Advertising Secrets

When I first got into the online advertising business, I was looking for the magical combination that would put my website into the top search engine rankings, catapult me to the forefront of the minds or individuals looking to buy my product, and generally make me rich beyond my wildest dreams!

After succeeding in the business for this long, I'm able to look back on my old self with this kind of thinking and shake my head.

If you're reading this article and you've come this far, you're probably looking for the magic answer yourself. You've probably read a few dozen or a few hundred articles just like this about pay-per-click advertising, maximizing return on investment, keyword stuffing, black-hat seo tactics, text-link banner exchanges, and the list goes on.

Well, I'm here to tell you that I have the one be all end all answer and I'm sharing it with the world!

The truth is that there is no magic secret to online advertising. No one method will generate the largest amount of income/exposure for every website or business imaginable - it's all a matter of trial and error, time and talent.

That's a pretty weak answer, I know. It would have been much cooler for me to tell you that buying tiny classified ads in your local paper was the key to success and riches. Well, I'm sorry. For the few of you that have been down this road before and are starting to get it, you'll hear a ring of truth in my words. The sooner you stop looking for a quick fix to make your message stick, the better.

For what it's worth, these are my thoughts.

1) The internet has only been alive for a few short years, and in that time it has changed dramatically many times over. Remember in 1995 when everyone first discovered the cool little animated envelope .gif that you would click on to send them email? Where was your online bill-pay, instant messaging, and dynamically generated page content then? And only a few short years later you can see how far we've come and use that as a measure for how far we can go.

The point is that the internet, like other forms of media, is a rapidly evolving monster. What works for online advertisers today might be completely ineffectual only a few months from now. That's why the best advertisers are constantly researching and creating their own unique marketing strategies. The trick is to find out what works for you, and to make sure that you revisit it from time to time to tune it up as the market changes.

2) You Have to Spend Money to Make Money. It's a tired line, but it's that way because everyone says it. Don't be afraid to add fuel to your advertising fire and take it to another level. Try investing (note that I said investing and not spending) five, ten, or fifty thousand dollars in advertising. If you don't jump out a window the first time you do it, you may walk away with a big smile and a little pocket money!

The hard part about investing a big chunk of money is coming up with it in the first place. If you already have $50,000 laying around for advertising and are just looking for a place to put it, give me a call. If you're not that lucky, try looking at the Small Business Administration for ideas on how to get a small business loan.

If you don't want to go farther than your mailbox, examine some of those credit checks your bank keeps sending you in the mail. A lot of people take advantage of their fairly reasonable interest rates to fund projects.

3) Presentation is Key. You'll find that excellent writing skills and good marketing go hand in hand. As you improve on one, the other is bound to follow. Knowing how to write, and how to write well will give you an extraordinary advantage of the majority of individuals vying for your customers' attention. I don't know about you, but I get a lot of spam for people wanting to sell me their "good, cheap, A+ #1 $$$ rolex watch, discount Viagra, H0t s1utz, etc."

Needless to say, I have never purchased anything from them and most likely, neither have you. If you have, please drop me a line and let me know how it worked out. I'm always wondering how many of those are a scam.

The emails and circulars that I do purchase from come from GoDaddy, buy.com, Google and a host of other professional companies that take a few minutes to earn my trust with good punctuation, grammar, and quality content.

If you don't have a talent for writing (and you know who you are) you have two choices:

Get better - easier said than done. Like most things, writing is one part talent and nine parts hard work. Take some classes, do peer editing suggestions, or send it to me look over (first ten-thousand submissions only).

Or, get someone else to do it - leaving more time for you at the helm. I like this option not only because it's a time saver for me, but also because the work generally comes out better than anything I could have done. This article is an excellent example. I provided a detailed outline, some good anecdotes, and the strategies above and the copywriters at danifer.com did the rest. I made a deal with them to write the article for $149 and we share the syndication rights. Not bad for half an hour's work.

If you can't afford to hire a pro, be courteous to yourself and your audience by simply re-reading your work, running a spell check, and letting your wife/husband/friend/co-worker look it over. You'd be surprised at how many things invisible to you will stand out to a fresh set of eyes.

OK. That's all I've got for now. Stay tuned at howtoadvertise.net for more advice on how to get started with online advertising. Please remember though that how far you go is up to you. There is no substitute for your own work and effort in succeeding in this business.

Good Luck!

Keeton

Effective Advertising Pointers

Businesses often become known today through effective marketing. The marketing may be in the form of a regular news item or half column society news in the Sunday newspaper. The marketing may be in the form of a heart to heart talk with Mr. Brown on his prominent local television show. These are all advertising. Businesses cannot get away from the force of advertising. If they want to make their products known in the marketplace they have to use some form of advertisement. Advertising is being more and more known as a reasonable and desirable business force.

Let’s say you own a department store. The advertising manager of the store is like the managing editor of a daily newspaper with his group of reporters regularly bringing fresh matter to his desk and the different department heads acts as the reporters.

