By Rebecca Gilbert
© 2003

When I first started my internet home business, I realized that in order to make money I would have to bring visitors to my website.  I didn't have a lot of extra cash laying around, and my mentality at the time was "Why would I pay for it, when I can get it for free"?  So, I starting searching the internet for places that would accept an ad for my product for free.  I was very happy to find literally thousands of sites willing to accept my ad.
 
As the weeks went by I worked hard and learned a lot.  The phrase that comes to mind when I think back is, "you get what you pay for".  I was placing ads on the internet every free moment I got and was getting very little results.  Not being one to quit, I figured I would move on to another form of advertising or figure out what I was doing wrong with the free advertising.
 
As soon as I placed my ad, I would go back and look at it.  I expected my ad to be at the top of the list since I had just placed it.  Much to my surprise, my ad was listed down the list a little way.  I realized that at the very moment that I was placing my ad, others were doing the same.  And as each person placed an ad, mine moved further down the list.  In my infinite wisdom... I realized that potential visitors would probably not search past the first page before choosing a product.
 
So then I decided that I would go into that site and place my ad every few hours.  This way I knew it would always stay close to the top of the page, and hopefully be viewed by a potential customer.  How right I was!!!  Eventually, I had my first customer and had made my first sale on the internet!  What a feeling!  I was ready to take the internet by storm...
 
The week ran into the weekend, and I continued in the same way with my free ad campaign...and no luck.  Several weeks went by where I was getting visitors and making sales through the week, and none on the weekend.  Are you seeing a pattern here?  I sure did.  I soon discovered through statistical data that I pulled up from a search engine that the internet traffic on the weekend is super low compared to the weekdays.  I also learned that the internet traffic is at its peak around the noon hour in the US.
 
From that day forward, I didn't waste my time advertising on the weekends.  Instead, I would sit down around 11:00 a.m. every morning and run as many free ads as was humanly possible.  I could just about plan each day at noon that I could get a potential customer, affiliate, sale.
 
I'm also a firm believer in the phrase "work smarter, not harder".  It didn't take me long to figure out that I could utilize copy and paste and run the same ad in every category that it applied.  I also used the back button on my browser a lot.  Most of the time by using the back button, all my information was still there and I could just choose a different category.
 
It wasn't long before I had several paying customers and was bringing in a small monthly income from my small internet business.  I often try to teach this method to my members who cannot pay for advertising to start out with...without much luck unfortunately.  Many will not sacrifice their time to this extent, or they will run one ad on the internet and expect to get up the next morning and be a millionaire.
 
For those of you who don't have the money to invest, you will HAVE to invest your TIME.  How much is your time worth?  Many are drawing 6-figure incomes from the internet within 2-5 years.  The internet has made more millionaires from the average Joe than any other vessel in history.  Is 2-5 years a hard pill to swallow?  It shouldn't be.  How many of you are going to work your nine to five job for 40-50 years and have nothing to show for it? 
 
Am I still running free ads?  No, I'm not.  I took my very first paycheck that I earned from free advertising and put it back into paid advertising.  I can reach a vast number of customers with paid ads with no effort on my part at all.  Instead, my time has been filled with teaching others to do as I have done, and building my own business day by day.
 
Not a day has gone by in the last year and a half where I have not built onto my business.  I started out running free ads, then I moved on to paid ads, ppc's, email lists, ezine ads, then I built and optimized my own website, got link partners, got listed with the search engines, etc...
 
If you want to turn your life around and live without any financial constraints, then the internet is the place to be.  All it will take is patience, persistence and the will to succeed on your part.
 
Best Wishes for your future success and prosperity!
 
Sincerely,
Rebecca Gilbert
http://www.101homebusiness.org