Do an Internet search and chances are you will find yourself at an affiliate marketing site. Affiliate marketing has really taken off over the past few years. Some affiliate marketing sites work and some don’t. Some disappear before they really have a chance to take off (1-3 years). Here are a few common mistakes that are made by new affiliate marketers.
• Study the affiliate marketing program that you are considering signing up for. Hugh commissions mean nothing if you can’t make a sale. Pick an affiliate marketing program that meshes with your area of expertise. It will be easier to write content for a site you have a passion for. In the long run, you’ll make a lot more money than with a product you know nothing about.
• If you have an email sign up on your site, use it wisely. Make sure the emails that you send out have helpful information. DON’T SPAM. Yes, you want your affiliate links in the email but take the time necessary to set it up so it doesn’t look like spam. If it does, you’ll annoy your subscribers and you’ll start losing them.
• Write original content. There is lots of public domain affiliate marketing copy out there but don’t copy and paste it into your site. Rewrite it and add something worthwhile to it. Make sure your content is unique.
It is common to make mistakes when starting up. It is going to happen. Take the opportunity and learn from your mistakes.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Thursday, August 21, 2008
There's More to Life Than Google
If you market online, you may think that SEO (search engine optimization) is the only ways to get traffic. Most people, when you mention the words ‘search engine’ think only of the big three: Google, Yahoo and MSN. The names of these search engines have become so interchangeable, that they’ve become verbs in our vocabulary: Why don’t you just Google it?
There are many more search engines than just these three. In fact, there are hundreds of search engines. If you focus your marketing strategy to just Yahoo, Google and MSN, you could potentially be missing 30% of daily online searches.
Among alternative search engines are niche engines, meta-search engines and there are some that are even human driven. Niche engines, as you might guess from the name, focus on one item, like blogs or articles. DogPile and Widow are two examples of meta-search engines. Mahalo and DMOZ are examples of human driven search engines where the site is a directory edited by humans for the best content. Since these search engines have high page ranks, they should also be marketed to.
For any number of reasons, sometimes personal, sometimes political, there are Internet searchers that do not want to use Google. Yes, Google is very popular. But it most definitely is not the only search engine out there. The perception that Google is ‘the’ search engine turns off a lot of people and thus you lose the opportunity to reach those potential customers if you focus your site towards Google.
Which brings up SEO. A lot of time and money is spent researching the right keywords to bring traffic to a site. And what is interesting is that this can all be a waste of time. Customers are becoming very savvy and are getting tired of reading keyword loaded sites. Customers are reacting negatively to sites where SEO and keyword density determined the search rank.
Then consider the spiders which are crawling all over the Internet. All over? Not really. For even the largest search engine it is impossible to cover the entire Internet. (See Wikipedia article).
When considering the amount of material that a spider needs to crawl, by the time it is finished, a good portion of the information could be outdated. Pages may have been deleted. Or new information added. If using just one search engine, spiders are not the best means for finding good results. It’s also not very cost effective. This is where the meta-search engines fit in, searching and gathering results from more than one search engine.
The two best know meta-search engines are probably dogpile.com and (spider)widow.com. When doing market research for product and keywords, keep in mind search engines such as these. Try to rank in one of these meta-search or smaller niche search engines. If you can, then you’ll have a better opportunity of making contact with one of the almost 30% of Internet users who do not use Yahoo, Google or MSN.
While the number of people you will reach through the smaller search engines is certainly a lot less than the number who might find you through Google, they are more likely to be the customers you are looking for who will buy your product. Your goal is to reach the quality site visitors. And you can do that by not centering your marketing strategy around one search engine.
There are many more search engines than just these three. In fact, there are hundreds of search engines. If you focus your marketing strategy to just Yahoo, Google and MSN, you could potentially be missing 30% of daily online searches.
Among alternative search engines are niche engines, meta-search engines and there are some that are even human driven. Niche engines, as you might guess from the name, focus on one item, like blogs or articles. DogPile and Widow are two examples of meta-search engines. Mahalo and DMOZ are examples of human driven search engines where the site is a directory edited by humans for the best content. Since these search engines have high page ranks, they should also be marketed to.
For any number of reasons, sometimes personal, sometimes political, there are Internet searchers that do not want to use Google. Yes, Google is very popular. But it most definitely is not the only search engine out there. The perception that Google is ‘the’ search engine turns off a lot of people and thus you lose the opportunity to reach those potential customers if you focus your site towards Google.
Which brings up SEO. A lot of time and money is spent researching the right keywords to bring traffic to a site. And what is interesting is that this can all be a waste of time. Customers are becoming very savvy and are getting tired of reading keyword loaded sites. Customers are reacting negatively to sites where SEO and keyword density determined the search rank.
