Using Free For All Links Pages as an Effective Marketing Tool

Posted by By Michael Lawrence on: 2005-07-12 18:23:05

Free For All Links Pages have been given a bad name in recent history. The "green" internet marketer who posts to an FFA page and receives thousands of emails and very few sales for his efforts may find them too much of a hassle to deal with.

I can certainly empathize since I have been there. Luckily when I began my marketing career online I was already very familiar with email systems and was able to handle the deluge of email that came back my way.

When the dust had settled on my first few experiences posting to FFA's I realized a few things.

Blasting to 10 Million or 20 billion sites as the Blaster programs I was using claimed to be doing wasn't generating a heck of a lot of sales.

But I started to read some of the emails while in the course of deleting them all. I came across an advertisement for an Ebook that showed me the light and started my journey in "automated marketing".

The book pointed out that posting to FFA pages was a waste of time. Autosubmitters (like the one's I was using) were posting to these sites. I never looked at 10 Million sites to fill in my information. I realized that nobody else was looking either. My posting on the FFA page was never going to trigger a sale (except from the FFA page owner maybe if he is checking out his links).

To make matters worse these sites often roll your link off their pages in a matter of hours giving you no Search Engine value from the links. At the time of posting MSN was still accepting FFA links as my check at Uptimebot.com showed me (I did a couple of blasts for Cobrasurf to see whether the engines would pick them up, how long they would last and the speed at which the engines indexed them).

I don't want to get off topic into SEO but I do want to point out some search engines view FFA sites as "bad neighborhoods". It's your call whether you want to post there or not. I like to get the ads from FFA owners to see what programs are out there and what's new. FFA blasts are a great way to keep abreast of what's "going on".

So what is the value of an FFA page to me other than to get ads Mike?

I have to thank the ebook for the answer to this one as well. The best value you can get from an FFA page is not posting a link on it but owning it. Owning an FFA page allows you to send a one time advertisement to everyone that posts there. There are several services out there of quality that can provide you literally thousands of these types of leads a day. If you pay more in most cases you are getting better quality or more exclusivity with the leads.

They will collect them, double opt them in (ie confirm their identity and email address deliverability), and in most cases email your message to them automatically at a time interval you select (ie 0-7 days delay).

All you have to do is set up your ads, and log in periodically to check your Ad tracking stats (you are ad tracking right?), change up your ad and subject lines and that's about it.

You will have to try several of these services (whose price and quality vary GREATLY, I repeat GREATLY) to find the quality one's.

My suggestion is to inspect the leads yourself when you are a new member with one of these services. You can often tell using common sense whether the email addresses appear to be of quality or not. A lot of repeat emails, or repeat email sequences where they have the same name and just change a number on the end indicate they accept multiple posting from single individuals. While this can create an impressive lead count number to advertise to potential customers, obviously sending 50 messages to one person is not as effective as if you sent 50 to 50 (duh).

Reject vendors who do not generate results... it's too easy to give these guys chances since their services are all relatively inexpensive, but a little adds up in both your time and your money. You can be out $500 on your credit card pretty quickly when shopping for services online. Everybody has an addon, everybody has an upgrade etc.

Stick with a few good sources and try out a few new ones each month (until you reach a budget you are comfortable with). You will miss on a few in the beginning. BUDGET FOR THIS. You will feel better mentally and you will be more agressive marketing. You have to get the word out in the biggest way you can afford while making sure you are using services which provide value for your money. In the end the service should make you more money than it costs. At $20 dollars a month one referral to any program you are in will pay for the service for the month so you can see that if you find those quality FFA vendors it's not hard to justify their expenditure.

Remember these FFA leads were once you posting to these pages. They don't know what you know yet. It's easy to get referrals for FFA programs from people posting to these pages. Well it's not easy to get them to open your email when there are quite a few others in there, but if they do and you enlighten them about the values of owning an FFA page they will probably sign up under you. Don't brow beat them. Point them to this article if you want, provide them with "education" not a commercial.

FFA Resources I recommend:

Trafficwave.net - one of my favorite programs as the multiple mentions in this blog will attest to. 6000 strictly double opted in leads a month. Brian the Owner of Trafficwave is really commited to his membership and it shows. Great automated marketing.

Multilinks.net - Great leads and a premium lead option that gives you 2000 leads that only get emailed your add..... PER DAY. I not an affiliate with Multilinks but the leads are great.

Michael Lawrence is the owner of Cobrasurf.com - Get Free Website Promotion and Free Traffic.