How affiliates
make money?
There are many
different avenues affiliate marketers can take in order to see their profits
roll in. Here you’ll find information on some of those which are not usually
explained from the standpoint of beginner affiliate marketing strategies.
Video
Broadcasts
Can you think of a better way to wow any prospective and current
customers better than to provide them with your newly published, top-notch
videos? Think of how excited they will be when they
realize you are offering them full-motion screen captures, demonstrating your
hard work. This will definitely get them motivated to jump right in and
purchase your product on the spot! It’s been proven time and again that by
giving your customers something they can actually see in action can explode
your sales almost instantly.
Let’s take
Camtasia for example. With no need for long training and education sessions to
be able to use this system, it can be a profit-pulling addition to your
affiliate marketing strategy line. This allows you to create stunning video
sessions, from multimedia tutorials to step-by-step presentations which you can
make available online. For your customers, it will seem like they are sitting
right beside you as you show them exactly what they need to see and hear, step
by step.
With all of
your customer’s senses engaged, stunning multimedia presentations are proven to
increase sales. Skepticism is normally reduced, and complaints are minimized as
a result of every fact and detail being included in the presentation. It’s easy
to conclude the video with your site location for viewers to be redirected for
more information.
Press Releases
If you happen
to have an upcoming event or even newsworthy information related to your
site’s primary topic, you may want to consider announcements in the form of
press releases. An example would be creating a survey amongst your present
visitors and customers. Ask them if they have had any successes or downfalls
with a particular line of products which they have purchased from you.
Write up a
report on your findings, and then create a press release! If this is well
written, you could easily find yourself with a dramatic rise in sales. It‘s
also a great way to provide exposure for your affiliate business, at the same
time as it provides exposure to the products you’re promoting.
Blogging
Blogs are
wonderful business tools for so many reasons. This is the perfect way to reach
out to your existing, as well as potential core audience on a regular basis.
Your blog can also have a more personal touch to it, allowing your readers to
feel like you are addressing them personally.
Blogs are also
an easy way to set up individual spaces for each of your affiliate products.
Just as you would have individual websites, the same applies to blogs and your
affiliate items. You are less likely to see any rise in profit margins if your
blog is promoting a different item every second post.
When it comes
to search engines, they are quite attracted to blogs due to the constant change
in information. Fresh content means better indexing on a search rating, thereby
giving your particular blog potential for more visitors. More visitors, of
course, mean the potential for more money. Can you picture yourself climbing
the ranks yet?
The problem
many people encounter with this aspect is they start out strong, blogging
regularly and obtain a great number of followers. Then, suddenly it appears the
writing well runs dry. If you stop posting your regular content on your blog,
you’re probably going to lose some of your clientele. One of the keys to your
successful affiliate marketing ventures is to ensure you keep the lines of communication
open. At this point in time, those lines are directly connected to your blog.
RSS Feeds
RSS is a means
by which blogs can broadcast their content to a number of services and
individuals easily and quickly. Your blogging software will probably be able to
handle the creation process for your RSS feed automatically. However, having an
RSS feed won’t do much good for your traffic statistics if nobody reads it.
Therefore you must share your RSS feed with others, usually in the form of
pinging. Another option for this is to submit your feed to any of the numerous
RSS aggregators.
One important point when using RSS feeds is to not forget to update.
Make sure you remember to either ping using a mass-ping service or to manually
alert RSS aggregators about your
feed every time you update. Otherwise, you are losing some of the potential
value of the feed.
Make your feed
itself a moneymaker! Some bloggers who are particularly interested in making
their blog pay may want to consider using their RSS feed as a vehicle for
advertising.
Choosing
Affiliate Networks
While there
are many horror stories about affiliate programs and networks floating around,
there are ways to choose a good program to promote. The following steps will
help guide you in making your decision while steering clear of those which may
not be completely legal in their practices.
Find a program
you yourself have an interest in. Chances are there are many others interested
in the same program or products as well. Programs of high quality are normally
a good choice. Look for those associated with several experts in that industry.
If the program is offering real, viable products they are a better choice. The
way you can determine if this is the case is by completing some initial
research. When possible, try to contact some of the members and customers for
testimonials on the credibility of the program.
Choose a the program which is catering to a growing target market. By doing this, you are
ensuring there will be continuous demands for referrals. Make as many inquiries
as possible. Check out forums and discussion boards in order to receive
reliable feedback. Look for programs with residual income compensation plans.
Those with a payout of 30% or more are fantastic choices.
Programs
offering drastically low rewards aren’t worth the time and effort you will need
to put into your promotions. Good choices also include those which provide you
with plenty of tools and resources to assist you with the growth of your
business in the shortest time possible. Not all affiliate programs are willing
or able to provide you with the tools you need to succeed.
Any affiliate the program which provides continuous help and upgrades, as well as strong
incentives for its members have a tendency to keep them. These types of actions
can assure the growth of your own network. Having a strong knowledge of the
affiliate network you are planning to join is your best action towards
anticipating and preventing any potential issues you may encounter.
Just as with
any other aspect of life, there are sometimes issues or problems you can get
hit with unexpectedly. Some of these can be avoided, and some you just have to
learn to deal with, and keep on going. Let’s take a look at a few potential
issues you could encounter during your affiliate marketing journey.
Content theft
is something which can happen to even the most experienced super affiliate. You
could be surfing around the internet, and suddenly stumble upon one of your
articles or ads, yet there is no link to your site or mention of your name
anywhere to be found. You haven’t even heard of this person before!
Search the
site for contact information for either the owner or webmaster where this has
happened. You can ask them to please either include your URL or kindly remove
your content from their site. Most times this will be sufficient enough to have
something done.
Receiving rejection
or termination letters from affiliate managers can be quite the shock. To best
avoid any rejection letters, it’s best to make sure you have completely read
and understood any terms and conditions set out by the affiliate program you
are considering. By ensuring you comply with all of their requirements
beforehand gives you a better chance at avoiding that rejection in the first
place.
When it comes
to termination letters however, the scenario is a bit different. It’s important
to ensure you’re ready to dedicate the time and effort needed to best promote
your affiliate programs. Before starting the application process for your
affiliations, it’s important to be as close to “ready to roll” as possible.
This will give you the added bonus of being prepared to start almost the minute
you receive your acceptance information.
