Affiliate Marketing Solution Strategy Basics
Ok, let’s keep it basic by starting with the question - What is your affiliate marketing problem? The first step in your affiliate marketing solution is to properly identify the problem. The beginner will be quick to shout out ”my affiliate marketing problem is no sales, no customers and, thus, no income”!
Initially, the problem is a host of things from picking a domain name to learning how to communicate and actually market - but early-on, the problem can point to: 1) Lack of Traffic/exposure; 2) No product or service to promote; 3) Lack of sales/conversions and also let’s throw in - lack of customer retention.
Regardless if your affiliate marketing program - whether it is an affiliate marketing network program, direct sales program, or some other form of income generator, what can you to beginning today to address these problems head on?
You can develop a WaGL. Get your waggle on to develop an affiliate marketing solution. WaGL is a simple reminder for:
What do people want?
Get in front of them
develop Loyalty.
So, let’s briefly look at all three issues of the WaGL effect specifically as it applies to an affiliate marketing solution.
1) What do people want?
You want to find out what people want because you don’t want to convince someone to buy something they don’t want - simple enough. What do people want moving toward 2010? What do they need? What do they crave? The answers are all around us, yet sometimes hard to grasp.
Most research firms tell us people are looking for relationships, better health, longer and happier lives, and to look and feel younger. While that’s pretty broad - you must keep this general concept in mind as you develop a game plan to get your product or service in front of people and their needs/wants/desires.
2) Get in front of some of those people.
Notice first I said - some, not all of these people. Ok, maybe easier said than done, but it’s really not that difficult. What would you do if your potential customer were folks wanting to lose weight? Well, of course you would go to health fairs, grab lunch at your health food deli and see what people are talking about, network with those looking to get healthier, find on-line discussion forums for those looking to lose weight - and see if you can find a match for your product or service.
Also - let’s think outside the box. Why would someone be looking to lose weight? They are about to go to a 10 or 20 year reunion, they are getting married, they have a health issue like diabetes, etc. Guess what? Each of these groups can easily be found on-line or off-line - just start looking!
3) Develop Loyalty.
This is your long term residual affiliate income. Yes, you want to make a sale, but you really want to develop a long-term customer and make sure your product or service can be sold again and again, right? Who wants to be salesperson all their life? Probably no one. So, think long term, or think referral. Treat people right, don’t pressure and don’t harass - keep the long term loyalty picture in mind.
Ok, let’s go out and WaGL.
Business Opportunity Information Packet “How-to’s”
It’s December (I know - where did the year go?), and this is typically the time of year many folks start investigating the potential of starting their own business. Couple this with the current difficult economic times (under-statement of the year), and many forward-thinking people are needing and looking for an extra income source, or may be considering for a career change altogether through a business opportunity.
If you’re in the process of checking out a potential business, you need to thoroughy research a business opportunity information packet on the venture being considered. Often referred to as “due diligence”, the process of evaluating a business opportunity should not be taken lightly.
Here are four quick and handy tips on what to look for, and potential pitfalls in evaluating your business opportunity information.
1) Don’t be pressured.
While there are deadlines in life, this should be a process working on YOUR time-frame - not someone else’s. Any heavy pressure you’re feeling to “close the deal and get going” in the business should be a red flag. Don’t fall for that pitch. If it’s a great business opportunity today, it will be just as good tomorrow.
2) Don’t look to be sold or “Wowed”.
Keep in mind you’re in the market to investigate a potential business, not purchase a sports car. Take the emotion of the moment out of the picture. Slick-talking sales people love to try to paint a picture of desperation or “pie-in-the-sky” for you. Don’t allow it - stay focused on the business itself, not the outcome, and how you might realistically succeed with the business plan.
So, how do I make sure I’m not making a decision purely on emotion?
a) Sleep on the information you’ve received so you don’t make a rash decision - especially if there’s a major investment required.
b) Run the information by a trusted, successful business-person - not so they make the decision on the business opportunity for you - but to get their wise advice and non-emotional feedback. Let them talk straight with you about what they think of the so-called opportunity.
