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July 01, 2009

Affiliate Marketing Is The Best Way to Make Money

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money that I know of. Basically, all I have to do is send web site visitors to a web page built by someone else. On that web page, someone is selling products I don't have to stock. Then, they sell the item, ship the product out, and handle everything for me - bliss!

And then I make money when they persuade the person to buy. Pretty cool, right?

Yet still lots of people struggle to make money using this method.

So what are the challenges here?

Continue reading "Affiliate Marketing Is The Best Way to Make Money" »



November 14, 2008

How To Analyze Traffic to Your Website

Analyzing Traffic to Your Website
by Diego Norte

Figuring out traffic statistics is a necessary part of your marketing responsibilities if you want to succeed online. It's an obvious course of action but one that many webmasters fail to act upon. Taking advantage of other people's neglect will help you dominate the competition.

There really isn't any excuse not to be proactive in evaluating the amount of traffic your are receiving, what target audience is visiting and what areas of concern you need to improve to ensure you are bringing in the right people. This also helps you work on getting more quality traffic.

Continue reading "How To Analyze Traffic to Your Website" »



September 19, 2008

Twitter: How To Link Ezine Articles To Post On Twitter

This is a quick video I put together based on Alex Mandossian's post about how to link your Ezine Articles approved articles to your Twitter profile. This will bring your articles more exposure, which should bring more exposure to whatever product or service you're offering.

Continue reading "Twitter: How To Link Ezine Articles To Post On Twitter" »



August 20, 2008

Free Ways To List Your Local Business Online: A Directory of Local Directories

A friend of mine just opened a really cool ice cream, coffee, cakes place here in Denver. It's called TheRedTrolley.com

He and I got to talking and I mentioned that he should get listed in lots of local directories to drive more traffic into the business.

He's a smart individual, and so must have passed the idea along to the local business manager.

The manager for the store called me a few days later (today), saying that he didn't know that much about how to get the business listed in local online directories, and asked if I could offer him some help.

I don't know that much about local directories either, as my business is worldwide and Internet based, but I know there are hundreds (if not thousands) of web sites which can be used for getting local business listings "out there" and promoting a local-based business online.

So here's some quick discovery stuff I did with a little Googling...

Some are free, some cost something... you'll have to research...

But, I would exhaust all free local listing possibilities first (and then move into the pay ones, if you aren't getting the foot traffic you want).

Getting listed in all of these local directories will gain you more customers, particularly if you're a restaurant or hotel, and especially if you offer them something for free, in order to get them to come in to your business.

Continue reading "Free Ways To List Your Local Business Online: A Directory of Local Directories" »



July 13, 2008

Optimization Advice and Basics: Google Offers Adsense Optimization Advice

Google Adsense recently published some basic beginner guidelines for getting listed in Google.

Among these are to add a Google site map to your site and to use Google's webmastering tools.

As well, they talk about the benefits of having appropriate title tags and appropriate ALT image tags for your site (Two things we've discussed here previously at Affiliate Advice).

However, it can be difficult (assuming you're using static methods of building pages) to update your Google site map every time you build new pages for your site.

This is why I recommend building your site using a content management system like Wordpress or Movable Type.

And below, I have posted the code you will need for building a Google Map with WordPress or Movable Type.

Continue reading "Optimization Advice and Basics: Google Offers Adsense Optimization Advice" »



July 10, 2008

Does GoToMeeting Work? Affordable Online Conference Recording Software - does that exist? What about a free trial for Go To Meeting?

I love GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar. These services have saved me countless hours and actually helped me to earn a fair amount of income as well.

So, I made a recording to showcase some of the things that this service can do.

I recommend you use the GoToMeeting Free Trial, and give it 30 days.

If you like it, pay for it. If you don't, it's easily removed from your computer registry.

But I recommend you give it a try. It's simple, has yet to cause any errors on my computer (after nearly two years of use) and is actually fun to use.

Transcript of this video: Being someone who does a lot of things online, Go To Meeting has become one of my favorite online tools for getting things done. Go To Meeting is basically a service that lets you show people what's on your computer, or you can see what's on their computer. Some of the nicer things about it are that it's basically an online video conference recording, which allows me to see what's on someone else's computer. And I know that lots of corporations, and large corporate conglomerates, are looking for online software solutions for meeting each other online. And they don't want to pay per use because that can become very expensive. So what I'd like to do just very quickly with this video is show you the affordable services that are offered by Go To Meeting. I'm not really selling it necessarily, but if you decide that you might like to check it out, there's a free trial link right next to this video and you can use this for your online meetings. And I may have misspoken just a minute ago too, because you don't have to be like a large corporate conglomerate. I'm just an individual who does a lot of things online, but a lot of times people are wanting to know how it is that I do what I do. And so Go To Meeting has been a really invaluable tool for doing online video conferencing so that they can see what's actually going on, on my computer. And that happens through this online meeting solution.

