"7 Tactics in 7 Chapters To Help You Build and Increase Your Online Income."
The Super Affiliates: These are the people who are earning thousands, and in some cases tens of thousands, of dollars each and every month. It is possible for a new affiliate to have a lucky streak and earn a few thousand for a particular month, but super affiliates do this on a regular basis.
Super affiliates recognize that achieving success as an affiliate involves more than just linking to a product and relying on the promotional information generated by the merchant. They are deeply involved with their products and have made themselves experts in their niche area.
It's not that difficult to make the transition from being just another affiliate to becoming a super affiliate. The steps themselves are quite easy, but it does take dedication and hard work…and that's where most people fail. However, once you make the decision to see things through, and you have the time to devote to your efforts, you can be a successful super affiliate.
What qualifies as a good product? One that gives you a hefty commission and there is a large demand for it. It doesn't make sense promoting products that have a 75% commission and no one wants to buy them. You won't make any money that way. At the same time, you can't profit from a product that has already saturated the market.
You need to do some research first. Check out the top affiliate networks and see what their best performing products are. Go to forums and learn from other super affiliates. There are many ways to find the best products.
One of the best ways to promote your products is building a webpage for each one, to which you can direct traffic. For this reason it is not recommended that you start off promoting too many products. Other promotional methods include:
Super affiliates are experts at ‘selling' their products. That's because they know how to write in such a way that will entice visitors to make a sale. Sure your product many have many benefits, but if these are presented in a dull, boring manner no one is going to care.
There are quite a number of books and ebooks on how to become a good copywriter. It is best that you invest in at least one of these. If you are willing to pay for services, there is also the option of hiring a copywriter to create your copy.
One of the biggest temptations you'll face as a super affiliate is the urge to promote everything that you think is a hot product. This method may work for a lucky few but it will almost certainly be more profitable if you stick to one niche market and corner it.
Let's say you've decided to focus on Internet Marketing. Promote products that centre on that topic alone, such as books, ebooks and software. This will make it easier for you to be found, your visitors will be targeted and more willing to make a purchase and you'll have a better chance of gaining repeat visitors.
Most people get very defensive when the think that you're just trying to make a sale. They may start questioning the actual merit of your products. That's why you need to know as much as you can about what you're promoting. This way, you can give your visitors honest reviews, which will ultimately have a better result that a pure sales pitch.
Being a super affiliate is a lot like following fashion trends. You have to realize that some things come and go while others are steady performers. It's up to you whether you want to focus on the products that consistently do well, or get in on the temporary profitability of a new product. Either way, you need to do some research so you can stay away from outdated or poor performing products.
Becoming a super affiliate is not impossible. It takes a lot of hard work and can be a slow process. If you don't have the time to devote to such efforts, chances are you won't succeed. You need to commit yourself to doing a certain amount of work each and every day in order to see the rewards of your actions.
Many times, when you try joining a particular affiliate program, you may be forwarded to a registration page for a larger affiliate network. Affiliate networks are great places to find popular, profitable affiliate programs. However, some networks may be more suited to your needs than others. Here is a breakdown of four of the main affiliate networks.
Let’s look at an obvious example. You are thinking about setting up a membership site but you’re not sure which software to use. You go to Google and type in the term ‘best subscription software’. You are then presented with pages of what are essentially ads for individual software companies, each claiming that theirs is the best product, and affiliates. How much simpler would it be if you could just access that information without having to go through all those sites?
If it is frustrating to you, it will be frustrating to others as well. They will therefore be more likely to pay for said information and this can be very profitable for you. Consider the following benefits to setting up your own membership site:
If you are trained or skilled in a particular area, you can set up a successful business by simply offering others your expertise and knowledge.
You can start a membership site for practically any niche. There will always be people looking for information.
The popularity of membership sites has lead to the creation of affordable, quaddty software so your initial expenditure isn’t high.
Since most subscriptions are on a monthly basis, you can look forward to a steady income and focus on providing high-quality content to your members.
The longer your site is operational, the more credible it becomes. As your credibiddty increases, so will your membership, without you having to mount an aggressive advertising campaign.
A successful membership site will afford you the opportunity to trade with other entrepreneurs for valuable products, such as web hosting etc., in exchange for advertising on your site.
Many people make the mistake of setting up their membership site first and then trying to find a market. This is not an approach which should be used if you hope to be successful. You need to find a group of people with a specific need and then cater to those requirements.
An absolute necessity is conducting a keyword search before you start anything else. This can be done through many means, including Overture, Google and Lycos. The latter includes a top 50 list of popular search terms which you can draw from for your own site.
Many experts will tell you that the more popular search terms will be more profitable for you since there is a larger market. While this may be true, there is typically also a proportional amount of competition. Unless you are an already established online presence, it is best to start with search terms that appear in the latter half of such lists.
It can be difficult for a new membership site to get subscribers initially. People will not want to part with their money unless they have a clear idea of what they are getting in return. Therefore, the best method of attracting members is to give them a proverbial ‘sneak peek’ into what you are offering. This can take many forms, depending on the kind of membership site you operate.
One of the best, and least labor intensive, forms of marketing is through the use of a newsletter. This can be quickly and easily set up on your part. In fact, most of the information that you’ll need can be readily sourced online. It’s just a matter of putting it together.
