Affiliate Programs: How To Make Money

Today's Marketing Tip: Selling Products Online Through Affiliate Programs.

If you do anything online, you must be aware of the fact that each day, affiliates (also known as resellers) are generating millions of dollars selling other peoples stuff. The process is simple and can certainly supplement your income. Some online marketers actually sell affiliate products full time and make an excellent living.

Simply said, you place a link on your website and encourage individuals to purchase a product. This can be done through a house list via email, a promotion on your webpage, or through online advertising. Once an individual clicks through to the product website and buys, you earn a commission. All of the links you use to promote the product have tracking built in. That's what makes it work!

Here are 3 tips for making money with affiliate programs.

1. Find a product that you really like. You need to sell a product that you believe, you enjoy, or that you feel provides value to a particular segment. I've seen many affiliate marketers fail simply because they did not care about the product they were selling. Rather, they simply wanted to make money.

2. Sign up for affiliate marketing websites. The three most popular are Clickbank.com, PayDotCom.com, and CommissionJunction (cj.com). What's great about these networks is that they are fee to join if you are only looking to promote affiliate products and give a lot of variety. Additionally, most of these provide access to banner ads, emails, etc. that you can use to promote your affiliate product.

3. Begin promoting your product. There are MANY ways to promote a particular product or service online. As I mentioned in the opening of this post, there are some individuals that make a significant income promoting and selling third party products. The benefit is no inventory and limited expense. That said, start your promotional activities in a very basic way. Grab some advertisements or emails and begin to market your product.

I've been using affiliate marketing to promote my products and other Internet related products for more than 3 years. I learned much of what I need to know through trial and error. If you want to take some shortcuts and start making money right away, I encourage you to check out Commission Blueprint. This product, and others like it give you the tools, information, and templates you need to start making money online.

Start today and learn, learn, learn. Before you know it, you may be one of those individuals making lots of money online.

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Posted in: affiliate programs

How To Create A Sitemap

A sitemap is similar to a table of contents you might find in a book. A sitemap is important because it guides web browsers to particular parts of a website they may have an interest in. Sitemaps are also where search engines look to find related pages to a given keyword or keyword phrase. If you have a sitemap, search engine spiders can easily navigate your website.

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Creating a sitemap is a relatively easy process. You do not need to be a programmer or have specialized knowledge. All need is Notepad, a program editor, and some patience. Here’s how you can build your own sitemap:

Create a listing of your websites pages using Notepad.

You don’t have to be a Notepad per se, any text editor or word processing program will do. First, make sure to type in all the pages your website, properly named. Create your list as if you were listing the contents of a book. Make a draft and review. Be sure not to miss anything.

Create a new page for your sitemap on your website.

You can insert the sitemap on your website using an existing page or a new one. The best bet it to create a new page that is actually named, “sitemap.” Using your notepad, incorporate all the necessary tags (meta) that would be associated with that page including a title that includes the label “sitemap”.

Create a link for the sitemap from your homepage.

You won’t be able to view the sitemap if you doing place a link to it from your home page. Additionally, placing a link from your home page will make it each for search engines to find the sitemap. This directs them to your sitemap for proper indexing.

Check your work.

It is important to validate the functionality of each link you’ve placed on your sitemap. Test each one. If you receive an error, be sure to fix it and promote your page to your site. Run through each ling and make sure that everything is working.

Upload your sitemap once per month.

As a final step, make sure to update your sitemap regularly. Search engines will reward you for an accurate sitemap that reflects changes to your website on a regular basis.

The steps provided here are great ways to create sitemaps. These days, if you search hard enough on the web, you will find online programs that will do all these work for you. All you have to do it type in the URL or the link of your website and they will create the sitemap with click of a button.

No matter what method you use for creating sitemaps, make sure you have one. The result can only improve your search engine rankings and enhance your overall presence online.

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Posted in: sitemap

Marketing Tip: Yahoo! Answers

One good marketing tips is the use of Yahoo! Answers. This is a great place to find answers to some of your most commonly asked questions as well as those that are more difficult to answer. I spend a few minutes each day at Yahoo! Answers responding to questions related to marketing, Internet marketing and SEO. Here is one such question that I recently responded to:

Q: Is the Alexa Page Rank a reliable indicator of a site's popularity?

A: There are a number of resources you can use to determine a site's popularity. Although Alexa has been around for some time, it only provides a small piece of the overall puzzle. When looking for a site's popularity, I recommend looking at a number of sources.

