Saturday, September 29, 2007

How to Increase Affiliate Sales

Writing product reviews or recommendations is a great way to build a positive perception of you, your company, and the affiliate products that you are responsible for selling.

To make money with affiliate programs, you must be able to sell a product. With internet scams at an all time high, there are many consumers who are a little bit leery of buying a new product. That is why you should consider testing the products that you will be selling first. The testing of products is a great way to ensure that you are promoting a worthwhile product. Although testing is good enough, you might want to take it a step further. You may want to think about writing product reviews or at least recommendations.

When it comes to writing affiliate program product reviews or recommendations, ones of the most common questions asked is “why?” There are a large number of program participants who feel that it is just a waste of time. In reality, it isn’t. In fact, it could be the best use of your time. Product reviews and recommendations give consumers an idea as to what they are purchasing. In today’s society, a large number of consumers read product reviews before making a purchase, especially a large one. It is also important to note trust. Giving consumers insight into a product that you help sell allows them to develop a working relationship with you, even if it is just in their minds. In a way, a sense of trust is created; trust that could work to your advantage.

If this is your first time writing a product recommendation or a product review, you may be wondering what you should write. In all honesty, you are advised to take a consumer standpoint. If you were researching a product online, what you would like to know about that product? Taking this approach will help to ensure that your product reviews and recommendations are actually useful to those who read them. Items that you should include in a product review should include an overview of the product in question, the price that it is being sold for, what it can be used for, and the benefits of buying it.

When it comes to writing product reviews or recommendations, there are many individuals who take different approaches. In all honestly, you can take any approach that you would like. Essentially, this means that you can format your review or recommendation any way that you would like to. Despite having the freedom to choose your own format, you may want to consider using the sample outlined below as a guide. This sample uses a work at home e-book as the product in question.

To Those Who Want to Work From Home,

Are you one of the millions of Americans who you would like to work from home? If you are, you are definitely not alone. Finding a legitimate work at home opportunity can seem like a long and complicated task, but it doesn’t have to be. The “Learn How You Can Work from Home,” e-book has all the information that you will need.

Available for the low-price of $10, you can easily learn how to work at home. Hundreds of works at home opportunities are outlined. Familiarize yourself with each opportunity, learn what equipment or training is needed, as well as how much you can make. With the “Learn How You Can Work from Home,” e-book, you are sure to find the work at home opportunity of your dreams.

As it was mentioned above, the above mentioned sample is just one of the many ways that you can write a product review or recommendation. Once you have finished your review, you will want to put it to good use. Consider having it displayed on your webpage, submit the review to top article directories, or even use it as newsletter content. In all honesty, it doesn’t really matter how you choose to distribute your review or recommendations, as long as you do. In fact, once your product review or recommendation is in circulation, you may start seeing results right away!

Writing product reviews or recommendations will not take long, but you can benefit immensely from them. Whether you are in an affiliate program now or you are about to join one, you are urged to write a review or recommendations of the product that you are selling. In the end, you may be surprised with the results.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Just what are affiliate programs?

Are you a webmaster? If so, you are urged to join an affiliate program. With being free, you have absolutely nothing to loose.

Are you looking for a relatively easy way to make money online? If you have been doing research online, you may have come across programs that are known or referred to as affiliate programs. Affiliate programs are a great way to make money online, but do you really know what they are? If not, you are urged to read on.
Before examining affiliate programs, namely what they are, it is best if you first familiarize yourself with internet marketing. All business owners need to market their business to the general public. Since all online customers are internet users, online business owners need to market their products or services to the internet community. This is where the term internet marketing comes from. A wide variety of different marketing tactics are considered internet marketing. Just one of those marketing tactics is affiliate programs. What is nice about affiliate programs is that they not only benefit online business owners, but they also benefit other webmasters; webmasters just like you.

