Online marketing » Online Business

Using ShareASale in Your Online Marketing Business

admin — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:14:11 +0000

Shareasale is an affiliate marketing company that provides pay per services for your online marketing business. Pay per services includes pay per click and pay per sale services. This means that you are paid a percentage for every so many clicks or per every click and a commission for each sale. This is the basis of affiliate marketing and it is one of the long-standing ways to both advertise and gain an additional use for your website.

You may have hundreds even thousands of visitors a day coming to your website and you may get several sales a day from these visitors. However what about the rest of the visitors that are coming to your website? There is not much to be said about what they are doing just by visiting. What if you are part of affiliate marketing programs or if you are an affiliate to larger name companies? Then you can easily use this to you advantage by placing advertisements for companies that you are affiliated with on your website.

What this does is it gives you another way to earn money from the visitors on your website even if they did nothing more than visit your site and then click on one of the advertisements you have placed there. One of the great things about using this type of an affiliate marketing company is the fact that you do not need to have multiple accounts.

If you were to go to each of the individual affiliates you would have to sign up for each one of the affiliate accounts. Then you would need to place each individual section of code onto your pages. This could end up being an expensive proposition in time and energy spent. It can make your page look cluttered with a large amount of advertising. Using a company such as ShareASale allows you to access a large number of affiliates at the same time in order to maximize the potential of affiliate marketing.

You can access all your information under a single account, saving you from having to bounce from account to account checking on numbers and seeing how your marketing results with that particular company is going. It also means that instead of receiving checks from all over the place and from a number of different companies you receive one check. That single check includes the commission and earnings from all of your affiliations.

When you are running a business you want things to run as smoothly as possible and to be as streamlined as possible. This is what ShareASale can help do for your internet marketing business. You can easily obtain access to a large number of affiliates; run everything from a single account. You also get to add variety to your website increasing the likelihood that if visitors do not buy from you they will click on one of the advertisements you have on your website. You earn a commission as a lead or purchase. Affiliate marketing also helps to increase your traffic by increasing the market that you can reach with your online marketing business and allows you to tap into new markets and keywords.

To Your Online Marketing Success!

By: Bob B. Hamilton

Building a Business Online – Understanding Electronic Marketing

admin — Mon, 24 May 2010 17:10:29 +0000

Building a business online is not as complicated as some people believe. However, it is important to understand some of the basics for successful creation and promotion. To start your business, research the different options available. If you have your own product or service that you wish to promote, find similar products and see how they are promoting their products. If you are going to sell someone else’s products or services, chances are you will be joining a network. Make sure you understand how the network functions, when you get paid and on what basis.

Do you earn money based on the traffic you send to their site, or is it based on the products you sell? To be successful building a business online, you need to believe in the product or service you are selling. Enthusiasm is contagious. Without it, you will find it more difficult to increase sales. Now that you have your products, it’s time to begin marketing them. Again, learning about the options available to you and how they can be effectively employed is an important step in becoming profitable. The Internet provides many opportunities to market at little or no cost.

Creating a professional looking web site is paramount to building a business online. It should provide information on who you are, what you do, and how these products or services can help the customer attain their goals. Whether the products are training videos, or marketing methods to make their businesses more profitable, it should be clearly stated on your site. Search engine optimization focuses on using key words that a potential customer might enter into a search engine to find the types of products you offer. These people are looking for you, which makes them more likely to make a purchase, if you accurately convey your message.

Social networking through platforms such as Twitter and Facebook are among the most successful methods to building a business online today. They help you increase web site traffic through making connections, building followers and creating relationships. Consumers are naturally distrustful of businesses. Taking the time to get to know them, understand their needs and asking for feedback will encourage trust and they will begin to recognize you as a valuable resource. When you begin to offer product promotions, they are far more likely to make a purchase, than they would have without the relationship. Cultivating relationships, adding value to your products and understanding online promotion methods will help you maximize your return on investment.

By: Liam McCauley

Make Money Online With Video Training – Why Your Online Marketing Program Should Use This Training

admin — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:18:09 +0000

When you look into the many different online marketing programs, there is one aspect that really separates the good from the bad. That aspect is the video training course. The reason that this is the aspect for which you really want to look for in a program is because it can make or break your chances at succeeding in your online business venture. There are programs out there that do not even have any training at all for you and they still expect you to succeed. Obviously, those are not the right choice for you. You want to be successful and the best way to get on the right course is with this training.

One of the main reasons why a video training course is so vital to your success chances in online marketing is because it is so personal. Since it is a video, it almost is if the training is being done in person. Of course that never would be able to happen with an online program, so it makes sense to go with the next best thing. You actually will be able to see what you are to be doing with your program because the video training will be step by step.

