Knowing what doesn’t work can sometimes be more important that learning what does. Here are some things you should avoid when marketing your web site.

Its easy to get confused with all of the various ways that you can be marketing your web site. Over the years I have tried just about every one and have learned some things along the way. Here’s some real time and money wasters that you can safely avoid doing.

SPAM

Don't waste your time on trash

You don’t like getting spam in your email do you? Neither does anyone else. Don’t send unsolicited commercial emails to try and promote your web site or product. (Out of all of the things listed here, I have never gone this route and won’t).

You risk getting your site shut down if your Internet Service Provider gets enough complaints. You can also be “blacklisted”. This means your email can be labeled as spam and be blocked by a lot of service providers.

Spam is stupid and a very poor decision for a business to make.

Free For All (FFA) Links
There are some sites which let anyone list a link to their own site. Sometimes you are required to put your own FFA link page up on your site. This tactic does not work. The only people reading FFA sites are other sites looking to post their own link. It is totally untargeted towards any potential customer.

Additionally, some search engines will penalize you for having FFA links on your site. They basically equate them as being garbage and not something a legitimate site would do. I can’t say I blame them.

Banner Ads
Once upon a time (in the late 1990’s) banner ads were very common and fairly effective. They don’t work very well at all anymore. I have read statistics that the click through rate is down to a mere percent of what they used to be.

You will have a much more effective chances of getting a visitor to your site by having a legitimate endorsement. You should also avoid having banner ads on your own site unless it is for your own products. Why on earth would you want to be sending people away from your site when you could be earning a higher profit if they stick around?

Classified ads
Online newsletters commonly offer low priced classified ad spots. You can pay a few dollars and have your 4 to 5 line ad listed at the bottom of some newsletter when it gets sent out.

Generally these ads don’t work too well. I don’t read them. Do you?

Non solo or top sponsorship ads
As a follow up to the classified ads, it is worth mentioning that not all ads are bad. You should try for a more prominent ad if you are going to go the newsletter route.

I recommend the Solo ad or as second best, the top sponsorship ad.

A solo ad is just that. Your ad is run all by itself. You have the reader’s full and undivided attention to your ad. The downside is that you will be paying top dollar so you want to track your results. If the ad was profitable, then keep running it until it is not anymore.

A top sponsorship ad is the very first ad in a newsletter. These can be pretty effective. They are a good alternative if you don’t want to take the plunge to buy a solo ad.

When it comes down to advertising in a newsletter I stick to either solo or top sponsorship. Otherwise I don’t even bother.

Knowing some of these tips can help you to not waste any time or money on ineffective marketing tactics.

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