Archive for January, 2005

Posted on Jan 31st, 2005

Affiliate program opportunity — what do you think of when that term pops up? With any luck, you know that an affiliate is like an associate or partner, and when talking about businesses, it means that the two businesses are working together in some way to generate revenue.

An affiliate program opportunity is one in which, basically, an online store or site owner goes looking for other web sites on which to place a banner that contains a link to the other site. Typically, affiliate programs will allow the webmaster of the site on which the banner is placed to receive a cut of the profits based on the number of users who utilize the link, or perhaps by the number who use the link and then make a purchase. Whichever is the case, an affiliate program opportunity is likely a great choice to get involved with if you are conducting business online.

Marketing online is a pretty tricky thing to master, so an affiliate program opportunity can help to spread the word about your business and its products. After all, would it not be great if every visitor to an online bookstore had an opportunity to also see an advertisement and link to your store selling similar products? That is exactly what is offered with one of these programs.

Likewise, if an affiliate program opportunity avails itself to you in the form of another company wanting to put a link on your site, there is a good chance that there is easy money to be had. After all, freeing up some space on the home page of your site for the banner of a like-minded company can generate revenue for another company and for you, depending on what your agreement is with the other company.

Overall, an affiliate program opportunity that allows you to simply market your own goods, in exchange for pennies for every click, is still great marketing. Advertising space is at a premium, so this may be the way to go. Add your banner to another program member’s site and watch your site traffic grow. Or, add the banner of another company to your page and watch your coffers grow! This is undoubtedly a win-win situation.

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Robert Maguire lives in Dracut, Massachusetts with his wonderful wife Donna. Learn more about the wonders of an affiliate program opportunity at teamacaiplus.com

Posted on Jan 31st, 2005

Most affiliates never receive an affiliate commission check because of –

  • They don’t have perseverance. In other words they give up too quickly and don’t want to try to succeed. Affiliates need to understand that this business is not a get rich quick scheme. You need to treat your job as a serious venture.

  • They promote too many affiliate programs. You need to focus on a few good products and concentrate only on selling them to make you some steady affiliate commission checks. When you become more successful and you understand this biz then you can wet your feet with more affiliate programs.
  • They don’t want to invest. Every business needs to start with a capital. Set aside a capital to bid on keywords at pay-per-click search engines. Whatever sale you make, use every dime of your profit (for the first few months) back into your venture. You can’t set up a link on your website and expect traffic to swarm in. I got news for you. This is not going to happen. Remember, you reap what you sow.
  • They don’t want to write their own ad copy and headlines. Why anyone would purchase from you when they see that you’re promoting the exact ads as everyone else? They can get the same product somewhere else. Right? However, if your ad is unique and it grabs my interest, I’ll stick around and buy from you. So be different from other affiliates. Keep in mind, when writing ad copy and headlines, they must grab attention and focus primarily on benefits.
  • They don’t know about the bonus effect. What do you do when other affiliates are promoting the exact product at the exact price? Off Course! Give away a bonus! Every customer is looking for more for less. Give them more and they’ll buy from you.
  • They don’t want to write ezine articles. Writing articles generate free traffic to your website. I think I’m the zillionth person telling you this. It’s no secret. But some people think this is a scary prospect. To make things simple for you, articles can be about Tips eg. 12 Tips to Make Easy Money Online and Step-by-Step Tutorials eg. How to _______ (you fill in the blank).
  • Another aspect of being a successful affiliate requires two criteria. One is to LEARN about your business and two is to APPLY what you learn. The second criterion is very essential to make you into a top-notch affiliate in no time. And whatever you learn in this article you just need to apply so you can start see your regular affiliate commission checks.

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    Posted on Jan 30th, 2005

    Have you signed up for a money making affiliate program only to wake up one morning to find that you cannot access your affiliate back office then you discover that the business has closed owing you money? If you have been online for over six months and you have escaped being scammed, count yourself very, very lucky… Do authentic Internet home business opportunities still exist?

    Internet scams come in all shapes and sizes. It seems that every day a new one is invented. But scams are not the only way to lose money on the internet, you can sign up for a legitimate affiliate program only to discover that the affiliate merchant’s support is inadequate and it is difficult to get the information you need to successfully conduct business. In order to survive as a home business affiliate one has to do due diligence before signing up for any affiliate program.

    Due Diligence is the process an affiliate uses to investigate the attractiveness of an affiliate program, it’s legitimacy, the quality of management and support and the risks associated with the program before you invest your time and money. It is a complete investigation and review of the affiliate company you wish to join.

