Affiliate Marketing Myths #1: To Be a Successful Affiliate, You Have to be Passionate about the Products You Promote!

I'm sorry, but the idea that affiliates have to be passionate about the products they promote is bullcrap. It was put into circulation some time in the murky past by shovel-selling "gurus". 

 

Because gurus were saying it, soon everybody was saying it, and because everybody was saying it, it had to be true. Right?

Wrong.

The last affiliate commission I earned was for a water filter cartridge. Am I passionate about water filter cartridges? Do my visitors regard me as a "trusted authority" on water filter cartridges? Hell no.

I earned the commission because I was able to place myself in the right place in the sales funnel. The buyer searching for that specific water filter cartridge found my page dedicated to that specific water filter cartridge before he found the merchant's site. 

 

My page made it easy for him to click through to the merchant and bingo. A sale. That's it. That's what we're about. That's our business.

Selling (or, in the case of affiliate marketing, pre-selling) is a skill. A salesman can sell anything. An affiliate can pre-sell anything.

 Now, don't get me wrong. There are products I refuse to promote. Because I think they're bad products. I won't make money by promoting products I think are bad. We should never lose sight of ethics. That isn't the point here.

Stay tuned for further exploding myths. Enjoy the fireworks!

http://www.affiliatemarketingbullets.com/2015/06/affiliate-marketing-myths-1-to-be.html

4 Elements You Need to Include in Your Online Marketing Campaigns

It’s critical for business owners to understand how important it is to have a marketing plan for the products or services their brand offers. 

Most businesses are constantly working to find ways to give their brand awareness a boost, hoping to connect with new customers and reinforce the relationships with existing ones to ultimately gain a loyal following. 

That being said, you may already have some type of marketing program in place, but are you limiting yourself to the traditional platforms that include TV, print and radio?

As the CEO and founder of an online marketing company, I know firsthand that many businesses out there are making the mistake of not exploring all their options when trying to put together an effective marketing campaign. 

In fact, all too often, an online marketing plan’s potential to complement other advertising efforts gets completely overlooked.

There are different ways to market your business online, but the most successful Internet marketing strategies implement each of the following elements, allowing all the pieces to work together to accomplish the level of brand visibility, website traffic and revenue you’d like to see.

1. Web Design
In this day and age, there’s no question about the necessity of businesses maintaining a strong presence online, and having a well-designed website is the number one way to do that. 

If you’re a business owner who views their site design as part of their online marketing efforts, you have the right idea. Any advertising and content that’s published will point back to your website to encourage consumers to take action, making it the foundation for your entire campaign. 

Websites should be user-friendly and appealing enough to make visitors stay, while utilizing fresh blog articles, a mobile-responsive design and other optimization techniques. These key web design features will all play a significant role in your marketing tactics.

2. SEO
Search engine optimization is meant to help businesses rank higher in the likes of Google, Bing and Yahoo. Without it, there’s the potential for your business to get buried somewhere deep among pages and pages of search results. 

We all know that most people don’t make it past the first or second page when they’re looking for something specific so if your company doesn’t stand out at the top of the rankings, you’re likely to lose quite a bit of website traffic and profit. 

Using SEO properly can make a big impact on how well you fare over your niche competitors.

3. Social Media

Integrating social media into your online marketing program holds a lot of value, especially since it’s free to join and a small advertising budget can go a long way. 

With so many thousands of people engaging on all the various social media platforms out there, being active on your own business profiles can generate a reach you won’t get anywhere else. 

Social media not only allows you to share information about your brand and products or services through posts, Tweets, images and video, but it also gives you the opportunity to develop a genuine bond with consumers. 

This leaves them feeling good about purchasing from you, as opposed to a competitor they have no connection with.

4. PPC / Banner Advertising
Gone are the days when it was sufficient enough to run a few commercials on TV and advertise in the local newspaper. The majority of the world’s population uses the Internet to get news, shop and even stream their favorite shows, ditching cable. 

This is where pay-per-click and banner advertising come into play. Having your company name and offerings pop up on search engines and a wide array of websites repeatedly helps you gain brand recognition and get in front of consumers who are actually looking to purchase your type of product or service, leading to a higher conversion rate.

http://pjtec.info/4-elements-you-need-to-include-in-your-online-marketing-campaigns/

Achieve Affiliate Marketing Success In A Few Simple Steps!

