Top 7 Free Site Promotion Methods That Aren't Worth The Time

There are a lot of free promotion opportunities out there. How do you know which ones are worth pursuing and which aren't? While a lot depends on the nature of your offer and the power of your headline and sales message, your time is limited. Why not focus on free promotions that work?

Look at it this way. Some afternoon, you COULD take a stack of brochures to the top of a very tall building, fold them into paper airplanes, and send them out into the wild blue yonder. How many responses do you think you'd get? The single biggest problem with most of these is the fact that you're sending paper airplanes out into the blue. Flying blind.

I've tried all of these, and frankly, most of them aren't worth the bother. Oh, they've brought in a few subscribers, which I appreciate :-), and the price in dollars was right (free), but the price in time and aggravation was too high.

1. FFA Blasters -- This one brought an avalanche of "confirmations" promoting everything from gifting clubs to chain letters. The ratio of "offers" to "subscribers" was about 500 to 1.
   
   
2. One-click Classified Postings -- Once again, an avalanche of "now-that-I-have-your-email-address-let me-tell-you-about-MY- OFFER" emails.
   
   
3. Safe lists -- Okay, I'll admit, I was a little naive on this one. Always WONDERED what "filters" were on the email menu. Take the word of someone who found out the HARD way -- learn how to use filters BEFORE you subscribe to safelists! The ultimate avalanche!
   
   
4. Safe message boards -- No avalanche, but not much response either. Is anybody out there?
   
   
5. Submission sites -- Okay, they SAY they submitted my URL to some search engines but I can't even find the search engine let alone my listing. So, who knows?
   
   
6. FFA Sites - one at a time -- More effective than the "blast" method -- probably because they aren't being "blasted" with everybody else's stuff so fast that listings disappear in a matter of minutes.
   
   
7. Classified sites - one at a time -- Also more effective than "blasting" to classified sites, but not much. So far, the best use I've found for classified sites is testing headlines -- if it gets response from a classified site, it REALLY gets response elsewhere.
   
   Now, I'll admit, I'm still fine-tuning the advertising plan here. Some people may have GREAT response with the above -- IF they have a great (preferably unique) offer, an automated system for filtering, responses, follow-up, etc. and MOST OF ALL a DYNAMITE HEADLINE -- because if it doesn't get OPENED, or CLICKED, it doesn't get READ.
   
   BONUS TIP
   
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   • If you're running Windows 95 on an older computer, be sure to empty your "temp" and "history" files often when doing ad posting marathons. That's another one I learned the hard way!

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