Marketing Archives - Page 8 of 9

Create Your Own Online Affiliate Marketing Business – Discover How

For the stay at home workforce, affiliate marketing provides an easy second income which can potentially turn in to high primary sustainable income. Virtually minute initial investment is required to begin your own online affiliate marketing business. Therefore it is easy to see why it is a billion dollar a year industry.

Very little preparation is required, i.e. no products to make, no designing websites to sell your product, no sales letter to write and no distribution to worry about. This is because as an affiliate marketer all this will be dealt by the seller.

Very little knowledge of the internet is required, you should be familiar with your web browser and some basic English and you can get yourself started to build your own online affiliate marketing business. Commission vary widely form product to product and from seller to seller. This is not really a big deal because if you market the product successfully you will see money trickle in overnight day by day while you sleep.

Your own online affiliate marketing business will give you some decent second income. This can potentially turn to very high income as your business grows. You will soon be able to quit your day job (I mean any day job) because you will be satisfied with the amount of income you will generate with very little effort. Also money will continue to pour in because for each product you market it will be online forever unless you choose to remove it. Therefore income from products starts to stack up.

As you know we are going through one of the worst recessions of our time and any extra money is helpful. Many people can not even start their business because the large risk involved. However starting an online affiliate marketing business involves very little risk and can really help you with any cash problems you may have. So there is no need to worry about losing your investment since is it is very low to begin with.

Initially work will have to be put in to get your self started. However it will not be much an hour or 2 a day will be plenty for a week. This will help you get used to the way the affiliate marketing system works and also your online affiliate marketing business will start to grow. Most of all have fun making money.

Email Marketing For Small Business

Email marketing for small business is seriously by far, the most powerful and least costly method around. It is very easy to build a list of customers and potential customers, particularly from your website.

By building a relationship with your customers, they will get to trust and know you and more likely to buy from you again and again and email is a great way to do it.

At its most basic and at no cost, start with an excel spreadsheet, but I highly recommend you use an email database management system like Aweber. I personally use this in my business and it is very cost effective and relatively easy. It also comes with the ability to send newsletters.

The topic of email marketing, creating lists and communicating with your lists is huge, but here are a few tips to get you started:

Use your list right away

One of the biggest mistakes people make is to focus on building the list and neglecting communicating with the list. Make sure you begin building that relationship with your subscriber right away. Send them a welcome message. Send them value in the form of links, downloads and information. You may want to have an email template that brands your business, but if not, text is OK. In fact, text gets through most spam filters.

Create a communication plan

Make sure you’re communicating with your subscribers on a regular basis. An autoresponder is a wonderful tool because it enables you to create and schedule your messages in advance. You can basically set up all of your email messages on auto pilot – do it once and when someone is added to your list, they all receive the same messages in the same sequence at intervals you set. Aweber also does this.

Each new subscriber can receive the same messages in the same order, regardless of when they signed up. This gives you control over the relationship-building process and it is completely automated. You only need to set it up once. Also remember to offer valuable content, not just promotional messages.

An autoresponder automates the process, including the subscribe and unsubscribe management. You don’t need to hire anyone to manage the task for you. Your time is free to build your business in other ways.

Partner with others to grow your list

Once you have your list building and management process smoothed out, consider partnerships. You can really boost your subscribers by partnering with other relevant business owners. For example, the website owner who markets to pet owners might partner with a website that sells pet toys. They can help market your opt-in list by including a link to your form in their newsletter and vice versa. You can support each other to succeed. I do this successfully on my travel blog.

Your list can mean the difference between thousands of prospects. It really can launch your business. If you don’t have list, start creating a plan to build one. You’ll be glad you did.

How to Make Money Online Part 2 – Starting Your Affiliate Marketing Business

Last article we looked at lots of different ways to make money online. We found that affiliate marketing is a great choice for people starting out. This is because quite large sums of money can be made for a very small investment of money. This is exactly what everyday people need, to pay off credit cards, mortgages and get back on top of their finances.

The first thing to be aware of when starting up an affiliate marketing business, is that making money online is never quite as easy as it is promised. After reading lots of “how to” articles, and paying to join a training system, I discovered that it takes time and effort to make anything happen. If we were told this before we signed up and started, we would have a much better frame of mind, and be much more likely to succeed.

For those of you thinking of starting affiliate marketing, rest assured it is definitely a worthwhile thing to spend time doing. You need to begin by expecting to “learn the ropes” first. There are quite a few processes and skills which need to be learned, before any real substantial money can be made. If you begin by thinking you will earn $2000 in the first month, you may be disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, goals and dreams are very important, but expect to do some hard work before you see the money they promise.

Some useful tips when first staring out are:

• Have a goal – Where you end up is largely set by what your goals and dreams are.

• Write them down – There is a lot of research showing that written goals are a lot more likely to come to pass than goals in your head.

• Do some research – Don’t buy into the first training package or system you find, look around and find one which is best suited to you.

• Have a plan – Plan what steps you will take to successfully get a campaign off and running. A good training package will outline the steps needed to make money online.

• Follow your plan till you see results – Don’t get distracted by all the other things you can do to make money, if it’s not in your plan.

• Fine tune – When you are making money, analyse your results, see what is working and what isn’t and plan your next campaign to suit.

If you invest in a training program, they will outline the practical things which you need to do to get everything linking together and working properly. Some of these include:

• Setting up a ClickBank account.

• Setting up a PayPal account.

• Buying web hosting, or showing you free hosting websites.

• How to get cheap domain names.

• How to link your domain name to your hosting site.

These are mechanical steps which every Affiliate marketer must do, before they can start choosing products, researching keywords, creating landing pages, driving traffic and analysing the results.

Next time we will look at how to choose the best products from ClickBank

How to Develop a Powerful Marketing Strategy

Introduction

As you launch your new real estate business or wish to elevate it to the next level of success, it will be critical to have an efficient and cost effective marketing strategy. Having a great product, deal, or service will not bear any fruits of your labor if you are not reaching the proper audience. The following information will highlight many concepts and recommendations you may want to consider as part of your marketing plan. Because of the general nature of this material, all information may not apply to your specific business model.

Marketing and Advertising Concepts

Recommendations Go a Long Way

Perhaps one of the most powerful tools you can ever have in your marketing arsenal that you can’t buy for any price is to have people who have done business with you, or are familiar with your business ethics and professionalism to provide positive recommendations. You need to capitalize on all of the hard work and service you have provided in the past to instill confidence among your new relationships that you will continue to provide the same premier performance. We have all been exposed to testimonials and recommendations throughout many aspects of our life. Clearly, most people don’t need any further convincing beyond a sincere recommendation from someone not benefiting from the referral.

Use Referrals And Recommendations As A Marketing Tool

As you establish your history of past success stories, you should compile this information and share it with people you are trying to influence with regards to your ability to perform. An example of this could be a presentation folder that could include a summary of past projects as well as copies of any written letters of recommendations. In addition, you should have readily available a list of past clients that have given you permission to give out their contact information as a reference. You will have far more credibility if you provide this information in advance as part of your presentation material instead of your new potential client having to request this information; proactively providing this information will demonstrate your confidence in your services.