The idea of companies paying salespeople commissions for selling their
products has been around since time untold. When the Internet came along, it
was only a matter of time before someone thought to devise a way to take the
practice online. There is some debate about who pioneered the concept of
affiliate marketing, but webmasters of adult websites were among the first to
put it into practice in the mid-1990s. Affiliate
marketing has come a long way since then. It has expanded to every field in
online sales. It has evolved into practice with all sorts of nuances and
techniques. It has made a lot of people a lot of money, and a whole lot more
people a little money. According to Marketing Sherpa, in 2011, affiliates
worldwide earned an estimated $9.5 billion dollars in commissions. Those who
are new to affiliate marketing often have high expectations. They hear the
stories of affiliates who are making six figures a year just by promoting other
people's products, and they get stars in their eyes. They eagerly sign up for
lots and lots of programs, and they start counting the money in their minds.
Unfortunately, many of them barely make enough to cover their website hosting,
much less a profit.
Maybe you're
one of those who became disillusioned after months of barely-existent profits.
Or maybe you've made some money, but you haven't achieved the success that you
had hoped for. Either way, it's important to realize that you – yes, YOU – can
make a steady income with affiliate marketing. You don't have to be some kind
of guru to make it work. You just have to be determined and ready to do what it
takes to succeed. In this report, you'll learn how to take your affiliate
marketing business to the next level.
The Reason Super
Affiliates Make So Much More Than Others?
Affiliate
marketing isn't a job. It's a business opportunity. That means that there is
unlimited moneymaking potential. But it also means that how much you make is
proportional to how much work you put into it. That doesn't mean that you have
to make it a full-time effort, but it does mean that you have to keep working
at it. It's easy money, relatively speaking, but just signing up for a program
and putting up a link or two doesn't guarantee instant income.
Whether you
want to make a living doing nothing but affiliate marketing or are looking to
generate a steady supplemental income, you must be willing to dedicate a
certain amount of your time to it. And this is a big part of the reason why
income varies so significantly between affiliates. Some believe that if they
choose a program that performs well for others that the products will sell
themselves, but it just doesn't work that way.
If you
understand that being a successful affiliate requires commitment, you're ahead
of the game. But it's still quite possible that you're not making as much as
you'd like to, despite your best efforts. There are certain traits that
so-called super affiliates possess that allow them greater earning potential.
Some of these are:
They include
affiliate marketing activities in their schedule. Telling yourself that you'll
spend a certain number of hours a week working on it is nice, but if you don't
set aside time specifically for that purpose, there's a good chance that you
won't get around to it. Whether they decide to spend 2 or 20 hours a week on
affiliate marketing, super affiliates pencil it in on their calendars and stick
to it.
They're not
afraid to spend some money. You can become an affiliate for free, but if you're
serious about bringing in regular income, you'll probably need to invest a
little cash into it. Super affiliates realize this, and they have no qualms
about spending on site building, pay per click campaigns and other promotional
efforts.
They
understand the importance of keeping an eye on their stats. Knowing how many
visitors your sites are getting, how many people are clicking on your affiliate
links, and how many are buying is crucial to your success as an affiliate. It
will alert you to strategies that aren't working so that you can replace them
with strategies that do. Super affiliates check their stats often and use that
information to fine-tune their efforts.
They are eager
to learn. As the Internet evolves, so does affiliate marketing. New techniques
and applications are coming out all the time, and if you ignore them, you could
be left behind. Super affiliates understand that you can't learn it all in one
sitting. Even if you were to learn everything there is to know about affiliate
marketing today, there will be something new to learn tomorrow.
They don't
mind taking risks. Just because the tried and true stuff is working, that
doesn't mean that they won't attempt something new. It might work out and it
might not, but super affiliates are willing to take a chance if there's the
possibility of greater profits.
These Regular
Affiliate Mistakes
We all make
mistakes. It's a fact of life. Even seasoned affiliate marketing pros are not
immune to them. But there are certain mistakes that are common among those who
are struggling to find their way as affiliates. Do any of these sound familiar
to you?
Joining the
wrong programs – Some affiliates make the mistake of joining
affiliate programs just because of their high commission rates, or because
someone else they know is doing well with them. But these things cannot
necessarily be used to predict success in a particular situation.
Relying solely
on graphics advertising – Banners and buttons are
useful tools for affiliates, but they're not the be-all and end-all of
affiliate marketing. They rarely generate nearly as many sales as a good
product review or other useful content. There's nothing wrong with using
graphics, just don't make that your only approach.
Promoting too
many products – Some affiliates join so many programs that they
can't keep up with them all. If keeping up with all of the products you're
promoting is a full-time job, how will you have time to actually promote them?
Not promoting
enough products – Other affiliates concentrate their efforts on
just one or two products. While it's good to have focus, expanding your
offerings allows for greater income potential.
Failure to
explore different methods of promotion – When you
find something that brings in affiliate sales, it can be tempting to just stick
with it and not try anything else. But there are many different ways to promote
your affiliate links. If you don't give them a try, you could be missing out on
a lot of profits.
Not reading
the fine print – Every affiliate program has its own set of
terms and they vary greatly from program to program. If you don't read and
heed them, you could miss out on commissions, or even be removed from the
program for violations.
Spamming – With all of the spammers there are out there, you'd think there was
a lot of money in it. But whether it's sending out unsolicited emails or
creating splogs, spamming will get you nowhere fast. You'll lose the trust of
your potential customers, and you could get in trouble with your ISP, your web
host, and the search engines (and possibly even the law). If you're not
familiar with the actions that could be considered spamming, take some time to
learn about them before you go any further.
If you've made
any of these mistakes, don't feel bad. Few marketers get through their entire
affiliate career without a single blunder. Just correct what you can and keep
moving forward.
How DoYou Choose
Your Niche?
If you want to
make money online (and particularly with affiliate marketing), you need a
niche. Or better yet, several niches. But each niche needs its own site and/or
blog, its own mailing list, and its own affiliate programs for you to promote.
If you've been
an affiliate for any length of time, you've almost certainly heard this advice.
But it's amazing how many affiliates don't follow through with it. Or they try
to follow through with it, but their “niche” is nothing more than a product
category and they don't tailor their marketing efforts to a specific market
segment.
For the
uninitiated, catering to specific niches might seem counterproductive. After
all, by narrowing your focus, you're limiting yourself to prospects that fit
into a certain small group with specific characteristics. Wouldn't it be better
to offer a variety of products to a variety of people?
If you're
Wal-Mart, that's not a bad approach to take. But for the rest of us, it's just
too difficult to appeal to people with different interests, from different
backgrounds, and with different needs. If you can focus on a small group, you
can better meet their needs, and that's where your affiliate sales will come
from.
