Hello,

Marlon here.

In today’s lesson, we’re going to discuss one of the major sources
of traffic for affiliates – exchanges. If you’re unfamiliar with
exchanges, you will want to read this over carefully and consider
printing it out.

One of the best ways in which you can promote affiliate programs
is through various traffic exchanges. Almost all well-defined,
robust niches on the Internet have some form of traffic exchange.
For instance, casinos, gaming sites, niche forums, and Internet
marketing sites all have some form of traffic exchange system. IM,
in particular, has dozens of exchanges.

A traffic exchange can serve multiple functions; however, in most
cases, it does two important things: 1) it allows you to surf
sites, gain credits, and then cash in those credits; and 2) it
allows you to put banners or dynamically-generated link boxes on
your site that will generate credits, which you can then cash in.
Cashing in credits, with most exchanges, results in a certain
amount of traffic being drive to your site via the exchange site
or via banners on other sites that are members of the exchange.

A good place to start when working with traffic exchanges is to
determine which ones are most reputable and which ones have
reasonable point systems. For instance, some traffic exchanges
allow users to cheat and some have bad systems of exchange, which
heavily favor paying members over non-members. You will want to
find the best possible exchange given the amount of money you are
willing to spend and the product you are marketing.

I suggest using the following sites, which list top traffic
exchanges:
http://www.paramind.net/paramindtrafficexchanges.html and

http://www.trafficexchangelist.com

Additionally, you may want to talk to friends to see if any
particular exchange has worked well for them. There are hundreds
of different exchanges available. The key is finding the one that
will work best for your particular situation.

One exchange you may want to consider is Traffic Round-Up. You can
find it at the following URL: http://www.trafficroundup.com/.
Like most exchanges, it offers several different types of
programs, depending on how much you are willing to pay. If you
select a completely free membership, you will have to view three
sites in order to have one visitor sent to yours. While the views
will only last 10 seconds, the same will be true about yours
(unless you are able to persuade visitors to stay longer). If you
purchase access to a higher level program, you will get free views
and you will only have to view 2 or 1 site in order to have 1
person view yours.

As you check out Traffic Round Up, as well as the other exchanges
included in the recommended lists, you will want to take the
following things into consideration: 1) what is the input-output
ratio for each traffic exchange; 2) how much traffic does this
exchange actually receive; 3) how quickly will they place my ads
after they are setup. On the first question, you will want to find
an exchange that minimizes the amount of time you have to spend
surfing and maximizes the amount of credits you receive. For the
second question, you will want to make sure that the exchange you
select is bustling with traffic from the right places. Last, you
will want to find an exchange that puts your ads up in a matter of
hours (or a day) – rather than one that could take as long as a
week or several weeks.

Now, once you have selected an optimal exchange, you will want to
determine the best way in which you can use it to maximize the
amount of high-quality traffic you extract from it. You will want
to answer the following questions to aid yourself in determining
this: do I earn credits from impressions or clicks? And do I lose
credits based on impressions or clicks?

This is important to ask, as different exchanges have different
policies on this issue. If you lose credits based on impressions,
you will want to make sure that you get the absolute largest
amount of clicks per impressions. This will involve over-hyping
your ads and creating flashy banners (if they allow them). In
contrast, if you are getting charged per click, you will want to
make sure your ads ONLY appeal to the most interested buyers.
Whichever route you take, make sure that it is matched up with a
model for maximum revenue generation. You should never take a
middle-of-the-road approach. Find out the exact details of the
exchange; and then carefully construct a good strategy for your
particular situation.

The last thing you will want to consider when using a traffic
exchange is precisely what you should promote. You already have a
product in mind – probably an affiliate product – but how will you
promote it? Will you direct visitors to the affiliate page? Will
you direct them to a page on your site which features the product?
Or will you direct them to an opt-in form, which will capture
their information and then coax them into buying over a period of
time?

There’s no ‘best’ way to answer this question. In some cases, you
will get a higher return if you market the product directly,
rather than sending visitors to an opt-in form. In other cases,
you will need to make multiple contacts with visitors before you
can expect a sale. For this reason, you will want to test, rather
than applying any sure rule of thumb. However, starting out, you
may want to first try direct sales (to see if the product even
sells) by sending the visitor to your affiliate link. If – and
only if – people make some purchases, then consider investing the
time in an opt-in page, a membership to http://www.aweber.com and
a high-quality autoresponder series.

Thanks again for keeping up with the series. Don’t forget to look
out for our next lesson.

Best Wishes,

Marlon Sanders

Hello,

Marlon here.