So when I first sign in to Go To Meeting, it asks if I want to host a meeting now or if I want to schedule a meeting for later. While you can schedule it for later, for purposes of this quick video, I'm going to show you how this works, so I click to meet now and then the software goes ahead and starts a meeting. Now as part of starting this meeting, it actually sets up a phone number for me for people to dial in to, and it then gives me all of these controls right here on the screen. And it says hey, if you want to invite people you can use this information. You tell them to go to Go To Meeting and join a meeting. So you just tell somebody on the front page to meet you at Go To Meeting and click on join a meeting. And so they will go to that website and I'm actually going to do this on my desktop. So I will go ahead and get signed in here, but you can see they gave me a meeting ID to use at Go To Meeting. So I'm clicking to go ahead and log into this meeting on my desktop, but this recording you are watching is actually on my laptop. So you're going to see me show up here in just a minute from my desktop into this meeting.

So now you see Jonathan-desktop has arrived right here into this meeting. So the first thing is if I want to show whoever else is in this meeting what's on my screen, then I click play here and now I'm actually showing them my screen. These controls are blurred out, but if you could see my desktop, you would actually see that I am watching what's going on, on my laptop, from my desktop.

Continue reading "Does GoToMeeting Work? Affordable Online Conference Recording Software - does that exist? What about a free trial for Go To Meeting?" »



February 16, 2008

Recruiting JV Partners - Sage Advice from Mark Widawer

My friend Mark Widawer sent out some GREAT advice about how to get JV Partners to work with you.

I liked what he had to say A LOT, so I'm re-posting here.

Again, if you're looking for JV partners, this is GREAT Advice!

(The only thing I would add to it is to say that a great way to get someone to become a JV and promote your stuff, is to become an affiliate for their products and services and promote their stuff first.)

I have one big Internet marketer I've been bugging for almost a year now to get his affiliate program set up so that I can be a JV and promote his stuff.

I've never promoted for him, because his affiliate program doesn't work at the moment, but I send him an email about once a month to say that I'd really like to be a JV for him, and to ask when his affiliate program will be up and running.

He always responds back and lets me know that he appreciates my persistence and is glad that I want to JV with him.

I'm not annoying about it, just a gentle reminder.

When it comes time to ask for help promoting my stuff, do you think he might be more receptive to it than if I approach him out of the blue?

Of course!

Mark Widawer has another suggestion for getting JV partners - and that is right below.


-----------------------------
Ever send emails to potential JV partners and never get a reply back?

Here's how to get around that problem, and to truly and genuinely be known as a "Giver," too.

Continue reading "Recruiting JV Partners - Sage Advice from Mark Widawer" »



February 04, 2008

Aweber Systems Autoresponders: Are Lists Managed Better By Free Email Autoresponder Software?

AWeber Systems

For many online businesses (and I would argue for all online businesses who want to stay in business), an autoresponder is a necessary tool. An autoresponder (or software or system which controls multiple autoresponders), can do many amazing things for building relationships and segregating markets.

An autoresponder:
- manages databases of current and prospective customers
- enables a business to send personalized emails, either to a selected group of these customers or to all of them at one time
- automatically responds to incoming requests and comments, including the request to unsubscribe.

An autoresponder should also be able to send blog entries as emails for those readers who prefer to receive blog entries via email. This is known as an RSS-to-email service, and a good autoresponder should include tracking software to measure the performance of these emails and any ads contained within them.

One of the most highly regarded autoresponders currently available is AWeber. To illustrate, when I began searching the Internet for information for this article, I was astonished to find no negative feedback about Aweber Systems - none at all.

Continue reading "Aweber Systems Autoresponders: Are Lists Managed Better By Free Email Autoresponder Software?" »



February 02, 2008

1ShoppingCart: A Review of 1ShoppingCart, and a discount/promo code for 1 ShoppingCart's services

1ShoppingCart

What Norton Utilities is to maintaining a hard drive, 1ShoppingCart is to running an ecommerce business: a suite of all-inclusive programs designed to do everything that's necessary for the task.

Side note: Go to www.ZShoppingCart.com for a thirty-day trial for only $3.95.

Founded in January 2000 in Eugene, Oregon, One Shopping Cart's major component is the shopping cart software, designed to plug into a new or existing website and allow businesses to sell up to 10,000 products of their own.