Another reason why you want to look for a program that has a video training course is because it will seem as if the training video was made specifically for you. It will be as if the instructor is talking directly to you and no one else. In addition, most people learn better when they see someone else doing it compared to when you have to read a training pamphlet. With that, you will have no idea whether you are doing everything correctly because there are no pictures showing you the right way. In the video, you will see every step to getting your business up and running.

In addition to the actual learning aspect of the video training course, another reason why it is important to choose a marketing program that uses one is because you will see the program working for your own eyes. You will see how easy it is to get started. With programs that use document instructions, you will have no idea whether it will work or not because you are not seeing it for yourself.

Finally there is a great new way to learn all about online marketing ideas in video format that anyone can understand. Imagine what it would be like to see behind the curtain of one of the most successful online marketers in the business and clone his success.

By: Jason Savage

Online Marketing Basics – 6 Tips to Planning an Effective Web Site Strategy

admin — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:42:29 +0000

Planning. It’s the key to so many aspects of life, but it’s especially critical when you are in business. For example, you are going to need to know as much as possible about your potential customers and how much they are willing to spend before you can set goals for how much product you will be able to sell. In addition, your web site strategy will also need to based on your abilities and interests. You’ll also need to decide how much you want to be involved with the development of your project before you sit down and put a budget together.

So many aspiring online business owners put the cart before the horse. Many folks create a product first and only think about who they will be able to market the product to as an after thought. This can be a big problem right out of the gate because you have no way of determining the income you will see from the product. You’ve got to know who your buyers will be before you create a product or service, and you need to know how these buyers are currently being serviced – AKA what is your competition like?

If you are already in business, determining who your customers are is easy because you can simply look at your visitation stats for your web site – or set up an account with Google Analytics and get the all the data you could possibly want there.

I’d like to outline 5 key tips for planning an effective web site strategy. These tips have always have always held me in good stead when staring a new project. All five of these tips center around

Tip #1 Visit Industry or Niche based forums or discussion groups

Take a look at threads that are the most active to help you identify the most pressing needs of the posters. These folks will likely be the people most likely to be visiting your web site.

Tip #2 Determine 3 categories of needs

You’ll find at least three different types of people will be visiting your site – all looking for an answer to their problem. For example, if I were a dentist, I’d be able to determine from past history that most new patients look to join my practice because:

Have recently changed insurance companies and are therefore forced to make a change in their dentist to one in their new network. Aren’t happy with their current dentist and want a new one. Their current dentist isn’t able to provide the services they need

Tip #3 Competition Identification

Be sure to do Google searches on keywords that are specific to your industry or niche. For example, if you operate an Internet Marketing Consultant business, you’d want to do a search for Internet Marketing Consultants, followed by your city name, state, or zip code.

Tip #4 Determine how successful your competition is by spying on them

There are many programs and services on the market that will allow you to get all sorts of data on your competition. One of them is Quantcast. It’s as simple as entering your competitor’s URL into a search form there and you’ll be provide with a wide range of data about the visitors to the site.

Tip #5 Estimate income potential

Clearly, the reason you are in business is to make money. You’ve got to determine if there is enough of a market to make your product or service the income generator that you want it to be.

Tip #6 Determine what your potential market share will be

From tip #3, list the number of competitors you have, including their website, along with potential customers.

By: Warren Barnes

Online Marketing Plan – Why You Need An Online Marketing Plan

admin — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 11:17:21 +0000

So you want to start an online business. Do you have an online
marketing plan or are you going to go for it blind?

The truth is, if you do not have a solid online marketing plan
you are destined to fail.

You should not go into any business without knowing exactly
how you are going to run the show.

You need to research every aspect to lessen the chance of a
failure.

Think about what you will need in order to succeed with your
online business.

What type of product or service are you going to offer?

How are you going to create your website?

Can you write a sales letter?

Can you publish a newsletter?

How are you going to get subscribers?

What autoresponder system are you going to use.

How are you going to advertise your new online business.

All of these questions and more need to be written out and
explored.

That is why you need to have an online marketing plan.

You need to be in proper order and have each corner firmly
tucked in order reap the rewards for your efforts.

Too many times you can get lost in the hype and excitement
of owning an online business and go in without a solid online
marketing plan.

Then when it is too late, and you have spent a ton of your
hard earned money, and you have nothing to show for it, is when
you will see why you needed to devise an online marketing plan.

Be smart. Be patient. Be successful.

By: Gary Baker

Tips to Insure Your Online Marketing Products Sell – Part 2

admin — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 03:48:01 +0000

Online marketing involves understanding all of the variables associated with the Internet business world. Make a mistake and you can end up being forced to stop and examine everything that happened. Then you adjust and try to start your campaign over. All that work and no sales! You would think that conducting proper research and preparation would help make you immune from this experience. But that is not always the case. This is part two of a two part article series that examines potential problems that may occur to stop an online marketing campaign dead in its tracks.

