Free internet advertising can be great for your busienss!

However, you can have some instances where it just won’t pan out. Before you panic, let me say, your job, to make sure they ALWAYS pan out, is to know the downfalls of free internet advertising before you ever dive in and start putting your time and effort into them in order to make use of a much better marketing plan and schedule using these free internet advertising methods.

The good news is some of the methods I’ve discussed here in other posts, will start working to bring you immediate positive results, while others are long term — once you set them up you can ignore them forever – will take longer to produce results.

Before we get into the downfalls of each of these free methods of internet advertising and how to use their disadvantages as your advatages here’s two ways to make sure free internet advertising WILL work for you.

#1 Make A Targeted Offer

Many of the free methods of marketing are only going to attract other advertisers to see your offers. So you must be offering some sort of money-making product to this market. If you aren’t, much of the free advertising methods will not work for you.\

I made my first $300 online with these methods, but I promoted real deal money making offers to my target market of marketers, webmasters, internet business owners, work at home enthusiasts, and stay at home moms and dads.

That’s what it takes to make money with these methods. You must promote money making offers to the money making niche in order to make any money yourself. So, to those niceh mareters out their in non money-related niches, these methods won’t work for you.

You must have a targeted offer. However, if you DO have a money-making offer, or you are at least willing to promote high-quality money-making offers as an affiliate, then you can definitely move on to…

#2 Invest Time Consistently

Usually people fail with these free methods of internet advertising because they try it for a day and then don’t see any positive results. Truth is, you can see results rather quickly, but only if you invest time consistently in utilizing the methods.

Notice I didn’t say LOTS of time, I just said time consistently.

An hour per day will work fine. As long as you do it an hour every day. Consistent investment of time produces consistent return of results when it comes to free methods of Internet advertising.

Your next question should be…

What Are the Downfalls of Free Internet Advertising?

That’s great! I’m glad you asked!

I was already going to share them with you

#1 The Downfall of All Free Traffic Exchanges

Traffic exchanges are great! They can produce some pretty amazing results. However, they can take a big tole on your time. It can take a lot of time to generate and tap into a large number of qualified leads for your business using these traffic exchanges. You will have to frequntly use this method in order to see any positive results.

Although, I made my first few hundred dollars online using free traffic exchanges. I’m just saying, they can be very time consuming and repetitive. You are doing the same task over and over. However, if you decide to still use them, and I recommend you do, do so by setting aside one hour each day for doing so. Do this for 28 days and see what happens. You’ll be amazed.

These traffic exchanges are the absolute best to join:

http://www.easyhits4u.com

http://www.trafficg.com

http://www.traffic9.com

http://www.trafficzap.com

http://www.dragonsurf.biz

#2 The Downfalls of Banner Exchanges

Banner exchanges are great because once you slap them on your website, you’re done! You don’t have to do anything else! All you do is wait for the traffic to come. The not so great news is you have to wait quite awhile before you get any real high quality clicks. Heck, it takes a while to get low quality clicks — lol.

Banner clickthrough rates are extremely low. So you need to be tapping into a rich traffic source in order for them to work. If the sites your banners appear on receive no traffic, your banner ads will do you no good in those free banner exchanges (because the sites within them get no traffic therfore you get no traffic).

These banner exchanges are the absolute best to join:

http://www.ebannertraffic.com

http://www.neobanners.com

http://www.exchangead.com

http://www.1800banners.com

http://www.worldbannerexchange.com

#3 The Downfalls of Safelist Advertising

These can be extremely time consuming. You have to join dozens and dozens of free safelists just to send to them every day to see positive results. It can get out of hand after awhile.

Keeping track of usernames, passwords, login screens, marketing messages, etc.

They are, however, extremely effective if used right. In fact, it’s been said that master marketer Mike Filsaime and some others still use them in their business even though they’ve far surpassed the six figure per year mark into seven.

The difference is I believe Mike outsources the work of blasting ads to these free safelists now. So he actually has a staff that does this for him reaching thousands of potential new leads and prospects on a daily basis.

