Sunday, June 29, 2008
Copyright © David Barker
http://www.DavesAffiliateMarketing.comThe media is full of bad news about the global food shortage, the oil crisis, the housing crisis and the stock market down turn. There is talk of a global recession with rising unemployment. Even now, with wages kept low while the cost of living is rising, a record number of people are losing their homes to bank repossession. If you are in a job or run your own small business, you may be feeling vulnerable.
It is easy to get discouraged or anxious about the future. In uncertain times like these, your thoughts may be turning to an alternative. If you have been an employee all of your working life, you may be tempted to believe that owning your own business is the answer to all of your problems. Small business owners will beg to differ and point out all of the hassles they have to put up with. Both employees and employers may then look at
Internet Affiliate Marketing Programs as providing the best option because you can work your own business, without all of the hassles and overheads of most small businesses.
Building up a successful affiliate marketing business is not as easy as the advertisements make it sound. What we can say is that there are aspects to building a successful online business that have advantages over a traditional type of business. For example the most effective forms of advertising on the internet are mostly free, if they are carried out professionally and with hard work and patience. I am referring to Search Engine Optimisation, which may cost you some money to set up on your website. If done correctly, the website owner can then continue adding content to their site, consistently promote their site in a way the search engines notice, then reap the rewards on an ongoing basis free of charge.
If a decision is made to start an affiliate marketing business then what sort of affiliate programs should be chosen? Is it worth the risk of establishing an affiliate marketing business in this economic climate? The answers in part 2 may surprise you.
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Saturday, June 21, 2008
Copyright © David Barker
http://www.DavesAffiliateMarketing.comMy last article was about the dangers of inactivity or unproductive activity. It has been a week since that article was posted and you could be forgiven for thinking that I had fallen for the trap that I was warning you about. When operating your
Internet Affiliate Marketing Programs each week, you may have a "bad" week. One that provides unwanted distractions.
I have actually been in poor health for the last couple of weeks. A virus has had me coughing frequently at night and deprived me of sleep. I have continued working my part time jobs. I have had to drive my wife to medical appointments because her health has been worse than mine.
So what do we do in such a week. Do we write it off and commit ourselves to starting over again on Monday? NO WAY! I was still able to work during my challenging week. I was not as productive as previous weeks but at least I can look back and say it was not a wasted week.
When promoting your
Internet Affiliate Marketing Programs one of the most important strategies is writing and submitting articles. This is especially true if you are promoting them through your own unique website or blog because the backlinks you receive improve your search engine ranking. This is probably the hardest activity of all when you are not well and your sleep patterns are out of whack. You need to focus your mind on writing an article that is within the rules of the directories, yet informative enough for the directories to use it.
For similar reasons you need to continue posting to directories, forums and commenting on blogs. I am happy to say that I was able to do all of this, even though it was not to the same level that I had planned. This helps my morale because I am not beating myself up for an unproductive week.
Does this mean making a post to my blog is not important? No, I am not saying that. Making regular posts to your blog that is hosted on your website, provides content to your website, which the search engines notice.
I actually had trouble pinging my last post and I was declined for entry into a blog directory because they didn't consider my blog to be a blog? The pinging issue should be sorted out now, however all the gurus in my mentoring group are scratching their heads over the comment that my blog was not a blog? My account is with Blogger.com and that is where I write my posts and the webpage link is called "Blog." What more do they want?
It is best not to get too hung up about the occasional rejection. We must push on and stay positive. I hope I have a better week this week and I hope you have a productive week.
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To find the best Internet Affiliate Marketing Programs and
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http://www.DavesAffiliateMarketing.com-----------------------------------------------------------------
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Saturday, June 14, 2008
Copyright © David Barker
http://www.DavesAffiliateMarketing.comWhen you have just passed the "Newbie" stage of promoting your
Internet Affiliate Marketing Programs and you start to see activity. Maybe those backlink stats are increasing, maybe your site is moving up the search engines. It is easy to sit back and bask in the glory.
It wouldn't happen literally would it? We have all read articles explaining how internet marketing requires hard work and you have to keep at it constantly. This is likely to be training material you see AFTER you have joined a program and paid your money. This seems to contradict the sales material you read before you joined the program which emphasises how easy it is and you can be a success within weeks, days or even hours. If you haven't seen them then you are likely to eventually. Ads that promise income within hours!
We have grown up and we don't believe those ads. We know that it takes work and for most of us, it takes a lot of hard work. Even the more restrained ads you see are probably quoting examples of quick success from people who are gifted with computers, sales techniques and with a lot of time, or who already have a large list of loyal subscribers whom they can email offers to.
The rest of us must stick at it each day. The trap is when we start to bask from our small success or progress. Not literally sitting back with our feet resting on the desk, we are still busy with activity. The reality is, as far as making progress is concerned, it is mostly inactivity. Some of the warning signs are:-
1. Spending too much time studying your stats. Not only traffic stats but also the program you use to check the backlinks to your site.
Remedy: Take a reality check. How many sales are you making a day? If you have a lot of traffic generating a healthy amount of sales, then by all means spend some time finding where your sales are coming from. If you are not at that stage and only have a small amount of traffic with no sales, then limit your time on that task to maybe twice a week. Just go to the stats page, quickly check it, then exit and go on to do something constructive to generate sales.
2. Spending too much time on those email offers. When you are operating an internet busines you can sometimes be the target for emails from other internet business owners. Sometimes they can be tempting because they can offer ways for you to promote your business.
Remedy: Delete them. Do not waste any time on them. You should only focus on the program you are already in and as far as promoting your programs, you should only rely on your chosen mentoring group for what works and what doesn't. If you have chosen the right group, then they are giving free advice without trying to make a sale on something.
3. Failing to schedule tasks that really matter. Writing and submitting articles is one of the most time consuming activities...but one of the most rewarding. For backlinks and ultimately search engine ranking it is great. The trap is when you write a good article, submit it to your article submitter service and look at it getting spread all over the net through lots of article directories. You can find yourself focussing on your achievement (basking.) It is only one article. You have to move on and write another.
Remedy: Work out how much time you have each week to devote to articles. Are you able to write two or three a week? Remember you should be able to speed up your writing process so you can always increase that number as you gain experience. If you start out at two a week then pick the best two days of each week and turn it into a habit. Remember we do habits without thinking about it.
Always focus on activity that moves your business forward. Real activity...not busy inactivity. Working for ourselves can be a trap because we don't have an aggressive boss yelling "results are the only things that matter." If we find ourselves lingering on unimportant tasks then we need to be our own tough boss reminding us what is important.
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Sunday, June 8, 2008
An Internet Affiliate Marketing business will usually require some email marketing. You may be adding prospects to your auto responder, or keeping in touch with your loyal customers. These are just some of the reasons why you will need an email campaign.
A successful email campaign does not turn off prospects or customers. If a recipient is offended then they will tune out and close your message before even considering it. If your message earns respect then you will have a higher conversion rate. It is so easy to get into the sales speak frame of mind and forget that email etiquette is so important in earning that respect. (Any Aretha Franklin fans out there?)
There are three basic rules to remember before writing an email. I am sure you have seen countless examples that break these rules. That is because your computer does not have a hammer that bashes you on the head when you break a rule. Your email may look okay to you and it will be delivered, unless it doesn't pass the spam filter but we will cover that at a later date.
1. Your lines should be wrapped at 65 characters or less.
When writing an email, format the lines to 65 characters or less across. Outlook Express allows you to set the line-wrap to any width you choose, so that you do not have to remember to hit enter at the right time as you type. Keeping to a maximum of 65 characters reduces eye fatigue for readers as it is easier to visually pick up the next line down.
Some of your recipients will have automatically enforced line-wrapping at 60-65 characters on their received messages. If your lines are wrapped at 70 then the content will appear to be chopped up and look unappealing.
2. Only Use All Capital Letters Sparingly.
How many of you enjoy listening to ads on the TV that have a voice screaming at you? Have you changed the channel temporarily just to avoid the noise? A screaming email has the same response only it is easier to delete an email that looks annoying. This is because when you are changing TV channels you have to remember to change back to the program you are watching. Sometimes it is easier to put up with the ad because you don't want to miss any of your program. There is no such motivation to stay on an email.
Excessive use of capital letters has the same "screaming" effect on the reader. The same can be said for too many exclamation points and other punctuation marks. Internet users consider email messages written in all caps to be yelling, "shady" or lacking credibility. Writing some important sentences and words in all caps is ok but don't over use it.
3. Mind You P's & Q's.
Most of us will read and overlook the occasional spelling or grammar error in an email message we have received. It would be nice if all written communication was perfect all of the time but not many people can achieve that. I certainly don't, (I hope you haven't found too many faults in this article?)
There is a distinction between the occasional error and blatant sloppiness. Your word processor should have automatic spell check and it should alert you to grammar anomalies and suggest corrections. With this tool at our disposal, there is no excuse for constant errors and your customer will be intolerant because they know this.
Your image and reputation is important. If you put yourself in the shoes of the reader of your email, you will get an idea of the image your business is projecting. This is important to grow your business with loyal customers who will continue to read what you send them.
David Barker,
Internet Affiliate Marketing Programs
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Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Affiliate Marketing - Newcomers Coping With The Maze Of Products
The newcomer to affiliate marketing can be swamped with affiliate programs all claiming to be the best. The difficulty is finding a program that will provide you with the support required to help you achieve an income that you are searching for.
The following is a list of some of the issues you may want to look into before choosing an affiliate program.
1. Does the program offer a 30 day money back guarantee? This gives you time to use and evaluate the products as your prospective customers would.
2. What training resources are provided with the program? Do they include written and video training? Do they also suggest the best outside training resources to help your marketing campaign?
3. Does the training resources at your disposal include sales letters, email templates, auto responder messages? Sales copy can be more difficult than imagined for someone who has never had to do it before. Having great examples of sales copy that has been proven to work for the products you are selling, gives you the advantage to start with. Then you can learn from those examples and write your own if you choose to do so.
4. Do they have means of answering your questions by email or a support ticket system? What is their turn around time for answering questions?
5. Does the affiliate program provide you with a website or landing page which has your name on it?
6. If the products are downloadable information products then does the operator have your name or ID embedded in the brand? Do they include quality free downloads available to your customer, as part of the strategy to lead your customer to a sale?
7. How often do they pay commissions owed to you?
8. Does the program operator pay Clickbank, Pay Dot Com, Stormpay or Paypal?
9. An affiliate program that provides you with the opportunity to earn more than one income stream is a great advantage. Once you have one up and running it is much easier to duplicate the process.
10. Does the program operator regularly update their information and training resources. The internet is constantly changing and you don't want to be left with outdated products or marketing strategies.
The products may be great but if a small operator cannot give you the training and ongoing support then the newcomer may be left floundering. In any business problems are going to arise after you first start out. Affiliate marketing is no different and, unless you are very good with computers and a marketing guru, you need the ongoing support of a program operator who has an interest in you succeeding.
Having said all of the above, you will do well to not rely on your affiliate program operator to provide all of your support. They are most likely focussing on their product selling. They may not be totally in tune with your specific challenges, especially if you are a small operator just starting out. You may need specific advice on website design, set up structure for your business etc. A good affiliate program will either resolve or direct you to the best resources to resolve most of your requirements.
David Barker is a home based internet marketer and shares his experience on affiliate marketing.
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