As little as two years ago, classified advertising on the internet was HOT! Believe it or not, up until then I had generated thousands of dollars in affiliate program sales utilizing free internet classifieds and services known as Free For All (FFA) Links pages.
But, alas, things change, and it is necessary to change with them. Free classifieds and FFA's have all but lost 99.9% of their effectiveness due to abuse by programs known as "auto-submitters".
These programs post to thousands and thousands of free classified ad sites and FFA's, usually for a fee. The problem with using such services is thousands of other people are using them as well, not to mention the fact that they rarely post an ad to any sites which receive the targeted traffic you're looking for. What do you think is more important...posting thousands upon thousands of ads to site which NO ONE (except for the auto-submitters) ever visit, or posting a handful of ads to sites that receive the quality, targeted traffic you need?
So is classified advertising dead? In a word....NO!
The "secret" to effective online classified advertising is not really a "secret" at all, but more a case of common sense. As of March, 2001, almost 90% of internet users found the sites they are looking for through the use of search engines.
Now you might be thinking, "Great, but what does that have to do with classified advertising?"
It's Simple!
Search engines send targeted traffic to the sites listed within them, but can also be your best tool to find the high traffic sites that offer low-cost classified advertising that both receives the traffic your looking for, and the targeted customers you NEED to make sales!
Here's what you do:
Go to any MAJOR search engine ( www.google.com , www.yahoo.com, etc.) and do a search using a phrase someone searching for your product or service would look for (i.e. if you're selling golf supplies, do searches such as "golf supplies" , or "golf gear", etc.). You can find some excellent alternative phrases by looking at each engine's results, which should contain additional search advice (i.e. "people looking for golf supplies also search for; etc.)
Take a note of the top 20 sites that come up in each search. Check out each of these sites, and if they offer paid classified advertising, THAT IS WHERE YOU WANT TO BE!
I've actually advertised on sites that sent me 100-300 unique visitors per day for LESS THAN $30 for a whole month of advertising!
Here's a specific example:
Let's say you're a member of a network marketing company or similar home business and you want to drive traffic to your referral website.
Go to the above major search engines and type in the phrase "work at home" or "work from home" (there are many more search phrases you could use, I'll just use these two as an example).
The #1 site for both Google and Yahoo for the phrase "work at home" is a popular site called "Work at Home Moms" (www.wahm.com) If you take a look at that site, you'll notice they offer low cost classified advertising ($25 a month or less if you buy several months at a time). An ad placed at that particular high-traffic site sent more than 100 unique visitors a day to our site!
What's more, the visitors we received were the type of TARGETED visitors that are worth their weight in gold.
If you need some relatively cheap, targeted traffic to your site, give online classifieds a try-you won't be disappointed!
Erik A. Olsen is the Editor and Publisher of the Internet Marketing Commando® , a weekly ezine DEDICATED to bringing you no-nonsense, battle-tested tips and tricks to making your internet business a smashing success. To subscribe, go to http://www.internetmarketingcommando.com , or send an email to subscribe@internetmarketingcommando.com?subject=subscribe
