Indirect Advertising
I am reasonably sure that anyone reading this article is
familiar with all the free online advertising resources such as
the all too familiar Sp-m, Classifieds, FFA pages, Banners, Text
Ads, Traffic Exchanges, Newsletters,Guaranteed Visitors, Paid to
Read, Paid to Join, Link Swaps, Pop-ups, Other 'In-Your-Face'
Ads, and the list goes on and on.
The question I would like you to consider is, when you see this
kind of stuff yourself what is your 'Frame of Mind'?
My guess is you know what's coming and your shields go up. You
pull up your waders and trudge on through, oblivious to the
thousands of messages ricochetting off your armor just so you
can collect a few more hits for your own website or offer. With
Millions of would be online marketers doing this hour after hour
and day after day, is it any wonder that the Internet slows down
to a crawl and even stops at times?
So what if you could put your message on hold for a time when
your prospects finished their 'Direct Advertising' chores. They
have returned to their curious wanderings online, a time when
they are now open to checking things out. Instead of shoving
your material in their face, they come looking for you to see
what you are doing. Maybe even ask a few questions. Kind of like
stopping off for a cold one with the gang after work.
The online equivalent to this scene is being played out today
and every day and you can participate for free. It is called
'Social Networking' or even more appropriately for us, 'Business
Networking' and is easily found with your favorite search engine.
Since this can hardly be considered blatant advertising (at
least not directly) I will say the one I am most familiar with
and use myself, is the Ryze Business Network. With a free
account they allow you to create a 'Home Page' where you can
display whatever you want other members to see. I suggest you
tell about yourself instead of wasting it on more advertising.
Those that visit know that they are on a Business Network and
know you are here because you have something for sale.
Now, think about what 'Frame of Mind' you would be in if you
dropped by a potential friends page to sign their guestbook,
looked over their 'Home Page' and decided to click a few links
trying to gain more insight into their personality. You might
even be considering an alliance or joint venture with them. Can
you see the difference?
You are no longer perceived as a 'Salesman' but a 'Fellow
Businessperson' instead. Chamber of Commerce 'Mixers' have been
an example of this approach for years and been very successful.
Now you can accomplish nearly the same thing for your home
business from your computer.
If this all sounds complicated and too hard to understand how it
could possibly work, I would suggest getting a free account and
give it a try. There is free 'Interactive' on the job training
available through sub-networks that fit every imaginable
interest, where you can ask questions and read the answers from
your peers.
There are facilities to search out those you have a common
connection with and they have already given you permission to
subtilty contact them by virtue of being a member. Blatant
advertising is prohibited so you will not be bombarded with junk
ads. It's more like receiving an invitation that you can read
privately and decide if you want to attend.
So now it is all up to you. Continue contributing to the
degradation of Internet bandwidth with huge numbers of attempts
required (many not even reaching the target) to get a single
response, or try something new.