being-original
Affiliate Marketing Hacks
Anyone can find success in affiliate marketing but not every person who joins such a program succeeds. It’s all about using the available resources to achieve the best possible results. These are some of the tips that can help beginners become successful affiliates andmake some good income from such ventures.
1. Carve out a niche
This is a very critical factor in affiliate marketing. It is important that you identify a specificmarket or segment that you want to work in and then focus on that. Carving out a niche foryourself means choosing what works best for you.
2. Carefully select your merchants
It is important to carry out thorough research before agreeing to work with a specific merchant. This is because those who sell consumers inferior products risk losing future business opportunities. Even if you played no part in manufacturing the product, as a publisher, customers will still hold you responsible as the person who introduced the product to them. Work with a brand that holds up its end of the deal without additional pressure.
3. Use captivating content
When promoting products on your website, customers first get to interact with other content before being directed to a link and ultimately the merchant’s website. That means that the content that you create for visitors to your site should be relevant and captivating so that they feel convinced enough to click on the link and eventually buy the product. First impressions count.
4. Keep track of results
Do not just push for sales without analyzing your performance. Tracking your results includes monitoring feedback from consumers and checking the amount of sales made on a monthly basis. This will help you make a decision on whether you need a new marketing strategy or if it’s time to find another merchant. You can’t keep on selling a product that people just don’t want to buy.
5. Dedication
Affiliate programs are great avenues for making money but success does not come easy for a publisher. You must be dedicated and stay focused on building lasting networks and increasing your customer base. Once that is done, the money will start rolling in and realizing success will actually be possible. The problem with most beginners is that they want to make quick money but are not willing to put in work.
6. Sell products that you believe in
It is very easy to sell a product that you’ve actually used yourself or believe in. You will be making a sales pitch from an informed point of view and that always resonates well with customers.
7. Update your site
To increase the visibility of your site by getting high rankings on search engines, you must constantly update the contents using target key words and relevant information. That will then help drive traffic to it.
Being Unique vs. Being Original: Is There a Difference?
People like to think of themselves as unique, and they will even interchange the word unique with being original. But are they the same thing? Can you be unique without being original?
Someone who decides they want to stand out may dress in a style that is outside the norm. If you look at people who adopt the Goth look, they often look similar from one Goth dressing person to the next. They may still stand out in a group that is not necessarily into that style. If they went to a Goth convention (if such a thing exists), no one would stand out. You would see variations, but it would be a common theme.
Perhaps you could be considered unique if you decided to wear all your clothes inside out. You may even be considered original by doing this. What is certain is you will get many people giving you a strange look. These looks could be exactly what you are going for.
There are also people who reinvent styles that have existed well into the past. Look at the Steampunk movement that has become popular in the last decade or so. This is a style that encapsulates a period where steam technology dominated the planet. However, it incorporates modern day technology and fashion. It’s a hybrid of old world meets new. But among the Steampunkers, for lack of a better term, don’t they all look alike, for the most part?
Why not combine Steampunk with Goth? It gives a dark twist to the genre and at least initially, will let you stand out. But what happens when it catches on and everyone starts adopting it? Is it still considered unique or original?
There are those that try to set trends, either in fashion, technology, or both. The ones that do it often enough are called innovators while those who follow are copycats. It would be difficult to find people who would deny Steve Jobs was an innovator. Many believe that Apple will never be the same without him. Others believe he set the stage for Apple to continue as an innovative company for many years to come.
No one knows for sure what the future holds. However, people will continue to try what they feel is new when in fact is often just a variation on an existing theme. It’s like the old saying, the more things change, the more they remain the same!
What Is A Brand?
Making An Impact
If you want to make the maximum impact on the web, then it’s simply not enough to have a social media account(s) and a blog. You really need to ensure that there is a brand behind that social media account and behind that blog – something instantly recognisable that ties all of your posts and comments together under a single banner and something that people will feel is more than the sum of its parts and is a guarantee of quality.
But a brand isn’t just a logo. In order to have a real brand that has raving fans, you need to know what it is that makes something like this work and how to go about building yourself an image and then (more importantly) how to gain exposure for that image
Build A Blog And Make Money Part 7
Monetizing Your Blog
As a niche blogger, you want to always be thinking about your reader, but not to the point where you neglect your own financial success. That should be a strong part of your formula.
So after you map out the categories for your blog, you can rotate the topics when you create new content. Each time you pick a topic, think of two things:
- What good, valuable tips can I share?
- How can I monetize this post?
So let’s use weight training as our example again. Suppose you wanted to create a blog post called 7 Tips for Weight Training at Home. You would create 7 tips and for one or more of those, include a casual mention and link to a particular product.
For example, you might have a tip about choosing an area with plenty of space, and you could talk about why that’s important, and then say something such as, “If you live in a small area, then I recommend choosing space-saving equipment, like resistance bands that use your body weight.”
Then link to the one you recommend and talk a bit about it before going on to your next tip. The last thing you want to do is write one big ad. The reader should walk away feeling fulfilled if they don’t happen to buy anything that day.
You’ll be building trust with your readers that way.
What other monetization can you place on your blog? Banner ads – but don’t create a hostile environment on your blog where banner ads and buttons are flashing all over the place, blinding your readers.
Depending on your theme, you might be able to place a horizontal banner ad right below your header. You can promote products as an affiliate or promote your own products. These are usually called Leaderboard size.
The sidebar provides ample opportunity for vertical banners and smaller buttons. Try to select choices where they match the color of your site, or complete it in coloring – as long as it doesn’t clash.
You can also put banner ads and buttons inside your actual blog posts. So let’s say you were reviewing an info product from JVZoo or ClickBank. You could look for affiliate tools from the product creator and embed them into your posts so that they align with your text to the right or left, or break up lengthy blog posts right in the middle, too.
Make sure you monetize with text hyperlinks whenever you blog. These convert well. You don’t want every other word to be a hyperlink, but sprinkle them throughout wherever relevant.
Some blog themes don’t make your links stand out very well when you make them, so always go to the extra step of bolding the word or phrase and underlining it. Depending on the colors of your blog, you might also want to make them blue, like a traditional hyperlink.
Some of your monetization will occur from repeat contact with your readers. If your reader doesn’t notice your sidebar opt in form, they might sign up if you include the form at the bottom of your post.
There are plugins that can do this – or, you can simply paste the HTML code into the text – not visual – portion of your blog post. That way, not only are they expose to your offer during that first blog read, but you can promote to them repeatedly (as you serve their needs) over time and enjoy repeat commissions and sales.