Thanks again for subscribing. In today’s lesson, we’re going to go
over solo ads.

For years, Internet marketers have asserted that solo ads are
simply outmoded – they’re a dinosaur that no longer has the
potential to reap any profits; however, another group of Internet
marketers knows that the exact opposite is the truth: solo ads can
reap massive profits, but in order to do so, they must be
engineered perfectly, as must the selection of the solo ad
distributor.

A solo ad can be a number of things. Usually, it is a large ad
between 200 and 300 words that is placed at the very center of a
page. The rate on solo ads is higher than on all other potential
options, but it also captures readers’ attention the most by far.
If you have the money to spend on a solo ad, it can be an
excellent investment. However, as with all investments (and
advertisements for that matter), you must conduct your due
diligence. This involves a considerable amount of research.

Now, when conducting research for a solo ad, there are two things
you will want to look at: 1) the first is a list of your potential
advertising outlets (in this case, probably e-zines); and 2) a
list of potential approaches you can take on your solo ad.

Let’s start with the first part – finding a list of e-zines in
which you can put a solo ad. I personally suggest starting with
Directory of E-zines, which you can find at the following URL:
http://www.directoryofezines.com/. This is the ultimate resource
for advertisers who want access to all e-zines and also want tips
for advertising in them. If you don’t have any money to spend, I
would suggest starting here instead: http://www.ezine-dir.com/.

What should you look for when trying to select an e-zine to
advertise in? There are a number of things, but most importantly,
you should consider the following: 1) the circulation of the
e-zine; 2) the frequency of advertisements; 3) response rates from
previous mailings; and 4) the price. Obviously, price is a vitally
important factor; however, you should not allow it to overshadow
all other factors in the decision-making process.

Your goal here is to make money with your mailing. Thus, if you
have to spend twice as much to make three times as much, then do
it. Don’t buy the cheapest solo ad simply because it’s cheap.
Don’t plan to make no money – and thus buy the cheapest to
minimize your loss. Figure out how to maximize your return and do
it.

Now, when it comes to evaluating the circulation of an e-zine,
make sure you don’t simply take the listed number as-is. There is
a huge difference between an e-zine with 5,000 active subscribers
and another e-zine with 5,000 mostly inactive subscribers. The
difference for you could be the difference between 25 sales and
none at all. So make sure you aren’t blindly lead to believe that
an e-zine has a lot of active subscribers.

There are a number of ways in which you can judge the difference
between an active and inactive e-zine. One way to is to simply
subscribe to the e-zine and monitor the content over a couple of
weeks. Ask yourself whether you’d keep reading the emails if you
were a regular subscriber. Another way in which you can judge the
difference is to ask the owner of the e-zine for the email
addresses of previous solo ad customers. You may not get this
information, but if you do, it’ll allow you to ask them how well
their solo ad performed. In addition to this, you may want to ask
the e-zine owner for some screenshots of statistics (i.e. emails
opened, products sold, etc.).

Once you have selected reputable e-zines to advertise in, you will
then want to begin creating your solo ad. There are a number of
writing ‘forumlas’ you can use to do this; however, you will
always want to keep in mind what it is that your potential
customer wants most. In advertising, it is often easy to project
our own wants in a given product onto potential buyers; however,
it is important – when communicating with them – that you talk
about their wants, not yours.

Now, when it comes to creating solo ads, I personally suggest that
you spend some time at the following URL, learning about what it
takes to convert readers into buyers:
http://www.copywritersboard.com/. Furthermore, I suggest that you
go beyond simply writing copy and write as you would in the
specific medium. For instance, if your solo ad will be featured
in an e-zine, then you will want to write as if you are contacting
members of a mailing list about a special offer or something
similar. You may even want to refer to the owner of the list by
his/her first name if he/she allows that.

Alternatively, rather than writing your own solo ad, you could
simply use the product owner’s solo ad. In many cases, affiliate
programs will include pre-written ads that affiliates can use to
promote the product. If the products you promote have pre-written
solo ads, you will want to consider using them, as they are likely
to be high-quality. All you’ll have to do is slap your affiliate
link in the solo ad, touch it up slightly (so it’s customized);
and then send it off to the e-zine owner for distribution. Also,
don’t forget to sign up for the actual e-zine (if it’s free), so
that you can monitor the actual release to ensure that your ad is
placed.

Keep all of these skills in mind when conducting solo ad
campaigns. All you have to do is select the right advertising
mediums and create an excellent ad – and your effort will pay off
three fold.

Thanks again for reading – and don’t forget to keep an eye out for
the next lesson.

Best Wishes,

Marlon Sanders