Tuesday, December 31, 2013

How To Start Affiliate Marketing Business With ClickBank.com?

Getting Started With Affiliate Marketing.


Now you know what affiliate marketing is and how it works. If you think this may be something that will work for you, here are the basic steps you need to do to get started:
 
Choose the right niche— When you’re ready to create your affiliate website, you need to decide the type of product you want to promote on the site. If you plan to place them on your blog, you’ll want to think of products that are related to the subject matter of the blog. Remember, you’re not stuck with this product. If it doesn’t sell, you can drop it. Choosing a well-paying product that will benefit your audience is the goal.

Selecting the right affiliate program— You need to research and find businesses that offer you commission-sharing program that is profitable. High commissions don’t necessarily mean it’s something you want to sell. The products need to be quality products that fit into your niche.

Planning the right strategy— The right promotional strategy is important. You need to define your target market. Knowing who your customers are and what they’re interested in will make it easier for you to develop topics and discussions that will attract them and bring traffic to your site. You’ll want to be creative when you place your affiliate links. This will make your visitors be tempted to want to know more.

The more traffic you can bring to your site the better. To make a substantial amount of money, it is best to have a site that has at least 500 visitors a day. Traffic, however, is not all you need. You can have all the traffic you could ever want, but if they don’t click the merchant’s link, it means nothing. You have to entice them to click that link.

What Is ClickBank.com?


Before you can build your affiliate website, it is important that you research the affiliate programs available. Most of the programs will have a directory you can view by subject to look at all the products that are available. There are many affiliate networks available. ClickBank is a Major of Them.

ClickBank.com— This is one of the best retail marketplaces for selling digital products like eBooks or software. There you will find thousands of ebooks in many different categories like: Computers/Internet, Software’s & Services, Arts & Entertainment, Health & Fitness, Business/Investing, Games, Cooking/Foods, Parenting, and Politics, etc. A large number of these books are written in a “how to” method. They tell you how to do something or fix a particular problem.

Since there is no manufacturing cost per item for software and eBooks, the commissions can be high. You can expect commissions from 50-70% on these products. There are two ways you can make money on ClickBank.

1. Create your own products and then sell them. You have to create a vendor account so you can list your product. You determine the price of your product and list how much you’ll pay an affiliate to sell it. If you have a good product, you may get many affiliates who want to sell it. You don’t have to worry about all those accounts.ClickBank automatically credits the right amount into particular affiliate account. It then credits your account with the rest.

2. Work as an affiliate to promote products. You may not be able to or have time to write dynamic eBooks. You may also not have the resources you need to manage everything. By promoting products already listed in its marketplace, you can still make money, and you don’t have to do the work.

When you visit ClickBank, you’ll find some statistics in their listings on affiliate programs. Here are a few of the terms you will see on the site and what they mean:

Initial $/sale—This is the amount you earn per sale

Avg %/sale—This lets you know the percentage of the sale price you will receive.

Avg Rebill Total—The amount you might expect in addition to the initial sale if the product has recurring billing such as monthly membership fees.

Avg %/Rebill—You will only see this amount if that individual vendor offers products that have recurring billing. It allows you to see the average commission rate to be earned for that amount of income.

Gravity—This lets you know how “hot” the product currently is. If the gravity is high, it means there a number of affiliates are doing well selling that product. If it shows low gravity, the number of affiliates selling this is less. Generally, you should select products which have a fairly good amount of activity by affiliates.

If you want to sign up for ClickBank, it’s a pretty simple process. You just need to click the link that says “Sign Up.” You’ll find it on the page near the top. Just insert the requested details and click “Submit.” It will give you instructions to follow next. When you’re signed up and have your own ClickBank ID, you’ll be able to find any product you want to promote that is on the network.

Look at the products. When you find one you want to promote, simply click the link to “Promote.” They’ll ask for your ID. Once you give it, your HopLink, which is your affiliate link, will be created by the site. When you're browsing products you'll see a link to "Promote.” Without this link, you won’t get credit for your visitors that purchase the products.



Monday, December 30, 2013

How To Choose the Best Affiliate program?

When you start out looking for the ultimate affiliate program to join you will find that you will be faced with hundreds of possibilities everywhere you look. Choosing the write Affiliate program can be a big part of the success you achieve as an Affiliate Marketer.

Here are some things you should be looking at to help you make the right decision.

Will it cost you anything to join? Most affiliate programs being offered today are absolutely free of charge. So why settle for those that charge you some dollars before joining.

When do they issue the commission checks? Every program is different. Some issue their checks once a month, every quarter, etc. Select the one that is suited to your payment time choice. Many affiliate programs are setting a minimum earned commission amount that an affiliate must meet or exceed in order for their checks to be issued.

What is the hit per sale ratio? This is the average number of hits to a banner or text link it takes to generate a sale based on all affiliate statistics. This factor is extremely important because this will tell you how much traffic you must generate before you can earn a commission from the sale.

