Affiliate Marketing Profits Tips

Affiliate marketing is all about getting paid for selling products you don't own and not going to jail for it. Someone else goes through all of the trouble to develop software programs, service, or digital content products.

They'll do all the work then you collect the money!

Affiliate marketing is a revenue sharing arrangement between the product developer, known as the affiliate merchant, and the affiliate marketer who is anyone that's willing to promote the sale of product by advertising the product using any type of legal means available.

The relationship will allow the affiliate merchant to grow their profits by paying only for the advertising that results in a sale. The affiliate marketer will profit by making a percentage on a sale that he does not have to manage after the sale.

Getting paid

Getting paid all depends upon how the affiliate program is set up. Some merchants will run their own affiliate program. They'll have special types of software that assigns each affiliate marketer a special link that's used in promoting the product.

The software will track sales of every marketer and the merchant will pay the commission on a periodic basis using either PayPal or another method of payment.

Selecting products or services

Your affiliate profits are directly tied to how well your selected product or service sells, and the size of the commission you earn, which makes it very important that you choose carefully when it comes to choosing the affiliate merchant you'll be partnering with.

Choose programs that you aren't embarrassed to promote and programs that you'll feel comfortable recommending to your family and friends if they were to ask you about it.

You'll do much better if you promote products that you fully understand and are already familiar with. This way, you'll be able to write better ads without having to strain yourself coming up with the right things to say.

You should only promote products and services for companies who have gone through the trouble to provide you with training programs and sales aids such as banners and other marketing materials that you can either use directly or model the one you own after.

Be on the lookout for programs with commission rates no less than 50%. You should give preference to programs that pay commission on multiple levels, which means you'll also have to earn commissions on sales made by people who buy the products through your link then go on and become affiliates themselves later on.

Technorati Tags: affiliate, affiliate marketing, affiliates, internet, profits, blog, marketing, money, business

Mobile Blogging is on the Cutting Edge

Mobile blogging is an exciting phenomenon that is sweeping the blogosphere.

One of the reasons why a lot of bloggers are attracted to the medium of blogging in the first place is that they enjoy being able to make frequent updates and posts that keep all of their visitors up to speed with current situations.

Mobile blogs, or "moblogs", take this to the extreme by allowing users to post things literally as they happen. This new wave of moblogs and mobloggers keep web surfers up to date with good and bad events of importance as they occur all over the world, helping to make international communication faster and more accurate.

Many people feel that the limitations of blogging have a lot to do with geography. After all, there is only so current that a blog can be when you need to run home and boot up in order to update it.

However, mobile blogging marks the beginning of an thrilling new era when web-based communication can happen spontaneously from any location. Moblogging devices mean that there is almost nowhere on the planet that remains off-limits for bloggers.

Mobile blogging is still in its infancy because the technology that makes it possible has only recently hit the global market. The first moblog technology became available over a decade ago, but it is only the past two or three years that mobile web devices have become user-friendly enough to appeal to most consumers.

As camera phones and other mobile technology become more popular, more and more bloggers are getting away from their desks and are hitting the streets.

Moblogging is becoming much more widespread that it was even a few months ago, and mobloggers are quickly attracting a lot of attention with the blogging community.

It is not yet clear whether moblogs will become the dominant kinds of blogs in the years to come, but the current trend seems to imply that moblogs are here to stay.

Mobile devices make it possible to blog from the sites where current events are unfolding, which is one of the reasons why mobile blogging has so much thrilling potential to revolutionize the blogosphere.

A moblogger with a camera phone can post blog entries from, say, the foot of the podium at a presidential speech, or from the stands during the final moments of the world series.

This enables bloggers to experience the same real time thrills that live television coverage provides, but in a more democratic medium.

The combination of mobility and individual control that moblogging provides certainly places mobloggers on the cutting edge of today's communications technology, and it is hard to imagine that the number and prestige of moblogs will not continue to grow in the coming years.

Technorati Tags: mobile blogs, internet profits, internet, profits, blog, marketing, money, business

UK Marketers -- Here's Where Your Internet Profits Are!

