Please visit my new site:
www.InternetBusinessKnowledge.com

Friday, March 28, 2008

Should You Believe The Income Screenshots For Making Money Online Opportunities?

By Craig Torey

Here is the basic concept of most money making strategies being sold on the internet: “If you want to succeed making money online, do the same as someone who is already successful.”

With all the competition on the internet, each one needs to outdo the other, convincing you that their way is the best.

One of their most convincing ways to show their system's superiority is to show screenshots of their income. Some are copies of checks, ClickBank daily income transactions, accounting statements, or a spread sheet, to name a few.

Regardless of the type of income being shown as proof, you need to ask one very important question.

What date is on the proof? This is very important because the internet world is changing exponentially each year. Something that is state of the art today can be obsolete in several months.

Think about a new computer purchased in 2006. Today that computer would be a relic. There have been so many improvements since then where today's computers are just a different animal.

The internet changes even more quickly than computer technology. Strategies to make money in 2006 may be totally outdated and nonapplicable today. Google has changed its ranking algorithms for search rankings; adwords and adsense has changed several times. Some niches are no longer niches.

Google has made several major changes affecting income strategies in the past two years. In April 2008, Google Adwords stated that display URLs for new ads will be required to match their destination / landing page URLs. We now have to see how this will impact present money making strategies.

BOTTOM LINE

What should you do? First and foremost, ask for very recent proof of income statements. They can email it to you and even have you sign a confidentiality agreement if needed.

See if they have a telephone number. That is best. Or, if they don't have an email, or don't respond to an email, pass on the offer.

The screenshots that show large amounts of income need to be scrutinized. If there is a money back guarantee, you can do an in depth investigation with no risk. Be careful not to invest too much time or money if the program shows outdated information.

Even if they do show a large income which is believable, find out how long it took to get that high income stream and what strategy was used. High amounts may be niches that may not be able to be duplicated today.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

It is our mission to provide you with objective reviews and opinions on money making opportunities on the internet. Visit us for information on Money Making Strategies we Reviewed.

4 Must Haves In Every Article

By Ryan Smith

The importance of article marketing to today's websites and Internet ventures cannot be measured. Large companies expend a great deal of their resources ensuring that they maintain a presence in the article directories. It is the key to building an online business and making it successful.

Articles today are recognized as key forces in driving traffic to the sites of the businesses they represent. But not just any traffic. It is the kind of traffic that converts into sales. This is known as high conversion traffic (i.e. converting the visit into a sale and possibly a repeat customer.)

It is the well written article, with the catchy headline and easy to read material that brings in the traffic and adds to the bottom line. But what goes into the well written piece that draws the desired attention of both the reader and the search engines? There are four absolutely must haves for an article to be successful.

Good Content

First and foremost, the article must have easy to understand content. This includes having key words and key phrases placed strategically in them. The content must flow, meaning that the material transitions from one portion to the next must be easy to follow without the reader getting lost.

It must be entertaining and put the reader at ease. It must contain something of value to the reader. More importantly, it must not be a sales letter. This will be a major turn off to any prospective customer.

Key Words And Key Phrases

Each article must be centered on specific key words and phrases. What this means is that your chosen key words must relate to your site. They can even be the same as your site key words.

It is important to remember that search engine returns are based on those key words. Often times articles will show up more often than the sites they are representing. One trick that is often used is to use certain words in some articles while others are used in different articles.

Keyword Density

Keyword density is the number of times the subject related keywords are used in the article. These words are necessary for the article to successfully represent the site they were created to.

One of the main purposes of an article is to build a site’s page rank. Part of this is related to the number of keywords used in that article. The best average is between ten to fifteen percent for the search engines to notice the article. Any more than that the search engines (and readers) get turned off. Less than that the essence of the article may be lost. It will almost assuredly be ignored by the search engines.

Remember that the higher the page rank is, the more the traffic the site gets.

About The Author Box

This is how the article makes money for the site by linking to it. Regardless of whether it is being submitted to an article directory, an ezine, or anywhere else. It is also how the represented site earns higher page rank and, obviously, more traffic. It should contain no more than a line or two of text and one or two urls. If using an article directory submissions service, you may be limited to only one url.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

RP Smith is the owner of the website http://www.e-profitsubmissions.com

Thursday, March 27, 2008

9 Steps To Start An Affiliate Marketing Business Without Breaking The Bank

By Jeff Sargent

Everyone is looking for the easy way to get in on the Money Train on the Internet. Although there is no easy way to make money online, one of the best ways for someone to get in on the action is through Affiliate Marketing.

Here is my 9 step process to get into Affiliate Marketing with as little money out of pocket as possible.

STEP 1. Find a Niche:
You must find something that you are an expert in or passionate enough about in order to do the necessary research that will be required to properly promote a product. Get a piece of paper and write down all the things you are interested in. You will be surprised at how big your list will be.

STEP 2. Find a product to sell:
There are many places to find products to sell but I suggest starting out with Clickbank. Using the list you created in the previous step start searching for the best product within your chosen niche that you would like to sell as an affiliate marketer.

STEP 3. Get a Domain Name:
Once you have done the research and have found the product that you are going to promote you will need to get a domain name to use as your opt-in page. You want to choose a domain name that is closely related to the product you will be promoting.

STEP 4. Get a Hosting Service:
You will need a hosting service such as Lunarpages where you can store all the files that will be required for your website.

STEP 5. Design an Opt-In Page:
You will need to design a simple opt-in page to capture the names and email addresses of your future customers. If you can't do this on your own you can source it out to a company such as Elance. Of course this will cost a lot more than if you can do it yourself. Do yourself a big favor and try to learn HTML so you can design your own.

STEP 6. Keyword Research:
You will need to do some keyword research to see what keywords people are using in their search for the type of products you plan on promoting. There are many keyword search tools out there that do a great job but they cost money. There are however some pretty good free services that you could use such as Google Adwords.

STEP 7. Writing Articles:
You will need to write at least 50 articles, preferably closer to 100. The more articles you write the more free traffic you will get to your website. These articles will have to be written about the type of products you are promoting so you get highly targeted traffic. After writing these articles you will have to submit them to an Article Directory such as Ezine Articles.

STEP 8. Get an Autoresponder:
You are going to need a service such as Aweber to collect all the names and email addresses you will be collecting from your opt-in page. This is where you will make the most money as an Affiliate Marketer by follow-up emails promoting other peoples products.

STEP 9. Re-Invest:
You will need to re-invest any money that you make back into your Affiliate Marketing business. Do not use the extra money to go on a shopping spree. You need to spend that money wisely, like on learning more about Affiliate Marketing or buying software that will automate tasks for you to give you more time to expand your business. You should always be re-investing in your Affiliate Marketing business for as long as you own your business if you want to keep on growing.

I realize that in these 9 steps there is not a lot of detail but it would be impossible for me to fully describe what it would take to complete each of these steps. There are many ebooks on each one of these steps that go into great detail that your can find on the Internet. This article was just intended to be a quick guide to help you find a way to get started in the Affiliate Marketing Business without costing you a fortune.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Make Money On Autopilot with this fantastic plug-and-play system. by Jeff Sargent http://www.theautopilotincomesystem.com

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

The Real Secret To Finding Hot Niche Markets!

By Neerj Sidhu

Finding a niche market is simple. Finding a PROFITABLE niche market is a little harder, but it's still easy once you know what you are doing. Otherwise, you will end up like 90% of the other niche marketers out there who spend weeks or months on a niche market only to find out there are no money to be made there. Luckily I will reveal the secrets to finding a profitable niche market later in this article.

There are literally hundreds of ways to find niche markets. You can spend your time searching for popular keywords using tools such as Wordtracker, or you can walk around your local bookstore looking for common book topics. I've tried both of these options when I first got started in niche marketing, and let me tell you, I lost the most money when I picked a topic that way. Why? Well, it's simple. Just because people are searching for a keyword or phrase online or because there are a bunch of hard copy books on a topic, it doesn't mean those markets will buy your products online.

Have you ever heard the advice "Target a niche market you are passionate about"? What a bunch of garbage that piece of advice is. It doesn't matter how passionate you are about a topic, if people in that market don't buy products online, YOU WILL FAIL and fail miserably.

