The purpose of this article is to not only assist the veteran marketer, but also the newbie or procrastinator. Hopefully this will get you off your proverbial “butt”. Many folks out there have bought the next “get rich quick online” system more than once. The sad truth is, many of these programs help, but few take the student to fruition. Most consumers of internet marketing programs start with great aspirations and quit with the first “glitch” in their system. If you are like most, you have probably stopped at the first challenge and looked for the next program for online riches.
First off, most programs seem to rely on an “inherent marketing or computer knowledge” by the consumer of their product. It is probably not intentional, but I believe many of the gurus forgot what it is like starting out.
Regardless what program or system you follow, these are some helpful tips for getting your business off the ground:
1. Break out the calendar! Use a cheap yearly calendar that you can hang on the wall in front of your computer.
2. There are certain steps that must be taken for every online business (domain, hosting, autoresponder,etc.). Scan through the program and find or make a list of tasks that must be accomplished. Write each on the calendar for the date you would like that step completed. I have found if you use dates that you know you have some free-time, the odds of completing that task rise significantly.
3. Don’t fall behind! When you write a goal date for a certain task, get it done. Don’t underestimate the time you will need, but at the same time, don’t sell yourself short.
4. Stay engaged! Read and participate in the online community. If you are dead tired and shot at the end of the day, at least read something online before going to bed. It is amazing how a day away from your business, turns to two days, which turns to weeks, or years!
5. Choose a mentor. A mentor should be someone who ” has been there, done that”. He or she should ideally be a person with a similar technology background and is truly invested in your success. Someone who takes you by the hand and shows you how to do it. To be successful long-term, you need to understand and learn how to replicate the steps.
6. This is the most important step! Obviously if you are looking into an internet or stay at home business, you are not satisfied with you current situation. Everyday you go to bed without any positive movement towards your goals, you are cheating not only yourself, but also your family.
You deserve more, and I am here to tell you that everything is possible with goals!
I hope you enjoyed my article.
Sincerely, Greg Roberts…
3 Things You Don’t Want To Do When Doing Affiliate Marketing
Are you a fan of affiliate marketing? If not then you should be. Affiliate marketing is the lazy man’s dream. Wake up with sales in the inbox, no customer service, nice monthly cash flow, high sales prices, residual income, and etc. All of these things are real in the affiliate marketing business but you should know that reaching this goal is harder than it seems.
Affiliate marketing is extremely easy to get into, which is why a lot of people fail. They think just because it’s easy to get into, it must be just as easy to make money. This is the wrong way to think about things. If you’re currently into affiliate marketing and aren’t seeing the sales and profits that you desire, then more than likely you’re making some of the mistakes that I have listed in this article.
In this article, you will learn the top mistakes that newbies make when starting out online. It would be in your best interest to not commit these mistakes and to avoid them at all costs. Here’s the first mistake that newbies make.
1) Picking a losing product
I don’t mean to bad talk anyone’s product but you shouldn’t promote something that isn’t proven to sell. You want to pick hot products that are proven to sell time and time again. If you’re in a marketplace such as , they have tracking statistics that let you know how well a certain product is selling. Use this information to your advantage to find winning products that sell repeatedly. Here’s the next mistake beginners make.
2) Picking a product become of commission
You should never pick a product just because it offers a large commission. Is it proven to sell? Does it have testimonials on the sales page? Does it offer a money back guarantee? All of these questions are things that you have to ask before you get started promoting products.
You should never pick a product just because it offers a large commission. If you’re just starting out, it’s probably in your best interest to stick to a product that sells at a low product price and that offers around a 50% commission rate. You want to start out with a product like this so that you can get immediate sales and see that the process is indeed working for you. Here’s another mistake that beginners make.
3) Not having a website
You need your own website if you want to be successful. No matter what the gurus have told you, you need to have your own website. How are you going to do all of the things that the gurus recommend if you don’t have your own website?
With a website, you can start your own email newsletter, do product reviews, start a blog, and even have your own voice. All of these things are available to you when you do affiliate marketing, so keep this in mind before you start marketing your products.
