Friday 8 January 2010

Website Traffic Strategies Revealed


Welcome to another Master Class In Affiliate Marketing.

Today, I am going to discuss the most important subject to any internet or affiliate marketer. & that is Traffic. For without it you cannot succeed or prosper on the world wide web.

I'm sure many of you have heard these words before. "It doesn't matter how grand, elegant, beautiful or inviting your website is, if no one visits it, it's redundant". That it such a true statement. To bring it to life and make it visible you need traffic, lots of traffic!

Right, down to the nuts and bolts. You may already know that there are two types of traffic; targeted and non-targeted. Targeted traffic consists of people who are interested in your product or service and would be more likely to spend money to get it from you.

Non-targeted traffic consists of the rest of the world. These individuals are not interested in buying what you have and, therefore, will not part with their cash for it. Obviously, it's the targeted traffic that you should be interested in.

Use only the best traffic generating strategies

You should only use strategies that require little work and produce the best results.

My criterion for choosing traffic generators is that it has to be
  • Simple, quick and easy to understand & implement
  • High leverage, i.e. it can produce massive results with little work
  • & viral in nature, i.e. it continues to produce results indefinitely
So how do I implement these strategies? By


Forming Powerful Alliances
One of the fastest ways of building your customer base is to seek out mutually-beneficial joint ventures. You need to find marketers and business owners who already have large "responsive" mailing lists and make them an offer they can't refuse!

However, it's not just a case of making an offer they can't refuse. When you are working on forming a joint venture, focus on the other party and ask yourself "what do they need?" What can you offer them that would be of value to them?

I would suggest that you create something specifically for the marketer you are trying to create a joint venture with. Offer him/her exclusive rights to distribute the product as s/he sees fit. Give him/her something, anything, first of all, and don't mention the joint venture offer until later. You can bring up the subject of a joint venture, once you've created something of value for them and with which they are happy. Do you see how this strategy differs from what most people would offer?


Viral Marketing
Another technique that most marketers get wrong is viral marketing. They think that by creating an ebook and adding their link, they will make a lot of money. In fact the opposite happens. You see, what they are doing is acting selfishly, only focussing on what they can get out of the deal.

Instead they should follow the example of a well known Internet Guru who creates ebooks full of powerful, valuable content. But he doesn't stop there. He not only puts his links in them, provides a killer sales letter and graphics, he actually offers the ebooks to everyone absolutely Free! But that's not all, he goes one step further and gives everyone free distribution rights so they could give the ebook away to others. PLUS as a bonus he makes the ebooks brandable. Absolutely amazing!

Do you see what he has done? He's created a product that has so much value in it that his distributors are motivated to pass on his ebook knowing that they can make money each time. Now that's true viral marketing! To find out more about this amazing traffic generator and the extraordinary twist that can make you even more money, download your FREE copy here.



Create your own private 'Power' Sales Team
Allowing others to sell your product/service is a very powerful strategy for building your business. And, who better to promote a product than an existing 'happy' customer who has had the chance to use your product first hand.
Tell your customers about your affiliate program. Tell them how easy it is to set up and how easily they can start earning a commission.
Offer them as much assistance as possible. The more valuable help you can give the more they will sell your product or servivce.


Generate Traffic from Articles and Reports
This strategy involves visiting an article bank and submitting articles for distribution.

Ezine Articles allow you to include your web site url at the bottom of the article in the resource box. This acts as a small classified ad of your services or product, and is a form of passive advertising that can generate tons of free visitors.

There are number of directories where you can find articles you can republish or submit articles to.
Ezine Articles
Hubpages
Squidoo
Suite101


Generating traffic via Blogging
Blogging has become a very popular pastime and is another method for generating traffic. People worldwide are using blogs as a source of internet marketing because they can be indexed by the search engine spiders in a matter of days.

They are easy to setup and free to signup. Try, http://www.blogger.com/ or http://www.wordpress.com/

The more blogs you publish the more you will see increased traffic to your advertised sites.

All you have to do is visit blogs, read the posts and then submit a comment along with your website or affiliate link in the signature beneath your name. Easy!

