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Opt-In List - How To Grab Your Readers Attention With Your Subject

2011-11-10T11:34:00.000-08:00

The race for supremacy in the internet based businesses has been really heating up and many sites have been put up to help others to get ahead for a small fee.

But there are also ways in which you don't have to pay so much to make yourself a good list of loyal followers. Having a satisfied web traffic and visitors allows you to put up a foundation wherein you can build an opt-in list and make it grow from there.

An opt-in list allows you to provide newsletters to your subscribers with their consent. When people sign up, they know that they will be receiving updates and news from your site and the industry you represent via an e-mail. But that doesn't mean that all of those who subscribe read them at all.

Many lists have been built due to an attachment with free software or for a promotional discount and such. Some are not really interested in receiving e-mails from companies and just treat them as waste of cyberspace and delete or trash them without so mush as opening the e-mail and scanning them.

You can change all that. While forwarding an email message is relatively after producing your newsletter. Getting people to open them is not as easy.

You don't want to waste all the time and effort used in making the newsletters, you want people to read them and have their interests piqued. Interested enough to go to your website and look around and most especially purchased and acquire your products or services.

One of the numerous ways you can tempt or persuade your subscriber is by providing a well thought out and well written subject.

The subject of an email is what is often referred to when a person or a recipient of an email decides whether he or she wants to open or read an e-mail. The subject could easily be regarded as one of the most important aspect of your promotional e-mail.

Your subject must be short and concise. They should provide a summary for the content of the e-mail so that the recipient will have basic knowledge of the content. This is really vital in grabbing the attention of your readers and subscribers.

You want your subject to instantly grab the attention of your subscriber and get them to be intrigued to open up your mail. Remember, it is not necessarily true that a subscriber opens up subscribed mails.

A good subject must always be tickling the curiosity of your recipient. It must literally force the recipient to open the mail. A certain emotion must be ignited and get them to open the mail.

It is essential to use specific words to get the reaction you need. Keep in mind that the recipient or subscribers spends only a few seconds looking over each subject of the e-mails he receives. You must grab your reader's attention right away.

There are many forms you can use for your subject. You can provide a subject that says your e-mail contains content that teaches them tips and methods on certain topics. An example of this is using keywords and keyword phrases such as, "How to" , "tips", "Guides to", Methods in and others like that.

You can also put your subject in a question form. These may include questions like, "Are you sick and tired of your job?" Or "Is your boss always on your case?" Try to stay on the topic that pertains to your site so that you'll know that your subscribers have signed up because they are interested in that topic. This form of subject is very effective because they reach out to your recipients emotions. When they have read the question on your subject, their mind starts answering the question already.

You can also use a subject that commands your reader. Statements such as "Act now and get this once in a lifetime opportunity", or "Double, triple and even quadruple what you are earning in one year". This type of subject deals with the benefits your company provides with your product and services.

You may also use breaking news as your subject to intrigue your subscriber. For example, if you deal with car engine parts you can write in your subject, "Announcing the new engine that uses no gasoline, It runs on water". This creates curiosity with the reader and will lead them to open the mail and read on.

Do You Really Believe That Your 'Make Money Online' Niche Is Too Saturated?

2011-11-10T11:21:00.000-08:00

One niche that often gets criticized by people in Internet Marketing circles is the online opportunity seeker niche or the make money online crowd. The rationale given by them is that this niche is too saturated or extremely hard to break into. After all, it has been in existence almost as long as there's been an Internet since the late 1990's.

What is A "Good" Niche?
I would say a good niche is one in which you can profit from. Some can be a little odd, while others are small. But if you can generate sales and your business is making profits, it is considered a good niche for your bank account.

Saturated Niche
A saturated niche like make money online is not necessarily bad. It is more important to find good products that sell phenomenally and isn't likely to stop anytime. Yes even in a very saturated niche. Although finding good products may be a challenge for you, do not forget that the prospective buyer never sees the product until he buys it, so quality isn't really the entire picture.

What's A Good Website?
I am assuming that you do promote your products aggressively and consistently using your website. I have decided to list some types of websites which I think may possibly hurt your business advertising efforts e.g. Google Adwords:

Websites without Privacy Policy;
Websites containing pop-up windows;
Websites which look confusing;
Websites which force user to provide email address before being allowed to move to next page.

