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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Why Most Marketers FAIL on Marketing Affiliate Products?




Throughout my ventures, I have realized that it is

really not that difficult to become very successful

promoting affiliate products.


Seriously…


All you need to do is match the right audiences with

the right products. You can call the process itself as


what we refer to as the “money flow chart”. However, you

must do it in such a powerful fashion, where it has to

be done on an autopilot.


If not, you will be trading your time for money, just

like most of the people do in business.


In today’s issue, I would like to point out the FIVE

factors why marketers fail and what you need to do to


AVOID the fatal mistakes in your affiliate marketing.


1. Not having a proper strategy from the beginning.


Fail to plan = Plan to fail. Seriously, if you do

NOT plan from the beginning on WHY and WHAT you need

to do to make a consistent income from affiliate

marketing, you plan to fail.


Think about this…


Most people want to make a lot of money online. You

can’t do that. You need to know how much money (in


numbers) you want to make every month. Then, plan

backward on how to make that amount.


Target = $500 per month.


How much traffic do you need?

What is the conversion of the product?

How much commission are you going to receive?


The more detailed your plan is, the more confident

you are on making your plan become a reality.


2. Become a follower — Not a leader.



WAIT! I am in no position to assault you, nor is it

my purpose to do so. Instead, I want you to think

carefully the of difference between success and

failure.


Successful people are NOT intimidated with joining

every single business opportunity they come in

contact with.


Unsuccessful people are CRAZY on participating in

every single opportunity that surfaces on the


internet.


Learn how to become a leader. Be firm with your

goal. Know what you want and what you are looking

to accomplish. This is HOW you are able to go from

zero dollars to a six figure income per year business.


3. Give up easily.


Only losers give up easily. I tell you one story, ok?



When I decided to do the 117ChristmasGifts.com, now


117Network.com, in December 19th’ 2004, many top

marketers adviced me to give up. They told me I was

too late.


They said nasty words to me like, “WHO THE HECK ARE

YOU?” I mean you are NOT this or that top marketers

that I know. HECK! Though, I was being stabbed from


many directions, there is ONE THING that I didn’t

do. What is it?



Become a loser. I didn’t give up. I just PUSHED

my limits until the end. If I gave up on that one

campaign backed in 2004, there is no way I could

get the title the JV “Giveaway” legend.



4. Rely on yourself.


GOSH! I hate to put up an HTML code by myself nor

do I want to spend time on creating my own graphics

for my blog. If I had to do so, I would probably go

insane today.



Think about this…


The Starbucks(r) CEO does not sell coffee in the

store. WHY? He has all the people running the store


for him on an autopilot. If he is the one who sells

the coffee, how is that possible he can manage to

open up stores WORLDWIDE?


So, why NOT you?


Do the same thing. I am good in HTML code, joint

venture, creating graphics, and much more. However,

I choose to let others do the work for me. This

allows me to do something bigger.


What is it? Strategic Planning.



5. Become a warrior.


This is worse. We are NO LONGER in the 19th century.

We do not depend on our physical strength as our

weapon to win over the enemy. Instead, we use strategy

to become the winner in everything we do.


Warriors are a way of the past. To become successful

in affiliate marketing, you need to create a concrete

strategy from A -Z on WHAT you need to do to make

your affiliate marketing successful.



It has to be in terms of a financial plan, automation

system, as well as delegation techniques.


Once you have all those things in place, you can

become the warrior or have your warriors (team

members) to finish the tasks on time.



Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Facebook

Facebook is becoming one of the most important social networks on the web. The company stated that it has now chosen Microsoft over Google to give a $240 million minority stake in a deal to expand advertising services on the network. This will ideally boost revenue for Facebook and increase Microsoft’s online advertising position. The Facebook-Microsoft deal will even further expand the business, which will help online businesses to reach more people and promote themselves through new forms of media.



It was founded in 2004 as a college student network and has grown into an international network for all people. Although it began as a college network, Facebook’s fastest growth demographic is in the 35+ age range. The network has near 49 million users 59% outside the U.S. and has 250,000 new ones registering on a daily basis, making it one of the fastest growing social networks on the web and is surpassing Myspace at lightening speed.


Facebook has proven in recent times to be a viable marketing tool, providing a free and easy way to promote products and services. Facebook users can add tools such as Stumble Upon and Digg to vote and bookmark favorite sites. Posted Items allows users to post company or client blogs and links to drive traffic to your homepage. On the Events page, businesses can promote teleseminars, webinars, workshops and a variety of other events to friends and networkers.


By joining Facebook and other social networking websites, a business can increase their viewers and potential customers all over the world. Because Facebook is an Identity Platform and a closed network, it limits many of the search engines (Yahoo, MSN, Google). Therefore, joining this social network permits a business to access new information on potential clients. This should be used to benefit online marketing since the company has stats on what the users are doing. You can also post a poll to find more about your target demographic on the adverting page on the site. Facebook also has classified ad space on the left hand side and other areas of the site for online business to promote products and services.


In this modern age, people tend to stray away from business homepages. So businesses need to find new and innovative ways to drive traffic to their sites. Social networks are one of many direct response marketing techniques that can help your business flourish.


These tips are meant to be used as a guideline to improve traffic to your site,
Increase your conversion rates, help turn visitors into buyers, and keep you
ahead of the competition. Turning to a web marketer can ultimately save you time
and money and increase your success online.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Social Networking: If You Let Them Build It, They Will Come—The Story of Best Buy's BlueShirt Nation<

Social Networking: If You Let Them Build It, They Will Come—The Story of Best Buy's BlueShirt Nation
by Albert Maruggi
Published on March 11, 2008

Gary Koelling and Steve Bendt were about to become popular guys in the 140,000-employee Best Buy corporation. They led the effort to build an internal social-networking site.


Their objective was to obtain more information about customer likes and dislikes through the blue-shirt-wearing sales associates on the floor of the sprawling entertainment and appliance retail giant. This information would help Best Buy create more effective advertising. "If you get a decent problem to solve, you can make decent advertising," Koelling said.


Bendt conducted in-person interviews with sales associates, a process that produced great information but was time-consuming and not very scalable.


The mission: replicate the real-world experience online, make it scalable, and dig up more good information.


Koelling, a self-described journalist with little technology development knowledge, started working with an open-source content management tool called Drupal (www.drupal.org).


Little did they know that their internal social network (not too long ago, these were called intranets) for communication and collaboration was about to give them a whole lot more than they originally desired. One of the lessons learned: When you provide a forum for conversation, be ready for anything.


Listen, Provide, Learn


Getting contributions from your community and encouraging interaction are critical elements of an internal corporate Web site. If people don't use the site, you have a corporate platform that, according to Bendt, "sucks."



After the first version of the BlueShirt Nation social platform, as it was called, Bendt and Koelling were told by a handful of beta users that it needed some work. Koelling was a bit more descriptive: "They said it was ugly, dry, and it's boring."


Bendt said they learned that if you want people to use a "social" site, you need to be open to their participation in building the site. You see, social sites are not about the people or company that builds the site; they are completely about the people who are intended to use them.


Those users represented the Best Buy "blue shirts," usually "early twenty-somethings" who were candid about what they wanted and how the site should act. This is a generation that is cynical of marketing gimmicks and corporate "feel-good" programs and quick to share opinions with you—or with the world via YouTube.


The retail industry has a huge employee turnover rate: 40-60 percent. By incorporating user input in developing BlueShirt Nation, Best Buy was able to create a meaningful experience that is helping to reduce employee turnover: The rate for employees who use BlueShirt Nation is 8 percent.