They Stole My Affiliate Commission!

20 03 2009

As a struggling internet marketer myself there are few things worse than having your affiliate commissions stolen and the second one, not having a solid list to promote to. Both can be completely devastating to you and your new business if you are not wise.

Ok, so how do you fix the first problem?? In a word…Cloaking. Yep, disguising your link or really protecting your link to keep it safe. We all have special numbers, or passwords, or key items that protect us, so why not find something that protects your affiliate links safe guarding your business of promoting? I have found that if you are able to cloak your links your affiliate commissions can go up tremendously because people can’t change your id or drop off part of the URL! Imagine a super easy way to protect your commissions. No super long URLS, no worrying whether or not someone took your link out or just dropped it all together. It is there, disguised and safe and sound! Some link cloakers can cost a pretty penny too, so check to be sure it’s worth it. Or Check out the free one below.

Ok, so your next battle, list building. Well this one is tricky, right? You can buy lists, which just don’t work well because more than half the time they aren’t your targeted consumer, or worse you send out emails and get busted for spamming!! Or, really one of the only real options is that you put up a website in hopes of getting hundreds and thousands of visitors which will hopefully opt in to your newsletter or offer. Unfortunately, the problem with this option becomes trafficÖwhere do you find quality traffic that won’t cost a fortune and bring quality visitors to your site. My thoughts here; you are looking at pay per click advertising, great SEO for your site, or other high cost marketing tactics, which can work great, but again cost a fortune.

Or maybe you don’t have a list and no idea how to get one, but just email your poor friends 100 times a day with all your affiliate programs hoping they will take pity on you and buy something? All of these methods are tough, time consuming, or are just not going to bring you the sales you need!

So where do you find lists that work? Go directly to the source… find other people just like you, looking for the same types of services and more and let them know what you’ve got. You can find these lists in the form of forums, specific communities, classified sections, or FREE programs and membership sites such as the one below that will not only help you build your list, but help you cloak your link, and yes for FREE.

Internet marketing doesn’t need to be so difficult, why make it hard on yourself. Follow a plan, protect yourself. Build your lists, and sell. Don’t get stuck in the trap. Dig yourself out now with just a few small changes and I am sure you will see great success!

All the Best!



Rules Of Affiliate Marketing

18 03 2009

So you have been wanting to move interested in affiliate selling, and would like to know the regulations. You have your website and or blog all prepared up and geared up to go. You have selected your niche and market that you desire to advertise and make money off of. You only require links to commence making money. Promoting other’s services and products is not something that is hard to do. On the other hand, you will discover that with all of the many companies that present affiliate programs, and referral options, they all have their own regulations that you have to follow.

Affiliate selling is pretty simple to stick to, that is unless you have many dissimilar programs that you are a part of. When you begin receiving so many that you cannot remember the regulations, or the guidelines that you have to keep to, you might have a predicament. This is since the regulations for affiliate programs are as diverse as the companies. Each business is allowed to make their own regulations. Then again, you might see many similarities. That does not signify that they are copying one another, or cloning their affiliate plan so to speak, but yet it means that they have the same rules.

Affiliate selling regulations can be so incredibly diverse. They can vary from not mentioning the brand names that they sell anyplace on your website, to not have that specific market in your website URL. As they are so distinctive for each plan and business that you put forward, you are going to have to be certain that you read each one properly and make positive that you comprehend it wholly. If you all set have your URL for your website, you may not be able to partake in some of the affiliate programs. This is for the reason that you will not meet the requirements for the rules.

Another regulation that you are going to see frequently when you are interested in affiliate promotion is the page rank ruling. Some of the companies that will permit you to advertise their services or products will not desire you to have a superior page rank than they do. Nor will they consent to you to have a website that is elevated in the search engine rankings. For instance, if you were promoting coffee, and you wanted to become an affiliate for Folgers coffee. Your website would not be able to come up on top of the official Folgers coffee website in the search engine results when coffee, or Folgers coffee is used as the search phrase. The companies that have this ruling in place for their affiliate promotion programs believe as if your website were top than theirs for the product that they are advertising, that it would harm their business enormously. And, it only might. They would rather have the direct sales any day, than the commissioned sales. Who wouldn’t?

Keeping a worksheet of the affiliate selling programs that you are a part of and their policy is a good idea. This way you are never perplexed and know only wherever you require to stand to be a part of that plan. This is the greatest thing that you can do for your affiliate promotion business. Not only that, you will also uncover that some of the sites that have busted regulations and have been caught have resulted in law suits. Cover your tracks and make for sure that you are following the regulations that are prepared by that business for the most excellent results.

You will also come across that there is a thing that is called affiliate selling software. If you can discover a plan that fits your requirements and will help you keep the whole thing direct, you may not have to fret about keeping track of them manually. Use your software to keep track and make certain that you are doing your affiliate selling the correct way. Your efforts will pay off eventually, and you will be happy that you went by the book and followed the necessary affiliate selling rules.



