Category Sales and Marketing

Affiliate marketing doesn’t have to be so hard as it might seem to some people. Using these tips, I hope you provide you with an easier approach that should result in you securing more sales that you might do otherwise.
Remember with affiliate marketing, that it’s not really your job to close the sale. Your role is to pull in the traffic and then get your traffic warmed up and ready to view the product that you want to promote to them. Any well respected vendor will have already optimised their sales page to be the strongest that it can be for closing the sale. It’s just your job to send targeted traffic to it. In this article, I’m going to share with you an approach that will help you on your way to getting the traffic.
So assuming that you already have a website or you have planned where to add content about your product, then I’m going to share with you the first step on your route to pulling in the customers. This first step is research. What I suggest that you do is to look for the product online. If the product sells on Amazon then go to the page for it and read the reviews there. Take notes on what you find, you’re going to use this material in the next step. If the product is sold through Clickbank, then you might have a tougher time, but still invest some time looking for authentic reviews from people who really have purchased the product.
One of the other sites that you can use for research purpose in your affiliate marketing is YouTube. Look for a video of the product that you want to sell. Once you have found one that has been viewed by as many people as possible, scroll down to see what the comments read. These comments will hopefully be from people who have questions or even answers about the product in the video. Again, I want you to take notes on this. Look for trends and important questions and answers that are related to this particular product.
Just one more place that you might want to check for more material is in forums. You can use the product name and then add inurl:forum next to it in a Google search. This will bring back all the comments in forums about that particular product.
The next step for you to take is writing content. Use the material that you have collected in the reviews to create supplementary information about your product. Write the important and frequently asked questions that people have asked with an answer. Don’t be afraid of adding a little bit of negativity too – this will only help towards making your information be more authentic.
Finally, you’ll need to promote your content across the web as you would with your other pieces of marketing material. Perhaps you want to create a Squidoo page, write an ezine article or even use forums and …

I can see the hate email pouring in from this one. Well, quite honestly, I couldn’t care less. In fact, I’ll even post my email address at the end of this article so you can tell me what a jackass I am. In the meantime, you might want to read this before you even consider getting into article marketing. Why? Because the rules have changed and, quite honestly, nobody cares about your crap.
You’re probably wondering where this rant is coming from. Well, here is the back story so you can understand where this is coming from. It certainly isn’t from a relaxing evening at Sardi’s. Oh, and by the way, from what I hear, the scallops there aren’t all that great. But back to the main topic at hand.
So I’m at the Warrior Forum and some idiot asks if article marketing still works and wants to see PROOF that it works. He wanted one of the best article marketers on the planet, one Alexa Smith, to reveal one of her hard fought for niches in order to PROVE that she’s not full of it.
Well, I couldn’t help but stick my nose into this confrontation and give this pigs feet for brains moron a piece of my mind. For starters, since Alexa’s not trying to sell him anything, she doesn’t have to PROVE to him anything. I then went on to give him the straight poop about article marketing. And if you’re smart, you’ll make a note of all of this.
The biggest problem with article marketers is that they think they can write about any old crap, slap it up on an article directory, and it’ll bring in LOADS of traffic. My friend, those days died along with the Ford Pinto and Circuit City. Today, it’s a whole new ball game. So, I’m going to give you a list of things that you better do if you’re going to have ANY chance at all of making it as an article marketer.
1. You have to write about stuff that people actually care about.
2. You have to write in a way that is engaging and doesn’t put your reader to sleep. You can be controversial and even a little arrogant like me, but for crying out loud, don’t be a snooze fest. In short, LEARN HOW TO WRITE.
3. Don’t make your writing sound like you’re trying to sell something to your reader. People don’t want to be sold stuff. They’re looking for information when they’re looking for articles. The selling stuff part comes in your signature or at your web site. Just give them info that they can actually USE. For crying out loud, help them to solve their problem or at least give them more insight into their problem.
4. Don’t just rely on article directories. I’m sorry, I love these guys but Google has basically said, if you rely solely on them, you’re not going to get the optimal results. Put your articles on …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Article marketing tips and tricks are necessary if you want to be successful. Online you will have many people competing with you especially if you are competing in a highly competitive niche such as weight loss or how to make money.

Article Marketing Tips and Tricks

Create your own website so you can submit your articles to the best article directories such as EzineArticles which will not allow you to link directly to an affiliate link.

