So we have all seen them. The product that will definitely take your affiliate marketing business through the stratosphere. The $1995 products.
[We are just quoting $1995, there are the $995, $1450 you know, high end products]
Every affiliate marketer with an email list is promoting it. You open your inbox and you have 50 new emails all pushing the same product .
Wow, this must be the greatest affiliate training program ever , you think as you go through the extremely persuasive emails.
And as an affiliate marketing newbie you have probably kicked yourself because you just cannot afford to buy this product. But just a minute lets look at these super expensive products a little closer.
Why is everyone promoting them. It must be that they are really good products.
They probably are but take a moment to think about it. If I promote a $99 ebook for a 50% commission, I get about $50 per sale. Got to shift a lot of those e books to pay the bills.
If I promote a $1995 product, using every trick in my arsenal and only manage one sale.
What's that? The commission? About $1000. Now you are talking.
As you can see there is every reason why anybody promoting these products will extol it's virtues to the nth degree.
I am by no means saying these products are bad, in fact some of them are really good and worth much more than the high dollar tag they carry.
What I am saying though is next time your in box is full of emails all promoting the same high dollar product, pause for thought before whipping out the credit card
Till next time
Wednesday, 16 April 2008
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Title Takes It All, Decrease Website Traffic?
The title of this post may have you thoroughly confused but soon, all will be revealed.
We as affiliate marketers are always told to write attention grabbing titles for our blog posts, emails or articles. And we do try to use words like 'discover' and 'hot tips' and all those overused and under achieving buzz words
Imagine my reaction when I came across a post is a very popular seo blog titles 'How to get less search traffic'
Hey! In this world of affiliate marketing, where we are all scrambling for methods to increase our website's traffic, someone is actually trying to teach us how to decrease traffic. That's a new one
So in my mind I was thinking do nothing, stop building backlinks and presto, search engine traffic gone.
But I clicked on the mouse and read the post
You see, the author had captured my attention. I just had to read what he had to say. And every word I read as well. He was actually discussing something he had seen in a forum and because I was so intrigued by now, I went to the forum
It turns out that someone had craftily posted this question on a forum. As this was the title given to the thread of course anyone visiting the forums will see this title. And how many people have clicked on it? 235
The next topic down in the forum was about some method of generating traffic to your website and only has 93 viewings
When you actually read the post, the chap is trying to find out ways of increasing traffic to his website APART FROM search engine traffic. Slightly different discussion there right?
Goes to show you the importance of having an attention grabbing title
Till next time
We as affiliate marketers are always told to write attention grabbing titles for our blog posts, emails or articles. And we do try to use words like 'discover' and 'hot tips' and all those overused and under achieving buzz words
Imagine my reaction when I came across a post is a very popular seo blog titles 'How to get less search traffic'
Hey! In this world of affiliate marketing, where we are all scrambling for methods to increase our website's traffic, someone is actually trying to teach us how to decrease traffic. That's a new one
So in my mind I was thinking do nothing, stop building backlinks and presto, search engine traffic gone.
But I clicked on the mouse and read the post
You see, the author had captured my attention. I just had to read what he had to say. And every word I read as well. He was actually discussing something he had seen in a forum and because I was so intrigued by now, I went to the forum
It turns out that someone had craftily posted this question on a forum. As this was the title given to the thread of course anyone visiting the forums will see this title. And how many people have clicked on it? 235
The next topic down in the forum was about some method of generating traffic to your website and only has 93 viewings
When you actually read the post, the chap is trying to find out ways of increasing traffic to his website APART FROM search engine traffic. Slightly different discussion there right?
Goes to show you the importance of having an attention grabbing title
Till next time
Affiliate Marketing Buyers, Avoid This Scam
I just got an email that was rather upsetting.
It was a heads up from a fellow marketer warning me of a scam he has just uncovered.
It's one I have fallen for in the past and thought it was a genuine mistake on the affiliate merchant's part. But apparently I was wrong
The scam is this
You are offered an amazing affiliate marketing training package for a limited period for a ridiculously low amount, say $1.
So far, no scam. Affiliate marketing 'guru's' do these offers often. The hope is when you sign up for your trial period and have taken a peek into their membership program, you will be so impressed with the content that you will want a full membership.
But it would seem that some vendors have perverted this excellent system and are using it unethically
Now where the scam comes in is this.
When you sign up for some of these programs, you are also automatically signed up for their rather expensive newsletters. In my case it was a $99 per month newsletter. You then get the first installment free and are billed for further issues.
Why is this a scam? Well you never signed up for the newsletter in the first place. No one has the authority to set up a direct debit on your credit card or account details without you say so.
In my case I didn't realize what was going on for a few months.
Now I am not saying the £1 offers are bad, in fact in the majority of cases they are just as advertised, a $1 offer for a preview of a great affiliate marketing product.
But you have to watch out for the few scammers who are trying to use the one dollar offer to get your card details and automatically subscribe you to a junk newsletter at extortionate cost.
If you get a newsletter that you know you definitely did not subscribe to, Unsubscribe from their list immediately.