How are referrals from an affiliate’s site tracked and for how long do they remain in the system?  You need to be confident on the program enough to track those people you refer from your site. This is the only way that you can credit for a sale. The period of time that those people stay in the system is also important. This is because some visitors do not buy initially but may want to return later to make the purchase. Know if you will still get credit for the sale if it is done some months from a certain day.

What are the kinds of affiliate stats available? Your choice of affiliate program should be capable of offering detailed stats. They should be available online anytime you decide to check them out. Constantly checking your individual stats is important to know how many impressions, hits and sales are already generated from your site. Impressions are the number of times the banner or text link was viewed by a visitor of your site. A hit is the one clicking on the banner or text links.

Does the affiliate program also pay for the hits and impressions besides the commissions on sales? It is important that impressions and hits are also paid, as this will add to the earnings you get from the sales commission. This is especially important if the program you are in offers low sales to be able to hit ratio.

Who is the online retailer? Find out whom you are doing business with to know if it is really a solid company. Know the products they are selling and the average amount they are achieving. The more you know about the retailer offering you the affiliate program, the easier it will be for you to know if that program is really for you and your site.

Is the affiliate a one tier or two tier program? A single tier program pays you only for the business you yourself have generated. A two tier program pays you for the business, plus it also pays you a commission on the on the sales generated by any affiliate you sponsor in your program. Some two-tier programs are even paying small fees on each new affiliate you sponsor. More like a recruitment fee.

Lastly, what is the amount of commission paid? 20% - 80% (and some cases, 100%!) is the commission paid by most programs. .01% - .05% is the amount paid for each hit. If you find a program that also pays for impressions, the amount paid is not much at all. As you can see from the figures, you will now understand why the average sales amount and hit to sale ratio is important.

These are just some of the questions that needed answering first before you enter into an affiliate program. You should be familiar with the many important aspects that your chosen program should have before incorporating them into your website. Try to ask your affiliate program choices these questions. These can help you select the right program for you site from among the many available.

The following are three excellent places to find products that you can become an affiliate for:


Commission Junction http://www.cj.com


 
 

How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

People who want to make money online usually struggle with creating a website, ads, sales and closing scripts. They also have their own merchant account services. A few people may actually enjoy going through that process, but for those who don’t have the time, energy, or desire to put forth that much energy, affiliate marketing is ideal.

If you want to make money online using affiliate marketing, you don’t have to worry about the setup. The company usually provides you with information about the product and product reviews or testimonials that you can use, however, most people prefer to write their own personal product reviews.

Your payment gateway is already set up by the business. You don't have to worry about handling the money or dealing with refunds.


Here are a few different areas of affiliate marketing and how it works in these areas:


1. What You Offer

All you need to do is use a search engine like Google, and you can find a list of affiliate programs. A broad search will let you know every program out there. You may want to only be an affiliate for products in your niche. If so, then just search for the niche you’re interested in such as:

           Electronics Affiliate Programs
           Cosmetic Affiliate Programs
           Food Preparation Affiliate Programs

Whatever niche you want can probably be found by simple searching for it. You may want to look at some of the affiliate resources that are popular like Clickbank.com or Amazon.com. There will be a distributor form. It has the terms and conditions that tell you how you’re allowed to sell their products and what the commission is.

Here are a few good tips to remember when you’re selecting a product:

1. First, you have either have a website or blog to make decent earnings. If you don’t at least have 
    a blog, you should begin one today. Focus it on topics that you are interested in and know a lot 
    about. With each Clickbank product there are some statistics mentioned, let me explain them:

2. Select products that are related to the niche of your website/blog.

3. Find items where you’ll end up making at least $20 per sale.

4. A good gravity range for selecting products is a range of 50-120.

5. There are some products out there that offer at least 75% commission. It is good to select 
     those where you’ll make at least 50%.

6. Find products with good landing pages. If you’re not satisfied with the way the website looks for  
    the product you’re promoting, it will probably be hard for you to convince your audience to buy 
    those products. Look for well-written sales copy.

7. The best way to sell the products you promote is to find those products that help your readers 
     solve a problem

8. Quality & Stability: There is a huge quantity of Affiliate Products, do not SETTLE for a program 
     that is sloppy just to have a product to promote..

              Look for good reputable companies that are stable.
              Ask to speak to existing affiliates
              Make sure that full contact details are provided.

9.  Affiliate Support: The best companies to work with provide plenty of support.

              Promotional material available: sample ads, banners, logos

              Advice about maximizing sales provided.

              Statistics on click through sales and earnings should be provided and updated regularly.

             Able to get your questions answered in a reasonable period of time –  say, within 24 hours. Be reasonable. If a product owner is in a middle of a major launch his support will generally be heavier and they may be a little behind.

