Affiliate Business Trends

Archive for June, 2009

When you are building a business your emotions can become a veritable roller coaster.  You start your day full of energy with positive thought of all that you will get done that day.  However, at days end you’re feeling overwhelmed and discouraged because of all the things on your to do list that went undone.

Do not let that get you down.  You are not alone.  Very few of us get everything done that we would like to .  There are only 24 hours in a day and for all of  us:  “Life is what happens when you’re not looking”.

What I am about to tell you will not be easy.   If  it were,  everybody would be doing it.

1.  Get the negative people out of your life.  When you are around negative people, and by that I mean, they have negative attitudes.  You know the kind of people I’m talking about.  “Well you know, most people do not make money working on the internet.”  “All those work at home businesses are scams.”  And don’t forget the gossip mongers.  “She only married him for his money.”  They never see the good in a situation, only the bad.

If you hang out with people like that,  it can’t help but bring you down.  Instead,  surround yourself with positive people.  “Isn’t this a beautiful day.”  Give your smile away, it’s contagious.  When you hang out with happy, successful people, you just can’t help feeling the same way.

2.  Tell yourself everyday, ” I am a successful business owner.  I am building a business others would love to have”.  This is a positive affirmation.  It doesn’t have to be those words exactly.  To find your affirmation, write down a list of your doubts, and insecurities, then turn them into affirmatives.

For example, don’t say “I don’t have the money to go on that vacation to Europe”, say “How can I make enough money to  take that trip?”.

Psoitive thoughts are powerful.  The things you focus on most will become reality, be they positive or negative.

3.  Don’t let negative thoughts take over your mind.  All of us get down from time to time.  We feel the weight of the world on our shoulders.  However, we don’t have to wallow in self pity.  Mentally grab yourself by the shoulders and give yourself a good shake.

When you find yourself getting into a dark mood, try to find something that turns your mood around.  Maybe a song, or a poem or a walk in the woods with someone you love.  It’s important that you don’t let the negativity consume you.

4.  Write down your goals and aspirations.  If you are familiar with the Law of Attraction, you know that you attract that which you focus on the most.  Don’t dwell on needing your business to succeed because you need to pay your mortgage.  Think about how you will feel when you can tell your boss to “Take this job and shove it”.  I’m going to be a stay at home mom.

5.  Have an attitude of gratitude.  When you are grateful for all the gifts in your life, your life just seems to be better, full of opportunities, instead of challenges.

Every morning when I get up, while I’m in the shower, I thank God for all the gifts he has given me.  A loving husband, a beautiful home, 2 successful adult children and 2 beautiful healthy granddaughters.  That small thing prepares me for my day in a positive manner.

I also carry a small stone in my pocket everyday.  It is my gratitude rock.  Whenever I put my hand into that pocket and feel that stone, I think of something that I am grateful for.  It keeps my thoughts positive throughout my day.

Those are things that help me stay positive.  You may want to keep a gratitude journal.  Post entries daily.  Then when you need some power of positive thinking, you can go back to your journal for inspiration.

Just remember, success can be yours.  It just takes some hard work and a positive attitude.  Keep these 5 strategies in mind and your too can build a better life for yourself and your family.  A happier, healthier, more satisfying life.

If you are new to affiliate marketing, I’m sure you’ve heard of the great “overnight” riches to be made that are fabled in story and song.  And while those stories can be true, the time frame of that wealth is not.

There is great wealth to be made on the internet and affiliate marketing is absolutely one of the best ways.  However, the people that have been successful at it know that it is work.  There are no free rides.  If you need to make or believe that you will make alot of money over night, go clean out your garage and sell the stuff on ebay.

Now that we have the myths out of the way, and you’re still here, you must be interested in the 4 mistakes that I mentioned in the title.  Like any business,  there are some things that you should and should not do.  Sometimes new affiliate marketers just don’t know what they don’t know.  In other words they don’t know what information and products are available to them to help them make their businesses run more efficiently and smoothly.  This is mistake number 1. 

You need to familarize yourself with what is available to you.  That means visit the blogs and websites of other successful marketers.  If they have written about something that you aren’t familar with , ask a question in the comments section.  Many are willing to help newbies “learn the ropes”. 

Become familar with search engine optimization (better known as SEO).  Not knowing how to make your blog or website SEO friendly is common mistake number 2.  If no one can find your website , then how can you make any sales?  Making your website friendly to the Search Engines will help you rank higher on their pages.  Ranking higher on their pages could be the difference between 1 or 2 sales and 100 sales.

The third common mistake, in my opinion, that new internet marketers make is filling their sites with banners for products, but then they don’t provide content to tell their perspective customers any information about the products in the banners.