This also includes an option for automatic ebook delivery/digital product downloads.

1ShoppingCart calculates shipping and sales tax, allows coupons and discounts, prints invoices and packing slips, and sends customers an email receipt while notifying the seller and his drop-shipper. It also contains a database for affiliates and existing and prospective customers for broadcast emailing, all with high data security fully certified by Visa.

An additional level of ecommerce utility is provided by 1ShoppingCart's Internet marketing tools. Their autoresponder facility harvests email subscribers via online forms, scores emails for spam prior to sending, broadcasts emails and newsletters, and automatically identifies undeliverable ones.

Other marketing tools include ad effectiveness tracking, a pop-up wizard, affiliate tracking software capable of handling multiple sales programs (though 1ShoppingCart's affiliate module can take a little time to learn), up-sell and cross-sell modules ("Would you like fries with that?"), and a questionnaire facility for market research.

This is a powerful ecommerce software suite, and coupled with a credit card acceptance account (also available through 1ShoppingCart), it's basically a "business in a box" all you do is supply the product and the marketing to make the tool sell your stuff for you.

Continue reading "1ShoppingCart: A Review of 1ShoppingCart, and a discount/promo code for 1 ShoppingCart's services" »



January 05, 2008

A List Of Social Media Web Sites: Directory

Note: This list is currently under construction. I'm working on getting a full list of social media sites put together that will be a complete resource for anyone looking to use social media to build their brand or business. if you know of social media sites which should be included here, please feel free to add them using the comments field below.

www.scribd.com
www.propeller.com
www.hubpages.com
www.searchles.com
www.stumbleupon.com
www.digg.com
www.dabble.com
www.stylehive.com
www.yourhub.com
www.yample.com
Digg.com
Propeller.com
Reddit.com
Del.icio.us
Stumbleupon.com
Socialogs.com
Indianpad.com
Google.com/Bookmarks
Technorati.com
Furl.net
Diigo.com
Wirefan.com
Bibsonomy.org
Blinklist.com
Blogmemes.net
Bluedot.us
Myjeeves.ask.com
Simpy.com
Backflip.com
Spurl.net
Newsvine.com
Netvouz.com
Folkd.com
Blinkbits.com
Bmaccess.net
Blogmarks.net
Plugim.com
Linkagogo.com
Mister-wong.de
Sk-rt.com
Connotea.org
Twitter.com
Thoof.com
Corank.com
Megite.com/discover/
Facebook.com
Yample.com
Squidoo.com
Taggly.com
Actualtopics.com
Authorcontent.com
Ebizgo.info
Tagza.com
Emodrama.com
Musigg.org
Screamfeed.com
Teenwag.com
Lipstick.com
Relevantlogs.com

Continue reading "A List Of Social Media Web Sites: Directory" »



January 03, 2008

What Is Social Media And Why Should You Care About Social Media

Social Media is a buzz word among members of the media and press. Has our entire society gone social?

Well, first, let's take a look at what social media is, using some help from a our (social media) website friend, Wikipedia.

Social media is "participatory online media where news, photos, videos, and podcasts are made public via social media websites through submission."

The definition goes on to say that social media is normally accompanied by a voting process so that media items (i.e. anything talked about, blogged, or captured in audio/video) can become "popular".

Someone later came along to Wikipedia and put this part in...

"Social Media Expanded Definition: Social Media is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into content publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations between authors, people, and peers."

So basically here's the idea.

Since the invention of the printing press, up until the opening up of the Internet in 1989 and the World Wide Web in 1993 (Thanks Al Gore), the communication (i.e. media) coming from those in the know has been primarily one-sided. Sure, there have always been letters to the editor, but imagine telling the author of an article that you don't like what they had to say, 5 minutes after the article was published, and imagine how you would have to do it if there were no Internet.

That's life without social media.

What social media does is give anyone the opportunity to broadcast information, in a real-time format.

Wikipedia says further that social media uses the combined knowledge and application of lots of people, who are able to collect and tie together all that they know. Social media can be anything from email user group (an early form of social media), forums, and message boards, to weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and video.

Some of the more known social media sites are Google Groups, Wikipedia, MySpace, Facebook,YouTube, Second Life (a virtual reality game where the users actually create the reality in which their characters live), and Flickr (photo sharing).

Continue reading "What Is Social Media And Why Should You Care About Social Media" »



December 20, 2007

What Are ALT tags, And How Can They Help My Site?

Can you tell me what alt tags are in images or where I can get info on that?

Is this something I can just paste into the html of the images I get from merchants, in order for my site content to be recognized?

