Starting Your Own Affiliate Program for Your Product or Service (Corey Rudl)

Starting your own affiliate program is one of the
hottest ways to market your business online right
now!

Why Selling Your Product or Servicethrough an Affiliate Program

 is such a Powerful Marketing Tool!

Want Proof? Our own Affiliate Program generates
us over 1 million dollars in sales, and I will show
you how.

I am constantly asked... "I am selling a product,
should I develop an Affiliate Program for it?"
The answer: Absolutely! With the exception of a few
products and services, almost every product or service
online will be MUCH more successful if you offer an
affiliate program for it.

That is a pretty bold statement, isn't it? I'm probably a
tad bit prejudiced here because we generate over a
million dollars every year just from our Affiliate
Programs!
However, the plain fact of the matter is that I have
never seen a business that invested in an affiliate
program and did not make money with it! Yes, read
that again, I was not exaggerating… I said that every
business I have seen that introduced an Affiliate
program has made more sales, and generated more
money!

In my opinion, developing an Affiliate Program for
your own product or service is one of the most
powerful ways to market online today!
Basically, an Affiliate program is a "reseller program".
You are allowing other people to resell your product at
their website, through their newsletter, to their
customer base, or in any ethical way they want to
market it on the Internet (you get to set the rules on
the ways your resellers are allowed to sell or represent
your product).

Affiliate Programs have made a "level" playing field
between the big corporations and the small companies
like you and I. Using Affiliate programs it is
ridiculously easy to harness the power of other
websites and all of their traffic... and yes, it is possible
to set up an Affiliate Program for your own product or
service without having to take out a second mortgage
on your house!
Yes, you can do it... but it takes an investment of time
and a small investment of money to do it properly! And
you have to do it right the first time! I'll talk all
about how to get set up and how to run a successful
Affiliate Program in several of the sections that follow.
But first, let’s get into the heart of things. 

Why can an Affiliate Program make you so much money?

As you know, I love joint ventures because they can be
the easiest path to success in any business (they have
been for me, so I am living proof). Basically, an Affiliate
Program is the ultimate "electronic" joint venture!

Just in case there are few of you who don't
understand, let's go through an example.
Let's say you have a protein powder that you mix in
with your drinks. It reduces cholesterol and also
improves a person's health and vitality. It's a great
product and your customers love it! Now, if you can
team up with someone else who has an email list of
past customers who are also interested in improving
their cholesterol, their health, and how to eat
properly... you will make a boatload of money (the
perfect joint venture)! So much that you would be
willing to give the affiliate a healthy portion of the
profits from all the sales generated from his/her list
(this is called a "referral fee"). You sell YOUR product
to THEIR list of customers, and you both profit. You
use your product and your affiliates’ list.

And it doesn't end there bo! What about websites, which
are health and nutrition oriented? What if you got
them to post a banner on their site about your
product, or you even got them to endorse it to their
visitors because they liked the product so much. Many
of their visitors would see the recommendation and
visit your site… you sell them the product, then give
the website which sent the visitor to me a "referral fee"
for the business.

Affiliate program flow.

Do you see the power in that?

You don't have to go out and spend money on
advertising... there is NO COST in doing this kind of
joint venture. You only pay your affiliate per sale. So if
you don't make any sales you don't pay out a dime…
but if you make a thousand sales, you both make a
ton of money. Your affiliate is then motivated to make
it work as are you… the more you sell, the more
money you both make.

That is an Affiliate Program in a nutshell. The person
who is promoting your products to their customer or
at his website, is known as the "affiliate" and you are
the affiliate program owner.
In traditional marketing, joint ventures of this nature
were a little complicated and time consuming and it
was very difficult to track every order. But now, with
electronic marketing, software can track EVERY
customer sent from someone's website, newsletter,
promotion, personal email to their customer database,
or from any affiliate … to determine who gets credit
for the sale.

