Increase your affiliate earnings
with a smart webmaster plan.
by Ed Charkow
Affiliate programs are a great way to earn
an income online in a few easy steps. However, if you don't have a plan
you are going to fail. A smart webmaster plan includes some pretty basic
steps that you should follow every time.
A website is a lot like a business on the corner. Your advertising
methods might be a little different but you still have expenses, and you
need to plan for growth. The expenses for a website are usually hosting,
domain registration, and some form of advertising.
I don't want you to even think for a moment that being an affiliate
isn't a reason to be your own webmaster. There is a reason that 95% of
affiliates never make a sale. The reason is they aren't doing what the
5% making money are doing. It's about time you treated your affiliations
like a real business.
A real business plans for everything, before spending the first cent.
Step one:
Don't register a domain name, don't get hosting, don't do anything yet.
Let's think about what we want to accomplish with our plan. For our
example we want to promote a service site for webmasters. (It makes
sense to sell shovels to the coal miners.) We are going to set things up
to generate recurring traffic and high page rankings.
Step two:
Choose your affiliations wisely. Many affiliate programs don't pay, or
won't be here in 6 months. When your planning your website, don't make
it dependent on one affiliate program. I like to review products that I
personally use. For my example here I am going to use Xarawebstyle4 as
our affiliate product. The reason is that it is an established company,
I love the products, and I use them daily. What better to promote than
something I believe in and USE?
Step three:
Set up your target market. In may case I want webmasters that want to
make their own graphics and website templates, but don't want to
purchase an expensive solution like Photoshop with a high learning
curve.
Step four:
Research your keywords. There are tons of places to research keywords,
and you can spend up to 400 bucks for this type of software. Let's start
slow though O.K.? Here is a growing collection of webmaster tools:
http://stmadeveloper.com/tools.php . I don't recommend going for
broad reaching keywords. Micro-targeting your keywords will get you a
better result than going for the term that is already ranked for 10
billion websites.
Step five:
Now that you have your chosen your product or service that you wish to
affiliate with, target market, and keywords it's time to get going to
development stage. I'm sure you don't have millions to spend, and the
good news is you don't have too. Service review sites are quite
affordable to create, they usually have a simple logo, and just a
"layout." A good web design company can make you a great "template" for
this for about 20 dollars.
Step six:
Your all set, you have your template now, either made yourself or you
have hired a designer. It's time to start filling pages with content.
What I do first is make an index page. Every other page I create will be
linked to the index page. It's going to be your websites "featured"
product pages. This page and all your other pages need some content in
regard to your products. You will want unique page titles that use your
keywords, and you need to make your meta-tags as well. There is a great
meta-tag generator at
http://www.submitcorner.com. that is free to use.
Step seven:
Write your content and reviews. If you need help there are plenty of
copywriters out there that can help you. A review should be keyword rich
and should actually recommend the product. You should add many pages of
content. Even if you need to use other people's articles, the more you
have the better. A great site might have 200 pages of relevant content.
Step eight:
It's time to let the world know about your site. While we are doing that
we will make sure the search engines find it as well. I like to use a
website called groupmarketingsolutions for my first exposure. They get
spidered frequently and I get to pick my keywords for the page. You can
find them at groupmarketingsolutions.com. There are also plenty of
forums that allow you to have a signature in your posts. They are a
great way to send traffic and an extra incoming link from the search
engines.
Step nine:
Trade some links or purchase links outright. Links all over the web in
targeted websites will net you immediate traffic and increased search
engine rankings. There are also many free directories where you can list
your website with a description.
The end result here is a website that will increase in traffic daily,
get listed in the search engines and eventually be worth much more than
you are making in the affiliate income. Wouldn't it be great to sell
your site for what you make off it in a year?
There is another step here as well though, and we are going to call it
"rinse, wash, and repeat." Once you have done this for one or two
affiliate programs, you should keep going. There is no rule that says
you only have to have one site. A good tactic is dozens of sites (Or
even subdomains) that promote a variety of affiliate programs and that
grow weekly. The more often you add content the more visitors and sales
you will have.
About the Author
This article was written by Ed
Charkow of
http://www.stmadeveloper.com. Stmadeveloper is a leading
subcontractor in niche and content sites. For affordable content
creation contact them today. Full reprint rights with this resource box
included is acceptable.
How to Boost Your Affiliate Commissions by
30%
by Satyajeet Hattangadi
Affiliate marketing is one tough
business. Everyone online today is looking to make or save money in any
way they can.
In the good old days when internet marketing was in its infancy, most of
the people who clicked on your affiliate links used to purchase without
a second thought... but, now as times are getting tougher, and visitors
getting more cynical, you'll be amazed at the number who won't!
Just one flaw in a system and you will find dozens of unscrupulous
people waiting to exploit it. Same goes for affiliate commission tracker
systems. People who know how to manipulate the system will replace your
affiliate ID with theirs and "hijack" your commissions.
Most affiliate links are some form or the other of http://www.thesite.com/?YOURID
Where your affiliate id is passed as a parameter. A thief has to simply
change the "YOURID" part to "THEIRID" to put your money in their pocket.
In other cases, there are visitors to your site who simply can't stand
the thought of you "making money off them" so they bypass you by simply
chopping off the end of your affiliate link that contains your ID.
