7/9/13

Data feeds are your friend....

I have been working with affiliate marketing for several years now and I have recently discovered data feeds.  I know what your thinking, just now? Yes. And what I mean is that I have discovered sellfire.com and Shareasale.com's webpage builders.

Here is what I have found out. That you can design products page for your website and it can be search engine friendly using these options which is great because it creates more keywords to be found on your website and your blog posts.

I use Cj.com as well but have found that Commission Junction has to be done by hand in other words you have to post each product which is okay if you are posting something short and sweet, but if you are looking for something to provides more keywords to be found on a search engine I recommend using shareasale.com

Sellfire.com is great but only if you are a expert programmer or you have a wordpress blog otherwise the webpage is just a space filler that is for your normal users it is not search engine friendly. 

7/6/13

Engage your online communities through innovation and viral marketing

Securing your social media profiles, ensuring they’re filled with relevant company information and aligning the visual elements with your brand is the easy part. The most challenging aspect of social media success is understanding and engaging with your audience, and accounting for their wants and needs in a way that translates to ROI for your company.
No two audiences behave the same way, and their desires are evolving constantly. Following these community management best practices will allow your fan bases to thrive and participate with your brand. That will lead to better engagement and a stronger return on time spent.
Encourage discussion through relevant content. Ask questions of your fans, encourage feedback and participation, and offer exclusive information that makes them feel valued.
Interact often. Respond to questions, thank fans for sharing info, and offer follow-up. Be genuine and interact as if they were talking to you face to face.
Let communities self-manage. Allow others in the community the chance to chime in on topics or answer questions. The strongest communities are those that feel empowered to share their own knowledge and don’t require the company to intervene all the time.
Grow and adapt to changing needs. Take the time to notice shifts in discussion or behavior patterns. Are people sharing a certain type of content more often than others? Provide more of it. Seeing “how to” questions being posed? Provide more tips and tricks.
Reward advocates. Are there certain individuals who are particularly active and passionate about your brand? Surprise them with a coupon code or free sample. Even asking their opinion on a new product or for their feedback will encourage them to continue to be grassroots advocates.
Surprise and delight. Offer your fans exclusive information and giveaways, feature special fans or just have fun with them. Your audience is rallying around your brand, so make it worth their time — and they’ll make it worth yours.

7/4/13

Analyzing Affiliate Marketing: Possibility of Failure

Bluehost.com Web Hosting $6.95  1. Disorganized Start Organizing oneself for almost any business is critical and contains two aspects with it. First, initial preparation when someone is new for the field of Affiliate marketing online in particular. The other part of being ready to adopt up the responsibility to become a company’s affiliate marketing relates to one’s understanding in what the company will be and the products it sells. Which means failure to attain personal goals set with an Affiliate Marketing system are inevitable to keep unfulfilled if someone starts off with out sufficient, prior study. Key areas to analyze on are down the page, which will let you shortlist the many profitable and sensible options and produce a wise decision: Different Companies and also their Affiliate Programs Demand for your Selected Company’s Products or services General Consumer Behavior and buy Pattern Preferred and also Appealing Content for your Blog

2. Short-Term View Generally, failed affiliate internet marketers are observed undertake a common mindset with not enough dedication to their property based Affiliate Marketing and advertising business. This is for the reason that many people get into this field using a fairly wrong impression it is a short-term substitute for generating a revenue stream. As a end result, their lack of dedication helps it be difficult so they can continue in the field if they go through any slow or challenging phase. So in order to make it big as a possible affiliate marketer, you need to enter the field using a committed attitude, as opposed to that of person who would readily stop trying with even hook deviation from their particular expectation.