Here are 2 ways to find cash generating, starving niche markets that you have probably never seen before...

1) EBay - the unlimited supply of niches. Everyone has heard of eBay, but few people think to go to eBay to find a niche market. You would have to be crazy NOT to use eBay to find a market. This is one of the only places you can go and see exactly what people are buying in real time. Here is how you do it.

First, go to eBay’s main page at www.ebay.com. At the bottom of the left column of links, click on the link that says "All Categories". When you get to the next page, click on the link at the bottom right of the categories that says "See All Categories".

What you have just done is list every product currently for sale on eBay, but even more importantly, you can see HOW MANY products are for sale in each category. There are literally thousands of categories of niche topics right in front of your eyes, and you can see how popular each one is in just a couple clicks.

I just clicked "See all Antiques categories..." and I uncovered several hundred niche markets within the antiques category.

This is what niche marketing is all about. The category "Antiques" alone is too broad. If you go after this one, you will fail, however if you go after a sub niche such as "Asian antique bowls" or "Antique sterling silver flatware", you greatly increase your success rate.

Then, go to http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/whatshot.html and see just how flaming hot they are.

2) The next way to find a popular niche market is by going to the website www.meetup.com. From the homepage, there is a link that says "Browse All Interests". The website will then list hundreds of topics in which people signed up to be a part of a group. It also lists how many people joined each group, or "niche market" if you will. Who would have thought there would be a group of over a thousand people crazy about scooters? I found this niche market under the automotive category.

Using these two methods, you should be able to uncover hundreds of niche topics to begin targeting immediately. Once you find a niche market you want to build your business around, the next step would be to learn how to develop products these markets will knock each other over trying to buy.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

For More Free Resources visit www.freeearningtips.com

Monday, March 24, 2008

Starting an Ebay Business -- An Online Business Model that Works

By Meena Kumari

Millions of people are still coming online each year, and many of those people come to the Internet with dreams of making their financial dreams come true.

The truth is that building a website to sell products and services is not the easiest way to make a living online. A lot of specific knowledge or money will be required to be successful with a standard website.

You must acquire skills -- or pay someone who already possesses those skills -- in the following areas:

  • Graphic design
  • Copywriting
  • HTML design
  • Perl or PHP programming
  • Database programming
  • Marketing research
  • Promotions
When this is understood, most people throw their hands up in frustration and walk away from their entrepreneurial desires.

Maybe cash is the problem; maybe the desire is just lacking.

If you have reached this point yourself, let me offer one piece of advice...

DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR DREAMS JUST YET

More people than I can count are making a successful living online, and none of them own their own website or send a single commercial email to anyone.

How is this possible?

Two words, "Ebay auctions."

EBAY MAKES IT EASY

Ebay covers all of the difficult technical issues. And more importantly, Ebay already has floods of visitors eager to purchase your wares.

Ebay has provided everything you need to operate a successful business online with three exceptions:
  1. Products to sell
  2. Time to list the products in the Ebay database
  3. Cash to acquire the products
CHOOSING THE KINDS OF PRODUCTS

Before choosing your products, you should ask yourself what you enjoy the most. You may enjoy cats, NASCAR or even antiques. You should select products consistent with what you enjoy for two reasons.

First, you bring to your presentation a real appreciation for the products your are offering.

Secondly, a job you hate is one you will quit. A job you enjoy doing will be one that you will want to keep forever. If you are starting your own business, the hope is that you will be doing it for a very long time.

I personally know people who have generated a nice living on Ebay selling cat-related items, NASCAR memorabilia and antiques.

FINDING THE ACTUAL PRODUCTS TO SELL

I recommend against diving in and spending thousands of dollars buying products that you may or may not be able to sell.

A drop-shipper is a middleman who is willing to permit you to buy an individual product, and then they will put your business name on the return address of the product package and handle the actual delivery for you.

By utilizing a drop-shipper, you can speed product delivery to the client without risking your own cash to keep a product in inventory.

If you are lost as to how to find a drop-shipper, consider subscribing to the drop-shippers directory:

http://thePhantomWriters.com/drop_shippers_directory.html

Through this site, you can get all of the information you need to find drop-shippers from which you can order over 500,000 products from over 1,000 brand names.

LEARNING TO LIST YOUR PRODUCTS AT EBAY

Learning to use Ebay is pretty easy and straightforward. Ebay has put forward a lot of effort to help people to become successful. For example, Ebay has an entire area of their site devoted to the online entrepreneur.

To get an overview of all of the services and tools that Ebay provides to sellers, you may visit:

http://pages.ebay.com/services/index.html

Ebay also delivers courses and strategies to help you to be more successful:

http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/index.html

THE IMPORTANCE OF CASH FLOW TO YOUR SUCCESS

Ebay provides tools for both buyers and sellers to rate one another. The speed of delivery is one of the most important factors that sellers are rated on. By providing quick delivery, your buyers will give you a good rating -- and more shoppers will bid on your products.

Ebay recently purchased PayPal.com to help facilitate purchases for their buyers and sellers, and they have integrated the two systems together.

Unfortunately, getting the money from your PayPal account to your personal account generally takes four days. Even with a merchant account, the time gap is nearly the same. This time gap expands the turn-around between the transaction and delivery of the product unless you take action to speed the process.

If you were doing high volume, you would want to minimize the handling of a transaction to reduce the chance for a foul-up and to increase your ratings within the Ebay system.

But how can this be accomplished?

MANAGING CASH FLOW

While you could rely upon credit cards to get the job done, it is not something I would recommend. Paying credit card interest rates to process your customer's purchase, is an unnecessary burden.

Instead, put a sum of money into a dedicated bank account with a debit card attached to it. When you verify a transaction has been credited to your PayPal account, then use your debit card to immediately process the order with your drop-shipper.

But, how can you do it this way on a tight budget?

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO THE RESCUE

Let me ask you this. Do you have a 401(k) account?

Experts advise that you not touch your retirement savings for anything other than retirement income. That is good advice. Fortunately, it is possible under special circumstances to acquire loans against your 401(k) accounts.

Beginning in 2002, even the self-employed small business owner with no employees could open his or her own 401(k), called a solo-owner 401(k), and borrow from it just as employees with big companies can.

Weigh this option against the others available to you. It only makes sense to take out a loan rather than to take a hit in heavy taxes and penalties for drawing your retirement money early. Seriously, consider taking advantage of our historically low interest rates to meet your cash flow needs.

To learn more about creating and borrowing from a solo-owner 401(k), please visit:

http://www.investsafe.com

IN CONCLUSION

It is wise to choose your new business venture based on a model that has proven itself over the long-term. Ebay has been proving its concept since 1995; helping thousands of people build a successful and very profitable business.

The time to act is now. Choose the product line that will give you the most satisfaction and then get busy. Your success awaits you.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

For More Free Resources visit www.freeearningtips.com

3 Reasons People Don't Use Article Marketing

By Ryan Smith

With all of the benefits involved with article marketing it might seem surprising to learn that some marketers out there do not like using it as part of their advertising efforts. When researching this I came across some interesting reasons.

First reason. They don't believe in it. I list this first to address the issue of marketer who simply did like to do it or didn't get the results they thought they should have.

One of the most important aspects of this type of advertising effort is to realize that it takes quality articles to attract attention. Often times, articles that read like sales copy is simply ignored by the reader, if they are published in article directories at all.

In other cases, the article may have been poorly written or made no sense to the reader. Or the information was simply not in demand. One of the best possible solutions is to hire a ghost writer to write the articles. This can be an extremely cost effective way to get quality material on almost any subject.

The Second Reason. They don't like to write. A lot of people suffer from this condition. Would you believe that some of the most prolific and successful writers today have this problem? They might even state this openly.

There are numerous ways to write articles without it becoming a chore. You can brainstorm ideas on paper and pick the best ideas. In some cases, this can led to not only one or two articles but a whole lot of them.

One thing I would not recommend doing is copying someone else's work and calling it your own. Doing that will get your site penalized in the search engines which can be costly. Remember that content is king and original content rules.