    Prior to joining any affiliate program, you should conduct "due diligence" not just into the program but into the company offering the program. You have to ascertain whether the affiliate program has a history of scamming, inaction on abuse reports, or privacy violations. Due diligence should include the examination of archives of discussion lists, and forums.

    You should carefully examine the Affiliate company’s website. Is there a street or city address! Can you contact the affiliate company via email or phone? Look for photos and names of the owners of the company. Not having photos, names and contact information on a company website is very suspicious and a good reason not to join that company.

    Enter the Company’s name plus the word "scam" into a couple of the major search engines and read through the results. Be careful while doing this as there are sites and forums that are unfairly negative toward all Affiliate companies. Ignore these sites and only search for good, relevant information.

    Visit the Better Business Bureau’s web site. Check out the number of complaints the Better Business Bureau has ‘not’ resolved for the company you are investigating. More than three unresolved complaints is cause for alarm and will usually mean problems for you.

    If you see, hear or even feel a "Get Rich Quick!” scheme …RUN! If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is! You will not get rich quickly marketing affiliate products or promoting home business opportunities. Getting rich on the internet as an affiliate in the home business industry usually involves smart marketing tactics, education and hard work, like any other kind of successful business.

    There are many authentic affiliate companies on the Internet that will allow you to make a handsome income working at home but you have to conduct due diligence and choose very carefully.

    Profit-Marketer Janice Sharman is a home business entrepreneur who has helped lots of people to successfully launch their work at home business. To learn more about Janice Sharman and find a work at home business that is right for you visit: http://www.profits4sure.com/ or http://www.computer-work-at-home-job.ws/splash.htm

    Posted on Jan 30th, 2005

    In this article you will discover 2 simple routes you can take to start, build and expand your affiliate business.

    By applying this simple game plan you can sell affiliate products like HOT cakes.

    One of these routes is a short cut to affiliate success. You can start applying this method within days and start selling affiliate products.

    Another route will take you some time to get started, but it’s well worth the efforts you put in.

    Here are 2 simple routes you can take today to start your own affiliate business…

    1. Create Content Sites.

    You can create killer content sites of around 50 pages to sell affiliate products.

    This takes some time to get started, but if you put in efforts and do thorough research you can expect to get tons of free traffic from search engines.

    The very first step you have to do is research keywords. You can research keywords that people are searching for in your niche by visiting inventory.overture.com

    Type in your main keyword out there and you will see related keywords, and also how many people have searched for that keyword on overture last month.

    Note down the keywords in your niche along with how many searches do each one receive.

    Now visit google and search for all the keywords that you had researched in overture in quotes.

    Let’s say that your keyword is dog training, so search on google as "dog training". As soon as you do this you will see number of websites listed on google for keyword dog training.

    These are your competitors. Note down this number too for each keyword.

    Now apply the formula Competition/Searches for each and every keyword you have researched.

    Lower the number, better is the keyword to target. Similarly research around 50 to 100 quality keywords in your niche and start creating a content site around it.

    Create articles for every keyword you researched and create a killer content site stuffed with high demand low competition keywords you have researched above.

    Once you’ve created a content site, start writing more articles and include the link to your website in the resource box of the articles and distribute them.

    This will help you to get incoming links to your website, which will get your site indexed by search engines faster and get you higher rankings.

    2. Create Minisites to Sell Affiliate Products.

    This is a short cut to affiliate success. In this method you create a simple squeeze page or a lead page.

    Give something valuable to your visitors for free to get them to signup up in your list.

    You can give them a report, ebook, video, etc for free. As a result they will signup in your list.

    Once they are in your list follow up with 10 to 20 days ecourse which provides them quality information in your niche. Also make sure you recommend them your affiliate products in your follow up system.

    Also blast bi-weekly newsletters to your list and give them more quality information, build relationship with them and in turn sell more affiliate products in the process.

    These are the 2 routes that you can follow to start selling your affiliate products.

    Huge success can be made by following any of the above routes.

    All you need to do is get started, take some action and start applying the information laid down in this article.

    ~FREE Video~ : How to Create Your First Money Making Website in 7 Days or Less? - Starting Today…

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    Learn how to start an internet business and check out your step-by-step free affiliate marketing tutorial.

    Posted on Jan 29th, 2005

    There is a lot of controversy an affiliate commissions and link cloaking. Should you cloak your affiliate links and how do you if you are losing money or not?

    The first question that people ask on various affiliate forums is why should I cloak my affiliate links? Is link cloaking an obligation?

    Let’s answer to the first one…

    You cloak your affiliate links to prevent one of these three situations:

    1- Prevent Link hijacking

    In this case, a smart affiliate will steal your link since he is able to see your referral link and replace it by his own.

