Affiliate programs can be a big source of revenue. The key to maximizing your earnings is engaging your readers. Unlike traditional ads where you are paid for impressions or clicks, affiliates are only paid when/if a specific action is performed. The action might be a purchase or signing up for a newsletter, but regardless, you are not paid until you've compelled your readers to act.
With that in mind, here are the Top 10 Commandments for affiliate marketing success.
1. Know Your Audience
The most successful way to use affiliate programs is to anticipate and meet the needs of your readers. Consider why they are coming to your site. What are you providing that they are looking for? Make sure the affiliate products you are promoting provide a solution to your audience's problems.
If you are writing about sports, don't put up affiliate ads for printer toner just because everyone has a printer and those programs have a high payout. The people who are coming to read commentary or get stats for their favorite teams aren't thinking about those things when they're on your site.
The more relevant the ads are to your readers, the more likely they will use them.
.2. Be Trustworthy
Readers are savvy. They know an affiliate link when they see one. If you break their trust by promoting a product you don't believe in or take advantage of their visit with too many ads, they will leave and never come back.
It is your repeat visitors that will drive traffic. They are the ones who will give you linkbacks, spread the word, and recommend your site as the go-to place for valuable content. You need to build a relationship based on genuine content.
If your visitors don't think you're being honest, they won't read anything else you have to say.
.3. Be Helpful
Think of affiliate ads as additional resources that complement your content. Give value to your content by making it helpful, useful, and informative.
Don't put up a list of your favorite books, hoping people will click on the affiliate link, purchase the books (just because you listed them), so you can cash in on a sale. Take some time to write a detailed review, and use affiliate ads to point them in the right direction if they decide to act on your information. That's what affiliate ads are for. If you write a great review recommending a book and readers buy the book because of it, you should get something for that.
But just throwing out links to products with no rhyme or reason will result in a quick exit by visitors.
.4. Be Transparent
Always disclose your affiliations. Your readers will appreciate your honesty, and will feel better about contributing to your earnings. If they sense that you are being less than honest about your affiliations, they are savvy enough to bypass your link and go directly to the vendor just to avoid giving you referral credit.
Honesty and full disclosure is a necessary part to building a loyal reader base. They know they are supporting you by using your referral links. Make them happy and eager to do so.
.5. Select Carefully
Take the time to go through all the different options for products or services available through the programs. Put some thought into which products or services your readers may need or like. Also, change the ads around often, try different ones, and use different graphics and text to see which are the most effective.
It may take some time before you figure out the best formula, and you may also find that you need to continually rotate ads to attract more attention.
.6. Try Different Programs
If one particular program doesn't seem to be working for you, try another one.
Affiliate programs don't look the same. They offer different products, services, and payment structures. Some programs will have a lifetime payout on sales while others will limit it to 30-90 days. Some programs allow much more flexibility in the types of ad units available, as well as colors and design so it fits better on your site's layout.
Also, check your favorite vendors to see if they run their own affiliate program. Sometimes you can go directly to the source. You're not limited to big affiliate networks.
Integrate systematic ad testing into your strategy to maximize your profits.
.7. Write Timeless Content
Your old content can still be valuable even though it's no longer on your front page. Take advantage of the long term opportunities by making sure you provide timeless content.
If visitors come across your older content first, and find that it offers dated information, they will leave right away. Of course, information moves forward, so relevant content changes quickly. You can make your content timeless simply by adding links to your updated articles on your old ones.
Many platforms allow you to show "most recent" or "most popular" or "related articles" on every page, so no matter how old the article is, it will always show access to your new ones. Your old content can make money for you indefinitely.
.8. Be Patient
Affiliate revenue grows and builds up with time. Remember that some programs offer lifetime payouts. If you refer a visitor, you may continue to make money from that one visitor even if he doesn't come back to your site. Also, as long as you have referral links still active in your old posts, they may still payout for you.
Affiliate programs aren't a get rich quick plan, but it provides opportunity to make passive income in the future.
.9. Stay Relevant
Keep up to date on the latest offerings of your affiliate programs. New ad units, advertisers, and tools are constantly being added to improve usability and be more visually appealing. Small changes go a long way in motivating action by readers. You may be left out in the dust by being complacent with your strategy.
