About the Author
Analyst
About the Author
J. Ratliff is author of the Affiliate Directory.
About the Author
Jackie Ulmer, a veteran Home Business Owner, has coached
thousands of men and women on starting a successful home
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Subscribe by email to
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About the Author
Developed a Unique profitable Affiliate Program!
Cash in thru Recurring revenues Affiliate Programs by Participating in
Affiliate programs where one can get Life-time Commissions.
Joining our Affiliate program, you get:
- 10% Commissions on ALL successful Sales for LIFE
- Get 2% commission on 2-tiered sales
For further information on our Affiliate program visit:
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I kid you not, this is the sum total of an actual email that hit my inbox this week. Not only did I not know this person from Adam, this was the first and only email I had ever received from her and to this day, I have no idea what she's talking about. Presumably, she signed up for one of the affiliate programs I promote from my site and was asking, in her own inimitable style, for my help. Although I am always ready and willing to help anyone I can, this is most definitely NOT the way to go about asking for it. Needless to say, I let her know what I thought of her approach in NO uncertain terms.
The attitude displayed in this person's email to me (and she is by no means an isolated example) exemplifies why so many people fail to make a success of their online businesses. Leaving aside the utter rudeness of the approach, notice the impatience, the expectation to be up and running in a day, the HURRY, the apparent belief that real world principles such as courtesy and good manners don't apply online (they do). Think this person is going to last the distance? What kinds of tactics do you think she is capable of resorting to in pursuit of the almighty dollar?
So, let's take a realistic look at affiliate programs, what they can and can't do for your business and how to maximize your chances of creating a successful, long-term business with them.
WHAT IS AN AFFILIATE PROGRAM?
An affiliate program (also known as a reseller, associate, referral or partnership program) is essentially a revenue-sharing arrangement whereby you, the affiliate, receive payment from the owner of a product or service that you promote on their behalf.
Affiliate programs are an excellent way for the new internet entrepreneur to start an online business.
TYPES OF AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
There are various types of affiliate programs.
The most simple involves you, the affiliate, placing a banner ad, graphic or text link at your site which is linked to the site of the business you are promoting. This link is coded with your unique affiliate ID so that the site visitor is recorded at the target site as having originated from your site, thereby allowing you to be credited with the sale.
Payment is generally a fixed percentage of the sale value (commission) or "pay per click", where the affiliate is paid a certain amount for every time a site visitor clicks on the link at the affiliate's site, whether or not a sale is made.
The more sophisticated affiliate programs are multi-tier and allow the affiliate to earn commissions not only on the traffic they directly refer to the target site but also a proportion of sales generated by their sub-affiliates.
BENEFITS OF AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
The greatest benefit of affiliate programs is that when you are just starting out in your own online business you don't have to worry about creating your own product or service. You just promote someone else's and get a share of the revenue pie for your efforts.
You also don't have to concern yourself with warehousing, transport or logistics headaches. All of this is handled by the business whose products/services you are promoting. All you need concentrate on is driving traffic to that business's website. This means that a high proportion of your revenue is profit.
The owner of the product/service is also responsible for collecting payment, customer service and the myriad other details that come up on a day to day basis in running the business.
DISADVANTAGES OF AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
The main and obvious disadvantage of affiliate programs is that it is the owner of the product/service who earns the lion's share of the profit on the sale.
You're working on commission. You will NEVER earn by way of affiliate program commissions as much as you can earn by way of profits from producing and selling your own product/service.
As a result, affiliate programs represent a high opportunity cost when you consider what you could earn if you instead channeled the time and energy you spend on promoting affiliate programs into creating and promoting your own product/service.
For this reason, it does not make sound business sense to rely solely on affiliate program income for the longer term growth of your business.
Instead, think of them as a way of dipping your toe in the water when you're first getting started, and a nice little sideline once you've created your own product/service. Do NOT build your business around affiliate programs with the intention this will always be the backbone of your business. You'll be stunting your own growth if you do.
CHOOSING THE RIGHT AFFILIATE PROGRAMS FOR YOUR BUSINESS
So, keeping in mind what affiliate programs can and can't do for your business, let's turn to what you should look for when choosing an affiliate program or programs to promote in your business.
