Archive for May, 2010
Internet Marketing Tools for Twitter
In internet marketing, tools definitely make things easier. That’s doubly true for internet marketers who use Twitter in their marketing. It can be extremely time-consuming to sit and click endlessly, hoping a good percentage of users will follow you back. Then you have to delete everyone who didn’t follow you, and when that’s done, you have to find another group of people who might be interested in your topic so you can start the process all over again. It’s enough to make anyone crazy.
So, if you’re planning on working with Twitter in your affiliate marketing efforts, I would strongly recommend that you look into at least one tool to simplify your most common tasks.
- Hummingbird – A popular autofollow tool. This one also comes packaged with Anteater, a VERY useful tool for bulk deleting the auto-generated DMs that so many Twitter users send.
- Social Oomph – This is a good tool for accounts geared towards branding efforts. It’s not as good as some other tools for speed.
- Twitter Karma – Helps you figure out who is following you and who isn’t. Unfortunately, Twitter no longer allows it to use the bulk unfollow feature, but it’s still helpful for everything else.
Have you used any tools for building your followers quickly? If so, let us know more about what worked well for you.
Are Paid Affiliate Marketing Tools Worth It?
If you spend more than 5 minutes involved in the online “internet marketing scene, you’ll come across some kind of affiliate marketing tools. Often, they’re extremely expensive tools, such as the $2000 Google Cash Detective Program. It’s natural to wonder if they’re actually worth it, or if it’s all a bunch of hype designed to get wannabes to fork over their hard-earned cash.
Unfortunately, it’s a little more complicated than just saying, “Yes, they’re all good” or “No, don’t buy products”. There are good ones and there are bad ones. On the bright side, I can say definitively that if a product is over $100 or $200, you absolutely do not need it to be successful. Most of the successful affiliates I know do use some tools, but I’ve never once met a top affiliate who honestly used all the flashy, expensive products. Even the gurus who promote them are often lying about how much they use the tool they’re promoting.
You should also remember that those expensive products treat IM gurus much the same way that luxury brands treat Hollywood celebrities – they give them everything for free. Yes, the guys are making tons of money and they could buy the products on their own. That doesn’t matter. Giving it to them for free gives them a reason to try them out.
I’m not saying that fancy tools can’t make your life easier, because they definitely can. What I’m saying is that I’ve never seen a $2000 product that would turn a $10/day affiliate into a $1000/day affiliate. Tools are better for making your existing high revenue business more efficient. If you’re not making thousands already, don’t dump thousands on a product.
Outside of those expensive products, though, there are tons of products in much more reasonable price ranges. Should you buy those? Well, I won’t say that you shouldn’t. Many of the products you see are great – Twitter Adders, Facebook ad management programs, article spinners, and so on. The real issue is this – WILL YOU USE IT? If so, then go for it. Most have a money back guarantee, and even if you can’t get your money back, your losses will be minimal.
Learning Affiliate Marketing: Link Building Tips
Learning affiliate marketing is never easy. That’s why it’s crucial that you learn to focus on small skills in a specific area. In this case, we’ll talk about link building. Admittedly, this is a complex topic of its own, but we’re going to focus on the most basic elements that every affiliate should know.
- Check out your competitors’ links. Use the Yahoo! Site Explorer or the link: command at Yahoo.com and you can get a great list of up to 1000 of each competitors’ inbound links. From there, just contact the relevant sites and ask for a link, too.
- Create content that would be highly linkable. Reference materials are especially good for this. Just add a useful reference section on another part of your site, then contact quality sites that would be interested in that material. For example, a section of kid-friendly history resources would be of interest to many schools and libraries.
- Submit to quality directories. Don’t waste your time on submitting to thousands of directories. Instead, submit to the quality, human-edited directories and then get on with your life.
- Comment or create content on social media and blog sites with dofollow links. Use the SearchStatus plugin to figure out which links are followed and which links are nofollow, then focus your efforts on the sites that do not use nofollow tags.
Any other good linking tips? It’s a complex area, and there’s always room for more ideas!
Learn Affiliate Marketing For Free
If you’ve ever seen those $2000 online marketing courses from the gurus, you’ve probably wondered if there is a way to learn affiliate marketing for free. Luckily, there is. It’s entirely possible to learn affiliate marketing without spending a dime of your hard-earned money. You will, however, need a bit of spare time.
- Get the free guides. Plenty of gurus have free guides that they give out as a teaser to entice you to join their mailing lists. Just use a junk email address and enjoy.
