3 Pillars of a Solid Home Based Business

In this day and age it is almost impossible to maintain a decent standard of living on one paycheck, but in a family where children are involved it is not always feasible for both dad and mom to have a job outside of the home.  Daycare expenses, the need for a second car, and too much time away from the children are some common drawbacks.  This however is the exact situation that a Home Based Business works to its greatest advantage.

Home Based Businesses are great and can be extremely profitable but without the proper knowledge and tools you can waste an incredible amount of time and/or money which defeats the purpose you started out with, namely to make money and have time to do the things you want to do. This article was written to give the average person like you and I a practical guideline to getting started in a home based business the right way, and to save you wasted time and money.

My experience has shown me that there are basically 3 main pillars or principles of a solid home based business.

Pillar #1: It must have minimal start up cost.

A home based business that has a high start up cost will take longer to see a profit, and as we said earlier, time is one of the things we are trying to cut down on. Minimal cost will also make the home based business more assessable to a larger amount of families or individuals who are just starting out.

Pillar #2: It must be easy to set up and maintain.

The more complicated your home business project, no matter what it is, the more likely you are to give up out of sheer frustration before you see a profit. A business that is easy to set up and maintain will give you confidence and a sense of accomplishment as you complete each simple step in the process.

Let's face it if you enjoyed wasting a lot of time and effort maintaining a home based business you would not be reading this article. This is about freeing you to spend time with your family and doing the things you love, not creating another taskmaster to replace your job! The first two pillars of a solid home based business are necessary for the third to occur.

Pillar #3: It must have a quick return on investment. (ROI)

You can spend months building a home based business but it there is never any real profit generated in a reasonable amount of time many people may get discouraged and give up. What is a reasonable amount of time? I would plan for a time frame on the order of weeks instead of months. Depending on the type of home based business some people have had a decent ROI within days, and unbelievable as it may sound some businesses that deal with affiliate marketing and sales can see profit as early as 15 minutes from startup!

You may be thinking to yourself "that's too simple!" Let me say that within these 3 pillars there is plenty of detail to keep anyone busy. The business that you choose to start should definitely be something that interests you and possibly even something that you already have a measure of experience in doing. Whatever home based business you get involved in make sure that it is propped up by the 3 pillars listed in this article. Do not make the mistake of overcomplicating your efforts or you will see very quickly that you will get bogged down with a lot of needlessly wasted time and effort.

Here's to your home based business success.

10 Ways To Increase Your Affiliate Commissions

1. Participate in chat rooms related to the product you're reselling. Start a conversation with a person without trying to sell to them. Later on, while you are chatting, mention the product you're reselling.

2. Create a free ebook with the advertisement and link of your affiliate web site. The subject of the free ebook should draw your target audience to down-load it. Also submit it to some ebook directories.

3. Start your own affiliate program directory. Join a large number of affiliate programs and list them all in a directory format on your web site. Then just advertise your free affiliate program directory.

4. Write your own affiliate program ads. If all the other affiliates use the same ads you do, that does not give you an edge over your competition. Use a different ad to give yourself an advantage over all the other affiliates.

5. Use a personal endorsement ad. Only use one if you've actually bought the product or service for the affiliate program. Tell people what kind of benefits and results you've received using the product.

6. Advertise the product you're reselling in your signature file. Use an attention getting headline and a good reason for them to visit your affiliate site. Make sure your sig file doesn't go over 5 lines.

7. Join a web ring. It should attract the same type of people that would be interested in buying the product you're reselling. You could also trade links on your own with other related web sites.

8. Participate on web discussion boards. Post your comments, answer other people's questions, and ask your own questions. Include your affiliate text link under each message you post.

9. Create a free ezine. Use your ezine to advertise the affiliate programs you've joined. Submit your ezine to online ezine directories and promote it on your web site.

10. Start a private web site. Use it as a free bonus if people buy the product you resell. You could also allow people to join for free and you could advertise the affiliate program you've joined.

Four Questions to Ask Before you Look for Affiliate Programs

I’ve been receiving emails from people asking for my advice on which affiliate programs are the best, who pays the most and most often, and many other basic questions. I’d like to answer those questions on this forum, but I can only type so fast.

I went out this weekend looking for content that I could publish here temporarily while I got down to writing. I had a hard time finding unbiased content. Most of the so-called reviews out there are infomercials, and that’s not what I was looking for with this blog. So you’re going to have to bear with me. I’ve been looking and learning and reading and talking, and I’ve got a lot to say. I just need the time to write it down, and I will, starting tomorrow. No, really I will.

In the meantime, you need to ask yourself this — are you ready for an affiliate program, or Internet Advertising in general? I put together four questions you should ask before you embark on your affiliate program or any Internet advertising.

Before I get to the four questions you should ask before you enbark on your affiliate program, I am going to review two concepts that I use often here on Affiliateblog. The first is what I call the macro view of your Internet presence:

Incoming visitors -> Internet Presence < - Sales or Actions

You are really running two campaigns with your Internet presence -- the first campaign is concerned with getting visitors to the site, and the campaign is ongoing. The second campaign is to get those visitors to do something. That something may be just to spend more time at your site, or it may be to sign up for something or buy something.

The other represents the process of Internet advertising:

Impression -> Click -> Action

Most affiliate programs pay publishers in the last part of the process, the Action. I’ll be using both of these concepts in my questions. So here we go…

1. Do you know enough about your visitors?

There are literally thousands of affiliate programs out there. While some affiliate marketing hubs are experimenting with context-sensitive serving of affiliate banners and banner rotation on affiliate sites, YOU will be the one to decide what kind of products and services you want to offer your visitors. This seems like a minor detail, but it is a major factor in your success.

