Tips for Affiliates

Becoming an affiliate is one of the easiest ways to monetize your presence on the internet. It is extremely easy to participate in and once you have set up your account, all you have to do is make it work for you. But how is it that some affiliates earn more than others In fact, these blessed ones earn at least 10 times that of average affiliates Want to know the secrets to affiliate success.

What we are about to divulge are well known tips and not so secret advice. They are not magic spells and programming tweaks that will turn your affiliate program into a million dollar empire. However, these common sense tips are surefire tricks that will improve your chances and give you better exposure. Here they are:

Accept that there will be competition.
Competition is a fact of life with becoming an affiliate. Not all of us can make $5,000 a month just by letting the program work on its own. There are too many like minded individuals out there who want a bigger chunk off the internet pie. That means you will have to work hard to get yourself the exposure and trust you need. Complacency means death to any affiliate and you would be better off keeping that in mind if you want to succeed in this business.

Proper positioning pays.
The human eye is a complex creation of Nature and while no two pairs are alike, there are certain predictable behavior patterns that the eyes follow. Case in point: when surfing, every one of us has a tendency to look at the 'hot spots' on a web page. These are places such as the inside content, the left hand corner, the top portion of the page, the bottom of the page, etc. If you want people to notice your ads, place them in these hot spots.

Choose your own niche.
No matter how many affiliates are already on the internet and how many more will be joining, there is always a place for each one of them. That is why you need to choose your own niche and to choose it carefully. For example, you can not have a website about music and post different affiliate ads or links to TV, exercise equipment and nutritional supplements just because they have a lot of demand. These products are just not related to the main topic of your site.

Instead, choose a niche you can excel in and choose affiliate success programs that are related to it, programs and ads you yourself can promote and write about. For example, if you have a music review site, choose affiliate ads that link your visitors to albums, mp3 songs, videos, books and magazine subscriptions. Coherence is key and your site has got to have it.

Capture that list.
To someone with less than an entrepreneurial mindset, names and email addresses are just letters and numbers. To an enterprising affiliate, they mean potential income. Consider your email list as a captive market to whom you can send different offers. Best of all, you can build a solid network of friends and clients online.

Being a successful affiliate means differentiating yourself from the pack. People have to notice and trust you enough to actually buy something from you or because of you. If you want your affiliate program to succeed, work hard during the initial stages and work even harder as you go on. There will be other affiliates nipping at your heels but if you have established yourself well enough, you can be sure your affiliate will remain competitive and viable.

Read more!

What a Lens is and Why You should Make One On Squidoo

Squidoo has been part of the new Web 2.0 category of internet marketing tools since 2005, though it has been picking up pace pretty rapidly. Squidoo allows an author to create a lens, a one page website, which focuses on any subject for free. A particular lens can draw information from numerous sources and place it all on one page for easy viewing and reading. Great for links.

A lens maker can create numerous lenses on a subject, focusing attention on a different aspect of the subject with each lens. On the other had, a lens maker can make numerous lenses that cover many different topics, reflecting the lens makers' different interests and expertise.

Internet Marketing

One of the many good uses for Squidoo lenses is to use the lens as part of an overall internet marketing strategy. One or more good lenses can help to bring attention, traffic, and credibility to a product or business by providing valuable information and resources. Additionally, the lens can help to establish the author as an expert in their field and a person whose advice should be taken seriously.

The single page websites that Squidoo allows an author to create are called lenses because the finished website focuses on a single subject or idea. This focused attention on a subject is very attractive to users of the internet who are constantly searching for answers to questions or problems. The internet search engines whose job it is to find good, focused websites that will answer the questions or problems are attracted to the lenses.

Therefore, the use of Squidoo lenses has become a valuable internet resource for building and marketing a business.

Basic Modules

There are numerous tools available on Squidoo to build a lens. Most of these tools are called modules. The modules create separate sections on the overall web page. Other tools available on Squidoo include the author's biographical area, a keyword list called tags, the lens title or headline, a lensroll, and RSS subscription for readers.