If used properly, blogging can generate lots of free targeted visitors to your website.


Traffic from Search Engines
If you can get your website listed within the top 10 on the search engines or strike a JV deal with listed advertisers then you will have cracked getting traffic from the search engines.

Alternatively there is PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising.
Search engines allow you to bid for the right to be placed in the top keyword position. The traffic you receive is targeted and instant, but could cost you a lot of money in the process.

There are hundreds of PPC search engines out there but the top three, Google, Yahoo and BING dominate the market.

As I said you can generate traffic instantly to your website but the negative aspect is that they can work out expensive and you are competing against the big companies who can afford to pay $30 plus per click. Therefore use search engine advertising as a last resort.

Traffic from Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking has gained momentum in the past couple of years and is a great method to employ in driving traffic to your website. Not only will you gain more traffic but you will also obtain backlinks to your website which the search engines look favorably on. Having many backlinks will actually increase your search engine ranking.

My top 3 social bookmarking sites are:

Stumbleupon
Delicious and
Digg




Final Thoughts
Some of the strategies I have discussed may take a little more time and effort up front, and a little longer to snowball. But stick with it because in the end it will be worth it.

Remember, that your goal is not just to get more traffic, but to create more customers!

To Your Success
DeAnna Dubois

p.s.
Viral marketing is an exceptional strategy for bringing traffic to your website. Find out how you can obtain targeted traffic, resell rights to numerous ebooks, and earn 100% commission at the same time. The Ultimate Supertip reveals all. Download your Free ebook, full of content and value!

Download Free Ultimate Supertip on viral marketing

Wednesday 6 January 2010

Choose The Right Keywords For Your Affiliate Marketing Campaign


So you're ready to start marketing your affiliate program?

You've:

  • Chosen your niche
  • Selected the program you want to promote, via Clickbank, Commission Junction or Linkshare
  • Built a squeeze page
  • & now you're ready to tell the world wide web you're in business!


But before you go live you have to select relevant keywords that will drive traffic to your website and lead to sales.

I mentioned above 'relevant keywords'. This is crucial if you want your marketing campaign to be successful. I mean, what would be the point in selecting keywords that do not relate to your product? If you place wrong keywords for your marketing campaign, web searchers will not find your website. This mistake will cost you dearly, and all your efforts, time and money spent will be wasted.

There are three different types of keywords that have different functions. They are keywords used for browsing, comparing or buying.

Keywords used for browsing It is said that people who use keywords for browsing are merely searching for information and are unlikely to make a purchase. An example of a keyword browser would be some who is looking for a specific item, for instance, an iPod, and probably wants information on the latest model and its features. You will also find that keywords for browsing attract very high search volumes due to its generic nature, and if you want to get a top 10 ranking, think again, because you'll have a very long wait. High ranking for keywords used for browsing is extremely difficult to attain. So for your affiliate marketing purposes avoid using keywords for browsing.

Keywords used for comparing are used by people who are seeking a solution to a problem. These people are also ready to buy if they find a product or service that resolves their issues. Keywords for comparing are also the best words to use for search engine optimization. Unlike keywords for browsing these keywords have a lower search volume, but have the advantage of leading to more sales. It is also far easier to attain a top 10 search engine ranking. Obviously, this type of keyword is most appropriate to your affiliate marketing campaign.

When people are searching the Internet they usually type in 2 or 4 words, these are referred to as long tail keywords. This type of keyword does much better than a single keyword, which you should avoid, as a single keyword cannot be promoted effectively, mainly because they are not specifically targeted.

It may be tempting to use a single keyword because you will receive a high volume of searches. But you will be wasting your time and money because it will be deliver any sales. Let me break it down and show you by way of example what I mean.

The keyword 'wedding' for the month of December 09 attracted a search volume of 101,000,00 and a great deal of competition. It may look impressive but the single word 'wedding' will bring up all searches relating to weddings. Further, it is not known why the searcher is browsing 'wedding'. It could be she is looking for a photographer or wants to buy flowers. The keyword 'Wedding' is too generic to be used effectively.

