Internet Marketing - A Truth About Advertising, Traffic and JV's

As promised, the following is an article from guest author Steven Wagenheim, an experienced and well-respected Internet marketer. I realize that this is a long post, but feel you'll understand and want to read every detail.

I also encourage you to check out Steven's latest offering "My Secret Articles", a complete Internet marketing PLR package.

Kimberly

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By Steven Wagenheim

I have made a comprehensive study of just about every advertising method that there is online available to use today.

Without going into a lot of detail, suffice it to say, there is not one method of advertising that is going to bring you a boat load of traffic short of PPC advertising, which I do very little of because as far as I am concerned, it's way overpriced.

The people who are making tons of money in this business are the ones who have built up nice sized lists over time, using a variety of methods and then leverage those lists to hook up with the big names in the industry. Then, one email to a list of 50,000 prospects can bring in more sales than 6 months of regular advertising using the standard methods online.

I make a 5 figure a month income using every piece of advertising online that I can think of and also by having a catalogue of my own products that could choke a horse. I have yet, in 4 1/2 years had a big name marketer promote any of my products to their list. I don't even ask anymore.

Now, I have gotten a few JV proposals over the last couple of weeks, but they were solely to create NEW products and do a true JV. But nobody yet to this day has ever said, "Hey, I got a 50,000 list. Let me promote your product to it." It's not going to happen unless you first go out of your way to do a lot for the person FIRST, expecting nothing in return, and then maybe, when they see that you're a giving person, they might make an offer.

But the point is, the holy grail you're looking for doesn't exist. If you want to get a boat load of traffic without JV partners or super affiliates
promoting your products and services, you have to use every piece of advertising resource out there. None of them are great, but some are good and others are so-so.

If you want a list of every kind of advertising that I use successfully, here it is.

Article Marketing - Very good
FFA Hosting - Good
Safelists - so-so
Message Boards - so-so
Forum Participation - Very Good
Ezine Solo Ads - depends on Ezine (very uncertain)
Traffic Exchanges - good if done correctly (but dangerous because of trojans)
Social Bookmarking - varies depending on the niche and your creativity.
Conventioal SEO - Hard work and takes a long time but in the long run, very good

There are other things you can do but I don't do them or do very little of them.

The reality is, there is no slam dunk knock 'em out of the park method of promotion other than putting in the necessary hard work to make friends in the industry.

Sure, you can go and spend thousands of dollars on Pay Per Click and solo ads to Ezines and Safelists, but unless you've thoroughly tested your product and sales letter to make sure it converts, you could be throwing your money away. And if you're into affiliate marketing, well, then you're up against every Tom, Dick and Harry promoting the same product.

Are you getting the feeling from all I've said that this isn't easy?

If so, you're right. It's not. It's damn hard.

I'm very proud of the kind of money I make online, virtually with almost no help. I don't even have a boat load of affiliates promoting my products. I do almost everything myself. My advertising schedule that I go through everyday would knock most people's eyes out. I leave no stone unturned, including hitting every top message board on the Internet for each niche I am in. Having about 10 of my own products (actually I have no idea how many
as I have lost count) certainly helps too.

And yet with all of that, with all those products, with all my advertising resources (I write 10 articles everyday alone) I still only make about $300 plus each day.

There are people out there who make that much in an hour because they are so leveraged across the Internet. They don't have to bother with PPC. They don't have to bother with safelists or message boards or forums or even write articles. They have a big enough list, enough backlinks and enough affiliates promoting their products that they pretty much never have to lift a finger again as far as personal "advertising" goes.

Did they work hard to get to where they are?

Yes, very hard and are to be applauded for where they have come.

But make no mistake about it...their first REALLY big break came the day they got a Mike Filsaime or a Willie Crawford to promote one of their products. If you want that to happen, go to a seminar. I can't because I am housebound. So I have to do things the hard way.

This is the reality. It's the reality that many marketers don't want to admit to because if they told their prospects this, they wouldn't buy their products. I mean think about it...

"You're telling me the only way I can be REALLY successful is to hook up with a big name marketer? In that case, why should I buy your product since it won't really help me that much?"

Know how many sales I lose because I tell people this?

TONS!

Know how many I get because of my honesty?

TONS!

And that's why I earn a 5 figure a month income.

Yes, it could be more...much more. But in my view, and this is just my view, if you rely on others for your success, you're looking for trouble.

This needed to be said. I know there will be some who will say I am wrong, and that's fine...but I've been doing the "let's find the slam dunk form of advertising so I can make a fortune" for 4 years plus and let me tell you, it doesn't exist, not unless you have a killer sales page, fully tested to convert like mad and spend a fortune on PPC traffic, because those are the people, in theory anyway, who are really looking to buy.

I have no idea if this post has been any help to you or anyone else here...

But this was more important to say.

At least I think so.

Hope it helped.