One of the basic modules allows the author to write short articles about various aspects of the lens's subject. Another basic module makes it easy to list and describe appropriate links to offsite information that complements the subject of the lens. For internet marketing purposes the author can use these basic modules to link to their own websites, thereby driving traffic to their own business.

Other basic modules provide links to commercial internet resources such as eBay, Amazon, Starbucks, CompUSA, and many other businesses where the reader can be directed to the author's own merchandise offerings or to merchandise and information that supports the author's own business. These modules can also provide some income, as the lens maker earns a small percentage of the sales of merchandise on these commercial websites.

Interactive Modules

Many modules are interactive in nature, which is why Squidoo is considered to be part of the new Web 2.0 category of interactive websites. Readers can respond to many of the modules, adding their own favorites to certain categories. For example, readers can add their favorite YouTube videos to the list of videos on the lens or add their favorite pictures to the lens's list. Additionally, readers can add their favorite links to a list of links that the author has provided on the lens, or they can add their comments or responses to questions asked by the lens's author. One of the favorite interactive modules is the voting module where readers can vote on a question by the lens's author or vote on a listing of favorite resources.

All of the interactive modules have the effect of creating new content for the lens. The benefit to the lens maker is that the new lens content makes their lens more searchable by the many internet search engines. This is an obvious boost to the lens maker's overall internet marketing strategy.

Syndicated Content Modules

Another category of modules is that of syndicated content that is drawn from other websites. For example, if the lens maker has a blog on the same subject as his lens, he can have the blog posts automatically directed to the lens each time he creates a new blog post. Other types of syndicated content include articles from magazines and newspapers. The lens maker can automatically draw content related to the subject of the lens each time a new article appears in the specified periodicals. Similar to reader interactivity, this constantly changing syndicated content refreshes the lens on a regular basis, making it more attractive to the internet search engines and giving a boost to the lens maker's internet marketing efforts.

Creating a Squidoo lens can be fun as well as wise. It's Free so set one up today and start getting some traffic!

Read more!

Clickbank Affiliate Products

For ClickBank products you want to find a product that has a good sales page. This is the most important thing before commission.

If you have a choice between a product paying out 75% commission with a crappy sales letter or a product with an awesome sales letter and only paying out 25% commission. I would choose the 25% one. The average payout for electronic products is 50%.

The 2nd thing to pay attention to is do they have an autoresponder? If they do not, you should pick an affiliate that does. Email is a great way to make the customer come back to the website. And often the customer will need to be exposed to the product several times before they purchase the item...especially if the product is expensive.

And to answer your other question, yes if the customer does not buy the product right away and instead buys it through the follow up emails you should receive credit "generally speaking" because there is a cookie on the customers computer when they first clicked on your Affiliate link. The last click gets the sale. Cookies will last 60 days from ClickBank. If someone clicks on
your link and then returns to the site without going through another affiliate link, you will get the credit. If they go through another affiliate link, the other affiliate will get the credit.

This is what clickbank had to say about cookies:

Quote:
We define a cookie as any string of data that is automatically stored on your computer upon access to our online services. ClickBank employs cookies to assign temporary identification numbers to machines that access our web servers. This information enables us to deliver faster service to our subscribers, prevent denial of service attacks on our systems, detect and prevent fraudulent transactions, and assist with awarding proper sales credit to our partners. All ClickBank cookies are 1) of limited duration, 2) less than 5KB in length, 3) only visible to ClickBank web servers, and 4) devoid of any personally identifiable information.

1. Your sales page needs a Bold Red Headline. A headline will grab the reader’s attention and make them want to continue reading the sales page. If you don't have a headline you might as well kiss a good % of your customer’s goodbye.

2. The longer the sales page the better...to an extent. How long should it be? As long as it takes, generally more expensive products have longer sales pages.