However, the keyword 'outdoor wedding venues' attracted a search volume of 22,200 for the same month, and had less competition. This long tail keyword is a much better keywords and shows that the searcher is looking for something specific, an outdoor venue for her wedding. So if you supply outdoor wedding venues it will be in your best interest to use such a keyword in your marketing campaign.

Keywords used for buying are used by browsers who are looking for a specific service or product and want to purchase the best offer that they can find. But be warned, these keywords will not assist your campaign if you offer competing products.

As I have already said, do not use single keywords in your marketing campaign. Long tail keywords are preferred by the search engines.

When you have finalised your website, go through it and make a list of the keywords, around 10 to 30 keywords should be sufficient. Go the the Google keyword tool and type in your keywords. Google will reveal how many searches are made and the level of competition from other advertisers. From this analysis you will be able to decide whether or not you have a keyword that will bring in searchers who are ready to buy.

Another keyword tool you can use to analyze your keyword list is Wordtracker which tells you the popularity of the keyword phrase you are going to use, and also recommends other keyword phrases.

If you intend to use PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising there are a couple of do's and dont's. When you choose your keywords ensure that you choose results for all countries and territories. This will give the results for your country and the web as a whole.

Another point is, when you choose your keywords, please have them listed as a phrase. You see Google has four different match types, Broad, Phrase, Exact and Negative.

  • Broad match: keyword
    Allows your ad to show on similar phrases and relevant variations
    This is the default option. So, if you ad group contained the keyword 'wedding photographer' then every time there was a query for either 'wedding' or photographer your ad would be show. This is not very effective as your ad could be shown for just photographer or wedding and therefore not really targeting a 'wedding photographer'

  • Phrase match: "keyword"
    Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase.
    When you enter your keyword as a phrase match it will be displayed within quotation marks, as in "wedding photographer". When a searcher types in 'wedding photographer' in that order your ad will appear. It can also appear for searches that contain other terms as long as it includes the exact phrase you've specified. This is a better choice of keyword as it is specific and will not attract keywords that are not relevent to your campaign.

  • Exact match:
    Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase exclusively. I think this one speaks for itself.

  • Negative match: -keyword
    Ensures your ad doesn't show for any search that includes that term.

I do hope you have found the aforementioned useful and implement some of the suggestions before you carry out your marketing campaign. Just remember to analyze your website, compile a keyword list, test and evaluate the keywords performance.

To Your Success
DeAnna Dubois




Monday 4 January 2010

Secrets To Choosing The Right Affiliate Marketing Products

In order to become a successful affiliate marketer there is one thing that you need and that is a product to match your chosen topic. For example, let’s say you decide to promote the topic of golfing, in such a case you will require a product that relates to golfing. It could be an affiliate product entitled, ‘ How to improve your golf swing’ or ‘Golfing Tips From Tiger Woods’ (although at this time you may want to choose a different golfer!)

Nevertheless, the main aim is to choose a product to match the topic. To choose a product I recommend you go to the main affiliate network site of Clickbank, it’s the largest affiliate marketing merchant with thousands of digital products.
When searching Clickbank you will want to choose a product that is ideally selling well and making money. There is no point in selling a niche product that only a handful of prospects would buy.

So, how you can tell if a product is a good choice? First, take a look at the gravity number. Clickbank is the only program that provides this indicator. You can find the grave number when you search the Click abank Marketplace for relevant affiliate programs. This grav number represents a unique calculation by ClickBank that takes into account the number of different affiliates who earned a commission by promoting a product over the past 8 weeks. Since more recent transactions are given a higher value, this number can give you an idea of what products are “hot” at the moment, in terms of being promoted by many affiliates and making a good number of sales.


In this example you will see that this product is in the Health & Fitness category and has a grav number of 398.91, indicating that it is a hot product.

However, don’t get too excited as a high gravity can also indicate that there will be a lot of competition in promoting this product. Unfortunately, on other Affiliate Merchant sites you cannot tell how well a product is selling from the sales page and there may be a possibility that they have inflated their sales figures, therefore a little more research on your part may be necessary.

