To be Free or Not to be Free

To be Free or Not to be Free…ya, that IS the burning question!

Ok. Lots of screaming headlines and sites out there: FREE! Join this free, that free, this gives your free stuff, that free this and something else free whatever. Except, when you join (free), hello! You find out that is isn’t. I joined one tonight that just stepped on my last poor frazzled nerve, hence this post.

My pet peeves:
Free information!…then they send you a bunch of sales literature. Like, yeah, that is supposed to be free. This goes for so-called e-books which are nothing more than e-book-a-sized sales brochures.

Free to join!… then you find out you have to pay something to get any real value from the site! That is NOT free thank you anyway.

Free Advertising…only to discover you have to invest a jillion hours or your entire lifetime performing tasks at their site to get any of that free advertising. Time is money you know. (Most of them then offer paid packages…lol, now, this is NOT free.) This is what I joined by in March when I first wrote this article. Loads of promises that looked really good only to find I will have to devote my entire waking existence to working this site to actually benefit from it! (Unless someone figures out how to do this while sleeping…really and truly.)

Free Trial Offer…only to discover that the time period is ridiculously short like 3 days, 7 days and etc. IT TAKES A MINIMUM OF 30 DAYS TO SEE RESULTS in any kind of promotional campaign. Trust me in this one. I have had my first site http://www.xtreamsurf.com/ online and aggressively marketing it since 7/04. I am really just now seeing the fruits of all that campaigning. People are just know saying XtreamSurf? Yeah, I heard of that - year later! A 7 day trial offer is ridiculous.

You get my drift. There is “free” and then there is really free. If something toted as being free ends up requiring you either spend loads of your time to achieve or pay money to get, it is not free.

Why do sites even bother offering free anyway? Simple: to get you to join and try the product. You try, you like, it works, you then want more, you buy. Cool. I am with that all the way. I do exactly the same thing on my free traffic sites! People join free, get credits to run their sites to try it out. They like they stay, maybe purchase something (this helps pay all the “stay-in-business” bills for sure), everyone gets something from the initial “free” offer.

So, there is free and then there is actually free. How do you tell the difference? This is fairly common sense thinking. A site which makes you spend an inordinate amount of time performing tasks to build up credits is not free. A site which gives you upfront credits to advertise is free. A site which once you join free then requires a payment to benefit from the program: not free. A site that actually delivers the initial goods free, really is - well - free.

Bottom line: look, read, analyze. Ask yourself: “Does this site deliver?” Depending on the answer you stay or flee. (also called “voting with your feet.”)
By: Cherie Halliday
http://www.xtreamsurf.com/

5% Power Investment Day at XtreamSurf

A 5% Power Iinvestment Surf Day will commence on Midnight Monday 10-10 and run through midnight Tuesday 10-11 at XtreamSurf!! . Everyone who has invested funds will be able to investment surf this day for 5%! Whoo hooo!

The really cool thing about our Investment surf is that you get your investment back!! That is right - unlike most programs where that money you invest stays with the program (you earn it back plus by surfing) with our sites when you cash out you have the original investment returned to you plus the profit. Wowsa.

- cherie halliday

"How to Go from a Dead Website to Raging Buyers: Building your opt-in Cash Cow"

"How to go from a Dead Website to Raging Buyers:
Building your opt-in Cash Cow"
by Juan Pablo Cangas


Almost everyone, from the all-star "guru", to the small guy
promoting his humble website, says "The money is in the list".
And, really, having an opt-in list you can call your own
is crucial for succeeding online. This one little "secret",
can make all the difference for you, between making a few sales
here and there, to consistently making money out of thin air,
literally. Here’s an outline of some of the benefits you get
from maintaining your own opt-in list.

- Ability to generate traffic (and sales!) on demand
- Leverage potential
- Advertising revenue

How to generate traffic and sales on demand:

Having an opt-in list, is like owning a “sales & traffic” button!
You’re literally a “send” button away from generating
traffic & sales anytime you want to, because if your list is
well-targeted, they *will* read and respond to your offers.
Of course, this doesn’t mean you can spam your list
with ads every time you want, as they will probably
unsubscribe, even get mad if you do. But if you keep
your communications useful to your readers,
you will see great responses!

Leveraging gold from your subscriber’s contact network:

I like to think about my list as my joint venture partners.
Think about it, it’s very realistic to assume that some
of your subscribers do have their own list and contacts.
If you can get your subscribers promoting your products
(even as second-tier affiliates), you’re leveraging
their resources to your benefit. That’s working smarter,
not harder.

Easily generating advertising revenue :

Do you think advertisers would be interested in
running an ad on your targeted, highly-responsive
opt-in list? You bet they do!
Running advertising inside your publications can be
a great source of extra income, with almost no work
involved from you!
Let’s say you charge $5 for publishing a top sponsor ad
in your bi-weekly newsletter. That makes you a
maximum of $10 a week, or $40 a month,
just for adding an ad to a message you were sending anyways.
(I’m not even considering other type of ads here)
Not bad for covering your business expenses, say,
your web hosting and autoresponder account.
You can make some good money from running ads
on your publications, once your subscriber base reaches
a decent size. And as your list grows, you can increase
your prices, too! Just be sure not to turn your
mailings into a classified board instead of a good read,
or your subscribers might start opting-out.

There’s plenty of reasons for building an opt-in list.
It’s so important, that many experts recommend
you make list building your top priority when
doing online business. Start building or growing
your list today, so you can reap the rewards tomorrow!

-------------------------------------------------------------
Juan Pablo Cangas is a self-taught online entrepreneur.
He specializes in internet marketing & promoting,
copywriting and networking. In his website
(http://www.getfreedom.ws), newsletter
and blog (http://www.getfreedom.ws/blog/), Juan Pablo
teaches you how to how to promote and sale online
like a real pro, all the time giving you valuable gifts
just for following his advice! Juan Pablo also shares
his experiences and business opportunities
he is currently involved in, so you can make money too.

You may reprint this article in any way,
provided you don't modify it, and you include
this resource box in your publication.
-------------------------------------------

P.S.: Following with the theme of my article...
You've Heard It Before ... And It's True!
The Money Is In The List!
Want A F'ree "Lucky List" Of Over 10,000 Prospects?

http://ads.profitrally.com/c_j6pmq/xmark-ps


P.P.S.: The guys at YourLuckyList have just launched
a referral contest... you can earn some good mo.ney,
F.REE membership upgrades and advertising!

Be sure to check it out:

http://ads.profitrally.com/c_j6pmq/xmark-pps

Totally cool! F.ree Pixel page spots:

There is a really cool web page concept that is sweeping the Net called Pixel Pages. These were developed by Alex Tew from England. Some of the original providers of Pixel were charging for adding your link to their pages. The SafeList Warrior Group offering the Master SafeAdList Pixel Page allows you to post FREE! It is totally cool.

What you do is pick the type of icon you want and then a spot to place it. Once you do this, the script takes you to the screen so you can add your link and then a brief text message. Once approved, your link then appears on the page. As you can add up to 5 links on this particular page you can make your own pattern or add to someone else’s.

Each page has 1,000,000 pixel spots. Once approved, your spots display and then people see your mini ads when they hold the cursor over an icon. You can also link your existing Pixel Page to the MSAL network by clicking on the purchase a link icon.

Owning your own page is a great promotional tool and offers a unique service for your membership. In addition, your pages become linked to the network so that the links posted to your page appear not only on YOUR individual page but also on the other pages in the overall Network. Currently there are 5 individual Pixel Pages in this particular Network. Each page costs only $49.99 to own. Posting to this page is free.

SALPixelPage is part of the Master SafeAdList and the SafeAdList venues - where your ads are read daily.

Internet Home Based Business Tips | Build A Massive List On Complete Auto Pilot

Dear blog reader,

It doesn't happen often that I can tell you about
a f|r|e|e resource that'll blow your socks off,
but today I can.

http://w--o--w.com/?i=4378/xmark-SafeSub5

Once in a while, not often, something really great
comes along and you simply have to grab it with
both hands. So what am I talking about? Well
my fri.end, I am talking about Craig Haywood's
new service called TrackThatAd which combines
everything you need to succeed online. And did I
mention it is f|r|e|e?

http://w--o--w.com/?i=4378/xmark-SafeSub5

For the first time, you can now have a system that
will make you money, send you truckloads of
visitors, build your .mailing list and do it all on
autopilot! Yes my fri.end, you read that right.
Not only is this incre.dible system f|r|e|e, but you
don't have to do one single stitch of work and it
will do all of the above for you.

----------------------------------------------
This is one link you definitely want to follow
http://w--o--w.com/?i=4378/xmark-SafeSub5
----------------------------------------------

This system was designed to give even the newest
of newbies a chance to make real money. Craig is
doing all the work and sharing the pro.fits to the
extend that I think he is insane! Take my word
my fri.end, you don't want to miss out on this
one.

http://w--o--w.com/?i=4378/xmark-SafeSub5


Kind Regards,


Juan Pablo Cangas

Internet Home Based Business Tips | Learn to Make Money from Home!
http://www.getfreedom.ws


P.S.: How would you like to get Tons of Resources that you'd
normally spend Thousands of Dollars on?

All at no .cost to you?

Simply join the Internet's most Massive Giveaway:

http://w--o--w.com/?i=4378/xmark-SafeSub5-ps


P.P.S.: Want Hundreds of Double Opt-In Subscribers
Delivered Overnight to your List on Autopilot?

Then contribute a gift to our Giveaway to Cash-in
on the Massive Traffic, Opt-In Subscribers and Pro.fits
to be Unleashed during the next 10 days!

Now RUSH to the site and upload your gift...

My fri.end, every minute you procastinate,
you are losing a valuable subscriber, gone forever!

http://w--o--w.com/?i=4378/xmark-SafeSub5-pps

FFA Marketing: go Pro - send your email ads

(continued from 10-02-05 article, FFA Marketing: Posting your links free)

The flip side of posting your links free to FFA and classified ad boards is going Pro and then emailing YOUR own ads to the posters. When you post your link free you receive email. The email comes from the board owners, Admins and the Pro members. Each party has paid so that you can post your link free. The owners and Admins have purchased or lease a script and then pay someone to host their site. They then add their boards to the large syndicates and major Networks like Worldwidepromoter and etc. Pro members purchase subscriptions to the boards.

Each major Network has itÂ’s own rates and then link up to itÂ’s own set of boards. When marketers agree to post their link free to a board or Network, they must agree or opt-in to receive email in return for the service. Once they agree and post their link, the Pro members of that board is then able to send an email to the poster one time. Boards typically subscribe to a Network. This means that, for those boards who subscribe, each day thousands people post to their site via a submitter of some sort. Those emails then become part of that individual board's database and are accessible for one day. (The day after you made your post.)

The rules governing sending emails are fairly simple:

1. Free members agree to receive email one email each from the Network owners, Admins and Pro members. The agreement the marketers sign is like a legally binding contract - one to be honored by both parties.

2. Pro members (and Admins and owners) are then allowed to send their emails to the posters ONE TIME AND ONE TIME ONLY. This is what has, in general, caused major heartburn in the FFA industry fueled in part by abuses on both sides of the fence. There are those who post their link free and then get offended by all the email they receive. Of course you will get email! That is stipulated upfront. Then, there are those Pro members who harvest emails and send their ads multiple times. That of course is not cool. Then there are the free posters who put auto responders up on their email accounts to send ads to the Pro members! That is wayyyyyy not cool.

Adding to the controversy are the so-called ‘bulk’ email services and other collection sites which sell or otherwise offer large databases of email addresses. Those email addresses actually came from the FFA posters, which again, you can only email to once. While you may not have sent to the list yourself on any given day, people tend to forget all this over time. So, someone who posted an ad in April may find themselves getting email from another marketer in October! Sometimes October of another year!! People tend to get testy when they receive email from some marketer months or even years after they posted a link to an FFA board or network.

Despite the controversy, FFA marketing is invaluable provided YOU take precautions and market responsibly

By far the most effective aspect of FFA marketing is in being a Pro (or owning your own board) and then sending your ads to the posters. Xtream has two FFA boards each linked to high traffic Networks: XtreamFFA and XtreamNet FFA. Each day several thousand people post to the sites. 10-03-05 for example: 3102 leads at XtreamFFA and 2794 at XtreamNet FFA. The email address stay active for one 24 hour period during which the Pro members can send their ads. After that, they are replaced with the previous day's batch of posters.

With these two and similar sites you always want to do the following:

1. Always send your ads to the posters via the onboard mailer. This does a couple of things for you:

a. Email goes out through the sites ISP This is a critical factor these days in email marketing. ISP providers (for most individuals this means your internet connection and also your primary email account/access provider) can prove to be extremely email marketing unfriendly. Even a hint of a spam complaint can get your computer and email banned! Using the onboard mailer at a legitimate FFA service protects you from complaints and subsequent hassles.B

b. Email always contains the very important disclaimer - one that reminds the posters that they used the board to market their links and agreed to receive email for doing so. This is critical should you be subject to a spam complaint and then investigations by spamcop and your ICP. c. You can only send your email once a day to the posters. The script keeps track of this and prevents you from emailing the list again. This protects both you and the poster

2. If emailed the list of leads, (one site has this feature) delete the email containing the addresses if you emailed those leads that day already. Yes, it is tempting to keep them and perhaps email them again later - but really not worth the consequences should you be caught. On days you missed, you can send to the list using your own bulk emailer. Frankly, I have yet to find a decent one that actually works properly. Should you email the leads yourself ALWAYS INCLUDE THE PROPER DISCLAIMER! Otherwise you risk spam complaints

Does all this sound daunting and put you off on marketing with FFA sites? I hope it does not as
Pro FFA marketing and emailing to the leads is really quiet an effective means of advertising online. Why is this? Simple - marketing studies show that readers need to see offers up to seven or more times before responding! As most FFA free posters do so many times over the course of a week, you have a good opportunity to get your message across to them. Over time, this can be a highly effective tool and worth having in your arsenal. You just really need to exercise caution and good sense when using this resource.

You get Pro memberships into the two Xtream FFA services XtreamFFA and XtreamNet FFA with your annual subscription to XtreamNet Marketing Center