3. You need bullet points. People like to skim sales letters and bullets grab their attentions to key points.

5. You need to have testimonials from other people. Most people will trust what other people say about the product. If your product is new, give a couple copies away to friends / associates and ask them to give their testimonials.

6. You must have at good 100% money back guarantee. I fought this one for the longest time. It hurt to think about it, especially electronic products when someone can easily use the product or service and then claim that they want a refund. But trust me, it has been proven that you will gain more sales from this alone, than if you did not have a money back guarantee. It's called "Risk Reversal" Sure some people will ask for their money back, but a greater percentage of people will buy your product so you end up winning in the end.

7. The layout and fonts need to be the same style and color. Don't have 6 different colored fonts in your sales letter. I made that mistake on my first one. It looked like a bunch of fruit loops with text! The main text should be black font size 12 or 14 and I hear typewriter font is best.

8. Graphics should be professionally done.
Don't screw yourself at the end and try to cheap out by doing the graphics yourself or having some crappy artist design your headers, footers and all around design. If anything you should spend the most possible for the best design. Expect to pay around $97 and up to $397 for a nice looking mini site.

Read more!

How to Create the Best Affiliate Website

You want to make money with affiliate programs. What is the main thing that you need? A list. And how do you get that list? You must have a website.

Many new affiliate marketers just promote the link that the affiliate program gives them. They may be making some money, but the truth is that customers rarely puchase the first time that they see a product. Now, ask yourself what happens if they decide to buy that product later. You lose your commission!

If you have your own website, you can capture those prospective customers' name and email address and "remind" them about the product that they were interested in.

Many of the successful affiliate marketers only have what is called a "squeeze" page or a landing page. They give out a free report or ebook to get people to subscribe to their list.

My approach is a bit different. I feel that people are visiting my websites because they want information. So, I do my best to give them that information. Sure, I have a newsletter subscription box on my site, but I am having more success with providing the information that people are looking for.

You don't absolutely HAVE to have a content site to have an affiliate website. There are different types of sites that can direct traffic to your affiliate merchant.

1. Price comparison sites. These sites are mostly dominated by the big corporations like Shopzilla so it is more difficult for an affiliate marketer to make any money with comparison sites. It is possible to have a product feed to take care of some of the technical aspects, but it's still difficult.

2. Product review sites. Product review sites are becoming more and more popular. Pick products that match your content topic.

3. "Mini" sites. These sites (as I mentioned before) that normally just have an optin page to gather the names and emails of prospects. Then, you create an autoresponder series to introduce these people to your affiliate products. Your messages are NOT sales letters. They are based on the good, quality information that they are looking for.

4. And, of course, the plain old content site. Although, these days, content sites don't have to be all that plain. Content can be defined as words, videos, audio and multimedia. The possibilities are endless.

Now that you know that you need a website, how do you go about getting one? Let's take a look:

1. Hire someone to create a beautiful site for you. This can run into big money. You CAN get a reasonably priced web designer if you do your research.If you do decide to go this way, be sure that you ask for references (yes, just like in the offline world), and check them out.

2. Blogging. I love blog sites because the search engines love them AND because they are "easy peasy." The two top choices for creating a blog are WordPress and Blogger.com (http://blogger.com). WordPress is free from http://wordpress.org. It can be installed with just a few clicks from your web hosting control panel (provided you have cpanel type hosting.) Blogger.com is an online service provided by Google. I prefer WordPress because Google has a habit of deleting blogs without notice for reasons that are known only to them. Have you heard the funny story about when Google deleted their own blog?

3. Design Dashboard, by Marlon Sanders: Point and click your way to a beautifully designed website. I have used this and so I know that this learn and you do system is terrific to those who have never created a website.

4. XSite Pro is extremely easy for the newbie to use so that they don't have to have a website designer create a site for them. Just point, click and type. It has a built in template system plus third-party templates are available everywhere these days.

5. Microsoft FrontPage or Dreamweaver. This software is a little more difficult to learn, but I did it - so you can do it if you want!