Write articles that connect to what your reader is looking for. If you appeal to your readers then you will gain their trust which makes them more likely to buy a product through your website.

Offer your readers expert advice that they will not find anywhere else. This will draw in their curiosity and make them want to click on your link.

Pick your keywords carefully. This is how the readers will find your articles so you want to pick words that are searched often but at the same time you do not want to have too much competition because it will be harder for people to find.

Write at least 3 articles a day. One of the main problems people have is that they write an article and then wait too long to write the next one. Each time you write you are getting your link out there for more people to read. Just keep on going and you will get more views each time you write.

Article marketing tips and tricks are the best things you can do to get your articles out there and read more which will increase your sales.…

Marketing campaigns that make use of social media are some of the most effective ways to promote your company over the Internet. On the other hand, a lot of business owners have no idea how to properly initiate marketing campaigns, define a target demographic or even how to properly execute their marketing resources. For insight into building an effective social media marketing strategy, keep reading.

If you are using Twitter as a branch of your marketing plan for social media, make certain your tweets are varied in content. Send out tweets with advice and insights relevant to your niche. By mixing these tweets in with those that boldly promote your business, your followers are more likely to stay interested in your tweets.

Make sure that you really want to build a two-way relationship with your clientele before you get aggressive with social media marketing. Keep your messages simple if you want to be successful and increase sales with social media marketing. To establish rapport with your target market, you should take the initiative to make the first move. At that point you’ll find that your customers show you want they want from you, you just have to give it to them!

Don’t be afraid to get help with your marketing. This market is large and many designers and consultants can create a website and social media strategy that works for you. Although they are expensive, they can be well worth the price. Therefore, it is important to include this expense in your budget.

Place buttons all over your pages. Have them on your blog, emails, and anything else you can think of. Try to add your links to other profiles as well to encourage multiple sources of traffic for your site.

If you are a Twitter user, it is important to take advantage of options such as automatically twitting your new blog posts, to keep your followers constantly updated. Including links in your blog to other bloggers content that is well written and interesting, can really help keep your readers happy and coming back. The people who follow you will appreciate your efforts to bring them content they enjoy, and the bloggers you choose certainly won’t mind the increased exposure.

When you post something to Twitter, it is a good idea to add a tag. Using hash tags makes your updates immediately available to your followers. Be careful when selecting tags and seek out groups your target demographic are likely to join.

A catchy title is important when you are posting video on YouTube or other media outlets. Add strong keywords to your titles so your videos are easier to find. If the video has real value, it should be easy to find by attaching significant keywords that you know your visitors will use.

Set up your account so that all posts that you make are shown on your company LinkedIN page immediately. You can post an article, and it will appear as LinkedIn updated. This will not only save …

Video marketing is in its infancy, yet it has already become so popular. People all over the world are able to watch streaming video now that more people have access to broadband connections. Take advantage of videos, and use this article to learn about video marketing.

Viral videos need to have awesome content. You need not have expensive video equipment for your video to be viewed by millions of people. Surprisingly enough, even mediocre video will be watched when the information imparted is high quality and pertinent. Purchase the best quality video camera you can comfortably afford to produce your video content.

Within the video, add a screenshot depicting your website. This technique will allow your viewers to see your website in action. Screenshots may be used for how-to videos too. Simply save a copy of your screenshot and use a video editing software program to include your screenshot into your videos.

Focus on a certain topic and choose a descriptive title filled with keywords. A relevant and powerful title can help draw viewers to the videos. The title is one of the most important factors, and without a proper title, the viewers won’t know what to expect. Use creative, relevant titles on all of your videos.

Remember that coming up with your video content is just half the battle. The other half is spreading the word about your videos. Paying attention to your statistics can really help you to increase traffic to your site. Although it’s important to create solid content, you should also ensure that people are aware of it.

Hire the right people to ensure high quality video content. You can use friends, family or members of your favorite organizations in your videos, so you don’t have to stick to your coworkers if you don’t want to. List the people who helped you in the credits of your videos, and let them know you appreciate their help.

Expensive video equipment is really not necessary to produce a quality video. As long as your video is focused and well-balanced, you can use standard equipment. A fancy script is not really necessary either, nor are boatloads of confidence required. You should try being natural and speaking as you normally do. In fact, you may not have to do this at all. Powerpoint presentations and screen capture sequences may be able to fit the bill.

