Archive for October, 2007

Ahh…Affiliate Marketing. This is how many people with online businesses make their living. So, what exactly is affiliate marketing and how does it work?

Affiliate marketing, in a nutshell, is when a website owner promotes other people’s products for and receives compensation (commissions) for doing so. Think of a car salesman to help grasp the concept. The company who makes the cars puts them on a car lot and the hires salesman to make the sale. Once that occurs the salesman then makes a commission on the sale.

Like the car salesman who doesn’t take the cars home at night, affiliate marketers do not keep an inventory of the products they promote. Nor do they determine the sales price or handle any of the actual sales. They simply promote the products in various ways that make their customers want to buy. The product owner handles everything else including giving their affiliates promotional tools and tips to help them.

Here are a few tips to help you make the most of an affiliate marketing business.

Goals are very important when it comes to the success or failure of your business. Why are they so important? Goals act as a roadmap for you to follow. They let you know where you are going, and if you are getting there on time. You wouldn’t get in your car and start driving without having a destination planned out, so why would you approach your business that way?

All goals should have a few things in common. A goal should define what you are trying to accomplish and when you want to accomplish it by. Goals should be realistic and there should be a way to measure them. All goals should be written down and available for viewing on a regular basis. Simply writing the goal down will significantly increase you odds of achieving it and having it displayed as a visual reminder will also help motivate you.

Even if you have never taken the time to set goals for your business, you are actually very familiar with the process. At some point in your life, you have more than likely taken out a pen and paper and mapped out a plan for accomplishing some type of task. Writing out goals for your business is no different than writing out your grocery list.

Having outside links coming in to your website is very important when it comes to increasing your site’s traffic. Think of these links as doors or entry points. The more links you have, the more “open doors” your site has to welcome visitors.

A quick and easy way to increase the number of incoming links to your site is to add these links to your blog. You can add links to articles and other helpful information that you have featured on your site.

You can also add incoming links to your site in the signature lines of forums that you are a member of. Many people will read your posts and click on the links to see what your site is all about.

Writing articles and adding them to article reprint directories will also help you increase the number of your site’s incoming links. When you write an article, you can include a section at the end that tells the reader a bit about yourself and you can include a link to your site. Each time a website owner or blogger publishes one of your articles, an incoming link to your site is added.

People love the prospect of winning a prize and that is why contests are a great way to gain publicity. Another reason that contests are great for publicity is that you can create buzz for your business before, during, and after the contest. You can use a contest to gain exposure for a product or service that you offer, or to create general traffic to your website.

When deciding what type of contest to have, take a look at the type of business you have and who your target market is. If your goal is to create traffic for a website devoted to cooking, you can hold a “worst cooking disaster” contest where entrants can write in about their biggest kitchen mishap. If you have an information product on a subject related to babies, hold a “pretty baby contest” where contestants can send in a picture of their infant.

You’ve bought a domain name for your business, but what next? As an aspiring Internet marketing business owner, you know that hosting for your web site is essential in order to gain a presence online.

Without it, your domain is only as good as the paper the name is written on. So, what is hosting? Why is it necessary and how do you know which hosting company to choose for your business.

In order for your web site to appear on the Internet to those who enter your web site address (domain), you must have the site hosted on a server. In other words, you need to rent space from a web host in order for your site to be displayed to Internet users. There are many different types of hosting, but for the beginner we suggest using a paid virtual hosting option.

Virtual hosting companies have web space that they allocate to their customers. They will assign you a set amount of space on their server for storing your web site files.

By hosting your website this way you don’t have the high cost of having your own dedicated server, but you aren’t stuck with restrictions and advertisements that tend to come with free hosting companies.

Some people mistakenly believe that work at home moms have it easy and that there is no reason why they can’t “get it all done.” These people do not understand the challenges that work at home moms face.

Moms that work outside the home can leave the office and focus on their family, and when they are at the office they can focus on their work.  Work at home moms need to find a way to blend both of those worlds into the same four walls.

Here are some time management tips for work at home moms:

* Define your business hours and let your clients and family know what they are.  When you are working, let your family know that you need some quiet time to get your work done.  When it is “closing” time, feel free to shut the office door and enjoy your family.  Your client can wait until tomorrow for you to return their phone call.

Product Name: Unleashing Web 2.0: From Concepts to Creativity
Rating: 8
Where to buy: http://www.amazon.com

Description: This book is a wonderful guide to Web 2.0. It takes you from how it came to be to how you can understand it and use it for yourself.

Review: Web 2.0 is scary to most people. It is new, exciting, confusing and more. This book will help you wade through all of that and begin to understand the meaning of Web 2.0 and where it can take you in the future.