Don't get lazy about monitoring trends and exploring new opportunities.
.10. Content Comes First
Above all else, your content must be your highest priority.
Your content is your foundation, the life blood on which the site exists. Without valuable and helpful content, readers won't come. Focus on providing excellent content, and the monetizing strategies will work out.
Once you start compromising your content to cater to the affiliate programs or any other money making venture, you will lose your readers. Once that happens, you will lose the opportunity to receive any earnings from any of your ads, be they CPM, CPC, or referral based.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Finding the ideal affiliate Company
I was winding my way up the levels of a very crowded parking garage the other day. The line of cars desperately seeking a spot ahead of me kept turning to the right.
So, of course, it occured to me that perhaps there would be less competition for a space if I went via "the road less traveled by", to the left. And indeed, there was.
Unless you are an Internet Newbie, you've probably learned by now that making money on the web isn't easy ... certainly not as easy as many sales pitches would have you believe.
Yet, this doesn't seem to deter the millions trying to compete in perhaps the most crowded web market of them all, namely, Internet Marketing.
This is not to suggest that great success is not possible in Internet Marketing. To the contrary, I can rattle off a number of names that were virtually unheard of a year ago who have done tremendously well.
They did so with innovative tools or insights that contributed something new and valuable to this marketplace. They also possessed outstanding copywriting and marketing skills that turned their innovations into sales. And in every case, they worked their tails off.
But compared to the huge numbers of people trying, real success in this field is something truly special, rather than the norm.
The fact remains, however, that money making opportunities still abound on the Internet. There are "green pastures" all around us and I believe smart marketers will use the skills they've learned in our very crowded marketplace to their great advantage elsewhere as well.
Where do you look for them? Well, I've found that digging around the search engines provides a wealth of information.
I found that the seach term "homework helper" was getting over 8,000 searches a month, which probably translates to at least 5 times that number on Google.
What's more, there were only 88,000 listings for the term on Google ... a far cry from the usual million+ results for the typical Internet Marketing term.
With more digging, many more opportunities in this niche were uncovered. The result? A new, profitable "non-marketing" web site was born.
This site, in just over two months, is now getting nearly as much traffic as my main site, over a year old, and looks to go roaring past it this month.
This opportunity potential is virtually everywhere. It's just a matter of doing a little research.
Here's a couple more quick examples:
Want to get into the "sun glass" business ... or set up an Affiliate site for this niche? "Polarized sun glasses" gets 3481 Overture searches, but only 23,400 Google listings. Again, opportunity.
Interested in paintball? "Paintball supply" gets 14,010 Overture searches, but has only 45,400 Google listings. Can the opportunity knock much louder?
I found both of these in about 7 minutes by jumping back and forth between Overture and Google. What are you interested in? Ready for a little digging?
I'm not suggesting that people abandon their Internet Marketing dreams by any means. There are certainly great achievements ahead. But why not, at the same time, "take the road less traveled by" and use your web marketing expertise in less crowded niches steeped in opportunity?
So, of course, it occured to me that perhaps there would be less competition for a space if I went via "the road less traveled by", to the left. And indeed, there was.
Unless you are an Internet Newbie, you've probably learned by now that making money on the web isn't easy ... certainly not as easy as many sales pitches would have you believe.
Yet, this doesn't seem to deter the millions trying to compete in perhaps the most crowded web market of them all, namely, Internet Marketing.
This is not to suggest that great success is not possible in Internet Marketing. To the contrary, I can rattle off a number of names that were virtually unheard of a year ago who have done tremendously well.
They did so with innovative tools or insights that contributed something new and valuable to this marketplace. They also possessed outstanding copywriting and marketing skills that turned their innovations into sales. And in every case, they worked their tails off.
But compared to the huge numbers of people trying, real success in this field is something truly special, rather than the norm.
The fact remains, however, that money making opportunities still abound on the Internet. There are "green pastures" all around us and I believe smart marketers will use the skills they've learned in our very crowded marketplace to their great advantage elsewhere as well.
Where do you look for them? Well, I've found that digging around the search engines provides a wealth of information.
I found that the seach term "homework helper" was getting over 8,000 searches a month, which probably translates to at least 5 times that number on Google.