10. Sales Page or the Pitch Page.

View pitch page to help you learn more about the product and get ideas on how to promote it, such as what keywords people might search to find it, benefits you can highlight in your promotions, and more.

               Look for products with good sales page to market as an affiliate

               Is there a good strong and Catchy headline

               Is sales page text or video sales page

               Is sales page clean and easy to navigate

               Good valid, solid, legitimate testimonials from real people!

               Is there a good strong clear call to action

               Does sales page have leaks that will rob your commissions Warning -

2. Cost

It is usually free to sign up to be an affiliate. Some programs require a small monthly or annual fee. This helps the business their website, training, overhead, and use of their payment processors.

Some vendors will require that the affiliate purchase the product in order to make the biggest commission. They feel you should have the product and use it so you’ll be prepared to give it a better recommendation based on your first-hand experience working with the product.

3. Earning commissions

The percentage of commission will vary depending on the vendor’s terms and the vendor’s conditions. There isn’t a set commission, and the amount of commission can vary greatly.

  The commission you receive is based on these things:
 
  Commission structure of the product you wish to sell

  The number of people who purchase the product—this will depend on how you advertise it and  
  how well you connect with the audience you are targeting

  Whether or not the affiliate program is a program that is leveraged

It is practically impossible to truly determine how much you will make. The variables are just too great. It really depends on you.

4. Receiving commissions

Every vendor has their own method of paying commissions.

There are vendors that will pay you on a regular basis no matter how little or how much you earn. Others, however, will not pay you until you reach a minimum threshold. They can pay you in different intervals such as: Instantly, weekly, bi-monthly, monthly, or quarterly.

The types of payment you receive can vary as well. You can be paid by using ways such as: A check in the mail, PayPal, direct deposit, Federal Express, or pay through a debit card.

5. Tracking sales

You will be assigned your own ID. It will be built into your website URL when you sign up and are approved to be an affiliate.

It works like this. Let’s say you find a company named www.makemoney.com. You find the site and sign as an affiliate for their product. They will ask you for a user name. You select “yourusername.” The username can be built into  your URL as a way to advertise. It may be www.makemoney.com/yourusername or http://yourusername.makemoney.com.

Sometimes the company assigns you something different. Sometimes it just looks like a very long line of numbers, letters, and characters. Whatever is used, that’s the URL you need to use to send your traffic to. When they buy by clicking on your link, you get the agreed upon commission.

6. Sign up process

Research and find an affiliate that right for you. When you find it, go to their website. Look for something like, “Affiliates,” “Join Affiliate Program,” or “Partners Program.” Carefully read their terms and conditions. View all the products they offer. You want to make sure they are what you’re looking for.

If you clearly understand what you can and can’t do when selling the product and you feel the commission rate is sufficient, sign up. They should direct you to a form to fill out online. If you don’t find an affiliate application, you can either call them or email them and request one.

They will want to know your name, address, phone, email, and if they give you a choice, how you want to be paid. Be prepared to give them your Social Security number. This is for tax purposes, and you will receive a 1099at the end of the year. Some request it at the time of the application and others hold your earnings until they receive it. If you don’t provide it within the time frame requested, however, you will forfeit any earnings you’ve made.

7. Marketing.

There are many different ways you can market your product/service online. Sometimes, it will depend on what the product or service is. It will also depend on you and where your talents and preferences lie. 

Here are a few of them:

Blogging— If you like to write, you may want to write a blog post that tells what the benefit ofyour     product or service is. You can use your unique URL and link it to your affiliate website.

Videos— If you don’t like to write, perhaps making a video would work better for you. You can tell your viewers about the benefits of your product. Then, just like the blog, you link it using your URL.

Articles— You can write and submit articles. When you submit the articles to directories, you include the benefits of the product or service. Always remember to link it to the affiliate with your own URL.

Social Media— The benefits of social media are endless. If you don’t have a social media page of some kind, such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, you need to have at least one. You can write a blog or make a note why you’re recommending this particular product or service and post your link on your wall.

Solo Ads— You can find a list that is a good fit for your product or service with an audience that will be interested in it and have solo ads for that product.

 
 
 

Saturday, December 28, 2013

The Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

If you’re looking for a way to make money online, you should consider affiliate marketing. There are numerous benefits to becoming an affiliate. These include:

  • There’s no production cost—If you wanted to set up a business selling products online you’d have to buy, ship, and store the products. It can be costly. If you have an affiliate program, production cost isn’t an issue. The merchant has already paid for the development of the product.

  • The set-up cost is low—You probably already have a desk, an internet connection, and a computer. That’s all you need to get started.

  • There are no fees or licenses to pay—Affiliate programs are usually free to join. Your geographic market reach is as big as your ability to promote your site. The internet is a worldwide marketplace. You can take advantage of this market.

  • You can sell almost anything—There are a few blog sites that probably wouldn’t be able to find a product to promote that is related to their niche, but they are limited. Almost everything you can think of is sold online. There are thousands of affiliate programs, so it is easy to find products related to your current site or the site you are planning to set up.

