Is "Andy's Free For All Page" your first choice to find anything and everything you need online.

I bet not.

If my hunch is correct, you probably use something like Dogpile or Google or AltaVista. If you are like me, you might even have Yahoo! set as your browser home page.

The point here is that there are only a few dozen search engines that are worth your marketing time, effort, or money.

You'll either want to stick with big names that everyone uses, or search out those specialty search engines that cater to your business specialty or niche.

If you are focusing your marketing efforts on top 86,037 search engines out there, your marketing efforts are way too scattered. You need to narrow down your possibilities by 80,000 or so.

So, what is really being advertised in these marketing products?

These search engine submission programs are really focusing their efforts on something called free-for-all pages.

FFA PROGRAMS REVEALED

A free-for-all page is a page set up by someone to list links on their website. Most of them accept between 100 and 1000 links at a time. As new links are added, oldest links on page are dropped.

The problem with this is that there are thousands of services and software programs that submit to each of these FFA pages on a daily basis.

You link, once posted, has an average shelf life of about 4 minutes. After that, it's moved off page into Internet oblivion.

And remember that no one ever visits these pages, anyway, so even if your link lasted a very long time - say 8 minutes - chances are very good that no one will ever see it.

SO, HOW COME THERE ARE SO MANY FFA PAGES?

FFA pages are still a popular marketing method. But not for any reason you would think.

Website owners put up FFA pages because it's a way for them to collect names and email addresses of people for their own marketing.

When you use a software program or a submission service to submit your links, you will immediately be blasted with hundreds or thousands of emails containing offers to sell other products or services. Most come disguised with a subject that reads like this: "Please confirm your FFA submission."

Don't be fooled. You're link has probably already been displayed and removed by time you get to that message.

For host of an FFA page, anyone who submits their web page is a prospect. You can expect to receive email from that person from rest of your life or until you email provider shuts down your account because you haven't cleared out our inbox in three weeks.

BOTTOM LINE

FFA pages are a waste of time. So are services that promise to submit your website to thousands of search engines. Next time you're tempted by this kind of an offer, think about how many search engines you actually use yourself.

You'd be much more effetive if you focused on those dozen or so that are most popular. You may kill an hour or two of time writing search engine descriptions, but you'll still have your $34.95 and a nearly empty inbox.

SHIFT TO HIGH GEAR

You'll get nothing if you do nothing!

Here's are your Victory Lap action steps to help you shift your business into high gear . . .

DECIDE that you are never going to waste your time and money on FFA and search engine submission sites.

FOCUS your marketing efforts on dozen or so most popular search engines and any search engines that primarily focus on your niche or business specialty.

EMAIL ME to let me know you've done it! Let me know you're taking steps to kick your business into high gear. Maybe we can even talk about some joint ventures. mailto:victory-lap@rapidbizsuccess.com?subject=FFA-sucks

The Victory Lap Copyright 2003 Charles Davidson

Charles Davidson is a violence prevention educator and victim's rights advocate working in the field of sexual assault and domestic violence. He also runs an online publishing business. If you want to put your business into overdrive, then subscribe today to IMPACT: The Online Journal of Home Business Success. Send a blank email to:

"The purpose of my main site www.jamesmaduk.com (hub) is not to sell. Rather its to 'buy'," James explains. "I want to 'buy' my visitor's email address."

Step one in his sales process originates from hub. James does daily online events for free, radio broadcasts, live webcasts, gives away free ebooks, asks for newsletter subscriptions, etc. for express purpose of collecting a new visitor's email address and educating them.

"I want to earn right to sell something to them. I want to earn their trust and rapport." By providing an email address, potential buyers open door for James to do just that.

James helps a visitor through decision making process by initiating step two of his sales process - an autoresponder series - after she has opted in with an email address. Each email, one to three a week, includes a short tip and directs readers to one of James' sales pages or his small business internet marketing "member's only" site.

Attract Right Visitors

By understanding your site visitors' decision making process and providing them with right information, you can convert more visitors to purchase. Attracting more of *right* visitors can improve conversions as well.

In Part 2, "Reach Your Web Site Marketing Goals: Profit By Attracting Right Visitors" http://www.webmarketingarticles.com/TargetVisitors.htm , I will take a look at some tips for attracting right customers to your site and ideas for profiting through information sites.

Bobette Kyle draws upon 10+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, Marketing MBA, and online marketing research in her writing.