- Just try it. Although this isn’t recommended for paid traffic sources, there are plenty of ways you can get web traffic without spending money on advertising. Make Squidoo lenses, write articles for Associated Content, or learn about SEO and build a site with a simple pagemaker. You have nothing to lose but a few of your free evenings.
- Get a job in online marketing. Companies can’t seem to find enough employees to fill their online marketing departments. It’s a new field and you don’t need a lot of experience to progress quickly. The best part is that you get to learn on someone else’s dime.
- Spy on competitors or sites that interest you. Look at what they’re doing to drive traffic and then figure out how to apply similar tactics to your own sites.
- Go to the library. There are plenty of books on web marketing. If your library doesn’t have what you’re looking for, they can probably borrow it through an inter-library loan.
Any other ideas for getting free online marketing education? Feel free to share!
Advertising in the Internet Age
For any business, one of the best things you can do to increase your visibility and boost your clientele is to advertise yourself effectively. While this used to be very difficult or expensive for people, the digital age has made it a bit easier. With the prevalence of the internet, it’s not only easier for people to start a business, but it’s also easier to market that business. While radio spots and television ads garner unprecedented exposure, they are usually far too expensive for the average startup.
That’s why so many people who are looking to generate an internet income turn right back to the internet for marketing. If you are trying to find out what is affiliate marketing or how to utilize social networks, there is a plethora of free advice to be had. There are so many forums where you can post videos or promotions for your business at no cost. Maybe you’ve created a funny and creative ad campaign touting your business. If that’s the case, post it on YouTube or other forums where videos can be posted and shared for free. Or you could even place an ad on Craigslist. Whatever the venue, if it doesn’t cost you can any money, all you are out is your time. And if it garners you any interest, you can count it as a success.
Building an Affiliate Marketing System That Lasts
Every new affiliate wants to build their own affiliate marketing system, but few set out to build one that lasts. If you brought this to their attention, though, you’d find that a lot of affiliates are actually in denial of that fact. Maybe it’s because so few affiliates have proper business training. Maybe it’s just a case of misunderstanding reality. Maybe it’s just optimism.
Affiliates who start making money rarely stop to think about how they can broaden their strategy so that they’re less vulnerable to industry changes that could put them out of business overnight. They don’t think, “Well, I’m making good money with this PPC campaign now, perhaps I should use this earning time to build out some SEO sites that will also earn steady money.”
Any introductory class in Economics or portfolio theory will teach you that investing in a single area can give you big returns, but that it’s also very risky. With just one stock, a single market event can wipe out your entire portfolio in an instant. Do you want that for your affiliate business?
Although you don’t want to broaden too much before you’re making money, it’s always important to have some idea about your long-term strategy as you progress. And of course, put a bit of those profits in the bank!
What is Affiliate Marketing Like as a Career?
A lot of new affiliates wonder, “What is affiliate marketing like as a career?” Although it may seem silly, that’s actually a really good question. If you spend much time around affiliates at meetups and conferences, you’ll notice something that’s very clear if you’re looking for it – Some affiliates are in it for the fun and they’re enjoying it while it lasts, but others are in it for a real career.
How can you tell the difference? Well, affiliates who are in it for the fun are usually more interested in the parties and free stuff instead of the amazing wealth of knowledge to be had when hanging out with large groups of professionals. They typically have a few successful campaigns (sometimes even just ONE), and they’re spending the money as fast as they make it. They’re not thinking about what happens when trends or policies shift and kill off a big percentage of their income. They may or may not stick around, depending on how hard things get and how low their bank accounts get. There aren’t many places outside of affiliate marketing where you’ll see 24-year-old kids making $90k in a month and promptly spending it on a watch (all the while, living in mom and dad’s basement).
So how are the pros different? They’re different in pretty much every way you can think of. These are the guys and girls who are getting to know anyone and everyone worth knowing. They’re out there working the floor and looking for new traffic sources or promotional ideas, then they’re spending dinner with other affiliates and sharing notes. These people have proper business structures, they pay their taxes, and they always save for a rainy day. They’re planning for their next big step before their current income streams disappear. They’ll do ANYTHING to avoid going back to a day job.
Which of these types are you? If you’re not counting yourself under the second category, you need to figure out a way to change things before your current strategies stop working for you.
