Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 23:17:00 +0000

Ever since the 4-Hour Workweek was released, everyone seems to have the same goal.

To wake up in the morning, open their laptop, and look at something like this:

(Image source: Top 5 SEO)

Passive income.

That’s the dream, right?

Make money while you sleep.

For 99% of people, affiliate marketing is how they get started.

The idea behind it is that you promote other people’s products, often through an affiliate network, earning a commission if people actually end up buying thanks to your marketing.

It’s based on revenue sharing. If you have a product and want to sell more, you can offer promoters a financial incentive through an affiliate program. If you have no product and want to make money, then you can promote a product that you feel has value and earn an income from it as an affiliate marketer.

I’ve talked a little about it before, but today I want to dive deeper into what affiliate marketing actually is, what sides there are to it, and how to get started. So, let’s dive into my affiliate marketing guide. Ready?

Definitions

The best definition of what affiliate marketing is can be found on Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income:

Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s (or company’s) products. You find a product you like, promote it to others and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make.

However, Wikipedia talks about 4 different parties that are involved: the merchant, the network, the publisher, and the customer.

Other definitions talk about 3 parties instead of 4.

(Image source: CJ)

I will explain all 4 parties in a second. But, when it comes down to the actual marketing, there are 2 sides of an affiliate equation: the product creator and seller and the affiliate marketer.

Therefore, affiliate marketing can be seen as the process of spreading product creation and product marketing across different parties, where each party receives a share of the revenue according to their contribution.

It’s not just the promotion or just the product creation that defines who you are as an affiliate marketer.

You can be both the creator and the marketer and still profit from the underlying idea of sharing revenue.

Now let’s look at all of the parts of a successful affiliate marketing system.

The Merchant: Sometimes also known as the creator, the seller, the brand, the retailer, or the vendor. This is the party that creates the product. It can be a big company, like Dyson, who produces vacuum cleaners.

Or, it can be a single individual like Mariah Coz, who sells online courses to female entrepreneurs.

From solo entrepreneurs to startups to massive Fortune 500 companies, anyone could be the merchant behind an affiliate marketing program. They don’t even have to be actively involved. They just have to have a product to sell.

The Affiliate: This party is sometimes also known as the publisher. Affiliates can also range from single individuals to entire companies. An affiliate marketing business can produce a few hundred dollars in commissions each month or tens of millions of dollars.

It’s where the marketing happens. An affiliate promotes one or multiple affiliate products and tries to attract and convince potential customers of the value of the merchant’s product so that they actually end up buying it.

This can be achieved by running a review blog of the merchant’s products. For example:

It could also be an entire site that’s dedicated to finding cool products related to certain topic and promoting those affiliate products.

(This is why I’m broke is one of the most popular affiliate network sites)

The Consumer: The customer or consumer makes the affiliate system go ’round. Without sales, there aren’t any commissions to hand out and no revenue to be shared.

The affiliate will try to market to the consumer on whatever channel they see fit, whether that’s a social network, digital billboards or through a search engine using content marketing on a blog.

Whether the consumer knows that they are part of an affiliate marketing system or not is mostly up to the affiliate.

Some choose to let their consumers know and more and more affiliates tend to be transparent about their marketing being incentivized financially, but others don’t.

They let the tracking system work in the background, where the customer can follow the purchase process just as usual and the affiliate still ends up being paid a commission.

The consumer will not typically pay a higher price to the affiliate marketer, as the cost of the affiliate network is already included in the retail price.

The Network: Only some consider the network part of the affiliate marketing equation. But, I believe that an affiliate marketing guide needs to include networks, because, in many cases, a network works as an intermediary between the affiliate and the merchant.

While you could technically promote an online course someone has created and just arrange a direct revenue share with them, letting a network such as ClickBank or Commission Junction handle the payment and product delivery puts a more serious note on your affiliate marketing.

Sometimes, affiliates have to go through an affiliate network to even be able to promote the product. For example, this happens if the merchant only manages their affiliate program on that network.

The affiliate network then also serves as a database of lots of products, out of which the affiliate marketer can choose which to promote.

(Clickbank is an example of a network)

In the case of promoting consumer products, like tools, books, toys and household items, the biggest affiliate network, by far, is Amazon. Their Amazon Associates affiliate program lets you promote any item that is sold on their platform.

Anyone can sign up and then generate a custom affiliate link to Amazon products. If someone purchases through your link, you earn a small commission.

With the basic terms clarified, let’s get an overview of how you can best get started with building your affiliate marketing business.

Overview

As I said, there are basically two sides of the affiliate marketing equation that you can choose from, assuming that you’re not going to build an affiliate network such as Commission Junction.

You can become a merchant and have others promote your product, in exchange for giving them a commission from the sales that they make.

Or, you can become an affiliate marketer for one or several products that you’d like to promote and market those to consumers, in order to make money.