When an online business owner, who is selling a product or service, wants to increase their sales, they seek assistance from other webmasters. This assistance is typically sought from webmasters who have a website that is, in one way or another, related to the product or service being sold. For instance, if the product being sold is a work at home e-book, webmasters running work at home business sites are likely to be sought after. If and when this partnership is formed, the exact details will be worked out. In most cases, you, the webmaster, will be asked to display links or banners that lead the other website; the one where the product, in this case a work at home e-book is available for sale.

As it was mentioned above, affiliate programs are a great way for online business owners to increase their sales and profits, but they are not the only ones who benefit from affiliate programs; webmasters do as well. Business owners who run an affiliate program usually work in conjunction with an affiliate tracking company. This company uses cookies and other internet technology to track internet user clicks. This means that if an internet users clicks on one of your affiliate links and ends up making a purchase, the tracking software used will record that purchase, when it occurred, and the amount of it. This allows business owners to know exactly how much you helped them out. In turn, you will be rewarded for this assistance.

Speaking of being rewarded, this reward is referred to as commission. With affiliate programs, you receive commission for helping an online company generate internet sales. The amount of money that you receive will all depend on the company in question, as well as the amount that you originally agreed to. Many of the businesses who are looking for affiliate partners advertise, upfront how much their affiliate partners make. This amount is typically a percentage of the sale. As previously mentioned, that percentage will vary, but it is not uncommon to see percentages from three percent all the way to fifteen percent. If commission is not determined by percentage, it will often be a flat rate amount.

In a way, the affiliate program that you choose to apply to will have a large impact on the amount of money that you make. That is why it is extremely important that you choose an affiliate program wisely. It is important that you thoroughly examine the amount of money that you can make, through commissions. It is also important that you familiarize yourself with any rules or restrictions that an affiliate program has. For instance, there are some rules as to how you can link to or promote an affiliate product. It is important that you not only familiarize yourself with these rules, but follow them. If you do not, you could find yourself disqualified from participating in the program.

In short, affiliate programs are a great way to make money online. Affiliate programs allow you to legitimately make money online without having to have your own product. It is hard, if not impossible, to find other online money making opportunities like this one.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Make Money, No Product Required

Isn’t it amazing that you can make money selling products, without having to handle your own inventory? The quicker you sign for an affiliate program, the quicker you can start making money!

Would you like to make money by selling products online? If so, do you already have a collection of products to sell? If not, do you have the money needed to obtain them? If you are like many others, who want to make money online, there is a good chance that you do not have the funds needed. After all, if you did, you likely would not be looking for ways to make money online. While you might automatically assume that it is impossible for you to make money online, especially if you don’t have any products to sell, it isn’t. There is good news. That good news is that you can make money, a substantial amount of money, even if you don’t actually have a product to sell.

As it was stated above, there are a large number of individuals who want to make money online; however, many think that it is impossible to do because they don’t already have a collection of products or they don’t have the money needed to make the purchases. Unfortunately, when this occurs, a large number of individuals just give up. You are advised against doing this. As previously mentioned, it is possible to make money online, even if you don’t have any products to sell. You can do so with affiliate programs.

Affiliate programs are programs that create a partnership with business owners and webmasters. If you are already a webmaster this is great, but if not you can easily become one. As you likely already know, a webmaster is an individual who owns and operates their own online website. Once you have a website and you find another business, which is running an affiliate program, you can enter into a partnership with them. This partnership is unique because you can both benefit from it. Affiliate programs work to help business owners increase their sales, but they also help webmasters generate extra income.

Although affiliate programs sound nice, you may be looking for more information. After all, with internet scams at an all time high, you can never be too cautious. While some affiliate programs are operated in different ways, they tend to be operated in similar matters. This matter involves the business owner creating links or banners for webmasters, just like you, to display on their website. Special tracking software, which is often referred to as affiliate tracking software, is used. That software will enable a business owner to determine exactly when you helped them generate a sale and how much that sale was. This sale will, in turn, generate additional income for you by way of commissions. The amount of money that you make will all depend on the affiliate program that you choose to join, but your commission is often a percentage of your sale. In some instances, can also be a flat rate amount.

