Affiliate Marketing Online – Proof Exposes Secrets

Do Not Attempt Affiliate Marketing Online Until You See The Video Below It doesn’t take forever to figure out that when it comes to websites and affiliate marketing online there is a lot of hype. Word has gotten around that there is wealth to be gained in affiliate marketing, and the gold rush is online.  It’s important to not be overzealous and look for proof when someone claims to have a money making system.

In this post I’m going to give a brief introduction about Internet marketing for beginners, and prove to you that there is money in affiliate marketing online.  You will see how you can use free websites to generate an online income for yourself.  I’m going to show you what to look for when choosing products related to Internet marketing.

For beginners in Internet marketing it’s important to know how to determine which types of marketing work and which ones don’t.  Affiliate marketing online is profitable if done correctly. You’ll see how to compete with your free websites and maximize the profits from them.

If you do just a little research you will run into lies, online marketing scams and claims so exaggerated you wonder if anybody at all believes them.  There are so many over-hyped products marketed online how you can be sure which are real and which aren’t? You want to know this before you get started.

Who Profits From Affiliate Marketing Online?

There is no doubt that there is a lot of potential in making money online.  One only has to look at a site like flippa.com and see there are money making websites being bought and sold daily.   There you will find online marketers whose only business is to build a money making website that generates income and then sell it for huge a profit.

That could be you too if you do it right. One of the best ways to build a business online is to take advantage of the free websites at http://FreeSiteSignUp.com.  You want proof? It’s right here in the video.

This is the first of a series of videos exposing some of the exact sites we rank.

If you are smart you can visit these sites and with the right tools discover our methods.  If you are really smart you’ll save yourself the trouble and let us show you how we did it.  Let’s get started.

Affiliate Marketing Online 101

For those of you who are new I’ll give a brief recap.  With this knowledge you will get a better understanding of how easy it is to get started making money.

In affiliate marketing online you have basically four different players.  The merchant is the person who has a product to sell.  It can be any type of product but for the Internet, generally digital products are best because they can be sent over the internet so there are no delivery fees.

Also since they are digital, storage of your product is not an issue.  There are many advantages to having a digital product over a physical product.

There is a network, this is like the middle man for the merchant, they handle all related issues from payments and to promoting the merchants product.

The marketing agent is the independent business person that chooses a product to promote from the network.

Also of course there is the customer.  We all know what role they play.  They are the ones we depend on for our livelihood, the ones we cater too and strive to please so much they would never consider doing business with anyone else.  Right?

The marketing agent is in business for himself and he is like a franchisee of a merchant.  The agent generally pays no money to promote the merchants product.  The merchant only pays the agent for sales generated, relieving them of employee costs and taxes.

This is a great business arrangement because anybody, you or I, can be in business for pennies.  We don’t need to invest $100,000 for a turnkey business.  If done correctly you can latch on to an free website with a product that will make you just as much profit with little or no upfront investment.

Maybe you have an idea for a product?  Perhaps you will expand enough to build and market your own product?  You can realize those kinds of dreams with affiliate marketing online.

So that’s a quick Affiliate Marketing Online 101 course.

I’m going to follow up more in a later post.  In that post I will go over how to use free websites and how you can easily cash in on them.  We have shown you proof that there is money to be made in affiliate marketing online.  You have seen that many there are numerous methods for making money online.

You have seen that free websites are a popular method of getting a fast start in Internet marketing.  Now you can learn exactly how to get in on the cash pulling phenomenon.

In the next blog post we are going to show you how you can compete in affiliate marketing online.  It’s a gold rush and if anyone tells you it’s easy to compete they are misleading you.  It’s only easy if you know the right methods and somehow manage to find an instructor that is genuinely interested in your success.

So keep up with us.  Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get our latest announcements and updates.  We’ll keep you in the loop so you don’t get left out.

A Retailer’s Guide to Growing a High Quality Mailing List

Email marketing starts with a list! A high quality mailing list, means a more captive audience, higher open and click through rates, and most importantly there’s more chance the audience will take you up on your call-to-action.
Of course, it’s not all in the list. Targeted and relevant email campaigns are a must have for successful email marketing. But that too, starts with your list. A mindfully created list has the data in it to help you segment your audience and create targeted and personalized emails that are relevant to each segments’ interests and preferences.

So how do you build a quality mailing list that has all this useful data? All you need to do is make sure your collecting the email addresses of the right audience and the list will build itself.

Your customers are your best audience

Your customers want to hear from you. If they love what you’re offering in-store or online, chances are they will want to receive updates from you. In fact, the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70% [Marketing Metrics]. Compare that to a promotion sent to a potential customer, at less than 1% [Kiss Metrics]. So the answer to a quality mailing list is that it should be made up of your customers – the customers who already buy from you.

3 sure fire ways to grow a mailing list of your actual customers:

1. Online store

If you have an eCommere store you likely already require an email address from customers, as part of your purchase process. Customers who buy from you online are tech savy and big users of email, making them your perfect audience. Plus, you’re collecting it anyway – you might as well be using it.

• Make sure you have an email opt-in checkbox. It’s a good idea to have this pre-checked. They can opt-out it if they don’t want to hear from you.
• Include a consent statement in your terms and conditions for email newsletters and marketing. It’s a good idea to check your country’s legal requirements around this and make sure you adhere to them.
• Now that you have their email address, use it. Send them a little thank you offer for their purchase. 10% off their next purchase might prompt them to go back online and purchase that pair of shoes that they were umming-and-ahhing about. Not to mention, a nice little surprise in one of your first emails is a great way to increase engagement with your future emails.
• And keep using it. Keep your customers engaged and updated with new stock, promotions, and products they may be interested in. Consistency is key. Decide how often you are going to email customers, and stick to it.
• Get personal. If you collect their name, use it. The email will feel much more thoughtful and personal. Use merge tags to insert your customers’ names into the email body or subject line.

Productivity tip: MailSync automatically syncs your eCommerce customer database to your GetResponse mailing list. Meaning, you don’t have to waste time exporting and importing CSVs. It’s always up-to-date, so you don’t have to worry about customers missing out on your emails.

2. Newsletter subscription

While they are browsing your website, make sure they can see a newsletter subscription form. This is a great way to capture the details of potential customers, who want to hear from you. They may not have made a purchase yet. But, because they are volunteering their details they are likely to make for a captive audience.

• Convert them to an actual customer early. They like your products, otherwise they wouldn’t have signed up for your newsletter. Send them a promotion to help them make their first purchase. Once they’ve bought from you once, they are more likely to buy from you again [Consumer Insights Group].
• Give them what they signed up for. They signed up for your newsletter. So, make sure you wrap any marketing promotions or product updates up in the form of a newsletter.

3. In-store

Train your staff to ask every customer if they want to join your mailing list, while they are making a purchase. Your staff are already talking to customers over the counter, so they don’t have to go out of the way to ask for a name and email address. But, make sure they are properly trained to ask in the right way. Yes there is a wrong way! These are your customers’ personal details. It’s important to make them feel comfortable giving them away.

• Tell them why you are collecting their details – Let them know that they will receive email updates on new stock and promotions. 90% of consumers prefer email updates, over social media announcements [Nielsen Norman Group].
• Give them something in exchange – Ask if they want to join your loyalty program and let them know what rewards they could earn, in exchange for their email address. If they are getting something out of it, they are more likely to give away their details.
• You’ve got their name, so use it in conversation – “Enjoy the rest of your day, Chester”. They will feel connected to you on a more personal level. Now, when your email comes, they are more likely to remember you, and open it.
• Make it fast and easy – People are time-poor and frustration will ruin their shopping experience. Choose a point-of-sale that has the capability to add customers to the sale. That way, you can collect email addresses without holding them up, fumbling through paper, or switching screens or devices.

Productivity tip: If you’re using your point-of-sale to collect customer email addresses, MailSync is a useful tool that automatically syncs the customer data you collect to your GetResponse mailing list. Meaning, you don’t have to waste time exporting and importing CSVs. It’s all done for you.

Growing a quality customer database can seem like a big task, but it doesn’t have to be. Once you have the right tools set up, you’ll find you can actually automate the process. Using MailSync and GetResponse is a great place to start. Once you’ve set up MailSync, you can forget about importing and exporting CSVs, and instead, you can focus on creating great email campaigns. For more useful tips and everything a retailer needs to know to get started with email marketing, check out this helpful affiliate marketing.

Top 10 Reasons to Have an Ezine

Establish yourself as a trusted expert. People search online for information and will look to you, as a subject matter expert, to provide it to them. Every week (or whatever schedule works) provides an opportunity to build on this, while reinforcing your brand.

Build a relationship with the people on your list. It's common knowledge that people like to buy from people they like. By using ezines to connect with readers in their homes, you can develop a relationship of familiarity and trust. Be sure to share a little about yourself or your company in every issue, whether it is an anecdote, event, or employee spotlight.

Keep in touch with prospects and clients. Consideration should be given to eventually developing two ezines: one for prospects and one for clients, as each require different information. This is a great way to notify your readers of weekly specials or upcoming product launches, offer new articles or customer stories, and provide links (or urls) to updated FAQs, blogs and splash pages.

Drive traffic to your website or blog. As noted in #3, remember to call attention to new blog posts or other changes to your website with links directly to those pages. Remind readers of your online newsletter archives. Promote special sales (maybe with discount coupon codes only for subscribers) with a link to the sales page. Use links to turn your ezines and newsletters into 'silent salespersons'– driving traffic to your website and building your lists around the clock.

Build content on your website. Make a habit to adding your ezines and newsletters to your website in an archive area. This serves a several important purposes:

• Visitors can read an issue or two to determine if your ezine will be of interest to them, which could help to increase sign-ups and potential sales.
  
• If you optimize your article placements, you will not only make your website 'meatier', but you'll also bring new traffic from the search engines.
  