=> Synergistic Products/Services
First off, and this is a cardinal rule, only promote those programs which will allow you to create synergies with your site. This means selecting programs that naturally complement the subject matter of your site and that will therefore be of interest and relevance to your site visitors. This will ensure your prospects (ie your site visitors) are pre-qualified which will result in a relatively higher conversion ratio (the ratio of visitors to purchases) than would be the case if your traffic is untargeted (which will be the case if you promote unrelated products and services from your site.)
=> Quality In All Things
Keeping the need for synergy uppermost in mind, look for quality programs first and foremost. The last thing you want to waste your time, money and reputation on is a shoddy product or service. There are just too many quality programs out there to settle for anything less.
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Look for a company that's been around for a while and that's reputable and stable (both financially and in its management). Any reputable company will have full contact details readily available so do your research.
=> References
Look for testimonials and references from other affiliates. If the company you're interested is not forthcoming when it comes to putting you in touch with other affiliates, move on.
=> Affiliate Agreement
Look for a professional, considered and detailed affiliate agreement (contract). This shows that the company is serious about its business.
Watch out for exclusivity clauses and other restraints. Some affiliate agreements will require that you not promote competing businesses' products and services. This is not to say you should avoid such agreements. As a general rule, it is your interests not to promote competing programs anyway. Just be aware of what the agreement says on the subject to avoid getting yourself into hot water.
Look also for an agreement that treats spammers harshly. This protects not only the company but other affiliates as well. The last thing you or any other reputable affiliate needs is to have your reputation and the reputation of the product/service you are promoting besmirched by these sorts of tactics.
=> High Commissions
Promoting someone else's affiliate program necessarily requires that you divert traffic away from your site and towards someone else's. Make sure you're properly compensated with a high commission structure. And be sure to set up your link so that when the visitor clicks on it, a new browser window is opened for the target site. This at least keeps your site in front of the visitor so they can go back to your site once they've finished at the site your link has taken them to.
=> Lifetime Commissions
Look for affiliate programs that will credit you with not only THIS sale but all other sales the customer may make in the future. Many programs are set up so that the customer is identified as "yours" so that when the customer returns to the target site in three months time, the sale is recorded as having been generated by you.
=> Residual Commissions
Include programs that offer residual commissions in your portfolio. Good examples are webhosting services, autoresponder services and the like where customers sign up for a continuous service that requires periodic, regular payments. You receive periodic, regular commissions as a result.
=> Tracking of Commissions
Look for programs that allow you real-time access to your stats so you can keep easy track of your commissions.
=> Reliability of Payment
When checking with affiliate references, find out what the business's record is on paying out commissions. If they're slow or there appears to be a pattern of problems, keep looking.
=> Frequency of Payment
Make a note of payment schedules too. Some programs pay weekly, some monthly, some quarterly. Some only pay once you accumulate commissions of a certain amount. None of these arrangements are necessarily good or bad in and of themselves. Just be sure you know what to expect.
=> Programs that Require Payment Up Front
Two words: MOVE ON!
=> Affiliate Support
Finally, take a look at what support the business offers its affiliates to make sales. Do they provide resources such as sample ads, banners, logos and the like? Do they provide useful advice about maximizing your sales? A good affiliate program provides affiliates with a LOT of support in these areas.
MAKING MONEY FROM AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
OK, now you know what to look for in an affiliate program. Here's how to maximize your sales of those products and services and, therefore, your commissions:
=> Get Your Own Website
No ifs, no buts. DON'T rely on the you-beaut self-replicated job the company provides all its affiliates. Link to that site from your main site.
=> Get Your Own Domain Name
This presents a much more professional image. Many people won't give the time of day to a business that thinks so little of its prospects that the owner won't shell out 70 bucks for a domain name. So mean business and look like it.
=> Get Traffic To Your Site (Duh!)
As a rough guide, you will need at least 500 targeted unique visitors a day to your site to make reasonable money from affiliate programs.
=> You Must Have A Site That Will Attract Repeat Visitors
If your website is nothing more than a splash page consisting of little else other than banners for umpteen different affiliate programs, forget it. Your site must be worthy of your visitor's time and interest before you can even begin to think about converting that visitor into a paying customer. So create a real site with real content that will keep them coming back for more.
=> Personal Testimonials
A personal testimonial will result in more sales than a mere link or advertisement. So take the time and trouble to write a personal endorsement of the product or service you are promoting. And, of course, it goes without saying that in order to write a personal endorsement, you must know that of which you speak. NEVER promote a program you haven't first purchased yourself. If you don't think enough of your program to invest in it, how do you expect to persuade others to?
