(Google money forum) Here’s How To Avoid The 3 Most Common Affiliate Mistakes

October 30th, 2008 admin Posted in marketing |

By Matt Bacak

Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective and powerful ways of earning some money online. This program gives everybody a chance to make a profit through the Internet. Since these affiliate marketing programs are easy to join, implement and pays a commission on a regular basis, more an more people are now willing in this business.

However, like all businesses, there are lots of pitfalls in the affiliate marketing business. Committing some of the most common mistakes will cost the marketers a large portion taken from the profit they are making everyday. That is why it is better to avoid them than be regretful in the end.

Mistake number 1: Choosing the wrong affiliate.

Many people want to earn from affiliate marketing as fast as possible. In their rush to be part of one, they tend to choose a bandwagon product. This is the kind of products that the program thinks is hot. They choose the product that is in demand without actually considering if the product appeals to them. This is not a very wise move obviously.

Instead of jumping on the bandwagon, try top choose a product in which you are truly interested in. For any endeavor to succeed, you should take some time to plan and figure out your actions.

Pick a product that appeals to you. Then do some research about that product to see if they are in demand. Promoting a product you are more passionate about is easier than promoting one for the sake of the earnings only.

Mistake number 2: Joining too many affiliate programs.

Since affiliate programs are very easy to join, you might be tempted to join multiples of affiliate programs to try and maximize the earnings you will be getting. Besides you may think that there is nothing wrong and nothing to lose by being part of many affiliate programs.

True, that is a great way to have multiple sources of income. However, joining multiple programs and attempting to promote them all at the same time will prevent you from concentrating on each one of them.

The result? The maximum potential of your affiliate program is not realized and the income generated will not exactly be as huge as you were thinking initially it would. The best way to get excellent result is by joining just one program that pays a 40% commission at least. Then give it your best effort by promoting your products enthusiastically. As soon as you see that it is already making a reasonable profit, then maybe you can now join another affiliate program.

The technique is to do it slowly but surely. There is really no need to rush into things, especially with affiliate marketing. With the way things are going, the future is looking real bright and it seems affiliate marketing will be staying for a long time too.

Mistake number 3: Not buying the product or using the service.

As an affiliate, you main purpose is to effectively and convincingly promote a product or service and to find customers. For you to achieve this purpose, you must be able to relay to the customers that certain product and service. It is therefore difficult for you to do this when you yourself have not tried these things out. Thus, you will fail to promote and recommend them convincingly. You will also fail to create a desire in your customers to avail any of what you are offering.

Try the product or service personally first before you sign up as an affiliate to see if it is really delivering what it promises. If you have done so, then you are one of the credible and living testaments aware of its advantages and disadvantages. Your customers will then feel the sincerity and truthfulness in you and this will trigger them to try them out for themselves.

Many affiliate marketers makes these mistakes and are paying dearly for their actions. To not fall into the same situation they have been in, try to do everything to avoid making the same mistakes.

Time is the key. Take the time to analyze your marketing strategy and check if youa re in the right track. If done properly, you will be able to maximize your affiliate marketing program and earn higher profits.

There are many strategies to making money on the internet, but nothing makes sense unless you have a big list. Email Marketing is the most profitable way to make money on the internet. Discover how to use the internet and turn your computer into a cash gushing machine. Sign-up right now for Matt Bacak’s FREE online newsletter to find out how to do exactly that - Go here: www.promotingtips.com

Top 3 Ways To Boost Your Affiliate Commissions Overnight
By Matt Bacak

The ideal world of affiliate marketing does not require having your won website, dealing with customers, refunds, product development and maintenance. This is one of the easiest ways of launching into an online business and earning more profits.

Assuming you are already into an affiliate program, what would be the next thing you would want to do? Double, or even triple, your commissions, right? How do you do that?

Here are some powerful tips on how to boost your affiliate program commissions overnight.

1. Know the best program and products to promote. Obviously, you would want to promote a program that will enable you to achieve the greatest profits in the shortest possible time.

There are several factors to consider in selecting such a program. Choose the ones that have a generous commission structure. Have products that fit in with your target audience. And that has a solid track record of paying their affiliate easily and on time. If you cannot seem to increase your investments, dump that program and keep looking for better ones.

There are thousands of affiliate programs online which gives you the reason to be picky. You may want to select the best to avoid losing your advertising dollars.

Write free reports or short ebooks to distribute from your site. There is a great possibility that you are competing with other affiliates that are promoting the same program. If you start writing short report related to the product you are promoting, you will be able to distinguish yourself from the other affiliates.

In the reports, provide some valuable information for free. If possible, add some recommendations about the products. With ebooks, you get credibility. Customers will see that in you and they will be enticed to try out what you are offering.

2. Collect and save the email addresses of those who download your free ebooks. It is a known fact that people do not make a purchase on the first solicitation. You may want to send out your message more than six times to make a sale.

This is the simple reason why you should collect the contact information of those who downloaded your reports and ebooks. You can make follow-ups on these contacts to remind them to make a purchase from you.

Get the contact information of a prospect before sending them to the vendor’s website. Keep in mind that you are providing free advertisement for the product owners. You get paid only when you make a sale. If you send prospects directly to the vendors, chances are they would be lost to you forever.

But when you get their names, you can always send other marketing messages to them to be able to earn an ongoing commission instead of a one-time sale only.