While most people start by taking the affiliate route and it definitely is the easier path to take, building enough traffic to make a meaningful income just from affiliate sales isn’t quick or easy.

That’s why I’ll walk you through the 4 basic steps that you can take to get started on both sides of the affiliate marketing industry.

How to become a merchant in 4 steps

If you want to become an affiliate program merchant and then make money by having affiliates sell your product, there are 4 simple, yet not easy, steps that you can take.

First, you need to have a product idea. I’ll show you a few ways that you can generate those ideas, based off what’s already popular, in the next section.

Second, you have to validate your idea. You could just go ahead and build your idea. But, what if people don’t even want it? An idea is only good if people actually want it to come to life.

Third, you have to actually create the product. Since creating a physical product usually comes with huge investment and risks, I’ll only show you ways to create digital products. These are the best place to get started since they typically only require your time and little or no money.

Also, once your product is created and released, you still need to find affiliates to promote your product and this is where affiliate networks can help.

Let’s go!

So how do Affiliate Marketing systems work?

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 21:39:00 +0000

An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between publishers (affiliate marketers) who sell products and services and the merchants who create those products and services and their affiliate programs.

For merchants, affiliate network services provided often include reporting, tracking, payment and refund processing, affiliate management, and most importantly – access to a large base of publishers (affiliate marketers).

For affiliate marketers, network services include a central database of available affiliate programs organized by category and popularity to choose from, a simple registration platform for those programs, reporting tools, analytics, and payment processing.

While affiliate marketers are generally able to join affiliate networks for free, merchants usually have to pay a fee to participate in the network. Affiliate networks usually charge an initial setup fee for each merchant and often a recurring membership fee. It’s also common practice for affiliate networks to charge merchants a percentage of the commissions paid to affiliates. This percentage is known as an ‘over-ride’ and is payable on top of the affiliates commissions. But make no mistake about it, despite these fees, the benefits to the merchant for joining these networks is well worth the price. Here’s why…

There are several payout models used by affiliate networks including the two primary models: CPS and CPA.

(CPS)Cost-Per-Sale

CPS, also referred to as PPS (Pay Per Sale), is a low-risk, high-profit, revenue-sharing model used by marketers to lure an unlimited number of new customers to their product or service. Cost-Per-Sale pays a set commission to the affiliate marketer who refers a lead that results in a purchase. Marketers love the CPS model since they only pay a commission after they get paid first by the purchasing customer. It’s in essence free marketing and advertising since the affiliate is the one who produces the lead without any up-front cost to them. This is also why CPS payout commission percentages are so high. Incidentally, the CPS model is primarily what we focus on here at highpayingaffiliateprograms.com.

(CPA)Cost-Per-Action

CPA marketing programs pay affiliates when a specific action is taken by the referral or lead. Common actions include clicks, impressions, form submits, sign-ups, registrations, or opt-ins. Since Cost-Per-Action models don’t necessarily involve a direct sale (and involve more risk taking) the payout percentages are far smaller than they are in Cost-Per-Sale.

Misconceptions About Affiliate Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 04:43:00 +0000

Good fun and down to the point info on Affiliate Marketing...

Before beginning to write my guest post for Chris’s blog, I went in search of what he’d already covered on the topic of affiliate marketing (the topic he asked me to write about) and found out something pretty important while digging through his posts on the topic and your comments on those posts. It would appear a decent portion of his audience hates affiliate marketing.
My name is Rae Hoffman-Dolan, aka Sugarrae, and I’ve been a successful full time affiliate marketer for over a decade now.
[waves while wearing protective gear]

Guest Post – Misconceptions About Affiliate Marketing

Solutions For The Excluded CA Amazon peeps

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:40:00 +0000

by DANNY SULLIVAN

If you’re in a state that Amazon has dropped, I’ve got two easy solutions for you that I’ve

tested: SkimLinks and VigLink. Both serve as “super-affiliates” on behalf of others. You insert a bit of their code on your web site. Then if you have any links to sites with affiliate programs, they automatically add their own affiliate codes.

This means you can be an affiliate without having to sign-up for a bazillion affiliate programs. In the case of Amazon, it also means those in states thatAmazon has dropped its affiliate program might be able to continue being anAmazon affiliate through these companies.

SkimLinks, for example, is based in London. That means it wasn’t dropped as an Amazon affiliate — and if you used its code, then you earned Amazon fees through its account. The downside is that you earn less than as a direct affiliate. But if you don’t want to change all your codes, SkimLinks and VigLink are very attractive.

I tested both over the past two month. In both cases, I didn’t have to strip any of my old codes — both have ways to “override” my codes with their own. I never understood how VigLink managed to stay an Amazon affiliate despite being based in California — I asked them twice about this and got no answer — but they did.

