Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
Affiliate marketing can be a great way to make money. Finding a niche market with products and services you trust and believe in is the first step to success. There are tremendous affiliate programs which offer you an abundance of tools and materials to promote and market their products. However, what you do with those tools and materials is entirely up to you. You can be just another affiliate or a super affiliate.
What Is A Super Affiliate?
Technically speaking a super affiliate is someone who generates a significant amount of profits for the products or services they represent. A super affiliate can make a healthy living from their affiliate business alone while a standard every day affiliate may need to supplement their affiliate income with, gasp…a 9-5 job!
Benefits To Being A Super Affiliate
The most significant benefit to being a super affiliate is the income. Many super affiliates make six figures simply promoting the products and services of others.
Additionally, if you’re one of the main contributors to a company’s affiliate program they’re going to pay attention to you and your needs. You may receive a higher percentage of sales you may receive first shot with new marketing materials and programs and you’ll get the support you need when you need it.
Here Are A Few Steps To Become A Super Affiliate:
Step One – Commit to publishing content every single day.
Content has proven time and again to be the best sales tool available to affiliate marketers. Nothing, not even strategically placed ad copy works as well as providing quality content that pre-sells any product that you’re promoting on your website.
Possible content includes:
* Autoresponders.
* E-newsletters.
* Blogs posts
* Social networking via forums, social networking sites, and chat rooms
* Articles
* Press releases
Step Two – Track and test.
Make sure you know where your prospects are coming from, what motivates them to click through and what information they read and respond to – then give them what they need. Tracking and testing is the only way to hone your affiliate program into a smooth running, money making machine.
Step Three – Use the provided marketing materials and be willing to take it a step further.
Many affiliate programs do a great job of providing their affiliate with ready to marketing materials including:
1. Banner ads
2. Buttons
3. Email copy
4. Articles
5. Free promotional reports
Use the materials your affiliate manager has provided. It’s been tested and developed for results. That being said, be sure to create your own content too. Even as an affiliate you are your own company and your website needs to reflect your personality and brand. Building a community around your website and providing valuable content is a sure way to create a following that trusts you and your credibility – which will result in click throughs and affiliate sales.
Step Four – Pre-sell.
The good news is that your job as an affiliate is to pre-sell products and services. Pre-selling means your content, whether it is a review, article, tutorial, course, or blog post, speaks honestly about the products and services you promote. Pre-selling is about providing value to your website visitors and prospects, making them comfortable with you and your authority to generate interest and a click through to the company website, where the selling happens.
Step Five – Follow up.
Just like your affiliate manager follows up with you to see how you’re doing and what you need, follow up with your prospects. A great way to do this unobtrusively is to create a lead list by providing a newsletter visitors can subscribe, a free report, or any number of products in exchange for an email address and the permission to contact them with valuable information and special promotions.
Being a Super Affiliate is the only way to go if you want to build a successful affiliate marketing business. Find products and services you trust and believe in and then create a strategy to share information to your target audience. Test and track your efforts, focus on providing value to your prospects and leave the selling to the companies you represent. Helping others live better lives, without having to provide the products or services personally, is a great way to make a living.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
Online, one of the most significant keys to success is getting website traffic. The more visitors you have, the better your sales and profits. Presumably you have a niche and you know your keywords, and regularly conduct keyword research to stay on top of what’s popular. Based on those assumptions here are five quick and easy tips to get website traffic fast!
Tip #1 Make sure you’re actually tagging your keywords.
Do you spend a lot of time optimizing your content and then neglect to tag them on your webpage? Tags are where search engines look and if there are no tags they’ll pass right by your web pages. Here’s a quick brief on tags.
There are a number of tag types including,
* Title tags. Title tags are quite possibly the most important place to situate your keywords. Here’s what they look like – <title>Primary keyword phrase here. </title>
Your title tag is where you place your primary keyword or keyword phrase. The sentence will describe your business in less than 90 characters.
* Header Tags. Header tags are next in order of importance to search engines. They’re ranked in order of importance and look like this – <h1>Primary and/or Secondary keywords here</h1>
The “1” designates this header as the most important header on the page.
* Meta Tags. Meta tags provide the small descriptive text found underneath the title tag on the search engine results page. Like title tags these should be kept brief, informative and up to date.
* Alt Tags. Alt tags are used to provide a text description of a graphic. Each graphic on your site should have a description and an alt tag.
Tip #2 Add content to your site daily
Content is essential for traffic and a top search engine ranking. Content is what search engine spiders look for and index – without it there’s nothing to index or rank. Give visitors and search engines a reason to visit and index your site. Make a commitment to provide daily, optimized content and your traffic will soar.
Tip #3 Procure valuable and relevant incoming links
The more websites which link to your webpages the more valuable search engines perceive you to be, though not all links are created equal. Search engines give more leverage to links from sites which are popular and credible and from sites which are relevant to your website topic.
There are different types of links.