If you haven’t already, take a look at the stats for your web site over the past month or so. Where do your visitors come from? Have you paid for Google, Yahoo or other search engine traffic? What are the keywords that people used to get to you? More complex and specific search terms tend to result in more immediate conversions, while broader search terms may result in sales later. If people get to your site using what you believe to be broad search terms, you need to be sure that the cookie life (the amount of time that passes between someone from your site visiting the affiliate merchant’s site and the sale) is long.

Do you have textlinks or other advertising on other sites? Do you know the demographics of the visitors from those sites? Have you spoken to the webmaster, owner or manager of the sites on which you advertise and asked him or her about their visitors? Do you know the websites? Have you visited the sites that advertise on the same sites as you? When you investigate all of these things a profile of the visitors to your site should begin to emerge.

Which search engine brings you the most traffic? If it’s Google, the user is slightly more apt to be male, and in the middle (of MSN, Yahoo and Google) as far as propensity toward buying something (42% more likely than the average user). There’s a terrific article on marketingvox.com if you want to see more details. You can also find some interesting demographic info on the major search engines from AQABA.

You should pay particular attention to the domains of your visitors. If you have a lot of AOL traffic for example, you should consider that the profile of the average AOL user is 35 or older (77%) and married (62%).

If you have trouble with textual representation vs. graphical representation (as I do), there is a terrific product called VisitorVille that takes your web logs and animates them. The text is represented as pictures (buildings, people, buses for the search engines, etc). You can see it here. Disclaimer: I am a VisitorVille affiliate.

After all this you should be able to sit down and come up with the profile of a typical visitor. This profile should hopefully include estimates of age, country of origin, education and income.

Try to think like your visitors. Try to anticipate their interests and the products and services they might want to purchase. Affiliate programs raise the bar from PPC — your payment comes at the end of the Internet marketing process (the Action) rather than at the beginning (Impression or Click) like Google Adsense or Doubleclick. You need to apply more brainpower to the process, and you’ll make more money if you do it right.

2. Is your site perfect?

You’re asking someone to buy something from your site. If the pages have sloppy html code, broken links or instability from a bad Cascading Stylesheet, it makes you look cheesy. We’ve all been uncomfortable buying something off a cheesy website. You don’t want to be that website.

Let’s start with the html code. Are you sure there are no errors in it? Have you used an html checker like the one at W3C? I find mistakes in my code all the time. Unless you check your code on several browsers in several resolutions you might not catch an error. The validator will. If you use Cascading Stylesheets you should also visit the CSS Checker.

Speaking of validators, you should check your links often. W3.org also has a link validator.

The site should also be optimized for search engines, be easy to understand and navigate, and should have a sitemap for people (and spiders) to find their way around. You should have had ten of your closest friends take a look at the site and give you their feedback, and you should always listen to unsolicited comments from users with an open mind and place value on them. If someone takes the time from their busy day to send you an email about your site, they feel strongly about it and you should take a close look at what they’re talking about.

Understand that if your Incoming Visitors campaign is not working right, you’re wasting your time with your Sales or Action program.

3. Do you know what kind of ads you’re going to use, and where the ads are going to go?

People have been ignoring banners for ten years. That’s why they shake and make sounds (someday I’ll tell you about the screaming match I had with a creative director the day we put out the first talking banner ad) to try to get your attention. Where you put it on the page is going to make a huge difference. Briefly — banners need to go somewhere the eye naturally rests (next to the masthead, near the navigation, at the bottom of the page).

Placement of any ads is a huge part of getting them noticed or clicked.

A lot of people (including me) believe that text ads should be placed at natural breaks and be close to the same in text size and color as the text. You need to surf around and look at where people place their ads, and you need to figure out where you think they would work on your site.

If you plan to create pages for some of the products you endorse (a great idea), you need to figure out how prominently you want to place the advertising. Most people won’t buy something if they believe you’re shilling for a particular company. They will buy from someone they believe honestly endorses the product or service. You need to figure out how to keep the distinction.

4. What’s your hunch on the right kind of offers for your site?

I ask this question a lot. Now that you have a better idea of the demographics of your visitors, try to decide on which action you think they would be more apt to take — pay-per-lead, pay-per-sale or even pay-per-click (hard to come by) on your site.

If you have a general interest website that gives away free stuff it’s probably going to be difficult to sell people products from that website. It might be smarter to try to get them to sign up for a free products newsletter from one of the affiliate programs, or you may want to look for offers that target the age group of your site rather than offers that target a specific interest. You might be looking for smaller-ticket sales or only leads. Leads get the user to the end of the advertising process chain, but require less of a commitment.

Try to come up with the four, five, six or fifty ways to slice this all up, by type of action, by type of sale or lead, or any other way you can come up with. Then you can go out and find the different offers that might appeal to your visitors. When it comes time to place the ads, try to put different ads in similar spaces on the same pages, and see how they do.

Get your questions answered and you’re ready to take the plunge into affiliate marketing.

6 Eye Grabbing Subject Lines

Your subject lines plays a crucial role in any email campaign ads whether you're using safelists, autoresponders, ezine solo ads or any opt-in list where email is involved. Your subject line will make or break your return on your investment so make sure you get their attention first.

Here are six headlines that have worked for me in the past which I'm sure will work for you too.  The technology will always change but peoples desire to succeed and curiousity will not.

1. Promote Your URL Here - Free!

For whatever reasons, I've had so much success using this subject line when promoting free classified sites, safelists, and those viral ad boards.

2. Hi, My name is Paul

This works simply because it raises prospects curiosity. I'm always a sucker for this subject line. Who's this Paul anyway? I've had succeess with this using ezine solo ads.

3. I need your help, please?

There's something about being a human, always wanting to help another human being, It's hard to explain, it just works.

