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To be effective with your home business advertising, you have to stay away
from Yahoo, Bing, and especially Google. It's often quite difficult to get
your ads approved by them. These sites have tried to weed out the bad guys
with their online scams, but by doing so have affected people like you and
I, trying to make a living at home. Fortunately, there are alternative
ways to promote your business online. Here are some fundamentals to get
you started. Finding Sites to Place Your Ads
There are lots of ad directories and resources to help you find places
to advertise. A few examples are ADEngage, AdBuyer, and Clicksor. But,
let's look at one of my favorite sites, Leadtail.com.
The first step on their home page is to drill down on your niche to
find advertising opportunities for your specific audience. Let's use the
example of "online business".
When you search the site for that keyword phrase, you get nineteen
pages of results. Each page lists:
- The name of the company
- Pricing method (CPC, monthly, etc.)
- Number of monthly visitors
- Minimum suggested order
Select one of the publications that appeals to your audience, and
budget, then click through to their website. I'll use Business.com because
it has:
- CPC or cost per click pricing method
- 40,000,000 visitors (huge!)
- and only $250 as a suggested spend
Once you get to a company's website, you look for links to their
advertising page. It will say Advertise, Advertise with Us, Advertise with
Business.com, etc.
Not all sites are the same. Some will have the advertising rates right
on them. Some will not. Often you will have to contact a sales rep to find
out the best options for your budget and advertising objectives.
Many of them have self serve platforms where you don't need to speak to
a rep. The site will have a form where you set a budget, put in your ad
copy, and add a tracking code. Have your ad, ad photo and URL ready before
you start. There are often options to place banner ads, or business
directory advertising, also.
Creating Your Ads
You need to ensure you use strong keywords; words that people will
search for to find your business, or ad. First, find Google AdWords, and
their tool 'Keywords Tool External'.
Example: "online business from home". Hit search and you'll see loads
of keyword phrase options. It shows the number of people who search for
certain terms. High numbers means high traffic.
Pick a keyword phrase from the list and click on it to take you to a
Google search page. This will show you what that phrase's search results
are. Sometimes at the top of the page there is a peach colored box with
links in it. These are sponsored or paid links. If there are any links in
the right hand column, these are also paid ads.
In the main window, the white area shows organic or natural search
results. On the first page, investigate each link to see if there are any
advertising opportunities.
If people are searching for your keyword, and come to this page, then
they will likely click on one of the results. If they click through to a
website, maybe they'll see your advertising there. That's the general
idea.
Between Leadtail.com and Google keyword tool, you have an endless
supply of options to investigate on where to place your ads.
Tracking Ads
It is so important to track how your ad is performing. Make sure you have
a proper tracking system in place. You can create your own tracking
system, but most ad networks will give you a tracking 'pixel' to add to
your landing page.
If you have the same ad running in three different places, you'll want
to know exactly where your leads come from. Some placements may be
converting better for you. Where is your money best being invested?
So that you are not flushing money down the toilet, make sure you find
sites that have ad opportunities within your budget. Make sure you have
powerful keywords so that people can find you. Make sure you track your
ads so you can see how they are performing. Do all three, and your ad
campaigns should be successful.
I am a career marketer and communicator that left the corporate world to
work at home and take charge of my income, my career, and my lifestyle.
Social Media, online marketing, and writing are my specialties and I love
helping and teaching people how to use them to make their home business a
success. If you're looking for a chance to take control of your
financial destiny and start your own
online home business, look at the online community I joined at
CarbonCopyPRO and learn
internet marketing and how to be an internet entrepreneur. |
The Income
Connector
