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I've been hearing a lot of horror stories lately about people spending a lot of money on advertising that gets them no sales. If you're going through this I have a few tips that may help you out.

First of all, do free advertising and make money from that before you start spending a lot on advertising. This should be a no-brainer, but I guess it's not for a lot of folks. Yes, it takes money to make money, but be smart about it for crying out loud. Have a budget and only spend what you can afford. There are better things like "how to" information to invest your cash in before you blindly buy ad space. Get educated, then spend.

Don't use FFA's (free ad sites). They'll only bring you spam, not sales. I hear that some people have luck with them, I never have. Even if you get a little response from them, I still don't think it's worth all the spam you get.

The best way to do free advertising is to start an ezine and swap ads with other ezines. Some good places to visit for swaps are:
http://www.BizPromo.com/EzineTrades.htm
http://www.Ezine-Swap.com
mailto:EzineADSwap@t...

You can get an autoresponder at aweber http://www.aweber.com/?27526 for as little as $10.95 a month. Start out publishing at least twice a month to make it worthwhile.

You should do this even before you get a website. Bob Gatchell, the "internet cheapskate," built his business this way in the beginning and got a site after he was making thousands a month on the internet. You can see what he does now at: http://www.internetcheapskate.com/cgi-bin/salesmgr.cgi?id=19676

You can find a lot of free resources on how to put together an ezine. You can also sign up for one's that look interesting to you and model yours after them. So a search for "ezine directories" and pick out some you want to subscribe to. Here's a list of some great resources:
http://www.Lifestylespub.com/mcp/
http://www.E-zinedirectory.com/
http://www.Webscoutlists.com/signup.epl
http://www.Ezineadsource.com/
http://www.Zineconnection.com/
http://www.Ezine-Universe.com
http://www.EzineLocater.com/
http://www.EzinesPlus.com/

The other bonus to this is that it's also the best way for you to build your own opt-in list and as you know, having your own opt-in list is the name of the game in direct marketing and internet marketing. The people who make the most money have the biggest opt-in lists period. If you're not building a list then you're wasting your time and you'll only make small-time money.

There are also sites to help you place ads for free in exchange for subscribing to an ezine. http://www.ads4subs.com is the premiere place for this type of free advertising. Use search engines to find others, but beware as you search.

As far as paid advertising goes, I've found two great sources. One is the Admistress' circle of ezines ad promotions. She was the first to group together quality ezines and offer REALLY low rates on ads that will run in multiple ezines. For more info go to: http://www.mysiteinc.com/admistress. The other great source for cheap ads that go a long way is http://ads4subs.com/cgi-bin/aff_scripts/affiliate.pl?id=62. Both of these sources get your ad in front of hundreds of thousands of eyeballs.

But hear's the thing, most ads I read suck. Not to be rude, but lets be honest. Most of the ads people pay to place aren't very good and they wouldn't pull even if they ran 'em on TV during the superbowl. So spend money on learning how to write a decent ad before you spend money on placing ads.

I run the "Ask the Admistress" column once a week in my "Net Profits" newsletter so I can learn more and so that my readers will learn more about writing copy that sells. You can learn more from her at http://www.flashyads.com .

Why don't most people get it? Copywriting is what will make or break your business. If you don't want to learn how to write tremendous ads then you should hire someone who knows what they're doing or get out of the internet marketing business. For more information on using the copywriting techniques of the masters go to: http://www.nmmastery.com/copywriting.shtml

You can also get a FREE copy of the most successful copywriting formula used in advertising to day. It's one of the FREE reports available at: http://www.nmmastery.com/freereports.shtml

I hate to see people losing money when they don't have to. A little common sense goes a long way. At the very least, study ads that would make you want to buy. Then do free advertising to test your ads. Make sure they'll pull in customers before you spend your hard earned cash on paid advertising that may not work.

Sopan Greene, M.A. is a 15 year marketing professional & editor of Net Profits. Get 3 FREE eBooks & a FREE report: "Born To Win," "Million Dollar Emails","How To Start Your Own Traffic Virus" & "The 13 Deadly Internet Marketing Mistakes Almost Every Business Is Making..." webmaster87-5956@autocontactor.com