6. Nvu. (http://nvu.com). A free HTML editor that is pretty easy to learn. The best part? I'll repeat: FREE.

7. SiteBuildIt is the only all-in-one site-building, site-hosting, AND site-marketing system of software tools for affiliate marketers.

7. Squidoo. You can create a squidoo lens with articles that will promote your affiliate product. I would still recommend that you have your own domain name and website.

Also remember that you don't have to promote products that are in the internet marketing arena. Think about your hobbies, interests and talents. You might just come up with a niche that is very profitable.

Stick to affiliate products that fit your niche. People are not looking for gambling products on a fashion site! Yes, there are millions of people on the 'Net but they are looking for something specific. Give it to them.

Your affiliate website is your most important asset because it is where people come up to sign up for your newsletter. You've heard it before: the money is in the list. So, give your website a clean, professional look as well as providing the information that visitors are looking for.

Read more!

The Top 4 Reasons You MUST Consider When Choosing an Affiliate Program

Choosing the right affiliate program is vital for your success in making a successful career of affiliate marketing.

Time is precious and you do not want to invest too much of it on programs that are never going to pay off.

As I am sure you are aware, there are many internet scams out there - so you need to be careful before investing your time and effort in any one direction.

In this article, we're going to learn how to distinguish an excellent affiliate program from a rather mediocre one. Yes, indeed. Not all affiliate programs are built alike. Some are simply better than others.

I personally spent at least two years flitting from one program to another and even got involved with the occasional scam. I lacked guidance and lost $1000s trying everything possible to become successful.

I made a few dollars here and there so I knew it was possible to make money online. I just needed a break or someone to put me on the right path.

Here are some points that you need to consider when choosing your affiliate program:

1. How much is the commission rate being offered by the affiliate program? Obviously, you want as high a commission rate as possible. Who wouldn't, right? True, but there is no point gaining 70%-90% of the sale if the product is crap:-) - which leads me on to my next consideration.

2. How sellable is the product? If you are going to spend time and/or advertising money promoting a product then you must check to see if there are other people finding success selling this product.

A good place to start is Google. If you find advertisers on Google selling this product through Google adwords, then you can be sure there is a profit to be made.

You can also do a quick search of topical online discussion forums where you will find the unbiased reviews and testimonials of other entrepreneurs and internet marketers.

3. How credible is the affiliate program? Is there a big, well known Internet Marketers' name on the product? Do they have a track record of great products and satisfied customers.

You do not want to be known for recommending second rate products online.

Building a trustful reputation online is a massive part of becoming successful so it is extremely important that you only recommend products that yourself and others have found to be useful.

4. How and when will you get paid? There are various ways you can get paid your affiliate commissions. I prefer a straight bank transfer to my account. The most commons methods are by company check or via Paypal.

Paypal is an online payment system that will transfer any money you accumulate directly to your bank account. It is free to join but they will take a small charge for each transaction.

Some affiliate companies pay weekly or fortnightly but the vast majority pay once per month. I would not join a program that paid me less frequently than monthly.

Choosing your affiliate program is only a beginning but if you choosing wisely could make the difference between the success of failure of your affiliate marketing business.

Read more!

Benefits of Being an Affiliate Marketer

Affiliate marketing has become one of the most effective ways to advertise online. It is also one of the easiest ways for anyone with a website to make a profit online. Affiliate Marketing is an agreement between a merchant and a website owner. The website owner, or the affiliate, allows the use of their site for the promotion of the merchant's products by linking to the merchant's website. In exchange, the merchant pays a commission to the affiliate on all sales generated by the affiliate. Every time someone clicks on the link on the affiliate website and proceeds to make a purchase, the affiliate gets a commission. The merchant will pay the affiliate only when a customer clicks on the product link and makes a purchase.

