Engine into thinking that the separate sites
aren’t owned by the same person.
Another approach is to make your websites in lots of different free blogging or
free website platforms, like Blogger, Wordpress, Freewebs, etc… Naturally this is
much more time consuming because of the variation.
Keeping it a small operation, perhaps 10-50 or so sites pointing to one primary
website shouldn’t be a real concern at any rate. Just a lot of work.
Directory Submissions - (Link Building)
Directory Submissions - (Link Building)
There is probably no better first marketing step for any
website at all than submitting it to the top 400 or so Link
Directories. As you can see from my rating, it’s not even
close to being your best method of traffic generation. However, if you care about
incoming links to your website, this is THE FOUNDATION that all other links will
build on, because Search Engines start in these places and find your website
through the links you place in them.
I’ve built over 300 different websites for all kinds of different purposes in my
career, but I have submitted all of them to the legitimate link directories without
fail. It’s a no-brainer that really should be thought of as necessary, despite the
piddling amount of traffic it brings.
There are probably more link directories out there than anyone could ever submit
to, but luckily it is only important to submit to the ones that have some
PageRank. Even still, the number of submissions you could wind up making for
each site will be between 400 and 500, so this is not a quick task to do. Without
software to keep up with all of them, and of course to help you paste your content
into all of those forms, you’d take way too long to finish a single site’s posting.
It used to cost a lot for software that would submit to all the best directories, (As I
know well, I have paid out the nose!) But luckily for you there is now a completely
Free software that will submit to all the best Directories. (It can be upgraded to do
them all, but the free selection is SO much better than doing it by hand.) It’s
simply called Directory Submitter, and it’s made by the same guy who did SEO
Elite, so you know it’s quality stuff. Download it ASAP and make it part of your
marketing regimen for every website or blog you start for the rest of your life.
There is probably no better first marketing step for any
website at all than submitting it to the top 400 or so Link
Directories. As you can see from my rating, it’s not even
close to being your best method of traffic generation. However, if you care about
incoming links to your website, this is THE FOUNDATION that all other links will
build on, because Search Engines start in these places and find your website
through the links you place in them.
I’ve built over 300 different websites for all kinds of different purposes in my
career, but I have submitted all of them to the legitimate link directories without
fail. It’s a no-brainer that really should be thought of as necessary, despite the
piddling amount of traffic it brings.
There are probably more link directories out there than anyone could ever submit
to, but luckily it is only important to submit to the ones that have some
PageRank. Even still, the number of submissions you could wind up making for
each site will be between 400 and 500, so this is not a quick task to do. Without
software to keep up with all of them, and of course to help you paste your content
into all of those forms, you’d take way too long to finish a single site’s posting.
It used to cost a lot for software that would submit to all the best directories, (As I
know well, I have paid out the nose!) But luckily for you there is now a completely
Free software that will submit to all the best Directories. (It can be upgraded to do
them all, but the free selection is SO much better than doing it by hand.) It’s
simply called Directory Submitter, and it’s made by the same guy who did SEO
Elite, so you know it’s quality stuff. Download it ASAP and make it part of your
marketing regimen for every website or blog you start for the rest of your life.
Desktop Direct Messaging - (List building)
A little like a Trafficbar, Desktop Messaging is a way to send
ads via an email-sized communication directly to the desktop
of people you’ve talked into loading the software program.
Although this sounds like an impossible way to build traffic, it does have the very
handy side-effect of being completely free of spam filters, so when using this as a
way to send newsletters to your list or downline, you get 100% delivery, instantly.
It’s more like a messenger service than an email program though, and convincing
a downline to sign up to hear your thoughts each week, at the cost of them
hearing 13 other’s thoughts as well, sounds like an impossible task. (You only
receive 1 message a week from each of the 14 people in your upline.)
The only popular choice is Desktop Lightning, none others have built up a
following large enough to consider.
It’s interesting, at any rate, so if you can use other tactics like safelists or traffic
exchanges to build up your Desktop Lightning downline, then perhaps you’ll find
a way for it to be useful.
