Though I don’t profess to be an advertising guru’, yet there are certain things I have learned the hard way while advertising my own website and Newsletter.

You are probably aware of the concept of repeated advertising, your ad has to be seen 7-10 time before you can expect to hit a mark. Well guess what, this holds absolutely true even today. Whatever the level of technological development, human psychology cannot change. The brain is still where it was. The more exposure you get, the more familiar you become, the more people start liking you.

Where-ever you may live, you have most certainly experienced an electoral campaign first hand. During this period they step up the advertising: sending out press releases, appearing in talk shows, traveling around the country giving power talks, making public appearances at various functions, launchings, openings, dinners etc; taking out ads in papers, in general being seen anywhere and everywhere at the same time.

Think about it. Even this holiday season an ad was aired where Santa was shown drinking a bottle of coke, although no words were spoken about it. Now why does a leading brand like coke need to make sure that it stays in front of it’s customers?

First the basic truths:

1. Don’t let your memory fade away or die, keep yourself fresh in front of your audience.

2. Keep up an active ad campaign.

3. Don’t use just one advertising medium, use as many as you can at the same time.

4. Also once you have got your killer headline/ad stick to it. So people recognize you as soon as they see it, and the familiarity concept clicks in to action.

5. The human mind works by association, when they see your ad every where, they automatically develop the following instincts about you:

* You can be trusted because you are advertising so aggressively.

* You must be making money that’s why you are spending it on advertising.

* Your product must be good, that’s why people are buying it.

* Others are buying it, am I missing out on something important?

* So let me try it too.

Now let’s make a home run. How does this apply to your online business? more so if due to budgetary constraints you cannot sustain your advertising for long periods of time. How do you Plan a practically sustainable ad campaign?

Here’s how to start:

1. Send out your classified ad in all the ezines using cheap submission services.

2. Do an automated site blast – your classified ad appears on millions of sites online. This is where the newbies usually start.

3. Once you have tested your ads in low cost ventures, take the best ones, do some background research about your targeted audience and take out top and solo ads in the highly targeted ezines.

4. Write an article. Besides announcing the article and hoping for it to be published, go for paid placements on high traffic sites or prominent placement on high traffic article directories and Country specific trade and marketing association sites.

5. Order (a million) guaranteed visitors, while creating a special landing page with a powerful freebie on sign up to your list. This works extremely well for general interest products.

6. Announce a good affiliate program.

7. Create joint ventures with some of the targeted top leaders in the industry.

8. You might even go for power branding tactics, by creating an interesting banner and placing it on prominent high traffic sites.

9. Do send out a press release if you can make it news worthy.

Make sure you are seen everywhere at the same time. Start small then you can keep the ball rolling by re-cycling the profits that will pour in. Keep at it until you kick up an avalanche. And then advertise some more.

Copyright [C] 2003 Shahnaz Rauf www.snzeport.com

Shahnaz Rauf is a freelancer actively seeking writing projects. She is also The Editor of The Monster Twister, a Newsletter helping ordinary web owners achieve extraordinary heights without losing their shirts. To Subscribe themonstertwister-subscribe@snzeport.com Or visit her website at http://www.snzeport.com