We all hear that you have to be in ‘affiliate programs’ to get ahead on the Internet. We hear about people making huge incomes being a ‘super affiliate’ and how these programs are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

While it IS true that you can make very good money with affiliate programs, it’s equally true that you can waste tons of time on them. Let’s look together at the basics of affiliate programs as well as some things to watch out for if you decide to affiliate.

First, what does the word ‘affiliate’ mean? Webster’s Dictionary defines the word this way…

Affiliate: [verb] To associate as a member <affiliates herself with the local club>

That’s exactly correct. When you become an affiliate you are associating with the product or service you will be selling.

So being an ‘affiliate’ is simply a fancy Internet way of saying that you are going to be a commissioned salesperson.

Just like your car insurance agent collects a percentage of your premium (a commission) when you pay your bill, so you too will be paid a commission when you sell someone’s product or service.

Now that you know what being an affiliate is, here are five quick things to look for BEFORE you associate yourself with someone’s product or service.

1) Be yourself. If your site is all about embroidery, you probably won’t get too many clicks for car parts sites. Stick with what you know at first and, once you learn how to promote on the Internet, move on to different products.

2) Check it out. Don’t just jump in because it’s easy. Ask yourself this question; Is the product or service you are affiliating with something you would bring to your best friend? If not, you may want to keep looking.

3) Talk to affiliates. Ask for a list of happy affiliates. Ask them some key questions such as did they get the help and support promised? Are they being paid on time? You get the idea.

4) Look long term. If your first arrangement doesn’t pan out, don’t give up. Many people on the net are making excellent incomes with affiliate programs. You can too.

5) Go for quality. Make a checklist of everything you want, find two who meet the criteria, and go all out with those two.

Regardless of the enticing book titles, you probably won’t get rich in the next 3 days with affiliate programs. But you CAN begin today to find the right two to start with and, in time, be making buckets full of money. Now that’s a great place to be.

About the Author: Charlie Page is an email marketing specialist. He enjoys creating fully automated selling systems that do the work for him and he helps consulting clients and members create their own passive income systems. Charlie owns the Directory of Ezines as well as four other membership sites. He has written 10 books on Internet marketing, including helping Robert Allen write the best selling Multiple Streams of Internet Income. Directory of Ezines .

What is your viewpoint on forums, as discussed in Lesson 5 of our SEO series.
Do you see them as stronger “SEO resource” magnets than the social networks?

Scroll down the page and leave your comments.

We look forward to hearing “your” opinion on the subject.

If you came from our ezine, Click Here to return to Interactive Marketing Ezine.

One of the most immense challenges online is to stay current with Search Engine Optimization changes, which occur continually. How can you do it?

SEM Blogs are a Great place to begin. BlogRank gives you the Top 100 Best SEM Blogs. While visiting the blogs, don’t forget to leave a message with your URL to establish more quality backlinks from authority sites as we discussed several weeks ago in lesson 2.

One online marketing blog that I especially recommend for SEO updates is: TopRank.

Next, have you considered SEO Forums? Forums are the ‘original’ social environments. Some experts feel that the forums are becoming an artifact of the past and aren’t as useful as social networks. I totally disagree! When it comes to business online, the Niche specific forums are much more highly targeted for your online business than the modern social networks. Compare how much traffic/sales you receive “for business” from forums compared to social networks and you will be amazed.

Forums are ‘still’ one of the best means of keeping your SEO research and knowledge current. There is always something to learn at niche-specific forums. You will hear new ideas and news about what changes Google, for example, has made each week or even each day. Testing tactics on your own web site is highly important and reading the results of other people’s SEO experiences and experiments on their sites can benefit your own strategies.

Several SEO Forums to join are:
WebmasterWorld
Search Engine Watch
High Rankings
Web Pro World
SitePoint
SEO Chat Forums
Digital Point

Posting to threads can provide increased traffic to your website. After joining any forum be sure to create a signature and don’t forget to include your URL to grab this traffic-building advantage.

Benefits Summary:
SEO Forum Benefits are: current SEO insight and information on how to improve the quality of your web site, increased site visitors, keeping up-to-date on your niche trends, a quality social/business gathering place, continual research source, and interaction with experienced SEO professionals.

Have a Great & Successful week,
–Susan, Editor/Publisher

Want an easy way to start a website? If you already have a WordPress blog then with a few simple tweaks you can make your WordPress blog into a website. http://websitedesignmojo.com/

You see, a WordPress blog allows you to have both posts and pages.