Till next time
It was a heads up from a fellow marketer warning me of a scam he has just uncovered.
It's one I have fallen for in the past and thought it was a genuine mistake on the affiliate merchant's part. But apparently I was wrong
The scam is this
You are offered an amazing affiliate marketing training package for a limited period for a ridiculously low amount, say $1.
So far, no scam. Affiliate marketing 'guru's' do these offers often. The hope is when you sign up for your trial period and have taken a peek into their membership program, you will be so impressed with the content that you will want a full membership.
But it would seem that some vendors have perverted this excellent system and are using it unethically
Now where the scam comes in is this.
When you sign up for some of these programs, you are also automatically signed up for their rather expensive newsletters. In my case it was a $99 per month newsletter. You then get the first installment free and are billed for further issues.
Why is this a scam? Well you never signed up for the newsletter in the first place. No one has the authority to set up a direct debit on your credit card or account details without you say so.
In my case I didn't realize what was going on for a few months.
Now I am not saying the £1 offers are bad, in fact in the majority of cases they are just as advertised, a $1 offer for a preview of a great affiliate marketing product.
But you have to watch out for the few scammers who are trying to use the one dollar offer to get your card details and automatically subscribe you to a junk newsletter at extortionate cost.
If you get a newsletter that you know you definitely did not subscribe to, Unsubscribe from their list immediately.
Till next time
Monday, 14 April 2008
Free Video Tutorials Get It Now
Free video tutorials that you will learn from. Guaranteed
Watch as Derek builds an affiliate marketing website and takes it to profitability in just 4 days
If he can do it and show you exactly what he is doing, so can you
The affiliate marketing video is absolutely free if you get them via this link before April 20
The link is http://www.affiliatemarketingintro.com/Recommends/Challenge
What are you waiting for?
Watch as Derek builds an affiliate marketing website and takes it to profitability in just 4 days
If he can do it and show you exactly what he is doing, so can you
The affiliate marketing video is absolutely free if you get them via this link before April 20
The link is http://www.affiliatemarketingintro.com/Recommends/Challenge
What are you waiting for?
Monday, 7 April 2008
95% of Affiliate Marketers: No Failures, Just Quiters
You have read the statistic several times before. 95% of affiliate marketers fail at affiliate marketing.
So I started to think 'Why does this relatively simple business model work so well for some and not for others?'
What does the 5%, that make loads of money and live the life of luxury, have that everyone else doesn't?
With increased experience and some success in affiliate marketing, the answer came to me.
No-one fails at affiliate marketing? No-one does it right, ticks all the boxes, does all the website traffic generation, cloaks there links, builds a hyperresponsive e mail list and then fails to make some money. It just doesn't happen!!
So why do we come across so many people in the internet marketing forums who have 'failed' at affiliate marketing??
BECAUSE THEY QUIT?
They quit the business before they have spent enough time and effort in building it
They quit thinking of ways to take their business forwards
They quit thinking about affiliate marketing as a real business and start treating it like a get rich quick scheme. [Or is that scam?]
They quit investing the hours of work everyday that is necessary to get their business off the ground
They quit on themselves before they make it happen
My question to you is
ARE YOU A QUITTER?
Give yourself a chance, get these free videos and learn a few tips that could help you take your affiliate marketing business forward
So I started to think 'Why does this relatively simple business model work so well for some and not for others?'
What does the 5%, that make loads of money and live the life of luxury, have that everyone else doesn't?
With increased experience and some success in affiliate marketing, the answer came to me.
No-one fails at affiliate marketing? No-one does it right, ticks all the boxes, does all the website traffic generation, cloaks there links, builds a hyperresponsive e mail list and then fails to make some money. It just doesn't happen!!
So why do we come across so many people in the internet marketing forums who have 'failed' at affiliate marketing??
BECAUSE THEY QUIT?
They quit the business before they have spent enough time and effort in building it
They quit thinking of ways to take their business forwards
They quit thinking about affiliate marketing as a real business and start treating it like a get rich quick scheme. [Or is that scam?]
They quit investing the hours of work everyday that is necessary to get their business off the ground
They quit on themselves before they make it happen
My question to you is
ARE YOU A QUITTER?
Give yourself a chance, get these free videos and learn a few tips that could help you take your affiliate marketing business forward
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Make Money Online, Make A dollar A Day
It's snowing today!!
The view from my window is amazing. The paddock is all white and the hill top is capped.
It is great to have the opportunity to live where the views are just simply amazing
The business of making money online is one that has the potential to allow you to pick and choose where you live. But you really need to work at your business to make it work
So how can you, the affiliate marketing newbie, get your business to the level where you can wake up to views like mine?
One step at a time and lots of dedication and hard work
First of all you must have reasonable expectations of your business.
If you are hoping to make a shed load of money overnight with minimal effort then you are mistaken. This business is not for you.
If you are not ready to put in the hours of hard work, then quit now.
Start with small targets. What? Small targets?
To start with build a niche targeted website and aim to make a dollar a day from the site in your first couple of weeks
A dollar a day? I hear you say.
Take a moment to think about it.