I wrote about VigLink more last year at Search Engine Land. That explains how its codes, as well as those used by SkimLinks, are both deemed perfectly find by Google. That’s handy given that Google Ventures backs VigLink. I’m currently using VigLink here, but I go back-and-forth between both programs, as I find it interesting to see how both work in the real world. If you use the links to either above, disclosure time, I earn referral fees.

Solutions For The Excluded CA Amazon peeps

How to Build a Simple Affiliate Marketing Machine That Attracts Targeted Visitors!

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 04:31:00 +0000

There are so many ways to make money on the internet and the opportunities continue to increase as more and more people are introduced to the world wide web.
Interestingly enough there are many areas where people are still using dial up internet connections to get in touch with the rest of the world.
Full article here:How to Build a Simple Affiliate Marketing Machine That Attracts Targeted Visitors!

Alice Order

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:12:00 +0000

How To Make Money in Your Spare Time Doing Simple Online Tasks | Zero 2 Hero

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Mon, 02 May 2011 02:46:00 +0000

Many “online jobs” promising quick riches and little effort are really scams. While the tasks below won’t make you rich, they can earn you a little pocket money on the side—and these days that can make a big difference.

Most of these online money making opportunities only require you have a computer, a decent internet connection, and some sort of marketable skill (or the ability to provide valuable consumer insight to marketers). You’ll be operating as a free agent and can choose when, where, and how much to participate.

Sound too good to be true? It’s not, because as mentioned earlier, you won’t likely be able to quit your day job with any of these programs, which typically pay way less than regular part-time gigs. But if you’re a student, insomniac, or just someone who wants an occasional cash boost without the commitment required by a typical job, these are some of the best tasks you can do online in your spare time.

Also beware: because specialized skills aren’t always required, you do have to be wary of scams. Before you sign up to become a virtual focus group participant, paid survey taker, mystery shopper or any online worker, keep in mind this important rule of thumb: you should never have to pay to work. Also, read the fine print.

How To Make Money in Your Spare Time Doing Simple Online Tasks | Zero 2 Hero

How to Begin Simple Affiliate Marketing | eHow.com

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 05:30:00 +0000

What is Affiliate Marketing: How do I Start?

Affiliate marketing, at first, may seem daunting. Think of being a salesperson and having the luxury of not seeing people face to face. You are simply sharing products with others. Once you start in can be a bit addicting; I find myself in the store or running errands thinking, "I could promote that" and I run home and start a new campaign.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Step 1
Think of things that you buy, want to buy. Look for individual websites that offer affiliate programs or join a site will provide you with a plethora of affiliates programs in one place.
Step 2
Be careful not to find to many things at once. Focus on promoting one thing, when you have that finished start another. I would strongly recommend not doing multiple promotions until you get your feet under. I suggest this only because you want to make sure you are though. You can do two or more blogs a day and probably should but if you are just starting make sure you get the hang of it first. Once you start looking for the programs you will see them everywhere and you will start to look for them every time you visit a website. The affiliate program is most often listed at the bottom of the website.
Step 3
Now you know what you want to promote, find a blogging service and design your first blog. Check the blog site's rules to make sure you are allowed to put in affiliate links. The blog site will walk you through the steps on how to design your blog.
Step 4
Search for keywords to enter into your blog. There are many keyword search tools to help you with this and here's a tip, it is not always good to get the keyword with the most hits. It is better to find a keyword with low competition. Make sure you add the keywords to your blog so that people visit your site.

Full article here: How to Begin Simple Affiliate Marketing | eHow.com

Commission Junction

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:35:00 +0000

Commission Junction is an online advertising company owned by ValueClick and operating in the affiliate marketing industry.

The company is the largest affiliate network in North America, powering 62% of the top 500 web retailers affiliate marketing programs and operates worldwide. Along with being the world's largest Affiliate Network, Commission Junction also promotes their Search Marketing services and their media services.

Their corporate headquarters is located in Santa Barbara, California, with other offices in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Westborough and Westlake. Commission Junction has also offices in the UK, Germany, France, Sweden and Spain. The company has over 1,500 customers including Dell, Overstock.com, Buy.com, Home Depot, Zappos, and Yahoo!.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 23:35:00 +0000

Affiliate marketing is an online advertising channel in which advertisers (online merchants that sell products or services) pay publishers (independent parties that promote the products or services of an advertiser on their Web site) only for results, such as a visitor making a purchase or filling out a form, rather than paying simply to reach a particular audience. This "pay-for-performance" model is in essence the modern version of the "finders'-fee" model, where individuals who introduce new clients to a business are compensated. The difference in the case of affiliate marketing is that advertisers only pay their publishers when the new client introduction results in a sale or a lead, making it a low-risk, high-reward environment for both parties.

