How I Compare Affiliate Programs

The Goal of Promoting Affiliate Programs Is More of These

I have been working online for a number of years now and have found it worthwhile to compare the various affiliate programs in the marketplace before choosing which one to promote. Which network or brand to choose can vary based on any number of factors which we'll talk about here. Things I like to consider can include benefits to me such as ease of use, commission rate, reputation and product breadth, but it also equally important to consider your audience when selecting products and programs to promote. After all if you misunderstand the needs of your visitors you don't have much chance of successfully marketing to them.

Three Major Affiliate Programs to Consider

The three most widely known affiliate programs (commission-based) are Amazon, eBay, and Clickbank. You may be wondering why I exclude Google AdSense here but I consider that an advertising program and not a pure commission-based affiliate program. Having had the pleasure of working with each of these networks I think it is fair to say that Amazon has the best overall reputation for trust level, commissions payment (including micro-payments now), and product selection. Where they tend to be a little on the weak side is their commission level. They also tend to be fairly flexible as to who can participate.

eBay Partner Network would have to be the second most widely known affiliate program, although their rules and payouts have changed substantially over the years. While previously they ran a hybrid program based loosely more on sales activity now they compute payments based on a quality click formula that more resembles Google's AdSense program than a true commission-based affiliate program. Click earnings rates tend to be exceptionally low for most sites, and many publisher accounts have been broadly banned by them - much along the lines of what Google has done. If you do choose to work with the eBay program they do have some very good tools but you will almost certainly be banned if you violate the most minute terms of service.

The third and final commission-based affiliate program is Clickbank. The trust reputation of Clickbank is much lower than the previously mentioned programs, primarily because the quality of the product offerings on that platform tend to be lower / more of the Tv Infomercial level quality as compared to the brand-name merchandise which Amazon (and to a lesser extend eBay) tend to market as their bread-and-butter product lines. Having said that, the lines of product quality on sites such as Amazon and eBay are only as good as the sellers of those items - and given the number of non-brand name 3rd parties selling on those platforms I think it is safe to say the quality and trust level of both those dot-com brands has been diluted over time. On the plus side for Clickbank, the typical commission rate for a Clickbank product ranges from 50% up to 80%. Higher commission rates means it takes fewer sales to make good money online.

Are There Other Affiliate Programs Than Clickbank or Amazon

The short answer is yes there are a number of networked affiliate programs as well as individual affiliate programs in the marketplace. The advantage of using a networked program is that it is easier to find a wider variety of products to promote, and earnings from the various vendors (usually) accumulate in a single account making it easier to achieve payout thresholds. After all - making a sale doesn't get you paid until you hit the minimum payout level. Now as we mentioned above, Amazon's payout threshold is effectively zero. eBay's (last I recall) was as low as $10. Clickbank's minimum payout is $50.

Social Media Training PDF

I have written a cheap social media training PDF available online or via Kindle (cheaper version). Now more than ever network marketing is critical to the success of your small business. A business without a coordinated marketing presence online is missing out on a tremendous opportunity to build an audience and acheive their business and social agenda cheaply and efficiently.

Media Buy Costs Plummet When Taken Online and Social

Web savvy business owners know and understand the drill. When the need to promote a new offer comes up, the marketing effort ramps up and quickly gets the message out to key followers and further out onto the web. Occasionally a marketing effort or social message goes viral and your business audience grows overnight! This isn't obviously always the case but with the right setup in place these so called media "buys" cost the smart business owner NOTHING!

Facebook Twitter and Google - The Key Elements of Our Social Media Training PDF

So how do you become a web savvy business owner like our example above? You need only read and implement the steps outlined in our social media training PDF (cheaper Kindle edition). In it we cover how to bring your marketing message quickly and efficiently to all the social networks (and other media outlets) at once. With the click of one button the web savvy business owner informs all their followers wherever they choose to receive their media information while at the same time publishing the same information to the broader public across a variety of news outlets.