  • You don’t have to handle any sales to make money from them—You have no inventory, no order processing, and no shipping to deal with. You making money from sales by promoting the products, not having take care of the actual sales process.

  • You can work from home—If you’ve ever had a long commute to work, you can really appreciate the ability to work from home. It’s also a great way to get to spend more time with your family. You won’t have the normal work expenses like gas, buying lunch, wardrobe, etc. You can work from home in the comfort of your pajamas if you want.

  • If you have your computer with you, you can work from anywhere in the world—Have you ever wanted to travel, but taking off from work isn’t an option? If so, affiliate marketing is perfect. You take your office with you. You wouldn’t have to spend more than a few hours a day working, and you could visit anywhere you wanted and still be able to work.

  • There is a minimal level of risk—If you try to sell a product and it isn’t making you any money, you just stop selling it and try something else. All you have to do is take down your links and promote another product. It’s that simple. You don’t have to worry about being stuck in a long-term contract that binds you to promote a product that doesn’t sell.

  • There is potential for high income—With your own affiliate business online, your potential for income is only limited by your efforts. Granted, not everyone makes a lot of money. You have to be willing to put forth the effort to find, set up, and promote the products. If you promote your products well and build traffic to your site, you can have a successful affiliate business.

 
 

What Are The Best Affiliate Marketing Tactics?

Now every affiliate marketer is always looking for the successful market that gives the biggest pay check. Sometimes they think it is a magic formula that is readily available for them. Actually, it is more complicated than that. It is just good marketing practices that have been proven over years of hard work and dedication. There are tactics that have worked before with online marketing and is continuing to work in the online affiliate marketing world of today. With these top three marketing tips, you will be able to able to increase your sales and survive in the affiliate marketing online.



What are these three tactics?


1. Using unique web pages to promote each separate product you are marketing.
Do not lump all of it together just to save some money on web hosting. It is best to have a site focusing on each and every product and nothing more.

Always include product reviews on the website so visitors will have an initial understanding on what the product can do to those who buys them. Also include testimonials from users who have already tried the product. Be sure that these customers are more than willing to allow you to use their names and photos on the site of the specific product you are marketing.

You can also write articles highlighting the uses of the product and include them on the website as an additional page. Make the pages attractive compelling and include calls to act on the information. Each headline should attract the readers to try and read more, even contact you. Highlight your special points. This will help your readers to learn what the page is about and will want to find out more.

2. Offer free reports to your readers.

If possible position them at the very top side of your page so it they simply cannot be missed. Try to create autoresponder messages that will be mailed to those who input their personal information into your sign up box. According to research, a sale is closed usually on the seventh contact with a prospect.

Only two things can possibly happen with the web page alone: closed sale or the prospect leaving the page and never return again. By placing useful information into their inboxes at certain specified period, you will remind them of the product they thought they want later and will find out that the sale is closed. Be sure that the content is directed toward specific reasons to buy the product. Do not make it sound like a sales pitch.

Focus on important points like how your product can make life and things easier and more enjoyable. Include compelling subject lines in the email. As much as possible, avoid using the word “free” because there are still older spam filters that dumps those kind of contents into the junk before even anyone reading them first. Convince those who signed up for your free reports that they will be missing something big if they do not avail of your products and services.

3. Get the kind of traffic that is targeted to your product.

Just think, if the person who visited your website has no interest whatsoever in what you are offering, they will be among those who move on and never come back. Write articles for publication in e-zines and e-reports. This way you can locate publications that is focusing on your target customers and what you have put up might just grab their interest.

Try to write a minimum of 2 articles per week, with at least 300-600 words in length. By continuously writing and maintaining these articles you can generate as many as 100 targeted readers to your site in a day.
Always remember that only 1 out of 100 people are likely to buy your product or get your services. If you can generate as much as 1,000 targeted hits for your website in a day, that means you can made 10 sales based on the average statistic.

The tactics given above does not really sound very difficult to do, if you think about it. It just requires a little time and an action plan on your part.

Try to use these tips for several affiliate marketing programs. You can end maintaining a good source of income and surviving in this business that not all marketers can do.

Besides, think of the huge pay checks you will be receiving!



What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a type of marketing and way of making money online. where an individual promotes another person’s product or service and makes a commission from each sale. The affiliate marketer has no responsibilities for the product quality, delivery or maintenance of product – other than the moral responsibility to their customers of promoting products of high value to them.

In most cases, you find products related to your niche and offer them on your website or blog. You promote the products and post a link on your site where they can purchase the products. Then, when someone follows that link to buy something, you earn a commission. The commissions can be either a percentage of the sale or a fixed amount. You’ve seen links to other sites when you’ve read other people’s blogs. These links make the blogger money.

