I would assume you have noticed, if you have followed some of my other articles on Affiliate Marketing training, that quite often my primary message for your home based business is related to day to day operations and long term planning as opposed to instant profits or miracle cure alls. There is a reason for this.
Until I learned to get my feet on the ground and build my business, not try to buy my business, I was going NOWHERE! No amount of money could provide the skills that are necessary to be effective with my Affiliate Marketing online business … I just ended up with pretty packages and didn’t have a CLUE on what to do with the contents!
So, what to do? Here is a summary of a conversation that I recently had with Christina Munoz, AKA “TheQuoteDiva”. We were discussing a recent high profile affiliate marketing program launch and reviewing the marketing skills necessary to benefit from this particular program.
I thought that perhaps hearing my same old drivel echoed from another active, successful Internet Marketer just might ring your bell!
It’s very tough to stay focused when everyone is raving about the next giant product launch and offering thousands in bonuses just to buy through their link.
Lately there is a lot about a new program called “Mass Control”. After reviewing it … it is truly - genius marketing!
But, it assumes you already have a product, a list, and joint venture partners lined up. This is super-advanced stuff and for those who already have a full system in place it is pure Gold!
However, if you don’t have the basics nailed, no amount of “advanced” training is going to help.
In order to capitalize on a system like this, what ‘constitutes’ a Basic System?
Until you’ve got a system in place, there’s no reason to keep buying stuff. It’s not gonna help until YOU make a commitment to work the plan.
After all, why would you want to dish out another $1000 or $2000 when you won’t be able to fully use what ‘Mass Control’ and other similar products can offer you?
Well, as usual, Christina’s comments took this author back to the drawing board to once again evaluate the foundation and structural integrity of my own online business.
Lacking understanding of all 10 basic elements in no way suggests that one cannot make very good money focusing on just a few of the Basics. For example, just having a list, an understanding of productive advertising, and a quality affiliate product can certainly generate significant revenue.
However, acquiring the knowledge, understanding, and ability to implement all of the basics will allow you to take a product, any product, analyze its strengths and weaknesses, and plug its unique components into your system to maximize profits.
As your efforts continue to build the applications available in your affiliate marketing tool box, the closer you move towards reaching the epitome of your development … putting your system on autopilot.
Plug and Play is an often used phrase to suggest the simplicity of marketing a particular system or product. Well, that’s great, IF, you have something to plug into.
Here’s a great exercise to judge just how far along you are in developing your rock solid business plan.
Write down all 10 of the “Basic” components listed above. Now, honestly ask yourself if you could implement each particular component if you were planning a new campaign for a product or service.
If any of the areas are a resounding NO, you have just identified a specific target for research and development. Put that integral component on the top of your ‘To Do’ list, and get right on forming another piece of your puzzle. Do research, review past articles or reports describing the process, make a mental outline of where this component would fit into your campaign, then put your thoughts to paper and … take action!
There is no doubt that if you polled 10 veteran affiliate marketers, each of their lists of the 10 Basics would differ slightly from each other. However, what they would have in common is a structured flow from the campaign conception through the sales offer and follow up.
Once again, I encourage you to focus on the basics in order to put yourself in a position to be able to jump onboard and prosper from a system such as “Mass Control”. Once you have mastered those 10 essential components, you’re WELL on your way to building your successful affiliate marketing business.
About the Author
For your FREE report from Super Affiliate “Ewen Chia”, and many more affiliate marketing tips, free tools, and success strategies, visit “Newbie Heaven” at: http://now4u-website.com The author would like to thank Chrisina Munoz for her input … visit her very enjoyable site at http://TheQuoteDiva.com
Article Marketing is one of the best and fastest ways to draw traffic back to your website. I’ve used various forms of Article Marketing for several years now and I’ve personally found it to be a simple and lucrative way to develop customers and traffic.
There are 3 things to remember about Article Marketing;
It helps to establish you as an expert in your field.
It doesn’t have to be hugely time consuming.
You can get your articles out to your readers pretty quickly
I’m going to share a couple of tips and a couple of FREE tools that can help you get started in Article Marketing.
The first free tool that I want to talk about is Article Submitter (http://abe5.com/41f). Article Submitter is a free program that will help you submit your articles to a number of article directories quickly and easily.