4. Bob, I haven't received your shipping address yet.

What! my shipping address? why do you need my shipping address for. This particular subject line really piqued my interest. If you are sending post cards to your members or prospects, this will improve your sales especially if you personalize it.

5. How my site got listed #1 on Google, for free!

This one made several sales from Trafficswarm traffic exchange program when I was promoting an affiliate program about search engine e-book. Even made more sales with ezine solo ads using the same subject line.

6. Paul, Please accept my sincerest apology.

When I saw this subject line from an email, my first reaction was, "who/why/what are you sorry about?...huh?" Exactly it got my attention and my curiosity.  The sender was apologizing for not sending that email sooner which was about a new traffic exchange program. Good grief.

In conclusion, make your subject line so compelling that it's almost irresistible for your prospects not to open the email message.  If you can hypnotize your readers with cleaver subject lines, you are half way to making a sale. Also when  people can recognize where that email message came from, that will help getting your email message open as well. Don't use fake names, use your real name instead.

Of course, I am not recommending that you use any of these headlines if they are not true in relation to the content of the e-mail message. If you rely on deception in e-mail marketing, all you will do  istarnish your reputation
and your credibility.



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Affiliate Marketing in a Nutshell

What exactly is affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is the single fastest growth industry on the Internet. It’s also true that affiliate marketing is one of the fastest and most creative ways to make money and have a career on the Internet.

Simply put, affiliate marketing is selling products on a commission basis. You own a business that advertises and sells products for other companies. You may have a product of your own to begin with or not. The things that a successful affiliate marketer must have are:

1. Your website is the jumping off point of all your marketing efforts. So the first step in any successful affiliate marketing business is building a good, credible and professional looking website. You must build a user-friendly website, which will attract your prospects and motivate them to click on the links to the products and services you are promoting and make a purchase. There are companies whose business is building websites that you can hire to build one for you.

2. You must find products to sell, you must be able to determine whether there is a demand for those products and if people will actually buy them.  You may either have your own original product or products that are made by others. Which ever way you go, you must believe in the products.

3. It will be necessary for you to become an adept advertiser and be able to tell whether the advertising you are paying for is producing more income for you than the advertising is costing you.

4. It is necessary that you have good mathematical skills. You will need to be able to track your sales and determine profit, as well as, see to it that your suppliers are paid in full and on time.

5. You need the full and unwavering support of your family so that you can devote the time and energy necessary to launch your affiliate marketing business.


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6 Eye Grabbing Subject Lines

Your subject lines plays a crucial role in any email campaign ads whether you're using safelists, autoresponders, ezine solo ads or any opt-in list where email is involved. Your subject line will make or break your return on your investment so make sure you get their attention first.

Here are six headlines that have worked for me in the past which I'm sure will work for you too.  The technology will always change but peoples desire to succeed and curiousity will not.

1. Promote Your URL Here - Free!

For whatever reasons, I've had so much success using this subject line when promoting free classified sites, safelists, and those viral ad boards.

2. Hi, My name is Paul

This works simply because it raises prospects curiosity. I'm always a sucker for this subject line. Who's this Paul anyway? I've had succeess with this using ezine solo ads.

3. I need your help, please?

There's something about being a human, always wanting to help another human being, It's hard to explain, it just works.

4. Bob, I haven't received your shipping address yet.

What! my shipping address? why do you need my shipping address for. This particular subject line really piqued my interest. If you are sending post cards to your members or prospects, this will improve your sales especially if you personalize it.

5. How my site got listed #1 on Google, for free!

This one made several sales from Trafficswarm traffic exchange program when I was promoting an affiliate program about search engine e-book. Even made more sales with ezine solo ads using the same subject line.

6. Paul, Please accept my sincerest apology.

When I saw this subject line from an email, my first reaction was, "who/why/what are you sorry about?...huh?" Exactly it got my attention and my curiosity.  The sender was apologizing for not sending that email sooner which was about a new traffic exchange program. Good grief.

In conclusion, make your subject line so compelling that it's almost irresistible for your prospects not to open the email message.  If you can hypnotize your readers with cleaver subject lines, you are half way to making a sale. Also when  people can recognize where that email message came from, that will help getting your email message open as well. Don't use fake names, use your real name instead.

Of course, I am not recommending that you use any of these headlines if they are not true in relation to the content of the e-mail message. If you rely on deception in e-mail marketing, all you will do is tarnish your reputation
and your credibility.

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Are Affiliates in Demand?

Is there a demand for affiliate marketers today? Yes, there is a huge demand. One of the challenges faced in the affiliate marketing industry is that it sometimes sounds too good to be true: advertising that's guaranteed to work or it's free! Newcomers wonder if it's possible, and skeptics claim that the cost effective prices of affiliate marketing lower the bar for online advertising. But there is a good reason that affiliate marketing has experienced steady growth throughout the ups and downs of online advertising—it works. And affiliate marketing has evolved to become a reliable source of sales for a wide range of marketers.

Affiliate marketing has evolved from the early years when some touted it as the future of online advertising, and others claimed it was the downfall of the medium. It's now a sophisticated channel that generates anywhere from five to 25% of online sales for many of the world's biggest brands.

Almost all major multi-channel marketers have an affiliate program of some kind. The important thing to remember is that affiliate programs now come in all shapes and sizes. The concept of a wide-open affiliate program with an unlimited and uncontrolled number of affiliates is a thing of the past. Nearly all marketers agree that affiliates add value to an online marketing effort, but the program must be tailored to meet the marketer's objectives.

Affiliate marketing did not bring an end to other, higher priced forms of online media advertising.  The success of the affiliate marketing in delivering sales cost effectively by way of a pay-for-performance model paved the way for other forms of performance-based advertising, such as CPA-based search and portal advertising, to create acceptance among direct marketers. Affiliate marketing has evolved, with affiliates and marketers becoming more sophisticated and programs more integrated with other forms of online marketing.