Know Where Your Leads Are Coming From

To have an effective marketing program, it will be critical for you to know what strategies are making the phone ring. When you fully understand what approaches are producing results, you can shift marketing efforts and capital away from the methods that are not producing the desired results and apply them to the methods that are successful. During your day to day activities when making inquiries on services and products you need, I’m sure you have been asked “Where did you see our ad” or “How did you hear about us”. This is their attempt to do their own marketing research on what is working for them.

There are a number of techniques you may want to consider that will help you to understand where your leads are coming from. Of course you can just come out and ask them. Alternatively, you could use the following methods:

– The use of different color stock on forms can help you establish what “color area” is responding.

– Have each different ad have a unique “offer number” and ask for his number during your conversations.

– Have a different response phone number for each ad or location.

Keeping Your Marketing Plan Going

There is one mistake that is common to new smaller businesses, once they get busy with the business that is coming from their marketing efforts, they become distracted and lose focus on keeping the marketing plan going. An example of this is getting wrapped up in a flip you are directly involved with that is taking away from your time to send out direct mail letters. Remember, with most of the common business models, once you’re done with the current deal, you need to get another one in the pipeline; otherwise, the flow of income may stop or be reduced. As another example, have you ever tried to get an estimate for a repair on your house? It seems they are all too busy on the job they are currently on to stop and work on new business.

Delegate Or Outsource Your Marketing Activities

As you are developing or expanding your business, the day to day challenges of running your business along with everything else going on in your life can stand in the way of you working your marketing plan. If you feel this is occurring and is affecting your potential business success, it may be to your advantage to either delegate or outsource some or all of your marketing activities. Using this technique will allow you to free up some time that could be used to work on items that will help you grow the company. Some examples of the marketing tasks that could be delegated or outsourced are highlighted below:

– Preparing and mailing marketing materials and direct mail letters

– Distribution of flyers

– E-mail support

– Covering phone calls

Keep in mind that before you let other people get involved with your marketing and speaking with potential clients and customers, make sure they have been adequately trained and the process has been documented in your company procedures (see “How to Write Your Business Plan” for information on the development of standard work modules).

Dealing with Rejection

As you develop your marketing strategy and “hitting the streets”, you should be prepared to face some level of rejection. The level of rejection you will experience will be determined based upon your approach, persistence, and what is the current situation and state of mind of the person you are dealing with. If for example your marketing model is focusing on homeowners in foreclosure, there will be a very high rate of rejection. In some cases they may be in denial regarding their current situation and also because they have been overwhelmed with the interest in their property from all of the investors who saw the Lis Pendens filed. You must recognize that this type of marketing is a numbers game and the more people you have an opportunity to make contact with, the higher the probability to secure business.

Even Rejection Can Make You Money

As you work through your targeted marketing area and encounter rejection, remember that each door closed in your face or phone call hang-up will get you closer to a completed transaction. If for example it takes 100 calls to close a deal worth $5,000 than each rejection is worth $50.00! Although difficult at first to imagine that rejection makes you money, it could help motivate you to move on to the next door slamming or phone-hang-up opportunity.

Your Marketing Should Have A Look

As part of your marketing efforts to “brand” your company, you may want to consider the use of logo’s, slogans, and trademarks in all of your ads and promotional merchandise. In addition, the use of “company colors” that is used exclusively in all of your marketing will also help to create a unique look that will help to set you apart from your competition.

Marketing and Advertising Techniques

The following section will provide you with some specific recommendations on marketing techniques you may want to consider. Since this information is generic in nature, all recommendations may not apply to your particular business model.

Due to the significant impact on operating budgets to fund marketing and advertising activities, you should be very critical on what methods become part of your Business Plan.

Buy A Ton Of Business Cards

One of the most inexpensive and effective ways for you to market yourself and your business is through the distribution of your business cards. During networking and casual meeting opportunities, the exchange of business cards will be a critical tool for you to assemble your contact list. Even if you are just starting out and don’t even have a company or services to offer, the small investment in business cards will allow others to have your contact information. At a minimum, the card should contain the following information:

– Your name

– Title or company name

– Fax number

– Phones number(s)

– E-mail address

– Websites

In addition, you can add information with regards to the specific business models you are involved with, for example:

– Foreclosures

– Short Sales

– Property Management

– Rehabs

Business Cards Design Suggestions

– Make your business cards stand out with bright colors or interesting artwork or graphics.

– Avoid the glossy type of paper because it is difficult to write on (in the event the person you are giving them to would like to make some comments on meeting you or your services).

– Use the back of the card as well to provide additional information on your business; why waste valuable marketing space?

– Have a powerful hook on the cards to include statements like:

– “We will close in 7 days”

– “We buy all houses in any condition”

– “We buy with all cash”

– “Get a $250 referral Fee”

Bandit Signs

Bandit signs are a great way to attract attention from people on foot or in vehicles. These signs are usually 2′ X 3′ or smaller and are designed to either stick in the ground or mounted to a pole. This method of advertising is very economical and when using the plastic version will allow for repeated use. It is suggested that you get them printed on both sides if you plan or placing them in areas where people will be coming from both directions.

Displaying Ads and Signs

Proper utilization of the various types of ads and signs will help support your efforts in establishing high visibility and presence in your targeted marketing area. The number of ways to display your company name, logo, and services you provide is limited only by your imagination. The following section will highlight the most common locations and methods you may want to consider for posting your ads:

– On billboards (very popular in rural and city areas)

– Sponsor or adopt a community bench, garden, or road clean-up.

– On buses

– On railroad cars and stations

– Local community and church newsletters

– Placemats in diners and restaurants (I always read these things while I’m waiting for my food)

– Place signs on your property while you are working on it and marketing it.

– Advertising lettering or magnetic signs for your vehicles.

When using lettering or magnetic signs for your vehicle make sure to check local ordinances; by placing a sign on your vehicle could make it be considered a commercial vehicle. Also when using magnetic signs, make sure they are secured properly. I have heard instances of these signs flying off during high speed travel and when exposed to rain. If you can also have a sign on your trunk, it will make it easy for people to read it as they follow behind you or at stop signs and traffic lights. Make sure to use large text size on your contact number.

Marketing Flyers

When designing flyers, it will be important for you to use bright colors to attract the eye. When placing them in stores, your flyer may be among dozens of other items that are posted so it must have some punch. To help minimize the chances of someone just taking the entire flyer, design it to have tear-off tabs at the bottom that contains minimal information on your services and a contact number.

Check Local Ordinances

When using signs and flyers as part of your marketing program, make sure you check with your local town regulations to ensure you are not in violation. Most towns have laws on the books that prohibit the display of signs and may come with substantial fines.