As mentioned above, you can hire a ghost writer to work for you, or nowadays, you purchase software that can help you generate articles in a short amount of time. It may require some time to learn how to use the software, but it can make the job so much easier.

The third reason is related to speed. For some odd reason, people tend to expect overnight results. Unlike other types of advertising efforts, like e-mail promotions, article marketing takes time to produce measureable results. The more articles written, the better the possible exposure.

One other point to mention is that, unlike e-mail marketing, there are no risks involved writing good quality articles. The upside here is that they can build your reputation. That also plays a key role in article marketing.

It is the viral effect that makes this type of promotions so effective, but it takes time. This viral effect can also help with search engine rankings depending on how keyword rich the articles are as articles tend to show up on search results more than the webpage they are linked to.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

RP Smith is the owner of the website www.e-profitsubmissions.com

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Turbulent Business Times? Focus On The Customer

By Matt Trostle

As technology marches on, you hear about all sorts of marketing: telemarketing, internet marketing, and so on. What you don't see businesses focused on anymore is the customer. Instead of asking for a name, most companies ask for your "customer ID number". Instead of saying "good morning, and thank you", you hear, "which department can I transfer you to". The customer has truly become lost in the shuffle of electronics and new age gadgets.

Customer service is all about focusing on the customer and on their needs. In the old days, back when we still traveled around by horse and buggy, a person could go into a store and could barter with a friendly clerk who knew their name, their occupation, how many children they had and if they'd had a good winter or not. Now, though, consumers are lucky if they find a pharmacy that prescribes the right medicine to the right person.

Good customer service focuses on building long term relationships with clients by supplying an ever-evolving line of products and excellent service. Businesses that believe in customer service are not focused on the profit from one sale, but rather making sure that the customer is happy with their purchase, so that they will think good thoughts about the company the next time they need a specific product. Customers want to feel appreciated and listened to. Great service is all about listening and caring about the customers, rather than planning their next ad campaign or sales deal.

Say that a consumer purchases a bed frame from a company. During that transaction, the salesman was rude and didn't listen to the consumer. When the consumer called a few days later to discuss a problem he had, he was hung up on. Now imagine this same customer purchasing the bed frame from a company that focuses on customer service. The consumer is listened to, and is helped. When he leaves, he feels as though the salesman really did care about him. The next time this consumer needs a piece of furniture, who do you think he is going to look to?

Good customer service can take a good company and make it great! Assure your customers that you will be there for them and not only will you win repeat business, but unsolicited referrals. Some companies that have outsourced their customer service to the lowest bidder have realized this when their repeat business started to decline.

You can avoid this blunder by putting "great customer service" high on your mission statement. When you make your customer number one, your payoff will outshine any marketing campaign.

Almost every business can work with customer service, if they want to. The problem is that too many times, companies look to the future instead of to the present.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Greatpricedfurniture.com recognizes that every consumer is important, and strives to build a good relationship with all consumers, so that the next time they need a piece of furniture, they will know who to call.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Facebook: Changing the Way You Advertise On the Internet

By Ronnie Wilson

The internet offers great opportunities for prospective entrepreneurs. If you want to make extra cash, but you don't want to quit your current job, then the internet is the place that you will want to go to. Online businesses are continuing to boom today and two businesses that many people are now making a lot of money from is internet marketing and affiliate marketing.

Here, you don't really need to have the product to sell. You will be marketing for other people who have the product or service. You make money advertising their offers.

Internet marketing may seem easy but it's really not. Even if you are experienced as a marketer on the real world, you will see that internet marketing is a new kind of marketing that will need new skills and new strategies.

If you are new to internet marketing, then you might want to know about Facebook marketing.

Unlike any other types of internet marketing, Facebook marketing is a lot easier but is as effective.

Basically, Facebook is a social networking website. Today, this particular website is now one of the most popular in the world. In fact, there are over 60 million subscribers and is continuing to grow very rapidly. With this kind of traffic, you know that this website is definitely the place to market in.

The next question that you may ask is how marketing in Facebook any different from other types of internet marketing. Basically, Facebook marketing is also internet marketing. But in Facebook, you will already have the traffic you want. Also, you have the tools necessary for you to market your website as well as the products or services your affiliate is trying to sell.

In Facebook, you first need to try and create your own network. You can easily start out adding your old friends, colleagues, and relatives in your network. Once done, you can now expand and start building new relationships, join groups that is particularly interested in what you are marketing, and after all these things are done, you can start marketing by using some of the great applications or tools that Facebook provides.

And, the best thing about all these things is that everything you read is absolutely free. For this kind of internet advertising, you don't even have to pay a dime.

In Facebook, you can also use its official marketing tool called Facebook Ads. This is a pay per click advertising tool, which means that you need to spend money. Although this is the case, you will see that Facebook Ads is definitely well worth the money.

Also, instead of starting out with a hundred dollar a day budget for your Facebook Ads advertising, you will see that Facebook Ads can let you start advertising in as little as 10 dollars a day or even 5 dollars. This is great if you are just starting out and is still experimenting with your advertising ideas as you don't have to invest quite a large sum of cash for it.

So, the next time you try internet marketing to market your website, you might want to try marketing on Facebook. Here, you will see that you will have everything that you will ever need. From traffic to tools to great advertising programs, Facebook will be able to provide it all.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Ronnie Wilson is gathering a ton of information for you. Health at www.bighealtharticles.com Internet Marketing at www.articlehall.com your articles are welcome.

Sunday, March 16, 2008

You Need Not to be a Computer Geek in Earning More through Online Business

By Andrew Bell

Probably you are among those individuals who have daily nine-to-five jobs. Although provided with good compensation and a wide array of benefits, it is difficult to be just an ordinary employee. You need to be in the office before nine in the morning, or else a memorandum will be served to you, reminding that you are being “unpunctual” these recent days. After entering the office, you are now faced with the task of finishing all of the “paper works” (most of which are unnecessary) under time pressure and the pressure exerted to you by your boss. You will end the day with a lot of stress, thinking that you would want to quit and look for a job without such pressure in your shoulders.

But you have no choice. Nowadays, it is really difficult to find another job. There are individuals, despite of underemployment or low monthly salary, who accepts the job without hesitation. A single job vacancy is fought upon by a hundred applicants. Such scenario (which you probably experienced when you were still looking for your present job) will happen—if you will quit your present job.

Is there any alternative? Is there any chance that you will be able to escape the drudgery of your present job?

Fortunately, there is. And it is just right in front of a computer.

It is what we call Internet marketing—an online business opportunity that most online-based entrepreneurs loves and does with complete fervor.

Internet marketing is the most lucrative way of starting your home-based online business. It is the “big break” that many are looking for in a very long time. Do you want to become the boss? Do you want to work with your own time schedule? Do you want to work while wearing your favorite Hawaiian pajama and shirt? Do you want an extraordinary income that will exceed your expectation?

All of these are here—right in the heart of Internet marketing.

One of the common beliefs you will encounter in starting your home-based Internet marketing business is that you need to have the necessary technical expertise to succeed and continuously make a living with your online business. There are many individuals who believe that the lack of necessary knowledge and expertise about computer and Internet marketing prevents them from getting into the lucrative marketplace. They feel that they need to take first computer-related courses to get the job done.

However, it is a great marketing misconception.

Contrary to this popular belief of becoming a computer geek first before earning money through Internet marketing, there are ways of ensuring success in online business without dealing too much with computer expertise. In fact, you do not have to be a web development guru or web programming expert to make your own living on the Internet.

There are Internet marketing business opportunities that are designed with simplicity. These opportunities have low barrier entries for individuals who lack technical know-how about the business. You can use these fully-automated systems to your advantage even if you are not a computer wizard. These programs are growing as your knowledge base expands.

What you need to learn are the basics of these automated systems (such as HTML and JavaScript codes) so that you can use them to your advantage. Most of successful Internet marketers studied this basic knowledge and apply what they have learned on simple automated systems. Only the fundamentals matter—and the rest will just follow.

Do not let the misconception prevent you from reaching your business objectives. Just because you did not go to a technical school and study computer programming-related courses means that you do not have the guts to be an Internet marketer for the rest of your life. Technical expertise is just a part of your success on Internet marketing—your own strategies and plans will do much of the work. The knowledge that you have (both on technical expertise and theoretical knowledge) will help you succeed on your Internet marketing career.

