|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Oct 13, 2009 6:02:12 GMT -9
This is more about trying to keep my thoughts together, but I thought maybe some of you would like this.
Let's see, I started with some classified advertising. I only posted about 50 classified ads in about 50 free classified ad listings. That, along with the two or three products I had listed on the front page led to 12 sales.
Today, I'm going to repeat yesterday except double it. And I want to try a few of those "post to 50 million classified ad websites at one time." Then, I need to put in the new keywords for the in-site search engines (I think this will be first on my list today). I need to go and add it to some free ebook lists and the paid items on some pay ebook lists (Type in "coffee ebook" and a few of the sites I'm talking about should pop up, if not that then "free ebook listings"). I need to bring my old website partially back up so I can route the one person a day who goes there to my new stuff. Um, website groups? I'm going to start an account at a few of these games sites and offer in game items and artifacts in exchange for information from my stories. That's good enough for now for today.
|
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Oct 14, 2009 6:40:13 GMT -9
Day 2, I diversified, but I only got about half the classifieds up yesterday. I got the keywords tweaked on the stories. I also submitted the product pages and the market page to the top 20 search engines and the search engines that sell to the other ones. it'll take a week to start to see the effect of this and 90 days for it to reach whatever the top amount is. Maybe I'll be listed at the top of the list for "poem dragon" keywords. That would be sweet. This is fairly perm. form of advertising. If you get a good set of keywords going to your site you can have a really regular stream of customers. Except for onemonk, don't choose words that define your genre (anything that you type in and it says millions and millions of websites is not a good set of keywords. you want, at the high end, 500,000 websites, but no fewer then 50,000 websites. The lower the number, the easier to hold onto the position. Now, once you choose your keywords you make sure they are mentioned in the text of your webpage at least 4 but no more then 8 times. You need links, which is no problem at rpgnow (the number of links per page is actually about 50 too high for some search engines, but we can't do a thing about that) Because a lot of these links change frequently while others never change it'll provide enough change for the search engines not to push you down for being "stale". Still a good idea once a year to change all your descriptions, unless a product is doing good, then wait till it stops doing good). This can bring in 80% of your business. I've used these people before, and I've always been happy with their results. They include everything you need to make it work out, including a faq how to do it  www.freewebsubmission.comI procrastnated the ebook listing till today. Hard listings like this are very important. People who go to these sites you list at like this want what you offer and are willing to pay for it. These don't bring in hundreds of people per day, but they bring in a really steady stream that requires little maintence. I didn't make any in game accounts yesterday. I am going to make at least 2 of them, one on tarvian (it's a fantasy city sim type game online) and one on runequest (top down dungeon and country explorer). On tarvian I'm going to offer 100 of each of the three resources for each character name they can tell me (and 1000 for each after 10). On Runequest, I'm going to give them any item I have in exchange for a character name. The people in these games get obsessive sometimes, and they will take advantage. I've gotta look up the 7 means of advertising on the internet. Last time, I was able to make 5 of them work for free for very good results. The systems they sell are sometimes BS, but a lot of this stuff works really well. E-mail newsletter marketing. I think there's a big one called hercules, maybe that's something else. Anyway, do something with this (or both). Do the classifieds when I finish with this post. do 10 to 25 (if you can find them) of those post to thousands and thousands free places. Bring up the old website with the new products listed. Optimize it for search engines. (I did this website 7 years ago, haven't advetised it it 6.5 years, and it still get's 1 to 3 people a day from stuff I did back then (down from 147 people on my top day). I can't let that go to waste, especially since the old email address is gone that I did that from). Do this after the classifieds that should be enough for today. |
|
|
|
Post by jabbro on Oct 14, 2009 15:36:22 GMT -9
Wow that seems like a ton of work for advertising. I hope it pays off.
|
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Oct 15, 2009 10:17:41 GMT -9
It is, but in the end it's worth it. I know about how this will work out, and it's something like this.
first two weeks. Very little is going to happen in the first 2 weeks. I may manage to break 100. The first week will have very low numbers and a few zero's. This is mostly because I am still amping up and bringing various advertising bases online. The second week sometime may start to see the first trickle of a steady stream of people (one or two a day).
week three is fun. If you managed to do and get everything set up in the first two weeks, this will be the first week when you'll really start to see something. It'll start at half your previous 2 weeks best day, but it'll be steady and gradually increase till it reaches whatever the max is it'll bring.
usually around week 8 or 10 is when everything first stabilizes. Also around this time is when you'll get you're first taste of "The frustrations of the published". This is a time when you'll have to do something for sure different if you want to increase your customer base.