There are two advantages to this method. Firstly, you can promote your products while at the same time delivering valuable information. In addition, since newsletters are usually sent out at regular intervals, you are ensuring that potential members are continually reminded of your site.
Why should someone join your site to get information or products when there are many other places online where they can find the same thing? The answer is that there’s no reason to. You therefore have to find a way to make what you are offering unique.
While you may not yet be an established expert in your field, there are others who already are. Knowing this can be especially valuable if your site offers informational products. Each one of these experts will undoubtedly have their own reasons to want publicity.
Contacting them, conducting interviews, and making these available to your subscribers are great joint venture opportunities. In most cases, they will gladly agree to an interview since this will broaden their own base of subscribers. It is important that you contact individuals in related fields, and not those whose products will overlap with yours.
The best membership sites are those that don’t rely on only one type of service. By offering a variety, you stand a better chance of attracting a broader spectrum of subscribers. For example, if your site deals with downloadable ebooks on internet marketing, consider offering articles and software as well.
At one point in time, the main difficulty of setting up a membership site was accessing the funds for the software. At present, there are still sites that will charge you thousands of dollars to create your site. Fortunately, there are also lower cost alternatives that can produce sites which have the same degree of professionalism as their high priced counterparts.
However, there are still two main areas that have the potential to make things difficult for you:
Some types of software may be a bit complicated to install, especially for those who are new to the internet. Most come with very detailed instructions. However, if you are having problems, you can source help from online forums or pay a low fee to have it installed by a freelance professional.
It can be difficult to find fresh, exciting content each month. Still, you have to make the attempt since that is what you are being paid by your subscribers to do. That is why it is important to stick to a topic you enjoy and are knowledgeable about.
A successful membership site needs to be able to run on its own, without too much interaction from you. After all, you will need to concentrate on creating or finding content for your subscribers. In general, you will need to ensure that your site can function smoothly on auto-pilot and that it is accessible as possible to all users. Here are some things to consider when choosing software:
Your membership site should offer as wide a range as possible of standard payment options. With a subscription site, you should concentrate on means of immediate payment such as through a credit card or onddne payment processor such as Paypal.
Your subscribers should be able to immediately set up their account, once payment has been processed, without waiting for input from you.
If a subscriber chooses to end their membership, they should be denied access immediately, i.e., the process should be automated.
You should not be limited to setting up only one website or a certain amount of pages. It doesn’t make sense if you have to pay fees each and every time you wish to open a new site.
Your software should be compatible with your web hosting features. For example, most software requires a PHP server. If you are running on an ASP server, the software won’t work.
aMember was one of the first scripts created for setting up membership sites. As such, it has built a reputation for reliability and continues to be one of the more popular software titles available for this purpose.
It contains a built-in affiliate program so users can gain extra income from their site without having to buy additional software.
It is compatible with a large number of payment systems including Paypal.
It comes pre-packaged with its own plug-ins for full integration with content management systems, mailing lists and forums.
Installation is free with software purchase.
There is no need for complex programming. The software is compatible with simple HTML pages.
The interface can be confusing, especially with users not familiar with such software.
Generated reports are very basic and it can be difficult to decipher the information presented.
The affiliate program is much too basic and missing some key features such as manual assignment of sales.
MemberGate is one of the newer membership site software solutions on the market. Nevertheless, it is becoming much more popular with people who are running multiple membership sites and are willing to pay a somewhat hefty price for the program.
Offers automatic optimization of content for search engines.
Contains a built-in WYSIWYG editor
It can act as an automated content management system.
Multiple databases are capable of handling very large numbers of members
Full integration with payment solutions such as Paypal.
Includes a built-in, fully featured affiliate program.
Full reporting of membership site statistics.
While MemberGate does have some distinct advantages over aMember, the main disadvantage is the fact that it is much pricier
If you are now starting out and would like to bypass software expenditure completely, there is an alternative for you. Quite a number of people have had success using Mambo.
Mambo itself is an open source content management system. Put simply, it a free program designed to aid managing and updating the content on your site. Mambo itself doesn’t offer you the option of setting up a membership site. However, as with many open source programs, new plug-ins are constantly being developed to add functionality.
One such plug-in is MamboCharge, which boasts the following features:
Extensive management reports.
Compatible with Paypal, Western Union and Pay-by-check payments.
Capability to handle price reductions due to redemption of coupons.
Manual editing and creation of subscriptions.
This is good option for novices or those who are looking to keep costs down. Experienced users however may require the added features contained in paid subscription software titles.
Outsourcing was given a large boost by the advent of internet marketing. More and more webmasters are realizing the value of Search Engine Optimization and Article Writing as means of promoting their sites. However, this can be a very time consuming venture and takes away from the task of actually up-keeping a website.
The answer has been to look towards having freelance professionals do the actual work. Finding the right freelancers, or finding the right jobs, is where the outsourcer comes in. As an outsourcer, you essentially act as a bridge between those who have work to be done and those who are willing to do the work. And you can make a significant profit as well. Let’s take a look at the table.
| Person | Role | Articles Per Day | $ Per Article | $ Kept Per Article | Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Freelancer | Writes articles. | 10 | 6 | 6 | $60 |
| Outsourcer | Hires freelancers. | 50 | 6 | 3 | $150 |
This is a simple example using a bulk article writing job. You can easily see how much profit you stand to make, without doing the work yourself.