Basically, an affiliate is an independent representative
of your company. They try to sell your product and get
a "referral" fee for all the products sold. They send
people to your site (using a variety of methods that will
be discussed later). You then track those visitors and
sales, and give a "referral" fee for all sales generated
from those visitors.
Isn't that beautiful? I love the Internet!
And it gets even better. By using the technology of the
Internet, it is virtually the same work to track "1"
affiliate as it is to track "10000".

Can you imagine having hundreds
or even thousands of people out there,
selling your product or service for you?

Can you imagine how many sales that would generate
for you?
I think you get the picture. Are you excited yet?
So how do you get hundreds or even thousands of
"affiliates" (otherwise known as "resellers") to join your
program?
Sometimes people will "ask" to be a reseller for your
product/service (usually customers who have bought
your product, are quite happy with it, and want to
represent it), or you can actively seek out resellers
(affiliates) that you feel would be perfect for your
products/services.

The only way to become very successful with
Affiliate programs is to do the latter (search for
resellers who have the perfect exposure to your target
clientele in order to sell your product or service).
Let me give you an example. If you were selling
gardening equipment, your perfect affiliates would be
people who own gardening related sites or newsletters,
or those who own other related businesses with a large
database, and that sell products/services that are
complementary to yours (make sure they are not
competitive).
These are the people who would be your perfect "joint
venture" partners and therefore your perfect "affiliate".
When you set up an Affiliate Program, you are
deliberately going out and searching for joint venture
partners! Your affiliates put a banner or text link to
you on their sites... and they will send their customers
and/or visitors back to your site.

In order to do this you must have an accurate and
reliable way of keeping track of your affiliates and the
visitors they bring to your site (and which visitors
come from which affiliate so you know who to credit
when there are sales). This is where Affiliate Program
software comes into the picture (more about that in
one of the sections that follow).

The beauty of all this is that you benefit from the
traffic of OTHER sites… and your affiliates benefit too
by getting a cut of the profit. It is a win-win situation
for both of you. It costs them nothing to join your
affiliate program and resell your goods, and you don't
pay them a dime until they generate a sale… it just
doesn't get any better than that in marketing.

The power behind affiliate programs is that "there is
nothing to lose" (other than a few hours of your time).
For example, the affiliate joins your affiliate program
for free. He invests 30-60 minutes to post the banner
or links to your site from his (or emails her customer
base or newsletter base about your product/service)…
and if it doesn't produce as many sales as she
expected, he simply removes the banners or links.
What did he lose?
An hour of his time, at the most! That is not much of.

Thank you for reading..

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Preparing for the First Meeting as SEO expert

In the first meeting you have with a potential client, you want to cover three

main areas. You want to:

• Learn about them

• Present them key information about you

• Communicate what you can do for them

Learning about the Client

The first time I meet with a client (either in person, over the phone, or via

video conference) my priority is to learn as much about the client as

possible. To craft the best SEO plan possible, I need to know what the

potential client is trying to accomplish on a high level. At this point you

should review the client’s site with them and point out of the areas for

improvement you saw in your earlier research.

You did review the potential client’s website before meeting with them,

right?

Most recently this tactic has been helpful for a training supplements

company I worked with. I figured that they must already have a clear

understanding of SEO because they ranked #1 for all of their products.

Given their link profile and the competitiveness of their niche, their rankings

surprised me. After our first meeting, I found out that

they were actually manufacturing all of their products and they didn’t

actually have any direct competition on a product-by-product basis. This

explained the rankings. If I hadn’t learned this, I would have spent a lot of

time looking for sketchy tactics that didn’t exist.

Because of revelations like this, you always want to make sure to cover

the following talking points in the first meeting:

What does your company do? This is extremely important

because it can reveal disconnections between the company and how

the company’s website presents itself. It also helps to identify

company priorities and allows you to see what drives the potential

client.

What do you want to accomplish with search? I am almost

always surprised by the answer to this question. Obviously every

client wants more traffic, but this is only a means to an end. This

question is designed to identify what that end is. Do they want to sell

more products or influence more people? All of this information is

extremely important when you do your keyword research later on in

the process. For example, if the client wants to sell more products,

your keywords will be product-related, but if your client wants to

improve its reputation, you might not target a single one of their

products. The answer to this question can make a big difference in

how you spend your time.