Becoming a computer geek is really amazing, yet its shine will lose if what he knows is only bounded by technical dimensions. Do not fret if you are not a computer geek or wizard. What matters most is what you can do to succeed in your Internet marketing career.

As simple as that, no questions asked.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Andrew Bell is an Internet Marketer who has been reviewing home based online business opportunities for many years and webmaster of www.manomanju.com ...Learn how to start your home-based online business at www.manomanju.com

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Private Label Rights Products: The 10 Best Ways To Use Them

By Phil Coleman

You're in business to make money but find yourself slugging along without significant growth. Is there a way to build your internet business faster and in a cost-effective manner? Are there products you can stamp your own name on, available for you to use, or sell? Can you transform these products so they look like your own creation suited to your business? The answer to these questions is 'yes'.

Private Label Rights (PLR) allow you to do all of the above to move your business to the next level of success. What are Private Label Rights? Private Label Rights are rights to products that you can modify in any way. After modification of the product to suit your business needs, you can call the product your own. You make a claim to ownership of such product and market it in any fashion you so choose.

When you shop at your local supermarket, you may choose to purchase a national brand of canned soup. Alternatively, you may choose to buy the supermarket's own brand of canned soup. However, the supermarket likely obtained that soup from the well-known national company. The supermarket had the label modified so that it conformed to the stores colors, logo, and text.

A consumer buys this soup and calls it by the stores name. To them it's canned soup by 'supermarket so and so'. This product received modification to suit the supermarket's needs. The supermarket calls the product their own. Their customers see it as the supermarket's unique product.

That's how you can use Private Label Rights Products. When you obtain rights to a PLR 'online' product, you change it and use it to your benefit. You make it uniquely yours and then use it to market your business. Of course, you can decide to resell the modified Private Label Product as a product offering of your own (like the supermarket did).

What are the most common Private Label Rights Products? They are reports, articles, eBooks, and software. These types of digital products, available online, become your own private label brands. What are the best ways to use Private Label Rights Products? Here are 10 of them:

1. Resell them as your own: Those who created the product have done all of the groundwork, and 'grunt' work for you. You modify this existing product and get it to market. No idea or development phase; just a ready-made product waiting for you to tweak it so you can sell, sell, sell.

2. Set up your own Online Course: Utilize Private Label Rights eBooks, articles, and reports, as the content for this e-course.

3. String a bunch of modified PLR articles together and make your own eBook. Offer this as a freebie to visitors to your site if they sign up for your newsletter. You build your list of potential customers this way.

4. Add these Private Label Products to your website to make it content rich. Offer your visitors informative, relevant information. They will see your site as one of value and come back for more. All you have to do is change these products so they become your own, with your business name on them.

5. Offer visitors to your site access to PLR software products. Make these software products available to those who sign up as members on your site. Membership gives them access to databases and software programs. You can charge for memberships and increase your list of clients this way.

6. Put links to your niche product website, or sites, within the Private Label Rights content. You will drive traffic to your specific business and its products quicker using this method.

7. Rebrand and submit PLR software to software download sites. Offer it free with your affiliatte links built in, with the intention of building links back to your website.

8. Use PLR products to stock your company newsletter. This is cost-efficient. You save time and money not having to come up with ideas and write them yourself. You free up time to run other aspects of your business.

9. Use these products to stock your blog with content. Have links in your blog content, which point visitors to your website.

10. Record MP3's of the Private Label Rights Products you modify to your business needs. Sell them as audio products available for download at a price you deem marketable.

Private Label Rights Products are the new wave in internet marketing. They are an innovative way to build your internet business fast, while offering content of value to your visitors. When you fulfill your visitors' needs, they return the favor. This means increased profits for your business.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

If you want to really flatten your Private Label Rights learning curve and get started right away, Phil Coleman is offering a 7 day e-course with 10 free Private Label Rights products included. Head over to PLR-Riches and download them today.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Newsletters and Affiliate Marketing

By Alec Olive

Newsletters are a very good way of driving traffic to your affiliate website, advertising your affiliate products and increasing your sales. Usually affiliates build their mailing list by grabbing the emails of their site visitors. Weekly or monthly newsletters are sent to all the members of this mailing list.

If you search on the internet, you will find thousands of email newsletters. But you will find that most of them are not earning any reasonable money. On the other hand, the secret of most of the successful affiliates is their newsletters.

It means that if you can create an effective newsletter, it can really boost your affiliate business. Here I am giving you some quick tips to create and run your newsletter successfully.

1. Should be specific to your niche

If you want your newsletter to have good results and you are looking to get a decent profit from it, then your newsletter articles should be specific to your niche. If your niche is scuba divers, avoid publishing articles on web marketing. Simply, give the information to the users for which they are looking.

2. Write articles yourself

Your mission in this field must be to prove your own reputation and expertise. If you just copy and paste the work of others at your site, then it means that you are promoting others instead of yourself. Anyone that will come to your site will not see your work. So if he appreciates the articles at your site, then he is actually appreciating the person who is the creator of the articles, not you. So you must be creative and try to put your original articles there. If you are willing to put someone else's article there on the site, then you must give your own introduction in the beginning of the article and also give the reason why you are adding the article.

What if you cannot write?

In this case you can get lots of people who will be ready to provide their services and write the articles for you. So in this way they will do the writing work, but you will be the one who will get all the credit of their work.

3. Publish NO MORE than weekly

You should publish your newsletter once every two weeks at least. The monthly newsletters are not very effective. The best practice is to publish a weekly newsletter. But do not publish more than once a week, because people want to listen to you but not so often.

4. Write Short Articles

An ideal length for articles is 150-750 words. If you have more lengthy articles, you can split those articles into two or more. Short articles are easy to read and are more effective.

5. Focus on one product / offer per month

Every month you should select one affiliate product that you want to promote during that particular month. Focus on topics related to that particular product. This way your users will also focus on one product at a time and they may turn into buyers.

6. Offer Incentives

You can set up a downloadable incentive for your visitors when they return on a predetermined day to ensure more traffic and get possible sales.

Following these six steps can create a growing affiliate income from your newsletter. Just try to be focused, to the point and send your newsletters at least two times in a month.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Would you like to discover "An Affiliate Marketing System… On Complete Autopilot"? Just come to www.AffiliateCashSecretsOnline.com

Monday, March 10, 2008

Three Fatal Affiliate Marketing Mistakes

By Alec Olive

Affiliate marketing gives you the opportunity to make money online automatically, once you have setup your website successfully. It is considered to be a very simple and a very easy way to earn a good income with affiliate marketing. But it is not as easy as it is thought. Not all persons entering in this field become successful affiliate marketers. Those who are lucky enough to get real success in this business are few.

Here we will discuss the three major mistakes of affiliate marketers that usually make their business collapse. This will help you in earning a steady income. If you will avoid these mistakes then you can sit back and enjoy your steady and monthly "free" income.

In affiliate marketing, you get your commissions for promoting products and services of a merchant. It is the Merchant who is bound to pay you the sales commission. The duty of the affiliate marketer is to promote the products of the merchant. The merchant is the investor, who pays commissions to the affiliate marketers, when any of his products are sold.

Now take a look at the three fatal mistakes of affiliate marketers:

1. Do not send your prospects directly to an affiliate website

Do not send your prospect directly to the website without offering any free benefit to the visitor because there is a possibility that the consumer will not like the product and close the website without even buying a single product. Now you have lost this consumer forever because it is obvious that the next time he will choose to visit another site.

If you want your visitors to visit the website again and again, offer them some kind of free benefit like free gifts, software or e-books. You can send them a free newsletter or weekly horoscope at their email address. If you are successful in grabbing their email address, then you can send them advertisements on their email address on a regular basis too.

2. Do not create a website full of affiliate links, flashy banners and ads

If your website is full of affiliate links, lots of flashy banners and other advertisements then your visitor may become confused and he may simply leave your website. People like to see the clear and easy to understand websites. Just put an honest product review to get the visitors attention. Try to put text ads instead of flashy and graphical ads. Researches have proved that text links are more successful than flashy banners. People like to see what they want and not the fancy graphics. Also the load time of simple websites is much faster in comparison to full graphics, loaded websites. People like to visit the sites that opens in seconds. So be simple and be focused.