Now that you
know why working with niches is important, let's explore how to choose niches
that are profitable. In order for a niche to make you money, it has to possess
a few important characteristics:
It should ideally be something you're interested in. This is a topic
you're going to be working with a lot for a while, and possibly for a long
while depending on your marketing strategy. If a
niche bores you to tears or otherwise doesn't appeal to you, you probably won't
do very well with it.
It must have a
sufficient audience. There must be a reasonable number of people who are
interested enough in the topic to seek out information on it. Without an
audience, you'll have no one to sell to.
It should not
be saturated. This simply means that there should not be a lot of other
marketers catering to the same niche. The more marketers there are targeting
the same group, the lower your chances of breaking in will be.
It should
either be evergreen or an up and coming trend. Evergreen niches provide the
best long-term income potential. Trends, which are on the rise, offer
tremendous income potential in the beginning, but may or may not stand the test
of time. It's fine to work with either type, but if you're following trends, be
prepared to pursue the next big thing when you find that your current niche is
on the decline.
The niche's the target market should be willing and able to buy online. There are some niches
that obviously wouldn't be a good choice for affiliate marketing, but for the
most part, this is discovered by trial and error.
Once you've
come up with a topic that interests you, you can start doing some research to
determine whether or not it would make a good niche. A good tool for this
purpose is the Google Adwords Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal).
Just type in your topic idea and you'll be presented with a list of related
keywords, along with a bar graph indicating the amount of competition for the
keyword and its search volume. The best niches have low competition and high
search volume.
When you find
a niche that interests you and appears profitable, search for affiliate
programs that would interest members of the target market. Put yourself in
their shoes and think about the kinds of things you would be interested in
buying. Then see what kinds of affiliate programs you can find that sell those
things, and what percentage commissions they offer. If you like what you see,
this could be a good niche for you.
There are no
guarantees that any niche will be a winner. But if you do some research before
jumping in, you can greatly increase your chances of success.
Finding the Best
Affiliate Programs
Many of the
affiliate programs out there will accept just about any webmaster. Some are
more selective, but they're usually just looking for affiliates who own sites
with lots of traffic. Most do not take the subject matter of your site into
consideration. So it's up to you to find programs that are a good fit.
One of the
most important things to consider when choosing programs is whether they would
appeal to your target market. Here's an extreme example: If you run a website
about knitting, joining an affiliate program for a car parts company probably
wouldn't be wise. Even becoming an affiliate for a company that sells supplies
for other crafts might not make you much money. Stick close to the subject
matter and become an affiliate for a yarn or pattern company.
If you plan to
purchase pay per click ads to direct visitors straight to your affiliate link
(or use other methods to do so), you'll have a lot more leeway as far as choosing
programs. But it's still a good idea to stick with products you have at least
some interest in. This will make it easier for you to write appealing ads, not
to mention making your work more pleasant for you.
Commission
isn't the most important thing when selecting affiliate programs, but it should
certainly be considered. But it's best considered after you've found programs
that are a good fit for your site and/or interests. The percentage is the first
thing that most affiliates look at, but it's also crucial to consider the terms
regarding payment of commissions. If there are conditions that could
significantly reduce your commissions or make receiving payment difficult, you
might want to reconsider.
Just like any other moneymaking opportunity, there is the potential for
scams in affiliate marketing. So it's not a bad idea to do a little research
before signing up with a company that you're not particularly familiar with.
You could also go through an affiliate marketplace, which acts as
an intermediary between companies and their affiliates. Some good ones to
consider are Commission Junction, LinkShare, and Pepperjam.
Affiliate
Programs, Which to Join?
A dilemma for
many affiliate marketers are whether to go for quality or quantity in signing up
for affiliate programs. On the one hand, the more products you promote, the more
potential income streams you have. On the other, signing up for just a few good
programs allows you to concentrate more effort on promoting them. For most
affiliates, it's best to find a happy medium. Signing up for every program
coming and going will just leave you terribly confused.
But it is good
to have several different things to promote. It keeps you from sounding like a
broken record, trying to sell the same products over and over again (especially
if you're promoting on a niche site or blog). And as long as you keep the
numbers manageable, you'll be able to get to know your products well enough to
recommend them with confidence.
Even if you're
going the pay per click route, it's best not to sign up for too many programs.
You'll have to spend some time writing ads and tracking your results for each
one, and that's more time consuming than you might think. But you'll probably
be able to handle more programs this way than you would if you were focusing
exclusively on content-based promotion methods.
Getting Paid the
Highest Rates
The commission
rate determines how much money you make from each sale you generate. As stated
before, it's not a good idea to select programs based solely on the commission
rate. But there's no denying that a high commission rate is more attractive
than a low one.
The easiest
way to get a high commission rate is to join an affiliate program that offers a
high percentage to everyone who joins. But that's not the only way to do it.
Here are some tips for getting as much money as possible out of each sale.
Read the affiliate
agreement carefully. You might just find an easy way to get bumped up
to a higher commission rate, such as using a certain promotion method or
selling a specific product. It's certainly worth looking into.
Make as many
sales as possible. You'll make money from the volume, and many merchants
will also raise your commission rate if you reach a certain level of sales in a
given amount of time. Some lay out the terms for such increases in their
agreements, while others make adjustments on a case-by-case basis.
Recruit new
affiliates. Some affiliate programs will pay you a commission
for each sale your recruits make. And some will also raise commissions for your
sales if you meet certain recruiting goals.
Pay attention
to affiliate newsletters. They often announce
affiliate contests in which the winners receive higher commissions or bonuses.
Email or call
the affiliate manager and ask how you can get higher commissions. If you're generating a fair amount of sales, he might offer to raise
your commission just to keep you happy. Or he might be able to tell you ways to
get higher commissions that you weren't aware of. It never hurts to ask, as
long as you do it nicely.
Do some
comparison shopping. Look for programs similar to the ones you're
promoting and see if they offer higher commissions. If they do, you could use
this to help negotiate higher commissions with the merchant. And if he doesn't
bite, you could consider switching to the other program. (Note: In order for
this to work, you should already be generating a decent sales volume for the
merchant you're negotiating with.)
Don't fall
into the trap of thinking that commission rates are set in stone. Quite often, they are not. Most merchants recognize the benefits of
keeping productive affiliates happy, so by working hard to generate sales, you
increase your chances of getting a higher rate.
Pay per Lead
Programs:
Not every affiliate program requires you to generate sales for the
merchant. Pay per lead programs, which pay out every time a referral signs up
for something free, are growing in popularity. Companies are willing to pay for
leads because it gives them the opportunity to make repeated contact with the
potential customer. Commissions in
pay per lead programs are usually a set amount for each action. In most cases, it's a rather small amount since the merchant is not making money directly from
it. But if you find a good pay per lead program that converts well, you can get
enough conversions to add up to a significant amount of money.