Gayle

Continue reading "What Are ALT tags, And How Can They Help My Site?" »



Mark Joyner's Viral Marketing Tactic On Blogging

So Mark Joyner (who I think I can call a friend at this point... though I've only met him on a few occasions... but did get to have lunch with him twice) has confessed that he isn't a good blogger.

To that I say, "huh?"

I didn't think that about him. Since his launch of "Atomic Mind Bombs", I thought that he would be like a go-to resource on blogging, but he says he's not.

Anyway, Mark's using a viral marketing strategy to get lots of backlinks and get people to post on their blogs about his blogging course that he's written, which he says is a serious credibility gap, since he is a self-professed "official blogging moron".

Hmmm...

Here's the crazy thing.

It must be working.

Why?

I'm blogging about it, just so I can get my free copy.

Actually, Mark has been of trememdous help to me in my Internet Marketing career, and I don't mind sending him free traffic at all, especially to get the one or two things in his blogging course which I may not know already. So... here's the ad below that he gave me, and if you go to the site, and blog about his course, he'll send a copy of it to you for free too.

Mark's a good guy, and sticks to what he says he will do, so you should probably blog about it and get the course for free as well.

Viral marketing at it's best. Way to go Mark Joyner and Co.

Continue reading "Mark Joyner's Viral Marketing Tactic On Blogging" »



December 18, 2007

Creating a Privacy Policy For Free

Hi Jonathan,

I am an affiliate marketer, and have a web site already.

What I don't have is a privacy policy. I've been told that I need one.

Is this true? Do I actually need a privacy policy even if I'm just doing affiliate marketing?

AND, if yes, do you know how I can get a privacy policy done for cheap or free?

Thanks,
Jane

Continue reading "Creating a Privacy Policy For Free" »



December 16, 2007

How To: Opening Web Pages In A New Window

Hi Jonathan,

I know this may be a very basic web page/web design question, so forgive me if it is.

But, I can't seem to find an answer anywhere.

When someone clicks on an affiliate link from my web site, they are always taken to another web page, and they leave my site. How do I get the web page to open in a new window?

Continue reading "How To: Opening Web Pages In A New Window" »



December 12, 2007

I'm only 17. How can I do Affiliate Marketing?

Hey Jonathan.
I wanna become a affiliate marketer. Some friends of mine told me about it, and I figure its way better than McD's or some job like that.

But I am only 17 years old. Every site I have found, you have to be 18.

Is there a way around this?

Johnny
-Knoxville

Continue reading "I'm only 17. How can I do Affiliate Marketing?" »



December 10, 2007

5 Ways To Make Affiliate Money Without My Own Website?

This is from an interview I did with Carrie, who asked me a bunch of questions she has heard people ask me over and over about affiliate marketing.

This is verbatim from a call recording I did with her.

I've been posting the answers to these questions over the past few days.

Q: I don't have a website, can you give me a few, maybe 5 ways, that I can make money using an Affiliate Network, or an affiliate program, without a website?

AffiliateAdvice: Sure! Ok, one good way would be if you...There are all these article websites on the internet. You could go sign up for one of these article websites and publish an article on that website and at the bottom you have the option to send traffic back to a website using what's called a Resource Box. And in the Resource Box, you could actually put your Affiliate Link. Now over time, some of the article websites have stopped people from doing this because they realized that they are just loading up the article websites with spam and junk.

But if you were to set up a web address, you know, www.whatever, you can go set up a web address at GoDaddy without actually setting up a website, and you can just redirect that web address to your Affiliate Link. That would be one way to do it, is just by publishing articles and sending that traffic to your Affiliate Link.

Continue reading "5 Ways To Make Affiliate Money Without My Own Website?" »



December 09, 2007

What is the Best Tool to Make Money Online?

This is from an interview I did with Carrie, who asked me a bunch of questions she has heard people ask me over and over about affiliate marketing.

I'll be posting the answers to these questions over the next few days


Q: What is the best tool or resource that someone can have in order to use an Affiliate Marketing Network to make money?

AffiliateAdvice: I would say a website. If I want to go partner with an Affiliate Network, the best tool that I can really have is a website where it's easy for me to publish content to that website.

Continue reading "What is the Best Tool to Make Money Online?" »



December 08, 2007

What is Affiliate Marketing, and What is An Affiliate Marketing Network

This is from an interview I did with Carrie, who asked me a bunch of questions she has heard people ask me over and over.

I'll be posting the answers to these questions over the next few days.