One of the most common errors is having a poor sales process in-place. In most cases this will stop a sale dead in its tracks. The buyer wanted to purchase and couldn’t decipher how to initiate the purchase. Or worse yet, the buyer started the purchase process and couldn’t complete it. It was too complicated, or it was unclear where to go and what to do when the buyer got there. Often some part of the sales process just didn’t work at all!

Another problem is not generating the traffic required to be successful. There might be traffic coming, but the quantities are just too low. Then the entrepreneur doesn’t know how to get more traffic at a low enough price. The decision becomes whether to pay too much, risk getting untargeted traffic and possibly not to generate traffic at all. Worse yet is to sit and wait for more traffic to ‘magically’ appear.

If your website doesn’t match the keywords you use in your articles and elsewhere, then you will soon find you have a problem. As the search engines discover this is the case, your website’s ranking will fall. Many experienced internet marketers call this a failed Google landing quality score.

Often problems and issues that your online marketing business faces will have an easy solution. However, whenever a problem does occur, you need to thoroughly examine everything. Retrace all the steps you took. You want to learn from your mistake. The challenge is in determining exactly what occurred, and then fixing the problem.

To your online marketing success!

By: Bob B. Hamilton

Online Network Marketing Business – How to Avoid the Humiliation of Failure

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 06:47:02 +0000

I find it kind of frustrating when I see network marketers trying to market their online network marketing business in the offline world. They do all the traditional methods which their up-line advises them to do. These include making long, stretched out two-three hour presentations to their friends and family as well as calling hundreds of complete strangers with the hopes that maybe a couple will be interested in their online network marketing business opportunity.

These methods have probably worked in the past. There is no other way I can think of for why their up-line would be advising them to do this. Everyone (at least everyone successful) in this industry knows that they will go as their down-line goes. As they succeed, so will you.

So yes, I am sure these methods of lead generation worked in the past. They might still work right now to a certain extent. But the whole idea of making presentations and cold calling seems so inefficient considering their extremely low conversion rates.

Wouldn’t a better use of your time and energy be towards actually mentoring your down-line so that they become very successful producers for you?

This industry is all about leverage. It is not about doing everything 100% yourself. It is about coaching your down-line so that they may be successful, resulting in you profiting from 20% of your work and 80% on the work of others. This may seem like I advising you to take advantage of others. That is absolutely NOT what I am saying. If you are making a solid income from the efforts of your down-line, that means that they themselves are also profiting very well. What I am trying to say is that you should not be trying to go against the make-up of the online network marketing business. This is exactly what you are doing by trying to generate leads in the offline world.

The best thing to do is move all of your lead generation efforts online. This way you will be able to set up multiple campaigns that, after some testing and tweaking, will generate targeted leads for you on auto-pilot. This is a beautiful way to eliminate the grunt work in your business so you can focus on aspects that really matter.

By: Shawn J.

Online Marketing Basics – Top 6 Steps to Grow and Operate Your Online Business

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 17:45:59 +0000

If you are like most folks starting out online, you want to be able to grow your business to the point where it will provide you with a significant income. There are six key steps you’ll need to undertake as you grow and operate your business so that it can provide you with the significant income you desire.

1. Decide What Products And Services You Wish To Offer

Needless to say, this is where it all begins. If you want to earn a living, you are going to have to offer something that people will buy, or you’ll not be in business. Before you begin this phase, you need to know that just because you think a particular product will sell well, it isn’t automatically so. Part of the process of deciding what to sell and how to sell it will be identifying the market for your prospective product, what kind of competition there is for the product, and what methods you’ll use to make the sale online and deliver the product.

2. Solve A Problem

Most folks visit web sites because they have a problem they need to solved. When they visit your site, they are hoping that you’ve got the answer for them. As you build a web site – and definitely before you launch an traffic getting campaign – be sure that your site will provide the answers your customers are looking for.

You need to make sure that your traffic converts. In other words, your customers are doing what you want them to do. Maybe it’s simply giving you their name and email address for future marketing campaigns, or perhaps it’s making a purchase. Getting customers to convert will be the most critical component in your success. Provide your customers with the solutions they need and you’ll never have to worry about conversion rates.

3. Traffic Generation

Once your web site is converting visitors into customers, you’ll then want to be sure to increase the number of visitors your site is receiving. There are a number of ways to do this, including Search Engine Optimization, press releases, articles and video marketing to name just a few. You’ll find there are well over 100 different and effective methods of driving traffic to your site. You’ll need to research as many of these methods as possible and decide which of them is a good match for your budget. In my opinion, the best places to start are with search engine optimization, article marketing, and social networking. Once you master these areas, then move on to some of the many other methods available to you.

4. Become A Well Recognized Expert In Your Niche

As a general rule, most people buy online from people they like, know and trust. While it may not seem possible, it truly is very easy to achieve all three with your potential customers – in a short period of time while on a very limited budget.