When it comes to affiliate programs, one of the questions most commonly asked is “why?” As previously mentioned, affiliate programs allow you to make money selling a product that isn’t even yours. This means that you do not have to deal with any inventory. You also don’t have to ship any products to the buyers. In fact, you shouldn’t even have to communicate with your customers. Your affiliate partner, the one who is selling the product, will do all of the work for you. What could be easier than that?

If you are interested in making money online, without having to have your own products to sell, you are urged to further examine affiliate programs, namely the programs that are available for you to join. You can find these programs by examining large affiliate hosting programs, such as LinkShare. You can also find affiliate programs to join by examining the online websites of various online retail stores. Typically towards the bottom of the main homepage, a business will outline whether or not they have an affiliate program that you can apply to. If you are really looking to make money online, you are urged to find a product, a service, or a company that you can fully stand behind, one hundred percent.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Using a Squeeze Page to Build Your List

Increasing your website traffic will not only look good for your website, but it may also help your pockets, money wise.

Affiliate program participants rely on sales to make money with affiliate programs. The only thing is that many new participants forget that they also need to rely on website traffic. After all, without traffic, no one will be able to see your affiliate products, let alone buy them. That is why, if you are in an affiliate program, you need to work on increasing your traffic. There are a number of steps that you can take to increase your traffic. Just three of these steps are outlined below.

STEP # 1 – SEO

If you are an established webmaster, you likely already know what SEO is. If not, you need to familiarize yourself with it right away. SEO, which is also known as search engine optimization, may have an important impact on the success of your website, even its failure.

The goal of search engine optimization (SEO) is to increase your search engine ranking. Having a high search engine ranking increases your chances of seeing traffic from search engines. Search engine optimization encompasses a number of different methods, but one of the most important is content. You need to have content on your website; it is what search engines pickup. You will also want to use keyword tracking tools; they enable you to determine what keyword phrases internet users are searching with. Using those keyword phrases on your website is sure to increase your website traffic.

STEP # 2 – Article Distribution

Have you heard of article directories before? Article directories are websites that act as hosts for collections of articles. They often contain a large collection of articles, sometimes even millions of articles. In exchange for providing your content free of charge, article directories will allow you to insert a link at the end of your article. This link should direct readers to your online website, namely the page that outlines the affiliate products that you are selling. Not only will it help to increase your website traffic, but your sales may also increase.

When it comes to submitting to article directories, which is often referred to as articles distribution, you are advised to create yourself a schedule. To effectively use article distribution, you need to submit multiple articles. In fact, the more articles the better. You should create a goal for yourself, like submitting at least five articles a month. It is also important that you create content that is relevant to your website. If it is not, your readers might not click on your clink; thus defeating the purpose of submitting to article directories.

STEP #3 – Blogging

Over the past few years, the popularity of blogging has skyrocketed. In addition to personal blogs, a large number of online businesses are now relying on blogs to help increase their website traffic and you can too. Blogs are nice because you are given choices. You can create your own, free blog or you can pay to have your blog hosted on your own domain name.

When creating a blog, you can create your own content, which may include product reviews or recommendations. In fact, you don’t even have to write your own content. You can use content from many free article directories; many will give you free usage rights. Speaking of article directories, if you submitted your own articles, you can even use them for your blog. The only thing you need to remember is to link back to your original webpage. Doing so in each blog post will help to increase your traffic.

The above mentioned three traffic increasing steps are just a few of the many that you can take. These three; however, are a few of the easiest ways that you can go about increasing your website traffic. With a small amount of effort, you can easily see an increase in traffic, in what seems like no time at all. In fact, you will not only see an increase in traffic, but you may also see an increase in your affiliate sales.