3. Commission theft

Commission theft is one of the biggest drawbacks in this field. Although, it is not possible to eliminate it completely, you can use some tricks to minimize it. Cloaking and redirecting of affiliate links are the options for you in this situation.

Usually the affiliate links contain the affiliate id of affiliates at the end of merchant websites URL. An example is: aff_id=your_affiliate_id

This is not a good style. Any person can easily drop your "aff_id" part from the above link and can visit the merchant website to make sales. In this case the sales are made but you are not credited. The solution of this problem is "cloaking". After cloaking your affiliate link will be like: /affiliate_site

Conclusion

In conclusion, an affiliate marketer should try to avoid the common fatal mistakes to become successful in this field. Always try to collect the email addresses of your website visitors by offering them some free gifts like newsletters etc. Then use their email addresses to start your advertisement campaigns.

Try to design your website really simple and easy to understand for the visitors. People do not like the fancy graphics when they are searching for something to buy. And do not forget to cloak your affiliate links to get the maximum benefit. By avoiding these main mistakes you can start earning sooner.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Alec Olive is an Affiliate Marketer. Find out how you can start your online business at www.AffiliateCashSecretsOnline.com

Would an Online Presence Benefit Your Business?

By Andy West

There's no argument that an online presence is valuable for technical companies, savvy, youth-centered ventures and global markets, but what about more traditional established bricks and mortar businesses? Is there really any reason for your business to have an online presence if it's been doing just fine since your father or grandfather started it in the 1950's?

The simple answer is, "yes." In today's world, if you aren't building a new client base, you're actually losing customers, and the Internet is the new corner store and water cooler, where casual conversation has been replaced by Internet search engines. You need to be a part of the online chat if you want others to find you.

There are lots of ways that having on online presence can benefit you as a business owner. Just imagine owning an auto body shop in a medium-sized town in the mid-West. Sure, you probably have a pretty good stream of steady clientele, but what about all of the people you're missing? How do you find them?

A yellow pages ad won't do it anymore; not even a four-color ad. Why not? Because today most people turn to their personal computers to look up businesses online instead of thumbing through the yellow pages. After all, the online yellow pages give them more information and can even link them to maps that will lead them directly to a business's front door.

So if you're going to take out an ad in the yellow pages, be sure you don't skip the online yellow pages as well. You'll get more traffic, more inquiries and pull in new business from farther away.

Even if you have a physical location for your business, consider building at least a basic website for it. Regular customers will appreciate having a site they can log into to double-check your business hours and see if you're running any specials.

If you update it once a month with information about specials, offer printable coupons and mention sales or upcoming events, you'll find that more and more people visit your site. Consider creating a blog where you answer visitor questions or just provide information and interesting facts for visitors.

Using the auto body shop example again, if you have a blog with car care tips, you could have suggestions on how to winterize your car, how to check the air pressure in your tires, when to consider repairs vs. replacement, etc.

If you post new content regularly, you'll soon see a rise in site visitors that will translate into new customers at your business. Be sure that you include clear directions to your business location, a map or both on your site for the best possible return on your website investment.

Remember that websites are visual, and a picture is worth a thousand words. If your body shop excels at restorations, include a few pages of "before and after" shots of cars that you've restored to their former glory.

A photograph of an old, junked 1966 Mustang convertible that was destined for the scrap heap that your team restored to pristine condition with gleaming chrome and a candy-apple red gloss-coat paint job with racing stripes will have car enthusiasts drooling and your phone will be ringing off the hook. Without that website, those classic car buffs would have had a hard time finding you.

Whether you have a simple listing on your town's community website, a listing in the yellow pages or a full-blown website, it's essential for all businesses to have some kind of Internet presence these days.

Almost everyone has tried to locate a business or service by typing in the name of the business or the type of service needed on his or her computer's web browser to find what they're looking for. You don't want to be the one business they couldn't find.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Andy West is a writer for Online Business Primer and Practice Real Profits.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Legal Documents and Affiliate Marketing

By Alec Olive

Every affiliate marketer is required to use some legal documents to run his business. Without these documents you may lose everything. Just a single complaint from your customer can shutdown your business.

Here is the list of legal documents that you must have to protect your business and yourself.

1. Privacy Policy

This is the document that describes how you are collecting and using your visitors information. It should clearly indicate that you will not use the information of your visitors for any other purposes and you will not share their personal information. Without this document, you may face problems from your visitors and other agencies like the Federal Trade Commission.

2. Terms of Use & Disclaimer

This document limits your responsibility to your website users. It really protects you. This document usually contains Use of Site, licenses, limitation of liability, miscellaneous items, etc. For example, if you have a website where people are allowed to post their views about some products, then you may want to mention that these views are just the opinions of the visitors and are not the thoughts of the site owner.

3. Affiliate Agreement

This form is needed if you are running an affiliate program. It is used to set the terms and conditions that must be followed by your affiliates. Affiliates are then required to observe these rules while they advertise your products. Affiliates will be required to sign this agreement before starting the business with you. You can freeze their commissions or cancel their membership if they are not following this agreement.

4. No-Spam Agreement

Spamming is an activity where you send email messages to a person who has not allowed you to do so. Also posting your ads in the newsgroups and forums where such activity is not allowed is also called spamming. You should only post your advertisements in the forums and newsgroups that allow you to do so or if they are on the same topic. Similarly, posting your ads in the chat rooms and message boards is not permitted and is called spam.

In a no-spam agreement, it is stated that you have an anti-spam policy. It is also stated that you will not send any unsolicited emails to advertise your programs, services or products without the permission of user.

5. Copyright Notice

Copyright notice is to protect your website content and graphics. It tells the visitors how they can use this content. If you do not want to share your website content, you should indicate it in copyright notices. Without this notice, people may steal your website content and graphics. If someone wants to use your content or graphics then he is required to get the prior permission from you. Otherwise, he is breaking the copyright laws and he may suffer from that. If you want to allow people to use your website information, then you should mention it clearly in the copyright notice which content, graphics or product is free to use by anyone.

6. Earnings Disclaimer

If you are selling any information package or running an affiliate program then you need this document. Without this document your business may be shut down by FTC.

Before starting your online business, make sure that your business is safe by using the above mentioned documents. Without these documents your business is in the danger.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Alec Olive is an Affiliate Marketer. Find out how you can start your online business at www.AffiliateCashSecretsOnline.com

Sales Commission in Affiliate Marketing

By Alec Olive

This article will provide some useful information to those who are planning to start affiliate marketing. The profit in this business is the sales commission. Affiliates are interested in the products that offer high sales commissions. The merchants want to sell their products but they want to pay less sales commission to get the maximum benefit.

This article will guide the merchants on how to set their sales commission. Also it will tell the affiliates how to choose the products on the basis of sales commission offered.

Affiliate Marketers and Sales Commission

Whenever an affiliate marketer plans to enter into this field, the following questions arise in his mind:

"Will I be able to earn commission by selling merchants products? What will be my percentage? Will I be able to earn a good amount from selling the products or not?"

There are different types of affiliate programs. The first type is called "Pay per Sale", the second is "Pay per Lead" and last is "Pay per Click". There are some more types, but these three are the most popular among affiliate marketers.

In the pay per sale option, the merchant pays the affiliates on every sale. Usually the commission rate is anywhere between 10-50%. The products that are really hot in the market usually give less commission.

In the pay per lead, the affiliate is paid for every person that is registered on the merchant website. Usually a visitor is offered to use a free product on a trial basis and their credit card information is stored. The visitors credit card is not charged during the trial period. After the trial period has expired, if the visitor is interested, he will be charged.

In the pay per click option, the affiliate is paid for every click that is made on his affiliate link. The affiliate is paid for every click, even if the visitors do not make any purchases. Obviously the commission on per click is much less as compared to other options.

In the beginning, only select the products that are hot and are really making sales, even if their sales commission is lower. Greater sales will compensate you. If you are choosing the product just on the basis of high profits and not on the basis of its demand, then you may suffer.

