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Start Affiliate Marketing?

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Which Is Better: Being an Affiliate or Product Owner?

Many online marketers are earning a lot of money strictly selling other people’s products as an affiliate.  They never own their own information product – they just drive targeted traffic to a site and earn a commission for each sale.

So what are the pros and cons of launching an Internet marketing career as an affiliate versus a product owner?  As an affiliate, you don’t have to worry about  the product creation phase or the expenses involved in setting up your systems for shopping cart technology, list-building, and other aspects of Internet marketing.

But a major drawback is that you aren’t in control of the product itself.  You have to scour the ‘net to see if there’s a product you feel confident promoting.  You can do this through ClickBank and other third party affiliate networks, but you’re always going head to head with competing affiliates for a piece of the Internet marketing pie.

As an affiliate, you can’t control the sales copy or bonus items. If the product owner fails to provide good customer service, it could damage your reputation as the one who referred the visitor to the site in the first place.

As a product owner, you’re chained to the entire process from start to finish.  You have to develop a unique idea, create a product or pay to have it created using an outsourcing service, and then get everything up and running if you want your Internet marketing venture to be a success.

You also have to recruit an army of affiliates and provide an ample toolbox filled with strategies they can use to help promote your site.  But you retain control over the details of each site and can test and tweak sales copy for higher conversions and deliver any sort of product or bonus that you feel is worthy to your customers.

Is one particular choice better than the other for the Internet marketer who is considering all of their options?  They each have their attractive qualities and their drawbacks.

In fact, most marketers do a combination of both.  They’ll create their own information product in the form of an eBook and then hyperlink recommendations back to affiliate products that they promote.

This increases the profitability of each product they create and generates even more passive income each time the eBook is promoted by an affiliate for the product they own.

Internet Marketing Tactics and Strategies

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CHOOSING INTERNET MARKETING TACTICS FOR A WEBSITE

When running a website or online business, it’s important to choose the best Internet marketing tactics, which will offer the biggest reward in traffic or income compared to the amount of time or money invested. This is called getting a good ROI (return on investment) from your Internet marketing tactics.

There are many common, and general, forms of Internet marketing, and most can work for a wide variety of websites and online businesses through the different Internet marketing tactics available in each. These are some of the basic types of Internet marketing:

1. Email Marketing – email newsletters, coupons and offers, etc.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – link-building, keyword optimization, etc.
3. Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – search engine advertising, etc.
4. Viral Marketing – video / file-sharing, tell-a-friend, etc.
5. Affiliate Marketing – having others sell your products for a percentage
6. Online Advertising – banner ads, text link ads, sponsorships, etc.
7. Online PR – online press releases, blogging, etc.

There are a few steps in choosing the best Internet marketing tactics for a website or online business:

1. Choose a niche or industry.
2. Identify the target market.
3. Determine what most influences that target market.
4. Evaluate the competition’s strengths, weaknesses, and their marketing tactics.
5. Create an Internet marketing plan, including a marketing budget.

As a part of creating an Internet marketing plan, list all possible Internet marketing tactics that fit your budget and have the potential to reach your target market. Once you have a master list of potential Internet marketing tactics, run each through the following checklist to narrow down the best options, and create your final list of Internet marketing tactics for your website or online business:

__ Will reach the target market.
__ Will be able to influence the target market.
__ Has been used in this niche or other niche’s targeting a similar market successfully before (better if it’s been used to target a similar market, but never exactly done in the current niche)
__ Will set the website apart from the competition.
__ Will fit within the Internet marketing budget for the site.

Branding For SEO

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BRANDING BASICS ON THE WEB

Branding, or brand marketing, is a basic concept in marketing. Essentially, branding involves marketing materials and tactics that help to build and maintain an image with a company’s, or website’s, target market. Branding on the Web is about building recognition of a website, and giving visitors or customers a specific feeling or attitude about the site, based on the message the owner wants to convey. Examples of online branding materials include:

1. A website’s official name.

2. A domain name.

3. A logo.

4. A color scheme.

5. Packaging materials on any products being sold.

6. Images on banner ads for the site.

7. A site slogan.

Building brand recognition, even online where branding materials can be in front of a target market regularly, takes time. Here are some keys to effective branding online:

1. Ensure that all online branding elements actually appeal to the target market.

2. Online branding materials should be memorable, and should portray the company’s intended image.

3. A website’s message to its target audience should be consistent throughout all of its branding materials.

Building a brand image for a website or online business isn’t enough. A webmaster or business owner has to constantly reinforce their branding efforts with their target market. Here are some Internet marketing tactics that help to reinforce brand marketing efforts:

1. Online Advertising (Using the company logo, slogan, color scheme, and message in advertisements when possible keeps a brand visually in front of members of a target market.)

2. Email Marketing (Including a logo and slogan on all email correspondence reinforces branding, while regular communication with members of a target market keeps that message fresh in their minds.)

