Hello,

Marlon here.

Today’s lesson is especially important if you don’t have any
particular expertise with this technique. Please pay attention
carefully, print it out, and then re-read it later:

The process of using classified ads to generate sales for any
product – whether it be an original product or an affiliate
product – is often over-simplified or even discouraged altogether.
This is, in part, because it actually is one of the harder ways in
which you can advertise. It requires you to use a small amount of
words to communicate an important point, which will either make or
break your ability to garner interest in the product in question.
In most cases, supposed experts will discourage you from using
classified ads because they themselves have never had much luck
using them – not because classified ads aren’t a viable method of
advertising.

So how can you use classified ads correctly to generate a
considerable amount of traffic to your affiliate product sales
page?

The first step entails finding viable places to advertise. Again,
many of the so-called experts will jump in and either tell you to
use free sites or that free sites never work. The truth here, too,
is somewhat in between: free sites can work, but you must use them
carefully. For instance, if you want to generate traffic from
sites that allow you to post free classifieds, you will have to
find ones that actually receive traffic themselves.

One example of a site that receives a massive amount of traffic,
but also allows you to post classified ads for free is craigslist,
which you can find at the following URL:

http://www.craigslist.com.

As long as you post classified ads in the proper section, you can
do it completely free of charge. Additionally, you can do this on
each of the craigslist sites for the metropolitan areas in the
United States.

If you go to Craigslist, you’ll notice that you are, by default,
sent to the San Francisco Bay Area site, where you will find a
giant word cloud of different terms and cities. You can access all
the other metropolitan area craigslist sites through this portal.
What you’ll want to do next is start looking for Craigslist cities
that allow you to post ads for free. These aren’t too hard to
find. Simply browse through the list of cities until you encounter
them.

Once you’ve found a number of city sites where you can advertise,
all you’ll need to do next is click on the word cloud text button
that best matches what you plan to sell. Is your product related
to health? Does it tell people how to make money? Does it tell
people how to make crafts with their children? Take this into
consideration when selecting a category.

Once you’ve selected your category, everything is pretty
straightforward. Simply click the ‘post’ button, add a short but
powerful ad (which directs viewers to your site), and then
duplicate this process on other craigslist sites while you wait
for the traffic to start rolling in.

It is important to remember not to abuse your positing privileges.
If Craigslist members flag your posts for whatever reason, do not
repost. Craigslist is a valuable place to put your classifieds;
and abusing it could prevent you from having any access at all.

Another place you can post free classified ads is Yahoo. You can
find this feature at the following URL:
http://classifieds.yahoo.com/. Again, as long as its on topic, you
can post a classified at for whatever you want.

Another classified ads site you may want to check out is US
classifieds, which you can find at the following URL:
http://www.usfreeads.com/. This is a massive classified ads site,
where you will find a lot of both buyers and sellers. Most
products are physical; however, there is no rule prohibiting the
sales of electronic products.

Other good classified ads to sell on include the following:
http://www.kijiji.com (new from Yahoo – craiglist’s big
competitor), http://www.livedeal.com, and
http://www.classifiedads.com/. In addition to these sites, you
will want to scour Google in search of local classified ads sites.
There are literally hundreds of sites that actually receive
traffic and will let you post an ad for no charge at all.
Additionally, some of them will allow you to post the URL of your
site in that ad, allowing you to get a backlink from a
highly-ranked site in the process.

Now, with this in mind, you will want to consider the best way in
which you can construct your classified ad. I personally suggest
creating a headline or first line that uses psychological
triggers. Remember: with classifieds, you’re not paying by the
click. It’s either free or you’re paying for a certain period of
time or impressions, so your goal should be to generate as many
clicks as possible, so use words like ‘cheap,’ ‘free,’ ‘proven,’
and ’shocking’ to draw attention to your ad.

Once you have successfully drawn attention to your ad through the
headline, you will then want to seal the deal by providing
viewers with a reason to click through, provided that your
affiliate product is something they will want to buy. You can do
this by explicitly stating a quantifiable benefit in the second
line of the classified ad – and then stating a crucial feature in
the third line.

The best way to test your classified ads before they go live is to
simply ask one of your brutally honest friends or family members.
Ask them whether it would catch their attention; and, if so,
whether or not they’d consider purchasing it (if, indeed, it was
something they are interested in). It sometimes hurt to hear the
brutal advice of others, but this can be quite helpful, since it
is often hard to see your own flaws.

Once you have gained some experience posting ads on free
classified ad mediums, you will want to move on to major
electronic publications, including large e-zines and authority
sites; however, before you do this, you could be confident in the
classified ad and your conversion rate.

Thanks again for keeping up with the series. Please check your
inbox for new issues.

Best Wishes,

Marlon Sanders

Hello,

Marlon here.

