Affordable Online Business Strategies
Archive for July, 2009
3 Ways To Make Your Review Page More Effective
Jul 30th
There’s a lot of people using review sites. And for good reason. Every affiliate marketer has one main goal – to make a commission. And to do that you have to get people to see your link. And you have to get them to click on that link.
One of the best ways is to create a review page. But if there are dozens of other marketers doing the same thing, what can you do to stand out?
These ideas come from viewing a lot of review site myself. I buy a lot of Internet Marketing products. So I search to see what others are saying about the product. And what follows are the three things that made me sit up and take notice. And maybe they are worth you trying on your own review pages.
1. Tell me if there is a secret discount.
Have you ever gone to a sales page, read through it, and decided to leave the site? Maybe you decided not to order, or were going to think about it for a bit. Sometimes, when you try to leave, there is a pop-up with a message to stay at the site for a discount.
Sometimes there is a discount code, and it will be included in the review. Sometimes their is a “secret” link on the page that leads to a discount.
I like a discount, and if a reviewer tells me how to save money on a product that I’m already interested in, guess what? I’ll be very likely to click on THEIR link.
2. Let me know if there are any One Time Offers, what they are, and if they are worth considering.
For me, when I read through a sales page and decide to order, it’s because I’ve decided that the cost of the product is reasonable to me. I have the money in my budget, and I’m willing to part with it.
When I’m hit with an OTO, it can be an unpleasant surprise. It’s not that One Time Offers are a bad thing. It’s just that I didn’t plan on spending any more money.
If the review site tells me that there is an upsell, and “Reviews” the OTO, I’ll know what to expect. I’ve come across review sites that do this, and sometimes they’ll point out that the offer is worth it. And sometimes they’ll recommend that I pass on it. Good info to have.
3. Let me know if there is a monthly continuity built into the product.
Some sales pages are very vague on this point. One of the bonuses is access to a private forum or site free for 30 days. Sometimes it’s not clearly pointed out that if you don’t cancel, you’ll be charged a monthly membership fee.
This is good marketing. When it’s out in the open and clear. If not, it’s an unpleasant surprise. A review page that points out any continuity attached to the product, as well as a review it, is a good site in my book.
Learn How To Put Up Review Sites With A Unique Twist That Will Get Visitors And Sales With Free Traffic. Click Here For More Info…
How A Book Report Is Like A Review Page
Jul 25th
It can be kind of difficult to write a good review for a product. I know it is for me. When you’re promoting stuff as an affiliate, you HAVE to get good at writing reviews. That’s what you have to do. Tell people about a product and get them to click through to the site.
The thing I’m trying to do is to be different from the “crowd”. What do I mean by that? Well, what I do is search on “Product Name Review” and see what other affiliates are doing. In a lot of cases, the sites are very similar.
Some of these reviews are almost like the car salesman commercials that I’ve seen on my local television stations. The guy is talking really loud and fast, waving his arms, and telling me to get to his dealership right now and buy a car. Very pushy and high pressure.
There’s no real substance to the review, just a lot of opportunities to click the link to go to the sales page. I already know how to get to the sales page. What I’m looking for is more information on why I should consider buying the product. I already know that the affiliate wants me to buy. We all want visitors to buy from our link. What I’m looking for is the “Why”.
What I’m doing for my own reviews is two-fold. One is that I try to write like I’m talking to one person. I’m telling that one person who I imagine is sitting across the kitchen table from me about the product. The second is that I look at writing a review kind of like writing a book report.
Remember writing book reports is school? You read a book, and write a summary of what the book is about. Writing a review is a lot like that.
You start off explaining what the product is. Then you go into what the product does, what it solves, and how people will benefit from buying it. You summarize what you’ve said and tell them how to get it.
It’s as simple as that. Explain, and don’t rant. You wouldn’t recommend something to a friend or family member by talking fast and loud, waving your arms, and telling them over and over that they should hurry up and buy a product.
No. You would walk up to them and start a conversation -
“I just found out about this product, and I think you might be interested. It might be just what you’re looking for. Here’s what the product will help you with:
Benefit 1
Benefit 2
Benefit 3
I’m really happy with the product and I think you might like to take a look at it for yourself. Here’s how to find out more.”
Kind of like a book report. Not full of hype. Just good information that will make the buying decision easier. And that’s what a good review page should do. Make it natural for a visitor to want to click on your link.