– A direct link looks like a basic website address, for example, www.yourwebsite.com
– A text link occurs when the webpage address is embedded in the text. Readers simply click on the link and are redirected to a new website page.
– If the link is to an internal web page, for example an article published on a website, rather than the home page, it is called a “deep link.”
You can encourage linking to your website by:
* Adding content to your site.
* Submitting to article directories.
* Publishing press releases.
* Blogging and participating in social networking forums, chat rooms and social networking sites.
Tip #4 Be Social!
Now more than ever before, internet marketing is about building a community. Whether you offer a forum on your website or you participate in social networking sites, social networking is a valuable traffic generating tactic. Sites like Facebook and Twitter can be powerful tools for generating links and traffic to your site – create a profile and then post comments, links to your site and ideas which generate conversation.
Get involved – many chat rooms and forums are industry specific, find those which cater to your industry, and begin participating. Speak to and connect with a highly targeted audience.
Tip #5 Advertise for more exposure and traffic
Advertising, when handled strategically, can be used to promote your content and products or services. PPC advertising is often the tool of choice because you control the advertising budget on a daily basis and have the tools to test and track your advertising efforts. Once you’ve honed your PPC ads the return on investment can be phenomenal in terms of traffic and purchases.
For maximum results, create a traffic and SEO strategy. Outline your plan and your goals and then take the necessary action. Take advantage of these five traffic and search engine tips to boost your business.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
Blogging is easy, right? Everyone is doing it and everyone is making thousands of dollars a month. Not quite. However, with a few strategic steps you can set up a successful, and profitable, blog. You can be one of the success stories.
Tip #1 Blog about something you love.
Seriously. If you don’t enjoy discussing and learning about your blog topic it’s going to be tough. When you love your blog topic, blog post ideas come easily.
When you love your blog topic, writing posts is a pleasure. Responding to comments is fun and engaging. And you’ll be able to blog today, tomorrow and five years from now. This longevity is important because blogs are not overnight successes. It takes time to build a following. You need to love your topic enough that you’re willing to be patient.
Tip #2 Blog about something specific.
Okay, so you love dogs. Great. So do thousands of other people and they’re blogging too. However, if you love longhaired Daschunds then you have a more specific audience. There probably aren’t too many other people blogging about them. And you certainly are likely to have an audience.
The point is the more specific you are the less competition you’ll have. It’ll be easier to attract a loyal following.
Tip #3 Plan, plan and then plan some more.
Most bloggers just blog. They don’t have a niche. They don’t have a plan. They certainly don’t have a monetization model or goals. Before you launch your blog consider:
* What you want your blog to be about
* Who your audience is and how much demand there is for your topic
* How much competition you have
* What you’ll write/post about
* How you’ll make money from your blog
* What your goals are and how you’ll achieve those goals
* What your vision is for your blog. Where is it going? What will it look like/offer in five or ten years.
Tip #4 Promote your blog.
A blog without promotion will grow slowly. That’s fine if you’re not in any kind of hurry to attract readers or make money. However, if you’re blogging for the benefit of others then you may want to promote your blog. Participate in social networking and link to new posts. Be a guest blogger on other relevant blogs. Comment on other blogs and register with your blog’s URL.
Tip #5 Take it slowly.
When building your blog take it one step at a time. Don’t throw up tons of ads, affiliate links, products and services along with your content. Get a good content foundation first. Once you feel comfortable then begin to focus on another aspect of building your blog. Start driving traffic to it. Implement a monetization model. Focusing on one tactic or strategy at a time will help you make sure you’re optimizing it. It’ll ensure your attention isn’t’ divided and your blog shortchanged.
Blogging can be a great way to make a living online. You can also blog part time to simply bring in extra income. However, in order to blog successfully make sure you have a solid plan. Follow your passions and interests and enjoy your success.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
What’s The Difference and Which One Is Right for You?
Many blog owners blog with the intention of earning money. If you intend on or hope to profit from your blog it pays to understand your options. You can chose direct monetization, indirect monetization or a combination of both.
What is Direct Monetization?
Direct monetization simply means that you directly monetize your blog. You profit directly from your blog. In most cases this means you either:
* Sell products on your blog – for example, socks or supplements.
* Sell information products on your blog – for example ebooks or online courses
* Sell services on your blog – for example, copywriting services
* Sell space for companies to advertise – the more traffic you have the more you can charge to place an ad on your blog.
* Place pay per click ads on your website and earn money each time someone clicks on an advertisement.
* Host a membership site on your blog and profit from selling memberships.
As you can see you can choose several of these profit models for a single blog. For example, you might sell information products, sell advertising space and participate in a PPC program like AdSense.
What is Indirect Monetization?
Indirect monetization is where you profit indirectly on your website. The most common type of indirect monetization may be affiliate sales. With this profit model you earn commissions on products or services that you promote. This is a very common way to profit from your blog and it integrates well with direct monetization methods.
For example, you might sell ad space on your blog as well as include affiliate links in relevant posts.