People Love Giveaways

Another marketing tool that will help you with your company exposure is to give out small gifts that promote your business and services. The possibilities are endless on the type of give-a-ways you can come up with and is limited only by your imagination and budget. The following list will provide some recommendations that are typically used for this purpose:

– Shirts and jackets

– Calendars

– Recipe cards

– Hats

– Letter openers

– Golf balls, tees, or towels

– Refrigerator magnets

– Stationary items (pens, pads, binders, etc.)

– Cups

– Totes and bags

When selecting the product give-a ways, you want to pick items that are designed to encourage use (nobody will wear an ugly tee shirt; it will be probably used as a rag). Avoid one time use products like candy, cookies, etc. Many companies offer these types of products at various price point budgets. Do a web search on “marketing merchandise” and you will get some great ideas. To reiterate, you may want to keep a consistent look to all of your marketing gifts.

Be An Exhibitor Or Sponsor

Another outstanding marketing method you may want to consider is to participate as an exhibitor or sponsor at conventions and investment organization meetings. These events can be very effective in reaching people that may benefit from your services. Sponsorship and exhibitor costs can range from a few hundred dollars to thousands depending on the venue and size of the organizations. With many organizations, you may have an opportunity to set up a display table as well as a speaking slot to highlight your services. One comment with regards to this marketing option is that people typically feel more comfortable doing business with you when they see you as a “regular” sponsor and not a one shot deal because it adds more credibility that you will be around. This type of marketing could be a significant drain on your allocated budget and it will be critical for you to determine if the appropriate level of business is being derived from this approach to justify the expense. By doing a web search for Investment Clubs and organizations you can select particular groups you would like to focus on.

Advertise In Hard Papers

Running ads in hard papers such as newspapers and trade magazines can be a great way for you to keep your company’s products and services in the eyes of the readers. Although this method of advertising can consume a majority or your marketing budget, it can represent a tremendous opportunity to reach a large mass of people. When considering using this advertising method, you may want to implement some of the following recommendations:

– Have a “hook” to your ad like “We will close with cash in 72 hours”.

– Advertise constantly

I’m sure you have observed ads that always seem to be displayed. This constant exposure although costly, will help to develop your company’s long term credibility.

– If your ad is listed in column form, consider adding a blank space above and below the text, this will make the ad stand out.

– If possible, use a contrasting or reverse color or text from the standard format.

Out of State Newspapers

Based upon the particular business model you are involved with, it may be necessary to either advertise or receive copies of out of state newspapers.

Using Public Records

Depending on your particular marketing areas or contact group, you may have good success accessing the public records that are available on-line. The information available will vary from state to state and also based on local township on-line capabilities.

The Use of Purchased Lists

An effective method to locate a particular group of people or businesses is to purchase a list from companies that specialize in generating and selling information about specific groups of people. An example of these types of lists includes the following:

– Recent graduates

– Recently relocated

– Recently sold their home

– Recently turned a milestone age (example:18,21,50,62,65)

– Recent Lis Pendens filings

The lists of possibilities are endless. Companies that generate and/or sell these lists are marketed by “List Brokers”. Try a Google search on this and you will see how big this information industry really is.

Be Prepared to Get Responses to Your Marketing Champaign

There is one area that many people fear when launching their marketing strategy and you need to get properly prepared for this and that is getting responses to your marketing efforts. The last thing you want to exhibit to people who are reaching out to you is your lack of confidence in being able to help them. In addition to having a strong foundation of knowledge in the particular business model you are marketing, you will need to develop a standard process on what you will do when they start calling you or responding to your calls. It is suggested that you put together a scripted dialog or bullet list that you will use when speaking with potential clients. The dialog or bullet list should be used as a guide as you are speaking with them to ensure you are gathering the appropriate data from them and presenting all of the critical highlights of why they should consider working with you.

Practice Makes Perfect

It will be absolutely critical to make sure you are projecting confidence when speaking to potential clients. I have spoken to many people who have left the leads hanging because of their fear in making contact with them; one way to mitigate this fear is by practicing and learning from your good and bad experiences. It is suggested that you conduct role playing to practice your approach. Another strategy that works well is to record your conversations and listen back to them. It will be critical to extract lessons learned from the calls and to apply these lessons to future calls. Keep in mind that the more you do this, the more effective and successful your “close rate” will be.

Don’t Touch That Mailbox

Keep in mind that you are prohibited from placing anything in a mailbox that does not have the appropriate postage. If you practice this technique, there is a very good chance you will be contacted by a representative from the postal service.

Creating Your Buyers and Clients List

Whether your real estate business model is wholesaling, rehabbing, selling notes, or any other model that requires you to rely on someone “taking your deal” will require you to understand the investment goals of your potential clients. To achieve the highest degree of project turn-over efficiency and to minimize your risk exposure, you will need to have investors and clients in a stand-by mode waiting for you to hand them your next investment opportunity they will consider. It will be very important that as you begin to launch your marketing and networking activities, you have a method to compile the investment criteria of your buyers or clients. It would be very efficient to have this information as part of a spreadsheet database. To help gather this information, you could create a form that can be filled out that will highlight the investment goals of your buyers or clients.

Having a comprehensive buyers list that includes the specific criteria of your buyer will help you to align available investment opportunities to the appropriate investors. In addition, understanding these criteria in advance will allow you to go out and seek new investments that you know will fit into the investment strategy of your buyers and clients that will be willing to pull the trigger if you bring them a good deal. The following list will provide examples of common criteria you would want from your investors (let’s assume for this example we are involved in the flipping business model)

– Specific locations

– Price point

– Age of property

– Class of property (A,B, C, D)

– Type of property (single-family, multi-family, commercial)

– Financial expectations

– Cash flow

– Cash on Cash returns

– Minimum percent of equity position

– Capitalization Rate

– Condition of property

– Creative Financing

Also keep in mind the relationship you develop from your Buyer’s List may also be a source for deals they bring to you. Perhaps a deal is too big or too small for a particular investor or they are too busy to get involved in another project at this time. The fact that you have presented them with investment opportunities in the past can set the stage for them to feed you a deal.

Qualify Your Buyer’s List

It will be critical for you to establish if the contacts on your Buyer’s List are able and willing to take deals that meet their investment criteria. The last thing you need when you are trying to wholesale a deal is to find out your buyer’s are just tire-kickers. One way to help avoid this situation is to get to know your buyer’s and become familiar with their past success. Through your networking and relationship building with these buyers’s, you should be able to feel them out with regards to their ability to pull the trigger.

I’m sure you’ve heard before, “If I find a great deal, I know the buyers will follow.” Although there is some logic to this statement, if you have buyer’s queued up in advance knowing their investment criteria, it will help to minimize your risk of not being able to close the deal; this can be a real concern when you are in a stale or decreasing market.

