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The FREE Advertising Trap!

by Bryan Winters

Chances are very good that if you're not succeeding online, you're one of the many that have fallen prey to the FREE Advertising Trap!

Let me explain...

Many people new to online business are afraid to spend money on advertising. They fear that their advertising dollars will go to waste, which of course is perfectly natural.

...So many of these 'newbies' begin looking for free advertising strategies and resources right off the bat.

And that's where the problem begins.

Chances are you are either using, or HAVE used one or more of the following free advertising strategies:

- FFA (Free For All Link sites)
- Ad Blasters
- Traffic Exchanges
- Online Classified Ad Placement
- Safelists
- "Guaranteed Traffic" programs

I can tell you right now, with 7-year experience to back it up, that 99.9% of the resources that fall into one or more of the categories above DO NOT WORK. They are a waste of time.

Further, the scarce few that DO work require traffic from outside sources (it's a catch-22, where you NEED traffic to product more traffic).

If you're using the methods above to promote your own site, an affiliate site, an MLM program, or some other type of online business opportunity, I can virtually guarantee that you're not at all satisfied with your results. In fact, you're probably frustrated and discouraged.

You've fallen into the FREE Advertising Trap, and I'm here to get you out! =)

There ARE free advertising strategies that work, and work EXTREMELY well.

Below is a list of free advertising strategies that are capable of providing you with all the traffic you will EVER need. I guarantee it, and would stake my name and reputation on it any day.

But first, in considering these methods, it is VITAL that you understand this: Free traffic techniques generally require more work and time than paid advertising. Further, there is a learning curve to each of these techniques.

I strongly recommend you work on mastering ONE free advertising strategy at a time. Pick the one strategy you feel best suits you, your offer, and your goals. Search the web and learn everything you can about that technique. Implement it, and do not move on to the next technique until you're satisfied with your results!

The truth is, any ONE of these methods ALONE could provide you with all the traffic you need. But should you feel you need more, you can always add another technique to your 'arsenal'.

Now for the list of FREE advertising that WORKS, as long as you're willing to put forth the time and effort:

1. Start your own affiliate program. Offer generous commissions, residual if possible. Provide plenty of resources for your affiliates. Do not implement your program until your web-site has a good sales conversion rate. This means a solid, in demand product that people WANT, as well as strong ad copy (sales letter). If YOU are not satisfied with your program, neither will your affiliate be satisfied. Put yourself in the shoes of your affiliates! Give them the same resources, etc., that YOU would want as an affiliate of your own program.

Tip: If you're selling digital products such as software, e-books, a membership site, etc., clickbank.com provides free affiliate tracking to its clients (they have a $50 setup fee which enables you to accept credit cards online, but the 'package' includes their proprietary affiliate tracking system). Clickbank's affiliate tracking system doesn't have all the "bells and whistles", but it works and works well. Further, ClickBank even pays your affiliate commissions for you, which is a VERY nice convenience. Other 3rd-party merchant account providers such as iBill.com, have a similar affiliate tracking option for those that offer tangible goods.

2. Joint ventures. Find "super affiliates", people with big customer or subscriber lists, and pay them a commission (above and beyond what you pay your regular affiliates) to send an endorsement letter for your offer to their list. This technique requires persistence. I recommend contacting at least 10 people per day, ONE at a TIME. Make sure to personalize your letter with the person's name, so it's not easily mistaken for spam. Also, don't put a link to your offer or order form in the initial e-mail. Provide a description of the offer, your proposal, and make sure the benefits of the joint venture are spelled out. You can provide actual sales statistics to further prove to potential JV partners that your offer is a winner. If you receive a favorable reply, at that time it's okay to send your URL in your follow-up.

You do NOT have to be a "big name" in order to succeed with joint ventures. I could provide you with a never-ending list of people that have risen from obscurity to HUGE success through joint ventures. You WILL find suitable joint venture partners as long as you persist, and as long as your offer is strong. It's simple math.

TIP: You don't even need your OWN product or website to succeed with this method. You can simply find good TWO (or more) tier affiliate/MLM programs and find JV partners to sign up under you. You then make a commission off of their efforts, when they send to their list of subscribers, etc. This is a very powerful, and totally FREE way to build a huge residual income online.

3. This is another 100% free advertising strategy that is proven to work very effectively, and that you can begin implementing right away. Participate in forums, message boards, and blogs related to your topic of business (whatever you're selling). Most places will allow you to put a 3-6 line sig. file (or "resource box") following your posts. This sig file could include your website URL. It could include a link to your AFFILIATE program. It could include a link so that people can send you a blank email and subscribe to your newsletter.