On the other hand, a good quality, profitable website should at least contain:

Contact us page, which allows the user to contact the website creator or support; Money Back Guarantee, as it is a known fact that such websites sell better.

Are you therefore satisfied with how your website looks? Remember sometimes a simple webpage which is captivating may just be the answer to some of your traffic problems you currently have. If you visit traffic exchanges (you ought to), also bear in mind that the visitors you get from these exchanges are always in a hurry. You will only have a few seconds to capture a visitor's attention and pull them into your offer.

So, before you pass judgment on the make money online niche as overly saturated and impossible to break into this market, it may be wise to firstly make an objective assessment of the situation. Do take stock of any business opportunities you may otherwise have lost, while making a wrong decision. After all, this niche may well turn out to be the gold mine for your make money online business.

Using Article Directories for SEO - An Overview

2011-11-10T11:14:00.000-08:00

Click on the 'play' button in the video to get some interesting insights on how to use article directories to increase web presence.

Making Money With Articles Posted On Article Directories

2011-11-10T10:10:00.000-08:00

Article directories are websites that house free articles. These articles are usually put there by whoever owns the copyright to them as a promotion method. Each article has the owners byline placed under it so that those who eventually read the article will know who wrote it (or at least who owns it) and will be able to get in contact with or visit their website for further information.

Articles directories are a great place to put your articles so that they will make you money. By using this method, people who are interested in your product or service will see your article, view you as an expert in the subject, and will visit your website.
Even if you cannot write or do not have any knowledge on the subject on which you are promoting (for example if you have an affiliate website), you can always hire a writer to do the work for you. Getting quality articles written will be expensive up front, but they will pay for themselves in no time, either through affiliate sales or selling your own services, and everything from then on is pure profit.

Let’s take a real life example. Imagine that you are an accountant working from home. You write an article on an accounting topic and place it on various article directories. Those who are looking for the subject you wrote about will read your article, see that you have the knowledge and skill that is needed to do a job for them, and visit your website or contact you via e-mail. Your article just gained you a new client who may use your services regularly, but will definitely give you a nice profit at least once.

Furthermore, since you have posted it on a free article directory, others who have affiliate websites about accounting will inevitably use your article for their website. Since they must attach your byline to it, this will bring you even more exposure for every website that re-posts your article. This because you will be benefiting from the traffic that they get to their website.

There are numerous article directories out there for you to utilize. Your bet best is to put a copy of each of your articles on every one for maximum exposure. It will eventually help to bring more traffic and customers to your website, which will lead to new orders and more profit.

Smart Affiliate Marketing-5 Essentials for a Smart Affiliate

2011-10-02T12:54:00.000-07:00

Are you a struggling and frustrated affiliate? Are you tired of spending more money than you are making online? If this is you, I understand your dilemma. There are so many e-books and how-to-programs out there that promise outlandish results. Not all of these programs are rip-offs, but a lot of them are! I have spent my hard earned money on many of these bogus "Overnight Riches" scams. I am sure you are aware of the saying. "If it Sounds to Good to be True it Usually is!" I had to learn the hard way how to become a Smart Affiliate Marketer.

The basics of affiliate marketing are fairly easy. If you are someone who is familiar with these basics, than you know what I mean. If you are new to it, it really is not that hard. There are so many products online you can become an affiliate for. Whether you decide to promote something you are personally interested in, or a product that is "HOT." There is really no lack in options. You just have to find it, become an affiliate, and start promoting!

Finding a product to promote and becoming an affiliate is the easiest part. Promoting is where it can get tricky for some. These marketing "GURUS" out there can make it seem so easy sometimes. They show us their awesome earnings, and tell us we to can make this much money overnight. This is really not true in most cases. Promoting your product takes time, a little money, and some patience! There are many ways you can promote a product. Most of them cost money, but there are some avenues that are completely free. So basically, the bottom line is. Affiliate Marketing can be easy, but you will have to spend some time and a little money to become successful at it. Find the best ways to promote your specific product and you can make good money.

5 Essentials for a Smart Affiliate

1. You must have a website of a blog!

Of course you can always try to promote your product without a website or a blog. You might just make some money too. Having a website or a blog gives you much more opportunity to make money. This way you are not completely relying on PPC ads. Plus, if you have a websiteor blog , you can promote more than one product at a time.