How is your team organized? This is helpful for logistical reasons.

It helps identify paths for making changes to the website. You don’t

want to waste your time (and the client’s) by explaining technical

details to a copywriter or marketing tactics to a developer who

doesn’t care. This question helps you work more efficiently by giving

you hints on how to communicate better with the potential client.

Your ability to create value for the client is directly related to the speed

and efficiency with which the client’s team can implement your

recommendations (and give you a valuable case study), so don’t

neglect this point.

What is the process for getting recommended changes

implemented on your site? Beyond knowing the people involved,

you need to know the process, too. Some clients can make changes

to their site on the phone as you speak, while others have to create a

development ticket, and you might wait a month or more to get

changes implemented. Most are in the middle.

What is the SEO history of your site? What worked, and what

didn’t? Asking this question can give you some insight into how the

term “SEO” has been perceived within the organization throughout

recent years. It’s important to know whether you’re the first vendor

that the client has used, or whether the company is coming off a bad

relationship with another firm. If the latter, your strategy and

suggestions may face increased scrutiny as the client regains faith in

the industry. You also need to know about any dodgy tactics that the

client used in the past, as part of your time might be devoted to

cleaning up the mess. If at all possible, read previous SEO audits

and reports.

What is special about your company? What unique value do

you provide your customers that your competitors don’t? The

answer to this question is very important, and not just to make the

client show confidence in the organization. A smart link-building

program will use this unique value to generate the type of interest that

will result in links. Whether the value is larger inventory, better prices,

more attentive customer service, or something entirely different, the

client needs to know that if they don’t stand out, the SEO task will be

significantly more difficult.

What sections are on your website? This is one of the most

important questions that I ask. When clients tell you about the

sections on their website, they almost always reveal what the

information hierarchy should be according to their priorities. This is

extremely important when trying to see their website on a high level

from their perspective. For example, if your client owns a website

about widgets and he or she spends all their time talking about the

different formats of widgets, it is very likely that their website should

sort widgets by format.

What pages are your biggest moneymakers? This helps you

align your priorities with that of the client’s. Your job should be to

maximize your Return on Investment (ROI). The client is spending

money on you, and in turn you should do your best to send as much

qualified traffic as possible to the pages on the site that will make the

potential client the most money.

What online resources (other domains) do you have to work

with? Many times clients will be sitting on powerful resources, and

they don’t even know it. I once worked with a media conglomerate

that had no idea it would benefit from linking between its different

child company websites. These websites happened to be some of

the most widely linked domains on the Internet and their relationship

to each other was being wasted.

Can I have access to your analytics? This access is vital

because it helps you in two important ways.

Don’t take “no” for an answer when it comes to analytics access. You

need it, period.

First, it helps give you an advanced view of how the flow of traffic

reaches and moves through the given website. It allows you to see

which pages are already driving traffic, which you can then use to

your advantage.

Second, it gives you a measuring stick for your efforts. It provides

you with the tool you need to show that you provided value to the

potential client.

Is your website registered and verified with Google

Webmaster Central? If the answer is no, you should register it to

see if you can identify any big problems. If the answer is yes, get

access to it so that you can make sure all of the settings are set up

properly. Specifically, you are going to want to look at the

canonicalization settings of the homepage and the filtering of

sitelinks. If no one from the organization has yet verified the site

through Google Webmaster Tools, then sorting through GWT’s

diagnostics data can be one of the first valuable services you’ll

perform for them.

How many pages do you think you have on your domain?

Although the answer to this is usually only a rough estimate (“oh,

about a million or two pages”) it helps give you context when you start

seeing how well the domain is indexed. If clients think they have one

million pages and the search engines are indexing a completely

different amount of pages, you have either uncovered a duplicate

content problem (engines have more pages indexed than clients

think they have) or an indexation problem (engines are not able to

index all pages).

