Ideas to Boost Your Affiliate Commissions

Ideas To Boost Your Affiliate Commissions

Affiliate marketing is one of the simplest ways to start making money online. You don’t need your own website when starting out and you don’t have to deal with anything related to the product, including refunds. Simply join an affiliate program, promote the product, and earn your commissions

Let’s say for the sake of this post that you are already involved in an affiliate program. What would be the next thing you would want to do? Earn bigger commissions, right? So… how do you do that?

Here are some powerful tips on boosting your affiliate commissions…

Know the best program and products to promote. Obviously, you would want to promote a program that will enable you to achieve the greatest profits in the shortest possible time.  In my last post, I discussed choosing the right affiliate program as there are several factors to consider. Choose the ones that have a generous commission structure, have products that fit in with your target audience and that has a solid track record of paying their affiliate easily and on time. If you cannot seem to increase your investments, dump that program and keep looking for better ones. You can be picky.

Write free reports or short ebooks to distribute from your site or blog. You will be competing with other affiliates that are promoting the same program so if you write a short report related to the product you are promoting, you will stand out from other affiliates. In your report, provide valuable information for free and if possible, add some recommendations about the products. You will establish credibility and your potential customers will see that.

Build your list! Get an autoresponder service and collect the email addresses of those who download your free ebooks. They have opted in to receive more emails from you and it is a known fact that people do not make a purchase the first time. You may have to send out your message more than just one time to make a sale – the follow up.

Also, set up a squeeze page. Get the contact information of a prospect before sending them to the vendor’s website. Redirect them to the sales page after they give you their email address in exchange for your free report/ebook. Keep in mind, you are basically providing free advertisement for the product owners because you get paid only when you make a sale. If you send prospects directly to the vendor site, chances are, you will lose them.

Publish an online newsletter or ezine. It is always best to recommend a product to someone you know (your list) than to sell to a stranger. This is the purpose behind publishing your own newsletter. It also allows you to develop a relationship based on trust with your subscribers since you will be providing them with quality information.

This strategy is a delicate balance between providing useful information with a sales pitch. If you continue to write informative articles, you will be able to build a sense of reciprocity in your readers that may lead them to support you by buying your products.

Write strong pay per click ads. PPC marketing is one of the most effective means of advertising online. As an affiliate, you can make a small income just by managing PPC campaigns, i.e. Google AdWords. Always monitor and test to see which ads are more effective and which ones to get rid. You can get some really great training at PPCClassroom.com.

Give these strategies a try…and watch the difference they will make to your commissions.

LOOK What’s Coming Next Week!!

Email Promos Exposed Video Series: How to Write Killer Email Promos That Get Results! My thoughts…

Have you ever been faced with the task of having to write an email promotion to your list, and then realized that you didn’t know what to say or how to say it?

Well, I’m not sure if many of you have seen or even heard of Michael Rasmussen’s new video course “Email Promos Exposed”…but if you haven’t checked it out or watched the videos, you own it to your self to do so! Email Promos Exposed videos walk you through the actual process of creating killer email promos step-by-step.

I decided to see if Michael’s videos live up to their promise by trying them out myself. Here’s what I found:

*************************************************
Overall Quality
*************************************************

The first thing I noticed when I opened up the first video was the stunning production quality. He used Camtasia Studio for the production, which is now the industry standard for creating high-quality screen capture video products. The audio is near studio quality, and the graphics are very professional. These videos were made by someone who KNOWS what he’s doing. Well done!

I also liked how Michael divided the videos up by section, and then again by sub-section. For example, one video is all about the subject line, and then there are different parts of that video that each cover a certain area of crafting a killer subject line.

*************************************************
The Actual Videos
*************************************************

Here’s a brief summary of each video. Obviously it’s impossible to list every single thing here, but I want you to get a feel for what each one covered, and how well it covered it.

VIDEO 1 – INTRODUCTION

This video served as an introduction to the whole course. You get to see a picture of Michael in his every day life, and he establishes his credibility right up front by talking about some of his massive successes online. He even provides proof of credibility. This is a good lesson for anyone to get. Whenever you’re teaching people how to do something, it’s good to establish your credibility up front, so that there’s no doubt about whether or not you’re qualified to talk about the subject. Most product developers either skip or minimize this step.

VIDEO 2 – BEFORE YOU WRITE THE PROMO

This video talks about some things that no other marketer has bothered to mention. You’ll learn things like:

* The mindset you need in order to write a killer promo

* The different tools you need before you get started

* How to keep your emails laser-focused

* How to create an outline that practically writes the email for you.

