As an affiliate marketer who would like to not only survive but also generate a large income you will need to utilize these 3 tips given here and be prepared to work hard as there is not magical formula to success.
As an affiliate marketer using these 3 tips will help your chances of success with your online marketing business. Using these 3 tips will help your online business survive the competition that is found in an online based business environment.
1. Give your readers free reports.
Either place these reports where they can be easily seen near the top of your website or alternatively give them as an incentive to visitors who are will to give you their name and email address.
Use a unique squeeze page, in other words one that is different from what everyone else is using, to offer your reports in exchange for their email address and make sure that you have an opt in box on that squeeze page that goes to your auto-responder account.
It is a known fact that the majority of people will not purchase anything the first time they see it. Normally it will take a minimum of seven views for them to make the purchase. Keep in mind that usually people are more willing to spend money with a person that they believe is trustworthy and has taken the time to build a relationship with them, they need to know that they are not just dealing with some faceless website but a real person who is willing to help them.
If the only connection is the product on your website, not only will you not build a list, but chances are that even if someone is interested in the product you are selling they will move on and in the end buy it from someone else.
2. Promote each product on a separate web page.
If you use this method of marketing your products you will be keeping the reader focused on one thing at a time and they will become less distracted than if there were too many things on the one page.
Help the reader to make a decision on each product by having a review for each one on your website. This not only gives it a more personal touch but also helps to encourage a sale. If you are able to get some testimonials from any of your previous customers who have already tried the product then this is something that you can use to your advantage.
Just be sure that those customers are happy to allow you to use their name and if possible their photo.
3. Aim to generate a lot of targeted traffic to your website.
There is absolutely no point in getting people to visit your site who have no interest whatsoever in the products that you are promoting. Write articles and submit them to ezines and article directories and focus on the niche that you are promoting your products to. There is no point in spending your time promoting your affiliate internet business where no one is interested in what you are selling, but writing articles and publishing them in article directories is a great way to become known and brand yourself and your business and the best thing is that this type of advertising will not cost you any money.
If you want to benefit from marketing your online business by using article marketing you will need to write a minimum of 2 articles every week. If you continue to do this consistently you will see that over time your traffic will increase and it will be people who are interested in your products and what you have to say.
None of these tips are really difficult to follow and take action on it just needs some time and thought from you. Try using these tips for a few of your affiliate internet based business programs and see how they will help your opportunity to survive as an online affiliate marketer. Another great thing about this is the increase in the pay checks you will be receiving.
Mittwoch, 24. März 2010
Sonntag, 21. März 2010
Five secrets to success on the Web (Marco Spoerrle, marcospoerrle.com)
Five secrets to success on the Web
Is your XSite doing everything it can to boost your business? We give you all the tools you'll need to maximize your online ROI, but in the end it's up to you. (We just gave away secret number five!) Step back and take a look at the whole of your website/online marketing plan. Here are five secrets to its success.
Is your XSite doing everything it can to boost your business? We give you all the tools you'll need to maximize your online ROI, but in the end it's up to you. (We just gave away secret number five!) Step back and take a look at the whole of your website/online marketing plan. Here are five secrets to its success.
- Eyeballs.
If a total of five people see your website, its chances of reeling in one of those five to apply online is remote indeed. If 5,000 see it, your chances of landing an applicant are exponentially better.
Consider exchanging links with local agents and other real estate professionals you work with. The more links to your site, the more people will find it from your partners' sites and the better your search engine ranking is likely to be.
And speaking of search engine ranking, consider a pay per click campaign. It's the best — and only — way to guarantee a first-page search result placement. See our article on Pay-Per-Click 101 here.
- Time.
The longer visitors spend on your site, the more powerful your branding and marketing message becomes. The more likely they are to see you as the mortgage professional they can trust.
You keep visitors on your site by including lots of engaging, relevant content, like the pre-written material available to XSite owners. Give them tools like calculators, rate sheets and local information. Retail stores know they have a better chance of selling you more the longer you stay. The same principle applies on the Web.
Add content to your site that increases the time visitors spend there. Write about local events, add high school sports schedules or include our newest feature - RSS Feeds. Click here to learn more about RSS Feeds.
- Flash.
It's human nature: the more attractive and engaging information is, the more persuasive it is. The more people pay attention to your site, its tools and your content, the more likely they are to request more information or apply online.
