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Link Popularity Tools In this era of diminished banner value, growing internet marketing expenses, and a consistently expanding level of competition online, the need for new means of generating affordable visitor traffic has resulted in the creation of many a promotional resource. The exit exchange is one such resource, creating an opportunity for much needed exposure and branding for the startup web entrepreneur. Is an exit exchange the tool your property has been waiting for? Let’s explore the nature of this all too often maligned resource. What in the Blazes is it? Remember the good, old fashioned banner exchange? The banner exchange has been around nearly as long as banners themselves, and in the days where visitors would actually take note and visit the advertised properties, these exchanges played a strong role in the promotion of many a web site. A variety of ratios were offered by different exchange networks, with the most common being 2:1, or you show our banners on your site twice, we will show yours once somewhere within our network. The other 50% of available impressions were often relegated to the promotion of the network itself, or sold to outside interests. Enter the exit exchange. With the advent of the java based pop up window, many web sites took advantage of the opportunity to heighten value for advertisers by opening an additional window upon arrival to, or exit from a site, usually featuring information from an paying advertiser. With response rates to banner ads on the downslide, the hope was that pop ups would result in an improved reaction, and thus a higher potential revenue from advertisers. The reality was a little different. Though many properties continue to make use of page load based pop ups, the risk of doing so often outweighs their true value in achieving improved advertising revenues. Reaction to pop ups by internet travellers was inherently negative, often resulting in an immediate exit from the property as a reward for creating annoyance within their ranks. With visitor acquisition, and satisfaction playing such a strong role in Internet success, most customer savvy web businesses opted to discontinue the use of pop ups as an advertising medium, although many continue to use them as a means of bringing information of TRUE VALUE to the attention of their clientele upon arrival. But the pop up junkies were not yet done with us. If the page load pop up was too much of a visitor annoyance, why not load the ads when they leave? The thinking was that at the time of exit, the visitor has accomplished whatever they intended at your property, and therefore the annoyance would be of less risk to your revenue base, while maintaining the potential for advertising dollars. As an additional purported bonus, pop ups loaded upon exit avoid the problem of screened site content, an area of concern to those initially utilizing them upon page load. Isn’t this a fantastic idea? The correct answer here is… maybe? Research indicates a clear level of displeasure amongst Internet users with any advertiser based pop up window, be it generated upon entry to, or, to a somewhat lesser degree, exit from a property. To presume that the departing guest is no longer of value is like telling every customer you serve that you are only interested in serving them once, and have a nice day. The reality is that no business can thrive without the all important combination of repeat customer, and word of mouth advertising. As such, to deliver a negative experience following a potentially positive site experience otherwise should be weighed against the value of the inclusion of the exit exchange. With the exit based pop up window forming what is essentially your client’s final impression, a clear understanding of your visitor preferences, and their potential future value, must be added into the equation. There is without a doubt a time and place for everything. Pop up windows upon entry and exit continue to be utilized by thousands of site owners, and have proved their value in specific circumstances. The exchange concept itself can generate a tremendous amount of payback for the savvy webmaster. With a range of ratios available today, as well as the multi-tiered models that allow credits for traffic generated by other webmasters that sign up based upon your recommendation, the concept itself can assist the newcomer to the market in establishing their presence, and in ensuring their own online success. Take the time to research your options, and keep your visitors in mind throughout your decision making process. As is true in life, moderation can prove to be of ultimate value in business, and can make the difference in its ability to profit today, and in the future. Would you like to use this article on your site, or have it emailed to you?   Related Subjects: Online’s complete web site promotion directory Implement a banner exchange     top of link popularity page

