Where do you advertise your online business

[element94]

Originally Posted by karie

Hi,

I get the vast majority of my sign-ups and sales using list builders/safelists. You can think of list builders as "instant lists" of people you can advertise to. When you join as a member of a list builder, you give permission to receive ads from other members through email marketing, and in turn, you can also send email offers to other members of the list builder. The key to success with list builders is to use good ad copy, and strong attention-grabbing subject lines. Consistency is also very important.. send your ads out as often as your membership allows. You can choose a free membership at list builders, or, you can choose to upgrade your membership, if you want to mail to way more members, and much more often.

If you use list builders, you will want to get a new gmail email account to use just for your advertising, because due to the very nature of list builders, you will receive alot of email ads from other members. List builders are "credit-based" which means that people will open up your email ad and click on your website link because they receive advertising credits when they do. This ensures that your email ads are being seen. Hope it helps, good luck!

Karie

This is a wonderful idea. I wonder how much success do you get with this ? Do you have a way to measure the traffic that converts from this ?

[alongcamepolly]

You may private message me to get the link I would like to share with you, for a free ad resource.
Apparently, the admins think I'm spamming their forums when I share a link to a free advertising site. Even though it's not mine and I get no compensation.

So, if you want it, pm me.

[sheribell]

Thanks to all the people who posted - this has really helped me out!

[rbarrett68]

Wow! Nice thread! I have just been using my fb fan page ( which is attached to my website) and forums. Now I have a bunch of new ideas to try out!

Thanks everyone!

[jacimytch]

I agree with keeee691, don't leave any stone unturned. Everywhere you can place an ad, do it.

[lskkjk]

I to am going to try list builders. I will report what I find. Thanks for all the advice on here it is great!! I felt like I was beating my head against the wall trying to do this online game. I really appreciate all the free advice everyone is willing to give.

[FreeElectricity]

I use IBOTOOLBOX to do my blogging and then they put the blogs out there on various sites for you and you can link people to the blog as well (for instance I use Hootsuite to put my stuff out on Twitter throughout the day). You can also get some free ads through them by doing certain things...like filling out your profile, blogging, attending a Saturday webinar...really easy useful things! You can go here to check them out: IBOTOOLBOX - free business marketing platform

As I mentioned before I like to use Hootsuite with Twitter. I have gained a decent following on Twitter and continue to grow that, and then I can take a couple of hours in the morning to set up my tweets for the whole day using Hootsuite (I use the free version) and you can use those tweets to link people to your blogs or other websites you would like them to go to.

Craigslist is also a great place however I have found that having a separate email address just for business or even just for CL responses is good because you will get lots of spam from that!!

Theresa

[lywealthmentor]

One of my favorite ways to market is to email market locally. Meaning get a cheap list of opt in leads in your area, city or state. Then send them out an email introducing yourself letting them know you are going to send them more information if they are still looking. Let them know you are building a huge team in your area and are looking to teach those that are hungry how to succeed just like you did. ALWAYS put some of their fields in the email such as their name, address, phone number to "confirm" the info. They obviously then realize they must have filled out a form. I also tell them i will give them a free gift ( usually a well written ebook) if they write back. Then in the second email I will send them my link or invite them to a webinar. Very easy to do. Get an emailer. Get some cheap local leads and make magic happen.

I also advise using a phone burner and ONLY calling local leads. You are able to build repore very quickly with local leads and a lot of people truly are looking for a person to person business where they can feel part of something big. Hard to do that if you are calling leads 3000 miles away.

Chris

[leapsterrifickids]

I sell childrens toys via my own website. However I also sell my items on eBay and Amazon and I add a flyer or business card in with these orders to try and tempt buyers to my own website. The big sites have such strong SEO and a huge customer base, eBay for example tends to bring in a lot more overseas customers for my business. I do get quite a few customers who then just shop directly on my website. I know other businesses have had a lot of success doing the same thing but with a voucher code for say 10% for customers from other selling platforms purchasing directly from their site.

[Leftoverchild]

Where are you opening your shop? Your own site or one of the other places like webstore? You'll have to keep us informed so we can visit when it's ready.

Originally Posted by Dugsmom

I am going to open an online shop. I attempted running an online business a couple of years ago but I really didn't know how and where to get the word out. So nothing came out of it. I am really going to work hard to get this to work but I was wondering how and where do you advertise your business. Is paid advertising the best and if so, which are the best places?
I am planning on opening a business page on FB, advertise on craigslist, mamapedia, social forums, blog. I do have some money to invest in advertising but I want to make sure I don't waste on advertising that doesn't work. I would also like to advertise on free sites too but not sure which are good and which are a waste.
Your advice would be greatly appreciated!