How it Works

Advertisers in our network, the CJ Marketplace, populate their ad links in the interface, making them available for placement by publishers. Each link is assigned a commission, such as a fixed amount per lead or a percentage of a resulting sale on the advertiser's Web site. Publishers looking to monetise their traffic apply to join an advertiser's program. Upon acceptance, the publishers select and place the advertiser's links on their Web sites, in their email campaigns or as part of search listings.

When a consumer clicks on a publisher's link, a cookie is set on the visitor's browser that identifies the advertiser, the publisher, the specific link and payment rates. When the visitor makes an actual purchase online or fills out a form, that transaction is tracked and recorded by Commission Junction. Upon recording the transaction, Commission Junction handles all of the collection and processing required to ensure fair and timely commission payment for the publisher, and all of the administration and verification necessary to ensure quality sales and leads for the advertiser.

Google Hacks for Dummies

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:31:00 +0000

Google is a powerful tool. Most of the time, most users are restricted to using Google as a search engine, and looking at pages on the internet Google has allowed or encouraged you to see, but there is a darker side to Google – “Google Hacks.”

Google hacks are strings of code entered into the search box that will access information that was never intended to be available to the general public. Some enterprising hacker has discovered which particular string of search parameters will provide normally restricted information.

There are many hacking guides, written by hackers. Unfortunately, most of these guides are written for the already initiated and assume a level of knowledge far above the typical user’s. Loosely translated this means they are a, really boring and b, impossible to understand.

The other problem I came across looking for usable hacks is that the hackers are far more comfortable talking to a machine than a person which makes the instructions even more difficult to follow.

Google Hacks for Dummies | The Tech Brief

WordPress.com and Windows Live partnering together and providing an upgrade for 30 million Windows Live Spaces customers

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 01:28:00 +0000

Over the last few weeks, we’ve spent a good bit of time talking about our approach to partnering with the web, and as part of that, how we’re deeply integrating with the leading consumer services that you find most valuable. Earlier today, I had the opportunity to get on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt, and with Toni Schneider, CEO of Automattic (the parent company of WordPress.com), announce an exciting partnership between our companies.

Providing a great blogging experience

As we looked at customers’ blogging needs and what different companies were providing, we were particularly interested in what WordPress.com is doing. They have a host of impressive capabilities – from a scalable platform and leading spam protection, to great personalization and customization. WordPress powers over 8.5% of the web, is used on over 26 million sites, and WordPress.com is seen by over 250 million people every month. Not only that, Automattic is a company filled with great people focused on improving blogging experiences. So rather than having Windows Live invest in a competing blogging service, we decided the best thing we could do for our customers was to give them a great blogging solution through WordPress.com.

As we looked at how we brought Windows Live and WordPress.com together, there were three big things we wanted to deliver:

Giving existing Windows Live Spaces customers an easy upgrade of their blogging experience to WordPress.com
Letting anyone connect their WordPress.com blog to Messenger so their Messenger friends are updated when they publish a new post on WordPress.com
Allowing Windows Live customers to easily create new blogs on WordPress.com

Upgrading a Windows Live Spaces blog to WordPress.com

There are 30 million people who are actively using Windows Live Spaces and have been eagerly awaiting the next set of new blogging features. For these customers, Windows Live and WordPress.com have worked together to build a simple way to move your blog posts, comments, and integrated photos right over to WordPress.com and start taking advantage of all their new features. And we’ll also redirect all your old Spaces URLs to your new blog, so you don’t lose any visitors along the way. If you want to get started today, just visit your existing Space and you’ll see a prompt like this:

If you’re not ready to migrate today, you can also choose to download your blog content, migrate later, or delete your Space. There’s more information posted online to help you with your options, and if you have additional questions on the migration, please visit the WordPress.com support center.

Easily share with your Messenger friends

With Messenger Connect, any website can easily give their customers the ability to share updates with their Messenger friends, and WordPress.com has done exactly this.

So, if you have a blog on WordPress.com, we know that one of the things that is likely important to you is the ability to share the blog with your friends. Of course, on WordPress.com, you can make the blog public and people can subscribe to the blog via RSS or you can just email a link to the site. But when you connect your Messenger account to Wordpress.com, you can have new posts on your WordPress.com blog automatically send a notification for each new blog post to your Messenger friends’ feeds.

Windows Live customers getting started with a new blog

Starting today, when new Windows Live customers go to create a new blog on the web, we’ll help them create that new blog on WordPress.com. And when Windows Live Essentials 2011 releases later this fall, Windows Live Writer will also use WordPress.com as its default blogging solution.

Windows Live and WordPress.com

We’re very excited to work with WordPress.com to give our shared customers a great experience that connects the fantastic blogging capabilities on WordPress.com with the leading communications and sharing services on Windows Live. We hope you enjoy this too, and we look forward to partnering with even more great services from around the web.