there's more beyond this, but it has to do with tweaking your advertising sources and such, and is much too advanced without the background behind each source (plus I can't predict how sources I may not even have yet will need to be tweaked in 3 months)
About 10 years ago now or so, I used to get bombarded with e-mails about "The newsest and best MLM system" or "Viral advertising" or "viral MLM" or who knows what other systems they would talk about. Me (and my whole family) have always had this type of info pounded into our heads by my grandfather. So I started reading all the free stuff on all of the stuff on the internet about this stuff. Most of it isn't any good. But, some of the info on the no good ones is good info. I use some of it. (many of these are locked in a way that the system may be good, but all you can advertise is "that system", where as if you used "that system" to advertise anything else it could work wonders. After all, would you rather have 50,000 people flocking to a website to sign up to a mailing list? or to your sellers account?
Um, I feel I gotta explain about classified ads, since they work a little bit different. when you measure their effect, it shouldn't be measured in terms of daily progress, but over the life of the ad, and each type behaves differently depending upon a variety of factors including but not limited to; length of time the ad is on site, the amount of time the ad is on the front screen, The amount of time the ad is on the top of the page, the ad title, the ad content, weather it's a print or a online ad (on some of the longer lasting online ads, they pick up at the end of their life because they get indexed into search engines). You just have to try it out and see how each one works out.
What am I trying to do with all this advertising? That's simple, make money and hit the 100 list. If I hit the 100 list on eather a free product or a pay product, then I feel the advertising worked.
|
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Oct 15, 2009 10:41:43 GMT -9
Day 3
tons to do. Dumb computer wiped it all out. Not gonna retype it eather.
game
classified ads
newsletter ads
real world flyers (need help)
|
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Oct 17, 2009 6:45:20 GMT -9
Day 5 I missed posting day 4 let's see, since I last mentioned it all my downloads had been holding at 18. I decided to try 3 things (one I have never tried before). I'm trying out one of those "surf for traffic" places. I joined up one of those email link exchange places, and I'm doing one of those targeted e-mail campaigns. I want to do a classified ad campaign. I can get my ads listed in recyclers and nifty nickels online and print across the country for free. I wanna take advantage of that. Um, craigslist. I need to come up with about 20 different ads I can place on here (craigslist is odd coding) Um, I guess I need to see how many. I know last night sometime it was 20, most likely still there. and it is Oh, and time to do the real world flyers |
|
|
|
Post by lordmanimal on Oct 17, 2009 16:08:27 GMT -9
Can I ask how the video games tie into your plan? Also, I'm fairly new here, but what is the product?
|
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Oct 18, 2009 6:15:28 GMT -9
Sure. I'll even detail how I got the idea Ok, I got the idea orginally from my ex. She used to run forum contests and game contests on the sites she belongs to. And I got the idea from something she used to do. She used to do a scavenger hunt, where people had to go find some bit of info or something (she had one where she sent people off site and anyone who could tell her the color of a certain picture would get 50 gold is what I think she offered for that one. She was a bit obsessive about having online friends) But, that got me thinking. I can do that. And heck, I am not being egotistical or anything but I am good at playing games. I'm going to go onto a few free games. The two I am planing on is tarvian.com and runescape.com. Tarvian is about half free and tends to be fairly popular. I orginally learned about it when I was at the library and noticed all the kids were playing the same game there, this one. I played it for a few months back then and it's intresting, lot's to do. But, you don't really get anywhere. What I plan to do there is start playing and mostly just play the game, but also whenever I am playing also get people who want what I have to tell me the name of one of the characters from one of my stories for it. At lease one of my stories is free, so that will take care of most of them, but a few will get obsessive and buy all my stuff just to get the goods from the game It's a little of a low shot, but at this point any sale is a good sale. Plus, I don't care if I give away everything I get in an online game Tarvian is the same type of deal, except it's a village sim. I'm going to offer like 1000 of each of the three types of materials in exchange for each character name they give me, once per person. I'm the writer. I write and when I burn out, I do color remods here. I'm currently writing an epic narrative poem and releasing it in chapters and writing a bunch of other stuff and releasing it at the same time. I'm just finishing the first story of Project Two, Butterfly, which should be out sometime in the next few days. When I decide to stop procrastanating, I'm going to work up npc suppliments and a few campaigns (mostly based upon my writing and my old rpg stuff) Why am I writing poetry? I'm not sure, but it's so ironic. I orginally started writing poetry back in Jr. High. By the time Junior year of highschool came around, there was a writing club that had siezed control of nearly all the creative art projects and was stealing the spotlight from the theatre and the plays they put on several times a year. There was a student magazine that I was published in nearly every issue (Only didn't get published when I didn't submit, once). They did a blind democratic selection process. I was part of several of them. I got to see two poems, with no names attached when they were read, get alot more then the golf claps most of the pieces got (Loved it too cause no one had ever read those or even knew I had started submitting again). One of those got me listed in a who's who back in, um, I think I'm in the 1997 one. I remember getting the submission form, but I never responded. I found out years later It wasn't a submission form, it was a "give us a detailed list of what you are up to". My entry is so bare. I'm not even sure if I can find this info online. But, I've always run from my poet title. I've always been told "you can't make money writing poetry". I think I can, and my very long epic narrative poem "Isamu's LifeQuest" is gonna help me here's my shop, www.rpgnow.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=2731Um, today, day 6 Finished the new classified ads, gonna go post them today. Both print and online today. still working on the email campaign, gotta send out at least 12 groups, and split up that huge list but don't add them to the total Start the tarvian account and get that running. Um, write everything down. Finish butterfly and Zombie Invasion |
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Oct 18, 2009 6:21:13 GMT -9
wow, I used way to many I's in that post. Hahaha
Oh, and if I have forgotten any major advertising avenues, feel free to tell me.