A popularly searched topic online these days involves how-to’s. A great way to reach your target audience is to create tutorials related to your business. Once they see you’re an expert, they’ll want to see what else you have to offer.

Provide quality content. Interesting, fun, newsworthy content keeps people coming back for more information about your business. You may be able to boost your views with a video hosting site, but it won’t really work out if you have boring videos. Folks like engaging content that contains solid information. Interesting videos ultimately increase traffic.

It’s simple to get into video marketing. You just need …

There’s a lot of competition in the online business world. The key is keeping up with the trends, and if you have not created a video to market your business, you are getting behind. Read on to learn some creative uses for video in your business marketing campaign.

The content of your video plays an essential role in its success. You can make great videos without a top-quality camera. People watch videos that are alright if they have relevant information that they think is important. But if you can, purchase a quality video camera as well as professional editing software.

Choose good and well-thought out titles when starting to use video marketing. A relevant and powerful title can help draw viewers to the videos. It’s what gets people to view the video in the first place. Spend a couple of minutes coming up with a good title. You’ll be glad you did.

Are you selling a product? Make a video showing potential customers how your product works. Demonstrations are particularly effective at getting people to become confident in products. You should see that it will help your sals.

Use this information to make a video and have it succeed. You have to also promote your videos. How you market your videos is vitally important. Of course your content needs to be relevant, but you must also market it for the best results.

Production value is not the key to a good video. Professional gear isn’t required if the picture is in focus and properly balanced. There really isn’t even any need to polish your script or come off as a professional pitchman. Be natural and talk to the camera. And in some cases, you will not even have to edit your video before publishing it. Screen capture sequences and PowerPoint presentations sometimes get the job done.

If your customers do not understand how to properly use your products, a video may be called for. In additional to solving problems for people who have purchased your product, you will also attract new customers to purchase because they will see the type of product support available.

Your opt-in options for your mailing list should be present on the same page as the video. This is a great way to keep them interested in what you’re selling.

Take a video camera with you if you are visiting a public event such as a convention or trade show. Find some experts and professionals who are willing to answer a few questions for a quick interview and film different things to document the event. Have someone record any talks you give, too.

Use all the information from your previous video before beginning your new one. Use what you have learned to improve. Change up your message, tweak how the video is done and do what you have to in order to make it even more popular than the last video.

You online business can benefit from a well done video in your marketing plan. There …

You may not know how to go about using social media marketing. More traditional methods might be your specialty. Fortunately, the rise of social networking sites carries a number of unique opportunities for businesses as they compete for consumers’ attention online. A variety of options for doing just that are included here.

Generate new additions to your blog frequently and regularly. If your content is updated frequently, the reader will know when you’re about to put up new content to check out when they return later. This is very much like how consumers treat traditional content providers like newspapers and magazines. Being consistent is the best thing you can do to get visitors to return to your page.

Think twice about paying for a professional social media marketing service. Many of these types of companies are fraudulent and scam business owners that are inexperienced in Internet marketing. There a number of companies that have the ability to use fake accounts on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites to then fake registrations onto your page. They can show you impressive viewership counts for your advertising, when in fact you’ve sunk serious money into having your ad watched repeatedly by a software program.

You should put a ‘like’ box on Facebook on the top of your blog page. Facebook users then have the option to “like” your site. Having this sitting on your blog will let people like your page without having to navigate away from your site. This makes it easy and more likely that your visitors will do this and you will see more traffic because of ity.

To make customers want your social media marketing, run exclusive specials that can only be had by following you on social media sites. They’re more likely to follow you if they can get deals only by doing so.

Always maintain a humble attitude in your social media posts. No matter what the size of your company, if your posts come off as arrogant or boastful, your followers will let you know. Your strength is maintained only by the customers who give it to you in the first place. These individuals are the bedrock of your profits.

Make sure you have a lot of interaction with your customers. If you get to know certain customers well, comment on their blogs or Facebook walls. It is important that you do not participate in personal conversations; you should limit your posts to topics related to your business.

With Facebook, it is very easy to gain followers of your content and give them the opportunity to share it. If an individual makes a comment on your post, all their friends will see a mention of this in their feed. You should ask your visitors to ask questions and comment so that you get more visability with posts you have made.

Social media marketing doesn’t use techniques that are radically different from what you are used to; however, you may face challenges that you don’t face …