3. Lack of the Drive to master & Evolve Constantly It will take an enterprising nature to achieve the business regarding Affiliate Marketing rendering it necessary to sustain an open-minded angle for the field. Lack of this attitude brings about failure because several affiliate marketers don't understand how important it is so they can be constantly responsive to learning fresh ideas and strategies. If you have got gained success through the early days as a possible affiliate marketer then it really should not be mistaken as an activity that would keep on without additional efforts from the end. It is extremely hard that your accomplishment formula will always bring you the identical profits in the foreseeable future. You will must modify it in line with the changing trends inside: Affiliate Marketing Market Affiliated Company’s Market Consumer Preferences Trending Calls for

4. Deficient on Business Strategy At times, people start off their Affiliate marketing online business without devising their course of action. Subsequently, without the development of your strategy, they are in a resolve as their business will lack a perception of direction. By formulating a joint venture partner Marketing strategy, you would realize every tactic that really must be implemented. Similarly, you need to use it as an effective way to track your advantages, weaknesses, and aspects of improvement. In some other words, if you might be committed to achieving Affiliate marketing online success, then you would strive to create a home based business with all the current right ingredients just like business strategy, a contingency plan, performance actions, analytical tools, and so forth.

5. Limiting Options There was clearly a time when the instruments of Internet Marketing and advertising like Content Marketing and advertising, Email marketing, and so forth. were new and also promising lines regarding work. As men and women explored these locations and gained accomplishment, their strategies and also practices became illustrations for other aspiring men and women. The same concept can be applied to many home-based Affiliate marketing online businesses where they may be developed to stick to the success stories with the past. It may look like an effective method but will slow down development because such internet marketers begin to minimize their business to some, known sources and also platforms. On the particular contrary, growth and success in Affiliate marketing online demands innovation inside the types and mix of online sources which can be exploited strategically. These common reasons who have resulted in Affiliate marketing online failure should be reviewed with all the perspective of avoiding them once you enter this enterprising and also lucrative field.

7/3/13

4 Secrets to Success in Affiliate Viral Marketing

Tens of thousands of people turn to the Internet every single day in the hopes of striking gold. But while there is certainly a fortune to be had online, the road to success is never easy. And it’s not for everyone. You will experience failure once, twice, or maybe even more and this is why majority of people give up quickly. By learning some of the secrets to earning money online and committing to working hard day in and day out until you find your golden goose, then you will succeed. But like I said, it’s not for everyone.

Among the many ways you can earn money online is through affiliate marketing. Essentially, it is a practice that requires you to promote a product/service, and you will earn you a commission for every product/service sold. You could earn anywhere from $5 to $500 for each sale, or even more.

If you want to try your hand at affiliate marketing, here are some secrets that will ultimately lead you to success.

Secret #1: Develop the Right Attitude and Mindset

This has been said time and time again by dozens of Internet marketing gurus, but it can’t be said enough. It’s not easy to earn money through affiliate marketing. You need to work hard, really hard especially at the onset. You also need to be patient. Develop the right attitude and mindset, and don’t give up too quickly.

Secret #2: Choose the Right Product

There are so many useless products being promoted by affiliate marketers online. But guess what, majority of those products don’t sell. Even if they did somehow manage to convince people that they’ve got the greatest product in the world, they’d still end up with a large number of complaints asking for refunds because the product did not work as advertised. Choose a product that you yourself would use.

Secret #3: Become an Authority in Your Chosen Niche

Being trustworthy is one of the most important attributes you need to have if you want to succeed in affiliate marketing. If you want people to trust you, then you need to become an authority in your chosen niche. If you promote beauty products, for example, then you need to be an expert on cosmetics, skin care, and health supplements. Fill your website with informative articles that people want to read; articles that really help people. Don’t just create articles that aim to sell the products you are promoting because it will only turn people off. It tells them you just want to earn money and not really interested in helping them.

Secret #4: Use Various Promotional Methods

A very common reason why many affiliate marketers fail to earn a decent income is because they only try one or two methods to promote their products. So when an IM guru tells them that Formula ABZ works, they immediately use this formula throughout their affiliate marketing career without even bothering to try other formulas. The thing is, what may work for some won’t always work for others so it’s always a smart idea to try a variety of methods to find out which would work best for you.

- See more at: http://harmeetsinghblog.com/4-secrets-to-success-in-affiliate-marketing/#sthash.RHTbFFTv.dpuf

Secrets In Becoming An Effective Affiliate Viral Marketer

What great timing! You may have a lot of questions to ask about how to set out, don’t fear, we can help! This article contains useful guidelines for establishing and meeting your online marketing goals.

Disclose the fact that you use affiliate marketing every time you do so; it will have a positive effect on your visitors and readers. One of the best ways to interact with your customers is with utmost honesty. When you are honest with your readers, they will respond to you positively.