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Saturday, September 22, 2007

Make Money, No Product Required!


Isn’t it amazing that you can make money selling products, without having to handle your own inventory? The quicker you sign for an affiliate program, the quicker you can start making money!

Would you like to make money by selling products online? If so, do you already have a collection of products to sell? If not, do you have the money needed to obtain them? If you are like many others, who want to make money online, there is a good chance that you do not have the funds needed. After all, if you did, you likely would not be looking for ways to make money online. While you might automatically assume that it is impossible for you to make money online, especially if you don’t have any products to sell, it isn’t. There is good news. That good news is that you can make money, a substantial amount of money, even if you don’t actually have a product to sell.

As it was stated above, there are a large number of individuals who want to make money online; however, many think that it is impossible to do because they don’t already have a collection of products or they don’t have the money needed to make the purchases. Unfortunately, when this occurs, a large number of individuals just give up. You are advised against doing this. As previously mentioned, it is possible to make money online, even if you don’t have any products to sell. You can do so with affiliate programs.

Affiliate programs are programs that create a partnership with business owners and webmasters. If you are already a webmaster this is great, but if not you can easily become one. As you likely already know, a webmaster is an individual who owns and operates their own online website. Once you have a website and you find another business, which is running an affiliate program, you can enter into a partnership with them. This partnership is unique because you can both benefit from it. Affiliate programs work to help business owners increase their sales, but they also help webmasters generate extra income.

Although affiliate programs sound nice, you may be looking for more information. After all, with internet scams at an all time high, you can never be too cautious. While some affiliate programs are operated in different ways, they tend to be operated in similar matters. This matter involves the business owner creating links or banners for webmasters, just like you, to display on their website. Special tracking software, which is often referred to as affiliate tracking software, is used. That software will enable a business owner to determine exactly when you helped them generate a sale and how much that sale was. This sale will, in turn, generate additional income for you by way of commissions. The amount of money that you make will all depend on the affiliate program that you choose to join, but your commission is often a percentage of your sale. In some instances, can also be a flat rate amount.

When it comes to affiliate programs, one of the questions most commonly asked is “why?” As previously mentioned, affiliate programs allow you to make money selling a product that isn’t even yours. This means that you do not have to deal with any inventory. You also don’t have to ship any products to the buyers. In fact, you shouldn’t even have to communicate with your customers. Your affiliate partner, the one who is selling the product, will do all of the work for you. What could be easier than that?

If you are interested in making money online, without having to have your own products to sell, you are urged to further examine affiliate programs, namely the programs that are available for you to join. You can find these programs by examining large affiliate hosting programs, such as LinkShare. You can also find affiliate programs to join by examining the online websites of various online retail stores. Typically towards the bottom of the main homepage, a business will outline whether or not they have an affiliate program that you can apply to. If you are really looking to make money online, you are urged to find a product, a service, or a company that you can fully stand behind, one hundred percent.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

Promote the Products You Believe In


Promoting affiliate products that you will believe in will not only make you feel better about yourself, but it may also help to increase your sales!

When it comes to an affiliate program, one of the most common mistakes a program participant makes is choosing to sell a product that they do not believe in or fully stand behind, one hundred percent. Although you may be making money, you may also be creating a bad name for yourself. That is why it is important that you promote or sell products that you believe in.

When it comes to promoting a product that you believe in, one of the most commonly asked questions is “how?” The best way to promote a product that you believe in is to actually try out the product. For instance, if you are promoting an e-book, you may want to think about reading the e-book in question. In fact, if you ask, you may be given the e-book to review for free or for a discounted price. If you are interested in joining an affiliate program set up by a retailer, you will earn commission for all sales, not just a particular product. To test the waters, you may want to think about placing an order, even just a small one. This will give you a first hand look at the affiliate program that you will be promoting on your own site.