Your Mortgage XSite lets you showcase your business with rich tools, sound and graphics. You have a better chance of selling with a feature-rich, attractive site than a simple online brochure. (Just be sure to complement your substance with style, not drown it out.)
Add one of our pre-made Flash intros to your XSite or create your own. Just log into your XSite, click on the XSite icon and then My Intro to get started.
- Lead capture.
Lots of visitors is good. Getting visitors' contact information for followup is ten times better. Mortgage XSites come with pre-built, customizable lead capture forms you can drop on any page. When visitors submit responses, the lead is sent to your e-mail and your mobile device. It's also automatically added to your contact manager.
Relying on a dazzling, information-rich website to sell isn't enough — you'll want to follow up with visitors who began applications but never completed them, visitors who supply you their contact information and more. XSellerate campaigns are a great way to stay in touch with minimal effort. Set up campaigns that automatically go out to website leads or stay in touch with past clients to encourage referrals. Which brings us to the final secret:
- You.
Your XSite will inform and empower visitors, and provide incentives to return. Once they leave though, you take over, by following up quickly and aggressively with web leads, marketing to contacts and providing the kind of attention and quality service your clients expect.
Blog your way to more business - part three (Marco Spoerrle, marcospoerrle.com)
Blog your way to more business - part three
One of the reasons blogs are such powerful marketing devices is that they’re a key component of Web 2.0. Although the term Web 2.0 seems technical, it’s just a way to identify the recent shift in the way people interact online. There’s plenty of disagreement about what Web 2.0 means. But for the purpose of this article, I’m going to say that Web 2.0 is, among many other things, a more collaborative approach to online interactions.
Because of this movement, a lot of sites have sprung up under the Web 2.0 subset of “social networking.” Social networking can take many forms when used for blog promotion, but they come under two major headings: social bookmarking and social networking. I’ve included samples of both below. All the sites I mention are free, although some have upgrade options.
Social bookmarking
Social bookmarking sites allow you to save your bookmarks and share them with others. The advantage to you as a blogger is that you can save your individual blog posts as bookmarks. These can subsequently be found by anyone searching for information on your topic. Good social bookmarking etiquette dictates, however, that you bookmark pages from other people, as well as your own.Here are some of the more popular social bookmarking sites:
del.icio.us
This is one of the most famous bookmarking sites, so it has a lot of users. To make sure your blog posts can be found in de.licio.us, just go to the link above and click the “post” link at the top. This will bring you to a page where you’ll enter the address of your latest blog post. While doing so, you’ll want to enter a description and tags that detail the content of your post. Once posted, if anyone within de.licio.us searches for any of the tags you used, your blog post will come up in the search results. If your headline and description are compelling, you’ll have a good chance of getting people to click through to your blog.StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon is a world onto itself, in that it has a different model than the other bookmarking sites. “Stumblers” as its users are called, are served up Web site and blog pages, based on the preferences they chose in their profile and how many people have voted for the pages they’re viewing. If a Stumbler likes your page and gives it a “thumbs-up,” this pushes it to the top of a list to be shown to other Stumblers. The more thumbs-ups the page gets, the more people will see it. For this reason, you would only want to post original content with widespread appeal. You also would want to choose the category carefully when you submit a story. As with all other bookmarking sites, you must join to submit articles. And if you want to use StumbleUpon to view sites and blogs, you’ll need their toolbar.Digg
Digg is another popular site that gives you the ability to submit blog posts, Web site pages, photos, video or podcasts. The site has a user-based voting system that causes a submission rise to the top. I’ve had submissions that never got a vote that still brought traffic to my blog; so don’t let the lack of votes stop you from submitting again. There are plenty of other sites that provide social bookmarking services. You can find more of them through SocialMarker, which also has shortcuts for submitting to all the sites on their list. If you’re going to use social bookmarking, I recommend choosing just a few sites and getting to know the way they work. This will allow you to get the most out of each. Although the sites I listed above are popular and get a lot of traffic, there also is a lot competition to have your posts be seen. Sometimes one of the smaller networking sites can be more beneficial. If you plan to use Social Marker as a means to find the sites you like, I would suggest selecting just a few sites to visit for each Social Marker session. Otherwise, you might find using their program too overwhelming.Social networking
The main goal of social networking sites is to make it easy for people to connect. More social networking vehicles come online every day, but for blog promotion, I recommend the following:BloggingZoom
This site is the new kid on the block, but the fact that it was developed by two bloggers specifically to serve the needs of other bloggers has drawn an enthusiastic response. Like Digg, BloggingZoom has a voting system. But don’t worry if people don’t vote for your post. Like with Digg, people will often read a post but not vote for it. Also, their submissions process is set up specifically to be search-engine friendly, so if you submit according to their guidelines, you have another chance to be found by the engines for each post.HubPages
HubPages offers a different sort of social networking, in that it gives you the chance to express yourself while connecting with others. Although you can also use it to connect, join subject-related clubs and comment on articles, HubPages is perfect for people who write well and want to use that skill to promote their businesses. You can create your own pages, called “hubs,” which can then potentially be seen by the HubPages community and millions of people the search engines bring to the site each month. You can even use articles you have already written for your blog, as long as you change the content by at least 20 percent. Click here to see a typical hub. These are just four of the many social networking sites that are available. To access links to many others, view this Wikipedia page, which contains a large list of them.But don’t go off into the social networking world just yet. There’s some terminology you should understand first, so your time will be more productive.