Benefits of Taking Social Media Training to the Next Level

In addition to the obvious benefits of increased business exposure for pennies (or nothing!) the advantage of taking additional social media training is the advancement of skills in online marketing as well as understanding what to expect from online marketing efforts. One great example of this is the difference between sending out a weekly flyer in the mail (or as blown-in advertising in your local paper) versus putting content up on the web. Your flyer is unlikely to be read at all - and if read even once, will be discarded almost immediately. That is literally throwing money directly into the garbage.

On the other hand, time spent putting a social media message together and then putting it up on the web creates a permanent record which not only links your message to your store or brand, but also creates a spot in search engines to which customers who read (and discarded) your message the first time around can still search for (and more importantly... find!) your original message for re-use or (even better) to pass along / share with friends.

Do yourself a favor and grab a copy of our social media training PDF or Kindle edition. You won't regret it. I promise.

SEnuke Review

In this SENuke Review we will talk about how it is something of a bionic arm (or hands) of web-publishing for professional internet marketers. A lot has changed in article marketing since the SEnuke (Search Engine Nuke) software program was originally offered several years ago. It has since gone through a couple of major upgrades designed to get as much of the "work" out of "working online" as humanly possible. Purists might argue that the techniques and methods used by the software program run afoul of plagarism rules and copyright infringement and to be frank I would have to agree that several functions of the automation do tread into dark areas of the DMCA however a white hat marketer does not have to necessarily use those functions to still gain benefits of using this incredibly powerful piece of web publishing automation software.

SEnuke Review Positives

SEnuke is far and away the most powerful article marketing tool I have ever seen. If you have ever tried article marketing yourself you know exactly how time consuming and tedious it can be. Any campaign requires a considerable amount of effort just to research and setup - let alone execute. The major advantage of using automated article marketing software like this is time-saving. This software is capable (in its most advanced form) of doing absolutely all of the heavy lifting once you have performed your own keyword research (prior editions of SEnuke had a great keyword module however that function was made obsolete given the many good cheap or free substitutes available on the web). Once you decide on your niche, the software can literally do any or all of the remaining work for you. Many marketers use the program this way to saturate time-sensitive keywords with something akin to a "fire and forget" attitude toward their content. These pages certainly aren't the highest quality and will ultimately find their way to the Google sin-bin but by the time they get de-indexed the marketer has already cashed in on their target (hopefully).

Understand this is not how I market, nor it is any form of recommendation for this style of marketing however it is worth noting that this style of marketing does infact exist. Those more conscientious marketers who write their own content may still benefit from many of the automated features of SEnuke given its ability to quickly setup campaigns, accounts, distribute content, manage and save URL links, RSS feed links, create backlinks, and syndicate it all while you watch (or go have a snack or go to the movies). Full automation requires additional services but if your time is too valuable to monitor the program while it runs then paying a few dollars for the add-on services will be money well spent.

SEnuke Review Negatives

One of the big negatives in using a powerful program like SEnuke is that it can run afoul of the major search engines, notably Google. Online marketers using the full automation features of the program are essentially violating just about every term of service imaginable in the Web 2.0 world. The article marketing program creates seed articles from previously published article databases on the web. I don't care how much "spinning" an author does to an automatically generated article - it's still copyright theft in my mind - and a major violation of the DMCA.

On the other hand many web marketers outside the western world (and a fair number inside as well) don't hold themselves accountable to that standard. It is hard to blame them really. The web is like the wild west in many respects - filled with toothless / unevenly applied laws where the spoils inevitably go to the people with the fastest draw and the smallest conscience. With more and more small business marketers growing dissatisfied with the treatment they get via the major search engines it really is no wonder people continue to turn to high-powered automated marketing programs like SEnuke in greater numbers. See a demo of SEnuke.

Getting Indexed by Google

Have you noticed getting indexed by Google has gotten easier and faster the last couple of months? If you haven't seen an improvement then odds are you must have done something very wrong. You see, all the great hullabaloo about Google causing trouble for internet marketing pros is really just that: hullabaloo.

What Is the Google Index Business About?

