Are you frustrated with your affiliate programs?
I used to be. Very frustrated! One day, in sheer desperation, I wrote to one of my affiliate programs and suggested that the market was now saturated with their product - it was no longer possible to sell it.
The next day I received a very nice reply. "The Internet is HUGE", they said. "We predict it will be five years before the market is saturated with our product. And long before that, we will have introduced our next product." They were right, of course. The problem was not with the market (the Internet is huge). Nor was the problem with their product. The problem was in the way I was presenting it.
Since then, my affiliate sales have soared. Why? Because I learnt a few secrets to winning the affiliate game. Here they are:
1. Choose affiliate programs that relate very closely to the theme of your website. Let me give you an example. Of the three affiliate products I sell from my web site, the one that does best by a long way is an eBook that shows people how to generate free Ezine advertising. Why does it do so well? Because my website is a directory of ezines and most of my visitors are already interested in Ezine Advertising before they even arrive at my website - I don't have to persuade them very much.
2. Buy the product yourself! Research across dozens of affiliate programs shows that at least 70% of sales in any affiliate program are made by the small percentage of affiliates who actually buy the product they're selling. It makes sense doesn't it (how can you recommend something you've never used)?
3. Banners - they don't work anymore, and some experts believe banners will actually damage your affiliate sales.
4. Personal recommendation. The human factor is very important on the Internet - people want to know that someone else has bought the product and that it worked for them. But to write a convincing personal recommendation, you'll have to buy, read and use the product you're selling.
5. 'Over-selling' - this is the most common mistake of affiliates. Keep in mind that all you need to do to succeed with affiliate programs is to get your potential customer to click through to the affiliate website in an 'open-to-buy' mindset. If the affiliate program is good, the affiliate website will make the sale. So don't try to sell the product from your website - just aim to get a click on your affiliate link.
6. Standard Ads. When you join an affiliate program, you'll probably be given some standard ads to use. Don't use them! Why? Because your potential customer has probably seen those exact same ads on dozens of websites and in dozens of Ezines. And if that standard ad hasn't led them to buy the product so far, it probably won't now. Something new and original is required.
7. Back-end sales. Once you're succeeding in one affiliate program, join another program that offers a related product and use the technique that marketers call 'back-end' sales. It's a well known fact that people are much more likely to buy from someone they have already bought from. So when someone makes a purchase from your affiliate link, send them a nice follow-up letter. At the end of the letter, tell them about your other affiliate product and how it can help them.
Tuesday 17 April 2007
Tuesday 10 April 2007
How To Make Money Online, Without Spending Any
Making money online used to pretty much require you to have your own Web site, products to sell and some marketing savvy. But a new generation of dot-coms have arisen that will pay you for what you know and who you know without you having to be a web designer or a marketing genius.
But it's hard to tell hype from the real deal. I did a search on "make money online" and "making money online", and much of the information out there is just promoting various infoproducts, mostly about Internet marketing. I see why people sometimes ask, "Is anyone making money online besides Internet marketing experts?"
So I put together a list of business opportunities with legitimate companies that:
But it's hard to tell hype from the real deal. I did a search on "make money online" and "making money online", and much of the information out there is just promoting various infoproducts, mostly about Internet marketing. I see why people sometimes ask, "Is anyone making money online besides Internet marketing experts?"
So I put together a list of business opportunities with legitimate companies that:
- Pay cash, not just points towards rewards or a chance to win money
- Don't require you to have your own Web domain or your own products
- Don't involve any hard-selling
- Aren't just promoting more Internet marketing
- Give a good return on your time investment
In the interest of objectivity, none of the links below are affiliate links, and none of them have paid or provided any other consideration for their presence here.
These are legitimate companies with business models that allow you to get paid for a wide range of activities.
Help friends find better jobs
Sites like H3.com and JobThread connect employers with prospective employees, many of whom are already employed and not actively job-hunting, via networking - the people who know these qualified candidates. Rewards for referring a candidate who gets hired range from a few hundred dollars to as much as $5,000 - not chump change. This is a great way to break into the recruiting business with no overhead. JobThread is intriguing in that they can set up a job board for your site or your organization (you don't even have to have a web site) at no cost to you -- no merchant account required. You determine the posting fees and split the revenue with them.
Connect suppliers with buyers
Referral fees are a common practice in business, but they haven't been used much in online networking sites because there was no way to track them. InnerSell provides that. Vendors set the referral fees they're willing to pay, then when a deal happens, you get 70% of the referral fee.
Provide business contact information
One of the greatest challenges in sales is getting accurate contact information about prospective customers. A growing number of services have launched in the past couple of years to help address this, but most rely on members to maintain their own contact information. Jigsaw, on the other hand, pays members to help keep information up-to-date on the people they know, not just themselves, and pays them to do so ($1 for each unique new qualifying contact you put into the system). According to Jigsaw, in their first payout after launch, the top ten point-earns each received more than $750.
Become a semi-pro reporter
Creative Reporter is a new program from Creative Weblogging that lets just about anyone become a paid reporter/blogger. They're looking for people to create original, but non-exclusive, blog posts / articles of 250-500 words on topics including parenting, celebrities, travel, mobile technology, and more. Pay is $10 per 1,000 page views on your posts (that's excellent pay for Web writing, although there's no telling how much traffic/money you'll actually get).