These are the absolute best free safelists to join:

http://www.adtactics.com

http://www.adsolutionline.com

http://www.musclemailsafelist.com

http://www.businessworldlist.com

#4 The Downfalls of Free Advertising Forums & Discussion Boards

These free advertising forums are sort of a hit and miss strategy. Okay, you don’t necessarily miss, but they don’t always produce measurable results. Sometimes you don’t make a dime from these forums. You do, however, tap into the link popularity of that forum.

This will help to boost your ranking in the search engines if you’re not there already. If you are, it will help to keep you there.

The key is to treat these free advertising forums as safelists. You want to blast your ad to them every day (if the forum rules allow).

In my experience these forums work best with make money at home offers where you offer some sort of work at home opportunity (like network marketing or MLM).

These are the absolute best free advertising forums to join:

http://www.freeadvertisingforum.com

http://www.postyouradforfree.com

http://www.freeadvertisingzone.com

http://www.thefreeadforum.com

Using these methods to advertise your products, services and other goods is something that is quite easy to do. You sign up for free, click a few buttons, and over a short amount of time will see great results. Just remember your downfalls.

There are four different types of free advertising online that actually produce results.  These free advertising methods are the only methods you should use to advertise your website, products, and services online.

Most other free advertising methods just don’t work.  If they do, I will definitely inform you of the ones that do on my blog at http://www.WebMarketingBusinessTips.com.  But here’s the four FREE types of advertising that REALLY WORK online guaranteed!

#1 Free Banner Advertising

Banner advertising is when you pay a company a certain amount of money to display your banner ad on a network of websites for a certain amount of views.  It’s really an Internet billboard.  When you pay for this type of advertising you pay for a certain mount of views.  When a certain number of people view your ad the banner comes down.  Sometimes you can pay per click (meaning instead of paying for views, you are now paying for a certain number of clicks on your ad).  When you reach that number of clicks your ad comes down.  Simple as that

FREE banner advertising works a little different through free banner exchanges.  Free banner exchanges work by you joining a network of other advertisers (who’s number can be countless) who are willing to place your free banner ads on their sites if you place their free banner ads on your sites.  Every time someone sees one of the pre-loaded ads on your site, someone sees your pre-loaded ad on one of the websites throughout the entire free banner exchange.

It’s a win-win-win for all.  You get free advertising, the network gets free advertising, the web site visitors get targeted ads that are unobtrusive.

The best free banner ad exchanges online are:

http://www.ebannertraffic.com/

http://www.neobanners.com/

http://www.exchangead.com/

http://www.1800banners.com/

http://www.worldbannerexchange.com/

#2 - Free Safelist Advertising

Safelists are email lists of targeted prospects who are all willing to receive email from members of the safelist itself.  Instead of spamming people and getting in trouble for unethical advertisements, you can join a safelist.  A safelist is a list of advertisers who all want to advertise their products and services for free.  When you join a safelist, you agree to receive ads from all of the other members of the safelist.

The good news is all of the members on the list also agree to receive YOUR ads as well.  Every time you send an ad your account with the safelist is tagged letting the system know you sent your ads and that you will not be able to broadcast another message to the list for a specific pre-determined period of time which is generally seven days.

In other words, you can broadcast your marketing messages and advertise to these lists totally free once a week.

You can do one of two things when sending ads depending on the type of  safelist you join. 

If you join a normal safelist, you will generally be able to send your ads in certain time intervals such as every 2, 3, 5, or seven days. Since this is the free option you’ll be using chances are you can only send every seven days.

If you join a credit based safelist this means you get a certain amount of credits every time you read someone else’s ad as long as you click the link inside of that ad that says “Click here to earn credits”.

