My good friend, Kelly McCausey, is running a very cool program over the summer, in which you are encourage and guided to Keep It Simple and create three simple reports. One to use as a free giveaway to grow your list, one to sell, and one to put on Kindle.

I did a quick walk-through video for you of the program so you can check it out and see if it's something you want to achieve over the summer.

If this is a definite YES for you, jump in here:
Yes, I want it, Nik!

If you're still not sure, let me ask you these questions…

1. When is the right time to start building your list? (Now.)

2. Why over-complicate things? (This is simple and it works.)

3. Do you have something for your people to buy from you? (If so, awesome but adding more is always good. If not, then when?)

Now is the time. This is the place. You get to keep the recordings, so even if you can't make it on the forum very often, you're still in.

Here's the link again:  Click here to Check it Out

I hope this has been helpful in helping you decide if it's right for you.

Warmly,
Nicole

PS.

I was in the second hangout and there was a lot of great info discussed so I wanted to share it with you.

You can join us in Toronto next month through this link: Exposure and Profit

The smart people featured in the video are all attending Exposure and Profit and are Advisors and Speakers.

They include:

• Alice Seba
• David Perdew
• Justin Popovic
• Ronnie Nijmeh
• Dan Morris
• Derrall Eves

The only speaker who wasn't able to make it on this call was Connie Ragen Green. She was on the call the day before, though, so she wasn't slacking or anything.

I hope you enjoy the discussion. I did!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. If you enjoyed that and want to learn lots more about content marketing and also get a big hug from me, be at  Exposure & Profit, Toronto, Canada – Click here for Details.

This week I asked our panel of experts…

“What's something that's working right now to get you traffic?”

I think you'll find the responses interesting as everyone's answers were so varied.

Terry Dean of My Marketing Coach says:

I love paid traffic. The biggest sources for me lately have been Facebook ads, PPV ads, and solo ads. With all of these, I send visitors to my optin pages to get them on my lists. They go through a very extensive email follow-up sequence and then eventually drop into my regular broadcasts.

Facebook is a great place for a beginner to start on their first paid ad campaigns. Below are a few instructions for getting started. I went into much more detail in a recent newsletter inside my club.

My Tips for Running a Successful Facebook Campaign

You can advertise Facebook pages or any page on your site. To get started quickly, you can simply drive visitors to an optin page you already have ready.

Start with a ‘right column' ad. Newsfeed ads get higher clickthroughs, but this is simply about getting started with a simple method.

Offer a freebie on your site to get people on a list. Facebook users are not generally in a buying mood. You're interrupting them. Get them on a list and warm them up to you with consistent follow-up.

In your ad text itself, promise them a free gift. One of my currently running ads has this text:

7 Unique Ways to Create…
FREE Gift: “7 Unique Ways to Create Profitable Emails…Even If You're Not a Writer”…

The image is the most important part of your ad. You will have to test images, but I've found colors than contrast with Facebook's blue to be most effective. This means most of my winning ads feature red or green in them.

You can target very tightly to the precise interests and demographics of your target market. For example, let's say your best buyers are women age 35 to 55. You target that for your demographics.

Then you target precise interests based on your market. For your very first ad, I'd likely target a keyword phrase that matches up to your audience OR a popular author/celebrity in your market. For example, if you were selling a course on Adwords, you could target “Perry Marshall” as a precise interest.

Here are some of the ways I brainstorm interests:

• Keywords – Use any of your favorite keyword tools to come up with possibilities.
• Books – Check Amazon’s best seller lists for popular book titles you could target.
• Authors – What are the most famous authors in this niche?
• Speakers – Which speakers are well known for this subject?
• Celebrities – What celebrities would people interested in this subject listen to?
• Websites/Bloggers – What about the most popular websites/blogs in the niche?
• Magazines – For example, in ‘internet marketing’ you could target “Success Magazine”
• Events – What conferences, expos, or other events take place in the market?
• Fan Pages or Groups – Are there popular fan pages or groups you could target?
• Stores – What big brand stores or manufacturers are in your market?
• Products/Software – Are there popular products or software purchased by the audience?

I suggest you choose a tightly niched audience for your first ad which could mean anywhere from 5,000 to 150,000 targets. And I'd start your daily budget low such as $5 to $10 so you're not risking much.

As a starting point, go with cost-per-click bidding. It's possible your ad or targeting may be poor and won't generate many if any clicks. With CPC bidding, you only pay for clicks to your site. If your ad doesn't work, Facebook will only charge you for the clicks you received and will quickly stop showing your ad. Your risk is minimal (ALWAYS remember to set the daily budget to where you're comfortable).