    He can see your affiliate links in:

    1- The address bar of your browser

    2- The status bar

    3- On your web page (He just need to view the source code from his browser)

    Even if you try to disable the right click on your page, a savvy hijacker will still be able to view the source of your page.

    2- Prevent link bypassing

    Many people don’t like the idea that they are giving someone an affiliate commission on their purchase, and they will just remove your affiliate link before buying.

    3- Anti Spyware programs

    Many anti spyware programs can block your affiliate links, and you do not want this to happen.

    Now that you know why you should cloak your affiliate links, let’s find out if you really need to do it since it can be a big time consumer…

    Obviously, if you are not promoting Internet and affiliate marketing products, most of the time, your website visitors won’t even know that they landed on the merchant site through an affiliate link.

    I spend a lot of time training people to make money online from affiliate programs, and they don’t even know what is an adsense ads. So what about affiliate links?

    However, many people will still bypass your links, and I think that it always better to stay on the safe side.

    On another hand, if you sell in the affiliate marketing niche, you will lose a lot of commissions.

    Now that you know what to do and why, I need to teach you different ways to cloaking your affiliate links, and get a higher affiliate revenue.

    Franck Silvestre makes thousands of dollars a year from affiliate marketing. Wonder what the secret to his success is? Visit his affiliate marketing website now, and learn how affiliates make money with adwords. He just added a new section: Review of affiliate marketing experts.

    Posted on Jan 29th, 2005

    Step 1 - Hunt for a profitable niche.

    Visit inventory.overture.com and make some searches out there. You will see that you get keywords along with a number that indicates as to how many searches were performed for that keyword on overture last month.

    This shows the demand of the niche.

    Now you have to find out competition for the niche. For that search google with the same keywords in quotes. You will see number of pages getting displayed when you search for the keywords.

    This indicates competition in a particular niche.

    Now apply this formula - Competition/Demand.

    Lower the number, more profitable is the niche. With this system hunt down a profitable niche and then continue.

    Step 2 - Research quality affiliate programs.

    There are number of affiliate directories you can visit to hunt down affiliate programs. A popular affiliate directory is associateprograms.com

    You can also search at google.com to hunt down quality affiliate programs in your niche. Read the sales letter of the affiliate program and determine whether they can convert well.

    Also make sure that the product is of good quality and pays high commission that keeps you motivated to promote your affiliate link.

    Step 3 - Join a Quality Autoresponder Service.

    Hunt down for a quality autoresponder service which will help you to follow up your subscribers.

    Step 4 - Create a Powerful Quality Package.

    Create a powerful package and give it to your visitors for free. Your package can include a video, ebook, report, ecourse, etc.

    This free package will act as a bait to get them to signup in your list.

    Step 5 - Setup a Squeeze Page.

    Create a squeeze page with powerful copy promoting your free package and convincing your visitors to signup under your follow up system.

    Once they do this your autoresponder will start promoting your affiliate program to your subscribers.

    Step 6 - Get Targeted Traffic.

    Do everything you can to get quality targeted traffic to your website.

    Use pay per click search engines, google adwords, write articles, participate in discussion forums and apply all your efforts to promote your squeeze page.

    Step 7 - Blast Weekly Newsletters.

    Blast weekly newsletters to your list with quality articles. Also promote different offers and your affiliate links in the newsletter.

    This will help you to make cool affiliate sales.

    Step 8 - Create Content Site.

    Create killer theme based content site to drive traffic from search engines to your squeeze page.

    Focus on getting incoming links to your site to boost up rankings of your content site. This will help you to get more and more traffic to your squeeze page.

    Step 9 - Track Everything.

    Don’t forget to track your ads while you promote your affiliate products. Track whether which affiliate programs are profitable and which are not.

    Also track all your traffic sources, your website conversion ratio and alot more. Test, tweak and improve. Then test again, this is how you should continue your affiliate marketing process.

    Make sure you apply this 9 block super affiliate formula and boost up your affiliate profits to the next level.

    There has never been a better time to get started than it is today.

    ~FREE Video~ : How to Create Your First Money Making Website in 7 Days or Less? - Starting Today…

    ==> http://www.7DaysToEarn.com/free-pack.html

    Learn how to start an internet business and check out your step-by-step free affiliate marketing tutorial.

    Posted on Jan 28th, 2005

    Affiliate programs are companies that pay you a commission when you help them sell their products. You can learn how to easily sell products online that people already want to buy by using any or (most profitably perhaps) all of the following easy to learn methods of Internet marketing:

    • Creating niche affiliate websites that attract free search engine traffic
    • Using Pay-Per-Click marketing like Googles Adwords system
    • Promoting offline by telling your friends, family, and co-workers

    Since this article is mainly about introducing you to affiliate marketing, the best way to make a lot of money online is by creating and duplicating niche websites. These are focused websites where you sell a particular product that matches a niche, or audience (such as people wanting to lose weight), and you sell the product under an affiliate program.