It might be a smart move, if you decide to promote a new product. But how well it sells does depend on the niche market you choose. When a product is new it is likely that there will not be too many people at the start or launch, this gives you the opportunity to be at the forefront of promotion before the market becomes saturated, and too much competition from other affiliates arises.

Another way to research an affiliate product is through Google. Simply type into Google the keywords relating to the product you wish to promote. You will get a list of websites and other keyword combinations. If the list of websites comes back with Take note that not all of the keywords will give you websites that run related affiliate programs. However if they do run their own affiliate program, ensure that it pays instant commission otherwise you run the risk of not getting paid. Check that the affiliate program is up-to-date as sometimes the site can be run down, a sure indicator that you will not get paid.

Staying with health & Fitness a search on Google reveal that there are 100,000,00 websites promoting weight loss products. That indicates that it is a market that is saturated and will probably cost you a few dollars on the PPC program. It also breakdowns in the box the number of websites per keyword wording. eg. the first keyword 'fast weight loss' had 34,000,000 websites competing for that keyword.

The advice would be to steer clear from the category with some much competition, but if you know how to use long tail keywords properly you can still market your product, by narrowing your target audience through keywords that do not generate so much competition.

So what makes a good product?

When you are looking at affiliate programs you have to know what makes a good product. I believe a good product is one that is relevant to its market and provides a solution to the searchers problem. Browsers are searching the marketplace for a reason and if your product does not meet its needs it will not sell. However, if your product provides the information they are looking for, then it will make money. If you present your product in a wishy-washy and vague format it will most definitely turn prospects away and will you not earn a cent.

Another aspect you need to consider when joining an affiliate program is whether it provides accurate tracking. This is important, as you want to know where your prospects are coming from, what is working for you and what is not. If you’re an affiliate who pays for advertising, not understanding what’s not working and why, can cost you a lot of wasted time and money. Even if you only use free promotional methods, you’ll still waste a lot of valuable time if you don’t analyze your efforts and make improvements based on that analysis.

You also want an affiliate program that pays a decent level of commission. Everyone wants to get paid! But promoting a product at $7 - $10 may not be worth your while unless it converts at a massive rate. If you were spending hours per day promoting an affiliate product for such small amount that gives you one sale a week, I would forget about it and find a new product to promote. You want to paid well for your work don’t you? I mean you would not go out and get a job for $3 an hour, would you?

Affiliate resources another consideration when choosing an affiliate program. If the affiliate program offers resources like, banners and images to put on your website, classifieds ads, articles and PPC ads, then it will be easier for you to promote their products. These resources will save you money. Steer clear from affiliate programs that expect you to create your own resources. It will cost you to create banners and images and could work out quite expensive. A good affiliate program will provide resources.

I hope you found this helpful

To Your success

DeAnna Dubois

Links to consider
· Clickbank
· Commission Junction
· Linkshare
· Ebook wholesaler
· Affiliate window


Friday 1 January 2010

Insider Tips To Successful Affiliate Marketing

Have you heard the affiliate marketing saying:

To be successful as an affiliate alla you have to do is join any affiliate program, slap their banner ads onto a basic web page, and HEY PRESTO, you've got an INSTANT web business that will make you money quick and easy!!

YES, well let me tell you that it is a a complete myth. Of course you can make a lot of money by marketing other peoples' products on the Internet, but there are no shortcuts to instant wealth.

In order to build a successful affiliate business you need to plan, research, and unlike what many websites and so called affiliate experts tell you, work.

So if you're thinking of starting your own Internet business promoting affiliate products, I have four strategies for you to follow. These strategies will GUARANTEE you earn the maximum amount of commissions...

Strategy #1: Choosing A Niche Market

Now this may sound a strange thing to say but, I would advise that you Do NOT get started by choosing the affiliate program you want to join!
Most make the mistake of picking the products/service they want to promote first, because:
• It looks like it would be fun to sell
•they think people will want them
•they offer the highest commissions
•A lot of people are promoting it, then it must be good

Let me put you straight, of you choose your niche market because of the aforementioned, you won't be doing yourself any favors.

It will be a diaster. You'll end up with paying for driving qualified traffic to a site that is failing. Pay-per-click marketing can work out extremely expensive.