There are
several varieties of pay per lead programs. Insurance companies often pay out
for each referral that requests a quote. Some companies will pay you to recruit
newsletter subscribers. Service providers often set up programs through which
they pay affiliates to get people to sign up for free trials. You can also get
paid for persuading people to request free stuff, such as product samples,
eBooks, and software and information packets.
Pay per lead
programs are great, but it's important to be selective with them. A company
could feasibly pay affiliates to get them, newsletter subscribers, then spam
them or sell their addresses to spammers. Don't be lax on checking the
background of the company just because you're not asking customers to buy
anything. If something bad happens, it will damage their trust in you.
PPC: Get Paid
for Sending Visitors to a Website
There is
another type of affiliate program that allows you to make money without selling
anything, and that's the pay per click program. Many affiliates purchase pay
per click (PPC) ads to promote their own websites, and we'll cover that in more
detail later. Many beginning Internet marketers run pay per click ads such as
Google Adsense on their websites.
They reason
that getting someone to click on a link is easier than getting someone to click
on a link and buy something, and that's certainly true. The tradeoff is (in
most cases) a lower payout for clicks than for actual sales. But if you can
generate enough clicks, you can get a significant amount of passive income
rolling in.
One thing that
often trips affiliates up when it comes to running PPC ads is the assumption
that they can just place the code on a page and forget about it. Then when they
don't get the results that they've heard were possible, they figure it was all
some sort of hoax and give up on it. But just like every other aspect of your website,
pay per click ads often requires some tweaking and patience in order to get it
right.
The first step
to success with pay per click ads is making sure that the ones that appear on
your site will appeal to your target market. In most cases, the ads are
selected by an algorithm that examines your site's content and displays ads
that relate well to it. If you find that you're frequently getting irrelevant
ads, it's a good idea to examine your content and make sure that it's properly
optimized for your targeted keywords. If you're just getting ads from certain
advertisers that appear to not be going over well with your audience, you can
usually block those ads.
Once you've
got the right kinds of ads showing up, you need to test the ad blocks in various
positions on the page. There's no one spot that's best for every website, so
this is something that it pays to experiment with. Some sites find that ads in
the sidebar do best, while others have better luck with them in the header or
within the content of the page. You could also try out ad blocks of different
sizes to see which ones generate the most clicks.
There are
sites out there that generate huge amounts of income using only Google Adsense
and other types of PPC ads. But they are also good to use on sites where you
promote pay per lead or pay per sale programs. As long as you take care to
ensure that your site doesn't look like one big advertisement, pursuing
multiple streams of income can work to your advantage.
Recurring Income,
How To Get Paid for the Same SaleOver and Over Again
With most
affiliate programs, you promote a product, and if you make a sale, you get a
commission on it. That's a good thing. But what if you could get paid over and
over for the same sale? Wouldn't that be even better?
Adding some
programs that offer residual income into your affiliate marketing mix will
allow you to earn more money with the same amount of effort. If you need ideas,
most affiliate networks offer a search function that will help you find the
right products to promote. If not, drop them an email. They are usually happy
to help, because their affiliates' success is their success, too.
Domains and
Affiliate Marketing
Most affiliate
marketers are no stranger to the domain name market. At the very least, they
probably have a domain name for their website or blog. And some have dozens of
domains in their possession.
There are a
few ways that domains can be used in affiliate marketing. Many affiliates
create niche sites or blogs for the sole purpose of promoting affiliate
programs. Some also purchase domains to redirect to their affiliate links. This
makes the URL shorter, easier to remember and more appealing.
If you're
serious about affiliate marketing, you'll probably end up with several domains.
But it is possible to go overboard with them. Some affiliates feel the need to
buy a domain for every affiliate program they join. Not only is that expensive, but it can also get extremely confusing.
Even if you
are buying domains to redirect to your affiliate links, you don't necessarily
have to buy one for each and every program. If you belong to several programs
in the same niche, you could use a general domain name and create subdomains
for each program. For example, if your niche is herb gardening, you might be an
affiliate for a seed company and the author of a book on herb gardening. But
instead of buying a domain for each program, you could get a domain like herbgardening.com
and create the subdomains seeds.herbgardening.com and book.herbgardening.com
to redirect to your affiliate links.
It's also
possible to be too conservative when it comes to buying domains. In general,
it's best to have a domain for each niche you're in. And in some cases, you
might find that you need two or three for the same niche. There are no hard and
fast rules. Just do what's most comfortable (or most profitable) for you.
Selecting
Domains
Back in the
early days of the World Wide Web, it wasn't too difficult to get any domain
name you wanted. Today, it's a different story. It's pretty much impossible to
get a good one-word .com domain name, and it's becoming increasingly difficult
to get good names with other extensions.
But if you're
choosing targeted niches, one-word domain names probably aren't your best bet
anyway. They don't have much SEO value, because Internet users don't often do
searches for just one word. They are more likely to search for phrases, so
domain names that contain those phrases are better choices. If you can snag a
domain name that contains your targeted keywords, you'll have an easier time
getting good search engine rankings.
A domain name
shouldn't be too long, though. If it is, it will be hard to remember. It's true
that most visitors will click on a link from another site or bookmark your site
if they're interested, but if someone hears your domain name and wants to
visit, wouldn't you want him to be able to do so? If he can't remember it, you
miss out on a potential sale. For the same reason, it's wise to avoid using
abbreviations, numbers in place of words (“4u” instead of “for you,” etc.), and
words that are difficult to spell.
If you get a
really good domain, it might be to your advantage to get several forms of it.
Hyphenated, non-hyphenated, .com, and .net are good variations to have. You
might even consider purchasing common misspellings of your domain. There's no
need to do this for every domain, but if you're lucky enough to get your hands
on one that contains a frequently searched keyword phrase, it could be worth
the cost.
A good domain
name can certainly have a positive impact on your traffic. The pool of
available domains are constantly shrinking, but with a little creativity you can
come up with something that's both memorable and appealing to the search
engines.
What the heck is
SEO?
Search engine
optimization (SEO) is one of the most cost-effective ways to get traffic to any
website. It's one of the first things that most affiliates learn so we won't
go into it in depth here. But it's such an important subject that it deserves
to be revisited from time to time.