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Writing Emails with A Purpose

How many times have you seen it? You open your inbox just to see another long, seemingly endless list of emails. You cautiously open each one, giving “some” of them 10-20 seconds of a quick scan. If something captures your interest, you read on. If not, it’s a quick click (delete key) and you move on. If this is your pattern, you are not alone. This scenario is repeated by thousands, if not millions of internet users each and every day.

Knowing this pattern makes the job of internet marketers even more difficult.  Our ability to cultivate and retain any significant numbers in a downline is directly determined by our ability to maximize these precious few seconds of reading time. Have you got what it takes to write an email and get the replies flying in? Most of us send out emails almost every day.  We do it all too often with out carefully thinking about it.  As a result these emails are often written and sent out less than perfect and fail to produce the desired result.

The purpose of sending out mass email is usually intended to attract visitors to view a website rather than make a sale, therefore it is important to take your time and define your aim precisely before writing the email. Here are a few hints to help you along the way:

Keep it simple and brief.

Avoid using long or technical words as some people may not understand them.

Do not use three words where one will suffice.

If the email is long and full of waffle boredom will set in and without a doubt it is likely to be deleted before reaching the end of it.

The opening paragraph is vital.

If it does not click with the reader right away you have wasted your time sending it.

It's true that even the best writers spend time editing and rewriting their articles and emails.

Start with an eye catching headline. It might be a question or statement. You must grab their attention right away.

Make sure to look at it from your readers point of view, is it forceful enough or exciting to make you want to read on and discover the end result?

Headlines hook prospects and lead them to the next line. There you start to build their interest to ensure they read the next sentence... and each subsequent one.

You might even find it is worth offering a free gift or a monthly newsletter that would help their business. There are plenty of free e-books on the web that you can give away.
If the intention of your email is to make a sale then offer a guarantee or a full refund. This should dispel any fears they may have.

A cheeky way to test out your email is to send it to a couple of friends who are interested in business, add a message at the end of it and ask them to email you.  If you don't receive a reply, take it as a sign that perhaps your email was discarded before they made it far enough down the message, to get your message. When this happens it is a good idea to edit your email and remove any unneeded text before sending back out to your master list.

The exact techniques and methods you use will vary depending on personal preferences, product differences, market circumstances, etc.  However, the basic approach is to make sure you give it some advance preparation and work, before sending them out. You will be pleasantly amazed at the difference it makes.




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The Age-Old Question Do You Need a Website?

The most important and indispensable thing to assure your success in affiliate marketing is your own website. The first step in any successful affiliate marketing business is building a good, credible and professional looking website. Your website is the jump off point of all your marketing efforts. Therefore, you must first build a user-friendly website, which will attract your prospects and motivate them to click on the links to the products and services you are promoting and make a purchase.  You must first focus your efforts in building a website that will cater to what your prospects need.

Above all else, make your website full of original, relevant and useful content. The most important thing you should consider is that almost all web users go online to look for information, not necessarily to go and buy something. People will love articles that are appealing and helpful. Keep in mind that, in the internet, content is still king and good quality content will not only build your credibility, it can also help you achieve a higher search engine ranking. By posting relevant and useful articles, you establish yourself as a credible expert in the field, making you a more dependable endorser of the product or service you promote. Establishing a good name is a good step in building up a dedicated consumer base. Dedicated customer bases are the life blood of affiliate marketers.

You must use every possible means on your website to motivate prospects not only to visit your site but also to click and proceed to the websites of the products and services you are promoting.

When you are creating your website, the possibilities are endless and are limited only by your imagination, originality, resourcefulness and resolve. You can always explore other ideas and adapt other strategies, which you think might help you become a high rolling affiliate marketer but not until you have a great website.


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5 Essential Qualities You Need for Explosive Success in Affiliate Marketing

In general, there are two types of people. Those who like to take charge, who want to lead and command, and who are willing to take responsibility for their actions. Then, there are those who are a little more timid, and a lot more reluctant to blaze their own path; they're happy following the crowd.

The idea of being mere passengers on a ship meant to sail to the farthest points does not appeal to people who like to put their destiny into their own hands. Such are the kinds of people who are destined to excel in a home based business such as Affiliate Marketing. Even if they don't already possess the five "must have" traits to become hugely successful as affiliates, they're predisposed to being able to acquire these traits more easily than the average Joe.

They have the desire to maneuver the ship themselves, of being able to be the ones to take it anywhere they want to. Being aboard a ship on its way to a particularly great destination is something each and every one of them dreams of, and the knowledge that they have the power to steer it themselves is what makes them actually want to do it.

Maybe this is the reason why more and more people are turning to one of the most popular businesses around, affiliate marketing. It's because in this business, there are no bosses cracking their whip to order the employees around.

There are no deadlines to meet and no piles of work to be finished by day's end. In order to succeed in this fantasy-like perfect business, you need only be armed with the necessary tools.

  Just what are the things needed to be able to succeed
  in affiliate marketing?

  What kind of drive must you have within yourself to be
  able to do well in this industry?

There is a lot of competition in affiliate marketing, and to be able to rise above the norm and get propelled forward, you have to be equipped with just the 'right stuff'.

There are five essential things you can't do without if you want to achieve glory in this business. Let's have a look at each of them in detail.

          A DESIRE TO LEARN

The very first quality you must possess is the desire to learn, along with the willingness to be trained.

Treading through unfamiliar territory is scary stuff, if you're lacking in what I like to simply call the proper equipment. This is a combination of the right mindset, the appropriate attitude, mixed with a pinch of a strong work ethic.