Your Extended Marketing Team

In addition to your planned direct marketing efforts, there could be past clients, family, friends or business associates that may provide additional sources of leads and business for you. This circle of contacts if properly utilized could be another informal arm of your comprehensive marketing plan. Although most people would normally pass along any services or products you provide to someone they know in need with no compensation; one sure way to motivate them to help bring in additional business is for you to offer a referral program. Depending upon the business model you are involved with, you could compensate them on a per deal basis. It is suggested that you provide these contacts with some of your marketing material.

Using Bird-Dogs To Augment Your Marketing

To bring the concept of an extended informal marketing team to the next level, you may want to enlist the help from people whose specialty is to locate deals for clients and present them for consideration. These people are called Bird-Dogs and they do this work as part of their business model. When using Bird-Dogs, it will be critical that they understand your criteria so they will not waste your time or theirs. Usually Bird-Dogs will only get compensated if a deal closes. A Bird-Dog fee is usually paid at closing.

Using Technology To Market More Efficiently

Have Your Own Website

Having a website can be a powerful tool to provide current and potential clients information on the products and services your company offers. The use of websites is so common that omitting it from your marketing campaign could certainly lead towards lost business. Remember, there is a very good chance that your competitors will have a website.

The subscription or development cost of your website can have a very large range depending upon the features. You should expect to pay $30-50 per month for a web design service provider that uses pre-designed templates you can edit. On the other extreme, you can pay thousands for a custom designed site.

When selecting a domain name, it is suggested that you use a name that reflects your business and is also easy to remember

Although having a website can be instrumental to the success of your business model, it will be useless unless you can attract visitors to your site to see what you offer. There are many strategies you can consider to help direct visitors to your site, some of techniques are listed below:

– Have a reference to your website on all of your printed material and e-mails you generate as well as marketing giveaways you hand out like coffee mugs or pens.

– Write on-line articles for websites like e-zine.com where you contribute articles for free in exchange for an opportunity to discuss your expertise as well as what you have to offer. In addition, you will be able to provide a link to your website.

– Have your website listed on other websites as a link, you can have an agreement with the website owner to mutually display links to each other.

– Pay to advertise on other sites that have the type of traffic you are trying to attract. Usually, there is a monthly fee for this service or in some cases will be a “Pay Per Click” where you will be charged a predetermined fee when anyone clicks on the link to your website.

– There are many options to consider when developing your website from do it yourself templates where you just fill in the blanks to a full blown custom site. It is suggested that you speak with an experienced website designer to see what option is best suited for your needs and budget.

Tele-Conferences

A very popular marketing method is to utilize teleconferences to highlight the services and products that you offer to a large audience by speaking with them via a phone line. This marketing technique will allow your company to provide another vehicle for your potential clients to get to know who you are. The process of setting up a teleconference is very easy; there are many third party providers that offer teleconference services for either a flat monthly rate or on an as-needed basis. Once set up, you just need to provide the attendees with a dial in number and access code (given to you by the service provider) and they will call in at the appropriate time.

Webinars

To bring the benefits of a teleconference to the next level, you can consider reaching out to your audience using a webinar. A webinar is an opportunity for you to provide a presentation to your audience by accessing a web site on their computer. Two-way communication is also possible using a dial in phone number. Like the teleconferencing, a webinar can be arranged by a third party. The cost of this service will be determined by how many “seats” are required.

E-Mail Blast

An e-mail blast can be a very effective way to contact a large group of people on your mailing list. Depending upon how many people you are trying to reach, you can either send the mail through your own mail service like Outlook or if a very large list of people need to be contacted, you may need to consider the services of a third party provider. As you compile your contact list, it is recommended that you create “groups” within your mail program. By using groups when sending e-mail, you can easily fill out the “to” field by selecting the appropriate group you are trying to make contact with. It is recommended that you sort your address book into categories that make sense for your business model. Examples are as follows:

– Bankers and private money lenders

– Past clients you are trying to stay in touch with

– New prospective clients you are trying to conduct business with

– Tenants occupying your properties

Mail Merge

Mail merge will allow you to take your contact information from your Outlook (or equivalent) address book and add these contacts to envelop and form letters you generate. Although mail merge can save you a considerable amount of time in preparing mailed letters, it is not encouraged when preparing envelops for initial contact letters. Computer generated envelops look too much like junk mail and not even be opened.

Newsletters

Newsletters are a great way to keep your contact list up to date on what is going on in your company and to help attract new business. All of the popular word processor programs have templates that you can use to generate your own custom newsletter. When considering the use of newsletters in your marketing campaign, you may want to implement some of the following recommendations:

– Make your newsletter releases monthly or quarterly; you want to periodically remind them who you are.

– Add both business development information as well as education and public interest sections. Don’t make every issue overflowing with sales hype. You will turn off your audience.

– Give each newsletter a release number or volume

– Format the pages so they can be added to a three ring binder

– Publish articles that continue in a future newsletter

– Add photos and charts to help illustrate text

– Have featured segments that are part of each newsletter release. The following are some examples:

– Rehab trick of the month

– Bloopers sent in from audience

– Deal of the month

– Success story of the month

Using An Internet Video Site

A very popular tool that can be added to your marketing plan is to utilize internet sites that allow you to download videos. On these sites, you can download your video that will be part of the site database of searchable videos. It is suggested that you add in your title a “hook” that specifically identifies the scope of the video so when someone searches the site for your topic, you may get a “hit”. An example of this would be “Learn Short Sales from John Doe.”

Sales Lead Software

As your marketing and networking strategies start to generate leads, it will become an increasing challenge to manage the large volume of leads effectively. Without managing leads appropriately, you run the risk of losing the ability to “convert” them to a deal or sale. Although there are many manual methods that you could use to manage your leads, you may want to consider purchasing lead generation and management software. There are a number of companies that provide this product. Perform an internet search for available products.

Google Secrets to Make Money With Affiliate Marketing

Now that you have seen the Keyword Research Tool, we can discuss the importance and role of keywords to the level of your achievement. It is also important to decide on a niche, so you know which direction to take. Direction is so much more important than speed because 97% of affiliate marketers are going nowhere fast. The only difference is that the 3% built their Online Empire with Keywords as the foundation. You are looking for keywords with a high search volume and a low competition within your niche.

There are three kinds of Primary Keyword Research Steps known as;

Short Tail Keywords – Are single keywords and often referred to as Primary Keywords. These are the keywords that you want present in your domain name, but be objective and precise. Let’s use the Dieting Niche for demonstration. Good Short tail keywords will then be Health, Diet and Weight. These three particular keywords get searched around 982,000 times on Google Per Month. That’s almost a Million Searches, can you see where this keyword thing is going?

Long Tail Keywords – These are normally no more than Three Keywords making up a Keyword Phrase. Within the Niche we’re using for demonstration, lose weight, losing weight, lose weight fast, and fast weight loss are excellent Long Tail Keywords. They are searched around 564,100 times on Google Per Month. But you will have to research the keywords relevant to your niche, which means your results will be different. Long Tail Keywords are being used in your Site, and Posts Title. It works really well if the Long and Short tail Keywords are combined.