Consumer Lifestyles and Multi-Media Use In UK

Late on March 2006, The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising reveal the results of its TouchPoints Survey. This is practicaly a survey made over a week in the life of a representative UK adult population. The period selected for survey was during the last part of 2005.

The survey was conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS)and was questioned 5,010 people through a self-completion questionnaire and a PDA (personal digital assistant) time-based diary that collected data every half hour for a week on how they were spending their time, their opinions, and the role of media in their lives.

Below are some amazing results! See for yourself...

Multi-Media Usage

- Only 12 percent of all written communication is now using pen and paper; 49 percent is via email, 29 percent via SMS text, 10 percent via Internet Instant Messaging

- 39 percent of written communication by adults aged over 65 is on paper; for 15-24 years olds it is only 5 percent. This younger age group favors electronic methods of written

- communication, 48 percent is SMS, 28 percent is email, 20 percent is Internet Instant Messaging - SMS is used more by women than men, accounting for 36 percent and 23 percent of their total writtencommunication respectively

- 29 percent of 15-24 year olds send in excess of 10 text messages a day; 7 percent send in excess of 20. 92 percent txt once a week

- 70 percent of 15-24 year olds ignore all commercial text messages they receive

- 25 percent of all mobile phone users (and 59 percent of 15-24 year olds) take pictures with their phones every month

- SMS texting is almost as common as talking on mobile phones (Talking is 54.9 percent).

Media Mix

- TV remains the lead medium for the majority of adults – this is true for all age groups and is irrespective of internet access

- The media hierarchy in hours for all adults between Monday and Friday is: 3.9 television, 1.3 hours radio and 0.8 internet. On Saturday and Sunday this changes to: 4.5 television, 1.5 radio and 1.0 internet

- 27 percent of users of games consoles also read a daily newspaper

Television vs the Internet

- On a typical weekday a 15-24 year old home Internet user spends 2 hours surfing the Internet -– this rises to 2.4 hours at the weekend and averages 14.8 hours for the week. 33 percent of this group are spending 4 or more hours watching television on an average weekday. The mean for this group is 3.2 hours on an average weekday rising to 3.9 hours at the weekend. Commercial television accounts for 75 percent of viewing.

Through the letterbox

The average individual receives 8.5 pieces of advertising mail each week, 4.9 (57 percent) are personally addressed and 3.6 (43 percent) are 'random' pieces of mail

- 45 percent open the majority of ad mail that they receive

- Only 4.8 percent respond to ad mail that they receive from companies

- 55 percent of adults are happy to receive information from companies they have bought products and services from

- 53 percent of individuals indicate that they are annoyed by the amount of ad mail they receive

Consumer Lifestyles

- On an average weekday, a two parent family unit with children spends 21 percent of its time as a complete family unit, peaking at the 9pm watershed. On the weekend, this figure rises to almost double (39 percent), peaking at 7pm on a Saturday and 9.30pm on a Sunday

- Watching TV remains the core shared activity with in the family home

- Middle managers spend less time with their children than senior or junior work colleagues

Other important things to know:

- Adults in full-time employment consume 8 hours of media during the day (a mix of TV, radio, internet, reading). This rises to 9 hours amongst the unemployed and the balance of TV viewing rises from 46 percent to 65 percent

- 30 percent of employed adults work from home on occasion; 16 percent do so at least once a week, 7 percent on a daily basis Those working from home are less likely to have children than employees working in an office

- 70 percent of 15-24 year olds say they "could not live" without a mobile phone. Only 12 percent of mobile users never use their phone for texting (49 percent of these are over 65)

- Shopping for groceries over the internet is highest in East Anglia at 14 percent followed by Greater London and the South East at 13.5 percent. It is lowest in the North at 2.6 percent

- 30 percent of the population are prepared to spend more to save time with this being true for those aged 15-24 (39 percent) and the least true for those aged 65+ (21 percent). People in Greater London are the most likely to say they are willing to spend money to save time (38.6 percent)