    Affiliate marketing is a coin with two individually beneficial sides. On one side, you can sell a product someone really needs, and this transaction will mean that you will have no paperwork or shipping to deal with, and you get a nice commission from the affiliate marketing program.

    The flip side is that affiliate program gets a new customer who may purchase again and again and did not have to spend any money on marketing the product, except for when you actually sell it; this is also called performance based marketing. Billions of dollars a year are made by companies branching into Internet marketing, and they are doing it with affiliate programs.

    The best affiliate programs, by the way, will pay you for the repeat sales from the customer that YOU originally brought them. This is also what the rich call residual income, and residual income should be something you think about when choosing a product to work with. For example, a skin care product would be likely to yield profits again and again as people want to keep using the product to keep their skin clean month after month.

    To most effectively promote a product in an affiliate program, the first thing you should do is think of a product you know something about, or are interested in. You should then focus your energy on creating specific niche websites around the topic so you can grow your standing as an expert. Your reputation will help you make more sales.

    To create a niche market you create a website with content you either write yourself or outsource, and this website should deal with only a specific, targeted, individual aspect of a larger niche market, such as weight loss (which is very competitive at that level).

    Let me explain. If you choose niche markets where there is low competition by other websites for the keywords you base YOUR site on, but there is high search volume, you are almost there. Just use the general niche product and match the product up to the content needs of the people looking for that type of information, and you are practically guaranteed to make money.

    This process of selecting niches works better when you find a product you are interested in selling, and working in one niche at a time, such as weight loss. Do not lose track of your goals by constantly trying to find an easier route to riches. Internet marketing takes some time to get up and running but rest assured as you CAN see results.

    What you need to do is find the best affiliate programs that sell different products in difference categories or niches to help you make the most money with their program. They should offer you lots of tools, advice, and information about their products, such as articles to use on your sites. Some programs even offer a forum so you can learn from other marketers about what works.

    But regardless of how you do it, affiliate marketing is where the biggest money can be earned online. It all boils down to building your own websites around a product, and get traffic to your sites.

    The best affiliate programs offer you great support whether you are a beginner or an expert. Compare the top 3 best affiliate marketing programs that will provide you with a massive array of tools and expert advice that will help you make big money online month after month.

    Posted on Jan 28th, 2005

    Commerce in Cyberspace has significantly expanded from the very first time the Internet has been introduced to consumers all over the world. These days, virtually all entrepreneurs in their right mind have already made efforts to make themselves known online by means of one online marketing strategy or another. During the Internet’s infancy, businesses would promote themselves through online ads and email campaigns. Now, more strategies for Internet marketing have emerged and perhaps the best example of such development is the creation of the associate program.

    Associate marketing, in the form of associate programs, have significantly increased in popularity as the leading strategy for endorsing online businesses. An associate program works by tasking people, known as associates, to help invite visitors, potential subscribers, and ultimately, paying clients to the website being promoted. Associates are rewarded through special privileges which may include services or even cash.

    A parallel practice to an associate program would be the act of rewarding finders with money for referring potential customers to a store or an agent in the physical world. With associate programs rewards are accounted for using schemes that are based on predetermined values such as per visitor, per subscriber, or per actual buyer. These schemes are popularly referred to as pay-per-click, pay-per-lead- and pay-per-sale, respectively. Many online entrepreneurs want as much as possible to use associate programs that require them to pay only when there are actual sales, however, the other arrangements can be more effective because they can attract more people, who may potentially become paying clients.

    Some business entities formulate and use their own associate programs, however there are many businesses who hire third party associate program providers to the task on their behalf. The associate program provider acts as the intermediary that not only gets associates but also tracks down the results of their referrals. A lot of online business were able to expand their scope solely through the help of an associate program, allowing them to experience as much as 15% to 20% growth during the initial use of the program.

    Associate programs have developed quite broadly and there have been sub-specialties that emerged. Among the most popular subspecialties is the multi-level associate program, in which rewards are trickled down a network of associates and their sub-associates. This way, associates are encouraged to gather more associates because of the chance to earn more from the commissions that associates under their network earn. Multilevel associate programs are used to attract even more associates, and eventually, more customers.