Take it on a Thursday or Friday, when the big Sunday advertisements are in process of construction, the scene is remarkably lively, and the man at the head of the advertising department has plenty occasions to exercise his ready cleverness and level-headedness. He must have very clear-cut and definite ideas as to what's what, and no matter what influence may be brought to bear upon him by the different managers the advertising manager must have a stamina to select what he considers the best and arrange the same as he thinks wise, while at the same time he must have sufficient tact and skill to do these things without hurting the feelings of buyers—who, after all, are the real powers in the department store.

The advertising manager soon knows the buyers. Of course, the manager has a pretty accurate knowledge of the products. He knows what the other stores are advertising. And he sees to it that the prices that go into print do not run higher than competing figures. Thus, every advertising manager should constantly study his market – which marketing material is best or which language is best – he should not shoot too high or too low. Likewise, his brain must constantly be devising new ideas and sales method to attract the public.

In choosing the right marketing material to use, the manager should consider their audience, their product and their budget. A good ad is very important but if its cost and design does not complement the product you might as well receive poor sales. For this reason, it is important to carefully consider how to design the material, what to include in it and how to print it. There are a lot of affordable printing techniques today. The method that you will choose will depend on the material that you will produce. Thus, carefully weigh your options.

New and latest concept in Pixel Advertising

While television advertisers are scrambling to conquer Tivo® and get people to actually look at their ads, a new breed of fast emerging media may be just what they’ve been looking for.

The new media that could save the day for advertisers looking to recapture lost viewers is called “pixel ads”. Pixel ads are found on web sites that sell micro-ads sized in 10 by 10 pixel increments. The tiny ads are placed on the pixel ad site’s home page and link to the web sites of the various advertisers.

Here is the domain of InnovativePixelPage(www.innovativepixelpage.com ) a leading micro-ad site. Pixel based ads originally conceived of by Alex Tew of the UK, became popular with the launch of Tew’s Million Dollar Homepage (www.milliondollarhomepage.com) in early September and catering to mainly European businesses and consumers. But US based advertisers had nowhere to go until the arrival of InnovativePixelPage.

While television and other so called mainstream media advertisers are desperately trying to make ads that will be watched by consumers at all, pixel ad sites like InnovativepixelPage and MDH are literally attracting thousands of viewers daily who come to their sites just to look at the ads.

In fact average visitors to innovativepixelpage.com look at a minimum of 4 - 5 advertisers with each visit. In fact, some advertisers report doubling their web site traffic in a matter of days along with greatly increased sales.

The micro-ads are intriguing because of their small size. Basically curiosity forces you to look at them and find out what they are. This writer spent about 5 minutes per visit to each of the above sites “pixeling” (hovering over and clicking on ads). I bookmarked many of the sites and left the pages open so I could go back and click ads I hadn’t seen yet throughout the day. It’s totally addicting. I remember having a similar addition when Tetris was released.

Pixel ads could also help many advertisers reach the coveted echo-boomer generation who are notoriously cynical and averse to advertising. Because of their “cute & cuddly” and off-beat nature, pixel ads are an ideal vehicle to advertise to this demographic.

Peter hill, Creator of innovativepixelpage.com commented, "It's a whirlwind," referring to the many advertiser calls In Touch has received. Cefail is also surprised that, when visitors click on the advertiser's ads, "they are on these sites for hours. Already, the guys that bought the first ads are reporting tremendous volume shifts."

Echo-boomer, musician and rock blog owner Bishop Dolarhyde commented: “…the flow of new traffic to my site stayed steady with my 2,000 pixel block which is still ALOT smaller than your average internet ad. No banner ad I have ever purchased, even at MANY times the size, has out-performed Pixel Bay micro-ads. I’m happy to say that about half of my traffic for the first week came from Pixel Bay. I plan on buying more little blocks to scatter on the page. I am excited about other creative ways I can use these micro-ads to promote my site”.

To sum it up: pixel ads are perfect for advertisers interested in getting their ads really looked at and lots of fun for consumers to explore. These micro-ads are the future of advertising and a win-win all around.

The Power of Words in Advertising

In most promotional material, aside from the attractive colors and images, the content serves as the primary enticing factor that lures customers to visit your store or give you a call.

Words are important in expressing your ideas. The shortest words are the best and the briefest sentences are best. You should remember that in creating ads a distinct and clear-cut impression is best expressed by short words and short sentences. A good ad and a good salesman both show appreciation of words and their effect. Neither says too little and both are interesting and business-like in their remarks. Take a look at the most successful business man. Analyze his style of dealing his customers. You would note that the great charm of spontaneity and off handedness accompanies his remarks. He is intelligent, satisfactory and specific.

Now, note that the language of your advertisement should be like the successful business man. It should be specific to the degree that it gives necessary information in a business-like style. Keep in mind that a good ad is original because it tells the tale of your values in a manner peculiar to itself. If you have real interest in your products and can write exactly what you feel regarding their qualities, you will find no difficulty in investing your ads with sufficient originality to make them interesting. But originality for originality’s sake does not amount to so much in advertising. It is second to genuineness, brevity and clearness.

