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Using "Tiny Little Classified Ads" Off-Line
           By Robert Smith   ©1999 All Rights Reserved

Recently I have noted what I consider to be a important Internet marketing trend. It's so simple that it's often overlooked.

I have been promoting my Internet business locally for a couple of years. I haven't spent much money less than a hundred dollars a month.

Conventional off-line marketing is not very interesting. As a full-time internet based business owner I want to do everything on my own and on-line.

Today there are many people marketing on-line who have never tried to sell anything any other way. This tip is for you.

Look at the classified section of your newspaper or the back of any magazine you see the same little ads running over and over. They wouldn't keep running them if they didn't make money.

Do you remember that guy on on of those late night commercial programs. He sells a program about how to make money with those "Tiny Little Ads". It's easy, anyone can place classified ads and learn to make them profitable.

I haven't even scraped the surface of what can be accomplished using "tiny classified ads" I place a small ad in the university weekly and one in a couple of weekly regional freebie classified newspapers.

Recently the same ads started pulling in much more business, almost too much to handle. Even though I'm no expert I have learned enough to share with you in hopes that might save you some time and money.

But first let me tell you why I think that off-line advertising is pulling better lately then I'll tell you what is working and what it might lead to.

I'm sure you have noticed just about everyone is mentioning their web-sites off-line for all sorts of reasons. ABC news has started the first regularly scheduled news broadcast on-line in real time.

The holiday marketing season is expected to dwarf last year's I have even seen recent claims that the e-commerce is doubling every 100 days. I don't know if that's true or not, but I do know that just about every business is either already on-line or planning to be on-line in the near future

Why should I market off-line when there is so much activity on the Internet? The answer is so simple I missed it for a long time.

When anyone goes on-line for the first time, it's only a few days before the email in-box starts filling up with spam. Most of it making totally unbelievable claims just to get our attention

Sometimes the hype is so bad I laugh, this must be either a joke or a contest to see who could make the most unbelievable clam or and who can keep us reading longer.

Off-line media on the other hand is severely limited as to the type of claims you are allowed to make. Also we are charged based on the amount of content we want to publish. We are charged for the number of words or the amount of time (radio or TV). In addition there are additional costs associated the production of media.

My classified ads were already profitable but until recently I haven't considered anything more expensive. I had concluded earlier that spending hundreds or thousands of dollars to market any single product would not be cost effective. It used to be true but things are changing.

Recently a saw a late night commercial about the Internet marketing toolbox. They were basically selling a bundle of free Internet resources like I and others already have set up.

Later I contacted the toll free number and eventually got to talk to one of the people that produce indo-commercials. He told me that he had many more internet based commercials in development and that they were the most successful promotions he had ever produced. In fact he said he was already booked till next july and he didn't maintain a waiting list. He said that Business is "TOO good".

I haven't seriously considering something so risky but I'll I'll tell you what is working for me now.

A good classified ad is short. The shorter the better. I try to write a ad that would be short enough to make a bumper sticker, (which also works). Rather than writing a headline and then offer details I usually just run a 2 line ad and I buy 4 extra lines to center my bold ad with white space. For instance for website design and hosting I use the ad




"Let me help put your business on the Internet"
Call 689 -1847




Some Free Off-Line Marketing Possibilitie
   Writing articles or reports about local Internet savoy businesses
   Direct mail ads or offerings.
   Coupon books, card decks
   Free flyers with local deli menus or paid ads on one side.
   Developing a regular "opt in" newsletter send snail mail or via fax, you can re-use your online newsletter if you have one.
   Membership in local clubs or business organizations
   Volunteer for charitable organizations
   Take or teach Internet marketing classes.

Some Fee Based Marketing Ideas
   "Tiny little classified ads" weekly newspapers
   Radio and TV ads or programs
   Guest appearances
   Advertise in local church publications
   Sponsor or coach sporting teams.
   Set up booths at flea-markets or trade fairs
   Set up phone numbers to record your information requests
   Automate the process as much as possible.

Ads 4 Less

I just bought a membership in Ads4Less. It costs a one time $39 to have access to a database of almost every newspaper in the US and all over the world. They also offer bulk ad purchases. I am trying a tiny little 25-word ad in over 280 publications with a circulation of over 2 million for only $219... that's about 78 cents per newspaper. I joined their affiliate program which is free and I set up a introduction page, I think it's worth learning about. I set up a info page here:
      http://www.smithfam.com/ads/

I also set up a Autoresponder where you can learn more about using off-line advertising, It's an important future trend.
      http://www.smithfam.com/ads4less/ads4less.html

I would be interested in your experiences should you choose to try it with your business.
      littleads@smithfam.com

These are but a few possibilities. You can find more ways to promote any product or service. You want to make money not spend it so track all your ads, there are many ways to do that but in the beginning just try one thing at a time, fine tune it till you can't get it any better, and then try several ads.

My strategy is first choosing a specific income goal. You can choose any amount - Lets use $300. I keep records of all the money spent until I reach my goal. At that point I can determine how much it should cost to continue running the ad. If a specific ad produced 1 sale for $20 and another ad produced $80, I will try to determine and then test again. The results can be off for many reasons; it could be the ad; it could even be the weather, Here in Oregon people read the paper more during bad weather. I know when the weather will be bad so I run additional ads when it's going to be stormy here.

Once I get a winner then I start the whole process over. I started with my most profitable products. I have found products priced under $50 sell but ones priced near $25 sell best..

I have also found that most ads that sell on-line usually should do at least as well off line.

The point I want to leave you with is to not waste the potential of your local off-line marketplace. I think it's going to become more and more important in the future.

Best Wishes

Bob


ROBERT SMITH helps thousands successfully market their Internet based home business.
You'll find tons of free marketing tools & resources on his Internet Marketing web site at:
     http://www.smithfam.com/

You can reach him by phone at: (541) 689-1847 PST, and by email at:
     mailto:bob@smithfam.com

The Best Programable Follow-up System Available Today
      http://www.smithfam.com/autoresponder.html



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