Take these tips and use …
Affiliate Marketing Tips – Is Video Right For Your Product?
There are many ways to promote an affiliate product. One of those ways is through the use of video. But is video right for your product? How can you tell? This article is going to take a brief look at this subject to see if we can come up with a viable answer.
If you’ve been following the fads that have come and gone on the Internet, you know that one of the big new things is video. Everybody and their grandmother is uploading videos to YouTube to hawk one thing or another. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that video is bad. It’s not. It’s great. I use it myself for a number of products. However, there are certain things that lend themselves more to video than others.
Essentially, you want to use video for products that are more visually and/or sound oriented. For example. Let’s say I am promoting a book on songwriting and I want to show people what I’ve learned from the book in order to convince them to buy it. Wouldn’t I have more success if I made a video of me actually using the information to write a song right in front of the viewer’s eyes? Imagine actually playing the song right on the video itself. Think this won’t greatly help sell the product? Trust me, it will.
Now, another great use of video is with the testimonial. Lots of people are very skeptical about buying things off the Internet. The dot com bust of the 90s saw to that. So, making a video of you talking about a product does a couple of things. For starters, it allows the viewer to see that you’re an actual person. You’re no longer a faceless name on the Internet. This helps build trust. For another, they can then see how sincere you are by the way you speak (providing you are sincere). One of my videos endorsing Nitro Marketing Blueprint has been one of my most successful because people can really see how excited I am about the product. You can’t fake that kind of enthusiasm.
Video can probably work very well for most affiliate products. The only way to really tell is to test it out. Create one, watch it and see if you believe what you just saw. Be objective. If you feel the video will help the sales process, go with it. If not, it’s probably best to can the idea. Ultimately, it’s a judgment that you’ll get better at making as time goes by.
To YOUR Success,
Steven Wagenheim…
Network Marketing Tips: 5 Ways to Stay Motivated
“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why it’s recommended daily.” Zig Ziglar
In the network marketing industry, you will become subjected to a great deal of negative experiences which will truly test your desire and commitment. From your wife complaining that you still have boxes of products left over from the last company you dealt with, to your neighbours closing the window blinds when they see you.
Network marketing is a tough business. How you approach and deal with the negative attitude of others is what will define your success. One of the best ways to deal with these issues is to find a way to motivate yourself on a daily basis.
Here are 5 ways you could motivate yourself in your network marketing business.
Praise yourself on small, individual efforts. Whether it’s signing up a new customer, handing out a business card to a prospect or scheduling a 1 on 1 meeting. Be happy with this progress and tell yourself that it’s important to your overall business success.
Read or listen to the success stories of others to find out what obstacles they had to overcome. It does not matter if these people are with your company, another network marketing business or involved in a different industry altogether. The steps they took to reach the top can transcend any business.
Get your daily dose of motivational quotes. You can find many on-line, as several prominent web sites offer weekly email notifications offering motivational quotes. Rediscover the reason “why” you entered the network marketing industry. This reason should be important enough to get you past the negative aspect of the business. Have your “why” written down and read it daily.
Find yourself a mentor. The best scenario would be if you could find someone who is in the same company as you, but, that it is not absolutely critical. It is important however, that the mentor be involved in the network marketing industry. whenever you are feeling down, give that person a call and discuss ways to re motivate yourself.
Motivation is one of the key attributes you can possess in any business, but most importantly in network marketing. Make sure that you are staying motivated on a daily basis.
If you enjoyed reading this article, please feel free to share it with others.
Wishing you great success.…
Tips For Reactivating Past Customers And Selling To New Ones
Getting more new customers for your business is something that is hard to do. You have to know how much you can afford to spend on an ad because of something called the “average lifetime value”. You will also need to know what your cost per lead is, and what your cost per sale is.
If you don’t know the figures for the examples that I’ve stated above, then your business is on hanging on a thin piece of ropes. Take a look at all of your customers and see how many of them have bought from you more than one time. It’s these people that you will want to start with when it comes to bringing them back into your business.
