Rethinking my advertising strategy – thinking of solo ads. What do YOU think?

Hey everyone, I've been doing a rethink of my marketing strategy. Signups for my mailing list were really sluggish, and nothing I do seemed to be having much of an effect. I'm in the fitness “niche”, which isn't a nich at all but a damn big industry, with vicious competition. Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating. But still, it's hard to get new sign-ups when your readers are jaded by dozens of other blogs with products and services offering six-pack abs, two-week superbody, and other stuff like that.


Tried targeted Facebook ads, that didn't work. Nor did Google ads. I want to make this online operation my main source of income, but I do also have a day job, and that has held me back from going all-out on forums related to fitness, from posting detailed, helpful posts that could get people interested in what I'm offering on my website. Just takes too long, you know? It's a grind as is, putting out new content for my blog.


But – and I don't know how I didn't notice this before – there's also such a thing as solo ads, which is, if I understand it correctly, paying someone else to promote your product or service on their mailing list. Which sounded kind of weird and spammy to me at first, but then I found out there's a real market for this kind of stuff, in fact there are people, like Heather Alessandra at Heather's Solos(which I admit, I'm thinking of purchasing in a test regime – do any of you have any experience with this particular service?), whose main business is letting other marketers reach out to their subscribers (for a price, of course).


Any and all guidance in the often frustrating world of paid ads would be much appreciated, though. Like, do you think I should try again with Facebook and Google ads, but after doing some serious reading on how to plan and implement a campaign, or should I try out this new thing, solo ads, which is more expensive but seems like less of a hassle to get results from? I am pretty strapped for time, but I don't have money to go throwing around on any old service either. Kind of a bind that I'm in. =/


For that matter, do you think paid ads are worth it at all? Many times I've seen people espouse the opinion that paid ads aren't worth it, that you should build your marketing around free, organic search results by creating good and useful content. I agree with the good content part, but it should probably be a bit of both – free exposure and exposure that you pay for. To get access to otherwise-inaccessible target markets, right? Listen to me rambling. I'm not an expert, but I hope some of you are. Thanks!

 

Is that a serious question? Paid ads (AdWords, Bing Ads, Facebook) IS the answer when it comes to getting targeted traffic. What else? Nothing else works, unless you spend a bunch of time every day trying to get it free, but that traffic may not convert well.

By the way are you the same person who posted it here: http://www.talkgold.com/forum/r415616-.html ? I am just curious.

 

I would tend to disagree with qwikad.com - Respectfully, of course.
Solo-ads are a great way to get targeted subscribers to your list.

Assuming a few things;
1. The targeted audience of the list you're paying to be on matches your offer
2. The quality of your squeeze page.
3. The level of quality content you're going to deliver, and relationship you build with said subscribers.

I guess I ask myself this;
1. Would I like to pay for a click from Google, where said searcher may of had a passing interest in the subject? OR
2. Would I like to pay for a visitor from a similar niche's list, where said person had built a relationship with the list owner, was receptive, fell within my niche, and has a PROVEN track record of subscribing to lists?

 

Solo Ads are definitely effective and I've personally made sales via the purchase of solo ads.
It is another form of Paid Advertising but what makes it effective is the fast delivery of subscribers and guaranteed number of clicks.

You'll need the following in place before purchasing Solo Ads:
- Lead Capture Page
- Autoresponder to follow up
- Tracking Software (e.g. Clickmeter FREE)

It is important for you to check the source of the traffic because there are many solo ads sellers sending bot clicks (fake).
It will be good to find authority websites in your niche and email them, asking if they provide solo ads services. These websites usually amass a huge list of targeted subscribers, which is ideal for your website.

 

Hi,

This member says he's in the fitness niche which is rather a damn industry! Whatever the niche the main point is that it must be a hot one, and fitness is hot. The competition? You can't avoid it all the times, you must live with it. Without competition no online business would exist neither any other commerce by the way! So we must accept it and plan our online business to live with competitors.

Google targeted ads: unless you go with Adword (which id damn expensive for the fitness niche) I don't see how you'd get targeted ads otherwise. But if you believe enough in your product you can hike bids. But make attention to follow up closely your EPC to avoid useless losses. I'd rather recommend you to try BuySell.com or 7search.com. In all cases I don't believe that driving traffic to the website is the problem. You see you can pay what is called "targeted guaranteed traffic": you'll have thousands of visitors to your website but they just come and leave in 15-30 seconds without converting to any sale! Why? Because they are mostly paid to surf and aren't buyers of your particular product. Look for buyers and the best solution is to start from where buyers start: SEARCH (words and keywords). Use PPC as your first method even if you look for less expensive providers because PPC meets the very words prospects are using right now to search for products and services. But whatever the advertising means you use I advise you to avoid methods that are intrusive because they irritate prospects. This is why you need to check well the kind of solo ads you want to use and the authenticity of relating email lists. Many email lists give same results, i.e. zero conversion, as "guaranteed targeted hits" to the website. Mind this before buying in.

But as I was saying driving traffic to your website isn't the real problem. The major issue is to retain enough prospects' attention once they reach the website. And for this, depending on the offered product or service every one must use his brain to find out what in the world could hook up prospects and keep them enough time on the site so that some of them convert to sales. I'll give here three hints which are:

Good content: you won't believe it but buyers are not there just to buy, they need more information on what they need before buying. Offer them information, original information and not things they've seen on hundreds of other sites. Add beautiful pictures and testimonials, etc

Offer incentives interesting as a complement to what the prospect is looking for mostly if the incentive has a low value. The incentive will also persuade the customer to not buy from competitors; people love freebies.

Tell them what to do (how to get the product you are offering): on websites many prospects are actually confused mostly if you offer them rich content. Tell them what to do visibly throughout your content.

 

I wasn't trying to even remotely imply that solo ads do not work. If you read his statement "For that matter, do you think paid ads are worth it at all?" sounds like he is trying to argue against the obvious: Paid advertising IS worth of investing your time and money in. If you're offering something of a value, paid ads is probably the fastest way to get your business booming.

 

I must have misread, late at night. My apologies.
Happy we're all on the same page

 

I don't really know about Solo ads in the fitness industry.
But I own Solo ads Business in the IM/MMO niche and yes it works like crazy.
I also buy Solo ads and get Thousands of new subscribers every month.
It might be very different for your niche.
But in my niche i have customers that get 40%-60% conversion rate from their squeeze page with solo ads.
That is 40-60 new subscribers for you from 100 clicks bought.
Of course you need to build a good squeeze page.
But with the right plugin this can take 10 minutes.

 

Solo ads are an awesome source of traffic, not only to build a list of subscribers but also to make money from initially. You have obviously seen that solo ads can cost a few quid.

I buy solo ads regularly, I always have a sales funnel in place. I have the initial squeeze page where the traffic is sent by solo ad vendor, if opt in then taken to an OTO (one time offer) which could be your own paid product or an affiliates product. This let's you cover the initial costs of the solo ad and even profit depending on the offer.

Always have a sales funnel in place, even in the back end follow up emails. Make sure to check with the vendor to make sure you can have paid products in your funnel.

 

Solo ads are so important to try and they are cheap for example adswaps or buysellads choose your niche and see the budget that suits you . good luck guys