If you require quick access to your revenues, you should consider an affiliate partner that offers a variety of payment options. There are companies that require you to make a certain amount of money before they will pay you, but there are also those that direct deposit funds into your bank at your discretion.

An excellent online marketing tip is to locate a business who is constantly making new products. The best way to get repeat business is to work with respectable companies that sell a number of different products. This way you will be continually making money on commissions. Stay away from products that are the current rage, fad, or fashion. These products tend to have a short-lived period of successful profit.

You need to be well educated in the field of internet marketing to make large amounts of money. You need to get your website or blog as high a ranking as possible in each search engine. The higher your ranking, the more people will follow your affiliate links and the more money you will earn.

You want to look for affiliates who have good relationships with their clients as well. Even aiming for a conversion ratio of 1 percent is a great place to start.

Tell your readers information about your affiliations. Readers expect you to be honest and transparent; these qualities make it seem worthwhile for them to do business with a company through your ads.

The lifetime commission in web marketing is becoming quite the elusive creature. Still, the rewards are very great. Vendors give webmasters a monetary amount for each product bought by a customers that the webmaster referred to the vendor. Usually this only applies if the customer bought an item within a certain amount of time. This generation of perpetual income is what makes these commissions so valuable.

To make more money with affiliate promotion, you should make your review better by including videos, screenshots, and anything else that can enhance the product. Once interested, the consumer may become a purchaser. Also be precise, clear and give good details about your products. When people feel they truly understand a product, they’re more likely to buy it.

When it comes to developing a newsletter for web marketing, your goal should be interesting people in signing up for your mailing list. In the past, people loved getting emails. As spam became more prolific, people began shying away from offering their emails to businesses. The more appealing the information you provide, the more likely they are to give you their address.

It is not helpful to put all your work into only a couple of affiliate promotion campaigns. Have a large variety of vendors and products. When you have a diversified affiliate marketing portfolio, you will be safe from going under if something happens to one of your affiliates. Make sure you are working with enough profits to prevent losses, but not more than you can handle.

7/2/13

The Three Factors That Determine Affiliate Marketing Success

As affiliate marketing has become a multi-billion dollar industry over the past several years, it’s also become increasingly sophisticated. Across the seemingly endless niches are a variety of strategies for generating revenue. With more merchants, offers, and analytics, there’s a lot to the affiliate marketing business.

But while the details have grown increasingly complex, the big picture remains incredibly simple. Success in affiliate marketing ultimately depends on how well you execute three tasks.

Affiliate Marketing For Dummies
If you’re an affiliate marketer, you have a chance to make money every time someone opens up a Web browser. To the affiliate marketer, below is a diagram of how the flow of every Internet engagement unfolds.



You make money on the path that includes three green boxes; on all others–the vast majority of scenarios–you get nothing. So at its simplest, affiliate marketing success comes to those who maximize the number of positive outcomes down the flow chart above.

Three Key Factors
Put another way, think of affiliate marketing as this formula:

Revenue = Visitors x Click Rate x Conversion Rate x Commission

Improving any one of the variables on the right side of this equation will increase the dollar amount on the left side. So affiliate marketing really boils down to optimizing three factors:

Factor #1: Visitors / Traffic
In order to make money from affiliate marketing, you need to convert a visitor to your site to a paying customer for your merchant partner(s). Obviously, the more visitors you have (i.e., the greater the traffic to your site), the more chances you have to make an affiliate referral.

Building up a large base of traffic is in itself a huge challenge. There’s an overwhelming amount of content on the Web dedicated to attracting visitors to your website, and we won’t go into any detail on the topic here. (Check out SEOmoz or Search Engine Land if you really want to read more).

If your website doesn’t have much traffic to speak of, there’s probably not a big opportunity for you now in affiliate marketing. Focus on producing high quality content, building some links, and getting a recurring stream of visitors to your site. But ff you have a website that is already attracting a significant number of visitors from referring sites, organic search, and direct visits, affiliate marketing could be a logical way to monetize.

Factor #2: Click Rate
This is where we put the “marketing” in affiliate marketing. It’s up to you as the affiliate marketer to make sure that your audience sees the affiliate links and offers you have on your site. You can’t simply throw them into the right sidebar and hope that your audience seeks them out and clicks on them. There’s a great deal that you can do to increase the likelihood that your visitors click on the links and get in front of the affiliate offer.

