Indirect Advertising

I am reasonably sure that anyone reading this article is
familiar with all the free online advertising resources such
as the all too familiar Sp-m, Classifieds, FFA pages,
Banners, Text Ads, Traffic Exchanges, Newsletters,Guaranteed
Visitors, Paid to Read, Paid to Join, Link Swaps, Pop-ups,
Other 'In-Your-Face' Ads, and the list goes on and on.

The question I would like you to consider is, when you see
this kind of stuff yourself what is your 'Frame of Mind'?

My guess is you know what's coming and your shields go up.
You pull up your waders and trudge on through, oblivious to
the thousands of messages ricochetting off your armor just
so you can collect a few more hits for your own website or
offer. With Millions of would be online marketers doing this
hour after hour and day after day, is it any wonder that the
Internet slows down to a crawl and even stops at times?

So what if you could put your message on hold for a time
when your prospects finished their 'Direct Advertising'
chores. They have returned to their curious wanderings
online, a time when they are now open to checking things
out. Instead of shoving your material in their face, they
come looking for you to see what you are doing. Maybe even
ask a few questions. Kind of like stopping off for a cold
one with the gang after work.

The online equivalent to this scene is being played out
today and every day and you can participate for free. It is
called 'Social Networking' or even more appropriately for
us, 'Business Networking' and is easily found with your
favorite search engine.

Since this can hardly be considered blatant advertising (at
least not directly) I will say the one I am most familiar
with and use myself, is the Ryze Business Network. With a
free account they allow you to create a 'Home Page' where
you can display whatever you want other members to see. I
suggest you tell about yourself instead of wasting it on
more advertising. Those that visit know that they are on a
Business Network and know you are here because you have
something for sale.

Now, think about what 'Frame of Mind' you would be in if you
dropped by a potential friends page to sign their guestbook,
looked over their 'Home Page' and decided to click a few
links trying to gain more insight into their personality.
You might even be considering an alliance or joint venture
with them. Can you see the difference?

You are no longer perceived as a 'Salesman' but a 'Fellow
Businessperson' instead. Chamber of Commerce 'Mixers' have
been an example of this approach for years and been very
successful. Now you can accomplish nearly the same thing for
your home business from your computer.

If this all sounds complicated and too hard to understand
how it could possibly work, I would suggest getting a free
account and give it a try. There is free 'Interactive' on
the job training available through sub-networks that fit
every imaginable interest, where you can ask questions and
read the answers from your peers.

There are facilities to search out those you have a common
connection with and they have already given you permission
to subtilty contact them by virtue of being a member.
Blatant advertising is prohibited so you will not be
bombarded with junk ads. It's more like receiving an
invitation that you can read privately and decide if you
want to attend.

So now it is all up to you. Continue contributing to the
degradation of Internet bandwidth with huge numbers of
attempts required (many not even reaching the target) to get
a single response, or try something new.