I want to start my own online business but have no idea where to begin. I started checking around and found that where I needed to look was in the future. That’s how I came across this book. Boy was I happy.

It starts out with a history of the web. Tells you in very basic terms how it started and what it is all about. This was wonderful for me, as I knew very little about the details of it.

Product Name: Technorati
Rating: 8
Where to find: Technorati.com

Description: If you have a blog, either work related or personal, and you want people to know it’s out there then Technorati is for you. Technorati indexes your blog so it can be easily found and used.

Review: Most of us have seen blogs and know what they are. Many of us have thought about setting up a blog but wonder how we can get it out there for the world to see. I know that has been my thoughts. My friends and family would know about it but how would anyone else know? Technorati can help you with that.

When you register with Technorati they will keep track of your blog. I was impressed by how they were able to let me know who was looking at my blog, what they were saying and how it affected my blog and business.

I was able to stay in touch with other weblogs. Some of the authors were very influential to my business. In fact I learned alot about blogs and how they can help me in my line of work.

Product Name: Stumble Upon
Rating: 7
Where to buy: Stumbleupon.com

Description: Have you always wanted to know how this person found this or that on the Internet? Stumble Upon tool bar and site can help you find out how, when, why and where they did it.

Stumble Upon tool bar is a download tool bar that will go right into your browser to help you find the right and most current sites, pictures, people, videos and much much more.

Review: I found Stumble Upon through the thirty-day challenge I was doing. They requested we go to the site and download the tool bar. At first I thought it was just a bunch of junk kind of like a forum or a chat room. Due to the fact they thought it was something we might need and use I went ahead and downloaded it. Once I was signed up and had the toolbar I realized it was much more than what I first thought.

I discovered that Stumble Upon could help me find websites and get me to the best and most current sites. By looking for my interest I could talk with other people who have the same interest and find out what sites they felt gave them the best information.

Product Name: “Sterling Inner Circle” by Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero
Submitted by: Susanne Myers; Fort Mill, SC
Rating: 7
Where to buy: http://www.red-hot-copy.com/sterling.htm

Description: This is a mastermind group of people who are interested in learning more about writing great copy. Each month, Lorrie has a new conference call that focuses on a specific aspect of copy writing from crafting a grabbing headline to creating an offer your visitor cannot refuse. She also brings on other copy writing and marketing experts for some of the calls. Recordings of the call as well as handouts when appropriate and transcripts of the calls are provided each month.

The other essential part of this mastermind community is an active
members-only forum all about copy writing where Lorrie and her team are available to answer questions, discuss copy and review sites.

Review: As is the case with many mastermind learning groups that you enter a few months into their launch, the sheer volume of resources and message posts that have accumulated so far can be a bit overwhelming. What should I learn first, and how do I get through all these forum posts since there are some real gems of information buried in there. While a bit overwhelming it is a good problem to have.

Product Name: The Online Copywriter’s Handbook : Everything You Need to Know to Write Electronic Copy That Sells
Rating: 8
Where to buy: http://www.amazon.com

Description: The Online Copywriter’s Handbook shows you how to write copy for online marketers that will hit home. It tells you the way it is in writing on The Web and how it differs from normal market writing. It will give you the ins and outs to make your copywriting jump out and make people take notice.

Review: This book is a must have if you are even considering doing copywriting on the Web. When I first thought about doing this I thought hey I can write so I should be okay. This was not true at all. As I found out the way marketers look at things in a Web sense is very different from the way we look at it from the outside world. This book helped me to see that and showed me how to make the changes so my business would work.

I found this book to be a well-written guide. It shows you tips on how to write well. It also shows you things you do that cause your copywriting to go unnoticed and how to avoid those types of things. The practical ideas on how to write were extremely helpful to me.

Product Name: Get Messages Read by Jimmy D. Brown
Submitted by: Susanne Myers; Fort Mill, SC
Rating: 8
Where to buy: http://www.getemailresults.com/

Description: Did you know that less than 10% of your newsletter & ecourse subscribers might actually be reading your email messages that you send? So, the question on your mind is probably, “How can I increase that number?”

The answer is by reading Jimmy D. Brown’s Get Messages Read course and implementing what’s inside.

Jimmy has created this 74 page easily digestible course about how to get your email messages opened and read. It’s a pdf file with 24 ways you can make more money from your list.

Review: What this course will teach you is how to get your subscribers to read and respond to every mailing you send to them.

My recommendation is to print out the course after purchasing it, and plans to read and implement one item each day. As Jimmy would be the first to tell you, reading his course won’t help you, unless you take action.