Blog Me Happy I don't want to be a newbie any longer.

You have may have read many headlines that sound similar to this one above, or make promises like this one seems to. You have may have even read some of those articles all the way to the end, clicked on some of the links in the article and read all the information on those links. You might have finished the article and then broken up into hysterical laughter… no way can I make money doing that; that won’t work, do that, write about that, endorse that… or whatever that! IT WILL DESTROY MY IMAGE!

Done right, it can enhance your image. I’m going to give you some tips that will give you an opportunity to monetize your website or blog, while preserving your brand. One of the best and easiest ways to monetize your online properties is to join some affiliate programs and advertise them on your site.

Affiliate programs are the answer

Why affiliate programs? Simple. When you promote affiliate websites, you get instant access to products and services that are well supported by professional marketing materials without and up-front development costs. All the work of writing an eBook, or recording an audio track, or programming a software product is taken care of by someone else. But there are more benefits than that. You also don’t have to create graphics and other marketing materials – those are created for you by the affiliate program owner.

Another big benefit is that you really don’t have to keep track of money or finances. Most of the better affiliate programs will provide the members affiliate management tools that are based on one of the leading affiliate software programs. These programs make it easy for you to follow how the ads you place on your site are doing, and how much commission you are earning.

Five tips for choosing affiliate offers to promote

1. Look good earnings potential – You want to make sure that if one of the people you refer to an affiliate offer buys, that you will make some decent money. Some people think affiliate programs offering high percentage payouts are best. I would prefer to find affiliate program that sell high ticket items and pay large commissions. This affiliate program for promoting sales interview tools gives you the opportunity to earn almost $50 per sale.
2. Choose programs your readers will like – It is critical that you choose affiliate programs and offers that your audience will appreciate and be interested in. It wouldn’t be very bright to choose to promote affiliate programs and products for knitting and crochet products on a site that is dedicated to professional football. However, if you have a website that helps people find careers is sales, it would be great to promote something like How to Get Into Medical Sales.

3. Look for affiliate programs powered by software – When you sign up for an affiliate program it will quickly become obvious if the owner of the program is serious about helping affiliate members be successful. If you are automatically redirected to a page in an affiliate marketing software program, you can infer that this is a serious affiliate program. Personally, I wouldn’t waste my time marketing affiliate products that aren’t managed with affiliate software. Their are several top name brands like iDev Affiliate, LinkShare, and JROX JAM. My favorite is JROX JAM, which you can get for free here: http://websitesthatdrivesales.com/recommends/free-affiliate-management-software.htm

4. Make sure the website is NOT anonymous – What I mean is, make sure that there are real people standing behind the website, people with good reputations, who take customer service seriously. Affiliate program owners who tell you who they are, give you contact information aren’t very likely to be fly-by-night. They are more likely to pay you on time and deal with you fairly. If you find a bio, picture, and phone number of the website owner, chances are they will behave legitimately. You will also be able to search the Internet to find any negative information about their program. Peggy McKee, the Medical Sales Recruiter, is one of the country’s leading sales recruiters – she proudly announces her site ownership on the about pages like this one: http://30-60-90-day-sales-plan.com/about/

5. Choose affiliate programs that have support programs – If you are choosing a piece of software to buy, you probably wouldn’t purchase it if there was not support mechanism in place. It would be wise to use similar criteria when evaluating affiliate offerings. Affiliate website program owners that don’t put support systems in place – things like a ticket system or help desk software – probably won’t care about any their products or customers, nor will they care about supporting your marketing efforts. When they do, you can be fairly confident that they are trying to delight their customers. If they AREN’T trying to keep customers happy, their poor service will reflect poorly on you, and tarnish your online brand.

Here are a couple of affiliate programs that I recommend if your site’s visitors would be interested in these subjects. One is an affiliate program for a sales interview tool that targets sales professionals – you can check it out here: http://30-60-90-day-sales-plan.com/affiliate-program-details/. The other is a program that has a broader appeal – it targets people who own businesses that either have no web presence or under performing websites; you can get all the information for it here: http://websitesthatdrivesales.com/blog/home/affiliate-program/

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, affiliate programs, affiliate software, internet business, internet marketing, making money online, monetize, websites

Posted under More than a newbie. Learning together.

I’ll bet you have read a lot of headlines that sound similar to this one above, or make claims like this one. You have may have even read some of those articles all the way to the end, even clicked on some of the links in the article and read all the information on those links. And after finishing, you probably have thought to yourself, what a bunch of hooey… that won’t make money; I won’t promote that, I can’t do that, write about that, endorse that… or whatever that! IT WILL RUIN MY BRAND!