Affiliate Marketing is basically the idea that there are people who want to sell stuff on the Internet and people who want to buy stuff on the Internet. And then there are people in the middle who know how to communicate ideas and concepts to the people who want to buy stuff. And so the people in the middle connect the people who want to buy stuff with the people who have stuff to sell.

Because maybe the people who have stuff to sell, maybe if I sell Harley Davidson motorcycle accessories, I don't want to get good at marketing on the Internet. So I have someone, I'm willing to pay someone if they deliver me someone who actually buys; I'm willing to pay that person a percentage of whatever they deliver to me.

So that's kind of the idea, it's basically a paid salesperson on the Internet - it's just leveraging the power of the Internet to create that kind of income coming in without necessarily having, you know shaking hands, or cold-call or something to get this person to actually buy from the vendor. So, I'm in the middle.

An Affiliate Marketing Network then is another step in that process. So let's say there's the guy who has the Harley Davidson motorcycle part, and he doesn't know how to get in touch with me, who's communicating with the buyer, so there's a middle-ground, a network, that he can go to this Affiliate Network and say, hey, I want you to show me how to setup all the tracking code and all the stuff on my site and I want you to go out and recruit people who will talk to the people who will buy from me.

Continue reading "What is Affiliate Marketing, and What is An Affiliate Marketing Network" »



December 03, 2007

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Video 1

I created this video while teaching my friend Kevin how to get started with his own affiliate marketing/Internet Marketing business.

I could lie and say that you'll have thousands of dollars in your bank account tomorrow (like some marketers do - in order to get you to buy their programs), but the fact is that most people aren't going to become instantly wealthy overnight, and this is especially true of new internet marketers.

But what if you could add an extra $500 to your bank account every month?

And, what if you could take what you learned and over the next few months, grow that $500/month into $1,000/month?

And, what if you could take that learning and turn your part-time affiliate income into a full-time affiliate business, and figure out how to earn as much as $5,000/month, with just a little more time investment?

And then grow that to $10,000/month, and have the freedom and flexibility to travel, and build your business wherever you have a high-speed Internet connection?

Continue reading "Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Video 1" »



November 24, 2007

What is Affiliate Marketing: The Basics of Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate networks

A guy named Joel Gehman originally wrote an article back in 2000, and I thought it had a good answer to the question of what is affiliate marketing.

This is a question I field ALL the time, and I wanted to just start steering people into an article, instead of always offering the same explanation over and over.

But, Joel Gehman's site (AffiliateHandbook.com), and well as his contact information, seem to have gone missing.

This article is loosely based on Joel's article, but has been modified around the more modern state of affiliate marketing. (Giving credit where it's due, I have included some of his article here, because it helps people understand the background for how affiliate marketing works today.)

What exactly is affiliate marketing? And how can affiliate marketing be used in an industry in order to improve business?

Well, what affiliate marketing is today started with Amazon in 1996...

Continue reading "What is Affiliate Marketing: The Basics of Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate networks" »



July 12, 2007

Setting up an affiliate redirect page using HTML

One of the things all affiliates should know how to set up is a meta-refresh page for their affiliate links.

Why?

2 reasons:

It saves you from having all your links look like affiliate links

i.e. https://www.mcssl.com/?ref=123456&aff=32123
becomes
https://www.yoursite.com/product-name

AND

If a program changes at some point down the road, or some affiliate product or service that is comparable but better comes along, you only have to change one page, instead of changing the hundreds of pages you could build which might link to that affiliate program.


The video (loading below) is showing you how to create these pages, and then ultimately, you can save your affiliate redirect pages in one of three ways.

1. With separate folders for each redirect, with an index.html file inside of them
(ex. https://www.usaaffiliateprograms.com/ideas/landing-page-cash-machine
is actually
https://www.usaaffiliateprograms.com/ideas/landing-page-cash-machine/index.html)

2. WIth separate pages on your web site
(In the case of affiliate advice, I've set up a page here to show you a redirect to Dave Taylor's course. By the way, if you can get anything by Dave Taylor, you REALLY should. He's brilliant.)
https://www.usaaffiliateprograms.com/davetaylor.html

3. With a separate URL where you keep track of all of your affiliate links.
(i.e. www.nameofyourrecommendedproductsdomain.com/product-name)

It's possible that this is a bit confusing, so I've made a video below to show you exactly how you can set up an affiliate redirect inside of Microsoft FrontPage, and I've also given you the HTML code so that you can build your own affiliate redirect pages.

Continue reading "Setting up an affiliate redirect page using HTML" »



June 12, 2007

How to Get A Roboform Discount by Using a Code

---------------------
Save 20% (at least $6, depending on what you get from Roboform) using this
Roboform discount code
---------------------

One of the best things you can do as an affiliate is have Roboform installed on your computer.