Social networking glossary
KeywordsI’ve covered this topic in other issues of the Marketing Insider newsletter because there can never be enough said about it. But rather than go over it again in this article, go to this page for information on using keywords for beginners. You might also want to sign up for WordTracker’s free easy-to-follow nine-part e-mail series on using keywords.
Tags
Tags and keywords are closely related, in that they both are shorthand for identifying the content of a particular blog entry, photo, geographic map or video clip. Unlike keywords, each user chooses tags when one of the aforementioned files is created or saved to a bookmarking site. Users search by tags, which cuts down the time it takes to find information. To see examples, click on this page. The words in gold-colored boxes are tags. If you click on any of these tags, you’ll bring up all the posts that have been tagged with the same name.
Tag cloud
A tag cloud is a method of arranging tags by the amount of information connected to each one. The point of a tag cloud is to show the user at first glance which topics a blog contains and how much information there is on each. The more information about a tagged subject, the larger and bolder the tag. To see an example of a tag cloud, click here and scroll down the page to the “WordPlay's Tags” box.
Categories
Categories reflect the major subject groups covered on a blog. They’re similar to tags, except the person who generates the content chooses them.
Avatar or icon
An avatar or icon is a graphic that accompanies you as you comment on a blog post or use a social networking site. In some cases, it can be seen even if you visit individual blogs. An icon is sometimes accompanied by your username, so it’s a good idea to choose a good username (one that brands your business at first glance) when you sign up for networking sites. For examples of good icons, click here. For free images you can use to create your icon, click here for clip art and here for photography.
Bookmarklet
Most social bookmarking sites offer a bookmarklet, which places a bookmark in your browser. Once it’s in your bookmarks, if you want to submit a page to that service, just navigate to the page you want to submit, open your bookmarks and click on the bookmarklet. This will automatically take you to a page that has your page information filled in, making the submission process easier.
Knowing these terms in advance should cut the time it takes to get up to speed with social networking. I think you’ll find it can be a lot of fun to use social networking sites. And in the process of promoting your own blog, you’ll probably even come across interesting information you never would have found otherwise.
Blog your way to more business - part two (Marco Spoerrle, marcospoerrle.com)
Blog your way to more business - part two
In part one, I covered basic content issues and how to use free photography to increase your blog’s post appeal. In this issue, I have a few more content tips for you, but I mainly want to focus on some effective free methods you can use to market your blog.
Content tips
If you’re feeling stuck for a something to write about, sometimes getting a little inspiration elsewhere can help. The following ideas and linked resources might just give you the kick-start you need to write memorable posts:
- Try using a quotation from a famous person to get your creative juices flowing.
- Use clip art, either alone or in conjunction with a quotation, to provide some visual interest.
- Include a free cartoon in your post to inject some humor.
- Use the Cool Text Generator to create fun graphic headlines for your posts.
Free blog marketing resources
Once you’ve become inspired and written those wonderful posts, you’ll want as many people as possible to see them. There are myriad ways to market a blog, some of which require special expertise. If you’re a new blogger, though, you might want to begin with the following relatively simple methods:
Print materials, advertising and XSellerate
It might seem obvious that you should put your blog address on all your communications, but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded. Opportunities to promote your blog on vehicles you’re already using abound. These include:
- Letterhead
- Business cards
- Listing fliers
- E-mail signature
- XSellerate messages
- Web site home page
- Advertising
Class reunion sites, such as Classmates.com, Reunion.com or ClassReport.org, get a tremendous amount of traffic. You never know; there might be people from your past looking for you on these sites. It takes just a few minutes to register for each. When you do, make sure your Web site and blog are listed in your profiles.