First, start with Google. What is the Google PR of the page you're reviewing? Download the Google toolbar to get a look. Additionally, type "link: www.sitename.com" in the Google search bar and this will tell you how many sites are linking in which can also serve as a point of reference.

Now that you have those data points, look at the same data in Alexa. This will tell you how accurate it may be. Alexa offers an Alexa ranking as well as the number of in-bound linking web sites. A picture should be starting to form in your mind in terms of the site you're reviewing. Finally, check out one other resource: Quantcast.com.

I started using Quantcast about a year ago and it seems to be the most accurate with regard to my own internal stats (Google Analytics). Quantcast will give you much of the same information, but is usually more accurate. That said, Alexa Page Rank is a decent measure, but shouldn't be your only source of comparison.

I hope you found this question and answer series helpful. As I answer additional question that I think may be of value to all those looking to succeed with their online marketing, I'll be posting here. Check back often as one of these questions may be exactly what you have on your mind.

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Posted in: Yahoo

Today's Good Marketing Tip: Focus

So often as marketers, small business owners, or professional, we find ourselves focused on way too many things. The same is true of marketing. What I find is that when you focus on a particular marketing tactic, you can make progress. When trying to focus on everything at once: advertising, direct marketing, email marketing, ppc, trade shows, etc., the results are never quite the same.

Today's post is all about focus. I have found that throughout my career, I have achieved the greatest results by focusing in a given area and establishing a baseline. Once I've "mastered" and area, its time to assign that responsibility to someone else with the proper measurements.

Having the proper metrics to know how you're doing - without having to do the work yourself - allows you to focus on other things while managing by exception. What I mean is that it's impossible for one person to do everything and do it well.

So the next time you're struggling, think about transitioning some of your responsibilities. Take pride in the fact that you've reached that point and spend your time focusing on the metrics that are key to evaluating performance in that given area. Look at those statistics on a regular basis. Bottom line - move on, you'll be glad you did.

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Posted in: good marketing tip

Today's Good Marketing Tip: Testimonials

Are testimonials quite what they used to be? Many of my marketing colleagues are challenging me on the value of testimonials. It's my belief that testimonials are still king. However, in today's marketing world, I think it's more a matter of how you present them.

The traditional quote from a satisfied customer still have value in my opinion. And many sites continue to use them (example: SEO Elite Review Blog). However, many have taken testimonials a step further using audio and video. I think this is a step in the right direction. This adds a believability factor when you can engage multiple senses.

What should you do with your testimonials?

Start. That's right... start collecting them in any format you can - the more the merrier. I would suggest creating forms that allow for your customers to upload a video, audio clip, and or written testimonial.

Once you've collected some testimonials from satisfied customers, you can decide on presentation and dissemination. Don't wait for browsers to find your testimonials. Rather, push them out through your advertising, newsletters, and emails.

This will draw attention to you and your product and differentiate you from the competition. Like I said, testimonials are still king!

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Posted in: good marketing tip testimonials

The Webmaster's Book of Secrets Review

If you're new to Internet marketing or have been at it for quite some time, no doubt you've heard about The Webmaster's Book of Secrets. This official review of one of the fastest selling SEO ebooks of all time is brought to you by MarketingScoop.com.

The Webmaster's Book of Secrets was written by SEO expert, Michael Fleischner. In this SEO ebook, Michael reveals the proven techniques he learned throughout his career from some of the nation's top SEO consultants.

Michael used the very techniques revealed in this guide for achieving number #1 Google rankings for his blogs, web sites, and forums. The book is divided into two primary sections:

Section 1: On page optimization.

In the first section, The Webmaster's Book of Secrets reveals how to improve search engine rankings by changing a number of elements on your web site pages. In this section, you learn about the number one mistake that most web site owners make, which prevents them from showing up on the first page of Google.

On page optimization factors that are detailed include meta tags, proper formating, little-know secrets about keyword density, anda simple technique proven to boost your rankings by hundreds of positions in less than a few days - improving visibility and traffic.

After reading section one of this guide, you'll be able to make some significant improvements in you search engine results. The value of this guide is that you can begin to use these techniques immediately, whether you're building a web site for the first time or you have a web site that is more established but not ranking well.

Section 2: Off-page optimization.

