Making Money Selling Others People’s Stuff

If you are new to this blog, welcome! You probably are interested in earning a recurring revenue stream by becoming an affiliate.  But to sell products online, you don’t need to own a unique product, it’s perfectly fine to sell others peoples offerings, in fact, thats what becoming an affiliate means – you promote other people’s products.

There are a ton of affiliate companies and networks you can join.  An oldie is Amazon.com.  They sell everything from address plaques to anything else under the sun.  In fact, they are probably the largest bookstore in the webosphere, where you can buy almost any book that you can’t find at a local brick & mortar bookstore. Their affiliate program is quite simple and represents what most are like: just refer people to their site through your affiliate link.  The visitors that came through you and buy earn you a percentage of the sale – your commission. This program is typically called a CPA deal (Cost Per Acquisition). Why do use  I use Amazon.com as an example? Because they were among the pioneers in the affiliate space. Things have changed since the new days, especially where taxes is confirmed (more on that in a future post). Today, most affiliate programs use the low-rish CPAa model, giving you the ability to promote their products and services in exchange for financial compensation. That is, you get a piece of the sale every time someone buys through you.

Other models to explore are pay per click, meaning someone  pays you for each click to the website you generate and CPL (cost per lead), which means you send peoples contact info to a company, such as insurance or attorneys. In order be be successful in any of these models, relevant and targeted traffic is a must.  Just because someone sees a link doesn’t mean they will click and buy.  They need to have a reason to do so.  And when they have THAT reason, they usually convert.

So start doing your homework on affiliate programs.  See what peaks your interests, and start testing.  You may be surprised as to how exciting and lucrative the Affiliate space really  is.

High Quality Articles for Maximum Effect

Writing quality articles or ad-copy pays huge dividends in the Internet Marketing world.  Writing good copy, however, takes some know-how. Here are some useful tips.

Set Specific Goals

Your overall marketing efforts will  payoff  if if they align themselves to specific goals.  First off: Set time management goals. Concentrate on the amount of time you spend each day on writing as opposed to to focusing on the number of articles you want to crank out each day. Quality versus quantity.  This will alleviate any stress and anxiety over how many you’re writing.  

Secondly, always make your content super easy for anyone to read and understand. The best way to accomplish this is to use an outline – short  sentences and paragraphs. That basic format will greatly help your readers to understand your points and the content will be able to be read  quickly. For length, a general rule of thumb of about 4-5 sentences.

Ideas for new copy may pop up from anywhere, anytime. So keep a log where you can write down any and all ideas you get.

Article writing isn’t as complicated as it sounds. If you’re like most people, you already know how to create great content, copy that sells because it solves a problem, right? You just don’t try because you are afraid to fail. As long as you can keep in mind what subject you’ll cover and what points you’ll discuss, good copyarticle writing should be.

How To Use Testimonials Effectively

If you have never heard of a product before, would you at least consider buying it if it came recommended  from someone you know? Given a selection of similar products, wouldn’t you rather try one that has had some glowing reviews even if you’ve never heard of them before?  A persons endorsement of a product can have a profound effect on the buying decisions of others. That  is the power of testimonials.

These days, testimonials are widely used for building credibility and generating buzz about a brand/product or service.  The world’s largest corporations spend billions of dollars in harnessing the power of a good endorsement.  In affiliate marketing, carefully chosen testimonials can be very effective in convincing prospects to try your product or service. Because of competition however, many  affiliate marketing programs try to increase their credibility factor by inviting celebrities to provide an endorsement. While this can be very effective, particularly if the celebrity has a large fan base, it can also be quite expensive.  Not every affiliate marketer can afford to pay a celebrity just to place their name on his site.  To compete, affiliate marketers turn to their own customers and members, specifically people who have had sufficient experience with the product and want to share their success.

A fully satisfied customer’s testimonial, if honest and well-written, may be as effective as that of a celebrity.  To do it effectively however, consider the following factors:

A) Be Specific – If a testimonial from a customer or another affiliate states that the program is ‘excellent’, it should be followed by a specific description of the program’s most useful features – what makes it excellent, how it has helped the customer or affiliate, why it’s reliable, etc.

B) Skepticism is good – Believe it or not, skepticism is good.  Phrases such as, ‘I wasn’t convinced at first, BUT…’ or ‘I have always used XYZ product and didn’t think of switching to another brand.  However, your product has ____ and ____ features that convinced me it was so much better.’

Even with the stated objection, a testimonial can be quite powerful if it is followed by a positive statement.

C) Avoid using fake testimonials –  You lie, you die. Someone will get wind of the falsehood, expose you and you lose your credibility.

D) Be selective –  Be picky:  find the best, especially the well-written and detailed ones.  Or, you could take the best sentences and phrases and post those in place of a paragraph.

Bottom line is this- use but don’t abuse..