What's more, there were only 88,000 listings for the term on Google ... a far cry from the usual million+ results for the typical Internet Marketing term.
With more digging, many more opportunities in this niche were uncovered. The result? A new, profitable "non-marketing" web site was born.
This site, in just over two months, is now getting nearly as much traffic as my main site, over a year old, and looks to go roaring past it this month.
This opportunity potential is virtually everywhere. It's just a matter of doing a little research.
Here's a couple more quick examples:
Want to get into the "sun glass" business ... or set up an Affiliate site for this niche? "Polarized sun glasses" gets 3481 Overture searches, but only 23,400 Google listings. Again, opportunity.
Interested in paintball? "Paintball supply" gets 14,010 Overture searches, but has only 45,400 Google listings. Can the opportunity knock much louder?
I found both of these in about 7 minutes by jumping back and forth between Overture and Google. What are you interested in? Ready for a little digging?
I'm not suggesting that people abandon their Internet Marketing dreams by any means. There are certainly great achievements ahead. But why not, at the same time, "take the road less traveled by" and use your web marketing expertise in less crowded niches steeped in opportunity?
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Facts About Money
The key to making more money each month is to earn more money than you spend. This may sound obvious, but most Americans spend more money than they take in. And this is even in the good times.
Now that the economy is worsening, the problem of debt is only going to get worse. And more Americans are going to get further away from their financial goals and dreams. How then can you make more money each month?
Get Out of Debt
The first step in making more money is to stop wasting the money that you currently earn. That means you must draw the line on debt. Sit down with a financial counselor, if possible, to go over your situation. You need to set up a monthly spending plan, in which you put the credit cards aside. Stop digging yourself a deeper hole. No more debt.
If you're so deep into debt that you can't even breathe, then you may need help. Talk with a credit counseling agency or contact your creditors directly to work out a modified payment plan. But you must stop debt spending....now.
Free Money Making Ideas
The second thing to do is write down your financial goals. What is it that you need the extra money for? Be specific. Write the reasons down. Then visualize them. And keep that vision right in front of you at all times. Start working toward that
Once you've clearly identified your financial goals, it's time to push forward. How can you increase your monthly income? Here are some free money making ideas, to help you get started:
Telecommute, car pool, and/or look for ways to save money on gas.
Offer to mow lawns, rake leaves, and/or shovel snow for those living in your neighborhood (and in the surrounding neighborhoods - time permitting). Distribute flyers to advertise your services.
Offer to baby sit, elder sit, or house sit for your neighborhood. Distribute flyers to advertise your availability.
Contact your local newspaper to see if they pay for freelance reporting. Offer to cover local events, such as sporting events, for a fee.
Offer to your friends, neighbors, fellow church-goers, etc. your services in auctioning stuff they want to sell on eBay. Some people are still unsure about how to sell things online and are uncomfortable with auction sites like eBay. You can step in, offer to do it for them, for a portion of the profits.
Bake cookies and/or pastries and sell at area office buildings.
Start a community online newsletter. You'll need to spend some money and invest some time up-front, but once you get 1,000 or more subscribers in your neighorhood or residential area, you could then sell advertising to local businesses. And an email newsletter is cheap to produce. You just need a good autoresponder service.
Start your own Internet-based information marketing business.
Are you willing or able to become a clown, balloon artist, juggler, or performer? If so, you could entertain at kids' birthday parties, church events, etc. or offer your services as a birthday delivery person.
Can you teach? If you know something that other people want to know, then maybe you could teach at a local community college or offer public seminars - or even teleconferences.
The above money making ideas should get you started toward making extra monthly cash. Some of them should help you make money fast. The more money you make, the faster you can get out of debt, build up your savings, and reach your financial goals.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Seventeen and pregnant
"HOW CAN YOU KNOW SOMEONE FOR AN ENTIRE YEAR AND NEVER REALLY KNOW THEM ? " I asked myself as I looked at my boyfriend.
He just stared at me, his eyes void of any emotion."HOW CAN YOU LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT ?" I cried. "As though I were a total stranger ! Don't you care ? Don't you care that i'm breaking apart. He looked at me for a long time, then said quietly, I guess "I just don't feel anything anymore" I had to ask the next question, though in my heart I already knew the answer. still, I had to hear hin say it, or I would keep living my life with the hope of an empty dream. "Do you still love me ?" He just looked at me with no expression and said, "NO." Then he walked out the door, numb with pain. The person to whom I had given everything I had, just left me.....alone and pregnant.