A dollar a day means $30 a month. This easily covers your hosting account cost and your domain name fees
So by just making a dollar a day, you break even. Nothing lost, anything from there on is pure profit
And it is relatively easy to make that amount of money, just with adsense alone
Once you have broken even, you can then up the ante and start driving hoards of traffic to your site.
Tweak it, add affiliate links where appropriate, improve it and soon you will be well beyond you dollar a day target.
Once you are regularly making an amount of money that equals your pay from your day job, you can choose to sac the boss, so to speak, or stay if your day job is your passion
Till next time
The view from my window is amazing. The paddock is all white and the hill top is capped.
It is great to have the opportunity to live where the views are just simply amazing
The business of making money online is one that has the potential to allow you to pick and choose where you live. But you really need to work at your business to make it work
So how can you, the affiliate marketing newbie, get your business to the level where you can wake up to views like mine?
One step at a time and lots of dedication and hard work
First of all you must have reasonable expectations of your business.
If you are hoping to make a shed load of money overnight with minimal effort then you are mistaken. This business is not for you.
If you are not ready to put in the hours of hard work, then quit now.
Start with small targets. What? Small targets?
To start with build a niche targeted website and aim to make a dollar a day from the site in your first couple of weeks
A dollar a day? I hear you say.
Take a moment to think about it.
A dollar a day means $30 a month. This easily covers your hosting account cost and your domain name fees
So by just making a dollar a day, you break even. Nothing lost, anything from there on is pure profit
And it is relatively easy to make that amount of money, just with adsense alone
Once you have broken even, you can then up the ante and start driving hoards of traffic to your site.
Tweak it, add affiliate links where appropriate, improve it and soon you will be well beyond you dollar a day target.
Once you are regularly making an amount of money that equals your pay from your day job, you can choose to sac the boss, so to speak, or stay if your day job is your passion
Till next time
Friday, 4 April 2008
How Affiliate Marketing Works by Rosalind Gardner
Hi there,
So today I thought I would tell you about how I got started in the affiliate marketing business.
In the beginning, I realized the true potential of affiliate marketing but I also knew that to make affiliate marketing work for me, I had to get a good guide on affiliate marketing
Now don't get me wrong, there are a lot of e books out there on affiliate marketing, but you will find that a lot of them are repetitive and only a few give you the tips you need to make this business work
I bought the superaffiliate handbook, amongst a bunch of other e books on how affiliate marketing works. And i will tell you some of the ebooks really sucked.
I was ready to throw in the towel and conclude that this affiliate marketing thing does not work.
I had printed out the handbook and one night couldn't sleep so i thought 'well this ought to send me off to sleep really quickly'
Boy was I wrong!! I stayed up all night reading Rosalind's handbook. Thank heavens it was a friday night as i was still then totally dependent on the income from my day job. [doesn't it suck when you have to toe the line because you need the job?]
The rest is as they say history.
I still do my day job, because i absolutely adore what i do, but no need to tip toe around people. I just go in, get on with looking after patients and go home. Knowing that have a healthy alternate stream of income has made my job rather enjoyable now.
Anyway here is a short video by Rosalind herself explaining how affiliate marketing works.
When you are done click the link below to view other videos by Rosalind Gardner
Click here for more Rosalind Gardner videos
Enjoy
So today I thought I would tell you about how I got started in the affiliate marketing business.
In the beginning, I realized the true potential of affiliate marketing but I also knew that to make affiliate marketing work for me, I had to get a good guide on affiliate marketing
Now don't get me wrong, there are a lot of e books out there on affiliate marketing, but you will find that a lot of them are repetitive and only a few give you the tips you need to make this business work
I bought the superaffiliate handbook, amongst a bunch of other e books on how affiliate marketing works. And i will tell you some of the ebooks really sucked.
I was ready to throw in the towel and conclude that this affiliate marketing thing does not work.
I had printed out the handbook and one night couldn't sleep so i thought 'well this ought to send me off to sleep really quickly'
Boy was I wrong!! I stayed up all night reading Rosalind's handbook. Thank heavens it was a friday night as i was still then totally dependent on the income from my day job. [doesn't it suck when you have to toe the line because you need the job?]
The rest is as they say history.
I still do my day job, because i absolutely adore what i do, but no need to tip toe around people. I just go in, get on with looking after patients and go home. Knowing that have a healthy alternate stream of income has made my job rather enjoyable now.
Anyway here is a short video by Rosalind herself explaining how affiliate marketing works.
When you are done click the link below to view other videos by Rosalind Gardner
Click here for more Rosalind Gardner videos
Enjoy
Monday, 31 March 2008
Free one way backlink from authority site
Just came across this and knew i must share with you
http://niche.qassia.com/ is a new site that gives you free one way links to your site.
Great site, free to register and graet backlinks to your site.
Enough said
Go to http://niche.qassia.com/ while it is still taking on free sign ups
http://niche.qassia.com/ is a new site that gives you free one way links to your site.
Great site, free to register and graet backlinks to your site.
Enough said
Go to http://niche.qassia.com/ while it is still taking on free sign ups
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Ebay's Clamp Down on Digital Products
Hi again,
Some interesting news just out.
