We all want free leads on the internet, right? And many of them. But there is a cost to PPC, not to mention the copywriting skills we would have to learn. One way to get free leads that doesn’t require the cost of PPC or the time required to write articles and market is free classified advertising on the internet.
Obviously the copywriting skills issue is still an issue, but you can copy ads you would respond to and see what results you get.
Free advertising on the Internet: Your ad will require a few components to be effective. This includes a place or places to advertise, a catchy headline, and a call to action.
Catchy headline – All good ads should have a catchy headline. Here are a few that have worked over the years, but try a few on your own. You might come up with a home run ad title.
- Do you want to make more money?
- fire your boss
- How to earn up to $5000/month. without leaving your job
There are plenty of places to place a classified ad on the Internet. You can Google free ads on the internet or free ads on websites to find them, but I’ve included several below. You can use news and information websites such as Topix, where you can also post local classifieds.
If this is a serious strategy for you, I recommend running 40-45 ads at any given time. This gives you the best chance of getting the results you want.
Tracking your ads and the success of each ad is important so you know which ads are working for you and which aren’t. You can then continue with the ads that work and discontinue the ones that don’t work. I would try different headlines etc. before discontinuing unprofitable ads. Testing is the only real way to know what works. You need to make a chart to track your ads and their results.
You probably want a crackling 800 number for your prospects to call and hear your message. They can then leave a message for a call back if there is interest. One option for getting a cheap 800 number is CallFire. They have no registration fee and the cost is only $0.05 per minute for incoming calls and $2 per month for 800 number with three month minimum.
The following is a sample ad for your review.
STOP CHASING JOBS
Take the control. Change your life
Don’t limit your income
Work from home and avoid the rat race
To qualify, call xxx-xxx-xxxx
ARTICLE Marketing: Article marketing is a great way to generate free leads and lots of them. It takes time to write the articles and post them on your blog and various article hosting sites like EzineArticles.com. So don’t plan on many leads for three months or more.
You must be consistent in writing the articles every day and posting them every day. There are tools to help you post. I haven’t used any of these yet, but I’ve heard that the Article Submitter Helper works and it’s free.
Marketing forums: Forum marketing also takes time to build relationships with other people and then turn them into leads for your business. You will get involved in the forums you choose. Be useful above all. Don’t deliver your sales message until later, after you’ve established a relationship with the prospect.
Social Media Marketing: Social media marketing is the same as forum marketing, except you need to start the conversation by asking people open-ended questions and engaging them in a conversation. You can then control that conversation, and after helping them, you can invite them to hear about your business. But never start with a sales pitch. That’s the biggest turnoff in social media.
Marketing video: Video Marketing is an extremely powerful form of marketing. I recommend this form to everyone. Get a camera, start recording videos and post them everywhere. Of course, it’s a good idea to learn more about this first, but don’t let ignorance stop you.
One tip with video marketing is to manually post your videos to YouTube. Don’t use a tool for YouTube. Traffic Geyser is a great tool for many sites, but I would manually post to YouTube. Remember that Google owns YouTube and they watch home-based entrepreneurs like a hawk.
I think TubeMogul is still free for up to 100 videos per month. This tool provides a single point to upload your videos to reach the best video sharing sites. Their free service tier allows for unlimited storage, deployment of up to 100 videos per month, and free analytics on who, what, and how videos are being viewed.
Traffic Geyser automatically sends your videos everywhere and costs $97/month.
Here are the free classifieds sites I mentioned:
- inetgiant.com ($3 for national ads)
- ecki.com/links/advert.shtml
- usfreeads.com ($10/year for Gold membership)
- usnetads.com
- boconline.com
- craigslist.com
- kijiji.com
- backpage.com
- sell.com
- classifieds.excite.com
- classifieds.yahoo.com
- manta.com
for your success
larry steel
