Small Guide to Free Advertising.

[Johan]

Here's a little guide that I've put together for those of you who are interested in free advertising.

Does it work?

There are a few free strategies that you can use if you want to start your SFI business completely free. What I'm going to focus on is free classified ad posting. I do this mainly because it's "my method", and I have practiced it for a long time. I know this works because I have built my SFI business this way. No one can tell me that this is a waste of time. If they do, it shows they are not doing it right. Be prepared to spend some time, but if time is not an issue you can use free advertising to build your SFI business.


Before You Start With Free Ads

Before posting free ads I STRONGLY reccomend that you set up an extra business e-mail address. Free classifieds are free for a reason: When you post ads you will receive "confirmation e-mails" that your ads was posted. If you post to classified networks you can receive hundreds of confirmation e-mails per day. You can set up a free Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo account. Once a week I recommend that you delete all e-mails so the inbox doesn't get full.

In many cases you must register and verify your e-mail address before you can post. In that case register your business e-mail address. Use the same password for all registrations so you can easily remember it.


Why You Should Post Your Ads On A Tuesday 12 AM CST

Statistics are very important. For example you can use statistics to figure out when it's more likely that people should find your advertising. First let's take a look at some charts that display statistics that I've collected from my websites:

Here is a graphical chart that displays how internet traffic flows during the hours of the day:




This chart displays how traffic flows during the days of the week:




This chart displays how much traffic comes from different timezones:



When you combine all these statistics you will find out that it's best to post an ad on a Tuesday 12 noon CST, because it's then most people you target are active on the internet. You can also find out that it's a waste of time to post an ad at 5 AM on a Saturday. By taking advantage of these facts you can inprove your results ten times or more.


Stay focused!

Try to stay focused when you post ads. It's easy to get attracted by some advertising that says: "post 2000 ads here" or "this submit software posts to 500.000 sites with a click of a button" or something similar. You will find a lot of attractive offers on those sites because they know that you are a targeted customer!

One good rule is: You will never find anyone advertising effective advertising. Logic: If the advertising is effective it will be used by the owner. Submission software is useless; because they post to sites where no real humans visit. All good classified ad sites have protection against those softwares. Posting manually or with the help of a typing program like AdWizard are the best methods (the only methods). But if you want to try a free service that posts to over three million sites go here: http://www.worldsubmitter.com And PLEASE follow my advice and use your business e-mail address this time.


How To Place Your Ads

Place ads in categories like: "Business Opportunities", "Work At Home", Home Business, MLM, and similar. Do not post ads in unrelated categories. If you have the option to post in several relating categories - do that.

In many cases there is a form where you can fill in your website URL. But sometimes you have to include it in the ad-description. ALWAYS include your site URL though.

When you start to post free classified ads you can do it without adding the sites to the AdWizard (if you have chosen to use this program), but as soon as your tracking shows that a site is giving you visitors you add this page to the AdWizard, or at least write down the URL in notepad.

Your goal is to find as many classified ad sites that are bringing a positive result; those sites will be your goldmines! A site that gives you a visitor per day or at least every second day is a good site. Stop posting ads to sites that do not give you any visitors. Your goal is to find a handful of good classified ad sites that continuosly give you visitors. The more ads you post to different sites and track the results, the more and better sites you will find. If you do this you cannot fail because your results WILL be better every day. This process only goes in one direction, and it is towards better and better results. How fast depends on your effort.


How often should I place my ads?

It depends on if there is a high traffic site or not. Sometimes your ad can roll off the site in one hour or faster. Sometimes it stays for weeks. But generally you can post once every day, and that is what I reccomend. But sometimes you might find a site where no one posts, and it might look a little silly if it's only you that posts the same ad there every day. So it could be good if you check out a site before you post there the second time.


Finding Classified Ad Sites

You will find some sites in the DBoard Resource Center, but I also reccomend that you search for more sites on the internet. The major mistake people make is that they search for classified ad sites when they search for classified ad sites (?). Let me explain: If you use the search engines and type in "classified ad sites" you will find a lot of ad sites. BUT is that what the people you are trying to reach do? No; they search for a phrase like "work at home, or "home based business" and similar. So if you place ads on classified ad sites you have found searching for "classified ad sites" your ads will be on pages your targeted visitors never find.

Put yourself in the shoes of someone who's looking for a work at home opportunity. How would they go about searching for this on the net? Think of the phrases they might type in their favorite search engine search box. Now type one of those phrases in the search box of the major search engines and research the sites that show up in the results. Then try those phrases with different search engines (Yahoo, MSN, Google, Lycos, etc.).

