Is Internet Classified Advertising Dead?

 As little as two years ago, classified advertising on the internet
was HOT! Believe it or not, up until then I had generated
thousands of dollars in affiliate program sales utilizing free
internet classifieds and services known as Free For All (FFA)
Links pages.

But, alas, things change, and it is necessary to change with them.
Free classifieds and FFA's have all but lost 99.9% of their
effectiveness due to abuse by programs known as
"auto-submitters".

These programs post to thousands and thousands of free classified
ad sites and FFA's, usually for a fee. The problem with using such
services is thousands of other people are using them as well, not to
mention the fact that they rarely post an ad to any sites which receive
the targeted traffic you're looking for. What do you think is more
important...posting thousands upon thousands of ads to site which
NO ONE (except for the auto-submitters) ever visit, or posting a
handful of ads to sites that receive the quality, targeted traffic you
need?

So is classified advertising dead? In a word....NO!

The "secret" to effective online classified advertising is not really
a "secret" at all, but more a case of common sense. As of March,
2001, almost 90% of internet users found the sites they are looking
for through the use of search engines.

Now you might be thinking, "Great, but what does that have to do
with classified advertising?"

It's Simple!

Search engines send targeted traffic to the sites listed within them,
but can also be your best tool to find the high traffic sites that offer
low-cost classified advertising that both receives the traffic your
looking for, and the targeted customers you NEED to make sales!

Here's what you do:

Go to any MAJOR search engine ( www.google.com ,
www.yahoo.com, etc.) and do a search using a phrase someone
searching for your product or service would look for (i.e. if you're
selling golf supplies, do searches such as "golf supplies" , or
"golf gear", etc.). You can find some excellent alternative phrases
by looking at each engine's results, which should contain additional
search advice (i.e. "people looking for golf supplies also search for;
etc.)

Take a note of the top 20 sites that come up in each search. Check out
each of these sites, and if they offer paid classified advertising,
THAT IS WHERE YOU WANT TO BE!

I've actually advertised on sites that sent me 100-300 unique visitors
per day for LESS THAN $30 for a whole month of advertising!


Here's a specific example:

Let's say you're a member of a network marketing company or similar
home business and you want to drive traffic to your referral website.

Go to the above major search engines and type in the phrase "work at home"
or "work from home" (there are many more search phrases you could use,
I'll just use these two as an example).

The #1 site for both Google and Yahoo for the phrase "work at home" is
a popular site called "Work at Home Moms" (www.wahm.com) If you
take a look at that site, you'll notice they offer low cost classified
advertising ($25 a month or less if you buy several months at a time).
An ad placed at that particular high-traffic site sent more than 100
unique visitors a day to our site!

What's more, the visitors we received were the type of TARGETED visitors
that are worth their weight in gold.

If you need some relatively cheap, targeted traffic to your site, give online
classifieds a try-you won't be disappointed!

About the Author

Erik A. Olsen is the Editor and Publisher of the Internet Marketing
Commando® , a weekly ezine DEDICATED to bringing you no-nonsense,
battle-tested tips and tricks to making your internet business a smashing
success. To subscribe, go to http://www.internetmarketingcommando.com , or
send an email to subscribe@internetmarketingcommando.com?subject=subscribe

 Erik A. Olsen

More Articles 

Informative Advertising: A Better Way - Paul Siegel
Advertisers have tried many approaches on the Web. When one approach bombed, advertisers tried a new one. The latest is "contextual advertising." Sounds sophisticated. But it will die like all the others. Why? Because none of these fanciful...

10 Tips For Effective Free Ezine Advertising - Timothy Ward
Free ezine advertising is great way to get your ads seen in quality publications all over the Web. And the best part is it's free of charge. But are your free ezine ads getting any results? Listed below are ten tips for improving the effectiveness...

Network Marketing Advertising Draws Interested Leads - Daegan Smith
Network marketing advertising is necessary to attract quality leads to your MLM campaign. Selling the products often is not enough. You must also tell people about the unique opportunity your business can offer them. Your network marketing...

Hit the target: Target your advertising to make it pay off - John Moore
Note from author: This article was originally written for people advertising martial arts schools. The principles of targeting are the same no matter what you are advertising. How well you target your advertising will determine your...

Google AdWords and Your Home Based Business Advertising - Charles Fuchs
One reason many people like a home based business is because it allows them to operate on a small budget, and Google AdWords now offers a way to place contextualized online ads within that budget. Google AdWords is the most popular way on the...

Web advertising e-marketing Places! - Yogesh Ahire
Overview: What is web advertising? Internet Advertising is popularly known as web advertising. Internet webadvertising giving Opportunity to the advertiser to target geographic country wise, subject wise, targeted Customers only from more than...

How To Screen Your Visitors When Using Pay Per Click Advertising - Rich Hamilton Jr
If you are using pay per click advertising, I don't need to tell you that it can get very expensive if you have a lot of unnecessary click throughs. In this article I will explain how to screen your visitors and how to apply it to your pay per...

Advertising For The Long Haul and Not the Short Term Gains - Louis Victor New Age Media Concepts
New Age Media Concepts issues its first article of many that will focus on the advertising and marketing industry. "If a young man tells his date she's intelligent, looks lovely, and is a great conversationalist, he's saying the right things to...

Search engine advertising has become so popular that per click charges can quickly get out of hand. - Brian Didier
Brian Didier, partner owner of MakeGlobalCash.com, a niche market search engine catering to the needs of the home-based business owner states that for the home-based business owner using the big guys is just not profitable. For example, several...

Home Sellers - Advertising Won't Directly Sell Your Home - Marc Rasmussen
Home owners thinking of selling often times will list their home with the Realtor who does the most advertising. Sellers want to see their property advertised in newspaper, real estate books or on the internet. There is a misconception by the...