There are many different ways to make money on the Internet but this article today will focus on one particular idea, creating the best online business. There are as many ways to make money on the Internet as possible but there aren't a great deal of tried and true methods that can work for different people.
The method that we will focus on today is creating a website in a small but profitable niche. What all businesses come down to is finding and maintaining a strong and solid customer base that can constantly make them money. This is true no matter what type of business this is, Internet or retail. The only way that a company makes money is by attracting a solid base of customers and then building off of that. If you are able to build a solid base of highly responsive customers, you will have the opportunity to print your own money.
The first key in creating the best online business is to help you identify a niche that you can work in. this can be a bit tricky but you must make sure that it has a few characteristics. First, you will want the subject to be something that you are interested in hopefully. To truly create a website that people will want to keep visiting, you will have to have a great deal of information and different ways to keep them interested. You will probably need to be researching these topics quite a bit so a strong interest within the field will help you. Secondly, visit www.findhotniches.com. This website can help you generate ideas on what different areas are underserved. The author of this website, James Jackson, gives you niches plus keywords so that you know what to build your website around.
That was great information but here is the rest quickly. You want your website to be built around those keywords so that Internet searches bring up your website among the first page of search results. By doing this, you can start gaining traffic to your website. By constantly writing articles, you can develop a repeat client base which you can begin selling to. Once you are done developing the website, you need some sort of product to sell. This is not necessarily something that you have to come up with. If you go to Clickbank.com, you will find many different products that you can probably sell within your particular niche. You will get a share of the profits and the system is automated so that you just have to guide your clients over to that particular website and everything else is taken care of for you.
If you decide and look into developing a newsletter then you can promote a product at the end of the newsletter, which could bring you in a great deal of money. This is where you can make some good money. Hopefully this article on creating the best online business will help you out. If you want to succeed, try this idea but keep testing as it takes great time and effort to become a strong and profitable website.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
What businesses are succeeding on the Net?
This week we will address the most basic question any Internet business owner will have to answer at one point or another…”what should I sell?”.
After the settling down of the dot-com bubble, sanity checks
have brought realistic expectations to the fore. Initially,
a backlash was seen, forecasting the doom of the Internet.
Finally, merits have made the Internet gain its rightful
place. In breakthroughs that show the promise of e-commerce
wasn't all smoke and mirrors, four dot-coms recently
reported their first quarterly profits. The list of the
Internet’s publicly held moneymakers includes eBay Inc.,
Amazon.com Inc., Yahoo! Inc., Overture Services Inc.,
Expedia Inc., FindWhat.com Inc. and E-Trade Group Inc.
Several privately owned dot-coms, including search engines
Google and DealTime, say they have been making money, too.
In 2001, the last full year where numbers are available, the
Department of Commerce broke out e-commerce sales versus
total U.S retail sales which revealed the $3.16 trillion
retail industry saw a total of $37.7 billion in sales take
place online -- comprising 1.2 percent of the total. This
year e-commerce is tracking about the same. Through the
third quarter, the last full quarter where numbers are
available, total retail sales were $856 billion versus $11
billion in e-commerce, about a 1.3 percent share.
There were big gains made in Home and Garden, a 78 percent
increase; Furniture and Appliances, a 75 percent increase;
and Toy shopping online with a 61 percent increase in the
year 2002. There is no doubt that online shopping is
growing.
Nielsen//NetRatings found that more than 35.5 million U.S.
Internet users made shopping trips to virtual department
store sites during the week ending November 3, 2002 - that's
a 20 percent increase from the week ending October 20 and
roughly 14 million more than almost the same time period in
2001.
There is a growing tendency amongst Internet users to pay
for valuable content online. There are many reasons for
this. First, only a few websites operated by big companies
can afford to provide valuable content without being
compensated. The rest of us can't be so generous. And trying
to recapture our expenses by selling advertising on our
websites has failed to pay the bills. Online advertising and
click-through rates are on the decline.
Second, many people are now more than willing to pay to
receive quality services and products even if they were
offered for free earlier. Several paid content websites have
already proven this unmistakable trend. The discerning buyer
values his/her time as also the quality of information or
service and is willing to pay for it.
However, not all products can be sold on the Internet. Some
products may be better suited for online sales than others;
others simply will not work on this new commercial medium.
According to an Ernst and Young study, the most popular
online purchases are computer related products (40%), books
(20%), travel (16%), clothing (10%), recorded music (6%),
subscriptions (6%), gifts (5%) and investments (4%).
Businesses offering paid services have also prospered
enormously. The top three categories (Business
Content/Investment, Entertainment/Lifestyles and
Personals/Dating) accounted for 62% of all paid content
revenues in the first three quarters of 2002. The total
market for paid online content in the U.S. grew to $361.4
million for the quarter, a 14 percent gain over the previous
quarter and a 105.3 percent gain over Q3 2001. An
interesting statistic put forward by this report is that 85%
of money spent by U.S. Consumers for online content goes to
the top 50 sites in most of the categories.
The graph below (Top 3 Content Categories) is indicative of
this change.
In terms of “stickiness” of different categories, Business
sites - especially finance and investment rank the highest.
In other words, users are more likely to spend longer time
surfing through a business website compared to other
categories. This study was conducted by Nielsen//NetRatings.
The table below shows the most addictive web categories for
2002.
Category Time per person(hr:min:sec) Audience
Business – Finance and Investment 0:21:33 51,586
General News 0:15:47 64,822
Entertainment 0:14:32 45,922
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
According to the above figures a person spends about 22
minutes on a finance website on an average.
************************************************************
Should you be selling a product or a service?
************************************************************
The Internet is primarily used to communicate, entertain,
educate and research. It is thus no wonder that
nonperishable, information-intensive products - including
computers and software, books, travel, consumer electronics,
magazine subscriptions - are the most popular online
products at present. Content-rich sites, subscription-based
sites to advertiser-supported sites focusing on a wide range
of topics, have been sprouting all over the Internet.
Services such as hotel reservation, air travel and
investments have successfully translated themselves to the
Internet.
Unique services such as Online driving schools have been
prospering. Some states in the US have set up online payment
sites for Government services. Residents of a state can log
on to a common site to pay all bills and other expenses,
such as parking tickets to the local/County courts.
However, all kinds of services cannot be run entirely on the
Internet. The Internet is less effective when face-to-face
selling is needed to close a deal. The Internet can give
lots of preliminary information that's useful in setting the
scene for the closing. But the actual closing takes place
offline - i.e., not on the Internet.
Products can also be marketed and sold successfully on the
Internet. The kinds of products and services that sell best
on the Internet are those that take advantage of the
convenience of the Net. Remember that convenience is the
primary reason why consumers flock to the Internet in the
first place. People can shop any hour of the day at any
site. They can avoid crowded stores, irritating sales
clerks, and even avoid pickpockets.
Offbeat or unusual products and services often attract
online attention and sell strongly. You would generally not
try to sell items people can get at the corner store. Thus,
few toothbrushes are sold on the Net; the same thing with
daily food and beverage purchases. But special cheeses, rare
cigars, Turkish plates, long-aged wines, even diamonds, can
and do sell on the Net.
Most products sold by catalog and mail order also sell well
on the Net. However, people tend to buy only those products
that could be shipped at a reasonable price. Higher shipping
costs diminish the price competitiveness of online products
and turns-off a lot of potential buyers. In fact, high
shipping costs is the primary factor that discourages people
from buying online more than any other single reason. An
Ernst and Young report shows that 53 percent of online
shoppers are concerned with shipping costs that are too
high, compared to only 19 percent who are concerned with
credit cards being stolen.