    They key to a good associate program are the associates themselves as they are the vital instrument for attracting a website’s visitors, subscribers, and clients. A webmaster’s job therefore does not stop at the recruitment of associates – the webmaster would have to take care of associates. It is essential to make sure that associates are really fulfilling their job of referring people to the website, otherwise the program is useless. Even millions of associates would not really be good if not one of them would be able to provide a referral.

    Webmasters who make use of associate programs are thus in charge of training their associates on how to get more visitors. Webmasters are tasked to motivate their associates so that they would be able to contribute more to the popularity of the website. It is human nature to lose enthusiasm at some point. While at first, the money would be the main motivation for associates to do their jobs, laziness or boredom would eventually kick in, decreasing the drive of associates to give their referrals. It would be really wasteful and frustrating if associates are not able to do their jobs.

    Associate programs are very much growing more popular because of their effectiveness as a marketing strategy online. They are very effective in attracting visitors to business websites. They are also quite helpful in converting visitors to subscribers or regulars. Ultimately, they are instrumental in converting subscribers to paying clients. It is therefore worth to try using an associate program if you want your website to be sizzling hot.

    To know more about associate programs, you can ask an associate program provider or make use of the many associate program software available in the market.

    Steven Gerber is a protégé student of Dan Lok – The World’s #1 Website Conversion Expert. Find out how Dan’s webmaster affiliate program has affiliates making thousands with the best affiliate programs.

    Posted on Jan 27th, 2005

    I recently discovered a brand new program called Build-A-Niche Store that I am now using to generate commissions through the eBay affiliate program. This program is easy to use, has an excellent user manual, a risk-free trial and best of all - an unlimited site license.

    You can use Build-A-Niche Store (BANS) to create additional revenue no matter what you are doing right now. There are over 25 million items available on eBay in more than 28,000 categories. Whether you have an e-commerce website selling velvet Elvis paintings or a blog about growing tulips, you can use Build-A-Niche store to make more money.

    I started using BANS to help visitors to YourGuideToWatches.com find new, used and vintage watches for sale at super low prices. Then I built DiscountPhotoPrinters.org along with a photo printer forum. In less than one month, the revenue generated from these two BANS sites paid for the cost of the program.

    BANS currently sells for a one time fee of $97.00. That is not $97 per website or $97 per year - it is a one-time fee! Once you buy BANS, you can build as many stores as you want. The package you receive includes all of the scripts, detailed installation instructions, 32 ready-made templates, an excellent user guide and access to the private members forum.

    If you would like to learn more about how you can take advantage of BANS and start generating additional revenue, take a look at my complete review of this program at SuccessfulSmallBusinessWebsites.com or read the four page report entitled "25 Million Products - The Opportunity That Lies on eBay"

    Learn how you can easily tap into the tremendous income potential offered through the eBay affiliate program like never before with Build-A-Niche Store. I am glad I did and I hope you will too!

    Jay Steele is an entrepreneur and publisher of several popular websites including SuccessfulSmallBusinessWebsites.com - a Web site born out of his passion to help others succeed.

    Perhaps you have a passion or hobby you’d like to write about. Discover how to turn it into a profitable Web site like Jay has. Visit http://passion.sitesell.com/your-future-is-now.html to learn more.

    Posted on Jan 27th, 2005

    Can you imagine being part of a great residual income affiliate program? It sounds like the best of the possible internet marketing ideas. It sounds…dare I say it…foolproof.

    And it just might be. But it requires some strategies.

    I hope you’re ready for a shock, because I wasn’t when I went looking for a residual income affiliate program of my own. The best way to find one is…TO CREATE ONE. Yep. Create one of your own.

    Wait a sec here, I can hear you scream. **I’m new to all this, I just want to get my feet wet and slowly ease my way into all of this.**

    That’s fine…but that’s not the best way to get moving with a residual income affiliate program. The best way is to create a product or service that you can sell through Clickbank. To do this you will need a digital product or software that they will host and sell for you.

    You will also need a sales page hosted by you on the net and a thank you page also hosted on the net. Don’t worry about those…you can build a free site and host it for $8 bucks or so at hundreds of places. (A quick Google search will show you how and where to find the free web builders.)

    So those are the three things you need. A product. A sales page. And a thank you letter that you will have to customize yourself.

    The way that it become residual is if you start signing up affiliates to market the product for you. You’ll do that with an affiliate link on your sales page and then by creating an affiliate sign up page…also hosted on that free site of yours.

    What’s that saying…if you can’t beat them, join them?

    When it comes to finding a residual income affiliate program…that expression rings VERY true.

    To see how writing articles can and should be a part of your residual income affiliate program, go here article marketing. Then read Kevin Browne’s HIGHEST RATED opportunity reviews at his new site http://www.become-a-copywriter.com

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