As a beginner, you have to be willing to keep your eyes and ears open, using the experience of others to learn the tricks of the trade as you go along.

One of the best ways to do this is by frequenting Forums that specialize in Affiliate Marketing, reading others members' posts and asking questions yourself. Devour everything that pertains to getting ahead in this business; the equivalent of an MBA degree is available to you in these Forums - and, at just the right price. There's no substitute for this kind of hands-on-learning.

          INVEST TIME AND EFFORT

The second quality one must possess is the willingness to invest time and effort in growing your business, even if direct results don't seem readily apparent. Although weeks may pass by without good news, it's important for anyone who has his/her foot in the business to hold on and wait.

Resist throwing in the towel prematurely. This is the core quality that will help keep you on course despite any discouraging setbacks you may run into.

          UNWAVERING DETERMINATION

The third quality you must possess is an unblinking determination. If you want to conquer the affiliate marketing world, you must have the ability to push yourself ahead. The ability to motivate yourself into scaling greater and greater heights will determine the kind of future you create.

Never knowing when to quit is an attribute that each and every beginning Affiliate Marketer needs to have in bunches. In fact, in any endeavor, this persistence that screams to the world "No, I won't budge!" is what distinguishes the winners from the also-rans.

          YOU MUST BE DISCIPLINED

The fourth quality you must have is self-discipline. If you teach yourself to work everyday with all the energy your heart can muster, then you're closer to achieving whatever goals your mind can conceive.

Once you start to slack off, the whole house of cards you're building begins to shake just before it crumbles. There's no room for 'goofing off' when you're running a home based business.

          THE QUALITY OF OPTIMISM

The fifth and last quality you must possess is optimism. Negative attitudes, whether your own or someone else's, should never discourage an affiliate marketer from pursuing his/herdreams in order to make life better for himself, and for everyone else who matters to him/her.

Your attitude toward the business should always be proactive, because you have to realize that you're the captain of your own ship and the master of your destiny.

The ingredients that lead to success in a business such as affiliate marketing are diverse and manifold, but the most important thing anyone needs to make it big lies in yourself alone.

It's that very desire which burns in your heart that's the fuel which will keep the engine going.

Affiliate marketing is all about putting your fate into your own hands. The right attitude is the key to being able  to steer your ship into that part of the ocean where serenity and smooth sailing can be found at last.

5 Must Have Questions In A Sales Letter

People have included all kinds of sales pitch in their sales letter but sometimes still wouldn’t achieve the results they want. The importance of a sales letter is likened to having a shop to sell cars. If the looks of your shop isn’t delivering a good impression, no one will be going to buy your cars.

Thus, you must make sure that your sales letter have answers to the most basic questions, and instill interest in your visitors towards your product just with these five specific questions:

1. What’s in it for me?
The number one rule of salesmanship – people only buy for one reason, which is for getting the results from a product, what they will receive out of it. To achieve this, you must be quick in catching their attention since the beginning with your headline. Create a very convincing headline and tell your visitors what they will get in one shot through your headline.

2. How will my life be better?
This is where you have to understand the emotional appeals that attract your prospects like moths to a flame. Do they want to become richer, smarter, better looking, thinner or more popular? Do they want to save time, money or effort?

Study your niche market until you know what emotional buttons to push and you’ll see a huge increase in your sales instantly. Use their desires to attract themselves, that’s where you will get them nodding their heads and continue reading right until the end.

3. Why should I trust you?
People are skeptical when it requires them to take out their wallets in order to buy a certain product. You need to clear their doubts by providing positive testimonials from your previous customers and emphasize the benefits of your product.

If you don’t have testimonials for your product, search for forums related to your niche and offer to give a complimentary copy in exchange for a testimonial – usually you will get a hot response in no time.

4. What will happen if I say no?
You are not going to let them say no, that’s it. Remind them about the problems that they are having, the frustrations, how much money will they lose, or how sad their lives are currently – and tell them how they can change all of them in one shot, just by a small investment in your product.


5. Will I be stuck with your product?
This is where you seal the deal. Tell them that you provide a 100% satisfaction guarantee, they must get it now. The most important thing is to make them buy, and the rest depends on their choices. 70% of the people who purchase a product will not refund it unless they have seen something similar before or they’ve planned to only “borrow” it since the beginning.

When you have all these points to answer your prospects’ questions in your sales letter, not only will you gain an unfair advantage over your competition but also let your prospect know that you care about their problems and you have the solution that they need.


If you want simple effective digital marketing e-courses that help you build authority, increase your targeted traffic and build a social media following a rock-star would envy you need to click here now

Basic Tools for Affiliate Marketing

In this article we will take a look at some of the basic tools you will need to be successful with affiliate marketing. Just because you are not creating your own products you are still running a business and need to treat it as such.

Blog or Website

As a business owner you need to have a home base to run your affiliate business from. This should be a blog or website. It is very easy and affordable to set up a wordpress site for your business. While there are free options it is recommended to buy a domain name, your blog address, and use a hosting company, this is where your site runs from. The total cost for these two things is around $20 and the monthly fee for hosting is less than $10.

Autoresponder Service

As an affiliate marketer you do not want to waste your time sending people to the vendors offer. Instead the smarter practice is to direct them to the affiliate offer on your own blog. On your blog you will have an opt in form to capture the email addresses of your visitors. This provides you with the opportunity to mail your list for days, weeks and years to come.

Now, you may ask why this is important? Most affiliate marketers will tell you that most prospective buyers do not always make a purchase the first time they click on your affiliate link.

If you send these buyers directly to the vendors site and they don't purchase, you have lost the sale. How can you connect with them again and find out why they didn't purchase - you can't.

On the other hand if you send them to your blog and they opt-in to your list you have their contact information. You can easily send out emails to them and provide them with more information or ask why they didn't purchase.