=> Promote With Your Sig File
Include a link to your site in the signature of every email you send.
=> Promote In Your Own Ezine
Finally, if you're not already publishing your own ezine or newsletter to stay in touch with your site visitors, start. It's a great way to promote not only your site but also the affiliate programs you promote from your site.
MAKING SERIOUS MONEY FROM AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
The only way of making SERIOUS money from affiliate programs is by creating your own product or service and recruiting affiliates to sell for YOU.
The affiliate program phenomenon is one of the Internet's true success stories. It provides a toe-hold for the would-be internet entrepreneur to begin a real, live business of his or her very own. But the real beauty of affiliate programs lies not in what they can do for you, as an affiliate, but what they can do for you, as a recruiter of affiliates for your own program. By all means jump on the bandwagon and start promoting other people's products to get your start. But don't wait too long to start developing your own product line. There is a ready-made salesforce numbering in the millions ready and waiting to sell it for you.
About The Author
Elena Fawkner is editor of the award-winning A Home-Based Business Online ... practical home business ideas, resources and strategies for the work-from-home entrepreneur.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Affiliate to SFI Marketing Group!
About the Author: Tim Fulcher - http://www.winningratings.com/affiliate_website_cash_generator.html
Source: www.isnare.comHowever, 2 tier affiliate programs have an additional attraction for affiliates. When they sign up sub-affiliates under them, and these sub-affiliates successfully make affiliate sales, the original affiliate also earns a referral commission. The result is that affiliates not only make a profit from their direct sales efforts, but also benefit from the leveraged effects of sub-affiliates under them.
While 2 tier affiliate programs are definitely a new and rapidly growing trend in affiliate marketing, the traditional rules still apply. Choose only good products, with high sales conversions (check out the persuasiveness of the merchants website), and only work with merchants who pay regularly! After all, there's no reason to waste precious traffic on affiliate products are hard to sell, or on merchants who don't make it a point to send those commissions on time.
All else being equal, 2 Tier Affiliate Programs are a good alternative for webmasters hoping to add an additional stream of revenue to their sites.
(Please feel free to to freely reproduce and distribute this article, so long as it is reproduced in full, including the hyperlinks, and no modification is made)
About The Author
Terence Tan is the project manager of HugeAffiliates.com, a website dedicated towards the development of Multiple Tier Affiliate Programs as an alternative system of business. Visit http://hugeaffiliates.com to learn how 2 Tier Affiliate Programs can multiply your affiliate referral commissions.
About the Author
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Christopher Kyalo is a writer/marketing expert who makes money online only by posting free articles. Get his free course at bizboom@freeautobot.com and visit his blog http://big-online-story.blogspot.com. He can be reached at strongwallafrica at yahoo.com.
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Getting your website up, is really just the first phase of your journey to a career on the Internet. You must promote your website, your product or your service to the world. Well, how do you do it? Maybe this article might help you in getting started or give you additional ideas.
There are many different ways to promote your affiliate program, however, it depends upon what type of program it is, “Your Turnkey Program” or Affiliate Linked-Program for selling a product. Hmm-mm, interesting. What works, what doesn’t?
GET OUT THE WORD
Bulk Emailing – Bulk emailing use to be the craze. Did you notice the word use to be the craze. That has changed with the stricter spam rules and penalties – all to protect us. But bulk emailing can be done, if you have an opt-in list – such as, through a newsletter. But don’t overextend the use, you may lose subscribers.
Classified Ads – With free classified ads you can definitely get hits – and possibly some sales. But don’t choose this as your only way of getting sales.
There are some drawbacks. You ask, “What drawbacks”. From my own experience, I’ve encountered individuals requesting information about my program – as a ploy to getting me to listen to their sales pitch. SPAM? Maybe. Annoying? Definitely. The height of annoyance is when they ask me to call them long distance, so that I can speak with them – only to have them give me a sales pitch on their program.
However, if you have a classified ad site on your website – you’ve got yourself a built-in opt-in list. You can gently sell to them, while verifying or thanking them for their ad.