Do you have ideas swimming in your head about how to run and operate a great idea? When your bulb starts blinking, now is the time to get that business up and running. Read these Internet promotion tips that are sure to increase your profits.

You have to have a superb website before worrying about getting it ranked. This must be your first step taken by anyone who is starting an online business. The more aesthetically pleasing your site looks, the less effort it takes to maintain.

Consider various methods of advertising for your website. Some easy ways to share your site are to post on blogs, use social media, and put posters in businesses in your area. You can use many methods to encourage people to visit your website. Just be creative, and work hard.

The purpose of Internet marketing is recognizing a need or want and filling it. When you start your day, be aware of the problems you are solving.

A frequently-asked questions page (FAQ) makes an excellent model for your site. For any question or concern, write a helpful answer, and mention any products you sell which can offer a solution whenever possible.

Knowing your competition can be very beneficial to your own strategies as you learn from their successes and mistakes. If you can easily picture yourself as a prospective customer for your competitors’ products, this means that they are successful in at least one area. Use that information to improve your company’s approach.

Advertise with the Internet’s most popular sites. This investment can make a huge difference for exposure.

Give your customers a variety of choices to people when they check-out.You could give a special promotion to previous customers.

Always make sure your webpages are informative and contain relevant information. Just providing a one page website that gives your hours and address is not going to attract customers. Through adding content such as articles or reviews, you ensure your customers that you know your business and industry.

If your company site isn’t often changed, incorporate an ever-changing blog. Search engines like fresh information, so if your site is no updated regularly, your ranking will suffer. A blog allows you to create fresh content.

If you can create an Ezine, it can be an on-going effective marketing technique where you can build a following with the people who subscribe to it. You can show your personality by including a staff photo. You can also include information about your company.

Make sure to cover all the angles and stock plenty of content, as you build your site. Your primary mission here is to convey knowledge to your prospects in a minimal amount of time, so that they understand what you are selling. Repeat information, fluff and unreliable information should be avoided.

Internet marketing has similarities and differences from other areas. If this happened, you would need to direct your efforts more towards other options, like viral video marketing.

Getting listed by Google is essential in any Web marketing strategy. Google is utilized by millions of people daily, so your company needs to be listed if you want to know exactly who is searching for you. Your business is more likely to have great success if it is listed on directories and registered with the search engines.

Create a space for customers to submit product reviews and comments about your products. Not only can these reviews help you improve your products, but they allow potential customers to feel more confident in their purchasing decision.

Encourage readers to imagine that their life can be made easier or better with your product. Your ads should make it so that they can enjoy special benefits and features of your product.

You will gain more business if you allow more payment options available. While it might seem okay to just offer credit cards as a method of payment, it couldn’t hurt to also give people other forms of payment such as PayPal and their bank accounts.

Putting a blog on your website is a great idea if your business is finding it hard to add new content regularly. To keep your rankings up with search engines continually add fresh content. Use a blog or a forum to keep new information on your website on a regular basis.

Web marketing is one way to help position your company into making the most money. The methods you’ve just learned can take your business to the next level if they are implemented correctly. With some attention to detail and a little persistence, you should be cleaning up in no time at all.

http://stoorpherdigital.co.uk/achieve-affiliate-marketing-success-in-a-few-simple-steps/ 

7 Tips for Increasing Landing Page Conversions!

It’s not hard to create a landing page, but very few marketers are skilled enough to maximize its value. In most cases, this is because people don’t understand how these tools work and what users are looking for.

If you educate yourself on proper landing page practices, you can become a more successful and informed Internet marketer. For optimal results, keep the following tips and best practices in mind:

 

1. Focus on driving targeted traffic
The problem with low-converting landing pages isn’t always the landing page itself. In other words, your landing page could be perfect and still not convert.

In this case, the problem is almost always directly related to the quality of traffic you’re getting. Your focus from the start should shift to driving highly relevant traffic that will have an interest in what you’re offering, otherwise you’ll experience unusually high bounce rates and few conversions.

2. Use a single CTA
As for the landing page itself, don’t overdo it. Simplicity is best, and a single call to action is typically more effective than multiple calls.