The following months passed slowly. Every day was edged with the sharp pain of rejection and the anger and bitterness that followed. Memories of his warm eyes smiling down at of pierced my heart; laughter and love that now lay broken at the bottom of my empty heart. The painful end of our relationship was tearing me apart, and i was filled with dear and loneliness as i looked ahead to the coming months.
"Oh, God," I cried, "what an i going to do ? " Being a mother at the age of seventeen, and raising a child alone frightened me. And placing my baby up for adoption after seeing the miracle of this little life within me was too painful to even think about. I heard so many voices shouting the "easy answer" but abortion would mean the death of my child. I had already witnessed the death of a dream-to see my baby did as well would be too much. Yet to have the life of a lost love growing inside of seemed unbearable. Pressure to have an abortion began coming in on all sides. Family and friends were overcome with grief on my behalf, and felt caption would be the easiest way out of a seemingly hopeless situation.
Watch out for the remaining stories
thanks for reading pls leave your comment.
He just stared at me, his eyes void of any emotion."HOW CAN YOU LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT ?" I cried. "As though I were a total stranger ! Don't you care ? Don't you care that i'm breaking apart. He looked at me for a long time, then said quietly, I guess "I just don't feel anything anymore" I had to ask the next question, though in my heart I already knew the answer. still, I had to hear hin say it, or I would keep living my life with the hope of an empty dream. "Do you still love me ?" He just looked at me with no expression and said, "NO." Then he walked out the door, numb with pain. The person to whom I had given everything I had, just left me.....alone and pregnant.
The following months passed slowly. Every day was edged with the sharp pain of rejection and the anger and bitterness that followed. Memories of his warm eyes smiling down at of pierced my heart; laughter and love that now lay broken at the bottom of my empty heart. The painful end of our relationship was tearing me apart, and i was filled with dear and loneliness as i looked ahead to the coming months.
"Oh, God," I cried, "what an i going to do ? " Being a mother at the age of seventeen, and raising a child alone frightened me. And placing my baby up for adoption after seeing the miracle of this little life within me was too painful to even think about. I heard so many voices shouting the "easy answer" but abortion would mean the death of my child. I had already witnessed the death of a dream-to see my baby did as well would be too much. Yet to have the life of a lost love growing inside of seemed unbearable. Pressure to have an abortion began coming in on all sides. Family and friends were overcome with grief on my behalf, and felt caption would be the easiest way out of a seemingly hopeless situation.
Watch out for the remaining stories
thanks for reading pls leave your comment.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
THE BEST MARKETING ANGEL
here isn't a day that goes by that I don't hear another small business owners complaining about some of the customers they have to do business with. And some of them REALLY are legitimate complaints. But after listening to 100's of different complaints, I have found the root of most of them is a lack of understanding. Therefore, I hope this report gets you on the road of addressing complaints and customer problems in your small home business.
The first step is to get past the irritation. It's only human nature to get a little upset when a customer writes to complain about something totally stupid. Complaints like: It's been two whole weeks and I haven't seen my ad in your paper yet. Or, how about those really stupid ones, like: Send me more info. (no name and address provided.) Then, the guy writes you the next week and calls you a crook because you didn't answer his request right away. It's obvious that there is a breakdown of communication.
But let's look at the last complaint explained above and analyze it for better understanding. For some reason, the guy was so excited about your company that he forgot to enclose his name and address. He knew his name and address and never thought about the fact that you probably didn't know it. Instead he was excited and wanted to get his request in the mail right away so he could find out more. So his complaint to you would actually be a compliment.
Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about this problem since you have no name, address or telephone number to respond to. However, if the guy writes back and is upset with you (and includes his name and address), simply write a quick note that says: Thank you for requesting more information about our company. We apologize that your first request was not filled, however, you neglected to provide us with your name and address. We suggest that you always place your name and address on the outside of every envelope you mail. It's provides many rewards for you as well as getting your orders processed faster. (To go a step further, if you sell printing, suggest that he order 1,000 pre-printed envelopes from you. And because of the delay in processing his request, you'll give him $5 off. This will win him over.)