Of course there is a lot more to add, but these are the very bottom basics to getting started on one of the best ad sources currently available.

Note from Nik: If you want the report that Terry mentioned above, you can grab it here: 7 Unique Ways to Create Money Making Emails…Even if You’re NOT a Writer

Melissa Ingold of CoachGlue.com says:

One thing that is working for me right now is repurposing my podcast episodes into videos.

I have a whole process that is completely outsourced, and as a result I’ve seen my search engine rankings improve, and the amount of traffic I’m getting from Google has shot way up.

Here's the one I did with Nicole, as an example:

David Perdew of NAMS says:

Let’s modify the question. In my mind, it should be: “What’s something that’s working right now to make you MORE MONEY while getting traffic?”

This is a three-step process.

1) Step 1: Set up a LIFETIME DATABASE REFERRAL affiliate program (and yes, I was yelling that). I’m not talking about stinking lifetime cookies – those are a joke. Lifetime Database Referral means tagging new prospects to affiliates on the first transaction in the MyNAMS system in the software database where it cannot be overwritten. Any time that customer buys any product in our system, the referring affiliate gets the commission. We’ve created a video here explaining that:

Click image above or click here to watch the video

2) Step 2: Create a high-quality course and give it away for free by letting our top affiliates promote it with a 100% exclusive discount to get more people in the system. We did that with our course: Found Money – Creating Streams of Passive Income featuring… wait for it… Nicole Dean! Those top 10 or so affiliates promoted the course for 2-3 days exclusively.

Pssst. You can still grab that here or by clicking the image below:  Found Money – Creating Streams of Passive Income

3) Step 3: And here’s the money shot! We created unadvertised bonuses with free products from Our Favorite Affiliate programs which also met my PIE test. PIE = Passive Income Evaluation. When customers grabbed those bonuses, I was tagged in the Lifetime Database Referral affiliate programs of my favorite partners too.

You can see the 5 attributes we used to choose affiliate programs we will consistently promote here: Why I Probably Won't Promote your Product.  But here’s a hint about the first attribute: See Step 1 above.

The results were pretty awesome. In 6 weeks since we started this program, we added 4559 new users to our system. And if we compare that 6 week period to the previous six weeks, we get some pretty interesting numbers:

Love those percentages… In the MyNAMS Insiders Club, we work together to figure out how to capitalize on even more traffic.

Kristen Eckstein of The Kindle in 30 Challenge says:

What's working right now? Kindle books!!

Not only am I getting an influx of buyers, people are opting into my list like crazy. I included a simple opt-in invite after the Introduction of each Kindle book in my new series, Author's Quick Guide, and when people opt-in they go through a survey funnel that helps ensure those on my list are a good fit to work with me in the future or buy my other products.

Another result of the Kindle series is as I've been pumping out one a week for the past 13 weeks and will continue through the end of 2013, I've gotten a lot of major affiliate marketer attention. I recently launched the sales page for a new Kindle in 30 Challenge Boot Camp to take place in January and I literally have top level affiliates climbing all over each other to mail their lists first!

It's been amazing to see my list grow with not just people wanting something free, but with BUYERS who will be likely to buy coaching or a done-for-you e-book service from my company in the near future.

I've also gotten invites for more interviews, Google Hangouts, and offers to guest post on major news sites and in mainstream industry magazines, all more forms to drive traffic to my web of money-making opportunities.

Dennis Becker of Earn1KaDay says:

I tend to get most of my traffic from three place:

1. my email lists

2. from affiliates, and

3. from paid advertising on Facebook (for example promoted posts).

Shannon Cherry of Learn How I Get *Paid* to Attend Events says:

I'm finding social friendly images and short infographics are really making people click links for me right now. People love images and the right ones will draw them in.

A variation on this is that I've been creating new covers for social media platforms as I promote new things. (Super tip: I also create a cover image for my clients as well as we are working on a program, which helps promote my program.)

Dr. Mani of How to Set Goals says:

I've been trying out Bing Ads, and am getting quite a few clicks at affordable rates. The problem is with quality of the traffic, not too great from my testing (but I'm no PPC expert, so I may be doing the wrong things!)

SEO is working best for me, and I've devised a rather effective though simple process which kickstarts traffic to a new project, and keeps it going from adding fresh content for which I repeat the process. Now, I'm NOT talking about a gush of hundreds or thousands of visitors every day. The niches I'm in don't need high numbers, so my focus is on quality and ‘market match' in terms of visitors to the sites.

Jeanette S. Cates, PhD of Sell your Book with an Ecourse says:

I am very focused on writing and selling books right now, so most of my traffic is aimed at making more book sales and the resulting subscribers to the ecourses that go with the books.