Publish an online newsletter or Ezine. It is always best to recommend a product to someone you know than to sell to a stranger. This is the purpose behind publishing your own newsletter. This also allows you to develop a relationship based on trust with your subscribers.

This strategy is a delicate balance between providing useful information with a sales pitch. If you continue to write informative editorials you will be able to build a sense of reciprocity in your readers that may lead them to support you by buying your products.

3. Ask for higher than normal commission from merchants. If you are already successful with a particular promotion, you should try and approach the merchant and negotiate a percentage commission for your sales.

If the merchant is smart, he or she will likely grant your request rather than lose a valuable asset in you. Keep in mind that you are a zero-risk investment to your merchant; so do not be shy about requesting for addition in your commissions. Just try to be reasonable about it.

Write strong pay Per Click ads. PPC search engine is the most effective means of advertising online. As an affiliate, you can make a small income just by managing PPC campaigns such as Google AdWords and Overture. Then you should try and monitor them to see which ads are more effective and which ones to dispose of.

Try out these strategies and see the difference it can make to your commission checks in the shortest of time.

Generating Income Online Through Google

6 Steps For Collecting Testimonials That Aren’t Stupid
By Karen Scharf

My friend Sam is designing a new web site, and in reviewing available content I noticed there were no testimonials.

Sam told me he never bothered collecting testimonials since he always thought they were “stupid”. He claimed that reading testimonials never inspired him to make a purchase since they always sounded like they were made up anyway.

I’m a firm believer in using testimonials on your web site. Done correctly, testimonials should:

provide social proof - the credibility that your prospect needs to feel comfortable purchasing from you

position you as the expert, leaving you as the only choice for the product or service your prospect is looking for

answer any questions that your prospect has floating around in his head - even though he won’t come out and ask you, he does have questions

The problem many web site owners have with testimonials - the reason Sam didn’t want to use them on his site - is that most people go about the process in the wrong way.

Once Sam decided to include testimonials on his new web site, I knew he would have to create a “testimonial collection plan.”

Testimonial collection plans help to compile inspiring, effective testimonials that motivate site visitors to make a purchase.

This plan is easily adapted to your own web site endeavors:

Step 1

Compile a list of current and past clients that you would like to have testimonials from. Most small business owners simply choose their “high ticket” customers or the customers they are currently working with.

Review your clients and judiciously choose the ones you want to duplicate. Sam based his decision on the industries he most wanted to work with, the size of the company he preferred, the corporate culture he felt comfortable with, etc.

Many prospects are stirred by testimonials from people who are “just like them”. Be sure to stir the prospects who you most want to target.

Step 2

Go through your initial list and ask “What specific, quantitative benefit did I bring to this particular client?”

What is the purpose of this step? Testimonials are more effective when they’re specific. It’s OK to guide your customers in providing specific testimonials, so generate some ideas for steering your customers toward specifics.

Step 3

The third step is to generate a list of questions that the clients can respond to. When formulating your questions, keep your quantitative benefits from step 2 in mind.

You can craft different questions for each of your customers, and the logical answer for each of the questions points to the benefit that you originally identified.

For instance, if you know your product saved the ABC Company considerable downtime on the production floor, your question could be “How many man hours were you able to recoup with the Super Duper Luper Widget?”

Never use a question that could be answered with a simple yes or no. And keep in mind that some of your “guided answers” might require multiple questions.

Make it as easy as possible on your customer - don’t make him think or do the math. Here are a few ideas you can use to craft your own questions:

Prior to using the Super Duper Luper Widget, how much money were you spending each month on qizmoshmaltzkies? After using the widget, how much were you spending?

What problem were you experiencing that made you contact our company?

What results have you seen on your bottom line after putting the widget into use?

What was your income/sales/profitability prior to contracting with Sam’s Service? What is your income/sales/profitability level now?

What is the most important thing you learned from working with our company?

What single feature of the Super Duper Luper Widget has made the most impact on your business?

What aspect of our company were you most pleasantly surprised about?

Why would you recommend the Super Duper Luper Widget to other xyz manufacturers?

Step 4

Once you receive the responses you will have to edit them. You want each of the testimonials to be specific, brief and persuasive.

So take out any of the information that other prospects wouldn’t care about. Replace industry jargon with universal terms that all prospects could understand. And swap out a few of the generic words with strong, convincing power words.

Step 5

The next step is to run the newly revamped testimonial by the customer to make sure it has approval. You can do this the easy way - simply call each of the customers.

But rather than saying “Your testimonial wasn’t good enough…” start your conversation with “We loved the feedback you gave us about our company! Thank you so much.

Unfortunately, we don’t have room to reprint it word for word. Do you mind if we paraphrase it like this instead…”

Step 6

The final step is to plaster the testimonials all over your web site. Use them as headlines, in the sidebars, and even in your new email marketing campaigns.

I can’t say that testimonials are the only way to make your sales skyrocket. But they are definitely a good starting point, and an easy step for you to add to your marketing strategy.

Karen Scharf is an Indianapolis marketing consultant who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs. She offers several whitepapers, free reports and checklists, including her FREE Can-Spam checklist and FREE email pre-flight checklist to ensure your emails get delivered, get opened and get read. Download your copies at http://www.ModernImage.com.

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