You are collecting and building your own data base of leads for all your affiliate marketing efforts. While a person may not like one product they may happily purchase others.

Using an autoresponder services allows you to mass mail people at one time. Plus you can schedule emails to go out while you are at work or out shopping.

Two of the most popular autoresponder services are Aweber and GetResponse, both have introductory trials for the first month.

While there are other tools that can help your affiliate business these are the basic ones that you should start with. Then as you become an experienced affiliate you may want to use tools that create landing pages and track who clicks on your links and how often.

Setting Yourself Up as an Affiliate Marketer

Many people approach affiliate marketing with the wrong viewpoint. Unfortunately they think that they can promote all kinds of products and easily make thousands of dollars per month. While top affiliate marketers do actually do this, it has taken them time and effort to achieve that top ranking status.

The minute you start promoting products you are gaining a reputation for yourself. If people purchase a product from you that they love, all is well. What happens if you recommend products that don't work, or are never delivered? Well, first the person you recommended this product to is not going to be happy. Secondly they will not trust your future recommendations, they will simply not purchase from your links anymore.

One of the first things you want to do is take the time to think about what type of products you want to promote as an affiliate. Do you have an interest in something particular? You may be a mountain bike enthusiast or a gardener.

Promoting products that you are knowledgeable about will benefit you in the long run. Mainly because you are most likely using these products yourself and can add your likes and dislikes about the item. As well you will enjoy writing blog posts and reviews on this topic and this will make your posts lively and engaging to read.

A good way to attract people to you is for you to set up your own blog. This way you have a platform or launch pad for your affiliate marketing career. If you do decide to promote products around one particular niche this is a great way to start.

As you post to your blog on a regular basis you simply start talking about products and items that are helpful. This way you are not flat out saying 'hey buy this' or 'buy that' all the time. You are just adding suggestions to your post in a natural way. Quite often people won't even realize that you are trying to sell them a product. Which, of course, is the best way to do this type of marketing.

If you are just starting out with affiliate marketing try to select a certain topic or niche first. Then fill your blog with interesting and helpful tips on this topic interspersed with recommendations. Before you know it you will be making a regular income as an affiliate.

The Benefits of Being an Affiliate Marketer

Just about the biggest benefit to being an affiliate marketer is that you don't have to worry about creating any products and managing them. Instead you can focus on finding the best products to promote that will net you a good commission.

But you do still have a job to do as an affiliate marketer. First you want to ensure that you are only promoting good products to your list. If you begin to promote every product under the sun, good and bad. Your list will learn to not trust your judgement.

So it is vital that you take the time to research good products to recommend. If necessary ask the vendor for a review copy of the product, or purchase it yourself if you can.

The attraction of being an affiliate is the simplicity of the process. As we mentioned you don't have to be the one creating products all the time. Creating your own products can be costly and time consuming. It is often easier to just send traffic to an offer and reap the rewards.

As an affiliate your job is to direct traffic to a vendor's offer. If you can do this successfully you can build a great relationship with the vendor. They will appreciate your efforts and may even reward you with a higher commission rate. They will be happy to provide you with copies of their new products for review, as they know you will bring in many sales for them.

Gaining a good relationship with vendors is important as they will often recommend you as an affiliate to other vendors. In return this can help increase your income substantially.

Don't forget that you also want to develop a good relationship with your customers. You have to agree that it is much easier to earn an monthly income if you know that you have lots of repeat buyers on your list. It means you actively have to go out and find fewer customers.

This relationship with your customers is built upon trust and respect. This is accomplished by only recommending products that you have researched in depth. Or products that you personally use yourself.

While you may be tempted to promote higher priced items, keep a look out for special offers and deals that benefit the people on your list. After all they are your customers and are responsible for you making money from affiliate marketing each month.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

You may have heard the term affiliate marketing and have been told that it is a great way to make money from your computer. You might still be feeling a little confused about how it works, why it works and how to get started.

Affiliate marketing refers to a marketing method where you are basically becoming an online sales person. A vendor will own or create a product that they wish to sell. Of course, it is much easier to sell when you are surrounded by sales people. So the vendor sets up something called an affiliate program. When affiliates join this program they are promising to advertise certain products in return for a commission.

Payment Methods

Commissions are normally percentage based and are paid in cash. They can also be paid as free products or you may be given coupons, discounts or even advertising space on a popular website.

There are other payment methods that you need to be aware of. The first one is referred to as 'pay per sale' which gives the affiliate a reward every time a product is sold. 

This is normally the percentage payment method.  To earn money with this method the affiliate needs to use a special link (affiliate link) and posts this links in blog post, articles, on social sites and even on their own advertisements.

The second type of method is known as 'pay per lead' this is where the affiliate gets paid each time they refer a lead to a company. Credit card companies use this type of program a lot. They recruit affiliates to advertise for them and each time a person fills out a form and becomes a lead the affiliate gets paid. Products that offer trials will also use this method.

The third type is called 'pay per click' and affiliates are given a commission for each time one of their links is clicked upon.

Benefits to Vendor and Affiliate

Affiliate marketing really does benefit both the vendor and the affiliate. Many times a person decides to promote a particular product because they have expertise with it. You may decide to promote woodworking because it is a hobby you enjoy. So, obviously, you have lots of experience to draw upon when it comes to writing or blogging about this topic. In turn this means that visitors to your site will connect with you, recognize your authority and be more willing to purchase items that you recommend. The vendor is more likely to see lots of sales coming through your affiliate links - a good thing.

For the affiliate the benefits include being recognized as an authority in their niche. It also means seeing regular income  and being rewarded from the vendor with free products and possibly higher commission rates. A good vendor will appreciate their top affiliates and have no issues in rewarding them.