For example: I write a book about affiliate marketing. Your blog is centered on tips to make money online. You actually promote and sell the book from your site. You get a percentage of the sale. It’s like being paid an advertising or marketing fee.

You may also sell other products that are related to your site. For example: You blog about cooking and recipes. There are endless numbers of cooking related appliances or utensils you could sell from your site to make it easier for them to prepare those recipes.

In other cases, you might earn an amount when someone follows the link and take some kind of action such as: sign up for something with their email address or complete a survey with their name and address.

Your earnings are usually tracked by using a link that has a code embedded in it. This link is only used by you. They may also be tracked when the advertiser gives you a coupon code. You’ve probably followed a link from another site at one time or another online. You’ve also probably bought something where you enter a code. When customers do this, you make money without doing a thing. They do the work for you.

There are a few factors that help make your affiliate marketing successful. They include:

  • The amount of traffic you have. The higher the traffic, the greater your earning potential will be.
  • The quality of the products you recommend. Recommending junk products can really hurt you, so you want to make sure what you recommend will be a value to your readers.
  • The amount of trust your readers have in you. If you have established trust, your readers are more likely to click on the link.

Publishers like affiliate marketing for the obvious reason…you get paid while someone else does the work. You may be in bed asleep and still be earning money. If you find a product that is relevant to your niche, your earnings can be good if you have a large following. You may be wondering why an advertiser would pay people for advertising in this manner. It’s a matter of cost. They may pay a lot of money for an advertising campaign that doesn’t pay off. With affiliate marketing, however, they only pay when the advertising pays off. If they have a network of affiliates they may make less per sale, but overall, their sales will increase.

If you have a good level of trust with the people who read your blog, they will trust that you wouldn’t recommend something they wouldn’t like. This will cause them to at least look at what you’re recommending. With the right sales pitch online, you can make it something they “must” have. If they purchase something from you and it is a good product that they like, they’re more apt to buy another. They’ll also pass on where they got it. That will lead more traffic to your site and increase your sales.

Why participate in Affiliate Marketing?


Affiliate marketing allows you the opportunity to work part-time or full time while building a generous residual income. “Residual income (also called passive or recurring income) is income that continues to be generated after the initial effort is expended.” -Marty Foley

Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest methods I know of to make money with little or no startup costs and very little technology knowledge needed. There are also effective low-to-no budget marketing methods available -- the product owner is doing the major marketing to gain product or service exposure.

Affiliate marketing is something you can start immediately while you’re learning to create your own products and websites. Affiliate marketing is a revenue-generating activity that you can do while you build your main Internet profit stream.

 
 

Affiliate Marketing Introduced

Being in the affiliate marketing business is not that hard now with the Internet at your disposable. It is much easier now compared to the days when people have to make use of the telephones and other mediums of information just to get the latest updates on the way their program is coming along. So with technology at hand, and assuming that the affiliate is working from home, a day in his or her life would sound something like this…


Upon waking up and after having breakfast, the computer is turned on to check out new developments in the network. As far as the marketer is concerned there might be new things to update and statistics to keep track on. The site design has to be revised. The marketer knows that a well-designed site can increase sign ups from visitors. It can also help in the affiliate’s conversion rates. That done, it is time to submit the affiliate program to directories that lists affiliate programs. These directories are means to attract people in joining your affiliate program. A sure way of promoting the affiliate program!

Time to track down the sales you are getting from your affiliates fairly and accurately. There are phone orders and mails to track down. See if they are new clients checking the products out. Noting down the contact information that might be a viable source in the future.

There are lots of resources to sort out. Ads, banners, button ads and sample recommendations to give out because the marketer knows that this is one way of ensuring more sales. Best to stay visible and accessible too. The affiliate marketer remembered that there are questions to answer from the visitors. This has to be done quickly. Nothing can turn off a customer than an unanswered email. To prove that the affiliate is working effectively and efficiently, inquiries would have to be paid more attention on. Nobody wants to be ignored and customers are not always the most patient of all people. Quick answer that should appear professional yet friendly too. In the process of doing all the necessities, the marketer is logged on to a chat room where he or she interacts with other affiliates and those under that same program. This is where they can discuss things on how to best promote their products.

There are things to be learned and it is a continuous process. Sharing tips and advices is a good way of showing support. There may be others out there wanting to join and may be enticed by the discussion that is going on. There is no harm in assuming what opportunities ahead.

The newsletters and E-zines were updated days ago, so it is time for the affiliate marketer to see if there are some new things happening in the market. This will be written about in the marketer’s publication to be distributed to the old and new customers.

These same publications are also an important tool in keeping up to date with the newly introduced products. The marketer has put up a sale and promotion that customers may want to know about. Besides, they have to keep up with the deadline of these sales written in the publications.

It is that time to show some appreciation to those who have helped the marketer in the promotions and sale increase. Nothing like mentioning the persons, their sites and the process they have done that made everything worked.

Of course, this will be published in the newsletters. Among the more important information that have been written already. The marketer still has time to write out recommendations to those who want credible sources for the products being promoted. There is also time to post some comments on how to be a successful affiliate marketer on a site where there are lots of wannabes.

Two objectives done at the same time. The marketer gets to promote the product as well as the program they are in. Who knows, someone may be inclined to join.

Time flies. Missed lunch but is quite contented with the tasks done. Bed time….
Ok, so this may not be all done in a day. But then, this gives you an idea of how an affiliate marketer, a dedicated one that is, spends the marketing day.

Is that success looming in the distance or what?


 
 

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Translate Your Website for Non English Audiance To Increase Traffic

Ethnocentricity isn’t only the domain of English-speaking people, but we do have a pretty good hold on it. We sometimes forget that not everyone speaks English, and even if they do it might be nice to browse a web site in their own language. The internet is a global phenomenon, and so recognizing that fact and embracing it can go a long way to boost your presence on the web. But don’t you know how to write your content in several languages? Can’t you tell the difference between French and Chinese? This Post will share a few facts about web translation services and how they can benefit your web site.

So as you may have ascertained from my introduction, there are services on the internet which will translate your web site for you. Of course, all of these services are mechanical so you’re not going to get the flow you might from hiring a native to that language. How well the translation comes out, even with the top of the line and most expensive commercial translation programs will depend to a large extent on both the source and the target languages. The closer the two languages are to each other in grammatical structure, the better. Also, some ideas might not survive the translation if they are too culturally entrenched; so you will do better with a text that is free from local colloquiums. One of the better translation engines is actually operated by Google, so it is easily available.

And speaking of Google, did you know translating your site into other languages can do wonders for your search engine placement? If you happen to translate you pages into let’s say nine languages aside from English, you’ve just multiplied your content by a factor of nine. What’s more, the search engines will see all those new pages as fresh new content; even if you started out with PLR articles it isn’t likely all of those articles will be translated. Even if they are, they won’t be translated exactly the same by two different engines, so you won’t be dinged for duplicate content. Not to mention, if you happen to have Adsense ads on your site, they’re going to be present on all of your new pages as well. Since your articles will have new keywords from other languages, your Adsense ads will be targeted to those non-English speaking audiences.
So as you can easily ascertain, the web is one place you don’t want to be ethnocentric. It is a global marketplace, and you’ll do well to make certain you run a web site with global appeal.


 
 
 

How To Submit Site To Web Directories and Build Targeted Traffic

Everywhere you turn these days you’re hearing about Search Engine Optimization. It’s “SEO this and SEO that” until you might start to think there is no other way to get traffic. But did you know there is a whole different world of places people go when they’re looking for web sites just like yours? This is the world of web directories, the smaller and more personable cousin of search engines, where your web site is actually viewed and indexed by human eyes and not by search engine spiders. But how do you let the web directories know you exist, and which directories are worth dealing with? This Post will give a brief overview of the best directories and how you can make certain they know all about your web site.

Although many web directories supplement their listings with search engine feeds from places like Google, the primary method of getting yourself listed with a search directory is by telling them about your site, also called “submitting” your site. You can submit your site to the web directories by hand or there are software solutions to do the work for you.

If you are looking for paid and free directories, you’ll check these lists to find suitable web directories for you:

http://www.strongestlinks.com/directories.php   

http://www.bestweb-directories.com/ 
                             
http://info.vilesilencer.com/

http://top.seo-links.org/

http://www.web-directories.ws/

http://webseodesign.com/resources/free-directory-listings.htm

http://ask-dir.com/Directories/

http://www.seocompany.ca/directory/free-web-directories.html

http://www.directorycritic.com/

Many of the smaller web directories focus on a particular niche. Just because they’re small, don’t rule these directories out. If you want targeted traffic who was already looking for a web site or a product just like yours, these smaller web directories are the place to find them. But on the other end of the spectrum there is an array of large web directories covering almost every topic under the sun. Probably the most well known of these large directories is actually DMOZ  which calls itself the “largest on the web” and is constructed and maintained by a “vast, global community of volunteer editors.” Yahoo! Directory  is another well known web directory. Although Yahoo! is best known as a search engine, they are also a web directory where you can submit your site for listing.

 
 


Monday, December 9, 2013

How To Use An RSS Feed To Increase Site Traffic

It wasn’t all that long ago you could say the term “RSS” and get blank stares from just about anyone. Okay, so there are still hoards of people who wouldn’t know an RSS if it bit them in the face, but with the proliferation of blogs and other sites offering an RSS feed the term is becoming more and more common. But what’s the point? Will an RSS feed really do anything to improve your web site traffic, or is it just a fancy feature nobody really cares about? This chapter will bring you up to speed about RSS and help you decide if it might be a good addition to your traffic building strategy.

