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Do you use Google AdSense to monetize your blog?

Than you have already got a mail from The Google AdSense Team regarding the retirement of Google AdSense’s Referral program. Though Google had acquired DoubleClick (and DoubleClick acquired Performics - the original company in 2004) months back, the integration took some time.

And now we have a new platform ConnectCommerce.com - “the reporting and tracking platform that powers Google Affiliate Network“. (BTW, now you have another Google blog to follow). And, this platform would soon be integrated into Google accounts.

Somehow, the way, Google is advancing by acquiring smaller brands, perhaps after someday, you would not need to move beyond Google for any service you want. Perhaps, someday Google would start selling domains directly. Perhaps someday you would sign into internet via Google and after living the Socio-virtual life with Google, you would go back to the table to have dinner supplied by Google while watching the Galaxy as shown by Google. Google = one click stop

Google is growing faster than you can think - it is growing its roots in every vertical. And if you think carefully, Google knows much more about you than you would have ever imagined or I should better say even your lawyer or personal secretary never knew. And more importantly, it knows your habit - your search pattern and your needs.

And who can be a better middleman after having so much of personal information!

But, who is growing on the other end to challenge Google? Is there really any competition? How can followers be competitors!

However, there is one spot where Google is yet to step in - direct content generation. Google is still dependent on you and me to develop content. (Though Google is already into crowdsourcing with Google Code, it is yet to try its hands to develop something like Wikipedia.) But still you need to depend on Google to offer you the best information in the web and thus obliquely it is very much into content production.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Popularity: 7% [?]

Almost everyone wants to earn money online. And undoubtedly, internet is still a goldmine. You have different ways to start earning. For example, Google Adsense or Yahoo ads are some of the most common revenue solutions for online publishers like bloggers.

And for the seasoned bloggers and marketers, affiliate marketing and product review can offer the biggest revenue generating solution. And affiliate marketing is perhaps the best solution for niche bloggers to earn more and more money. It is always a win-win situation for both the advertiser and the publisher.

Now, it is often very tough to decide upon which advertiser is worthy enough and who would offer you the best ROI. In some cases, the product price is very high and thus you do not get enough signups. And in some other cases, commission is low as the product price is too low and thus you earn fewer amounts even after a lot signups.

A lot websites run their own affiliate program. But it is often tough to say that each of them is honest enough to pay you the money that you really deserve.

They best way to earn from affiliate marketing is to join an affiliate marketing network. You will easily find a lot of them in the web but Advibrance is undoubtedly the best of the lot and they offer “an exclusive super affiliate commission of 4% per referral” along with some great rewards and bonuses for affiliates.

There is another reason why we are saying that Advibrance offers a great affiliate marketing solution. Almost all the affiliate networks have a fixed payment date - you can do nothing but wait for the date even though you are in some urgent need of cash. However, in this point, Advibrance has left everyone behind. They have taken the extra initiative to keep payment schedules flexible - that means you get the money when you need them the most.

They have already signed up some of the best advertisers in the market. But that is not all - if there is no advertiser in your niche, you can contact Advibrance directly and they would try to include advertisers from that niche in their network.

What else do you expect from an affiliate network?

BTW, they are offering $20 as signup bonus, so if you want to earn $20 without selling anything, join Advibrance Affiliate Network now.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Popularity: 10% [?]

Newsletters are a great tool that will enable you to build an opt-in list for marketing affiliate products and services. Many affiliates usually decide to build a web page and then insert the subscription box in order to attract their web visitors. While newsletters are an effective in promotion, the sad truth is, only a minimal number of web owners actually make a reasonable amount of money from this endeavor. So how can you increase your conversion rate? Here are some tips:

1.       Build content that is specifically targeted to a niche market – don’t try to be everything for everyone. You should determine your niche and stick to it; you are bound to see an increase on your income once you establish yourself as an expert.

2.       Consistently publish a newsletter – establish a frequency of sending out these newsletters. Most marketers decide to send out their content on a weekly or biweekly basis.

3.       Limit the number of words – in newsletter writing, it is always best to go straight to the point and not waste any person’s time with fluff and useless content.