Go to EVERY site that comes up in the 1st 20 matches (anything lower than 20 IS NOT worth your time). Take notes or print out the 1st 20 results, especially the Yahoo and Google results (Google results also appear in Yahoo when a user clicks on "web pages", so advertising in one of these sites also gets you exposure on Yahoo).

Finding classified ad sites this way is a little harder but worth the extra trouble.


Tracking Your Results

This is my favorite subject. It's because of effective tracking that I'm able to have a profitable business today. And at this point many marketers fail. You must have a personal website to track your advertising effectively. By adding a piece of HTML code to the website you will be able to find out statistics from your visitors. The most important stats are how many visitors you have and from where they come. You will be able to find out the exact ad that attracted the person to come visiting your site. By placing advertising and tracking your results you will find out where you should continue to place ads, and where you should stop wasting your time!

If you compare this with off-line advertising - that is very hard to get statistics from - internet marketing is a playground for those of you that like to have control over what happens. Off-line scenario: I have open a new bookstore in my town and want to tell everyone about it's existence. I place ads in different categories of papers and send out commercials to mailboxes all over town. People starts to visit my bookstore and business is ok. I figure that my advertising campaign worked, but have no idea WHAT aspect of my campaign that worked. At this point I started to ask every visitor that came to my shop where they found out about it, NOT. But with internet marketing you can do this!

Place ads during the most active hours on the day, and by the end of the day you log in and make notes of what websites that gave you a positive result. If you repeat this every day you will soon have many websites that are sending you visitors. This is a process that will improve your results step by step, day by day.

So don't advertise without tracking your results; it's like working in the dark.


Resources

Classified ad sites in the DBoard Resource Center.

AdWizard - automate your ad posting.

SiteMeter - statistics and tracking

Good luck!
Johan

[ssunshinee]

:) That was informative

[zatie]

Thanks Johan..
Really appreciate your help and information..


Zatie

[Queenofthehill]

Awesome post Johan!


:K) Lisa

[stephinphx]

Hi Johan,

These tips are FANTASTIC!

Tack sa mycket (can't put the little "o" over the "s", but you know what I mean)

Jag talar lite Svenska. Not much more than that---I speak a tiny bit of household Swedish from living there for about 5 months
years ago. It's fun to try it out every so often.

Thanks again!

Steph

[DebraStiens]

I just posted this in Free Advertising. Didn't realize you had put this here also.

Just in case you missed it:

What piece of html code are you talking about using to track visitors to your website? I'm still learning about this and this is fascinating to know.

[competitive]

This is a fantastic piece of training. I recommend that this be placed at the dboard traing centre.

Regards
Barry:K)

[Ariel]

YEAH, Its Wonderful!!! Very Useful and Informative. :J)

[Ssung]

this is great...:D
But got a question...
To add the "sitemeter", do we have to have our own website or can we just add it to out URL given to us from SFI?
I am confused...Please help out.Thanks

[Elmarc]

Originally posted by Ssung
this is great...:D
But got a question...
To add the "sitemeter", do we have to have our own website or can we just add it to out URL given to us from SFI?
I am confused...Please help out.Thanks

It has to be your own, personal site. The SFI assigned gateways will not accept any changes except to the contact information and the addition of the See You Again Shortcut from BuySFI.

Elmarc

[StuTheWise]

I too track my hourly stats and post ads accordingly. However, my site receives the majority of its activity at 9am PST (which would be 11am CST). That is interesting that you site's activity is at midnight CST.

Obviously, our different marketing strategies have will have an effect on when our different sites' activities peak:

[Slowhand]

..Johan,
..great posting that started this thread. It shows how much you intend to succed at this business.... you have obviously invested much thought, time, and effort to put this together....Well Done!

..Stu-the-wise... I think Johan's 12:00AM refers to Noon, rather than Midnite..this puts your stats in close sync with Johan.

[ShareInfo]

Really a great posting Johan.............. :)

One question for you..

Would you mind if we use this in our own training programs... Knowing that not everone read this great training article.. it would be of great value using this as part of the traning I give my self.. maybe there are others with the same question as me..

Well..... thanks for posting this thread..... hope a lot of new and old members read this thread..

Greetings.. ShareInfo ;) :K) :K)

[StuTheWise]

Ah... 12pm... and people are always asking me why I prefer 24 hour time. ;)

[Elmarc]

If we go by the literal meaning of AM and PM, 12:00 AM is the midnight that begins the day, 12:00 Ante Merdian (before noon).

12:00 PM is the midnight that ends the day, 12:00 Post Merdian (after noon).

Since noon can be neither before nor after itself, it must just be 12:00 M or noon.