Straight from the source, Ebay has announced that it is changing the way people sell digital products on Ebay. Digital products of course refers to e books and downloadable software.
Sellers will no longer be allowed to sell these products at auction.
Apparently, there is some issue about seller/buyer feedback which does not work when it comes to these products
Anyway, you can still advertise your digital products on Ebay but in the classified ads format.
Till next time
Some interesting news just out.
Straight from the source, Ebay has announced that it is changing the way people sell digital products on Ebay. Digital products of course refers to e books and downloadable software.
Sellers will no longer be allowed to sell these products at auction.
Apparently, there is some issue about seller/buyer feedback which does not work when it comes to these products
Anyway, you can still advertise your digital products on Ebay but in the classified ads format.
Till next time
Sunday, 23 March 2008
10 Hot Tips To Increase Your Blogs Readership
It is not enough to post to your blog regularly and wait for the money to come in. You need to write posts that people will actually read
Some tips on generating blog content here
It is the words on your blog that leads to conversions.
Here are 10 top tips to help increase your readership
1. Unique, good quality content. You just have to make sure that what you post is accurate and of good quality. There just is no short cut to doing your diligent research before posting to your blog. Also make sure your posts are timely. Posting today about an event that happened 3 months ago and has gone cold, is not going to cut it. Be timely, engaging and informative.
2. Post regularly. There is just no excuse for allowing your blog to go stale. If possible, post everyday but if not at least once every two weeks. Yes I know there are affiliate marketing gurus that post maybe once a month to their blogs. But these are guys that have already established themselves. They can afford to keep us waiting for their next instalment because they know that when they post, We will come!!
3. The title of your post, and the keywords you optimize them for, are of fundamental importance. Keyword research is as important in blogging for profits as in traditional websites. I use this keyword tool. Get your keywords and make sure you apply some search engine optimization to each and every post
4.Do not neglect to use your RSS/Atom/XML feed. This allows your content to be syndicated to other sites, giving you greater reach. The blogger blogging platform allows you to do this easily.
5. Join a blogging community and interact with other bloggers. A great community is bumpzee.com
6.Participate in other people's blogs, especially those related to your niche. Leave useful comments on them and offer feedback where appropriate. Use the opportunity to increase visibility for your blog by adding a link to your blog in your posts on other people's blogs, if permitted. Now make sure that your comments are useful and informative. Some website owners abuse this opportunity and spam other peoples blogs. This is despicable and is strenously discouraged.
7. Include a link, preferable using your keyword as the anchor text, in your email and forum signatures. This is easy and free advertisement for your blog. Everytime you send an email or post a useful comment on a forum, your little advert for your new blog is also displayed. This helps increase traffic and could also improve your ranking in the search engines.
8. Submit your blog to a handful of high traffic blog directories. I don't use directory submission software for this. Rather I hand submit my blogs to the individual directories.
Also I cannot see the benefit of submiting my blog to 100 low PR low traffic directories. My time could be better spent elsewhere. Just pick the few directories that have been proved to yield traffic and stick to them.
9. Article Marketing and Bum marketing. My favorite method of free website promotion. Second only to search engine optimization. Write articles that are related to your blog's niche and of good quality. Submit these articles to article sites. Remember to add your signature, with link embedded, at the end of each article. Again you do not need to use 100 article sites. I suggest ezinearticles.com and goarticles.com
10. Use an update service or ping service to let readers know your blog has been updated. Ping your blog everytime you add a new post. I use pingomatic.com but there are loads of other good pinging services out there. The beautiful of pingomatic is it pings a lot of servers simultaneously.
The above tips should get you well on your way. It is important to recognize that you will not get a large number of loyal readers overnight. It takes time to build reputation.
Whatever you do, keep tweaking, learning and improving and you will soon see a large amount of loyal subscribers to your blog
Till next time
Some tips on generating blog content here
It is the words on your blog that leads to conversions.
Here are 10 top tips to help increase your readership
1. Unique, good quality content. You just have to make sure that what you post is accurate and of good quality. There just is no short cut to doing your diligent research before posting to your blog. Also make sure your posts are timely. Posting today about an event that happened 3 months ago and has gone cold, is not going to cut it. Be timely, engaging and informative.
2. Post regularly. There is just no excuse for allowing your blog to go stale. If possible, post everyday but if not at least once every two weeks. Yes I know there are affiliate marketing gurus that post maybe once a month to their blogs. But these are guys that have already established themselves. They can afford to keep us waiting for their next instalment because they know that when they post, We will come!!
3. The title of your post, and the keywords you optimize them for, are of fundamental importance. Keyword research is as important in blogging for profits as in traditional websites. I use this keyword tool. Get your keywords and make sure you apply some search engine optimization to each and every post
4.Do not neglect to use your RSS/Atom/XML feed. This allows your content to be syndicated to other sites, giving you greater reach. The blogger blogging platform allows you to do this easily.