- 83 percent of the population would not deal with a company they couldn't trust: the older the individual (92 percent of 65+) the more true this is (70 percent of 15-24's)

- 31 percent of the population find advertising intrusive, 15 percent do not. Men are 1½ times more likely to like the idea of interactive TV ads than women

- 84 percent of the population think that it is wrong for the Government to ignore public opinion between elections

Lynne Robinson, Research Director, IPA said: "The IPA TouchPoints Hub Survey is designed to act as a new and critical link in the channel planning chain which is long overdue and absolutely vital in today’s multi-media world. It gives us a unique view of how media impacts our lives, how we spend our work and leisure time and what our prevailing attitudes are.

The findings of the first TouchPoints Hub Survey confirm some things we already suspected: that families still like to spend time relaxing together in front of the television. But it’s also given us some new thoughts: that although all age groups are embracing technology, it’s the young who are absolutely wedded to it."

Technorati Tags: multi-media, UK market, UK, internet, profits, blog, marketing, money, business

Chicken Profits Drop Below Zero -- Oh Boy!

I don't know people how are you, but when I see how stupid people can be, I feel like I need to left this country and run somewhere else, probably near to the North Pole.

It all starts couple of days ago with the bird flu. Sure, this is a problem!

But the way authorities and the Government "control" the situation was RIDICULOUS, HILARIOUS...

So I found this image and I have a special dedication to ALL the people involved into the bird flu extermination:

"Leave Us, Please!"

PS: where are the chicken profits? Well, I presume under the water..?

Technorati Tags: internet, profits, blog, marketing, money, business

Cross-Promotion Can Expand Your Customer Base

Even the most time-pressed business owner can attract more customers with less effort through the right cross-promotions. Why? Because when you join forces with other credible people who also reach your market you can reach your customers more efficiently, credibly and memorably with the right offers and services.

To stand out from their competition in a crowded advertising marketplace, businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies are enthusiastically adopting this nimble approach to "outmarket" bigger competitors.

Their cross-promotions include "bundled" offerings, joint media appearances and events, and unconventional cause-related marketing. It might also include collaboratively produced how-to's and other resource booklets and videos, co-branding, coop advertising, and shared space.

Cross-promotion has the potential for a big marketing payoff because partners can successfully expand through each other's customer base. They can gain an inexpensive and credible introduction to more of their kind of customer more effectively than with the traditional "solo" methods of networking, advertising, or public relations.

Here are some low-risk and high-opportunity ways to jump-start your first cross-promotion:

• Print joint promotional messages on your receipts.
• Offer a reduced price, special service, or convenience if customers buy products from you and your partner.
• Hang signs or posters promoting one another on your walls, windows, or products.
• Mention one another's benefits when you speak at local events or are interviewed by the media.
• Drop one another's flyers in shopping bags.
• Pool mailing lists and send out a joint promotional postcard.
• Share inexpensive ads in local shopping papers or a nonprofit event program.
• Give a joint interview to local media.
• Give your partner's product to your customers when they buy a large quantity of your product, and ask your partner to do the same.
• Use door hangers, posters, flyers, or postcards to promote special offers for each other's products.

Here are some cross-promotion strategies that can really help your company stand out:

• Co-produce special promotions you could not afford by yourself. Hire local community college broadcasting/cable TV students to produce a "how to use" video and/or audio tape that involves you and your partner's products.
• Have a contest, with the prizes contributed by your partners. For the next contest, roles change, and you contribute your product or service as a prize for a partner's contest.
• Give customers a free product or service from a participating partner when they buy something that month from all of the partners listed in an ad or on a promotional postcard.

Article by Kare Anderson, the author of Walk Your Talk: Successful Cross-Promotion.

Technorati Tags: customers, promotions, advertising, internet, profits, blog, marketing, money, business

The Dark Side Of Google

The way that search marketers dream up conspiracy theories you'd think that we're all paranoid with nothing better to do.