Like anyone pays attention to what it really said! :J)

Elmarc

[onlineprofits]

Thanks so much for your information.

I was always curious as to what day of the week
would be the best to advertise and get results.

Thanks again,

Scottie

[Edal]

I just start 2 weeks ago and I think I have done more reading in that time than I did in 4 years of college. Boy, am I learning alot, I hope my brain can hold all this info (lol).
Thanks for the tips, I needed that info to help unconfuse me. Sometimes I am so overwhelmed, I just stare at the computer and wish it had an automatic button so it could do it for me. Each and everyday I understand a little more, I just need time and more knowledge. Thanks.:confused:

[mike5150]

I know what you mean. When I joined SFI, just over 2 years ago, I thought "My Gosh, am I ever going to absorb all of this"? I did and it does take some time especially if you are very new to computers and this type of business, as I was. Just hang in there and read a little at a time and before you know it you'll be earning some great commissions and giving others advice! :)

Mike5150 :cool:

[worksmartlivelife]

I have hitbox installed on my page, but I don't know how to look at the results. How do you read how many hits you're getting? Same question for AdWizard. Any advice?
By the way, Johan, thanks for the terriffic article on free advertising!:Bouncers:

[Elmarc]

AdWizard instructions are in this thread and in this thread.

Elmarc

[roughstf73]

Great post Johan, thanks alot for all the information.:)

[infocog]

This guide should be a required read. Very well done.

[soulo]

I recently started and am ready to learn the next step, placing ads...when I read your "Small guide to Free Advertising" I was very impressed and can't wait to try out your suggestions! Keep sending the good tips! :)

[who67]

Johan

I have a home based business web site with content on how to advertise and articles on how to make money online. With your permission I would like to create a page for my site with what you have provided us above.

The more content you have on your site the more traffic you will receive. I think this would be a great addition to my site.

Please let me know if it's OK to go ahead and publish this on my site.

Tom

[Mermaid]

Thanks so much, Johan. I haven't read your entire post yet, but I plan to get a cup of java and sit down with it and go over it a couple of times. And also, thanks for responding so quickly. Isn't it wonderful that we can be on opposite sides of the world and still share such useful and important information in such a timely manner? You sound like quite the man for numbers and statistics. See you around the board.

The Mermaid

[dmonk1983]

Hey johan you really helped a lot:K)

[Steve Lloyd]

Hey Johan,

Any problem with me cutting pasteing your article to my Word so I can reference as needed?

:R)

I anxiously await your approaval.

Thanks.

[Norma]

Anything that any of us put on the d'board is for the use of all of us as we see fit except mailing to others without proper credit given.

Norma

[Steve Lloyd]

Thanks Norma,

That also answers another request to copy one from Elmarc. I appreciate your help. I just didn't want to get myself introuble doing something I wasn't suppose to do.

:Joe:

Catch y'all later.

[7607610]

Excellent article, Johan! I've printed it out and have gone over it more than any other 'article' I've read yet since the free advertising really appeals to me right now. Question: I'm assuming that the whole article is based on the fact that a personal website is used in placing advertisements rather than the SFI gateway since search engines don't like using gateways like ours because they all look alike.? So, if I create a personal website of my own, and just use free advertising, at least to start in getting my business off the ground, and after getting all the 'kinks' out, I should have some of the same success Johan has had and is having? Any comments is quite appreciated.
Thanks,
Karen

[mansfi]

I stay in Nigeria (West Africa). I don't know how to get the time euqivalent of tuesday 12AM CST to ours in Nigeria. Please help me out .
Then if I want to check the reply to my message, how do I search for it in this discussion board? Which options do I click.

[Elmarc]

Originally posted by mansfi
I stay in Nigeria (West Africa). I don't know how to get the time euqivalent of tuesday 12AM CST to ours in Nigeria. Please help me out .

Find the time anywhere in the world here: http://www.worldtimeserver.com/

Then if I want to check the reply to my message, how do I search for it in this discussion board? Which options do I click.

You can search for any post using the search button at the top right of the DBoard page. The search can be by subject or by author. Entering your name as the post's author (user name) will list and link to all the posts you have made.

Elmarc

[Frankv39]

thank you for this it is very helpfull


:K) :J) :A) :angrypc: :greenie:

[mansfi]

I don't understand the time zone yet. I visited www.worldtimeserver.com; the time was written in UTC and not CST.
When I visited worldtimeserver.com , I am required to know the state and country who's time I want to check.
So, please, according to you JOHAN, please, where is your location so that I can check for that ! 12:00 AM CST.