SEO is an
ongoing process. It's not one of those “set it and forget it” things. Once
you've done your initial optimization it becomes easier to maintain it, but you
must keep working at it. Search engines change their algorithms frequently, so
it's crucial to continually check on your rankings. That way, if they drop, you
can take action before you lose too much traffic.
If your site
ranks highly in the search engines, you won't need to spend a lot of money on
pay per click and other forms of advertising. You can concentrate your efforts
on building incoming links and creating new content to keep your visitors
happy.
Pay Per Click
Strategies
Performing
search engine optimization is one of the least expensive and most effective
ways to get traffic to your site. But it's not the only way to get visitors
from search engines. Pay per click advertising (PPC) requires an investment,
but it can greatly boost your affiliate traffic and sales if used correctly.
We've all seen
the “Sponsored Links” at the top and sides of search result pages. Those are
actually PPC ads. (They're also found on some websites.) Some Internet users
have grown rather blind to these, but there are still plenty who click on them.
Besides, when you run a PPC campaign, you're not paying for each time your ad
is shown. You're paying for each time someone clicks on it.
Affiliates use
PPC ads for a few different purposes. One is to get visitors to a website or
blog where they promote affiliate products. Another is to send them to a
squeeze page, where they can sign up for a newsletter or e-course. And
sometimes they just direct visitors straight to an affiliate link. Your
approach will vary depending on which of these is your objective.
If you're
directing PPC ads to an affiliate link, it's important to use keywords that
attract people who are interested in buying. Otherwise, you're pretty much
wasting your money. For instance, if you're an affiliate for a company that
sells leather gloves, try to think like someone who is interested in buying a
pair. Perhaps he has a brand or color in mind. You could try using something
like “black leather gloves” or “Cole Haan leather gloves” as your keywords.
Or if you're
targeting bargain shoppers, “discount leather gloves” might be a good keyword
phrase. If you're trying to get opt-in subscribers, you would use a much
different strategy. The idea here is to lure prospects with the promise of
information. That way you won't be paying for visitors who are interested in
buying something right now and will click away when they see a squeeze page.
Keyword phrases that contain words such as “learn” or “information” are well
suited to this purpose. The ad text should further emphasize the promise of
information.
If you find
that you're getting lots of traffic but few sales or click-through to your
affiliate link, it's time to go back to the drawing board. Very low traffic can
be a sign of a poorly written ad. But if you're getting a high percentage of
conversions out of that small amount of traffic, it probably just means that
you've done a good job of choosing highly targeted keywords.
Choosing Pay per
Click Networks
Ask any
Internet marketer to name a PPC network, and there's a good chance that you'll
hear the name Google Adwords. It stands to reason that since Google is the
number one search engine; its pay per click offering is one of the most
popular. Many affiliates make their first foray into PPC with Adwords, and they
often stick with it.
Adwords has
the potential to bring you lots of traffic. But it's not the only PPC network
that's worth using. There are many others to consider, including:
Microsoft
Adcenter – Displays ads on the Bing search engine and the
Microsoft content network.
Yahoo Search
Marketing – Displays ads on the Yahoo search engine.
7Search – Supplies search results and ads to over 500 search engines, blogs
and websites.
Adbrite – Supplies ads through a content network.
Bidvertiser –
Supplies ads through a content network.
After Google,
Microsoft and Yahoo are the next biggest players in the pay per click game. But
that doesn't mean that all other networks are a waste of time. Smaller PPC
networks have an advantage when it comes to pricing. On average, advertisers
pay less per click than they would on the “Big Three.” So if you're on a tight
budget, you may do better to give them a try.
Each PPC the network has rules that advertisers must follow, and it's imperative that you
read over them carefully. Some do not allow advertisers to use direct affiliate
links. Some have minimum deposits that you must make. And all have certain
guidelines for the ads themselves. You can save yourself a lot of headaches by
making sure that you understand the terms fully before placing your first ad.
Content and
Affiliate Marketing
Early on,
content sites made up a large portion of the World Wide Web. There's a lot more
out there now, but good content sites still have a great deal of value. They
serve as sources of information, and information is still something that most
Internet users look for on a regular basis.
One of the
advantages of content sites are that they are easy to maintain. It takes some
work to get them set up, but once you've got everything in place, you don't
have to keep it updated on a regular schedule. Adding some new content from
time to time is a good idea, but it's not absolutely necessary. If you pay
special attention to SEO when building a content site, you won't even have to
put a lot of effort into promoting it.
Another good thing about content sites is that it's easier for visitors to find the
information they need than it is on a blog. A content site's navigation is
usually organized by topic, allowing users to find what they're looking for
with just a couple of clicks. Blogs, on the other hand, are organized
chronologically. You can use categories to make posts somewhat easier to find,
but older posts are still left in the shadows of new ones.
Content sites
do not have to have pages upon pages of information to be useful. In fact, if
you're working with a sufficiently narrow niche, a mini-site with just a few
pages will do. Instead of trying to provide huge amounts of information,
concentrate on creating a few pieces of great content.
The keys to getting traffic to a content site are providing informative
content and optimizing it for keywords that your target market would use. Get
some backlinks coming in and do a little initial promotion and you can often
leave the site alone and let it work its magic for a while. But
don't forget to check your stats periodically, so that if you lose ground in
the search engines or conversions drop you can find and fix the problem.
Getting
Webmasters to Promote Your Site
Promoting a the website can be a lot of work. But you don't have to do it all yourself. In
fact, it's best if you don't. Enlisting the help other webmasters will allow
you to gain exposure on their websites, and that can seriously boost your
search rankings. The days of the link exchange have passed, but there are other
ways to get assistance from fellow site owners.
One way you
can get your links on other websites is by submitting articles to article
directories. Article directories are designed to provide free content for
webmasters, and anyone can submit articles. You're allowed to add links and a
resource box to your articles, and anyone who uses them must leave these things
intact. If you write good articles that are related to your niche, fellow
webmasters will place them on their sites and you'll get backlinks and traffic
from it.
You could also
contact bloggers in your niche and ask if they would allow you to write a guest
post for them. In exchange for the free exclusive content, you can request that
they link to your site. If it's a popular blog, you could get lots of traffic
for a long time to come.
And then there
are joint ventures. You could contact other site owners and see if they would
be interested in sponsoring a contest, producing an information product or
participating in some other type of marketing activity with you. Both of you
would work on it, both of your names and URLs would be on it, and both would
promote it. And each of you would gain new traffic and backlinks.
By creating
quality content, you can gain backlinks from webmasters who find it useful.