I first submit my article to GoArticles.com and then I keep tabs open with both the final article and the HTML version. This is because you’ll still need to cut and paste occasionally while submitting your articles and if you keep the tabs open then it only takes a couple of seconds.
Put your link in your Resource Box. It’s more important than your bio. Write it out, i.e. http://spiritualentrepreneur.biz, because many of the article directories programs will automatically hotlink it.
Article Submitter will show you which directories will require you to sign in. Take the time to join these and save your login info to Article Submitter. In the long run it saves a LOT of time.
Try to write a 1 page article each day, or at least a couple per week. Post these on your blog as well as the Article Directories. After awhile you’ll find that you have enough articles to actually create a BOOK.
Another great free tool is SocialMarker, a free bookmarking tool. Once you’ve submitted your articles to Article Submitter directories then go to SocialMarker (http://www.socialmarker.com) and run through that program as well.
Once you’ve set up your free accounts with the social bookmarking sites in SocialMarker it only takes about 15 minutes to submit your new article to about 30 sites.
Remember to take the time to write useful articles rather than fluff. A good article will be rewarded and passed on.
Once you’ve used SocialMarker a few times you’ll see which sites to ignore, depending on the subject of your post. You can set SocialMarker to skip these sites, which makes the submission process faster.
Set up your profiles on the various bookmarking sites. Articles with a photo get more attention.
Once you’ve submitted a few articles you may find that some sites treat you better than others. Maybe your articles will be better received or you may build up a community there. When you know this it helps you focus your marketing.
Take the time to build your communities. Contact other authors and offer to trade clicks, links and reviews. Find people in a complimentary field and their articles may also be useful for your blog and readers.
Article marketing can be a fast and easy way to build your network, get hits to your website and even create long term passive income, if you take the time to do it right!
If you’ve done business on the web then you’ve heard of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It’s that mysterious magical formula that is supposed to get your website to the top of the search engines so that you’ll get more hits to your website.
The reality that I’ve discovered based on several years of wasted time online, and this is going to be met with howls of outrage, mostly from those who want you to pay them to optimize your website, is that this is one of the biggest scams on the web.
The idea is that Google and Yahoo and the other search engines have this magic formula that you can abide by that allows your website to be placed in their searches depending upon the amount of relevant content and the number of links to and from other websites and a few other criteria. The higher you rank on the searches the more hits you can get to your website, and I agree with that concept.
However, the actual formula for SEO is not only mysterious, it’s actually kept secret to keep people from abusing it. The formula also changes fairly often because some of the smart folks who sell SEO eventually figure out the formula occasionally and then, for however long it lasts, they actually have a great product.
The problem here is that you can either spend a lot of money trying to catch that magic formula at the right time, or you can spend a lot of time, and for the entrepreneur Time IS Money (T=$), trying to figure it out yourself.
There are other ways that you could spend that time and money to get better results in my opinion.
Here’s a very short list of things you can do to help your SEO. Use this to get you started and then do some research;
1.Get your domain now – If you know that you are going to have a website or a blog then go ahead and buy your domain and start blogging. Don’t wait until you have your products ready. The reason for this is that one of the factors on Google’s list is age of the domain. The longer you’ve been around the higher you rank. Plus, you should be taking this time right now to learn HOW to blog before you are actually ready to sell your product.
2.Get listed in as many directories as possible ASAP – Use Directory Submitter (http://abe5.com/41d) and get started, but also Google for directories and add your links to the top directories that you can find. There really are no shortcuts for this, just do it.
3.Make sure that your Titles, Keywords and Metatags are right - Make sure that any Keywords are actually used repeatedly on your page that has the keyword in the title. Here’s a nice page with details;
SEO is an ongoing part of doing business online. You need to have a basic understanding of how it works and be current enough to know when you’re getting scammed. Be aware of 2 things;
1.The algorithms change, so this is not something you can do once and forget.
2.There really aren’t any shortcuts and most of the automated programs and people selling SEO can cause you more problems than they are worth.
Take your time and do your research. If you don’t expect overnight results and you’re here for the long haul then you’ll probably find that SEO really isn’t that big of a problem.
About the author
Robert Morgen experienced a near-death kundalini awakening in 1992.
Last time I looked nearly 27 MILLION people had downloaded the video!
“Sometimes, a hug is all what we need. Free hugs is a real life controversial story of Juan Mann, A man whos sole mission was to reach out and hug a stranger to brighten up their lives.