One of the biggest obstacles to having a successful career as an outsourcer is getting clients. You can join a freelance job site as a provider, go after bulk jobs, and then turn around and have other freelancers do it for you. However, you won’t make much of a profit this way since you’ll have to enter a competitive bid to get the job in the first place.
While you may be comfortable starting off this way, it is better in the long term to build a professional presence for yourself. You will need your own domain name and your own website. You will also need to do some marketing by identifying webmasters/companies that may be in need of your services and contacting them. Be prepared to deal with their concerns.
Most clients will be concerned with two main areas: confidentiality and the quality of the final product. The former can be easily addressed by the issuance of strict confidentiality agreements to all providers. Making certain that the quality of work delivered meets your client’s requirements is your responsibility so be sure that you have measures in place to ensure this.
Also ensure that your potential clients know what these measures are. Rigorous screening of providers is a must, as well as penalties for non adherence to deadlines.
Any outsourcer is only as good as the freelancers they work with. It really is your reputation that’s on the line. Your clients won’t want to hear about the problems you had with your providers. They trust you to hire reliable professionals who are capable of delivering.
In some cases, you may not even choose to reveal that you are an outsourcer. In this instance, your clients will be under the impression that you are doing the work. As such, it is essential that you do your research well before you make any decisions as to who you’ll hire.
Here are some things that you’ll need to consider:
Does the provider have previous experience in the area that you are looking for? There is a big difference between writing an informational article and writing a press release. A provider may have many great reviews but none that shows the skill set that you need.
What is the provider’s background? Have they worked on any other sites? It is possible to find a new provider on a freelance job site who has quite a resume, but no reviews as yet. New providers will typically submit low bids, but you need to be sure that they are reddable. If you are looking to work with new providers in order to cut costs, it is best to post a test project first.
Is the provider accessible? Many times, on big projects, you will want to have frequent reports on the job progress. Will you have to rely solely on email messages? Is the provider wilddng to communicate via an IM program, such as Skype, or over the phone?
Is the timeframe quoted by the provider readdstic? Many outsourcers started off as freelancers themselves so they are aware of approximately how much work one person can achieve in a given day. If someone claims to be able to provide you with twenty 500 word articles per day, be very wary. The quaddty of the work submitted will most ddkely be compromised.
Is the provider wilddng to do revisions at no extra cost? If your cddent isn’t happy with a particular piece, you don’t want to be the one left having to make the corrections. You will need to be careful about this. Your revisions must be within the scope of the original project.
Is the provider wilddng to sign over copyrights to the piece of work being done? This is essential where new content is being created.
As an outsourcer, time is limited. Most of the jobs that you will receive will be bulk orders and, in many cases, they will have a fixed time limit. As such, you will want to find a suitable provider as quickly as possible. One of the ways to do this is by being very clear as to what the requirements of the job are.
If you wish to have specific professionals bid on your jobs, you have to be very specific with your titles. An attention grabbing title will help providers determine whether their particular skill set is involved and if they should read further to get the details. For example, if you wish to hire a web designer to complete your site then state “Web Designer” in the project title. Putting the name of your site as a heading doesn’t clarify anything for anyone.
Too often, reliable providers bypass projects simply because they weren’t given any information on what you really need. A good project description should include:
Details of what work is needed.
A time estimate of when the project should be started and finished.
The size of the project.
This is often one of the most important factors in determining the quality of responses you will get to your job postings. Obviously, as an outsourcer, your aim is to make a profit. Therefore, if you are being paid $6/article, you won’t post a job paying $5/article since this won’t be very lucrative for you. At the same time, if your budget is too low, you won’t attract providers who have already made a name for themselves. It is best that you look at similar jobs that have been posted by other buyers. If possible, try to keep your budget within a similar range.
No outsourcing business can ever be successful if you don’t have providers to do the work for you. Luckily, there are many freelancers out there who would be happy to work with a reliable outsourcer. The key is finding them, and you can do so through freelance job sites. The number of freelance job sites has increased over the years as more and more people are looking for flexible jobs. Not all of these freelance sites will be suited to your needs and you have to be careful which you choose. The following are the main features of three of the more credible freelance job sites.
Has over 400,000 registered users to date.
It is free to post jobs.
You can pay and accept payments through a secure Safepay escrow service.
There is the possibiddty of getting up to 2% back when you pay a provider through checks or wire transfers.
There is a free 1099 tax form service in place.
The number of registered professionals (over 30,000) guarantees that you will find qualified providers.
You are provided with a Project Workspace that you can make available to your selected provider(s). This allows you to track the progress of your jobs.
A feedback system is in place so you can read prior reviews of providers before you make your final decision.
Multiple forms of payment are accepted, including credit cards, checks and wire transfers.
There is an Escrow service in place to ensure added security when completing payment transactions.
It is free to post a job.
There is a wide range of categories and you can find professionals trained in anything from proofreading to computer programming.
It is free to join for both buyers and providers.
Payments can be made through a secure escrow service.
Bidders can be contacted via a Private Message Board.
Funds can be withdrawn through Paypal, Moneybookers, Western Union and wire transfers.
You can define your project budget from as low as $30.
Has a feedback system so you can review providers before you make your final choice.
Informational products are also very easy to create and require little specialized skills. All you need to be able to do is research a subject and present the information in an interesting and easily understandable way.
There are many different types of informational products, ranging from streaming videos to audio files. However, unless you are already experienced in these areas, it is best to start with something simpler. Let’s look at some of the advantages of creating your own ebook:
There are no added costs involved with printing pages or shipping orders. Your product can be available as an instant, digital download.