Commenting on other blogs
You can gain exposure by writing entries in the comments fields of posts on popular blogs and Web sites. Well written, on-topic comments in the right places can generate buzz about you and your business. When you make comments, remember the following guidelines:
- When you enter your name in a comment form, use a name that identifies your business. Unless your name is well known, using “Jones Mortgage” would have more benefit to you than using “Jane Jones.” That way, when people read your comment, they’ll see your business name right next to it.
- Keep your comment focused on the topic in the story or post.
- If you have content on your blog related to the story, provide a link to it in your comment. (The obvious exception would be on blogs or Web sites that don’t allow URLs in comments.) Be sure to explain briefly in the comment why readers would find your information beneficial. This would give them incentive to click through to your blog.
- Since you would be posting comments with the ultimate goal of marketing your business, stay away from writing anything negative. A good rule of thumb is that if you wouldn’t make a remark to someone’s face, don’t post it in a comments field.
- Look in the a la mode blog directory for blogs from companies that provide allied services in your area.
- Search in a major search engine for government Web sites or blogs in your city, county and state.
- Search in a major search engine for community-oriented or personal blogs in your town. For example, if you’re in Boca Raton, Florida, search for “Boca Raton Florida blogs.”
- Visit the Web sites and blogs of local newspapers, and television and radio stations to look for stories related to your business.
If you’ve been blogging through a la mode, you’ll automatically be listed in their blog directory. You’ll probably also want to submit your blog for inclusion in the following free directories that rank high in Google:
Real Estate and Mortgage Blogger's Exchange (REMBEX)
To submit your blog to be considered for inclusion in REMBEX, click the link above and follow the instructions.
MortgageBlogs.com
As you can tell by the name, this directory is dedicated only to mortgage-related blogs. They offer a map-based search system so readers can easily find local blogs. Click here to submit your blog to the directory.
I hope you’ll find these methods useful. In part three of this series, I’ll delve into even more free ways to market your blog.
Blog your way to more business - part one (Marco Spoerrle, marcospoerrle.com)
Blog your way to more business - part one
The old adage says that you need to market more, not less, when business is slow. And it’s true; it takes extra effort to capture business when the pool of available clients is smaller. But paying for that extra marketing can sometimes be a problem when the economy is sluggish — unless you have an XSite. As you know, XSites already have a full range of features that allow you to promote your business. But to truly maximize your marketing, you have to use those features to their full potential.
It’s natural that the first thing you would do when you get your XSite is to configure it with your Web site content. But don’t let it end there. Once your site is up and running, the XSite blog feature should become your best friend. The approachable, personal nature of a blog can enhance the reputation you’ve established on your Web site, and even reach some people that your Web site might not. Also, people are interested in learning what the real estate market is like from local professionals. There are a lot of scared homeowners right now because all they hear is doom and gloom on the news about the market. Your blog could help counteract that negative influence. Not only that, your daily or weekly blog updates can give potential clients a window into not only your professional qualifications, but also how you think and interact.
A funny word for a powerful feature
Short for “weblog,” a blog is the place where a marketing Web site and a traditional diary meet. With such a weird name, it would be tempting to ignore this powerful feature if you weren’t familiar with its benefits. But you shouldn’t pass up this marketing opportunity, because blogs have proven to be effective promotional tools. One of the primary reasons for this is that search engines love content that changes all the time, and changing content is what blogs are all about. Also, you can never underestimate how much people want to read what other people are thinking! Blogs excel at presenting personal perspectives, even when they’re used for business marketing. And if you blog through XSites, you have the additional advantage of being listed in the XSites blog directory, which allows potential customers to search by geographical area. This directory provides yet another arena to highlight your services, but you won’t be found there unless you’re using your blog.If you’ve already been blogging for a while through XSites, you know how easy it is. For those who haven’t tried it, you don’t even have to think about the technical aspects; those are already taken care of. All you have to do is write. Now, I realize that fact can stop some people in their tracks. But again, because you have access to the vast selection of XSites content, you don’t have to worry about writing. In case you didn’t know, all the content available for your Web site is also available for your blog. This gives you a powerful source of quality information.
