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Posts Tagged ‘affiliate marketing’

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

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

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

1. Sell a product/service

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

2. Opt-In list

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

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

3. Viral marketing

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

4. ‘Pay-per-click’

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

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

5. Offer an advertising space

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

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

6. Affiliate marketing

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

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

7. Pay-per-lead

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

I personally believe we do a dis-service to the industry and ourselves if we openly state…or even allude…that NWM is easy. It’s not. Nor is any business….WAH or brick & mortar. Anyone who does say different is not being wholly truthful. I find that to be a shame.

NWM requires 3 main ingredients….time, effort, and yes – money. Time is just a matter of redirecting your habits. Not easy but doable. Time directly impacts your efficiency. Effort is entirely controllable by the individual….and directly impacts your effectiveness. Money is self limiting and directly affects both efficiency and effectiveness. An individual must find the best combination of the three that works for them. Someone else can’t tell you what that combination is….but can help you find it (for example a good sponsor).

The new mlmer faces a daunting task…and competition…when it comes to “advertising”. Finding that “best combination” of time, effort, and money is a growth experience. Rarely will it just appear… education (self and provided) plus mentoring (if available) are important factors and hopefully a fact of life. However, “advertising” is not impossible.

In my mind advertising is just whatever method you choose to “reach” people. It might be the traditional newspaper or ezine ad or the simple greeting and sharing with a friend. How you “advertise” or “share” can take many forms.

There are free and inexpensive methods that do work. It’s a matter of finding those that work for you.

For example:

1. Writing and submitting ezine articles is an excellent method. It requires time & effort…but no money. The benefits include increased link popularity for the url used in your sig box (important for search engine ranking), branding, and reach (you can “reach” more with an article than an ezine ad). Plus it’s viral. Often your article is archived by publishers and directories…..available well after it was originally offered. Plus publishers and web masters will often “pick up” your article…again well after you originally submitted it.

2. Business cards are always a good method…and more inexpensive than one realizes. You can even make your own. Just pass them out like candy….stores, church, ball games, local events, restaurants (leave 1 with your bill), businesses you frequent, networking meetings, local Chamber Of Commerce. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

3. Flyers, posters, post cards, brochures, etc. can also be done very inexpensively. You can make your own on your PC or purchase custom or ready made templates from numerous online providers. You could even strike up a joint venture with a local community provider. They print it for you and include their “advert” somewhere…you distribute. You both win, you pay less, and maybe influence that partner to be involved in your business.

4. Web decals on your vehicle(s) is another inexpensive method. I have one on each of our family cars (back window) with a short “catch line” and my url. Cost was ~ $40 each but the visibility is priceless.

5. Newspaper/magazine ads can be found that aren’t going to cost an arm and a leg. Local publications are a good place to start. http://nationwidenewspapers.com is an excellent source. For some of my services I’ve found College student newspapers and alumni magazines to be good performers.

These are just a few examples.

Of course there are the traditional ezine ads, leads programs, Forum participation (sig line – branding reputation), search engines, “3 foot rule”, etc. Most of these will cost you money…all will cost you time & effort.

The key I believe is in being creative and sticking to what best fits your time, effort, money combination. It is and should be a personal choice. If the dollar “cost” doesn’t give you the dollar “value” you hope for….keep looking. But don’t EVER give up.

Plus…diversify. Use multiple methods. Why limit yourself to just “one path”?

Should we just sponsor those willing to waste $1,000′s advertising? Heck no!! We should sponsor anyone interested and teach them how to advertise in a manner best suited for them. Don’t mislead them with false expectations or pressure them into uncomfortable actions. Lead them to solutions which best fit their expectations & abilities (time, effort, money).

John Milton Fogg’s answer to the question is priceless……”It is simple, but it isn’t easy.”

Captures it pretty well I’d say. That’s the message. It’s not hard to understand…should/is fun…..but does take some effort.

Sending any message to prospects that denies effort is involved or necessary….misleads folks into becoming part of the “failed or quit” statistics.

It leads to false expectations.

They start to think they can sit on the couch with beer & potatoe chips watching Oprah on TV all day….and the money will roll in by itself.

Lays, Coronas, and Dr. Phil aren’t going to build your business.

YOU are.

In my mind (OK…my opinion)….that’s the core of any message they should receive.

If you really care…that’s what you’ll tell them.

Be honest….

What do YOU think????

Affiliate marketing is an arrangement between an online merchant and affiliate, in which the affiliate earns a commission for generating sales, leads and/or clicks for the merchant’s web site.

Affiliate marketing works in a win-win situation for the merchant and the affiliate. The merchant gains opportunities to advertise his products for free to a larger market which will increase his sales. The more hard-working affiliates he gets, the more sales he can expect. By getting affiliates to market his products and services, he is saving himself time, effort and money in looking for possible markets and customers. When a client clicks on the link in the affiliate website and purchases the product, recommends it to others who look for the same item or buys it again, this way the merchant leverage his chances of earning. On the other hand, the affiliate marketer benefits from each customer who clicks on the link in his website and who actually purchases the product or avails of the service provided by the merchant. Usually the affiliate gets commission per sale, which can be fixed percentage or fixed amount. The best is that it won’t cost a single dime to join an affiliate program.

If you want to be an affiliate marketer and make money out of the Internet, you may follow these three most basic steps to start your effective affiliate marketing campaign.

Your first step is to identify a particular niche you are interested in or passionate about so you won’t be bored and forced to develop your affiliate web site later on. Focusing on a specific area you known well, it will help you bring out your best. Here are a few places you can research on – ClickBank Marketplace, AssociatePrograms.com, LinkShare.com, CJ.com etc

Secondly is to look for good paying merchants and high converting products .Make a list of good paying and high converting affiliate programs for your chosen niche and create a website. In choosing the products, you must also consider the support they are giving – Marketing materials may include articles, text links, banner ads, classified ads, reports, etc.

There are many affiliate networks and affiliate solution providers that can give you info on the most profitable products and best paying merchants. So be wise enough to choose the right affiliate program.

Now that you have decided which products to promote and the merchant you are supporting and have created your own web site with a domain name and reliable hosting, you are ready to promote. This is the toughest part, since it is through this that you would be able to increase traffic to the business website, sales and of course, profit. In affiliate marketing, it is possible to earn large sums of money in a short span of time if you use the right strategies and methods.

On how to promote the products would need a separate discussion. You must continue to educate yourself by reading books, courses or other articles online about the best and proven advertising techniques.

Remember, there is no quick path towards success. Affiliate marketing may seem very tempting due to numerous encouraging testimonies of merchants and affiliate marketers alike who have benefited from it, but it really involves in a great deal of hard work and persistence. You also need to be creative and flexible.

Most affiliate marketers don’t understand this, so when they don’t make sales, they quit, look for other programs and carry on the same mistake. In the end, they said that affiliate marketing is just one of those scams in the Internet. You can work your way to great success if you employ the right strategies in affiliate marketing. You can make money as an affiliate marketer if you willing to do what it takes.