Traffic Generators – Traffic generators can work on a turnkey site that many others are also partaking in to generate money for themselves. What I found is traffic generators are better suited for turnkey businesses. It is basically a simple way for you to entice other people in business to look at your program. You know – it’s the “I’m not really happy with what I’m doing. I wonder what else is out there” syndrome. Or it’s the – “I really need another program so that I’m not a one-man Joe in business” syndrome. In either case, it’s a safe place to see what’s happening or new on the Internet.
Messageboards, Discussion Groups, Forums -- These are great ways to get your message out and be personal at the same time. But you have to follow the rules, and you should contribute constructive and/or helpful information that is relevant to the discussion at hand. This is a time-consuming way to build sales – but a great way to build credibility, business relationships, and sales. Note: Please don’t blatantly advertising. This action could cause the following problems to occur: 1) you being banned from the forum; 2) your advertising being eliminated and noted by the administrator; 3) making the other members angry and thus, losing credibility. All in all, follow the rules.
I’m currently in a forum – they give you a webpage, and in the back office you are allowed to advertise your services/products of businesses. And trust me, they do read them – and as an added benefit – your links are being picked up by the search engines. Yeah, you got it – more traffic. If you want to join for free or just take a look at it, go to my home page at www.myaffiliateplace.biz and register.
Ezine and Safelist Advertising -- Ezine advertising and safelist advertising are good methods of advertising. In each case, you have to join their list and follow their rules to submit your ads.
If you want to try your hand at safelist advertising, I would suggest that you create a separate free email account on Yahoo. Why? A safelist allows all that have joined to submit their ads to you, as well as, you to them. Here, your subject line is your eye catcher – so choose wisely.
Ezine advertising is a very good way to advertise your turnkey site, website, product or service. You have the option for free (need to watch for their instructions), and various paid ads. What’s great about ezines? It’s an opportunity to sell to a more targeted market. The more targeted your market, the better the opportunity to get a sale.
Articles – Articles are a great way to get the word out about your website and your product or products. However, please make the article informative – or you’ll lose your credibility and the reader.
Search Engine Optimization – If you have a website you should submit to the search engines. To review the process on how and where, you can go to my site at http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz/Affiliate_Info_SEO_Keyword.htm.
Linking – Linking is the exchange of your link with that of another webmaster.
This can be very beneficial, however, make sure the websites that you link to compliment but does not compete with your site.
I’ve touched on only some of the methods of advertising that you can use to get the word out about your product/service or website. The most important thing to remember is to keep your mind and eyes open for new ways to promote your product or service – and do your research.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Vickie J Scanlon has a BBA degree in Administrative Management and
Marketing. She left the corporate world as an Reports Programmer,
to begin her journey as an Internet Marketer. Visit her site at:
http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz for free tools, articles, ebooks, and how to info.
or check her blog for additional insights to the Affiliate Business –
http://myaffiliateplace.blogspot.com/
Getting your website up, is really just the first phase of your journey to a career on the Internet. You must promote your website, your product or your service to the world. Well, how do you do it?
There are many different ways to promote your affiliate program, however, it depends upon what type of program it is, “Your Turnkey Program” or Affiliate Linked-Program for selling a product. Hmm-mm, interesting. What works, what doesn’t?
GET OUT THE WORD
Bulk Emailing – Bulk emailing use to be the craze. Did you notice the word use to be the craze. That has changed with the stricter spam rules and penalties – all to protect us. But bulk emailing can be done, if you have an opt-in list – such as, through a newsletter. But don’t overextend the use, you may lose subscribers.
Classified Ads – With free classified ads you can definitely get hits – and possibly some sales. But don’t choose this as your only way of getting sales.
There are some drawbacks. You ask, “What drawbacks”. From my own experience, I’ve encountered individuals requesting information about my program – as a ploy to getting me to listen to their sales pitch. SPAM? Maybe. Annoying? Definitely. The height of annoyance is when they ask me to call them long distance, so that I can speak with them – only to have them give me a sales pitch on their program.
However, if you have a classified ad site on your website – you’ve got yourself a built-in opt-in list. You can gently sell to them, while verifying or thanking them for their ad.
Traffic Generators – Traffic generators can work on a turnkey site that many others are also partaking in to generate money for themselves. What I found is traffic generators are better suited for turnkey businesses. It is basically a simple way for you to entice other people in business to look at your program. You know – it’s the “I’m not really happy with what I’m doing. I wonder what else is out there” syndrome. Or it’s the – “I really need another program so that I’m not a one-man Joe in business” syndrome. In either case, it’s a safe place to see what’s happening or new on the Internet.