Google has always been about trying to provide their users with the best end user experience, and it is the internet marketing industry that has sought (and profited) by trying to game the system. The Google Index rankings seek to provide the most relevant content to each user's search request. Repeated efforts of web marketers to figure out how to game the system or try to dominate the rankings with garbage content had a great deal of success for a number of years.

As the Google index business has gone corporate, more business accountability (brand protection protocols) has been put in place. This has forced the company and search engine to continue to do a better job at weeding out the cheaters.

How the Google Slap Impacted Ezine Articles, Et al.

The recent Google Slap put a hurt on the businesses that (in all honesty) leech revenues from some of Google's other brands, Adsense and the like. Ezine Articles (through no fault of it's own really) and other article directories only did what they were incented to do after all. Those article directories were given/earned authority status with Google and as a result it only stood to reason that as their number of page increased, so would their traffic and revenues. Ergo it's pretty clear standards at many of these content farms were lax (or relaxed) to allow as much content as possible to come through.

How Content Farm Changes Have Made Getting Indexed by Google Easier

Getting indexed by Google these days is much easier and faster if you follow the rules at Ezinearticles and or Squidoo or whatever you favorite content directory is. Once you have gotten your content approved, a simple couple of backlinks to it from nearly any of the social bookmarking sites will get your page found and help you start getting traffic. I recently tried getting indexed by Google with a Squidoo lens in a competitive niche. I used the same tactics I had been using for years (I write own content, do minimal backlinking of my own, etc), and one of my backlinks to my lens was indexed in under 5 minutes. A COMPETITIVE NICHE, NO LESS! 5 Minutes.

I'll get off my soapbox for now. I hope you read this with a feeling that you can compete provided you can get your content published. Getting indexed by Google is easier than it has been in years, and the income results speak for themselves.

Social Networking Marketing Strategy

A smart social networking marketing strategy will try to get the most impact from the least output in the shortest amount of time. That after all is the very definition of viral marketing - and that is quite exactly how people use social network tools today. It's all about being first, fast, fabulous, famous, and fashionable. Getting ahead with a good social networking marketing strategy takes advantage of all these societal desires and makes use of automation tools to get there (wherever "there" happens to be at the right moment) first.

How to Develop a Winning Strategy on Social Networks
Having a winning strategy on the top social networks means getting on top of the current events and staying relevant to whatever topic is hot. If there is an issue that is important to your readers / customers, you need to have a good grasp on your position and get it out there without being unnecessarily controversial. In most cases this means taking a conservative position and let the more foolish people duke it out. Most of your customers won't care if you're conservative - you stand to lose more by being controversial. You may pick up some brownie points and fans along the way, but followers and fans more often than you think are lurkers not buyers.

So how should this impact your strategy? You still need to have all the right social network automation tools in place to keep all your web 2.0 accounts updated. But it is wise to take careful stock of current events before putting your foot in your mouth all over the top social networks. So that means be relevant, be timely, and remain relatively conservative - because we've all seen in that last year how much damage social networks can do to brand image when combined with thoughtlessness.

Social Networking Business Plan Review

The Social Networking Business Plan with Onefineham is a highly focused compact marketing strategy eBook written by Barry Livingstone. The book reveals an automation strategy revolving around using social networks to quickly get marketing messages out to clients, fans, and other curious viewers.

An Automated Social Network Marketing Strategy

The central principal of the strategy is to write one message, and use built in automation tools to syndicate that message - posting links to the original message (with short summaries / teasers) on the major social networks. How this method differs from other strategies of a similar nature is that after the initial setup of the network messaging chain all of the linking and syndication happens AUTOMATICALLY without further intervention on the part of the marketer / businessman / manager or entrepreneur.

How The Social Networking Business Plan Works

After the initial setup of all the specialized, targeted social networking accounts (takes 4-6 hours to setup initially - so plan accordingly). the plan calls for writing short, informative publicity pieces (with links out to sales/squeeze pages and or ticket pages) and then posting them to the foundation account (where all the links to the social networks go out from). From there the foundation account notifies all the major social networking services which then create backlinks TO those simple press releases. Presumably readers then have a chance to get quick facts about the offer(s) in the press release whereupon they can then click out to sales pages / squeeze pages or ticket pages.