But it certainly doesn't hurt to be a little more proactive about it. These
methods won't cost you a dime, and they have the potential to bring you lots of
traffic and better search engine rankings.
Blogs and
Affiliate Marketing
Blogs are well
suited to affiliate marketing. Internet users enjoy reading them because they
are interactive and personal. This makes them excellent relationship builders
for affiliates. And readers know that they are usually updated regularly, so
when they find one they like they keep coming back. This gives you infinite
opportunities to make a sale.
Some
affiliates get their start in affiliate marketing by mentioning products in
posts on an existing blog. For niche blogs, this works very well. But with few
exceptions, blogs with general topics tend to generate fewer affiliate sales.
If you're looking to earn commissions by blogging, you're better off to start a
blog with a narrow focus. Or better yet, several of them.
For affiliate
marketers, part of the beauty of blogging is that blogs are so easy to set up
and run. Many web hosts provide automated installation of blogging platforms
such as WordPress in their hosting packages. You can write posts and pages
without having to know HTML, and it's very easy to make modifications to a
blog's appearance and functionality.
Perhaps the the hardest thing about blogging is coming up with good niche topics. For best
results, you need a topic that's pretty narrow, but that generates a lot of
interest. It should also be something that you are interested in because
you're the one who will be writing content about it on an ongoing basis. If you
have no interest in or knowledge about the subject, it will be difficult to do
that.
Another thing
to consider when choosing a niche is how much competition there is in it. The
less competition there is, the better. You can get a general idea of the amount
of competition in a given niche by plugging related keywords into the Google
Adwords Keyword Suggestion Tool
(https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal). The tool will also
tell you how much search volume keywords receive, giving you an idea of the
amount of interest.
If you choose
a good niche and join affiliate programs that will interest your audience, you
can do very well with affiliate marketing through a blog. With some promotion
and regular updating, a blog can be a very effective commission generator.
Promoting Affiliate Products on a Blog
It can be
tempting to just throw some graphical ads in the header and sidebar of your
blog in an effort to make sales. These types of ads can be effective, but
they're rarely as effective as mentions of the products in your blog posts. If
you are building a rapport with your readers, they will be interested in the
products you recommend, or even just mention.
Just casually
working in a reference to a product is the simplest way to get your affiliate
link out there. You could mention using the product or discuss a news story
that involves it. If the product appeals to your target market, you should get
some clicks, and eventually some conversions.
But the most an effective way to generate affiliate sales is to review the products you're
promoting. If the product is appropriate for your audience, they will
appreciate an in-depth review. And if you've established trust with your
readers, a recommendation could be extremely lucrative.
Reviews are
also great for bringing in search engine visitors who are interested in making
a purchase. Those who are debating whether or not to buy a specific product
often do searches for reviews of it. If the search brings them to your blog
post, and they like what they see, there's a good chance that they will click
your affiliate link and complete the transaction.
There's also a
good chance that they will bookmark your blog. When doing product reviews, it
is essential to be honest. Your first instinct might be to avoid saying
anything bad about something that could make you money, but if every product
gets glowing reviews, your readers are going to get suspicious. It's better to
lose a sale and keep your readers' trust than vice versa. If you lose a
reader's trust, you may never get another opportunity to make a sale to him.
Blogs and
affiliate marketing is a match made in heaven. But in order to get the most out
of your blog, you must keep it updated with fresh, high-quality content. If you
can't work an affiliate link into every post, that's okay. In fact, throwing in
a promotion-free post every now and then will keep your audience from feeling
like they're nothing more than a prospect to you.
Ever heard of
Podcasting?
The days of
the Internet being a text-only medium are long since over. Today it's filled
with all sorts of sights and sounds. There are elaborate flash applications,
games, videos, radio stations and much, much more.
Audio on the
Web is a wonderful thing for a lot of reasons. It makes it more accessible for
the visually impaired, and it makes it easier for those who learn better by
hearing than by reading to grasp what's being said. It also makes the Internet
more personal. Even the best writer can't fully convey the emotion of what
someone is saying in print.
In light of
these factors, it's no wonder that affiliates have taken to podcasting as a
means of promoting their websites and products. This gives them a different
avenue for building relationships and loyalty with their target market. It also
makes their messages more portable if they make their podcasts available for
download because listeners can put it on their MP3 players and take it with
them wherever they go.
A podcast is
more or less the audio equivalent of a blog. You can use it to inform your
audience or to provide commentary on various topics. It's also a great medium
for doing interviews with professionals in your niche, or even merchants whose
products you are promoting.
To get started
in podcasting, there are a few things you'll need. The first is a good
microphone. This is important because it will reduce the amount of background
noise and accurately capture your voice. A good sound card is also something
you should have on your computer. Additionally, you will need software such as
Audacity to capture your podcast, add in music and other sounds, and compress
the files.
Some
podcasters also utilize a mixer, but that's not a necessity when you're starting
out. You can always buy one later on if you feel the need. You have a few
options for posting your podcast. One is to post it on iTunes. To do this,
you'll need to upload it to a server and submit your RSS feed to iTunes. Making
your podcast available via iTunes lends an air of legitimacy, but listeners
will have to have an iTunes account and software in order to access it.
Another way to make your podcast available is to post through a blog.
There are some wonderful WordPress plug-ins (such as PodPress) that make
posting podcasts very easy. And if you include a link to your RSS feed on your
blog, listeners can subscribe so that they may listen to
new content as soon as it becomes available. You can also include some
descriptive text and clickable affiliate links on the podcast page if you're
publishing through your own blog.
Podcasts can
be short tidbits of information, or they can be more like radio shows and run
for a half hour or more. If you're working with a small niche, a few minutes’ the worth of content should be sufficient. It will also be more easily digestible
than a long podcast.
Not every
affiliate uses podcasts, and they're not one of those things that you have to
do in order to succeed. But they can add greatly to your marketing efforts. If
you can come up with topics for a blog, you can come up with topics for a
podcast, and you don't need lots of expensive equipment to get started. So it
can't hurt to at least give it a try.
Affiliate
Marketing with Videos
Anyone who has
been living under a rock for the past few years might not have heard of
YouTube. But the rest of us know that it's one of the hottest sites on the
Internet. Anyone can submit videos, and visitors that enjoy a video are often
eager to spread the word about it.
Affiliate
marketers are often intimidated by the idea of creating YouTube videos. Some of
them are very polished, and you can tell that no expense has been spared in
making them. But videos do not have to be professionally made in order to be
effective. Even funny home videos have been successfully used to get traffic!
