Affiliate Marketing – Why your business needs it

Posted on August 27, 2011 by Brian

Many types of business encourage affiliate marketing in order to gain more internet traffic to their business and website. An affiliate marketer’s main job is to attract as many customers as possible to the affiliate’s website. Affiliate marketers generally sell products that require the customers to be educated before the actual purchase. These types of marketers are not only needed for promotion and advertisement of the product but also for providing education and information to the uninformed or new consumers. The affiliate marketers make the customers get connected to the real product.

Generally, each of the affiliate marketers has his own particular set of rules, regulations and strategy for what kind of advertising will be done and how it will be done.  Due to this, there is no specific organization or association for affiliate marketing. This means that there is lot of scope for flexibility and creativity in the marketing methods of this field. Thus, affiliate marketing is very economical as these marketers earn commission from the converted consumers. Also, other marketing strategies involve huge costs & financial risks. If you are thinking of starting an online business then affiliate marketing is definitely a plus. The main factor is that you make profit regardless of other things. This can be a good way to start especially for new or small entrepreneurs.

You can have a stable income every month if you set up your affiliate program.  So the best ways to make money online is by setting up your affiliate programs that will earn you decent commissions. If you have a small business or an enterprise and have a product that you know has a great potential and will earn you decent money then you can immensely gain from affiliate programs. In this case affiliate programs can be very advantageous as several affiliate marketers will work for your business and sell your product and also earn their commissions. Not only the affiliate marketing will help you make your business grow but also your affiliates will grow as fast. This is a great profit formula which will benefit everybody whoever gets associated with it. Also, you will have no problem in finding the affiliates. Moreover, the automation in this field will further make the process faster and a lot easier. Affiliate marketing is a profitable venture if you want to sell the product online. You do not have to spend anything either on the advertising or on the SEO methods. The only effort that you have to do is to have other affiliate to do the promotion of your product either by linking the product to their websites/blogs or through the direct marketing. Using affiliate marketing is like a guaranteed profit making formula and this enables you to make profits with minimal effort. The best part is that the affiliates also get benefitted by this and affiliate marketing helps them to earn lots and lots of commissions depending on the right strategy and intensity of their efforts.

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Overview of Affiliate Marketing Training

Posted on August 26, 2011 by Brian

Affiliate marketing is a win-win situation for both the merchant and their affiliates. Through this way the merchants promote their product at a cheaper rate and in this process the affiliates also get to earn by promoting these products.  This is one of the most convenient methods to start a home business and to earn profit. If you are new to this industry then you would be having an idea that you can achieve a lot by doing this affiliate marketing. But to be a master in this field you should be ready to work hard and should have a true dedication to do it. Apart from this, you should definitely possess the skills to do it. Other things are useless if you don’t have the necessary skills. As only this can you take you to a higher level. Affiliate marketers could earn from $500-$5000 in a month depending on their skills and experience. The best part of affiliate marketing is that it is available to everyone. So it is essential to go through the proper training for affiliate marketing before stepping into this field.

You can always spot a bad affiliate marketing training program by checking out the blogs and see if the affiliates are posting the links in their comments. That’s a sign that the affiliate has not being properly trained on the blog commenting mannerisms. The same is applicable for forums. But you have to be very careful in picking up any affiliate marketing training program as u may fall prey to spam also.

Moreover, you should always be eager to learn new things when it comes to training. The actual training never ends although the training program may end. As there are always new changes and up gradation in the field of affiliate marketing so in order to stay ahead you should always remain stay in tune with these changes. However, always make sure that only absorb those changes which may prove to be useful for you and leave the undesired ones. Thus, with right kind of affiliate marketing training you are sure to succeed in this field. You can yourself become like a pro in affiliate marketing if you work harder and put effort on a daily basis. To be a good affiliate marketer your attitude and focus matters more than anything here.

Moreover, there are 2 types of categories for affiliate marketing. They are network marketing & commissions marketing. So after having the proper training for affiliate marketing one can later decide on the particular field of his or her interest. Now we all know that the greatest thing about affiliate marketing is that anyone can pursue this and can earn a decent income within the confines of his or her home. This opportunity is open for everyone. What you all need to have is a focussed mind and you will surely be successful in this field.

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What an Affiliate Marketing site should contain

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Brian

A number of affiliate marketers fail mainly because of the type of content they write. Writing for an affiliate marketing site does not actually require the skills of a booker prize winner but those of a smart and savvy affiliate marketer. The articles need to have the qualities that utilize online resources best and, of course, help turn prospects into sales. This article brings to you the type of articles you should have on your affiliate marketing site to increase conversions.

Product Reviews

People land on an affiliate marketing site in search of information about a product. They might have heard about the product from a friend, newspaper or the internet and are searching for an objective opinion before making a purchase decision. So if you want to attract traffic as well as build trust and loyalty then you should given your customers what they have come for: an honest and sincere review about the product they are looking for.

Honesty is the key for your reviews to be popular and trustworthy. So while you have to list all the reasons why people should buy the affiliate product that you are marketing, make sure that you also list down the flaws or limitations of the product. While you might think that this will drive the readers away it actually doesn’t as it lends credibility to your review and give the prospects confidence that they have full information to make a decision.

Product Benefits

Prospects landing on your affiliate marketing site want to know about the features of the product they want to buy. It is only if the features attract them that they want to know more about the product. However what you should do it not simply list down the features but also the benefit of each feature and its suitability for various target markets. You have to remember that people have difficulty in establishing which feature they really need from the ones they feel they need. So explaining them about the benefits and requirement of a particular product.  One thing that you have to always keep in minds is that its not the product with the best features that sells the most but the one with maximum perceived benefit that score so if you can provide your visitors with more benefits than your competition, your prospect conversion will definitely increase.

Product Comparison

This is a must in any affiliate marketing site as provides the customers with information to evaluate products themselves. You should have articles comparing your product with one or more competitor products. In today’s world it is very rare that the product you are marketing is the only one in the market and mostly your prospects already know a little about the various products on offer. So it is a smart strategy to address the initial impression of your visitors directly and mould it favorably towards your product. While comparing products be objective and do not just highlight the drawbacks of the competing products. Be selective and smart about the features and highlight the ones where your product scores in a bit detail, not forgetting to add the benefits along with the features. It is advisable to show one or two features in which your product is not the best but the key to position these in such a manner that the prospects find the feature not required.

Customer Testimonials

Customers that come to your affiliate marketing site are in search of real peoples’ views about the product they want to buy. Encourage your users to write about your products and then select the testimonials which position your product the way you want it to be. It would add to the credibility of the testimonials if they are along with the customers photographs alongside the product. Once people are convinced that people using your product are happy there is nothing to stop your sales from increasing.

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Succeeding in the Affiliate Marketing space

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Brian

Affiliate marketing is one of the fastest easiest ways to get into an online business. Affiliate marketing in simple terms means associating your website with a company and market their products and services on your site. You don’t have to bother about developing a product, the operational and logistic challenges of running an organization or even after sales services. All you have to do is provide customers’ information about the product or service you are marketing highlighting the features and benefits of the product with respect to competition and then let the customer take an informed decision.

An Affiliate marketer plays the role of a facilitator bring the customer and the product/service provider in contact with each other. That is why your sales pitch should be subtle and focused on comparison, information. So if both the affiliate marketer and the company try to sell the product with the same aggression the result would be overkill and can potentially turns off many prospects.

To be successful in the business of affiliate marketing you need to choose a partner that supports your marketing efforts as to successfully market a product it has to be good. So partner support is the basic requirement for succeeding in affiliate marketing.
To become successful in affiliate marketing you have to maintain a list of people who have visited your website along with the frequency of their visit as this is an indicator of preference and trust. So foster your visitors and gain their trust as this has a direct impact on your chances of success. One of the reasons why company needs affiliates like you is that they believe you enjoy trust with part of their target market and it will be easier for you to recommend their product rather than them trying to pitch it themselves. The prospect who land on the manufacturing company’s’ website via affiliate marketing websites have a much higher propensity to buy their products.
To build trust you have to focus on your content. It should be informative, objective as well as interesting. Provide stimulating content and keep changing your content regularly and visitor will flock your website. You should also start a newsletter and share what’s new on your website regularly.

Apart from focusing on your customer you also have to be savvy in terms of business sense. You should be very choosy in selecting your partner and it is preferable that you join affiliate programs which offer lifetime commission as these incentives repeat sales and believe in fostering deep long lasting relationships with customers. You also should join 2-tier affiliate programs as they allow you to recruit sub affiliates and expand your network.

As an affiliate marketer you should also optimize our website and make it search engine friendly so that it attract a lot of traffic. Focus on key words related to the product as well as the brand that you are marketing. Promoting your site is also very important and you should harness your efforts in this direction. You should write articles on the product category you are marketing and submit to article directories. You should also join forums and increase your visibility.

In a nutshell as an affiliate marketer you need a good platform, loyal visitors, competitive products and a highly visible website to succeed. You have this and you sure will be ringing your cash registers all the way.

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Affiliate Summit East 2011 #ASE11 Experience

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Brian

I attended the NYC Affiliate Summit #ASE11 today at the Hilton Hotel representing LivePerson, Inc as a Merchant. Networked with various affiliate vendors, merchants and publishers; I’ve compiled a few notes to share my experiences & insight from sessions throughout the day. These will appear in chronological order below and most likely will be in bullet point form.

I had a Gold Pass which was only good for today’s sessions. The rest of the week is reserved for Diamond & Platinum level. Few hour long sessions overlapped one another, which made it tough to choose which to spend most of the quality time in. You would think myself and a few others getting up mid way thru these seminars had ADHD, but essentially we didn’t want to miss out and hear what was going on in other rooms.

Aside from everything being very compressed, it was nicely organized with employees of the summit being friendly and helpful. There wasn’t much time throughout the day to stroll around the “Meet Market” (exhibitor hall) in between sessions. It was a bit helter skelter, with everyone giving their 15 second elevator speeches, handing out business cards and attendees stashing up on the free promotional items. My favorite was the Private Label Gum (which I’m chewing right now) provided by Team W3i - who ‘intelligently connect people to apps’ for FREE!

Throughout the day, I had the honor of taking notes with my new iPad 2 (which I received for my 30th birthday present this summer) with the defaulted note taking app — along with the new iPad 2 Keyboard Case which is available exclusively from Brookstone. It syncs up thru the Bluetooth option. It definitely frees up space on the iPad to type more. But the one thing I noticed if you don’t remain active in typing, the connection get’s lost and you have to reconnect. (Could there be a setting I’m missing?) There was Free Wi-Fi provided to all #ASE11 attendees using the hotels ‘exclusive’ access code, you guessed it: ASE11.

After picking up my badge at 9:30 a.m., there was an introductory meeting with Shawn Collins, Co-founder ofAffiliate Summit (Twitter @affiliatetip). Thereafter, first session I attended was “Are Your Affiliates Adding Value?”  Presented by:  Adam Riemer, President, Adam Riemer Marketing, LLC. (Twitter @Rollerblader). Few bullet points I took with me:

Traffic Patterns & Coupon Sites

  • Affiliates are suppose to have their own traffic
  • Independent
  • Doesn’t rely on your site offers
  • “Coupon sites add a lot of value”
Test the Traffic:
  • Coupons – remove the box, place coupons next to box, use cookies
  • Seasonal Sales
  • Niche Sites
  • Extra Pushes

Trademark Bidders

  • The bad: bidding on your domain + modifiers, trademark infringement, unique vs. general, direct linking
  • the good: get more coverage on general names, block your competitors on domains
Adware
  • good: showing over competitor sites, large community
  • bad: showing ads over your site, place other channels and affiliate cookies
Midway thru this session, I hustled over to “Got an Idea? Make it a Reality” which was being run by Rachel Honoway, Founder, Honoway Interactive, LLC (Twitter @rachelhonoway). I already got up the part about Demand and Supply. Her next few slides consisted of Idea-Spawning by coming up with new content and tools to add value to your site.
Next was trying to figure out the “Endgame”. You have lot’s of ideas, but which should you pick?
  • Passive Income: build, auto-pilot, rinse & repeat
  • Steady Business: build slowly, focus on visitors, member & management
  • Buy Out: targeted exit
Do it: It’s all about execution. Decide on what you’re going to deliver and make it happen.
Monetize it: Affiliate products, Amazon, CPC (Adsense), CPM (Adbrite)
One a Day: one “article” (so many uses), blog post, tweet, FB, video/youtube, linkedin, hootsuite
SmartPromo: guerrilla tactics – related channels: blogs, linkedin groups, Quora, Focus, HARO (HireAReporter), relevant advertising, “BTW” Advertisinig
Ideas are worth nothing: pick topic, determine demand, identify what you’re going to supply
Resources:
  • Accounts: i.e. FB & Twitter
  • Tools: (Bizodo builds forms), WordPress, Simple Scripts
  • Help: 99Designs, oDesk
  • News/Info: AppSumo, Google Alerts
Had a quick break at the Meet Market, than proceeded back to the 12:30 session titled “B2B Affiliate Marketing Tool Kit - Being tought by Adam Glazer, Managing Director, Partner Commerce (Twitter @adamglazer), Don Schamber, V.P. of Marketing, SMART Agents Marketing & Brian Waldman, VP Marketing & Strategy, Merchant Warehouse (Moderator) where they started off by making ‘a case for B2B’ Affiliate Marketing:
  • In the U.S., B2B ads and marketing spending estimated at $129 Billion
  • B2B interactive marketing spending will climb to 4.8 billion in 2014
  • Less competition in B2B Affiliate space
  • Ability to form better partnerships
Barrier for Merchants
  • Is affiliate marketing right for your business? What products/service do you sell? What is sales experience like? who are your customers and how do they find out about you? Do you have a way to track and pay affiliates?
  • What are your options? 
  • In-House networks B2C vs. B2B
  • Traditional, CPA Networks, B2B Networks, Offline & Inshore, Fixed & Variable Costs
Tracking & tech knowledge barriers – Do you manage your own website and internet marketing? If so, you can have custom tracking parameters, custom web elements, metrics and even track offline sales. If you don’t manage your own website, you must rely on existing networks or partners to recruit affiliates.
But of course, half way thru I squandered on thru to the “Feng Shui Your Pages for Maximum Conversions” exhibit by Chris Pearson, Overlord, DIYthemes.com (Twitter @pearsonified).
  • He won me over when he offered a Free Ebook: “How Nonverbal Website Communication gets you sales and subscribers“. 
  • One of the things that really stood out is the subtle little details he pays attention to on landing pages. He removes ANY link distractions on pages that have signup forms and other call to action buttons. Even removing hyperlinks from logos, it makes perfect sense by reducing distraction and not giving users any other options.
  • He also favors 1 column layout pages, where users can only look from top down. Analogically speaking, when you read a book, all of your attention and focus is high. No options but one route. 
  • His other focus is on better form design. You’ll see lot’s of forms where you have to read them zig zag, but he recommends placing form labels directly above items associated leading customer right thru the page and mistakes on the form would most likely decrease. 
  • Good to reiterate value proposition at forms and other checkout pages, where people need reassurance!
Next up is Taking Advantage of Seasonality in Affiliate Marketinghosted by:

  • They recommend capitalizing on timing and events. Having timely launches: annual events that take place same day, events that float, ability to update and scale quickly, quick responses to unforeseen events, taboo, anticipating deaths (i.e. Hugh Heffner)
  • SEO (Organic traffic) Be pre-emptive, do not spend money on PPC, do it organically
Extending Revenue
  • Send product suggestions
  • trend spotting
  • book movie release
  • similar holiday events
  • same market but different season
  • themed parties
  •  Managing Affiliates: Message only once a month, no more than 5 times a month.Thru CJ Network: Use rapidfire distritibution list, enable affiliates to unsubscribe
  • Send banners in emails that include their Affiliate links, attach/offer all sizes available, make it efficient, instill a sense of urgency
I than made my way into: “Advanced ROI Driven Internet Marketing Strategies” presented by Joris Toonders, MD/Entrepreneur, Yonego Internet Marketing (Twitter @joristoonders).
  • ROI = KING
  • “Everything starts with measuring”
  • Start with Google Adwords for Relevent Traffic, figure out where to optimize
  • Checkout impact of KPI’s
  • Start with A/B & Multivariate Testing
  • Kampyle, BTBuckets
  • “Your visitors are boss, so data is key” 
  • Conversion Optimization: “Quick Wins” – Offer free shipping, show visitors how many in stock, influence people with discount for next order
“People Don’t read advertising. They read what interests them. Sometimes that is advertising” – Favorite quote. Relevant advertising for whta they’re searching for. This is why Groupon is losing out on many members due to non-specific offers.
  • Keywords are magnets, queries are king!
  • Check Wiki article traffic
  • Use “did you mean” in your advertisements in PPC!
  • Optimize text based on the ROI per 1,000 views. 
  • Shouldn’t be based on CTR… ROI should be your goal.
  • Use “advanced search” in your sitelinks
  • Change text in the morning “good morning”
  • Sell products via FB – Don’t look only to your website, but other channels
  • Use Backfeed data to maximize your ROI
  • if you’re only looking to GA or Adwords, you won’t see everything
  • ROI: email marketing, mail chimp and google analytics
  • Keyword Spy, Spyfu – To spy on competition
Last but not least, I attended “Making Affiliate Marketing a Career” powered by Erin Cigich, President & Managing Partner, Clickbooth (Twitter @ErinClickbooth). She related making a career in Affiliate Marketing to “Building a Castle” and there’s 3 Aspects:
  1. Lay foundatio: assess, savings, plan and paperwork
  2. Build castle
  3. Defend Castle – publishers lose placements, get bad reps
Reinvest your profits, take 5% off for fun stuff. Other 95% on your business savings, scaling and testing. Set smart goals. Work smart. Say specific numbers that you will scale your traffic. Prioritize!
Affiliate marketing could take 13 hours per day. Look at your accomplishments and assess everything. What do you enjoy? Where would you improve?
Perform a SWOT Anaysis: Different networks, negotiate contracts, stats and invoices, designing jump pages, optimizing your buys
Specialization is key. Dedicate 95% of your time towards area you excel at than outsource the rest, this separates you from the competition.
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Making Affiliate Marketing Work for You

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Brian

Finding success in affiliate marketing is about more than designing a clever website, attaching some strong links and making contact with the right affiliate partners. It is also about following your call to action and drumming up the right activity with the right words.

In order to become successful with your affiliate marketing strategy, you need to take the proper steps to make it work for you. Yes, it is true that it is important to set your affiliate marketing plan carefully from the beginning, but is that all there is to it?

If you have a terrific website design and have carefully established strong links to others, is that all you need to do? Of course not! You’ve also got to find the right affiliate partners, right?

Well, let’s say that you have established a relationship with your partners and your links are strong. Plus, the website has a killer design that has people clicking around on the site and actually spending time there instead of leaving after only five seconds or so. In fact, you’ve even started getting rewarded financially for directing traffic to your affiliate partners. You’re all set, right?

Actually, the truthful answer to that question is no. You still have work to do and whether or not you complete that work is going to determine just how successful your affiliate marketing strategy is. This is no time to sit back and relax.

Making sure that your visitors are motivated enough to click through and purchase your affiliate’s product is up to you. After all, this is how you make your money or at least some of it. The only way to make this happen is for you to provide a strong call to action for the individuals browsing your website so that they click on your advertiser’s links.

Whether you write this content yourself or hire someone else to do it for you, you need to provide a carefully written piece of content that is going to get your website visitors to do what you want. This content obviously needs to be closely related to the services and goods advertised by your affiliate partners. Plus, it needs to be revolving content in that it needs to continually exist but in varying formats.

This means that you need to constantly attach new content to your website not only to draw new traffic, but also, to encourage those who visit to click and click and click. The newer the content that you include is and the fresher the format is, the better your chances for success. You need to work the system or the system will work you right out of the game.

You must include content that is compelling enough to get your guests to understand the importance for them of clicking on an affiliate’s link. They should feel the urgency to fill out a form in order to request more information or to place an order to purchase a product or to simply click on a banner to get more details about a particular product or service offered by an affiliate.

In order for all of this to happen, some of your content should be in the form of carefully worded directives. Your website needs to provide a call to action for your visitors. It needs to explain in clear terms what they need to do and when. For example, it should tell your website visitors to fill out the form and to do it now, before this opportunity passes and it is too late.

With that being said, take a page from this lesson and follow your own call to action. Motivate your website visitors with the proper content to get them clicking on the right links. Find compelling words to direct those who visit your website to do what it is that you are hoping they will do. The confidence that you give to your customers to motivate them to follow through is the stuff that will make you a successful affiliate. Marketing is a business that never stops and neither should you.

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The Affiliate Marketer’s Checklist: A Step-By-Step Guide to Making Your First Sale

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Brian

Many people are attracted to affiliate marketing for the potential to make money, whether the goal is a small side income, full-time self-employment, or getting rich.  Novices will often set up an affiliate site, place some ads, and eagerly hope to turn their hard work into profit.  However, many quit before getting over that all-important hump—making the very first sale.

Although it can seem like an uphill battle, there’s really no reason to get discouraged as long as you’re following a solid blueprint that will lead to sales.  Following are a few helpful questions to ask yourself as you build your web presence.

Are you promoting a high-quality, popular or promising product?

Part of what will determine your success as an affiliate marketer is the quality of the products you promote.  If you’re promoting products that are below-par, your website visitors will sense that and won’t purchase from you.  On the other hand, if your offer is a convincing answer to your visitors’ problems—a solution to their immediate needs—it will be almost impossible for them not to bite.

It’s important to make sure the product is a high-quality item that sells itself and delivers value well beyond the purchase price.  You want the customer to be wholly satisfied with his or her purchase; “buyer’s remorse” should never be associated with your affiliate marketing efforts if you want to stay in the game and build on your success.  It also usually helps if you’re promoting a popular item.  That may mean more competition from other affiliates, but it also means you can target your marketing efforts towards those people who already want to buy what you’re selling.  Always consider the finer points of the product before you advertise it, and you’ll be one step ahead.

Does your affiliate site have original, helpful content?

It can be tempting to create a one-page website with just your affiliate ads and to leave it alone.  However, your site can easily get lost among the millions of pages on the web if it doesn’t have some substantial, unique content.  Your site might not rank as highly in search engines as it would if it were a strong resource in its niche.

Fortunately, it’s simple to add content that will “beef up” your site and help its rankings.  Just write some articles within the subject area of the product and upload them to the site.  The information can come from your own online research, as well as your own personal knowledge, insights and opinions.  The more content you have, the more your site is worth in the eyes of search engines, other sites that link to you, and most importantly, your visitors.

Is your site keyword-optimized?

An often overlooked factor in promoting your site and having it rank highly in search engines is proper keyword optimization.  Without properly taking keywords into account, you won’t reach the very people who are highly likely to buy products from you.

Keyword research and optimization is fairly simple, though it does involve some work.  By doing some simple research using free web applications such as Google’s External Keyword Tool, you can get a good sense of what your potential customers are typing into search engines.  You can then use those phrases and related, highly-searched terms a few times in each of the articles you create for your website.  This will help your site rank higher in Google and other search engines for those particular search terms.  Higher rankings mean more organic, targeted traffic, which in turn means more affiliate sales.

Are you consistently building good backlinks?

In your efforts to establish yourself as a successful affiliate, don’t neglect backlinking.  Developing high-quality backlinks to your site not only helps your search engine rankings, but gives you exposure to multiple sources of visitors you wouldn’t otherwise have access to.

There are many ways to build great backlinks.  One of the most cost-effective methods is article marketing, in which you write articles in your niche, submit them to article directories, and include a link back to your site in the “resource box” that you’re provided with.  You can also post in forums in your niche, using a backlink in your signature and on your profile page; as long as you’re making helpful comments, you’ll be seen as a valuable member of those online communities.  Write provocative editorials and share them on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and add your URL to social bookmarking sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon.  Don’t neglect posting in-depth comments on relevant blogs and even offering to write “guest posts” for bloggers in your niche—all under the condition that you gain a backlink to your site.  These efforts will dramatically increase your site’s exposure and constantly put you in front of new potential customers.

Once you have the above elements in place, you’re well on your way to attracting targeted traffic and making your first sale as an affiliate marketer.  Follow this simple checklist, work at it every day, and your first check will arrive sooner than you ever imagined!

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Four Affiliate Marketing Mistakes that Most New Marketers Make

Posted on August 14, 2011 by Brian

Are you struggling to get your affiliate marketing business off the ground? Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money online. Why? You can start part-time with little or no money – and you don’t have to ship a product – ever. With an affiliate marketing business, your job is to promote. This means you can concentrate on one task and really fine tune your efforts. Your risk in the affiliate marketing business is low but, to turn it into a viable full-time business, you have to avoid certain pitfalls. Here are the most common affiliate marketing mistakes that keep people from making big affiliate marketing profits.

Believing You Can Get Rich Quick Through Affiliate Marketing

The Internet world is a sea of business opportunities and get-rich-quick schemes. One common affiliate marketing mistake new marketers make is to throw up a few affiliate links on their website and eagerly wait for the profits to roll in. When the profits don’t come, they throw in the towel and move on to the next hot money-making opportunity that lands in their mailbox. Some people make very large amounts of money in the affiliate marketing business, but it doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme.

How to avoid this? To be successful in affiliate marketing, stay focused, and learn everything you can about marketing affiliate products. Test new ways of marketing your products until you find a winning formula. Read case studies of people who have been successful and how they did it. But don’t be distracted by offers that come through email promising they’ll make you millions overnight. They won’t.

Not Offering Value to Your Customers

Are you giving your customers value? Some affiliate marketers blanket their website with a sea of banners and affiliate links, and offer little valuable information on their website to encourage viewers to stick around. What information they do provide is nothing more than a veiled sales pitch for the products they’re promoting. This approach almost never works. People buy from online sites they trust, and to get that trust you need to build a relationship with your viewers. One way to do that is to offer credible information – not sales pitches. When viewers see you’re offering something useful, they’ll start to think of you as a trusted expert and will feel comfortable buying what you recommend.

Blindly Choosing Affiliate Products

Selecting the wrong products to promote is one of the more common affiliate marketing mistakes. Some affiliates choose affiliate products based on their commission structure, while knowing nothing about the product. The quickest way to destroy credibility is to recommend a product that doesn’t work. Research the company and product thoroughly before promoting it. Read reviews on the product – and try it yourself. It’s hard to be convincing about a product you’ve never used. Don’t promote affiliate products you’re clueless about even if they offer a huge commission.

Not Building a Customer List From the Beginning

Many beginning affiliate marketers don’t focus on list-building – but they should. Building an email list of potential buyers gives you the chance to market to them again and again as you add new affiliate products to your list. There’s a saying in the online marketing world that “the gold is in the list.” This applies to any type of marketing, especially affiliate marketing.

To get a customer’s email address, offer them a free report in exchange for their email address. That way, you’ll provide your customers with useful information, while building a list of potential buyers for the future. You can use an autoresponder service to automatically send a free report when a website visitor opts in. Treat your email addresses with care. Don’t email customers with offers for products that aren’t relevant to their needs and interests, and don’t contact them too often.

The Bottom Line?

You’ll ultimately sell more products in your affiliate marketing business if you keep the best interests of your customer in mind. Inform them, nurture them – but don’t spam them with offers. Be patient too. Building an affiliate marketing business takes time.

Affiliate marketing can be a lucrative business, if you do it right. Unfortunately, some marketers take the wrong approach and then wonder why they fail. Here are four affiliate marketing mistakes that can cost you profits.

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How to make money blogging (10 steps)

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Brian

Firstly, we all want to know How to Make Money Online, and one of the best ways I have found is by creating blogs. In this article I intend to show you how you too can learn How to Make Money Blogging by telling you how combining the techniques I have gathered from across the web helps to make me $$$ every day. Secondly, I am not trying to sell you my latest “Get Rich Quick” scheme because I don’t have one. Each eBook you read will have a wealth of information within them which will, without a doubt help you to discover the secrets of How to Make Money Online. I am only going to tell you which ones out of the 100′s available you SHOULD read if you too want to make lots of money.

I use a 10 step guide to setting up and starting all of my blogs.

I will give you a list of the top 10 resources later that I use and recommend to everyone who is serious about making lots of money online. One of the vital aspects people seem to miss out when they first get into blogging is the fact that their blog must contain information that people want to read.

Many bloggers are looking through closed eyes in this regard and if you browse through 50 blogs you will notice that most will tell you they know How to Make Money with Blogs when really all they tell you is where they went on their vacation or how many cars they have.

Are you ready to learn How to Make Money Blogging?

If the answer is YES then read on and start to make money with your blog. I am not here to tell you how to write your blog, that’s up to you, but what I am about to tell you is the 10 things I use to make money on the internet. You can choose to use these techniques or not, that’s your prerogative.

Step 1 – Finding a Topic

Turn off your computer, grab a pen and some paper and sit somewhere you can relax but also stay focused (if you are just starting out this step can be a pain because we all want to know How to Make Money Online and we want to know how to make it NOW). Think of a topic you are interested in and write it down (this helps because you will be more committed to trying instead of giving up in a day or two) and also make sure it is something other people are interested in too. A couple of ways I use to think of a topic is by using MetaSpy to find out what people are searching for, Ask IQ to find what’s popular and VRE Toolbar to find out how many people search for the topic (this is also useful later on to get traffic). Write down your top five keywords, you will want to use them later in your blog.

Step 2 – Create Your Blog

Find and create your blog online. I like to use Blogger but other popular Blog platforms are WordPress and Movable Type. You can find all the help in the program you use to get information when setting up the blog. Create your content, make it original, and make it informative. This is one of the main keys to learn How to Make Money with Blogs. You need to include the keywords you wrote down in Step 1 in the content of your blog. Try not to overuse these as it sends out bad signals to the search engines, and this is 100% not what you want.

Step 3 – Go Google

Sign up for Google Adsense and insert the code in the margin of your blog. You can customize your ads in many ways, such as including text links or image links. I prefer the text links only, as they are easier to blend in with your blog and don’t take the focus away from the information. Google Adsense will probably not make you a millionaire but it is an instant way of generating a small amount of money.

If you want to track where your visitors are coming from with regards to direct hits or from search engine results then I would suggest you use Google Analytics and again you can get all the help you need setting that up from within the program.

You will also want to add your URL to Google’s index.

Step 4 – Find Something to Sell

If you don’t want to sell anything and are happy with the income Google Adsense is bringing in then you can skip this step. If you want to maximize your income and truly learn How to Make Money with Blogs you will want to find an affiliate program to join. A couple of affiliate programs I would suggest are ClickBank and Commission Junction. You can sell anything from office furniture, pet supplies, movies and clothing to PC games, Dieting tips and Audio software.

Whatever program you join will give you help inserting the code you will need to insert into your blog, but be sure you do this correctly or you WILL NOT earn money from your visitors. If you do not know how to edit HTML, W3Schools HTML tutorial is a great place to start.

Step 5 – Social Bookmarking

There is no better advertising than word of mouth, but the next best thing is social bookmarking. You will want to make things easier for people to do this. Social bookmarking sites I use and recommend are OnlyWire and SocialMarker and they are used for people to share their bookmarks or websites that they have liked with other people in their online community.

I would not suggest you add your own links to these services, but provide visitors to your website the ability to do so.

Step 6 – Write an Article

Whether your blog is about a specific product, for example a certain MP3 Player you are promoting, or just about giving people information, I would suggest you to write an article or a review of it. Most article directories require articles of 500 words and over so I would use this as a rule when writing to ensure your article is published.

Submit your article to any of the 100′s which are out there. I personally use a few of the Top Article directories such as EzineArticles, Article Dashboard, Amazines.com, isnare and SearchWarp. I also use a nifty piece of software called Article Submitter which will submit your articles to over 600 article directories, which saves you lots of time and leaves you to focus on writing your blogs.

Step 7 – Ping The Hell Out Of It

Every time you add new information to your blog, you want to let the blog directories know about it, this is known as pinging. Some Blog providers automatically send out pings when you update, but to be on the safe side you will want to do this manually too. ONLY PING WHEN YOU UPDATE.

There are a couple of Ping sites I use which will send a ping to multiple blog directories at the same time. PingMyBlog would be my first port of call and then if for some reason that site is down I would use Ping-o-matic. Remember, to only ping when you update or you could get blacklisted, and that is bad.

Step 8 – Yahoo! Answers and Forums

One of the easiest ways to get targeted visitors to your blog is to make use of the people you want to target. I would suggest you sign up to at LEAST one forum in the topic you are writing about, and don’t just go straight in there and start posting comments for people to look at your blog, they won’t.

The secret is to add the link to your blog in your signature and actively become a member of the forum, posting relevant topics and starting debates within them. The more you post, the more your link will show, and if you provide someone with good info the chances are higher they will click your link.

Yahoo! Answers is along the same lines as forums but the beauty of this is it’s viewed by thousands of visitors each day. If you don’t already have a Yahoo! account get one and then login and search for questions relating to the topic of your blog and answer them well. You can then insert the link to your blog and as with the forums, if you answer well you may have not only earned yourself a point or two on Yahoo!, but also earned a visitor to your blog.

Step 9 – Update Your Blog

This can be by several means, one is to add new reviews or content to your blog, and if you are going to do this I suggest updating every couple of days. This helps to keep the search engines happy as they love to see new and original content.

Another way of updating your blog and keeping the content fresh is to add RSS feeds to it. Make sure the feeds are relevant to your blog and provide visitors with helpful information. Visitors to a World of Warcraft blog don’t want to read feeds about knitting, or do they?

Step 10 – More, More, More

Repeat steps 1 – 10, this is the only way How to Make Money Blogging.

Step 11 – A Bonus Step

If you have your own product or newsletter, give your visitors an easy way to sign up to receive updates or information. This helps you to contact the visitor again with more great info or products you wish to sell.

How to Make Money Online is easy if you follow the above steps.

Some important things to remember so you don’t get disheartened with your blog is the fact that you will not become a millionaire overnight, it takes hard work and a lot of effort. If you are really serious about learning How to Make Money with Blogs then stick with it and eventually you will have an Ah-Ha moment. This is when things start to work and you think to yourself Ah-Ha, that’s how they do it. Your moment could be sooner than you think.

My Top 10 resources I use and recommend are:

1. Rob Benwell’s Blogging to The Bank 2.0
2. WordPress Goldmine
3. Rob Atherton’s Building A Blog Empire For Profit
4. The Blog Challenge
5. Hinge Marketing Magic
6. Blogging For Riches – Complete Video Tutorial
7. Social Bookmarking Demon
8. Adsense Inbox
9. WordPress SEO Sniper
10. RSS, Blogs and Syndication…

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How to Start a Blog and Make Money Online

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Brian

If you are new to the Internet and wondering what on earth this blogging craze is all about, or if you already have your own website and you’re wondering why everyone keeps advising you to start your own blog, read on. I’m going to explain to you what a blog is, why you need one, how to set it up, promote it and of course, make money from it.

Blog is short for “web log” and is similar to an online diary or journal. The craze of blogging began in the very late 1990s and has started to become more and more popular over the last couple of years. Almost everyone seems to have a blog these days, from CEOs of large companies to webmasters, from world travelers to teenagers. Even my Dad has his own blog now! A blog allows you to communicate informally with people via an online journal, but it’s more personal and unstructured than a website and easier and cheaper to set up than a website.

If you have your own website, but haven’t yet started a blog you can easily start one using a free service such as Blogger or WordPress. Try to post to your blog at least once or twice a week on topics related to your website. Blogging will help your search engine rankings and open up the communication channels between you and your visitors or customers, encouraging them to interact with you and give them a reason to return to your site in future.

If you don’t have your own website and are looking to set up a blog quickly and easily I recommend opening a free account with Blogger. You can blog about anything you like, for example a hobby, a vacation, your home town, something political, a sport or your business. Just be sure to pick something that you are interested in and knowledgeable about. You can host your blog for free on Blogspot – all you need to do is pick a name that is relevant to the topic of your blog. Once you have set up your profile and chosen a template, blogging is as simple as sending an email to a friend.

There are many ways to make money from your blog, but here are a few ideas to get you started:

- Google Adsense – this is free to join and easy to set up. The ads will match the content of your blog and you will get paid every time a visitor clicks on an ad.

- Affiliate Programs – sign up for affiliate programs related to the topic of your blog and display links to related products on your blog. Clickbank, Trade Doubler and Commission Junction are good places to start, or do a Google search for “affiliate program” + the topic of your blog to find more affiliate programs. Whenever someone clicks through your affiliate link and buys a product, you will receive a commission. If you are knowledgeable about your topic you could also write product reviews to help increase your affiliate sales.

- Sell Advertising Space – if you have a popular blog you can charge people to advertise on your blog. This could be in the form of a text link, a banner or a graphic.

You are not going to make money with a blog unless people can find it. As soon as you have started to post to your blog it’s time to start promoting it. You can get your blog noticed by…

- Submitting your blog to blog directories – just search for “blog directories” in Google

- Asking other bloggers to exchange links with you – you put a link on your blog in exchange for a link from their blog.

- Writing an article related to the topic of your blog and posting it to article directories. Remember to include an author’s resource box with a link to your blog.

- Pinging blog ping services every time you make a new post – pingomatic.com and pingoat.com are two sites you can use to do this.

- Participating in forums related to the topic of your blog. Put a link to your blog in your forum signature.

Finally, once you have your blog monetized and you have started promoting it don’t forget to post regularly. The most important aspect of every successful blog is frequent posting, so be sure not to let the virtual dust gather over your blog!

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