Good affiliates can easily help a vendor improve their reputation and increase their sales. Good vendors will appreciate their top sellers and be happy to have products that are selling well. Affiliate marketing really is a win-win situation for both sides.

How to Make Money with Affiliate Links

The concept of affiliate marketing is very easy, you put up an affiliate link for people and when they purchase through it, you get paid. As with anything, there is a right and a wrong way to do this.

What is an affiliate link?

When you sign up or register for an affiliate program you are given a link. This link will track your sales, it is basically the way you will get paid. As people click through your link and make a purchase the sale gets credited to your account. When commissions are paid out you receive funds via a check or into your PayPal account.

Masking Your Link

An affiliate link will look something like this:

http://productname/?id=34598

The id portion is the part that identifies you as the affiliate. Now if you use this link as is you are leaving your link open for changes. Unfortunately there are people who will take your link and add theirs to it. They get credited for the sale and you lose out.

There are several ways around this. You can mask or hide your affiliate link by using software. A popular one is Pretty Link which actually works on your wordpress blog. Other link shortener's include bitly, ow.ly and even Google has its own link shortener.

The benefit of this is that your link is effectively hidden and ensures that you will get credited for any sales. Now please be aware that some affiliate programs do not track any links that are shortened. So look into this before doing so.

Hyperlinks

Using a hyperlink is another way to mask your link to a certain extent. You have no doubt seen hyperlinks as words or a string of text that is clickable. When you click on that link you are taken to an affiliate offer.

Here's how to do this:

If you are doing this in Microsoft Word or inside your wordpress blog it is very easy to hyperlink text.

1. Copy your affiliate link.

2. Highlight the words in your post that you want to link to.

3. Click on the icon at the top of your dashboard that looks like a link, it often has a picture of a globe with it.

4. A pop up box will appear asking you for the URL to link to.

5. Paste in your affiliate link.

6. You have just created a hyperlink.

This is often the best way to share your affiliate links and you can usually add hyperlinks in your emails as well. If you post images on your blog don't forget to add your affiliate link to those as well.

This will give you more exposure and more possibilities for making money with your affiliate links. Enjoy! 

6 Eye Grabbing Subject Lines

Your subject lines plays a crucial role in any email campaign ads whether you're using safelists, autoresponders, ezine solo ads or any opt-in list where email is involved. Your subject line will make or break your return on your investment so make sure you get their attention first.

Here are six headlines that have worked for me in the past which I'm sure will work for you too.  The technology will always change but peoples desire to succeed and curiousity will not.

1. Promote Your URL Here - Free!

For whatever reasons, I've had so much success using this subject line when promoting free classified sites, safelists, and those viral ad boards.

2. Hi, My name is Paul

This works simply because it raises prospects curiosity. I'm always a sucker for this subject line. Who's this Paul anyway? I've had succeess with this using ezine solo ads.

3. I need your help, please?

There's something about being a human, always wanting to help another human being, It's hard to explain, it just works.

4. Bob, I haven't received your shipping address yet.

What! my shipping address? why do you need my shipping address for. This particular subject line really piqued my interest. If you are sending post cards to your members or prospects, this will improve your sales especially if you personalize it.

5. How my site got listed #1 on Google, for free!

This one made several sales from Trafficswarm traffic exchange program when I was promoting an affiliate program about search engine e-book. Even made more sales with ezine solo ads using the same subject line.

6. Paul, Please accept my sincerest apology.

When I saw this subject line from an email, my first reaction was, "who/why/what are you sorry about?...huh?" Exactly it got my attention and my curiosity.  The sender was apologizing for not sending that email sooner which was about a new traffic exchange program. Good grief.

In conclusion, make your subject line so compelling that it's almost irresistible for your prospects not to open the email message.  If you can hypnotize your readers with cleaver subject lines, you are half way to making a sale. Also when  people can recognize where that email message came from, that will help getting your email message open as well. Don't use fake names, use your real name instead.

Of course, I am not recommending that you use any of these headlines if they are not true in relation to the content of the e-mail message. If you rely on deception in e-mail marketing, all you will do is tarnish your reputation
and your credibility.

Writing Emails with A Purpose

How many times have you seen it? You open your inbox just to see another long, seemingly endless list of emails. You cautiously open each one, giving “some” of them 10-20 seconds of a quick scan. If something captures your interest, you read on. If not, it’s a quick click (delete key) and you move on. If this is your pattern, you are not alone. This scenario is repeated by thousands, if not millions of internet users each and every day.

Knowing this pattern makes the job of internet marketers even more difficult.  Our ability to cultivate and retain any significant numbers in a downline is directly determined by our ability to maximize these precious few seconds of reading time. Have you got what it takes to write an email and get the replies flying in? Most of us send out emails almost every day.  We do it all too often with out carefully thinking about it.  As a result these emails are often written and sent out less than perfect and fail to produce the desired result.

The purpose of sending out mass email is usually intended to attract visitors to view a website rather than make a sale, therefore it is important to take your time and define your aim precisely before writing the email. Here are a few hints to help you along the way:

Keep it simple and brief.

Avoid using long or technical words as some people may not understand them.

Do not use three words where one will suffice.

If the email is long and full of waffle boredom will set in and without a doubt it is likely to be deleted before reaching the end of it.

The opening paragraph is vital.

If it does not click with the reader right away you have wasted your time sending it.

It's true that even the best writers spend time editing and rewriting their articles and emails.

Start with an eye catching headline. It might be a question or statement. You must grab their attention right away.

Make sure to look at it from your readers point of view, is it forceful enough or exciting to make you want to read on and discover the end result?

Headlines hook prospects and lead them to the next line. There you start to build their interest to ensure they read the next sentence... and each subsequent one.

You might even find it is worth offering a free gift or a monthly newsletter that would help their business. There are plenty of free e-books on the web that you can give away.
If the intention of your email is to make a sale then offer a guarantee or a full refund. This should dispel any fears they may have.

A cheeky way to test out your email is to send it to a couple of friends who are interested in business, add a message at the end of it and ask them to email you.  If you don't receive a reply, take it as a sign that perhaps your email was discarded before they made it far enough down the message, to get your message. When this happens it is a good idea to edit your email and remove any unneeded text before sending back out to your master list.

The exact techniques and methods you use will vary depending on personal preferences, product differences, market circumstances, etc.  However, the basic approach is to make sure you give it some advance preparation and work, before sending them out. You will be pleasantly amazed at the difference it makes.

To Make Money Online, You Must Commit!

Are you completely overwhelmed by all of the money making websites and emails that you are bombarded with every day?

I know that I am.

Did you know that this is why most people will never succeed with an online business?

This is what I call information overload!

Internet Marketers count on this attribute to make their fortunes.  They know that you are looking.  They know that you are impressionable and they know that if their sales letter is strong enough then you are hooked.  Then what happens to you?

You just found the perfect product or idea, one that is guaranteed to give you the financial freedom and the wealth you are so desperately seeking.  You read through the sales page, find your excitement building, order the product or just give your email address and deep down you know that this is “the one”.

You receive the product or e-book, and then what?  This is where it ends for most people.
Before you even finish reviewing the product, provided that you even start, you move on to your next great idea.  This last “great idea” just sits on your desktop, completely forgotten, collecting virtual dust.

Your days of moving on Must Stop Now!

There are many legitimate ways to make money online and a whole lot of hype revolving around them.  Now is the time to make a decision.  You can not succeed without a plan.
Find a product--Evaluate it--Research it--Do it--Stick with it!

Do most people fail because of lack of knowledge?  Lack of ideas?  Lack of resources?
No!  Most people fail because of lack of commitment.

Everybody wants to make money online.  Everybody wants to fire their boss.  Everybody wants to work from home.  Everybody does not have what it takes.  Commitment.

You are told that you can make a fortune by signing up with such and such program.  Pay the small fee, do a few simple steps and watch the money pour in.  Bam you’re rich.

There is no such thing!

Whatever you do, whatever you join is going to take hard work, time, and commitment.
The reward, however, can be great.  You can work from home, you can make more money online than in any conventional job and you can become financial free.

It is time to join among the ranks of the successful Internet marketers.  The fact that you are reading this article shows me that you have what it takes.  Chances are that you already have an idea about what you would like to do.  Research this idea, build upon and most importantly, do it!

When you are presented with other ideas, think about how they can fit in with your current project.  If they don’t, discard them.  If they do, then pick out the useful parts and utilize them, ignore the rest

This article is not to sell you on any program.  I am not trying to pitch the next big thing.  I am trying to have you reach deep inside of yourself and to have you make a decision on what to do.  Stop making everyone else rich on your uncertainty.  Make a commitment and create your own path to financial freedom.

Make a plan, stay focused, commit and most importantly--never ever give up!

"7 Ways To Convert Your Traffic Into Cash"

If you have a website, you can profit from even the tiniest number of visitors it receives simply by not wasting that traffic.

The KEY is in leveraging on each visitor and making sure you have a monetization strategy in place. Once you get this, you can make any website profitable with a little effort.

Here are 7 basic ways in which you can profit from your traffic today:

1. Sell a product/service

First you can sell a product or service to your visitors. This is the best way to cash in from your own product. Usually an e-book or software works the best – they can be downloaded right away without hassle and shipping charges.

2. Opt-In list

It is crucial you try to convert every visitor of yours to a subscriber of your mailing list. The most important asset that an Internet marketer has is his or her list of subscribers. They define whether you will go far in the online business venture.

With an opt-in list, there are tons of ways you can profit further into the future. You can build repeat customers and turn your list members into partners for your products. For an example of a good opt-in page, visit http://www.InstantMarketingSecrets.com

3. Viral marketing

You can provide a free product or bonus on your site to be downloaded by your visitors. Usually it’ll be an e-book where people can read from and learn useful information. In this bonus, you include give away rights and urge readers to give it away to anyone they want to. This way, you increase your own traffic, publicity and branding without needing to spend a cent.

4. 'Pay-per-click'

In this case, you get paid when your visitors click on ads you place on your site. There are many advertising programs that give you a percentage of the profits based on click through, including Google Adsense, Chitika, Yahoo Publisher Network and Kontera.

When people click on the ads shown from either of these advertising programs, you will earn money. And if your site receives good traffic, these programs alone can bring in huge paychecks to you.

5. Offer an advertising space

Targeted niche websites with high traffic can 'rent' a portion of space on their web page to advertisers. For example you can charge $300 per month in advertising fee if your web page is pulling more than 2000 visitors a day. I use this strategy at my Online Marketing Secrets blog at http://www.EwenChia.com

Other than that, you can also generate advertising revenue using exit pop-ups. By doing this, you won't clutter your website with too many ads and spoil the visitor's experience.

6. Affiliate marketing

If you don’t have your own products for sale yet, you can sell other people’s products instead and receive a commission on every sale. With affiliate marketing, you have an unlimited source of products to sell and you don’t need to go through any fulfillment issues after your sales.

One of the best affiliate marketing training resources can be found at http://www.SecretAffiliateWeapon.com where I provide continual education on affiliate marketing to members.

7. Pay-per-lead

Instead of earning money from click through, you are paid if your visitors subscribe into other people’s mailing list. Alternatively there are a lot of big companies like Coca-Cola who need surveys to be done, and by referring your visitors to complete surveys, you can also earn good profits from your website.


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