How Affiliates & Content Publishers Can Make A Stealthy Income With Pay Per Lead

16 03 2009

Many internet marketers have been saying it for a little while now. Pay Per Lead (also known as Cost Per Action or CPA) is making inroads as a highly potent internet business marketing strategy. Spiralling PPC costs and (some) diminishing Adsense returns for certain niche content publishers has meant that both parties are being forced elsewhere to maximise their returns.

Pay per lead is superbly poised to win from this trend — big time. If you’re a content publisher then pay close attention to this article.

Pay Per Lead advertisers win because they can CHOOSE a price to pay for a specific action — typically a prospect will download a product or fill out a free form and the content publisher (you) gets paid a fixed amount for each one. For the advertiser it means there’s no risk of paying a small fortune for Adwords and seeing a ZERO return by way of sales and opt in subscribers.

No – with Pay Per Lead, advertisers can gather targeted prospects for a predetermined fee and even for those that do not buy immediately (which will be the majority) the skilful advertiser will be able to work the backend. A profitable campaign. And for the publisher — good returns are achievable (no more scant pennies per valuable prospect you send to the advertiser) and click-through ratios are far higher because the content can be highly targeted to the offer (very difficult to achieve with Adsense). It’s also possible to switch on viral campaigns (eg free eBooks & articles) with PPL which is far harder to do with Adsense. So the publisher can also enjoy a greater return on their website via PPL.

** BUT — Not All Industries Have Embraced The Pay Per Lead Concept Yet.

Unlike Adwords/Adsense, where there are advertisers in just about every niche imaginable, the availability of reliable pay per lead programs are significantly lower. There really aren’t all that many about unless you know which niche markets to look at.

This is one of the biggest issues with the pay per lead concept at the moment. Even for those publishers that are itching to offer PPL — the chances are that there will not be a suitable program in their niche. Internet marketing is a prime example. At the time of writing I cannot remember more than four pay per lead offers, all of which expired very quickly. Remember — you do not want to send long term traffic to a pay per lead program unless that program stays open. That’s why it’s crucial to pick the right niche if you’re serious about pay per lead.

** The Best Niche Just Got Better (And It’s All Thanks To Pay Per Lead)

Many marketers like the real estate niche market. It’s as close to a PERFECT niche as you’re ever going to get. Here’s why:

- BIG Numbers. In the U.S. alone almost ten million people search for “real estate” each and every month. I don’t care what those who try to sell you sub-standard niches tell you, a high number of potential prospects are one of the key factors that will determine your long term success. Big numbers mean more advertisers. More competition. Bigger commissions and payouts.

- RICH Prospects. Real estate is a market that is worth trillions annually. You’re dealing with people that have money and wont think twice to invest in education & information. I wish all niches were like that but they’re not. It means more sales of your information products, membership sites — and a better conversion rate on your affiliate links.

- HIGH TICKET affiliate program opportunities. If you joined every real estate affiliate program out there you would be filling out forms for days on end. Perhaps even weeks. There are just too many to mention. And many have payouts that exceed hundreds and even thousands of dollars. Don’t ever consider a niche where there aren’t enough quality big ticket affiliate programs.

- And Now Pay Per Lead Opportunities. In a recent article I discussed a real estate affiliate program in the specific foreclosures niche (a sub-market of real estate). It offered $5 per free form filled out by each prospect referred. That means just ten referrals would earn you $50. It also means that with a 20% conversion rate, every thousand prospects that you get to your site nets you a thousand dollars. Remember — you can also use viral techniques such as free eBooks & articles to get your referral link to an unlimited number of targeted prospects. Real estate is one of the few niches where pay per lead seems to be breaking through — as this method becomes more popular with real estate companies we can expect a bigger choice and higher payouts.

** Another Real Estate Pay Per Lead Gem – $5 To $20 Per Lead (And All They Have To Do Is Request A “Free Valuation” On Their Property)

Real estate valuation is big business. It’s a powerful sub-niche within the wider real estate market. In fact the search term “Property Value” alone brings in close to 20,000 monthly searches.

Everyone in the real estate niche wants to know what their real estate is worth. So do those who are considering purchasing real estate. Consequently, the demand for sites that offer a FREE real estate valuation service are significantly large.

Just about everyone interested in real estate would want a “quick online quote” — the best thing is there’s currently a real estate company that’s offering between $5 to $20 for every person that requests a free online valuation for their property. This may sound like a lot for an advertiser to dish out, but in fact the company can make thousands from just one of these prospects alone so to them the outlay is negligible. It’s a little like an internet marketing advertiser paying a cent for ten targeted prospects.

There’s no doubt that Pay Per Lead offers a sensational opportunity for both advertisers & content publishers alike. And as always, the first entrepreneurs to exploit the possibilities will be the ones that come away with the fattest rewards.