Messageboards, Discussion Groups, Forums -- These are great ways to get your message out and be personal at the same time. But you have to follow the rules, and you should contribute constructive and/or helpful information that is relevant to the discussion at hand. This is a time-consuming way to build sales – but a great way to build credibility, business relationships, and sales. Note: Please don’t blatantly advertising. This action could cause the following problems to occur: 1) you being banned from the forum; 2) your advertising being eliminated and noted by the administrator; 3) making the other members angry and thus, losing credibility. All in all, follow the rules.
I’m currently in a forum – they give you a webpage, and in the back office you are allowed to advertise your services/products of businesses. And trust me, they do read them – and as an added benefit – your links are being picked up by the search engines. Yeah, you got it – more traffic. If you want to join for free or just take a look at it, go to my home page at www.myaffiliateplace.biz and register.
Ezine and Safelist Advertising -- Ezine advertising and safelist advertising are good methods of advertising. In each case, you have to join their list and follow their rules to submit your ads.
If you want to try your hand at safelist advertising, I would suggest that you create a separate free email account on Yahoo. Why? A safelist allows all that have joined to submit their ads to you, as well as, you to them. Here, your subject line is your eye catcher – so choose wisely.
Ezine advertising is a very good way to advertise your turnkey site, website, product or service. You have the option for free (need to watch for their instructions), and various paid ads. What’s great about ezines? It’s an opportunity to sell to a more targeted market. The more targeted your market, the better the opportunity to get a sale.
Articles – Articles are a great way to get the word out about your website and your product or products. However, please make the article informative – or you’ll lose your credibility and the reader.
Search Engine Optimization – If you have a website you should submit to the search engines. To review the process on how and where, you can go to my site at http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz/Affiliate_Info_SEO_Keyword.htm.
Linking – Linking is the exchange of your link with that of another webmaster.
This can be very beneficial, however, make sure the websites that you link to compliment but does not compete with your site.
I’ve touched on only some of the methods of advertising that you can use to get the word out about your product/service or website. The most important thing to remember is to keep your mind and eyes open for new ways to promote your product or service – and do your research.
====================
Vickie J Scanlon has a BBA degree in Administrative Management and
Marketing. She left the corporate world as an Reports Programmer,
to begin her journey as an Internet Marketer. Visit her site at:
http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz for free tools, articles, ebooks, and how to info.
or check her blog for additional insights to the Affiliate Business –
http://myaffiliateplace.blogspot.com/
Affiliate programs are one of the web’s most effective marketing techniques. They create a win-win situation by which site A refers a visitor to site B, and site B pays site A a commission if the visitor makes a purchase.
Affiliate programs are one of the web’s most effective marketing techniques. They create a win-win situation by which site A refers a visitor to site B, and site B pays site A a commission if the visitor makes a purchase. The referrer site (affiliate), can make money with no overhead (no product, no warehouse, no collection risk). On the other hand, the destination site (vendor) receives a steady stream of qualified leads from hundreds, maybe thousands of affiliate sites, and doesn’t have to spend a dime unless a visitor makes a purchase.
The way it works is like this: the vendor gives the affiliate specific HTML code that it must use on its site to create a link to the vendor’s site. This code contains an embedded ID number that allows the vendor to know when an incoming visitor comes to them by clicking the link on the affiliate site.
The vendor’s servers will then set a cookie (a time sensitive electronic identification mechanism) in the visitor’s computer so that every time he comes back to the vendor’s site, the vendor’s servers will ‘remember’ that he was originally referred to them by the affiliate, and will pay him a commission when the visitor makes a purchase.
This makes it possible for the affiliate to make a commission even if the visitor doesn’t purchase anything the first time, but comes back and buys later. Also, it is not necessary that the visitor enter the vendor’s site through the affiliate’s link other than the first time, since the vendor’s servers will identify the cookie and will know that the visitor was originally referred to them by the affiliate.
At the vendor’s discretion, the cookies can be set up to expire that same day, remain active indefinitely, or anything in between (vendors usually call the duration of a cookie the “referral period”). For this reason, it is better to choose vendor partners that offer long referral periods (120 days is considered very good). This increases the affiliate’s chances of success, since very few people will buy on their first visit, although exceptions do occur with vendors that enjoy superb brand recognition and feature user friendly interfaces, like Amazon.com (the pioneer of affiliate programs) who, in spite of keeping cookies alive for only 24 hours, is able to generate a significant portion of its sales in the first few minutes after a visitor has clicked into their site.