As an online merchant, you have to work out the advantages
as well as disadvantages of selling either products or
services. However, in the recent past, online services have
known to flourish. Nevertheless, if you chose to sell
products you need to rethink your product offering if the
total costs of the product and the shipping are higher than
what is offered elsewhere.
Take some time to evaluate your products or services. There
is a growing market of potential customers on the Internet,
you just need to offer the products and services they are
looking for.
After the settling down of the dot-com bubble, sanity checks
have brought realistic expectations to the fore. Initially,
a backlash was seen, forecasting the doom of the Internet.
Finally, merits have made the Internet gain its rightful
place. In breakthroughs that show the promise of e-commerce
wasn't all smoke and mirrors, four dot-coms recently
reported their first quarterly profits. The list of the
Internet’s publicly held moneymakers includes eBay Inc.,
Amazon.com Inc., Yahoo! Inc., Overture Services Inc.,
Expedia Inc., FindWhat.com Inc. and E-Trade Group Inc.
Several privately owned dot-coms, including search engines
Google and DealTime, say they have been making money, too.
In 2001, the last full year where numbers are available, the
Department of Commerce broke out e-commerce sales versus
total U.S retail sales which revealed the $3.16 trillion
retail industry saw a total of $37.7 billion in sales take
place online -- comprising 1.2 percent of the total. This
year e-commerce is tracking about the same. Through the
third quarter, the last full quarter where numbers are
available, total retail sales were $856 billion versus $11
billion in e-commerce, about a 1.3 percent share.
There were big gains made in Home and Garden, a 78 percent
increase; Furniture and Appliances, a 75 percent increase;
and Toy shopping online with a 61 percent increase in the
year 2002. There is no doubt that online shopping is
growing.
Nielsen//NetRatings found that more than 35.5 million U.S.
Internet users made shopping trips to virtual department
store sites during the week ending November 3, 2002 - that's
a 20 percent increase from the week ending October 20 and
roughly 14 million more than almost the same time period in
2001.
There is a growing tendency amongst Internet users to pay
for valuable content online. There are many reasons for
this. First, only a few websites operated by big companies
can afford to provide valuable content without being
compensated. The rest of us can't be so generous. And trying
to recapture our expenses by selling advertising on our
websites has failed to pay the bills. Online advertising and
click-through rates are on the decline.
Second, many people are now more than willing to pay to
receive quality services and products even if they were
offered for free earlier. Several paid content websites have
already proven this unmistakable trend. The discerning buyer
values his/her time as also the quality of information or
service and is willing to pay for it.
However, not all products can be sold on the Internet. Some
products may be better suited for online sales than others;
others simply will not work on this new commercial medium.
According to an Ernst and Young study, the most popular
online purchases are computer related products (40%), books
(20%), travel (16%), clothing (10%), recorded music (6%),
subscriptions (6%), gifts (5%) and investments (4%).
Businesses offering paid services have also prospered
enormously. The top three categories (Business
Content/Investment, Entertainment/Lifestyles and
Personals/Dating) accounted for 62% of all paid content
revenues in the first three quarters of 2002. The total
market for paid online content in the U.S. grew to $361.4
million for the quarter, a 14 percent gain over the previous
quarter and a 105.3 percent gain over Q3 2001. An
interesting statistic put forward by this report is that 85%
of money spent by U.S. Consumers for online content goes to
the top 50 sites in most of the categories.
The graph below (Top 3 Content Categories) is indicative of
this change.
In terms of “stickiness” of different categories, Business
sites - especially finance and investment rank the highest.
In other words, users are more likely to spend longer time
surfing through a business website compared to other
categories. This study was conducted by Nielsen//NetRatings.
The table below shows the most addictive web categories for
2002.
Category Time per person(hr:min:sec) Audience
Business – Finance and Investment 0:21:33 51,586
General News 0:15:47 64,822
Entertainment 0:14:32 45,922
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
According to the above figures a person spends about 22
minutes on a finance website on an average.
************************************************************
Should you be selling a product or a service?
************************************************************
The Internet is primarily used to communicate, entertain,
educate and research. It is thus no wonder that
nonperishable, information-intensive products - including
computers and software, books, travel, consumer electronics,
magazine subscriptions - are the most popular online
products at present. Content-rich sites, subscription-based
sites to advertiser-supported sites focusing on a wide range
of topics, have been sprouting all over the Internet.
Services such as hotel reservation, air travel and
investments have successfully translated themselves to the
Internet.
Unique services such as Online driving schools have been
prospering. Some states in the US have set up online payment
sites for Government services. Residents of a state can log
on to a common site to pay all bills and other expenses,
such as parking tickets to the local/County courts.
However, all kinds of services cannot be run entirely on the
Internet. The Internet is less effective when face-to-face
selling is needed to close a deal. The Internet can give
lots of preliminary information that's useful in setting the
scene for the closing. But the actual closing takes place
offline - i.e., not on the Internet.
Products can also be marketed and sold successfully on the
Internet. The kinds of products and services that sell best
on the Internet are those that take advantage of the
convenience of the Net. Remember that convenience is the
primary reason why consumers flock to the Internet in the
first place. People can shop any hour of the day at any
site. They can avoid crowded stores, irritating sales
clerks, and even avoid pickpockets.
Offbeat or unusual products and services often attract
online attention and sell strongly. You would generally not
try to sell items people can get at the corner store. Thus,
few toothbrushes are sold on the Net; the same thing with
daily food and beverage purchases. But special cheeses, rare
cigars, Turkish plates, long-aged wines, even diamonds, can
and do sell on the Net.
Most products sold by catalog and mail order also sell well
on the Net. However, people tend to buy only those products
that could be shipped at a reasonable price. Higher shipping
costs diminish the price competitiveness of online products
and turns-off a lot of potential buyers. In fact, high
shipping costs is the primary factor that discourages people
from buying online more than any other single reason. An
Ernst and Young report shows that 53 percent of online
shoppers are concerned with shipping costs that are too
high, compared to only 19 percent who are concerned with
credit cards being stolen.
As an online merchant, you have to work out the advantages
as well as disadvantages of selling either products or
services. However, in the recent past, online services have
known to flourish. Nevertheless, if you chose to sell
products you need to rethink your product offering if the
total costs of the product and the shipping are higher than
what is offered elsewhere.
Take some time to evaluate your products or services. There
is a growing market of potential customers on the Internet,
you just need to offer the products and services they are
looking for.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
How to attract affiliates
In this article we will discuss how to attract affiliates to
you program.
One of the biggest fears new Affiliate managers have is in
finding new affiliates. This fear is a stumbling block that
stops many site owners from getting started with affiliate
marketing. Interestingly, with a proper marketing strategy,
getting affiliates may not be very difficult. Given below
are some tips that may help in attracting new affiliates.
Find complimentary sites
"Complementary" sites are a sites that sell products or
services that compliment your
offerings. If you sell "gardening tools", a site that sells
books on "gardening tips" would be a perfect affiliate. If
you sell software, try looking for sites that sell computers
or computer parts. Finding sites that already attract your
target market, and can benefit from recommending your
product or service to their visitors, is the goal.
Find content sites
There are many sites that do not sell
any kind of product or service but are mainly
content-oriented sites. Such sites promote an idea, concept,
study or belief. Content sites that are used as a resource
for your target market are ideal affiliates.
Finally, there are several sites on the Internet dedicated
to listing affiliate Programs. Get your program listed in
these directories.
Classifying Affiliates for better management
The hardest part of administrating an Affiliate Program is
deciding what your affiliates need to help make the sale.
But, by carefully categorizing your affiliates, you can
easily determine what their needs are and how to accurately
meet them. The plan given below helps in categorizing
affiliates in order to manage your affiliate program better.
The first step is to pick at least three types of
affiliates. Take a look at your affiliates and try to
determine one outstanding characteristic that can easily be
compared across the board and choose at least three types of
the characteristic. Here are some examples:
* Level of Sales - You may find that your affiliates are so
completely different that it's hard to find something to
classify them by. Try classifying them by the level of
sales they've reached with you. You'll most likely find
that youhave a few forerunners that lead the pack with
a number of sales, quite a few affiliates that have.
sporadically made a sale or two and some that have yet
to make a sale. This will help you classify them based
on sales.
* Products - If you sell a wide variety of products for
specific interests/needs you may be able to classify your
affiliates by product. For instance, a financial site
could classify types like Personal Finance, Small Business
Finance, and Corporate Finance.
* Industry - If you market commodities like office supplies,
health and beauty products, house-wares and so on, you may
find that your affiliates come from a wide variety of
industries. You can most likely classify your affiliates
according to their industry.
The Second Step is to determine the needs of each type. Each
of your affiliate types will have different needs; some of
their needs will overlap, but you should find a distinct
difference in many of their needs. If you find that all of
them have the same needs, go back to step one and re-think
your types.
Here are some basic things to look for:
* Linking Methods - Different types of affiliates will need
different linking methods. Let's use the example above
where we had different groups based on sales. Your low
sales group may be satisfied with a banner or two to place
on their site. Your medium sales type may be interested
in an article or two for added content on their site.
Your high sales group will probably pass up banners
for articles, guestbooks, email ads and signature files.
* Capturing visitors is what you want. In order to do so --
you have to know what they want. Visit your affiliates'
sites to see what visitors are looking at and looking for.
Ask yourself, "How does my product relate to what I am
seeing?"
* Different types of affiliates may expect different
commissions. You'll have some Affiliates that have joined
your program "on the side" and others that plan on earning
a
substantial income from the program. Determine what effort
they are putting into advertising, how much other programs
in your industry are paying, and the amount of time they
devote to your program.
The Third Step involves the process of creating and
compiling linking methods for each group of affiliates.
Based on the needs you identified in Step two, create and
compile linking methods for each type. Here are a few
linking methods to think about.
* Banners - Though they aren't as effective as other linking
methods, banners are still widely used and expected. Make
banners in a variety of sizes to fit tops of pages,
bottoms, toolbars, sidebars and other miscellaneous areas.
* Articles - These are great for affiliates that need
content for their websites and newsletters. Be sure that
your articles are articles and not ads.
* Email Ads - Your active affiliates may be interested in
placing ads in e-zines or their own newsletters. Try
writing
a few ads in different lengths.
* Signature Files - Dedicated affiliates may even add your
tag to their signature line. Give them a few witty lines
to choose from.
* Guestbooks: - Let your affiliates help you build your
Opt-In email lists with guestbooks. Offer them a
commission
for each email address they send you, or each resulting
sale
from the subscribers they send you.
* Product Images - Give your affiliates images that show and
link directly to specific products. They'll be able to
choose an image specific to their site, or choose several
images to display.
* Review each affiliate Type and match them up with your new
linking methods. You may have some linking methods that
overlap Types -- this is okay. Just be sure you are
concentrating on the affiliates' needs.
The Fourth Step is to decide commission levels. Your first
decision will be to determine whether you want to pay a flat
rate or percentage of each sale. Based on the needs you
identified above for each of the affiliate types, decide on
a commission amount for each Type. If you have a two-tier
program, consider the possibility of different second tier
rates as well.
The Fifth Step is to devise promotions for affiliate groups.
Once you have your affiliates properly categorized and your
system under control, consider developing promotions for
your affiliate groups. Give them special incentives to sell
more during a certain time frame, move seasonal products, or
increase business during your slow months. Offer them
additional commissions, or even bonuses for reaching a
specific amount of sales.
In conclusion, if you follow the steps I have just outlined
and if you are ready for a little work and a lot of
organization, your affiliate program should be up and
running in no time.
you program.
One of the biggest fears new Affiliate managers have is in
finding new affiliates. This fear is a stumbling block that
stops many site owners from getting started with affiliate
marketing. Interestingly, with a proper marketing strategy,
getting affiliates may not be very difficult. Given below
are some tips that may help in attracting new affiliates.
Find complimentary sites
"Complementary" sites are a sites that sell products or
services that compliment your
offerings. If you sell "gardening tools", a site that sells
books on "gardening tips" would be a perfect affiliate. If
you sell software, try looking for sites that sell computers
or computer parts. Finding sites that already attract your
target market, and can benefit from recommending your
product or service to their visitors, is the goal.
Find content sites
There are many sites that do not sell
any kind of product or service but are mainly
content-oriented sites. Such sites promote an idea, concept,
study or belief. Content sites that are used as a resource
for your target market are ideal affiliates.
Finally, there are several sites on the Internet dedicated
to listing affiliate Programs. Get your program listed in
these directories.
Classifying Affiliates for better management
The hardest part of administrating an Affiliate Program is
deciding what your affiliates need to help make the sale.
But, by carefully categorizing your affiliates, you can
easily determine what their needs are and how to accurately
meet them. The plan given below helps in categorizing
affiliates in order to manage your affiliate program better.
The first step is to pick at least three types of
affiliates. Take a look at your affiliates and try to
determine one outstanding characteristic that can easily be
compared across the board and choose at least three types of
the characteristic. Here are some examples:
* Level of Sales - You may find that your affiliates are so
completely different that it's hard to find something to
classify them by. Try classifying them by the level of
sales they've reached with you. You'll most likely find
that youhave a few forerunners that lead the pack with
a number of sales, quite a few affiliates that have.
sporadically made a sale or two and some that have yet
to make a sale. This will help you classify them based
on sales.
* Products - If you sell a wide variety of products for
specific interests/needs you may be able to classify your
affiliates by product. For instance, a financial site
could classify types like Personal Finance, Small Business
Finance, and Corporate Finance.
* Industry - If you market commodities like office supplies,
health and beauty products, house-wares and so on, you may
find that your affiliates come from a wide variety of
industries. You can most likely classify your affiliates
according to their industry.
The Second Step is to determine the needs of each type. Each
of your affiliate types will have different needs; some of
their needs will overlap, but you should find a distinct
difference in many of their needs. If you find that all of
them have the same needs, go back to step one and re-think
your types.
Here are some basic things to look for:
* Linking Methods - Different types of affiliates will need
different linking methods. Let's use the example above
where we had different groups based on sales. Your low
sales group may be satisfied with a banner or two to place
on their site. Your medium sales type may be interested
in an article or two for added content on their site.
Your high sales group will probably pass up banners
for articles, guestbooks, email ads and signature files.
* Capturing visitors is what you want. In order to do so --
you have to know what they want. Visit your affiliates'
sites to see what visitors are looking at and looking for.
Ask yourself, "How does my product relate to what I am
seeing?"
* Different types of affiliates may expect different
commissions. You'll have some Affiliates that have joined
your program "on the side" and others that plan on earning
a
substantial income from the program. Determine what effort
they are putting into advertising, how much other programs
in your industry are paying, and the amount of time they
devote to your program.
The Third Step involves the process of creating and
compiling linking methods for each group of affiliates.
Based on the needs you identified in Step two, create and
compile linking methods for each type. Here are a few
linking methods to think about.
* Banners - Though they aren't as effective as other linking
methods, banners are still widely used and expected. Make
banners in a variety of sizes to fit tops of pages,
bottoms, toolbars, sidebars and other miscellaneous areas.
* Articles - These are great for affiliates that need
content for their websites and newsletters. Be sure that
your articles are articles and not ads.
* Email Ads - Your active affiliates may be interested in
placing ads in e-zines or their own newsletters. Try
writing
a few ads in different lengths.
* Signature Files - Dedicated affiliates may even add your
tag to their signature line. Give them a few witty lines
to choose from.
* Guestbooks: - Let your affiliates help you build your
Opt-In email lists with guestbooks. Offer them a
commission
for each email address they send you, or each resulting
sale
from the subscribers they send you.
* Product Images - Give your affiliates images that show and
link directly to specific products. They'll be able to
choose an image specific to their site, or choose several
images to display.
* Review each affiliate Type and match them up with your new
linking methods. You may have some linking methods that
overlap Types -- this is okay. Just be sure you are
concentrating on the affiliates' needs.
The Fourth Step is to decide commission levels. Your first
decision will be to determine whether you want to pay a flat
rate or percentage of each sale. Based on the needs you
identified above for each of the affiliate types, decide on
a commission amount for each Type. If you have a two-tier
program, consider the possibility of different second tier
rates as well.
The Fifth Step is to devise promotions for affiliate groups.
Once you have your affiliates properly categorized and your
system under control, consider developing promotions for
your affiliate groups. Give them special incentives to sell
more during a certain time frame, move seasonal products, or
increase business during your slow months. Offer them
additional commissions, or even bonuses for reaching a
specific amount of sales.
In conclusion, if you follow the steps I have just outlined
and if you are ready for a little work and a lot of
organization, your affiliate program should be up and
running in no time.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Creating An Online Business
There are many different online business that you can create and in this article today we are going to look at a couple of different types. This article focused on creating online businesses and the different types that you can create.
The first kind of businesses that you can create when looking to create an online business would be a website which serves a particular niche in the market. Many people have done on this and this is often done by trying to find an underserved niche, building a website, and then profiting off of this small but profitable match. A great place to find more information on this particular topic would be www.findhotniches.com. Here the author has created a website which finds underserved niches which you could potentially build a website around. When you're building a website, you're going to want to find cheap keywords that you can use to help build your business as well as create good content. By creating the content and then creating back links between yourself and other websites, you'll be setting yourself up to have a high page rank with Google. By using AdWords to bring traffic to your website and then also developing your natural search engine traffic through building up a website, you will have built yourself a very solid business. This is just one way of creating online business.
Another way to you can build and create an online business is through eBay. This is an area which was particularly hot several years ago and still remains a solid business proposition. Many people are able to make a full-time income on eBay. You will need to find a wholesaler where you can get products at a discount to sell on eBay. The general idea when working on selling on eBay is to find a drop shipper. A definition of a drop shipper is a wholesaler sells you a product and will ship the product to a customer. You will buy the product at the wholesale price and then make money on the difference between what you buy the product for and sell the product for on eBay. Using the wholesaler allows you to focus on selling the product without worrying about stocking the product. You do not need to worry about any sort of shipping or backend but you will want to make sure that everything gets sent out. If there are problems with shipments, the customer will be coming back to you and not to the wholesaler to. If you go to worldwidebrands.com, you will find the best wholesale shipping directory on the Internet.
These are two of the different ideas in creating an online business. There are many ways to make money on the Internet but these are two proven methods. You will not have to use a lot of money up front to create these particular online businesses and these businesses can be something that you will have great deal of success with.
The first kind of businesses that you can create when looking to create an online business would be a website which serves a particular niche in the market. Many people have done on this and this is often done by trying to find an underserved niche, building a website, and then profiting off of this small but profitable match. A great place to find more information on this particular topic would be www.findhotniches.com. Here the author has created a website which finds underserved niches which you could potentially build a website around. When you're building a website, you're going to want to find cheap keywords that you can use to help build your business as well as create good content. By creating the content and then creating back links between yourself and other websites, you'll be setting yourself up to have a high page rank with Google. By using AdWords to bring traffic to your website and then also developing your natural search engine traffic through building up a website, you will have built yourself a very solid business. This is just one way of creating online business.
Another way to you can build and create an online business is through eBay. This is an area which was particularly hot several years ago and still remains a solid business proposition. Many people are able to make a full-time income on eBay. You will need to find a wholesaler where you can get products at a discount to sell on eBay. The general idea when working on selling on eBay is to find a drop shipper. A definition of a drop shipper is a wholesaler sells you a product and will ship the product to a customer. You will buy the product at the wholesale price and then make money on the difference between what you buy the product for and sell the product for on eBay. Using the wholesaler allows you to focus on selling the product without worrying about stocking the product. You do not need to worry about any sort of shipping or backend but you will want to make sure that everything gets sent out. If there are problems with shipments, the customer will be coming back to you and not to the wholesaler to. If you go to worldwidebrands.com, you will find the best wholesale shipping directory on the Internet.
These are two of the different ideas in creating an online business. There are many ways to make money on the Internet but these are two proven methods. You will not have to use a lot of money up front to create these particular online businesses and these businesses can be something that you will have great deal of success with.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Creating effective Ads
Today’s article deals with a subject that we all need to
read, study and understand…how to create an EFFECTIVE ad.
Online advertising on the Internet leaves a lot to be
desired. We have ads that emulate Windows-warning boxes. We
have pop-ups and pop-unders. All of these are developed with
the intent to make people notice them. However, most of them
only end up irritating them. Advertisers, especially those
with small budgets, can't afford to waste money on
ineffective buys. In order to optimize your advertising
buys, you need to concentrate on improving your creative.
Here are some tips that might help:
Step 1: Define clear goals of your advertising campaign
The most important aspect of any advertising campaign is to
have a clear objective in mind. You may be targeting a
specific group of people, your initial aim may be to target
at least 1000 internet surfers and so on and so forth. Have
a well defined, clear purpose.
Step 2: Identify the most effective sites for achieving your
goals
Sites that are most relevant to your product or service
will, more than likely, be your best bet; but also consider
larger sites or networks that can target the audience you're
trying to reach. They can be very cost-effective. If you
have multiple products or services that appeal to various
target markets, you'll have to consider sites that reach all
those various segments.
Step 3: Craft your message to fit the needs of the audience
you're targeting
This comes down to understanding the audience of the sites
you're advertising on. The message you use on a technology
site to appeal to technologically savvy customers won't have
the same appeal for visitors on a small-business site. Focus
your campaign.
Step 4: Content of your Ad
Pay particular attention to the content of the Ad. The
content should be such that it clearly distinguishes your
product or service from your competitors’. Have a catchy
headline. The headline is probably the most important part
of the Ad – It is the customer puller.
Step 5: Formulate the specific promotional messages that
correspond to your goals
The promotional messages should concentrate on the major
selling points of your product or service and have a strong
call-to-action.
Step 6: Make the desired action clearly visible
This certainly doesn't mean the desired action should
necessarily blink, bounce or do flips, but it should be
visible within an accepted format for the media you're
using. In the case of the Internet, underlined text links,
"click here" text entry boxes, and pull-down menus are all
ways you can make the desired action clearly visible.
Step 7: Design the ad so it looks like it belongs on the
sites where you're advertising
For instance, you may want to use the site's font faces in
your text, color schemes in your background, font color
choices overall, and emulate images where appropriate. Try
to conform to the environment so potential customers
visiting the site don't gasp in shock when they see your ad.
Step 8: Produce multiple versions of each ad
Create three or four versions of each ad, changing the
promotional message, call-to-action, font faces and color
schemes. This is especially important if you're doing price
testing or gauging reaction to specific promotions. By
splitting your advertising buy among the various versions of
your creative, you can then start to optimize your buy based
on the message that works best.
With these tips, you will not only be able to create an ad,
but you will be able to create an effective ad that does
what it is supposed to do – sell your products and services.
Talk to you soon!
read, study and understand…how to create an EFFECTIVE ad.
Online advertising on the Internet leaves a lot to be
desired. We have ads that emulate Windows-warning boxes. We
have pop-ups and pop-unders. All of these are developed with
the intent to make people notice them. However, most of them
only end up irritating them. Advertisers, especially those
with small budgets, can't afford to waste money on
ineffective buys. In order to optimize your advertising
buys, you need to concentrate on improving your creative.
Here are some tips that might help:
Step 1: Define clear goals of your advertising campaign
The most important aspect of any advertising campaign is to
have a clear objective in mind. You may be targeting a
specific group of people, your initial aim may be to target
at least 1000 internet surfers and so on and so forth. Have
a well defined, clear purpose.
Step 2: Identify the most effective sites for achieving your
goals
Sites that are most relevant to your product or service
will, more than likely, be your best bet; but also consider
larger sites or networks that can target the audience you're
trying to reach. They can be very cost-effective. If you
have multiple products or services that appeal to various
target markets, you'll have to consider sites that reach all
those various segments.
Step 3: Craft your message to fit the needs of the audience
you're targeting
This comes down to understanding the audience of the sites
you're advertising on. The message you use on a technology
site to appeal to technologically savvy customers won't have
the same appeal for visitors on a small-business site. Focus
your campaign.
Step 4: Content of your Ad
Pay particular attention to the content of the Ad. The
content should be such that it clearly distinguishes your
product or service from your competitors’. Have a catchy
headline. The headline is probably the most important part
of the Ad – It is the customer puller.
Step 5: Formulate the specific promotional messages that
correspond to your goals
The promotional messages should concentrate on the major
selling points of your product or service and have a strong
call-to-action.
Step 6: Make the desired action clearly visible
This certainly doesn't mean the desired action should
necessarily blink, bounce or do flips, but it should be
visible within an accepted format for the media you're
using. In the case of the Internet, underlined text links,
"click here" text entry boxes, and pull-down menus are all
ways you can make the desired action clearly visible.
Step 7: Design the ad so it looks like it belongs on the
sites where you're advertising
For instance, you may want to use the site's font faces in
your text, color schemes in your background, font color
choices overall, and emulate images where appropriate. Try
to conform to the environment so potential customers
visiting the site don't gasp in shock when they see your ad.
Step 8: Produce multiple versions of each ad
Create three or four versions of each ad, changing the
promotional message, call-to-action, font faces and color
schemes. This is especially important if you're doing price
testing or gauging reaction to specific promotions. By
splitting your advertising buy among the various versions of
your creative, you can then start to optimize your buy based
on the message that works best.
With these tips, you will not only be able to create an ad,
but you will be able to create an effective ad that does
what it is supposed to do – sell your products and services.
Talk to you soon!
Advertising in newsletters
We discussed earlier the advantages of having advertising
space in your newsletters. In this article we will discuss
advertising in other companies’ newsletters and how it can
be as equally beneficial.
By advertising in other newsletters, you can reach an
audience which is highly targeted and cost effective.
Moreover, you can never be accused of spamming as all the
recipients have subscribed to the newsletter. There are so
many newsletters out there covering so many different topics
that it's easy to find highly targeted ones to advertise in.
So if you've matched the newsletter to the product you're
selling, you've reached your target audience to a tee.
Almost all newsletters are archived, thousands of people
read these archives, and your ad will be seen by these
people at no extra cost. This can bring in exposure and
extra sales on a long term basis. Besides, newsletter
publishers may have already developed a trust between
themselves and their readers. Just by placing your ad in the
newsletter, it's more likely to be read because it appears
in a publication they like and trust.
Newsletter advertising is not only effective, it's cheap as
well. A 5 line ad in a newsletter that goes to 3000 people
will cost you between $5 and $25 per issue. With so little
risk involved, this is definitely worth it.
Buying Ads in Other Newsletters
Just as you can sell advertising, you can also buy
advertising in newsletters. You can use those ads to promote
your business or to invite people who read newsletters to
read your own.
Again, you have to pick your partners carefully. There’s no
point just picking a newsletter with the cheapest rates; you
want to make sure you choose an outlet that appeals to the
same buyers as you. You also need to think about where your
ad is going to be placed. In general, the higher the
position the better. And the more the merrier too. Don’t
expect a huge response from a single ad. It’s always best to
think of advertising in terms of a campaign. You’ll get a
better deal—and better results—if you reserve an advertising
slot for four or five issues than if you buy them one at a
time.
That’s it for today. I hope you found this article
useful. Until next time…take care of yourself.
space in your newsletters. In this article we will discuss
advertising in other companies’ newsletters and how it can
be as equally beneficial.
By advertising in other newsletters, you can reach an
audience which is highly targeted and cost effective.
Moreover, you can never be accused of spamming as all the
recipients have subscribed to the newsletter. There are so
many newsletters out there covering so many different topics
that it's easy to find highly targeted ones to advertise in.
So if you've matched the newsletter to the product you're
selling, you've reached your target audience to a tee.
Almost all newsletters are archived, thousands of people
read these archives, and your ad will be seen by these
people at no extra cost. This can bring in exposure and
extra sales on a long term basis. Besides, newsletter
publishers may have already developed a trust between
themselves and their readers. Just by placing your ad in the
newsletter, it's more likely to be read because it appears
in a publication they like and trust.
Newsletter advertising is not only effective, it's cheap as
well. A 5 line ad in a newsletter that goes to 3000 people
will cost you between $5 and $25 per issue. With so little
risk involved, this is definitely worth it.
Buying Ads in Other Newsletters
Just as you can sell advertising, you can also buy
advertising in newsletters. You can use those ads to promote
your business or to invite people who read newsletters to
read your own.
Again, you have to pick your partners carefully. There’s no
point just picking a newsletter with the cheapest rates; you
want to make sure you choose an outlet that appeals to the
same buyers as you. You also need to think about where your
ad is going to be placed. In general, the higher the
position the better. And the more the merrier too. Don’t
expect a huge response from a single ad. It’s always best to
think of advertising in terms of a campaign. You’ll get a
better deal—and better results—if you reserve an advertising
slot for four or five issues than if you buy them one at a
time.
That’s it for today. I hope you found this article
useful. Until next time…take care of yourself.
A few avoidable errors when promoting your affiliate program
In this article, I have listed a quick and easy bulleted
list of does and do not’s when trying to promote your
affiliate program.
* Many affiliate marketers make a huge mistake of posting
their ads on forums. Forums can be used to promote your
affiliate programs and your website but in a proper
manner.
Posting banners is very similar to spamming and may
easily
upset forum administrators.
* Always do your research before promoting your affiliate
program to a potential customer. Do not offer affiliate
programs to visitors who are not at all interested in
the products associated with the program. This is a
futile endeavor.
* If you promote affiliate programs offered by other
merchants, ensure that you develop your own advertising
copy. Many websites commit a common mistake of using the
same advertising copy as used by the merchant
themselves.
* Avoid Copyright infringement in all cases. Always use
original content or ask permission to use graphic images
or text found on other websites.
* Do not submit your programs to free websites. These may
be free but your programs would hardly ever be noticed,
especially by Search Engines. Moreover, your own ranking
would get lowered if you submit your affiliate programs
to such websites.
* Avoid using caps on your web page or email ad. Using
caps is symbolic to shouting, which never goes well with
potential customers. A few words may be written in
capital text to give them additional emphasis. However,
such practice should be limited.
* Always respond to all queries sent by visitors as soon
as possible. A slight delay in your response could
easily result in loss of a potential client.
* Do not use pop-up ads along with your webpage. Most
surfers are likely to close their browser if they come
across pop-ups.
* Do not host your website on a free server or use free
email accounts. This gives a negative impression to
visitors. Using free hosts and email accounts looks
cheesy and loses sales.
* Many websites do not have an opt-in list. Create an
opt-in and opt-out list for your visitors. Without
these,there is no way of tracking potential customers.
Visitors should be allowed to opt-in at any time
as well as opt-out at any time.
* Most sites have a poor tracking mechanism. It is
essential that you track all business activities.
Accurate record keeping is crucial. There are many
software tools, discussed earlier in this chapter,
than can automate your record keeping process with
minimal error.
* A 'mall' site is best used as a central hub to send
visitors to your other domains. As a main or only site,
unfocused mall sites don't get traffic from the engines,
and they don't convert well to sales. Highly focused
theme sites attract traffic and sales.
* Offline advertising may not be effective. A lot of money
and effort should not be wasted on offline advertising.
Most people rarely check websites that are advertised in
local magazines or newspapers.
* Avoid focus on animated banner ads. These simply use up
bandwidth, thus making web pages load slower.
* While advertising do not degrade other competitors. It
is recommended that you highlight your products’
uniqueness and superiority but never mortify other
products.
* Banners or text links that expire are guaranteed to
eventually send your visitor to a broken link or show a
broken graphic on your page. Time sensitive advertising
is best used only in email advertising campaigns.
* Never put affiliate links on your homepage. This is
similar to asking your visitors to leave immediately.
Give them a chance to browse, sign up for your
newsletter and decide that they'd like to come back
to your place before introducing them to your
affiliates.
* Technology changes with amazing speed. To keep up with
this rapidly evolving industry, you must invest time and
money in research. The investment is a tax write-off,
and will pay you back many times over in additional
revenue.
Hopefully this list has proven helpful to you and has shown
you some red flags to avoid when it comes time to promote
your own affiliate site. Good luck and take care.
list of does and do not’s when trying to promote your
affiliate program.
* Many affiliate marketers make a huge mistake of posting
their ads on forums. Forums can be used to promote your
affiliate programs and your website but in a proper
manner.
Posting banners is very similar to spamming and may
easily
upset forum administrators.
* Always do your research before promoting your affiliate
program to a potential customer. Do not offer affiliate
programs to visitors who are not at all interested in
the products associated with the program. This is a
futile endeavor.
* If you promote affiliate programs offered by other
merchants, ensure that you develop your own advertising
copy. Many websites commit a common mistake of using the
same advertising copy as used by the merchant
themselves.
* Avoid Copyright infringement in all cases. Always use
original content or ask permission to use graphic images
or text found on other websites.
* Do not submit your programs to free websites. These may
be free but your programs would hardly ever be noticed,
especially by Search Engines. Moreover, your own ranking
would get lowered if you submit your affiliate programs
to such websites.
* Avoid using caps on your web page or email ad. Using
caps is symbolic to shouting, which never goes well with
potential customers. A few words may be written in
capital text to give them additional emphasis. However,
such practice should be limited.
* Always respond to all queries sent by visitors as soon
as possible. A slight delay in your response could
easily result in loss of a potential client.
* Do not use pop-up ads along with your webpage. Most
surfers are likely to close their browser if they come
across pop-ups.
* Do not host your website on a free server or use free
email accounts. This gives a negative impression to
visitors. Using free hosts and email accounts looks
cheesy and loses sales.
* Many websites do not have an opt-in list. Create an
opt-in and opt-out list for your visitors. Without
these,there is no way of tracking potential customers.
Visitors should be allowed to opt-in at any time
as well as opt-out at any time.
* Most sites have a poor tracking mechanism. It is
essential that you track all business activities.
Accurate record keeping is crucial. There are many
software tools, discussed earlier in this chapter,
than can automate your record keeping process with
minimal error.
* A 'mall' site is best used as a central hub to send
visitors to your other domains. As a main or only site,
unfocused mall sites don't get traffic from the engines,
and they don't convert well to sales. Highly focused
theme sites attract traffic and sales.
* Offline advertising may not be effective. A lot of money
and effort should not be wasted on offline advertising.
Most people rarely check websites that are advertised in
local magazines or newspapers.
* Avoid focus on animated banner ads. These simply use up
bandwidth, thus making web pages load slower.
* While advertising do not degrade other competitors. It
is recommended that you highlight your products’
uniqueness and superiority but never mortify other
products.
* Banners or text links that expire are guaranteed to
eventually send your visitor to a broken link or show a
broken graphic on your page. Time sensitive advertising
is best used only in email advertising campaigns.
* Never put affiliate links on your homepage. This is
similar to asking your visitors to leave immediately.
Give them a chance to browse, sign up for your
newsletter and decide that they'd like to come back
to your place before introducing them to your
affiliates.
* Technology changes with amazing speed. To keep up with
this rapidly evolving industry, you must invest time and
money in research. The investment is a tax write-off,
and will pay you back many times over in additional
revenue.
Hopefully this list has proven helpful to you and has shown
you some red flags to avoid when it comes time to promote
your own affiliate site. Good luck and take care.
Setting up Your Own Affiliate Program (part two)
This article is the second of a two part series on setting
up your own affiliate program. In addition to starting an
affiliate program, you must manage it and keep track of it.
The following information will show you how
Managing and tracking your affiliate programs
The key to any business is to promote your products and
services to people who need them. Your affiliate business is
no different. In order to earn commissions you must put your
products in front of the people who need them. The beauty of
marketing affiliate programs is that it is anybody’s ball
game. This is the one place you can burrow deep into your
own niche and stick it to the so-called 'big wigs'.
You may create your own affiliate program or you may promote
other popular affiliate programs that are related to your
product or service. The best way to manage and track
affiliate programs is by creating your own affiliate program
website. This is where you can list all your affiliate
programs.
Staying Organized
There are many affiliate networks that provide multiple
affiliate programs and merchants. Keeping a track of all
affiliate programs in a single network is easy. You would
generally be given one username and password as well as a
single interface that controls all the programs. However, if
you have many of your own affiliate programs or you promote
several stand-alone affiliate programs from your website,
the task of staying organized becomes a bit more complex.
There are many software programs available on the Internet
that organize and keep track of all data associated with
affiliate programs. Some of these are My Affiliate Program
2000 and Affiliate Assistant 1.0. These programs maintain
databases pertaining to information about all your affiliate
programs. A typical database would consist of the following
fields:
* Program Name
* Date joined or created
* Contact Name
* URL
* Email Address
* ID
* Password
* 1st Tier Percent
* 1st Tier Sale
* 2nd Tier Percent
* 2nd Tier Sale
* Total Income
* Additional comments
Once the program information has been entered, you can add
information about individual sales made and checks received.
The program then keeps track of sales to date, amount
collected and receivables. Besides, some of the advanced
software programs also provide analysis and comparison tools
for all affiliate programs. If you take the time to input
collected data about clicks, sales, and page views,
impressions, emails sent etc. from your various campaigns
and enter all of it into the program, it will show you:
* Click to Sale Ratios
* Impression to Sale Ratios
* Amount Earned Per Impression
* Amount Earned Per Click
Apart from these are a few other tips that might help you
manage your affiliate programs.
* Always ensure that your website is up and running. On a
Daily basis type your URL into your browser's address bar,
refresh the page and find out. The danger in not knowing
that your site is down comes when you are running a pay per
click advertising campaign. The click costs add up whether
your site is functional or not. If your site is down, you
are paying for advertising, but no one is buying.
* Check your statistics daily, maybe even twice a day. This
will give you a better idea of your income trends and also
highlight affiliate programs that bring your business. Visit
the statistics interface for each network and individual
affiliate partner and input your total revenues into any
accounting software. Using such software frequently will
also keep you informed as to whether certain checks have
become overdue.
* Be prompt in answering any queries from affiliate partners
or customers, especially when these are about your products
or services. This probably means that the customer trusts
your site and is thinking of buying your product.
* One of the main aspects of any affiliate program is
residual income. You've got to make the most of each and
every customer you receive. The best way to do this is by
promoting affiliate programs that offer residual commission.
* This allows you to repeatedly get paid for work you do
once. For example, if a visitor arrives at your site and
purchases auto responder services, newsletter subscriptions,
ISP/hosting services, you will collect a portion of the
monthly fees for as long as they remain a paying customer.
Membership sites are a good way to collect residual
commissions and are steadily growing in popularity. There
are many affiliate programs that offer residual commission.
* A well placed recommendation placed at the end of an
outgoing email can bring in extra sales. Target your
audience, what are their specific needs? If you can offer
them a product they need/want, often times the end result
will be a sale.
* Finally, track all your affiliate links. The best way to
accomplish this is by setting up tracking software for your
affiliate links. There are a number of scripts that will do
the job. Most tracking programs typically allow you to setup
tracking links for any product you promote, telling you how
many hits each product has received, and where the hits are
coming from. A more detailed view of tracking and analysis
is given in the section below.
* It is not enough to have a few banners and classified ads.
You must provide as much help as possible for your
associates if you want them to be successful. You should
have tested and proven endorsements, testimonials, sig
files, ezine ads, and other unique tools and techniques. You
must also make yourself available, either through email or
the phone, to help your affiliates implement these tools and
to answer any questions they may have.
* Whether you run your own or participate in an affiliate
program, you must be able to determine what methods work
best in a particular medium. For instance, which ezine ads
work best and in what ezine; which banner ads produce the
greatest clickthroughs and from which sites or banner
exchanges; and where on your website is the most effective
spot to include a testimonial.
* Some affiliate programs, have implemented unique payment
procedures to get affiliates their commission checks on a
timely basis. Some of these procedures include: online
electronic payment services, direct bank deposits and checks
by fax. If you can solidify your payment procedures from the
start, you will save yourself an administrative headache and
more importantly, keep your affiliates happy and working to
promote your program.
This concludes my series on starting your own affiliate
program. This information should be all you need to start,
manage and track your own affiliate program.
up your own affiliate program. In addition to starting an
affiliate program, you must manage it and keep track of it.
The following information will show you how
Managing and tracking your affiliate programs
The key to any business is to promote your products and
services to people who need them. Your affiliate business is
no different. In order to earn commissions you must put your
products in front of the people who need them. The beauty of
marketing affiliate programs is that it is anybody’s ball
game. This is the one place you can burrow deep into your
own niche and stick it to the so-called 'big wigs'.
You may create your own affiliate program or you may promote
other popular affiliate programs that are related to your
product or service. The best way to manage and track
affiliate programs is by creating your own affiliate program
website. This is where you can list all your affiliate
programs.
Staying Organized
There are many affiliate networks that provide multiple
affiliate programs and merchants. Keeping a track of all
affiliate programs in a single network is easy. You would
generally be given one username and password as well as a
single interface that controls all the programs. However, if
you have many of your own affiliate programs or you promote
several stand-alone affiliate programs from your website,
the task of staying organized becomes a bit more complex.
There are many software programs available on the Internet
that organize and keep track of all data associated with
affiliate programs. Some of these are My Affiliate Program
2000 and Affiliate Assistant 1.0. These programs maintain
databases pertaining to information about all your affiliate
programs. A typical database would consist of the following
fields:
* Program Name
* Date joined or created
* Contact Name
* URL
* Email Address
* ID
* Password
* 1st Tier Percent
* 1st Tier Sale
* 2nd Tier Percent
* 2nd Tier Sale
* Total Income
* Additional comments
Once the program information has been entered, you can add
information about individual sales made and checks received.
The program then keeps track of sales to date, amount
collected and receivables. Besides, some of the advanced
software programs also provide analysis and comparison tools
for all affiliate programs. If you take the time to input
collected data about clicks, sales, and page views,
impressions, emails sent etc. from your various campaigns
and enter all of it into the program, it will show you:
* Click to Sale Ratios
* Impression to Sale Ratios
* Amount Earned Per Impression
* Amount Earned Per Click
Apart from these are a few other tips that might help you
manage your affiliate programs.
* Always ensure that your website is up and running. On a
Daily basis type your URL into your browser's address bar,
refresh the page and find out. The danger in not knowing
that your site is down comes when you are running a pay per
click advertising campaign. The click costs add up whether
your site is functional or not. If your site is down, you
are paying for advertising, but no one is buying.
* Check your statistics daily, maybe even twice a day. This
will give you a better idea of your income trends and also
highlight affiliate programs that bring your business. Visit
the statistics interface for each network and individual
affiliate partner and input your total revenues into any
accounting software. Using such software frequently will
also keep you informed as to whether certain checks have
become overdue.
* Be prompt in answering any queries from affiliate partners
or customers, especially when these are about your products
or services. This probably means that the customer trusts
your site and is thinking of buying your product.
* One of the main aspects of any affiliate program is
residual income. You've got to make the most of each and
every customer you receive. The best way to do this is by
promoting affiliate programs that offer residual commission.
* This allows you to repeatedly get paid for work you do
once. For example, if a visitor arrives at your site and
purchases auto responder services, newsletter subscriptions,
ISP/hosting services, you will collect a portion of the
monthly fees for as long as they remain a paying customer.
Membership sites are a good way to collect residual
commissions and are steadily growing in popularity. There
are many affiliate programs that offer residual commission.
* A well placed recommendation placed at the end of an
outgoing email can bring in extra sales. Target your
audience, what are their specific needs? If you can offer
them a product they need/want, often times the end result
will be a sale.
* Finally, track all your affiliate links. The best way to
accomplish this is by setting up tracking software for your
affiliate links. There are a number of scripts that will do
the job. Most tracking programs typically allow you to setup
tracking links for any product you promote, telling you how
many hits each product has received, and where the hits are
coming from. A more detailed view of tracking and analysis
is given in the section below.
* It is not enough to have a few banners and classified ads.
You must provide as much help as possible for your
associates if you want them to be successful. You should
have tested and proven endorsements, testimonials, sig
files, ezine ads, and other unique tools and techniques. You
must also make yourself available, either through email or
the phone, to help your affiliates implement these tools and
to answer any questions they may have.
* Whether you run your own or participate in an affiliate
program, you must be able to determine what methods work
best in a particular medium. For instance, which ezine ads
work best and in what ezine; which banner ads produce the
greatest clickthroughs and from which sites or banner
exchanges; and where on your website is the most effective
spot to include a testimonial.
* Some affiliate programs, have implemented unique payment
procedures to get affiliates their commission checks on a
timely basis. Some of these procedures include: online
electronic payment services, direct bank deposits and checks
by fax. If you can solidify your payment procedures from the
start, you will save yourself an administrative headache and
more importantly, keep your affiliates happy and working to
promote your program.
This concludes my series on starting your own affiliate
program. This information should be all you need to start,
manage and track your own affiliate program.
Setting up Your Own Affiliate Program (part one)
This week we will start the first of a two part series on
starting your own affiliate program. Joining an affiliate
program is a neat way to make money from your users. But
just as you can join someone else’s affiliate program, so
you can set up your own program and invite webmasters to
sign up.
So…what would that bring you? The same as you’re bringing
your affiliate partners: deals. Every time someone sends you
a user who gives you money, you give a portion of that money
to your affiliate. It’s an easy way to generate traffic and
earn cash.
And you don’t need to be a programming genius to set up an
affiliate program. There are a whole bunch of companies out
there that offer entire affiliate kits right off the shelf.
Ultimate Affiliate lets you run a fully featured affiliate
program from your website. It integrates with virtually
every payment method, awards down-line commissions, and can
handle high-traffic websites. You can edit the sign-up form
to match the "look and feel” of your site as well as delete
some of the optional fields. The administration area allows
you to edit affiliates and commissions, create printable
reports of money due, export the data to a text file, view
the traffic through your affiliate program, and much more.
Your affiliates can log in at any time and see their traffic
and commission statistics as well as change their
information and get links and banner code.
Once the program is set up you'll only need to log in once a
month to print out a list of the affiliates, their
addresses, and the money owed. You can do this quarterly if
you wish. You can export the payments owed to a text file in
PayPal's "mass pay" format and then just upload it to your
PayPal account to pay everyone automatically. Or, you can
simply write your own checks. If you have to pay a lot of
commissions, there is a check printing service called
qchex.com. Upload the file and they’ll print and mail your
checks for a fee of about 80 cents each.
Alternatively, Locked Area Pro is an advanced member's area
management system offering very good security that’s easy to
maintain. The system provides a huge list of useful features
including automated sign-up, user account validation,
optional random password generation and an administration
approve/decline account feature. It also comes with an
extremely powerful control panel with an online
administration of users, backup, and full customization
facilities from the browser. A statistics system is also in
built in. What more could you want?
5.3 Cooking off the Spam
Any time you run a program where your affiliates rely on
other signups to generate profits, you will eventually have
a problem with spam. One of your affiliates will inevitably
get it into their head to blitz the Web with unwanted
garbage.
When this happens you need to be ready to take
action—otherwise it will cost you! Your Internet company can
boot you off your server and you can find yourself
blacklisted. Not good for business. If you get an email from
someone claiming they received spam with your URL, then take
it as an early warning. I am not advising you to immediately
terminate the affiliate’s account, but be sure to contact
them to follow up on the complaint. Let your affiliate know
you received a complaint and advise them to remove this
person from their list.
If you only get one or two complaints, it’s probably not
spam—the complainants might simply have signed up for an
email list and forgotten all about it. You will know when
one of your affiliates is spamming, because you will get
anywhere from 10 to 100 complaints in the same day all
regarding the same URL. The best thing to do in this case is
to immediately terminate or disable the account of the
affiliate URL that was spammed.
This concludes the first installment of my two part series
on starting your own affiliate program. Stay tuned for
more.
starting your own affiliate program. Joining an affiliate
program is a neat way to make money from your users. But
just as you can join someone else’s affiliate program, so
you can set up your own program and invite webmasters to
sign up.
So…what would that bring you? The same as you’re bringing
your affiliate partners: deals. Every time someone sends you
a user who gives you money, you give a portion of that money
to your affiliate. It’s an easy way to generate traffic and
earn cash.
And you don’t need to be a programming genius to set up an
affiliate program. There are a whole bunch of companies out
there that offer entire affiliate kits right off the shelf.
Ultimate Affiliate lets you run a fully featured affiliate
program from your website. It integrates with virtually
every payment method, awards down-line commissions, and can
handle high-traffic websites. You can edit the sign-up form
to match the "look and feel” of your site as well as delete
some of the optional fields. The administration area allows
you to edit affiliates and commissions, create printable
reports of money due, export the data to a text file, view
the traffic through your affiliate program, and much more.
Your affiliates can log in at any time and see their traffic
and commission statistics as well as change their
information and get links and banner code.
Once the program is set up you'll only need to log in once a
month to print out a list of the affiliates, their
addresses, and the money owed. You can do this quarterly if
you wish. You can export the payments owed to a text file in
PayPal's "mass pay" format and then just upload it to your
PayPal account to pay everyone automatically. Or, you can
simply write your own checks. If you have to pay a lot of
commissions, there is a check printing service called
qchex.com. Upload the file and they’ll print and mail your
checks for a fee of about 80 cents each.
Alternatively, Locked Area Pro is an advanced member's area
management system offering very good security that’s easy to
maintain. The system provides a huge list of useful features
including automated sign-up, user account validation,
optional random password generation and an administration
approve/decline account feature. It also comes with an
extremely powerful control panel with an online
administration of users, backup, and full customization
facilities from the browser. A statistics system is also in
built in. What more could you want?
5.3 Cooking off the Spam
Any time you run a program where your affiliates rely on
other signups to generate profits, you will eventually have
a problem with spam. One of your affiliates will inevitably
get it into their head to blitz the Web with unwanted
garbage.
When this happens you need to be ready to take
action—otherwise it will cost you! Your Internet company can
boot you off your server and you can find yourself
blacklisted. Not good for business. If you get an email from
someone claiming they received spam with your URL, then take
it as an early warning. I am not advising you to immediately
terminate the affiliate’s account, but be sure to contact
them to follow up on the complaint. Let your affiliate know
you received a complaint and advise them to remove this
person from their list.
If you only get one or two complaints, it’s probably not
spam—the complainants might simply have signed up for an
email list and forgotten all about it. You will know when
one of your affiliates is spamming, because you will get
anywhere from 10 to 100 complaints in the same day all
regarding the same URL. The best thing to do in this case is
to immediately terminate or disable the account of the
affiliate URL that was spammed.
This concludes the first installment of my two part series
on starting your own affiliate program. Stay tuned for
more.
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