Anchor Text – These are Longer Keyword Phrases and refer to the phrase someone will type into their browser to search a specific interest. The kind of search someone would enter when they are much more likely to buy. For this demonstration, how to lose weight, how to lose weight fast, and want to lose weight are great examples. Anchor text is what must be present on your site’s home page, the Google Spider love seeing this and it helps with ranking. These anchor texts are searched 852,300 times on Google Per Month. Now combine the results of the three tests we’ve just done.

Yes, 2,398, 400 Searches on Google Per Month for the three search categories combined. By now you must realize the potential of proper keyword research, and why the 3% get to make those disgusting amounts of money online! This article will Simplify the Basics of SEO, what to include in Headers with Titles and even Categories, Tag Lines and Single tags. There is also the Site Map within Google Search Console.

Identifying the H1 Heading – May sometimes also be a Post or Blog Page Title but this usually refer to the Blog, Site or Video Title. The H1 Heading is where you include the Primary Search Phrases you wish your Site or Video to Rank for in Google within 15 – 65 Characters. It is important to preferably keep the H1 Heading within 60 Characters, because the H1 Heading will appear at the top in Google Search Result pages. Make the H1 Heading both Easy to Read and to Remember.

Identifying the H2 Heading – This is usually the Blog Post Title and once again the desired Search Phrases and Keywords need to populate this Heading. Numbers play a huge role with H2 Headings, and strangely enough uneven numbers have a more striking effect, combine this with a “Reason Why” kind of suggestion and you have a winner H2 Heading.

Identifying the H3 Header – Post Titles often also make up the H3 Header, along with Widget Descriptions within the Blog Side Bar. When you use the Text Widget to load HTML code, then the “Alt=” Attribute usually appear as an H3 Header.

A Blog post Title also appears as an H3 Header when you use an SEO Plugin like “All in One SEO Tools” and your Blog Post Title appears after the forward slash (/) to the Primary Domain. Using an SEO Plugin will allow you to submit all your individual pages, posts, tags and categories as individual site maps.

Identifying the H4 Header – This can be defined as something like the Tagline to you Blog Title Tag or H1 header. A Logo image is also often accepted as an H4 header within certain Plugins which may display a logo icon.

The Site Map Description – Your Blog Site Map is extremely important, and for this you simply install the Plugin “Google XML Site Maps”. This Plugin will share an updated your Blog Site Map to the Google Search Console each time you make changes, but the changes may take a while (Normally 2 – 3 Weeks) to show up in Search Results.

It is however important to manually check for the Site Map Acceptance from inside the Google Search Console, even with the Google Site Maps Plugin Activated. There may be times when certain errors occur with your Blog Site Map inside Google, which means Google cannot find your Blog.

You have to then test the site map with the tools provided from within the Google Search Console, fix the errors found from inside your Blog C-Panel and test the Site Map again. When the results return with Zero errors found, you simply delete the old site map and upload the new site map.

Accessing the Google Search Console you will need a Google account, as with all the Free Tools Google gives you and it’s a Lot. You simply need to look in the right places and then take your time getting to know how to use the tools. Simple Search your Browser (Preferably Chrome) for the search phrase “Google Search Console” and simply follow the instructions after opening the link on the search result page.

The Blog Site Map is what Search Engine Spiders use to Crawl your Blog so it can be categorized correctly, sending the right visitors your way. This is why the presence of Keywords and Search Phrases are so important throughout all content on your Blog, just the right ones in the right positions.

Network Marketing: A Great Solution To Your Network Marketing Problems!

Network Marketing Success: 3 Types Of Stories

As you continue on the journey of personal development in your network marketing home business you will become more and more of a leader. You will undoubtably have more and more interaction with people and learn how to build relationships in the process.

Building relationships is the most rewarding and enjoyable aspect of building a home business. Think about the first time someone told you about how much the product or business opportunity you introduced them to has changed their life! Being in a position to help others is priceless!

There is no question, network marketing is about connecting with people.

While some people are convinced that, in order to be successful, you must know every detail about your company, product, compensation plan, the history, the top leaders, and so on-this is not always true. This method may work for some, but it is simply not necessary for everyone!

In reality, if you ask any top leader in this industry who has built a team of tens of thousands of distributors and they will all tell you the same thing:

Tools and systems are duplicatable, people are not.

In actuality, letting your tools and systems do the majority of the work for you is actually the best and most duplicatable way to build a business. Activities that take up so much of your valuable time can easily be funneled into a system that works for you 24-7. Activities like telling your story, giving a presentation, explaining the products, opportunity and compensation-all of these are best done in an automated system. This frees up you to work on building those relationship and gaining more prospects.

You do NOT have to be an expert presenter to succeed!
The people you sponsor do NOT have to be either!
Successful businesses are built on activities that absolutely everyone can do.

Anyone can direct someone to a website. Anyone can hand out a DVD or a brochure. Anyone can email a link to a prospect to an online video. Anyone can invite someone to an opportunity call or webinar. It is just that simple.

One of the best choices you can make in building your home business is to rely on tools and systems to deliver the message and answer questions.

Practically speaking-if someone does not understand the network marketing industry, simply direct them to the “industry of opportunity” video that was shared with you when you first started. Or if someone has questions about a product, direct them to a video that explains it in better detail. No matter what, these resources exist to help you take out the long hours of repetitive busy-work and it gives you an easy, accessible way to explain the products, opportunity and story.

Facts Tell – Stories Sell.

All top industry earning live by this motto!

In fact, every company leader I work with has shared their story with me. This is not only captivating but engaging. We care about other people and their struggles as well as their successes and achievements. We care less about a company’s compensation plan or track record.

We care less about how a company has just come out with a new product, but how their company’s products have turned someone’s live around completely! How these products helped someone’s mother overcome her lifelong health struggles or how the opportunity brought someone from the edge of financial ruin to a life of financial freedom where they are now blessed to be able to give to others in need.

Everyone has a story!

Even if you have not reached your goals yet, you still have a story! Maybe you used to work 2 jobs and never saw your family for more than an hour each day… maybe you worked for a boss who would never listen to any of your ideas for improving the company and refused to give you even the slightest raise… or maybe you have missed every holiday for the last 2 years because you are so desperate not to sink under the pressure of your debt that you are forced to work every available day… and now, finally you have a path to living a life of freedom on your own terms!

That is a story. It is something that the majority of people can relate to and sympathize with and if they see that you have found the pathway OUT of situations that they are in or can relate to they will be desperate to know how you did it.

This basic concept brings us to one of network marketing’s main lesson:

Know the 3 Types Of Stories.

So if we understand now that it is not always necessary to explain everything to a prospect ourselves but that we can leave that up to the tools and system we have, then what is our role?

Our main focus is to ask questions!

All people love to talk about themselves and it is our job to listen to them! Listen to their dreams, their goals, their families and mostly their problems. Then we can use the power of stories to relate to them on a personal level and begin building a relationship.