About the Author
Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net ), a website and newsletter that gives you free advice on Internet Marketing, Web Design and Small Business. To subscribe go to: http://www.theinternetdigest.net/newsletter.html
If you are not creating articles for your website and your affiliate programs, you should. Why? Even though it may seem like a lot of work, and it may take you time to build -- articles add a valuable commodity to your site -- content. And my friend, the search engines and people alike are always on the lookout for good content.
If you are creating articles, you are always looking to find ways to get your article out to the masses – and the more exposure your article has the greater the opportunity that people will read your article and want to visit your website. Should you submit your articles manually or should you use an article marketer submission service that will choose for you -- where your article goes? Is an article submission service a good option for you when submitting articles? I hope to show you both the pros and cons of this service and let you be the judge.
Pro to Article Submission Service
Article Submission Service can be a great help when your time is limited and you want to get your articles to all the article sites and groups. However, when the service is tiered, based on what you pay and don’t pay – you have to be aware of what you are getting..
All services give you a sampling with a free service – and I did find the free service to be on the, well, expected side. After submitting to the free service of an article submission service I received the following:
1. I received several emails that stated my article had been received by a site and would be looked at. This is usual, and a good sign.
2. I received emails from the yahoo groups, which is a good sign but I didn’t partake because I knew that I would be receiving articles from other authors on a regular basis and did not want to overwhelm my private email address. Thus, be aware, use a yahoo email address and keep your private email address separate.
The article submission to the article sites such as Ezine Articles (Which, by the way, is one of my favorite sites) and Go Articles will require a small outlay of money for each article on a monthly basis. Thus, I would use a submission service if:
1. I had a separate email address to catch the other authors’ articles that I would be receiving from the yahoo groups.
2. I wanted to part with my money to take advantage of the service.
3. Needed more time.
4. I have a desire for a wider exposure of my articles and thus, more traffic to my site.
Cons of Using an Article Admission Service
When looking at anything new, you must determine when it is to your advantage to use a service or to do it yourself. These are some of the issues I would have to overcome:
1. If I do the submission myself, I know that the article or articles have reached it expected destination or destinations – but the exposure my article gets will be limited by the sites that I know.
2. If I’m restricted by General Titles will the article sites kick my article out because of not possibly abiding by the rules.
3. If I do it myself, I can target my article to the specific, intended audience.
For me, I will use the paid submission service when I am low on time and I have the money in hand. However, I will not waste my time on the free service because the return is very limited and from what I have seen offers little benefit to my site.
To conclude, you need to try different methods of getting your articles out to the masses. And the success of these different methods is dependent on your own satisfaction or lack there of, of the results rendered by such services. My advise, experiment and determine for yourself what services will help your business, who knows, that one service may be the punch in the arm your business needs to grow. And if you want to try an article submission service or would like additional information, you can go to my site at http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz/Affiliate_Free_Tools.htm and take a look at the Article Submission Service and what it has to offer for yourself.
To your success.
About The Author
Vickie J Scanlon has a BBA degree in Administrative Management and Marketing. Visit her site at: http://www.myaffiliateplace.biz for free tools, articles, ebooks, how to info, affiliate opportunities, services and products – to meet your budget and needs
About the Author
J. Ratliff is author of the Internet Cash System. He also has an Affiliate Program Directory.
The eagerly awaited conclusion to this interview with Mr John Cussen, Director, Small Business Services for LookSmart International Pty Ltd.
Search Engines, directories, affiliate programs, paid placement! Have you ever wondered where the value is for you? Vortex Media recently conducted an exclusive interview with Mr John Cussen, Director, Small Business Services for LookSmart International Pty Ltd. Part one can be viewed at"Vortex Media" Here is the eagerly awaited conclusion to this interview.
Vortex Media: Yahoo recently made a US$235 million bid to take over Inktomi search engines and in all probability it will be successful. What impact can you see this having on the services LookSmart will need to provide to maintain market share in Australia?