After you decide what your CTA will be, pay attention to where you place it. Ideally, it should be highly visible and positioned above the fold, not in an obscure corner or section of the page.

3. Integrate payment options
If your goal is to persuade users into making a purchase, why dance around the question? If possible, integrate payment capabilities directly into the page.

Thanks to resources such as Paypal, Stripe, and Spaces, an advanced landing page platform, this is not only possible, but extremely easy. By empowering users to pay on the landing page itself, you can reduce the risk of losing their focus and immediately capitalize on leads.

4. Instill urgency
People respond when they sense something is scarce or limited. One of the best ways to instill urgency is to place a countdown clock on your landing page or claim that only a few more units of your product or solution are available for purchase.

5. Continually A/B test
Don’t forget about A/B testing. Whether you want to see what’s working or what’s not, if you run A/B tests on a steady basis, that can help you stay on top of things and maximize results. Optimizely  and Improvely are currently some of the best solutions on the market.

6. Use social proof
One of the most powerful things you can do is include elements of social proof on your landing page. These might include a customer testimonial, industry ratings, a celebrity endorsement, an unbiased review, or anything in between.

According to research, product reviews are 12 times more trusted than manufacturer product descriptions.

7. Include trust factors
In addition to the social proof, people love to see signs of industry credibility. If you have accreditations or badges of trust — for example, from the Better Business Bureau or other organizations — place them in a prominent position on the page to boost visitors’ trust.

Focus on building desire
Above all else, your focus should be on fostering desire in users. Address as many pain points as you can with a single, succinct message that says your product or solution is what they need to be happy and satisfied.

It’s easier said than done, of course, but with the seven foregoing tips, you’ll be well on your way to achieving this marketing feat.

http://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/7-tips-increasing-landing-page-conversions-01212989

How Mobile Marketing Is Like Online Dating!

It’s a very similar balancing act to that of another common online activity — dating.

Momchil Kyurkchiev, CEO and co-founder of mobile marketing solution provider Leanplum recently compared the two activities in a post for Mashable. He wrote:

“Like online dating, mobile marketing requires respecting and understanding your user while putting on your best face for them — courting them to become brand evangelists and not just one-time users. What you’re aiming for is not just a transaction, but, rather, a relationship — one that lasts longer than just one date.”

He then shared five common mobile marketing mistakes, included below, that are common among both online daters and mobile marketers.

By avoiding these mobile marketing mistakes, you might be able to avoid becoming that creepy weirdo and instead create lasting relationships with your customers.

1. Don’t Be Creepy
Technology gives you amazing access to data about your customers. But just as you wouldn’t bring up some information you uncovered during a lurking session on Facebook on a first date, you don’t need to bring up users’ ancient search history or other data every time they use your app.

2. Don’t Keep Calling
If you continue sending notifications to users about new features or updates and they never seem to respond or take action, it might be time to take a hint. Either they don’t want to use your app or service that often – or they might be getting turned off by the constant notifications.

3. Consider the Hour
Timing can have a huge impact on the success of your marketing efforts. If you constantly send updates while users are sleeping, at work or otherwise unavailable, they aren’t likely to pay much attention and they might even get fed up with the experience altogether.

4. Switch It Up
Don’t send the same updates over and over again. They probably at least saw the last thing you sent. So if they weren’t interested before, they probably still aren’t.

5. Get Past the One-Night Stand
You don’t just want people to use your app one time and then forget about it. You need to focus on building lasting relationships through gentle prompts and promotions.

Of course, marketing to mobile consumers isn’t exactly like online dating. But the similarities are clear.

You want to put your best face forward so that you can attract customers and actually keep them around. But it’s important to also consider their wants and needs in the process.

http://smallbiztrends.com/2015/06/mobile-marketing-mistakes.html

Tips To Help You Excel With Your Online Marketing Strategy

In comparison to other marketing ventures in the rapidly changing online world, web marketing is the time-honored grandfather of them all. The track record of affiliate program use has proven its potential for profits over a number of years. 

 

There is a ton of information on internet marketing that can be had. No matter what stage of online marketing you are in, this article provides helpful information to help with your success.

 

It’s a good idea to research how a business keeps track of orders not created through their web site when you’re looking through online marketing programs. 