Naturally, the only people to install this on their desktops will be other internet
marketers, so don’t even bother trying if you are marketing to any other niche at
all.
ads via an email-sized communication directly to the desktop
of people you’ve talked into loading the software program.
Although this sounds like an impossible way to build traffic, it does have the very
handy side-effect of being completely free of spam filters, so when using this as a
way to send newsletters to your list or downline, you get 100% delivery, instantly.
It’s more like a messenger service than an email program though, and convincing
a downline to sign up to hear your thoughts each week, at the cost of them
hearing 13 other’s thoughts as well, sounds like an impossible task. (You only
receive 1 message a week from each of the 14 people in your upline.)
The only popular choice is Desktop Lightning, none others have built up a
following large enough to consider.
It’s interesting, at any rate, so if you can use other tactics like safelists or traffic
exchanges to build up your Desktop Lightning downline, then perhaps you’ll find
a way for it to be useful.
Naturally, the only people to install this on their desktops will be other internet
marketers, so don’t even bother trying if you are marketing to any other niche at
all.
Digg
Digg.com is a Social Bookmarking tool with extraordinary power. (The best of all
social bookmarkers.) It’s completely free to use this to generate some of the
fastest and most serious traffic of all online, although your content needs to be
interesting. See “Social Bookmarking” for more about this highly recommended
Web 2.0 application.
social bookmarkers.) It’s completely free to use this to generate some of the
fastest and most serious traffic of all online, although your content needs to be
interesting. See “Social Bookmarking” for more about this highly recommended
Web 2.0 application.
eBay (A subset of List Building)
eBay? Free Advertising?
Ok, so technically an auction listings cost 35 cents… But one
sale can easily make you a profit, and you’re allowed to sell
nine of the same product in one auction at that price… So this is one exception
I’m going to keep in this book because it’s really BETTER than free, all things
considered.
So where does the Advertising part come in?
Simply place an information package of some kind, even if it’s just an article on
your niche, and sell that infoproduct in an extremely cheap auction listing. Most
people sell these things for 1 penny, although the difference between 1 cent and
35 cents really isn’t that much of a difference to the buyers looking for this
information.
Naturally there are no other costs like shipping or insurance, because delivery is
a simple digital download. Further advertising is up to you, and it is always a
matter of just giving eBay some additional fees to make your listing stand out
more. If your listing is profiting, try starting the next listing as a “Gallery item” for
another 35 cents, and go up from there until you’ve reached a point of maximum
returns.
Here’s the great part about this tactic: The winner of the listing’s email address is
automatically sent to you via email, through eBay itself. Sell a bunch of those info
packets, and you’ve built yourself one of your industry’s most targeted lists!
Don’t feel too left out if you haven’t mentally joined these two concepts together
before now. Not too many people have, unless they bought the secret from
someone on eBay themselves.
The fact is that eBay already has the lion’s share of traffic, and more importantly,
of people in the purchasing mindset. Compare this to Google’s Traffic, which is
composed of people in the “researching” mindset. It’s not hard to imagine why
serious marketers prefer eBay’s traffic to Google’s Traffic!
Advertising on eBay is as simple as being there in the first place, using a few
well-searched keywords. Finding those keywords isn’t too difficult either; all you
really have to do is search for expired listings and sort by the price. This way
you’ll easily see which auctions recently got the most money in your niche, and
then all you have to do is model your campaign like theirs, listing your product
under the same category!
Drawbacks?
Although the Delivery Time and the Quality of the traffic is world class, the
Quantity is not infinite… It depends on your niche, of course, but the competition
on eBay can be fierce as new auctions will be placed above older ones all the
time. Still, with people happy to search keywords you’ve still got a good chance
of being found even between the first day or the last few minutes of the auction.
Effectiveness in drawing a large amount of traffic all depends on how good your
auction’s sales copy is. Luckily, you can model your auction off others that have
done well in the past.
Make no mistake about it; selling infoproducts on eBay is a world-class listbuilding
strategy. That’s about all there is to it, but most people overlook this very
powerful way of building your list because it seems too awkward, or they don’t
want to take the time to put an info-packet together.
