The Realities Of Bulletin Boards

Some bulletin boards attract a huge amount of traffic on a daily basis but getting that traffic over to your own site isn't actually that easy. Of course, there are some tricks that can help but these don't usually improve the end result in terms of actual sales. This article will look at a variety of dynamics playing out on bulletin boards every day.

Craig's List is probably the best known bulletin board and anyone who's been to that site knows there are a ton of different options available. Each one of those options attracts a different audience and each audience has its own motivations for being there.

Before going any further, let's define our objective. Let's assume we're trying to sell a product. So, getting untargeted traffic to our site will likely not yield any results. A targeted visitor is much more likely to buy than an untargeted visitor. 100 targeted visitors might create as many sales as 1000 untargeted ones. The idea is to find and attract highly targeted traffic.

Although specific statistics are not available, the highest traffic categories on Craig's List are probably the Women Looking for Men section of the personals and the Employment and Gigs sections. Meanwhile, those probably have the fewest posts. The problem, of course, is that any post in these sections is a blatant misrepresentation if traffic is the goal.

I tested this out as part of my 100-day project (detailed on my website). I posted two ads in the Gigs section of Craig's List. On one, I suggested I was looking for a Joomla facelift. On the other, I said I was looking for a professional copywriter. Neither was true but the ads drove a lot of traffic to my website. Did it benefit me at all? Not a bit.

On the other hand, I could place ads in the Services section of Craig's List, yielding a more appropriate invitation. The problem is that there are thousands of posts in the Services section and yours can quickly get buried under hundreds of others. In fact, I suspect 80% of the traffic in those categories is made up of others posting similar services to mine. Meanwhile, only 20% (or less) of the traffic is actually looking for all the services offered.

Is there a way of posting in the high-traffic areas while still getting visitors who might be interested in your product or service? Possibly but you will have to change their paradigm before you can expect a sale. These people are looking for work. They're looking to EARN money, not spend it. If you're in the business of helping others succeed, like Tactical Execution, there are some possibilities.

Your post in the Gigs section could describe the opportunities available by using the marketing strategies outlined by Tactical Execution. The post could describe how quickly and easily a person can build their credibility and exposure by employing innovative marketing strategies. That way, you attract the right people while still catering to their job-search mentality.

I haven't tested this approach yet but may try doing so this weekend. It's all about testing and Tactical Execution is committed to finding the approaches and tactics that yield the best results. Countless other strategies have already been tested and the website offers commentary on all of them.