I posted about this over on IdentityTheftSecrets from a Phishing perspective, but with all the passwords you have to remember and manage as an affiliate, I have found Roboform to be an absolute MUST!

So, I decided to help IdentityTheftSecrets readers.

I called Roboform and got them to give a discount code for this nifty software.

As an affiliate marketer, I definitely think you might be interested in owning it too. I know the money I spent to have Roboform was just about the best $30 I spent in 2006. and you can get it with a discount.

I've been very pleased with the amount of time I have saved remebering pass codes and log ins using Roboform's autofill and auto log-in features.

You can also read my post on IdentityTheftSecrets about using a discount code for Roboform



May 21, 2007

How To Optimize Landing Pages So That Google And The Other Search Engines Will Bring Targeted Traffic

by Mark Widawer
"Landing Page Cash Machine"

There's no substitute for getting good keywords on your website. In my workshop I just recently had an insider's guide on knowing your customer, and I've got to tell you, as time goes on, the more people ask me questions, the more often the answer comes back to the basic idea that you really have to understand and know your customer.

Let's say if you're selling digital cameras and you have a page all about Canon L400, (I don't even know if that's a real model number,) and all it does is talk about the Canon L400, then people searching for the keyphrase "digital camera" aren't going to find that page, because the main keywords on that page are going to be Canon L400.

Let's think about that for a moment. What state of mind is somebody in who's searching for digital cameras,? The state of mind that person has is, "Hmm, I think I'd like to buy a new digital camera, and I'm curious about digital cameras." They're not at all ready to buy.

On the other hand, somebody who searches for "Canon digital camera" pretty much knows "so-and-so friend" has recommended a Canon digital camera to them and they want to find out more about the Canon.

Continue reading "How To Optimize Landing Pages So That Google And The Other Search Engines Will Bring Targeted Traffic" »



May 18, 2007

How to Get Testimonials for a Product that is Brand New

by Mark Widawer
"Landing Page Cash Machine"

Creating momentum with a new product is sometimes a difficult thing to do, but the issue with a new product is really about trust and credibility. For me, establishing trust and credibility really goes back to the idea of testimonials.

There are two kinds of testimonials. There are testimonials from experts and there are testimonials from other people "just like me." What you would like to get ideally are testimonials from both kinds of people.

A testimonial from an expert you can get by calling them up or sending them an email and saying, "I have this new product. I would very much like it if I could get a testimonial from you. As a thank-you I'd like to send you a preview copy of the product. Would you please read this or look at this or whatever and send me testimonial."

You'd be surprised at how many people will be willing to do that for you, in addition to giving you some great feedback about how you can improve your product.

Continue reading "How to Get Testimonials for a Product that is Brand New" »



May 14, 2007

How To Distinguish Your Website From Others That Are Selling Exactly the Same Thing

by Mark Widawer
From "Landing Page Cash Machine"

There are a few different elements to making sure your web site stands out from other sites which are selling the same product as you. The main thing you can do is to take a look at what everybody else does, and do everything differently with respect to the easy way out that they usually take.

What a lot of people will do is put up a sales page that offers all of these different kinds of things, all at one time, and not really hone in on who their customer is.

That's what the problem was with the red shoe survey that I did for Affiliate Summit. The random phrase that I picked for the survey was "red shoes," and I searched for that. Then I looked at all the Google AdWords ads that came up on the first page, and the websites that people were taken to when they clicked.

Continue reading "How To Distinguish Your Website From Others That Are Selling Exactly the Same Thing" »



May 12, 2007

Make Them Want To Buy From You

by Mark Widawer
"Landing Page Cash Machine"

When someone lands on your web site, you want to make them want to buy from you.

How do you MAKE them do anything that they don't want to do?

Well, If you really start thinking about what somebody is looking for when they come to your website, you should be able to figure out what it is that you want to say to them. This is important to know, because in the answer to the question is the answer to how you convert them from a visitor into a buyer.

Continue reading "Make Them Want To Buy From You" »



May 10, 2007

What Is A Value Build And How Do You Build It Into Your Web Site's Sale And Bonuses

by Mark Widawer.
"Landing Page Cash Machine",

People are often confused about how and why they should put a value build into their offers. Basically, the idea is that you want to build the value of the item before you ask for the sale. This is a basic sales tactic, and it's an important tactic to know if you're going to build business on the web.

So, let's say you sell sports team floor mats. A value build would be something like this: "This is the same kind of floor mat that is actually used in the stadium. The stadium, when they buy them, they're actually paying $100 each for them because it's made with this, that, and the other thing, and they have them specially done."