That isn’t necessarily so. I’m going to give you some tips that will give you an opportunity to monetize your website or blog, while preserving your brand. One of the best and easiest ways to monetize your online properties is to join some affiliate programs and advertise them on your site.

Affiliate programs are the answer

Why affiliate programs? Simple. Affiliate programs allow you to have a product to sell without having to build or create it yourself. All the work of writing an eBook, or recording an audio track, or programming a software product is taken care of by someone else. But that’s not all the benefits. You also don’t have to create graphical marketing materials – those are all created for you by the affiliate program owner.

Another big benefit is that you really don’t have to keep track of finances or money. The best affiliate programs will probably provide you with affiliate management tools that are based on one of the top affiliate management programs. The software programs will keep track of all kinds of metrics that will help you optimize your affiliate marketing effort.

Five tips for choosing affiliate offers to promote

1. Look good earnings potential – You want to make sure that if one of the people you refer to an affiliate offer buys, that you will make some decent money. Some experts recommend that you look for high percentage payouts. My preference is to look for websites that offer high ticket items and pay large commissions. This affiliate program for promoting SEO services gives you the opportunity to earn monthly recurring income up to $350.
2. Choose programs your readers will like – It is critical that you choose affiliate programs and offers that your audience will appreciate and be interested in. It wouldn’t be too bright to choose to promote affiliate programs and products for chocolate desserts on a site that is dedicated to losing weight. However, if you have a website that helps people find careers is sales, it would be great to promote something like How to Get Into Medical Sales.

3. Look for affiliate programs powered by software – When you sign up for an affiliate program it will quickly become obvious if the owner of the program is serious about helping affiliate members be successful. After signing up, if you are automatically redirected to a page powered by a fully-featured affiliate marketing software program, they are probably serious about their affiliate program. If they don’t have software they may not have an accurate way of keeping track of sales and commissions, should think carefully about investing any time. Their are several top name brands like iDev Affiliate, LinkShare, and JROX JAM. My favorite is JROX JAM, which you can get for free here: http://websitesthatdrivesales.com/recommends/free-affiliate-management-software.htm

4. Make sure the website is NOT anonymous – What I mean is, make sure that there are real people standing behind the website, people with good reputations, who take customer service seriously. People who let you know who they are, give you contact information with phone numbers aren’t very likely to be fly-by-night. They are more likely to be on the up and up and deal with you fairly. If you can find a picture, bio, and phone number of the website owner, chances are they can be trusted. You will also be able to search the Internet to find any negative information about their program. Peggy McKee, the Medical Sales Recruiter, is one of the country’s leading sales recruiters – she proudly announces her site ownership on the about pages like this one: http://30-60-90-day-sales-plan.com/about/

5. Choose affiliate programs that have support programs – If you are choosing a piece of software to buy, you probably wouldn’t purchase it if there was not support mechanism in place. You should use the same criteria when evaluating affiliate programs. If the vendor doesn’t have a support system in place – something like a help desk or help desk software – then they probably don’t care about their customers. When they do, you can be fairly confident that they are trying to keep customers satisfied. If they AREN’T trying to keep customers happy, their poor service will reflect poorly on you, and tarnish your reputation.

There are a couple of affiliate programs that meet all these criteria, that I could recommend if your site’s visitors would be interested in these subjects. One is an affiliate program for a sales interview tool that targets sales professionals – you can check it out here: http://30-60-90-day-sales-plan.com/affiliate-program-details/. The other is a program that has a broader appeal – it targets people who own businesses that either have no web presence or under performing websites; you can get all the information for it here: http://websitesthatdrivesales.com/blog/home/affiliate-program/

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketers, affiliate marketing, affiliate programs, affiliate software, internet business, internet marketing, make money from home, make money without working, making money online, monetize, Online Business, websites

Posted under Emails

I’ll bet you have probably read a lot of headlines that sound similar to this one above, or make promises like this one seems to. You have probably even read some of those articles all the way to the end, even clicked on some of the links in the article and read all the information on those links. And after finishing, you probably have thought to yourself, what a bunch of hooey… that won’t make money; I won’t promote that, I can’t do that, write about that, endorse that… or whatever that! IT WILL DESTROY MY IMAGE!

Well, that doesn’t have to happen. I’m going to give you some tips that will give you an opportunity to monetize your website or blog, while preserving your brand. One of the best and easiest ways to monetize your online properties is to join some affiliate programs and advertise them on your site.

Affiliate programs are the answer

Why affiliate programs? Simple. When you promote affiliate websites, you get instant access to products and services that are well supported by professional marketing materials without and up-front development costs. All the work of writing an eBook, or recording an audio track, or programming a software product is taken care of by someone else. But the benefits don’t end there. Also, you don’t have to create marketing materials – those are created for you by the affiliate program owner.