If you are going to be an affiliate for a product, make sure you have read the product, if it is an ebook or ecourse, or tried the product if it is something tangible.  That way you can tell your readers about it intelligently.  Internet marketing is about trust.  You need to build that trust with people through truthful articles and product comparisons.  If they don’t feel that you are trustworthy they won’t open their wallet to buy from you.

Finally, the fourth and final common mistake that we are going to talk about today is a double edged sword.  New marketers either give their customers too many choices or not enough.  Let me explain.

If your perspective customer arrives at your website and you have 15 to 30 different brands of the same type of item without  offering one or two that is the best brand, (in your opinion), then they may think that they don’t have enough information to make a choice right then and there only to leave your site, maybe never to return.

However, if you have only 1 item, and you don’t make an excellent case for why that one product is the best on the market, they may again think, “What other brand is out there that may be better”, and again click away never to return.

To be able to avoid  these and other common mistakes, you need to remember that successful people, marketers included, never stop learning.  Knowledge is your key to making intelligent decisions and consequentially success.

Yesterday I talked about how blogging can be used as a tool for Internet Marketing.  Today, I’m going to talk about ways to expand your market through Blogging.

Blogging is becoming more popular than email to reach and expand your market.  Mainly because it is alot faster to click on a blog site than to log in and download your email.  But if you use your email marketing wisely it can be a great tool for bringing readers to your website.

Be sure to have an email capture on your blog.  To entice people to sign up, offer them something free.  Don’t make it junk!!  Offer something of value.  Then when you have permission to send them emails, use a short email to tease them into clicking to read more at your site.  Or offer worth while information in your email, possibly a short term free lessons.  Use your email signature to get them to your website if your email has to do with an unrelated subject.

You want to be sure that you use their email address’ responsibly.  No one likes a spammer, besides I think it’s illegal.

Conduct a survey.  That way you can get information right from your readers to help you to understand them, their profiles and advertising preferences.  If you want to know something, want feedback on a post, or a link or a subject that you talked about, ask!!  Let your readers know that you want their feedback.

Use RSS, it’s the fastest growing tecnology on the internet today.  RSS feeds to your blog can add interest to your site.

Use video, You Tube adds yet another dimension to your blog.

Bring in a guest blogger, that way you get a fresh idea and your readers stay interested with a different perspective.

You may even want to run a contest.  Have your readers leave comments and then randomly choose a winner.  it will certainly get people talking.

I hope this has sparked some ideas for you.  If you think of something I missed, leave a comment.  :)   I love to hear from my readers.

Are you an Internet Marketer?  Did you know that Blogging is one of the newest Internet Marketing tools?  Let’s look into why you should have a blog.

A blog, short for Web Log, started back in the late 90’s.  What started as a comment on an existing webpage has turned into a way for individuals to write about what is on their mind.  It could be a personal blog that no one other than yourself sees, kinda like a journal or diary.  Or it can be a place to vent or just talk about topics that are of interest to you.

As Blogging becomes more and more popular, it has become one more way to monetize an Internet Marketing Business.  So why should you be blogging?  Here are my thoughts, see if you agree.

1.  Blogging is easy.  If you have a computer and an internet connection ( and who doesn’t these days?), then you too can have a blog. 

2.  Blogging can be free to do.  You can start a blog for free, without owning a domain name or having a website, but if you are serious about marketing you will want a paid blog.  Mainly because on free blogs your content may not be your own.  If you inadvertently breach the terms of use, your blog could be taken down without any notice and all your hard work would be gone.

So what do you talk about?  Just talk about your ideas or if you want to use it as a marketing tool, talk about new products you’ve tried and your experience with them.  Did you like them?  Why?

3.  Which brings us to our third reason.  Blogging is real.  People like to buy things, they don’t want to be sold to.  Think about it.  Everyday we are bombarded with advertising.  Commercials, touting that their product is the best.

The difference with a blog is that it’s like talking to a friend.  Telling them your first hand experience with a product, why you liked it.  What you hated about it.  Would you use it again?  You’re just giving your opinion.  It’s real!!

4.  So if you are real, then it stands to reason that you will become believable.  Which will give credibility to your posts.  As your credibility builds, your readers will come to rely on your information.  As word spreads of your expertise, you may even become the go to expert in your field. 

5.  Which builds readership.  As your readership grows, so grows your market.  Let’s face it, unless you are a big time name, no one is reading your blog except your mother, (or in my case my husband and 2 grown children). 

So tomarrow we will expand on how you can use a blog to build your market, and get more readers.