4.       Try to create the content yourself – don’t publish other people’s writings on your newsletter unless you will benefit more from it. Putting other people’s names on your newsletters will establish them, as opposed to establishing yourself, as an expert in the particular niche.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Popularity: 8% [?]

After looking into the terms of the affiliate program agreement and deciding that it is acceptable. You become an affiliate, but the next question that enters your mind would be how much would I earn from this program and how do I get paid. Well, the answer on how much you will get paid mainly depends on your performance and your ability to generate as much sales for the merchant as possible. Answering how you will get paid is much simpler.

Different affiliate programs make use of different payment options to suit the needs of the affiliates. The most popular types include checks, PayPal, wire transfer, Epassporte, and even E-gold. Most merchants try to accommodate the preference of the affiliates so you can basically get your payment in whatever way you choose.

Checks – checks are usually shipped to your through a delivery company such as FedEx, UPS, and through the mail. You will need to go to your local bank in order to cash it.

PayPal – everyone who transacts over the internet most likely already has a PayPal account, the “safer, easier way to pay”. And it does makes good on its claim because you can instantly receive your money after the merchant sends the payment.

Wire transfer – this is a highly popular payment method in Europe although it seems as if checks and PayPal is preferred in the US. Wire transfer is basically transferring money from one bank account to another.

E-gold – this is an innovative way to receive payment over the internet. E-gold is the only global electronic payment system that is 100% backed by gold. E-gold allows you to transfer “gold” from one account to the other.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Popularity: 10% [?]

Affiliate fraud is getting worse. The only way to successfully combat this kind of fraud is to meet it head-on. Knowing more about its different manifestations is important to effectively fight affiliate fraud:

Fake transactions – some fraudsters actually created scripts that generate fake leads, clicks, and transactions. There are others who first sign up as an affiliate and then make large purchases using stolen credit cards. Of course, the merchant will eventually find out about the fraudulent transaction but it is highly likely that he will pay for the affiliate commission because of the said purchase.

Typosquatting – this may not seem as damaging as the first but it can be annoying nonetheless. Typosquatters are the affiliates who register variations of well-know domain names and then they sign up for the merchant’s affiliate program to get the traffic which should have been the merchant’s in the first place.

Parasites – these are the bane of legitimate affiliate marketers. Parasites are adware programs that installs on the affiliate’s computer to steal traffic from them. It steals their links by replacing it with new ones. The legitimate affiliate marketers will not get paid because of this.

Spammers – there are affiliates who send out unsolicited e-mails or spam to their prospects. These kinds of affiliates tarnish a merchant’s reputation and make can make marketing promotions harder for legitimate e-mailers because readers can no longer separate spam from legitimate offers. Spammers can also get a merchant’s name on the blacklist.

There are other signs you need to watch out for to determine if an “affiliate” is actually legitimate or not. Most of the time, affiliates who asks for immediate payment through PayPal are turn out to be fraudulent.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Popularity: 11% [?]

One of the best ways to build trust online is to use testimonials or endorsements from satisfied customers. But most marketers would think that since testimonials are so easy to fake, people would never believe them. The opposite can be true though if it is used carefully to the target audience.

The main function of a testimonial is basically to catch the attention of the reader while conveying benefits at the same time. Keep in mind though that the most important thing in using testimonials is establishing credibility. If the testimonial sound something like “this is the best product in the whole wide world”, chances are, the reader will just snort in derision. However, if you are wise enough to use testimonials that came from actual customers, your conversion rate can increase dramatically.

The placement of these testimonials is also essential so don’t cram all testimonials together in one page. Try to space them out to deal with different customer concern and objections. For example, if a testimonial reads, “this XY product was worth every cent”; put this particular testimonial in the page where the price is indicated since some customers might think that the price is too expensive for them. Make them see the value of the product and not just the price of it.

Most of all though, don’t ever use fake testimonials because it can destroy your customer’s trust in your product and in your company. Testimonials are actually rather easy to get if you offer great products or services. Some satisfied customers will send e-mails and feedback as their way of saying thanks for the benefit they experienced. On the other hand, you can also ask for evaluation every time a customer buys your product; you can include the positive points they indicate but remember to ask for their permission before you use it as a marketing material as well.