"We make them exactly the same way, but instead of paying $100, ours are just $31.99, and besides that it's really just $24.88."

Now what you've done there is you've put in somebody's head, "Wow, this is a $100 floor mat." You've built the value of the item before you're asking for the sale. Hopefully you get that, and once you do a value build, then what you do - and by the way, this applies to physical products, digital products, anything - once you've done the value build, then you say, "And here's how much it is."

Continue reading "What Is A Value Build And How Do You Build It Into Your Web Site's Sale And Bonuses" »



May 09, 2007

How to Establish Trust with your list

by Mark Widawer
LandingPageCashMachine

How you get someone to not only give you their name and email address, but also their phone number, street address, and other information depends a lot on what it is that you're trying to get them to opt into.

The answer, though, in general, is a little bit at a time.

The thing you have to keep in mind when you're trying to get an opt-in or sell something online is that by default people don't trust you. It's maybe a hard thing to get over, because you are, after all, a nice person, but you have to assume that people don't trust you.

The way to gain their trust is not by saying, "I'm trustworthy" or not by saying, "Trust me," which I think are two of the most dangerous words in the English language.

Continue reading "How to Establish Trust with your list" »



May 08, 2007

Great advice from Mark Widawer

Over the next week or two, we are going to be sharing some articles which were written by Mark Widawer.

I came across these articles and think that they really have a lot to say about not only affiliate marketing, but Internet Marketing in general.

Continue reading "Great advice from Mark Widawer" »



April 13, 2007

Can Contact Station Really Reduce Spam?

I don't know about you, but I absolutely hate spam.

I mean, when you receive over 200 messages in a day, and 40-50 of them are just garbage about Viagra and Zanox and sex, it's really annoying.

Continue reading "Can Contact Station Really Reduce Spam?" »



March 07, 2007

Ken McArthur's Survey

For anyone who filled out Ken McArthur's survey today, and didn't realize the real value of the survey, I thought I would make a little post here.

In question #4 Ken asks people what parts of creating an information product they would like to outsource. And then it gives you options.

Those options that you can check ARE the blueprint for creating an information product and getting it sold on the Internet. There are perhaps some other steps, but Mr. McArthur actually provides the actual steps, in order, for creating an informational product.

Continue reading "Ken McArthur's Survey" »



February 19, 2007

The Importance of Pre-Selling As An Affiliate Marketer

This video (while a bit boring in terms of presentation) has some really good things to say about affiliate marketers trying to sell a product.

Here are some things to think about:

Continue reading "The Importance of Pre-Selling As An Affiliate Marketer" »



February 12, 2007

Call your affiliates

I have been to three Affiliate Summits now, and have loved them. For the people I've met, the things I've learned, and mostly, the expansion that has happened for me about what's possible.

One of the people I have met, at the previous two Affiliate Summits, and then at this affiliate summit, has talked with me about getting things going with his company, since I haven't promoted for/with them at all, and they have a huge array of software products to promote.

Continue reading "Call your affiliates" »



February 07, 2007

Call with Alex Mandossian and Jim Guarino

One of the biggest challenges people face when they're getting started into affiliate marketing is the set of philosophies and attitudes with which they enter the business.

I was on a call today with Alex Mandossian (one of my heroes) and Jim Guarino, where Mr. Guarino was talking about his book (which became an Amazon.com bestseller): Get Real Money! Get the Money You Want in Just 7 Minutes a Day.

Some of this is word for word what was on the call, and some of it is my paraphrasing, but it was a good call. What they talked about mostly is the fact that your personal philosophy, more than anything else, will have the greatest impact on the actions you take, and the actions you take will have the greatest impact on the lifestyle you ultimately achieve.

Here are some of the more specific ideas that were covered on this call.

Continue reading "Call with Alex Mandossian and Jim Guarino" »



February 03, 2007

How do I Start My Own Affiliate Program

With regard to Affiliate Programs, there are many options, but they basically fall into three categories

1. Manage your affiliate program in-house
(using software you buy or build, hosted on your servers, or by signing up for a monthly service, which involves learning a system, but is generally the least expensive long-term option as far as set up and paying of commissions goes)

2. Have someone else or another company manage your affiliate program for you
(either using software on your servers or a third party solution, but they basically run everything for you, at a fee)

Continue reading "How do I Start My Own Affiliate Program" »



January 31, 2007

My Friend's Web Design Woes

My friend has been frustrated with her web design/hosting company recently, and so she called me to ask some questions about her hosting, and web design, and asked me my thoughts. For me to do her design work is maybe a bit out of her price range, but I wanted to respond to her so that she could know how to go forward.