The majority of the techniques for improving search engine rankings appear in the second section of the book dedicated toward off-page optimization. These techniques reveal the importance of passing value to your web site through link exchanges, link building, and many more techniques the author has perfected over more than 10 years of doing business online.

One of the most important ways to improve your search results is through the development of in-bound links to your web site. Not only does the author teach you the proper way to develop in-bound links (97% of link building campaigns fail - find out why), but he teaches you the fastest way to build valuable links to your web site.

The book reveals a variety of link building techniques and covers each one in-depth. The content is so easy to follow, that you feel as though you can succeed by applying just one of the many techniques, and you can!

Some of the off-page optimization techniques, such as how to discover which links are getting your competitors into the #1 position on Google for a desired keyword or keyword phrase, reveal the truth as to why some sites seem to have the top position almost all the time. These secrets are worth thousands but are now available in this simple to use, tell-all guide.

In short, this SEO ebook is the fastest, most affordable way to improve search engine rankings for your website. Still not convinced? Read some of the powerful testimonials available on the website. Others are achieving #1 Google rankings with the help of the Webmaster's Book of Secrets... are you?

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Posted in: improve search engine rankings,Webmasters book of secrets

More About PPC Bully

For those of you who have been involved with PPC marketing for awhile and use Google Adwords you must be well aware of the fact that it is getting much more difficult to make money using PPC marketing. Not only is Google getting stricter with their rules of advertising with Adwords, but every year hundreds and thousands of new marketers are jumping into the PPC game and making it more difficult for the little guy to get ahead and make a profit with an Adwords campaign.

Now it used to be that if you wanted to run a successful campaign with PPC that all you had to do was launch a campaign, throw in a couple of hundred keywords and direct link to an affiliate page, but those days are long over as well as getting clicks for pennies. That's the purpose of this ppc bully review. To help you understand a better way for succeeding at ppc advertising.

Now you must have unique domains, tightly grouped keywords and ad groups and you also have to track every keyword with ad tracking to make sure you are not losing money. This process in setting up a campaign for profit with PPC can be very time consuming, but have no fear because the new PPC Bully software will automate most of the research part of picking a winning affiliate campaign and profitable keywords.

PPC Bully is made so you can get an edge over the competition and fast track your way to success with a successful affiliate marketing PPC campaign. You will literally save hundreds of hours in grueling research and know right off the bat if it is worth your time and money to put into a affiliate product or service. PPC Bully will spy on your competition and tell you everything they are doing. It will let you know what keywords are being run with what ads and what landing pages they are using or what product they are promoting in combination with the landing pages and keywords that are making them a profit. It’s as if you are letting your competition do all the work for you and you just jumping in and cleaning up.

In this day and age you need to have an edge to take you to the next level in PPC marketing and PPC Bully’s advanced keyword research and PPC monitoring is just what you need to start making more money off your Adwords affiliate marketing campaigns.

Click here to learn more about the PPC Bully software to grow your revenue.

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Posted in: ppc bully

Using YouTube In Your Marketing Mix

Today's Good Marketing Tip: You Tube

One of my subscribers sent me this email about how he was finding great sites to link to him. He was finding these sites on of all places - YouTube.

Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

Now before you think you know what I'm talking about let me explain and give you the short version of the email he sent me. He said that he was looking for content to add to his sites and thought he would look on YouTube for some videos.

He found some that worked for his niche and then he noticed something he had never seen before. When he clicked on the video and it started to play he saw there was a tab below that video that was called "Statistics & Data". When he clicked on it, YouTube listed all the sites generating clicks for that video.

Now, maybe you've seen this before but what he did has made a difference in the traffic to his site....and his rankings! He made a list of the sites and then started contacting those sites with request to link to his site and some of his videos. Did everyone respond, no. Did everyone link to his site, no, but some did.

He has been able to build up a good number of quality backlinks that actually get traffic and increase his PR all at the same time. Which has resulted in a boosting of orders. What a great way to see YouTube to your advantage!

Now take action and head over to YouTube and locate some videos for your niche. Then, click on the stats tab and see who's driving them traffic. Best of luck.

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Posted in: YouTube

Make the Most of Social Media

Social media can be defined, for our online purposes, as any web site in which the content of that site is primarily user driven. In other words, the site owners don't create the content, the users do. Some familiar examples might be blogger.com, myspace.com, facebook.com, and similar sites.

Social media also include social bookmarking sites, which are becoming evermore popular these days, especially by users in their 20's and 30's.