So let’s say you want to produce that winning poster or brochure. Your focus should not only be the design but the content as well. You must carefully choose the words that you will use. It does not really matter if you only have a few words as long as you are able to effectively carry your message across to your customers. With a good headline and content, chances are you will encourage your prospects to take a second look at your goods. Understand that a good headline possesses a distinct financial value. Its commercial importance is proven by the increased business it influences as compared with the trade brought by the ordinary advertisement capped with the ordinary headline.

Remember also that there is a very slim line between knowing too much and knowing too little about the products to be advertised. The right kind of an advertising writer sees the goods through the eyes of the public. Seeing the goods thus, he speaks the arguments best designed to influence the public. Hence, most of the time a good headline and content is not enough. You have to also make sure that the content can effectively influence your prospects.

Do Click Exchanges Really Work?

Yes and No!
First you have to ask yourself: What do I want the click exchange to do for me?
If you want to promote a product or website directly by placing your URL on the click exchange and then surfing like mad to get your site shown once for every two that you see, then the answer is NO!

When you are surfing what are you thinking? Maybe “that’s 20 another 10, and then I’ll get my site seen 10 times for free” etc, what do you think everyone else is thinking? The same!

So let’s look at this logically: Who’s surfing click exchanges? Answer: Other internet marketers that are trying to get more free visitors to their sites in order to sell them a product or concept. Right?

When you’re surfing what do you want?
Answer: More free advertising. Right?
So wouldn’t it make sense to offer other marketers more free advertising and customers? Of course it would!

How can we do that? Simply create a webpage on your site that is super lightweight (loads quickly) looks like a bonus or reward page from the exchange you are using, it should have some traffic lights or stop signs etc.

Only have a few words such as CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE WON! To receive your free report that tells you how to get MORE FREE ADVERTISING and BUILD YOUR LIST! Enter your details here:

It sounds cliché I know, but it’s ethical and you do give them a valuable prize.

That’s all there is to it, that person is automatically emailed a free gift as the first email from your auto responder that is set up just for this purpose. (More on auto responders and free gifts in other articles)

You now have an internet marketer on your mailing list and it isn’t spam.

I’ve found that this works for me; why not give it a go!

10 Easy Ways to Make Your Flyer Stand Out in the Crowd

Copyright 2006 Karen Saunders

A flyer is an inexpensive and highly effective way to grab attention in a very busy marketplace. How do you make your flyer stand out in the crowd? Here are some techniques that professional designers use to make flyers "pop."

1. Write a snappy headline or title.

Make it memorable, unusual or provocative using a few carefully chosen powerful words. Popular titles contain one or more of these words: Easy, The Secrets to, Unlock, Finally, Insider, Time Sensitive, How to, Free Bonuses, Now You Can, Discover, Proven.

2. Use colorful or striking graphics.

One large image will have more impact than many smaller images. A stunning photo or illustration grabs attention, creates a mood, and supports your story. This image is your "focal point" and will draw your readers in. You can purchase inexpensive but quality stock photos on the Internet. Download individual photos or purchase a CD with hundreds of images.

3. Focus on the benefits of your product or service.

Your prospects will ask the question, "What's in it for me?" Write from the their perspective using the words "you" and "your." Avoid using the following words: we, us, I and our. Be sure to keep your text short and to the point. Some of the most powerful words to use are: free, save, love, new, results, and guarantee. Break up long paragraphs with bullet points and place them in a separate box.

4. Use compelling testimonials and case studies.

Nothing strikes a chord like an endorsement from a happy customer, especially if it demonstrates the results they've had with your product or service. Be sure to include the first and last name, company name and location of the person providing the endorsement.

5. Organize your page with boxes, borders and areas of contrasting colors.

You don't need to fill your flyer with wall-to-wall text and graphics. Incorporate some white space to make certain elements stand out and to make the flyer easy to read.

6. Make your points easily identifiable.

Highlight titles and subtitles in bold, but avoid using ALL CAPS because they are more difficult to read.

7. Don't get too complicated.

Make it simple with two typefaces, and align items to a grid. Your page layout program will provide non-printing guidelines. Use the "snap to guidelines" function to align items easily to the grid. Be aware of printing margins. I suggest you create your layout with 1/2" margins on all sides, or add 1/8" for bleeds on items that print off the edge of the page.

8. Don't forget to proofread.

Have someone else proofread your work. Check your contact information. Dial the phone numbers on the flyer to make sure they are correct, and type in the URL of your website to make sure it is correct, too.

9. If you are on a tight budget, try this.

Select bright-colored or unique paper, and print with black ink. Use shades of grey to provide tones and contrasting background areas.

10. Offer a discount or special limited-time price.

Design a coupon on the bottom quarter of the flyer. Be sure to clearly state the deadlines and limitations of the offer. If it is a mail-in coupon, be sure to include the payment specifications with areas for filling out credit card information, mailing address, etc.

You don't need to re-invent the wheel when creating your flyer. Use these proven techniques and you will see big results in your marketing efforts.