Have you heard of solo ads? Wondering what they are all about? Wondering whether you should be using them?
Well, in this article i'm going to tell you what they are, where to find the best and cheapest solo ads and of course - which ones to definitely avoid.
What is a Solo Ad?
Before I talk about some of the intricacies of solo ads, I want to start by talking about what a solo ad actually is.
To put it simply; a solo ad is a form of paid advertising. However, it is unlike most other forms of paid advertising.
With solo ads, you will be paying somebody to include a link to your offer in an email. The solo ad seller will be sending your link to everybody on their mailing list.
You will be the only link advertised in these solo ads. Well, you should be the only one advertised with a decent provider. There are some awful sellers that will include tons of links. These are not true solo ads.
It is used primarily for affiliate marketing but sellers of ecommerce and other services can benefit from it as well.
Who Uses Solo Ads?
While anybody could use solo ads, there are some places where it will work better than others.
Internet marketing is probably the top niche for solo ads. This is because it should be pretty simple to find mailing lists that you could have an email sent out to. In other niches, these mailing lists are not quite as common.
They exist, but a lot of companies that have decent mailing lists will not be selling solo ads.
You will almost certainly want to consider solo ads if your products are in a competitive niche.
I don't know whether you have tried, but there are some niches that can be tough to market yourself in. Take fitness or finances, for instance. Both of these niches are nigh on impossible to promote with most methods of marketing.
You will certainly struggle with your SEO. Solo ads are a brilliant way to tap into a niche nice and quickly.
People also use solo ads when standard PPC advertising is a bit too rich for their tastes.
For example; some keywords on Google AdWords or Facebook Advertising for fitness can hit over $2 a click. This is expensive. Solo ads will probably be a lot cheaper.
Solo ads are probably the best route to go down if you are planning on launching a brand new product too. There will be no faster way to secure traffic on your website.
UDIMI Solo Ads
While there are a lot of websites out there that offer solo ads, the only one that I suggest you ever use should be UDIMI. It is the best vendor out there, and for several reasons too.
So, what is UDIMI? Well, I suppose the best way to describe it is as a solo ads marketplace.
List owners around the world will be promoting themselves on UDIMI, and you can buy directly from them. Since all of them are listed on UDIMI, you do not have to spend days and days tracking down lists to work with.
All of the information that you need can be found on UDIMI.
The main reason why I suggest UDIMI is because there are so many sellers there. At the last count, I believe the figure was close to 2,000. The number seems to be rising by the day too.
This means that if you are trying to track down an awesome solo ads vendor to work with, you will have a decent number to pick from. This makes it far, far more likely to find a solo ads option that is right for your business.
You'll be able to find a solo ads provider that works in your niche.
I use them from time to time when I start a new niche site to test offers. Here's a few that I used a while ago and had some decent results.
UDIMI goes to huge lengths to ensure that only the best sellers are on their site. They will encourage you to leave reviews based on the quality of the service that you received.
Solo ad sellers that continue to receive poor reviews will never get sales again. This means that sellers will always work to offer the best service to ensure that they get continued business.
In my experience, UDIMI has some of the best sellers in the world for solo ads. It is the only website I would use.
There will also be scam protection built-in, something that you do not get with most other providers. This means that you can guarantee that if you use UDIMI, you will be getting exactly what you were promised, or your money back.
Despite all of this, UDIMI solo ads are surprisingly well-priced. This is due to the number of people that are selling their services on the site.
They know that they have a lot of competition, and this means they charge lower prices in the hope of beating some it out. This means that if you work UDIMI, you will not only be enjoying fantastic solo ads,
Where to Buy Solo Ads
Solo ads can be purchased from a surprising number of places. I want to point out some of my 'favorites' in this section, plus one that you should be completely avoiding.
Fiverr
Stay the hell away! If you take a look at Fiverr, you will see that there will be countless solo ads available. The prices can be incredibly cheap too. Guess what? You should be avoiding them. None of these solo ads will offer any sort of return on your investment.
For starters; most of the offers on Fiverr are fake. The mailing lists and clickthrough rate will probably be a lot smaller than you were promised. When you purchase a solo ad from there, you may not even get real clicks on your offers.