Perhaps, the greatest reason why you should test out a product is because if you don’t like it, there is a good chance that your customers won’t like it as well. In a way, you can look at it as providing a service to the general public, at least internet users. By not agreeing to sell a poor quality product, you will be saving other consumers, just like you, money. In fact, you should be proud of yourself for refusing to do business with an affiliate program that doesn’t live up to par.

Another reason why you should avoid doing business with an affiliate program that sells a poor quality product is because of your reputation. Although you are only directing customers to the site where they can buy the product in question, you may still be remembered for your part in the sale. Do you really want to be remembered as the guy or the woman who recommended a product that wasn’t even worth the money spent?

As it was mentioned above, you may be making money with an affiliate program, even if the product being sold isn’t as good as it could have been. Although you may be making money will probably not last forever. In fact, you may soon find your sales decreasing, if the decrease hasn’t already started. You need to remember that customers talk. If a customer was not satisfied with the product that they purchased, they will likely talk to their friends, family members, and coworkers. They may even write negative reviews online. These negative reviews may cause other consumers to avoid purchasing the product that you are selling, as well as your whole website in general.

The money that you can make, right away, may seem nice, at the time, but you need to remember to think long-term. Do you know what you want to do in the future, whether it is now or in a few years? If you are like many people, there is a good chance that you have no idea. What if you want to create your own products to sell online? As it was mentioned above, what you do online now can come back to haunt you. That is why it is important that you think about your future, in the business sense, and it what it may entail. If your dream is to one day start your own online business, you will want to refrain from bad publicity; bad publicity that may come in the form of a poorly run affiliate program.

Although it was advised that you actually test out the products that you will be promoting, through an affiliate program, testing isn’t your only option. You can also research a product online. Reading customer reviews, both good and bad, may give you insight into the product you may have to sell. Better yet, it may help you decide whether or not it is a product that you want to be associated with.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Effective Press Release Distribution

One of the things that start off most people on the wrong track is the assumption that the word “distribute” means the same thing online as it does offline. In fact aggressive distribution of anything online quickly earns the person responsible for it that undesirable tag of SPAMMER.


The Most Important Online Rule Marketers Should Never Forget
Here is one key rule that marketers should never forget and it also applies to anybody seeking to distribute their press releases effectively online. It is simply this; people hate to be advertised to on the web. This means that your press release must come across as useful profitable information rather than advertising. This is the only way you will end up being effective.

Actually as long as you constantly remember this important key rule in everything that you do online, all should be well.

The First Step In Effective Distribution Is Posting
The first step in effective online news release distribution is not to hit the “send” button. Rather it is to post your release. We are assuming here that you have written it for the web. That means doing some keyword research and using the right keyword phrases that will attract traffic from search engines.

The ideal place to post it is at your official web site. It will also be a good idea to have links leading from the page where your press release is directly to other relevant pages offering more information on your product.

Use The Power Of Blogs To Distribute Your Special Announcement
The next thing you will need to do will be to get to the blogosphere (where all the traffic resides) and start off by posting an interesting article based on your press release. The more sensational and relevant you are, the better. Naturally you will need to link to the source of your information, which is the press release at your site.

The most amazing thing about the blogosphere is the fact that blogs tend to quickly link to each other, almost naturally. So if you do this right, within a very short time you will have started a viral process that will ensure that your press release and information related to it is “distributed” far and wide.

Responsible Comments Are Very Effective
Without leaving the blogosphere, the next step in distributing your press release will be to get to a good online blog search engine. I usually use the Google one. Use keywords that are relevant to the main idea behind your press statement. This will lead you to pages discussing the same subject. Read every page carefully before you leave your comment. This is the only way you will be able to make a relevant effective comment that will get attention. Do NOT leave any link in comments. This is an important rule because most bloggers delete every comment that has a link without even reading the contents.

Actually it is not necessary for you to leave a link because there are many ways people can find you, all you need to do is ensure that all the information is available where folks will look for you. For instance in blogger.com the name you use for comments will lead back to your online profile. Update your profile so that it points directly back to your press release. Others will use your name on a search engine to find you, so do the same and visit the top places in the top 10 results. Ensure that in all those places, it will be easy to find your press release.

There are many blogs where they ask for your web site when you leave comments. Rather than lace the url for your web site, place the link that specifically leads to the page where your press release is posted.

Use Article Directories
With your keyword research still handy, write a few articles for popular high traffic article directories based on your press release and link directly back to your press release.

Again the effect here is viral because good articles get re-posted all over the place with your links intact. This will further ensure that your press release gets seen by a huge targeted audience.

This is one effective way to distribute press releases online.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Safe Email Marketing Little Known Ideas

In this kind of chaotic and demanding environment, one does not need to be a genius to realize how valuable email marketing can be in helping any organization to not only survive but to thrive. The key is to look at email marketing as a way to build relationships before anything else.

Despite all the problems that are usually associated with email and email marketing, this World Wide Web tool has been called the world's greatest marketing tool. It is important to examine this sweeping statement so as to establish whether this is really true and if the title is one that the controversial email deserves.

It is rapidly emerging that hyper competition in the new uncertain and shaky markets in today's world has put a lot of pressure on marketing departments everywhere to re-think the way they have always done business.

For instance it is becoming abundantly clear that short-term customer relations are a very risky way to handle any business, and this applies as much to offline enterprises as it does to online ones. The new era of marketing has arrived. It not only calls for long term customer relationships which are important, but it also demands analyses of customer needs through regular contact while observing the reaction and behavior of the client carefully, which is much more valuable and useful than just getting information from a client based on questions posed in some questionnaire.

The advantage of email is that this is probably the only medium through which such a relationship can be established, cultivated and maintained with the greatest of ease. Of course it all starts with the right approach, which is actually the only legitimate one as far as email is concerned. Namely permission-based marketing where emails are sent out only to those who have opted to receive it.

Email Is The Road To Better Relationships
Email marketing makes way for better relationships with customers and prospects. There are a variety of ways that this can be achieved. It starts with the building of quality addresses. Here it is very important to go for targeting and to shun the temptation to prefer huge lists over smaller targeted ones.

Actually the smaller the niche you are targeting the higher your chances of success through email marketing. Even if it takes you a long time to build such a list, it will always be well worth your time at the end of the day.

There are various additional online tools that help a great deal in the building up of relationships. For instance software that reminds you of important dates in relation to your email list. This includes birthdays, anniversaries and the date the client made the first purchase. This special day can be commemorated in all sorts of creative ways that will help cement your relationship with members of your email list.

Speak To Your Audience As Individuals
One of the truly amazing aspects of email is the fact that you can segment an audience based on data, and believe me you can collect huge amounts of data from any email list you have with very little effort. Segmentation and data analysis makes it possible for you to speak to your list as individuals. Your audience will love this and will almost always reward you with loyalty and a very high response rate. You really can't go wrong when you address the individuals and their particular unique problems after you have segmented the market accordingly.

Incidentally, when you do this, you personalize the relationship further, which will without doubt translate into huge profits for you later on. Actually the truth is that you cannot go wrong when you do things that contribute to a long term relationship rather than to a short-term-make-maximum-profits-at-all-costs approach

Era Of The Mass Market Has Ended, Thanks To The World Wide Web
Thanks mainly to the World Wide Web, the era of the mass market has ended. The significant result worth noting is that customers and clients have become much more demanding and impatient. And you really cannot blame them, especially when they are spoilt for choice. Then there is the fact that numerous web sites are no offering personalized and extremely efficient services online for virtually anything you can think of.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Why Are Pay Per Click Ads Are So Popular?

It is very clear that the popularity of PPC ads is not a fad but an exciting development that is not only here to stay, but one which smart entrepreneurs are using to make money online.