Oh ya, and I need to find a few people who post in a lot of forums and who want to put my book in their sig's
|
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Oct 19, 2009 7:45:12 GMT -9
day 7
classified ads
sign up to those safelists
go to kinko's and make some copies
find someone who does cheap business cards and can get them in 4 days or less
type up butterfly, final revise, and put it together and release it. Do this second.
Zombie invasion needs to get done TODAY. Whenever E takes his nap, start writing on it and don't stop till you got a finished rough draft (30 "pages" or so). PUSH, GET IT DONE! This supercedes the rest of today. Move the rest to tomorrow if you have to.
Fix the right shift key on the laptop (I think there's junk under it, pull it up and clean under it) Do it now. takes 3 seconds
Um, this is last on my list, but set up the work station.
|
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Oct 22, 2009 5:55:31 GMT -9
Exhilerating few days. First, of course, got in a fight with someone, had to calm down a day or two.
Second, I started my physical advertising this morning. I put about 125 flyers on windshields this morning and put up like 15 or 16 flyers in high foot traffic locations.
I love that type of advertising. So unpredictable, sometimes it generates 100% or more of what you put out, sometimes 0%.
Gonna supercharge it a little later today. Hopefully it'll work at least a little.
Um, do everything on the previous days list since you only managed to get the shift key pressed. (I hate getting angry. Messes up the creative flow)
|
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Oct 23, 2009 7:47:12 GMT -9
dummy dummy. I deleated the whole thing. Well, here's a cut down version.
Day 9
yesterday, put lots of flyers up, stuff listed at the top and bottom of the rpgnow pages. tried to get ahold of beth. Put up flyers for nearby u2 concert (1 mile away).
Today, flyers again, craigslist ads, e-mail campaign, and new idea I'm gonna use,
want my pay stuff free? Advertise my stuff and show me and I'll give you a free ebook, just name which one.
Um, finish typing butterfly and finish zombie. I think that's it.
|
|
|
|
Post by lordmanimal on Oct 23, 2009 15:47:00 GMT -9
Paper fliers! Ha! I thought that form of advertising was dead! I'm enjoying this blog, keep it up!