Even if you're
on a tight budget, you can create videos for YouTube. Windows users have a
handy program called Windows Movie Maker on their computers, and they can use
it to make videos without even needing a video camera. You can use images and
text to get your point across and add some music or a voice recording for
sound. If you have a digital camcorder or webcam, you can use video and audio
from that as well.
Another a popular tool for marketers is a piece of software called Camtasia. Camtasia
allows you to capture video from your computer screen and audio from a
microphone to create videos. This works very nicely for marketers in technology
and Internet marketing niches. With it, you can make great instructional videos
with ease. You can mention your website and affiliate links in YouTube videos.
It's also a good idea to include the links you're promoting in the video's
description. And after you've uploaded a video to the site, you can add annotations
to it that include links. This ensures that even if users embed the video onto
their own site, viewers can easily click through if they are interested.
YouTube videos
are viral marketing at its best. A good video could potentially get thousands of
views and bring lots of traffic to your website or affiliate link. And as easy
as it is to create videos, anyone can take advantage of this powerful marketing
channel.
Affiliate Email
Marketing
Aside from
talking in person, email is the least expensive way we can communicate with
others. It's not surprising that marketers realized the benefits of email early
on. Unfortunately, scammers and spammers also seized the opportunity to make
contact with people at very little cost, and they haven't let up since.
The prevalence
of spam, along with Internet users' dedication to avoiding it, has prompted
some critics to conclude that email marketing is dead. But tell that to
affiliates with large lists and equally large incomes and they will laugh.
They'll tell you that as long as you play by the rules, email provides an
unparalleled opportunity to stay in contact with your target market.
What are these
rules? Here's a summary.
Gain your
audience's trust. These days, people do not take giving up their
email address lightly. Those, who have read your website or blog and found it
useful and forthright, are most likely to sign up for your mailing list. Some
of your subscribers will be people who just happened by your opt-in page, but
the majority are usually people who are already familiar with what you do and
know you're on the up-and-up.
Keep it fairly short. Marketers often feel obligated to send out a long email with several articles. But few people are willing to wade through a long email any more, even if it's on a subject they're passionate about. A short note or a single article is much better received. If you have more than that to say to your readers, direct them to your website.
Avoid making
every email a hard sell. Your objective is to make
money, but if you pursue it too aggressively, you'll turn your readers off.
There's nothing wrong with openly promoting products, just don't do it every the time you hit the “Send” button.
Take steps to
avoid spam filters. Try to make sure that email subjects and content
do not appear spammy, and remind subscribers to whitelist your email address.
Honor all
unsubscribed requests. Sending out unwanted
emails isn't going to change anyone's mind. If anything, it will make them more
determined not to listen to anything you have to say. And it will also give you
a bad reputation, making others who hear reports of unsolicited email wary of
signing up for your list.
Affiliate List
Building
It's a myth
that marketers must have tons of subscribers in order for a mailing list to be
worthwhile. Lists with thousands and thousands of addresses on them might sound
impressive, but they're often less effective than smaller lists. That's because
such large lists are rarely well targeted.
When building
a list, it's important to keep your target market in mind. It's easy to fall
into the trap of trying to appeal to a broad audience in order to get more
subscribers, but that won't help you make sales. If the products you're
promoting only appeal to a small market segment, having a lot of subscribers
who don't fit into that segment does you no good whatsoever.
Obviously, you
need to get targeted traffic to your opt-in page if you want to build a targeted
mailing list. That can be accomplished with good SEO, pay per click ads and
other promotional efforts. But it's also important to create a squeeze page
that will persuade only the people who fit into your target market to sign up.
One way to
accomplish this is to give away a digital product that will appeal to your
niche to new subscribers. Free gifts will not only help you get subscribers, but they will also help ensure that those subscribers are interested in what you're
offering. If you were giving away a physical product you might get some takers
that only wanted the freebie to give to someone else, but not many Internet
users will sign up for a mailing list to get an eBook or audio that is of no
interest to them. And if they're not interested in the freebie, they're
probably not interested in your niche.
When it comes
to mailing list subscribers, quality is far more important than quantity. So
don't spread yourself too thin and try to attract too broad of an audience.
Stick close to your niche, and you'll get the right kinds of subscribers.
Do you have an
e-mail list?
Once you've
started your mailing list, it's time to think about what you're going to do
with it. Sure, you're going to attempt to make sales, but how will you go about
it? Will you discuss the products that you're promoting in your emails? Will
you alert readers to site updates in an effort to get more repeat visits to
your website? Or will you send informative articles and advice as a way to
build trust with subscribers?
Affiliates frequently
include references to products in their emails, along with an affiliate link.
This gives the reader the opportunity to buy without having to go through your
website. This could work for readers that are already considering the product,
but for everyone else, it's important to make it easy to visit your website for
more information. Link to a full product review if you've done one, or include
a link to your site in your signature.
Some marketers
update their sites frequently instead of sending a lot of content out to their
mailing lists. They might add a new article or review every other week, and
then send out an email announcing it to subscribers. This avoids wasting their
time if they are not interested in the content and gets them to pay a visit to
your website if they are.
Even if you're not trying to sell directly with your emails, you could
include a link to a popular product in your signature line, along with a few
words about it. Write the blurb with the same care you'd use when writing a pay
per click ad, and try to pique the reader's curiosity. This is a good way to
make sales without being too pushy.
Social
Marketing: A Brief Overview
Over the past
several years, the Internet has become more and more social. This has made it
more appealing for your average Web surfer. And for affiliate marketers, it has
opened up many more avenues to reach potential customers. Here are some of the
social applications that affiliates can use to build backlinks, get site
visitors and build relationships:
Forums – The forum is one of the oldest types of interactive application
online. Forums make it possible for groups to have discussions on any topic.
Part of their appeal is the ability for users to check the boards at their
leisure without having to be in front of the computer at the same time as
everyone else.
Micro-blogging
services – Twitter is the most popular micro-blogging
application. It's a simple concept: users post short messages (140 characters
or less) for other users to read. Users can follow the “tweets” of people they
know or find interesting.
Social
networks – Google Plus and Facebook are two of the most
popular social networking websites. They allow users to create profile pages,
interact with other users and add them as friends. Features vary from network
to network, but you may be able to post photos, video and audio, send messages
to other users, join groups, and create circles and more.
Social news,
media and bookmarking sites – These sites
attempt to highlight the most popular news stories, web pages and multimedia on
the Web. They are great sources of traffic if used correctly.