As I said before, plan and research. So do your niche market research first...
•What are your interests?
•What kinds of problems are people going online to try to solve, within your areas of interest?
•Which of these problems seem to be neglected by most of the sites out there?

Identify a group of people who are desperately trying to find something online without success -- and then offer them that something. They'll snap it up quickly, believe me.

Strategy #2: Make Sure Your Products Are Relevant and Related

Don't put all your affiliate programs on one page. I can't tell you how many times I've come across websites that market every single affiliate program from cheap holidays and dog food recipes to find your perfect mate. Those banner ads you receive when you sign up for an affiliate program should be advertised to market that affiliate program alone.

I call them the "cheap market" sites, and they're a complete waste of time!

I cannot stress this enough. Any product you promote should closely related to your niche, and closely related to each other!

Otherwise, you are going to encounter problems finding qualified traffic for your site, and you'll have even worse nightmares writing a copy that directly relates to your visitors' needs.

But worse than anything you could imagine you run the risk of hurting your credibility.

That's because, you are going to come across as someone who is only interested in making money and really interested in what your visitors really want.

Strategy #3: Build A Strong Opt-In List, Then Establish Lasting Relationships With Your Subscribers

As an affiliate marketer, one of the main stays of your online business is to build a strong Op-In List. So make sure you start with a strong opt-in offer that offers useful, relevant information. Then, follow-up with more relevant free information, which will be the beginnings of a bond between you and your opt-in member.

Once you keep sending reliable, relevant information and prove to your opt-in list that you are a good source for useful information ...the more they will look forward to hearing from you and trust your opinion. In turn you will become more successful.

As time goes by and you build a relationship with your subscribers, you're creditionals will be recognised as you establish yourself as an expert in your field. This will make it easier for you to recommend products as your recommendations will be respected and seen as marketable.

Strategy #4: For Maximum Conversions Personally Recommend Your Products

If you were in the market for the best games console, would you be more inclined to purchase a particular brand because you saw an ad for it on tv, or because a friend that you trusted recommended and raved about its features and that it was the best games console on the market?

You'd go with the recommendation, right?

Yeah, most people would...

... that is why putting down a whole bunch of affiliate banners or links on your website, and then hoping that someone -- anyone -- will come along andclick on them, is NOT going to make you any sales.

You have to remember, you've been building a relationship with your customers through email marketing, they've grown to trust you and view you as an expert, so now they're open to your opinion.

This is the time to build on that and tell them about the products they should consider purchasing, and why they should own them.

In fact, they'll actually appreciate the recommendations, and as a result, your conversion rates will sky rocket!

I cannot give you a magical affiiate marketing formula that will let you enjoy instant success online, but I can tell you that it is possible to earn substantial profits promoting other peoples' products...

If you do choose to build a business as an affiliate, you must start:

  • By clearly defining your market
  • Build an information-rich website that your audience will want to visit.
  • Only include products that are relevant, and take advantage of your site to build your credibility and establish yourself as an expert.
  • Be sure to build a large list of qualified subscribers, and take advantage of email marketing to both build lasting relationships, and promote your products.

With the right planning, research and a reasonable amount of work, you'll be well on your way to a successful website recommending affiliate products.

Stay posted as I will be writing more blogs on affiliate marketing.

To your future success

DeAnna Dubois

p.s.

I have been trained by one of the top Super Affiliates around and I am pleased to offer you a $397 Lifetime Membership of Super Affiliate Trainer absolutely FREE!!

When you become a member of SuperAffiliateTrainer.com you'll instantly get:

  • Insider complete, step-by-step multimedia super affiliate training program!
  • High converting ClickBank products you can promote for massive cash...
  • You can make HUGE commissions 24/7 from THIS VERY WEBSITE too!
  • Tons of ready-made affiliate marketing tools and marketing materials
  • Insider complete, step-by-step multimedia super affiliate training program!
  • Top secret method to earn MASSIVE PASSIVE INCOME up to 10 levels deep!
  • Get continual super affilaite training and proven secret strategies for free...

Click here to get your Free Lifetime Membership