A lot of these solo ads are run by bots.
No reputable solo ads seller is going to be selling through Fiverr. Trust me on that one.
Direct Sales
This will take a bit of effort on your part, but a lot of the time it is worth it. However, do prepare to be shot down...a lot.
The goal is to track down people in your niche that have mailing lists. Large ones. You can then drop them an email and ask whether you can buy a solo ad from them.
Facebook Groups
There are Facebook groups dedicated to solo ads. Track down some of the biggest ones, and you will find countless offers.
UDIMI
This is the option I would always go for. Although, do bear in mind that you can only use UDMI if you are active in one of these niches:
Outside of those niches, there won't really be that much value on the site. Although, within those niches, you will not find a better way to purchase solo ads out there.
The main reason why I suggest you use UDIMI is that there are structures in place that help to ensure that the only solo ads being sold there are of high quality.
In other words, you are protected.
If you work with one of the vendors on UDIMI, then you can expect decent results. It will also save you a whole lot of time tracking down email marketing lists too. Just purchase your solo ad and away you go.
UDMI is the only solo ads option you should be using if you are operating in one of the niches they promote. I use them myself and have tested many others. They are my "go-to".
Solo Ads Guaranteed Clicks
If you want to get the biggest bang for your buck with solo ads, then you will want to look for 'guaranteed clicks' deals. As the name suggests, this is a service that will guarantee a certain number of clicks on your link.
If the sender doesn't score you the clicks that they promised you in the first email that they send out, then they will send out more emails until they give you everything that was promised.
Obviously, this is the best way to purchase solo ads. It means that you can predict exactly how many visitors you will get to your site. You may also be able to get a rough idea of how many conversions you can get.
After all, you can't get conversions if you don't have site visitors, right?
The only real downside to this is that they will be a little bit more expensive to buy, but you will see a higher number of sales.
Top Tier Solo Ads
Various solo ad providers, including UDIMI, will have a selection of solo ad providers known as 'top tier providers'.
These are the providers that deal primarily with Top Tier countries and have proven to have the absolute best response rate on their ads.
This includes the United States, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
If you work with one of the top tier solo ads providers, then you will be able to achieve much better results.
Here's one campaign example I did with a vendor on Udimi where you can see that most of clicks came from the USA - which is what you want:
In the above example I ordered 100 clicks. Sometimes you'll get a bit more and in this case I got a total of 113. This isn't the norm, but it can happen.
You are guaranteed at minimal the number of clicks that you ordered.
If you want to make money through solo ads, then top tier solo ads are the best route to go down. Because these providers have demonstrated their worth, you know exactly what you are going to get from them.
How Much Do Solo Ads Cost?
Typically, solo ads are charged by the click. You can get them for as cheap as 30 cents a click all the way up to $1.40 a click.
If you're going to use Udimi, filter by your niche first, then cost and read the reviews. You don't need to spend a lot and just because they cost more, doesn't always mean they are better. Choose a vendor and if the reviews are good, go by that metric.
Pros & Cons of Solo Ads
So, now that is out of the way, and you know the answer to 'what are solo ads?', I figured I would run you through the pros and cons of solo ads.
This way, you can get a feel for whether this method of marketing is going to be the right one for you.
Is There a Course that Teaches Solo ads Effectively?
I recently bought the 301K Challenge by Igor Kheifets. I was very impresed by his knowledge on Solo ads and his course teaches you how to properly vett solo advertisers.
But most importantly how you can build a thriving business and make money with affiliate marketing through solo ads.
If you want to learn more, check out my 301K Challenge Review.
Conclusion
If you run a business in certain niches, then solo ads are a great way to supplement your other marketing efforts.
Despite having a few cons, they are a brilliant and affordable way to drive traffic to your offers.
With the right solo ad purchases through the right sellers, solo ads can make you a huge sum of cash for the minimum of time investment and also build your email list.
So go out there and give it a try.
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Drew left his corporate job in 2013 and embraced the world of online entrepreneurship. He buys, tests and reviews courses and SAAS tools providing well-informed recommendations for budding entrepreneurs. He's been featured in Yahoo, Empire Flippers and other publications. Read more...
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