2. Choose the products you pick to promote wisely!

You can pick any product to promote. Yet, you don't want to choose one that is not going to make you any money. I would suggest you choose something that is popular, but not over-promoted.

3. You need to have a list!

Having an email list is essential. So if you don't already have one, get an opt-in box on your website or blog.

4. Take advantage of the affiliate resources the product you are promoting offers!

Most good products or programs to promote have ready made articles, ads, and content for you to use. Utilize these.

5. Don't put all your eggs in one basket!

Promoting only one product gives you less chance to make more money. Promote more than one and you get the chance to see which one sells better.

What you need to do now is take action. Put everything you have done into motion. Once you have your product or products to promote chosen. Join their affiliate program and start promoting. Put together a website or blog based around your chosen niche. Make sure you post to it regularly to keep it fresh with new content. At some point you will want to add an opt-in box onto your site. You can do this by simply by joining an auto responder site. There are many auto responder sites to choose from, so do some research and pick the one that suits your needs best. Creating a list will benefit you tremendously. It will create the opportunity for you to send out future promotions. Easy advertising.

Don't forget to use the resources your affiliate program offers. It is always nice when you don't have to do all the work yourself.

Now that you know 5 essentials for a smart affiliate, you need to put it to action. I want to stress to you that if you keep going and put in just a little effort everyday, you can succeed at this. You can create a successful business at home. You can make more money than you do currently at your day job. I just have one rule, and that is. Don't Give Up! I know it can get so frustrating and confusing. You will have to do a little self teaching, but most of it is very easy after you do it a couple times. Keep a positive attitude and the mindset that you will achieve success.

There are many great programs out there that are very helpful for beginners who are at a loss with what to do next. Also, there are couple of great programs that can help you achieve each of the essential steps I have discussed in this article. So, don't get bummed if you don't make that fortune overnight. It can still be achieved!

Creating Web Copy That Works

2011-09-30T14:08:00.000-07:00

There is bound to be a time when every business will have a low ranking. The precise cause may not be known, but a solution is available. With some effort, any website can be transformed back into the traffic generating machine that it once was. With a little knowledge of how search engines function and by using the right keywords, the damage can be repaired.

To keep with the times, businesses need a web copy writer on board that is highly experienced in SEO (Search Engine Optimized) keywords. If you're creative enough, you can take a stab at it yourself. Use caution though, you want the content to be rich in keywords but not overpowering.

A few tips to consider...

First, whatever you already know about writing, forget. Web copy needs to be written in a conversational style so fragments and sentences ending in prepositions are fine.

Be careful to employ a font that doesn't hurt the eyes of your readers. Fonts like Verdana, Arial, and Times New Roman are good for web copy. And remember, you want the content to flow so that the reader does not get confused and need to reread things.

SEO Guidelines

A good thing to remember when writing SEO copy is that it is better to use less to say more. Many surfers merely scan the content for important points so there is no need for long paragraphs. Leave out any language that makes you sound like an intellectual and just use the basic commands of the English Language.

Paragraphs: at least 3 sentences but not more than 5
Headers: 5-8 words
Sentences: should not exceed 20 words
Total words: 350

The keyword madness appears little more than a cruel joke at times. What exactly are keywords and who uses them anyway? What search engine should I employ?

Yahoo and Google are search engines that employ text (keyword/keyword phrase) that is entered into a search box to find web addresses. So, if you are looking for a gardener, you would enter "gardening service" or perhaps "lawn care provider" into the search engine. The search engine will then scour the web and find all websites associated with those phrases. Keyword positioning on your pages are used to determine how quickly the search engines find your site.

Prior to starting, you want to list all of the words that could possibly be associated with the goods or services sole on your website. These words need to be realistic. A bona fide web copy writer can weave these words in and out of the content so that the copy reads well and is informative at the same time.

You need to make your home page the focal point. Headings should have no fewer than 6 words but not exceed 8. Make sure your keywords appear in the heading but make sense doing so to increase your odds.

Acting as a sales letter, this page needs to be easy to read yet clear and to the point. Introduce your visitor to your business as if you were chatting with a friend. But, fill the content will keywords that flow, weaving in and out of paragraphs.

Big Mistakes

Writing search engine friendly content takes time and practice. The biggest mistake new writers make is jumping into writing SEO web copy without a clear understanding of how keywords work. The pages are full of words that make no sense to the reader, and ultimately result in no hits.