Another big advantage is that you really don’t have to manually keep track of ROI or conversion rates. The best affiliate programs will probably provide you with affiliate management tools that are based on one of the top affiliate management programs. The software programs will keep track of all kinds of metrics that will help you optimize your affiliate marketing effort.

Five tips for choosing affiliate offers to promote

1. Look good earnings potential – You want to make sure that if one of the people you refer to an affiliate offer buys, that you will make some decent money. Many people think affiliate offerings that offer high percentage payouts are better overall. My preference is to look for opportunities where you can make a large commission from a sale. This affiliate program for promoting 30/60/90 day sales plan templates gives you the opportunity to earn almost $50 per sale.
2. Choose programs your readers will like – It is critical that you choose affiliate programs and offers that your audience will appreciate and be interested in. It wouldn’t be smart to choose to promote affiliate programs and products for knitting and crochet products on a site that is dedicated to professional football. However, if you have a website that helps people find careers is sales, it would be great to promote something like How to Get Into Medical Sales.

3. Look for affiliate programs powered by software – When you sign up for an affiliate program it will quickly become obvious if the owner of the program is serious about helping affiliate members be successful. If you are automatically redirected to a page in an affiliate marketing software program, you can infer that this is a serious affiliate program. If you get an email message that says ‘we’ll let you know if you earn anything’ you should think carefully about investing any time. Their are several top name brands like iDev Affiliate, LinkShare, and JROX JAM. My favorite is JROX JAM, which you can get for free here: http://websitesthatdrivesales.com/recommends/free-affiliate-management-software.htm

4. Make sure the website is NOT anonymous – What I mean is, make sure that there are real people standing behind the website, people with good reputations, who take customer service seriously. People who tell you who they are, give you contact information with phone numbers aren’t very likely to be fly-by-night. They aren’t likely to try to avoid paying you the commissions that you have earned. If you can find a picture, bio, and phone number of the website owner, chances are they will behave legitimately. You will also be able to research to find any negative information about their program. Peggy McKee, the Medical Sales Recruiter, is one of the country’s leading sales recruiters – she proudly announces her site ownership on the about pages like this one: http://30-60-90-day-sales-plan.com/about/

5. Choose affiliate programs that have support programs – If you are choosing a piece of software to buy, you probably wouldn’t purchase it if there was not support mechanism in place. You should use the same criteria when evaluating affiliate programs. Affiliate website program owners that don’t put support systems in place – something like a ticket system or help desk software – probably won’t care about any their products or customers, and eventually they won’t are about you. If they do, then you can be rest assured that they are trying to delight their customers. If they AREN’T working to keep customers happy, their poor service will reflect poorly on you, and tarnish your online brand.

There are a couple of affiliate programs that meet all these criteria, that I could recommend if your site’s visitors would be interested in these subjects. One is an affiliate program for a sales interview tool that targets sales professionals – you can check it out here: http://30-60-90-day-sales-plan.com/affiliate-program-details/. The other is a program that has a broader appeal – it targets people who own businesses that either have no web presence or under performing websites; you can get all the information for it here: http://websitesthatdrivesales.com/blog/home/affiliate-program/

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketers, affiliate marketing, affiliate programs, affiliate software, internet business, internet marketing, make money from home, make money without working, making money online, monetize, Online Business, websites

Posted under Blogs

In this age of heavily reliance on search engines, a website that does not have any considerations for SEO will likely sink in the rankings. Most people rely a lot on the search engines when they are looking for products or services that they want, and without SEO services employed on your website the search engines will have a difficult time finding your site and indexing them, thus your site will virtually be invisible and might as well be non-existent. Even the best designed site with the best products will fail if SEO services have either not been applied or done poorly. The proper implementation of SEO services tends to follow several predetermined steps that ensure it’s effectiveness and maximize the increase in rank on the search engines translating to higher traffic and revenue through sales.

Where Do I Start

The first thing you must do is analyze your current website. This has to be done in two ways.

The first is that you have to analyze the functionality of a site from an SEO perspective or so called “on page optimization”, by checking the keywords, it’s density, the HTML code and the meta tags.

The second is analysis of the site through the user’s eye in terms of functionality and the quality of the users experience when using the site.

Consider your audience.  Who is your ideal target?  Many varying factors can change how you talk to people; age, sex, marital status, education level, geographic location and economic status can all affect how you talk to them. Are you speaking to them? Are your keywords going to resonate with them?