In the offline days long before the World Wide Web and PPC (Pay per click) ads came along, publishers as well as radio and TV stations experimented with something called PPO (pay per order) and PPR (pay per response) or PPL (pay per lead) advertising. As the names suggest, these were ads where the advertisers either paid per lead generated or order generated. But the truth is that these ads never really took off and were never widely accepted.


So what happened in the case of online PPC (pay per click) ads? What caused these kind of advertisements to become so wildly popular as they are today?

Google Launched The PPC Revolution
To answer some of these questions it is useful to go back in time a little and trace the origin of the popularity of PPC ads. There is the amazing story of well known search engine giant Google which has experienced phenomenal growth within such a short time of existence.

The Google fairy tale is still a fascinating read even today. Started by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were still students at Stanford, for a long time this venture grew tremendously in popularity and usage and was very widely used and yet had not found a way to generate revenue. It was obvious that charging a fee for the use of their revolutionary search engine was not the right model. That search for a way to generate revenues ended when Google was already receiving millions of visitors daily and the company just found a convenient and non-intrusive way to display advertising.

It is clear that the founders of Google realized quite early on in the game, what many others have not seen to date. That is the fact that although the Internet is widely seen as an improvement of the Television, this is not true and the web is actually an adavanced telephone more than anything else. This is easily proved by the fact that TV and the web are in fact two very different mediums. TV can accommodate a lot of advertising comfortably, but advertising on the web is usually viewed as a nuisance and intrusion into people's privacy. This is the main reason why PPC ads took off quickly even when a similar concept offline never really proved attractive to most publishers and advertisers alike.

Google looked for a way to carry advertising online to its' huge audience without intruding and came up with the idea of displaying only relevant advertisements based on searches on its' popular search engine. The idea was simple but extremely powerful and meant that somebody using keywords to search for information would end up with the organic results of their search on one side and on the other relevant advertisements on the same subject.

The next problem they had to solve was the fact that based on the huge audience they had, they would be justified in charging very high advertising rates. However the market accustomed to cheap online advertising was unlikely to accept those ad rates.

And that is how PPC ads came into use at Google. By charging only for click throughs to the site, advertisers were very happy to pay huge sums as long as it was for actual visits to their sites from people who had clicked on the Google PPC ads because they will usually have been able to generate an even larger sum of money from orders placed by a percentage of the visitors who arrived at their sites.

The rest as they say, is history. The Google PPC concept rapidly grew in popularity and is today by far, the most popular form of advertising on the web.

Others Join The PPC Party
As you read this, there are numerous other online companies and sites that offer PPC ads. They make lots of sense because advertisers can easily measure their response and sales revenue against what they have spent on advertising.

Today there are a number of interesting search programs that include PPC advertising and are well worth taking a look at because they are capable of providing the perfect solution for many online marketing and advertising problems.

Friday, September 07, 2007

Don’t Get Ripped Off by Affiliate Scams


For the most part, affiliate programs are a nice, easy way to make money online. However, like many other online opportunities, you need to be on the lookout for scams. Internet scams are all over the place, as they are increasing in popularity. Unfortunately, there are also scammers who are using affiliate programs as fronts. Although it is hard to associate good news with internet scams, there is good news. That good news is that there are ways to make sure that you join an affiliate program, make sales, and actually get paid for those sales.

As previously mentioned, a large number of scammers are starting to use affiliate programs as fronts for their scams. These scams can take on a number of different sizes, shapes, and styles. One of the most popular affiliate program scams involves affiliate programs that do not pay. These programs are selling real, legitimate products. The only problem is that many of these affiliate programs do not pay. Essentially, you end up doing a bunch of work for nothing. Another common affiliate program scam involves selling a product that doesn’t even exist. Not only will you not get paid for your hard work, but you will also be participating in a scam that involves ripping off consumers, by taking their money without giving them what they paid for.