You will also want to send letters to customers who have bought once, but haven’t purchased anything recently. With these people, you will want to send them a reactivation letter to get them out of their dormant state, and get them back into your business.
Where could you start with a reactivation letter? Well one way to get inspiration is in something called a “swipe file”. Your swipe file is a collection of winning ads and sales letters that you can modify and use in your business. There are a ton of swipe files on the internet for a low cost, so I suggest you begin your search here.
If you’re wondering what you could say when doing your reactivation letter, here are a few tips.
1) Tell them that you miss them
Let your customers know that it has been months (or even years) that you last heard from them, and tell them that you would like to hear from you again. Give them your email address so that they can contact you in a low sales presence atmosphere. Ask them if they are doing ok, and that you would like to see them come to your business again. This is a great way to start.
I once saw a guy write a reactivation letter where his entire premise was to make these people laugh. His letter was so clever that I almost called the number too! Lol… in all seriousness though, writing a reactivation letter doesn’t have to be hard to do. Here’s another quick tip for improving your sales and profits.
2) Contact your customers
Your one-time customers aren’t the only people that you should be mailing to. You should also send a letter to your recurring customers every month, just to keep them in the loop, and to get them to buy more of your products. This is where 80% of all your sales and profits will come from. So ignoring these group of people isn’t something that you will want to do.
Both of these tips for contacting your customers to make more sales are very simple to put into action. These are strategies that I use myself, so you can lay rest assured that they will work for your business also.
Good …
Having A Tweet Tooth
Many people initially thought the world had gone bonkers when Twitter was introduced, with some folks clearly thinking that they would rather have their toenails pulled out, one by painful one, than to join in the ‘Me Me MEEE!’ behavior of Twitter.
Frankly, it is kind of true that Twitter is one of the most narcissistic tools in the world but here is the deal – it is also through Twitter that we find old friends and make new ones. It is through Twitter that businesses make conversations with their customers and it is also where they get connected to people who had problems with their services and products (and make good of the complaint).
Through Twitter, we know precisely where reporters and journalists are whenever they head out on dangerous missions in war-torn countries. It is also where we keep in touch with our favorite celebrities and find humor in the way they sometimes ‘Twight’ unashamedly online. We also used to Twitter to find survivors of natural disasters and connect friends and family members when they were in trouble.
All in all, there are pros and cons to using Twitter. Just in case you don’t know, you can go private with the Direct Message tool. You don’t REALLY have to tell the world EVERYTHING.
Despite all the initial chagrin shown by some less-than-ready-to-tweet people of yesterday, Presidents now Tweets, beat that. So, in short, I think it is about time people got on with is the new world that we are living in and instead of groaning about it, get in. Use the pros and try your best not to get swept up by the cons. Business executives (especially those in the branding, advertising, PR and marketing division of a company) should be thankful for Twitter, really.
More so if you are small company. The internet will only become bigger, not smaller and for small to medium-sized business to avoid being left out of the loop, you need to get into the habit of reaching out to your consumer and potential target market with Twitter. Twitter has become more than a girly-want to-be-famous kind of game.
With the Mention feature on Twitter, large companies and brand names know who, why and what their customers are saying. If the chance presents itself, staff can initiate an atonement exercise by placating and calming the frustrated customer down. If the big guys are doing it, it has got to mean something.
If these large brand names, public figures and celebrities are doing it, I am quite sure Twitter (regardless of whether it evolves or not, in the future) is here to stay.…
Great Affiliate Marketing Tips To Generate More Sales
This means that you will have to think of some brand new techniques to sell the products. The following article contains just a handful of the most proven affiliate marketing strategies.
Maximize business profits by signing up with affiliate marketing companies. Affiliate programs have been shown to generate much more site traffic than passive methods such as banner advertisements. Each prospective affiliate program should be carefully assessed based upon its popularity, ease of use, and compensation plan.
You can make good money through affiliate marketing, but that is only the case if you know what you’re doing. Having a high search ranking is an important aspect of running a website or blog. Completing this will allow you to have better affiliate links which leads to more money.