The way these safelists work is you only get to send your ads to as many people as your credits allow.  You only earn credits by opening the email ads you get and clicking the link as stated above.  The good news about this is now people have at least an incentive to open your email ads.  Now they HAVE to be exposed to your marketing messages otherwise they don’t get what they really want (which is the same things as you – more credits to send more ads)

Generally one credit equals one person you can send your ad to.  However, the good news is that for many of these safelists you will receive hundreds of credits per email ad you open and click on.  So the credits add up very fast

This is also in time intervals but they are all different.  Some free safelists that use credits let you send every day.  It all depends on which free safelist you join.

There are many kinds of safelists, but just so you go with the right ones guaranteed to give you the best results, choose popular safelists from the list below.

http://adtactics.com/

http://adsolutionline.com/

http://musclemailsafelist.com/

http://www.businessworldlist.com/

#3 - Free Advertising Forums

There are now tons of free forums online that accept your ads for free.  They are everywhere.  All you do is sign-up as a member, post your ad to the forum, and you’re done!

Here’s some great free advertising forums you can get started with right now:

http://www.freeadvertisingforum.com/

http://www.postyouradforfree.com/

http://www.freeadvertisingzone.com/

http://www.thefreeadforum.com/

Make sure you post to them everyday or as often as the forum rules allow.  The whole key is to stay in front of all of the other posting ads on a regular basis as much as possible without breaking the rules and getting banned.

I recommend you join the free advertising forums above.  They tend to produce fantastic results!

#4 - Free Traffic Exchanges

These aren’t really just free advertising.  These are actual web site traffic generators.  However, they work.  All you do is join the top traffic exchanges online, list your site, browse the traffic exchange, and watch as others do the same for you and land on your website!

There are many free traffic exchanges online but only a handful are worth your time and effort (especially since getting lots of traffic from these methods can cost you lots of time).

A traffic exchange pretty much works in the way the name is said.  You simply exchange traffic with other webmasters.  You visit their websites, they visit your website.  You stay on their site about 10-20 seconds (depends on the rules of the exchange) and you get credits for viewing pages.  The more credits you have the more visitors you receive.

It’s as simple as that.  The key to making them work is to simply keep browsing and surfing their sites.  Don’t get stuck reading their offers as many of them are quite compelling and you’ll find yourself spending your advertising time getting sucked in to their marketing messages.  Before you know it you will have wasted two hours getting nowhere.  Don’t do that.

Here are some of the best high traffic free traffic exchanges online that produce positive results consistently:

http://www.easyhits4u.com/

http://trafficg.com/

http://www.traffic9.com/

http://www.trafficzap.com/

http://www.dragonsurf.biz/

Remember, not all free advertising is created equal.  The above methods of getting free advertising for your websites, products and services are the absolute best available to you online.

Making money online all comes down to one thing…

Choosing your niche.

Choosing the right niche is the key to online business success.  Most Internet Entrepreneurs try to start an Internet business by marketing to anybody and everybody.  When it comes to marketing your own business and products and services online, you must choose one niche market to deliver your marketing messages to and stick to that specific area of market focus.

Finding the right niche for yourself and building a business out of it is the only true way to online success.

Here’s three steps you can take to make sure you choose a niche that fits you perfectly so you can begin your journey to getting rich like the online success stories you read about.  Remember, it’s a journey.

Step #1 - Niche Idea Generation

The first thing you must do is niche idea generation.

Begin by writing down what you are most passionate about in life.  The things you like talking about most would be a great place to start.

Whatever you never seem to be quiet about once you get going on the topic is what should be at the top of your list in the form of topics, hobbies, skills, and interests.

Your goal is to get about 20 different ideas of niches you may want to build an Internet business out of written down on a sheet of paper or saved in an easy word processor like Microsoft Word, Note Pad, or even Open Office Suite.

Step #2 - Niche Idea Research

The second step is to begin researching your niche.

The first thing you want to know is if it has a good chance of being profitable.  Find out how profitable it can be by simply finding out if your niche market is large enough in number, easy to reach with your marketing messages, and has money to spend.  Simple do a few searches through Word Tracker, Click Bank, and Google to find this info.