As it was mentioned above, there are a number of different ways that you can prevent yourself from joining an affiliate program that doesn’t pay. One of those ways involves choosing a well-known affiliate program. If you need assistance choosing an affiliate program, you can seek it online. There are a large number of online websites that give accurate and updated information on a wide variety of affiliate programs. There are also programs, which are regularly referred to as affiliate directories. These directories are actually in charge of running a company’s affiliate program. Many of these programs, which include LinkShare, come highly rated and recommend, as do the affiliate programs they have listed in their directories.

In conjunction with researching an affiliate program, you can also research the product that is being sold. A large number of customers write product reviews. Many of these product reviews, which can be both positive and negative, can be found online. You will also want to check out websites that are known as scam websites. Scam websites allow internet users, just like you, to post ways that they have been scammed and by whom. You can find information on poor quality products, individuals, companies, and even affiliate programs that are not considered legitimate. When researching an affiliate program or even a product, it is important to remember that nothing and no one is perfect. While it isn’t uncommon to find one or two negative reviews, you need to be cautious of numerous negative reviews.

Since it is relatively easy to avoid an affiliate program scam, you are advised to do so. If anything appears out of the ordinary or if you suspicions are raised, you are advised to use your common sense. In the long run, you will be glad with your decision to do so. Not only can avoiding an affiliate program scam ensure that you get paid, but it will also help you save your own reputation. The last thing you want to be associated with is an affiliate program that doesn’t deliver the products that they promise. In fact, your name or your company’s name could literally be drudged through the mud. While you may think that this won’t have a long lasting impact, it might just, especially if you plan on selling your own products in the near future. Even if your products are quality products, many consumers might remember you as the person who scammed them before.

Although it is relatively easy to spot an affiliate program scam, there are a few that might “fall threw the cracks.” If you later determine that you are involved in an affiliate program scam, or even just a program that is selling poor quality products, you are advised to get out as soon as possible. Severing your ties will help to ensure you get paid, as well as build a good name for yourself.

Affiliate program scams do exist, but you don’t have to live in fear of them. Just use your common sense, when it comes to choosing an affiliate program. Common sense goes a lot further than many imagine.

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Guidelines to Follow When Choosing a Profitable Affiliate Program


One of the best ways to know that you are dealing with a legitimate affiliate program and a quality product is to test that product out. Although you are advised to do this, you may not want to or you may be unable to do so. If that is the case, you can still research an affiliate program or even the product that is being sold. You can easily do this online. One of the best ways to do your research is to perform a standard internet search. Search with the name of the affiliate program or the product being sold. You can also check out websites that are known as scam websites. These websites tend to profile companies, individuals, or business opportunities that regularly scam consumers.

Before applying for or signing up for an affiliate program, you are advised to read all of the rules, restrictions, or guidelines associated with that affiliate program. Unfortunately, you may find yourself disqualified from an affiliate program right off the bat. For instance, there are a large number of affiliate programs that prohibit their products from being advertised on websites that display pornography, foul language, and other offensive content. Familiarizing yourself with an affiliate program’s rules and guidelines will prevent you from being denied from a program or later dismissed from one.

Perhaps, one of the most important things to remember, when choosing an affiliate program, is the product that you will have to sell. In conjunction with making sure that the product is a quality one, you will also want to make sure that it is related to your website or business, in one way or another. For instance, if your own website focuses on computer programming, you will not want to join an affiliate program that sells pet products. Joining an affiliate program that is related, in one way or another, to your own website may increase your chances of making a sale; thus increasing your profits.

Although it is important to choose a quality product to stand behind, you also need to remember that your goal is to make money. One of the easiest ways to make a substantial amount of money is to choose an affiliate program that pays their affiliates decently. The average commission for affiliates is three to five percent of each sale made. While this is a good percentage to make, there are higher paying affiliate programs. You may want to look for affiliate programs that pay around ten percent. In fact, there are even a select number of affiliate programs that pay around fifteen percent in commissions.