Then consider the spiders which are crawling all over the Internet. All over? Not really. For even the largest search engine it is impossible to cover the entire Internet. (See Wikipedia article).
When considering the amount of material that a spider needs to crawl, by the time it is finished, a good portion of the information could be outdated. Pages may have been deleted. Or new information added. If using just one search engine, spiders are not the best means for finding good results. It’s also not very cost effective. This is where the meta-search engines fit in, searching and gathering results from more than one search engine.
The two best know meta-search engines are probably dogpile.com and (spider)widow.com. When doing market research for product and keywords, keep in mind search engines such as these. Try to rank in one of these meta-search or smaller niche search engines. If you can, then you’ll have a better opportunity of making contact with one of the almost 30% of Internet users who do not use Yahoo, Google or MSN.
While the number of people you will reach through the smaller search engines is certainly a lot less than the number who might find you through Google, they are more likely to be the customers you are looking for who will buy your product. Your goal is to reach the quality site visitors. And you can do that by not centering your marketing strategy around one search engine.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Google Adsense by Referral
Just a quickie update here.
For those that don't already know, Google Adsense by Referrals is going away at the end of August. If you use those ads on your site, you need to start looking for replacements.
So far I've found two that I think have potential to work, at least for me.
They are NeverblueAds and RevResponse. You might want to sign up and check them out for your own use.
For those that don't already know, Google Adsense by Referrals is going away at the end of August. If you use those ads on your site, you need to start looking for replacements.
So far I've found two that I think have potential to work, at least for me.
They are NeverblueAds and RevResponse. You might want to sign up and check them out for your own use.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
I've Joined International Oddities' Affiliate Program
I've been looking for another affiliate program to add to my growing list. I'm focusing on affiliate programs that have multiple tiers that I can benefit from, like MoreNiche because it has a high percentage payout on sales from my referrals.
And that's why I've decided to be an affiliate of International Oddities. It pays on referral sales 7 (that's SEVEN!) levels down!
Commissions are, minimum, 40% per sale. That's the highest paying commission rate for any legal bud affiliate program. Sales average over $100. With those kind of sales and that commission rate there is certainly the potential for making lots of money with International Oddities.
With the publicity from Pineapple Express, interest in herbal smoking products is definitely on the rise. With a 25 year history, they are the leader in the herbal smoking market with products that are sold worldwide and are legal in all 5o states.
Sign up now with International Oddities and get your share of this growing market.
And that's why I've decided to be an affiliate of International Oddities. It pays on referral sales 7 (that's SEVEN!) levels down!
Commissions are, minimum, 40% per sale. That's the highest paying commission rate for any legal bud affiliate program. Sales average over $100. With those kind of sales and that commission rate there is certainly the potential for making lots of money with International Oddities.
With the publicity from Pineapple Express, interest in herbal smoking products is definitely on the rise. With a 25 year history, they are the leader in the herbal smoking market with products that are sold worldwide and are legal in all 5o states.
Sign up now with International Oddities and get your share of this growing market.
Friday, August 8, 2008
Get Inbound Links With Articles
But more importantly, if you do it right, you could become a recognized expert on your topic.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when writing articles for submission:
1.) The article needs to be factual and helpful. It needs to provide quality information and value to the reader. An article that is strictly a sales pitch is obvious to the majority of readers and won’t give the desired results.
2.) Read the rules of the article site before submitting. Don’t waste your and the editor’s time with incorrectly submitted articles.
3.) Write with a casual tone. It is much easier to read an article written with a conversational style. Be sure to check spelling and grammar. After all, it will have your name on it and it will represent you.
4.) Watch your length. Count the words. Most article sites have word count minimums and some have a maximum. Usually, once you get up to about 1200 words, it’s time to split the information into two separate articles.
5.) You tell what needs to be told in your article. Your bio should be short with a brief introduction of yourself and the use of one or two of your keywords. And those keywords should be used as anchor text for linking back to your site.
6.) Last but not least, unique content!! Do not post duplicate content to multiple article sites. Rewrite at least 1/3 of the article before submitting again.
For me, the last part is the hardest. I prefer to just write multiple articles, each on its own unique topic. But even that can be difficult as I search for topics. One way I made it easier for myself was by signing up with MoreNiche.
MoreNiche is a great site for affiliate marketers as it provides many needed tools including pre-written article content. Pick your product, do a quick rewrite on the articles, and you are ready to go!