The second thing you want to know is what it is already willing to buy.  Browse through the bestsellers lists on Amazon and Barnes&Noble as well as ClickBank Marketplace and see which titles are selling most.  The topics of those titles is what your market wants.

Check each niche idea that has passed the research in step #2.  If a market passes this initial research we can now make absolutely sure these markets are not only profitable for others but will be profitable for you.

Step #3 - Niche Topic Testing

Thirdly you must test to see for sure whether your market is going to buy from you.

Go to ClickBank.com and pick out a product in your niche that is sold primarily through affiliates - something that has a high gravity of about 80%.  It should also be high enough in price to recoup a small investment or break even – around $49 or so.

Advertise your affiliate link for that product in Google AdWords and drive about 400 visitors to the site for a low cost per click.  Your goal is to get a .5% conversion rate.

That means that one out of every 200 people will buy your product through AdWords.  If they do, you have a profitable niche on your hands.

Now all you have to do is build an Internet business in one of the niches that passed all three steps.

That’s how you make money online and get rich in your niche.

If you have been online for any amount of time you may be having a period of time when people just don’t seem to buy. In fact, they aren’t even taking the bait.   They aren’t even taking your free offers and subscribing to your squeezepages.

While I do believe that in almost any business you will have slow times you may be suffering from any one of these scenarios…

#1 Your Market Isn’t Profitable

Many times businesses fail because they market they enter into just isn’t profitable. This can happen for a number of reasons, but generally comes down to how much money is circulating in the market, how big that market is, how much of their capital is actually spent on that area of business, how much of their capital is expendable income, and how easy it is to reach that market.

If either of these situations are in effect, you will definitely see lackluster sales. Many in the internet marketing crowd are seeing this same thing happen. It’s not because the market isn’t there, it’s because it isn’t profitable (at least…not without joint venture relationships).

#2 The Economy Is Down

These days gas prices are still on the rise and show no signs of stopping nor does anyone seem to know how to stop it. Everyone has their opinion. Now, this isn’t going to turn into one of those political discussions by any means, but the point is, in a recession people tend to cut back.

They spend less on what they want (unless it is a very strong desire) and make sure to meet their basic nessesities.

You can no longer sell people something that has their interest, you have to capture much more than that. Your market must have a “must have” desire. They should be able to easily say “I need that widget like it was my last breath”.

Many times this can only be taken advantage of if you are targeting people’s problems and meeting them there all the way. Leveling with them and harping on the problem until they can’t take it anymore. Only then do you offer a solution.

This may sound counterintuitive, but far too often businesses are focusing on their solutions (self focused marketing message) rather than the market’s hardest problems (market focused).

Focusing on the problems of the market is key to making the sale. When the economy is in a downturn this way of thinking and operating your business is essential. It should control what is put inside every communication you have with your prospective customer.

#3 Nobody Has A Burning Desire for What You Have

If you have ever heard the phrase “I could sell ice to eskimos” think again.

The truth is, even the greatest copywriter/salesman in the world couldn’t do such a thing. If your market doesn’t have a burning desire for what you have, you won’t see anything move.

When you have a headache you take an aspirin. These days, you don’t just take an aspirin, you take Bayer. If you have a splitting headache you take Excedrin.

Even the pharmaceutical companies have it right. In fact, they have there core fundamentals in place so well that every commercial they put on television 95% why you shouldn’t take the drug and all the problems it can cause you, yet because they target markets with a burning desire they still make a fortune.

You see, people tend not to care about anything else when they have a splitting headache than to get rid of the headache. If someone is suffering from erectile disfunction they don’t care about the cancer it can cause or the heart-attack it has an 16% chance of causing, they know their marriage is in danger, they want to please their mate now.

They need that pill. They need that solution but only because they have a burning desire stemming from a very serious problem.

#4 You Are Not Marketing Your Business Effectively

Ouch.

God forbid you have everything else right but get this fundamental key to success wrong. Marketing.

I’ve heard it said, “Nothing moves without a sale”.

