Here’s my rule of thumb in deciding if I will use any particular advertising supplier for any substantial investment (time or money) to get sign-ups to my free Make Your First Dollar Online guide – if I’m not happy with anything, I walk away with my hard earned cash intact:
1) Do they have a manned phone number I can call
2) When I phoned – were they helpful and responsive
3) The innocent wee question I asked via their support form – was it quickly and helpfully answered?
If all is go, I commit to a *trial* run.
I use the ad tracker in my tool suite to run at least 1000 exposures through. It tells me how many hits I got, but more importantly how many of those signed up to get my guide, and calculates the cost per sign-up. <<<<<< – this is the make or break for me.
You have to test! All else is just opinion and / or guesswork.
A recent example: I found a advertising supplier being well spoken about in a forum, they had a phone, nice lady, great answers to some leading questions, asked a question through their support form, quick answer, all looked good as per 1) to 3) above, paid $25 for a months subscription to start a trial run of the service.
Set up my ad tracking for this test in my ad tracker in my tools suite – and away went the trial – of several thousand exposures of an ad that pulls 46.25% conversions for me elsewhere.
28 days later —– hits Zero!! and, obviously, conversions zero.
I immediately canceled before the renewal for the coming month.
So.. what can be learned from this little tale?
Yes, do the checks 1) to 3) above, but then track and test.
Testing and tracking will save you a fortune over time. Lets assume, as I have with various others of the scores of places I advertise, I had stuck with that advertiser for a year.
I would have wasted $300, yet my tracker (and it’s only one of the 13 online tools services included in the suite) costs only $9 a month.
So….. by having, as all should, a professional online tools suite, on this one trial alone I saved over $200
For success online you have to have online tools, and you have to track and test everything – be it banners, ads, ppc, even your sigs from forums etc.
How else will you ever know where best to put your valuable time and / or money.
Quess which tracking service I recommend 
Hint: Do you see the big banner ——>>>>> 12SecondCommute