Here's an example:

--------------------------------------------
Attention Guitar Players! FREE 5-PART EMAIL COURSE: Subscribe to Guitar Secrets, my free e-mail publication, and you'll also receive my exclusive e-course, How to Play Guitar Like a Pro in Five Easy Steps! Subscribe NOW by sending a blank e-mail to: (your_newsletter_name@your_autoresponder.com)
--------------------------------------------

Offering a free report like the above example can greatly increase your results.

Now, what you want to do is find the 5 most popular forums related to your topic of business. You can easily determine how much traffic a particular forum receives by searching it on Alexa.com. The lower the traffic number/ranking, the better. Once you find ONE good forum, put up a post asking for other popular forums (this can be your first post =) And you're on your way. By spending one hour per day participating in forums you can receive hundreds, or even thousands of hits to your website every week.

4. Traditional search engine listings. Listing with most of the major search engines if free. However, this is the most complex of the free advertising techniques I've listed. Though once you know the secrets it's not difficult. You need to work on learning to optimize your site for the various search engines. Right now, several major factors to high search engine listings are as follows:

- Get a domain name that includes your keywords (keywords being what most people would typically search on to find whatever it is you're offering).

For example, if your keyword/phrase is golfing equipment, your domain might be "www.cheap-golfing-equipment.com".

- Place links throughout your site that include your keywords. These could be links to other pages on your site, or outside websites.

- Conduct link exchanges with other relevant, quality websites (websites related to yours, with similar keywords). The more sites that link to yours, the better.

-Include as much keyword-rich CONTENT (articles, tutorials, descriptions, etc.) on your site as possible.

Fortunately there is a TON of free information on how to get good search engine rankings, so you can easily develop your expertise in this area without breaking the bank or even spending a dime. Here is one such resource.

The above is a fairly thorough tutorial on how to rank well with Google.com, the most popular search engine by far!

5. Yet another great free advertising technique is writing quality articles related to your topic of business, and submitting them to e-zine publishers (with relevant publications).

It's a simple exchange. The publisher gets a great article to send to their subscribers. In return they publish your article AS IS, including your resource box which should immediately follow your article.

You can also submit these articles to places like ezinearticles.com, and gain even more exposure at zero cost to you.

Almost ANYbody can write sufficient articles for this purpose (you remember writing reports in school don't you?...well this is no different!).

E-zine publishers are always looking for great content, so give it to them, and reap the rewards!

6. Free publicity. This free advertising technique has more potential than all others above combined.

It involves submitting newsworthy articles and information to applicable media outlets: magazines, newspapers, TV stations, radio stations...

Much of the media content you absorb every day originated from people promoting their own businesses and causes. Media outlets such as the above are constantly looking for news. Why not let it be YOU that provides it to them. You can submit a single article to hundreds of sources.

People have made MILLIONS while spending "zilch" on advertising using this method.

The best advice I can give you in this limited space is to 'copycat' the style of writing you see in the publications you submit your articles to. And of course, engage in further study of how to receive free publicity through the many fr.ee resources searchable online.

So there you have it, six free traffic methods PROVEN to work.

By combining two of the techniques above (an affiliate program and JV's), I've built a hugely successful site (Push Button Leads) and have YET to spend a single dime on advertising!

...Search pushbuttonleads.com on Alexa.com, and you'll find that the site is listed well under 10,000 out of MILLIONS of websites online. In terms of traffic and popularity this means my site is in the top 99.9% of all sites! And again, I accomplished this while spending absolutely nothing on advertising or promotion.

Using one or more of the proven techniques above I guarantee you can build your own website, or your affiliate and MLM programs into huge, thriving successes without spending a dime—just like I've done!

Again, all it takes is the desire, and the will to put forth the effort.

Free advertising inherently takes more time than paid advertising (although this is not ALWAYS the case).

To succeed online, you HAVE to make an investment. There is no way around it. No magic pill. No secret, largely undiscovered traffic exchange or classified ad site that sends you hordes of quality traffic with the push of a button. There is no such thing, nor will there ever be.

Success requires an investment in TIME, MONEY, or both.

If you've got little time to spare on promoting your online business ventures using the techniques above, your only other options are MAKING time, finding somebody else to advertise for you, or of course using PAID advertising.

Traffic is one of the MAJOR keys to success online. You cannot succeed without it, no matter how good your product, no matter how good your ad presentation.

And now, at last, you know how to get MORE traffic than you will ever need, without spending a dime, as well as how to avoid the "free traffic" pitfalls which have plagued and discouraged so many.

Bryan Winters is the architect of the free list building website, 5iphon Hardcore, that gets you 5 *more* subscribers for every ONE you bring in.

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