Although it sounds as intimidating as any techno babble out there, RSS is just an acronym for “Really Simple Syndication”. As the name implies, it is a method for syndicating the content of a web site. An RSS file is really just another version of your web page, written in a code meant to be read by a program called a “parser”. You could write an RSS file by hand, just like you could write an HTML page, but since the purpose of an RSS file is to provide quick and up-to-date information from your site, most RSS files are built by a website’s content management system.

So what are we supposed to do with an RSS file? Read it in an RSS reader, of course. The real beauty publishing an RSS file for your web site is in this; it allows your visitors to read your site in an RSS reader. Don’t worry; it is often possible to include your Adsense ads in your RSS feed, so you don’t have to give up that revenue source. But the true benefit is that some site visitors are more likely to regularly read your posts if they can read them in an RSS reader. Most of these people will read the feeds from several sites every day, and isn’t that the kind of site visitor you want to cultivate?

But while you’re at it, there are a few other useful things you can do with your RSS feed. First, you can offer blog updates by email if a person subscribes to your feed through a service like FeedBlitz  or FeedBurner . Second, you can send broadcast emails to your mailing list by attaching an RSS feed to your autoresponder. Using this method you can actually publish a newsletter based solely on your blog posts, scheduling a broadcast each time you have a certain number of new entries.

But above all, the key benefit of RSS feeds is convenience. If you make it easy for your site visitors to keep reading your content, and the content is good, you’re more likely to keep them around. We all know it is cheaper to keep a customer than to get a new one, and an RSS feed provides an easy way to keep those visitors reading your site.


 
 

How To Create Email List And Maintain Your Site Traffic

You’ve probably heard it said, and it is very true, that it is cheaper to keep a customer than to get a new one. But have you considered how that saying still holds water when you’re talking about traffic to your site? Once you get someone to visit your site, the expensive part of the transaction is over. But what is next? Once they’ve visited, how do you keep your visitors coming back? Once they’ve made a purchase, how do you keep them as regular customers? This post will share a few tips on how to keep the traffic you already have by building an email list.

If you want your visitors to come back, take a minute to consider why they came to you in the first place. Was it for your great content? Was it for technical help or some other service? Was it to get something for free? Whatever reason brought your visitor the first time could be the key to getting that all-important repeat visit. But how will your visitors know they can return and get more of what they want? You’re going to capture their email addresses so you can tell them so, and you’re going to tell them over and over again.

Maintaining an email list of previous site visitors and customers is an integral part of building your online business. Through your email list you can keep these clients informed about new and exciting offers, information, and freebies you’ve placed on your web site since their last visit. Your email list will be the tool you use to keep your site in the forefront of your clients’ minds.

There are two basic types of tools internet marketers use to manage an email list, an autoresponder or a broadcast script. An autoresponder is just like the name sounds, it automatically sends responses to someone who has subscribed. You can have these responses timed to just about any interval and you can set them up in advance to send out messages for days, weeks, months or years to come. A broadcast script is used to send out emails to your list as you write them; you could use this to send out announcements on a sporadic basis, or you could publish a regular newsletter. Some online autoresponse scripts allow you to perform a combination of these tasks, sending out regular pre-written emails through the autoresponder and adding occasional broadcasts whenever you want.

Hotscripts.com  is a good source if you are looking for PHP or ASP based e-mail list scripts.

Most internet marketing gurus recommend using a hosted service like a hosted solution with it’s own mail servers, then you’ll consider using Aweber or GetResponse because these services have an excellent track record of actually delivering emails. With the proliferation of spam filters, it can be difficult to get emails through, even to those who actually want to hear from you.

A free option would be to send out broadcast emails by starting a private Yahoo Group or Google Group .

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Get More Visitors By Answering Questions

I’ve heard it said that one of the deepest desires of people today is the desire to feel important. One easy way to make someone feel important is to give them attention and show you care about the things they care about. Be there when that person needs you and help that person when they need help, and you’ll be satisfying the deep desire to feel important. Now if you can make your customers feel important, do you think they’ll be interested in buying from you again? When you’ve bought from someone who truly seemed to care about you and think you were important, didn’t you feel a certain loyalty? This post will show one way to build a base of loyal customers by answering questions at places like Yahoo Answers and Answerbag.com especially if you own a service oriented business.

Sites like Answerbag.com and Yahoo Answers have become very popular. People can ask questions on just about any topic and end up with at least one answer. When users on Answerbag were recently asked why they answered questions, the responses included:

“I have made new friends here at Answerbag, and I like to share my knowledge with them.”

“I love sharing views and opinions.”

“In helping others, it seems to help me. Feel better about myself.”

“I want people to answer my questions, so I will answer theirs.”


So what does that have to do with you, an internet marketer? How could that possibly help your online business? Do you notice the words “friends”, “sharing”, and “helping” in the comments I quoted? These are all relationship words, and creating relationships is the key to building a loyal customer base.