A few quality tips from a reliable book on affiliate marketing is much more valuable than information that is available from a multitude of sources. While you are establishing your business, you must be willing to work without compensation. Be aware that reading too many books could be considered a stalling tactic. Get the tips you need, stop reading and put them to use.
If you run a specialty goods store, such as a sports store, your customers are coming there with the idea of purchasing sports products. Your affiliate links will not be useful unless they are specific to your overall site content. It is more likely that you will get clicks on links that are related to the information contained no your site.
Only put your stamp of approval on products you believe in. The products you promote are a reflection of your website and yourself. Customers and clients will build their trust for you in accordance with the products you promote. Selecting good products and pricing them fairly is among the best ways to retain your customers.
Use a reputable tracking service that provides accurate reports of what you are owed. Affiliates have been known to incorrectly track sales, which can cause a loss of profits for you. If you have a good tracking system in place, you will be spared both the frustration and heartache that comes from losing out on money you should have received. While there may be some costs involved, you will find that it is well worth it.
If you rely on one or more affiliate partners for your revenue stream, communicate with them as often as possible. By increasing communication, you will do better in business and increase profits. Your most profitable affiliate marketing partners are pearls beyond price, and you should be willing to take extraordinary measures to cultivate and care for them.
Those affiliates in California who were suspended in 2011 can re-install their links now. There was a law that made California get rid of California affiliates but it has since been changed. If this change applies to you, sign up again.
These techniques are used because they’re an effective method of bringing in customers. Use it for your position and …
Internet Marketing – Paying For Advertising
Are you currently advertising your website online? I mean paid advertising. Are you using paid advertising to drive traffic to your site and to get more new sales? If so, then hopefully you are getting good results from your efforts. While advertising is excellent, not all forms of paid advertising are created equal.
There are some forms of paid advertising that is effective, and some that are just flat out not good. Even if you’re advertising right now to get traffic (and NOT targeted traffic… I’m talking about traffic that makes it look like you’re succeeding online)… you have to make sure that you are getting sales and seeing results from your advertising efforts.
One form of paid advertising that I like to invest in is pay per click advertising (PPC). With pay per click, you bid on certain keywords that you would like to rank high for in the “sponsored listings” section of the search engines. Depending on your niche, you could either spend a lot on some keyword phrases, or you can pay a little.
Nevertheless, pay per click advertising can be a great way to bring new sales to your website. The top players in the pay per click game are Google AdWords, and Bing Ads (Yahoo and Bing combined). Despite the combination of Bing Ads, Google AdWords is still larger… by a lot.
But the traffic from Bing Ads is still good. You will want to monitor your costs and make sure that you’re actually turning a profit or getting a lot of leads from your advertising efforts. If it helps, you may find it beneficial to start off with a low pay per click bid (around 10 cents), and monitor your results from there.
Pay per click advertising is a very addictive thing to use. You will find yourself tweaking things here and there, changing your landing page, deleting keywords, creating new ads, and etc. The bottom is that, if after 2 changes your results haven’t picked up, it’s time to let the campaign go, and move into a different niche.
Even though PPC is good, you don’t want to bet the farm on something that is untested. Make sure your product price point is good so that you can make up for any money loss when acquiring the customer. Also, make sure to make the decision as to whether or not go hard and spend more on PPC – despite going negative on the initial sale, or slow things up a big to just break even or make a small profit on each sale.
I like PPC, but it isn’t the only good form of advertising online. I also like to do ezine advertising. This is the process of contacting ezine and email list owners and seeing if you can buy an advertising slot in their publication. This works very well, and there are a ton of ezine and email list owners who will take you up on your offer.
You can find ezines …
Content Marketing: Announcing 4 Powerful Content Marketing Tips
Whenever someone purchases an information product online, there are two things that they will take into consideration. First, they will confirm that your reputation is solid. Second, they will confirm that you are an expert in your niche. For an example, if you were going to buy a horror book, would you rather buy it from Stephen King or an unknown author?