Stories will always be the most powerful recruiting tool you have!

There are 3 types of stories:

Your Upline’s Story
Your Story
Your Team Member’s Story

Your Upline’s Story

When you first begin your home business your story will not be complete yet and maybe it isn’t as impressive as someone else who has been working their home business longer and has become super successful.

This is why it is important to share your upline’s story. This can be anyone you know of within your upline or in your company who has a compelling story that really resonates with you and the person you have been in contact with.

Learn these amazing stories and practice sharing them. As you talk with your prospects remember-always LISTEN and let them talk about themselves first. You will be surprised to see how well one of your stories relates with them once you have listened!

It will be natural to share something like, “I completely know what you mean! One of my upline leaders went through the same thing” and then you will share their story. Be sure to end the story with something like, “And she was able to quit both her jobs and be home with her children working her home business! Actually they just spent a month in Hawaii on vacation together as a family and are now able to afford the adoption they have had their hearts set on for so many years now”.

Again, if your prospect is talking about a health challenge they are facing share a story of someone you know of who has had a similar health challenge resolved because of your products. They will care much more about that than if you list off all the “proven” ingredients in your products and how they work within the body. Or if they are having trouble financially, share a story of someone you know of who has reached financial freedom in a similar area with your opportunity instead of showing them the compensation plan that they will not understand anyway.

That is how you build relationships. That is how you set yourself apart from everyone else.

Your Story

Of course the next story you want to develop is your own! You will have two separate stories that you will develop as you build your home business.

First is your “financial” or “business building” story.

Second is your “product” story.

The reason your own personal story is so powerful is that when you tell your own story, your ability to develop a bond with a prospect is truly maximized.

If your story is relatable to your prospect it gives the most compelling foundation to build a relationship on.

If your story is product related, imagine how powerful it will be when you share with someone that you had the same struggle but this product changed everything!

Or imagine if it is related to finances or a lifestyle goal and to be able to share that you have already achieved the very goal that your prospect is looking for! And, even more compelling, is the fact they your prospect now knows that they will have YOU to help them succeed since you have already done it!

A great story snowballs success and that is why every top earner continues to use them as a foundation for consistent and significant results.

Your Team Member’s Story

The last type of story is just as powerful to use.

The story of one of your team members.

This could be the story of one of your personally sponsored team members or someone who was sponsored by someone below you in your organization.

Telling this person’s story is more compelling than telling your upline’s story and it can also be more powerful than telling your own.

Why?

Simple. The story is about someone who has joined your business and you have helped become successful.

Now that is compelling because your prospect is in the exact same position as your team member who is now successful. Now they have been given the right mental picture of exactly how they are going to become successful by following your example.

Each of these stories is compelling.

Each has their own place.

And instead of throwing facts and numbers and ingredients at someone they simple share real-life examples of how people’s lives have changed with your product or your opportunity. They don’t feel like they are being “sold to” and you don’t feel awkward sharing because a story is personal and relatable and genuine.

Best of all, these stories are relevant at any stage of your relationship with your prospect.

Stories can help you capture someone’s interest. They can help get people to ask for more information (at which point you direct them to one of your tools to do the busy work) and they can compel a person right then and there to join you!

A Practical Example

Let’s go over an example:

A woman name Jane is actively looking for a home business opportunity on the internet. She does a lot of research and comes up with a few options that interest her. For each she fills out a contact form on a lead capture page.

The first site she looks at is John’s. He has Jane’s information because she filled out the contact form on the lead capture page. He calls her immediately and goes into sales mode. He quickly tells her that his company is the best and exactly what products they have and amazing the compensation plan is.

He has just dumped a load of information on her and she ends the call feeling overwhelmed and confused as she can’t remember what he even told her.

The other site she looked at was Jim’s. Jim also gives Jane a call. But instead of immediately filling her ear with facts and numbers and ingredients, he patiently takes the time to ask her about herself. Since he already knows she is interested in a home business he asks her what made her open to starting one. He then asks what she did for a living and what she is looking for.

What he has done is he has given Jane the opportunity to talk and share her voice. He learns that she is a stay-at-home mother whose husbands has worked 6 days a week, 65 hours each week to provide for them and that they are struggling under their own student loan debt from college and that this home business opportunity is something they desperately need.

Jim is then able to relate to Jane that his wife also stays at home with their children. He also tells her of his friend who started with this opportunity to help pay off their crushing financial debt and in just 3 months was making over $1,200 each month.

This is highly effective prospecting! Jim never uses any “selling” techniques on Jane. Not direct anyway. And Jane feels comfortable with Jim and feels like he genuinely cares about her and is not out to make a quick buck off of her. You can imagine what her answer will probably be when Jim asks if he can send her an email with a link to a video he thinks she will enjoy.

Even better is the fact that Jane is asking him questions. He never has to chase her down, instead she is eager to learn more.

Between the two approaches there is no comparison.

The facts and numbers based approach is all about selling while the story approach is about relationship.

Stories will transform your home business! Be sure to take the time to develop and practice your stories!

The Important Difference Between Marketing, Selling and Advertising

I’ve heard the same sentence from many small business owners: “I’ve tried that, it doesn’t work for my business”. The practice of advertising is a mystery to most small business owners. For them it’s hard enough trying to perfect the process of doing business with their clients; the acquisition of new clients is a whole other challenge. Most business owners aren’t fully aware of the difference between advertising and marketing.

Let’s take some of the mystery out of the practices.

One of the most misunderstood aspects of the process is the distinctions between: marketing, advertising and selling:

Marketing: is the overall collection of tools used to build your business. Marketing has one overall objective – to drive clients through the process of noticing your business, purchasing from your business, enjoying the products or services of your business successfully enough to tell their friends and family and come back for more if applicable.

Some of the tools of marketing include:

1. Advertising

2. Public Relations

3. Direct Mail

4. Personal Sales

5. Internet

6. Print Promotions

7. Education

Advertising: Advertising doesn’t sell to your audience, it is a tool similar to the male ostrich tail; its job is to get you noticed for the specific things you do well. Advertising promotes the distinguishing features, benefits and advantages of your offer to a wide market. The goal of advertising is to bring in valuable leads for the selling process to take place.

I’ve sold Yellow Page advertising to business owners who initially felt that Yellow Page ads brought a lot of callers who were just shopping around. They didn’t want to waste time with “looky loo’s”.

If someone takes the time to make a phone call or send you an email regarding your product or service, why treat them with disdain? These folks are looking for the right answers to their problems. Even more important, they each know about 250 other people personally. Each opportunity to make a connection or a sale should be treated as equally important.

Selling: Once advertising has attracted the potential buyer, the selling process takes over. This is done either by personal sales or the use of point of purchase materials (ie., a store display, video demonstration etc.). Selling should come into play after a prospect has been determined to be right for the product or service.