Bing and Facebook ads are working for me for book sales, as well as other paid advertising. It's faster and easier than “free” marketing tactics and lets me focus on writing books, rather than articles and blog posts.

Nicole Dean of .. here! says:

The basics are still working really well for me.

1. Create great sexy offers.

Example: One of our more popular offers right now is Sticky Social Media Graphics

2. Make them irrisitible.

You'll see at  Sticky Social Media Graphics we have TONS of value added. Lots of people buy just for one of the bonuses.

3. Have a super-sexy affiliate program that rewards loyal affiliates for their referrals – and tie in affiliate contests regularly.

For instance, at CoachGlue.com right now, we're rewarding our affiliates – yet again. For every $100 in commissions they earn this month, they'll also get a $25 Amazon.com gift card. So, they'll have a little extra spending cash for the holidays. And that's good stuff.

4. Release Portions of the Course that our Affiliates Can Promote.

You can see on of those from our   Sticky Social Media Graphics  course here:

5. Network my butt off to get people to promote.

As you know, I frequently travel to meet new people in our industry. (You can meet me here.)

When I get home, I stay in touch with the people who I connected with and those people usually become my top affiliates on a continual basis – and often vice versa, too.

In addition to that, my list is still my #1 source of regular traffic.

• I write a blog post, and then I tell my lists.
• I create a product, and then I tell my lists.
• I am featured on someone else's site, and I tell my lists.

It's traffic on demand. And, not only that, but it's my OWN peeps who are awesome and already love me. That's better than cold traffic to me any old day.

HOWEVER …

One thing that I have been putting off that I really need to make a priority on is Facebook retargeting. I know that every single day that I put this off, it's money that I could have had in the bank. Plus, implementing it will also help my affiliates earn more money which is hugely important to me, too. So, watch for an update in a few months about “what's working now” – because hopefully I can tell you that the Facebook retargeting is.

One thing surprised me.

No one really talked about Teleseminars or Webinars. What's up with that?

Talk to Me.

What's working for you right now? What are some questions you have about traffic? Let me have it!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

They're basically article outlines or templates that you can “Steal” to write your own content super quickly.

I recommended that you check it out. (I even put together a few samples that you can play with whether you decide to grab them or not.)

What can you do with them?

Use these Article Starters to…

1. Rapidly write unique articles for article marketing.
2. Create new blog posts out of thin air.
3. Write PLR content for your new PLR site.
4. Help your writers to write quicker for you.

You can bet I'll be using them!->  Check them out here

I thought I'd create a few Article Starters that so you can see what the heck it is and why you never need to struggle to write content for your Internet Marketing blog again.

Here you go. My gift for you.

SAMPLE #1: 5-10 of My Favorite Internet Marketers

This is a great format for getting the attention of someone you admire, and for getting them to Tweet/Facebook about your blog.

Intro – Talk about Internet Marketing and what's important to you when finding someone to follow.

Body – (include examples)

List each of your favorite marketers and explain why that person made the list. Feel free to mention me!

Conclusion –  Wrap up by asking your blog readers who their favorites are.

SAMPLE #2: Fiverr.com – What Can you Outsource There?

Intro –  Explain what Fiverr.com is and the benefits of using it.

Body – (include examples)

Talk about some of the things you can easily outsource (cheap) on Fiverr.com

• Graphics
• SEO
• Social Media
• Audio
• Video
• Transcription
• Creative Advertising
• Kindle formatting
• Ecovers
• Getting a caricature made of yourself
• Logos

Conclusion –  Explain that no, Fiverr.com isn't perfect, but it is a great place to meet potential new hires.

SAMPLE #3: My Favorite Podcasts for Internet Marketers

Intro – Talk about how easy it is to consume information when listening via your phone, in your car, while watching your kids practice karate, or at the gym.

Body – List your favorites along with links:

You can find bunches of them here:  http://www.nicoleonthenet.com/12687/podcasts-for-online-business-owners/

Conclusion – Talk about how there are lots of choices to listen to, so don't be afraid to look around for the podcasts that inspire you the most. Then be sure to subscribe to those so you get all the latest episodes.

SAMPLE #4: Facebook Mistakes you're Making in Your Business

Intro – Talk about what a great opportunity Facebook is for online (or offline) businesses, authors, speakers, bloggers, fitness coaches – replace depending on your market.

Body –

• Not having a Page – just using your profile
• Not engaging your readers
• Not using Sticky Social Media Graphics
• Not being consistent in your brand
• Not having a plan for your overall social media
• Not interacting with those who comment
• Not promoting your Facebook page
• Not having a map to your physical location (if appropriate)
• Not making special “Fans only” offers

Conclusion – Don't spend your time on Facebook unless you've got the right pieces in place… here's where you can recommend a course or your own services to have the reader hire you.

