Solo Ads That Work

Solo Ads That Work © Copyright Tammie Allen 2003 Anyone who is finding success online will quickly tell you the importance that advertising plays towards their continued success.

Don’t ever assume you have gotten to the place where you no longer need to advertise just because business is good. If you do not continue to advertise, the progress you have made will soon be a thing of the past.

One thing about the Internet Super Highway is that there is no shortage of advertising means. Banners, traffic programs, FFA pages, safelists, mass email, guaranteed visitors – the list goes on and on.

So how is a person to choose? Being the webmaster for AFA Solo Ad Coop, even for just a short time, I have received several comments from people that have tried many of the above means.

While the above avenues do still produce results for many, the most frequent comment I hear is that the effectiveness does not come close to the results that come from ezine advertising. I still use several different advertising sources, but have found nothing that measures up to ezine advertising.

With ezine advertising, there are still numerous choices you have to make. Ads ranging from free classifieds to solo ads are all available options.

The fact is the more you can get your ad away from all the others, the best response you are likely to have. Your ad in the top of an ezine with only a couple of other ads is going to get noticed much easier then if it is lost in the mass of classified ads. For this reason, top ads and sponsorship ads have become a very effective form of advertising.

Few that will disagree that solo advertising can be the most effective advertising a person can purchase. Your ad has no competition whatsoever.

But even within solo advertising, you still have several choices and options you must make. Do you want just a solo ad, or do you want it to include an incentive to read, such as a contest? If you want it to be a contest solo, do you want it to be just a ‘Thank you for reading.

Click here and send’, a question and answer from your ad, or a question that requires a reader to visit your site to get the answer?

When I first started advertising on the Internet, I had no clue that there were so many different choices and options available. I purchased whatever advertising I could afford, from whoever had the best specials.

Six months and I can only image how much money later, I have learned several important facts.

By tracking my ads I have learned that the most cost efficient form of advertising I have found is solo ads. With a contest question included.

Preferably one that requires the reader to visit my site to find the answer.

I get 300-500 emails a day that I actually agreed to receive. I get this many because I believe strongly in reading other ezines. But for most ezines to survive, solo ads must be sent to subscribers. For every one ezine I get, I might get 4 solo ads. Being a publisher that understands the importance that solo ads play for both the advertiser and the ezine, this does not bother me.

It also does not bother me for another reason. Because I want to succeed online I never forget that I must advertise. To make money stretch farther, I enter almost every contest to win advertising that comes into my inbox.

So what about all the solos that come in that do not include any kind of incentive to read? Total honesty, unless you have a headline that just absolutely knocks my socks off, the email will never be opened.

With all the ezines I subscribe to, I have learned which ezines offer a chance to win something and which ones don’t. When I open my mail each more and see 300, 400, 500 emails, it immediately feels overwhelming. To make my day feel more manageable, I sort my email by sender. I then go through and delete all the solo ads that offer no incentive to read them.

It does not matter if this is right, wrong, self-centered or just plain rude. It is reality with the amount of emails I receive. The ones that offer me a reason to give them my time are the ones that I will open.

From entering all the contests that I do, I have also had to pay more attention to my buying habits. I can scan through a solo ad in about

3 seconds. But if you require me to go to your site and actually look over the information to find the answer to something, you have now at least got my attention.

What I have learned is that if you get me to your site, I am much more apt to make a purchase, join, enroll or whatever, then if I just scan your solo ad. The first step to selling anything is to get the buyer’s attention.

Does this mean that solo ads without an incentive to read are worthless? No.

There are some that have time and get few enough emails they can read each solo ad they get. Maybe even click through to the site for each one.

I believe there are far more where I am. People who have to do as much as they can in as little time as possible.

If you want my attention, you have a better chance of getting it if you provide an incentive. And the successful marketer understands that one of the best payoffs they can get is being offered a chance for more advertising.

----------------------------------------------------------------------- Tammie Allen is the publisher for The-Net-Review Ezine that provides readers weekly in-depth product, program and site reviews. Each issue also contains web resources, useful downloads, and tips that make the Internet trip a little smoother. mailto:SubscribeToday@tallen13.par32.com She is also webmistress for AFA Solo Ad coop that provides affordable effective advertising by sending every ad out with a contest question included to get advertisers results. http://www.afasoloadcoop.com

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