Steve Guttridge: aka Stay At Home Bum Marketer

by: Vytautas Petrauskis

A lot of people are now getting into online businesses and online marketing either to supplement their “real world” income or for it to become their primary source of income. Why? Because online marketing just provides them a lot of benefits!

First, you can reach just about anybody in the world who has Internet access if you market your products online. That means a wider market for you, which can translate to larger profits. Second, setting up an online business requires only a fraction of the cost required to set up an actual business establishment, which means a lot of savings for the business owner.

Another aspect that has attracted a lot of people towards online marketing is the fact that one doesn’t have to have his own products to get started. In online marketing, one can start making a lot of money just by selling, or even by just trying to sell, other people’s products. And getting started with this kind of marketing strategy is actually quite easy. All that one needs to do is to set up an agreement with an online retailer or merchant, and after everything is settled, one can immediately start making money by selling the merchant’s or the retailer’s products.

Incidentally, the most popular and the fastest growing method of selling other people’s products online is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing, in its simplest definition, is a relationship between an online merchant or retailer, who has products to sell, and his affiliates, who are willing to promote the merchant’s product on their website.

In a typical affiliate marketing set up, the merchant provides his affiliates with banners and text ads that links to his site. The affiliates will then get these ads posted on their website and they get paid whenever traffic or sales is directed to the merchant’s website. Affiliates are often paid on commission basis, although other online merchants would opt to pay a fixed fee for the affiliate’s compensation.

Starting to make money online with affiliate marketing is relatively quick and easy. All that one has to do is to sign up as an affiliate for an online company that offers affiliate programs. An alternative method, and usually an easier one, is to sign up as a member of an affiliate network—a network that hosts a variety of affiliate programs for different online merchants or retailers. Signing up is usually free, although other companies and networks may require you to pay a particular fee. Such fees, however, are made as payment for additional services that the company may render, like providing you with tools and assistance to jumpstart your online business.

When you sign up with an affiliate marketing program, you are usually required to fill out a form containing information about yourself. Some affiliate programs may also require you to present the URL of your website and describe its contents. This will allow the retailers to verify that you actually have a website with contents that are relevant to their products. Some affiliate programs, however, won’t require you to have a website. After filling out the form and all, you are then allowed to choose the affiliate programs you want to promote.

After signing up with an affiliate program and being an actual affiliate, you are now ready to start making a lot of money by selling other people’s product online. How do you make money? There are actually a number of ways for you to earn money as an affiliate, and most of these ways depends on the type of affiliate marketing program you’ve gotten into.

Many affiliate marketing programs compensate their affiliates in either of three ways: pay-per-click (PPC), pay-per-sale (PPS), or pay-per-lead (PPL). In pay-per-click affiliate marketing, the affiliate is paid whenever he directs traffic to the merchant’s site. PPS and PPL affiliate marketing programs work rather differently. In PPS, the affiliate only gets paid when his referral converts into an actual sale. In typical PPS affiliate programs, the affiliate would usually get 15 commission for each conversion. PPL affiliate programs work the same way, although affiliates are paid a fixed fee whenever his referral converts into a lead for the company.

Some affiliate marketing programs are two-tier programs, wherein the affiliate is also allowed to recommend other affiliates to the merchant. In such affiliate programs, the affiliate would not only be paid for the traffic or sales that he would direct to the merchant’s site but also for the traffic or sales directed by the affiliates who signed up with the program through his recommendation.

Yet another way of earning more profits with affiliate marketing is through residual affiliate programs. Residual affiliate programs are affiliate programs where the affiliate gets paid a number of times for as long as the merchant keeps the customer the affiliate has referred to his site. One form of residual program gets the affiliate paid a commission every time the referred customer purchases something on the merchant’s site. Another form of residual affiliate program gets the affiliate paid a percentage every month for as long as the company keeps the referred customer.

With a lot of options available and a lot of ways to earn money, affiliate marketing is undoubtedly the most popular and the easiest way to make money by selling other people’s products online. As to how much money one can get from affiliate marketing actually depends on the affiliate. A dedicated and hardworking affiliate would certainly get more from the program compared to those affiliates who would simply sign up and forget about the program later.

About The Author

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by: Steve Guttridge

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by: Paul Irvine

Following on Twitter is becoming somewhat of a religion to many users of this versatile yet fun software a 7 letter word which up until a few years back was jargon for bird song. And the genius that came up with the idea to use it as the name of what is one of the fastest growing social networks most be one of the most popular people on the planet as everyone will be with him following on Twitter.

But enough poppycock, you’re here to see how you can gain a massive following on Twitter. Hopefully my choice of “massive” is adequately accurate.

* First and foremost – Decide what you are using Twitter for. If it is purely to see how many followers you can get then there are various tools at your disposal for searching the “twitterverse” for anyone and everyone you could possibly want to add. Bear in mind that if you add randomly, the chances of them following you are remote.