Now let's try and understand the education you provided to this customer. I know, it's human nature to want to strike back because this idiot hurt your feelings. But the only way you are going to advance in business and present the professional image you should be hoping to achieve, is to educate and help this person. They, in turn will probably never make this mistake again and will probably relate the information to others they come into contact with. However, if you are hateful or never fill the request you will have gained nothing except the self-satisfaction of revenge.
Training and educating people is not really very hard at all. Jesus gave us an example of how to teach in order to obtain POSITIVE results by using parables. Parables are examples of everyday situations so the person can relate and understand what you are trying to tell him or her. Just saying the words may not help. Some words go over a person's head or they don't comprehend what you're saying because their mind is on something else.
Good customer service and marketing go hand in hand. They both depend on each other and work together for your business survival. There should never be a moment when you shout back at a customer. Hanging up the phone is a much better approach and achieves the revenge you may seek in a more POSITIVE manner.
A Marketing Angle I Use to Sell My Own Products
Businesses to make money with fall under one of these two categories: (1) Service, or (2) Product.
A service business is more specialized to a specific, target-marketed group of people who need the service performed. A product can normally be sold to a wider market and you can span the mail order as well as the consumer market (John Q Public.)
The item I sold was Colloidal Silver, so it fell under the category of product. But the MLM company that manufactured this product kept instructing me to build a downline and sign up as many distributors as possible. Since everyone was given this same advice, I decided to do something different and more exciting.
I learned from a colleague that the consumer market is the most overlooked market for smaller homebased businesses. Big companies market to the consumer, but the little guy is never told to do it. They are led to believe that it's too expensive, which is a lie. In fact, running classified ads all over the country is less expensive per 1,000 than mail order publications.
Now I knew from experience that if I even mentioned the word distributorship to a consumer they will immediately envision door-to-door selling. This, of course, would turn them off. Because of this I knew that marketing with this method would not get me anywhere.
So I used another angle. Why not just sell the product itself with no strings attached? Don't most consumers buy products at the store because they want to use them? When you purchased your living room sofa for instance, did you purchase it so you could re-sell them and make money? Of course not. You bought it, brought it home and used it!
So I wrote 5 different classified ads selling Colloidal Silver for $30 a bottle. I told about the benefits of Colloidal Silver and asked the reader to call my toll-free number to learn more about its health benefits. My toll-free number was a recording that sold the product (not the opportunity.)
I invested $850 to get my 5 different classified ads in newspapers across the country. My cost per 1,000 circulation was 23¢ much lower than mail order and my ad appeared within 2 weeks.
From the $850 investment, I made only $300 of my money back but the idea worked! I analyzed which of the 5 different ads pulled the most response (they were coded), eliminated 3 that didn't and invested another $500 ($200 of my own money and $300 from the first sales) the next week in classified advertising again. This time I made $750 in sales.
The next month I narrowed down the papers that pulled the most orders, added on some more and repeated the procedure. I made another $500 the first week in sales and $1,200 the second week. After processing the paperwork to get these orders filled, I ended up with 100 customers who had purchased the Colloidal Silver and 2 who wanted to join the distributorship in my downline.
Now granted 2 out of 100 is not a lot. But 2 people who REALLY want to work the program is much better than 2,000 that don't want to work or don't even want to learn how to. Besides, I had the potential of 100 REPEAT customers and the opportunity to sell them more products. I made a great deal of money using this method and you can too!!
STUDENT STUDY LANGUAG FRENCH IN PARTICULAR THANK FOR APRICIATING MY JOB
The first step is to get past the irritation. It's only human nature to get a little upset when a customer writes to complain about something totally stupid. Complaints like: It's been two whole weeks and I haven't seen my ad in your paper yet. Or, how about those really stupid ones, like: Send me more info. (no name and address provided.) Then, the guy writes you the next week and calls you a crook because you didn't answer his request right away. It's obvious that there is a breakdown of communication.
But let's look at the last complaint explained above and analyze it for better understanding. For some reason, the guy was so excited about your company that he forgot to enclose his name and address. He knew his name and address and never thought about the fact that you probably didn't know it. Instead he was excited and wanted to get his request in the mail right away so he could find out more. So his complaint to you would actually be a compliment.
Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about this problem since you have no name, address or telephone number to respond to. However, if the guy writes back and is upset with you (and includes his name and address), simply write a quick note that says: Thank you for requesting more information about our company. We apologize that your first request was not filled, however, you neglected to provide us with your name and address. We suggest that you always place your name and address on the outside of every envelope you mail. It's provides many rewards for you as well as getting your orders processed faster. (To go a step further, if you sell printing, suggest that he order 1,000 pre-printed envelopes from you. And because of the delay in processing his request, you'll give him $5 off. This will win him over.)
Now let's try and understand the education you provided to this customer. I know, it's human nature to want to strike back because this idiot hurt your feelings. But the only way you are going to advance in business and present the professional image you should be hoping to achieve, is to educate and help this person. They, in turn will probably never make this mistake again and will probably relate the information to others they come into contact with. However, if you are hateful or never fill the request you will have gained nothing except the self-satisfaction of revenge.
Training and educating people is not really very hard at all. Jesus gave us an example of how to teach in order to obtain POSITIVE results by using parables. Parables are examples of everyday situations so the person can relate and understand what you are trying to tell him or her. Just saying the words may not help. Some words go over a person's head or they don't comprehend what you're saying because their mind is on something else.
Good customer service and marketing go hand in hand. They both depend on each other and work together for your business survival. There should never be a moment when you shout back at a customer. Hanging up the phone is a much better approach and achieves the revenge you may seek in a more POSITIVE manner.
A Marketing Angle I Use to Sell My Own Products
Businesses to make money with fall under one of these two categories: (1) Service, or (2) Product.
A service business is more specialized to a specific, target-marketed group of people who need the service performed. A product can normally be sold to a wider market and you can span the mail order as well as the consumer market (John Q Public.)
The item I sold was Colloidal Silver, so it fell under the category of product. But the MLM company that manufactured this product kept instructing me to build a downline and sign up as many distributors as possible. Since everyone was given this same advice, I decided to do something different and more exciting.
I learned from a colleague that the consumer market is the most overlooked market for smaller homebased businesses. Big companies market to the consumer, but the little guy is never told to do it. They are led to believe that it's too expensive, which is a lie. In fact, running classified ads all over the country is less expensive per 1,000 than mail order publications.
Now I knew from experience that if I even mentioned the word distributorship to a consumer they will immediately envision door-to-door selling. This, of course, would turn them off. Because of this I knew that marketing with this method would not get me anywhere.
So I used another angle. Why not just sell the product itself with no strings attached? Don't most consumers buy products at the store because they want to use them? When you purchased your living room sofa for instance, did you purchase it so you could re-sell them and make money? Of course not. You bought it, brought it home and used it!
So I wrote 5 different classified ads selling Colloidal Silver for $30 a bottle. I told about the benefits of Colloidal Silver and asked the reader to call my toll-free number to learn more about its health benefits. My toll-free number was a recording that sold the product (not the opportunity.)
I invested $850 to get my 5 different classified ads in newspapers across the country. My cost per 1,000 circulation was 23¢ much lower than mail order and my ad appeared within 2 weeks.
From the $850 investment, I made only $300 of my money back but the idea worked! I analyzed which of the 5 different ads pulled the most response (they were coded), eliminated 3 that didn't and invested another $500 ($200 of my own money and $300 from the first sales) the next week in classified advertising again. This time I made $750 in sales.
The next month I narrowed down the papers that pulled the most orders, added on some more and repeated the procedure. I made another $500 the first week in sales and $1,200 the second week. After processing the paperwork to get these orders filled, I ended up with 100 customers who had purchased the Colloidal Silver and 2 who wanted to join the distributorship in my downline.
Now granted 2 out of 100 is not a lot. But 2 people who REALLY want to work the program is much better than 2,000 that don't want to work or don't even want to learn how to. Besides, I had the potential of 100 REPEAT customers and the opportunity to sell them more products. I made a great deal of money using this method and you can too!!
STUDENT STUDY LANGUAG FRENCH IN PARTICULAR THANK FOR APRICIATING MY JOB
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