Page Count Estimates

Frequently, online marketers simply have no idea how many pages there are on

a site, but this does not imply any lack of technical savvy or commitment to the

program on their part. Modern CMS and large corporate sites simply make that

answer both hard to find and not a particularly smart use of time.

Remember, too, that if their page count estimate matches the number of indexed

pages, that isn’t always a good thing. Many sites, through a combination of poor

crawling of deep content and duplication of shallow content, showed an index

count that was very near the estimated number given by the client. In other

words, the client said there were about 10,000 pages, and that’s about how

many were indexed. But it wasn’t the same 10,000 pages.

What subdomains do you have on your domain? This helps you

identify the breadth of the domain. As a result of how the search

engines treat subdomains, it can be hard to find them all without the

client’s help.

What areas of your site are off limits for me? This helps you use

your time more efficiently. I have run into situations where entire

sections of a website are off limits because the developers that run

them are in different departments. Furthermore, it helps you avoid

making recommendations that can’t be implemented due to legal

problems with things like licensed content.

Next article will be "Presenting Yourself to the Client" ,thanks for reading..

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Strategies For Facebook Advertising

Creating a Facebook Ad

facebook ads

Creating your ad in Facebook is quick and easy. Whether you’re creating a
text ad, display ad (text and image), or building in social actions, such as a fan
request, getting your ad up and running in Facebook requires some basic steps:

1. Scroll to the bottom of your screen, and click the Advertising link.

2. At the top of your screen, click the Ads Manager link to see the Facebook Ads page.

3. Click the Create an Ad button on the upper right of your screen.

Design your ad

When it comes to designing your Facebook ad, it’s best to keep it simple. Focus
on one simple objective and be direct. Ads with images generally perform better
than straight text ads. And, if your image features people, the chances are even
greater that someone will click through (see Figure 9-7). For more information
on designing your ad, see the “Exploring a Facebook Ad” section earlier in this
chapter.

1. Under Destination URL, click the I Want to Advertise Something I
Have on Facebook link.

A list of your Facebook Pages, Events, and/or Groups that you manage
appears depending on what you’ve designated for your business.

3. Type a title, or headline for your ad.
Note you only have 25 characters and must adhere to the Facebook
formatting policies.

4. Add body copy with up to 135 characters.
Using all caps or title case caps is prohibited under Facebook ad
guidelines.

5. Upload an image.
Please note that this step is optional, but it is a proven fact that images
do a better job at attracting attention than a text-based ad.
Note also that as you start building your ad, you’ll see it in near-real time
on the right.

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Brand Searching in the Social Media

Brand searching social media can help you respond to criticism as it
happens or just shortly after..

My sincerest hope is that by the time you read this post social media will
no longer be the overused buzzword it is at the time I am writing this. It is
definitely a very important part of the Internet, but it is not the be-all-end-all
feature that may make or break your brand. It is merely a technological
supplement. Remember, people were talking about brand on the Internet
well before the creation of Facebook or Twitter. Use these services, but
don’t lose track of the real driving force behind brands—their products and
services. The following list will help you glean some of the benefit these
tools provide:

Search Twitter for brand name mentions.

This first action step is to search Twitter for any real-time (or near realtime)
mentions of the brand. To do this, go to http://search.twitter.com
and type the name of the brand into the search box. This step is
important because it enables you to respond to criticism as it happens.
Having been the guy that a corporation has contacted after I complained
about them on Twitter, I can say that not only did it resolve the problem,
but it left me giving the brand some well-deserved credit.

Search Google Blog Search for brand name mentions.

This next item requires to you to search Google Blog Search for brand
mentions. As the name implies, this searches only through the
blogosphere. This is available at http://blogsearch.google.com and is
quick and easy. For best results, narrow down the time span by clicking
one of the available time filters. This action is important because it allows
you to quickly see both what influential and beginner bloggers have to
say about the brand. Bloggers’ opinions can travel to many ears and
make a large impact on overall brand, and you’ll typically see company
mentions on Google Blog Search prior to those stories going viral and
spreading on Twitter and other social media sites.