If you sell a product online, then you’ve got to face the fact eventually that this is
some of the most targeted, “buyer-frenzied” traffic that exists. If you’re not using
this tactic, then you’ll not only be depriving your business of a constant stream of
better-than-free advertising, but you’ll also be missing out on a large source of
clients that you aren’t likely to be able to reach otherwise.
The fact is that everybody eBays nowadays. That’s why I can use eBay as a
verb! In fact I’ve seen a statistic recently that showed $14 of every $100 spent
online, worldwide, is spent through eBay now, and this number is still growing! It
is clearly the single biggest mover of money on the planet.
People from ALL walks of life can be found there, right when they have their
credit cards in hand looking to spend… I don’t even know of another source of
traffic that comes close!
When used correctly, you can build up a niche market list on any topic with this
technique, and reach an unprecedented 50% or more of that market over time.
Ok, so technically an auction listings cost 35 cents… But one
sale can easily make you a profit, and you’re allowed to sell
nine of the same product in one auction at that price… So this is one exception
I’m going to keep in this book because it’s really BETTER than free, all things
considered.
So where does the Advertising part come in?
Simply place an information package of some kind, even if it’s just an article on
your niche, and sell that infoproduct in an extremely cheap auction listing. Most
people sell these things for 1 penny, although the difference between 1 cent and
35 cents really isn’t that much of a difference to the buyers looking for this
information.
Naturally there are no other costs like shipping or insurance, because delivery is
a simple digital download. Further advertising is up to you, and it is always a
matter of just giving eBay some additional fees to make your listing stand out
more. If your listing is profiting, try starting the next listing as a “Gallery item” for
another 35 cents, and go up from there until you’ve reached a point of maximum
returns.
Here’s the great part about this tactic: The winner of the listing’s email address is
automatically sent to you via email, through eBay itself. Sell a bunch of those info
packets, and you’ve built yourself one of your industry’s most targeted lists!
Don’t feel too left out if you haven’t mentally joined these two concepts together
before now. Not too many people have, unless they bought the secret from
someone on eBay themselves.
The fact is that eBay already has the lion’s share of traffic, and more importantly,
of people in the purchasing mindset. Compare this to Google’s Traffic, which is
composed of people in the “researching” mindset. It’s not hard to imagine why
serious marketers prefer eBay’s traffic to Google’s Traffic!
Advertising on eBay is as simple as being there in the first place, using a few
well-searched keywords. Finding those keywords isn’t too difficult either; all you
really have to do is search for expired listings and sort by the price. This way
you’ll easily see which auctions recently got the most money in your niche, and
then all you have to do is model your campaign like theirs, listing your product
under the same category!
Drawbacks?
Although the Delivery Time and the Quality of the traffic is world class, the
Quantity is not infinite… It depends on your niche, of course, but the competition
on eBay can be fierce as new auctions will be placed above older ones all the
time. Still, with people happy to search keywords you’ve still got a good chance
of being found even between the first day or the last few minutes of the auction.
Effectiveness in drawing a large amount of traffic all depends on how good your
auction’s sales copy is. Luckily, you can model your auction off others that have
done well in the past.
Make no mistake about it; selling infoproducts on eBay is a world-class listbuilding
strategy. That’s about all there is to it, but most people overlook this very
powerful way of building your list because it seems too awkward, or they don’t
want to take the time to put an info-packet together.
If you sell a product online, then you’ve got to face the fact eventually that this is
some of the most targeted, “buyer-frenzied” traffic that exists. If you’re not using
this tactic, then you’ll not only be depriving your business of a constant stream of
better-than-free advertising, but you’ll also be missing out on a large source of
clients that you aren’t likely to be able to reach otherwise.
The fact is that everybody eBays nowadays. That’s why I can use eBay as a
verb! In fact I’ve seen a statistic recently that showed $14 of every $100 spent
online, worldwide, is spent through eBay now, and this number is still growing! It
is clearly the single biggest mover of money on the planet.
People from ALL walks of life can be found there, right when they have their
credit cards in hand looking to spend… I don’t even know of another source of
traffic that comes close!
When used correctly, you can build up a niche market list on any topic with this
technique, and reach an unprecedented 50% or more of that market over time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)