Redefining Free Promotion

By Andy Brocklehurst
Posted Saturday, August 28, 2004

This is something that's been on my mind to write for some time. I want to explain a way of getting the HIGHEST quality free advertising for your site, product or e-zine.

You see, when most people talk about free advertising or promotion on the Internet they think about free classifieds, FFA pages, and the like. All of which may or may not have some merit, but the real trick behind promoting for free is not to necessarily get the ads for free, but to get them without any cash out of your own pocket.

Here's one example for e-zine subscription building;

Joe has an e-zine started. He has picked up 200 subscribers initially from announcing it on announcement lists, newsgroups, on his web site, writing articles, etc.

The next thing that Joe does is search the e-zine directories for e-zines that have between 200 and 600 subscribers and are connected with his e-zine topic. He e-mails some of the owners of those e-zines and asks about ad-swaps. In the case of the big ones he is honest, and says he only has 200 subscribers, but since they have two or three times more he will run 3 of their ads to 1 of his in their e-zine, or he offers them a top sponsor slot in exchange for a regular ad spot in theirs - basically anything to make the deal attractive to them.

He builds his subscriber base to 500 nice and quickly and repeats the exercise only now he looks for e-zines to swap with who have between 500 and 1500 subscribers.

Once Joe gets over the 1000 mark he can offer paid advertising and be taken seriously. He offers ad space at a very competitive rate and sells a few sponsor slots at $10 - $15 a time.

Now the mistake many make here is they spend those small profits. DON'T.

Joe now takes the profits from three ad slots and finds a big e-zine that wouldn't swap, but will sell a sponsor slot for $40 and reach 3,500+ people.

By now Joe knows which ads pull the best because he's been using them and monitoring the results. He uses his best ad and hands over his $45. He builds his list further and now reaches 2,000 himself. He now puts his ad prices up and repeats the process. For every 3 ads he sells he spends those profits on 1 ad in an e-zine two - three times bigger than his.

See how Joe is buying $45, $60, $100 ads but has never outlayed a dime out of pocket? That's SMART free promotion.

Apply this same technique to other advertising.

It's easy to apply this same technique in other ways. For example, if you have a product to sell, use really free ways to get an initial few orders. But DO NOT get all excited and go spend your profits. Take some or all of the profits and buy better advertising. It keeps rolling, and eventually you're spending a few hundred dollars a time, but the return on the investment is ten fold or better.

I love free promotion, but only when it's defined properly. I hope this article inspires you to re-define in your own mind what free promotion really is.

About the Author
Andy Brocklehurst is the creator of the Inner Room. A marketing super-site that's packed with practical ideas, tips and the tools you need to succeed with your own online business. (http://www.succeed4u.com)