Another good way is to choose the hot products with less profit and some new products with high profit. Then keep an eye on your sales. If the new products are giving you the sales then it is ok. Otherwise remove them and select some other new product with good sales commission.

If your website has really a good and constant flow of traffic, then pay per click is a very good option for you. Because you are paid for every click and you are not required to make any sales.

Merchants and Sales Commission

If you are a merchant, then always offer a commission that is both acceptable by your affiliates and you. If you offer a very low commission, then there are less chances of affiliates interest in your products and this may reduce your sales.

On the other hand, if you are offering a very high commission, it will attract the affiliates but in the long term you may suffer. So always try to offer a reasonable commission.

If you are a merchant and are going to introduce a new product to the market, then you can offer some really high commissions in the start. This may be like 50% of the sale. This will attract the affiliates and you will get a large number of affiliates in very little time.

The affiliates will be highly motivated to make as many sales as they can so that they can earn high commissions. This will greatly increase your sales. Once your product has become popular and in demand, then you may reduce the sales commission gradually.

As a conclusion, setting a reasonable commission is an important factor for the merchants to do good business. Also the affiliate marketers should select the products that are giving them good profit and are easy to sell.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Alec Olive is an Affiliate Marketer. Find out how you can start your online business at http://www.affiliatecashsecretsonline.com

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Why a Flash Website Might Not be Impressing Everyone

By Drew Cameron

Ever visited a website with animated elements, perhaps music and sound effects? Chances are, the website was probably a "Flash" website. "Flash" websites are created using a special program such as Macromedia Flash 8: which allows for the creation of websites with video, graphics, sound, music and more.

The majority of websites you've seen will NOT have been animated, and probably didn't feature music or sound effects. You may also have seen regular websites that have some animated elements on them.

So, websites can be either composed entirely of "Flash", or they can merely include some "Flash" elements such as animated headers. Some websites of course don't have any "Flash" elements at all. Let's take a look at the benefits and drawbacks of "Flash" content.

Flash content can look great: a good designer can create a stunning, slick website in Flash. I recently visited a website for an interior design firm. After being treated to fancy logo sequence, I found myself "in" a house, with unobtrusive background music playing.

I clicked on a doorway ahead of me, and after a brief loading sequence, I was treated to a 3d panoramic video clip of the room, with narration about what interior design choices had been made for this paticular room. It was an assault on the senses!

This website appealed to me through both the visual and audio senses, and it had a high degree of interactivity. It was also slick and this impression rubbed off on the company who owned the website: slick website, slick company, right?

If you're thinking: "that sounds like my kind of website", then I won't blame you -- this paticular website was most effective! However, "Flash" isn't perfect, and here's why.

Search engines don't really like "Flash" websites as much as they like plain old fashioned "text and pictures" ones. How is Google to know that this website is about interior design? It doesn't.

Mighty Google is very skilled at reading text. If it were to visit a website of TEXT about Interior Design, it would scan the website, and soon figure out what the website was about. Consequently, it would be able to serve up this website in it's results when people searched for "interior design".

A human being might prefer the "Flash" version of this website, but the Flash site leaves Google perplexed. Google can't really watch Flash videos or listen to narration. How is it supposed to figure out what the site is about?

There are also other drawbacks of Flash websites. They can be cumbersome and slow, subjecting a viewer to video sequences or fancy animations they might not want to see.

Not all computers can display "Flash" elements. Where does an entirely "Flash" website leave potential clients with out of date computers? Think about it.

To conclude, think carefully about the purpose of your website before choosing an entirely Flash design over some old fashioned text and pictures. My advice is for people to use Flash sparingly for the majority of web design projects, if at all.

Flash content is not ideal for search engine placement, and if people aren't finding you in search engines, you might not be getting business.

An entirely Flash website might be appropriate if it is to back up a real world campaign such as leaflets or posters. In this case, people will not be finding your website through a search engine. Remember: text is always King of the internet.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com/

Drew Cameron is a website designer for A Website for 123 Pounds and has 5 years of design experience.

Friday, March 7, 2008

How To Use Images On Your Niche Site

By Court

There are inevitable moments that come during the creation process of a web page when you will probably realize that it is not interesting enough or that the site is not very appealing to people who see it. There are many niche sites that probably look like a page that is filled with only text that scares visitors away. As crucial as words are to a niche site's success and search engine traffic, there are several other important aspects that must be included into the niche site's design.

The most effective method that you can use to improve your niche site is by using images that are attractive to a person's eye. It is a fact that people spend more time reading information that has included pictures than information that simply publishes pure text. Ever since childhood, we have liked to read the books that have pictures and not the ones that only have words.

Pictures can be a great asset to your niche site's reputation and will definitely decide the number of online visitors who come to look at what you have to offer on your niche site. Although text is very important, images help to stop online users in their quick and rapid searches, even if for a short period of time, to look at your attractive pictures and information. The principle of including images into the design of your niche site will greatly improve its chances for success and profit in a very competitive online world.

When you finally comprehend all of the positive aspects of publishing images on your niche site, the second goal is to then try and locate some quality images that will greatly enhance your site's overall appearance on the Internet. Finding images that are not copyrighted and protected can be quite a difficult task to accomplish, but there are places on the Internet that you can go to and find images for your niche site. It takes a little bit of time to find the right images for the site, but it is well worth all of the trouble.

The most useful Internet page that you can go to and search for free pictures is known as the Stock Exchange, which provides over one hundred thousand pictures for you to use on your niche site. This specific site is very well organized and allows you to quickly locate images that are relevant and similar to the theme that your site is trying to revolve around. Make sure to read all of the guidelines, however, with each image that you download because some author's require that you do and do not do certain things with the images that they offer for free.

Once you have located and downloaded many pictures for your niche site, you need to then effectively publish them onto your site's design so that they make it very appealing to visitors. They should be evenly spaced apart with keyword titles and subtitles that will be able to be picked up by search engines. Images can be a great way to improve your SEO because most search engines now offer image searches as well.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Court is an internet marketing consultant and helps people to learn about internet marketing.

Thursday, March 6, 2008

How to Choose an Affiliate Program

By Alec Olive

If you are an affiliate marketer, you have two options. The first option is to choose the product which has a great demand in the market. These items are expected to be sold immediately due to the interest of the people. Some examples of such particular items are dating sites, casino sites and weight loss products. The second option is to choose a product that suits your interests, and you yourself like to promote it.

We recommend you choose a product which is considered to be the hot product in the market as well as you having some interest in it. For example if you are golfer, then you should choose golfing products to promote. These products are among the hottest products on the market. Plus if you are a golfer, it will be easy for you to give detailed information about it on your website. So you can give lots of information there, you can write the basic rules about that sport, you can also write the tips about how new golfers can improve their playing skills. You can also give some guidance to anyone who may want to purchase golf equipment by suggesting the best place to go for good quality equipment. Similarly, you can give lots of golf related information on your website that may attract more visitors.

Let us look at some of the important things before promoting ANY affiliate program.

Choose Hot Products

Always choose the items which have a high demand in the market. If you want to choose a product but do not know about the demand of that product, then visit Overture.com. Here you can check the bidding status of a product. If you find that many sellers are bidding for it, then it means it is a demanding product.

Be Familiar with Product

You must be knowledgeable about the product you are selling. If you do not know much about the product, how can you satisfy and convince your customer? You must know all the drawbacks of the product. Also do the comparative study of the product with the other same types of products present in the market. Provide your customers with this comparative study using graphs and tables. This will help sell your customers.

Good Sales Letter

Your sales letter is considered to be the key point for boosting your sales. It should be convincing enough for your consumer to want to buy. A good sales letter will attract visitors. You should also add some testimonials in it to make it more effective and believable.

Money Back Guarantee

If you want consumers to buy your product with no hesitation, then give them the benefit of a money back guarantee. If the affiliate program owner is not providing this guarantee with the product, then you should look for another merchant.

Contact Info

Physical address and contact info must be given on the site. This makes your website more reliable and trustable to your customers.

Real-time Statistics

Choose the affiliate program that can show you the real-time statistics of your visitors and sales. This will tell how many visitors are going to the merchant website from your website and how many visitors are converted into buyers. This will help you to see your progress.