Want to get the most out of your review sites without PPC costs. A “Twist” on traditional affiliate review sites that generates sales with free traffic. More info here…
One Of The Most Misleading Offers I've Seen
Jul 18th
I just came across a product recommendation that made me mad. I mean really mad. The sales page was so misleading and made such outrageous claims that I couldn’t believe it.
I’m not going to reveal the name of the product or the marketer that recommended it. One thing you can count on is that I have unsubscribed from that marketers list.
While I’m not going to reveal the product name, I will go over some of the things that I found disturbing on the sales page.
First, they claimed that there are thousands of companies out there that need people to place ads on the Internet. Apparently, these companies don’t have the time to place all of the ads they need, and that opens up the opportunity for you and I to place the ads. And the companies would be happy to pay us to do it.
Sounds a lot like Pay Per Click to me. Instead of coming out and saying that you could become an affiliate marketer by using PPC, they suggest that all you would be doing is placing ads. In the sales copy, it was stated that all you had to do was fill out simple forms, submit the ads, and get paid for doing it. It clear that this is talking about PPC. And with PPC, you aren’t certain that you’re going to make money. In fact, a lot of people lose a lot of money fast.
The sales copy also stated that the companies would pay you every week or two. Sounds like ClickBank or similar affiliate sites.
This product is along the same lines as some of the recent products that have come out saying that you could advertise on PPC networks for free. If you read the copy closely, what they’re really saying is that you’ll get more money in your commission checks than your advertising cost. You still have to pay for the ads.
And remember that you have to pay for the ads whether you make any sales or not. And you have to pay for the advertising first, and then hope that either you make enough to cover the cost of the ads, or that you have enough credit left to cover your ad costs.
Don’t believe that you can get paid for placing ads because thousands of companies don’t have time to do it themselves. It’s not true, and you’ll be wasting your money and getting your hopes up if you buy this or any similar product.
Here’s The Simplest Possible Way To Generate Commissions As An Affiliate WITHOUT PPC. Click for more info…
The Quickest Way I Know To Get Your Site Indexed
Jul 17th
We all want free traffic. There are a lot of things that go into getting a lot of that free traffic. There are entire courses covering the subject. What I want to go over is the quickest way I’ve found to get the search engines to index your site. Not how to get loads of traffic. I’m still trying to figure that one out.
When a new site is created, the first step is to get your site indexed as quickly as possible. What I discovered is that getting links from other sites that are indexed gets your new sites indexed. At least that was my experience.
Last November, I picked up Info Product Killer. It laid out a way of building sites that promote products from Amazon by getting free traffic. I created 8 new sites. What I did next was to link to them from 2 of my existing blogs.
In less than a week, I was indexed by Google, followed by MSN and Ask a few days later. The traffic was pretty low at first, but it was all free.
Since then, without any more linking and just adding a page every month or so, my traffic has been steadily increasing.
I’ve read information from several search engine pros that you should never submit your sites to the search engines, and to just let them find you.
Linking from my blogs did the trick. The nice thing about blogs - and I know this from looking at my web stats – is that the bots are coming around at least once a week to index the blog. Since the only thing I did to point to my new sites was to link from 2 of my blogs, I can be pretty sure that these links were the reason why my new sites were indexed and started to get traffic.
This is something that is free for you to do. If you don’t have existing blogs or web sites that you can link from, you can put up a blog on your site.
A few other ideas are to get a free blog a blogger.com or wordpress.com. You can sign up for a free Squidoo account and create a page there as well. And of course you can write and submit articles. Write some content and include a link back to your new sites.
Then keep an eye on your web stats inside your hosting account to see if and when the bots show up. Then see if you start to get some traffic.
This isn’t about getting a ton of traffic immediately. It’s about the first step in getting free traffic, which is getting your site indexed.
There Are Still Affordable Follow-Up Autorepsonders
Jul 11th
Every online business should be using an autoresponder service. It’s essential if you are going to build a mailing list. If you’re not sure what a follow-up autoresponder is, do a search and you’ll get tons of information.
Recently, two of the most recommended autoresponder services changed their pricing dramatically. You used to be able to have up to 10,000 subscribers for less than $20 a month. These two services now charge over $60 if you have 10,000 subscribers, but apparently you get a lot more features.
