Here's some Tricks and Tools to OUTsmart ... OUTmaneuver ... OUTadvertise ...OUTmarket ...OUTsell and OUTwit
everyone else. . .
In the beginning, make a couple of agreements with yourself:
When you start, make the commitment to hang in there for a period of at
least six months to a year.
Promise yourself you will post to five or ten ad places per day.
Stick to these agreements ... no matter what ... the bottom line is results !
Don't let your ads die from poor circulation !
The 'first line' of your ad is the most important one of all....bar none ! If you don't snag the
reader's attention with those first few words...they will scan past your ad or delete your e-mail without opening it.
Try this as a test. Go to your own e-mail...a
category of classified ads or an FFA (free-for-all) page. Now, just scan down thru the subject line, heading, or whatever. See just how many interesting ones grab your
attention.... not too many, huh ? ! ? Notice how many are blah, blah, blah....and don't do a thing to capture your attention.
It's human nature to skim over the top and
only hesitate when something catches your eye. These ad placers/writers are shooting themselves in the foot.... and overall, just wasting their time !
Here's a source where
you can get Big Al's Free Newsletter and explore his WebSite for many interesting articles. He's a real champion of recruiting ...
first-liners and much more. . .with a dash of humor !
I'm not going into a lengthy dissertation about search engines "charging" for adding urls to their indexes. Yahoo currently charges $299 to
just look at your site, no guarantees that it will even be added ! Some are doing about $30-ish to $50-ish annually, from what I've seen. Myself, I have about 35 different pages right now and they think I'm going to pay over $1000-ish per year ? ...or $9000-ish a year to Yahoo ?....I don't think so ! !
There's been too much for free ...too long ...to warrant charges like this now. I understand they are losing money,
but they should have learned earlier on, how to run a business profitably, instead of spending all their venture capital with too much 'flash in the pan' images. The chickens will (and did) come home to roost !
I've been tempted to buy those bulk mail lists, as I'm sure you have too. I did write to four that said it was 'spam-free'...but no one ever answered my e-mail. I personally back off from them unless someone can prove to me otherwise !
Those Business Reports being sold ...here's another area where they are all over for free. I did run into some 'free' ones recently
and they were very antiquated, almost emanating from the Stone Age. It was a real joke, in my book.
The Affiliate sites where they pay you for click-thrus or a small percentage of a sale, are okay to a point. In 2000, I made a big $150 with them, 2001 was $274 and 2002 was $330. 2003 is running about the same. Most Arm-Chair-Tycoons go for them, which is fine and it does help. It's all part of the "multiple streams of income" that you have probably heard of by now.
The caution imparted to you is: don't expect to be rolling around in all those millions they claim you will make !
Just like the Banners (below), the overall click-thru ratio is very low. They can make your Site 'look better' in some ways (more professional, larger-than-life-image and etc and etc). I did run into a couple that had the unmitigated
gall, expecting me to pay $25 for a "set up fee" ! I don't think so ! ...not today or tomorrow ! ! ....they need me more than I need them. . . .
Here's a slick trick if you want to teach yourself HTML and do your own Site. On any WebPage 'right click' in a blank area. A little menu will shoot out ...now go down to "view source" and 'left click' on it. You can also access this info from your top task bar ...click on "view" ...then
go down to "source" ...and it will do the same thing. Try the pages that are not done with FrontPage or Java script or any of the fancy jobbies ! You can print out the source and the page itself, then by carefully comparing the two ...you can see how it works. It really isn't that hard to learn.
Back in the beginning of my Internet business ...the people I dealt with had me freaked out that it was a "humongous learning curve" for me to tackle. Well, one day I was shown how to 'right click' and see the "source" and have been off and running on my own ever since ! I'm also saving gobs of monthly fees as well ...
that's why they didn't want to divulge their big secret.
Then, in your grazing across the Internet ....when you see a background or picture you like ...just 'right click' again (right on the background...or the picture itself) and then click on "save background as" or "save picture as" ...and you've got it ! !
Would suggest you open a
folder on your C drive just to keep them all in. Another hint: rename them as you go, try using "bg-" as the beginning for all the backgrounds you have ...as they will end up in alphabetic order. Then all your backgrounds will be in same section as bg-name.jpg, which is much easier when you're looking for something. You can do the same like "stars-name.gif"
to keep all your star pictures together.
Below is for those who know how to do HTML and create their own WebPages:
Banners are notorious for low click-thru ratios...the one above is well worth it tho ! Our experience has been only one quarter to a half of one percent of the total visits to the WebPage. Traffic does seem to improve a bit if you add a tad of verbiage just below the banner ...like "click on the banner above to be seens by thousands" ....or if the banner actually says 'click here' on it.
Many people seem leery of clicking on them, especially the newies to the Internet.
BIG HITS ...This Site gets "TEN fingers and TEN toes UP" on the rating scale ! They are really great and have my full support. They have a pop-up window ...for every two hits on your site, they exchange one pop-up ad for you on the Net. It is free, plus e-mail
and gobs of other services. They claim to "increase your traffic by 50%". My personal experience has been 33% ...which certainly is not too shabby !
Click the Banner to visit BigHits
HIT BOX ...They also get a "TEN fingers and TEN toes UP" rating. This is the 'Cadillac' of stat reports. Absolute excellence ! They have complete statistics like you won't believe ...and have never seen before ! There is page after page of informative info ...hits, referring urls,
most requested pages, which search engines and keywords searched for ...it just goes on and on. There are many internet tools, visitor polls and much more. This is truly a must do site! Click Here to visit. Note: as of January 2004, they now charge $20 per month
OVERTURE.COM...Overture is a search engine ...and an excellent pay-per-bid one. It costs $50 to sign up for the pay-per-bid usage and is probably the best $50 you will ever spend !
The Tools are free and are beyond excellent !
Go to their main site, click on Advertising Center, then click on Tools.
The TERM SUGGESTION TOOL is stupendous. Input any search engine keyword (like: home business, for example) and it will show how many people have searched for that word phrase and ones relevant to it in the past month.
Now, multiply that word search count by 5. Overture had that many searches on its site and by the multiplication of 5 will give you a good average of the top six search engines altogether.
You can glean from this how popular a product or service is and know what to be sure and put into your own keywords, meta tags and advertising material.
Oh my gawd ! If you aren't too swift at spelling ...please have someone who is, look your WebPage over closely. There is nothing more tacky and unprofessional than a Site with bad spelling ! Most people may bounce in but will also bounce right out of a WebPage like this.
By the same token, if you
know a poor speller ...when you're doing the keywords on your page, ask them how they spell certain words. Enter the correct and the incorrect spelling ...as you can snag hits from a search engine this way. Your site will pop up when others may not.
E-Gold is a very popular way to buy on the Internet today. . . Click on the Banner above to get your FREE account
In the beginning, make a couple of agreements with yourself:
Don't let your ads die from poor circulation ! 
Email Millions - just Click Here 
Here's a slick trick if you want to teach yourself HTML and do your own Site. On any WebPage 'right click' in a blank area. A little menu will shoot out ...now go down to "view source" and 'left click' on it. You can also access this info from your top task bar ...click on "view" ...then
go down to "source" ...and it will do the same thing. Try the pages that are not done with FrontPage or Java script or any of the fancy jobbies ! You can print out the source and the page itself, then by carefully comparing the two ...you can see how it works. It really isn't that hard to learn.