Selling is about educating customers about the benefits of buying from you. Don't waste time on the features, they can learn about them in later pages. People always want to know what is in it for them should they buy from you so this is what you need to concentrate on telling them.

Not editing your web copy properly can also be a huge problem. Grammar errors leave a poor first impression. Rule of thumb is to have a second party review your work, and be consistent!

Web pages are little more than a connected chain of information. Every page prods visitors into probing deeper into your site with the ultimate goal being to convince them to buy from you. If the search engines are not directing people to your site, you will never have a chance to tell people about your great company and what it has to offer them.

TOP 5 MISCONCEPTIONS TO AVOID IN YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

2011-09-30T12:46:00.000-07:00

Online businesses are heading up every day and it is true that any individual could start an online business today. Because of the flexibility and level of growth (and the returns) online businesses are praised by every one.

When it comes to business success, it is really that much flexible. Yes, you have to do lot of work and most important, you have to consider your online business same like the real world business. This is one of the misconception that every individual is having in mind especially in the earlier stage of online business.

These misconceptions are the real killers of your growth and you will be put inside a circle (with low circumference). The end result, your world gets limited and you don’t know the reality in taking your business towards growth.

There are many such misconceptions that every individual as a beginner gets in the business life cycle. In this article, I will take you through those misconceptions which are most common and clearly know, that’s why i call it as Immaculate Conception. Yes, when you live under these misconceptions you could not grow. Though this a negative statement, I don’t bother because you have to understand that you are in a misconception. And you have to come out of it.

In the end of this article, I want you to think that you are doing a real business rather than saying “I am also doing business”.

Misconception #1 : No Need To Work Hard.

Work Hard & Be Kind The beginners mind is so clear that they will accept any thing in the earlier stage.

I mean, there are lot of faulty rumors around the Internet that you could easily make money from it. These are fake get rich schemes which puts you into trouble and you will loose all your money soon. They promise that you don’t need to work hard or you need to work less. If you are seeing such an advice don’t believe it.

You could not build an online business without doing any work. Either you are running a web site or blog, promoting your own product or others product, offering an online service – you have to work harder.

Internet is widely spread with information and services, if you want a place in this Internet world definitely, you have to put yourself before the audience. This doesn’t happens suddenly unless you are a real lucky star – you have to set goals, plan, work out, experiment in order to reach the success path.

Come out of this misconception and keep in mind that, you have to work harder (at least smarter) to run an online business

Misconception #2 : Money Comes Easier (richer mind).

As I mentioned earlier, you could find lot of get rich schemes in Internet where they promise you that “the next day you will make thousands of dollars” and that too without doing much work.

Only way to possible is bank robbery (that too requires lot of work, I believe).

As a beginner, you think that business over Internet is simpler and you could earn a lot with out much work. That’s not true.

Even I had this misconception in the earlier stage, I was in the impression that when I start a blog immediately I will make money. However, when time passed, I realized that we need to do lot of work and more important the right strategies we have to employ. It is tough like the real world business and you must need to plan every thing properly.

Come out of this misconception and keep in mind that, you won’t become sooner with an online based business and it takes time + dedication + right strategies.

Misconception #3 : No Goals and No Plans.

Any activity, when you plan – you will win 50%. This is a general truth. For a business to grow and survey, you need goals in terms of production, turnover, resources, customer management etc. And also, you need a plan to reach those goals. Having a business plan would help you much in this direction.

For an online business, you must forecast all these at every stage of your business which helps in taking better decisions. Without a goal, you are lost “where you are” and without plan, you are lost “how to go”…

Come out of this misconception and keep in mind that, you have to set goals (have reasonable goals) and a short/simple plan to reach that goals – more important: you have to follow the plan (not just planning is enough)

Misconception #4 : Over Expectations (the Killer).

Expectations are the real life killer and when you keep your expectations less/reasonable – your life will be happy (that’s the advice from many saints/priests).

This is also applicable in business. Yes, I am not saying that you should not expect any thing instead, have reasonable expectations and this way, your business life style will be peaceful.

Expectations are the out come of any action towards the goal – so simply, break the goals into expectations (basically, milestones).

Come out of this misconception and keep in mind that, you should have reasonable expectations and not too much.

Misconception #5 : Fake Hypes and Lack of Reality.

Creating fake hypes is one of the dangerous game in business. Faking grabs Peoples attention easily. However, once your mask gets teared – you will be beaten like any thing and definitely, that will happen one day. Be in reality and tell people, what you are doing or what really your business offers.

Always work to add value to your visitors or customers – this way, you gain Trust from others. Once you gained Trust, you could make use of it for any thing right from making money to growing your business higher.

Get out of this misconception and keep in mind that, being real takes you to higher for the long run….

I hope you are clear that, what is really involved in an online business (as an individual) and the immaculate misconceptions to avoid. When you realize and come out of these misconceptions your online business definitely grows more than you expect…..

Which Is The Right Commission Model For You?

2011-09-25T12:12:00.000-07:00

When choosing an affiliate program, the commission offered is - obviously - very important. So is the commission type. Should you choose a program that pays you for every visitor you send their way, so called PPC? Or should you go with the option of sharing the revenue for that particular visitor? Fixed commission or a percentage?

The options are many, there is no general answer to what is best. It’s up to you to decide where to send your visitors, to experiment, evaluate and finally choose one or a few affiliate programs best suited for your needs.

PPC - Paid Per Click

Many affiliate programs offer you a - fixed or varied - commission for every visitor you send their way. Often these programs are similar to Google’s Adsense program, namely contextual advertising. The advantages of this are many, but so are the limitations.

The main advantage is just the contextual bit, the task of placing relevant ads on every page is gone, and all you need to do is choose what program to join. Another great advantage is – because of the flexible nature of these programs, you will only need to join one program, making it easier to reach the payout threshold.

The downside of it all is the revenue. If you can target your visitors, and subsequently what they are looking for, you can make a much larger profit with other types of affiliate programs. But, it WILL require far more work.

PPM - Paid Per Mille

This is roughly the same as PPC, the difference being you get paid for every visitor viewing the ad, they do not have to click it. Many companies, offering contextual advertising, have this option included in their program. The good part about it is the possibility to get paid while visitors stay on your site, instead of referring them to someone else.

This option is most suitable for high traffic web sites. With small quantities of visitors, this rarely adds up to a good profit. It can, however, be a good way of targeting often viewed pages on your site.

PPS - Paid Per Sale

This type of commission is based on the activities of the visitors you refer to the affiliate website. If you send active visitors, who shop a lot, this can be a goldmine compared to PPC and PPM. The type of commission varies as well. It can be a percentage of the sale, a fixed amount per sale/signup or a combination of both.

What to choose is very dependant on your audience, and what category of program you are looking for. In some cases, often with a recurring commission, the option of sharing the revenue, thus getting a percentage of the total order, rake or what have you, will be far better than choosing a fixed amount per sale. The dynamics of percentage vs. revenue sharing will be looked at more deeply later on.

PPL - Paid Per Lead

This is roughly the same as PPS, but you get paid for leads instead of sales. This is a fairly uncommon commission method, but it often applies to specific categories of affiliate programs; Insurance companies, financial institutes and other companies with high priced products in competitive markets.

If you have a site targeting visitors looking for these kinds of products, this can be a highly interesting revenue model for you.

There are other, less common, alternatives. Many of them are individual, and are mainly for very specific niches, or for experienced affiliates.

Choosing An Affiliate Program

2011-09-25T12:05:00.000-07:00

When choosing an affiliate program, you should try to figure out as much you can about your visitors and where they arrive from.

A few things you need to figure out is:

What kind of visitors is your site likely to attract? Age, gender, interests and nationality are all of high importance
Where do they arrive from? Is the major part of your traffic from search engines? Or are you attracting visitors from other sites?
If you have a lot of SE traffic - What search terms are they using to find your site?
In your opinion - Why are your visitors looking at your pages? Are they likely to find what they are looking for?

All of this - and much, much more - are important factors to contemplate before choosing an affiliate program.

If you are getting visitors from a SE - with a term you feel might not be a total match - you have a great opportunity to choose a program based on just that.

If they are arriving to your site - looking for topic A, but finding topic B - they will still be looking for topic A. A banner or text link targeting topic A, will of course convert very well in this situation.

This is an excellent example on where an "off-topic" program will convert better then a program matching your content. Another situation where this is true is when your site is "to good", i.e. you are presenting your visitors with a complete service or product - making it highly unlikely they will click a banner promoting the same services.