 

If you send sales orders to a company that ultimately take place over the phone or through the mail, and your affiliate ID is not on them, you will not get your commission, which could really add up over time.

When taking a chance on affiliate promotion, it will be beneficial to seek out and sign up with affiliates that will provide you with the products and service you will be selling. 

 

Joining several different affiliate network will provide you a collective source of income. Don’t accept affiliates just because you feel you have to. Read up on what they do so that you will be comfortable working for them.

To maximize the profitability of your affiliate network, drop affiliates that are not performing up to standard. One thing that you will want to consider is to give your affiliates a review. 

 

Removing low-performing affiliates will allow you to create room for advertisers who will earn you more money.

A lot of affiliate communication happens through emails, but the inbox makes an inefficient place to store important information. Instead of going back to your mail box, write down the task you are supposed to accomplish. 

 

You are streamlining and organizing your work by pulling pertinent information out of the email and pasting it into a document.

It is better to affiliate with companies that product many different products if possible. Do business with a reputable company that releases multiple products. 

 

When you find a company like that, you have a reliable flow of commissions. Companies that offer fad products or one hit wonders will absolutely do you no good.

When a visitor comes to your site, they are prepared for information relevant to the topic that brought them there in the first place. 

 

To maximize your benefits, affiliate site links should be related to sports. Visitors are much more likely to click on links that have something to do with your site’s content and theme.

In order to succeed with affiliate promotion, you should consider taking advantage of paid advertising, such as Google Ads. You’ll increase traffic to your website by buying ads targeting important keywords that potential buyers are looking for.

Affiliate marketers need to be completely honest and upfront about the nature of their business. Explain your site and let people know what your affiliations are. 

 

If your potential customers feel you are withholding information about your affiliate relationships, they may choose to purchase from the sites directly, rather than going through yours.

Strive to earn your readers’ trust. If you have people that like you and the content of your website, they will help you out. They will click on your referral links more often, and chances are they will buy some of the products that you are promoting.

Try using internet marketing to make yourself more visible on the Internet. These programs generally bring in more traffic compared to other types of marketing programs. Each prospective affiliate program should be carefully assessed based upon its popularity, ease of use, and compensation plan.

These types of statistics can be invaluable to you. This lets you know how many users have been to your site and how many of them have made a purchase.

Explain to your readers why your affiliates are a good fit for you and for them. They will appreciate you being honest and will feel better about using your affiliate ads to help you earn money.

Don’t expect a lifetime commission from online marketing. Even though they are so rare, the potential profits are so fantastic that you should still seek them out. When a webmasters sells a products, they will receive a commission from the affiliate vendors that sent it to them. 

 

Most of the time, the commission will only be paid out if the customers makes their purchase withing a certain time window. This is what makes them worth hunting up.

You should consider using videos, pictures, or any other visual aids to make your product more visible. By giving people as much information as possible, you increase the chances of them buying the products that you are promoting. 

 

This will also enable you to provide as much accurate information as you can and education your customers on your product.

Getting a lot of content published on the web with links back to your site is great, but make sure the page your reader lands on is consistent with what you promised in the original content — visitors do not appreciate deceptive sales tactics. 

 

For example, if a visitor is led to a web page promoting Apple iPads when he or she clicked on a link for HP tablet PCs, that visitor is going to be somewhat irate. 

 

Even though you may think you have a good strategy going, mismatching your links and their destination pages will irritate and turn away potential customers, because they will no longer trust you.

You can make a lot of money with affiliate marketing. The more you know about this business, the more money you will make off of it.

 

http://www.nysmallbusinesshub.com/2015/06/06/tips-to-help-you-excel-with-your-online-marketing-strategy/ 

Affiliate Marketing Strategy - Important Aspects of Affiliate Marketing

You probably won't be surprised to learn that the winning affiliate marketing strategy involves getting as much traffic (and as much targeted traffic) to your affiliate products as possible. 

And getting enough traffic starts with choosing a product or service that is guaranteed to generate interest and then to convert into sales.

One part of an effective affiliate marketing strategy is making sure that you leverage off of the merchant's time and effort that have been put into his or her product or service. An experienced and skilled merchant will know that the more his or her affiliates are selling, the more he or she will earn. 

And therefore, he or she will continue to test and tweak the product's or service's sales page to make it into a the most compelling offer possible that makes it hard for people to refuse once they land on the page.

