How do I use Solo Ads effectively?

How do I protect myself from getting scammed with solo ad list sellers? How do I avoid Micro-worker sites such Mturk, incentived traffic, Bulk Auto Bot Traffic?
Same answer for both. Buy solos from those who have got great credibility. Look for their testimonials. There are plenty great solo providers here in Warrior Forum. Test small and if it works well, scale up.

To be more specific how do I know who has the best solo ads list to buy?
It can be different from one another, depending on the niche, offer and the personality of each list itself. That's why I suggest you to test small then scale up.

Also does anyone have recommendations on how to use solo ads efficiently?
Try like, 100 clicks first. That should be enough to consider that list will work for you or not. And also tweak your squeeze page little by little to see the effect of each changes. For example, changing the position of your logo from left to right sometimes can bring huge difference in conversion. Try to reach 40% or more.

A little more tips: when you read the testimonials, pay attention whether there have been any sales or not from people who have tried that person's list.

Good luck,
eL

Safe Swaps has a double-blind rating system that really helps me in deciding on who to buy from. I also have a list of Solo Ad providers that I have been compiling over the last year that is very reliable. These folks might cost a little more than Safe Swaps, but the quality is well worth it.

To add to what the last person said, also pay attention to the dates of the last testimonials. I recently found a Solo Ad provider that his last posted testimonial was from 2011 and I later learned that his service had really dropped off in quality since that time.

Always ask the solo ad seller where their traffic comes from and look at their testimonials.

If they don't answer, don't buy. Honest ones will tell you upfront.

I won't tell you what to do

But I'll share my experience.

I bought a solo ad from a reputable guy for a 100 clicks to test.

Checked his testimonial... Very shiny!

Results of the solo ads ---> Great, consistent with my other solos (50++ opt in and 2 conversion on front end)

A month later, I bought another solo ad from the same guy

This time - 500 clicks

The results are horrible - 500 clicks with just 92 opt in and no sales.

I checked the subscribers - 70% from 3rd tier countries

Never opened their first email to download their gifts.

So... What I've learned:

1) testimonials are mostly useless (especially from their own website - who wants to display a bad testimonial for himself?)

2) Even I had prior experience with his solo ad seller, it doesn't mean I'll have great results the next time.

3) I should opt into the list and see how the emails are send out.

4) Ask the solo ad seller to resend the swipe out again.

5) Never do business with the seller again.


- Your Wingman

The secret to solo ad buys is to make your purchase profitable.

That's it.

There's literally nothing else.

(Aside from ensuring you get quality traffic in the first place which will be a huge variable).

But your ability to continually buy traffic will be based upon your ability to break even or profit from the traffic acquisition.

If your ad buys are profitable, you can quickly buy more and snowball your effort.

If your buys are NOT profitable, you'll eventually expend your marketing budget.

The question then becomes; how to make it profitable?

Well, that takes skill, practice and split testing.

It also takes a little bit of work building a funnel.

At least now you have some direction though.

I recently had a bad experience with a solo ad. My recommendation is to stay away from individual vendors. Use Safe-Swaps. You can check their ratings before you buy and it's double blind so that the two parties cannot see what the other one has said about them until both of them have posted.

Also don't spend a lot of money until you know your squeeze page and OTO converts good then you can ramp it up.

Three simple rules.

1. Do not let them sell you a set number of clicks. This is a huge red flag that they are laundering PPC traffic and selling it to you as "laser targeted email list traffic." Legitimate list traffic sellers will print your add and how many clicks you get is how many clicks you get.

2. Your link should be a hard link directly to your page. Don't let them send it through a script. Again, this is for your own protection and it lessens the possibility that they are laundering cheap PPC traffic. Although not everyone who sends it through a script is up to no good. Some may fear that you'll change your page to something that harms their readers and they want the ability to shut your link off.

3. Write your own ads. Do not let them write it for you.

Here's my reply, talking from a perspective of servicing my clients on solo ads and on behalf of buying traffic to promote my internet offers online, see if it helps anyone who happen to be asking the same question too. Some questions are already answered by others.

How do I protect myself from getting scammed with solo ad list sellers? - Ask them on possible traffic source of their list, and if they use Adswaps or not. Some sellers uses Adswap which provides junk traffic and offer's doesnt convert.

How do I avoid Micro-worker sites such Mturk, incentived traffic, Bulk Auto Bot Traffic?
-Dont use them

To be more specific how do I know who has the best solo ads list to buy?
-Check review sites of the vendors, (Reed Floren has a review site on these). Also, see who is the customer who bought solo ads with the particular service provider will tell you if his list are reliable or not.

Also does anyone have recommendations on how to use solo ads efficiently? - Optimize properly squeeze page. and prepare various monetization model in backend. Always test and measure as offer response may vary. Write your own ads if you can do afford too, as customer will know how does his/her product or service benefit the subscriber.

I've bought a bunch of Solos. I have had some success with it, not enough for me to keep buying them though.

Generating your own traffic is much better, though that takes more work. I know a lot of people recommend Safe-Swaps if you are going to buy them. If you are going to buy them, i would use them because the safe-swap community keeps it safer, not saying you cant get a bad deal. But you can see a sellers reputation on there, and the good ones work hard to protect that.


Here is WHY I DON'T like solos. People are selling there list over and over and over. these people that are clicking on your solo ads get offers all the time from from the person you are buying from. When I look at someone and they have a list size of 5000, but they are selling solo ads every day, that list is beat down.

If you are going to buy, and what I would do is buy from people with a very large list, and a excellent reputation. The reason for the large list is at least they can rotate their list a little more they are not bombarding the same people every day.

Test and Tweak.... We all know our subscribers are getting a boat load of emails from solo ad sellers and marketers.. Be unique, have a "hook", set yourself aside from everyone else..

Joining this forum especially on this post feeling grateful cause its been over about the misconception about the solo ad and processing of buying it.

@It Should Be Easy - I will tell you exactly how you avoid that. When dealing with a vendor you haven't purchased from before always buy no more than 100 clicks. This should cost you no more than $35-$60 (the amount you pay will vary by vendor).

Very much important is that you must be concerned about the source of traffic that affiliates of Solo Add are getting.

Hi,
There is a guy right here on the Warrior Forum who is selling solo's. He is in the classified section. The url is http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...y-buy-buy.html.
He sells 100 clicks for $50 which is pretty reasonable. Hope I'm allowed to put this url on here. . One thing you have to do is make sure you have a killer email that people are going to want to open. You could outsource that if you don't know where to start.
Hope this helps!
Good luck
Geri Richmond

It will be dependent on which market that you are in. If you are in the make money online market, you will be able find many sources from the Warrior Forum, Safe Swaps and many others website.

However if you are in the niche market, it will be a bit more tricky as it is not so direct. You will need to contact those people who have a list and ask them whether they sell solo ads as not all of them know the concepts of solo ads.

I love the link provided by Matt Back in this thread as immediately give you 3 things that you can start off.

Safe-Swaps has a good protection level against scammers. If you use their payment system, you will have enough time to check your traffic and get a refund if the seller was a scammer.

What should I really promote in a solo ad if myself have no squueze page? Should I promote the link of my blog or a clickbank product? For example i buy from safe swaps lets say.

Find newsletters that support websites. I usually find the top industry websites with Technoroti, or SpyFu. I go through each one individually and look for the ones that have a signup, then contact the website administrators.

These newsletters usually cost less to advertise in--because advertising isn't their first line of business, and they actually use the newsletter to bond with their customers.

I usually start by asking to guest post. I put an article in their newsletter, with a small link at the end to my offer. If I sell a few items, then I ask about advertising.