Dharmesh Mehta
Director, Windows Live Product Management

WordPress.com and Windows Live partnering together and providing an upgrade for 30 million Windows Live Spaces customers

Facebook Guide Book: Mashable Launches Hub for Facebook Resources

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:37:00 +0000

Whether you’re new to Facebook or an old hat, the magnitude of features and functionality in the enormous social network can still be somewhat daunting. From personal profiles to brand pages and applications to groups, there’s a lot to get up to speed on — and even an expert might have occasion to want a primer on one of the lesser-travelled corners now and then.

Facebook Guide Book: Mashable Launches Hub for Facebook Resources

3 Simple Affiliate PPC Keyword Conversion Tracking Options - 5 Star Affiliate Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 04:20:00 +0000

If you are doing PPC without keyword level conversion tracking these days, when there are so many good options, you are missing a big opportunity to optimize your profits.

Chad over at CDF Networks goes into 3 good options for keyword conversion tracking complete with screen shots.

Full article here: 3 Simple Affiliate PPC Keyword Conversion Tracking Options - 5 Star Affiliate Blogs

Google’s New Look Means More Opportunities for You!

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Fri, 14 May 2010 05:34:00 +0000

You might have noticed that Google’s results page looks a bit different. There’s a new way to navigate the search results. There’s an options panel on the left-hand side of the page that enables you to sort the search results by information type: news results, blogs, shopping, images or books related to your query.
The change is really about customizing search results. Google keeps perfecting their search to provide the most relevant information for their users. The tweaks to the design are to clear up the search engine results page (SERP) so it’s more streamlined.

The sponsored-links on the right-hand of the page, have also changed a bit. They’re closer now to the main body of the search results, and the look of the ads is similar to the natural search results.
So what does this all mean for you? We’ll explain after the jump!

Google has listened to their users – both the search audience and the advertisers – and has taken heed. The movement of the right-hand ads closer to the center search results is great – searchers who once ignored or missed the advertisements can’t help but see the options now.
The left-hand panel allows the user to refine his or her search, which can be really useful for you, the Internet marketer.

For Example…

Think about it; if you have a blog associated with your exercise site, instead of your latest entry on Reebok shoes competing with every page Google finds on the query, if the user specifies ‘blogs’ – which she might do if she’s looking for reviews – your blog has a better chance of a better page rank.
Here’s a screenshot of a Google results page for the query ‘Reebok easytone shoes:’

As you can see the first few results are the big retail websites.
Now here’s a screenshot of the results page sorted by the ‘Blogs’ category:

You can see that the pages that show up in the results are much more diverse, there’s even a blogspot blog by a Malaysian dancer (the SashaBashir link).

The Result?

The results are the same with videos, images, and shopping results – every category listed in the panel. Now if you use multiple types of content on your site, your site has multiple opportunities to rank higher on Google’s SERP!

http://blog.affiliateclassroom.com/more-opportunities-on-google/

How To Get Your New Website Indexed Quickly

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 22:47:00 +0000

Within this article, I will reveal to you the steps to getting your new website indexed quickly. With massive amounts of new websites pouring into the internet on a daily basis, it is absolutely crucial that you as a webmaster invest time into getting your website indexed.

For many people, getting search engine spiders to crawl their content for the first time is one of the toughest things to do. And even tougher still is the task of getting those spiders to come back and crawl your content on a regular basis. But alas, it is possible to get your brand new website crawled, indexed and visited frequently by search engine spiders – you just have to know the right tricks!

This is completely possible for even the novice webmaster who knows nothing about how websites work. The reason why I can say this is because I was a complete novice as well, but I managed to get my website crawled and indexed within the first 48 hours of it being on the web. Sweet deal, right?!?!!?

I want to share with you exactly what I went through in order to get my website crawled and indexed so quickly, and hopefully you will find it helpful, insightful, beneficial and inspirational. Without further adieu, let’s get into the nitty gritty of getting your new website indexed quickly.

How To Get Your New Website Indexed Quickly

22 Things You Don't Know About Your Customers | Internet Marketing Strategy: Conversation Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:25:00 +0000

There are things you don't know about your customers. It's not you, it's them. But you need to figure it out. Here are some hard lessons I've learned over the years - they apply to usability, pet peeves and other fun stuff. Learn these and you'll have more, happier customers/visitors/readers/fans:

1. Reading onscreen is hard, for everyone

The most basic principle of usability: It's hard for folks to read online. Much harder than reading in print. Remember this. Burn it into your brain. Small typefaces, weird page layouts and odd color schemes may seem great, but they're bound to hurt your business in the long run.

2. They like short paragraphs.

Oldest rule of marketing, from way back when we printed on paper and used mail and stuff: Write no more than 4-5 lines in a paragraph. Read My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising (Advertising Age Classics Library) to learn just how little the rules have changed.