Instead of buying from http://www.thesite.com/?YOURID, the bypasser will
simply "chop off" the affiliate ID at the end and simply buy from the
plain URL http://www.thesite.com/ --without your affiliate ID attached!
Bam! you just got cheated out of your rightful commission.
Studies have shown that this phenomenon causes about 30% lost sales.
By following some of these simple tips you will be able to at least
confuse most hijackers and, in many cases, often disarm them completely.
You might notice I said most and not all. This is because if the
hijacker is well versed at html and JavaScript he will be able to
eventually get to your affiliate link. However, most hijackers are just
opportunists who will only act if they see an easy buck and its this
segment that we can beat.
The simplest way to hide your affiliate links is using a java script
redirect page.
This is where you hide your affiliate link in a page on your site using
a simple java script that redirects people to your affiliate link.
This way your "naked" affiliate link is not exposed in your actual email
messages and e-zine ads, but people get redirected to the true affiliate
link.
One possible drawback of this method is that some affiliate programs,
like clickbank for example, expose the affiliate link along with your ID
in the browser address bar.
So if the viewer is eagle-eyed he will notice that he's been redirected
through an affiliate link.
A safer method to hide your affiliate links is using a zero-frame or
"invisible" frame that masks the affiliate link by making it appear you
are sending people to a page on your website. In reality, you are
actually sending them to your affiliate link.
This technique is also used by many domain redirection service sites.
Unfortunately if the user views the source of the page. He know what's
that you've loaded an affiliate link.
The solution is to use javascript encryption to scramble up the page
code.
Even though there isn't a 100% perfect solution to this problem, if you
want to get paid more often through your affiliate links, make sure it's
not obvious you're referring people to an affiliate link.
If they can't see that its a affiliate link, lower the possibility of
you getting stiffed of your commission.
If you are looking for a tool that lets you do all this plus earn
affiliate commissions even from those folk who don't click your
affiliate link then do check out Covert Affiliate at
http://www.novasoft-inc.net/covert-affiliate
About the Author
Satyajeet Hattangadi is the
Owner of Novasoft Inc (http://www.novasoft-inc.net),
a software solutions provider, who specialize in affordable customized
software solutions.
This article may be reprinted as long as the text and resource box are
kept intact, and the links remain live and spiderable.
High Earning Affiliate Is It Possible?
by
Michel Richer
Affiliate Program have exploded on the
internet. Thousand of people join them every day. Amazon.com is probably
the best example of such phenomenal success.
If the affiliate program is so popular and so widely available and
booming like mushroom...Why do most affiliate have a hard time making
$100 per month ? And some never see have receive a check ? It's probably
because they are not effective in their marketing campaign or doing
noting at all.
But some affiliates are making big bucks. They are the one with an
income of ($100,000 and over per year). There is also a big majority who
still make a good income (around $10 000 to $75 000 a year). Of course
the vast majority of affiliate will never make that much money. They
fail miserably.
So what is wrong with them ?
THEY DON'T SET GOALS
Most people fail at anything because most people don't have a clear
vision of where they are heading. They don't take the time to learn and
experiment. They give up too easily.
Yes, it feels "unproductive" to prepare and set up a system... But it's
how the successful succeed.
The solution? Planning and learning.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT AFFILIATE PROGRAM
Choosing the best companies is an art in itself. Choose affiliate
program that are already successful and well established like SFI.
Choose the one that offer good training and good marketing aids.
Successful affiliates select the best companies. They use new ideas and
creativity to attract customers. They never give up.
DEVELOP A GOOD WEBSITE
Lot's of people don't know how to design a website. Or don't have the
money to hire a webmaster. Even the ones who can design a website. They
design poor content or poor design. Produce low value gateway pages.
They use free web hosting. They don't master the search engine.
The solution? Take what you know, what you love, and turn it into a
Theme-Based Content Site. Attract highly targeted, interested customers,
provide solid value through content, then refer them to your affiliated
merchants.
DRIVING TRAFFIC
Having lot's of traffic to your website is a big challenge. But it is
essential to be successful. Or at least to make a reasonable amount of
money.
You have to make your site "search engine friendly". You need content
for the search engine to spider your website.
You need to know how your webpage is index and how well it is ranked on
the SE to better perform.
Use every marketing method to drive traffic.
PPC Campaign
Linking Strategy
Writing Articles
Ezine Publishing
Newsletter
Banner Advertising
Viral Marketing (E-Books, Freeware etc.)
Offline as well. (Business Cards, Flyers, Radio Spots etc.)
CONCLUSION
Affiliate Program are great. You can really make a substantial income at
almost no cost. This is the simplest way to start a business. You can
really succeed if you keep learning and experimenting.
You can TEST-DRIVE our Affiliate Program at no cost.
http://ezinfocenter.com/297607.7/FREE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © Michel Richer
PERMISSIONS TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in its
entirety free of charge, electronically or in print, provided it appears
with the included copyright and author’s resource box with live website
link. http://hombyz.com/
About the Author
Michel Richer, The Internet
Business Specialist Can Help You Build A Successful Internet Business
That Can Generate Massive Profit !!!
So Start Your Own Internet Business for FREE >> Visit Now ::
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