Love them?

Here's the link to check out the Easy Article Starters again.

Have a fantastic day! You deserve it.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

We decided to make it a public video for those of you who are curious if the training is simple enough to do yourself.

It doesn't get much easier than this.

The “Keep Calm” website is: http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/

And, to see more videos like this one, grab the training at Sticky Social Media

You can see two samples that I created below:

I hope this gave you some ideas and made you smile.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. Of course, be sure to check out our Sticky Social Media training over at CoachGlue.com to learn about more cool tools like this one. We hope you like it!

She just put together some really cool training called “Social Marketing Results” and I'm digging into it now. In fact, I was sitting out in the hammock in the backyard reading the Guide on my iPad and I had to run in here to my computer to implement something that I had missed.

I asked Lynn if I could send her a few questions for a quick blog interview. Not surprisingly, she graciously and generously agreed.

So I'll hand it over to Lynn Terry – Enjoy!

Social Media Results (Interview)

with Lynn Terry

Nicole: Why does every one of my readers need to be on social media?

Lynn: Social Media is a huge source of exposure & traffic that every business should tap into. A strong objective and a solid strategy could get a new business off the ground super fast, or take any existing business to the next level.

If you're not leveraging Social Media to the max, you're really missing out!

Nicole: Why is this the course that you HAD to create?

Lynn: I have a private mastermind group that I've been working with closely now for almost a decade. Social Media has been a HOT topic in the group lately, and we've been discussing strategies in great detail. I actually set out to create a tutorial for them, for easy reference, but once I got started – it evolved into what I now consider my “Signature Product.”

I discuss that in the video below. While it's a bit long at almost 10 minutes, it's just a casual conversation that gives you an inside look at my history online, and why this product excites me as much as it does!

Regarding: Social Marketing Results

Nicole: How much time should we spend per day?

Lynn: I'm a big believer in using Time Blocks for productivity. I recommend investing a mere 15-30 minutes a day. Having a consistent presence is much more important than the amount of time you spend. And having a focused strategy seriously cuts down the amount of time you *need* to spend.

Nicole: Which sites should we be on, and which should we skip

Lynn: Everyone should be on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ as a bare minimum. I recommend also securing your username at Pinterest and YouTube. And LinkedIn for service based businesses, or those that target professionals.

Which channel you should be on depends on your objective and your market. It boils down to being where those people are, and giving them what they most want and need.

Nicole: What's a big mistake you see when you do look at people who are doing social media but aren't getting results?

Lynn: I see a lot of “mistakes” cross my screen every day, but ultimately I believe it boils down to a lack of understanding – or not knowing how to properly use social media for the best results.

One of the most common “mistakes” is simply broadcasting your links across multiple channels. Basically using it as a micro-distribution channel, without taking full advantage of all the amazing ways social media can give your business a serious boost!

Nicole: How do you recommend that people track the results from their social  marketing?

Lynn: Tracking organic (free, non-paid) social marketing efforts has been a hot topic over the years. There is a way to set up tracking through Google Analytics. That said, there are some metrics that simply cannot be tracked, such as: loyalty, true engagement, brand awareness, etc.

There are also WAY more benefits to social media marketing than just the number of likes, shares, comments, etc that you can rack up. While stats are good, they give you a very limited overview of your true success with a proper Social Media Marketing Plan.

Nicole: What about automation?

Lynn: There are very few instances where I recommend automation. I cover this in my guide, along with resources to make automation super easy.

But in most cases, you want to post updates to each social channel manually, to get the most out of it. It literally only takes a few seconds to do, which I demonstrate in my training video and the live examples in the PDF guide.

Nicole: Can you please share some examples of results that YOU have gotten from Social Media.

Lynn: One of my favorite examples to share is on my niche account – I have a low carb / travel blog. I was fairly new in that niche (an “unknown”) by the way. I sent out one tweet, which got noticed by a major brand AND a major market leader in my niche (due to proper strategy!) and resulted in unsolicited recommendations from them both!

What was meant to be a fun small promotion (and honestly, a test) attracted over 1,000 new highly targeted members to the Facebook group in ONE day! Was I prepared for that kind of response?? NO! (lol) But hey – that's one of those “good problems” we all like to have.

This is just one of the examples I show in great detail inside Social Marketing Results. It's a highly detailed training course that will work in any niche, with any business model – even if you do Social Media as a service for clients. (They'll love you for the results!!)

I am also helping members implement the strategies, with hands-on help in our private Facebook group, which has been a lot of fun so far.