Is there a true reason for concern? I think not, but reading other peoples paranoia is always entertaining. We all know search engines are "out to get webmasters". They have nothing better to do than to think of new ways that will infringe on websites rankings or play hide and seek with site's PageRank.

Google is at the forefront of the theorists' attention. And it's not very hard to see why.

It's Tough Being At The Top

Google's market share is certainly growing. It handled 60 percent of Internet search queries in November 2005, up from 47 percent a year earlier, according to ComScore Networks. Google's chief officers have expressed that they are committed to growing the company itself in a sustainable way.

Quoting CFO George Reyes: "Google would be spending more on research and development, and will invest heavily in its computing infrastructure.

Google's motto "do no evil" has been analysed and debated so many times. Forum posts and articles are always met with "Google does this" or "Google does that", the fact of the matter is that none of us know "what Google's intentions are, except Google themselves of course . . . but it's still nice to enter the guessing game to see exactly "how close, or far off" you are from the materialization.

Enter the Conspiracies

Everyone has their opinion on the matter - which makes for entertaining reading at least.

Jagger Update

The conspiracy: Google is out to destroy all the organic listings so that everyone will move over to PPC.

The real deal: Google updates their algorithm from time to time to help make search results more relevant. Each update usually receives a name by the SEO community - somewhat like naming hurricanes. The most recent update was called "Jagger". Many scraper directory sites and sites that bought those links were removed from the update.

If you had made use of any shady techniques it is most likely that your site was caught in Jagger. It was quite a harsh update if you had not employed solid SEO techniques. So needless to say there are a lot of angry webmasters out there. A good example is the German BMW site (bmw.de) which was recently removed for making use of spam techniques. Just goes to show SEO is SEO no matter what the language.

Google Adsense

The conspiracy: Google Adsense sites get priority in rankings that Google can make more money. And also Google are trying to take dominance and force webmasters to use Adsense rather than outbound links (link building).

The real deal: If this were true, regardless of how hard Google was to "try", they cannot force a greater number of people to Adwords through preventing the achievement of a favorable ranking.

Besides, when Adwords first was released, several SEO's tested this theory buy purchasing paid listings over varied lengths in time. The results? There was absolutely no correlation between purchasing an Adwords account and your organic search ranking.

IP Recording / Privacy Infringement

The Conspiracy: Search engines log IP addresses. The data collected can be used against you.

The Real Deal: There have been many theories that Google log searcher\'s IP addresses etc, to track their search behaviour, but the situation has gotten much bigger than that. With all the hype stemming from the Department of Justice requesting logs from the Big Shots of search to see what searches were conducted, the talk has shifted to legal implications should the court find in favour of government.

Every bit of network traffic you use is marked with your IP address; it can be used to link all of those disparate transactions together.

Filtering Results

The Conspiracy: If Google can filter the results for China, what stops them from filtering the rest of world?

The Real Deal: Well this is still very much a hot topic at the moment and I have not really made up my mind on this one quite yet. I can only refer to Google "Human Rights Caucus Briefing" in their Blog.

Excerpt From Blog: "In deciding how best to approach the Chinese - or any - market, we must balance our commitments to satisfy the interests of users, expand access to information, and respond to local conditions. Our strategy for doing business in China seeks to achieve that balance through improved disclosure, targeting of services, and local investment."

And "In order to operate Google.cn as a website in China, Google is required to remove some sensitive information from our search results. These restrictions are imposed by Chinese laws, regulations, and policies. However, when we remove content from Google.cn, we disclose that fact to our users."

This is nothing new, in fact Google have altered their search results to comply with local laws in France, Germany, and the United States previously. Also, is it not better to have censored information than none at all? At least this way Google have a starting point from which to fight the censorship.

Continue reading this article by Christine Stander, a professional search engine optimisation and online marketing strategist with experience in many facets of search marketing, user behaviour analysis and brand management.

Technorati Tags: Google, search engine, optimization, Google Adsense, Jagger Update, internet, profits, blog, marketing, money, business

Google Strategy In 2006

Technorati Tags: Google, strategy, Google News, internet, profits, blog, marketing, money, business