I just got my first Survey Scout sale this week, and after only just 30 visitors to my link! 3% response rate seems pretty good. And once again it's a sale made without ANY money being spent to achieve it. I imagine that it was one of the TrafficSwarm members doing their "required" surfing, and he got hooked on that sales page. (It is a pretty tempting one!) That's still the only "advertising" I've done so far, so I guess I have to give TrafficSwarm the credit. (But I'll keep the commission for myself!)
It was only about $23.00 we're talking about here, but my point is...it didn't cost me anything to earn it. Who really cares how much or little it is when it didn't cost anything to get - it's ALL profit!
There are some people who negatively write off the whole affiliate marketing idea as a waste of time and money, but I think I'm finding all the proof I need that it does work and it can be done. I just have to step things up a little so that the numbers get worth talking about...or at least able to be sent me in the first place. ClickBank doesn't send you your earnings until you've made sales to at least 5 different credit card accounts. (PayPal doesn't count though, which I just found out with this particular sale.) Oh well...still one down and four to go.
I have 3 ads running on TrafficSwarm right now: One for Survey Scout, one for FreeViral, (Which I advertise SurveyScout on), and one for this blog. That's my only advertising, other than 3 or 4 blog comments I left a link to this blog on, and now a listing on emarketingblogs.com, which requires only a link back to them on your blog. Other than that, it's free to get listed on, so you might want to check it out. I've listed this blog in their Affiliate Marketing group.
I haven't posted here much lately since I've been a little busy doing the old eBay thing. This time of year it seems like just about everything sells on there, so I've been taking advantage of it to get a few things sold that I've been meaning to. It's a great way to work up some Christmas spending money in time for the season! (Until I become a master internet marketing computer-income guru, that is!)
If you're curious and would like to check out what I'm trying to sell at any given time, my eBay user name is "digitafel". I explain how I came up with that name on my eBay "About Me" page. I've been using eBay for a few years, so I have a pretty good idea of what sells and doesn't sell, and how to write a decent description, etc. Hey, eBay is one of the most visited websites on the entire internet, so it pays to be involved in it. I even put a link to this blog on my "About Me" page for good measure. I just wonder if anyone ever looks at it. Maybe I should use StatCounter on that too, if eBay allows it!
John
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Monday, November 06, 2006
"Viral" Advertising Methods
There are lots of websites that can generate free traffic for your own site, usually called "traffic exchanges". As I've mentioned in previous posts here, I haven't been very impressed with the quality of traffic they bring, though. (I guess the old saying about getting what you paid for still makes sense.)
Another way to generate traffic inexpensively or even free is viral type advertising. (Viral, referring to being able to be multiplied and spread by others, of course...nothing to do with illegal computer viruses.) I guess there are many ways to accomplish this, like writing articles, or even larger e-books that include links to your website, and uploading them to the various online article directories where other people can copy and distribute them for you. Any traffic you get as a result of those becomes totally free advertising, and it can grow and grow over time...although it would take awhile to get established.
Remember the old chain letter/pyramid scheme offers that always had a list of people to send money to, which you were supposed to add your name to after doing so? The idea was that if everyone just got a few people to do the same, eventually you'd be in position to collect a huge amount of money when you're at the top of the list. Well, I've found an advertising site that works just the same way, but the only reward is traffic for your website. And the best thing is, it's free to take part in.
Rather than go into TOO much detail to describe it, you can take a look at it yourself and see how it works. It's called FreeViral.com, and you can put your link on the list for no charge, then advertise the site itself to get more participants, etc. They seem to have the right idea because you need to look at each of the sites listed for at least 15 or 20 seconds before they give you the confirmation numbers you need to register with. So people are more or less forced to look at your website in order register. I don't know if that really means they'll look long enough to actually get interested in what they see, but since it's absolutely free to set up I figure it's worth giving a try. If it works as planned, you could possibly get a huge amount of free traffic out of it.
I'm using it to promote that Survey Scout program that teaches you how to earn up to $150/hour doing surveys online on your own computer. I used that because they have a sales page that gets right to the point as soon as you lay your eyes on it, and that's what you need for viewers who don't plan on staying long in the first place. I'll let you know how it works out. So far, the only catch seems to be that you still have to figure out a way to drive plenty of people to THAT site in order to get the process started. So far my only attempt to do that has been TrafficSwarm, and once again the traffic coming from there just isn't responding. Unlike the FreeViral site, they don't require you to stay on the pages you have to click on, so people usually seem to click on and click right back off without doing much of any reading. Because of that, I really can't honestly recommend it, even though for some unknown reason I still keep giving it another try myself. I guess I need to look into some of the other traffic exchanges and see if there's something else that works better...something that brings better quality visitors.