Good luck!



Affiliate Programs Basics

12 03 2009

Each day, a large number of webmasters decide to join an affiliate program. Affiliate programs are a great way to make money, often without having to do any extra work. Despite being an easy and profitable business opportunity, there are many webmasters who are unsure as to whether or not they should join an affiliate program. If you are one of those individuals, you are encouraged to examine the benefits of joining a program. After this examination has been completed, you may be surprised with what you learned.

Affiliate programs that programs that are run by a number of different business. Most of those businesses either sell a product or a service. Since the goal of any business, especially those selling something, is to make money, many businesses use unique marketing methods. One of those methods is an affiliate program. Affiliate programs allow webmasters to connect with these webmasters. A webmaster, once they are approved for the program, will be required to place banners or links to their advertiser’s website. In the event that those links or banners generate a sale, the webmaster is able to pocket a commission from that resulting sale.

The above described process is, in fact, one of the benefits of joining an affiliate program because it is easy to implement. As previously mentioned, most affiliate programs require an approval. Often times, the approval process is only used to make sure that your website looks professional and does not contain any inappropriate content. Once you have been approved, you will be provided with pre-designed banners. To get these banners on your website, you only have to enter in a few codes. The process sounds easy, doesn’t it? After that, you are ready to start making money.

The money that you will make is another benefit to joining an affiliate program. Each business, that has their own affiliate program, is likely to compensate their business partners in different ways. In most cases, you will find that you will be given a percentage of each sale that resulted from the links or the banners on your website. These percentages will vary; however, they tend to average around ten percent. While the average percentage, for most affiliate programs, is ten percent, you may find programs that have a higher or even a lower rate. If you are interested in making more money, you are advised to find affiliate opportunities with higher commission rates. EBooks sold on clickbank.com normally fetch commissions as high as 75%.

When it comes to finding high paying affiliate programs, you are in luck. There are literally an unlimited number of affiliate programs to choose from. Many businesses, including retail stores, are making the decision to use this popular and effective form of marketing. More retailers mean more affiliate programs for you to choose from. In fact, you don’t even have to choose just one. You can make even more money by joining a number of affiliate programs; you will find that, in most cases, there are no limits on the number of programs that you can join.

While you may not have a problem choosing to participate in a number of different affiliate programs, you may have a problem keeping track of those programs. To ensure that you are being paid all of the money that you earned, you will need to monitor all of your affiliate programs. Unfortunately, with a large number of affiliate programs, this can be difficult or even impossible to do.  If you find yourself having a difficult time keeping track of all of your affiliate programs, you are advised to think about affiliate tracking software. These software programs are available for free or for a small fee. They may be able to assist you with staying organized and up-to-date on all of your affiliate programs.

As you can easily see, there are a number of advantages to joining an affiliate program. All you need to get started is a website and the desire to make money. In most cases, the rest will all fall together on its own.



5 Ways to Increase Your Affiliate Sales

2 03 2009

Most home business owners are involved with affiliate marketing. As an affiliate marketer, a combination of techniques can be used to promote your affiliate website and/or link. Here are five things you can do to help with your promotional efforts resulting in increased affiliate sales.

1. Become an “expert” on the product

The most successful affiliate marketers are “experts” on the products they promote. To become an expert, it’s highly recommended that you purchase the product yourself to gain first-hand experience using it. If you cannot purchase the product, you must thoroughly research it until you become familiar and knowledgeable enough to promote it.

2. Participate in chat rooms related to the product

You can start your own chat or join an existing one. Do not try to selling initially, but during your chat, mention the product you’re promoting and describe its benefits. If there is interest in your product, you can then refer them to the product through your affiliate link. The same concept holds true for forums and discussion boards.

3. Write your own affiliate program ads

Most merchants will provide pre-written ads for their affiliates to use. If you write your own ad, or make significant changes to the one that’s pre-written, your ad will stand out from the others. Done properly, this will give you a great advantage over those affiliates that are using the same ad as everyone else.

4. Create a free newsletter or ezine

Submit your newsletter to the ezine directories and promote it on your website. Keep in mind that most subscribers are interested in receiving “information” that can help them. If you use your mailing list solely for selling, you will never gain credibility and will end up with a high unsubscribe rate. After you’ve developed a relationship and the trust of your subscribers, you can then recommend the products you are promoting

5. Create a free ebook

As part of your ebook, include an advertisement and a link to your affiliate website. The ebook can be given away free or used as an incentive to sign up for your newsletter. Submit your ebook to the ebook directories and offer it to other webmasters for inclusion on their website. The more exposure your ebook receives, the more sales you can make.

By using the techniques outlined above and always striving to become an “expert” on the products you promote, you are sure to see an increase in your affiliate sales resulting in higher commission payments.