Classified ads

Sometimes, I hear self-admitted statements of defeat, such as...

..I've placed a dozen ads, and I CAN'T do it!...
..If I can't make money right away, I'll quit...
..I'm going to quit because I CAN'T sponsor anyone...

In the interest of speed, I've developed many "generic" type responses to these letters.

However, after sending one such "generic" response today, I actually received a well thought reply.

The associate in question has been an associate for 3 months, and is highly frustrated with her lack of results. When answering her initial question ("...Why am I not getting any referrals...etc.) I first inquired as to where she had advertised, the tools she had used, has she tested her ads, how often had she posted etc.

She replied that she had been posting the same ads in the same places for 3 months and "STILL haven't seen any results! I post the ads over and over, but get nowhere..."

It has brought several thoughts to mind.

First....If you had eaten at a new restaurant and the food was absolutely horrible, how many time would you go back and try again?

Marketing (online or offline) is no different. Why on earth would you waste time posting ad after ad to these overused, saturated, rarely frequented free classified ad sites?

If you are advising your associates to post "hundreds" of ads a day to these sites, you are doing them a GREAT disservice. Shotgun marketing CAN produce results...but is the time expended worth the effort? I know there are some people who have built their downlines using 200-300 free ads a day. But, I'm here to tell you, 99% of people will not be willing to expend that much effort for the handful of prospects it will produce.

Instead, we need to start teaching our associates to work smarter, not harder.

In my answer to the above associate, I used the same analogy, and asked her if she had been keycoding her ads. She replied that keycoding takes too much time...

What?!? If you're not testing your ads (keycoding), not only are you WASTING a very valuable resource (which others on the net have to pay at least $17 a month to use...roibot, etc.) but YOU ARE WASTING YOUR TIME!

How so, she asked (at this point, we've switched to chat to save time. :-) )

Picture this scenario...you've been posting hundreds and hundreds of ads for weeks, with a scant handful of new affiliates produced. One morning, you wake up to find over 100 new personal referrals in your inbox..with more coming in by the minute. Where are they coming from, you wonder?? If you would have keycoded your ads, your days of posting hundreds of ads would be over, but since you've no idea...

The next issue she hit me with..."SO WHERE DO I ADVERTISE?!!"

I replied...If I were to tell every affiliate who asked me that question, go to this URL and post this ad..how long would that site remain a good source of affiliates.

Instead, let me tell you HOW to find a good place to advertise.

Go to all the major search engines..type in some keyphrases that people would use to find a home business (work at home, home business, home based business, etc.)

Take a look at the top 10 sites for each phrase. Make a note of the site title for each site, and its URL. Now go to the next engine and do the same. Visit AT LEAST 10 engines and use the same key phrases for each search. When you find 4-5 sites that consistently rank among the top 10, go to each site and see if they offer paid advertising of some kind. When you find one or two that do, THAT'S where you want to place your ad. Why? Because THEY ARE GETTING THE TARGETED TRAFFIC YOU NEED!

Her response...But I don't want to spend any money to build my business.

Ok, let's get real folks...Traffic-building, no matter how you cut it, will cost you...in terms of both time and money. Spending DOLLARS is optional, but spending TIME is not.

If you don't want to spend any money, that's fine. But then be prepared to spend the HUNDREDS of hours its going to take you to build any viable income.

"If I have to spend $$ to build it, then I'll have to quit.."

I understand, but before you go, let me ask you this. Do you want to own a business?

"Yes"

So you're going to open a restaurant or buy a similar franchise?

"No, that would cost too much."

You're right, somewhere in the neighborhood of 400-500 thousand dollars. So, if not a franchise, what kind of business are you going to build?

"I want a home business so I can be home with my kids"

Ok, let me get this straight. You want a business, you don't want to have to buy hundreds of dollars worth of stuff to get started, and you don't want to spend any money to build it..is that right?

"Yep, I just can't spend hundreds of dollars right now. Anything more than $50 a month would be a stretch!"

What if I could show you how to start building with $30 a month?

"Sounds ok, if it actually works."

Well, I can, IF you promise to reinvest EVERY cent of profit back into using the methods I teach you.

"Ok, I'll try it"

To make a long story short, folks...This member has get 150 new prospects this month, and has her first four members. She is now invigorated, enthused, and best of all, ON BOARD. She now realizes what her lack of action cost her (quote: "If I would have started this 3 months ago, I be making some REAL good Money now!")

If this were easy, we would all be getting thousands of new contacts every month. Its those that take the effort to LEARN that will always get the results.

Positively,

Stephan Bourget, Consultant
http://www.mynewsuccess.com