This was a fantastic video, and did a good job of kicking things off.

VIDEO 3 – THE SUBJECT LINE

I liked this video, because it talked about one of MY biggest weaknesses when it comes to writing email promos… the subject line. The subject line is a confusing topic, because nobody’s 100% sure what the best tactics are.

Michael breaks it down, and reveals:

* The biggest secret for writing a subject line that makes people insanely curious.

* Techniques for personalizing the subject line.

* Mistakes to avoid when using personalization.

VIDEO 4 – THE OPENING

This is where a lot of people slack off when writing their emails. Michael talks about how important it is to create an opening that is conversational, and then reveals techniques and examples on how to do that.

He also reveals:

* How to get people to keep reading your email once they’ve opened it.

* How to make your opening interesting.

* Mistakes to avoid when creating your first few paragraphs.

VIDEO 5 – THE BODY COPY

This is one of the “meatiest” portions of the course, because it reveals techniques that are not widely discussed on the forums, blogs, and in most eBooks. He talks about the importance of keeping your body copy tight and relevant, and then reveals how you can do that. You’ll also learn:

* How to write powerful bullets that make people curious and want to find out more.

* Simple formatting tricks for making your body copy easy to read.

* The secret of “bucket brigade copy” and how to use it in your email promos to force people to keep reading.

VIDEO 6 – THE CALL TO ACTION

This is where a lot of people wimp out in their email promos. They start out strong, but when it comes time to ask the reader to click the link and take action, they don’t know what to say. Michael talks about some of his favorite techniques for making that happen, and also reveals:

* The “magic question” to ask yourself that will make your close much more powerful.

* The secret of the “unanswered question” and why handling this is a surefire way to get people to act right away.

* The structure of a powerful close.

* Mistakes people make when creating their close.

VIDEO 7 – CREATING AN EFFECTIVE P.S.

Some people say that the P.S. is one of the most important parts of the email, because it is often the one thing that gets people to click the link at the end. In this video, Michael talks about:

* Why you should including a P.S. at the end of your email.

* The 4 different kinds of P.S.’s you can use (this section was a real eye-opener for me).

VIDEO 8 – COMMON MISTAKES PEOPLE MAKE

I loved this video, because it showed me some mistakes that I was making that I wasn’t even aware of. Unless you’re a seasoned pro, you’re probably guilty of some of the things that Michael talks about in this video as well, and that’s why it’s so valuable. I’ve shaved years off my learning curve, because now I can avoid some of the costly mistakes that I was bound to make in the learning process.

VIDEO 9 – HOW TO CREATE FOLLOW-UP EMAIL PROMOTIONS

This video alone is going to make me a lot of money. Why? Because I used to only send out one email promo for each affiliate promotion I was doing. Michael showed me in this video how important it is to send a follow-up promotion, and he showed me exactly how to do it. He covered things like:

* The psychology of follow-up email promo’s.

* The 2 main types of follow-up promos that make the most money.

* How to overcome readers’ objections in your follow up emails.

* The 2 most common mistakes people make when writing follow-ups and how to avoid them.

VIDEO 10 – HOW TO WRITE BACK END EMAIL PROMOTIONS

Every marketing guru out there says that the REAL money is on the back end. I’d have to agree with them, but the problem is… most people have no idea how to set up a back end system that makes money. This video will teach you how to set up an automated back end that’s loaded with killer promos that make you lots of cash on autopilot. He reveals things like:

* The big difference between regular and back end email promos.

* How to prepare a back end promotion sequence.

* Common mistakes people make when creating back end email promos.

VIDEO 11 – CREATING AFFILIATE EMAIL PROMOTIONS

This could be the most important video of the entire package for a lot of people, because most people email their list to promote other people’s products as an affiliate. Let’s face it, if you only have 3 products, can you really afford to only email your list 3 times a year? They’ll get bored hearing about the same old products over and over again. This video sheds some light on how to create killer affiliate promos. Michael reveals things like:

* The two main types of affiliate promos.

* What makes affiliate promos different than regular promos (and why ignoring this huge secret could cost you big money).

* Michael’s favorite tactics for creating affiliate promos that no one else is doing.

* 3 different ways to add scarcity to your affiliate promos (this is the most important section of the video, so make sure you watch it over and over again).

*************************************************
Conclusion
*************************************************

As you can see, Email Promos Exposed really packs a lot of punch! Most of the courses out there offer only watered down, weak content. Not this one! These videos are going on my “A-list” for a long time.