I am under the impression that others may have similar questions, so I decided to post my responses to her here.

Continue reading "My Friend's Web Design Woes" »



December 27, 2006

What? SEO? Search Engine Optimization? Why should a legitimate business think about SEO?

I wrote this article and made the video for an entry into the EliteRetreat "Get a Free Ticket" contest. I didn't win the contest, but the article is still a good basic article for helping people understand why they need to think about Search Engine Optimization, so I've included it here. Please add your comments below.

Every legitimate business should maybe not worry about SEO, but MUST PLAN on SEO.

Why? Let's pretend...

Continue reading "What? SEO? Search Engine Optimization? Why should a legitimate business think about SEO?" »



December 19, 2006

Video Sharing Sites like Utube - The definitive List of Video Sites

Did you know you can download Utube videos to your computer?

Aside from the illustrious UTube and Google Video, Affiliate Marketers should know about free sites where they can upload videos showcasing their products. While this Utube-like list is by no means the COMPLETE list for free video sharing sites, it's a great place to start!

Continue reading "Video Sharing Sites like Utube - The definitive List of Video Sites" »



November 29, 2006

Joel Comm Talks About the Value of an Affiliate Network

Joel Comm is a brilliant marketer and is someone I have come to know and respect as a mentor and friend. He sent this email out today about attracting, recruiting, retaining, and supporting the affiliates in your affiliate program, and I thought it had some really great things to say to anyone who has affiliates.

So here's Joel Comm talking about Your Affiliate Network:

Continue reading "Joel Comm Talks About the Value of an Affiliate Network" »



November 15, 2006

Jim Edwards Article: Find Extra Hours Online

You might say that this article by Jim Edwards is at the crux of what people MUST know about building a business online.

The thing that people MUST know?

Continue reading "Jim Edwards Article: Find Extra Hours Online" »



November 12, 2006

How to choose affiliate programs

What to look for when choosing Affiliate Programs
by Jonathan Kraft
www.affiliateadvice.us

(Note: This is an old article, but I placed it here because the tips in this article should be a good reminder of things to look for when you're choosing new online partners!)

So you've decided you want to become an Internet Marketer? Will you sell someone else's products or sell your own? If you choose to sell someone else's products, how will you know what to look for? After all, this is a new venture for you.

Continue reading "How to choose affiliate programs" »



Niche Markets and Niche Marketing

I came across this article today, and I thought it had a lot of good things to say about Niche Marketing, so I've included it here.

I disagree with the author, in that I think you could compete with Dell and Gateway, but you would do it by finding Niche Markets inside of computers.

Otherwise, I think it's a pretty darn good article about niche marketing

What Is Niche Marketing and Can it Help Me?--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Niche marketing is finding small, unused areas of the market that occupy a special area of demand. A small corner of the world that huge corporations have no interest in. These little segment of the market can have a big impact on the niche marketer. You won't have to worry about the big conglomerates trying to squeeze you out because the customer base won't be big enough for them to even care about. They want to attract large crowds and make huge sales off one giant website.

Continue reading "Niche Markets and Niche Marketing" »



November 09, 2006

Tellman Knudson's 17 traffic secrets

Check this out
(but do it quietly... I think Tellman may have left this link up on accident)

Get almost $1000 worth of Tellman Knudson's best stuff for $1.

I was on a call with Tellman Knudson today where he talked about 17 traffic secrets. Now the 17th "secret" isn't on this list, because it is for a type of traffic that Mr. Knudson himself invented, and was very brilliantly marketed on the call.

I'm sure, knowing the kind of value that Tellman Knudson provides, that it's worth the investment he was asking for it. But I didn't invest right now.

What I did get out of this call that I wanted to share with you is these types of traffic listed below

I'll be going more in-depth about each of these at some point, but here was the best piece of advice I've heard offered in a while, and it was offered by one of Tellman's guests on the line.

Pick one form of traffic, become an expert at it, and then move on to another. If you try to do all of these methods at once you end up getting nothing done.

The one I chose, a long time ago, was Search Engine Optimization. Mostly, I just didn't know there was much else, and I was rather good at SEO and I enjoyed it. If you've been on the affiliateadvice newsletter for a while, SEO is probably what landed you on this list.

But take the advice. Pick just one or two of these areas, get very good at using that method to bring traffic to your site, and then move on to the next method.

Sound advice from Tellman and guests.

Continue reading "Tellman Knudson's 17 traffic secrets" »



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