Joining forums
and social networking groups that are relevant to your niche is an effective
way to connect with your target market. But it's important not to just jump in
and start overtly promoting your affiliate links. Not only will this annoy the
group's members, but it could also get you labeled as a spammer and kicked out. Instead,
join in the conversations and be friendly and helpful. Include a site or
affiliate link in your signature or on your profile page, and let members make
the decision to click on it without undue influence.
Twitter
doesn't allow much space to get your point across, so you'll have to be a
little more creative. If you put an affiliate link in every tweet, you'll end
up with no followers. If you never promote anything, you'll end up with no
sales. The same advice about being friendly and helpful in social networks
applies here, but posting an affiliate link here and there won't get you in
trouble.
Submitting
links to social news and media sites is a favorite traffic generating method of
many affiliate marketers. But in order for it to work, you must submit links
that follow the rules of the site and will appeal to users. The users are the
ones who will vote it up or down, and if you submit links that they find
useless, boring or spammy, you're just wasting your time.
If you use any
of these applications for non-business purposes, it's usually best to start a
new account for your affiliate endeavors, as long as the site or network allows
it. That way you won't have to worry about coming across as unprofessional. But
that doesn't mean you shouldn't be yourself when you're representing your
affiliate business in social applications. It just means that you should always
be the most professional version of yourself.
As an
affiliate marketer, you can't afford to overlook the social Web as a means of
generating sales. Blogging is a good start, but if you're not exploring other
applications, you're missing out on some very effective relationship builders.
Using Affiliate
Feeds
Many careers
affiliates use data feeds to add product pages or links to their sites. Data
feeds are database files that contain information about all of a merchant's
products, usually including the product name, description, image, price, and
your affiliate link. Some data feeds also contain other information.
Some merchants make their data feeds available to every affiliate.
Others charge a fee for providing them. And some only provide data feeds to
their top performing affiliates. Affiliate networks sometimes make all of their
feeds available to approved affiliates for a one-time fee. In order to use a
data feed, you'll need a program that can export databases into HTML.
Alternatively, you could get a programmer to translate the files into web
pages. Either way, data feeds enable you to add any number of products to your
website quickly and easily. And by using the latest data feed from a merchant,
you can ensure that you list all products that are currently available and none
that are not.There are a
couple of different ways in which you can use data feeds. One is to create an
online store-type site. You can separate products into categories, and display
links to descriptions of individual products on the category pages. You can
also add specific types of products to pages with content related to those
products. For example, if you have an article about running shoes on your site
and you are an affiliate for a shoe company, you could display links to various
styles of running shoes on that page.
Data Feeds
make it easy to set up an affiliate store, or to add links to an existing
affiliate site. You can even set it up so that your site is updated
automatically if the merchant makes its feeds available on a server. Just
remember that the best-performing sites include more than just a bunch of
affiliate links. Adding some original content will make your site more attractive
to the search engines and to visitors.
Call to Action
We've covered
some of the most popular and effective ways to promote your affiliate links.
But whether you use one, a few, or all of these, there is a simple thing that
can have a major impact on your success. And that's the call to action.
Just like it
sounds, a call to action is a statement that encourages the reader, listener or
viewer to take action. This action could be making a purchase, signing up for a
newsletter, or visiting your website. But no matter what action is desired, it
is imperative that you make it clear to the reader what you want him to do.
All too often,
affiliates avoid making calls to action. This may be true for several reasons:
1. They worry
about being too pushy. They fear that customers won't like being told what to
do, and if they try they will head for the hills.
2. They feel
that making a direct call to action will insult the prospect's intelligence.
After all, when people read a sales page or pitch, they know that you want them
to buy something, right?
3. They think
calls to action are unnecessary. They reason that if the prospect wants to buy,
he will do what it takes to make the purchase without any encouragement.
4. They're not
sure how to make a call to action. Should they say “Buy this now!” or be more
subtle about it?
But if you
fail to make that call to action, there's a good chance that you'll also fail
to make a sale. In this day and age, people are bombarded with so much
information that they don't have the capacity to process it all. So if you
don't make it crystal clear that you're asking them to make a purchase, it's
quite possible that they won't. Even if they are interested in the product
you're promoting, they might just think, “Well that's interesting,” and get on
with their lives.
How you make
your call to action will depend somewhat on where you're using it. Here are a
few guidelines for some of the promotional tools you've learned about.
Blogs – Blogs are more about building relationships than selling. Calls to
action are still important here, but they should be a bit more subtle than they
would in a sales letter. Instead of asking readers to buy something now,
mention products and include a link. Advise them to “Click here for more
information” or something to that effect.
Content sites – Since content sites are less personal than blogs, there's no harm in
cutting straight to the chase when asking for the sale. If you've provided
solid, relevant information to the reader, a powerful call to action will
entice him to check out what you're offering, not turn him off.
Videos and
podcasts – If you're doing a video blog or podcast, it's
usually best to stick with the same type of approach you would use with a text
blog and not be too pushy. But if you're creating videos that are clearly
promotional, there's nothing wrong with squarely asking for the sale or opt-in.
Email – In email newsletters or announcements, it pays to be rather obvious
about your intentions. It's just too easy for the reader to close the email and
forget about it, or worse yet delete it. Making it a point to directly tell the
reader to buy the product or visit your website to learn more will pay off.
Social
networks – With few exceptions, blatant promotion is not
allowed in social networks. But you can include a call to action in forum
signatures and on profile pages. One technique that's generally well received
is using a teaser to entice readers to click the link and learn more.
Twitter – Calls to action on Twitter may be subtle or overt. But unless your
Twitter account is geared toward motivated buyers or deal seekers, it's not
usually a good idea to include a directive to buy something very often.
Don't be
intimidated by calls to action. They've been used in sales letters and other
promotional materials since their inception, so there aren't many people who
will find them offensive. And if someone already has some degree of interest in
what you're offering, a little nudge certainly won't change their mind. It will
just push them in the right direction.
You Get What You
Deserve
Since the
Internet became available to the average person, there have been lots of people
looking for ways to make easy money online. And there probably always will be.
But in life, there is no free lunch. This is just as true on the Internet as it
is in the “real” world.
Affiliate
marketing does present the opportunity to make lots of money. And once you get
started with it, you can maintain that income without a huge amount of effort.
But finding a niche, selecting affiliate programs and doing what it takes to
effectively promote the products takes some time and effort. When those who are
looking for a free ride discover this, they are ready to throw in the towel.
But if you're
serious about making money as an affiliate, you can generate great wealth.
Those gurus that are making so much really aren't much different from the
average Internet user. They just had the determination they needed to seek out
great affiliate opportunities and work on their promotional efforts until they got
it right.