3) Is the Business Opportunity Information you’re considering realistic?
“Make $10,000 your first week stuffing envelopes!” should be reason enough to run from this so-called opportunity. See Point No. 1 - don’t look to be sold, look to investigate the true potential of the business for YOU. Franchisors are required by law to provided detailed and accurate income information in their prospectus, however, many unscrupulous companies spout wild income claims to entice opportunity seekers to invest quickly in hopes of overnight riches.
4) Can I be passionate with this business and have fun?
If you’re looking at leaving a job you really can’t stand - you certainly don’t want to start a business you can’t be passionate about, or one that is just plain boring. If your potential business is pet-sitting and you’re allergic to cats and can’t stand dogs - well, let’s go ahead and state the obvious - it doesn’t matter what the income potential is - you probably won’t be long for that business.
Adsense Scam
Is Adsense a scam? Of course not. Google is one of the largest and best funded companies in the world and Adsense is a huge portion of their profit ingredient. What is a scam are folks that try to flaunt their adsense revenue streams.
I normally don’t spend alot of time linking to other articles and sites, but my blogging friend Garry Conn wrote a great post today. He confirmed what I thought all along - many to most screenshots you see from hot-shot Internet marketers and so-called “gurus” are fakes.
Always remember if you see someone showing a screenshot of their actual Adsense revenues they are breaking Googles TOS (Terms of Service). Google does not permit this.
Anyway…. Garry posted today that you can actually purchase some code to embed on your site to fake a screen shot. Garry did that on his blog today in which he screamed:
“I made $1,634.06 with Google Adsense today”
Here’s the link:
http://www.garryconn.com/learn-how-i-made-163406-yesterday-using-google-adsense.php
Bottom line - don’t ever, ever believe everything you see on-line, particularly from someone you don’t know.
Best Social Bookmarking Strategies
What is social bookmarking and why would someone want to develop a social bookmarking strategy?
Social bookmarking is generally described as a method for Internet users to tag or bookmark web pages they find while searching on the Internet. Unlike the old system of bookmarking in which you have a big file of “favorite websites” on your computer, social bookmarking is usually done publicly and shared with a group of people within a specified community This process is often linked to “Web 2.0” strategies. As people find things on-line that interest them within a certain search vehicle or provider, they can then vote on the contents of that information (as helpful or not), link to it, and provide more traffic for the user.
So, you can initially see that a primary social bookmarking strategy screams out . . .
“Content is King!”
For those that desire to increase their online presence, most understand they should have a social bookmarking strategy, but the process seems a little mysterious and unknown. For others wanting to begin building an online presence, there is a fear of the unknown of social bookmarking as being just one more “techie thing” I don’t grasp.
So, why would we want to develop a social bookmarking strategy for our web sites or articles? To be precise - for increased traffic and more backlinks – the primary lifelines for the monetization of your product or service. Within the context of the “social” side of social bookmarking, the best social bookmarking strategies would also consider developing a sense of community with others that share the same interest and to become a voice of authority within some niche in that community.
For example . . .
If you have a web site on finding and refurbishing 1973 Ford Pinto (my first car) parts, you would post articles, videos, and other forms of communication out to the world, and then use social bookmarking to assist you in getting that specific information into the hands of those interested in 1973 Ford Pinto parts. That is the primary “why” behind the social bookmarking strategy.
So, the strategy in this example is to – publish good quality information on 1973 Ford Pinto parts, and make sure you have a method for getting this information into the hands of desirous recipients by social bookmarking.
Without going on too much longer, there are quickly two steps to this strategy:
- Have a linking social bookmarking tag or badge on your site for visitors to link to and for you to
- Go to the social bookmarking providers of your choice and highlight to followers within that umbrella that you have provided additional content on your topic – in this case 1973 Ford Pinto parts.
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About Me
Hello, this is Kent Faver, and I want to offer you a warm "howdy" from East Texas. I've aligned myself with several long-time and highly successful internet professionals to form a team that has developed a true "paint by numbers" affiliate income method we refer to as the Internet Marketing Revolution. Take a look around, and leave me a note. I do appreciate it. -
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