Being recognized as an expert can be accomplished by sharing information on your particular niche or industry. The more you share, the more you’ll become recognized as an expert. Setting up and operating a blog is a great way to develop a following while getting yourself recognized as an expert. The great thing about a blog is that you can automate the content so that it’s always being posted on a schedule you dictate. As you operate your blog, you’ll find that your followers will become loyal to you. They’ll not only like you, but they will feel as if they know you and their trust level will continue to increase over time.

5. Build An Affiliate Team

Once you’ve got the traffic coming to your site and it’s converting as you want it to, the next step in the process is to have others sell your product or service for you. This is one of the best ways to increase your sales in rapid fashion. You’ll have folks out there promoting you and your product – and they’ll be doing it on their dime!

On top of this, you won’t have to pay your affiliates until after a sale is made. Most companies pay on a monthly basis, but I always pay on a weekly basis as I find it keeps my team more motivated, knowing that if they make a sale today, they’ll see the cash next Friday. There are scripts available today that are set up so the affiliate gets paid immediately. Talk about motivation!

It’s not uncommon for affiliates to double or even triple your sales, so an affiliate program is definitely not something to overlook.

6. Joint Ventures

Joint Ventures (or JV’s) are similar to an affiliate program, but on a much larger scale. In this scenario, you will partner with one person who has a very high stature in a particular niche that is in your niche or one that is complementary. You will then convince this person to recommend your product or service. This person will usually have a very large following and a great deal of influence over these people. You’ll likely have to give this person a bigger piece of the pie than you do with affiliates, but it also provides you with the potential to bring in several thousands of dollars in a very short period of time.

By: Warren Barnes

Honesty in Online Marketing

admin — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:39:37 +0000

The Internet is full of all kind of online marketing. Unfortunately, for the most it is not an honest business. There are many disappointed marketers and even more scammed persons out there and more to come. Some statistics say that only 95% of anyone who had ever started an online business quit as soon as they do not get the expected wealth- the 5% rule.

I believe that the main problem is that the Internet marketing is generally not an honest business due to lack of quality information before a person signs up for one or another one money making course or program online. Everybody is just so desperate to make a sale that often such marketer chooses to hide, even lie or avoid by any possible means to not to talk about the reality behind the money making online.

The most common disappointment after the person has made a purchase of an online money making course is about the work amount to be put in. Nobody wants to talk about this kind of resource. Everybody is just talking about the money as a resource. However I believe that the time spent on the particular training or method is at least of the same importance as the money put in. It is fully understandable that in order to make a sale you often don’t talk about the hardest bites but I also believe that an honest online marketing is the right way to make pretty good money in the long term.

The keywords “long term” and “honesty” adds up into an even more important keyword – “respect in online marketing”. Respect, as known, is hard to build and easy to ruin. This is also one of the reasons why there are few serious online marketers who have managed to maintain their respect in the long term.

By: Aiv Janson

Online Marketing Techniques – Theory Or Proven

admin — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:20:25 +0000

THEORY:
Q: What do I mean by Theory?
Ans: Online Marketing Techniques that have never been used before.

When you first start an online business, many people want to go it a lone. This is the hardest route. In many cases you may have an idea that you think will work, you then put all your money and energy in to your idea and what do you know – It doesn’t work. You have now earned some experience the hard way (expensive). On your next campaign, you have learnt from your previous mistakes, GREAT! But what do you know, different mistakes and so on and so on … eventually you will gain the experience and knowledge to make some money, if you don’t lose your house or starve in the process.

Sounds Depressing, but this is based on my experience remember, not yours.
Now lets go down the proven route a minute.

PROVEN:
Q: What do I mean by proven?
Ans: Online Marketing Techniques that have been used and proven to make people successful. This route does not necessarily mean you will be successful.
Q: So what is the answer, back to trial and error?
Ans: No.

The answer I believe is to get a mentor that will not only show you a PROVEN blue print to success (IT MUST BE PROVEN) but will guide you every step of the way until you achieve it.

This is not a personal plug for me. I haven’t achieved the level of success yet to become a mentor. But I know a man that has. (Always wanted to say that!)

EXPENSIVE:
But I hear you saying — How much is that going to cost?
I’m trying to make money here not give away my Children’s College fund.

Actually there are some gurus/mentors out there that would be happy to take away your last penny and leave you kicking a card board box around on the street. Their answer if you failed would be, “it’s your own fault if I can make it work then anybody can.”

IT DOESN’T HAVE TO COST AN ARM AND A LEG:
That’s the great thing about Wealthy Affiliate University. They tell you straight, and teach you what you need to know to make money online. There are many ways to make money online and Wealthy Affiliate goes into many of them in detail. Most people are attracted to affiliate marketing though, because you can generate a passive income – money that keeps coming in even if you’re there or not.

By: Derek Comach