Affiliate marketing programs are described as a win-win situation for both the merchant and the affiliate because of the pay-for-performance scheme. Both the merchant and the affiliate enjoy some benefits in affiliate marketing. There are many benefits on the merchant's side. It gives the merchant a wider market in which to advertise a product or service. Affiliate marketing will give the product or service the maximum exposure that it may not get with other traditional advertising techniques. The more affiliate sites a merchant has, the higher the traffic, which can convert to sales. Affiliate marketing is the equivalent of having an army of sales people who will do the advertising and will only get a commission if a customer purchases.

Meanwhile, since an affiliate marketing relationship is a win-win situation, the affiliate also enjoys many benefits. Foremost among these is the easy way to make a profit. The affiliate can earn by having an ad or link to the merchant's website, which prospective customers will hopefully click and proceed to make a purchase. As soon as the customer clicks on the ad on the affiliate's site, is redirected to the merchant's website and goes on to buy that particular product, the affiliate earns a commission. The more referrals there are the more profit for the affiliate.

Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to earn money while at home.There are virtually no production costs. The product is already developed and proven by the merchant, and all you have to do to find, as many prospects as you can that will bring in the profit for both the merchant and the affiliate. Affiliate programs are usually free to join, so affiliates do not have to worry about start-up costs. There are thousands of products and services you can choose from. You can find affiliate programs for every product under the sun. Surely, there is a product or service out there that is relevant to your website.

In addition, there is absolutely no sales experience necessary. Most affiliate programs offer excellent support when it comes to providing marketing material. The simplicity of affiliate marketing allows you to be an affiliate marketer at the least cost and the most comfort. You can even build a successful affiliate marketing business right in the convenience of your own home. In affiliate marketing, your responsibility is simply to find prospects for the merchant; you do not have to worry about inventory, order processing, and product shipping. These, along with customer service support are the duties of the merchant.

Because of the global reach of the internet, you can easily find thousands of prospects. You can intensify your advertising campaign by exploiting more aggressive and productive strategies such as viral marketing. By attracting more prospects, you also maximize your potential to earn. Another benefit of an affiliate marketer is the minimal risk involved. If the product you are advertising is not making money then you can dump it and choose another. There are no long-term binding contracts tying you to products that are not making enough money.

All the same, the best benefit of being an affiliate marketer is the opportunity to increase your income; and you can make a profit even if affiliate marketing is only a sideline business. With your own affiliate business, you can earn easily earn extra income, although you do have to exert effort and use your imagination to maximize your earning potential. Indeed, affiliate marketing is one of the simplest and most effective business opportunities on the web today.

Read more!

3 Things All Affiliate Marketers Need To Survive Online

Every affiliate marketer is always looking for the successful market that gives the biggest paycheck. Sometimes they think it is a magic formula that is readily available for them. Actually, it is more complicated than that. It is just good marketing practices that have been proven over years of hard work and dedication.
There are tactics that have worked before with online marketing and is continuing to work in the online affiliate marketing world of today. With these top three marketing tips, you will be able to able to increase your sales and survive in the affiliate marketing online.

What are these three tactics?

1. Using unique web pages to promote each separate product you are marketing. Do not lump all of it together just to save some money on web hosting. It is best to have a site focusing on each and every product and nothing more.

Always include product reviews on the website so visitors will have an initial understanding on what the product can do to those who buys them. Also include testimonials from users who have already tried the product. Be sure that these customers are more than willing to allow you to use their names and photos on the site of the specific product you are marketing.

You can also write articles highlighting the uses of the product and include them on the website as an additional page. Make the pages attractive compelling and include calls to act on the information. Each headline should attract the readers to try and read more, even contact you. Highlight your special points. This will help your readers to learn what the page is about and will want to find out more.

2. Offer free reports to your readers. If possible position them at the very top side of your page so it they simply cannot be missed. Try to create autoresponder messages that will be mailed to those who input their personal information into your sign up box. According to research, a sale is closed usually on the seventh contact with a prospect.

Only two things can possibly happen with the web page alone: closed sale or the prospect leaving the page and never return again. By placing useful information into their inboxes at certain specified period, you will remind them of the product they thought they want later and will find out that the sale is closed. Be sure that the content is directed toward specific reasons to buy the product. Do not make it sound like a sales pitch.