Popularity: 12% [?]

Popularity: 12% [?]

Online marketers always aim to grow the number of subscribers on their e-mail list. Most of the time, these subscribers will read the first few e-mails you send them. But after awhile, they will experience something akin to “list fatigue”, this is the term used in the direct mail industry that describes a list that becomes irresponsive. Take note though that these subscribers don’t really want to sever their relationship with you because they still believe that they might be able to get valuable information from your e-mails in the future.

Here are some tips you can try out to fight e-mail fatigue:

1. Provide fresh information – high quality content is most likely the component that made the people subscribe to your newsletter and this may be the factor that will keep them.

2. Avoid over-promotion – it is noticeable that quite a lot of marketers provide relevant information on the first few newsletters. Later on though, these newsletters become some kind of promotional material. It is important to find the right balance between content and promotion.

3. Watch your frequency – don’t send too many newsletters too soon. This will just overwhelm the readers and they might even associate your e-mails with spam.

4. Provide attention-grabbing titles – the title is often the deciding factor between reading and deleting. Try to provide a title that makes them itch to open your e-mail.

E-mail fatigue is certainly a challenge an online marketer needs to overcome if he is to be successful in his ventures. However, it is also important to keep in mind that no one can entirely prevent this fatigue so don’t get discouraged when you start to notice that your list is becoming gradually irresponsive because it will happen. You just need to reenergize their interest on what you have to offer.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Popularity: 13% [?]

Hubpages is definitely the next Squidoo-like site that is set to take the online marketing world by storm. In spite of the fact that only around 15,000 hub pages exists today and that most hubbers are not even that experienced in taking advantage of long-tail keywords, their pages still keeps in popping up into the first several pages of Google search results.

But it is not only their “search engine friendliness” that makes Hub Pages so attractive to marketers because they also allow the use of affiliate links. In addition, they even have a more generous payment system compared to Squidoo; their affiliate programs let you get lifetime commission from the income of your recruited hubbers.

You will also get paid every time you drive traffic to another person’s hubpage and the same is true when they drive people to your page. With this kind of revenue-share strategy where each marketer works to promote the other, you can definitely expect that Hubpages will enjoy a long lasting reputation as a premier affiliate marketing resource.

And unlike Squidoo wherein most of the “niches” are already dominated by a select few, hot niches are still wide open in Hubpages. Marketers just need to find out the right combination for their long tail keywords and tags.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Popularity: 15% [?]

Ever since Seth Godin launched Squidoo, a unique social network site that welcomes both blatant promotions and informative content, rumors have been circulating in the web community as to how online marketers can best use this tool.

Benefits

Probably the best thing about Squidoo is that fact that it’s free for anyone to use. Yes, you can actually take advantage of this great online resource without shelling out a single dime for promotion and optimization. The benefits you can derive from Squidoo is simply incredible because of the huge amount of traffic your site can generate as well as the amount of moneymaking opportunities that becomes available to you once you create a lens. Squidoo is also incredibly user-friendly; you don’t need to be a programmer to use this tool.

How It Works

Squidoo lets you showcase your expertise in the field you choose. In fact, you can choose to create a single account and then just tap into multiple demographics…or you can create multiple accounts (you have to use multiple e-mails). In separating your campaigns using the second method, you can brand yourself as an expert in multiple fields.

Downside

Yet, for all its advantages, Squidoo is not without a downside. Take note that it is not the fault of the Squidoo marketing system itself. Rather, the large number of marketers and spammers who abuse this tool are forcing both Squidoo and Google to take action. Because of its size and web influence, your Squidoo lens can skyrocket to the top of the Google index in just a short week; in some cases, it can even be as short as a few days.

Google is taking a hard line in this because they see this as a loophole. Well, of course, Squidoo can’t accept that their lenses will suddenly drop like flies from the Google index so they are taking a stance against spammers as well as black hat marketers.

So if you plan to use Squidoo in the near future, you must be prepared to put more efforts into this. Be prepared to adapt to the changing internet landscape as well.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Popularity: 13% [?]

Finding a Wholesaler/Distributor is a fairly simple process although many find this part most difficult. Nine times out of ten you are going to need to call the wholesaler as many of the decent suppliers of a product you’re interested in will not accept emails etc…

With “WebKinz” I decided to use trusty Google and managed to find a distributor in 10 seconds, I then phoned them to be given my area manager. I did the following:

“product keyword” + wholesaler
“product keyword” + distributor

That’s it.

Another very good but it is the longer, harder route (this is what people hate doing) Trade Shows. These shows are a place where you can find the vendors/suppliers you need to work with.

Just search on Google again for Trade Shows that match your business idea. There will, more then likely be a yearly trade show for your product/idea within your area. Some you have to pay for and others are free, you can turn up and speak to so many suppliers/distributors you’ll be spoilt for choice.

So with that part taken care of we now need to study our Competition. First, Basic research with some product keywords (brand name to start) I am going this to be doing this manually and not using any tools/software. So, I would just go to Google and type in “webkinz” don’t make this too complicated and just aim to beat the websites that are on the first page. We want to analyze why they’re there and what we can do to compete with them and improve on our business model to beat them.

I decided to choose three sites from the first page on Google for our brand name keyword:

Actually, some are irrelevant as they are information based sites like “Wikipedia” so I missed them out and choose actual eCommerce based websites selling the product.

1. www.webkinz.com/ -
2. www.hamleys.com/icat/webkinz -
3. www.ukwebkinz.co.uk/ -

One other website which was interesting that I might talk about in detail later seemed to be run by an Affiliate Marketer, niche site builder. I could tell this because of the Amazon and Google Adsense ads splattered all over it. So armed with the sites selling our product, we now need to Analyze the Business Model of the sites I have chosen - Keyword Search, Search Engine Optimisation, Internet Marketing, Site Age etc…

How many people are searching for your product, well, lets choose the brand name to start with and although very broad you should always aim to eventually rank well organically for your main product keyword. To give me a basis to go on I’m going to use WordTracker the results for this product are outstanding just for this one keyword. Enough to give me even more reason to open a store based around this very sort after product.

I would suggest you Invest in a paid for keyword service though, this will help you identify, organise and optimise your site for at least the top ten searched for keywords used by consumers online.

(I will update this part with some of the Tools I use soon)

I’m going to Analyze the site - http://www.ukwebkinz.co.uk/ -

Quick look at the age of the domain brings up “16-may-2007″ this is great news as they have managed to rank well for their main brand name keyword within a year and in Search Engine Optimisation terms is great going. They could optimise their “Title Tag” much better as at the moment they have “UK Webkinz - Online webstore” nothing terrible with it but it could use stronger keyphrases in the title to possibly rank even better. This would also encourage more clicks/visits to their site.

A better title would be “WebKinz Stuffed Animals and WebKinz Codes at UkWebKinz.co.uk”.

Keywords are important as well and I would take some ideas from what they have on their’s. Oh, on looking they don’t seem to have any other TAGS in their code so this is not fully SEO optimised. They would benefit from an informative Description TAG and a Keyword TAG. Outlined below is how I would set-up an index homepage.

That is a solid structure to use on all your product pages. When we get to the section of using a CMS “Content Management System” we will discuss having a unique “Title Tag” for every product and changing the keywords to match the product on the page. This is very important for SEO and will improve your organic product search results.

Another important factor in your Search Engine Optimisation is incoming links as this shows popularity of the site and is one of the many things Google uses to rank your site for any given keyword(s). They have 4 backlinks to their site which could be very wrong based on using this BackLinkChecker. If it’s that’s a great sign for us.

Very simply you would now need to build up your backlinks using a paid for service or do this or by contacting other related sites within your market asking for a link back to your site.

In 2008 this doesn’t work well so now online entrepreneurs are using Directories by submitting their site to them to build up links to their website. Another way is to purchase web links, known as Text Links which a really frowned upon - with Google anyway.

Read more about whether you should still use the paid for Text Link Ads model in your marketing efforts.

In our next update we will continue with our Competition Analysis and then move onto Choosing the right eCommerce Platform that suits your business model.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Popularity: 21% [?]