The next thing to do is to look at your niche competition. Take a look at their site and analyze the way their sites are built, how they are addressing their audience, and their rankings. See what methods and strategies they have used to attain their ranking on the search engines.

Choosing Your Keywords

Once all of the research has been completed, you must then decide how to improve your SEO services.  Most importantly, you must decide what the relevant keywords are for your site.  To do this, you must look at both your product or service as well as your intended target or audience.  Your keywords will be the cornerstone of your SEO services strategy. Pick them carefully, and after much research and consideration.

Now that your keywords are selected, you then have to rewrite the content already on your site to reflect these changes. You should target for a keyword density of between 3-5% throughout your site. Do not try to saturate your site with keywords; over 5% makes it difficult to maintain the cohesive structure of your writing and can result in an unnatural flow of the story you are trying to convey. If your content looks unnatural, then it is likely your audience will alienate themselves from you because the content you are providing may seem to be gibberish.

Optimize your site every way you can, do not just optimize the content. Look at your site’s code and ensure that the basic HTML and meta codes also reflect your keywords as the search engines initially scan these when they spider your site and use it as part of their ranking.

The Link Building Strategy

Linking is another important part of improving your ranking. Non-reciprocal links, or one-way links are also a valuable tool when trying to raise your search engine ranking. They hold more value than reciprocal (two-way) links in terms of SEO services. To get more non-reciprocal links, write good content.  Many people will link to your site if it is relevant or useful to them.  Update it regularly to encourage this.  Directory listings are also a great way to get non-reciprocal links.  Article submissions are perhaps the best way to get one-way links; not only does it raise your ranking, but it can also be an additional source of traffic for your site.

These are some the basic things you need to do in terms of SEO optimization so that you site will rank higher in the search engines. Any less and you will fail. This does however bring you to a very important point, and that is how do you effectively manage your time to be able to do all these tasks efficiently and effectively? You will need a system of tools and services to assist you in this and one such system is Portal Feeder. If you are interested in knowing more about how you can effectively improve the effectiveness of your SEO campaigns then see what Portal Feeder has to offer.

Technorati Tags: Build Online Business, Business Strategy, making money online, Online Revenue, Portal Feeder, Portal Feeder 3.0, SEO, SEO Optimization

Posted under Site building.

If you have discovered about and learned what affiliate marketing is and you think that you are ready to start experiencing and putting in your efforts into affiliate marketing, here are some tips that you may find useful in finding success.

Research Your Target Niche

Before you start out any online money making method and especially so for affiliate marketing, you need to understand who your audience is. Not knowing who you will be selling to sets you up for failure as you won’t know how you should build a relationship with them, and how you should sell to them. Research is key to being able to understand how your potential target market behaves, think and buys; look at the demographics to determine what direction you have to take before trying to sell them anything.

If your efforts are to succeed, it is important to have inside knowledge so that you can effectively and efficiently communicate with your potential buyers. Being able to effectively send out your message clearly in a language your audience understands will allow you sell the products you are selling a lot easier, and will also help you in establishing better relationships with them. Having good relationships with your potential customers will give you the power to sell to them over and over.

Transparency Is Important

When you start your affiliate marketing business, be sure that you are transparent with all the details. It is important that you build a solid reputation with honesty and integrity. Although it may be possible for you to make money online by tricking people into trusting your affiliate marketing business, that kind of business model is not likely to last long. Also, you are less likely to make money out of it. For this reason, you must always be honest with your business as well as the products and services you are promoting. People online are more likely to appreciate this and, consequently, they will be more likely to trust you in the future.

Make Sure You Pick The Right Program

On of the most critical steps in making affiliate marketing work is being able to choose the right program to use. While there are certainly many affiliate programs out there that work for many other people where in they make money online, it does not mean that it will also work for you. For you to make money online using affiliate marketing, you have to to find products that you either are familiar with, interests you or that you want to get to know even better. Having knowledge on what you are selling gives you an added advantage when you try to promote them, as buyers like to ask questions before they press on the checkout button.

In addition it would be recommend that you evaluate the affiliate programs before you apply to them, see what their reputation is, what their products are, what sales support they provide, what other affiliates say about them, and other relevant information that can help you decide. Having the right affiliate program to use will make your efforts in making money online through affiliate marketing a lot easier.

To Conclude

So should you decide that affiliate marketing would be something you want to try out for making money online, remember the important steps above so that you will have long term success in it. There of course many other ways you can improve on it, and if this interests you then why not look into Portal Feeder which is a system of tools and training that can further improve your skills and revenue in affiliate marketing

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, making money online, Online Business, Portal Feeder

Posted under More than a newbie. Learning together.