One particular strength of the plan is that ALL of the services used in The Social Networking Business Plan are FREE. At no time does a user of the methods in the book have a single penny of cost outlay.

Weaknesses of The Social Networking Business Plan

One area where The Social Networking Business Plan with Onefineham is weak is in generating traffic and followers. Presumably the reader is left on their own to develop methods to create followers and drive traffic to their sites.... or the expectation is that readers ALREADY have had some success creating lists and driving traffic and instead are looking for simple ways to save time in getting traffic to their publicity pieces.

Conclusion

There is a lot to be learned from reading The Social Networking Business Plan. It informs the reader not only of free services available, but how to integrate them into an efficient and coherent media content distribution engine. The Social Networking Business Plan is both elegant in design and provides terrific visual depictions of what is being asked of the reader. A reader is SHOWN what they SHOULD see on the screen, and then is TOLD exactly what to DO while at that screen.

Internet Marketing 2.0 - Social Networking Marketing

These days most everyone is learning social network marketing in order to promote their business. New techniques, tricks and tips have been developed by early adopters and are slowly leaking out to the general public. Small businesses continue to struggle to master the skills necessary to carve out niches for themselves on the major platforms. Short staffed companies have neither the time nor the necessary expertise to keep up with the multiple programs and as a result miss opportunities to reach their target audience and or fan base.

Marketing with a Coherent Plan Difficult Given Three Dominant Platforms

Marketing plans today are exploring ways to integrate social networking as a part of their strategy. Given the high adoption rate of network platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter it stands to reason that any business will find customers surfing these networks. Unfortunately one of the problems with having three successful platforms is that not all users are on the same platform. That means keeping three systems updated to reach all your social networking clients.

Cost Has Had Major Impact on Adoption of Online Networks

Free membership and usage of the social networks is a major benefit. Having no cost point and offering usage with as little as a name and email address removed the two major hurdles to public embrace: privacy and cost. Oddly enough social networks quickly become FULL of personal information (including purchase preferences) which businesses find extremely useful. Free semi-anonymous networks can be prone to abuse however, and children's usage must be monitored.

The Problem of Choice

The early simple functionality of the major social networking sites led to rapid adoption but problems have arisen. One example is the difficulty for people on one system to stay connected with friends who use the other systems. This fracturing of the social networking marketing audience will ultimately result in the merger or dissolution of one of the two major platforms. Facebook seems to be more popular today, but MySpace is much better funded (under the Fox Media empire of Rupert Murdoch).

Keeping a Consistent Message

Bridging the gap between the major platforms has been a significant challenge for social networking enthusiasts. Many sales are lost because businesses ultimately give up the fight to keep all three networks updated. One thing is for certain: all three networks are in it for the long haul and each provides opportunities for targeted, low cost promotions for small businesses.

It is possible to reduce the headaches associated with using social networking for marketing but it takes a little know how to make it happen. Web marketing does work for businesses. It remains the cheapest, most effective solution for targeted marketing.

Prior Post(s):
Make More Money on the Side

Make More Money on the Side

It helps to make more money on the side these days if you can. With so many people out of work for an extended period of time having an alternative source of income is important. One would think with all the great advances in technology that opportunities would be popping up all over the place - and to a certain extent they are - if you know where to look.

Turning Hobbies into Income Makes a Great Lifestyle

One thing I've seen a lot of lately is people taking hobbies they enjoy and finding ways to make money in their leisure time. It sounds a little counter-intuitive but when you think about it, it makes sense. I mean if you want to find expertise on a given topic, wouldn't you go to someone who does that activity alot? Would it make sense to go to the person who "lives to do it" and really has a lot of experience doing it? Funny thing is, that is what a lot of people do. Only now folks with a bit of entrepreneurial spirit are turning their expertise into a source of income.