* Create meaningful Tweets- Have some influence or purpose for your followers. It is vital to create Tweets with real meaning and not just “My breakfast was awesome!” or “Isn’t the telly awful tonight?”. Again it’s down to your usage of Twitter. These Tweets would be fine for friends and family but do you really think potential customers or colleagues want to know these irrelevant items of conversation? Of course not.

* Be polite at all times – I cannot stress this enough. If you go on there and don’t thank others for a follow or start verbally abusing others then trust me, you will see that following begin to fall rather sharply back to big fat zero! There are various searches that others carry out (some of them very influential on Twitter) and if they black flag someone then you might as well logout, create a new account and start all over again.

* And finally – Don’t spend all day on Twitter, once you get into the thousands where your following is concerned, there is no way you could possibly keep up with everyone and what they’re doing (Twitter may have derived from bird song, but do you think every bird on the planet knows what the other is doing?) One extreme example of someone wasting their life on Twitter had spent over 2500 in a year conversing with their 86,000 followers (Wow!). Exceptional following but what did it actually achieve except serious wrist sprain and lack of sleep? I’m guessing not a lot.

So just to wrap up, start using and following on twitter, become part of what is a very fun application, full of useful information and interesting people. Just remember the above points and your manners and within weeks you will have a dedicated following with you following on Twitter, mark my words!

About The Author

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by: Liz Dennery Sanders

Differentiate or Die. Never has Jack Trout’s insightful witticism been more relevant than in today’s overcrowded brand marketplace. One thing is certain: in order to stand out, you have to stand for something. You really have to know yourself. A successful brand is authentic and confident – it doesn’t hide behind false promises or vague innuendos.

Personal branding is not just about building an image to portray to the public; it is about understanding your unique attributes, skills, values and passions and making sure these permeate every aspect of who you are and what you do. Ask yourself, “What is my unique promise of value?”

There are four “must haves” in order to build a powerful personal brand. I call them the “Four C’s of Personal Branding.” Without these, you will have a hard time attracting clients, enhancing visibility, boosting revenue and thriving in a challenging economy:

Clarity: You must be crystal clear about who you are and who you are not. A successful personal brand is true to who you really are. Volvo is about safety not speed, Four Seasons is about luxury service not affordability and Disney is about family entertainment, not slasher films. If you are outgoing, quirky, creative and high energy, you will not succeed by communicating the attributes of calm, steady, professional and reserved. You also want to pinpoint your target market and figure out what’s most important to them. Before you can move forward in the branding process, it is imperative to spend a good amount of time with this first C, as it will be the foundation for everything you do from here.

Communication: Once you have a clear understanding of who you are, what you stand for and who you are trying to reach, you will be much better equipped to communicate your message to your target market. Your brand needs to be visible to those who need to know about you. Consider all possible communication tools across multiple marketing channels (both online and off) and select the combination that works best for you. Perhaps you enjoy blogging and writing articles. Maybe you enjoy social media and want to build a strong following on Facebook and Twitter. Or you feel that speaking engagements and workshops are more appropriate for your brand. Whatever the case may be, you will want to put together a communication plan for your brand that puts you out there in front of your target audience.

Connection: People want to do business with those that they know, like and trust. As a powerful brand, it is your job to make an emotional connection with your target market. How do you do this? It is imperative to focus on benefits and results, not features. Your ideal client doesn’t want to know what you do, they want to know how you can help them and what the results will be from working with you. For example, if you are a financial planner, your client doesn’t want to know what accounts you can open for her or that you’re available 24/7, what she really wants deep down is to know that you can help her put her two kids through college and help her to retire by age 55 so that she can finally take that six month European bike tour she’s been dreaming about for 10 years. If through your unique promise of value you are able to appeal to someone’s pain and passion, then you will have a powerful brand indeed. As you connect with others, remember the acronym WIIFM. The client always wants to know, “What’s in it for me?”

Consistency: Your brand attributes and values must permeate everything you do. If one of your key brand attributes is “zen personality” and your brand color is purple, then you’re not going to send out a screaming loud direct mail card in bright orange and red. You wouldn’t host a salsa dancing party with flamenco dancers for your clients, but you might sponsor a lecture at a Japanese tea garden. It is imperative that there is a brand consistency with everything – from your logo and collateral materials to how you conduct meetings and how you dress on a daily basis. Always ask yourself, “Does this represent my brand attributes of x, y and z?”

If you take your time with these four essential C’s of personal branding, then you will be well on your way to understanding yourself better, enhancing your visibility, reaching more ideal clients and building a thriving business.

© Liz Dennery Sanders 2009

About The Author
Liz Dennery Sanders is a branding visionary and successful entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience in marketing, public relations and celebrity outreach. She is the CEO of Dennery Marks Inc., a nationally acclaimed brand strategy and celebrity outreach firm, and SheBrand, a company dedicated to empowering other female entrepreneurs and small business owners to embrace success and create more money and freedom in their lives. For a FREE report, “101 Ways To Build A Powerful Personal Brand and Attract More Clients” visit http://www.shebrand.com.

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