Ways to Advertise your Business.

OK, I realize there are entire books written on this subject. But here is my own quick and dirty round up on how to advertise you ACME People Search (or any biz actually).

These are programs I use to one extent or another. They each have their advantages and disadvantages as I'll go into here.

First some terms:

Credits: Points the website gives you that you can spend on things, e.g. sending e-mails or purchasing advertising on the site. All these programs award initial credits and are more than happy to sell your additional credits.

Impressions. An "impression" is when your banner, splash page, text link, etc. is displayed one time for one visitor.

Banner: The most common form of advertising on the Internet. Generally 468x60 pixels but can be any size.

Splash Page: A simple, scaled down, bare bones web site generally used in Traffic Exchanges. Loads fast and generally sends the user to your full sales page.

Squeeze Page. Like a splash page but is designed to collect e-mail and contact information before sending the visitor on to your site.

Solo Ad: In a Traffic Exchange, an e-mail ad that goes to the member of that Exchange only. In a Safe List, will go to the "contact" e-mail instead of the list e-mail and is worth more points when reading.

Super Solo/Exclusive Super Solo. In TEs, goes to members of more than just the one TE, usually to the TEs also owned or operated by the same person.

SAFELISTS
As the name implies, Safelists are programs that give you a "safe" list of e-mail addresses to send to. When you join you get an initial supply of credits to use to send e-mails. You earn credits by clicking on a link in the e-mail which takes you to a web page. You must view the web page from 0 to 20 seconds in order to earn your credits.

My Favorites. Green-Elist -- No wait time to earn credits to mail.
Active Safelist. Mail twice a day if you have the points.

TRAFFIC EXCHANGES
Take a Safelist and add in the ability to click on ads on the website to earn credits and you have a Traffic Exchange (TE). Traffic Exchanges (which sometimes call themselves Text Ad Exchanges) usually start you off with a supply of credits, banner expressions and even (in some cases) Solo Ads. Once you've signed up for a few TEs or Safelists you will no doubt get e-mails that want you to sign up for other TEs that include Promo Codes that will give you additional advertising if not complete complimentary upgrades. You get most of your credits reading e-mails, and like with Safelists you must view the web page that is displayed for up to 15 seconds or more to get the credit.

Some of my Favorite TEs
Real Time Mega Traffic
E-Traffic


MANUAL TRAFFIC EXCHANGE
The final type of program (at least in terms of ads) is the Manual Traffic Exchange (MTE). The main point of the MTE is that you can surf web pages within the MTE's web site, for which you get credits and on most MTEs earn bonuses. You can't view text links or banners; although you can enter these types of ads that are displayed along with the web pages. Like when you click on the links in TEs and Safelists, you must view the web page for 10-20 seconds before you get credit, and they all have a method of making sure you don't get credit if you move on too quickly. Usually it's clicking on a matching image.

A little trick I use is to open up two MTEs in different tabs in your browser and switch back and forth while the timers are running. Saves a little time and you ARE still looking at both MTE's displays. Some MTEs do have e-mail, but you have to earn or purchase credit to use them.

My Favorites:
Traffic Splash
Traffic Swarm
Warfare Traffic

UPGRADES
A word on upgrades. All of these programs are free to join. As a Free member you get some advertising; and many have promo codes that get you upgraded advertising upon joining, and in some case upgraded memberships. Upgrades otherwise are in one of two categories: A one-time fee or a monthly subscription. The most common upgrade categories above free are Pro and JV. Some sites (Such as Warfare Traffic) have their own names. WT calls their upgraded categories Sergeant, Commander and Major. :)

When you upgrade you get more credits for reading things and higher commissions when you recruit people. Like anything else in the Internet Marketing Game, the more you invest the more you can earn.