The service was working pretty well when the price was under $20. I didn’t see a lot of complaining on the forums about these two services. It’s my guess that most of us don’t need or would even use the new and improved autoresponders.
There are still a lot of affordable autoresponder services out there that will allow you to grow your list to 10,000 and not have to pay more than $20 a month.
There is an option that you could consider that I don’t recommend. And that is to purchase an autoresponder script and put it on your own site. If you get spam complaints, you could have your site shut down. And there is also the issue of getting your messages delivered.
An autoresponder service will usually have cleared the way for your mail to get delivered. Check out the sales page of any service you’re considering for details.
And don’t think that everyone uses the two most popular services. There are a lot of successful online marketers that use other services. Here are a few autoresponder services that you should check out, and no, these ARE NOT AFFILIATE LINKS!
RapidResponseBot.com
Right now they are running a summer special where you get an entire year for $49. That’s $4.08 a month.
WizardResponder.com
Up to 10,000 subscribers for only $8.97 a month.
EmailAces.com
Up to 2500 subscribers – $8.95 a month.
Up to 5,000 subscribers – $14.95 a month.
Up to 10,000 subscribers – $19.95 a month.
SendFree.com
Unlimited autoresponders. First month free, then $19.97 a month.
There are still excellent services out there for under $20 that make sure your messages are delivered and offer more features than you’ll probably ever need or use. Check them out and get started on building your list!
Getting The Most Out Of Your Affiliate Commissions
Jul 10th
While affiliate marketing is an effective way to generate a good income, there is a drawback that all of us have to deal with. Your job is to generate traffic to your offer and get visitors to the vendor’s site so you can get paid.
Once your visitor sees your offer, they leave your site, either by clicking through to the offer or they decide they aren’t interested and they leave. They will probably never return to your site.
So you have to constantly work to drive new visitors to your offers. This isn’t an issue if you’re building a list with your visitors. But if you’re not, it can be hard to keep the traffic flowing.
You’ve probably noticed that there a lot of membership sites popping up. The type of membership site we’re interested in is one that charges a monthly fee. Here’s why…
In the same way that a lot of products offer an affiliate program, a lot of membership sites also offer affiliate programs.
Your profit per sale from products that have a one-time cost will usually be higher up front. They are also more expensive than monthly cost products.
Memberships and products that are delivered monthly will get you a smaller commission up front, but you are going to get paid for as long as someone remains a customer.
And the typically lower cost of the monthly membership can make recurring billing products a lot more attractive and easier to sell than higher cost one-off products.
If you get a 50 percent commission from a $97 product, you’ll get $48.50 per sale. If you get a 50 percent commission from a membership site that sells for $27 a month, you’ll get $18.50 per sale.
At first it looks like you’re better off selling the $97 product. But remember that you only get paid once for that product. With the recurring billing product, you’re going to get paid for as long as the customer stays subscribed.
Promoting recurring billing products can pay you month after month and make your life a lot easier because you’ll keep getting paid for getting the sale once. Instead of having to begin each month trying to figure out how you can generate the commissions you need to pay your bills, you can look forward to getting a check for the work you did in previous months.
Hope this helps…
How To Easily Create A Profitable Business With Small Reports
Jul 9th
There is a business that is easy for anyone to get into that is often overlooked by marketers. I’ve mentioned this a lot recently, and for good reason – it is the best way to get started in the process of creating your own products.
You know all about writing and selling ebooks. If you’re on many lists at all, you’ve seen a LOT of offers for downloadable ebooks. And there is no shortage of “GURUS” that are recommending that everyone create their own products.
There are courses out there that will walk you through the process. But writing a 50-100+ page book can be a long and tiring task. And if it doesn’t sell, you’ve wasted a lot of valuable time.
The business model of Small Reports is just as profitable, yet a lot less work and easier to do. Your job is to create 7-15 page small reports.
Jimmy D. Brown is the creator of Small Reports Fortune, a step by step guide to creating a profitable information business. Here is a sample taken from the paid course:
How To Make A Small Fortune Online With Small Reports
Hello, this is Jimmy D. Brown. Welcome to Small Reports Fortune where I’m going to teach you “How To Make A Small Fortune Online With Small Reports”.