3. They like short lines

Reading onscreen is hard. The typical person can best read 10-20 words per line. No more. If you're using microscopic fonts to fit every word possible on a line, change your ways.

4. They like wide line spacing and nice margins

Also know as 'leading', wide line spacing makes text easier to read. Margins shorten the lines so that you get fewer words per line (see above).

Folks actually read faster when line spacing is really tight, but they retain and comprehend less. A fantastic piece of research by the University of Wichita proves it.

22 Things You Don't Know About Your Customers | Internet Marketing Strategy: Conversation Marketing

How to hide Facebook Profile from Indexing on Search Engines like Google

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 01:19:00 +0000

Google, Yahoo and Bing integrated the real time search results on their pages. Before that as well they were showing the facebook profile page of facebook users on their search results for certain keywords. If you want to hide your facebook profile (for some personal reasons) from indexing on search engines like google, Yahoo, Bing etc then you can use the Privacy Settings properly to control that.

Privacy Settings to avoid showing your profile on Search Engines

1. Login to your facebook account and go to the Settings tab at top – right corner of profile page

2. Select “Privacy Settings” from the dropdown

3. Select “Search” from the list of security options

4. Click on “Change Settings”, a popup will prompt asking for your facebook password

5. Enter you password and then uncheck the box “Allow Indexing” under Public Search ResultsYou should complete this settings changes just after creating your account as it is difficult to avoid showing your profile after indexing is done. Your profile indexing may take at least 5 – 6 days for completion, so remove the check under this period only.

How to hide Facebook Profile from Indexing on Search Engines like Google

Twitter Guide Book – How To, Tips and Instructions by Mashable

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:03:00 +0000

For those who are not yet using Twitter effectively (silly you!), here's a great guide:

"Twitter is a social network used by millions of people, and thousands more are signing up every day to send short messages to groups of friends.

But where's the user manual for Twitter? Where do new Twitter users go to learn about Tweeting, retweets, hashtags and customizing your Twitter profile? Where do you go if you want to know all about building a community on Twitter, or using Twitter for business? How can you find advanced tools for using Twitter on your phone or your desktop?

To answer all these questions and more, we've assembled The Twitter Guide Book, a complete collection of resources for mastering Twitter. Happy Tweeting!"

- Pete Cashmore, @Mashup

Twitter Guide Book – How To, Tips and Instructions by Mashable

So Is Twitter Any Good For Affiliates? | One Little Duck - Affiliate Blog

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:49:00 +0000

I’ve been using Twitter for a while now and having got over the initial excitement of reading what celebrities eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner and the gloating to Jude about getting a reply from Schofe, it’s down to the more serious business of using it as an affiliate. Is it any good? Is it any use? Is there any point?

Kieron recently blogged about network presence on Twitter, and whilst there’s advantages of them tweeting there’s in fact a lot more an affiliate can gain from Twitter. To understand why it can be useful for affiliates you have to know that we work full time and have several things on the go at once.

As Loquax takes up a lot of time, it can often mean content or ideas for other sites (which we like to do as a break from running a user and time intensive service) are lacking. Or we’ve overlooked content ideas sent in the usual emails that appear late Friday evening! With Twitter, however, we have a constant flow of news, information and ideas for content tweeting around all day and every day.

So why is Twitter useful for us?

For example Red Nose Day recently tweeted about their Digital Red Noses. A brilliant idea that fits nicely in with Donate To. Up goes content and our job is done! It may not be affiliate linked, remember not everything has to be, but it’s useful relevant up to date content and something we’d have missed had it not been on Twitter.

Similarly Firebox announced the launch of the cool new Airwolf Remote Controlled Helicopter – something we’d not get to know about for a few days (if ever) if the information popped up via email. As we have a gadgets blog – we can then add a bit of content and pop in an old Airwolf video just for good measure.

For competition side of things Twitter is also very useful! For example the guys at Web User tweet when they have new giveaways. That means we can react “on Tweet” and update our database and let our users know that there are new prizes for them to win. By following Web User, and others via Twitter, it actually saves us time doing some of the mundane work and freeing up more time to do useful affiliate marketing.

And let’s not forget the social element!

The big advantage of Twitter is the social side as it’s great to engage in a bit of banter during the day with others in affiliate marketing. The communal spirit that makes AM a special business is alive and tweeting. There’s no “rutting stag” arguments and it’s great to “chat” every now and then about anything and everything.

Of course Twitter won’t be for everyone, it’s perhaps too instant for part time affiliates for example, but if you’re like us and updating content day in day out it’s a very useful tool for keeping in touch with a wide range of subjects, websites, people and information services.

Not convinced… well you can even Tweet the love of your life and get them to put the kettle on (that’s me in trouble now!).