I’ve already watched them twice, and plan on reviewing them every couple months to make sure that I have the principals, techniques and tactics burned into my mind.

If email marketing is an important part of your business (and in my opinion, it’s the most important part of ANY online business), then you owe it to yourself to check out Michael’s exciting new videos, Email Promos Exposed.

For instant free access, visit here!

And Congratulations!

*************************************
Download Blog Warrior Software Free!
*************************************
Get Adsense Websites Free!
*************************************


Building Your Membership Site Step by Step

Free membership websites can help Internet marketers in so many ways and they are relatively easy and inexpensive to set up that it’s a wonder there aren’t more of them. Don’t ever underestimate the power of ‘free’! Everybody loves ‘free’. Those who don’t have a lot of expendable income like free for obvious reasons but those who have plenty of expendable income LOVE ‘free’… maybe that’s why they have so much expendable income. :)

The fact is that people who are surfing the Internet are all looking for the very same thing… INFORMATION. Granted, they are not all searching for the same information but they are nevertheless searching for information… and they love nothing better than free information about whatever topic they are interested in and that is where a free membership website comes in.

There are two major parts to building a successful free membership website. The first one is to actually construct the website on the Internet. The second one is to get members to join the free membership website. Here is how to go about doing both of those…

Building a Free Membership Website:

Building a free membership website is pretty much like building any other kind of website with just a couple of additions.

1. Choose a topic for your free membership site.

This topic should be one that will attract the specific group of people to whom you want to market your products or services. In most cases you are advised to narrow your topic but in the case of building a free membership website, it is better to make your topic a bit broader.

2. The next step is to register a domain name that reflects the subject of your free member ship website.

3. It is true that web hosting comes with a domain name but you need a web host that will allow you to have as many domains as you want on the same server.
(I wrote about some great resources for registering domains and web hosting in my previous post.)

4. You will need a membership script for your free membership site.
(I also wrote about three membership scripts that you can check out in my previous post.)

5. You might want to add a ‘Refer a Friend’ button, as well.

Two sites on which to get this program are Send to Friends , and KC Scripts Refer a Friend.

6. You might also want to include a helpdesk option on your free membership website. This is strictly optional.

7. You need content for your free membership website.

The name of the game for free membership websites, as for all websites, is content, content, content. There are many ways to obtain website content. You can download and reprint articles from article banks or you can join a PLR website and get articles which is better in that you can do some rewriting of the articles to avoid duplicate content and make them your own. Check out PLR Wholesaler for some great plr content and training.

If you have the ability you can write your own articles or you can hire a ghost writer to write them for you.

The above are the information and tools needed to build a free membership website (or a paid membership website for that matter). Now you either build your site or have someone build it for you. Your web host service will have features that will provide for you to set up a blog or forum on your website and you will need to include that when you are constructing your website. Additionally, there are other features that will likely be included in your web hosting service such as polls or content management systems that you might also want to include in your website.

Promoting Your Free Membership Website:

Promoting a free membership website is done exactly the way any website is promoted. When you build any website the only person that is aware that it exists on the Internet is you so it is up to you to promote and advertise your site and let the rest of the world know where to find you.

You accomplish that task while you are building your own credibility. One will not exist without the other. A free membership website builds credibility and credibility builds a free membership website. There are several very well established ways to promote a website on the Internet…and the first three listed here are free.

1. Write (or have written for you) short articles, 300 to 400 words, and put them into article directories for others to use.

Your resource box will include a link to your free membership website. The same is true for eBooks. Either write short 10 to 15 page ebooks or have them written for you. List these ebooks at free ebook sites for others to download and be sure that there is a link to your free website on every page.

2. Post to blogs and forums on other related websites after you join them.

Don’t go in promoting your free membership site outright…Simply include a link to your free membership site in your sig tag and post thoughtful and helpful information.

3. Find link exchange partners and exchange links with them.

Since you are not actually selling anything it should be very easy to find link exchange partners.

4. Buy advertising for your free membership website in related E-zines.

This is a very cost effective method of advertising. The cost of advertising in E-zines is usually less than $20 and the advertisement is sent directly to those people who are going to be your best prospects for your free membership sites as well as for the products and services that you will be marketing to them.

In no time, your membership site will be off to a rip roaring start…

Feel free to check out these free membership sites, see how they run, how things are operated. You’ll see that it’s really not that complicated.

