Today we want to share with you John Sawyer’s ViralURL case study.

John joined ViralURL on the 31st of October 2007 and is currently a Gold member.

Check out his case study below…

Hello Frank & Colin,

The following documents the results of a 21-day prelaunch promotion for my new website, Marketing Tech Secrets .

I currently use a total of 9 advertising sites each of which offers one or more of the following ad methods:

• text ads
• banner ads
• exit ads
• solo email ads

I have upgraded memberships in all but one of them.

The tracking system I’m using is very simple right now. Each link I use has a code appended to it which gets read by the landing page. The system simply counts the number of times a given code is seen and stores the counts in a database table.

Eventually, I’ll make it more sophisticated, but for now, it’s already giving me some interesting information. Primarily, it’s showing me how effective these ad sites are (or not) in terms of driving traffic to my site. Pretty important thing to know, right?

Here are the results from the 21 days of the prelaunch:

Text and Banner Ads

Site Name – Page Hits

Leads Leap – 541
Croc Ads – 116
Target Ads Depot – 110
ViralURL – 20
Free Ad Depot – 13
Viral Ads Depot – 7

Solo Email Ads

Site Name – Page Hits

List Joe * – 250
ViralURL – 154
Croc Ads – 28
Viral Ads Depot – 26
ListDotCom – 16
Free Ad Depot – 7
Free Traffic Buzz – 6

* List Joe is a special case. The number looks really good compared to the other sites until you recall that List Joe is a credit-based safelist. That means that people click a link in the email they receive which displays my site for 20 seconds while the credit counter counts down to zero and the user gets credit for viewing my site. A very high percentage of those people probably never even look at the site, but the fact is that they’re at least opening it and it’s up to me to have something on there that grabs their attention.

Conclusions

Leads Leap is far and away the best deal for the money it costs me. I’m a Pro member of Leads Leap for which I pay them $27 per month. My text ads are seen in their newsletters and on their blog and they’re obviously effective as there were nearly five times the number of hits on my page as the next most effective site.

Croc Ads and Target Ads Depot were a distant second and third, respectively, to Leads Leap , but still much better than most of the rest of the sites. I’m a lifetime Pro member of Croc Ads which means I paid them once and I have two text ads free for life on their system.

I’m also a lifetime Pro member of Target Ads Depot meaning that I paid once and I have a text ad, a banner ad, and an exit ad for life. The above results only reflect the text ad. So far, there haven’t been any hits on the banner or the exit ads.

Aside from List Joe , in the email category only ViralURL scored impressive results. I think that speaks volumes to the responsiveness of ViralURL members. Whereas List Joe ’s members are surfing for points, ViralURL members are actually opening up the emails and clicking on the links to visit the advertised site with no artificial incentive to do so.

I think this was the most interesting statistic of all of them. Where most of the email sites were very lame in terms of response, and List Joe ’s curve is skewed, it could be argued that my headlines or emails weren’t compelling enough to get people to open them. I think the ViralURL results refute that. The identical emails were sent to ViralURL as to the rest of the sites and obviously were interesting enough to get them to open them many times more often than the other sites. The only variable was the site and its members.

The message should be obvious: test, test, and test again. You can’t have too much information about where your ad results are coming from. The more you know about how your various ad providers are performing, the better you will be able to allocate your advertising resources.

John "The Geek" Sawyer

Do you have a case study you like to share?

Here is what you need to do…

1. Visit our helpdesk at: http://Reply2Frank.com

2. Log into your helpdesk account or signup for a new helpdesk account if you don’t have one.
(Note: The helpdesk requires a separate account, you can’t login with your ViralURL details!)

3. Open a new helpdesk ticket in the ViralURL.com department.

4. Call the subject: Here Is My Case Study

Then simply write it all down into the ticket.

Don’t forget to mention your full name and a URL that goes with it, e.g.:

Frank Bauer, Owner of Add2it.com

or

Frank Bauer, Member of http://members.audiogenerator.com/specialinfo.asp?x=161641

Also, if you like us the add a picture of you to the case study, please attach it to the ticket or mention a URL where we can find it.

Please remember that we can only publish a limited number of case studies within a certain time period.

All case studies will be evaluated in the order we have received them and we can’t guarantee that every single case study will be used.

We are looking forward to receive and publish your case study and to send you tons of targeted traffic.

Warm regards,

Colin Klinkert CEO, ViralKing.com	&	Frank Bauer CEO, Add2it.com

How Viral Marketing Works For YOU…

You have a website and want to make some money… and the way you are going to achieve that is through Viral Marketing. Why is it called “viral”? It is viral because your website spreads through your advertisements or promotions like a virus would spread in a kindergarten class full of runny nose kids. You are going to use this method to replicate your efforts without a lot of work on your part all across the Internet.

The reason you hear so much about viral marketing is because IT WORKS!

This method is based on the need to spread good news with friends, family, and coworkers. You are going to create a Viral Marketing campaign that is going to be the talk of the web, you are going to create and offer something that will be passed along.

How many times have you received an email that you just had to pass along to your friends? I know I have tried not to pass stuff on… you know… spamming, but there are some emails that really hit me some way or another, they get my attention and I want to share it. This is Viral Marketing and is so easy to do… you just need to offer something of value, along with your web address, name and company logo or brand.

When you forward an email, you forward your email address and website address. You will be creating your own brand, you will be gaining recognition and eventually trust and respect. You also portray a human side of yourself and your company… send something funny, send a great picture, let them know you are just like they are, and someone they would want to do business with.

You may have an ebook, which by the way is a great way to begin your Viral Marketing campaign. You will want to offer this ebook for free, giving some great information and have your website address on every page, in a way that catches their eye as they read.

When visitors come to your website, encourage them to download your ebook, share it with their friends, they will see your generosity as a big plus and will watch to see if you are offering anything else in the future… your name will be embedded in their mind as someone who gave them something… not asking for anything in return. As you are giving, they are sharing your information for you, therefore, spreading the virus.

Ebooks aren’t the only product you can offer, you can have freebies, games, some cool contests, etc…. maybe you have a mug or t-shirt with your company logo, you will be giving a prize along with some live advertisement. If you can have some fun on your site, you can bet they will be back and spread the word.

You want to build traffic to your site? A good Viral Marketing campaign is the way to go. Once you get it set up, which is the hardest part, the rest is easy… you just keep the traffic flowing, and you will watch it grow leaps and bounds. If you notice the traffic slowing down, then you know to offer another prize, ebook, articles, etc… give them a reason to come back.

As long as your readers are entertained and/or informed, they will keep coming back to your website. You will become part of the social networking sites, you will be shown on others blogs and websites, and Internet forums. You need to realize something, you are not only building more traffic, but you are creating more and more back-links to your site. You are creating a perfect blueprint for a successful online business. You get it started, then the rest happens for free, you are being advertised more and more by the public, not just today, next week, but for years to come.

‘Whatever the mind can conceive and believe… it can achieve.’
Napoleon Hill, Think & Grow Rich

To your success,

Frank Bauer