Look for sales pages that are simple and clean, that offer a compelling headline, testimonials and, if possible, even a timer that shows people how long they can claim the product or possibly the bonus that comes with it. 

Once you've chosen a product with a proven sales page and conversion rate, you need to get as much high-quality traffic to the offer as possible. You can do this directly by advertising your affiliate link with PPC (pay-per-click), classified ads, banner ads, etc. 

Or you can set up a content blog or website that provides useful information on the niche of the product or service you are selling.

If you are just starting out, a blog might be the easiest way to get started and a WordPress blog is often the most highly recommended because it comes with many free plug-ins that will allow you to be more visible to the search engines.

Keyword research is an important part of any kind of affiliate marketing plan of action. After you've chosen the product or service that you want to promote, then choose the keywords that you are going to use to get traffic to your link or to your website or blog. Again, if you are new, you want to choose less competitive keywords.

Go to the Google Adwords Keyword Research Tool (which is free of charge) and type in the general term that describes your product's niche. This tool will then provide you with all the related search terms that people are actually using when they go to their browser and do a search. 

The tool also provides you general statistics on how often each term is searched, how competitive each term is, what people are bidding on this term in PPC ads, etc.

Start with lower-searched terms and use these in your blog/website content, or in your direct link advertising methods. As you start to get more visitors, you can start using more competitive terms in your affiliate marketing strategy.

http://www.ibosocial.com/jwedin/pressrelease.aspx?prid=443399

My Internet Marketing Journey – The Power Of Success!

The Roller Coaster Affect

Here we are in my second installment of my internet marketing journey. In this post I’m going to share the story of my first big success and how I use it to push past my failures. As with anything in life, internet marketing is not immune to the roller coaster effect.

There are moments of success and of course there are moments of failure. There are times when your killing it and times when there’s nothing but crickets (insert chirp here). The trick is to celebrate and enjoy each success, learn from each failure and be patient when the crickets come calling.

In The Beginning…
As you know from the first installment of this series, getting started was tough. There was a lot to learn and it required a great deal of time and hard work on my part. After working my but off for a month, I finally had my first ad campaign up and running.

This was my first big success. I looked in wonder at what I had done. Just a few weeks before, I had absolutely no clue what I was doing and here I was with my very own campaign out there on the internet for all to see.

My Biggest Realization
Since first starting in internet marketing, there was always this little voice of skepticism inside me saying “is this real?”, “does this really work?”. Well within just a few minutes of launching my ad campaign I started seeing that people all over the world were actually clicking on it.

Another goose bump moment in my journey. That voice in my head was now a little quieter. Then just a couple hours after launching my first campaign, I had my first subscriber! I had been working away on another project and decided to go in and check my campaign.

When I saw that there was an actual person who had subscribed to my ad, I was in shock! The realization that yes, this was real and yes, this does really work overtook me to the point where I broke down in tears.

You see, up to that point, I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Then when I saw actual results, that voice in my head completely vanished. I was overcome with the realization that I had found a way to reclaim my life and my freedom.

I didn’t realize until that moment just how much I needed to escape my corporate life. Sure I knew it sucked and and had taken so much from me, and that I needed to rid myself of it. But not until that moment did I actually feel that it was truly possible.

The proof was right there on the screen in front of me. By any marketers standards, getting just one subscriber is no big deal. To this day however, getting just that one first subscriber is still one of the greatest victories in my life and I often replay that moment in my mind to feed off the emotions that I felt in that instance.

Whenever I am struggling, I think back to that moment and my vision becomes clear again. I use the power of that experience to drive me through any rough patches I might encounter on my journey.

How To Use The Power Of Your Success
There is a lesson on this story. It applies to anything you do in life. Whenever you are struggling or experience any sort of set-back, think back to a moment in your life where you felt success. Where you made some sort of accomplishment that filled you with a sense of fulfillment.

Now take the memory of that feeling and imagine feeling that same way again once you conquer whatever it is that you are currently struggling with. Hold that thought in your mind and come back to it every day. Write it down and read it every day.

Better yet, re-write it everyday and imagine how you will feel in that moment. Let the power of your past successes fuel you to overcome your current struggles.


http://robert-forrest.com/internet-marketing-success/