by Charles Davidson
PUBLISHERS: You may use this article in your online ezine or Any links that appear in the body of the article or in the Rights are not granted to use this article in any e-book or any mailto:davidson@rapidbizsuccess.com ***************************************************************** THE VICTORY LAP Today's Track: ***************************************************************** Hi there! Welcome to another issue of The Victory Lap. Here at There's no hype or fluff here. Just down and dirty, white Sit down . . . buckle up . . . here we go . . . HEY, SMALL BUSINESS OWNER, TAKE A LOOK AT THIS! "Submit your website to 104,287 search engines and websites. OK. Maybe I made that quote up. Sounds tempting, though, doesn't it? It's so easy and effortless. You know how hard it is to list If you could only type all of that information once and then The scenario is probably familiar to you. You've stumbled on a All your marketing problems will be solved before you can say, There is only one minor drawback. It doesn't work. I know. They make it sound so convincing. They make it sound Welcome to the world of marketing hype. Let's take a look at what happens behind the scenes . . . FEELING A LITTLE OVERWHELMED? First of all, these marketing systems want you to believe that Let's assume you're brand-new to the world of Internet "Wow, that's a lot of search engines I have to visit and enter and probably also . . . "I've gotta get me some help." These marketers want you to think that the job of posting your But come back to the real world for a moment and think about ir HOW DO YOU SEARCH FOR INFORMATION? When you want to find something on the Internet, where is the Do you automatically surf over to "Bob's Quaint Little Seach Is "Andy's Free For All Page" your first choice to find anything I bet not. If my hunch is correct, you probably use something like Dogpile The point here is that there are only a few dozen search engines You'll either want to stick with the big names that everyone If you are focusing your marketing efforts on the top 86,037 So, what is really being advertised in these marketing products? These search engine submission programs are really focusing FFA PROGRAMS REVEALED A free-for-all page is a page set up by someone to list links on The problem with this is that there are thousands of services You link, once posted, has an average shelf life of about 4 And remember that no one ever visits these pages, anyway, so SO, HOW COME THERE ARE SO MANY FFA PAGES? FFA pages are still a popular marketing method. But not for any Website owners put up FFA pages because it's a way for them to When you use a software program or a submission service to Don't be fooled. You're link has probably already been For the host of an FFA page, anyone who submits their web page BOTTOM LINE FFA pages are a waste of time. So are services that promise to
on your web site provided you do not change the article. You
must also include the resource box at the end of the article.
resource box must be hyperlinks and should be made active if
they are to appear on a web site or in any archive available from
the Internet.
compilation of articles without the express written permission of
the author. Please contact the author if you would like to use
this article in any other manner:
by Charles Davidson
The Worst Marketing Strategy You Can Use
the Victory Lap, you'll learn how to kick your business into
overdrive.
knuckle advice to steer you toward the fast track. No
advertising. No gimmicks. No shameless promotions. Just the
stuff you really need. Plus a kick in the seat to get you to
shift into high gear.
Before you know it, your website will be seen by everyone on
Planet Earth and you'll have more money in your pockets than you
know what to do with. Isn't that worth the small one-time fee
of $34.95?"
your website with search engines. It takes time and lots of
typing.
send it to all of those websites with the click of a button.
Isn't that what your computer is supposed to do, anyway? Make
things easier for you?
web page that promises thousands of search engines submissions
with relatively little effort. All you have to do is buy their
software or subscribe to their service.
"Your credit card has been charged."
so easy. They make it sound so effective.
there are thousands or hundreds of thousands of search engines
on the web that you can submit your website to.
marketing. If you heard about a service that offered to submit
your website to 104,287 search engines, you would probably be
thinking . . .
my website information into!"
information to search engines is overwhelming. Otherwise there
would be no market for their useless products.
for a second.
first place you go?
Engine" at http://www.bobsplace.com/~search/ffasubmit.html
and everything you need online.
or Google or AltaVista. If you are like me, you might even have
Yahoo! set as your browser home page.
that are worth your marketing time, effort, or money.
uses, or search out those specialty search engines that cater to
your business specialty or niche.
search engines out there, your marketing efforts are way too
scattered. You need to narrow down your possibilities by 80,000
or so.
their efforts on something called free-for-all pages.
their website. Most of them accept between 100 and 1000 links
at a time. As new links are added, the oldest links on the page
are dropped.
and software programs that submit to each of these FFA pages on
a daily basis.
minutes. After that, it's moved off the page into Internet
oblivion.
even if your link lasted a very long time - say 8 minutes - the
chances are very good that no one will ever see it.
reason you would think.
collect the names and email addresses of people for their own
marketing.
submit your links, you will immediately be blasted with hundreds
or thousands of emails containing offers to sell other products
or services. Most come disguised with a subject that reads like
this: "Please confirm your FFA submission."
displayed and removed by the time you get to that message.
is a prospect. You can expect to receive email from that person
from the rest of your life or until you email provider shuts
down your account because you haven't cleared out our inbox in
three weeks.
submit your website to thousands of search engines. Next time
you're tempted by this kind of an offer, think about how many
search engines you actually use yourself.
You'd be much more effetive if you focused on those dozen or so SHIFT TO HIGH GEAR You'll get nothing if you do nothing! Here's are your Victory Lap action steps to help you shift your DECIDE that you are never going to waste your time and money on FFA and search engine submission sites. FOCUS your marketing efforts on the dozen or so most popular search engines and any search engines that primarily focus on your niche or business specialty. EMAIL ME to let me know you've done it! Let me know you're About the Author
The Victory Lap Charles Davidson is a violence prevention educator and victim's mailto:impact-subscribe@topica.com
that are the most popular. You may kill an hour or two of time
writing search engine descriptions, but you'll still have your
$34.95 and a nearly empty inbox.
business into high gear . . .
taking the steps to kick your business into high gear. Maybe we
can even talk about some joint ventures.
mailto:victory-lap@rapidbizsuccess.com?subject=FFA-sucks
Copyright 2003 Charles Davidson
rights advocate working in the field of sexual assault and
domestic violence. He also runs an online publishing business.
If you want to put your business into overdrive, then subscribe
today to IMPACT: The Online Journal of Home Business Success.
Send a blank email to: