| The 4 biggest mistakes affiliate marketers make |
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Tuesday, November 20, 2007
You probably can’t even imagine how many affiliates are making these same 4 mistakes in affiliate marketing. It is really is unbelievable but 95% of affiliates make no money. The problem is the way these 95% are running their affiliate marketing businesses. If you can avoid making these costly mistakes you will easily and quickly increase your chances of making more affiliate sales. Below you will learn the top mistakes most affiliates make and how to avoid them. Hopefully, this will make you a much better affiliate seller and increase your earnings. 1. Not Building for Search Engines: Most of the successful affiliates learn to use the search engines to their advantage. They are the best source of free traffic for affiliate sites. Some affiliate web sites have so much going on that the visitor gets confused and they hit the back button and never return! It is important to keep your pages clean and targeted to get them to click over to the products you are promoting. 2. Too many banners: Probably the biggest problem seen in affiliate sites is that they are filled with too many banners. Your goal should be to lure someone in with good content and then urge them to click on the banner to learn more. If you put in original personal endorsements, short descriptions, relevant articles and graphics, you will see your sales increasing. Take the time to personalize your site and modify it to suit your target area. Visitors will appreciate knowing that you are a real person running the site that they are visiting. 3. Promoting the product and not the program: It seems that many affiliates who join popular two-tier affiliate programs often create a one page site telling other people to join. It is best to find an affiliate program that is a product or service that you can passionately promote and sell. You will have much better chance of making money by promoting products that are of good value in which you honestly believe are great products. 4. Trying to do it on the cheap: You want to avoid sites that look like they are on a free hosting site with a free e-mail address. This just send the message to potential subscribers that either you have not made any money or that you really don’t know what you are doing. Domain names and hosting is really cheap these days. Spending about 9 dollars a year for domain name and less than 5 dollars a month for hosting will not break your bank. In the long run, it will make your site look professional and more people will take you seriously. You also need the right marketing "know-how" or you are wasting your time. Here is an excellent place to get these expertise: http://caribbean-gateway.com/x.php?adminid=1&tid=30 It does take time to build the perfect affiliate site. With a little perseverance and patience, people will see your site, view you as an expert in your field, and ask for interviews. They will attach more and more links to your site and you will see your site climbing. If you keep it real and give people what they want in a helpful way, you will succeed and continue to grow your business. AFFILIATES WANTED: Market a complete automated online store system http://caribbean-gateway.com/x.php?adminid=1&tid=23 Serving Up Real eMail Marketing - Hold the Spam Email marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of communicating commercial or fundraising messages to a targeted audience. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered e-mail marketing. There are a number of advantages to email marketing - compared to other marketing investments such as direct mail or printed newsletters, it is less expensive. and the return on investment can be high when done properly. There is a fine line between advertising and spam and unfortunately many business owners do not understand the difference between the two. This is important because while a cleaver, well planted Internet marketing campaign can help to attract new customers and keep existing customers loyal, spam is likely to alienate both new customers and existing customers. This can be extremely damaging to profit margins for the business owners. This article will take a look at a few basic Internet marketing strategies such as banner ads, email campaign and message board posts and describe how each can quickly cross the line from cleaver advertising to spam. Banner ads are one of the most popular strategies which accompany an Internet marketing plan. These ads are usually ads which appear at the top of websites and span the width of the website. It is from this appearance that they earned the name banner ads but actually banner ads can refer to ads of a variety of different sizes and shapes which appear in an array of different locations on a website. In many cases the business owner purchases advertising space on these websites but the banner ad may also be placed as part of an exchange or an affiliate marketing campaign. Banner ad exchanges are situations in which one business owner posts a banner ad on his website in exchange for another business owner posting his banner ad on the other website. These agreements may be made individually between business owners with complementary businesses or as part of exchanges facilitated by a third party. In the case of affiliate marketing, an affiliate posts and advertisement for your business in exchange for compensation when the banner ad produces a desired effect such as generating website traffic or generating a sale. The terms of these agreements are determined beforehand and are generally based on a scale of pay per impression, pay per click or pay per sale or lead. ************************************ Make sure you're not blacklisted! Companies considering an e-mail marketing program must make sure that their program does not violate spam laws such as the United States' CAN-SPAM Act, the European Privacy & Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 or their Internet provider's acceptable use policy. Even if a company follows the law, if Internet mail administrators find that it is sending spam it is likely to be listed in blacklists such as SPEWS. ************************************ Now that you understand what banner ads are, it is also important to understand how they can be overused and appear to be spam. Judiciously placing your banner ad on a few websites which are likely to attract an audience similar to your target audience is smart marketing, placing your banner ad on any website which will display the ad regardless of the target audience can be construed as spam. Internet users who feel as though your banner ads are everywhere they turn will not likely take your business seriously and are not likely to purchase products or services from you as a result of your banner ads. Email campaigns can also be very useful tools in the industry of Internet marketing. These campaigns may involve sending periodic e-newsletters filled with information as well as advertisements, short, informative email courses or emails offering discounts on products and services. Loyal customers who opt into your email list will likely not view these emails as spam and may purchase additional products and services from your business as a result of this marketing strategy. Additionally, potential customers who have specifically requested additional information on your products and services will also find this type of marketing to be useful. However, email recipients who did not request information are likely to view your emails as spam. Harvesting email addresses in a deceptive manner and using these addresses to send out mass emails will likely always be considered to be spam. Finally, message boards provide an excellent opportunity for business owners to obtain some free advertising where it will be noticed by members of the target audience. If the products and services you offer appeal to a specific niche, it is worthwhile to join message boards and online forums related to your industry of choice. Here you will find a large population of Internet users who may have an interest in your products. You might consider including a link to your business in your signature or posting the link when it is applicable to the conversation. However, care should be taken to carefully review the message board guidelines to ensure you are not doing anything inappropriate. This technique is smart marketing. Conversely, replying to every message with a link to your website when it is not relevant to the conversation is likely to be construed as spam by other members. Once they begin to view your posts as spam, they are not likely to visit your website via the links you post. Michael Saunders has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. He edits a site on Email Marketing Strategies and maintains the Internet Marketing Library. 3 Necessary Steps You Should Take When Writing Your Own Content If you have a small budget, or you are very interested in writing your own articles, you should make yourself familiar with the necessary steps required when writing articles for business use. Writing commentary can be a great way to get exposure for your business or website if it is done properly. Your articles have to be informative, effective and provide value. If they fall short, you won't get as much value from your editorial efforts. 1. Create a draft for writing your article Before you start writing your article, you should begin with a draft of your information. Regardless of whether you are writing a paragraph, an article, or a book you should brainstorm and write down the basic thought or information that you are trying to put across to your audience. Many times a writer will go back to the preliminary form for reference or as a starting point if the first efforts are not to the writer's liking. By preparing a draft you will not need to worry about whether you remembered the points that needed to be covered or what the purpose of the writing was. You may only need a few words or brief sentences for your draft. Writing your thoughts as well as your references or quotes down ahead of time will free your mind to create compelling content without trying to hold all the important details in your head as you work. If you are writing an article or report you should just write the thoughts down as they come to you for your first draft. You can go back and edit it when you've put everything on paper. If you're writing longer content, such as a book, you need to create a table of contents along with a brief summary of each chapter as a basis for getting started. Do not be concerned with proofreading or accuracy on your first draft. If you need to do more research or check a fact you can go back and do it later. When writing an article, or page content, getting started can be the hardest piece for most writers. Avoid getting caught up in making it perfect the first time and you will discover it is much easier to progress from beginning to end without too much stress. 2. Make the content of your article clear When you've finished writing the first draft of your article, you will need to read it over from start to finish and make notations of areas that need clarification or rewording. Sometimes the information you write for your composition or story makes sense to you but is not clear to others. This can easily happen when your writing is based on information you already know but are taking for granted that your audience is also aware of. Even if your readers SHOULD have some knowledge or experience of your topic, if you don't clarify the basis for your comments they may find the information confusing or misleading. Carefully read over your information or ask for an impartial opinion. If you must do the final check for yourself it is easier to catch mistakes if you leave the information for a while and go back to it later for a fresh look. Try to look at it from the viewpoint of your reader and determine if they would understand the language and explanations easily. 3. Check your articles for accuracy and proofread. When your writing is completed it is important to check it for accuracy. Are all the dates, statistics or facts accurate? Are you using proper spelling, especially for names and places? It is very easy for readers to double check your information when they are browsing the internet. If something strikes them as being 'off' they may actually go see if what you state is referenced somewhere else on the internet. Proofreading should always be done before publishing your content. Using a spell checking program on your computer will catch most spelling errors but you should try to have a second party review the final copy to catch mistakes that you may have overlooked. Writing your own content can give you a great sense of accomplishment and ownership. While trying to maintain a professional writing style can be very important, it is also important to let your own personality and style to shine through so your audience can connect with you. ------ Learn about a system that makes article writing easy and fun! If you are spending time and money promoting articles for your business, this system can help you promote articles that get read and get traffic without needing the skills of an experienced copywriter: Learn to Write Quality Articles Easily. |
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