Better Traffic, More Conversions, 10x Cheaper Than Ads.

Paid ads have been one of the worst performing marketing channels for solopreneurs for a long, long time.

Platform ads (Google, LinkedIn, Meta, and 𝕏) are expensive, unpredictable, difficult to set up, and often fail to deliver the high quality leads and customers that founders need to get their businesses off the ground.

The good news is, we’ve figured out a better way to attract high quality traffic - and the best part is - it’s actually cheaper than traditional paid ads.

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Why Traditional Ads Fall Short

As a self-funded founder, every dollar counts.

Unfortunately, paid ads platforms are not built for self-funded founders. 

They’re built for enterprise-level companies who can afford to spend tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars to drive traffic.

And because you’re bidding for attention on these platforms, you’re fighting an uphill battle against established companies who can afford to overpay for the best placements.

If you decide to play this game, you’ll end up spending thousands of dollars just to figure out how to reach the right people, and thousands more to find the right ad creative to drive clicks.

So, paid ads are simply not an option in the beginning.

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There’s a Much Better Way

Here’s the secret: instead of burning cash on traditional ads, buy visibility on content that’s naturally getting traffic from your target audience on Google.

Content like “Top 10 tools for lead gen”, or “The best marketing agencies for startups”, or “Our favorite platforms to learn gardening”.

Try it out - search for the best tools, platforms, or agencies for whatever you do, and look at all of the articles that rank naturally for them.

These articles (in most cases) get thousands of views per month from people who are actively looking for a solution that you provide, and also (in most cases) the producers of these articles are not making much money from the content, if they’re making anything at all.

This creates an awesome opportunity for founders to pay to be listed as the number one solution on their list and capitalize on this high-quality traffic for an affordable price.

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How to Sponsor Content and Drive Conversions

The strategy behind this idea is incredibly simple:

1. Search Google for the best solutions for what you offer.
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2. Use SEMrush to estimate the monthly traffic for each article, and start building a list of articles that you think would be a good fit.
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3. Use Hunter.io to pull the author’s email address, and add it to your list.
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4. Email the author, explaining that you’d like to sponsor their article and ask them if they’d be open to collaborating with you.
   
   (Position your offer more as a collaboration than a transaction - the goal is to have a conversation to discuss the details of your offer)
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5. Negotiate the price and terms of your sponsorship.
   
   (Be sure to discuss a timeframe. Are you trying to sponsor indefinitely? Monthly? Will it be a single payment?)
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Sometimes, you might not have to pay anything at all if you can work out a fair trade…

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Final Thoughts

This strategy works well because you’re accessing a hyper-targeted group of people who are actively looking for what you’re offering.

You’re also paying way less - and I mean way less for ad placements than you would with traditional paid ads.

This strategy will bring you better traffic, more conversions, and a much better return on ad spend from day one.

Let me know if you plan on trying this out by simply replying to this email! I’d be happy to discuss any details with you.

Cheers,

Avery