A social bookmarking site is a web site like Digg and Delicious. There are dozens of them. They usually operate as a way to store Internet bookmarks online. Think of the familiar "Favorites" folder in your browser. Social bookmarking sites do the same thing, but take it a step further.

First of all, social bookmarking allows a user to post his or her favorite articles, news stories, or web sites online as opposed to on their local machine. Secondly, these bookmarks are public, so that anyone can browse them and find sites that other people have bookmarked. Finally, many such sites offer additional functionality, such as user-driven ranking or voting and the addition of public comments to each bookmark.

So how can this be used for search engine optimization purposes? Well, it is important to remember that the proper goal of search engine optimization is not just rankings, but traffic, and not just any traffic but qualified traffic. It serves no business purpose to be #1 for a term not relevant to your site, or to receive loads of unqualified traffic to your site that will not result in a conversion to sale. When SEO is considered in this context, which is the proper one, things begin to make more sense.

Social media optimization involves a number of things, which will be detailed in later posts. However, generally speaking, the bookmarking of your site's content to social bookmarking sites creates both inbound linkage, traffic, and a "buzz". It is a wonderful way to "get the word" out about your site in short order.

The other advantage of social media is that it does create its own sort of internal quality control. Those who choose to spam a site with low quality posts will generally get voted down by the social community. Of course, bad publicity is better than no publicity, but we would all rather have a positive buzz about us given the choice. The creation of quality, useful, informative content is crucial to generating a positive buzz about your site.

Social media optimization involves more than just bookmarking your web site, however. It also involves making your site easy for others to bookmark as well. This is accomplished via a series of bookmarking icons placed somewhere within each page of the site, which allow users to post your content to a social media site with a simple click of their mouse.

Visit common bookmark sites and follow directions on adding bookmark icons to your web site. Another option is using a bookmarking applet like Addthis.com.

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Posted in: bookmarking

What Is the Easiest, Most Reliable Way To Generate Traffic To Your Web site or Blog?

Today's Good Marketing Tip: Article Marketing

Getting high quality traffic is probably the biggest question asked by both new and established online businesses. After all, it makes no difference if you are selling a product, promoting affiliate links, or displaying adsense - you need traffic. And loads of it. So how do you do it?

Well, you could buy advertising. Hmm. Expensive. It is easy to spend several thousands of dollars A MONTH through Google.

You could buy text links. Also expensive - and rapidly losing effectiveness in the search engines. Just 100 links can set you back upwards of $2,000. But you need THOUSANDS of links for most niches.

You could buy the "Latest and Greatest" black-hat technique - whether that be "blog and ping", "tag and ping", log-file spamming, blog-comment spamming, or whatever else some clever
whiz-kid has come up with. The problem is, by the time the whiz-kid releases it to you, it is already past its sell-by date. Too bad, you missed the boat. And maybe you got your site banned too.

But did you know that there is one, rock-solid, technique that has been quietly working since the very beginning of the internet, is completely immune to changes in search engine algorithms, is 100% legitimate and ethical, takes very little time, and costs almost nothing?

Need your new site listed by the search engines in days rather than weeks or months? This will do it. Need top placings for organic traffic, even in highly competitive markets? This will do it.

What is more, it can even help you with the offline promotion too!

But it gets even better. Over the past year, my good friend Dr. Noel Swanson has put this method onto steroids. He has been quietly using it to build his adsense empire, AND to
promote his own products, snagging the Number 1 position in Google from 270 million competing websites as he did so!

And now, having decided that it won't hurt his own business by doing so, he is releasing this system to other smart marketers. People like you, in fact.

Unique Article Wizard

Not only that, but if you act quickly, you can lock in your membership at a ridiculously low price - and promote as many websites as you want at no extra cost!

Please be clear on this. This is NOT the "latest and greatest" fad. It will not be "worn out" in the next month or two. This is an already well-established method that is being quietly used by all the smartest marketers - but that has now been brought to a whole new level of simplicity and power.

If you are paying money for Google adwords and/or any other form of online advertising or traffic generation and NOT using Noel’s system then, quite frankly, you need your head examined!

Go take a good look at it now:

Unique Article Wizard

Your friend,

Michael Fleischner
-Internet Marketing Expert

P.S. He also has some incredible bonuses - again, they won’t be there for long so don’t put this off.

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Posted in: article marketing