Here are a few things to keep in mind when writing articles for submission:
1.) The article needs to be factual and helpful. It needs to provide quality information and value to the reader. An article that is strictly a sales pitch is obvious to the majority of readers and won’t give the desired results.
2.) Read the rules of the article site before submitting. Don’t waste your and the editor’s time with incorrectly submitted articles.
3.) Write with a casual tone. It is much easier to read an article written with a conversational style. Be sure to check spelling and grammar. After all, it will have your name on it and it will represent you.
4.) Watch your length. Count the words. Most article sites have word count minimums and some have a maximum. Usually, once you get up to about 1200 words, it’s time to split the information into two separate articles.
5.) You tell what needs to be told in your article. Your bio should be short with a brief introduction of yourself and the use of one or two of your keywords. And those keywords should be used as anchor text for linking back to your site.
6.) Last but not least, unique content!! Do not post duplicate content to multiple article sites. Rewrite at least 1/3 of the article before submitting again.
For me, the last part is the hardest. I prefer to just write multiple articles, each on its own unique topic. But even that can be difficult as I search for topics. One way I made it easier for myself was by signing up with MoreNiche.
MoreNiche is a great site for affiliate marketers as it provides many needed tools including pre-written article content. Pick your product, do a quick rewrite on the articles, and you are ready to go!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Is Affiliate Marketing The Same As MLM?
Briefly the answer is no.
To answer this more fully it is important to know what MLM is. MLM stands for multi-level marketing. It is basically a pyramid scheme, which, in most cases, is illegal. Someone starts at the top (level 1) of a pyramid and sells something to level 2. Those in level 2 now need to sell to level 3 members. When that happens, level 1 makes a commission on the sale. This continues through multiple levels, with levels above earning a commission on the sale. At some point (the bottom of the pyramid) there are so many people trying to sell the product that the market is just about worn out. So they are stuck, having paid for a product they can’t sell, while those above have made money.
Affiliate marketing does not even remotely resemble MLM marketing. With affiliate marketing, the marketer is being paid to sell another site’s product. The marketer does not have to buy the product first. All they need to do is advertise the product and promote the product. The interested site visitor is directed to the site selling the product. If a purchase is made, the site directing the traffic is paid a commission.
What causes some confusion is that there is multi-level affiliate marketing. What clearly differentiates multi-level affiliate marketing from an MLM is that each level in an MLM has to buy the product in order to resell it. That is not the case with multi-level affiliate marketing. One site directs traffic to another site, which directs traffic to a third site. If a purchase is made, the directing sites are paid a commission. Multi-level affiliate marketing is just another way to drive traffic and create revenue. At the very end, the customer (hopefully) makes their purchase and the directing and selling site make money.
To answer this more fully it is important to know what MLM is. MLM stands for multi-level marketing. It is basically a pyramid scheme, which, in most cases, is illegal. Someone starts at the top (level 1) of a pyramid and sells something to level 2. Those in level 2 now need to sell to level 3 members. When that happens, level 1 makes a commission on the sale. This continues through multiple levels, with levels above earning a commission on the sale. At some point (the bottom of the pyramid) there are so many people trying to sell the product that the market is just about worn out. So they are stuck, having paid for a product they can’t sell, while those above have made money.
Affiliate marketing does not even remotely resemble MLM marketing. With affiliate marketing, the marketer is being paid to sell another site’s product. The marketer does not have to buy the product first. All they need to do is advertise the product and promote the product. The interested site visitor is directed to the site selling the product. If a purchase is made, the site directing the traffic is paid a commission.
What causes some confusion is that there is multi-level affiliate marketing. What clearly differentiates multi-level affiliate marketing from an MLM is that each level in an MLM has to buy the product in order to resell it. That is not the case with multi-level affiliate marketing. One site directs traffic to another site, which directs traffic to a third site. If a purchase is made, the directing sites are paid a commission. Multi-level affiliate marketing is just another way to drive traffic and create revenue. At the very end, the customer (hopefully) makes their purchase and the directing and selling site make money.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Pepperjam Network
Yes, this is going to be a lot shorter post than I normally write. But I wanted to let all of you know about Pepperjam Network.
Pepperjam Network is a relatively new and upcoming affiliate site. It is LOADED with advertisers, some unique to Pepperjam.
The site was developed by affiliates for affiliates. The communication is top notch and the technology is great.
If you already have a site and are looking for new companies to promote, then check out Pepperjam Network.
Pepperjam Network is a relatively new and upcoming affiliate site. It is LOADED with advertisers, some unique to Pepperjam.
The site was developed by affiliates for affiliates. The communication is top notch and the technology is great.
If you already have a site and are looking for new companies to promote, then check out Pepperjam Network.
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