Until then, unfortunately, I'll probably just keep getting what I've paid for!
John
Another way to generate traffic inexpensively or even free is viral type advertising. (Viral, referring to being able to be multiplied and spread by others, of course...nothing to do with illegal computer viruses.) I guess there are many ways to accomplish this, like writing articles, or even larger e-books that include links to your website, and uploading them to the various online article directories where other people can copy and distribute them for you. Any traffic you get as a result of those becomes totally free advertising, and it can grow and grow over time...although it would take awhile to get established.
Remember the old chain letter/pyramid scheme offers that always had a list of people to send money to, which you were supposed to add your name to after doing so? The idea was that if everyone just got a few people to do the same, eventually you'd be in position to collect a huge amount of money when you're at the top of the list. Well, I've found an advertising site that works just the same way, but the only reward is traffic for your website. And the best thing is, it's free to take part in.
Rather than go into TOO much detail to describe it, you can take a look at it yourself and see how it works. It's called FreeViral.com, and you can put your link on the list for no charge, then advertise the site itself to get more participants, etc. They seem to have the right idea because you need to look at each of the sites listed for at least 15 or 20 seconds before they give you the confirmation numbers you need to register with. So people are more or less forced to look at your website in order register. I don't know if that really means they'll look long enough to actually get interested in what they see, but since it's absolutely free to set up I figure it's worth giving a try. If it works as planned, you could possibly get a huge amount of free traffic out of it.
I'm using it to promote that Survey Scout program that teaches you how to earn up to $150/hour doing surveys online on your own computer. I used that because they have a sales page that gets right to the point as soon as you lay your eyes on it, and that's what you need for viewers who don't plan on staying long in the first place. I'll let you know how it works out. So far, the only catch seems to be that you still have to figure out a way to drive plenty of people to THAT site in order to get the process started. So far my only attempt to do that has been TrafficSwarm, and once again the traffic coming from there just isn't responding. Unlike the FreeViral site, they don't require you to stay on the pages you have to click on, so people usually seem to click on and click right back off without doing much of any reading. Because of that, I really can't honestly recommend it, even though for some unknown reason I still keep giving it another try myself. I guess I need to look into some of the other traffic exchanges and see if there's something else that works better...something that brings better quality visitors.
Until then, unfortunately, I'll probably just keep getting what I've paid for!
John
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Starting To Get Ranked On Google
I just noticed that I seem to be officially listed on Google now with this blog. If I search by "computer income" and add my last name to the search, this blog appears in the top few Google results! Of course, the hard part is getting to the top of the listings without including my name, but once again, it's a start. A couple of weeks ago it didn't come up no matter what I searched by. So I guess it worked when I clicked on the link to be included in Google a couple of weeks ago. I seem to remember seeing services that will list your site with many different search engines automatically, so I should probably look into that.
So far I'm still only advertising on TrafficSwarm, although I'm not sure why. I'm just not getting anything out of it, other than those few glancing visitors it sends each day. I'm starting to conclude that maybe even FREE isn't worthwhile if all you get is visitors who just glance (if that) and disappear. Pretty soon I plan to look into some of the inexpensive ad space on other websites, or maybe even some of the lower priced pay-per-click ads on some smaller search engines. Something to get a few actual INTERESTED people to read this stuff on how to make money with your computer and the internet. Maybe they'll even click some of the AdSense ads. (Yeah, like you...if you haven't done that already, please do give them a few clicks!) :)
John
So far I'm still only advertising on TrafficSwarm, although I'm not sure why. I'm just not getting anything out of it, other than those few glancing visitors it sends each day. I'm starting to conclude that maybe even FREE isn't worthwhile if all you get is visitors who just glance (if that) and disappear. Pretty soon I plan to look into some of the inexpensive ad space on other websites, or maybe even some of the lower priced pay-per-click ads on some smaller search engines. Something to get a few actual INTERESTED people to read this stuff on how to make money with your computer and the internet. Maybe they'll even click some of the AdSense ads. (Yeah, like you...if you haven't done that already, please do give them a few clicks!) :)
John
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