John Cussen: We’re still not sure of the implications of Yahoo’s decision, but it does highlight how important search is to the major portals. In particular, it emphasises a point that we’ve been making for some time: major portals are looking for alternatives to Google to supply search results, because Google is now so clearly a competitor to those sites, and is focused on building its own consumer brand. Because the LookSmart Australia brand doesn’t compete with our partners Elike Yahoo! Australia & NZ, or ninemsn Efor consumer traffic, we’re able to increase our market share in Australia, a trend that’s been quite clear over the past 18 months.
Vortex Media: There has been great dispute in the past on the effectiveness of "Paid Placement" programs with reports of a vast majority of users avoiding the top 3 - 5 positions of results on search engines known to undertake "Paid Placement" advertising. Can you shed any light on this? And do you think it is the responsibility of search engines/directories to notify their users on which results are "Paid Placement"?
John Cussen: Our experience with the LookListings product doesn’t indicate a change in behaviour at all. Our experience may be different because relevancy is a primary component of the LookListings search algorithm. I know that other “paid placementEservices use price as the only ranking attribute and I agree that that may not be a sustainable approach. Search engine users learn to avoid irrelevant content. Poorly targeted banner ads had a lot to do with the collapse of the banner advertising market in recent years. Users learned to avoid that part of the page. I’m surprised that some companies in our industry have not learned from that. Our LookListings partners certainly understand that relevance is important to the long-term future of their business, which is why they like our approach with the LookListings product. A high cost per click is of no use to anyone if no one clicks on the link, or if, once they’ve clicked, the page doesn’t turn out to be what they were looking for. Relevancy really matters to both advertisers and the portals which is why we built LookListings the way we did.
Vortex Media: Under your "SmartListings" product it is stated that 'Up to 3 URLs per domain' may be included into the LookSmart directory. Are participating clients able to specify which 3 URL's are to be included?
John Cussen: Absolutely! Our submission forms include and facility to include titles, descriptions and URLs for each of the three submissions. It’s important that the customer tells us which pages are most important to their business. A company may offer 8 different products or services but might specialize in two areas. If that’s where they make their money or where they need to find more customers then they should submit links to the homepage plus links to both of those areas. It increases their profile in the directory and multiplies their chance of being found in the search results on our partner sites.
Vortex Media: With a large number of websites now being set-up solely for affiliate based Internet Marketing purposes and with this number seeming to increase by the thousands every week, does LookSmart deem these sites to contain relevant material and as such should they be included into the LookSmart directory? And where do affiliate centered sites stand with LookSmart?
John Cussen: We assess each submission on its merits. Our guidelines include three relevant requirements here. We require that:
a)Your site should contain original content.
b)Your site should contain sufficient pages and recognisable content
c)Your site cannot mirror or redirect to another website.
There are some sites that do not make any attempt to add value and merely have a random list of affiliate links on their site. We reserve the right to reject that submission because they are not offering any value to a search engine user. In the past people have merely submitted an affiliate link to the SmartListings service or set up a page that later redirects to the affiliate link. We reject those submissions as well.
However, some sites that gather together affiliate based links do a great job of organizing links and provide original content that helps users find products and services. I have no problem with the site owner making some money for their effort and we will accept those submissions.
Vortex Media: Are there any specifications or criteria a website must meet before being considered for inclusion into LookSmart?
John Cussen: The SmartListings product is designed for legitimate businesses that already have a functioning web site that is useful to Australian search engine users. Our submission guidelines are merely designed to exclude illegal, offensive, unusable, or irrelevant web sites from the LookSmart Australia Directory. The vast majority of SmartListings submissions are accepted without any problem.
The specifics of LookSmartsEguidelines are available"here" and follow the guidelines tab.
Vortex Media: If a website has been turned down for inclusion, penalised or blacklisted for any reason, what recourse will the website owner have to get their site reassessed?
John Cussen: We provide a simple and fast way to discuss the situation if this does occur. If a site is rejected, we give the specific reason for the rejection and provide the customer with the opportunity to resubmit. The SmartListings service entitles you to resubmit once per URL, at no additional charge. You may request one reconsideration of your site via email to LookSmart within 30 days from the date you received your decline notification. Simply reply to the email you received notifying you that your site was declined, or send an appeal to the SmartListings team at
As in "Part 1" we thank Mr John Cussen, Director, Small Business Services for LookSmart International Pty Ltd for his time.