  

Get feedback from your readers. Make it easy for you to stay in touch with prospects and customers and vice versa. Ask them to take action and comment on your articles and offers. Conduct polls and surveys. Start a 'Letters to the Editor' column in your ezine. Feedback allows you to fine tune your messages, target your marketing, and expand your product line. It's also great for relationship building!

Develop an information product. If you deliver your newsletter once a week and include two articles, at the end of a year you'll have 104 well-researched articles in your portfolio! Pick the best-of-the-best and turn them into a bonus ebook for opting-in to your list, submit to download sites to build your list, or sell in PDF-format!

Grow your mailing list. Let your ezine subscribers work for you. Be sure to remind your readers that it's okay to forward your newsletter to anyone they'd like. In addition, it's important to include sign-up instructions for those who received your ezine from viral marketing methods. A simple line titled, 'Get Your Own Copy of XXXXXX', with a link to your squeeze or opt-in page is all it takes!

Gather demographic data. By offering surveys, feedback forms, and niche reports, you'll be able to get valuable information about your prospects and customers. Learn what makes your readers tick, how to better serve them, and how to give them what they want. Make sure they become repeat customers!

Save money! All of the above benefits of publishing an ezine are free or almost free. The small cost of a top-rated ezine publishing system is nothing compared to the cost of brochures, business cards, advertising, direct mail, pay-per-click or other means of promotion. Not only that, but someone has to manage that production! Because your newsletter is delivered online, you can grow your list to be as large as you want without worrying about the expense. Bottom line − it's proven that email marketing is the most cost-effective marketing solution for companies just like yours!

15 Tested and Proven Ways to Build Your Subscriber List

A list of engaged subscribers is one of the most effective and reliable marketing resources. A good list so valuable that it can’t be bought. Why? Because when subscribers sign up for your list, they’re signing up to hear from you and your company. Subscribers have to be earned. What are the best ways to build a list? We’ve collected the top 15 to share with you today.

The permission model allows you to fill your audience with people who are genuinely interested in your brand and what you have to say

With information collected during sign-up (or later), you can precisely segment your list and design your email communication to suit your reader's preferences.

As you attract qualified leads, you’ll be able to guide them through the decision-making process by aligning content to specific buying cycle stages.

Take a look at the 15 tips we’ve collected to help you build your email marketing list:

1. Offer quality content. Nobody gives up their email address for free. If you want to build a valuable relationship and engage your audience, you need to provide content that is worthwhile and interesting.
   
2. Put sign-up forms on every web page. Your sign-up form should be everywhere your potential subscribers are. Make sure it’s visible and easy to fill out.
   
3. Use social media to collect email addresses. Integrate your sign-up forms with social media platforms. Driving traffic from multiple sources allows you to build a strong email marketing list much faster.
   
4. Design your sign-up form carefully. Ask only for information you plan to use. A good rule of thumb is that less is more — the shorter the sign-up form, the higher the conversion rate.
   
5. Show your privacy policy. Inform your readers that you will not share their personal information with third parties. A clear privacy policy helps you build trust and convince visitors that it’s safe to subscribe.
   
6. Show samples of your content. Let your subscribers know what they are signing up for. Use your older content samples to “sell” the email sign-up.
   
7. Include a call to action. Put a call to action in your submit button, e.g. Sign me up! This makes the sign-up process more engaging and improves the conversion ratio.
   
8. Give away freebies. Think of a relevant incentive for your audience (e-book, infographic, whitepaper) and provide it for free.
   
9. Ask subscribers to share. Take the time to prepare valuable, shareable content. Remember that putting the social share buttons is not enough; you still need to ask your subscribers to use them.
   
10. Build a content distribution strategy. Producing great content is only half the battle. Make sure it’s visible to the right audience. Define who your ideal audience is and find out where they like to congregate online. Then choose communication channels accordingly.
    
11. Publish landing pages. Create a squeeze page where visitors can download premium content in exchange for their email address. A dedicated web page helps users focus on the call to action and increases conversions.
    
12. Include testimonials on your landing page. Social proof helps build trust toward a brand and its products. Use testimonials from satisfied customers to help visitors make a decision.
    
13. Blog regularly. Great content brings more traffic. Develop a realistic content publishing schedule and stick to it.
    
14. Guest post on popular blogs. Publishing your content on other blogs is a great way to build relationships with other bloggers in your industry and introduce yourself to new people. Include a backlink to your blog, and your blog’s search rankings will go up.
    
15. Collect email addresses at offline events. Be ready to collect email addresses at trade shows and conferences. Ask for business cards or use the Forms on the Go app to instantly add people to your list.
    

It’s time to get started.
Now you know a handful of great ways to build one of the most effective marketing assets — your email marketing list.

Want more? Check out the new GetResponse List Building Program, available free to anyone with a GetResponse account — even a 30-Day Free Trial account. To sign up for our free course, log into your GetResponse account or go to http://www.getresponse.com/features/list-building-program.html..