Free Monthly Websites
Social Bookmarking Exposed
Resell Rights Weekly

Using Articles and Autoresponders Together

Using Articles and Autoresponders Together

Here’s a way to promote all your niche articles besides submitting them to directories one by one.

Writing articles to market a product or service is an excellent way to build any business. The articles, of course, should be very informative, providing the reader with information that is relevant to a specific topic. Your article resource box usually includes a link to a website or blog for more information. The website, of course, is designed to sell a product or service that relates to the topic of the article.

Articles are commonly submitted to article directories, websites, and ezine publishers. This is one of the most effective ways to market a service or product on the Internet, and get this…it can become even more effective when it is combined with the use of an autoresponder.

Here’s what to do. Take all of your articles for your one specific topic and start to set them up into an autoresponder. Each different niche or topic should definitely have it’s own autoresponder address so you will need an autoresponder service that allows you unlimited autoresponders. Make sure you have a master list of your articles per topic and the autoresponder address/form code for each topic one you have set up. Add descriptions of the articles on your master list also.

Now, we all know advertising your articles one at a time can take a great deal of time, but advertising one autoresponder address – the one for the master list of a specific topic – won’t take very much time at all. Simply put your autoresponder topic’s form code in a newsletter, and on your website or blog. That way when someone signs up to receive an informational article, not only will they get to read one, but having set up your autoresponder, they will continue to receive your other articles related to the specific topic. Make sure you have an excellent resource box set up at the end of your articles, pointing your subscribers to your site, service or product.

When submitting your articles to directories, you can even put a link to the autoresponder address or squeeze page where article readers can sign up to receive more articles, into your resource box.

If you don’t have an autoresponder service yet, there are a few decent ones out there, Aweber, GetResponse, etc… I would recommend checking out, TrafficWave.net. The quality of their service is excellent and you can’t beat the pricing, especially when you see all that they provide for one low fee. If you have any questions, as always, feel free to contact me!

Boosting Your Business with Autoresponders

Boosting Your Business With Autoresponders

These days, almost everyone is familiar with autoresponders, although believe it or not, many don’t know why they are beneficial to businesses. I just finished explaining the importance of autoresponders integrated with an affiliate marketing business to a friend of mine – giving me the idea for this post!

If you aren’t familiar with autoresponders, and have never used or set one up, you will most definitely want to check into them  and I bet you’ll be amazed! An autoresponder can help your business by automatically emailing your clients and customers with a preset message that will help to increase your sales. Automation!

Autoresponders can help your list of customers grow as you send each one of them their own personalized email message. Then if you want, you can also follow up each individual email with repeated emails, varying the content whenever you wish. Autoresponder programs also allow you to keep track of conversations, and send out broadcast email messages whenever you have news or new products to offer your clients. I can’t live without it! Nor could I run my business so smoothly :)

Personalized email from your autoresponders is a great way to boost your business.  When you send a personalized email to one of your clients, the autoresponder by can address him or her by their name – which always makes a customer take notice.  While you could do this yourself using traditional email, it could take you a few hours if you have a long list of customers.

Autoresponders make sending personalized email so easy.  All you need to do is set up your email letters one time, selecting where you want the “name” to go.  You can add everyone in your customer list to the autoresponder, which makes sending emails a snap.  Once you have everything ready to go, all you need to do is send out the emails with one simple click.  Best of all – you don’t have to set it up again when you need to send out broadcast messages.

With each autoresponder email series you set up, you would then want to grab the subscription form code for that series, place it on a website or blog, and visitors to your site can simply fill in their name and email address to add themselves to that specific autoresponder email series – and then they are on your list!

Although there are some people who will buy products after one or two emails, most people require about seven or eight emails before they will purchase anything.  Autoresponders can really help you there, as they will do all of the emailing for you.  You don’t have to keep sending manual emails or anything like that.  All you need to do is set up the email address, type in your preset message, and then feel free to send it as many times as you like.

Through the use of an autoresponder you can really boost your business. I can’t say that enough. If you are running an online business, whatever the niche, this tool will prove to be invaluable. You can spend less time sending messages manually – and more time doing what you enjoy, or in my case more marketing! If you’ve never tried an autoresponder before, you owe it yourself to check out everything they will do for you and your business.  Online businesses can get a lot of emails on a daily basis – which is where the autoresponder will really start to shine and show you just how great of an asset it really is.

You can sign up on this page to receive my free report: Autoresponders Really Can Make You More Money and read more about it!

You can also try this autoresponder program out free for 30 days! It is the best out there! I would suggest that you do this, check it out, have a look around, use it! I know you’re going to love it!