5. Join a blogging community and interact with other bloggers. A great community is bumpzee.com
6.Participate in other people's blogs, especially those related to your niche. Leave useful comments on them and offer feedback where appropriate. Use the opportunity to increase visibility for your blog by adding a link to your blog in your posts on other people's blogs, if permitted. Now make sure that your comments are useful and informative. Some website owners abuse this opportunity and spam other peoples blogs. This is despicable and is strenously discouraged.
7. Include a link, preferable using your keyword as the anchor text, in your email and forum signatures. This is easy and free advertisement for your blog. Everytime you send an email or post a useful comment on a forum, your little advert for your new blog is also displayed. This helps increase traffic and could also improve your ranking in the search engines.
8. Submit your blog to a handful of high traffic blog directories. I don't use directory submission software for this. Rather I hand submit my blogs to the individual directories.
Also I cannot see the benefit of submiting my blog to 100 low PR low traffic directories. My time could be better spent elsewhere. Just pick the few directories that have been proved to yield traffic and stick to them.
9. Article Marketing and Bum marketing. My favorite method of free website promotion. Second only to search engine optimization. Write articles that are related to your blog's niche and of good quality. Submit these articles to article sites. Remember to add your signature, with link embedded, at the end of each article. Again you do not need to use 100 article sites. I suggest ezinearticles.com and goarticles.com
10. Use an update service or ping service to let readers know your blog has been updated. Ping your blog everytime you add a new post. I use pingomatic.com but there are loads of other good pinging services out there. The beautiful of pingomatic is it pings a lot of servers simultaneously.
The above tips should get you well on your way. It is important to recognize that you will not get a large number of loyal readers overnight. It takes time to build reputation.
Whatever you do, keep tweaking, learning and improving and you will soon see a large amount of loyal subscribers to your blog
Till next time
Sunday, 16 March 2008
AOL, Bebo And The Affiliate Marketer
By now you will have heard that AOL has bought Bebo, a social networking site.
So what does this all mean.
It just goes to show how important web 2 is now for the serious marketer.
Not many of us have the financial muscle to buy a social networking site. But this does not mean you cannot use these sites to improve your profile on the internet.
Web 2 is here to stay, so get with the program
Till next time
So what does this all mean.
It just goes to show how important web 2 is now for the serious marketer.
Not many of us have the financial muscle to buy a social networking site. But this does not mean you cannot use these sites to improve your profile on the internet.
Web 2 is here to stay, so get with the program
Till next time
Saturday, 8 March 2008
Is Google Paying Webmasters Less Per Click?
Recently, a few blog owners and webmasters using adsense as a source of residual income on their sites have noted that their adsense revenue has dropped despite maintaining their visitor numbers.
Some webmasters are in a panic over this and there is a lesson in it for us all.
The concept of making a significant income online is one based on creating multiple streams of income.
You really cannot decide that you will only use adsense, or one affiliate program or whatever as your revenue source.
You need to have money trickling in from here and then some more from there and so forth.
So that if Google decides to reduce the amount of pay out per click on your adsense pages, you still have other channels bringing in the money and you will not be too bothered by the change.
It actually has not been confirmed that Google has reduced pay out per click.
Wow, what a lot of bother over an unconfirmed rumour
Till next time
Some webmasters are in a panic over this and there is a lesson in it for us all.
The concept of making a significant income online is one based on creating multiple streams of income.
You really cannot decide that you will only use adsense, or one affiliate program or whatever as your revenue source.
You need to have money trickling in from here and then some more from there and so forth.
So that if Google decides to reduce the amount of pay out per click on your adsense pages, you still have other channels bringing in the money and you will not be too bothered by the change.
It actually has not been confirmed that Google has reduced pay out per click.
Wow, what a lot of bother over an unconfirmed rumour
Till next time
Monday, 25 February 2008
The One Forum You Must Join As An Affiliate Marketer
So you are into affiliate marketing and have built your website. You are looking to increase your websites traffic and enhance your profile online.
If you have read my previous posts, you know by now that forum participation is a very viable option.
But not all forums are created equal. You have only 24 hours in the day so you need to use your time effectively.
The following criteria should be applied when choosing the forums you are going to register with
If you have read my previous posts, you know by now that forum participation is a very viable option.
But not all forums are created equal. You have only 24 hours in the day so you need to use your time effectively.
The following criteria should be applied when choosing the forums you are going to register with
- Niche specific. Your forums of choice should iseally be in the niche you are targeting
- Large membership base. Obvious really. The higher the number of members, the greater the number of people that will come across your posts
- Good search engine ranking
- Backlinks. You want to participate in forums that allow you to have a signature that contains live links to your website. That is backlinks that do not have a 'no follow' tags
- A few marketing experts as moderators
For one such forum follow this link.
If you can only join one forum then this forum is it
The link again
Till next time
How To Find A Profitable Niche
You will hear many affiliate marketers in the affiliate marketing niche say that your niche should be an area that you are interested in or an area you are passionate about.
There is another and better way!
Find a hungry market and make that your niche.
I say it again, first find a hungry market then make this market your niche. This is the rough summary of how to discover lucrative niches.
The problem with plugging in to your passions is, in a lot of cases, you will end up trying to create a market that does not exist.
Yes you can eventually make some money from this and a very small handful of people have had phenomenal success with this, but the truth is for the majority, they are still hitting their heads against a brick wall.
Why do you think the statistic, 90% of affiliate marketers do not make a viable living online, comes from.
There are several ways to find a profitable market. This is beyond the scope of this post but watch out for later posts in which I will share some techniques with you.
Meanwhile, take a look at this free membership site. Comes with a large amount of training videos for affiliate marketing beginners.
Here is the link again
Till next time
There is another and better way!
Find a hungry market and make that your niche.
I say it again, first find a hungry market then make this market your niche. This is the rough summary of how to discover lucrative niches.
The problem with plugging in to your passions is, in a lot of cases, you will end up trying to create a market that does not exist.
Yes you can eventually make some money from this and a very small handful of people have had phenomenal success with this, but the truth is for the majority, they are still hitting their heads against a brick wall.
Why do you think the statistic, 90% of affiliate marketers do not make a viable living online, comes from.
There are several ways to find a profitable market. This is beyond the scope of this post but watch out for later posts in which I will share some techniques with you.
Meanwhile, take a look at this free membership site. Comes with a large amount of training videos for affiliate marketing beginners.
Here is the link again
Till next time
Sunday, 17 February 2008
How To Discover The Webpages With Back Links To Your Website
By now you understand the reason for doing all that article marketing and forum participation is to generate backlinks to your website. The backlinks, if the do not have 'no follow' tags on them will contribute to your page popularity in the search engines.
To assess your progress you need a way to assess how many live baclimks you have pointing to your website.
By the way, the number of backlinks pointing to your website is your link popularity.
Once you know how many links are pointing to your website, you need to drill down further and take a closer look at the sites generating these links.
In this post, I will only cover how to find out your link popularity but in a later post we will go over the things you need to analyze on these linking sites websites
Before I go into it, I just want to tell you guys that link popularity is crucial to your website's ranking in the search engines.
Although Google, Yahoo and MSN do not give away their ranking algorithm, experience and wiser marketers than I have suggested that Ranking is related to content and link popularity.
Get link popularity right and you could be in that covetted number 1 spot for your keyword.
So, How do you assess your link popularity
To assess your progress you need a way to assess how many live baclimks you have pointing to your website.
By the way, the number of backlinks pointing to your website is your link popularity.
Once you know how many links are pointing to your website, you need to drill down further and take a closer look at the sites generating these links.
In this post, I will only cover how to find out your link popularity but in a later post we will go over the things you need to analyze on these linking sites websites
Before I go into it, I just want to tell you guys that link popularity is crucial to your website's ranking in the search engines.
Although Google, Yahoo and MSN do not give away their ranking algorithm, experience and wiser marketers than I have suggested that Ranking is related to content and link popularity.
Get link popularity right and you could be in that covetted number 1 spot for your keyword.
So, How do you assess your link popularity
- Search engines: I recommend Yahoo for this. I'll explain why shortly. Anyway load the Yahoo search bar and type in link:Your site's url and press enter. Use the domain.com, http://www.domain.com/ and http://www.domain.com/ variations. The results returned often vary with what form of your URL you type in. This will turn up the websites linking to you. Problem with Google is they do not display all the sites whereas the Yahoo search bar gives a more robust list. Even with Yahoo, some links may be missed out but it gives you a general idea of how well your linking strategy is working.
- Software: You can get a more accurate assessment of your link popularity by using special software that is designed for this particular purpose. Now you can go out and pay some to build the software for you or you can buy one of the many available on the market. Now, the software I use and recommend to you is a little pricey but, for my business, was well worth the investment. It does the following
- Discovers you link popularity
- Tells you whether the links are contributing to your your ranking or are no follow links
- Displays your anchor tags. These are the terms that are used to link back to your website
- Displays the page rank [Google and Alexa] of the site linking to you.
- If that was all this website does, it would already be worth the cost. But it has a whole load of other functions eg article submission, link exchange, gfinds authority sites in you niche. To learn more about this software click SEO Elite.
For the newbies, you are probably wondering why it is important to assess your link popularity. Simply to help you focus your efforts on activities that yield a result.
Say for example you are into forum participation. And you have spent hours on posting quality comments on forums with your backlink in your signature. How do you know which forums actually have your link and how many have the 'no follow' tag?
To learn more about link popularity and creating baclinks, click Link Popularity for a free guide
Till next time
Thursday, 14 February 2008
How To Get Your Affiliate Marketing Articles Accepted By Article Directories
Previously we have gone over article marketing, bum marketing and how you can use these to increase traffic to your website.
But article marketing works only if you can get your articles accepted by the article directories
So how can you increase the chances of your articles being accepted with the article directories
Familiarise yourself with their rules: You need to read the terms of service of each and every directory you use. It is only then that you will understand the minor nuances that each directory has.
For example, Ezinearticles.com does not accept articles that contain an affiliate link. Having said that ezinearticles.com is one of my favourite article directories. Article there are indexed quickly and the link to your website is not no follow so it contributes to your ranking. Goarticles.com however allows you to include affiliate links in your article body or signature.
You will find that if you operate within the terms of service of the article directories, your articles will be accepted each and every time
Let's face it, the rules are not exactly draconian, they are pretty reasonable and it is probably because of these rules that article directories are still very useful for affiliate and internet marketers.
Article Structure: Structure your articles so that they are easy to read. Article directories do not like articles that are too long. Try and keep your article length less than 700 words. The flip side is that if your article is too short it will also get rejected. I find that my articles are 400 to 700 words long and have all been accepted by the article directories.
Also use white space. Single space between lines and double space between paragraphs
Keep the paragraphs short, three to four sentences and no more. This will increase the frequency with which your articles are actually read. You need readers to read your artilcle if you are to influence them to click on to your website.
In the same vain, use subheaders and bullet points where necessary. Don't over do it. Bullet points help break up you articles into easily digestable parts
SpellCheck: Very important. If your article contains typos or looks like you have cobbled it together using content generation software, it will not be accepted. Read your articl out loud to your self before submitting it to the article directory. Also use the spell check software on your computer. Microsoft word has a very good spellchecker. ezinearticles.com and goarticles.com also have a spellchecker
Hand submit your article: While this is not a must do, I highly recommend you hand submit your articles to the article directories. Some people use article submission software that will submit your article automatically to scores of article directories. I have no experience with this software and people that do claim to have some success with it.
Original articles: This is the most important point and somehow i left it till last. It is crucial that your articles are original. Either write your own articles yourself or pay someone to do it. Using PLR articles just will not do.
A great guide to article marketing and the bum marketing method can be found at http://www.affiliatemarketingintro.com/Recommends/BumNTS
Till next time
Wednesday, 13 February 2008
4 Essential Components Of Your Articles
Article marketing could significantly increase the traffic to your website and it is something that needs to be taken very seriously.
For you to achieve success with article marketing, there are 4 things you must include and pay attention to in your articles
For you to achieve success with article marketing, there are 4 things you must include and pay attention to in your articles
- Keyword selection. You must identify the keywords that are most appropriate for your article. These are keywords that are searched for frequently in the search engines by people interested in your particular niche, keywords that are not too competitive, and that are used by people in a mind frame to take action.
- Keyword distribution. Your keyword must be included in the heading of your article. This is crucial. You also need to include the keyword early in the body of your article's content and often. Do not overdo it. There is the risk of being penalized for keyword stuffing. Also include other words that are often associated with your keywords
- Unique Content. For your articles to fly, you really need to have unique content on your pages. It is not enough to go out and get a bunch of PLR articles and paste them on your site. You need to write your own articles or pay someone to write unique articles for you. Also make sure that your article contains some useful content. Take this article for example, it tells you how to write article to succeed in article marketing. Now that is useful content. I find that 'how to' articles are the best article marketing articles. They just tend to take off and go viral quite quickly.
- Anchor links. Use your keywords as anchors for your links from your articles to your website. This will help drive traffic to your site and also help your search engine rankings.
Check out Articles for affiliate marketing beginners for more affiliate marketing tips
Tuesday, 12 February 2008
Low Hanging Fruit
Definition of low hanging fruit.
The term low hanging fruit refers to a task that is easy to accomplish or a target that is easily achievable.
How does the concept of low hanging fruit apply to the affiliate or internet marketer?
In affiliate marketing, you are trying to promote a product so as to get a commission. Now it makes sense that the higher the cost of the product and the higher the percentage commission, the better your business will perform. But this does not always translate well to real term marketing forces. You see the higher the cost of a product, the more resistant your prospect is to get out their wallet.
Think about it, how much time do you spend deciding on buying a $10 ebook. You read the sales page, you like what you see and you buy. Heck, it's only $10. Now say you find a $3000 computer that you really like. You read the sales page, study all the features it has, read the after sales service and then..... shop around, think about it, discuss it with your spouse and maybe next year we will buy it.
Also in affiliate marketing it is tempting to go after those highly sought after products that everyone else is promoting. Again because of high competition, the prospects of making a sale are very slim. Enter the concept of low hanging fruit. These are products that are not highly marketed, probably not very popular, very niche specific and attract very little traffic. However those who want it, want it. The commission may not be high but the chances of you clinching the sale are higher
A few successful low hanging fruit campaigns may be all you need to make a decent living online
Till next time
The term low hanging fruit refers to a task that is easy to accomplish or a target that is easily achievable.
How does the concept of low hanging fruit apply to the affiliate or internet marketer?
In affiliate marketing, you are trying to promote a product so as to get a commission. Now it makes sense that the higher the cost of the product and the higher the percentage commission, the better your business will perform. But this does not always translate well to real term marketing forces. You see the higher the cost of a product, the more resistant your prospect is to get out their wallet.
Think about it, how much time do you spend deciding on buying a $10 ebook. You read the sales page, you like what you see and you buy. Heck, it's only $10. Now say you find a $3000 computer that you really like. You read the sales page, study all the features it has, read the after sales service and then..... shop around, think about it, discuss it with your spouse and maybe next year we will buy it.