Internet Brings Information to Customers - but Who Creates the Information

We've all searched the web to learn "how to" do *something* at one time or another. Did you ever stop to wonder where the information on that "how to" page came from? Do ya think it might have come from someone who is an expert at it that decided to share what they know online? Do you think that you were the only person looking for that information online?

Obviously not. Did you know that search results that reach websites frequently end in sales of one kind or another? Every time a sale is made online inevitably *someone* is paid a commission. If people are continuously asking you for advice on a topic you enjoy but don't make a living at... shouldn't you be thinking about finding ways to make more money on the side? Is your job or source of income so secure that you don't need to make money on the side? I don't know of too many people in that situation - that's for sure. Here's a few ideas for hobbies that make money on the side.

Web Domination - Articles, Keywords, and One Way Backlinks - Putting Them All Together

Visit our web domination tutorials blog today
Web domination is now within reach of individual article marketers more than ever. Advancement in article submission automation have flung wide open this highly lucrative field. In previous articles I've talked about things like keyword research functions and one way anchor text back links but now I want to talk about article submission and web domination. The idea behind this article is to put the two previous concepts to use with this new task of content contribution.

Content Submitters Automate Routine Tasks
There are a couple of different ways content submitters work. Content submitters can simply send out articles to the various directories, or they can alter some or all of the text, or they can snip out parts to shorten the piece. Computers in the movies always seem to move faster than the eye, and the good submitter programs live up to the images seen on the silver screen. Advanced features like randomization and word count are extremely useful given the restrictive nature of some directories regarding unique content.

Beware Article Spinners As They Can Give Very Bad Results
Sentence or word substitution is sometimes referred to as spinning and doesn't really always deliver the expected results. The most value in using an advanced program is the integrated submission, research, and URL management solutions. URL management is an after-thought for beginners but it gets really serious once you start making money.

Increasing Your Footprint Is Critical
Key to getting visitors to you sites is backlinks from other websites - having links inserted automatically helps ease this task in the content module. Tools like automatic link insertion helps make content more sticky and ultimately helping to bring extended readers to your monetized pages. As each article in the web domination effort is submitted, a log file captures and stores the URL of the new content for use in back linking and pinging later. Arranging URLs this way helps the marketer in the web domination effort because it is one less thing to think about relating to content creation. Letting the spiders know you've put up new articles is then a matter of copying the log into the pinger tool and firing off a ping for each of the URLs in the list.

URL Management Can Be Overwhelming
Don't let figuring out where all the URLs are get in the way of creating great articles and posts - let the software do it. If you follow the terms of service your good content is welcome at dozens of web 2.0 host sites. But who needs the aggravation of tracking a new URL every time a post is made? Letting the software track URLs and inserting one way anchor text backlinks is the way to relieve the internet marketer of some of the tedium associated with article marketing web domination campaigns.

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Good Web 2.0 Account Creator Saves Time for the Affiliate Marketing Professional

Internet marketing is much easier with a web 2.0 account creator to automate logins and reduce mistakes with sites and passwords. If you are anything like me, you prefer to work with a separate account for each campaign you run. I mean it really only stands to reason, right?

You don't have to be an expert at everything or any product in order to be an internet marketer - but you do need to become an expert at guiding people to the right product. The problem is that if you are guiding people on the topic of polar opposite topics (which can reasonably happen) it is impossible to maintain credibility with either side target customer when you are brokering deals on both sides. That may be an extreme example, but the message is clear - you need separate IDs for each campaign.

This is where an automated web 2.0 account creator comes in extremely handy. What should a good web 2.0 account creator package do? It should create and manage multiple email addresses, usernames, and passwords to the top blogging properties, article directories, and bookmarking sites. The ability to manage multiple programs is a must for any serious internet marketing professional.

All of this begs the question why stop there? If you can create accounts, your software may as well be able to login and store created URLs as well. Avoiding the aggravation that comes with fat-fingered keystrokes is paramount with one account - image the headaches without automation when you have a thousand accounts.

You can read more about web 2.0 account creator software.