Search Google 24-hour Search for brand name mentions.

This third action point involves searching Google for brand mentions that
happened within the past 24 hours. You can accomplish this by
searching in Google, clicking Show options on the resulting page, and
clicking Past 24 hours. This searches the Google web index for mentions
that happened within the prior 24 hours. Taking this step is important
because it gives you the chance to track down mentions before they are
widely read. That said, on the Web, 24 hours is a long time and if you
catch something too long after it happens, it might already be too late.

Search Google Realtime Search for mentions as they occur.

Google Realtime Search (www.google.com/realtime) is a relatively new
interface from Google that allows you to search for articles, posts, and
tweets that reach the results page within seconds of going live. You can
filter your search results by geographic location and by time, so it’s very
simple to track trends when and where they happen. Currently, most
search results come from social media sites such as Twitter and
Facebook (due to their sheer volume), but expect to see more sources
represented soon.

Search Facebook for fake accounts and fan pages matching brand name.

Facebook is unique in its ability to avoid looking corporate (with negative
connotations) even when it is being so. This is largely due to the number
of real-life friends who communicate on the site. So, the next action step
has you search Facebook for fake user accounts and brand-related fan
pages. To do this, simply log in to www.facebook.com/ and type the
brand name into the search box as if you were searching for a person.
You can then contact or browse through any of the information offered by
that person or page.

Search Myspace for brand name mentions.

Similar to the previous step, you should also search www.myspace.com/
for brand mentions. This social networking site is smaller than Facebook,
but covers a lot of people who do not use Facebook regularly. To do this,
log in to Myspace and search for the brand name as if you were
searching for a friend or username. This will help you see how the given
brand is being talked about by the Internet-savvy demographic that is
largely different from Facebook members.

Search YouTube for brand name mentions.

You should also search YouTube for brand name mentions. Though this
isn’t comprehensive (it doesn’t detect words spoken in videos) it is the
best video search available at this time. To do this simply go to
www.youtube.com and search for the given brand name. This step is
important because of the inherent nature of video on the Web. It is easy
to consume and easy to share, so its potential for spreading is
enormous. My favorite example of this working against a brand is a
songwriter whose favorite guitar was ruined by United Airlines workers.
He contacted the airline several times to resolve the issue, but they
refused to reimburse him for his broken property. Upset by their lack of
integrity he wrote a song and published it on YouTube. As I am writing
this, the video has been watched more than five and half million times.
The airline tried to respond to him, but the damage was already done (to
his guitar and the United Airlines brand).

Search Digg submitted stories with brand name.

This item involves searching Digg for submitted stories with the given
brand name. To do this go to www.digg.com and search for the brand
name in the search box. The trick here is that you are not necessarily
looking for stories that have gone popular (because odds are they would
have already turned up); instead you are looking for evidence of people
who are trying to start something by posting negative brand stories to
Digg. These people are especially important to find early so you can deal
with their complaint before it erupts into a major problem.

Search forums for brand name mentions.

The eighth action point is a bit more complicated than the ones before it.
It requires you to go out and find industry-related forums and then search
them for brand name mentions. The easiest way to find them is to search
Industry Name Forum or industry name inurl:forum*. (The asterisk here indicates
the search is for “forums” with an “s” or “forum” without, plural or singular.)
This is important because forum members tend to be early adopters and
more technologically advanced. This makes them very good people to
impress.

Search Craigslist for brand name mentions.

This action applies most to companies that sell products. It requires you
to go to www.craigslist.org and search for brand name mentions. This
helps identify aftermarket sales and sales opportunities. It is also a good
way to find pirated or fake goods, which is important because it can
directly affect the bottom line. If you do this, be sure to check all of the
applicable localities because these are important filters on Craigslist. If
the product is global, you can check just the major cities. It should give
you an idea of how widespread the problem is.