In this age of social disconnectivity and lack of human contact, the effects of the Free Hugs campaign became phenomenal.
As this symbol of human hope spread accross the city, police and officials ordered the Free Hugs campaign BANNED. What we then witness is the true spirit of humanity come together in what can only be described as awe inspiring.
In the Spirit of the free hugs campaign, PASS THIS TO A FRIEND and HUG A STRANGER! After all, If you can reach just one person…
A study by Sharpe Partners, an interactive marketing agency, revealed that 89% of adult Internet users in America share content with others via e-mail. This is excellent news for those companies who use self-propelling word-of-mouse” e-mail techniques to sell their products.
The study generated some interesting results regarding the type of content that is most often forwarded, as well. The most popular content is humorous material.
The second most popular category is news, followed by healthcare and medical information, religious and spiritual material, games, business and personal finance information and sports/hobbies… in that order. So it is easy to see that humor is the best content for your viral e-mail campaign.
Cartoons, jokes and funny video clips are among the things that can be added to an e-mail to insure that it will go viral. People will want to pass along something that makes them laugh.
They are a lot more likely to hit the forward button and send your email to their friends and relatives if it is an “advertainment” rather than an advertisement.
Not along ago, about 35 million people got an e-mail containing a picture taken in Disneyland. It took a minute to see it but there was Donald Duck lying prone in front of the famous Cinderella Castle. The title of the picture was “Bird Flu has hit Disneyland”. It was a viral e-mail advertising Disneyland and used the edgy strategy of making light of what’s serious… and it works.
I’d guess that most people who own a computer have seen that picture… and thus the advertisement for Disneyland. The bird flu epidemic is newsworthy and has the potential to attract an enormous amount of attention to any brand that might, for whatever reason, associate itself with it.
Remember that people are much more likely to share a joke or a funny picture than anything else so you would be well advised to include humor in your e-mail campaign.
About the Author
Discover more ways to get traffic, by going to Karl Sultana’s blog. He is a 100% pure SEO Blogger!
Would you like to hear about 2 of the fastest growing businesses in the world, how to combine those businesses and how you can take advantage of that synergy? Would you also be interested in some basic marketing and how you can take advantage of the #1 All Time Best and Cheapest Form of Advertising in the world today?
One of the fastest growing segments of American business is Holistic Healing. According to the National Institute of Health over 62% of the American public takes advantage of some form of Holistic Healing.
Video Download sites such as YouTube and Google Video is the other fastest growing business.
According to a February, 2008 report by EMarketer, over 85 million Americans watch Podcasts. YouTube averages 30 million visitors a day who watch over 100 million Podcasts.
The numbers are staggering so today I’m going to talk about how to bring these 2 exploding markets together.
What YouTube can do for You
YouTube can be a great way to get your message out to the public. The most viewed YouTube video ever, “Evolution of Dance” was seen by more than 50 million viewers.
I’m going to share 3 advantages to having your own video on YouTube but first I want to answer one of the most common questions which is “Can my business benefit from having a YouTube video?”
The answer is, absolutely. No matter what you do, whether you are a massage therapist, a tree trimmer, dog walker or professional speaker, a short video that clearly demonstrates your skills and tells about your business will help you get more clients and customers.
The first advantage of having a YouTube video is that it demonstrates your skills and abilities in a dynamic and informative way. People can come to your website and SEE what you do rather than just read about it or look at photos.
The second advantage is Credibility! People are used to giving a lot of credibility to what they see on video. 50 years of the television industry has trained people to do that.
The third advantage is New customers. You can not only use YouTube to send targeted customers to your business, but the very existence of the video on your website will convert more of your visitors into customers.
More importantly, if you can create an engaging and informative video then other people will also embed that video on their website or blog and actually advertise for you! This is HUGE! This is called viral marketing or buzz marketing and it’s absolutely the best form of advertising out there.
How many of you have ever read a book, seen a movie, eaten in a restaurant or driven a car and then recommended it to a friend? This is the #1 All Time Best form of marketing that you can use! Word of Mouth sells more products than all other forms of advertising combined!
So how can you take advantage of YouTube?
Here are 5 simple tips to help you get results from your video;
1. Create an exciting title. Most YouTube videos are placed on a page with 20 other videos. If your title doesn’t grab people’s attention then you have very little chance of getting your video watched.