Another example of indirect monetization is to profit from your email or subscriber list. Many bloggers offer you the opportunity to sign up for other lists. In this case they’re then earning money by renting or selling your name to other relevant companies.
Finally, membership site was mentioned in the direct monetization model however you can also profit from it indirectly. You can offer a free membership but then charge companies for access to your members. A very simple example of this might be if you allowed a gamer to market their products on your gaming membership site/blog.
Through widgets and plug-ins a blog is capable of offering just about any type of online experience. You can simply provide information or you can take it to a different level and offer memberships, an ecommerce store or an online chat room.
Choose your goals and then create a monetization plan to achieve them. Keep in mind, while planning your profit strategy that your visitors are ultimately who you want to consider first. Offer them value and benefit and the profits will come.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
How do you know when your blog is successful? What do you want your blog to accomplish? What is your vision for your blog? These are all important questions to consider – preferably before you launch your blog. Let’s take a look at each question individually.
How Do You Know When Your Blog is Successful?
The best way to know what your blog is accomplishing in terms of numbers is to use analytics. A simple program like Google Analytics is free and it’s easy to install the code snippet on your blog. You then receive a daily or weekly report on how many visitors your blog has. Analytics are also rich with other important data points like how readers found your blog and how long they stayed on your site.
But what if numbers aren’t how you define success? You might also look at your subscriber base. Is it growing? If your subscribers continue to grow, that is a sign that your blog is successful. Finally, if you’re blogging with the goal of earning money, are you earning what you want? Your blog is successful if you’re regularly reaching your income goals.
What Do You Want Your Blog to Accomplish?
Many people blog to boost their business. You might also blog for profits. You might blog for awareness and fame. Finally, you might blog simply to connect with others or to have a positive impact on someone’s life. If you already have a blog, what did you envision for that blog when you started it? Has it met your expectations? Why or why not?
If you’ve yet to start a blog, think about what you want your blog to accomplish. What is the purpose for your blog? What are your goals?
What is Your Vision for your Blog?
Once you have your blog up and running and you’re meeting your goals, consider where you want your blog to grow. What will your blog look like in five years? What will it look like? Will you offer more value? Will you sell products or services? Will you have more guest bloggers? Consider your vision for your blog. How will you hold true to that vision and continue to grow and offer value?
People blog for a variety of reasons. There is no right or wrong reason to blog. However, it is important to have a goal and a vision. It’s important to know what blogging success means to you and to create goals and measurements so you know when you’ve succeeded. The more consistent your goals and your actions are, the more success you’ll achieve.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Wish, Member Contributions
One of the reasons to choose a blog over a traditional website is the ability to interact with visitors via comments. However, you don’t have to activate comments. In fact, sometimes it’s a good idea to turn your commenting feature off.
What are the Benefits of Commenting?
Many people judge the success of their blog by the number of comments they receive. And it’s true that an active blog does tend to draw more numbers. The more visitors and subscribers you have the more potential there is for profit. And an active blog is a fun blog.
However, commenting doesn’t always mean success you can have a very successful blog that doesn’t receive many comments at all.
What Are the Options?
You can turn off comments – Many blog owners decide to turn off the comments completely. The goal for them isn’t to generate interaction but rather to establish credibility or to simply provide information.
You can turn them off, for now – Some other blog owners decide to turn off comments until the blog has a certain number of subscribers. Then they make commenting a possibility. This strategy can prevent the image of the lonely blogger and instead let you focus on simply providing quality content.
You can turn on the comments – Most bloggers enable comments. If you choose this option then consider:
* Installing a spam filter like Askimet
* Requiring people to register before they can comment
* Giving them the ability to link to their blog or website during the registration process
* Allowing an avatar or a photo
* How much time you have to reply to comments. It’s important if you allow commenting on your website to make it an interactive process. You want to respond to their comment or at least thank them for it.
* Creating content that motivates a discussion. Ask readers for their opinion. Say something controversial and start a discussion. Ask for experience or advice.
* Give CommentLuv. Consider using a plug-in that tracks and displays comments from others. It can really get the comment section of your blog active. In fact, this little plug-in can motivate more comments.
* Policies – Do you have a language or content policy? For example, do your commenters have to keep their comments PG for approval? If so, you will want to display your comment policy on your blog.
How does commenting play into your goals, purpose and vision? Make your decisions based on how you can provide the best blog possible. If comments aren’t a part of your user experience then turn them off. No one says you have to enable comments on your blog. It’s your decision.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
Julianne Alvarez-Wish is a military wife, mother, business owner, professional writer, blogger and legislative advocate. She is the Director of Communications for Our Milk Money, the Colorado State Leader for the National Association for Moms in Business and the owner of Buy By Mom and Buy By Mom Blog. She is the Colorado Springs Stay-at-Home Mom Examiner for Examiner.com. She also blogs at A Wishful Thought. Her passion, purpose and goal is to help parents work from home so they can be home with their children.
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