Once you’ve started to build a releationship with someone on one of these Answer sites, you’ve started to open the door to doing business with them. If you gave a truly helpful answer, and as I said earlier made someone feel important by helping them, you’ve created a powerful emotional attachment with that person. Once you have this attachment you can carefully introduce the fact that you have a business related to the topic you helped that person with, and that you may be able to help them even more through your business.

Although most of these Answer sites are limited in how they can allow you to link back to your web site, there is usually some place to put a little description of yourself in a profile. Be sure to mention the fact that you own a web site on a particular topic, and you may create a bit of traffic from your profile. But remember we are talking about a relationship-based type of marketing, and as with any relationship you have to give it time to grow before you can expect someone to jump on board and buy your product. However with a little patience, you can be well on your way to building a loyal base of visitors by making them feel important.

 
 

Give Your Opinion And Make More Free Traffic

I have a friend who once told me, “Everyone has a right to my opinion. So who am I to withhold it from them?” Of course he was joking (to some extent) but there is an element of truth for anyone in that statement. If you have had an experience with a product or service online, there might be a thousand other people who are thinking about buying that product or service and would like to know what you thought about it. But did you know you could post reviews on sites like Amazon , Barnes & Noble , and Epinion  and help yourself while you’re helping others? Posting reviews gives you an opportunity to establish yourself as an expert, and it allows you to build links back to your web site. This post will cover some ground work about sharing your opinion by writing reviews, and set you on your way to giving everyone what they deserve out of life, your opinion.

So, you may be wondering why you should bother writing reviews. Most likely you’ve already heard about writing articles to promote your web site or affiliate product. You probably already know how those articles will not only bring direct traffic to your site but will increase the “backlinks” and therefore improve your search engine placements. But product reviews at sites like Amazon don’t get listed on Google by themselves, and the only people likely to see them are people who happen to be shopping for that particular product, right? Bingo! You’ve just hit the nail right on the head; people reading your review on Amazon are looking for that particular product. If your own web site is related to that product, then you might just have found yourself a new site visitor. Not only that, but you’ve found a site visitor who already knows you are familiar with products just like the ones they are shopping for.

Now that probably doesn’t sound too exciting, does it? It may seem like a lot of work for gaining a few new visitors to your site. You’re likely to be thinking there must be a more efficient way to build traffic. If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re right. But if you look at the big picture, you may be terribly wrong. In the big picture, yes you’re bringing a few visitors to your site but you’re also creating backlinks from some of the largest sites with the heaviest traffic on the internet. What does that do for you, you ask? The answer is simple: it makes your site appear relevant. Here is one of the biggest sites on the internet and they’re linking to you, and that’s the sort of thing which really impresses search engines like Google. Your relevant back link from a major web site will do wonders for your search engine results page placement.

So now are you starting to believe there are more people who should be hearing your opinions?

 
 

How To Get Free Traffic By Promote Niche At Forums And News Groups

It seems like a brilliant idea; join a few forums and newsgroups then just tell them all about your great new product or web site. Everyone will want to know because it is just so new and so hot, or they’ll at least admire your self-promotion efforts, right? No, that couldn’t be more wrong. Online forums and newsgroups are usually tight communities of like-minded people. You can network, build relationships, learn and grow your business through online communities. But if you spam these loyal and tight knit groups, you had better be ready to run for cover. This post will share a few tips about posting on forums and newsgroups without being accused of spam.

Today’s online forums and newsgroups are communities centered on a common interest. Most often people come to these web sites to learn and share, or sometimes they just want to hang out. But because these sites feature such a high concentrate of potential customers within a defined niche, they are also the frequent target of spammers. Often of course, these spammers don’t see themselves as such.

So we’re all on the same page, let’s take a minute and review just what spam is. Spam is simply an unsolicited advertisement. You didn’t want it, you didn’t ask for it and you will probably hit the delete button as soon as possible when you suspect it. In a forum or news group spam is a message that tries to sell something or promote a web site, when nobody asked for such a thing.

But what about all those targeted forums out there serving all those wonderful niche markets, isn’t there some way to reach them? Sure you can reach them, but since these sites form virtual communities you’re going to have to be accepted into the community first. That doesn’t mean you can just join and post a few times then expect people to do cart wheels when you announce your product or site. You’re going to have to be an active participant, establishing your reputation and giving back to the community.

Even then, most forums and news groups have rules about posting links. It is always a good idea to read the site rules before trying to promote anything. Some forums might have a special area where you can announce new sites and products, or even directly solicit your wares. Many sites will allow you to place discrete links in an area called you “signature”.

Are these types of sites good places to promote your product or service? You bet they are; you might find some of your most loyal customers in an online forum or news group. But for that to happen you’ll have to exercise patience and follow the rules.

Whatever you do, avoid being labeled a “spammer” as much as you would avoid the plague.