You don’t have to actually be physically present in order to take orders. The process, including product deddvery, can be 100% automated.
There is a big market for readable and useful information. There is no limit on the number of ebooks you can create within a given niche.
You get to build a reputation as a respected author in your field. This can be very beneficial to any other online marketing efforts.
You can use your product to promote other business ventures or affiliate programs by embedding links in them.
The process of finding a profitable niche is covered in detail in Chapter 7. However, let’s summarize the steps involved:
Jotting down any keyword that is related to your field of expertise or the niche you are interested in.
Using tools such as Good Keywords to come up with new key phrases related to the keywords you generated before.
Weeding through your ddst of keywords and key phrases to determine which ones you want to keep and which ones you want to cross out.
Using tools such as Overture to determine search volumes and level of competition for each of your final keywords/key phrases.
Essentially, what your niche research should achieve are answers to the following questions:
Once you’ve decided on your niche, it’s time to get down to actually creating the ebook. One strategy that is utilized is putting together a collection of free reprint articles on the subject. While this does free you from the task of doing any writing yourself, the information you present is freely available elsewhere so people probably won’t want to pay for it.
It’s not that difficult writing an ebook, especially if you are familiar with the material. There are some steps that you should follow which will help you streamline the process.
Unlike an outline, a brief consists of a few simple statements that serve to focus your mind on the task at hand. You will be looking at things like the general subject matter of the ebook, the number of pages, and the length of time for completion.
Once you have done your research and defined your main topic, you can now go ahead and specify the sub-topics. Include any points that you think might be important. If you’re not sure what those might be, try visiting relevant forums see what areas are being discussed. It may be a good idea to come up with a draft of your Table of Contents. You can always refine this at a later date.
You may be wondering why you should be taking this step when you’re concentrating on the actual ebook. Simply put, just as you’re getting your points together for the ebook, it will be easy for you to list its main benefits for the sales page. It is best to do this while everything is fresh in your mind, and it will save you time.
By now you should have an extensive list of sub-topics relevant to your main subject area. Put yourself in the place of your potential customers. If you were considering buying such a product, what would you be looking for?
Start fleshing out the sub-topics using the points that you identified in the previous step. The objective here is to just write. Get your ideas down as fast as they come to you. This should be easy once you’ve chosen a topic you’re familiar with or have done a lot of research on.
Once you have compiled all the information together, you’ll need to ensure that your ebook is free from spelling and grammatical errors. You’ll also need to organize your content so that the wording flows and is easily understandable.
If you’ve followed steps 1 to 6 closely, you’ll now have a completed text document. However, you cannot distribute an informational ebook in this format. The best format for ebooks is as a PDF. This is preferred since it will retain the look of your document so you don’t need to make any adjustments to characters, fonts or graphics.
Unfortunately, the best software on the market for converting text files to PDFs is manufactured by Adobe and this is quite expensive. There are cheaper alternatives and you can even source free software in the form of PDF995. This is a free program that allows you to do a complete conversion.
The first things that your potential customers will see regarding your ebook are the sales page and the ebook cover. It is therefore crucial that you make a good first impression. A poorly done cover will not only fail to grab attention but can also make your product seem cheap and tacky.
If you are familiar with graphics packages such as PhotoShop, you can easily create your own cover designs. If not, it is well worth it to employ the services of a reliable freelancer.
Here’s a tip. The first thing you’ll need in order to create a great sales page is a great place to put it. You will need a reliable hosting account for your webpage. Some people may choose to use a free host. This can actually hurt your credibility since most of the URLs offered by these services are long sub-domains.
Your hosting service doesn’t have to be expensive since you really don’t need that much space. Once you’ve signed up for a hosting package, it’s time to create the sales letter that will become your content.
Create a compelling headline. Try to include the biggest benefit of your product within your headddne. The purpose of doing this is to give your potential customers a reason to keep reading.
No one likes to read long paragraphs. Try to break blocks of text into shorter paragraphs and bulleted points. This will be more visually appealing.
Communicate directly to your potential customers. By all means, include some information on yourself in order to establish your credibility, but avoid overdoing this. Instead, outline what your product has to offer.
Don’t look at your customers as just paying clients. Write as though you are talking to a friend. Be personable. This will help you build a personal connection.
Include contact details. Some people may not be comfortable putting their personal address onddne. You may wish to use a P.O. Box instead, but you should at least have a phone number and an email address.
Don’t forget to include your Unique Selling Point. You will most ddkely have some level of competition within your niche. You must have something which will set you apart from the others. Whether it’s the price of your product, or bonuses that you are offering, you can’t afford to leave this out.
Many people are daunted by the task of advertising their product themselves. You can hire a professional to do this for you at a reasonable price, especially if you post the project on freelance job sites. However, quite a few others would like to try this task for themselves. There are numerous inexpensive ways to advertise your product online.
Forums are gathering places for like-minded individuals to discuss topics that they’re interested in. Therefore, forums centered on your niche product are great places to advertise your ebook since you already have a targeted audience.
Articles are an excellent way to share your expertise and build your credibility as an expert in your field. An added advantage is the fact that most article directories will allow a link your sales page to be placed in either the body of the article or the author’s resource box.
