How I Made $1860 + $500 Recurring Monthly For $3
While the title is a minor exaggeration of the truth (the total cost was probably more like $15 per week), I will explain what I mean within.
So Online Classified Ads. Holy moly, can they be a goldmine!
Now you Americans have Craigslist and while it is definitely in use here in Australia, we have a more popular (and very localized, right down to specific towns) version in Australia called Gumtree. So everything I lay out here should work exactly the same for Craigslist I assume. But anyway, here's what I did :
Step 1. Find a free online classifieds website that allows you to post ads for business services for free. (I use www.gumtree.com.au, I'm sure there are many others)
Step 2. Hire an experienced online classified ads poster from oDesk or another job site. Negotiate an acceptable rate. (My rate is $3 per post. They spin some of the posts content to avoid 'ghosting' and also use ip changers/email changers etc, since some sites actually requires you are 'local' for your potential customers PFFFFT!)
Step 3. Write the ad content yourself and create the thumbnail yourself. This is the secret sauce step I am going to share. Anyone who has read any good books on copywriting will know the key here, but here it is anyway...
Headline : "Warning : Read This Before Hiring A Web Designer!"
Thumbnail image : A big, bold, exclamation point, or DANGER sign, like you would see on a road sign.
Body Content : A written article, information marketing based, NOT a list of dot point services, that explains the '7 things to be wary of when hiring a designer'. Include your phone number at the end.
Now, the beauty of Gumtree, is that I can actually see how many visitors my ad has VS the competition. And OMG...direct comparisons (both ads posted the same day and time) showed that my ad receieved about 7-8 times more visitors than ANY OTHER ad in the web design category.
My ad had something like 80 visitors. The competition directly above and below, had like 7 visitors. Why? Because EVERY OTHER AD looked EXACTLY the same. Here is what to AVOID :
Headline : Amazing Web Design, Cheap Web Design, Free Hosting (etc)
Thumbnail image : Pretty websites, pretty ponies and rainbows, smiling office workers LOL
Body copy : Dot point list of services, free hosting, CALL NOW or other useless copy paste crap.
This is failure in advertising copy. Don't breathe this!
Step 4. Write a few articles, than have them spun by a very good spinner who is native english (be VERY careful with your outsourcer trying to spin the headline ESPECIALLY, since a not-quite-right sounding headline is DEATH for the ad) and get your guy to post them in all the popular cities/towns/suburbs you can afford.
Step 5. WATCH THE LEADS ROLL IN!
This has literally been my ONLY other effective lead generation method for my web design/SEO business besides cold calling. Fair enough I haven't gone into direct mail yet, but geez, for the cost, this method is making bank.
So guys, hope you enjoyed this, and get out there and start posting some ads because there is money to be made!!
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Yours in prosperity,
Skochy - The Musical Salesman
Yours in prosperity,
Skochy - The Musical Salesman
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Cheers, Laurence.
Writer/Editor/Proofreader.