Outside the Box Affiliate Marketing Ideas

October 31, 2009 by Shawn Casey · Comments Off
Filed under: Affiliate marketing, Internet Marketing 

Once you’ve made the decision to become an affiliate marketer, you’ll notice that the competition is fierce. Do a web search, and you’ll find literally thousands of other affiliate marketers on the Internet who are promoting their products. With thousands of people uploading new websites each day, how can you make your affiliate marketing site stand out among the rest?

If you want to stand head and shoulders above the crowd, think outside the box when you’re creating marketing campaigns. Don’t get caught up in trying to reinvent the wheel. Instead, put a new spin on an old product.  This is where you’ll want to get creative. Find a marketing hook that will spotlight your product in a different way. Connect it with something that is happening in the news. Stories are great hooks for spotlighting your product as a solution to a current problem so look beyond the obvious benefits for marketing ideas.

Here’s a fun idea: Don’t be afraid to draw attention to some of your own everyday adventures in your marketing campaign. Marketers will do just about anything to keep their customers interested. I’ve seen everything from skydiving to ocean cruises incorporated into marketing messages. People spend a lot of time on their computers, and if you give people insight into your world and entertain them in the process, you can probably find a marketing hook somewhere in your day-to-day life. Reward customers a one-of-a-kind experience when they land on your website.

If you want to build excitement about your product, create a contest. Customers love to get involved in the creative process, so ask them to name your product, develop a tag line, or find a new way to use your product. It’s not only fun, but you’ll get some great ideas for your business. Be sure that the prize is something that is particularly useful for your target market. Give away free products, offer a free membership in your mastermind group, or give away a month of free consultations. Create a win-win for both you and your customers.

Finally, if you want to remain competitive, you’ll need to master the skills of social networking. Listen, the face of Internet marketing is always changing. It’s not always the most polished person in the room who is the most successful sales person. For the Internet marketer, personality often pulls over polish. Take advantage of all the social networking sites to promote your products. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are very successful avenues for building a loyal following of prospects. These sites are very effective for building rapport with your niche market.

The key to long-term success is to have fun with your affiliate marketing business and to think creatively. Working online does not mean that you should keep your distance from customers. Establish yourself as an expert but also show your personality when marketing your business. Think outside the box and have fun by using unique ideas to create long-term profits for your affiliate marketing business.

Concise and keyword-rich website content drives retail marketing success

Managing a team of copywriters to create keyword-rich descriptions of his products has led one retailer's site to become his organisation's primary source of revenue, with natural search emerging as the website's top traffic driver. According to Eric Deniger, chief executive of clothing and footwear outlet Working Person's Store, his aim when he began building site content in 2006 was to feature more than simply "run-of-the-mill" product descriptions. Instead, he aimed to take a keyword-rich approach using conversational descriptions that could be customised for different website-user demographics, leading him to create a site that is now his company's most effective marketing channel. "We want to make sure that we maintain a position of technical aptitude in the marketplace, far beyond the retailers who copy and paste the bullet points from the manufacturer's website," he tells MarketingSherpa. Deniger acknowledges that implementation required "a lot of work" but the copywriting strategy paid off, with 71.93 per cent of his site's traffic now arriving from organic Google search results. His top tips for building and maintaining effective content include developing a "high-value" strategy centred on brand details, approaching copywriting conversationally and wittily and keeping product descriptions "concise, yet full of relevant information". This article was brought to you by Newsvend – delivering unique online news and concise, keyword-rich copywriting content.

Video Marketing As An Earning Online Solution

guy picA picture is worth a thousand words and what better way to market your hot selling product than through a video. Video marketing is the new thing these days for promoting your products and is very effective. Setting up a video blog is very easily done and you can do it quickly using your own video camera.

You can upload a video to your own website or you can upload it to other sites such as Utube or Google Video. You set up the video and then add your URL on the video to promote to the world. You can also generate traffic to it by announcing it to your newsletter subscribers or include an email about it in your email marketing to your lists. This will allow you to pre-sell to your customers then close the sale with your video clip. When done properly this will increase sales conversions and get you a bigger commission check.