This is similar to having your own website, except that you don’t need to pay for hosting. There are many sites, such as Blogger.com, that will allow you to set up your blog for free. You can post your own articles, links or advice and most blogs are picked up by RSS sites, so you’ll reach a larger audience.
Here you will essentially be bidding on keywords that you think visitors would use to search for your site. The higher your bid, the higher your ad will appear. This can be quite expensive for very competitive keywords, but can also be an effective advertising tool if used properly.
One of the best ways to market your product is to have others promote it for you. You may be wondering how you can achieve this. The answer is by setting up your own affiliate program.
With an affiliate program, you recruit others to do your marketing for you and they are rewarded by a commission for each sale they make. There are a number of ways in which affiliates can do their advertising but it usually involves placing some HTML code on their website.
Of course, none of this will matter if you can’t set up your affiliate program to start with. You have two choices when it comes to this. You can work through a third party who will set up the program for you but will take a hefty monthly fee, or you can invest in affiliate software that you can run on your own computer.
The problem with most affiliate software titles is the price. For example, MyAffiliateProgram, which is a hosted solution costs $2495. Similarly, the popular AllAffiliatePro sells for $449 ... and that’s not even the basic package. One alternative solution is EasyClickMate which costs $67. It's specifically designed to work with Clickbank and once you have you it set up, you’re ready to get some affiliates and make money.
Finding affiliates is not difficult, once you have a program that offers a great product and a fairly high commision. The problem is finding quality affiliates who will actually boost your sales. A good place to start is on affiliate forums. Four of the busiest and best affiliate forums online are, Associates Programs Forum, ABestWeb, Wikedfire and Affiliates4u. Introduce yourself and state exactly how your affiliate program can be beneficial.
Another crucial step is submitting the details of your program to as many reliable affiliate directories as possible. This is where serious affiliates will come to look for new, potentially profitable programs. Ensure that you choose the right category for your program.
In recent years, certain internet information marketers just seem to be everywhere. Three of the most prominant and three of the most successful are below:
Mark Joyner is often refferred to as the Grandfather of Internet Marketing. Depsite dropping out of high school he went on to sell millions of Dollars in products and services both offline and online.
Joel Comm has been online for over 20 years. Joel's book, The AdSense Code is a New York times, best seller. Joel is currently producing the internets first reality TV show, The Next Internet Millionaire.
Mike Filsaime is the founder and CEO of PayDotCom. Mike's company MikeFilsaime.com, Inc. did nearly $4.5 Million in sales in 2006.
If you can create something that enriches people's lifes and provides them with information of value that they can use to make more money, enjoy life more or have more free time you will not only gain personal satisfaction from helping people, but people will associate you and your brand with quality. So if your in the business of selling products or services (which most people are), it wont be you doing all the selling, your brand will be doing some of the selling for you.
The previous chapter discussed how to create your own product. Using an ezine is a good way to advertise that product since your subscribers will already be a targeted audience.
You can have the best affiliate program in the world, but you won’t see an increase in your sales if no one knows about it. Using your ezine to outline the details and benefits of your programs can reach an audience that you may otherwise not have access to.
Even if you don’t have your own product, you can still promote other products and make money if you include your affiliate links. This can be especially beneficial if you insert your links within the body of your articles and invest in link cloaking software.
Once you have established your ezine and your list of subscribers starts to grow, you might want to consider approaching companies that are in your field and offering them ad space at a reasonable price.
Don’t get too greedy though. You may find that quite a few companies, especially fledgling ones, will be eager for the extra exposure. However, if your ezine contains too many ads, it can impact on the quality of your content and you’ll lose subscribers. Try to limit the number to no more than two or three ads per page.
Some people may prefer to concentrate on the task of writing, as opposed to spending time on the design of the ezine. You can bypass the design process entirely by using a template. The biggest advantage of this is the time you’ll be saving.
Unlike web templates, you will most likely not have to contend with other ezines having the same design, at least not in your niche area. Even if they do, your subscribers won’t know unless they receive both ezines. Hence, you have a greater amount of flexibility.
One are of concern though is the coding. Many free templates do have somewhat sloppy coding and this can affect the overall appearance of your ezine. If you’d like to try designing your own ezine, it is best that you use a program such as Dreamweaver.
The key to having a successful ezine is providing quality content. The easiest way to do this is by utilizing free reprint articles. Most of the major article directories will allow you to use archived articles provided you don’t alter any links or the author’s information. The problem with this is your content isn’t unique.
One method of acquiring unique content, without doing it yourself, is contacting authors and asking if they would be interested in writing an article for you. You might be surprised with the results. Many authors would be very happy for the opportunity to showcase their talents. However, you have no control over what they do with the article afterwards.
If you are willing to pay, you can hire a freelancer to do the articles for you. That way, copyrights are transferred and you have legal ownership of the articles. You can therefore be sure that there will be no duplication.
Of course, if you love writing, there is nothing stopping you from writing the article yourself. Just remember that they should be easy to read and grammatically correct, with relevant, up to date information.
You may be tempted to create a text-based ezine since this is easiest. However, always remember that you are trying to appeal to an audience. Generally, people respond better to well-organized HTML ezines which can contain images and links. Some email programs, though, cannot accept HTML emails.
Luckily, you can bypass this by using an ezine distribution service which allows you to create your ezine in both formats. The HTML format will be sent out by default, but the text version will be sent out to subscribers who indicate that they cannot accept HTML.
