The Answer
I would say first of all dont take any notice of people that say "it easy" or you can make money online without much effort - they are all basically trying to make it sound easy so that you will buy their product
Now to answer your question directly - I would say you are probably advertising in the wrong places and with the wrong strategies
You mantion FFA sites - these have been a waste of time for a long time - you will find you will hardly get a single click back from these sites. They basically operate by getting people to post their ad - but actually all that is happening is that "pro" members use the email address you use to send you all sorts of SPAM. So this is a big no no if you want to be successful. Im sorry but it took me a while to work out FFA's were a time waster!! You are probably spending alot of time on methods which dont work
Now success online is extremely difficult - certainly not easy
In general I would say go back to the beginning
Make this your simple rule:
Only use advertising that produces a definate result
This means testing different things to see what works for you and your "niche"
If you want to use free advertising - thats fine but the results wont be great
However you could start your own email list without it costing you anything
You can also do alot in search engine marketing - where you simply write content to match the various keyword phrases that are related to your website and that people are actually typing in when doing a search
You could also start a blog and write content to your blog every few days - always make sure you list your blog on MyYahoo and make sure you "ping" your content every time you do a post. Also have a links page on your site where you put a link to each individual post you have on your blog
If you are going to pay for advertising I would concentrate on the smaller Ezines - they will take a solo ad from as little as $9.99 - and you could also use PPC - but this is more difficult because the "bids" could be outside your price range
So my conclusion would be:
1) Build your own email list
2) Develop content on your website to attract the search engines
3) Do a blog and keep posting
4) If possible try and develop your own products e.g. eBooks
5) Remember it does take quite a bit of time - sales can be very slow to start with
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