Since XSite blogging is so easy, I won’t go into the physical details of how it works. I’d rather focus on how to give your blog a personal touch and provide information people want to read. First, let’s determine what type of blogger you are. Are you a writer or a non-writer? Obviously, we can all physically write. But if you don’t feel you write well, the time to admit it is before you start blogging. There’s no shame in being a “non-writer” because we all have different talents. And even if you can’t write well, you can blog; you just have to use a different strategy.
Before I go into the strategies, it’s probably a good idea for you to get an idea of what other people are doing with their blogs. To view other XSite blogs, go to the XSites Network site and choose a category from the pull-down menu in the “Mortgage Lenders” box. Choose a state and county, and you’ll be shown a list from that area. Looking at blogs in your area can help you understand what information other professionals think is important and how they’re reaching out to their readers.
Blogging strategies
For non-writers (or people in a hurry)Obviously, you can always hire someone to write your blog or edit something you’ve written. But if you want to stick to no-cost blogging, the 106 pages of XSites content are a great starting point. You can use any of the articles as-is or you can modify them a bit. If you followed the suggestion above about looking at other blogs, I’m sure you found other companies that are geographically close to you that also use XSites content in their blogs. Since a potential client might look at some or all the blogs in the area, you might want to have your copy look a little different than anyone else’s. This is especially important because people can subscribe to get e-mail updates when blogs are updated, which could lead to a potential client receiving e-mails with the same information from two different companies.
So, if you’re not a writer, how do you customize your copy while also making it different from other blogs? It’s easy. Just choose an article on a subject you’d like to feature, and then use only some of the content. For example, the “401K for Down Payment” article under the “Provided” tab in the XSites Wizard has seven paragraphs. But if you use just the second, third and fourth paragraphs, instead of the entire article, you’ll have solid content that won’t look like anyone else’s. This is because the first thing people will see in other blogs that use this article will be the first paragraph, which won’t be in your copy. And if you add one or more photos (see this page for a free photography resource), you can differentiate your post even further.
To have this strategy work, you just have to make sure the paragraphs you choose stand alone and don’t read as if something were missing. It also would be advisable to identify the content as a “tip” rather than making it seem like a full article. This would allow you to add a teaser at the end to announce your next tip, which would help build interest in upcoming posts. In the case of some articles, you could even use other paragraphs to form a completely new tip for your next post. This would give you two blog entries out of one article!
This same strategy can be used with any number of article types. For example, you can pull a list of area attractions from the XSites local content or feature one of your recent listings. And if you have a professional XSite, you have even more options, including using stories from Inman News, which would give you a continual source of fresh content.
For writers
Sometimes the biggest hurdle when writing is getting started. XSites content can help with this, too, because just looking at the list of available articles could inspire you or provide a topic. When you’re ready to begin, keep these things in mind:- Although a blog is a marketing device, the less you can make it appear like one, the better. This means you should focus on copy that benefits the reader. Some examples would be to provide updates on interest rates; the development of new loan types, or any other information that someone looking for a loan would find useful.
- Include keywords in your blog posts. Search engines deliver search results based on the words they find in your blog, so it’s important that you feature your keywords. It’s also important to know that people are actually searching for those words. But how do you know which words people are looking for? This topic is too detailed for this article; so click here for more information on doing keyword research. Once you find the best keywords, try to use them a few times per post, as long as they read naturally. Search engine technology has become so sophisticated; it can sniff out copy that has keywords repeated with no rhyme or reason.
- Check your work before you post. Although the XSites blog interface allows you to edit or remove copy even after it’s been posted, the e-mail announcing the new post will have already gone out to subscribers. So, it’s always a good idea to check your writing over thoroughly before you post. Click here for a checklist of things to review before you post. You might even want to add a few checklist items of your own.
- Above all, have a good time! Blogging is actually a lot of fun and a great creative outlet. While working toward mastering the aspects above, you can also allow your personality to come through. That can even mean being a little irreverent. You want to stop short of being offensive, of course, but if it’s in your personality to joke around, let that come out in your blog. It will give your writing a human touch that will set you apart from everyone else.
In part two of this series, I’ll discuss ways to be even more creative with your blog, as well as options for marketing it free on the Internet.
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