In addition to the main content, you should include two or three extra items to keep your readers’ interest. This can take the form of recommended resources, affiliate links, ads or even information about yourself.
There are many ezine distribution services online and it can be quite a task deciding on which one to choose. Here are a few essential things that you’ll need to consider:
This is not as daunting as it sounds. Most of the ezine distribution services will provide you with detailed instructions on how to do this.
Ideally, your ezine will look the same regardless of which email address it’s sent to. This isn’t always the case though. If you haven’t already, you may want to consider opening accounts with the larger email providers and sending the ezine to yourself first. That way you can easily see if there are any formatting errors you may need to work on.
You can do this through a number of methods. One of the best is offering a bonus to subscribers from your website.
Another good method is submitting details of your ezine to ezine directories. Two popular ezine directories Zinester and The Ezine Directory.
As with other directories, such as article directories, there a number of them springing up each day online. How can you tell which ones you should submit your ezine to? Zinester and The Ezine Directory are currently the most popular, but considering there is so many, you have the option of listing your ezine in more than just two directories. There are a few things you should look for:
What areas do the directories cover? Are they general directories or niche directories? You’ll obviously not want to submit your ezine to a directory that covers a different niche than yours.
How many ezines are listed? If there only a few ezines listed then you either have a very selective directory or one that is new and hasn’t become established yet.
Is there a cost for submission? Most ezine directories are free so there really is no need for you to pay for a ddsting.
You may consider investing in submission software, such as Ezine Announcer, which will alleviate the task of having to type your information over and over again. Here are some of the features of this program:
Automatically submits your ezine to the top directories.
Tracks your ads and content.
Promotes your ezines on announcements lists.
Your success in any online venture centres on remaining true to your chosen niche. Your subscribers want very specific information. After all, that is what you promised you when you were trying to convince them to subscribe in the first place.
It can be very easy to lose focus, especially after a few issues have gone out and you may find yourself floundering to come up with new ideas. If this is the case, simply ask your subscribers what they’d like to see included in the ezine.
Your subscribers want information. Of course you can include ads, and you should if you want to make money. The problem is that some ezine owners include too many ads on their pages.
This doesn’t achieve anything because it makes your subscribers think that you’re trying to sell to them and this can raise their defences. As a rule, you should not include more than three ads per page. If you are using text ads, you may be able to fit in four of five, but no more than this.
Of course the goal of your ezine is to make money, and you can if you set things up properly. You must realize though that it will take a while for your ezine to become very popular. It may be months before you have built up a sufficient enough subscriber base to start making a profit. The key is sticking with it and producing new content.
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No mailchimp logos or text links are added to emails unlike other autoresponders like iContact and Aweber.
$9.99 a month is very cheap. Although lists with 100,000 or more subscribers will be billed a mammoth $699.00 per month.
One of the few auto-responders that have the ability to add rss feeds.
WYSIWYG Newsletter Editor
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Include Graphics, Documents, Audio and Video
GetResponse can assign a specific domain name to specific campaigns. Personal domain names or sub domains at getresponse.com are available.
The bottom line of domain name investing, as with any business, is making a profit. That won’t happen if you can’t get your domain names sold. The best way to sell your domain names is to buy high quality names in the first place. You have a few options here:
Whichever option you choose, you need to weigh all the pros and cons of a particular domain name before you invest it in.
The .com names still hold the highest value. The problem is that everybody knows this and it may be difficult to find a suitable domain name. Put yourself in the place of someone looking for a great domain name for their website, i.e., your potential buyers. They’ll want something that’s short and memorable.
If you’ve brainstormed and all your ideas are already taken, you may want to look into alternatives such as .net and .info names. Sedo, one of the leading domain auctions, recently reported that .info sales were rapidly gaining on .com sales.
There are a few valuable tools available to help you in your domain name search. Nameboy gives you the opportunity to conduct a search on your desired domain name, but also lists relevant names and indicates their availability.
You may also want to look into researching available dictionary word .com, .net and .org domain names - there is an absolutely fantastic free tool at dnbrowser.com which allows you to search available dictionary domains for different extensions.
Once you have put together a list of high quality domain names and ensured their availability, the next step is registering them so you can have ownership. As customers of Registerfly can tell you, be very careful when you are choosing a domain registrar.
You might be tempted to go with the cheapest option, especially if you are registering many domains. This is not necessarily a bad thing, provided that the registrar can fully satisfy your needs. You need to ask these questions before you actually sign up:
There are a few reputable domain resellers out there but it is advisable to go with an ICAAN accredited registrar. ICAAN is the organization that oversees domain sales and an accredited registrar is one who meets their approval standards. Accredited registrars will usually display this accreditation on their website.
Once you have made an investment into your domain names, you will want to ensure that your information remains private. WHOIS is a database of registered domain names and their owners. Personal information, such as your name and address, is displayed here unless you choose the option of Domain Privacy.
Many registrars offer this as a free service. Even the ones that don’t typically charge $1-$2 per domain name for the service to be added. It is best to spend the money here if you have to rather than running the risk of identity theft.
Another hazard you may face when dealing with domain names, is having a name stolen. This happens when someone transfers your domain name to their account without your knowledge or approval. One way of prevent this is through Domain Locking, which requires a preset password before the domain can be transferred. Again, this is usually a free service.