So many products, companies, and small businesses online and off that have superb customer service, all of the above is in place just perfect like a newly finished jig saw puzzle.

Still no sales. Why? It hurts to even say. It is even scary at times, but marketing is the most important job a company has.

How many great restarants start up with the absolute greatest tasting food but shut down three months into business? About 95%. How many retail stores get great locations, are even located in the business of the city, but shut down and walk away with piles of debt to show for their efforts within two years? About 95%.

The statistics are sad, but I’ve seen it happen first hand. The best pizza joint in town where I live (Midland Michigan) shut it’s doors because it couldn’t stay in business.

Truth is it was in the wrong business. It was in the pizza business. It should have been in the business of marketing it’s pizza business. Can you believe it?

Not one promotion, not one ad, not one flyer, not one phone call. No coupons showed up at my mail box. They just opened their doors and said “Come on in!” They might as well as said “We have ovens, cash registers, and friendly people”.

It would have gotten them the same results. After studying and collecting dozens of folders worth of marketing messages from the real world, that is exactly what most restarants are telling their prospective clients. The clients then hear, “We have nothing great to offer you. We just want you to walk in and give us money because that’s why we opened our doors to you in the first place. Deal?”

It goes the same way for your business. If I may so eloquently end with a wonderful quote uttered by P.T. Barnum…

“Without marketing something terrible happens. Nothing!”

Today is the day when Americans celebrate their independence.  We do a multitude of different things to accomplish such an amazing feat, but here’s three things you can do to make your 4th of July an absolute blast.

Throw A 4th of July Barbecue

I love nothing more (other than the fireworks and good times all around) than having a huge barbecue full of food, fun time, hanging out and relaxing with friends, having games and such, with all of my family and really just celebrating our country’s independence.

Having a real good barbecue really seems to draw everybody closer together.  After all, the 4th of July is all about relationships, care, and nurturing your existing relationships.  It reminds you what war is really all about.

War is all about bringing peace.  Without war, our country wouldn’t have it’s independence.  Let’s fellowship with one another today and forget about our Internet businesses.  If it weren’t for the past, we wouldn’t have our freedom to barbecue and enjoy life today.  In a sense, we wouldn’t be building our own Internet businesses.

Hot dog anyone?

Have Some Back Yard Fun

If you think you can enjoy your 4th of July without a few games of cards, bad mitten, slip and slide, table tennis, horse shoes, croquet, and ladder golf (sometimes known as hillbilly golf, hillbilly horseshoes, redneck golf, and bolo toss) you are dead in the water.

These games not only bring families and friends together, but they up the ante on 4th of July fun.  I like to call them “friendly” competition games

You can do girls versus guys, chicks versus chicks, or dudes versus dudes.  Dudes versus dudes is fun because we like to all be the best dudes (and we aren’t distracted by the chicks so we play a better game - LOL).

Bring a few of these games to your backyard and it’ll be sure to spice up your 4th of July celebration.  Just don’t forget, anything you can do to bring people to celebrate your business and company online is a great idea too.  You can apply this sort of thing to your Internet business for increased traffic or even use fun as a tool to relax everybody in your organization and bring them together.  I know Google tends to do this every day by bringing all their employees outside for a private fun game of volley ball. 

What can you do to get the juices flowing and the body rejuvenated?

Did Somebody Bring The Fireworks?

Okay, no 4th of July celebration is complete without firing one off (and I’m not talking about that rumble feeling you get after you eat all of that barbecue).

Fireworks are great family and friendly fun.  You can do all sorts of things with these things for literally everyone in every age group.  Get the sparklers, the flares, the worms, and the bottle rockets.

If you are Chinese and normally don’t celebrate your independence until October 1st, Australian and don’t normally until January 26, Canadian and don’t normally until July 1st, celebrate with us Americans anyway.  Let the world know we can come together in celebration.

Enjoy your fun and enjoy your independence.  Happy 4th of July to all and happy Internet marketing!