How can you position yourself as an expert? And how can you go about improving your reputation? Fortunately, the answer to both of these questions can be answered with one answer. The answer is content marketing. You should give your prospects enough information to achieve two things. One, they should be convinced that you are an expert. Two, you should answer their questions. It is best to leave them wanting more information, so don’t give away everything that you’ve got.
As promised, here are 4 Content Marketing Tips that will help you.
Content Marketing Tip # 1- Do Your Due Diligence. Research, Research, Research
Are you prospects looking for in-depth information about a specific topic? Or are they looking for a how-to guide? Do they want answers to specific questions? These are the questions that you should be asking yourself before you decide to start writing about anything! Your objective is to provide content that is as targeted as possible. You will be highly effective if you do your research and it is that simple. Are you unfamiliar with how to go about finding out what your prospects want? Try logging on to and read the reviews that customers write. This information is literally invaluable.
Content Marketing Tip #2 – Let Your Personality And Sense Of Humor Shine Through Your Words
As you are probably well aware, people tend to do business with those that they know, LIKE and trust. Your goal should be to answer your prospects questions while making them laugh or at least smile. I realise that this article is not the funniest article that you have ever come across, but you get the picture right?
Content Marketing Tip #3- Go Above And Beyond
You are probably also aware that word-of-mouth advertising is extremely effective. Do everything that you can to give your prospects and customers significantly more value than they expect. The more value that you can provide in exchange for their money, the better. Try to over-deliver and under-promise.
Content Marketing Tip #4- Avoid Being Inconsistent At All Costs
Inconsistency is the number one cause of failure with content marketing. A formidable number of marketers think that providing content from time to time is acceptable. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you have a blog, update it daily. Try going on forums and posting on a regular basis. Another thing that you could do to be more consistent is to hold weekly webinars.
These are the four content marketing tips you can begin to carry out immediately. If you choose to do so, you will experience more traffic, more sales, a …
Use Val-Pak And Brochures To Market Your Business
There are a large sum of business owners who absolutely hate the idea of marketing. They think it’s a tedious process, and for some people, they feel that marketing simply doesn’t work – so they just operate on referrals and walk in customers. If you run your business like this, your days are numbered.
Marketing is something that absolutely MUST be done if you want to improve your sales and profits. Without marketing, how do you expect your business to thrive in today’s economy? It simply won’t. The majority of referrals that you get will dwindle, and the amount of walk in customers will take a hit also. So the only way left to get customers into your business is to do marketing.
Now marketing doesn’t have to be hard to do. You can create a daily marketing plan that you can do everyday, just to make sure you’re on the right path towards getting response. I think your best efforts will lie in you trying to stick with easy techniques that are easy to implement. In fact, here’s a marketing technique that you can use to get customers in your door.
1) Val-Pak
The first time I looked into a Val-Pak catalog it was like a coupon explosion. I saw ads from all types of business owners offering some kind of deal, and the more I looked through it, the more “fired up” I became towards being interested in taking these people up on their offers.
You can do the same thing. Get your coupons inside of a Val-Pak magazine and see if it helps you to boost your sales. A lot of people receive these Val-Pak catalogs, and you never know who may be interested in your offer. Let’s take a look at another technique that you can use to get people into your doors.
2) Brochures
I’ve seen color brochures and black and white brochures, and they both have had success over themselves. The key to making brochures work is information. You can have pretty pictures and other nice images, but these things won’t sell the brochure on its own. You need descriptions.
Underneath each item in your brochure, mention what the image symbolizes and what it means to the brochure as a whole. People want to understand what it is that you’re talking about, so mention clear descriptions and offer people to get an insight about what item in your brochure is all about.
So the decision to make it black and white or to make it full color is up to you. Personally I would go with the full color brochure, but if you’re strapped for cash, the black and white brochure can work also. If you want to make a black and white brochure work for you, you have to add a lot more text to your brochure, because sometimes people can’t seem to “get the picture”.
If you can do this, then you’ll stand a great chance to making your brochure work. Also …