Which Mistakes Are You Making with Ezine Ads? Jason Mann Ezine advertising has been glorified by experts the world over as the last refuge for the little guy/gal to make a buck online. Well, I hate to deliver bad news, and please don’t shoot the messenger, but there are some draw backs to ezine advertising. Let’s look at the most common mistakes and their solutions. Mistake #1: Not Tracking Your Ads Many business owners have no idea how they can track every ad they place. Whether for an affiliate program or their own product, they just don’t know. Not knowing what ad is working and producing the sale will cost you and your business thousands of dollars. When you know what ad produces and what ad doesn’t you can cut the worst of the ads and only keep the ad or ads that produce for your business. Solution: If you own your own web site and domain name, you can track every ad by creating a special redirect link that is only used in that ad. Or you can add a question mark to the end of the URL and check that on your stats page. A simple domainname.com/pagename.html?trackingcodehere will suffice in most cases. Check with your web host to see if have access to your web site stats log. Or sign up for one of the free/fee tracking services online. Mistake #2: Writing me-too ads When writing your ad you must take your ego, your desire to boast about you and your company, out of the equation. An example of a me-too ad: “Acme Law Offices have been in business for 20 years. Our staff of lawyers all graduated from Harvard Law School with honors. Call us at 1-800-acme-law today!” Solution: Write benefit and results oriented ads. Example: “Guaranteed Settlements! Win your settlement guaranteed and save 43% on attorney fees by calling ACME Law Offices at: (blah,blah, blah)” This ad focuses completely on the end result, the main benefit. Guaranteed Settlements. Which ad do you think would pull more responses? Mistake #3: Running Classifieds Since they don’t cost much, business owners tend to use classifieds to save costs. Classifieds are cheap, $5-$20 per ad, and in most cases run faster than solo or top sponsor ads because the ezine publisher runs 10-20 per issue. What’s not so commonly known is the fact classified sections are often times scanned by the reader (I scan past them every time) and get very little eye time. Solution: Run Solo or Top sponsor ads. These ads get more exposure. They are exclusive (solo mailings) or only have 2-3 (sponsor ads) per issue spaced out between the content. Mistake #4: Going for large subscriber bases Large subscriber stats are impressive. 30,000 subscribers is a ton of eye balls and the potential to return a profit is greatly increased. Well, this is completely untrue. A recent test we ran took our breath away. We spent $180 on a solo ad to a subscriber base in a general marketing publication of 30,000 subscribers. We ran that same solo ad for $65 in an ezine about pop-up marketing strategies with a subscriber base of 1200. Ad #1 to 30,000+ brought back $0! Ad #2 to 1200 specifically targeted subscribers brought back $900 in pure profit! Solution: While tons of subscribers may seem like the right way to go, before you invest money, check out smaller, highly targeted ezines and test your ads in those. You’ll save money and odds are your returns will be greater. Mistake #5: Running your ad once When I first started advertising ezines I would run one ad one time, if it didn’t produce results I would switch ezines and run the ad again. This was how I tested the ad. Many business owners are doing the same thing today. By running the ad only once, you’re cutting your chances to profit in half. By running it 2-3-4 times, even if the first run didn’t make a profit, gives your ad more exposure. Readers will “think” it’s producing because you ran it more than one time, therefore other subscribers must have thought it was worth looking at, helping your ad to produce. Solution: Run every ad at least twice. Then instead of switching ezines, switch ads. Run that ad twice. Do this with all your ads. You’ll be surprised to find the ezine actually produces profits for one ad and not another. So now you can run that ad 4-5-6 times and squeeze more profits from the ezine. Ezine advertising is profitable. It takes testing, tracking, solo or top sponsor placements, and more testing to pin point ezines with high sales ratios. Don’t give up on the ezine just because a successful ad from another test didn’t work. Place another ad, test it, test another, and so on. All you need is 5 to 10 profitable ezines and you’ll increase sales and profits for your business. About The Author: Jason Mann is a profitability consultant who works with small and medium web business to increase their overall profit using easy to deploy, cost effective marketing strategies. Visit his web site at: http://www.innersanctumeletter.com for more helpful information about web marketing. Related Subjects: Find niche Ezine Advertising opportunities in our directory Launch your online store – learn more on ecommerce     top of ezine advertising article