Free Classified Ads- Are They Worth It?
by: Bruce McCullough
How much time do you spend on free classified ad sites?
I used to spend a lot of time sitting in front of my
computer submitting ads to every site I could find.
Like most "newbies" my marketing budget was
a basement figure. The one thing my budget did allow
was time which, as it worked out, I had plenty of. But
that's a different story for another day.
The point is, the amount of time I spent in front of
my computer resulted in only 35 responses over a 3 week
period. The sad part is none of them bought in anything.
This was rather disappointing to say the least.
The marketing "gurus" I was listening to
had said that free ads were the way to go when starting
out. Maybe that is one of the reasons why there are
so many who come online to join this "new frontier",
get discouraged and quit before they realize any success.
After I got over the disappointment I decided to investigate
what had happened. Following is what I found.
- With the development of classified ad software,
SPAMMING of the free classified sites has been taken
to a whole new level.
- Those folks who are actually visiting the sites
are, for the most part, there for just one reason.
To place their ad and move on to the next site.
- On the other hand, those who are reading the ads
are not there for what you'd think. They are there
for just one reason and that is to collect email addresses
for you know what.
That last one became painfully obvious to me because
every time I placed ads, it wasn't very long before
I was getting so much SPAM I could hardly find the email
I really needed to attend to.
If you want to continue using the free sites there
are some things you can do to protect yourself.
- open a free email account like Hotmail (www.hotmail.com)
or Bigfoot (www.Bigfoot.com) to use as your email
return address. Set the filters if you like or just
delete everything that comes in there.
- what you are advertising can be presented using
the cyber two step. You know, have your ad direct
your prospect to a sales letter on autoresponder which
then directs your prospect wherever. (autoresponders
don't do SPAM)
- use a classified ad software so you don't end up
using so much time.
Arming yourself with these techniques will hopefully
help you to avoid the SPAM I endured. Now if only you
can get results...we can talk about how to do that another
time.
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About The Author - Article by
Bruce McCullough,aka, Buruse of Buruse on the Web. Buruse
on the Web is dedicated to bring regular folks clear,
concise information about marketing, associate programs
and anything involved with working at home with your
computer.
http://www.buruseontheweb.com.
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