If you were to go on any major domain auction site right now, you’re guaranteed to find at least one grossly over-priced domain name. Look at the number of bids received. It’s a reasonable assumption that there won’t be any. Of course you want to make money, as much as possible, but if the price you are calling is too high, no one will want to buy.
The best way to determine the market value of your domain name is to have an appraisal done. There are sites that will allow you to do a free appraisal and you are given a value instantly. The problem with this is that it is based a number of strict rules including the number of characters/words in a name and the TLD extension.
The estimated value you receive is therefore not a true reflection of how much your name is worth. It is better to have a paid appraisal done, via a site such as Sedo, in which personal factors will be taken into consideration.
For example, let’s say you have a potential customer who is looking for a name for their hosting information website. You own two names: h101.com and hostingadvice.info. You may think that the latter would be less valuable, and a free appraisal would agree with you, because it is not a .com name and it contains 13 characters. This is not necessarily true because of human appeal.
All of the work that you’ve put into getting high quality domain names won’t be worth anything unless you can get them sold. There are a number of options open to you when it comes to finding a buyer.
Domain auctions are not the place to list your domains if you are looking for an immediate sale. That’s because you have no guarantee that there are buyers interested in your domain names at the point when they are listed.
Still, domain auctions are a very good tool, especially to those new to domain name investing. Typically, you will either have to pay an up front fee for listing of your domains, or a commission payable upon sale. Most of the larger domain auctions allow you to specify your mode of payment, but also offer escrow services. In addition, they handle the actual transfer process for you.
Two of the major domain auction sites are Afternic and Sedo. Let’s do a quick comparison.
| Feature | Afternic | Sedo |
|---|---|---|
| Commission | 10% | 10% |
| Listing Fee | No | No |
| Minimum Transaction Fee | $60 | $50 |
| Escrow Service | Yes | Yes |
| Listings | No adult/gambling | All names |
| Minimum Offer | Yes | Yes |
| Reserve Offer | Yes | No |
One way of overcoming the problem of a lack of demand vs. supply is a customized auction. In this case the seller, or their broker, conducts an auction. However, potential buyers have already been contacted about the event. This is similar to real-time auctions.
As opposed to many auction listings, these are done strictly through a broker, who can match your listings with any wanted requests. This method is perhaps not best suited to novices and is usually used by established domain investors and companies with portfolios. Still, it is something to consider, although it can be quite expensive up front.
One of the more confusing aspects of domain name investing, or just buying domains in general, is the domain transfer process. If you have registered you domain names with a domain auction, such as Sedo, the auction company typically takes care of the details for you.
In fact, in an effort to attract new customers, many of the larger domain registrars and hosting companies have expanded their services to include almost fully automated domain transfers. Godaddy in particular is known for their ‘risk-free’ transfers.
However, there may be instances where you will have to complete the transfer process on practically on your own. This is especially important if you are selling your domain names to private buyers. Once you have sold a domain, you will be presented with two options: a change of account or a domain transfer.
If you’ve been lucky enough to find a buyer who uses the same registrar that you do, then the process is much simpler for you. The actual steps may vary slightly between registrars, but the general procedure is the same.
Some buyers may not prefer this route. That’s because a change of account doesn’t carry the one year registration extension that most domain registrars offer on new domain name transfers. Transferring a domain name to another registrar can be a bit more complicated but if you follow each of the steps closely, you’ll have no problems.
Before you decide to sell your domain names, you must take note of the following:
You cannot transfer domain names within 60 days of their initial purchase date.
You need to ensure that you unlock your domain name and remove any privacy restrictions before you attempt a transfer or else it will not be successful.
The Domain Names For Sale category on the Sitepoint.com forum allows forum members (membership is free) to list domain names for sale (for a $5 fee) and conversely browse domains names for sale by Sitepoint forum users.
Niche marketing involves attracting the attention of a small subset of customers, as opposed to trying to appeal to everyone. That’s what the bigger companies, like Amazon and BestBuys do. They have the resources to pull it off. The common person doesn’t. Yet, a very comfortable living can be made through niche marketing.
The key is finding a profitable niche that you are knowledgeable about and truly enjoy. Let’s say that one of your passions id gardening. Do you really think that you can make a dent in the marketing by focusing on the keyword ‘gardening’? No you can’t, especially if you’re now starting off.
However, there are many niches that exist within this main topic. There’s organic gardening, herb gardening, hydroponics, horticulture…just to name a few. People interested in these things will type in a very specific term, and they will be looking for very specific information and link-focuss.
What are some other possible niches? Well, anything you can think about really, but here are some ideas:
Gourmet Foods
Custom-Made Candles
Jewellery Care
Low Fat Recipes
Lake Fishing
Pet Training
Alternative Health
Credit Card Debt
…and the list goes on and on.
By now, you should understand the concept of what exactly constitutes a niche. Now you’re ready to pick your area and get going, right? Wrong. It’s not that simple. Not all niches are made equally, and not all niches are equally profitable. The best niches are those which have a high number of searches each month, but low levels of competition. There are four main steps that go into choosing your niche.
Let’s look at each step in detail, starting with Brainstorming. The only tools you’ll need for this are a pen, some paper, and your own brain … hence the term. Start off by asking yourself some simple questions:
What do you like doing?
Is there anything that you are particularly knowledgeable about?
What skills or talents do you have?
