Have you ever heard some advice from somebody (a blog) promising that such and such is a great way to generate big traffic and thought to yourself "Lord have mercy, that there don’t sound like such a good idea."? Well friend, you were probably right!
In case you haven’t noticed yet, most of these Online Advertising "experts" with their high-faultin’ blogs don’t give a rat’s tail whether you make money or not! It’d be all the same to them if you were to take their advice and be spinnin’ your wheels somewhere thinking "gee I must be stupid because posting backlinks on other people’s blogs isn’t bringin’ in the kind of traffic that guy told me it would!"
Well friends, today it was on my mind to call out some of these ridiculous ideas people are promoting as ways to get Free Online Advertising, and expose them for what they really are – fluff.
1. This one is great. I actually saw this okay. If I’m lying I’m dyin’.
"Submit a Viral Video to YouTube – Just a simple powerpoint will do." (put links and so on)
Friends, if you didn’t just laugh out loud you need to get your head checked. How in the world do you upload a viral video? A video BECOMES viral – the public responds to the content and they spread it – THAT’S what makes it viral folks. This dummy wanted you to believe that it would just BE viral on the strength that you just… said it was viral. LOL. Lord have mercy. Listen – while you’re uploading your powerpoint slideshows to YouTube, the guy who told you to do it is laughing his ass off, cuz you’re just one more sucker spinning his wheels and not doing what HE’S probably doing – making money.
Good old uncle Jake here is a lot of things but he ain’t no fool and he ain’t no tattle-tell, so I ain’t about to say no names, but people DO actually think like that. They’d rather tell you something not true so you get out there and lose your mind, get discouraged, and get out of their way. Don’t believe me? Read on…
2. Write a press release about your product / site and submit it to PRweb.com.
Now folks, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do this – because you should. The thing is, don’t do this expecting it to produce significant traffic results for you! You’re just gonna get discouraged holding on to expectations like that.
Now folks, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do this – because you should. The thing is, don’t do this expecting it to produce significant traffic results for you! You’re just gonna get discouraged holding on to expectations like that.
3. Add a link to your site in your e-mail signature.
Well if that don’t just take home the cake for the king of dumb. Look, even if you are sending enough e-mails from your personal e-mail account, do you really want to have your personal life consumed with promoting your offers?
Well if that don’t just take home the cake for the king of dumb. Look, even if you are sending enough e-mails from your personal e-mail account, do you really want to have your personal life consumed with promoting your offers?
I know you’ve all seen what I’m about to site as a similar tactic, and I also know that every time you see it, you (like me) cringe with disgust: Its the family car that goes passing by you on the freeway with a Noni Juice or acai juice decal stuck to their back window or heat sealed to the side of their doors. Lord hammercy. It just makes me wanna cry for those folks.
Listen, don’t let some schmuck convince you to abandon every ounce of dignity you have for crying out loud. The fifteen people in history who were actually so moved by seeing a Monavie sticker on the back of some poor gal’s beat up Honda Civic are probably never going to do that again, so stop looking for those fifteen people, and don’t ever think that putting some links in your personal e-mails is going to produce significant traffic for you. And Lord help you if you actually DO end up getting a sale off of one of your colleagues or friends or family. I won’t go into it but just remember I told you so.
So all this just to say – don’t spin your wheels unless you’re on solid ground, because you ain’t about to fly. Listen to that little (or hopefully big) voice in your head every time you hear a dumb idea that’s gonna waste a lot of your time. Because when you get my age you realize, time is way better than money.