3. Online PR (Announcing regular news related to a website through press releases or blogging can keep a website’s name and message in front of the target audience. It also provides a way to build and maintain trust in a brand by letting webmasters and online business owners display their expertise in the niche through blog posts and press release quotes.)

Article Marketing For SEO

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ARTICLE MARKETING BASICS

Article marketing involves the process of publishing articles to article directories, e-zines, or websites as a marketing tactic.  The two biggest marketing benefits of article marketing are link-building and reputation-building within a niche. Here are the basic steps of article marketing:

1. Write a niche article (generally in the niche of the writer’s own website or industry in which they work), or hire someone to write a niche article.

2. Create a “resource box” at the end of the article, with the author’s or professional’s byline, and a short bio, which often includes one or more hyperlinks to the author’s website(s).

3. Distribute the article through article directories (for mass publication) or through e-zines and/or niche websites for links or exposure.

How to Use Article Marketing for Link-Building

Article marketing allows a webmaster or online business owner to build a potentially large number of one-way incoming links to their website. This is often done by using article directories, which are large collections of articles.

Article directories generally require an author to grant distribution permissions which allow visitors to the article directories to use those articles on their own websites, e-zines, or elsewhere online. Many directories then require users of the articles (or publishers) to maintain the resource box, including live links.

Every time an article submitted to an article directory is re-published, it provides an additional backlink to the author’s website. Article directories generally allow an unlimited number of publishers to re-publish the content submitted to the site.

How to Use Article Marketing for Reputation-Building

Using article marketing for reputation-building is very similar to using article marketing for link-building. An author would often follow the exact steps as in the previous case, but with a different end goal in mind. The links included in the resource box would point to their business website (such as a lawyer writing legal articles, and then linking to their law firm’s website). In this case, the authors would write on topics in their area of expertise. The idea is to build trust with readers, and their reputation as an expert in the subject matter, to hopefully encourage visits to their business site from potential clients.

Another option for article distribution when using article marketing for reputation-building is to keep the distribution more limited. Some authors will write only for one authority website in their industry or niche, which allows them to include a resource box or otherwise link to their business website. Some authors will distribute an article only to hand-picked niche outlets, although to none exclusively. Still others will distribute their articles through e-zines that reach a targeted email list of potential clients.

SEO making pigs fly

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Search engine optimization also referred to as SEO, is the science of search as it relates to marketing on the web. Search engine optimization marketing is the process of positively influencing the quantity and quality of visitor traffic to a web site from search engines via natural or organic search results utilizing the basic comprehension of search engine algorithms. Generally, the higher a site appears in the search results, the higher it “ranks” for that particular search engine. The higher a website ranks increases the likelihood that more searchers will visit that site.

Search engine optimization marketing is amazingly fluid and is constantly evolving, and while it is mostly technical in nature, SEO has become a philosophy for excellence in online marketing. It is no longer just technical tweaking, great copywriting, numerous links, or just search engine submission. The very best search engine optimization marketing practises benefit from a blended approach and knowledge of how the various facets of a website relate to each other.

SEO is more than just simple techniques, it also combines programming with business knowledge, to obtain the desired results and objectives that define success for a website. An excellent search engine optimization marketing strategy considers how search algorithms work and what people search for, and builds a bridge of relevance to a company’s website. A well executed optimization effort includes reviewing a site’s relevance, appealing presentation to users, a site structure the is easy to use, as well as problem identification that could prevent search engine indexing programs from fully indexing a site. Search engine optimization marketing can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

Before you start optimizing your website, you should understand that the top rankings with every single major search engine and directory can be obtained but results change frequently from competition and a dynamic marketplace. It is the very nature of these influences that requires constant monitoring and ongoing development to keep you ahead of your competition.

“It is not the job of Search Engine Optimization to make a pig fly. It is the job of the SEO to genetically re-engineer the web site so that it becomes an eagle.”

3 Universal Roadblocks to Optimization Success

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The best search engine optimization is more than a strict standard set of practices, it’s doing the right thing for each individual business. Optimization requirements are different for each business, and within each industry. All share these three common obstacles for optimization success.

Problem 1: Seeing Optimization as a Project with An “End Date”

SEO and online marketing in general, isn’t just a destination. It’s a road that must be constantly traveled for optimal levels of success. There is no time when your optimization is “complete” the process can always be improved.

Problem 2: Not Planning For Optimization over the Long Haul

Because online marketing is a process, consider it more broadly, and give your optimization plan the time and support it needs to be successful. Like any company initiative, if the program is rushed or underfunded, it won’t be able to succeed.

Problem 3: Not Monitoring Progress

Keeping track of what brings success and what doesn’t help will help you in the short and long term. You will have more to work with when you start additional campaigns, and you’ll have real results that you can point to.