Try to use the Affiliate Ranker Search as much as you can - and remember to look at your competitors. It is often a good idea to choose a different affiliate program then your competition - simply because it is less likely your visitors have looked at or clicked your banners before. If you can't come up with any keywords to search for, simply browse the affiliate directory for ideas.

When making a web page designed for affiliate marketing - the potential revenue is of course a very important factor. You should be picky when choosing a program, not settling for less then the best.

Even with Affiliate Ranker Search - This task will take some time.

Do not rush this - This is where your website will make you an income, it IS worth while to fully explore the various choices you have.

When you have decided on one or a few affiliate programs - it is time to choose banners and text links, and learn how to place them for maximal exposure. How and where you place your advertisement will be an important factor in the end.

Branding Yourself As An Affiliate Marketer

2011-09-25T12:00:00.000-07:00

Click on the play button on the video above to gain insightful tips on creating an image for yourself.

Additional Information

To make your website profitable - you need to attract some visitors. While you can drive traffic to your site, paying for it or looking for free visitors, gaining a top position on search engines will often bring your revenue much higher then manually driving traffic.

There are a lot of ways of improving your pages SE position, but the most important factor is inbound links.

The idea behind the importance is - A page with a lot of links pointing to it, should be a page of interest. Why else would people link to it?

While this is very true in theory, most webmasters know this - and are actively looking for more inbound links.

The upside is: It is very easy to get inbound links - joining a link exchange or two, manually looking for relevant pages to swap links with or posting on forums. The possibilities are seemingly endless.

The downside is: It is equally easy for your competitors to find links, making it more and more important for every web page to maximize its inbound links.

You should try to focus on relevant links, i.e. links from pages with similar content - or at least with some connection to your keywords and/or topic.

Relevant links are of the highest importance when search engines decide your final placement.

SEO is a very broad area, but as you learn - it is very easy to implement your newfound knowledge.

No matter how good you get on SEO, it will always take time to gain that precious first page placement on Google. Until you receive enough traffic from the Search engines, it might be worth while to drive some traffic to your pages - the good old fashioned way.

As you wait on your pages to climb the search engines - it is time to try to get some traffic from other areas of the internet.

There are as many ways of bringing traffic as there are sites on the internet - but not all are equally good. The best way would be to find some link exchanges with sites of similar content. Not only would it provide you with some traffic, it would be a very good link pointing to your site.

Another very good thing about exchanging links with similar sites is the quality of traffic received. Visitors originating from a site with content closely related to yours will be more likely to find your site interesting - They have also proved that they are capable of clicking links - they clicked your link - making them more likely to actually click that banner, text link or what ever you are using for your affiliate programs.

While this is a good way of gaining high quality visitors - you might want to try to grab as many visitors as you possibly can. The only thing to keep track of is: Your bandwidth. Be sure to never drive to much traffic to your site at the same time - a slow site, or a site that wont load at all, will make both visitors and SE bots go away.

When you have decided on a plan to attract more visitors - you should focus on choosing an affiliate program.

Google Adwords Tips for Newbies

2011-09-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

I've always felt Google's Site Targeting for AdWords could be a powerful addition to many PPC search campaigns, however I will admit that I haven't really spent as much time with it as I would have liked.

Here are a few tips to help you out:

1.You Must Use Conversion Tracking

If you are not using conversion tracking you are going to be wasting a lot of money. In fact, stay away from site targeting, if you can't track how well it's working for you. If you are running a campaign without tracking, stop everything you are doing and put conversion tracking codes on your site today. I like Google's own home brew the best (Analytics and Conversion Tracking because of how easily it integrates with AdWords.

2. Reports Are Your Friend

The New Placement Performance report helps you see which domains and urls are working for you. In the settings, I recommend choosing a url report instead of a domain report since this give you a break down of which pages are actually working and converting for you. You'll find out that some pages on a domain convert much better than others. This report is probably worth reviewing daily.

3. Watch Out For Rogue Sites

Upon inspection, it turned out that the best converting site in the campaign was also burning a lot of cash. As a whole, the site was converting very well, with lead costs well under requirements. However my Placement Performance report showed that ads on the home page were costing us over $80 a lead. Other sub pages were working so well that the over all lead cost for the domain was under $20. It turns out the site in question was automatically refreshing the home page every few seconds driving costs through the roof. After fixing this issue, by removing our ads from the front page, our lead costs are now less than $4 on most days and the number of leads we get a days is actually up. This fix alone saved the client at least $3000 a month in wasted advertising costs. This saving has now been diverted to the urls that are working the best, so you can imagine ROI is up.

