Okay. You have a list of email addresses, collected via opt-in. Now, what exactly do you do with it?
There are many ways in which you can use your new address cache. The ever-informative newsletter is a popular and effective means of communication. Bulletins showcasing new product arrivals frequently show up in inboxes as well. But so does spam.
Don’t be mistaken for spam.
After people hit the submit button on your opt-in form, encourage them to whitelist your email address. Mail service with spam block is commonplace now, and mass emails, even solicited ones, are still sometimes mistaken as spam.
Usually there is a customizable page that opens immediately after a person has opted-in to your mailing list. Most say something generic like, “Thank you for joining my list!” It’s nice to thank someone for opting-in, but it's also a great place to stick your whitelist request.
Play an active role in your business and with your customers. People like knowing that there is an actual person behind a website rather than a lifeless robot mindlessly soliciting sales.
It’s unrealistic to say that you must know everything about everyone on your list, but do try to build relations with your frequent buyers. When you do, you’re guaranteeing that they will return to your store and buy again. Not to mention, they’re the ones talking you up to all their friends!
Another great way to play an active role is to start a message board. With that simple tool, you give your customers a place to ask questions directly. It’s also a great place to share product comments and reviews!
Here are some free, remotely hosted web forums:
ProBoards
RunBoard
HyperBoards
As forum administrator, realize that people will be turning to you to answer their questions, so it’s key to know a little about each product you’re selling. Think of this as an opportunity to build the persona of a reputable business!
Quick Tips
Along with your whitelist request on the web page following signup, ask new opt-ins to join your message board as well!
Just because you have a ready list of email addresses, that doesn’t mean you should send out mail five times a day. People would rather not have their inboxes flooded by over zealous vendors. A few times a week is enough.
So, you have a nice-looking website. Now what? How do you get the traffic you need to clinch those sales?
Online Promotion
There are a many ways to promote your website online. Submitting your site’s URL to Google, the number one search engine, isn’t a bad idea. It’s easy, it’s free and your whole site is indexed. Have patience though if your initial ranking isn’t what you thought it would be.
To get that better ranking, take the time to optimize your website. Provide quality content that uses key words and phrases unique to your site. That way, people will be more apt to find your site when they search. Place these key words in the title tags, meta tags, alt tags and body content of your site. Don’t just list keywords in your content; incorporate them into your articles and reviews.
Participate in link exchanges. Not only will you get traffic from other sites' visitors, it will also help your search engine ranking.
Lastly, be sure to include your website address in your email signature. Every time you send out an email, you’re sending it to a potential customer. Give them your site to visit!
Who says that the only way to promote a website is online? There are some great ways to still promote while you’re away from the computer.
Many people carry business cards, and not all of them are businessmen. Service industry employees, teachers, students, parents, these days people from all walks of life wield the power of business cards. It’s an easy way to give your name and number to the people you meet without having to fumble for a pen and a scratch piece of paper. Be sure to include your web address! This new acquaintance might also be a potential customer!
Another way to distribute your business cards is to ask a local business (relevant to your niche market, of course) if you could leave a small stack of them on their front counter.
Your website is looking great! You have a sleek and professional-looking design that uniquely showcases all of Livemercial Network's hot offers. You have that opt-in mailing list up and running, collecting email addresses. The forums are active. But are you still stuck with a mile long web address?
There’s a way to shorten your site’s URL without having to pay for a domain name!
Why shorten your URL?
People are more apt to remember an address that is short. People who randomly happen upon your site will find it hard to recall a long web address later on. Don’t risk losing repeat customers due to short-term memory loss.
URL redirection.
You can host your website on a freeserver and still have a short web address like private, paid domains! This is called URL redirection.
Here are some free URL redirection providers:
Shim.net
The Web Alias Network
ne1.net
Some redirection providers even offer what is called a Stealth or Cloaked URL. What that means is upon arrival to your site, visitors will not see your actual (and long) URL. All that’s shown is the redirect address.
Quick Tip
Interested in cloaking your affiliate link codes as well? If you’re a bit familiar with HTML, it’s quite easy to do. Simply put in this slice of code in between the last quotation mark of your HREF tag and the > sign.
onMouseOver="window.status='Your text description'; return true" onMouseOut="window.status='';return true"
In one easy step, you can change this link in the status bar to this and still have the link go to the same place.
It’s a great way to streamline your site even more!
Every affiliate’s dream is to make big money without doing much of anything. Everyone has heard success stories of people who make thousands of dollars while they’re asleep. And while that may be true, these affiliates didn’t just randomly sign up with an affiliate program a week prior, slap together a website, and sit back to watch the money roll in. Before you can take it easy, there is work to be done.
Don’t be delusional.
Especially early on in your partnership with Livemercial Network, you will have your work cut out for you. It takes time to create content, streamline your site’s layout, build your email list, and increase your ranking with search engines. It takes determination, dedication and, above all, patience if you want to succeed.
But that doesn’t mean you should give up if you aren’t doing well right away. We at Livemercial Network are here to assist you as much as we can! From marketing advice to designing the creatives that you want, we are here to help! All you have to do is let us know. And if for some reason we cannot help you in the way you would like, we will be more than willing to point you in the right direction and recommend to you someone who might be able to help.
Educate yourself!
Probably the best thing you can do as a new affiliate is educate yourself on affiliate marketing. Learn the jargon. Search the Internet for articles on how to make a splash in this new and exciting world of marketing. (Use key terms like “Affiliate Marketing 101” or “New to Affiliate Marketing.”) Visit successful affiliate websites to see why they are such a success… then do one better!