The mystery and confusion begins when a business owner must decide what tools to use in the process of client acquisition. To whom should you advertise? Where should you advertise and why? How do you advertise? What kind of return should I expect to make on my advertising program? When do I use the other tools of marketing to bolster my advertising program? What should my ratio be between advertising and selling?

To whom should you advertise? Let’s be very clear about this one. You should never put a single dollar into advertising until you know who you will eventually sell your product or service to. You should not even be in business if you have no clue who you want to do business with.

Marketing is used to identify your ideal market. Sure, you may not get 100% of your ideal market, but if you know who will most likely benefit from what you have to sell or service, you can get more of them.

For example, if you’re a chiropractor in a big city, your ideal market might be the couple in their late 40’s to early 60’s that’re health conscious and active. They are looking to stay fit and are open to CAM’s (Complimentary and alternative medicines.). They may have an unfavorable view of the current healthcare system and wish to take a proactive approach to health maintenance. So let’s say after determining your ideal market, you identify 15,000 of them in your market region. So now you have 15,000 likely prospects to reach on a regular basis.

Where should you advertise and why? If you wanted to find a 34 year old Buddhist from Cambodia where would you look for one? The question may seem a bit silly but you know that you wouldn’t start by going to all the mosques in the area.

Sometimes you do have to eliminate all the unlikely places to search until you get to the most likely ones.

You must, of course choose the targets of your ad programs based on how many of your intended prospects will likely see your message. If the local health club in your area has a demographic membership of over 3,000 45 to 65 year olds, you might want to advertise in their monthly newsletter. If they don’t have a newsletter, you may want to sponsor one for them.

Remember the “The best place to go fishing is where the fish are biting”. Take the time to know about your target audience and their buying habits.

How do you advertise? Imagine that your very expensive Mercedes breaks down and the mechanic says that it’s your fuel pump. He needs to change it so he’s going to take a blow torch and cut through your hood, crack open your engine block and then replace the fuel pump. Once he’s done, he’ll weld all the parts back together and get your vehicle back to you.

Would you give this guy the OK to go to work on your vehicle? Of course you wouldn’t. Once you determine what you need to do, you have to be careful about how you execute the solution.

Coming back to our chiropractor, if he finds that the best way to reach the 15,000 couples ages 45 to 65 in his area is through the Yellow Pages; then he needs to decide if it’s cost effective, timely and competitive.

The goal now is to figure out the best way to reach all or most of those 15,000 ideal prospects.

Will he get comparable results from the repeated exposure in the health club newsletter where he’ll have a captive audience and no competition?

There’s no reason not to use both the Yellow Pages and the health club newsletter if they pull their weight economically. The goal of advertising is to gain valuable leads for the selling process to take place.

What kind of return should I expect to make on my advertising program? My answer to my clients to this question is usually a shocker; the answer is a big fat zero (0). How can a business owner spend so much money on advertising and expect no money in return?

This is the basis of the confusion between marketing, advertising and selling. Advertising’s value in the marketing mix is in lead generation. When properly used as such, the measurement of its effectiveness is in how many leads are generated.

This is why it’s so important to distinguish between the various tools of marketing. If our chiropractor had 20 leads coming in each day from his ad campaign and the front desk had a lousy conversion ratio, I bet that he’d blame his ad for not pulling in more clients.

Gauge your response rate when quantifying advertising results. Measure the number of leads coming in and adjust the ad copy to test for better results.

When do I use the other tools of marketing to bolster my advertising program? Advertising should never be used alone. Please remember that the average adult has to deal with over 2700 messages a day from all types of media.

Marketing should be seen as a combined effort to reach the minds and hearts of your target market. You should be using at least five of the seven tools of marketing every week. Depending on the age of your business and your business plan, you should be budgeting 10 to 15% of your estimated annual revenues for marketing. If you just opened your doors in the last five years, crank that up to 20%. There’s a reason that Pepsi and Coke spend over 400 million a year each to satisfy their shareholders bottom-line.

What should my ratio be between advertising and selling? Think of the relationship between advertising and sales as a complimentary one. If your advertising is generating a large number of leads, tailor your sales strategy to convert at least 30% of your leads while capturing all your leads for systematic follow-ups.

Keep in mind that at any given time, 3% of your market is ready to commit to your product or service. The goal is first to convert the 3% of your leads. Then to work on selling to the ones who are on the fence. Whether through personal sales, direct marketing, or point of purchase sales, your ratio will be determined by several factors, the offer, the product or service and the immediate need of the prospects and of course, price.

Don’t get too anal about the ratios. The most important thing to remember is that marketing is an inexact science. You will have to keep testing and trying for better results as the market changes.

Determine the value of a new client and the life time value of your clients. Once you do that, be sure that your marketing efforts are bringing in enough new business to cover the cost of getting new clients and that your sales efforts cover the cost of keeping you in business.

Tweak the numbers and track consistently. If your estimated marketing budget is $37,500 for the year, and your estimated revenue is $250,000 then you have a standard starting point.

At the end of the year your numbers should add up. If you haven’t made the $250,000 don’t simply blame your advertising, look at your leads list and determine if you’ve converted the required number into sales.

If you don’t have a leads list then we need to re-evaluate your purpose for advertising.

Advantages Of Building Bulk Email Lists for Marketing Your Business

Sending bulk email for acquiring new clients is a strong and effective marketing strategy. For businesses that are reluctant to even try bulk email marketing you might benefit from this read;

“The complaint I receive from many entrepreneurs, and marketers alike, is they have considered email list marketing for their advertising needs but have not found a good starting point I have found that that most first-time email marketers do achieve success within the first 30 days and ongoing email marketing only builds your email lists bigger and more relevant with each campaign sent”.

Email List Marketing Works For Big Brands, It Drives Traffic And Revenue

Let’s take a look at some recent stats that highlight why email list marketing is something to consider moving into 2016

Over 70 percent of marketers agree that email marketing is core to their business.
60 percent of marketers claim that email is a critical enabler of products and services, versus 42 percent of marketers in 2014.
20 percent of marketers say that their business’ primary revenue source is directly linked to email operations.
43 percent of businesses have email teams of 2-3 people.
74 percent of marketers believe email produces or will produce ROI in the future.
For 69.7 percent of US internet users, email is the preferred method of communicating with businesses.

5 Practical Reasons You Should Consider Bulk Email Marketing for 2016

Let’s put aside the stats and data for a second and talk about the real practical reasons you should be sending email for your business.