Today, I want to share with you one of the biggest mistakes
affiliates make. I want to share this with you so you won’t make
the same mistake:

The one major mistake many affiliates make is not setting up a
list. Affiliates will often send traffic that they generated to
affiliate links, rather than a list. When they do this, they are
unknowingly making a bet that visitors will buy on first contact.
Unfortunately, this is generally not the case. Visitors often need
to be warmed up to a product – through the course of multiple
visits and additional information – before they are willing to
purchase from a person or a business. This is where building a
list comes into play.

By building a list, affiliates can fix this problem. Additionally,
they can retain traffic, warm it up, and then direct it to
different purchases in the future. This means that it isn’t a
one-shot deal: instead, they can attempt to sell the same person
multiple products over the course of time.

Now, in order to do this successfully, the affiliate in question
must purchase the necessary tools. I personally suggest using
http://www.aweber.com for the actual autoresponder service. Aweber
is relatively inexpensive ($20/mo.) and comes with a formidable
range of services, including spam checkers and macros. Best of
all, it is white-listed by many email clients and boasts a
delivery rate of 99%. This service will not only manage your list,
but it will also help you build it. It includes free tools that
allow you to create web forms, pop-ups, and hover-ins – all of
which can be used to increase your opt-in rate.

Now, in addition to purchasing the autoresponder service, you will
need to setup your own site if you do not already own one. If you
already own a related site, you can simply add your opt in form
to a page on your existing site. If not, I suggest purchasing a
cheap domain and hosting service and using this to host your list
forms. Http://www.27hosting.com currently offers some of the
cheapest hosting available on the market.

Once you have your site and your autoresponder setup, there are
only two steps left: the first is building a course of some sort
that is related to the affiliate products you will sell; and the
second is creating an opt-in form that converts.

The first part is relatively easy. Start by determining your topic
and then outline it over the course of five to seven days.
Remember that everything should be written as if you are talking
to a person, rather than as if you were writing a formal article.

If you don’t feel comfortable writing these articles yourself,
you can always hire a ghostwriter at http://www.elance.com for
$5-15 per issue, depending on the size.

Once you have created your autoresponder series, you will want to
feed it into your autoresponder, setup advertisements in the text
for the affiliate product you are planning to sell, and then
create an opt-in form for your list.

The last part – setting up an opt-in form – is quite important.
Strangely, this is something marketers often neglect. They spend
the time to create a good course, weave in affiliate links so
they don’t look too obvious, set the send off dates on all of the
emails. . . and then fail to create an opt-in page that will
convert.

So here’s a little information on how to make your opt-in page
convert…

First of all, keep in mind that the sole purpose of an opt-in
page is simply to collect opt-ins. Don’t splatter that page with
Google Adsense ads. Don’t include a navigational menu that
visitors can use to browse your site. All of these things are bad
because they detract from your primary purpose – your ‘most wanted
response’ — which is to get visitors to opt-in to your list.

I personally suggest that you create what is called a ’squeeze
page.’ The purpose of a squeeze page is to do exactly what I said
was important in the above paragraph: to ’squeeze’ new visitors
for their names and email addresses. Here’s a few things an
effective squeeze page should include:

1. A professional graphic header. That’s right: don’t cheap out on
the graphics. Hire someone who doesn’t make blurry headers using
horrible templates. You might have to slap down a horrifying $10,
but it will be worth it. I promise.

2. A strong headline. Before you tell someone to opt-in to your
list, you have to reach out and GRAB their attention with a large
font, red headline. Make your headline CLEAR and COMPELLING. Do
not use complex sentence constructions. Do not fill it with fluff.
But do make strong, quantifiable claims…

3. Compact, compelling text that is no longer than two paragraphs.
You aren’t selling them a car or a house. All you’re doing is
basically saying ‘Hey! Here’s a really, really, really good reason
to opt in to my list. Did I mention my list was free? Opt in now,
please.’ So absolutely blow them away in those two paragraphs, but
do no more. Additionally, consider giving them a free report for
joining your list – which they can download as soon as they
opt-in. This is a good incentive and it will push them to join.

4. A call to action. This is where you tell readers to stop
kicking the tires and opt in. Explain how their future could
depend on it.

5. Your signature. If any signature is included with the opt-in
list, it will immediately gain credibility. People want to see a
signature, so write yours down, scan it; and add it to your
squeeze page. You can either scan in your signature or use the
following tool: http://www.vletter.com/.

6. A no spam clause. Simply tell them – in a few words – that you
will not spam them and you will not sell their information. This
is very important. Telling them that will make them far more
likely to opt-in.

Once you have setup your opt-in form, the only remaining step is
to drive various traffic sources to your opt-in list, collect
their email addresses – and then wait for the commissions to roll
in.

Best Wishes,

Marlon Sanders