It also doesn’t hurt to learn a bit of HTML. Even if you’re contracting someone to design your site, it’s handy to know in case you need to make small, typographical adjustments to your site’s copy.
In the end…
It is possible to generate substantial income, and it is possible to do it in your sleep, but not immediately and not without doing a bit of work first. If anyone tells you otherwise, they’re lying.
As the old saying goes, “You don’t get something for nothing.”
It’s probably in your best interest when building a website to have your content revolve around something you know. That way you won’t be spending valuable hours researching and reviewing an unfamiliar topic or specific product. The process of writing copy will be enjoyable instead of agonizing.
It may be work, but it can be fun!
Don’t turn your affiliate experience into something awful. If you dread updating your site’s content, maybe you didn’t build the right website. Just because a friend told you financial sites work best for him, that doesn’t mean the same kind of site will work the same kind of magic for you.
There’s a right kind of site for everyone!
The great thing about Livemercial Network is that we have a broad spectrum of offers to choose from, offers that will fit into every affiliate’s passion and/or marketing niche. Whether you’re a hairdresser that would like to build a site around hair style and care or the hardcore golfer that wants his website to offer tips on how to improve your golf swing, there is something for you to promote!
Turn a hobby or even your day job into a profitable affiliate website!
To boost traffic to your site, think about also writing articles within your field of expertise and submitting them somewhere for other websites to use. It’s a great way to get site exposure and build a name for yourself within your niche.
It’s important to insert a link to your own site in the author biography section of the article. Not only will you have more traffic coming your way via the links in your article, your natural search will be better. The more links you have to your website, the better your ranking will be in search engines such as Google!
Here are a few places you can submit articles for others to use on their websites:
ezinearticles.com
articlesfactory.com
submityourarticle.com
articledashboard.com
Not only should you rotate older offers out of your website, you should be doing the same with your site content and creatives as well.
Keep it fresh!
Repeat visitors like it when websites change. It makes them feel like they’re visiting a new website when text, graphics and even layout is added or modified. Remember, we here at Livemercial Network are here to help as well as serve all your graphical needs. If you are in need of a banner in a particular size, just let us know!
While it’s nice to change visual content, text is just as important, if not more-so, to add to and freshen up. A fresh review about a product might entice a repeat visitor into finally purchasing. Updating and adding these are great ways to keep your content fresh. More often than not, people feel better reading reviews before they buy, especially if the product is unfamiliar to them. Just be sure to run your original product blurbs and reviews by us before publishing it to your website!
Quick Writing Tip
It’s fine to upsell a product by highlighting all the great things about it, such as added features and bonuses, but it’s another thing to give a visitor false or misleading information. Do not make false claims. Doing so will lead to the termination of your affiliate account! Be wary on how you use comparatives and superlatives. If in doubt on whether or not you should use one, don’t use it. It’s better to just give straight, black and white info than to make promises you or the product cannot keep.
Once again, make sure to send us your original, product descriptions and blurbs before publishing them!
When surfing the web, people oftentimes forget about the ones behind a website. The ones who build and maintain them. Contribute to them. This is especially true of online companies and stores. Within this tangled web of HTML code, humanity is sacrificed to bots and crawlers.
Claim your identity!
That is why clear yet concise ‘About Us’ and ‘Contact’ pages are so important. They act as reminders to people that there are actual human beings beyond their computer screens, eager and willing to help them if need be.
These pages also humanize a website, which can work greatly to your advantage. When customers can relate to you, you’re building trust as well as good character.
Reply in a timely fashion.
We all hate it when we send email to people (especially a commercial business) and are forced to wait weeks for a reply, or ever an reply at all. Learn from what you despise; don’t be the same way with your customers.
When someone comes to you with a question, be sure to follow up quickly. The more prompt your reply is, odds are the more impressed people will be! Because of your polished customer relations skills, you will be the one your visitors will want to deal with in the future.
If you want to be the website that stands out from all the others, securing good relations with your visitors is a great place to start.
Quick Tip
If someone were to send you a question to which you don’t know that answer, don’t ever leave them hanging! You can do one of two things:
Do some research so you can adequately answer their question.
Point them in the direction of someone who might know the answer.
There is great power to be had in text links. Do not underestimate them! Not only are they important in getting visitors to click and buy, they play an important role in search engine optimization.
Relevant anchor text is key!
Anchor texts are the words used in a hyperlink on a webpage. For example:
"Livemercial Network™ is your one-stop shop for all as seen on tv products. From beauty products to power tools, Livemercial Network™ has it all!"
The anchor texts are the links. They can flow with the web copy or not, it’s up to you. However, it is important that the text you use is relevant to your website.
Planting key words in your anchor text greatly impacts the way search engines, like Google, rank your website. Word selection plays a significant role in how well your site ranks within a search engine; picking quality words and phrases is key. Product names, along with phrases and words relevant to your niche market are very important. Consider the following:
Purchase your Luma Tweeze now!
Click here to purchase your Luma Tweeze.
The first example will be better ranked with search engines as compared to the second. This is why.
Anchor text tells a search engine what your page is about. The first example lets a search engine know that one of the site's pages is about Luma Tweeze. The second tells Google it’s about “click here,” which doesn't mean much of anything to anyone. Obviously the first page will be better ranked than the second, in that when people search for “Luma Tweeze” they will actually find what they’re looking for.
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