Internet Marketing: Where to Spend Money to Make Money Online

Last Wednesday, I finished up the series entitled Internet Marketing: How to Tell When to Start Spending Money to Make Money Online. However, there was so much more to say so this week I’ll be addressing some issues that readers raised.

To recap, as the title suggests, the series addressed when new and/or cash-strapped internet marketers should consider spending money to make money online. As a freelance writer and self-publisher of ebooks, I used my business as a sort of mini case study; an example, if you will.

One of the things readers wanted to know was where I’d advertised my ebooks, which is the issue I’ll address today.

Internet Marketing: Where to Spend Your Ad Dollars

Note: The outlets listed below were chosen primarily because of cost and popularity. In tomorrow’s post, I’ll talk more specifically about how to find affordable paid outlets in your niche.

My niche is freelance writing, so I simply went to the popular blogs and websites I read on a regular basis that offered advertising. Following are five outlets I’ve used – or am thinking about using. If you’ve published or are thinking about publishing an ebook of interest to freelance writers, bloggers and in some case internet marketers, the following outlets might work for you.

ChrisBlogging.com: At only $25, I did a review plug for this site. This is different from an ad in that you write your own “article” plugging your product/service. The reason article is in quotation marks is because it’s really a plug for your product, but is written in article form.

This worked quite effectively. FYI, one of the reasons I like online advertising of this sort is that it stays live forever, unless the site goes offline. Hence, you get ongoing “coverage” for your one-time-spent ad dollars.

Writing-World.com: Again, a $25 ad. This ad will start to run in November and it’ll be live for three months. It’ll appear on the Author’s Bookshelf page. The site gets a huge amount of traffic in its niche, so I’m anxious to see how this pans out.

IdeaMarketers.com: This is an article directory site, and I contribute to it regularly (3-5 times a week). In addition to contributing articles, I also advertise on the front page of the site for a mere $1 per week. Yes, that’s right, $1 per week.

The site accepts ads on a bid system. The category I advertise in doesn’t get many ads, so for a low price, I’m able to get front page placement for mere pennies.

JohnChow.com: I haven’t yet placed an ad here yet because this is getting to what I call the upper-tier of advertising. I’m vascillating between the $250/month stripe ad at the top of the blog, or the $240 month Feature Site Sponsorship ad that appears on the right sidebar of the page.

Entrepreneurs-Journey.com: This is the other top-tier site I’m targeting to advertise on in the near future. The two ad slots I’m looking at are the $150/month text link package and the $200 125×125 box banner ad.

Internet Marketing: How to Cost-Effectively Reach the Most Prospects

What’s the holdup in placing ads on the last two sites mentioned? One thing primarily: I want to spread my ads across as many smaller, less expensive sites as I can first. For what it would cost to place one ad on one of the more expensive sites, I can place ads on 5 or more of the smaller sites.

In advertising, this is known as going wide instead of deep. Once I’ve penetrated the market widely, then I can go deep with the more expensive advertising. I’ve put together a six-month plan and have targeted about a dozen sites I want to place ads on.

The reason I like this advertising wide instead of deep first is because I can reach a larger audience. While it may take longer to garner as many sales, it’s a less risky marketing plan because it doesn’t put all of my eggs in one basket, so to speak. For example, what if I spent $250 on an ad and didn’t make my money back?

This question leads me to the final point I want to make here today, which is, “How do you tell if an ad is successful?”

Internet Marketing: How to Tell if an Ad Is Successful

This is quite easy. An ad is successful if you make your money back. So far, I’ve made my money back on both ads I’ve placed and fully expect to on Writing-World.com, especially as it will run for three months.

I’ll talk more about this tomorrow in my discussion on how to find affordable places to advertise in your niche.

FYI, if you know of a highly trafficked site that targets freelance writers, bloggers and interent marekters AND it offers affordable advertising (in line with the prices quoted here), I’d love to know about them.

Happy marketing!

Written by Yuwanda Black from Inkwell Editorial
Posted on October 27th, 2008 and filed under Making Money
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