We’ll talk at length about how to do this, but I want to kind of encapsulate everything into one opening statement as we begin our presentation –
The ultimate information business is finding a target audience and then convincing them to make repeated purchases from you.
An age-old marketing law is this: “it’s much easier to sell MORE to existing customers than it is to find new customers to sell to”. Your information business stands to gain serious momentum when you offer multiple, related offers to your customer base.
Instead of selling a customer a $20 ebook and then looking for the next customer, you’ll want to setup a system to offer her a $20 ebook, then a $40 product, then a $497 product and finally a $1997 offer. (These are just “generalities”, of course)
And it’s all going to build upon this foundation of creating short, 7-15 page reports.
The important thing is to get your existing customers to spend MORE money with you. Learn this: the more money each customer spends with you, the less customers you’ll need to reach $100K per year.
The idea is simple: get your target audience (subscribers + customers) to repeatedly spend money with you.
Once you have worked to secure a customer or subscriber, why not allow them to spend as much money with you as they are willing?
I’m not suggesting that you exploit your relationship with others and coerce them into purchasing sub-par products or things they don’t really have a need to buy. I’m talking about making products and services available that provide genuine usefulness to those who are in a position to buy.
There’s a big, big difference between these two statements:
“This product is going to change your business forever … it’s the best product I’ve seen in months … if you don’t buy this today, then you’re absolutely nuts … it’s what I consider to be a ‘must-have’ for anyone who’s serious!”
“If you’re ready to XYZ, then I’ve found this product to be very beneficial in my own business. I use it myself and here are the results that I’ve achieved. I highly recommend it and will even give you a free copy of XYZ if you are one of the first 50 who buy it.”
Both are attempting to get the sale. But one is full of hype and the other is reasonable.
Back to my point. You need to get your target audience to buy from you. And buy again. And again. And again.
Despite popular belief, you can do this without being a money-hungry, conscious-less, in-your-face, psychological mind-games coercer. (That’s a mouthful, huh?!)
So, that’s the backdrop of the Small Reports Fortune course. I’m going to teach you how to -
CHOOSE a market, CREATE small reports to sell to them and CASH-IN on your own money-making information business.
What I want to teach you to do in this series is to create small, 7-15 page reports that you sell to your list members in the $10-$20 range…and how to spiral them into premium-priced offers down the road.
You can make a “small fortune” with “small reports” – and I’m going to show you how to do it.
Here’s what it looks like 12 months from now:
You have 12 reports available for $10 each. (One per month) Customers buy the first one and, in time, buy most of the others. (Multiple customer purchases)
You put together package deals of 12 reports for $97. (Larger chunks of cash per transaction)
You launch an affiliate program for the $97 package and sell large quantities of the bundle. (Affiliates love ~$50 commission per order!)
You use your reports to launch “high ticket” offers that sell for $1,000 or more. (Skyrocket your profit!)
You make a “small fortune” with “small reports” (Yes, YOU!)
And it all begins right here.
End of Sample
Take the time to read about Small Reports Fortune. When you land on the site, make sure to get your FREE report “5 Steps To A Big Profit, Small Report Business: How To Turn 7-15 Page Small Reports Into A Six-Figure Information Empire”. This free report is better than a lot of paid reports. Click here for your free report…
Why You Must Decide Why You're Writing Articles In The First Place
Jul 5th
One of the most important things you should do before you write an article is to decide why you’re writing it in the first place. The answer most people come up with is “to get lots of free traffic to my site!”
That’s a good answer, but there are some things to consider. What do you want people to do after they read your article?
Click a link to your affiliate presell page?
Sign up for your newsletter?
Go to your site to download a free report?
Go to your site and read another article?
Go to your site and click on your adsense ads?
You can get traffic from your articles, but if you’re not ready for the traffic they generate, you’re wasting your time.
If you want them to get to your affiliate presell page, read your content, and click on your link to buy the product, you have to have your web page created and uploaded and ready for visitors.
If you’re trying to build your list, have you set up your autoresponder? You need to make sure that you have the subscription form in place and working (you should always test this out to make sure). You have to tell your potential subscriber why they should subscribe to your newsletter. You have to “Sell” your visitor on your newsletter a lot like you do on a product sales page.
If you’re offering a free report, sell it. Once they get to your page, they should see some headlines and bullet points that will convince them that your report is worth getting. If they can download the report without entering an email address, test out the download link and make sure it works. If you are asking for a name and email address, make sure that once they click the submit button that they are sent to the page to get their report and that the page works.
