:: How-To of affiliate marketing in the lowest budget, worldwide :: A personal quest :: 2008
Better than email:
A major drawback on email marketing is related with the deliverability of emails. To avoid undesired messaging, email accounts are protected by filters. Most sales emails will be retained or rejected by those filters, unless the email user allows its reception. Even some normal messages can also be considered suspicious by the filters, thus not delivered to its destination. But a breaking technology comes to help, with privacy in mind and unseen features. See at rame.newnetmail.com. Time is coming to change the old email format. It also provides an encrypted instant messaging (chat) to complete a serious platform for work environments.
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Where to get started?
THOUGHTS FOR THE FIRST STEPS
You noticed
some ads on the internet, about using the web so anyone can
make some money, promoting some product line offered through a
company's website. You put ads, banners, send some emails, write a
blog. Some time passes by and no sellings happens. You blame the
product, and pick another company. Then is time to consider that there
is a missing component, maybe more than one, to get a sale. Calm down,
you don't need the latest, high priced, top-of-the-crop
marketing service to suceed. And you are not the only one. You need an
overall look at the marketing knowledge, before the next step.
Forgotten things from the past
SELLING IS A HIGH LEVEL PHENOMENON
Before the internet age,
sellers learned to get a client and make a sell. So, a good
marketing tactic must gather much of the old knowledge. Now the online
marketing just gives a new spin on it. For the "little man"
trying the online affiliate marketing from home, it means to
know some basis before just spending time and money, also to be up to
date with an ever changing environment of techniques. So here are my
thoughts, I'm not a proffesional marketer, just want to state a common sense approach.
The tools
YOU NEED A WEBSITE
Some say you don't need a web site to make a sell, but the truth is that you need it to optimize your efforts. Consider that there is a growing number of people getting into online affiliate business each hour around the world. You and them will spend money on a web site, so make it on the affiliate format: promote it and get commissions per sale.Most people cannot afford a complete marketing system from the begining, having to grow from the lowest payment levels; yes, there must be some payment to have a real presence. These are the first tools to pay for:
- .com Domain Name. Get a dot-com domain for less than $7.
- Web site hosting on shared Linux server. Free hosting does not support the tools needed. I pay 2 gigabytes for $21 a year, but 100 mb would suffice.
Broad concepts
PRICE AND REACH
A cheaper product reaches a broader market. Selling a $100 product will give you a bigger commission per sale than a $10 dollar product. But the cheap product will sell much more in total than the more expensive one. Because there is a bigger number of people able to pay that.Reach is also about if you can apply from any country. There is a growing number of people outside USA, willing to get into the affiliate way. Most of the best affiliate programs are based on Clickbank, but they don't use to tell you that South America citizens are not applicable as Clickbank affiliates, that's a whole continent. There are many other affiliate programs with worldwide application. If you live in South America, I have found that you can still apply to Clickbank with a service like skybox.net to have an US address, and jump over your national mail. For those who are advertising worldwide, make note this.
Smart advertising stream
THE MUSCLE ACTION OF EVERY EFFORT
Newbies tend to fail because they rely too much on what they offer. That's fine but this skeleton needs to be moved by the advertising muscle. It is not about any advertising type, it must be- post your site to search engines.
- post comments on forums, blogs, comment lists and others.
- google adwords and other paid contextual advertising.
- post through brokers for google adwords, with an affiliate program is
even better.
- article marketing and multimedia marketing have a free entry level. It can
give you great results. Recommended by top marketers.
That said and applied, the web site gets a well selected traffic. Then the content of the site must be smart enough to drive the sales process, by having these tools well combined:
- squeeze page (splash page). A welcome page with an opt-in form.
- sales letter (sales pitch). This needs skills. Professional writers are well paid.
- email autoresponder software. Able to send follow up emails to your customers list, hoping to get a sale at about the 8th email sent, each one with a tailored sales letter.
This, or more, not less, is a marketing campaign for consistent results, then rinse and repeat. See the links for details.
You need a dream:
A dream may look like this. While a plan is a list of how-to, but
it is not enough to led you to success. A dream will guide
you through all the hardships you may face trying to fulfill
any plan. A dream gives you conviction and endurance. But it
requires a little more than your positive attitude, it
is about a spin on your sense of reality. Just read the
free ebook that is reaching a higher attention each day.
A trend is set:
Each
day more
companies offer products with the internet affiliate in mind.
But it is not still a powerful sales force as it can achieve to be.
There is so much people willing to make it work, from the industry
leaders downto the last newbie, that the dream may soon become
a recognized economic force, carrying wealth, deep into the social
tissue. Everyone is invited to get a share on it. One of the things you
can do to prevent global warming is to work from home.