It always surprises me how much money you can make by selling other people's stuff on the Internet. The real numbers never truly hit you until you fill out your taxes. Eight years in and the numbers still shock me. Always.
More than the numbers, what really amazes me the most is the lifestyle one can achieve from online marketing. You can be your own boss, work your own hours, carry out your business from anywhere in the world you want to live. You can create automatic marketing systems that work 24/7/365 days of the year. Earn money even when you're sleeping, vacationing or out enjoying a gourmet meal at your favorite restaurant. Total freedom.
So is it any wonder then why I am constantly analyzing my whole marketing structure to figure out what is working and what is not working? Finding out just what strategies are giving me the best returns on my efforts and time. And I am constantly trying to discover just what I can do to increase my affiliate sales and online traffic.
It basically means breaking down your online marketing into its core elements and examining each one with close scrutiny. What can be improved? What can be eliminated? What needs to be redesigned? Any serious online marketer must be actively working on these core elements to stay competitive in the affiliate game.
With these thoughts in mind, here are some simple marketing strategies that can affect and contribute to your success for selling affiliate products on the web. Marketing factors that should always be at the back of your mind, influencing your every move.
1. Quality Content
People use the web to find quality content or information. Always remember this fact and apply it to each step of your marketing plan - give your visitors quality content and you will succeed online. There are no ironclad guarantees, but get this one step right and you will probably make money online.
Design your website and your webpages around quality content. Useful, relevant content will give people a reason to come to your site and also give them a reason to return. Provide good information first and let the sale or selling be secondary. People do not like a pushy salesperson, not in real life and not on the web. Develop a friendly, helpful relationship with your potential customer and you will succeed.
2. Keyword Driven
The Internet is keyword driven. These are words or phrases people type into search engines to find what they're looking for on the web. They are also your keys to online success if you're going the SEO route, picking the right keywords will be your main starting point.
Professional marketers use keyword software like Brad Callen's Keyword Elite to research and find their profitable keywords, but there are many free tools/sites which you can find online to help you do your keyword research - Seobook.com is a good one. Daily monitoring of your major keywords is also important to keeping them in the top positions. Any movement downwards should spark more link and/or content building immediately.
Keep in mind, Google, which controls 60 percent of the web's search traffic, is also a great source of information on your keywords. Use Google to search the sites in the top 10 spots for your keywords; also check Google for the Paid Ads related to your keywords and monitor these ads over a period of time to see which ones are profitable. Do your keyword homework and your affiliate marketing will be a lot easier.
3. Niche Focused
If you're into affiliate marketing, you must concentrate your efforts on small niche markets where the competition is not too stiff. Choosing the right niche markets is vital to your affiliate success. Demand should be high and/or you're selling a high-ticket custom item.
Once you have chosen your particular niches, concentrate on dominating these in all the search engines. But don't forget that the fastest and sometimes the most profitable way to tackle a niche is through PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising - especially if there is little or low bidding on your keywords. Google Adwords, Yahoo Marketing, Microsoft AdCenter... should be explored and tried.
4. List Building
The power is always in the list. Make sure you collect the contact information of your site's visitors. Offer free ebooks, guides, special deals or bonuses... to get your prospects to opt-in to your AR follow-up systems. Studies have shown that people usually don't buy until the six or seventh follow-up.
I like building hundreds of micro-lists for all my major promoted affiliate products. These follow-ups with specialized information and special deals, coupons and bonuses will increase your sales.
5. Traffic
Obviously, traffic is one of the key elements to earning money online mainly because without traffic you're dead in the water. You must explore all avenues to generate quality traffic to your affiliate links. These sources are always changing; blogging and social bookmark sites are very important now. So too are video and audio formats so make sure you use them in your marketing.
Article marketing has worked extremely well for me and it is, along with search traffic, the main reason I can earn income online. A simple marketing technique that still works because articles will bring targeted traffic to your site or sites.
6. Conversion Rates Are Crucial
In affiliate marketing or in any kind of marketing, your conversion rates are crucial to your success. You can get all the quality traffic you want but if you can't turn those visitors into a sale, it's game over.
Your sales pages or content must convert into a sale in order for you to succeed. With affiliate marketing it is a little trickier because not only do your pages have to "pre-sell" the affiliate product but the landing page/site where you send that traffic must also convert into a sale.
However, I have discovered one of the keys to high conversion rates has nothing to do with landing pages, sales pitches, etc., but has to do mainly with which products that you decide to promote. You must thoroughly research your affiliate products and ONLY promote the top quality brands in your niche and you will have much better success. Also choosing products that are only available online will increase your conversion numbers; so too will promoting products that offer special discount coupons and deals.
7. Multiple Streams and Residual Income
Any serious online marketer will leverage their traffic and marketing by promoting many different products and services. They will develop different sources of income from their sites with affiliate links, Google Adsense, paid advertising, partnerships... are all used to develop multiple streams of income. It one should dry up, there are countless others still producing income.
I have found the major third-party affiliate networks like Commission Junction, LinkShare, Shareasale, Affiliate Window, Amazon are really good for finding and promoting products online. These sites will handle all the record keeping and sales stats for you. Plus, they send your monthly checks to you like clockwork. All you have to worry about is providing quality traffic to your affiliate links.
However, like any professional marketer, I save my special promotions and efforts to affiliate products or services that will give me a high return on my marketing efforts. Mainly, I only promote high-ticket items or products that will give me residual income. Make one sale; get paid time and time again. I also like forming partnerships with companies so that I get a percentage of the sales for the life of any client I refer. Those arrangements have special priority for the obvious reason they give me long-term residual income.
8. Testing Will Show You The Money.
Perhaps, like in those multiple-choice exams, there is one sticking point. You can check-off "None of the above" if you don't apply one thing for all of the "success strategies" listed above.