If you are trying to get them to your site to read additional content, does the content you’re sending them to relate to what they just read? If someone reads your 5 best tips on using email marketing, and you give them a link to an article on your site about grooming your dog, there’s a good chance that they’ll hit the back button right away.
All of these things may sound obvious. It’s easy to get caught up in doing keyword research and gathering information for your article. Then polishing your article and getting it submitted. It’s easy to forget to make sure your landing pages are in good shape. If your site isn’t working, your visitor will probably leave, and never return.
So decide what you want your article to accomplish. Write the article. Polish the web page where you’re sending the traffic. And get ready to see some great results.
Get your free copy of 5 Steps To A Big Profit, Small Report Business – How To Turn 7-15 Page Small Reports Into A Six Figure Information Empire. The exact 5 step system you can use to create tiny reports that rake in thousands of dollars a month. Click here for immediate access…
Using Articles To Get Visitors To Your Review Site
Jul 4th
If you’re an affiliate marketer, and you’ve decided to set up a review site using the strategy that’s outlined in The Conduit Method, you’re relying on free traffic.
One of the ways to get that free traffic is to write and submit articles that point back to your review site. You have to be careful when you write your article that you don’t make it look like an advertisement. Some of the article directories won’t let you submit an article if it is submitted to directly sell something.
So what do you write about if you can’t write an article that recommends the product that you’re promoting?
The easiest way I’ve found to come with ideas for articles is to go to the sales page of the product that you’re promoting. Notice the bullet points that highlight how the buyer will benefit from the product.
Let’s use the example of a software application that will submit your article to hundreds of article directories for you. I’m going to select three bullet points to write articles on.
1. It submits to hundreds of article directories.
I would write an article that points out the advantages of getting your article listed on as many directories as possible, and how doing it yourself would take a very long time for each article. Point out that there is software that will submit the articles for them.
2. Your articles will start to be indexed by the major search engines in 48 hours.
Write an article explaining the benefit of submitting articles – they will start to get indexed in 48 hours, and could start bringing them traffic in a few days.
3. Articles that you submit will generate free traffic for you.
Explain the benefits of getting traffic for free, and how they will be getting backlinks to their sites by submitting articles.
You’re writing articles about the benefits of submitting content to the directories. You’re not using big claims or any sales message. You’re taking the bullet points of the sales letter and expanding on each one to create an article.
At the end of the article, in your resource box, you include a link to the review page on your site, where you recommend the product that you are promoting. You’ve already shown the reader that you write useful quality content. Now you show them your product that will save them time and help them to get loads of traffic.
Do this to promote affiliate products and you won’t have to worry about your article being rejected. Even if it is accepted, if your article is too promotional, there’s not much chance that anyone would be willing to republish it on their sites or in their ezines. So you won’t get a very good response for your effort.
Get all the keywords you need to dominate your niche from Google, Yahoo, and WordTracker. Try it out for 14 days for only $1. Click here for access…
One Thing You Should Always Do Before You Click The Order Link
Jul 3rd
One thing I have noticed lately is that on a lot of sales pages, if I decide I’m not interested in what is being offered or I plan to come back later is that a window appears. In that window is a “Virtual Agent” who is typing a message. It can also be a pop-up window that offers me a video or newsletter.
I can click on “Cancel” to leave the page, or I can click “Continue” to stay on the page. It has become so common that most of the time I leave the page.
If I decide to order the product being offered, I click on the buy link and never see the “Virtual Agent” or the message.
I’ve started actually taking the time to see what the “Agent” is typing, and what I have found is that a lot of the time there is an offer to get an additional discount.
I wouldn’t have gotten that discount if I had decided to purchase and clicked on the order button. And I probably would have never known that I missed out on a better deal.
The lesson here is that any time you get to a sales page and decide to order, stop!
Hit the back button on your browser or enter another url and see if you get an offer for a discount. It doesn’t always happen, and if it doesn’t, you can always go back to the sales page and order.
The reason I noticed this is that there is a sales page that uses this technique that you can check out for yourself to see what I’m talking about. It’s for a product called Dominating Niches.
Go to the site, and then try to leave. You’ll see what I’m talking about for yourself. Click here to see the site.