Focus on important points like how your product can make life and things easier and more enjoyable. Include compelling subject lines in the email. As much as possible, avoid using the word “free” because there are still older spam filters that dumps those kind of contents into the junk before even anyone reading them first. Convince those who signed up for your free reports that they will be missing something big if they do not avail of your products and services.

3. Get the kind of traffic that is targeted to your product. Just think, if the person who visited your website has no interest whatsoever in what you are offering, they will be among those who move on and never come back. Write articles for publication in e-zines and e-reports. This way you can locate publications that is focusing on your target customers and what you have put up might just grab their interest.

Try to write a minimum of 2 articles per week, with at least 300-600 words in length. By continuously writing and maintaining these articles you can generate as many as 100 targeted readers to your site in a day.
Always remember that only 1 out of 100 people are likely to buy your product or get your services. If you can generate as much as 1,000 targeted hits for your website in a day, that means you can made 10 sales based on the average statistic.

The tactics given above does not really sound very difficult to do, if you think about it. It just requires a little time and an action plan on your part.

Try to use these tips for several affiliate marketing programs. You can end maintaining a good source of income and surviving in this business that not all marketers can do.
Besides, think of the huge paychecks you will be receiving…

Read more!

Want to become a super affiliate? Learn the tricks

Become an affiliate and earn a lot! What do you think? Honey though this sounds mind blowing, things on the real ground are not that easy. After all, every business is operated on some strategies and without those the business is a flop. There is no reason to fancy upon the fact that all affiliates earn high commissions.

But at the same time earning rich dollars from affiliate marketing is not something impossible. It requires a matter of clear understanding of the market trend and setting the themes for the selling purpose. You have to plan well to set on this affiliate business. Understand the area of your interest and thereafter develop the area that you must concern. This is important.

For becoming a super affiliate, there are some golden rules you must know and follow. It may make you dumbstruck to hear that an affiliate can earn up to $50,000 a month but when you will find this to be your bank balance, what will be your reaction? Dear at that time you will urge for more and only more.

You must begin on the clear note that you are going to take up this affiliate marketing as a serious business.
Initially you can begin as a part timer but if you are fair on your deal that you want to gallop to the height of the super affiliate, this part time business won’t fetch you lot. So even if you desire for it, you won’t deserve it.
Things are fun but need patience, dedication, marketing skill and sincerity.
You cannot be casual and think to be drenched into wealth. No! Work on your interest but follow the call of the market.
Chalk out the target visitors to the web network and then research on the affiliate programs proposed by the business houses. Merge the two and work out the pros and cons. Study well the area of possibilities you can make out of the business. And there you are.
You may or may not have a personal website. If you don’t have it, you can throughout access with the help of your affiliate “ID”. So you don’t face any such hazards like attending to the consumers’ problems and complaints. Only set the right links and help both the seller and the buyer to meet online. If there is a deal you get the share of your effort to bridge this gap.
If you can really grow into a super affiliate, not only you earn great perks, but you lead a life of your wishes. No tension of doing work at the boss’s gunpoint, else do it whenever you would like to. And you can operate this from any corner of the globe.
Fetching a good amount from affiliate marketing can also be a matter of analyzing the competitive factor of web marketing. You just cannot go on with your efficiency without the knowledge of your surroundings. The way this is true for human existence, it is worth same for affiliate marketing.
The real trick you will have to play is set up your pace in this online marketing competitiveness. What factors attract customers instantly? You have to research them out and then make the master plan of your website (only if you want) to propagate with speed in your affiliate business.
Your personal website gives you a better identity in the web business world not just confining your skills and abilities to create links.

Do you still see anything beyond imagination in this business? Even the earning potential which had made you go vow at the initial stage now makes you feel what’s big in it. Right you are! Because you can now make others be in awe of your being a super affiliate.

Read more!