I could go into this topic a bit further, especially advice on how to pick the best sites for site targeting etc. But I'll leave that for another post.

Getting Started - The Road Map

2011-09-24T13:51:00.000-07:00

Before we can get into to meat of the matter about affiliate marketing, we need to know what exactly is this phenomenon. Affiliate Marketing is revenue sharing between online advertisers/merchants and online publishers/salespeople, whereby compensation is based on performance measures, typically in the form of sales, clicks, registrations, or a hybrid model. The advertisers/merchants are typically referred to as affiliate merchants and the publishers/salespeople are referred to as affiliates. Another definition explains it as a popular way to make money online where you have a merchant that is willing to let other people (affiliates) sell his own products or services, in exchange for a commission. Commissions can be fixed or variable, and based on clicks, leads or sales.

What Is In Affiliate Marketing For You?

You do not need to develop your own product. You make money promoting other peoples product.

You have no responsibility for after sales service for the product. This is all handled by the merchant.

You do not deal with shipping or storage or packaging or inventories. Yes, you guessed it right, the merchant deals with all that too.

You can promote one product, several products, drop a product if you are not satisfied with it. You are not tied in to any product.

The Dangers Newbies Face With Affiliate Marketing Without a Plan

Affiliate Marketing sounds good so far doesn't it. However, it can become a frustrating and daunting task without a clear goal or vision. Is it that you're going to create your own products and become a merchant or are you going to promote peoples' products and become an affiliate marketer?

Another aspect of affiliate marketing that is especially critical to master, though often hard to get right, is writing articles to drive traffic to your sites. The mistake that most beginning affiliate marketers make is that they just starting writing away without a plan or a strategy in place. While it’s fair to say that the posts you put on your blog and the articles you submit to article directories do not need to be award-winning material (and who hasn’t experienced that sense of cringing at a poorly written article on the web?), it’s also necessary to realize that these articles need to meet a certain minimum criteria if they are to meet the whole purpose of writing them — that is, turn visitors into buyers.

What You Need To Know About Building Your Website

The first thing you need is an idea of what the site should be about. At the very least a good hunch on the topics you expect to cover.

Once you are finished mapping out your site in your head, its time to put it on paper. You can spend ten minutes or two weeks creating your site on paper, but once done - it is time to research a bit.

Figure out what keywords you will be targeting - this cant be emphasized enough - to find out your chances of making a profitable website.

These things are of highest importance if you can pinpoint it before you start your work.

If you cant seem to find any affiliate programs searching for likely keywords, you might face a problem when trying to generate a profit. You will probably be forced to choose between only a small number if programs, making the chances for a good one smaller.

If the competition is hard - That's a whole other story. That usually means it is a profitable topic, since many others are trying to get into that area as well.

All though it may be harder to reach a high placement on the search term you intended, it is not very hard to focus on a different search term, making it more likely to be on top.

Once you have decided you have a chance good enough - It is time to get started.

Building Your Website With The Right Features

When it comes to filling your site with content it is no question that self made material - no matter if it is written or a gif image - is better then free stuff from various resources on the web. But if you use them wisely, you can add quite a bit of functionality to your pages - which in turn might attract more visitors.

Choosing to build a site solely on free material is very hard - and gaining a top placement on the search engines might prove impossible - you can make it profitable if you drive traffic to it.

You should try to divide your site into descriptive subcategories or have descriptive names on the files. It makes it so much more manageable for both you, your visitors and the SE bots crawling your pages - In the end, that's what we all want on a web page - Simplicity.

If your site covers many closely related sub topics, it can be wise to see if you can target different search terms on the different areas.

The more content you can fill your site with, the better it will be. As long as you make it easy to navigate and a logical structure - you will attract more visitors and thus make a better profit on your site.

Many people try to make more sites regarding the same topics, writing slightly different texts and targeting different keywords. This might seem like a perfect idea, but the major search engines does not really like it. In fact, they can ban sites they feel has no original content.

The best thing to do - is to try to fill your site with as much content as you can - and then move on to the next project of making a name for yourself.