Its all well and good for someone with a mailing list of a quarter of a million or more to tell you that advertising is easy on the net. Their lists are filled to overflowing with a huge handful of individuals that, no matter what they sell, push, or announce, jump on the bandwagon and buy, buy, buy.
Are they really advertising Personally, I say no.
What they are doing is sharing prime real estate be it their own mailing lists or websites amongst themselves. Joint ventures are highly useful, highly effective. Joint ventures with those of influence granted even more so. Where else can you hook your name with someone of reknown and become almost an overnight success ... Only on the net.
However, for the rest of us, life online is spent really advertising; marketing our little hearts out, building one brick at a time our own mailing lists.
Building your own list IS the critical key.
To build a list though takes marketing. The beauty is advertising online is straightforward and really doesnt change all that much. While fads do come and go, the foundation of online advertising remains the same.
You have:
1. Text ads
2. Solo ads
3. Targeted website visitors
4. Signups
5. Viral marketing
6. Joint ventures
7. RSS feeds and weblogs
8. Banner advertising
9. Search engines
10. Article writing
11. Press releases
12. Pay-per-click
13. Report and ebook writing
14. Ezine/newsletter publishing.
Now I may have missed a subheading somewhere, but all in all, thats about it.
If youre reading this in an ezine, you understand the importance of many items on the list - from text ads to article writing to publishing.
However, Im often surprised when talking with advertisers that they havent covered the very first step - submitting their url to the search engines... for free.
Do this, not just once, but every 31 days or so, and do it religiously. Once is not enough.
Personally Ive done the pay-per-click, and while others may have tremendous success with it, I do not. So, having my own limited funds for marketing, I stay away from it. Ive seen my money fly out the window in one morning, with absolutely zero results. Your own experience may be different - I hope so!
So whats new
Weve all heard of RSS and weblogs lately (or at least I hope you have). By no means new to the net, feeds though are currently catching on with online marketers. I drove myself crazy trying to find a writeup about how to do it before I finally found how to set it up, update it, and where to submit both types.
For straightforward information on making an RSS feed: http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/2175271
It wont cost you a dime.
Weblogs are different from RSS feeds. The coding is completely different, but the purpose is the same - a mini-platform for you to do anything from rant and rave to peddle your goods.
My choice of weblogs is http://www.blogger.com. Once I understood the process, its truly not hard to do.
Check out http://www.google4you.com for my example of a weblog.
The beauty of feeds is they are quickly picked up by search engines (in most cases). The downside of RSS feeds is you must have your own website, but this is actually a good thing.
Looking back I realize Ive left off something very critical to my list above - having and maintaining your own website. If you havent bought a domain name and purchased hosting youre more or less shooting yourself in the foot. Having your own website is a critical plus to advertising online.
Why Because trying to market affiliate urls can be a royal pain. Youre out there up against every other affiliate also vying for your traffic.
However, when you market your own website, its unique. Youre able to describe (content) and list the programs you wholeheartedly endorse. All from one domain name. Makes sense right And the benefit is it costs much less to advertise one url then many.
My personal favorite place to host
A good publisher friend of mine has worked her way steadily through my articles presenting them to her readers over the past several months. Im only slightly surprised when I reread them to find out that be it 2002 or 2005, things dont really change all that much.
Marketing is marketing. Marketing is work. Marketing can, and will, ultimately cost you some cash once youve thoroughly exhausted the free methods of getting your word out.
Multi-million dollar mailing lists Definitely possible... with strategic planning, good teaming up, and consistent advertising.
My parting bit of advice, which Id appreciate you re-reading several times is...
READ FIRST! Any time you are asked to part with your money make sure you completely and fully understand what it is you are either becoming a part of or paying for.
No one is sitting there with you most likely. No one is going to read it to you (most likely). No one is responsible for your understanding, or lack thereof, but you.
Due diligence and happy marketing to you!
Theresa Cahill - All Rights Reserved. Feel free to distribute this article. Please keep it intact and with the resource box included below.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Theresa Cahill, a two decade veteran of marketing, is the owner of and invites you to take a look at the services of MWA and download fr.ee helpful information and more at
Last night, just as I was dozing off, it occurred tome how like the martial arts is the fine art ofmarketing.
A true practioner of the martial arts knows he or shemust continuously work to achieve and maintain body,mind, and spirit oneness or they are doomed to fail.
So, too, the online marketer.
Hence, the mantra of marketing goes something likethis:
The Art of Applying the Body
The body of marketing consists of basic tools. Yourwebsite - and make one you must sooner or later - isthe framework for bringing your other online marketingtools and resources into play.
Your website can be as basic as a page or two, or ascomplex as your mind and creativity allow. It must,however, have at least one basic tool - the means toinvite your visitors to hear from you again.
The autoresponder is your basic communications tool.Weve all seen them, and subscribed to them, at onetime or another. So telling you how very effectivethey are is certainly a waste of breath. However,there is something that I believe is being overlookedwhen some marketers implement their autorespondermessages.
Your autoresponder messages must also provide yourlist with the means of getting in touch with youpersonally. You wont achieve much success if theyhave no way of getting in touch with YOU.
At a minimum, your autoresponder should always includeyour full name and true email address. Your phonenumber and mailing address also enhance your netimage, though my suggestion would be to use a PostOffice box - better to be safe than sorry :)
The Art of the Mind
Your mindset while marketing is crucial to yoursuccess. Everyone knows that the slacker neversucceeds. They might get lucky every now and then,but there is no long-term success associated with theslacker.
Recently I mentioned the importance of choosing a realat-home business. I still believe this is the best wayto go about creating a steady income for yourselfonline. However, no matter what program, service, orproduct you choose, market it with everything youvegot. Use the fre*e sources, use the paid sources,joint venture, and search engine submit - at aminimum. Forums are also not only a helpful place togo when you need answers, but also a great place tolet others get to know you.
Rearrange your mind, and the way you are using yourezines. Start working the fine art of personally namebranding yourself by helping other readers. Respond tomany different types of ezines, each time providinggood, useful information for the other readers.
When providing input to these same ezines, always askthe publisher to include your website and/or mailtoaddress. You WANT people to contact you directly! Youcant be afraid online - hiding never leads tosuccess.
Above all, follow through! Your mind needs tounderstand that its going to be engaged on a dailybasis rooting out different advertising resources -being creative.
The slacker hopes the shot here, shot there approachwill work. The mind marketing artist trulyunderstands the true meaning of work!
Your Marketing Spirit
The spirit of marketing in a word is integrity! Icannot think of a fate worse than the guy (or gal)that drifts off to sleep each night knowing theyvesc^rew^ed their fellow man.
Sleeping nights must be your top priority so, ofcourse, market with complete honesty.
Integrity is so compelling that word of mouth alonecan grow your business.
Desperate acts result in nothing but desperate anddespairing individuals.
Gather your forces and martial arts your way tosuccess!
Theresa Cahill - All Rights Reserved. Feel free to distribute this article. Please keep it intact and with the resource box included below.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Theresa Cahill, a two decade veteran of marketing, is the owner of and invites you to take a look at the services of MWA and download fr.ee helpful information and more at