Use the answers to those questions in order to make up a list of keywords or key phrases. Don’t worry about how silly anything may sound. Just keep on jotting them down until you can’t think of anything else. You may come up with a list that looks like this (of course yours should be much longer): herb gardening, crocheting, cake decorating, writing short stories.
Now that you have a list of keywords, it’s time to start doing your Keyword Research. This involves expanding on the words and phrases that you would have come up with on your own. A great piece of software to use for this is Good Keywords. The good news is, it’s free and it works!
Download the program and make sure that you’re connected to the internet when you run it. Now type in your first topic. Let’s use ‘cake decorating’ as an example. The software will return a list of relevant terms that are being searched for at the moment, such as ‘cake decorating supplies’ and ‘cake decorating tips’. This will help you to refine your niche.
Do the same thing for each of your original keywords and save the top ten results for each. You’ll need this for the next step, which is Secondary Idea Creation.
This is essentially brainstorming all over again, now that you have a much wider list of keywords to choose from. This is also where you weed out the ones that you know you have no interest in following up on. Using our previous example, if you don’t know a thing about cake decorating supplies, cross it off your list. You want to focus on things that you at least have a basic knowledge of.
As you read earlier, not all niches are equally profitable. If you want to be successful, you need to corner a niche that has a high potential for profit but little competition. You therefore need a niche that doesn’t have a lot of sites focusing on it, but a fair number of people conducting searches each month. How can you get this information?
There are many amazing Niche Potential Analysis tools that you can use. Overture has a very popular keyword suggestion tool in which you just type in your main subject area. You will then be presented with a list of relevant keywords and the number of searches that were conducted for each term over the past month. This gives you an idea of the more sought after search terms, but what about the competition?
You have two options here. Google’s Adwords Analyzer is similar to Overture in that you are presented with a list of relevant keywords. You are also able to compare the search volume and the level of competition side by side. This is in a graphical form though, so you don’t have an idea of actual numbers. Still, this allows you to further refine your keywords and you can conduct a manual search on each to determine the number of sites based on those keywords.
If this sounds like too much work to you, you can get a free trial of Word Tracker which is professional level keyword research software. This saves you a bunch of time by supplying you with results across many search engines. You are provided with new key phrases as well as supply vs. demand data that will make it very easy for you to spot potentially profitable niches.
Once you’ve identified your niche, you want to make sure that yours becomes the household name whenever that topic is brought up.
A domain name of your own goes a long way to proving your credibility. It says that you are serious about whatever you’re selling or giving advice on. The best TLD is still the .com, although .info is catching up. Still, it’s recommended to sticking to what works. Try to keep the domain name to a two-word minimum, unless you can think of a slightly longer but catchy phrase.
In most cases you can get your domain name and your hosting in the same place. This websites uses MediaTemple, mainly because it provides features that are made specifically for experienced web developers that other hosts don't provide. But if you just starting out, something like BlueHost would probably be better for you than MediaTemple. Anyway there are tons and tons of web hosting companies out there. Just do a Google search for top ten web hosts and pick one. There’s no need to go for a fancy package. A basic package will do fine for your needs and most of the top hosting packages are fully-featured.
You might cringe at the thought of designing your own website … so what? You know what looks good right? Many web hosting companies offer you a free online editor, complete with templates, so all you have to do is add some text. If you have Microsoft Frontpage, or another WYSIWYG editor, installed on your computer, you can take a stab at designing a site from scratch … but why make more work for yourself?
Channel that energy into writing to your audience. Of course, this is assuming that you’ve identified who you’re marketing to in the first place. The key is to include some of your keywords so you get recognized by the search engines, but not so many that your text sounds nonsensical.
If you’re not confident that you can do a good job yourself, just visit a freelance site such as GetAFreelancer.com. You can usually find very competent people who can produce your web copy at reasonable rates.
We’ve already looked at how to create your own link-focus in Chapter 4. To review, people are always interested in link-focus that will tell them how to do things. As such, informational link-focuses are always going to be big sellers.
Ebooks are the easiest thing to create. In most cases, the information already exists in the form of articles and/or tutorials. It’s just a matter of putting it together in your own words. Once again, if you don’t want to do it yourself, hire someone to get it done for you.
Having the best niche link-focus in the world isn’t really going to amount to anything unless you can get it out there. Yes, you’ve been marketing your link-focus, and your website, quite well on your own. Imagine if you had an army of salespeople ready to promote you. How much better would that be for you?
The easiest way to do this is through the use of Affiliate Software. This allows you to advertise yourself without putting up any money up front, other than the actual cost of the software. It also allows you to automatically handle affiliate sign-ups, track existing affiliates and disburse payments.
It is true that you will have to pay your affiliates, but most affiliate programs operate on a commission basis, so you don’t pay unless a sale is made. Overall, your profit margin will increase and you’ll be getting your name out there, which is just as important if you want to corner your niche.
The rise in e-commerce has brought about an increase in the number of affiliate management programs that exist. These can be divided into three main groups:
Third party affiliate tracking is essentially a service offered by a company that will handle all your affiliate program details for you. This may sound quite tempting but you’ll need to pay attention to the fine print. In many cases, the monthly fees for such services are quite expensive and only make sense if the cost of your individual link-focuss is high.
Remotely hosted software involves more participation on your part. You run the affiliate program but the software you’re using is hosted on the software company’s own servers, as opposed to on your machine. Once again your monthly costs can be very high. However, the features that are made available to you may actually make it more profitable to go this route.
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