Also in affiliate marketing it is tempting to go after those highly sought after products that everyone else is promoting. Again because of high competition, the prospects of making a sale are very slim. Enter the concept of low hanging fruit. These are products that are not highly marketed, probably not very popular, very niche specific and attract very little traffic. However those who want it, want it. The commission may not be high but the chances of you clinching the sale are higher
A few successful low hanging fruit campaigns may be all you need to make a decent living online
Till next time
Friday, 8 February 2008
How To Increase Website Traffic Through Forum Participation
Back to our series on generating traffic to your website or blog.
Let us focus on forum participation. Here we will paint a few broad strokes on forum participation and in future posts we will go into the details of selecting which forums to post in and how to word your posts for maximum impact.
Forum participation has been around for a while. I will be the first person to tell you that this is not a new methos or a secret key.
Forum commenting is however a very useful method of
Let us focus on forum participation. Here we will paint a few broad strokes on forum participation and in future posts we will go into the details of selecting which forums to post in and how to word your posts for maximum impact.
Forum participation has been around for a while. I will be the first person to tell you that this is not a new methos or a secret key.
Forum commenting is however a very useful method of
- Building your reputation online: If your posts are full of useful information and if there are some little known titbits thrown in, you will fast get a reputation of being 'One in theknow'
- Drive visitors to your website: Again if your comments are valid and informative, people will tend to click on to your website [don't forget to include a link in your signature] to find out more information from you
- Increase website ranking: A large number of online forums have no follow links. These are bits of html code that tell the search engine spiders not to crawlyour link. [Applies to Google spiders, not sure if this applies to Yahoo or MSN] Some forums do not have no follow tags. This means that if you identify these forums and post to them with a backlink to your site [again please use an anchor tag!!], the link will contribute to your ranking in the search engines.
A good place to start is at this very popular forum with affiliate marketers. You will recognize some of the names of people posting in this forum. Do not feel intimidated, your point of view is also valid.
Click here to visit the site
By the way, they allow you to post adwords style ads for your website. The number of times your ad is displayed depends on the number of useful posts you make.
Please do not try to spam the site. You will be quickly kicked out if you do
The link again is http://tinyurl.com/2rhv9l
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
Affiliate Marketing Tips: Keep Moving
Affiliate marketing newbies, this post is for you.
Perhaps you have been at it for a few months now, and are not yet making the income you dreamt of. So what do you do?
Do you through in the towel and tell yourself 'affiliate marketing does not work' or do you renew your resolve to make it work for you.
Now I don't know what niche or niches you are in but personal experience has taught me that this works
Affiliate Marketing Tip 1:The most important thing you can do as an affiliate marketer is to keep building your business. Keep working at it. The thing about working at building your business is that everything you do works together to bring some reputation to your site. You may not see immediate result, for example in the case of Search engine optimization, but the results will come. IF YOU KEEP WORKING. If you do not know about Search engine optimization click on On page search engine optimization , keyword optimization and Building website link popularity to learn more.
Affiliate Marketing Tip 2: Do one thing at a time. This is so important. So often affiliates are doing this and that and not really able to focus on any one thing. I advise that you take one thing, say search engine optimization, learn it, master it, apply it and see results from it before moving on to the next skill
Affiliate Marketing Tip 3: Learn as much as you can. There are many free training resources teaching different techniques in affiliate marketing. This Blog, Niche Traffic Sale is one such resource. Make use of these training sites, they are free to use and contain alot of really useful information. You need to keep learning and stay abreast with developments in this business. Another good training site is affiliate marketing guide for newbies which teaches the basics of affiliate marketing.
There are even free sites that give training in video format eg http://www.affiliatemarketingintro.com/Recommends/MB.
Till Next Time
Perhaps you have been at it for a few months now, and are not yet making the income you dreamt of. So what do you do?
Do you through in the towel and tell yourself 'affiliate marketing does not work' or do you renew your resolve to make it work for you.
Now I don't know what niche or niches you are in but personal experience has taught me that this works
Affiliate Marketing Tip 1:The most important thing you can do as an affiliate marketer is to keep building your business. Keep working at it. The thing about working at building your business is that everything you do works together to bring some reputation to your site. You may not see immediate result, for example in the case of Search engine optimization, but the results will come. IF YOU KEEP WORKING. If you do not know about Search engine optimization click on On page search engine optimization , keyword optimization and Building website link popularity to learn more.
Affiliate Marketing Tip 2: Do one thing at a time. This is so important. So often affiliates are doing this and that and not really able to focus on any one thing. I advise that you take one thing, say search engine optimization, learn it, master it, apply it and see results from it before moving on to the next skill
Affiliate Marketing Tip 3: Learn as much as you can. There are many free training resources teaching different techniques in affiliate marketing. This Blog, Niche Traffic Sale is one such resource. Make use of these training sites, they are free to use and contain alot of really useful information. You need to keep learning and stay abreast with developments in this business. Another good training site is affiliate marketing guide for newbies which teaches the basics of affiliate marketing.
There are even free sites that give training in video format eg http://www.affiliatemarketingintro.com/Recommends/MB.
Till Next Time