If you're ready to stop wasting time, and start seeing RESULTS on social media… join us! You'll be amazed when you learn what all you can really achieve – and in much less time than you think.

Nicole: Why should everyone reading this sign up for your training?

Lynn: If you want to dramatically increase website traffic, make more sales, get more links, improve your search engine rankings, waste less time, and grow your business even faster… you should definitely check out Social Marketing Results!

Here's the link to check it out:  Get Social Media Results

Well there you have it, my friends.

Take what you want from what Lynn said. I agree with it all.

And, if you are interested in her course, you can see more details here: Get Social Media Results

Note! If you sign up now, you get 6 additional calls digging even deeper into the social media sites.

Talk soon.

Warmly,

Nicole Dean

PS. Here's what just a few of her students had to say about the training:

Here's the link again to check out Lynn's Training:

Get Social Media Results

PS again. Still not sure that there's any marketing benefit to being on Facebook?

1. Facebook currently has 845 million active users.
Source: infographiclabs.com Facebook 2012 Infographic

2. Facebook accounts for 1 out of every 5 pageviews on the internet worldwide.
Source: infographiclabs.com Facebook 2012 Infographic

3. Facebookusers share over 100 billion connections collectively.
Source: infographiclabs.com Facebook 2012 Infographic

4. Over 50% of the population in North American uses Facebook.
Source: infographiclabs.com Facebook 2012 Infographic

5. 250 million photos are uploaded to Facebook daily.
Source: infographiclabs.com Facebook 2012 Infographic

6. There are 2.7 billion likes every single day on Facebook.
Source: infographiclabs.com Facebook 2012 Infographic

7. The social media giant has 425 million mobile users.
Source: infographiclabs.com Facebook 2012 Infographic

8. The average Facebook user spends 20 minutes on the site per visit
Source: infographiclabs.com Facebook 2012 Infographic

Get Results:   Social Media Results

This may be a year old, but it's still pretty darned impressive.

Check this out…

Facebook 2012 InfographicbyInfographiclabs

Here's the link one more time to check out:   Social Media Results

If you write a great blog post, people will share it.

Unfortunately… even your biggest fans rarely click the “Share” buttons and instead many will use the good ol' copy & paste buttons.

That used to stink, because they would run off with your content and you would get nothing in return. But now, that's changed.

In fact, as you will see, people are welcome to copy and paste my content into Facebook, email, or even forums as much as they want now – thanks to a new plugin that I've been using on this blog for a few weeks.

Here's a quick video (3 minutes) that shows you how this plugin can help you to get more traffic from your fans.

(Click on the image below to play the very short video.)

If you want to grab this plugin, check it out here

Click here to Get More Traffic with this Plugin

If you don't feel like watching the video, you can understand the gist by reading the sales page at the link above.

What exactly does this plugin do?

Basically, when people copy and paste your content to share via email or Facebook or even on forums, the plugin magically adds a link to your blog inside the pasted text.

Go ahead and try it.

Copy and paste part of this blog post into Facebook to see it in action. I don't mind one bit.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

If you've missed past Expert Briefs, you can click on the undies to see them all –>

I've been buying up a bunch of solo ads the last few weeks. That led me to wonder…

Do you buy Advertising? If so, what kinds? What's your biggest tip for success?

Any stories of lessons learned the hard way?

Here are the responses.

Jeanette S. Cates, PhD of Organize Your Online Business says:

Yes, I buy advertising. It's faster and more dependable than relying on free traffic only.

I've advertised on Google Adwords, as well as Bing. Now I tend to stick with small banner ads so that I can spread a wider net. I use those through several advertising networks so that they appear on blogs with content related to the product I'm advertising.

I also advertise on Facebook. I advertise my pages, sometimes a post, and often an event. Facebook ads are fast and easy to set up and are a great way to get started.

I think the critical thing is to start with an attractive banner. Definitely pay for a professional to do this for you. Then just jump in with a $10-20 ad. Everyone can afford that in your marketing budget.

If you don't get started you'll never know how helpful it is to control where your traffic is coming from and how much is coming. It's a very powerful feeling to know you're in control – and not at the mercy of the search engines. So forget those horror stories of people accidentally spending thousands of dollars on ads – set your daily limit to what you CAN afford and start now!

Terry Dean of My Marketing Coach says:

You're on a subject I'm passionate about. This may surprise readers, but I personally prefer paid advertising over free advertising. Everything you do in business requires an investment of time and/or money. Both free and paid advertising can be great opportunities so you're find me participating in both.
Time is limited. Money is not. If I invest an hour in a content piece, there is a limit to how many hours I can invest. If I spend $1,000 on an ad and it brings back that much or more, it can keep running and growing.