Let’s talk about the difference between the two:

Posts:
A post will show up on your blog page. Posts are most commonly listed in chronological order with the most recent post first. They are commonly available with a comment form for users to comment and interact with the blog author. You usually find blog posts by checking the blog page for the most recent post, by clicking on the category you would like to read a post from or by clicking on the archives by date to see posts from that time.

Pages:
A page is very similar to a post but there are a few differences. Pages do not show up in chronological order as they are normally not dated. A website page is what you would normally find in a menu bar across the top of the website or in the sidebar. These are much more ‘static’ pages. Typical website pages are ‘Home’, ‘About’, ‘Contact’, ‘FAQ’, etc.

So how do you turn a WordPress blog that now just lists posts into a website that also has pages?

What you need to do is go into your WordPress control panel and follow these steps:
1. Create as many pages as you would like for your website. Make sure to create a page you name ‘Home’, this will be used as your homepage. Also create a page named ‘Blog’ which you will use for your blog posts page if you are keeping your blog.
2. Now you will need to go to the ‘Settings’ area that you can see in the menu on the left side of your blog. The drop down menu under Settings will have an option named ‘Reading’, you’ll need to click that.
3. The first option will be ‘Front Page Displays’. Click on the option ‘A Static Page’.
4. Next you will need to set which page you want to be your homepage. As mentioned above choose the page you labeled Home for the homepage and the page you labeled Blog for your posts page.
5. Scroll down and click to save your changes.

That’s how you change your WordPress blog into a website. Please note that this will only work on a blog that is installed on your own hosting.

About the Author: ©Angela Wills — Imagine how much easier your life will be with a website you can actually update. That’s what a WordPress website can do for your business. Find out more by joining me as I teach you through my online video, webinar and email coaching program how to create your own WordPress blog and website.

We are interested in knowing your viewpoint on the new Facebook Timeline which will soon be implemented for all Facebook members.

Many are upset about the change. How about you?

Scroll down the page and leave your comments.

We look forward to hearing “your” opinion on the subject.

If you came from our ezine, Click Here to return to Interactive Marketing Ezine.

Google is the world’s most popular search engine. Shortly after its creation, Google’s popularity skyrocketed and it soon became the dominant search engine for finding information on the internet. This is why, if you own a website, you want it to be high in the Google ratings.

Google is constantly changing and evolving so you need to keep up with the changes. Their recent changes, called the Panda Update, caused many sites’ rankings to drop significantly. Google’s mission is to provide the highest quality information for each search done and in doing this, many sites get lost in the endless pages of search results.

To get your website increased ranking there are many things you can do and many things you should not do. I have tried to list some of the more effective things you should do and a couple things you should not do for better placement in Google.

1. Limit Your Advertising – If you have a hodgepodge or cluttering of advertising on your site, this can decrease your ranking. Google considers excess advertising to be a sign of a low-quality spam site. And remember, Google’s goal is to provide the highest quality sites at the top of the search results.

2. Google Toolbar – The Google Toolbar is an important tool to have because of all the features that will help you improve your ranking. The Google toolbar can help you monitor your page rank and help you find sites to link to and to which sites are linked to you. You can also keep tabs on how your site is doing with targeted keywords. Find out more features and get it for free at Google.com

3. Relevant and Quality Content – One of the most important things to do for better SEO is to provide quality content with relevant keywords. Quality is always more effective than quantity so don’t plaster a ton of low-quality articles on your sit just to have content. Make sure the articles you choose are relevant to your site and provide helpful information. If you have some of the same articles as another site, the most relevant quality site will be higher in the rankings so the duplicate content itself, will not lower your rankings. Also, be sure to add fresh new content on a regular basis.

4. Google+1 Button – By joining Google Plus and adding a Google+1 button to your site, you can help uplift your site’s rankings. One of the things Google looks at the most is your site’s level of importance and relevancy. The more plus ones you can get, the more importance it will give your site, thus causing Google to increase your ranking in the search results page. This will also get your site more exposure resulting in more visits as well.

5. Become a Blogger – If you haven’t already done so, you need to add a blog to your business website. Blogging is a highly efficient way to raise your ranking in Google because a blog does two things. First, it can add many pages of keyword-rich relevant quality content to your site which will be noticed by Google. The more quality pages indexed, the more chances you have to be on page one. And secondly, a blog can increase the amount of quality inbound links to your site.