Search torrent sites for brand name mentions.

The final action item has you search BitTorrent sites for brand name
mentions. BitTorrent is a protocol for sending large files over the Internet
quickly. This makes it a very good protocol for file sharing. The easiest
way to see if a given brand’s product is being shared via torrents is to
either search for Brand Name torrent or torrent search engine and search for
your brand. This step helps identify which products are in demand for file
sharers and shows you what people are saying about your product.

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E-Mail Marketing In Shock,Promotions Tab Didn't Just Kill Email Marketing!?

Did Gmail just kill email marketing?

Short answer: No.
Longer answer: It's way too early to tell.
Even longer answer: Keep reading.

There's been a lot of chatter online ever since Google unveiled it's new "social," "promotions" and updates tabs for Gmail earlier this summer. Especially about the promotions tab. Emails that people often receive from businesses -- like promotions and special offers -- are now being filtered into the tab, which is separate from a user's primary email stream. 

Since then, the web has errupted with marketers crying foul. In an amount of several hours, for instance, I've received about a half dozen emails -- from newsletters that I've subscribed to -- providing instructions on how to ensure their emails land in my "primary" tab. Some of those emails are referencing this "How to Disable Gmail Tabs" video from Michael Stelzner of Social Media Examiner. Others are just providing some steps to "deal" with Gmail's new tabbed inbox.

Of the change, Derek Halpern of Social Triggers wrote: "In a lot of cases, Gmail labels content-filled emails as 'Promotions.' That means, if you send content to your list (like I do), your content will be featured alongside spammy Promotional emails. Not only does this negatively affect your brand, but it also puts people are at risk of NOT getting your emails. The emails they signed up for. The emails they WANT."

Related: Why Marketers Should Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Unsubscribe Button

While I agree that having your emails land next to "spammy Promotional emails" is not a good thing, I'd argue that if you have "spammy Promotional emails" in your inbox, you need to start unsubscribing or marking them as spam. There is no reason to be getting unwanted emails anymore.

To be clear, I think it's smart to alert your loyal email subscribers about Gmail's changes. I've even considered doing the same for my audience. However, I think it's way too early to panic. No one yet understands the impact of Gmail's new tabbed inbox on their marketing campaigns.

And before you get all fired up and lash out at Gmail, remember that its focus has always been and most likely always will be on the user experience. It's not about you, the email marketer. It's about you -- and your audience -- the consumer.

If you are legitimately worried about the recent Gmail changes, here is what I recommend:

1. Don't panic. Take a deep breath. Chug some water. Walk around the block.

2. Create a segment of your email list showing only subscribers with a Gmail address.

3. Run some reports to see what the historic open, click, and (most importantly) conversion rate is of your Gmail subscribers.

4. Run that same report but change the start date to May 29th, when Gmail first announced these changes. Keep in mind that the May 29th date was when it was announced. Gmail has slowly been rolling it out ever since. It would seem quite a few folks are getting it this week.

5. Finally, compare your historic metrics for Gmail subscribers (No. 3) to the new report (No. 4).

Related: How to Write Better Email Subject Lines

My bet is that your open rates may be down. And that's okay. The open rate has always been a proxy for engagement, but for most marketers, clicks and conversions are the metrics that matter more.

My other bet is that your click to open rates are up. And that's good. Click to open is the number of subscribers who click on at least one link after opening your email. Click to open tells you how compelling you email actually is, assuming you have calls to action that make people want to click. 

I predict this metric will increase as those people who have taken the time to "find" your email in the "promotions" or "updates" tab in Gmail or have proactively moved your email to the "primary" tab will now be more engaged with your emails and more likely to click.

My final bet is that if you send timely, targeted, valuable, human emails to people who want them, the Gmail changes will have little impact.

If you notice your conversions (webinar registrations, eBook or whitepaper downloads, sales and so on) for Gmail subscribers have decreased, then you can get upset. I'd be willing to bet this will not be the case.

If I'm wrong, let me know in the comments section below.

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