2. Keep it short! Today’s viewers have a very short attention span. As Terry Pratchet says “people like novelty, but not for very long”. Keep your videos under 5 minutes total and preferably under about 2 minutes. This gives you the best chance of having your video watched and then embedded on other people’s blogs and websites. If you have a longer video that you sell then think of the YouTube video as a trailer or an attention grabber.
3. Ask your network to support your video. Ask everyone you know to go to YouTube and check out your video and leave comments. The more a video gets viewed the more likely that it will get picked up and promoted by the YouTube system, so make sure to jump start your video by asking for support from your network.
4. Ask your network to promote your video. Ask everyone you know to recommend your video to friends, share it on MySpace and Facebook and just generally ASK for that word of mouth buzz. Even if you ask some members of your network may not help promote your video, but if you don’t ask it’s guaranteed that none of your network will help support your video.
5. Ask your network to promote your video on social media sites such as Propeller, Digg and Reddit. Social bookmarking is one of the most popular forms of internet marketing today because it’s easy, fast and free. In fact, a YouTube video is a great way to tell your friends about social bookmarking and get them involved, so be sure to include the links to the popular social bookmarking sites when you send out the notices about your video.
Getting a high quality video on YouTube can be a fast and relatively inexpensive way to market your holistic business. It can enhance your credibility, build your customer and client base and help your business make more money.
Social Bookmarking is a way for internet users to store, share and organize links to pages that they like and want to visit often. Many social bookmarking services provide web feeds and lists of the sites added, allowing other browsers access to content that they may not have found otherwise.
Social Bookmarking can be a great tool for promoting your blog or website. It allows you to get your link in front of more people faster. In many cases you can get indexed on Google in minutes by adding your link to the various bookmarking sites.
There are literally hundreds of bookmarking sites on the internet and more popping up all the time. When you start submitting to the bookmarking sites you’ll find that many of them all use the same software, just as with Article Directories.This allows the easy proliferation of bookmarking sites while also making it easier to submit your blogs and articles to more sites.
One of the problems with using social bookmarking sites for web marketing is that it can be extremely time consuming to go to all the various sites and submit your work.
I’m going to present you with 2 tools that can make using social bookmarking sites much easier.
The first is RoboForm. It’s not a social bookmarking tool. Rather it’s an application that fills out web forms for you. You simply input your information in the fields and when you get to a form you’ll just hit a button and RoboForm fills out the form automatically.
I’ve used Roboform almost daily for going on 3 years now. I’m sure that there are other form applications online which can probably do just as good a job, but so far it hasn’t been worth the time that I’d have to spend researching them. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
SocialMarker (www.socialmarker.com) is absolutely the fastest and easiest way that I’ve found to handle social bookmarking. You can add them to your bookmarks and then when you are on a page, your website for instance, that you want to bookmark all you have to do is click on their bookmark.
The SocialMarker page will popup with most of the information you need already filled out on their form. Hit submit and you’ll be taken one at a time through 47 of the most popular social bookmarking sites as well as Google. I have literally had my pages indexed in Google in minutes (something that other services charge a LOT of money for!) using SocialMarker.
The first time you use SocialMarker can be a bit time consuming because you’ll have to go through and join all the bookmarking sites. That’s where RoboForm comes in handy. RoboForm can save a LOT of time during this process. Altogether it took me about an hour to get the sites set up.
Once you are a member of the bookmarking sites, it only takes about 15 minutes to run through all of the sites and add your articles. This means that if you write 1 or 2 articles a week then you can start creating a steady stream of traffic back to your websites fairly quickly and easily.
I also want to point out that if you use YouTube to promote your business you can also combine it with SocialMarker! There are a couple different ways;
Embed the YouTube video on your website and then bookmark that page of your website. This has the added benefit of bringing people to your website where they can then proceed to sign up for your newsletters, buy your products, join your affiliate program, etc.
You can use SocialMarker to bookmark the actual YouTube page where people can watch your video at YouTube. You should also have the links back to your website/blog as well as information about what you do posted at your YouTube page.
Of those 2 strategies I vastly prefer #1, but it’s nice to have option in case you can’t embed the video for some reason.
Take some time to explore these 2 tools. I use them both literally everyday.
This 6 minute video will help you understand how your business can use short videos and outlets such as YouTube and Google Video to increase web traffic, enhance credibility and make more money.
