ADVERTISING ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET WHEN YOU CAN'T AFFORD THE

ADVERTISING ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET WHEN YOU CAN'T AFFORD THE
BY: GLENN HAERTLEIN
the best way to make money with your website, no matter what the
business, is to get it noticed. to get it noticed, you need to
ADVERTISE. BUT HOW DO YOU DO THAT WHEN YOU'RE ON A SHOESTRING BUDGET
that's so tight you really can't afford the shoestring, let alone the
shoe you took it off of? well, there are three things you can do that
WON'T COST YOU A DIME. AND YOU CAN GET STARTED WITH THEM TODAY.

first, get yourself signed up for several hits-for-clicks sites. for
THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT, A
'hits-for-clicks' site is a site from which you surf the net and get
points for viewing websites. in return for surfing, you get points.
YOU USE THOSE POINTS TO GET EXPOSURE FOR YOUR SITE(S). MOST
hits-for-clicks have free signups and most will let you enter up to
three (sometimes five) urls into their system. here are some
HITS-FOR-CLICKS SITES I USE:

fontoon (http://www.fontoon.com/?refid=3446)
STARTXCHANGE
(http://www.startxchange.com/index.php?referrer=htack210)
trafficg (http://trafficg.com/index.php?member=htack210)
PROFIT CHARGER HITS
(http://profitchargerhits.com/www.profitchargerhits.com/?refid=10717)
traffic pods (http://www.trafficpods.com/index.jsp?ref=htack210)
MYTRAFFICSTORM (HTTP://WWW.MYTRAFFICSTORM.COM/?REF=385)
traffic swarm (http://www.trafficswarm.com/go.cgi?329064)
surfmaster club (http://www.webideas4u.com/team/htack210/smcp1.shtml)

second, you need to get yourself a good browser that allows you to do
tabbed browsing. what's a tabbed browser? i'm glad you asked! a
TABBED BROWSER, SIMPLY PUT, IS A BROWSER THAT LETS YOU BROWSE SEVERAL
sites at once using tabs instead of separate windows. to get the most
out hits-for-clicks sites you need to surf from the hits-for-clicks
SITE'S START PAGE. THE MORE YOU SURF, THE MORE POINTS YOU GET. THE
more points you get, the more exposure you get. you could surf from
each one of your hits-for-clicks sites one at a time, but you'll make
BETTER HEADWAY SURFING FROM AS MANY OF THEM AS YOU CAN AT ONCE. NOW
imagine how cumbersome it would be to have each of the above sites
open in a separate window! having each site open in a separate tab in
THE SAME BROWSER WINDOW IS MUCH MORE CONVENIENT BECAUSE THEN YOU CAN
move from tab to tab and surf several sites at once.

"WHAT ARE SOME GOOD TABBED BROWSERS?" YOU ASK. WELL, ONE THAT COMES
immediately to mind is netscape 7.x. it has tabbed browsing built in.
all you do is open one site, hit ctrl+t (on the pc) or command+t (on
THE APPLE), OPEN ANOTHER TAB, OPEN ANOTHER SITE, AND SO ON AND SO ON.
then, all you need to do is tab between the sites all in the same
window. another tabbed web browser that comes to mind is crazybrowser
AVAILABLE AT CRAZYBROWSER.COM (WHERE ELSE?). CRAZY BROWSER WORKS IN
much the same way as netscape 7.x and allows you to open whole groups
at once. so, if you organize your hits-for-clicks sites in one folder
UNDER CRAZY BROWSER, YOU CAN OPT TO OPEN ALL THE LINKS AT ONCE AND
crazy broswer will open each one in a separate tab.

OKAY, SO NOW YOU'RE SURFING! YOU'RE GAINING POINTS AND BUILDING
exposure for your site. that's great! but guess what? it's still not
enough. there's one more thing you need to do in order to get the
MOST BANG FOR YOUR CLICK.

third, you need to build your hits-for-clicks downlines in order to
GET MORE POINTS FOR YOUR CLICKS. HITS-FOR-CLICKS SITES THRIVE ON
getting more people to sign on. it's how they make their living. one
way they do this is through referrals. as an incentive for their
CURRENT CUSTOMERS TO GET THEM MORE CUSTOMERS, HITS-FOR-CLICKS SITES
often give extra points for referrals. "how am i supposed to do
that," you ask, "when i'm already clicking my fingers to the bone?"
THAT'S WHERE FREE ROTATORS COME IN.

a rotator is a web device that let's you put several urls in one
PLACE. THE ROTATOR THEN TAKES THOSE URLS AND ROTATES THEM. IN OTHER
words, when the user happens upon your rotator address, he or she
will see one of several sites you have entered. let me illustrate.
LET'S SAY I HAVE A FREE WEB ROTATOR THAT I SIGNED UP FOR AT
pageswirl. i log in and i put in several sites:
http://gman.167aday.com
HTTP://SOLUTIONS.JUVIO210.COM
http://www.juvio210.com
http://pageswirl.com/?aff=htack210

when the user goes to my rotator site, he or she will see one of
these sites. they will come up at random and i can weight the sites.
IN OTHER WORDS, I CAN CAUSE ONE SITE TO BE SEEN MORE OFTEN THAN THE
others.

"OKAY. SO HOW DOES THAT HELP ME?" YOU ASK. WITH A FREE ROTATOR, YOU
can input the referral links for your hits-for-clicks sites along
with the main site you're using to promote your business. enter the
FREE ROTATOR URL INTO YOUR HITS-FOR-CLICKS SITES. MAKE SURE THAT YOUR
particular hits-for-clicks allows the use of rotators. many do. some
do not. and some only accept rotators from certain providers. (for
EXAMPLE, PROFIT CHARGER HITS ONLY ACCEPTS PAGESWIRL ROTATORS.) WITH
the free rotator installed, you're getting referrals, building your
clicks-for-hits downline, gaining more browsing points, and getting
MORE EXPOSURE FOR YOUR SITE. AND WHAT'S NICE ABOUT ALL OF THIS IS
that you don't have to pay a dime!

WHEN IT COMES RIGHT DOWN TO IT, THE SITES THAT ADVERTISE THE MOST,
get the most hits and have the potential to make the most money. and
with hits-for-clicks sites even people with little or no advertising
BUDGET CAN GET THE WORD OUT. SO WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE? GET OUT THERE
and start surfing!

about the author

glenn haertlein is the webmaster of everyman's computer page
(www.juvio210.com), a history teacher and a freelance writer.