I've used solo ads, Adwords, Bing, Facebook, remarketing, pay-per-view, direct banner purchases, magazines, and direct mail. And I'm sure I'm forgetting others.

The biggest advantage to buying media is how it changes your mindset to force you to think about your conversion numbers from landing page to backend sales. You need the ad to at least pay for itself either immediately or in a trackable time frame such as 30 to 90 days.

Here are a few lessons I could give for anyone getting started with buying ads:

1. Never spend a penny on advertising that isn't being tracked. I use several different tracking programs such as 1SC's ad tracker. For example, we buy a unique domain name and redirect it through an ad tracker when running offline ads such as a postcard to a cold list.

2. Keep your investment as small as possible initially. Set daily budgets you're comfortable losing for daily ads. On something like solo ads or a magazine ad, buy the smallest option they offer. If you can buy a mailing to 5,000 or 20,000, choose the 5,000 the first time you run anywhere. On a magazine, but the 1/8th page size first. Every source of traffic is a new test no matter how effective your ad has been in other locations.

3. Reverse-engineer competitors in the same spots. It's easiest to explain in Adwords or magazines. Check the competition that is constantly running month-after-month. Analyze their landing page. Subscribe to their list. Even buy a product. See where the money is coming from. Look at what else is offered. How can you include everything required in the market while also giving a unique angle to what you offer? On an email list, subscribe to it. Look at what else is offered.

4. If you sell any type of information product or service, you will find pushing the optin is more profitable than going for the direct sale in most situations. Physical products can more often be promoted directly. If your competitors all push an optin, try to be more unique by running a “quiz” or something else else customized to get the email.

5. The name of the game is testing and optimization. It's a rare occasion where an ad succeeds right out of the gate. Improve each step in your funnel and watch your results multiply. Let's take a solo ad. You can change where you run the ads (which newsletters), the solo ad text you use, your landing page, your immediate offer, and your email follow-up. By the time you have a winning campaign, you likely improved in all those categories.

6. Test shouts instead of whispers. You've probably heard someone talk about how a certain color headline increased their response. Fine. But the first tests you should do are the BIG ones such as a completely different offer, complete change in headline style, or a change in the first photo people see.

7. The ad source I've consistently seen clients produce the most profits from are remarketing campaigns. A 3:1 or 4:1 profits to expense ratio isn't uncommon. Remarketing is where you cookie your visitors and then you can follow them around the web showing your banners to them. If you visit a site about “running shoes,” you may find yourself surrounded by banners about those running shoes even if you're checking the weather, reading a blog, or at a forum about dogs. If you have enough traffic to make it worthwhile, you could only tag people who land on your optin thank you page or perhaps people who went to your shopping cart.

Terry Dean teaches high level stuff like this at  –> My Marketing Coach.

This is a re-run of Kim's answer last year when I asked this question, since I think she's pretty darned smart. (The details may have changed a bit over time, but the strategy is solid.)

Kim Roach of Traffic Dashboard says:

I started experimenting with paid advertising in 2010. My favorites include Warrior Special Offers, Solo Ads, and banner ads.

Personally, pay-per-click is way out of my skill set

But solo ads and WSO’s I can do.

The key is knowing your numbers.

I use Hypertracker to test every traffic source individually. So, for example, if I’m placing a solo ad in someone else’s newsletter I will create a unique tracking link in Hypertracker so that I know exactly how many clicks, subscribers, and sales were generated from that particular traffic source.

For example, with our latest product launch of the Traffic Dashboard I’ve been doing a combined blitz of Warrior Forum Special Offers and Warrior Forum Banner Ads. Using this combination we’ve done a little over 100 sales just from the Warrior Forum alone – making them one of our top affiliates. But since this was paid advertising there wasn’t actually an affiliate link in place.

Maybe I should ask Allen if he’d like to become an affiliate

The WF Banner Ads are a new advertising option that has recently been introduced by the Warrior Forum and it costs $100 to have your banner displayed for a full 24 hours.

Not bad for being able to position yourself in front of THE most popular Internet Marketing forum online.

And based on my stats from Hypertracker, we’ve been generating AT LEAST $200 in profit for every ad we place. So that means I spend $100 and get at least $300 back.

As you can imagine, I’ll do that all day long as long as I’m generating a profit.

But, it is a little bit tough to get a WF Banner spot – they stay full most of the time.

I wonder why

So that’s been a HUGE discovery for 2010.

We also did a number of solo ads in 2010 – which I plan on scaling even further in 2011. Again, it’s really just a numbers game. If you’re going to do paid advertising you MUST know your numbers.

If you’re not tracking everything down to the click, you’re really flying blind when it comes to paid advertising.

But start tracking properly and you’ll be able to zone in on the critical few that bring you the most results.

Nicole Dean of .. here! .. says:

One of the ways to reduce your taxable income (and therefore reduce the amount you pay this year in taxes) is to spend money at the end of the year.

My favorite thing to spend money on is advertising – simply because it means that I'll make more money next year from my sales funnels.

What Kind of Ads to Buy?

I’m going to focus here on email advertising. And, the only kind of email advertising I buy are “solo ads” (which are ads where my promotion is the only thing showing in the email itself). I do not buy email ads that are “top ads” (where you ad is on the top of the email) or “classified ads” (where there are a group of ads at the bottom of the email).

I also don’t do “ad swaps” (which is trading mailings with other marketers) with anyone outside of my personal JV relationships (which are people I personally know and trust). I’m highly protective of my online family and it's my personal choice not to sacrifice that in order to build my lists.

So, where do I find advertising opportunities?

I've been buying up oodles of advertising the last few weeks. The place that I've been using, I found through Tony Shepherd, and I really like it so far, because it's EASY to use.

It is really only good for Internet Marketing and business types of traffic. So, if you're in the health or parenting niches, then you're not going to find what you need.

Click here to check it out -> Buy Solo Ads. Sell Solo Ads. Swap Ads.

I did not upgrade, personally, because I'm not planning on selling ads nor in swapping ads. I just wanted to buy them at this time.

However, if you do want to sell ads to your list OR swap, then the upgrade is totally worth it.

I'm very pleased with the service so far.

Here's how it works to buy an ad.

1. Find a seller.

You can browse by sellers. Each person has a profile that shows how many clicks they have available for purchase or swap and how much it costs per 100 clicks.

So, for Phillip here, he has 100 clicks available for purchase. (His list is larger than that. That's just the number he's willing to sell.)

He charges $30 per 100 clicks. That's a great deal if you know what a sales funnel is and how to use it.

Note: There are a few things to point out that you should look at here.

1. The ratings. Be sure to choose sellers with positive ratings.
2. Last login. You want someone who's active in here if you're buying from them.

2. Click on “Buy Solo”.

When I find someone who I want to buy an ad from, I click on “Buy Solo” and it takes me to a place to submit (reserve) my ad. In buying over 5000 clicks, I've only had one seller refuse my ad.

Here's what that screen looks like.

• You choose a date and time from available options.
• Either choose a swipe that you've already entered in your settings or click “Edit” to add your solo email copy.
• Choose the number of clicks you want which will automatically update your price.
• Then “commit to buy”.

3. You pay.

After your seller accepts your ad, you have a few days to pay. You'll get a notice in your email that the seller has accepted your ad.

Important. You log into your dashboard and pay through there. That way the system will know you've paid for that ad.

4. You get notification.

After you pay, you get a notice that the seller has added your solo ad to their queue.

5. You keep an eye on things the days your solos run.

The system spits out the ad WITH a tracking link in it for the people to send out. (That's how the site tracks how many clicks you actually get.)

So, you sit back and watch your clicks add up. You can see where which countries your clicks are coming from, as well. The service also filters out odd clicks to make sure you only get real ones.

It may take a few days to get all of your clicks. If it's going slow, don't be afraid to contact the seller to make sure they're on top of it. (Nicely.)

6. You rate the seller.

After your ad runs and all of the clicks have been delivered, you go in and rate the seller as “Good”, assuming they were. If they were not good, you have the option of giving no rating (by clicking on “none” in the rating area) or giving them a bad rating.

Click here to check it out -> Buy Solo Ads. Sell Solo Ads. Swap Ads.

Things to Watch out For and Note.

Refer back to Terry's list. Don't go willy nilly buying ads. Please.

1. Make sure you have an offer that's monetized well – building your OWN list. Do not just send traffic to an affiliate program.

2. Start by buying 100 ads with someone before going crazy with 700-2000 clicks. Their list may not be the best fit for your product.  I went a bit overboard on this, because I wanted to test the service fast so I could decide whether to proceed or not. So, I bought more.

3. Test. Test everything so you can tweak quickly and adjust before the next block of ads run.  I could have done better with this, but am happy with my first few runs so far.

4. Follow-up. Make sure you have several autoresponder messages in your sequence so that your new list members get lots of goodies from you.

So how about you? 

Do you buy advertising? Got any tips or hints for me?

I would love to hear what you have to say about it.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

PS. A Word (or Two) of Common Sense Before I Leave You.