6. Relevant Inbound Links – Quality inbound links are a great way to add relevance and importance to your site. Guest posting on high quality blogs is one of the best ways to accomplish this task. Commenting on existing blog comments works well also. Always use keyword rich posts with appropriate sites and use relevant keywords for your links. Google does not value links from article banks as much as they used to so choosing a few quality blogs is better than submitting to countless article sites.

7. Social Media – As with many facets of internet marketing, social media plays a big part in SEO. Be active on your social sites. Do not let them go stale. Engage in conversations, post new info regularly and involve your visitors.

8. Keyword Research – Keywords play an important part in SEO but using the wrong keywords can do more harm than good. Be sure to research keywords to find what search phrases people are using to find your site’s info. Google offers a keyword tool called Google Keyword Tool. This free tool will give you a list of keywords and tell you how often they are used and their competition.

9. Hidden Text – Do not do this. Hidden text is text displayed on your site but invisible to your visitors. A common way of doing this is to set the font color the same as the background color. The reason for doing this is to add a large amount of keywords for the search engines but not make your content seem redundant to your visitors. Google considers this manipulation and it could get your site penalized.

10. Bad Linking – Reciprocal linking, inbound links and outgoing links can all be good if you follow the proper procedure. Do not link with any and all sites. Be very selective and only link with sites that are relevant to your site and contain quality content. Stay away from FFA (Free For All) or link farm sites. Check your links regularly to make sure they are not broken links. Broken links will catch the attention of Google and other search engines. Linking to poor quality sites or spam sites is also something you do not want to do. Years ago quantity might have gotten you a boost but now it is all about quality links to relevant sites, NOT quantity!

Obtaining a high Google ranking is the goal of every webmaster. It can be done but you need to be consistent, persistent and keep abreast of Google’s ever evolving search methods.

About the Author: Don’t be one of the 95% of people who fail at their online business. Terri Seymour can help you make money online. Find out how to increase your traffic and sales with her popular “How to Build Your Online Business” ebook for FREE at: ==> http://www.SeymourProducts.com

Search engines love Established sites, commonly called Authority Sites. If your website is an Authority Site, all of your pages will benefit and keyword phrases will send tons of traffic from the search engines. This is the SEO strategy that contains “link juice” a coined phrase by SEO consultant Greg Boser.

One main ingredient of an Authority Site is the age length. It is important to remember that when you establish a website, the longer it is online (with proper seo attributes) the higher it will become in the Authority Site status over years.

Once you have established your anchor text which includes specific keywords and phrases (as discussed last week), then you need to concentrate on the amount of backlinks, especially from authority sites. Backlinks are links to your site coming from other websites. It is important that these links are from sites with the same theme, genre, subject as your website. Having keyword specific anchor text, plus quality backlinks will boost your website to Site Authority status with the search engines.

Authority backlinks are linked from sites that have
1. high page ranking
2. high site authority status
3. high traffic
4. user-generated content

Some of the ways to obtain backlinking from authoritative domains is through:
– renowned directories
– commenting on high traffic blogs, forums, guest posting
– free and paid advertising

The higher the authority of the website that links to you, the more you will build toward your goal of having Established, Authority status with the search engines.

To your Success this week!

For example, if you type in your domain name into the search engines, you will see your website as the first listing (if you’ve been online at least a few months). That is logical — but very few searches would be for your exact domain name. Instead, search engine users are entering words and phrases.

If you type in “Ezine Solo Ads” into Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc., you will see us, Vector Central, near the top listing on the first page. You see the point. The importance is to be on the first page of what searchers are looking for. If someone is searching for solo ad services, they don’t know our business name, but they find us through what they need.

If you have read articles stating that keywords aren’t important- don’t believe it. Keyword phrases are still one of the best avenues to top listing in the search engines.

Inspire your audience with your words to lead them to: Act, Join, and Purchase!
Words with Power are Words with Action!

Start with the Niche:
First, decide what niche audience you want to be reading your ad. This is the best place to begin your process of writing/designing an ad. If you have not worked in depth regarding niches, a niche is a select group of people that have the same unique interest. If you are targeting home business prospects, then your audience is the home business niche.

What is the Purpose of Your Ad?
Are you trying to make an income, gain subscribers, increase your traffic, sell a product, give away a product… What is the PURPOSE of your ad? If you are trying to make an income with your online business then, for example, your ad needs to entice the reader to “Act -Click -Purchase.” If you are seeking new subscribers, then your message must demand Action for that purpose.

Engage The Reader With Your Title and Content:
The first step toward enticing the reader to Act-Click-Purchase is your title.

You only have a few seconds to obtain a reader’s attention. Without a successful title, you will not even have the opportunity to benefit from the results of turning a reader into a buyer.

If your ad will be used as a solo ad or email ad, then the email Subject Line Heading/Title is what initially attracts the buyer and causes him/her to “Open” your ad. If your subject line title does not push the reader to ‘Open’ your email, then it does not matter how you write your ad because no clickthroughs will occur.

When writing your ad copy, a major ingredient is to appeal to the needs of your readers and potential buyers. Use words that target what the reader wants. Explain to your reader how your program/product will benefit his/her life, business, and build him/her an income, success, home business, etc.

It Is All About the Reader:
The highest subject of importance in your message is the Reader- your prospective buyer! Focus on the reader, not on yourself. Write “to” and “about” the reader, not about yourself. What will benefit your audience? Lead them to your product/service. If you don’t grab the reader’s attention, then there is no hope toward your ad producing rewarding results.
Use the word “you” instead of “I.” The message is “for” the reader, so focus on your audience instead of yourself. This shows that your interest is in his/her success.

It’s About Who? “The Reader” and what he/she needs in order to prompt response to your program, service, and/or product– resulting in Sales!

When Not to Be Repetitive:
Another thing to remember is to guard against giving the exact same content in your ad that will be read when the visitor clicks from your ad to your website page. If they have to reread the same material, it will lose sales. This is one time when repetition is not beneficial. When a reader clicks through to your website page just to read the exact same text content, the reader will think, “Why tell me what I just read” and it also appears that all you did for your ad was copy it from the website page, giving your ad no effort. Give new details in your ad that are different from the website page. If you do need to repeat some information, then rewrite it with new benefits intertwined.

Too Short? Too Long?
Some ads need ‘quick and short’ while others will need more information to explain your program.

Are shorter ads better? Ads that are to-the-point and give the benefits of your program (what it can do for the reader) are more Action-Demanding than long tediously exhausting ads. Your ad copy needs to concisely give the pertinent information about your program that will drive the reader to go to your website and purchase.

Very long ads require too much reading for prospective buyers and it is a quick way to lose a customer. Most people’s lives are extremely busy, very involved, and in such a rush that readers want only the basics of what applies to them– not lengthy wordage that will bog them down with more than they can manage, thus leading to no clickthrough.

Avoid cramming everything into your ad. Only discuss what will encourage the reader to Act. Eliminate the non-essentials and parade the Action Basics.

Don’t stop at your first attempt. Write several versions of your ad and then examine them. Classify them and save them to a file so that you can continually use them. Through time you will refine and edit as needed.

Proof Read – and Again:
Proof read “multiple” times. After you have what you feel is a good ad and what is needed, then it is time to eliminate anything that is not necessary. Proof read your ad one more time asking yourself the question, “What is Not needed?” This will clean your ad copy to just the important essentials so that your reader is not overwhelmed with too much information.

Bullet-Pointed Lists:
Lists can especially benefit the understanding of your audience in fuller ads like solo ads. Use bullet points to heighten interest and give a quick overview of features, steps, tips, or benefits, for example:
Start with the main feature of your list.
Keep the list consistent as fragmented statements or as full sentences.
Punctuate the end of each line consistently.
If you use fragmented statements, do not end with punctuation.
If you use full sentences, end with a period. Avoid the use of semi-colons.
Avoid the use of long paragraphs in bullet points. Three lines maximum is suggested.

Is It Professional:
It is a solid decision to be professional. The internet tends to be very casual, so you do not want to be a stiff shirt, however to be too casual when trying to do business online can also lead to loss of sales.

One item as example is to avoid overuse of contractions, for example: it’s, won’t, didn’t, don’t, etc. Overuse of contractions can give an appearance of being unprofessional and a too laid-back attitude if you are wanting to show expertise in your business niche.

Change Perspective:
Does your ad “Drive” the reader to go to your website and purchase? After writing your ad, step away for a bit and then go back and read it. Imagine yourself as someone who knows nothing of your program; then read your ad from that perspective to discover the results. Do you feel prompted to rush to the website? Does it Appeal to your emotions and your senses? Is there Power in your words? Do you feel like this product/program/service is what you Must Have? Does your ad copy bring Solutions and Demands Action?!!

