5 Hot Tips To Increase Traffic Using Free Ads

Unless you are completely new to the internet, the odds are pretty good that you are familiar with a free ad site or two. While Craigslist gets the most attention, there are plenty out there to help get your name out there when trying to promote your business. Here are a few more...

1. Kijiji
2. Backpage
3. Gumtree
4. Yahoo Classifieds
5. Recycler (L.A. area ads)
6. OLX

There are many others as well, but these the sites that are currently getting the most traffic. While it can be time consuming, posting ads to these sites is free, which is an important word when starting an online business.

Posting to these sites is only half the battle; now, you must find a way to sell them on what you are offering. The following 5 tips are essential when creating an ad that will either make the viewer click on it or move on.

1. Create a headline that stirs up emotion and screams for attention - Think in terms of filling the need of your potential customer. I always like to start with a question like "Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck?" or "Could you use more traffic for your website?". Another good tip is to try to use words that stir emotion like free, guarantee, limited-time, amazing, etc. Check out this list to give you more ideas.
2. Keep the ad copy short and sweet - Make your ad copy too long and you risk boring the visitor into hitting that back button. Leave any long salescopy for your website - your job is to get them to click on it to either order or get more detailed info.
3. Stress the benefit to the customer - Too many ads focus on "We" and "I" when writing their ad copy. Think about how your product or service will benefit them, which means using more "you" and "your". A good example would be "Never get another harassing call from a bill collector again - Try our guaranteed Credit Restoration program today."
4. Post to as many relevant categories as you are allowed - Many of these classified sites are extremely strict when it comes to their posting policies. Figure out what you can and can't do, and squeeze everything you can out of each site.
5. Borrow from your competitors - DO NOT steal or plagiarize...just do something similar to what is working for your competition. If you are seeing the same ad for months on end, chances are it is working pretty well for them. Learn what you can from it, and make changes to your ad accordingly.

For new or existing businesses, the bottom line is extremely important to your success. Taking advantage of as many free opportunities as possible is key to getting your name out there to the public and your bank account a bit healthier.

3 Cool Tools You May Not Know About

One of the great things about the 'net is the abundance of free tools out there to help with your online business. This post could cover hundreds, but for now, I will only cover three. If you have a business on the internet, these may come in handy today, tomorrow or sometime in the near future.

1. SpyFu (Spyfu.com) - Are you currently using AdWords? Ever wonder what words your competitors are using? Wonder no more. Type in the name of your competition into the search box, and SpyFu will kick out a list of keywords and/or keyphrases that your competitors are bidding on. This can come in handy if you are trying to come up with a list of words to use for AdWords, and want more choices to bid on. Pick the brain of the guys that have been around the block a few times...they have already done the homework for you.
2. InFormEnter (Firefox Plug-in) - If you are set on using only Internet Explorer, then this tool isn't for you. For those that do use Firefox, this is a must-have. This tool is like your MS Word clipboard on steroids. Basically, you can designate whatever info you want to be available at the click of your mouse - usernames, passwords, your URL, your name, etc. - and a clipboard will pop up so you can enter your designated info into any form on the web. This is especially handy for SEO work - I have several client profiles set up with all their info, which enables me to do link submissions extremely fast. Search Google for it today and make life easier.
   
3. HitTail (Hittail.com) - Over the last few years, searchers have become more savvy when looking for something specific. Instead of starting their search with NASCAR merchandise, it has evolved into more targeted searches like NASCAR kahne touch lamp. Phrases of this nature are known as long-tail keywords or keyphrases. This is where HitTail comes in. Paste some code into your website or blog, and HitTail will track what long-tail keywords visitors are using to get to your site, along with whether or not your site is optimized for that keyword. Over time, this becomes a valuable tool to optimize your site for what people are looking for.

Hope these tools help you as much as they have helped me in your quest for online success. I will fill you in on more killer tools in the near future. Happy selling...

Starting an online business - Step 2: Purchase your piece of internet real estate

Now that you have your niche market picked out, it is time to start thinking about your website. The first order of business is purchasing your domain name. There are hundreds of companies out there that sell domain names, so a search of Google or Yahoo will yield plenty of results for the keywords cheap domains. When choosing your domain name, try to think of something short, catchy and/or easy to remember. People are lazy - the less work, the better.

Your next action is to purchase a store for that dream of yours. If you are not knowledgeable in web design, no big deal. There are plenty of e-commerce solutions out there such as Yahoo store, Network Solutions, Prostores and ProductCart that are extremely user-friendly and require little or no HTML or web design experience (although learning some is very beneficial and recommended).

If you do have web design experience, or know someone that does, you can save yourself a lot of money and just have your website pages hosted by one of the many hosting companies out there. Even if you don't have any web design know-how or connections, there are many ways to find web designers that will design your site for a very affordable price through classified ad sites like Craigslist or job sites like eLance. Many designers are looking to make a name for themselves, and will give you a great deal in exchange for a referral or a link on your site.

One thing that you don't want to forget is some sort of merchant or payment solution. For a site that is just starting off, I would recommend Paypal. Their transaction fees are cheap, it is easy to sign up, their Website Payments Pro accepts credit cards, and practically everybody out there is familiar with Paypal. You may also want to look into Google Checkout, or one of the merchant companies that can do your credit card processing for you.

Hopefully this food for thought will get you brainstorming on the birth of your website. Check back soon for Step 3...

Starting an online business - Step one: Passion equals profit

So you want to start an online business? While there are thousands of them out there, the great thing about the internet is that there is always room for one more. The main thing that you have to do to succeed online is to separate yourself from all the other aspiring millionaires out there.

First things first, though. The first step in order to succeed is to find your niche market- a extremely specific product or service that has a demand or need. Want to sell bedding? Narrow it to kids bedding...maybe even baby bedding. Considering a sports memorabilia store? You might want to narrow it down to football...possibly go down to football jerseys. You get the idea. Your conversion rate will be much higher if you find a specific niche than sell a bunch of everything.

Ideally, you also want your business to represent you as a person - preferably something that you are passionate about, extremely knowledgeable about, or both. What are your interests? What are your talents? In what area do your friends and family consider you to be the "expert"? Your business won't go far if you aren't pursuing something that you truly enjoy doing on an everyday basis.

Hopefully this will help kickstart the brainstorming process for you. Remember - businesses that don't have a plan are businesses that are destined to fail.

Welcome to Online Success 101

Hello all! Thanks for stopping by. My goal in having this blog is to help new online entrepreneurs with the various speedbumps involved with starting an internet business. I will postings tips on e-commerce solutions, search engine optimization, pay per click marketing and internet marketing in general, and many more topics to help with your business venture. Check back soon to see if we have info to help you succeed.