[Elmarc]

Johan is not located in CST. SFI is, and you can select the United States, Nebraska, to get the correct time for SFI.

Elmarc

[7607610]

The part of Johan's article that says, 'as soon as your tracking shows that a site is giving you visitors'; by tracking does it mean the number in your URL will show up somewhere? And if so, where?
Thanks,
Karen

[mansfi]

According to Johan, 12:00 am CST is the best time to place advert.........

Is Johan refering to the time in Nebraska(SFI Location) or what?
If he is refering to the time in Nebraska, then should I just be checking the time in Nebraska by the time it is 12:00 am CST so as to place an advert.
Moreover, when I checked www.worldtimeserver.com I found that the time there is in UTC and not in CST.
PLease does it mean the UTC and CST are the same?

[Elmarc]

mansfi,

Johan is referring to noon, CST. If you scroll through the links at the left of www.worldtimeserver.com , you will find different countries listed. Toward the bottom, you will find the United States and beneath that, in the listing of our states, you will find Nebraska. Click that link to change to CST.

CST is 6 hours different from UTC.

7607610,

Tracking refers to your own tracking. You must arrange for this. This will show what the tracking package you have selected was designed to show. It may include keycodes as part of the url (page) visited if they are used in your advertising. Relaying keycodes is an advanced technique covered in this thread.

Elmarc

[mansfi]

PLease, Elmarc said that CST is different from UTC by 6 hours.
Is it +6 or -6?
I mean should I add 6 to CST to get UTC or what

i.e CST +6 = UTC ..........Am I right?


He also said that johan meant noon when he refered to 12:00 am CTS.
But I was told that AM Means morning.

O.K in order not get thing confused, please tell me what I should watchout for when I have seen Nebraska's time in www.worldtimeserver.com.?..... I mean what time will the computer screen tell me that will correspond to 12:00 AM CST?


For example(using www.worldtimeserver.com), if the time in Nebraska says 6:00 AM what is the time equivalent in CST?

[Elmarc]

Correct. CST +6 = UTC.

The time in Nebraska is CST.

Because of the way digital clocks display time, 12:00 A.M. (Ante Meridian or before noon), which should be the midnight that begins the day, is actually noon. 12:00 P.M. is the final midnight of the day.

What Johan said is that noon in the middle of the United States has been his best time to advertise. That is 1:00 P.M. (1300 hours) on the eastern side of the US, where New York and Washington D.C. are. That puts it just after lunch in the east, just at the start of lunch in the midwest and so on.

That is also 7:00 P.M. (1900 hours) in Nigeria.

Elmarc

[Credwino]

Cheers Johan

I use free advertising a lot at the moment because it is all I can afford.

This will help and good to mell over to see what I do differently at present.

[forgiven]

Ok, if we can't add a sitemeter to our gateway, how do we track? I read something about keycodes. Is that how we track for our gateway? Now, I think I read that you put a different keycode on each advertisement, so you know from what ad. the hit came from. How do you do that if you use a site that sends your ad. to may places? And how would you check the results? Sorry for all the questions. I just want to get it right.
Thanks,
Bethany

[mansfi]

Thank you very much for answering my questions, I now understand what Johan meant by 12:00 AM CST.
I am very grateful.

At this point I will like to tell you some other problems I am encountering in this business:

My name is Abiodun Abiola, I am a student in Nigeria. I joined SFI on May 30 this year(over 6 months ago!).
As a student I rely upon my parents(who are not rich) for money and I don't have a computer at home.
I saved some money in order to get EA in July.
Our economy here is bad.
1 dollar= 140 Naira equivalent of Nigeria's currency.
I managed to save 40 dollars(5,600 Naira) to pay for mining gold in order to get EA before 60 days elapsed.
In Nigeria, ordinary people like me don't have access to credit cards so I had only one option of making the payment. And that is through the post office, which was a great risk.
I swallowed my fear and sent the money through the post to SFI in US.
After 3 weeks, I was told that my money had been received from SFI- I was EA !
However, due to financial constraints, I have not been able to get EA since then.
Since I dont have a computer, I go out to commercial computer centres that we call Cyber cafes whenever I want to get on the internet.
It costs me a lot of money to pay for the charges there. Since I don't have any other means, I keep saving money to go to these places.
Please, What I need from all of you affiliates out there is help and guidance in this business. I have tried a lot of classfied adverts but I got no result.
While I was reading through this board, I noticed that there are some affiliates who have asked Johan to tell them some sites where they can place their free adverts. Johan only told them to search for such sites by themselves.
I understand the reason why Johan replied them like that because this board is a public one and if he supplied such sites, then his own hits would reduce, if not to zero.
Johan says that we should be searching for classified advert sites by ourselves. Well that is O.K.... As for me, it is not easy.
This is because my situation is not like yours over ther for the following reasons:
- I don't have easy access to computer( I don't have a computer)
-I have to go out to commercial computer centres and pay money before I can use the internet and I don't always have enough money to pay for more than one hour to use the computer.
With these situatins, it is not easy for me to be searching for classified advert sites myself. If I have a computer at home, and I am connected to the internet, then I can spend as much as 5 hours or more to search and test for classified advert sites myself everyday!
But I do not have a PC.
So, can anybody out there just look upon me with MERCY and help me out of this situation by just privately telling me few sites that I can place my adverts so that I can get some affiliates?
I know that it took you people pain, money, time and energy to get those good sites. But, I want you to know that if I have my own computer, then I will not disturb or ask you to tell those sites. I will just search for them by myself.
However, I can't just be going to commercial computer centres to search for classified advert sites knowing that I don't have enough money to pay for more than 1 hour to use the computer.
It would be nice and kind of you if you could just tell me those sites.
I will just walk into those computer centres and use 1 hour to place my adverts in the sites.
In fact I don't know how to beg all of you out there. At times I feel like crying when I hear some of you telling your success stories of how you've been making good money from this SFI business while I don't have any story to tell!
Whenever, I tell my friends about SFI business, they laugh at me and say: We shall see if you will make a single dollar from that business!
They always make fun of me and they never believe that anybody has been making money from the business.
Can all you affiliates out there join hands together and help me out of this situation so that my friends here in Nigeria can eat their words!
When they see that I have been making money, they too will be signing up for SFI.
I believe that I can make it if someone out there can help me out.
Please, tell me some sites where I can be placing my free adverts so as to get affiliates.
I don't know what else to say.........
Please, don't leave me alone in this situation. I don't want to quit.
If you need my email address, you can all ask me and I will give it to you.
I will forever be very gratefuil to whoever helps me in this SFI business.
Howelse can I beg you?
Howelse can I prove to you that I have been hardworking since may 2002?
Howelse can I get help but to look into your eyes for good replies?
Let all affiliates out there join hands together in love and harmony to help me out. We are a FAMILY.....

[mark9657]

Did you check the Dboard Resource Center? There's a list of classified sites in there - http://dboardresources.com/Classifieds/ . You should also try asking your upline for help.

[mansfi]

Originally posted by mark9657
Did you check the Dboard Resource Center? There's a list of classified sites in there - http://dboardresources.com/Classifieds/ . You should also try asking your upline for help.

THank very much for the reply.
I have checked the Resource Centre and those classified advert sites.
I have placed some adverts in those free classified advert sites at the Resource centre but I got no result. PLease, I will be very grateful to you if you could just tell me a few of those sites where I can place an advert and be sure to expect result.
PLease don't leave me alone to myself. I need your help !

[Norma]

go to your search bar or your favorite search engine such as google or yahoo and put free classifieds in as the keywords and you will get hundreds of sites to place your ads.

Norma

[mansfi]

Originally posted by Norma
go to your search bar or your favorite search engine such as google or yahoo and put free classifieds in as the keywords and you will get hundreds of sites to place your ads.

Norma

Thank you very much for the information. I have tried a lot of classified adverts before but I got no result !
Please, I will be very happy and grateful if you could just specifically tell me a few sites where I can place my adverts?

[Norma]

If I was to put in this box a place to post your ads so that you would be sure to get a response it most likely would not get any respnse because it would be overflowing with SFI ads. That is just the nature of the beast. You will have to search the web for your own places and you will come to value some of them dearly in time. If one place dosen't work for you try another or try changing your tiltle. You could even move the words around in your ad a little. You need catchy titles to attract people to reading your ad and by gettting them to read your ad you will get them to sign up. It takes work.

Norma

[swtsteph71]

Johan,

Thanks for all your help. I was wondering if when I create my business email address, should I change that for my SFI record, also?

[mansfi]

Originally posted by Norma
If I was to put in this box a place to post your ads so that you would be sure to get a response it most likely would not get any respnse because it would be overflowing with SFI ads. That is just the nature of the beast. You will have to search the web for your own places and you will come to value some of them dearly in time. If one place dosen't work for you try another or try changing your tiltle. You could even move the words around in your ad a little. You need catchy titles to attract people to reading your ad and by gettting them to read your ad you will get them to sign up. It takes work.

Norma

Dear Norman,
I really appreciate your kindness. In fact You have made me happy with your reply.
Please, can we arrange a from of contact so that we can communicate personally?