How to find profitable affiliate programs

It is not difficult to find profitable affiliate programs. It is advised to search the most popular directories like AssociatePrograms.com or AffiliateMatch.com. Another option is to search in regular affiliate networks like Click Bank (for digital goods) and Commission Junction (mainly for physical goods).

Choosing the right affiliate program is the key factor. Always study the program in detail before choosing. See what are they offering. Good affiliate programs offer good profit, money back guarantee, real-time statistics and complete information about their products. You can search for the good affiliates by using well known and trusted affiliate networks like Commission Junction and Click Bank.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Alec Olive is an Affiliate Marketer. Find out how you can start your online business at http://www.affiliatecashsecretsonline.com

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Affiliate Marketing Without a Website

By Alec Olive

Having your own website to promote your affiliate products is a good option. But it is not necessary. There are many methods available that can be used to do your affiliate marketing business. The list is long, but the most important methods are email marketing, writing articles to e-groups, joining online discussions etc. Let us discuss some important methods that can be used to promote your affiliate products without having your own website.

Email Marketing

In this method you can promote your affiliate links and you do not need your own website. People can click on your affiliate links present in your emails and can go directly to the merchant website to purchase the products.

Your email should contain the introduction about the product you are promoting and your affiliate links. Try to make your emails interesting and brief.

Try to expand your contact list. Use as many methods as you can to grab the email addresses of new people. Use online forums, chat forums etc to make new friends. Your email list must contain a few hundred contacts, at least. But do not spam. Do not send emails to the people who do not know about you or who do not want to receive your emails. Otherwise they will just block your emails and you will lose your contacts. As I said, your emails should be interesting to get the readers attention.

Offline Promotion

You can use the offline methods of promotion, like the classified ads, flyers etc. The best choice is the classified ads because its exposure is largest.

Writing free e-books

It is similar to email marketing. But in this method you will write the informative and interesting e-books and will send to the people via their email address. These e-books should be easy to read and helpful for their readers. The topics should be related to your affiliate products so that you can recommend the products in the body of e-books. Alternatively you can add a brief note about your affiliate products and affiliate links for promotion. If the readers like your e-book, they may visit the merchant website and make a purchase.

Writing in Forums

Search for some forums, at least three, that are related to your product and have high page rank. Register on these forums and start some discussion in the forum where maximum people are involved. Just post your questions there or answer some questions of other members. But do not add any promotion text in the body of your posts. You are allowed to put your signature at the end of your post. Here you can write your name and your affiliate links.

When you become an active member of this forum then you may get some traffic from these forums to your merchant website through your affiliate links. This will ultimately result in more sales of the products you are promoting.

Writing Articles

You can write articles and publish them in the free article directories. You can embed your affiliate links in the text (resource box – editor) of your articles. If your articles are well formatted, informative and the article directory has large traffic then you can expect some good traffic to your affiliate links. And you know that more traffic on your affiliate links will result in more sales through your affiliate links.

Conclusion

The use of a website to promote your affiliate products is a good idea but it is not necessary. You can use the alternate methods to promote your affiliate products and links. The most popular among these methods are email marketing, writing to forums, article writing and offline promotion like classified ads. The main idea is that instead of promoting your website you will directly promote your affiliate links and people will directly go to the merchant website by clicking your affiliate links to purchase the products. This way you do not have to pay extra for your website creation and maintenance.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Alec Olive is an Affiliate Marketer. Find out how you can start your online business at http://www.affiliatecashsecretsonline.com

Investment Scams On The Internet

By Jim Pretin

Since the year 2004, there has been a sharp increase in the amount of investment spam we are receiving in our inbox. I personally receive up to 10 emails per day containing offers or lures to invest in various scams. It is estimated that millions of dollars are lost every year by people who have invested money in something they read about in an email.

Pyramid schemes are probably the most popular. Typically, you will be asked to invest a certain amount of money, and then you are promised a return when new investors make an equal contribution. Eventually, the pyramid either collapses or the person who initiated the pyramid is able to make a lot of money, but no one else makes anything.

A common scam associated with the stock market is referred to as the pump and dump. This is when a small group of investors who hold a large number of shares in a penny stock hype the stock to the general public. The resulting frenzy drives up the price of the stock, at which point the pumpers dump their shares at a high price before the rest of the investors realize that the company is worthless.

Sometimes, pumpers and dumpers will engage in short selling (short selling is perfectly legal; you borrow stock from someone else and immediately sell it, hoping that the price of the stock will go down in the near future so that you can buy it back at a lower price and return it to the lender at a profit). With pump and dump short selling, the borrower instantly sells the stock that was loaned to him and then goes around spreading bad rumors about the company to drive the stock price down so he or she can buy it back at a low price before returning it to the lender.

You should ignore any emails you receive that promote offshore investing or prime banks. Promises of huge returns from offshore investments are usually totally disingenuous. Prime banks are the top 50 banks in the world. Solicitors for prime banks will ask for your money so that they can invest it in high yield prime bank financial instruments. However, they will likely invest your money in high risk, speculative investment vehicles that have absolutely no connection to prime banks whatsoever.

You should not necessarily ignore all of the investment spam in your inbox. You might receive an email containing a stock tip that could turn out to be a lucrative investment in the future. Just make sure you research the investment on your own before you partake in any investment that was sent to you via email.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Jim Pretin is the owner of www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make an HTML form

Designing Your Website for Affiliate Marketing

By Alec Olive

If you want to start marketing as an affiliate then you need to have your own website. This is the main requirement to start your online business. Your website does not have to be loaded with graphics, but it does need to be informative, simple and professional.

To make your website you will need to do three things. Purchase a domain name, purchase the hosting service and design your website to upload to your hosting server. While purchasing the domain name, try to get a name that contains the main keywords of your website. Or you may simply choose a name that you like.

While selecting your hosting company, look for reliability. Hosting companies will be responsible for the storage of your files and to keep your website up and running. Godaddy.com is a well known, reliable hosting company.

How should your website be designed?

Hire a Designer

You can hire a web designer to do this design work for you. Just ask him to make the site professional looking and clean. The easiest way to hire a designer is to use an auction website like RentACoder.com or ODESK.com. Simply type a description of your project and designers will enter their bids. You will receive many bids from different designers. Check the portfolio and rate of each designer. Select the one which is best for your work and award him your project. After getting your website you can pay him through the auction website.

Use a Free Template

If you do not want to invest to do the designing then you can get some free templates. There are many websites on the internet that are offering free website templates. Just visit these sites and choose the template that you like. Fill in the template with you own content and upload it on your server.

Use Site Builder Tools

Another choice is to use the site builder tools. You can use "dreamweaver" and "frontpage" to make your website yourself.

Characteristics of a Good Website

Simple and Professional

Your website is meant for business, so it must look professional. It should not be over loaded with heavy graphics and lots of flashy banners. Simplicity is best. Try to use light colors. Make a nice header to show your company name and theme. The site navigation must be simple and easy. People should not have any difficulty in searching for a specific page or information, otherwise they will not re-visit your website.

Provide Search Facility

Your website should have a search box on every page to search your website. This will be a great help for the visitors that want to search for a specific product or information on your website.

Build Your Mailing List

Some affiliate programs offer you a website to promote their business. This is the ready made solution. But in this case you cannot build your mailing list. Always try to get your own website where you can easily build your mailing list to promote your business.

Your own website is the key requirement for affiliate marketing. The overall look and feel of your website should be attractive and the site must provide the information for which people are looking for. Provide easy navigation and search facilities to make it user friendly.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Alec Olive is an Affiliate Marketer. Find out how you can start your online business at www.AffiliateCashSecretsOnline.com

Finding Affiliate Program Providers

By John Hartley

There are at least 10,000 affiliate program providers out there, if you consider each company or individual which markets products through affiliates. They should provide you with tools to sell their products, such as text ads and banners.

When you are looking for affiliate program providers, you want to take into account what they offer their affiliates. Many just offer you the link, which might look like:

http://www.example.com/example/1300768

That is the last type of affiliate link you want. It shouts out that you are an affiliate, is long and unwieldy. You can get that altered, but the point is this: if they can only be bothered to give you a link with no help in marketing, then they are not really that concerned whether you presell the product or not. Big mistake.

