There is a lot of discussion out there about which type of advertising is better, paid or free.
Paid is definately better for immediate results. There are also many, many, many sites that you canpay to advertise on. There is an endless number of online classifieds (just google “online classifieds” and see over 300,000 results. Even more for “free online classifieds”). You can also pay to place ads on other peoples web sites. Usually these might be banner ads.
Or of course there is PPC (Pay-Per-Click) such as google or yahoo. This may sound like the way to go because you only pay anytime someone clicks on your ad, not just when they read it. If you know what you are doing, go ahead, if you don’t then stay the hell away from it!! PPC is, without a doubt, the quickest way to go broke, if you don’t know how it works.
Free advertising, on the other hand, is an entirely different method. I’m not talking about free classifieds. Advertise on as many free classified sites as you like, your ad will just dissapear, mixed in with the thousands upon thousands of other free ads, just in that catagory, all saying exactly the same thing.
That could be the way to go if you have a very localized target audience. If your target audience is wider, such as nationwide, or even greater, than the best way to advertise is to advertise yourself, not your product, not your business opportunity, not your business system.
People buy from people, not companies.
Just remember, everything that follows should be based around whatever you are trying to sell, or promote. Don’t give advice on how to lose weight, then the best model train set to buy, then how to train your new puppy.
First they should get to know you. Start a blog, give out free advice, help other people out, help them solve their problems, asking for nothing in return. That will help them relate to you, realize you are a real person, you do care, and if you have helped them they will stick around to hear more words of wisdom from you.
Write articles. Sticking with the “helping people theme” write and release articles relating to your business. Don’t know what to write about? What sort of questions did you have when you started? What were you unsure about at the beginning? Chances are, if you asked that question, so have alot of other people. There are programms that can help you submit to many article sites, or you can choose to do it manually. At the bottom of the article put a link back to your blog.
Socialize. Youtube, facebook, twitter, all sites that thousands of people use each and every day. Get on these sites, talk to people, socialize – do not try to sell. When you have a new blog entry, or have posted an article, mention it on these social sites. No need to go on about what you have written, just say you’ve written something new and give them the link.
This method deffinately can take longer than paid advertising, but the difference is you are building a relationship with whoever is reading, they follow you because they are interested in what you have to say. They begin to trust you, instead of just someone who clicked on your ad, probably just one of hundreds of ads they have clicked through that day.
The key is to be persistent. A little bit every day. Not once a week, not every other day, not when you feel like it.
A Little Bit Every Day
What you write today will still be online years from now. You have one article today. In a month you have 30. They will still be somewhere online in 10 years.
Have you ever envied a recording artist, or actor. They are still getting paid for work the did 10 years ago. With this method in 10 years you may still be getting paid for work you do today.