So Is Twitter Any Good For Affiliates? | One Little Duck - Affiliate Blog

Online Viral Video Distribution List 2.0 viral-video-distribution-list.zip | Free Software Downloads

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:31:00 +0000

Submit Your Viral Video With The Online Viral Video Distribution List. This list contains all of the internets viral video sharing sites to distribute your video.

After creating your video you want to submit it to this list to get maximum exposure. To learn more about creating and submitting viral videos visit

Online Viral Video Distribution List 2.0 viral-video-distribution-list.zip | Free Software Downloads

Tweetbucks Brings Affiliate Fees To Twitter Users. Is That A Good Thing?

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:38:00 +0000

Talk of how to monetize Twitter, both from its founders perspective and a third-party point of view, is dominating conversation on the web these days. Tweetbucks, a startup founded by entrepreneur Chris Sukornyk, is hoping to make money for users of Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed through leveraging affiliate fees and CPCs from ads.

Here’s how it works. Tweetbucks has a database with thousands of online merchants that offer referral fees (or money you get from merchants when your advertisements of a product result in a purchase ), including Amazon, BestBuy, Barnes & Noble and Shoes.com. All you need to do is find a product on a retail site, enter it on Tweetbuck’s site, and the startup will automatically shorten (via Bit.ly) and convert it to an affiliate enabled link, referencing the site’s data base of online merchants that pay out affiliate fees. You can then add the link to in a Tweet, Facebook status update or FriendFeed message.
Every time people click your link and your recommendation results in a purchase, the online merchant pays a commission to you. For example, referral fees for Amazon’s Associates program hover around 6%, BestBuy pays out 3-4%, and CompUSA pays around 6%. Tweetbucks will take 30% of the money you earn through each referral leaving you with 70%. So if you send out a link via a Tweet to a Kindle being sold on Amazon for $359.00 and someone purchases the Kindle from the link, you will receive $15.12 and Tweetbucks will take $6.46. On the other hand, if your affiliate fee comes from a book on Barnes & Noble (which also pays out 6%) that totals $16.76, you will receive $0.70 cents and Tweetbucks will get $0.30 cents.

Tweetbucks also lets you earn money off of any non-retail site, by allowing you to enable a “custom ad-frame,” on a site you Tweet the link to. Tweetbucks displays an ad at the top of your destination page and you earn a variable rate (CPC) on every click. You can also customize this ad frame to include a hyperlinked logo of your choice. The compensation from this doesn’t seem to have as much potential as the affiliate fees; Sukornyk says returns are around $1 to $2 per thousand clicks.

Full article here
Tweetbucks Brings Affiliate Fees To Twitter Users. Is That A Good Thing?

Blogging Tips To Help You Make Money

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:52:00 +0000

Some people choose to blog in their spare to time to earn extra money online. Some do it simply as a form of self expression, in order to entertain both themselves and their readers. Others keep personal blogs and share them only with close family and friends. However, there are many more serious bloggers who choose to monetize their blogs, and generate a profit for themselves. Here we will discuss the ins and outs of blogging for money.

It’s very cheap to set up a blog in most cases. You can set up a free blog using Blogger or WordPress, or host your blog on your own domain by spening a little money. If you do this, make sure to install a free program such as WordPress to help administer and update your blog. Before you start a blog, you should think about what the blog subject will be based on. The most successful online blogs stick to a particular niche or topic. This way you can focus your audience for maximum earning potential. In addition to setting up your blog, you must work on promoting it to gain an audience. There are many different methods of promotion, but one of the best is posting on other blogs that are related to your niche. Once your blog is online and you have been posting for a period of time, then it’s time to start generating profits.

Trade Advertising – is an additional avenue one may use to monetize their blog. One method of blog monetization involves selling advertising space on your blog to businesses that are related to your niche. Some bloggers rent advertising space on their blogs for a set period of time.

Affiliate Marketing is a form of marketing where individuals promote a business in exchange for either a percentage of the sales they generate or a specified amount for each lead generated. For every blog user that clicks on the advertised links in your blog, you will receive some money for those clicks.

Ask for Contributions – If your blog readers value you blog, they may consider contributing to help pay your hosting and other miscellaneous fees. If your blog is popular enough you could consider making it private and charging a small membership fee to join.

Sell Your Products and Services – A great business model to help you achieve online success is to use your blog and market your own services, products, and tools. Blogging purely for entertainment is limiting yourself.

As we see interest in the blogosphere grow at a rapid rate, it is becoming more apparent that blogging can be an excellent source of income. Hard work and staying focused on your goals is the key to success. By making use of these four strategies, you too could become successful at blogging for money.