Affiliate Program Providers Provide Tools to the Affiliates

The better ones provide you with banners, text ads, articles to put on your web site and email letters you can send to your list. Some even offer full web pages, not just for their range of products, but for each product. Banners do not work very well these days, but a tall banner can work well in the sidebar, especially for a blog.

Always consider what the merchant is offering and whether it will help when you sign up as an affiliate.

Obviously, you cannot scour the internet for affiliate program providers in every category you want to market, and you want to find which are the best ones. That is not difficult so long as you are marketing digital products like e-books and software and access to membership sites.

You just head over to Clickbank Marketplace and look through the categories to see which are the most popular products in a category. You do not really want to promote the top product, unless it has been launched that day, because so many internet marketing gurus will be marketing it. You will be outgunned.

However, you can do very well with products that are ranked in the top 30 for popularity in a big category. In smaller categories there may not be many products to choose from, but make sure it is selling well.

Also, to make money as an affiliate you need to consider products where the commission is over $20 or so as a rule, because you can afford to spend $10 to get one sale at this level.

Other places to find good affiliate program providers are Paydotcom, Commission Junction and Linkshare. They have services and physical products on their list mostly.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Get FREE reports and loads of information about affiliate marketing at jrhmarketing.wordpress.com - your source for guides and tips, run by John Hartley.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Don't Put All Your Eggs In The Internet Basket

By James Copper

Everyone talks about the internet. You would think there is practically nothing that cannot be achieved online the way this new medium is promoted and praised. And, yes, it has changed the way we live and communicate and the way we exchange information. But is it the answer to every marketing problem? I would argue not.

Although the value of the internet as part of any serious marketing strategy cannot seriously be denied, it is not the whole answer to any marketing conundrum. The mantra goes that if you don't use the internet you are losing money. But how true is this? Well, there is an element of truth there. Every business should have a website, but not at the expense of offline advertising.

Until extremely recently there was no such thing as the internet and yet business people made millions through other marketing channels, from trade fairs to billboards, business cards to promotional gifts. I mention these because they are still extremely popular and productive marketing methods. I guess I'm trying to say that there is more to marketing than the internet, and never forget it. Don't rely on it solely: make it an important part of the mix but don't put all your eggs in the internet basket.

In this article I intend to bring your attention back to offline marketing. By that I mean non-internet marketing. Why should you do this? I say it is because it's cost-effective and highly profitable to do so. Even if you are an affiliate marketer online, consider offline strategies to promote your website and products. Go back to basics. Use the time honored ways and means of marketing, such as word-of-mouth, joint ventures, direct mail, promotions and sponsorships. Hey, you can publicize your URL on the back of all these campaigns.

Pay attention to your business cards. Hand them out as a matter of course to absolutely everyone you meet. Yes, they can have your website address on them. In fact, they should. But no visit to a website can compare with meeting the business owner, looking him in the eye and being handed his business card. Hand them to the people you meet in school, mall, restaurant and even people at the bus station. All of them are potential customers.

Send out news releases. This is the way to make news spread like wildfire through radio, TV and the print media. This strategy may take time but it definitely delivers customers. And stickers! Place them everywhere that's legal and fun. Place them on your bumper and the bumpers of friends and customers. Put your website URL on stickers out there. You will get more visits, more business and ultimately more revenue.

Become an expert and a specialist speaker. Speak at local events and get asked to speak as an expert in your field. Believe me, once you are perceived as being an expert customers won't even bother to look at your website. They will come straight to you to do business. So you see there is not reason to confine your marketing efforts to the internet. There are hundreds of ways to market offline. You are limited only by your imagination.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

James Copper is a writer for www.unitymarketing.com

Are You Afraid of Autoresponders?

By John Hartley

OK, I admit it! I ignored the best advice I ever got about internet marketing and affiliate marketing for well over a year!

What was it? That I should have an autoresponder, and send follow-up messages to people who signed up at my site. Why did I do that? Well, it all seemed too complicated, too many follow-up letters to write, to difficult to set up the form on the web page.... and I did not want to spend $20 a month in case it did not work.

Serious problem I had, didn't I? Do you have that problem? Well, if you do here's the deal with autoresponders. You type in a series of messages at the autoresponder service, and put in how often they should go out. Something like, one day after they sign up, and then at two or three day intervals for maybe seven or eight messages.

Not all these messages sell something. Some just give information, and all should just get the prospect to go to the link in the email. When the prospect gets a series of seven messages, he or she is at least ten times more likely to sign up for your product. Why? Marketing studies show that people need to be exposed to an idea or person or firm five to seven times before they purchase.

So you can see that sending someone straight to the merchant's site is doomed to failure most times - unless the prospect is desperate, and has a deadline of some sort, either real or imaginary. This is why we need autoresponders.

What's so good about autoresponders?

To start with, when you send out a message from your own server using a mailer system, you can expect one in three of those not to reach the person you sent it to. It was not like three or four years ago, but following the Can Spam laws in the US and elsewhere, the ISPs and even Outlook Express consider all sorts of messages to be spam. Overkill, and that overkill is hitting your affiliate business.

50 per cent more messages get through

The top autoresponder systems get well over 90 per cent of their messages delivered, partly because they measure your message and tell you whether it will get through or not. Straight off, this means that if you use an autoresponder system, you are likely to get 50 per cent more messages delivered than if you do it yourself. Yes, 95 per cent delivery is 50 per cent more than 65 per cent.

That is if you have some sort of page where people can sign up at your site. Don't have a form there? Well, you are wasting so much money, it isn't true. Not sure how to put a form on your site? The autoresponder service will do it for you - well they give you a template in which you put your data.

Most important of all, once you start sending people direct to your autoresponder series, they become your client, and you will be able to sell other products to them later.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

Get a ton of FREE information on how to make money as an affiliate and how to avoid deadly mistakes at jrhmarketing.wordpress.com.

7 Ways To Make More Money From Affiliate Marketing

By James Copper

Affiliate marketing is an online business form that involves promoting the products of others on your own website. You don't necessarily sell any goods yourself on your website or blog. You might not even have one of these but just advertise other people's goods. It is a good way to earn income automatically while you sleep. But first you have to do the groundwork and you must regularly tweak your strategy and build on your successes.

Once you have your affiliate system up and running, you should look at the following aspects in order to market your affiliates' products as efficiently as possible. By applying these techniques you will be able to make more money out of affiliate marketing now and in the future.

1. Ensure you have the best and most up-to-date system in place for finding good potential affiliates. Try and work through reputable "affiliate marketplaces" such as Commission Junction, Linkshare and Clickbank.

2. Ensure you have a good screening system in place so you can select the best affiliates for your online affiliate business. Fortunately the reputable affiliate marketplaces supply you with masses of statistics and reports so you can establish which the most profitable affiliates are.

3. Do review your affiliates regularly and simply remove those that are not performing. It is a question of testing, trying different things and trying to see your affiliate enterprise from the point of the consumer who will click on the promotional ads.

4. If affiliate marketing is just one aspect of your online business, make sure these efforts form part of a larger advertising and promotional campaign. Do not embark on affiliation marketing as if it is a separate entity. Dovetail it with the rest of your business. This will be better for your other business and also for your affiliate business.

5. Continue to research how other affiliate businesses go about marketing and promotion. You should be learning all the time and picking up tips. Rather learn from successful people than be a pioneer and go through everything they have already been through. In other words, learn from the experience of others.

6. Do not be too proud to hire an affiliate marketing professional. There are many search engine optimization techniques and pay-per-click secrets that can help you make a success of your affiliate marketing venture. You might want to draw in an expert right at the start when you design your website and your marketing campaign. This could be critical to your success. In addition, you will learn a great deal about how to proceed once the expert has completed her contract with you.

7. You should stay excited about the internet and affiliate marketing. In starting and managing an affiliate marketing enterprise online you are at the forefront of ecommerce. Read up as much as you can and network with other affiliate marketers. Attend seminars and conferences and revel in the rapid development of this exciting commercial area.

Article Source: http://www.articlehighlight.com

James Copper is a writer for www.marketinglinx.com