"Find out more or list with LookSmart here."
copyright Vortex Media 2003
About the Author
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This article addresses what to look for an avoid in examining online money making opportunities.
The wide variety and flexibility of money making opportunities available on line means there is no concrete list of attributes a program should or should not have. This makes it extremely difficult for inexperienced entrepreneurs to make heads or tails of all the programs out there.
How can you be sure that you aren't spending months of your life building a downline in a program that will fold within the next year? Unfortunately, there are too many variables for anyone to be 100% certain that a company will stand the test of time, but there are certain clues that will increase your odds of being right.
Here are things to look for (and lookout for!) in some of the major categories of online opportunities to help you identify which businesses are most likely to succeed.
Product Resale/Referral
The first thing to examine is the product. Does this product fill a need that more than a few isolated people have? Is the price of the product reasonable (even to someone who isn't participating in the program)? Would you buy the product if you weren't in the program? If the answers to these questions aren't satisfactory, than the business won't be around long. Move on.
The second thing to examine is the compensation plan. How likely is it you will make money in this program? Is the program structured so that most people can make several hundred to several thousand dollars a month, or is it set up so a few heavy-hitters make absurd amounts of money that the company can use in its marketing literature while members with less than several thousand referrals in their downline struggle to break even? If it isn't possible to break even by filling the first level or two of the program, the majority of the people who join the program will lose money.
Traffic Generation
There are two successful approaches to traffic generation. The first is winning the numbers games. By that I mean if you get a ridiculously large number of random people to visit your site, odds are at least a few of them will be interested in what you have to offer. The visitors who are interested might be a tiny fraction of your total, but if you bringing enough traffic, a small percent can mean quite a few bites. Good examples of these programs will allow you unlimited downlines for multiple levels. The programs should be free (or it will take more effort than it is worth getting people to join). The website for the program should be very professional and convincing, as this site is going to be closing the deal for you when potential referrals click your link.
The second approach to traffic generation is targeting. Targeting traffic is the practice of pursuing the people who are most likely to be interested in your offer. If you have a hardware site, you are trying to get contractors and handymen to visit. Instead of focusing on a large number of visitors, you pursue the select group who is most likely to be interested in your site. The value of these programs depends largely on their categories. These programs will segment traffic into different categories. The visitors you receive are directed to your site by the program because they are interested in whatever category you chose for your program. So if there is a category that very accurately describes your area, you will experience better results. If you run an investment banking web site, then you would want to find a program that will bring you traffic under the category Investment Banking. Not quite as good would be a category of Finance. If the traffic sent to you is under the category Business, then you're still getting better than untargeted traffic, but not by much.
Note: Many traffic generation programs will use a combination of both of the above approaches.
Paid Email/Surfing
A good paid email/surfing program is one that actually sends out payments. These companies make their money (some of which is passed onto you) from advertisers. Some programs have difficulty collecting payments from their advertisers. As a result they don't have money to pay the members who are spending their free time reading ads for vitamins and discount vacations.
The question then becomes how do you know a program can collect from the advertisers. The simplest indicator is often time. How long has the program been around? Another good indication is the quality of their offers. If the offers of their advertisers are at least moderately interesting, then it's more likely some of the people viewing these offers are signing up for them. Advertisers are sure to pay (and continue to pay) for marketing methods that get results.
Internet Marketing
If you want to create an Internet scam, masquerading as an Internet marketing program is one of the easiest ways to go about it. Even in legitimate marketing programs, the product being sold is information. Inherent to the sale of information is the fact no one can check out the product until they've paid for it, however, that does not mean that you can't check out the company.
Newsgroups are crawling with the tales of people who have been scammed. Do a search on the program name, and you will quickly discover how many people have been burned. Having said that, you should realize that even the best programs will have a few negative comments in the newsgroups. There are always people who signed up for a program and simply waited for the cash to start rolling in instead of putting effort into building an income. When these lazy folks didn't magically become wealthy, they decided to shout from the rooftops (or message boards) how their program was full of empty promises. Be sure to read through the messages and get a feel for how much effort the poster really put into trying to make the program work. You can get a better picture of the quality of the program by looking for posts in different places from different people.
About the Author
Copyright (c) 2003 Clay Mabbitt. Clay Mabbitt writes articles about Internet affiliate and MLM opportunities. Need in-depth reviews of the latest affiliate programs? Find them at http://www.affiliatescreen.com