This topic is extremely broad; there are countless strategies for increasing visibility (and ultimately click rate) on your affiliate links, ranging from incorporating links into your content to sending emails to your newsletter list. Check out some of the affiliate marketing gurus on our Best Monetization Blogs overview for an extensive supply of tips and tricks for boosting the number of clicks your affiliate links receive.

John Rampton has some ideas on increasing click rate, and Zac Johnson has five simple ways to boost click rates as well.

Factor #3: Conversion Rate
Conversion rate refers to the percentage of referrals sent who ultimately complete the desired action (e.g., purchase something from Amazon).

This is one area that is often overlooked as an “out of my hands” part of the affiliate marketing funnel. Once you’ve sent a visitor to the merchant site, all you can do is cross your fingers and hope they ultimately complete whatever action is necessary for you to get your commission. That’s partially true I suppose. But you have more input here than you may realize.

Part of the affiliate marketing game involves picking out merchant partners and products to promote. If you’re promoting a crap product, you can probably send some traffic through the affiliate link by doing a good job of marketing it to your audience. But once they get to the merchant site and are disappointed in what they see, they’re probably going to abandon.

If you’re promoting a quality product that you think delivers great value to your audience, they’re much more likely to complete the purchase once they’ve clicked.

Commission $ vs. Conversion %
There’s often a trade-off between the quality of a product and the commission being offered. And it’s tempting to gravitate toward the partners and products that pay you the most per conversion. But if those products are unlikely to convert, they might not be the best fit.

Consider two products:

Product A: $100 commission to affiliates
Product B: $25 commission to affiliates
Product A looks like the winner, right? Not necessarily; your expected revenue from promoting this product depends on the likelihood of conversion. Suppose the conversion rates look like this:

Product A: 1%
Product B: 5%
For each affiliate click you send to Product A, you can expect $1.00 in revenue. For each sent to Product B, you can expect $1.25 in affiliate revenue.

Don’t get blinded by simply commissions. Finding relevant, quality products to promote is one of the most important parts of the affiliate business.

Bottom Line
Focusing on any one of these areas increases your chances of affiliate marketing success. But optimizing one area when another is sub-optimal won’t deliver the results you want. In other words, the real success and revenue comes when all three are executed successfully.

For example, building up a big base of traffic won’t deliver much of a reward if you’re working with the wrong affiliate offers. Similarly, doing a great job marketing the ideal offers to an extremely small traffic base won’t translate into much revenue. Each of these three points must be implemented and improved together, or else you won’t see results.

There’s obviously a lot of work that goes into each of the three points above; building up substantial traffic takes months (or even years) of effort, and finding the right affiliates involves never-ending research.

Commission Junction Affiliate / Viral Marketing

I have been working with Commission Junction for several years and have never seen a lot of results. So recent I have decided to take a different approach to using Commission Junction and it's affiliates.

Instead of posting miscellaneous ads to my website or various other classified ad websites, I decided to start several blogs specific to a few trends. One was on hosting, another on credit card processing for business, the other on plus size fashions.

Here is why i choose these topics. All three are hot niches right now. Hosting is paying $100+ per sign up, Cash advance affiliates and credit card processing are paying $60 +/- per lead, and plus size fashion about 2 to 5% commission on sales.

Now all but the fashion one sound like a terrific idea but here is what i have found within the first week. Zero traffic has hit the hosting and credit card processing blogs and tons of traffic and growing have hit the fashion blog.

With the fashion blog I was sure to monetize it completely. In other words I included adsense to it and registered it with amazon blog service. this way if i have slow or no traffic i still have readers signing up to read it and pay me approximately $0.33 a month to have a subscription. Doesn't sound like much right now but it does add up.

So here is where the money aspect stands.
I did the following to make money on my blog for fashion.
added it to kindle / amazon blog service
added adsense to the blog
continue to post fashions directly from commission junction

To increase my beginning traffic here are somethings i have done.
I add my listed commission junction affiliate products to pinterest
created a fan page for the blog on facebook
and post all my new blog posts to google+
additionally I do use google adwords to research my titles for my blog posts so you can find this blog. ;-)