First let me just say that I don’t willy-nilly spend hours on this. It’s one piece of my entire marketing portfolio – and, as I always say “Do what works and ignore the noise”.

If you're brand new and don't have a marketing funnel, please get that info place first.

And, on the other hand, if you’re getting killer results from video marketing or article marketing, guest blogging, getting interviewed on teleseminars or webinars, recruiting affiliates, getting JV partners, or, writing & submitting press releases, then just read this post and set it aside as a tool that you can pull out and use another day. The last thing I want to do is send you off on a wild goose chase to research advertising if you’re better served to go recruit some new affiliates instead today.

That is all. Have a GREAT day!

What is CommentLuv?

Well, it is a WordPress plugin that allows you to feature your commenters more and give them a little extra love.

There is a free version and an upgraded version, as well that you can see here:  Comment Luv Plugin

Show Me an Example of CommentLuv.

For instance, here is a comment made yesterday on my post about working from home for long periods of time (like weeks or months). Notice the red arrow. William got an extra link directly to his most recent blog post.

So, what does this mean to me if I'm using blog commenting as a traffic method?

If you are leaving blog comments in an effort to generate more traffic to your site, you can do two things.

1. Write really sexy headlines.

2. Comment on blogs that have CommentLuv enabled.

The combination of the two can attract more traffic from the efforts that you're already putting in.

How do you find blogs that have CommentLuv installed and enabled?

That's where I'm going to help. I started three lists on List.ly that can become valuable resources – with your help.

They are:

• Business Blogs
• Health Blogs
• Mom & Parenting Blogs
• Self Improvement Blogs
• Travel Blogs

THESE LISTS ARE INTERACTIVE! That means that you can click “Like” and add your favorite blogs, too!

How do you Add your Blog to these Lists?

Do you want to attract more commenters to your blog? If so, you'll want to add your blog to my lists.

Here's how…

First, you figure out which list is most relevant to you.

• If there is a list above where your blog fits, keep reading.
• If I haven't created a list for your genre, leave a comment and I just may do so and add it here if there's enough people in that niche/market.

Once you've figured out which list you want to add your blog to, it's simple.

1. Click on the “Add to List” button. It's big and pink. You can't miss it.

2. Choose “Item with Link” option.

3. Enter your URL and hit “Go”.

4. Fill in the blanks.

• Choose a picture. (If you don't have a good option, you can edit after you save.)
• Item Name – remember this is a link to your site for SEO, but you also want good copy.
• Item Note – a sexy little description to make people click (I recommend you enter one.)
• Tags – optional, but always nice.

5. Click “Add Item”.

Do you Like my List.ly Lists?

You can embed any of my lists on your blogs – free. Share great interactive content with your readers – and be the “go to” expert in your field.

Action Items.

1. Bookmark this page so that you can come back in the future and find blogs where you should comment.

2. Install CommentLuv and then add your blog to the List.ly lists if you wish.

3.  Leave a comment below to tell me if you use blog commenting as a strategy – and how it's working for you or if you have questions or tips.

That's all for today.

Yes, there will be more lists coming… I've got to learn how to use this thing if I'm going to be able to recommend it in the future.

Have a beautiful day. You deserve it.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

Recommended Resource

Are you Ready to Learn More Tips to Make
Blogging Faster and More Productive?

Click here to check out Blog CPR!

But, many of my friends don't bother to create graphics because they “Don't work”.

Well, they do not work as well as getting someone with a huge list to do a promotional mailing for you. That is true.

BUT – don't forget about the guys who just want to stick up a banner ad on their blogs and move along.

Here are some affiliate stats from my program at www.EasyPLR.com from inside my shopping cart to show you that it can definitely be worth it to create a few graphics for your affiliates to use. The thing is that I created these awhile ago and have not touched them since. So it's essentially “free” money now.

Now these numbers are not staggering, by any means. BUT – it does show that it's worth it to go onto Fiverr.com or to your favorite graphics person and whip a few graphics up.

I have 17 graphics available for EasyPLR.com affiliates. Here are just a few of them. Click on the screenshots to see them larger if you can't read the numbers clearly.

The most important stat to note on this page is the “SALES” column. Those are customers being added to my database who can order repeatedly. (That's huge.)

118 sales

 18 sales.

55 sales.

423 sales.

89 sales.

169 sales

376 sales.

644 sales.

Obviously you want to have graphics that have a call to action on them and are descriptive of the product.  But, don't give up on graphics just because some guru told you that banners were dead. It was definitely worth it to me to have these created.

Hey, if you want to promote EasyPLR.com I'd love to have you as an affiliate. Check out the program here: EasyPLR.com Affiliate Program Details

Have a fabulous day!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean