Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Is Affiliate Marketing The Right Choice For You

Firstly you need to ask yourself why are you interested in starting affiliate marketing, if it's because you want to get rich quick with only a little work then don't bother, but if you genuinely need a serious home based business it could be for you, maybe you are a housewife with young children who wants to work but you also want to be at home for your children, or perhaps you are in a dead end job with no future but you want to give your family a better life. Whatever your reasons are you have to ask yourself a few questions.

1.What are you prepared to put into your business

You need to be able to spend time building your business, you need at least a couple of hours a day to make affiliate marketing work.You also need to put some effort into this it is not as easy as some would have you believe. Do some research before starting, there are plenty of work at home forums that you can learn from and also check out some review sites.

2.Can you stay focused

Sometimes it can seem as if you are not getting anywhere, you need to stay focused on your goal and remember you can succeed, you will only fail if you give up at the first hurdle. Many affiliate marketers give up because they don't see instant results , the successful people are the ones who keep trying. You need patience and persistence.

3.Are you prepared to invest in yourself

This means you need to be teachable, are you prepared to spend a small amount on a good affiliate marketing training program to educate yourself on methods of marketing, there are many aspects to this you need to learn about article writing, keywords, blogging, copy writing and many other traffic generating strategies.
Finally remember if you really want to make a success of affiliate marketing you can, the right mindset is very important, believe you will succeed.

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Monday, May 28, 2007

Sales Success Tip-Four Phases of Increasing Your Sales

Once you understand the four phases of the sales cycle, you can then use that understanding to either initiate the process or move it along. (Remember that it is vitally important that YOU control the process). Before you can even begin to think about how to close the sale and bank that commission check, you've got understand how the process works in the mind of your prospect. Now, keep in mind that this process is exactly the same in every sale of every product or service. First you must get the attention of your prospect. That is, something about your product or service must catch their eye or their ear. This could be an ad, a PR story, or something as simple as an overheard conversation.

Second, your prospect must have an interest in what your product or service can do for them. Remember, your prospects become your customers because of what you, your product or your service can do for them. If they are interested in looking good for their reunion, they are not nearly as interested in how durable your fabric is, whether or not they will turn heads at the party.

Third, in order for your prospect to become a customer, they must desire your product or its end result. If they become convinced that your product will make them THE most talked about attendee, then it is time to move them to the final step. Even with all of the other steps in place, the sale does not take place until the final step…action. You may get their attention, they may be interested and even desire your product, but that pesky action step is often a killer. Particularly with larger dollar or the intangible sale of services. How many times have you spoken with a prospect who readily admits that they need your product or service but they never buy? If you've been in sales for more than a day or two, it has happened more than you want to remember.

Just remember, that regardless of whether you are a participant in this process from the beginning or get involved along the way, every prospect will go through this process for every sale. Learn to recognize where you are in the process at all times and take appropriate action. You'll no doubt notice a significant improvement in your conversion ratio as well as your bank account.

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Friday, May 25, 2007

Stay At Home Mum's Fascinating Road To Internet Marketing

I would like to dedicate this article to all the hard working, tired, lonely "Stay at home parents" who are trying so hard to raise their children the "Old fashioned way", at home by their side, whilst also trying to find a genuine way to make some extra money from home to help out their family budget.

If you are anything like me you have, been there, done that, got caught with that one and are really just a little fed up with all the SUPER sellers and promoters online who I must say are "ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS" at SELLING and MARKETING their crummy, outdated, unhelpful products and businesses. But let's not forget these Internet Marketers are pretty much at the top of their game and are probably raking in thousands per month because their marketing/advertising/promotions were SOOO good that we bought their products!! So hats off to them and a big round of applause, they do suck you right in and if you are anything like me you have been stung by them on more then one occasion.

I thought it was time to GROW UP and WAKE UP, there really is no such thing as GET RICH QUICK, (we can sure dream about handing over $20 for a business that will make us thousands per month) but the reality is if there is, it's probably something quite illegal or you need big bucks to put into straight up, and if you are putting in big bucks you surely deserve to make even bigger bucks quite quickly!

I didn't have big bucks, I didn't even have hundreds of dollars to throw into a business, although after some very careful budgeting and scrimping on a few of our favorite grocery lines each week I did create a small stash of cash which I could use to get something started. I also did and still do however have a whole lot of enthusiasm and effort, without these two important ingredients your online mixing bowl is going to be pretty dry!

Being a stay at home mum I really wanted to find a genuine home based business that I could work from my own home, on my own computer, in my own time around my very active young toddler and make a bit of money. Sounds like a very big call I know but out there in the world there has to be other people doing exactly the same thing and making a whole lot of money from it.

I am not really a forward sort of person so I really wasn't into the whole cold calling strangers on the phone, the few times I did do this in another business venture I was physically sick from plain old fear, not the fear of being told off by the person on the phone, (although that was also playing in the back of my mind) but the inconvenient fear of my beautiful little toddler deciding there was no time like the present to put on a star studded performance of "Dr Jeykl and Mr Hyde" and throw a 5 star tantrum, if you have young children you will appreciate it when I politely say, there is NO convenient time to call someone unless your child is in daycare or is fast asleep in their bed at night, then I believe most people really don't want to be annoyed at that time anyway and it really makes you no better then a telemarketer and I'm not really that fond of their work, don't get me wrong I'm in no way knocking them as people, I am mature enough to know they are everyday people and I know they have bills to pay and it's a paying job for them but if I wanted to be called I'd give them my number wouldn't I!

As they say "when the student is ready the teacher will appear", well I was certainly ready, I had a small criteria for what I wanted, I needed someone to be there if I got stuck and needed help, don't get me wrong I'm not hopeless but there are times in everyones business where they need a little guidance, if this is not you "hats off to you, you're a legend!"
I didn't want to be left stranded with a business I had no idea about, so training was another important thing for me also, but again I didn't have hundreds of dollars spare to buy "recommended" ebooks that were the MUST HAVE way of learning my new found business. I didn't have the time, money or resources to fly all over the place attending seminars and having to be available at a particular time to listen to a phone conference just wasn't something I could commit to, not with a young unpredictable toddler.
I really wanted something flexible that I could put the effort into when the time was available to me. I was prepared to invest some dollars to start up and I was prepared to pay a bit per month for ongoing costs which lets face it are there in every single REAL business but I didn't want to spend hundreds per month, unless of course I was making thousands!!
So what I needed was an internet based business, which wouldn't cost me the earth to start up, was a genuine business opportunity and when I clicked on my computer the next day I still wanted the company to exist, I didn't want to have to call anyone ever. Training and support would need to be available, low ongoing costs, no tele-conferences or seminars, oh yeh and I didn't want to be stuck pushing dodgy products that nobody wanted!

It's amazing when you work out what you want and you CLICK a button and it is there for you!
There really are genuine companies, offers and programs out there waiting for you to jump on board. Just please use your head and do a bit of research before you jump into something and are again left struggling. Find something run by a real person, research that person, check out the testimonials, research the people giving testimonials, at the end of the day someone is not going to put their face to a scam unless they are really ruthless and stupid!

My results, yes I did find a business opportunity which amazingly enough met all of my above criteria and I did do a fair bit of research on the guy running it, turns out he is real, he does put he face to it and he is there to help when ever I need it, how fantastic and comforting is that! I also have a home business directory site featuring genuine researched home based money making opportunities

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Thursday, May 24, 2007

Learn How to Become a Super Affiliate

There are about more than 38 million people who have put up their very first websites online this year 2007 alone. Most of those sites will be their own affiliate programs for people to participate in so as to boost their sales volume.

Therefore, web hosting and domain registration businesses are in demand. This is a great opportunity to become a web hosting affiliate and reseller. There will be hundreds of web hosting and programs for you to promote.

So how does one become a successful affiliate in the web hosting marketing market?

If you think about it, everyone who needs to put up a website on the Internet needs a web hosting company to host it for them. As of now, there is really no leading hosting company so most people choose hosts based from recommendations.

The most important service that a good web hosting must have is the live support. When there is a technical problem, you will not want your customers who have bought the hosting plan through your affiliate link to complain about lack of support.

Competitive price and web storage can also give a particular web hosting an edge over the other web hosting company. One good example is Godaddy. Godaddy offers very competitive price, which I think that no other web hosting company can beat it. The support from Godaddy is also good, and this proves to be a good web hosting affiliate that you can consider.

If you are satisfied with the your current web hosting company, one of the thing that you can do to promote it is to place a small "small "powered by" or "hosted by" link at the bottom of your page and you are already in an affiliate business.

Why choose paying for your web hosting when you do not have to? Try to get paid by letting people know you like your web host.

There are a lot of niche markets out there just waiting for the right affiliate to penetrate to them and make that passive dollars dream come true.

Web hosting is just one affiliate market you can try out and make some good and continuous passive income out of it. Just remember to be successful in affiliate marketing; you will need persistence, patience, and effort.

Nobody has invented the perfect affiliate market yet, but you can also make it big in this kind of market. It is just knowing your kind of market and making the earnings there.

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Wednesday, May 23, 2007

20 Reasons Why You Will Never Live Off Your Affiliate Income!

Why is it that the top 10% of affiliate marketers earn 90% of all affiliate income, with the remaining 90% left to fight over the 10% of scraps left? What are the millionaire affiliate marketers doing which is different to you?

While there are a number of ways of improving your affiliate marketing offerings, you first need to appreciate where you may be going wrong before you can improve. Listed below are the 20 most popular reasons why you are not living off your affiliate income, what to avoid and how to attract more affiliate sales.

1. Lack Of Traffic To Your Site

Many many people fall into the simple trap of thinking, add some affiliate links to my site, and over time I will surely get some sales. Why? What is the reason behind this way of thinking?

Unless you actually have traffic coming to your own site (and the more focused the traffic the better) it will be nearly impossible for you to create a regular income stream.. True, you may get the odd sale once a month, but this is not enough, you need to aim higher and bring visitors to your site to stand ANY chance.

2. Poor Affiliate Products

You would not believe that amount of people who do not actually research what they are looking to sell. There are millions of affiliate products out there, and while there are a lot of high quality offerings available, there are also lots of low quality products. If you would not buy it, why should anyone else?

3. Priced Too High

This goes back to the age old argument of selling one high valued product, and taking a commission, or selling more low value products and taking a greater number of smaller commissions. Research has shown that the one factor which can scupper a sale is the price - if it is too high your potential customer will be turned off straight away.

Why not mix a number of low value and high value products? If your visitors buy a low value product and it works, you have more chance of them returning (with more trust in you) and even contemplating buying a higher value product. The trust factor is very very important.

4. Low Commissions

As mentioned above, it can often be more lucrative to sell lower value products (with reasonable commissions), but you need to ensure you are being remunerated properly for your leads. Why send hundreds of customers to an affiliate site where they pay you only a few cents a lead? Who is the big winner in this situation ? Certainly not you!

You need to balance the commission on offer against the amount of traffic which you can send, and the split of income between yourself and the owner of the affiliate program. Do not sell be too keen to pass over your users for small returns.

5. No Investment

In order to advertise your affiliate links you will need to put some of your own money upfront, either advertising your site or your affiliate links. Those who think that traffic will just fall into their lap are kidding themselves. You need quality focused traffic, and you need potential customers to see your link before your competitors. The affiliate marketing world is very competitive and you need to ensure that you gain maximum exposure. Adsense and PPC programs are very good ways of advertising your site, and while they can be expensive, they can reap massive rewards.

6. Quality Content

Even if it takes a while longer to establish yourself in the affiliate marketing world for certain products, always ensure that you offer quality, not quantity and certainly not rubbish. One poor looking affiliate site, one bad experience and you customers will disappear over night. If you promote rubbish on your site, what does that say about you and your respect for your customers?

As they say "the cream will always rise to the top"!.

7. Lack Of Feedback

If you are looking to forever improve your site, your offerings and the image and reputation of your site, you need to encourage feedback from your customers. Is there a problem with the product they bought? Were they happy? What could be improved?

Everyone likes to have a moan, but if you actually ask and listen to their concerns, their questions, they will respect you for it - they may not thank you, but they will appreciate it. Any improvements which you are able to make, any comments you are able to pass on to the affiliate program owner, will all ensure you receive less complaints in the future.

8. No After Sales Service

Similar to feedback, it is essential that you at least offer some form of after sales assistance (where relevant) to ensure that your customer is able to get the most out of their purchase, whether this be an eBook, Software or the latest Mobile Phone.

A sympathetic ear is always appreciated, and interaction with your customers has been shown to be the best way of building up a relationship - let them know that you are human!

9. Hard Sell

As well as high prices, the so called "hard sell" is guaranteed to put off any potential customers. Do not push the offers down their throats, be subtle, be helpful, but do not exert any pressure - even if you have the best product in the world. The hard sell does not work, and your reputation will not be enhanced.

10. Not Relevant To Your Site

It is essential that your build your affiliate program offerings around the subject of your site. There is no point in listing baby wear affiliate links on a site about mobile phones. The more relevant the affiliate links on your site the more chance of actually bringing in some commission.

If you can get your readers excited about a certain subject and then show them an affiliate link for a suitable product, you will have a great chance of them clicking on the link. Keep the site AND your affiliate offerings focused .

11. Old Products

The world of affiliate marketing is moving all of the time and it is essential that you keep your affiliate products up to date. Selling yesterdays favourite affiliate product will not earn you big bucks - sell today's favourite and tomorrow's favourite and you are talking.

It is vital that you regularly visit your affiliate link providers to ensure that you are offering the best and most up to date products around. Failure to do so and you customers may well look elsewhere, and you will have lost a potential sale.

12. Cookie Time Limits

Many of today's better affiliate programs will actually offer you a set time, during which any customers you pass over will be eligible to earn you commission. Where you are promoting affiliate links which may offer a vast array of products, which will keep members coming back time and time again, you need to ensure that the cookie is of a suitable length.

The cookie is basically the marker which will be attached to the user, to confirm that they were sent via your affiliate link. Some sites offer cookie lengths up to 365 days, while some may offer short 10 days periods. If a customer, originally from your site, were to buy a product after the cookie period was over, you would receive NO commission.

This is an area of affiliate marketing which is often overlooked - do not make the same mistake, and end up selling yourself short.

13. Links Do Not Work

Of the thousands of affiliate links available there are hundreds which will become invalid, or have been replaced, every day. There is nothing worse than clicking through to a non-existent link, and this does not give a very professional impression of your site. Always check that your links are valid, even on a monthly or weekly basis, and ensure that old invalid links are either replaced, or deleted asap.

14. Know Your Customer

There are a variety of statistic and traffic programs available which will give you an insight as to where the majority of your traffic is coming from - i.e. which country, browser, etc.

It is essential that you make use of this information and tailor elements of your affiliate products towards the majority of your customers. Currency is one of the major elements which you need to consider, because this is something that can put off a prospective buyer if they are dealing in a currency which they are not familiar with.

As a rule of thumb, the US dollar is the more popular currency on the internet, and seems to have a universal acceptance. Research has shown that while UK sterling buyers are willing and comfortable dealing in dollars, many Americans are not comfortable dealing in sterling (or any other foreign currency).

While you will never get this element totally correct, you need to appeal to the masses, which will most probably require offering products in US dollars.

15. Presentation

How you present and expand on your affiliate offerings has a massive effect on how successful you will be. A simple 3 word text link will be no where near as successful as an article detailing in the product, and the affiliate link at the end. Tease your customers with details, make them want the product and then offer the affiliate link when they are thinking about the product.

16. Do Not Try To Trick Your Customers

There have been many many instances of people being duped into clicking on affiliate links, and while 99% of these result in no sales, 99% of your visitors who have been "duped" will not return to your site. Trust is a major element of any business and it is essential that you treat your visitors with respect and honesty.

You may hear about people making big bucks in the short term with dubious tactics, but these people will never have a long term income stream. They will always be found out, and one bad review of your site on the internet can soon spirally into hundreds - effectively black listing your site from a mass of would be visitors.

17. No Free Products? Is Your Mix Correct?

While it may sound strange advising people to give away free products in the same area in which they are trying to sell products, there is some sense in the madness. If you are able to give away quality free products to your visitors, your trust factor with these customers will rise sky high. The more trust they have in you, the more often they will visit the site, and the more comfortable they will be actually buying a product via your affiliate links.

Too many webmasters seem to throw themselves straight into the market without a strategy, and this initial optimism soon dies with many giving up. You will not build up a quality income stream overnight, it will take time, you will have to build up trust, and be patient.

18. Have You Tested The Product?

If you were selling one of your own products, you would have tested the format, the product and the feedback before launch. It should be no different with affiliate links - ensure you are familiar with the offering, how it is presented, the standard of service and if it actually delivers what it promises.

The type of products which may need the most investigation, and possible purchase, are eBooks and software downloaded from the internet. If it works for you, and is clear and concise then you can do no more, although if it does not work, or does not do what it promises, you should not be promoting it.

19. Internet Feedback - Forums, etc

Before you sell any product it is essential that you search the internet to see if there has been any negative feedback about the provider or the product. Popular sites such as www.sitepoint.com and forums.digital point.com are very useful sites to search. They often provide great feedback about affiliate providers and products.

Know you product, know your customers, and you have a firm basis for success!

20. Do You Really Know What You Are Talking About?

There are many many products on the internet which are being sold by people who do not even have a basic understanding of what they are selling. Many are blinded by the commission figures, the potential for sales, and forget about researching the actual product.

A focused site with a good knowledge base, and unique content will go a long way towards building up a rapport with your readers, increasing the trust they have in you, and ultimately increasing your chances of a sale. Even a bit of basic knowledge about a product goes a long way, although the more professional you come across, and the more information you can pass to your readers, the better.

Conclusion

While there are many reasons as to why your affiliate sales may not be what you expected, you probably have the basis of a good income stream. Small changes to the presentation, your promotion of the site, and your mix of products can and will have a massive effect on your sales. If you do the basics well, the rest will follow, and once you have the basis of a good affiliate sales income, you can replicate this time and time again on other sites.

Multiple, smaller income streams, are more consistent than one large income stream which may well stop tomorrow if a competitor beats you to the market. Spread the risk, and increase the reliability of your income - but do not forget to reinvest back into your site, your design and your affiliate offerings, do not stand still as the market is forever on the move!

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Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Bidding Directories

If you are looking for bidding directories, it is normally in the form
of a list, that list will provide you with all you need to know about
bidding directories, including text links. If you look online there are
many different sites you may choose from and most of them will give you
an option, the bidding information will most likely come in three
sections; General Directories, an Alphabetical list of directories, or other
sponsored lists. In one of these categories you will find what you
need.

When you are looking to bid for position, there are also many subjects
to choose from. You will be able to modify your banner or logo, modify
descriptions, change the titles; you can also change the value of your
required links. All listing are allowed to be changed at anytime and
they do not have a certain limit so you can also change it as many times
as you wish to.

You will find anything you are looking for on sites like bidding
directories; they are able to give you information on just about anything.
You can find information from links building to links on software
publishers, if you need it, it's there. Once you find the topic you are
looking for, you can widen your search and sort through many different sites
until you find the one that will best suit your needs.

You will also be able to view the pageranks of all the different
categories to see how well they have done under the circumstances. When you
have found one with a good pagerank you can go to it and read even more
about it; it will give you information like who is the owner of the
link, the date in which the link was added, other resources concerning the
subject, a graph of how well they have done and on some of them you
will also get a visitors map.

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Monday, May 21, 2007

The Truth About Network Marketing

Network Marketing can be a very ruthless game if you don't know the rules and how to play it to your advantage. Keep on reading if you want to achieve network marketing success. I am going to show you what it really takes to make it in network marketing, and what the real truth about network marketing is.

There are five things you must have to become a successful network marketer. You must have dedication, determination, a solid program, a free way to generate leads, and a solid support team. You cannot make it without these five things.

You must also be very determined. If you do not have the drive of determination behind you, then you will probably quit before you ever see any positive results. Determination is how we achieve all of our goals and without it we are stuck as quitters.

You must have dedication because without dedicating yourself to your work you will never make it far enough to see results. Sometimes it takes months or even years to learn and develop strategies that can create an income for your. Nobody gets rich over night. Even people that win the lottery have been playing for years.

You also need a free way to generate leads. Unless you have money to invest you will want to generate leads for free. There are great strategies, like article marketing, that can generate a lot of free leads. You can get more information on article marketing in my other articles.

You must also have a solid program to promote. Network marketers cannot make every program profitable. The successful ones know this and pick programs that are sellable. If you cannot see a program being easy to sell, then you already know it is not good enough for you.

You also need a solid support team. If your sponsor or leader is not smart enough to train you and the people around you, then you are on the wrong team. Your leader should be just that, a leader. They are responsible for you and owe you all their knowledge and help to get your network marketing program off the ground and making you a nice income.

There you have it, and it is really that simple. That is the truth about network marketing and you will be able to use these five things to help you become a successful network marketer.

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Sunday, May 20, 2007

Affiliate Marketing - Is Using Articles The Best Way Of Pre-Selling? (Part 1 of 2)

Pre-selling is a very important skills that all affiliates must know if they are involved in affiliate marketing. Pre-selling is the art of using some ways to warm up your customers to the affiliate products that you are promoting.

A good example of preselling will be to write your own articles and put your affiliate links in the article. So what you will do here is that you will provide good and useful content in the article which will be beneficial to the potential customers. So when the customer read the article already and they find it useful, they will view you as someone who knows his topic well. They will be curious to know what you have to offer so they will click to your website to find out.

At the end of the article will be your resource box where you will be able to promote your affiliate links or your own squeeze page so that you will be able to start building your own list. This is the best way of pre-selling and building a targeted list because only the leads that like your article will be clicking on the links at your resource box.

What you will get in the end is quality organic traffic that will come to your affiliate link or your squeeze page. Before they even come to you website, you have already set up in such a way that you will filter out all the untargeted traffic. In another words, you are pre-qualifying your customer before they even come to your website.

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Saturday, May 19, 2007

Online Marketing Strategy for Small Business

Many online business owners aren't as successful as they had hoped to be and that is because they are missing an essential part of the online business puzzle, and that's Internet marketing. You have to get your name out there to be sure that you can be seen. Arizona web design and online businesses are growing by leaps and bounds every year, so you have to market yourself if you hope to keep up with the times and keep your small business afloat.

One of the first things that you have to do when you are thinking about Arizona Internet marketing is to optimize your website for the search engines. This may sound like an entirely different area to focus on, but it's important because if you cannot be found with a search engine you will be limiting your overall visibility and therefore your income. You should be sure to use keyword rich content, and you should also be sure to have many high quality incoming and outgoing links on your website. You will also want to take the time to write meta tags for each page so that when the search engine spiders crawl your page they will know what kind of site you have, so that search engine results on your topic will come back with your site in the top few entries. In addition to meta tags, you will also want to be sure to write good titles for each page as this is what the spider reads first. Ensuring that you are seen by search engines doesn't take a lot of time, but this is a good way to make sure that all Arizona residents know you are online and ready to serve them.

Next, you will want to take the time to be sure that you trade links with other businesses. This is a great way to go about Phoenix Internet marketing because it will not only allow for the search engines to give your website a higher ranking, it will allow for the visitors to other websites to see your name and perhaps even visit your website. This is a very simple and cost effective way to market your company. You many also want to think about buying advertisements with someone like Google who will get your website placed on relevant websites. This costs a little bit more, but has proven to be a very good way to go about Scottsdale Internet marketing for a large number of web publishers and online businesses.

As you can see, there are many different routes that you can take when it comes to marketing your small business. It's also important to note that it doesn't have to cost you anything, or very much to market yourself effectively. Simply put some time into building an optimized website and branch out from there. If you build your website and business based on being noticed you'll find that marketing is quite simple.

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Friday, May 18, 2007

Design Your Website for Affiliate Marketing Success

One of the most efficient forms of today's internet marketing is the affiliate marketing, and this is done with the help of affiliate programs. This is mainly because many people know that money can be earned online, but they don't know exactly how to do that. For many, affiliate marketing may be the answer, as it requires less effort, having an own product to sell isn't mandatory, and it can bring reasonable profits.

Definition: Affiliate marketing is the action of referring your visitors to a merchant's website, and getting a commission out of that merchant's sales if the buyer was a person you referred. Although it can be done even without having a website of your own, it is better if you design one. Choosing an appropriate field for you, doing some quality research and finding good affiliate programs are all very important processes, which have to be dealt with a lot of involvement and perseverance.

And first thing's first. Before you actually build your website, you have to think about how it is going to look, what it's going to be about. Just sit down and start a brainstorming process. It is recommended you organize everything well, and write everything down. Find a subject you feel confident about, and start taking notes about the competition, affiliate programs, everything. You have to think of it as a serious project, and every good project needs a good sketch.

Now, once you've made your sketch, start designing your website accordingly. Buy a domain, preferably a .com one, because these are the ones that people trust the most. Now, if you are not a programmer, then you should hire one for designing your website according to your specifications. Even though it's going to cost you some money, if you do it right, that amount should come back as profits multiplied many times.

Your website should look professional, the hallmark of a person who knows what he's talking about. You should respect your visitors with quality content, if you want this internet marketing strategy to be successful. And although this affiliate marketing tutorial tells you what to do, it ultimately depends on you if it is going to work or not.

Now, once you've designed the site, it's time to get some traffic in. There are many online marketing tactics to do that, and you could also consider hiring a Search Engine Optimizer to get you high ratings on Google searches for your site. If you can't afford one, don't lose hope, because there are many SEO tutorials available on the web. You can catch on a few of these important SEO techniques and try to do it yourself. Apply all this information to your sketch and continue working on your project.

Now that you've managed to get a decent amount of traffic to your site, it's time to introduce you to the new term, which is conversion rate. The conversion rate shows you how many of your visitors actually click on the links of your affiliate partners and buy something from them. Taking into consideration that you don't have a product of your own, your approach in increasing your conversion rate should be pre-selling. What do I mean by pre-selling? Let's put it this way. The content of your site is the one which actually forwards your visitors to your affiliate partners links. I mean, if you have a very high quality content site, your visitors will unknowingly be much more open-minded about visiting the links you display. Keeping in mind that you don't actually have a product of your own, it's better not to have an aggressive looking page or your visitors will exit immediately. Also, choose the best affiliate partners in your field, and don't try to put so many links on your page. You need 3 or 4 quality partners at the most.

The rest is history. With a lot of involvement, professionalism, dedication and a little bit of luck, you can design a site which has the potential of being your cash machine. Once the whole mechanism starts to work, you don't have to do anything as it will run by itself. OK, maybe a few adjustments from time to time, but nothing too complicated. With the hope that this affiliate marketing tutorial has shed some light on the subject, grab a pen and design your sketch!

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Thursday, May 17, 2007

Affiliate Marketing- What Must I Do After I Have Loaded All My Message To My Autoresponder? (Part 2)

So you have now completed the above steps and you want to now increase the number of sign ups so that your list will grows. In order to do that, there are some areas that you have to focus on for improvement and you have to give some time to test. Some of the things that you can do are improving your email messages, your advertisements, your sales letters on your squeeze page, your website appearance etc.

These are the few areas which you can test to see which combination will gives you the best results and conversions. You will definitely want a website or squeeze page that will gives you the best results and conversions.

If you sit back now and think of any niche, you will be able to think of other complimentary niches that will be closely related. If you really want to gives them values, you should also tell them about other things that will go along with their hobby, passion or interest.

These are the few basic things that you can do after you have finish loading up all the pre-make messages to your autoresponder. The changing and testing your squeeze page will ensure that you have the best combination which will give you the maximum conversion. You will be able to build a much bigger list which is important for your affiliate marketing business. If you give more quality information to your list, you will be able to build trust with your list because you are giving values. So do apply these few which will be helpful to your business.

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Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Affiliate Marketing - The Difference Between Getting Paid...And Not!

Have you ever recommended a product to your friends, family members or co-workers? Perhaps the latest gadget, jersey or cooking utensil?

If you have, then you understand the power of referral marketing. Which is really just another name for affiliate marketing.

Now imagine if you get paid for each and every referral. Yes! Imagine if you get paid a commission every time your friend buys the service or product you recommend. This is the philosophy behind affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is currently the fastest growing business model on the web. However, it still remains a secret in many quarters. It is an invisible business where lots of money is made.

Companies love this model because their profit margins are extremely high; they do not have to spend any money on advertising. Their affiliates are acting as their sales force.

All you have to do is head over to websites like Associate Programs or LinkShare and find an affiliate program related to a product in this niche. Sign up for free and start marketing your affiliate link! The key to success in affiliate marketing is these three components: Market, Product and Marketing. The most successful affiliate marketers implement an integrated marketing campaign that is wide and deep.

Now, wouldn't you want to be different from the rest of the population? Wouldn't you want to be paid for your 'marketing' efforts? Rather than helping a big company get rich everyday through your recommendations, you can gain a piece of the pie too.

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Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Affiliate Marketing Tips - Having Your Own Opt-In List

Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest and powerful business models online to generate profit. You do not need to go through the trouble of creating your own products and to handle customer support. There are many factors that you will have to consider when you are doing your affiliate marketing business.

One of the tips that you can use is to have your own opt-in list. If you have your own list, you will be able to promote your affiliate links very quickly. There are some ways which you can use to maximize the response and results.

One of the ways that you can do is to provide a time sensitive bonuses to encourage your list to buy through your affiliate link. This is a method that works and it will continue to work in the future too.

You should do at least 3 to 4 emails follow up as statistics have proven that you will get more sales if you follow up with your customer. Most of the customer will not buy on the first attempt. Your customer will more likely to buy from you again if you are able to build a trusting relationship with your customers.

So if you do not have your own list to begin with, the next most logical action that you should do is to build your own profitable list without delay. Go and learn all the information, tools and skills that you will need in order to have your own list. It is a skill that is definitely worth your time and effort.

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Monday, May 14, 2007

Starting Use Internet For Business

Nowadays, everybody can conduct Internet marketer without have own products or services. In one hour, everybody can make website with Internet marketing service to sale products and services. An internet novice people can learn how to buy a domain and hosting service to put website. After that, he/she can build website with free template without HTML understanding. Macromedia and FrontPage will help website development to create good website.

Although you an Internet idiot people, you can starts your Internet business especially in online affiliate business. Below some step you can start:


1. Keep in mind, Internet marketing is not magic process to get money and become rich. Internet is not devil or angel that make you rich as soon possible. You must struggle to get it.


2. Learn about Internet and use it properly. Do not forget to learn how to use word processing and website development tools like Macromedia Dreamweaver and Microsoft Frontpage or another products to develop website.


3. Choose domain name you like it. Do not think specialization. This is very hard to you as a novice.


4. Buy your domain and hosting. Select cheaper one with enough space. Please do not select big hosting capacity to start your web.


5. Find free template of website. Choose one with easiest modification because you will need put hyperlinks to sale affiliate products and services.


6. Remember all password and user name for manage your website like for control panel and email.


7. Find affiliation products in website via web browser. You can select any product and service that you wish to sale and make commission.


8. Apply to merchant in their website and find hyperlink with affiliate ID. You must remember your ID because this is useful and tools to track you transaction. With this ID you will get your money commission.


9. Put your address and bank account number completely. Usually, merchant will pay your commission with check or transfer to your bank account. You can consult with your affiliate owner.


10. Put your hyperlink to sale their products and services in your web. You can build like directory, list of product, or search engine look like.


11. Do not specialize of your website. Build general affiliate website and do not give up to manage it. Become rich or not, depend on your effort and God.


12. You can specialize after you can see and believe with marketing field.


13. Do not waste your money to advertise your website with payable Internet advertising like in popular search engine. So many ways to advertise your website freely. After you have enough money, you can advertise, as you like.


14. Keep develop your affiliate product and made advertise it.


15. Keep update with affiliate owner and manager. They will give us product and services update.

Finally, yet importantly, keep learn and learn. Internet always growing and develops without stop. DO NOT give up and trust to God will appreciate our efforts. [ ]

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Saturday, May 12, 2007

How to Choose the Right Sales Training Products

You will have to choose from thousands of different sales training products when you choose the system or systems that you want to train your sales force with. Some of these products are very specific and some are general to sales. You will need to determine what your team needs and the best training methods for them before deciding on which products to use.

Remember, sales training products can range from CDs, DVDs, tapes, online, books and many other sources. You will have to decide between all of these different formats for your team. Studies have found that the younger generations learn well online while some of the older generations have difficulty because they did not grow up in school learning on computers. Hence, you will need to determine which format is best for your sales force.

First, you will need to determine the goals of your training materials. The more specific your goals are, the better you can determine which products will best serve your purpose. For example, increasing sales 100% this year, is not a good goal because it is too broad and doesn't focus on what skills need to be taught or improved upon.

An example of a good goal would be to improve your sales forces' ability to determine your customer's needs. Too often a person will try to sell a product without determining what the customer needs. Hence, you will want to teach your sales force how to listen and how to ask follow-up questions. Now your sales team will be able to identify the needs of your customers and sales will improve.

Now you have your goals and you know what you want taught. How do you determine what training materials to purchase?

Find out what the market has to offer. You know what you want so start looking to see what the market has that matches your needs. You should be able to find companies that are willing to demonstrate their products and send free samples. Adult professional education is a huge industry and many companies are willing to help you see what their products can do to help your team.

You may also want to hire a sales team trainer. If you are not ready to hire a trainer for the entire company, you may consider having one of your staff receive the training and then have them train the rest of the sales team. When you have the staff member go through the training make sure they use this time to identify the best training material for your company.
You may also want to find ways to maximize your employees' time for training. If your sales team has to travel a lot to their appointments, then you should consider CDs for them to train and listen to while traveling. This will save company time that otherwise would have had to be spent in training meetings.

Also, the best training products are those that get the sales team actively involved. As the team gets involved with the training and learning, they will remember and internalize the training better. Projects and presentations prepared by the team will have a much longer affect that the team listening to a few CDs.

In summary, you have many different sales training products to choose from. You will first need to determine what the goals are of your upcoming training. Once you have your goals set, find the training that matches these goals. Sample the training on the market and find advice for the best products before purchasing. Last, your program will always need review and updating.

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Friday, May 11, 2007

Choosing the Best Affiliate Program

The Internet is perceived as the superhighway of information today. With millions of people logged on everyday, it has not only benefited mankind tremendously, but it has helped to shrink the world allowing people to communicate from anywhere in the world. Entrepreneurs are able to generate visibility of their businesses, services and products across the globe through the power of the Internet. Gone are the days when merchandisers needed tangible merchandise to sell to consumers; today, through affiliate programs, business entities can make money out of websites on the Internet.

So then, what exactly is an affiliate program? It is a mutually beneficial association between two parties, namely your website and another business entity's website that is already selling their services or products online. In an attempt towards true affiliation, you direct your website visitors to your partner's website which helps to boost the number of people becoming aware of your partner website's products or services and thereby increasing the chances of people buying from your partner. It is more like a referral program or a marketing tactic for which you earn commissions.

Affiliate programs are a great way to earn through the Internet. But there are plenty of online free affiliate programs today and choosing the best one for you may be difficult. It is necessary to find a program that will give you maximum benefits. Here are a few clues that will help you towards your mission of finding an affiliate program that's best suited for you.

Research- With numerous free affiliate programs on the Internet promising you the moon, it is imperative that you first do a comprehensive research before accepting any one program. You can search for information on the net, contact other affiliate members, check out reviews and generally be absolutely 100% sure about the program before you join. You can sign-up for many free affiliate programs. So avoid programs that ask you to pay up unless there is something unique about it or your products and services.

Commissions- Obviously since you are investing your time and effort as a marketing agent of an online entrepreneur, you hope to be compensated for it. Ensure, thus about the commission you are going to be paid. But remember that every affiliate program is different from the other and also have varied payment structures, some high and some low. Decide what suits you best and beware of rogue programs, which don't pay at all.

Unique products and services- Just like traditional merchandisers who make more money by selling unique products or services, even affiliate programs with similar backgrounds make more then those who sell everything under the sun. Also, make sure that the products you are endorsing are worthwhile, in other words saleable. Ask yourself if you would buy it or even recommend it to others? You should be convinced of the product that is being sold. The more clicks by visitors, the more your product will get promoted and sold. So look for a top affiliate program that best suits this policy.

Experience- It is important to ensure that the affiliate you are joining has had enough experience in handling its business with its customers and affiliates. Well reputed affiliates with good performances should be looked at more closely during the selection process. By virtue of it being an experienced program, you can be assured of not being cheated.

Undoubtedly affiliate programs are one of the best ways to make money on the Internet, especially if you are a novice and if you want to make money without investing any. You get paid your commission, without worrying about creating your own product, dealing with customer service or fulfilling orders. Affiliate programs are definitely a good business idea. But knowing about the affiliate program you choose is important. Making an informed decision will help you to choose the best option and the best affiliate program and earn well.

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Thursday, May 10, 2007

Affiliate Marketing Made Easy

Learning affiliate marketing takes time and often involves trials, errors and failure before being successful. A lot of websites are ready to help you, selling their "how to make money online" guide. These guides save you time, you don't have to browse all the web to find the good informations.

These ebooks are written in a step by step manner that assure you to be in profit. I have to warn you, the last sentence is not as true as we would like it. Some ebooks promise you will make $1000 a day with only 15 minutes of work.

When an offer like this seems too good to be true, it surely is. Being an affiliate marketer myself, I have found some packages valued more they were worth. I needed a blueprint to be on track of success and get some knowledge.

The truth is I didn't found a complete and detailed guide that could be the perfect package for beginners, even advanced affiliates. After purchasing a lot of ebooks I finally found the ideal package. This is just my opinion but I can say this is the best ebook I have ever read.

It is so good that today this is the only affiliate marketing guide I promote on my website. I could sell any other overpriced ebook and earn bigger commissions but I prefer to be honest with people and give them what the best.

I have written an honest review on my website, you can read i if you want. This is cheaper, more complete and detailed than the competition. No hype, no fluff in it, just pure quality content, honestly. The author even helps you through email if you need it. Just ask a question and get an answer within hours.

You can visit my website and learn more about this release. My opinion is this is the best offer on the web. I truly believe that you don't need to buy three or four ebooks to know how to make money online. I have made the work for you and selected a straight to the point product that will take you by the hand and helps you to make your first sales.

So if you want to make money online with proven methods, detailed in easy steps, just give it a try. I can tell you that the free promotion methods I learnt are as efficient as the paid ones.

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Wednesday, May 09, 2007

How To Find Industrial And Technical Buyers Online

If your company sells industrial products or services, one thing is for certain, you should be using the Internet as a marketing tool to reach your target audience. After all, over 87% of engineers and other industrial buyers report using the Internet on a regular basis to find the products, services and solutions they need. The manufacturers and suppliers that know how to effectively reach these ready to buy prospects through effective marketing programs are the ones making the most profit from the Internet.

However, reaching qualified buyers, at the right time, is becoming increasingly difficult as more manufacturers and other industrial suppliers join the on-line marketplace. The competition has become so intense for certain products and services, many companies are beginning to doubt the Internet as being a profitable marketing tool.

Even programs that use to be extremely profitable for a lot of manufacturers, such as pay-per-click, lacks the clout it use to have in the eyes of a lot of industrial suppliers. Most of them blame it on the competition. But that is not really the problem. The real problem is the company's inability to adapt to a constantly changing marketplace. And unquestionably, no marketplace changes faster or more frequently than the Internet.

Increase Your Marketing Channels

Relying on pay-per-click, search engines, banner ads or your Web site is not enough. You have to versify your entire marketing approach in order to compete on the Internet today, as well as in the future. If you expect the major search engines to be your Web site's main source of traffic, you are relying too much on one marketing channel. You must increase those channels to generate traffic from multiple sources all over the Internet. The Web site's that are most versatile in terms of marketing, will develop the strongest competitive advantage possible over their competitors.

Probably the single biggest reason why most manufacturers do not versify their marketing is they prefer to keep things simple. So they invest most of their marketing dollars in one or two programs, and overlook smaller traffic sources that could significantly increase their ROI.

Indeed, keeping it simple is certainly an ideal approach, but it does not mean you have to limit your marketing channels. The key is to find smaller, more flexible search engines, directories or portals that reach your target audience. You can and still should utilize the major search engines to promote your site. Just don't overlook the others just because their too small to work with. Together they can generate much better results than any single source, no matter how big. Moreover, the competition will be a lot less, so the ROI will be significantly improved.

Finding Marketing Channels That Work

Obviously, not all marketing opportunities are equally effective. You want to find marketing plans or programs that are simple to utilize, measurable, and of course profitable. No matter what audience you are trying to reach, there are dozens, perhaps even hundreds of Web site's that are ideal marketing channels to promote your company. Don't make the mistake of ignoring a site just because of its small audience. You need to look at the whole picture and see the real value of these sites.

As I mentioned earlier, most leading manufacturers don't even bother with advertising on Web sites that reaches just a small fraction of their target audience. Yet, these smaller sites offer by far the greatest profit potential. Consider not only the excellent advertising value these sites usually offer, but also the enormous potential they often have to reach even more of your prospects in the near future. After all, as their visitors and audience increases, so will your ROI due to several reasons.

A significant advantage of advertising on smaller Web sites is the relationship factor. Imagine being the original advertiser on a Web site that once had a small audience but now reaches millions of your prospects. There will certainly be perks. I know myself I will not forget the original advertisers of my own site. Their support was vital to my Web site's success and I make sure these companies are rewarded with exclusive advertising benefits.

Internet Advertising and Marketing

Everybody on the Internet today has their own opinion about which advertising or marketing methods are best. Many swear by text link advertising and search engine optimization. Others like pay-per-click or opt-in email. And there are many manufacturers that still prefer banner advertising, most likely for branding purposes. But who cares what works for somebody else? All that really matters is making it work for your company - period.

Different Web sites offer different advertising opportunities. Some sites will only accept banner ads while others will only present text link ads. Then there are directories or search engines that may even accept both. The point is, if the terms are right, then you must be flexible and be willing to advertise in the manner these sites require. Again, all that matters is reaching your target audience while increasing ROI. Whether it be via a banner advertisement, text link, featured listing, or whatever.

Yes, it will take some serious time and effort to find the right marketing channels and advertising opportunities. But the benefits are certainly worth it if you are responsible for marketing or increasing traffic to your company's Web site.

Just look at the whole thing as if your building a chain one link at a time with each link strengthening the entire system the bigger and longer the chain gets. This chain will undeniably result in a flood of ongoing traffic from multiple sources that will consistently increase your site's visibility and competitive advantage on the Internet.

In contrast, your competitors will be limited to the one or two big marketing channels they rely on for 90% or more of their Web site's traffic and perhaps their survival. They will be constantly subjected to price increases, growing competition, and ironically the need to find other marketing channels.

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Tuesday, May 08, 2007

SEO Link Building - Who, What, When, Where, Why (and How)

In this article, we discuss search engine optimization link building strategies that you can implement.

Perhaps you've read an article or two by search engine optimization ("SEO") experts stressing the importance of link building to the visibility of your web site on the major search engines. If, for example, you happen to navigate the Google online documentation to the "Webmaster Help Center" you will see the Google response to the question "How can I improve my site's ranking?" The Google response includes the statement "In general, webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages.2"

"Link building" then, is the process of developing "inbound" links to your web pages in order to drive traffic to your site and improve your search engine ranking. Sounds simple, but there are so many different complex online link building programs and strategies it's mind boggling! And, some techniques, even legitimate techniques implemented incorrectly, may actually render inbound links completely useless.

I started this article intending to cover the 5 W's – who, what, when, where and why. But, at the risk of detracting from the clever title, I felt the need to add "How?" in order to make it more useful. So this article is designed to provide insight into the following questions:

1. Who should link to my web pages?


2. What should the link entail?


3. When should I add a link to my site?


4. Where should a link appear?


5. Why should you care?


6. How can businesses develop their own inbound links?

No doubt, reasonable minds can disagree with some of the opinions and strategies contained in this article. I direct your attention to footnote references to several online articles that I found helpful. I encourage you to review these articles so you can draw your own conclusions. I do hope you conclude that there are a number of legitimate link building strategies that you can tackle!

Why Should You Care?

Sorry, I have skipped over who, what, when and where to begin instead with "Why?" After all, if I cannot make the case that link building is important, you certainly will not read the rest of this article!

It is believed that, in the eyes of the major search engines, the number and quality of the incoming links that point to your site are indicative of the worthiness of your site. I know, it sounds like a popularity contest – perhaps this stirs up memories of the disdain you had for your high school prom king/queen election process. Popularity and Page Rank aside, you are interested in driving qualified traffic to your web site and developing relationships with businesses that offer complementary products and services. Link building techniques are designed to accomplish this.

Who Should Link to My Web Pages?

It is believed that links from "authoritative" websites and "related" industry sites carry the most weight. An "authoritative" site might be an educational organization (.edu), a publication, a government agency (.gov), a known subject matter expert or an organization/association in yours or a related industry.

As for "related" sites, partners, vendors, but not competitors are good "reciprocal linking" (discussed later) opportunities. Their sites should be related to the products and/or services you provide.

Make sure to set your standards high! Analyze the inbound links to the page where you would like to see your link. Are they in fact authoritative and relevant sites? How do you research inbound links to your potential linking partner?

There are some excellent SEO link building tools out there! Netconcepts provides a free "Link Popularity Checker" at http://www.netconcepts.com/linkcheck/. Another site is LinkPopularity.com. Use these tools to assess the quality of the links to the page before you ask for a link! While you're there, check out the link popularity of your web pages and those of your competitors.

Note that many SEO experts believe that you should stay away from a web page that already has too many links. How many is too many? According to an article in Website Magazine, "… it is best to shy away from any pages with more than 20 outbound links.3"

You'll recall that we mentioned the term "PageRank" earlier in this article. The Google PageRank scoring system is used to quantify the relative importance of a web page. You can determine PageRank by downloading and using the free Google ToolBar (http://toolbar.google.com).

Should you consider PageRank while determining whether to ask for a link on a page? One contributor to the online article "Over 125 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies", Dixon Jones, suggests that the PageRank of the web page where you would like your link to reside should be between 3 and 10.4 In his article "The Nitty Gritty of Link Requests", Chris Boggs suggests that PageRank is not as useful as it used to be but "PageRank is still a good guide.5"

Many Internet marketing professionals continue to suggest that you submit your site to the appropriate category within the major directories as well as to vertical engines and industry directories. Examples of popular general directories include Yahoo!, Open Directory (dmoz.org), GoGuides, Gigablast, JoeAnt, Gimpsy and BlueFind. Many allow you to submit your website URL for free. Some may require you to add a reciprocal link to their directory.

In his article, "SEO: Weaving a Web of Links", Stephan Spencer cautions against seeking links from "free for all" links pages that are packed full of links.6. Again, pay attention to PageRank and topic relevance. Watch out for automated submission programs that submit to irrelevant search engines and directories.

What Should the Link Entail? What Should You Put on Your Link Page? Once you have targeted an inbound link opportunity, you will want to suggest the link location and the exact link language you wish to appear on their site. Make it easy to implement your link – place HTML on your site that your partner's webmaster can cut and paste onto their web page.

Embed your keyphrases into the link text. Although the subject of web page optimization is beyond the scope of this article, make sure the page the link points to (the "Target Page") is "optimized" for those keyphrases. The target page need not be your website home page. Not sure how to determine the best keywords for your business? I discuss this very issue in my article "Web Page Keywords – Do's and Don'ts" which you can review at http://www.ebizmachine.com/seotips.html.

The question "What should you put on your link page" presumes that the linking relationship is "reciprocal". Not all links will be reciprocal – we'll talk more about link building strategies that involve the creation of useful online content encouraging "natural" link growth without reciprocal arrangements. However, your arrangements with partners, alliances and some directories may well be "reciprocal". In other words, "I'll point to you if you point to me."

Before you approach a partner for a reciprocal link, you may wish to create your link to their site in advance demonstrating the techniques described in this article. "One good turn deserves another" - include one or two carefully drafted paragraphs of descriptive information for each link.

When Should I Add a Link to my Site? But for my need to have a catchy title, this section is better named "How often should I add inbound links?" Experts these days are writing about "natural growth of inbound links" and "organic link gaining" and "Emulating Natural Growth in Link Building", as search engine optimization authority Chris Boggs recently wrote in Website Magazine.7 Sounds downright "earthy", doesn't it?

It's clear that link building is a slow and steady grass roots process and some experts maintain that link growth should follow a natural, free range, pesticide-free progression (OK, I added the italics for fun). Boggs writes that efforts to rapidly gain links "are sometimes easy for search engines to discern…, especially if the links are in a known network of sites that exchange links.8 " Suddenly adding 100 new links to a site that for 6 six years has had 5 inbound links may cause a search engine to penalize you for your participation in a "link-farm." But, adding a few relevant links every so often does appear to be consistent with natural growth.

Where Should the Link Appear? Ideally, your link should be placed within the content of a page rich with topical information relevant to the focus of the target web page. This may be asking a bit much – your link partner may already have a "links" or "resources" page designed solely for this purpose. However, make sure your prefab HTML link includes descriptive information that goes above and beyond a simple link and make sure you offer to reciprocate with a high-quality descriptive link.

Check to make sure the agreed-upon location is a page that has been indexed by the major search engines. In particular, it should not be a page that only authenticated users (login & password) can view.

How Can Businesses Develop Their Own Inbound Links? The last section of my 5 W's and an H article may be the most important. There are many bytes of available online information related to link building strategies. In many respects, your success stems from the quality of the relevant content on your website. Your industry peers and topical experts will be eager to reference your website if it is a valuable source of relevant information and you have achieved an appropriate level of expertise. Your peers will assess your site in the same or similar manner as is described in this article. They will assess the quantity and quality of inbound links to your web pages.

Here are some suggestions that both enhance the usefulness of your web site content and help you build inbound links to your site.

1. Publish a "How To" or a "Review" Article Someone in your organization must like to write! Add your article to your website and publish it! There are many websites dedicated to publishing articles for free. Many allow you to include a brief bio AND a link to your website. The Article Banks website (articlebanks.com) contains useful information and resources related to publishing your article online.

Not sure what to write about? Start with your most popular keyword search phrases and develop a topic that your customers frequently raise. You sell GPS devices - compare and contrast the two most popular manufacturers who also happen to be popular web searches. You are a CPA– how about a "top ten" list of personal tax misconceptions? Do your best to make your content unique, original, useful and entertaining.

Convert your article to PDF format that online visitors can download and print. Consult with your web developer about adding "email to a friend" functionality.

2. Post in a Relevant Online Forum or Newsgroup Join an online community relevant to your website and become a regular, contributing member. Make sure to include your website URL in the signature area of each of your postings.

3. Post in a Relevant Blog? You've heard the buzz on blogging. Your website URL can be included in blog contributions but be careful here. Search engines are more and more sensitive to "Blog Spamming.9 Chris Genge, a contributing SEO author in the article "Over 125 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies", writes "Even though blogging is all the rage these days, I think it will go the way of link farms in the not-too-distant future, especially if/when the SE's determine that it is just another case of spamming. We are staying away from it…."10

4. Publish in an "e-zine" Some of the most popular sites relevant to your business may not have a link program. Offer instead to contribute a unique topic to their monthly e-zine (email newsletter). Include your bio and a web page link.

5. Write a testimonial or review for a trusted product/service Many businesses are eager to publish testimonials on their site. Ask to include a link back to your relevant web page.

Finally, make sure to track your link building progress. Create a spreadsheet for this purpose. You will no doubt have to follow up on your link requests. Capture details including the information you entered and the date you submitted your request. Politely remind link partners of their commitment to link to your site and point them to the inbound link from your site to theirs. Run your favorite link popularity and page rank tools to monitor your progress.

Conclusion If you are at all interested in driving qualified traffic to your web site and in developing relationships with suppliers of complementary products and services, you should spend some time learning about web page link building strategies. In this article, we discuss the who, what, when, where and how's of SEO web page link building. Link building is much easier if your website is a valuable source of topical information and you have attained a high level of expertise.

In the "How Can Businesses Develop Their Own Inbound Links?" section of this article, I provide several suggestions designed to help you achieve that end. However, they say "The devil is in the details." When it comes time to manage the process of soliciting and adding inbound links to your web pages, there are many details that will influence the success or failure of your program. You must carefully choose your link partners and directories and be prepared to suggest the link page location as well as the makeup of the link itself.

Finally, you must be both diligent AND patient. It's fine to methodically forge relationships and build a community with complimentary web sites. But there is growing evidence that link building in an "unnatural" manner will hinder your search engine visibility and negate your efforts. So, be careful out there.

Footnotes:

1 Pease keep in mind that this content is provided for educational purposes in order to introduce you to important search engine optimization concepts. There are many factors that influence search engine results and page rank - we cannot promise that the techniques described in this article work in all cases. Thank you! –Bill Schwartz, EBIZ Machine

2 See google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34432

3 Boggs, Chris, The Nitty Gritty of Link Requests, Website Magazine, December 14 2005, websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/articles/link_requests_boggs.aspx

4 Robin Nobles, Eric Ward and John Alexander , Over 125 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies, searchengineworkshops.com/articles/leglinkpop.html

5 Boggs – see above

6 Spencer, Stephan, SEO: Weaving a Web of Links, practical ecommerce, March 12, 2007, practicalecommerce.com/articles/156/SEO-Weaving-a-Web-of-Links/

7 Boggs, Chris, The New Holy Grail of SEO?, Website Magazine, February, 2007, p. 12.

8 Boggs p. 13.

9 Boggs, Chris, The Nitty Gritty of Link Requests, Website Magazine, December 14 2005, websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/articles/link_requests_boggs.aspx

10 Robin Nobles, Eric Ward and John Alexander , Over 125 (Legitimate) Link Building Strategies, searchengineworkshops.com/articles/leglinkpop.html

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Monday, May 07, 2007

Search Engine Submission Services

• Search engine submission will ensure that you drive relevant traffic to your website, a way to promote a website the most integral part of any website marketing program. Once a website owner have taken the time to properly optimize there website, they need to focus on the submission of the website to search engines and directory so that web searchers can actually find it. Search engine submission is a very useful tool to take advantage of when your website is new, looking for inclusion or for some reason dropped out from search engine because of being offline for a while. To be really successful in the search engines you need a good link popularity.

• Crawlers is a program used by search engine, this program scour the internet cataloguing and indexing sites. You don't need to continually push your website once is enough as you will be placed to crawlers crawl list. By fully utilizing the search engine you will receive many benefits including more inward links to your website, a higher page rank in goggle, an increase of traffic to your website with higher positioning in the search engines and increased online visibility also an increase in services and product interest.

• Generally there are two basic reasons why webpage or website should be submitted to search engine. First reason is to add an entirely new website because the site operator would rather not wait for search engine to discover them. Second is to have a website or webpage updated in the respective search engine. How a websites are submitted, this question will arise as soon as website owners will consider proper optimization in there website. To allow a webmaster to submit there website to a search engine there are two basic rules to be followed. They can either submit just one webpage at a time. Or, they can submit an entire site at one time with a site map. However just to submit the home page of a website is all a web master need to do. With just the home page, most search engines are able to crawl a site, provided that it is well designed.

• Getting listed doesn't mean you will rank well for particular terms. It simply means that the search engine knows that your site exists. Directories are search engines powered by human beings; human editors compile all the listings that directories have. Getting listed with the web's key directories is very important. Because there listings are seen by many people. Crawler-based search engines are more likely to find your site and add it to there listings for free if you are listed with them.

• Think of it like a lottery. Search engine submission is akin to you, purchasing a lottery ticket. Having a ticket doesn't mean you will win, you must have a ticket to have any chance at all.

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Sunday, May 06, 2007

Online Reputation Management Begins Offline

"Reputation, reputation, reputation! O! I have lost my reputation. I have lost the immortal part of myself…" Cassio from Shakespeare´s Othello

One Bend, Oregon restaurant owner has discovered the severe online consequences of shoddy offline behavior.

A member of the Bend Moms Club brought her newborn to Balthazar´s, a local Mexican restaurant. Balthazar´s does not keep highchairs on the premises, ostensibly to discourage parents from bringing the children.

For many reasons, the woman felt mistreated during her dining experience and wrote a complaint to the owner. The owner called the woman and the conversation ended with the owner yelling obscenities at her over the phone.

The woman emailed her experiences to each member of the Bend Moms Club…one of whom included the email with commentary on her Moms Club Blog. The story then exploded…

Other local bloggers picked up the story.

The Bend Newspaper wrote an article about the incident.

Oregonlive.com in Portland covered the controversy.

Discussion even overran a mountain-bike forum.

Balthazar´s now has a serious online reputation management problem. Anyone trying to Google the address / phone number of the restaurant will be faced with multiple first page results stating that the owner is rude, obscene, and makes families with children feel very uncomfortable if they try to dine at his establishment. The fervor of the commentary is so strong that anyone perusing the Google SERPS will likely be dissuaded from dining there.

Reputation management is critical for all businesses. Even the most customer-friendly companies have likely upset a few people who have vented their frustrations on the web. However, businesses with foresight have strategies to reach out to the affected in a way that will mend the relationship and allow for future commerce to occur. Google Transit sending a Superman Cape to a blogger who had a bad experience with a map route is a classic example of how to turn a negative customer encounter into a positive one.

The effect of bad online "word of mouth" can be extraordinarily damaging to small businesses…therefore, each small business owner needs to regularly monitor what is being said about the company on the web. Receiving emailed Google News Alerts is the easiest way to learn what's being communicated. Also, it is smart to continually check the first several pages of the SERPS. If negative information shows up, do everything possible to assuage the customer and (hopefully) the negative information will go away. Certainly, don´t deliberately engage in bad behavior because the consequences can linger far beyond the actual incident.

In its community, "Balthazar´s" is now much better known for boorish behavior by its owner than for its Mexican food and it will be very difficult for that customer-focused business to generate revenue with such a reputation.

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Saturday, May 05, 2007

The Pro's And Con's Of Pay Per Click Advertising vs Search Engine Optimization

Your success with either Search Engine Optimization or Pay Per Click advertising can be determined by one single word. "Relevancy". This is especially important to Google and should be to you too. Relevancy is what it's all about in Search folks. When you are trying to find something online don't you want the best, most accurate information that you can possibly get on the topic or would you rather find some software generated page that has a few of your keywords on the page, but the rest of it makes absolutely no sense? Anyone that's been online for very long knows exactly what I'm talking about. The search engine's, with Google leading the way, are determined to provide their users with the best, most relevant experience that they can possibly provide, so if you've been "spinning cobwebs" of crud and trying to make a few bucks, your days are numbered.

The Pro's of Pay Per Click advertising are that you can have an ad up and running in as little as 10-15 minutes, once you have your account set up. Once you get a good idea of what you're doing you can be running multiple ad campaigns, testing new headlines for web pages AND sales letters that can be used on or OFFline. Pay Per Click has practically changed the face of the way advertising works, both on and off the internet, for those "in the know". It has allowed an average person to run a business from a small room in their home and compete with the largest companies around the world. Some people make 100% of their incomes from Pay Per Click advertising methods and others make extraordinary incomes.

The Con's of Pay Per Click are that it costs money, in some cases, a lot of money, unless you learn to use it properly. When Google first came out with Adwords it was easy to throw up an ad and get traffic that was relatively cheap. As a matter of fact, until last year, ads only costed a nickel per click for the end position if there were less than eight advertisers on the page. Not so anymore. Google now charges a designated amount for each keyword and phrase, some of which can be extremely expensive. With the explosion of it's popularity, it has also become extremely competitive.

Summary - Pay Per Click advertising is still one of the best, most profitable methods of advertising available. However, if you do not get the proper education before you jump into this snake pit, you could waste a lot of money and get little in return.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - This is a method in which you use keyword phrases and relevant content in order to compete for the free listings the search engines offer. The competition for phrases like "dog training", "life insurance", "internet marketing" and other similar high traffic phrases are nearly impossible to even rank for. However there are literally millions of terms that get less traffic, but they have little if any competition. If you're willing to roll up your sleeves and go to work, you can potentially dominate small markets. Also, many of these less traveled keywords are what is known as "long tailed". There has been confusion about this term for many people and I'd like to finally clear this up as to what "long tail" means. This does not refer to any term that is 4-5 or more words long, it refers to terms that are this long that are "buying phrases". That comes directly from SEO expert, Jerry West.

The Pro's of SEO are that you can get free traffic, if you are willing to work for it. This is where you could have a huge advantage over most people because they're lazy and aren't motivated enough to do what it takes to succeed.

The Con's of SEO are that it not only takes a lot of work, but it can also take months before your pages are indexed by the search engines. There are methods that you can use, that are ethical, to make this happen much faster, but for someone that is new to SEO, you'll be at a serious disadvantage. Also, because SEO is free, you will have competition for the first page of your chosen keywords, so even if you are willing to work it still won't be a cake walk.

Summary - I recommend that you diversify your marketing efforts to include both Pay Per Click and Search Engine Optimization methods. This way you're getting traffic from two different sources, you're getting immediate traffic from Pay Per Click advertising and you're also investing in your future interests with SEO. There are people making enormous sums of money with first page rankings for both SEO and PPC.

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Thursday, May 03, 2007

Internet Marketing A Very Personal Journey

Today someone will take their first steps toward making a fortune.

Today someone will be content to make a living.

Today someone will debut a website with inadequate focus. This 'someone' may fail.

Today someone will make the hard decision to stop conducting online business.

Today someone will decide there is something they can do to save their business – and do it.

Where are you – today?

The role of Internet marketing encompasses so many different disciplines it can intimidate many online businesses. Some business owners feel fortunate to get their online business operational. The thought of learning various Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, integrating various marketing applications and the many hours that might be needed to get the word out can leave the heartiest business owner with a feeling of defeat or inadequacy.

The first step in any online business is quality research. You need to understand whom you are targeting, what their spending habits are, what they like and how your product fits within those questions.

Once you define a product and customer demographic you begin the process of letting this audience know you exist and your business site has what they need, how they need it and when they need it.

In times of desperation it is tempting to simply develop something quickly in the hopes it will result in a quick return on investment. The problem with this approach is the distinct lack of focus. This doesn't mean the business if doomed to failure, but it will require a major regrouping effort that will seek to answer the questions of target, spending habits of target and the personal preferences of target. Once these questions are answered a solid marketing strategy needs to be put in place.

When it comes to Internet business, marketing cannot be an afterthought. Internet marketing is vital to online success. There are many creative ways to develop a marketing presence, but you will need to master reputable techniques that can constantly and consistently get your message out to a global audience.

This may mean Pay per Click (PPC) advertising, but it also means effective SEO strategies for long-term assistance. You should work at web branding your online business and develop effective ways to both link building and traffic generation. You will need to make sure your site is infused with knowledge-based content and is easy to navigate.

Today someone will take their first steps toward making a fortune. Is that someone you?

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Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Basic Search Engine Optimization Services

Stripping It Out: Website and Market Analysis

One of the most important phases in Search Engine Optimization is the website analysis. This is when the SEO consultant reviews all the code, looking for code spamming, non-conventional tags, and principal ways to minimize it as much as possible in order to maximize the site content within the HTML code.

It is recommended that you have your site evaluated by a professional SEO consultant who knows exactly what to look for from a technical perspective. For instance, search engine spiders don't index Flash, don't see embedded text in images, and most importantly, they do not handle frames and dynamic content very well. Dynamic content can be invisible to search engines unless treated properly. A knowledgeable SEO consultant will identify and correct these potential problems.

It All Starts Here: Keyword Search Analysis

A critical part of the Search Engine Optimization process is the identification of relevant keywords and phrases. Keyword Analysis is a highly specialized and time consuming process of selecting the best search terms to use on your site. These key words are selected based on site goals, the term's relevance to the website content, popularity among the search users, and the strength of your competitors. If a SEO company does not provide Keyword Analysis, or ask you to provide your keywords, stay away from them.

It is very important to use the right amount of keywords for your website; an average of two keywords per relevant pages is recommended. Once your SEO consultant has identified a meaningful list of terms, this list will be sent to you for approval. Experienced SEO consultants can then strategically place the terms on relevant pages of your website coding and content. Savvy SEO consultants also know what the spiders are looking for when indexing search engine databases and will revise the HTML coding and page layout as an added protection for your website.

Content: Still the King

Yes, that is right; meaningful content rules your rankings, but most important, it is what keeps visitors on your website. A skillful SEO consultant will review the content on your website and insert relevant keywords into your copy, following search engine guidelines and keeping the keyword density within limits (too many keywords on a page can be considered spamming). Google and other search engines recommend creating a page for every topic, using links to explain off-topic items. The ideal scenario is to optimize each page for one keyword with one main keyword that follows the search tail.

Carla Reis


President


Quest Quality Solutions


http://www.questqualitysolutions.com/

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Tuesday, May 01, 2007

10 Ways to Instantly Boost Your Conversion Rate

Increasing a website's sales is just a matter of getting more traffic and/or improving the sales process. Testing allows you to tweak your sales copy by trying new things and seeing what works best.

Unfortunately, testing takes time and you probably don't want to spend that time testing things that don't work. So here are some proven test results of mine that should give you the most bang for your buck (time).

One thing you should always keep in mind is that what works for one market or sales letter may not work for another, so it's important to test every change you make to your sales page.

Here are some results, (the ones I can remember) that have boosted my conversion rate…

1. Use a dark blue background on your website. The color code is #003399 I think. I've tested this many times and every time it has beaten a white or light grey background.

2. Make your headline Black not Red. Red has always lost against Black in my tests.

4. Make your sales page's Table Width between 65 and 70 percent. Thin text is easier to read than wide text.

5. Use a little "Satisfaction 100% Guaranteed" picture in your guarantee. Did I mention you should put your guarantee in a table with a different background color from the rest of the website to make it stand out?

6. Test different PS's because they are one of the most read parts of a sales letter. Try using it to reinforce a deadline, justify the price, or reiterate your guarantee.

7. Add a picture of your product to your sales letter. My tests have shown this to increase conversion rates in most cases.

8. Try adding some audio at the beginning of your sales letter. Something as simple as paraphrasing the first few paragraphs of your sales letter can and has boosted conversions by over 200%.

9. Try adding Video near the top of your sales letter. This is still new territory but early results look very promising.

10. Prices ending with 7 tend to out sell others. This isn't true in all cases and can be tough to figure out, but as a general rule $29.97 will often outsell $29.95.

OK, there ya go… Ten things you can test right now that will almost certainly increase your conversion rate.

Don't forget to test them though (individually), because nothing is an absolute in this business. There may be general rules but there are always exceptions.

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