Is Internet Classified Advertising Dead?
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!