Top Action Words To Use:
Absolutely
Action
Amazing
Announcing
Approved
Attractive
Authentic
Discover
Bargain
Challenge
Compare
Easy
Free
Guaranteed
Healthy
Hurry
Improvement
Introducing
New
Now
Offer
Proven
Quick
Remarkable
Results
Revolutionary
Safety
Save
Sensational
Startling
Tested
Urgent
Wanted
You

Top Action Phrases To Use:
Act Fast
Act Now
Act Quickly
Be First To Qualify
Be The First
Don’t Put It Off
eBook For Free
Everything Supplied
Facts That You Should Know
Free Consultation
Free Demonstration
Free If You Act Now Free Resell Kit Included
Free Sample
Free To New Members
Free Trial Lesson
Free Video
Free With Signup
Get Facts That Help
Get Started Today!
Get Your Copy Now!
Guide To…
Helpful Tips
How I Improved My…
How To Avoid These Mistakes
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Words with Power are Words with Action!

Copyright ©Vector Central Marketing

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About the Author:
Vector Central and the Interactive Marketing Ezine provide essential marketing methods to generate your traffic-generating results. Free weekly ad with subscription, contests for free sponsor ads and quality free ads on our website, plus numerous marketing bonuses: Subscribe Here!
The Vector Central Solo Ad Service will assist you with your Exclusive ad campaigns:.

The innocent are constantly being inconvenienced because of all the senselessness of those who have caused the need for spam filters. The filters exist– they will remain– to deal with them is a ‘must’ in online business emailing.

**How Do They Work:

Spam filters use a point/score system that assigns points to words/phrases that trigger the filters. Positive points refer to spam words. Negative points refer to non-spam words.

When your e-mail accumulates a certain number of points, it is classified as spam. Different words give different level of points. It is not equality of points when it comes to spam words. For example, you might use the spam word “Free” 3 times in an email. If you are under a certain score level, then your email will land in the Inbox. If you have other spam words in your email, thus added to the 3 ‘free’ words will lead toward landing in the spam/junk folders of your subscribers.

Another factor to consider, which adds to the difficulty is that there are many different types of spam filters and they vary from server to server. They are always changing — you never get a breather from testing your emails.

Many of our customers want to know our techniques of getting our html solo ads into the inboxes, instead of the spam folders. I will share some of them with you.

**Ways To Prevent Filters From Blocking Your Mail:

–First- The best way to prevent your emails from being blocked is to “change” the words/phrases into non-spam words. Yes, that is very time consuming, but worth it to get your emails and your customers’ ads into the subscribers’ inboxes.

–Second – Alter words to avoid being blocked.
WARNING: The filters recognize these techniques and if you use too many of them, your mail will be penalized for using alterations. Recently filter parameters have cracked down on alterations, so I fully recommend the First process of changing words/phrases to non-spam ones.

–Third – Notify your subscribers and customers to add your email address to their email account’s AddressBook and Safe/Contact List. Add to your website subscriber page, to the follow up page, and to the welcome email.

A drawback is that you can not force people to Accept your email address in their account. You have no control over what they do and in my experience, you can ask new subscribers and customers to do so until you’re blue in the face. Many just won’t do it.

A commonly used term for accepting email addresses is: ‘Whitelisting.’ The reason I no longer use the term is because a customer accused me of being racial when he read it on our website. It is a universal term and has “no” meaning of any kind of that nature, but I do not want to offend anyone so I prefer to use AddressBook/SafeContacts – Accept Us – etc.

**How To Test Your Emails For Trigger Words:

Test Runs:
This is the best strategy. After writing your message/ad, send it to test sites that you have opened at various web-based email services. I suggest: Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Comcast.
– Do not change the options to your preferences. Keep the filters “On” at these test email accounts.
– Do ‘Not’ add your address to your addressbook / safecontacts. In other words, don’t accept yourself.
– Send your email to your test sites. If your email lands in spam/junk folders in even one of them then you have work to do.

Email Providers: Every email provider is different and thus you need to test in multiple accounts. What lands in Yahoo inboxes, doesn’t always land in Gmail inboxes, etc. And in hotmail, if certain options have not been set after opening an account, ‘everything’ goes to the spam/junk folder.

Spam Filter Checkers:
– If you use a spam-filter checker program, or you have software, they are both good but not always up-to-date with the current filter changes. I have seen some of my test runs get through spam-checkers, yet when I send to my test sites the email lands in the spam/junk folders.

Working toward avoiding trigger words is definitely time consuming, but very worth it to Deliver Your Mail to Inboxes!

All the Best to you!
Vector Central Marketing