|
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Oct 25, 2009 10:13:28 GMT -9
you'd be surprised how well that works and besides, I know how to make that form work. It's a bit off key and usually doesn't, but oh well. But, if you tear off the first one and post it in a park where you know there will be 1000+ people, wow, I haven't seen that many flyers with almost or nothing on them for a long time. But, that's not all I'm doing. If any of you use these forms of advertising, or want to try them out, feel free. They are both odd too But, I'll tell you what to expect and how to work them. This first one is easy. This is One Million auto surf. Auto surf programs are odd, but I have found on this one it appears that for about every 100 people 1 person buys or downloads something. I just started playing with this one to really see what it'll do, and I am impressed. This system allows you to put one website into their autosurf program (and you can put in text adverts and banners). I haven't started playing with the banners or text adverts here. But, how this works is you are given 1 million free hits but you have to surf, um, 1000 sites I believe. That part is easy too, you just open the surf bar and let it do it's thing (keep an eye on it though, you sometimes find things popping up on those that you wanted. There's some u2 videos now too , and a few of the websites cheat, normally the only bad thing I find is they try to make a bunch of pop-ups pop up, but I noticed that sometimes someone puts a virus in there, so have a virus checker (I use avira antivir personal. it's free. yay, and highly recommended, have it on a preprinted cd with gimp and a bunch of other free programs) Um, enough of that. Here's how you work it. After you've surfed the 1000 required sites, put the website you want in, and set the allocation for 90,000. I'm not sure what the secret numbers are here and after, but basically it then allocates your website to be shown a certain number of times in x amount of time. I haven't gotten to the end of this part, but it should translate into some type of traffic, I'll have a better idea in 48 to 72 hours. You have to keep surfing, after 3 or so days of no surfing, the system takes you out of the surf system. I always go a little more cautiously then most, if you wanna try it and stomp hard away, try it and tell us what happens. freemillionautosurf.com?r=77106I don't know a thing about how or if this next one will work, I just know it won't work unless you get a few people signed up underneath you. www.fwebtraffic.com/?rid=1263106I'll show you how to make these really explode and work for you next time. Oh, and the official notes today are advertising suspended for today, this is the final day of writing, revising, and typing. |
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Oct 25, 2009 10:16:58 GMT -9
Oh, and so far (not even long enough for me to make this statement,) it looks like it's about 3 sales for every 10 flyers up that got torn down.
|
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Oct 25, 2009 15:17:15 GMT -9
I was just thinking about this and wanted to see if I could remember all of them.
There's only a certain number of ways that you can advertise. I think it's like 7.
1. word of mouth
obviously this is one of the best if not the best means of advertising. But, unless you plan to go out and do a bunch of it first, chances are you'll never know if or how much this affects your sales.
2. telephone
never use this type. Used to work telemarketing and I can't stand the telephone thing.
3. email
email is fun, usually get fairly good results. Snail mail falls in this catagory, but is very different
4. forum advertising
this is interesting also, but I have never really used this
5. safe-list advertising
sending your message to a group of people who say they want to recieve it. How well this works is tied to how targeted the group is. Honestly, if you gave me a chance to send my ebook ads to a marketing safelist or to a fantasy ebook readers list, take a guess which I'll do.
6. mlm
multi level marketing. Basically, you get people to sign up underneith you and it's a share traffic thing. There's a few different types. The ones where you advertise your products, and ones where you advertise their products (or no products, but that's illegal). What you want is a free one that tries to get you to sign people up underneith, where you advertise your product in the mlm. Keep in mind that the last few people using these systems get screwed at the end of the program (which is why you never use the money ones).
let me think about what 7 is
|
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Oct 26, 2009 7:37:21 GMT -9
today, writing mostly. I did put up some banners on my old website and linked it to my rpgnow account.
|
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Nov 2, 2009 10:49:18 GMT -9
I remember why I hate the internet and internet marketing. I have about 200 to 300 links to safelists. They all work, but I have been having a problem. Everytime, without fail, over the past two days, I can't get onto the advertising or main menu's of any of these, which means I have lost or can't collect (depending on how you look at it) the free points advertising they give away at the begining, so basically I can't use any of these (til I get enough points to get my own and figure out what's wrong with this computer. I spent a few hours the other day collecting all these. It's an absolutely massive amount of advertising, at least 100 members on 99% of these lists and many many over 1000. If you want it, just ask. I have no use for them at this time. If you use them all, it should generate lots of traffic. (well, not entirely, I managed to get onto about 40 someodd before whatever is messing with my computer started.) Best and worst computer |
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Nov 3, 2009 4:35:36 GMT -9
Update on that safelist problem. They all work, just I have a problem with my computer. After about an hour or two of playing on it it decides to stop connecting. Unfortunity, it'll just connect enough to send the password, then after a few tries (and some IE error codes) at worst it stops loading and sometimes kicks me back to the main page and logs me off, which goes ahead and get's rid of the initial advertising. I have about 20 of those lists, ones that I have to build up points or buy ads (which I won't buy unless the site proves it can give me sales). So I have about 15 to 20 of these that I'm on but most likely will never or never for a long time post on. Oh well.
I hate computers.
|
|
|
|
Post by redgravewriter on Dec 14, 2009 10:10:11 GMT -9
wow, it's amazing how discouraged one can get in the first few months. I've been doing some stuff, but most of my online advertising has stopped. Right now, I've only got it hooked up to two autosurfs (sometimes less then once a week). But, what I'm doing offline is way way more interesting. I've printed two of my free products on a business card (actually one free and one giving away free) and whenever I talk to someone, I give them a business card and explain a little what it is. That's actually worked out a lot better then the online methods.
|
|