Your visitors will be enthralled and you will increase your sales conversions. Everyone likes watching videos and seeing is certainly believing. Videos can make a big difference in getting a potential customer to stay a little longer and explore your site. Marketing with videos is a fun way to promote and pre sell products and get customers to come back to your site.

Click here to check out a free video tutorial that no one should be without. There is no upsell and no fee to get this video series and you will absolutely love all the free training. Don’t miss this while it’s still free and grab your copy today!

To Your Success,

Well-written web copy should build on business authority

Businesses should not assume that website content is an area they can "skimp on without paying a price", especially if they have already invested in other elements of search engine optimisation (SEO). That's according to copywriting experts at the SEO Consult Blog, who compare optimising a site to redecorating a building, in that obtaining web content from a "less-than-expert source" is like opting to tackle a re-plastering task and being left with "bumps and lumps in the wrong places". "Any form of professional writing is a specialist skill, as full of craft as carpentry or plumbing," they observe. "Copywriting is a form of professional writing that requires even more expertise, as it usually involves the inclusion of specific phrases and ideas that limit the angles the piece can take." Good SEO copywriting should build on the authority of a website, they continue, pointing out that this definitely does not comprise "a series of keywords strung together in a clunky sentence". Businesses are reminded that search engines have adjusted to rank pages filled with badly-written copy low in their SERPs, in advice that echoes previous SEO tips centring on the principle that good web copy makes site visitors "react and take action". This article was brought to you by Newsvend – delivering unique (and lump-free) online news and copywriting content.

3 Critical Affiliate Marketing Mistakes

October 29, 2009 by Shawn Casey · Comments Off
Filed under: Affiliate marketing 

One of the biggest misconceptions that a lot of new affiliate marketers have is that they think they simply create a “to do” list, launch their campaigns, and sit passively in the driver’s seat and watch the profits roll in. Not true. I’ve seen a lot of affiliate marketers try to recreate someone else’s success only to fall short of their goals.

If your affiliate marketing campaign is not a profitable one, take a closer look to see what you can do to market your business more effectively. While successful marketers use a myriad of strategies to promote their businesses, you’ll want to avoid these 3 fatal marketing mistakes that could kill your affiliate marketing business before you get it off the ground:

Don’t allow your budget to limit your goals. Many marketers begin with a budget and then create their plan of action. This is a mistake. You’ll first want to envision your goals and then develop a budget that can help you execute them. That’s not to say that successful marketing campaigns cannot be built on a shoestring budget. They can. However, many novice marketers have limiting beliefs about the money they’ll have to spend to build their businesses. For every dollar you earn in the beginning, you’ll want to reinvest it into your business so you can accomplish your goals. On the flip side, don’t get fooled into thinking that you can throw a lot of money into your affiliate marketing business without first creating a workable strategy.

Don’t be naïve. As the old saying goes, “Look before you leap.” Learn from other successful affiliate marketers. If you want to create a successful business, find out what your competitors are doing and apply their strategies to your business. First and foremost, don’t listen to the naysayers. They’ll only drag you down. Follow the experts. Take some risks. Find out what your competitors are doing and do it better. Finally, if you have weak spots in your marketing campaign, outsource to experts who can help you take your campaign to a higher level.

Don’t forget to relate to your target audience. Customers will be more willing to take out their credit cards and buy your product if they can relate to you. Before Dave Thomas of the Wendy’s restaurant chain passed away, he was featured in a series of company commercials. While he didn’t necessarily enjoy being in front of the camera, customers could relate to him and the commercials were successful. For affiliate marketers, using blogs and social networking sites like Twitter helps them connect with their audience. This is an essential element for affiliate marketing success, so don’t underestimate its effectiveness.

If you want your affiliate marketing campaign to gain momentum, don’t make mistakes that will kill your campaign. Create a workable budget, learn from the experts, and, above all, relate to your audience so they’ll want to buy what you’re selling. If you know what not to do in addition to what you should do, you’ll avoid some of the mistakes that will delay your affiliate marketing success.

Managing Your Time And Maximizing Profit!

cc picWhen you are running a business there are many things to do and you can easily get overwhelmed. An affiliate business is no different from any other business and it is important to get organized or you can lose control of your business and find that it is running your life instead of you running your business.

In order to prevent this, it is vital for your sanity to organize your time. You can do this by listing all the things you have to do and prioritizing them. Once you do this you can make a weekly schedule and then break it down into a daily plan of action. Decide how much time you need to spend on your business and discipline yourself to allocate that time to building your enterprise everyday.

Once you have your priorities set and have planned how many hours you need to work your business you can easily make your daily and weekly plans. When you do this you will find that you accomplish more tasks in less time, as you will be more focused on what you need to do.

Be realistic in your goals and be sure that you have a rough idea of how long they will take. Do not try to do too much or you will end up getting nothing done. Work one program at a time, perfect it then duplicate your success. Build on your successes and learn from failures. Tracking and recording will save you a lot of time and allow you to quickly reference places to advertise and promote.

Outsource whenever you can to save your time and build your business fast. You can save a lot of time and get more things done by hiring others to help you. So do not lose your mind. Just organize your time and you will find there is more time in the day to run your business and enjoy your life.

Check out 123 Cash Formula for a one stop place for learning and doing everything needed to get your business going. Having a step by step process will help eliminate all stress so you can get more done. Do not go another day without checking it out!

To Your Success,

Getting Traffic to Your Website With Metatags

October 27, 2009 by Shawn Casey · Comments Off
Filed under: Affiliate marketing, Traffic Tips, getting traffic to your website 

If you’d like a simple technique for attracting more traffic, here’s one that you can easily initiate: Use Metatags. Metatags are important tools for getting traffic to your website because they flag important key words for potential customers, thereby making your business more visible to the millions of people who are browsing the Internet.

Often overlooked by affiliate marketers, Metatags are HTML elements that are used by search engines to index web pages. In essence, when you add Metatags, you’re cataloguing your site for people who want information about what you have to offer. Here’s the good news: If you use some creative strategies, you can significantly increase your web traffic.

Metatags are used to communicate important information about your website to the search engines. Since people are uploading websites daily and the competition is fierce, it’s important to use relevant keywords in your Metatags to give your site more visibility. This, of course, can vary among search engines. While they are very important to some search engines, others do not give Metatags any importance because of the onslaught of Internet spammers. Therefore your ranking results will vary, depending on the search engine.

There’s an easy way to find good keywords or keyword phrases: You can use Google’s free Keyword Tool to search popular keywords and keyword phrases for your niche market. This tool is particularly helpful because it will help you create the most suitable tags for your website. While it does not work very well with long keyword phrases, it does a good job with one or two-word keyword combinations. Using the right Metatags could easily double or triple the footsteps of your visitors on your website.

When you create the tags for your website, keep them short. They should be no longer than 1,000 characters. The tag should be descriptive because it works like a virtual roadmap to your site. To be most effective, follow these strategies:

    1.    List the most important keywords first.
    2.    Use important key phrases in the Metatag.
    3.    Don’t use the same keyword repeatedly in the Metatag.

    For instance, you may add something like this: Joe Smith is an affiliate marketer located in Memphis, Tennessee who specializes in how-to books.

    You may prefer to write something like this: Affiliate marketing e-books, CDs, and DVDs are available at Joe Smith’s AffiliateMarketingdotcom.

    If you follow the criteria set forth by the search engines so that your site does not look like spam, you can use them successfully to increase your visibility on the web.

    Using Metatags is like flagging down traffic. Your goal is to get attention and direct potential customers to your landing page or blog. Of course, you’ll want to experiment with different tags to see what combination of words is most effective for your target market. When used strategically, Metatags create a one-way street for getting traffic to your website.

    Search and email marketing beat social networking for small firms

    Email marketing, online advertising and search engines are preferred over social networking sites for many small firms when it comes to generating business leads and sales.

    A new survey commissioned by global financial group Citibank suggests sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are not necessarily considered as helpful as other portals for expanding a business.

    Out of 500 executives questioned by the bank, 61 per cent revealed they rely on search engine sites like Google and Yahoo! and 76 per cent said their business efforts have not been aided by social networking sites during the last year.

    Maria Veltre, from Citi's small business segment, remarked that many bosses are "still feeling their way" into social media, particularly with regard to growing their enterprises.

    "While social media can provide additional channels to network and help grow a business, many small businesses may not have the manpower or the time required take advantage of them," she noted.

    Overall, the survey found that 42 per cent of business owners and managers have made greater use of their website to generate leads and sales in the last year, with 28 per cent turning to email marketing and a quarter to online advertising.

    Building A List Will Make You More Money!

    cart picHave you ever heard the phrase The money is in the list? Well, this is very true. In order to have customers that you can market to you the first thing you will need is a list of customers. You do this by providing an opt-in box on your website where customers sign up so you can capture their name and email.

    Building your opt-in list gives you endless ways to pre-sell, sell, and backend sell for a long time to come. However, in order for potential customers to sign up to your list you must give them a reason to. Provide them with a free report or newletter to entice them to join your list. Provide products and services that you know will be beneficial to them. This will ensure your list continues to grow.

    Once you have a list you can build up profits for your affiliate marketing business. Make sure you prepare the ground work in order to do this, so that you can get maximum returns.

    Be sure that you have a number of different affiliate programs selling related products. Then purchase resale rights to other related products and services that you know your subscribers will find useful.

    You can promote your affiliate programs as primary front end products in your newsletter then build an announcement list for those who like bargains and need more tools and services. You will use your resale purchases to do promotions to this list.

    You will be surprised at how many people will join this bargain list, and buy things at “special subscriber rates”. In this way you can combine your affiliate marketing and build up products of your own using your lists. The trick is to make sure these products and affiliate programs are highly targeted for your subscribers.

    You can rotate a few different ads for different products your customers need  and build a nice monthly income that will keep on growing. Make sure these products are highly targeted for best results.

    If you are still looking for that perfect starting poing you must check out 123 Cash Formula. You will get a step by step formula to follow that starts at the beginning of your business and follows through to that first sales. This includes building a list from scratch. You cannot go wrong with 123 Cash Formula and you really shouldn’t start without it.

    To Your Success,

    7 Easy Steps to Effective Listbuilding

    October 24, 2009 by Shawn Casey · Comments Off
    Filed under: Affiliate marketing, listbuilding 

    As you build your affiliate marketing business, you’ll want to develop a targeted strategy for listbuilding. Unlike a bricks and mortar business, your location is not an issue. Your ability to attract qualified leads is essential to your business’s survival. Here are 7 easy steps for building a list of qualified prospects:

    1.    Purchase a domain name. Domains are inexpensive, and you can buy them on the Internet for about $10 a year. When you create a domain name, make it simple and easy to remember. Because there’s a lot of competition for domain names, you may not get your first choice. If your business is specific to a specific state or region, it’s wise to put that in your domain name (e.g. www.texas*****.com). This will draw even more location-specific traffic to your website.

    2.    Get website hosting. Next, you’ll have to find a host for your domain–somewhere to house your website. There are thousands of domain companies with different plans available. If you are new to web design, find a company that has web templates so you can just type, save, and publish your website without html code. It’s best to shop around to find a plan that suits your needs. Start small at first. As you build your business, you can upgrade your hosting plan to one that will grow with your business.

    3.    Transfer your domain name to your dedicated web host. Unless there’s a connection between your website and your domain name, people won’t be able to find you. Contact your hosting provider, and they can help you with this process. Most providers have round-the-clock support staff dedicated to helping people set up their websites.

    4.    Set up your site. At first, you may want to begin with a simple blog. Search engines prefer blog links (deep links) to home pages, and this will help you rank higher in the search engines. Search engines also like fresh content, so blog daily. This will help your site rise in the search results when potential customers type popular search terms in the search engines.

    5.    Sign up for an autoresponder account. Autoresponders are automated e-mails that go to your list. You’ll need to have one before you start taking names, so find one that makes the process as easy as possible. Once you start sending automated e-mails, make them personal. Write them as if you’re talking to one person.

    6.    Create an opt-in page. This is where the listbuilding begins. Keep it simple. Offer something in exchange for your blog visitors’ names and e-mails. You can write a simple report that offers tips and tricks to solve a problem that your audience may have.

    7.    Establish yourself as an authority. Blog daily to keep readers interested and to catapult your site up through the search engine page ranks. Make every post count by addressing your readers’ interests and needs.

    Listbuilding is not as difficult as you may think. If you follow the 7 steps listed above, you’ll be able to build a large and growing list of targeted prospects.

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