Affiliate Marketing Program Fact & Fiction
When you get started in an affiliate marketing program, you may fall prey to a number of common misconceptions. The fact is, in any industry where there is so much money and so much potential for the average person, there are going to be myths floating around. This post is designed to help dispell a few of the most common.
MYTH: Running a highly profitable affiliate marketing business is easy.
FACT: It can eventually become easy once you learn how to do things, start making money, and learn to automate certain processes. In the meantime, though, it’s some of the most time-consuming work you’ll ever do.
MYTH: You will get rich quickly!
FACT: Very, very few affiliates will get rich quickly. In fact, your odds are actually better in Vegas, according to the FTC. If you apply yourself and work hard (and often, have a bit of money to invest), you will dramatically improve your odds of enjoying the lifestyle you dream of. If you expect to put in almost no time and then get rich, however, you may be better suited in a more traditional career.
MYTH: Affiliate marketing is saturated / too crowded / no longer full of opportunity.
FACT: After talking to numerous affiliate managers, it’s clear that only a very small fraction of the opportunity in any given program or market is actually being used. There are so many different ways to be successful – just let yourself stray a bit from the herd.
MYTH:Affiliate marketing is a no-investment business.
FACT: This couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s definitely much easier than, say, opening up a 5-star hotel – but it still takes capital. You can make a pretty good living with free webpages and social media or SEO tactics, but you still have to put in the time. And of course, if you want to earn money from stuff like PPC or PPV or media buys, you’re going to need quite a bit of capital to get going.
Did you find yourself buying into any of these myths? How did you get over them? Or are there other common myths that drive you crazy?
Affiliate Marketing & SEO: How to Make it Work
All too often, you hear people complaining that affiliate marketing and SEO just don’t go together. They complain that they’ve made landing pages that do really well with PPC, but that they just don’t have what it takes to rank well organically speaking. Having looked at many of those pages, I know exactly why that is.
- Too little content. This is the number one reason that affiliate marketers doom their pages to rank poorly forever. You just can’t expect to compete with real, quality sites when your page is nothing more than a landing page and 3-4 junky articles. Add a real blog, write content that a human might actually want to read, and stop complaining that you can’t compete with people who have put in 500x more effort.
- No inbound links. Google doesn’t give first page rankings to sites with no inbound links. It just doesn’t happen. Not unless you want to rank for something ridiculously unpopular and rare as “purplish blue sweatshirt with rhinestones in the shape of a cat”. Because you could rank for that with no inbound links…but that’s about it.
- Poor quality inbound links. Some affiliates realize that they need to build links, but instead of actually making an effort, they do something silly like buy a $15 directory submission package and then sit back to wait for their riches. No competitive niche is going to be dominated with a low-quality site and $15 worth of automated directory submissions. You need to put in the time and effort to see out genuine, high-quality, relevant links if you want to really see results.
- Unhidden affiliate links. It’s not that Google hates affiliates. In fact, there are many affiliates that do extremely well in Google’s search rankings. What Google hates are affiliates who cheapen and tarnish the overall user experience. Unfortunately, that’s most of them, which means that it’s much safer to hide your affiliate links with a PHP or .htaccess redirect. Why give Google a reason to doubt your intentions?
If you take these four points to heart, your affiliate marketing and SEO efforts will undoubtedly be more successful in short order.
Unique Ways to Get Internet Marketing Training
When people think of internet marketing training, they often think of online courses with long sales letters, or expensive seminars in big hotels. That’s a very narrow view of the possible ways to get internet marketing training, though, and this post will hopefully give you some other ideas about ways to hone your skills.
- eBay Sales – Even if you don’t want to sell products in the long-run, eBay can be an excellent way to get practice in online marketing skills. You’ll learn to test headlines, copy, product images, and possibly even some advertising.
- College - Even though most college don’t have a lot of good courses in online marketing, you can still use the opportunity to improve your writing (try a course in debate or argumentation) and marketing skills. You’ll also get the opportunity to network with other students who may be headed out into other areas of business, which can make for invaluable connections in years to come.
- Doing It – There is absolutely nothing to stop you from just making a free blog and trying your hand at different free promotional methods. In fact, it’s one of the best ways to learn.
- Working It – Despite the bad economy, companies have a hard time keeping enough semi-informed internet marketers on staff. It’s a new specialty and the demand for workers is larger than the supply. It’s also a great way to get a paycheck while testing out methods on someone else’s budget. Not bad, right?
Have you used any of these methods to get practice before launching your affiliate campaigns? What about something not included on the list?