You Must TEST Everything.
You must constantly test and track what is working and what is not? Which traffic is converting? Which keywords are converting? Which products are converting? Which niches are profitable... you simply must TEST and KNOW which factors are working in your online marketing structure? Unless you test and track everything you will be marketing blind, and that's no way to run an online business.
I have found Google Analytics to be extremely helpful for testing and improving your conversion rates. I am also a firm believer in the daily reading of your traffic logs and stats... these places will show you where the real money is hiding. Use this information to improve your traffic and sales.
Like any endeavor, the more knowledge you have, the more successful you will be in reaching your goals. This is especially true for affiliate marketing on the web. And always remember, affiliate marketing does take some work and time to set-up, but the rewards are extremely rewarding. I hope you will use some of the marketing tips I have given you so you can experience these rewards for yourself.
About The Author:
The author is a full-time web marketer who owns and runs numerous websites, including two sites on Internet marketing. He contributes his online affiliate success to using the best Internet Marketing Tools and his proven strategies at List Building
Copyright (c) 2008 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.
Free Articles: Stay organized when working at home
1.Maintain regular working hours and stick to them.
2.Get a separate phone line, computer and printer that are only used for your business.
3.Keep your workspace separate from your living space. Ideally it should be visually and acoustically separate from the living quarters.
4.To gauge your progress maintain goals and to do lists. On Sunday night or Monday morning create a plan for the week. At the end of the week take time to reflect on your progress.
5.Find other independent workers or a personal coach to give you feedback on your ideas and progress.
6.If you are working with a team, have frequent telephone and email conversations with the members of the team. This helps to keep the project on track and allows team members to anticipate and prepare for problems.
7.Document your work and learn to do this in laser like language.
8.Request frequent feedback from clients and managers so that you are sure you are satisfying their expectations continually. Without daily contact it is hard to read people. Most people find it difficult to give negative feedback. At the end of a project they may accept it as is even though they are disappointed with the result. Ongoing feedback helps avoid this problem.
9.Have regular breaks during your day. Be creative in you way of relaxing. Meditation, a cup of coffee, a snack, a walk, are examples of ways to stop what you are doing to re-energize.
10.Set clear boundaries. Neighbors, friends, and family must know that your office is off bounds. Even though you are home every day you are working. Have a no interruption policy during working hours.
By Alvah Parker
www.asparker.com
Free Articles: Don't burn out!
All Ergonomists agree that it's a good idea to take frequent, brief rest breaks. Practice the following:
* Incorporating a short hourly break is a simple way to improve comfort at the computer. It is also a good time to do some simple stretching to reduce muscle tension and improve overall body circulation
* Eye breaks - looking at a computer screen for a while causes some changes in how the eyes work, causes you to blink less often, and exposes more of the eye surface to the air. Every 15 minutes you should briefly look away from the screen for a minute or two to a more distant scene, preferably something more that 20 feet away. This lets the muscles inside the eye relax. Also, blink your eyes rapidly for a few seconds. This refreshes the tear film and clears dust from the eye surface.
* Micro-breaks - most typing is done in bursts rather than continuously. Between these bursts of activity you should rest your hands in a relaxed, flat, straight posture. During a micro-break (< 2minutes) you can briefly stretch, stand up, move around, or do a different work task, e.g., make a phone call). A micro-break isn't necessarily a break from work, but it's a break from the use of a particular set of muscles that's doing most of the work (e.g., the finger flexors if you're doing a lot of typing).
* Rest breaks - every 30 to 60 minutes you should take a brief rest break. During this break stand up, move around and do something else. Go and get a drink of water, soda, tea, coffee, or whatever. This allows you to rest and exercise different muscles and you'll feel less tired.
* Exercise breaks - there are many stretching and gentle exercises that you can do to help relieve muscle fatigue. You should do these every 1-2 hours.
What about ergonomic gizmos? These days just about everything is labelled as being "ergonomically designed" and much of the time this isn't true and these so-called ergonomic products can make things worse.
"ergonomic" keyboards - most of these are keyboards where the alphanumeric keys are split at an angle. There is no consistent research evidence that most of the split-keyboard designs currently available really produce any substantial postural benefits. For most people a regular keyboard design works just fine.
"ergonomic" mouses (yes it's "mouses" not "mice") - many of these mouse designs or alternative input device designs can work well to improve your hand/wrist posture. However, it's important to check that you can use them with your upper arm relaxed and as close to your body as possible. Overreaching to an "ergonomic mouse" defeats any benefits of this design.
Wrist rests - these were very popular a few years ago, but research studies haven't demonstrated any substantial benefits for wrist rests. In fact, a wrist rest can actually increase pressure inside the carpal tunnel by compressing the undersurface of the wrist (take a look at you're the underside of your wrist and you'll probably see blood vessels that shouldn't be compressed!). Studies show that pressure applied to the underside of the carpal tunnel is transferred into the tunnel itself via the transverse carpal ligament and that intracarpal pressure doubles with a wrist rest compared with floating the hands over a keyboard. If you choose to use a wrist rest, use one with a broad, flat, firm surface design, and rest the heel of your palm on this NOT your wrist. Try not to rest while you're actually typing, but rest in between bursts of typing movements. Avoid soft and squishy wrist rests because these will contour to your wrist, restrict the freedom of movement of your hands, and encourage more lateral deviation during typing. Look at the surface of a typical wrist rest that's been used and you'll see that it gets eroded away, which means that the user has been sliding their wrists over the surface, which also compresses the blood vessels often visible at the wrist. Remember, your hands should be able to glide above the surface of a wrist rest during typing, don't lock them in place on the rest while you type.
By Jackie Walters
EuroLogos.com
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