© 1999, by Harmony Major
If you're determined to succeed in your home business, you've
probably tried, (or WILL try), just about every form of legal
advertising out there. And, maybe even some that aren't so legal.
But, before you waste valuable time and hundreds of dollars, let
me let you in on a little secret.
If you're thinking of banner advertising, forget it.
Sure, banner advertising CAN be effective. But most of the time,
it's just NOT. Banner exchanges don't work unless you're already
getting hundreds of visitors to your website daily. And, even
then, why would you run the risk of losing those hard-earned
visitors to someone else's site? My advice to you Save that
banner advertising space for your OWN banners -- banners that are
going to make YOU money.
Increasing your profits with banners placed strategically
throughout your website makes more sense. If you have a banner
for an affiliate program on home employment, put that banner at
the top of one of your home employment web pages. But, make sure
to use the target=_blank attribute in your A HREF hyperlink tag
to be sure that visitors won't be leaving your site.
What's that you say? You signed up for an employment-related
affiliate program ... but you don't have a relevant page on your
website? Well, I'll tell you right now, you won't be making very
much money from that program. It's self-defeating to sign up with
affiliate programs that don't have anything to do with your main
website.
Not only does this make your site look disorganized and
pointless, you're not going to be making any money from the
program if you have visitors to your website that are looking for
tomatoes, and you have banners and links to phone books. Get the
picture?
So, if banner advertising doesn't work, then just what SHOULD you
do? That's easy. Advertising in ezines is one of the most
cost-effective solutions available. And, here's why:
1. It's easy to get the reader's attention.
If you have an effective headline, that is. Banners are easily
ignored, whereas ezine ads are noticed more if you're advertising
in a quality ezine. How do you know what to look for when
choosing an ezine to advertise in? Get the details on maximizing
your profit with ezine ads by autoresponder, here:
2. Ezine ads are less likely to be intentionally ignored.
Like I said above, banners are ignored because website visitors
KNOW that they're there for advertising. If you pick a quality
ezine, your ad might be initially "mistaken" for regular content,
thus increasing your response rate.
3. You reach a pre-qualified audience.
If you're advertising in the right type of ezine, its main topic
should be relevant to what you're promoting. To make a long story
short, don't get caught advertising those phone books in a
gardening-related ezine. Your ad campaign has more "flop"
potential when you don't properly target your audience. Again,
read the article here for details: