How to get Referrals Part 5 - Advertise

Tip: To get best results and understanding of the how to get referrals series I suggest you read them as I have written them, starting with part 1 and working your way up to part 5 because you will not benefit from certain steps until you have completed the previous ones.
If you already read parts 1 thru 4, click the "read more" button to continue your learning with Part 5 of the How to get Referrals series.

How to get Referrals step 9 - Advertise
"Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read."
Leo Burnett

Great quote about advertising that really sums up this entire series. Many of the things I've already told you involved in getting referrals is about doing everything involved in the quote by the late great Leo Burnett. Don't hype things up, give them the facts, put it in places people are already looking and keep it organized in one location that's worth visiting.

Did you recognize the name of Leo Burnett but not sure why? He's responsible for some of the most well known advertising icons like The Jolly Green Giant, the Marlboro Man, Toucan Sam, Charlie the Tuna, Morris the Cat, Pillsbury Doughboy, the 7up "Spot", and Tony the Tiger.

So when you are doing your advertising for your blog/site, and articles you have written consider who's going to be viewing it, and why they are viewing it. Are they new to the field of earning online, or do they have experience? Are they viewing it because they gain from the view, or are they viewing cause they are interested? If you don't know who and why the ad's are being viewed by then you are wasting your advertisement.

Getting more referrals from your ad's is a compilation of everything you've already learned in the first four parts of this series. Rereading everything is suggested to make sure you write everything on your blog for a purpose.


How to get Referrals Step 10 - Blog or Single Site Advertising

There are lots of places you can advertise online for free. Some of them have already been discussed. Your blog/site is what you primarily want to promote because you will be consistently updating it, build trust with it, and people will be available to contact you for help.
When to promote a single site instead of your blog is really dependent on where you advertise and why you want to promote the single site.

Reasons to promote a single site instead of your blog/site:

• A site is having a referral contest.
• You promote like sites on each other. I.E Promote paid to post forum on another paid to post forum. You know they like to earn that way, so promote alternatives.
  
• Doing a referral swap where you help a referral build a line.
• The site just changed something that will attract new users who may have overlooked the site previously. Like new countries allowed or new payment processor.
  

Places to advertise for free:

• Some PTC's allow you to spend money earned on advertising rather then cashing out. After your blog has been going for a while and is producing decent results, spending this easily made money is a great way to get the word out and develop some constant readers. My personal favorite PTC for this is DonkeyMails.
  
• Traffic Exchanges are great for getting lots of lower quality traffic for free. Once you have a solid blog to promote, it will generate referrals through TE's. But remember that TE's will produce small amount of referrals compared to number of visitors that visit. But if you promote your blog this way over a month or two, it will produce better results. The more often someone see's your blog with new content being provided then the more likely they are to visit it and sign up under you. It's a Trust thing.
  My personal favorite TE's are these two. Both have great admins and extra prize pages for more credits. First one even has chat and surf feature. HorrorMovieHits, TipTopTraffic.
• Forums have already been discussed in part 3 of the series.
• Social Networks also discussed in part 3.
• Social Bookmarking sites also discussed in part 3.
  
• Classified Ad sites like Craigslist.
• Your profile where ever you go, always fill it out.
• Chat Rooms
• Blog Directorys, my favorite is Link Referral
  
• Local stores, create a 1 page flier and ask if you can put it on a window or bullentin board.
• Telephone poles around town, again 1 page flier make sure to put little tabs people can rip off with your blog address.
• Other blogs of relevance to yours, exchange links to each other. Make sure it's a fair trade though, A-list blogs won't do this with new blogs.
• Don't be afraid to comment on other people's blogs to advertise as well, but just like forums this should be done with care and should add to the conversation.
• If you do a bunch of downloading and/or have people directly download from you, add a simple text document to the file with your web link and brief site description.

I promise if you follow the 10 steps here in the series it will translate into referrals for you. If you are having any problems implementing anything or have questions about something. Feel free to contact, I'm willing to help you. You can use the contact me form, contact me through IM, or use the chat box on left to leave a message, or use the chat box on the right to IM with me privately right away.