Here is practical advice and what this author believes to demand from your email list marketing company;

Some bulk email software’s allow you to send an unlimited amount of email and it can be fully automated, and work in compliance with responsible email marketing practices and can-spam act of 2003 to remove opt-outs and non-deliverables, spam score checkers, and more features added automatically with any web based bulk email software platform.
With web-based software there is nothing to download or install, you can simply log into your online software account from anywhere to manage, send, and monitor your campaigns. This is an advantage as the email campaigns do not send from your internet connection or email account and you can add and remove domains and IPs for perpetual campaign longevity.
No setup cost and no contracts are almost expected these days; you want to choose a month to month billing that offers you the control to cancel at any time, but more importantly and a pro-rated billing system so you can upgrade or downgrade at anytime only paying the difference in pricing. This is very important as this will keep your overall costs under control and you can grow with your new sales strategy.
Purchasing email lists from a credible email list provider can allow you to choose targeted categories further for pinpointing your demographic before sending. This provides an excellent opportunity to try different categories that you might have previously overlooked with other advertising allowing you to realize new marketing opportunity.
Build exclusive opener and clicker lists. This is extremely effective as it builds new email list databases for future campaigns and is a great marketing strategy to implement right from the start. These contacts can automatically be added to new separately named email list databases and can build automatically for you each time you send an email campaign.

3 Things To Look For When Starting Email Marketing For The First Time

An email marketing campaign might be sounding more exciting by the second but not so fast! Well if you think you’re ready to dive into email marketing you might just be, however here are a few additional considerations to explore before you start sending out your first email marketing newsletter.

Email marketing is not easy requires some additional learning like any software. Excellent email marketing takes practice and just be to properly check your ad copy for spelling and grammar, formatting, and other errors. Always split test trying out a few different ads and subject headers then run with your best performer. Many make the mistake to blast out one ad to 100 percent of the list, break it up a bit and think more about longevity.
Basic feature you should demand from the email list, and bulk email Software Company you choose to send and manage your campaigns: No Setup Fee, Month to Month billing, Pro-Rated so you can increase/decrease the sending volume when desired, provides both email lists and email software under one brand, offers support and easy to contact via phone and email, a company with some online history and credibility. Choose your email marketing company wisely.
When shopping around be sure you choose a company that offers everything email marketing under one roof, this makes them accountable and provides consumer confidence. There are many companies that provide email marketing services, but most do not offer the email lists and ability to send using a web-based software all under one umbrella.

Now you are prepared for sending your first email campaign even if you’ve never done it before, throw caution to the wind and test it out for 2016.

Beginner’s Guide To Making Money Online With Internet Marketing

While it is true that it is not easy to experience online success, there are a variety of methods available for making money on the Internet. In order to be successful in making money online, one needs to acquire a handful of skills. Often, making money online is all about using ideas that are already working for others by expanding on them. For this reason, research is the key to success for beginners who are looking to earn money online. The following methods outlined below are all legitimate online sources of income that have proven to be successful for thousands of people.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is perhaps the most lucrative online business for beginners. An affiliate marketer helps merchants find buyers by referring them to the merchant’s products via a website. The affiliate earns a commission and referral programs are available from a wide range of e-commerce sites, including Amazon and Google. Beginners can use affiliate networks sites, which represent businesses that provide affiliate programs. This is a good option for beginners to make money online because there is no need for investing any money.

Blogging

Blogs started out as personal diaries, but soon they evolved to actual web sites. Bloggers can monetize their sites by placing referral links for specific affiliate programs. Starting a blog is free and they are a convenient way to establish an online presence quickly. The only downside is that it takes commitment to run a money-making blog, because bloggers need to write new content regularly in order to keep visitors coming back.

Online Auctions

Many people are making money with online auctions, either by selling stuff they do not need any more or by establishing proper online stores. Selling through online auctions means that there is no need to own an actual store. Many of the big sellers on websites such as eBay run their businesses from a small home office. For being successful with online auctions, you need to know your niche perfectly and study your competitors. Make sure you can compete against other sellers in your same market before setting up your store. A very lucrative way of making money with online auctions is to buy products in bulk at wholesale prices from China or India and sell them for profit.

Product Creation

Making money from product creation means selling information in the form of instructional e-books or recordings. Ranging from weight-loss secrets to relationships advice, these products can be delivered on DVDs or through downloads. In order for a product to be successful, the information should not be available from any other accessible research materials. This is a good method for making money online for those who are talented writers and have an in-depth knowledge of a given topic. Products created for online distribution are easy to deliver and there are very little initial costs involved.

Overall it is widely acknowledged that starting a business online, especially in the current economic climate is the cheapest and most cost effective route to take over ‘brick and mortar’ businesses.

Grow Your Business With The Digital Marketing Strategy

Whether you’re re-launching a product, starting a business, or strategizing a new digital marketing plan for next year, understanding the fundamentals of digital marketing is essential to your success.

For marketers at small businesses, solo-marketers or those working for a large corporate team, digital marketing tactics will help your organization get found online by the right people to attract, convert, close and delight with your products and services.

So What Exactly is Digital Marketing?

Digital marketing is an umbrella term for all of your online marketing efforts. Businesses leverage digital channels such as Google search, social media, email, and their websites to connect with their current and prospective customers.

From your website itself to your online branding assets – digital advertising, email marketing, online brochures, and beyond – there’s a huge spectrum of tactics and assets that fall under the umbrella of digital marketing.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the most common assets and tactics:

Assets

Blog posts

Social media channels (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, etc.)

Earned online coverage (PR, social media, and reviews)

Online brochures and lookbooks

Branding assets (logos, fonts, etc.)common assets and tactics:

eBooks and whitepapers

Interactive tools

Being a newbie marketer, it’s obviously scary for you to rely on a new technology you’re stranger to. But, We are telling here four compelling reasons why you should dispense a part of your marketing budget for digital marketing.

1. It Helps To Pitch Those Who Are Interested

It propagates methods and solutions that help to target your customers on the basis of consumer demographics, behaviors, interactions and several other segmentation. Using paid search, you can create adverts that target those audiences who are affluent enough to buy your product. Though I won’t predict 100% percent success rate for paid search or PPC, the result it delivers will be better than the traditional methods you’ve used so far. If that interests you, choose any of the popular platforms like Facebook ads, Google Ads and Twitter ads to see your business grow.

2. It Helps To Find, Test and Evaluate

It helps you come up with a more effective marketing strategy for your brand. Even after execution of the campaign, you can measure its performance like that traffic it got and conversation happened using analytics tools such as Google Analytics and Facebook insights. From planning to performance reporting, the tools let you measure the results precisely.

3. Create, Change, Create, Change… and so on

Can you change a newspaper or radio advert if you notice ambiguity in the first place or feeling it weak enough to serve the purpose? Absolutely not. With digital marketing, you can do it. You can edit or rewrite a blog/ article or review written to promote a campaign even after getting it published. Similarly, the online ad campaigns made for Facebook and other advertisement platforms can be run, stopped, or modified at any point in time. So, the advantages are visible. Test your campaign and keep experimenting until you end up with the most effective marketing campaign.

4. It’s Interactive. Ask Feedback and Improve

Another benefit of having digital marketing methods on board is that you can begin and moderate two-way communication with buyers. Digital marketing enables two way communication with outer world and helps to gain insight how audience is responding to your campaign. For instance, marketers can participate in group discussions running across the social network groups & communities, and can discuss in detail about their products and services on offer.