Write your own blog
You don't have to have your own Web site, or install blogging software, or even figure out how to set up the advertising. At Blogger you can set up a blog for free in less than five minutes without knowing a thing about web design, and Blogger even automates setting up Google AdSense so you can make money off your blog by displaying ads and getting paid when people click on the ads. To make even more money from it, set up an affiliate program (see below) for books, music, etc., and insert your affiliate links whenever you refer to those items. You'll have to get a lot of traffic to become a six-figure blogger, but pick an interesting topic, write well, tell all your friends, and you're off to a good start.
Advertise other people's products
If you already have a Web site or a blog, look for vendors that offer related but non-competing products and see if they have an affiliate program. Stick to familiar products and brands - they're easier to sell. To promote those products:
- Place simple text or graphical ads in appropriate places on your site
- Include links to purchase products you review or recommend in a blog, discussion forum or mailing list you control
- Create a dedicated sales page or Web site to promote a particular productThey all work - it just depends on how much time you have to spend on it and your level of expertise with Web design and marketing.
The above list is by no means comprehensive, but it highlights some of the new and interesting ways to make money online without investing any money, without having a product of your own, and without having expert sales and marketing skills. Most of all, unlike taking surveys or getting paid to read e-mail, the potential return on your time investment is substantial.
Make Money Online Busineses on Boom!
The work from home revolution on the Internet is in full swing. There has never been a better time or opportunity to make money online working at home in front of your computer. The number of money making opportunities are endless.
With todays technology it is quite possible to run your entire business online from anywhere in the world using your laptop computer. You no longer need to leave your house to make a living for your family. It can be done from the comfort of your own home. No commute required. No travel time with reduced fuel consumption and maintenance on your vehicles. Best of all you are your own boss.
The amount of people using the internet worldwide continues to increase almost monthly. This bodes well for internet business entrepreneurs and anyone wishing to take advantage of the internet work from home business industry. Global Internet Statistics shows over 850 million people worldwide are now using the internet. In fact everywhere you look on the net almost every single site you go to is making money from some form of advertising or work from home business opportunity.
The internet is forever changing the global job scene and the world economy with new internet opportunities arriving on the internet every day even as you read this. We can only hope that this will make the world cleaner and a better place to live with less pollution from automobiles and reduced pollution from factories. This in turn could create a backlash on the economy but it has yet to be seen. We all know the reasons behind why we are still using oil and gas rather than clean energy. (It would kill the global economy). Internet business could be just as threatening as electric cars and cars running on fuel cells.
We are indeed in a revolution. The last revolution was called the industrial revolution. This one is called the information revolution. Or what I like to think of it, the work from home revolution.
With todays technology it is quite possible to run your entire business online from anywhere in the world using your laptop computer. You no longer need to leave your house to make a living for your family. It can be done from the comfort of your own home. No commute required. No travel time with reduced fuel consumption and maintenance on your vehicles. Best of all you are your own boss.
The amount of people using the internet worldwide continues to increase almost monthly. This bodes well for internet business entrepreneurs and anyone wishing to take advantage of the internet work from home business industry. Global Internet Statistics shows over 850 million people worldwide are now using the internet. In fact everywhere you look on the net almost every single site you go to is making money from some form of advertising or work from home business opportunity.
The internet is forever changing the global job scene and the world economy with new internet opportunities arriving on the internet every day even as you read this. We can only hope that this will make the world cleaner and a better place to live with less pollution from automobiles and reduced pollution from factories. This in turn could create a backlash on the economy but it has yet to be seen. We all know the reasons behind why we are still using oil and gas rather than clean energy. (It would kill the global economy). Internet business could be just as threatening as electric cars and cars running on fuel cells.
We are indeed in a revolution. The last revolution was called the industrial revolution. This one is called the information revolution. Or what I like to think of it, the work from home revolution.
SEO Content .VS. Links
Confusion is building up in the search engine optimization realm. It was earlier established that content is the king. But these days some experts are saying that web content is just a parcel in the game of links.
Basically, SEO is made up of relevant and fresh content as well as link popularity or population. Content is King. It is true. In fact, if you are not providing new content to the internet, you have a big problem. Major search engines download your whole website, text-wise. This is done to gauge what your website is relevant to.
SEO links, on the other hand, are quality possessions of an ideal website. Come to think of it, a good slice of web traffic. Search engines rank websites according to their algorithms. Content can be likened to a scale. Five pound of silver may weigh the same as five pounds of cotton. The measure is similar but the quality is different.
As a fact, millions of relevant web pages are lost in the SERPs because nobody is linking to it. So what you should do is to prioritize good content. After that, begin doing link exchange. Link building is important to make your site popular and accessible to search engines.
In reference to the controversial content versus links issue my verdict is: Both are important but content needs to come first and links follow.
Basically, SEO is made up of relevant and fresh content as well as link popularity or population. Content is King. It is true. In fact, if you are not providing new content to the internet, you have a big problem. Major search engines download your whole website, text-wise. This is done to gauge what your website is relevant to.
SEO links, on the other hand, are quality possessions of an ideal website. Come to think of it, a good slice of web traffic. Search engines rank websites according to their algorithms. Content can be likened to a scale. Five pound of silver may weigh the same as five pounds of cotton. The measure is similar but the quality is different.
As a fact, millions of relevant web pages are lost in the SERPs because nobody is linking to it. So what you should do is to prioritize good content. After that, begin doing link exchange. Link building is important to make your site popular and accessible to search engines.
In reference to the controversial content versus links issue my verdict is: Both are important but content needs to come first and links follow.
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