Blogging Tips To Help You Make Money

Internet Marketing: Tips for Beginners

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:51:00 +0000

For beginners, internet marketing can be a big challenge. Its theories and concepts are simple but the implementation and execution part of such concepts can be a little bit tricky and complicated. Even advanced online marketers can attest to this. In this article, we will give tried-and-tested yet basic tips to beginner online marketers. We will not only discuss each concept, we will aslo outline some of the most basic strategies to help business owners successfully launch their businesses online. We will tackle concepts such as website creation, ad banner placements, e-newsletters, email marketing campaign and search engine optimization (SEO).

Website creation is one of the vital elements of an internet marketing campaign. If you do not have a website or if your site is poorly designed, then it is highly advised that you consider re-designing your cyber soace to ensure proper marketing of your products. If web design is not your forte, you can purchase a number of software packages which make the whole process simple even for beginners. Or, you may also seek for professional web design services. This process is more worthwhile since with no doubt, he will be able to give you a functional, attractive and tailored design for your products. He can also incorporate added helpful features to your site.

Second – banner ads. One of the more popular online campaign techniques are banner ads. These are advertisements placed on top of the website. They may also be placed in other locations in a much smaller size. Banner ads include text and image which are used to entice internet users. In a click, the user is directed to the main website. This typeof advertising can be very effective especially when implemented with properly and when place in the right locations.

E-newsletters are another brilliant online marketing technique. These are emails sent out to recipients. The newsletter may contain various information like informative articles, useful quizzes, relevant advertising or just about any other information deemed to be of interest to potential customers. The good thing about e-newsletters is that they are hardly viewed as a marketing tool by customers despite the various links incorporated in it. Just make sure that you limit the volume of newsletters sent out. Otherwise, these can be detected as a spam.

Email marketing is another online marketing campaign. In this process, emails are sent to a group of individuals who may be interested in your products. As mentioned above, keeping the volume of sent out emails limited is highly essential to keep them from being detected as a spam. This can be achieved by sending emails only to users who have requested to be added on the mailing list. Offering relevant advice and other useful information which may interest the recipients will also be helpful.

The last and probably the most important strategy in online marketing is search engine optimization. Search engines determine the rank of websites according to relevance and quality for certain search terms. Most internet users use search engines to find websites on particular topics. This simply means that users are most likely to visit sites which rank well on the search engines. If your website ranks high especially if they happen to fall on the first page, you are more likely to generate traffic in your site.

About the Author:

If you need to earn some extra money with your ventures, visit our cash jobs site and learn to earn cash on internet ventures.

Internet Marketing: Tips for Beginners

Improve Your Tweeting « tofollow.com

noreply@blogger.com (stuartinfiji) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:41:00 +0000

Free Twitter Tools â?? Improve Your Tweeting
I get about twenty messages the day upon Twitter about how we can â??grow my chatter following upon autopilotâ?�. The thing is, usually about each chairman revelation me this hardly has any followers. The law is thereâ??s zero we can unequivocally do to grow your following upon autopilot, it usually takes the little time as well as effort. There have been the little giveaway collection that can assistance however, as listed below.
TWEET LATER
Tweet Later is the most utilitarian Twitter module we have have have have use of of of of by far. The interface is horrible, yet we usually have to configure your Twitter options once as well as afterwards youâ??re done. After youâ??ve installed your Twitter comment in to Tweet Later, go to â??Accountsâ?�, â??List Accountsâ?�, afterwards â??Editâ?�. You should have during slightest the following dual options set-up.
Auto-follow: This will follow any one who follows we automatically. This is radically usually usual Twitter practice for marketers… if someone follows you, we follow them back. Most marketers upon Twitter have have have have use of of of of this function, that is how we will get your followers; when we select to follow someone as well as they have this choice selected, they will automatically follow we back, as well as we right away have the brand brand brand brand brand brand brand brand new follower. If we benefit supporters this way, itâ??s usually good to lapse the favour. Additionally, the some-more people we follow, the some-more expected someone is to follow you.
Auto-Welcome: we would additionally suggest checking this as well as regulating it. It serves as the good approach to begin up the review with brand brand brand brand brand brand brand brand new intensity leads. Send the elementary message… appreciate people for following you, as well as competence be ask them the subject to get the review started. Do no representation your commercial operation in your automobile acquire message. we get this all the time everyday, as well as we usually undo those messages automatically. Be rebuilt to be bombarded with such messages.
You will additionally see Auto-Unfollow here. we privately donâ??t have have have have use of of of of this (more upon unfollowing underneath “Friend or Follow” below).
Tweet Later additionally allows we to… Tweet Later. Go to â??Tweetsâ?�, afterwards â??New Tweetâ?�. You can write in as most Tweets as we similar to as well as how them published to your comment during your convenience we like. This approach we donâ??t have to lapse to Twitter via the day to post something new. Simply set up the couple of brand brand brand brand brand brand brand brand new Tweets in the sunrise as well as afterwards dont think about about it.
Full article here: Improve Your Tweeting « tofollow.com