The $1 Valkyrie Project had to end today. It seems that there are some states that regulate raffles and PayPal doesn't accept money for activities that involve an entry fee and a prize, such as raffles, drawings, or lotteries. Make me wonder about the other charity raffle that I won't name here in case PayPal is reading this post, too. Maybe if I labeled it as "Donate to Inquisitor Lord Aki's Marketing Curiosity Charity" PayPal wouldn't have had such a fit.
Congratulations to Lantz from Olathe, KS, for winning the Valkyrie! His blog is Twin-Linked Awesome and I suggest everyone go check it out. He is working on an AdMech army from the fandex.
The purpose of the project was to test some marketing concepts, and I did learn a lot.
1 - PayPal Sucks
Taking 33% of your money is just ridiculous. Something to remember for all you eBay sellers. PayPal also owns eBay, so they take a percentage off for the selling price of the item, they charge you for the listing, then they take money on the transaction itself. What a scam.
2 - Google AdWords Suck
You know those little ads on the right side of the page when you perform a Google search? According to the sales pitch, they are relatively cheap, like 20 to 30 cents per click.
Guess what, they are not cheap. It's more than 50 cents per click! They use some funky formula to determine the relevancy of the ad and charge you accordingly.
3 - Banner Exchanges Work
Librarium Online and CoolMiniOrNot have a good banner exchange program. If you want the banner to your site listed on many other sites, this is the way to go. It's a shame that many sites hide their banner exchanges on the bottom though.
4 - Use Your Signature
Use your forum signatures to advertise your site. You can even add a banner. Just don't make it too insane and, whatever you do, don't go around spamming the forum with stupid posts just to get your signature shown.
5 - Blog Lists are Where It's At!
If you have a blog, get on other people's blog lists. Especially Bell of Lost Souls and From the Warp. Ask other bloggers to include you on their list and include theirs on yours. Display your blog list in a visible location on your blog.
Every once in a while compile a list of awesome posts you have seen on other blogs and link back to them. Everyone appreciates a bit of free publicity and trust me, the other bloggers notice and will reciprocate the kindness.
6 - Content is Everything
You need to have content on your site to attract readers. Not just the "I painted something today" post, but something either really cool or really useful, like tutorials. Yes, you can still post the "I painted something today" posts, but try to have some good content on your blog every week.
I hope others can learn from my experiences. And remember, don't try to run a raffle and expect PayPal to let you accept payments through them.
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Cheers for becoming a follower of my blog and for adding me to your blog list. Much appreciated as its sites like this that really pull in the traffic for other blogs.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the paypal issues, I was hoping it would work out for you so that I could give it a try with some of the extra kits I have laying about.
ReplyDeletePaypal is certainly not merciful. Sorry to hear about the issues you had with it. Thank you for putting this together, though. Give-aways are always enjoyable. I'll use the Valk well!
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