Email Marketing Tips and Tricks to Improve Click-Through Rates

Businesses all over the world are consistently finding the most efficient ways to establish a powerful online presence, brand credibility and viability in the multifaceted world of entrepreneurship where competition becomes tougher each day. Through time, beating the odds have truly become daunting and strategizing would still be the best option; hence improving email marketing campaigns to keep up with the fast-paced industry.

Email marketing has been and will still be one of the most powerful ways to get any brand's message across potential clients and customers. Having a targeted audience as email recipients is one of the many essential aspects of any email marketing strategy, creating the content to be sent to these customers is another; and getting the email recipients to open is yet another of the greatest challenges. But email marketers also have to realize the opens are not enough and click-throughs would be more significant.

Escalating the click through rates is one of the dilemmas of most online businesses as they are more often below the average and may sometimes stay that way for a relatively long period of time and worse, click throughs may even fall deeper. This is something that companies have to ponder on and boost their click-through rates for about 55% or more; here's how:

· The very first thing that should be done is to initially improve email open rates. The main objective of every email marketing campaign is to have customers click through and land on the business website, but having these recipients to open the emails and read on is also something quite difficult, so here's what marketers have to do;

o Create an attention-grabbing subject line.

o Have a targeted email list. There is no use sending the emails to millions of recipients because they might not be the suitable people to send the messages to because different people have different interests and preferences and basically most people get annoyed by the tremendous number of unwanted emails. Segmenting the email list to interested individuals most likely would do the trick.

o Keep sending the emails consistently and not sporadic when the business just has to sell something to the recipients, this may discourage the customers from opening the rest of the emails or worse, they may even unsubscribe.

· Including social sharing options in the email marketing scheme has been proven one of the effective tricks that could significantly increase the click-through rates for about 30% to 55% especially when three or more social sharing sites are being used. Direct recipients of the emails may not be interested in the business' brand, but some of their friends and followers might be, so there is a greater chance that click-throughs from the recipients' extensions can be achieved effectively.

· When hyperlinking, using direct keywords are far better than the generic links as email subscribers would exactly know where it will lead them to. Doing this, potential customers would not hesitate to click on and visit the business web page.

· NEVER use a lot of links that lead customers to different sites as this will overwhelm them. When this happens the essence of the emails will not be understood by the recipients. Lead the audience to one place as much as possible. Confusing them with a lot of sites and pages would make them click away from the website and the email marketing campaign would definitely be a lot farther from achieving high click-through rates.

· TEST the email marketing campaign and refine every detail that needs to be improved. By testing, an email marketer could effectively troubleshoot the flaws of the campaign and be able to formulate a more efficient one.

With Ninjaemails, you can triple your sales and enquiries immediately! We have the latest 2015 high quality premium emails, lowest bounce rate in the industry, no payment for bad data (money back guarantee), 100% opt-in leads with higher open rates, and is voted as the number one email marketing database.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Email-Marketing-Tips-and-Tricks-to-Improve-Click-Through-Rates&id=9078281

Can Twitter Really Bring Traffic To Your Website?

 

When I started Blogging it was often told to me that social media is the best and most effective way to generate traffic for your website or blog. While this has proven itself true in my case, I want to clear some things up. Many people go to Twitter and Facebook to generate traffic; I did the same when I started. I was in the beginning stages of blogging. During that time I was even using a free hosting site. I learned something though that I want to share with you. Twitter does not produce results like Facebook, Pinterest, and other social media platforms. Read further to find out why, how you can counter this, and what to do to bring traffic to your website from social media platforms.

As a "baby" blogger I used Twitter solely to generate traffic to my blog. I posted links to my posts, asked people for re-tweets and favorites. I thought that because I had nearly 2000 followers I would get a lot of traffic for this. Boy was I wrong. This is not to say that results like mine apply to everyone. If you are more popular on Twitter than I was you could definitely get some leads. This article however is for the people who do not have millions of followers and do not have the time to get a million followers.

Twitter doesn't generate as much traffic as other platforms for 3 main reasons. The first of which is that your tweets get buried in peoples feeds. Most people are following hundreds even thousands of other Twitter users. And all these users are posting. So when you post a tweet how long do you think that tweet stays in a place where it will be noticed by the followers? The answer is about 2 minutes. When you post you have about 2 minutes for each of your followers to notice your post and follow said link to your website. Now if you have 2000 followers as I did, only a couple hundred on Twitter at a given time possibly less. Out of these hundred how many are going to notice and click your link? Less than 50 in most case in other cases absolutely none. Disappointing? The second reason is character limit. You have 140 characters to write a catchy line or two and post your link. Of course you will likely use a platform to shrink your link to allow more space for your catchy lines but how much does that really leave you? If your link is shrunken you have the amount of characters in this sentence to catch your reader's attention and get some traffic. That however is providing that your link is 10 characters or less. For most of us normal people catching someone's attention in that space will be very difficult. So theoretically let's say you can't come up with the most eye-catching lines. You just posted to your 2000 followers, of which about 200 will see this post. Your lines are only slightly catchy. We go from 50 potential clicks to 10. Our final reason for Twitter not generating traffic is the fact that people are always throwing links in their posts. If you have ever been on Twitter it is unlikely you can scroll through 10 tweets without at least 3 of them containing a link. How often are these links spam? Well that depends on who you follow. But let's say your followers get a lot of links thrown at them. No one really has time to go through all of those links. So your followers pick the ones that best suit their interests and have a catchy line with it. If your line isn't catchy you just eliminated half of those 10 potential clicks. That leaves you with 5 views. This is just an example. You case may lead to more views or less. I am just showing you how this works.

Now you might be wondering well how do I counter this on Twitter? The answer is you don't, at least not on Twitter. If you are looking to generate traffic head over to Pinterest and Facebook, you can of course still use Twitter. I still use Twitter for branding. I post links to my blog often and let people know what I'm writing about. What I don't do is try generating traffic from said tweets. Facebook is my main source of social media traffic. You can create a Facebook page to your blog and post links there. If you are like me and have a few hundred friends invite them to like you page. The trick to generating traffic from this however is not the likes on your page but sharing it on your personal page. Facebook is much closer knit than Twitter. People are more social and open to talking to you about your projects. They are more likely to follow your links. On Pinterest you can generate traffic by adding really great photos to your website, and also your Pinterest boards. People are likely to click on a beautiful picture that includes a link than a cut and dry link with no photo or a photo of lesser quality.

Social media is a fantastic way to get your brand out there while also generating traffic. Many people do not use social media in a way that generates a lot of traffic. The advice I can give them blogger owner to owner is be social! Posting link after link and promotion after promotion isn't going to make people want to connect with you and your website. Get social with your followers and social media friends. Remember little things about them. You can do this by creating a little note document and write a sentence about them. For example if a friend or follower is opening a pet store write a note about it. Then the next time they are online ask them about it. If you are a tangible human and not just a link stuffing robot people will respond to you better.

I don't recommend using Twitter for traffic generation; I do however recommend Twitter for branding and contests. A contest I held once on Twitter was to generate more newsletter subscribers. I posted once a day using a tweet scheduler that one out of the people who subscribed to my blog within that week would receive a $10 amazon gift card code. My subscriber list doubled. Twitter has many uses but traffic does not seem like one of them.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Can-Twitter-Really-Bring-Traffic-To-Your-Website?&id=9021133

The Must Have Free Traffic Resource List

Pssst. How'd you like to get swarms of prospects visiting your website... for free! Sound a bit shady? Think there's a hidden cost?

Well, if you consider that time has a cost, perhaps you're right. But for many of us small business owners and entrepreneurs, we've often got more time than money. And that means the 'free' traffic will likely fit nicely in our budgets.

Below you will find some great sources of free traffic. Some will have paid options, but if you don't mind trading time for money you can still achieve great results from the free methods.

Your goal when driving any traffic to your site is to aim for high quality sources. Those that are tightly related to your niche. This traffic will be highly targeted and natural. This is a huge plus in the eyes of Google. Your site will be seen as an authority site and this is something that you definitely want.

Yahoo Answers

This site can help you in two different ways. First you can use it to find out what questions people in your niche have. This can provide you with some great content ideas for your website.

The way to get traffic from your site is to get into the habit of answering the questions. By providing helpful information the person is more likely to follow any links back to your main website. So answer the question but get the reader to follow a link to your site for even more information.

Quora & Ask

Quora works in a similar way to Yahoo Answers. It is a question and answer based site, as is Ask. They are both great to use as a resource site and to generate traffic.

Blog Commenting

Leaving comments on related sites can really be a fantastic source of traffic. Search out high ranking and highly visited sites that are related to your niche. Then make a point of leaving comments on a regular basis. Always leave helpful comments. Don't just leave a one sentence comment such as "Great post, thank you".

Add some insights into the topic being discussed. By doing this you may also attract the attention of the blog owner. They may even ask you to write a guest post for their blog. This can open up a door of streaming visitors to your site.

Forum Posting

This is another excellent way to drive traffic back to your site. You want to find forums that are related to your site and then visit them regularly. Again leave helpful comments and insights.

Don't even think about promoting your site at first. Concentrate of getting your name seen by the other members regularly. This way you will get noticed and people will start to click on your signature link back to your site.

Just select one or two of these free traffic sources to get started with. Then make a concerted effort to visit and post regularly.

And for even more proven resources for no cost site visitors, grab yourself a copy of my guide, Introduction to Free Traffic, and start building multiple channels of free traffic over the coming months and years.

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Must-Have-Free-Traffic-Resource-List&id=9031507

How to Promote Your Website Without Spending A Dime

Many website owners can benefit from free online advertising. There are many resources on the internet to promote your business. I will give you some of the best resources without spending any money.

It is important to know that you must build up repeated organic traffic, this can only be achieved when you have useful, unique and valuable content.

The strategies mentioned below can easily help you increase website traffic, without having to participate in advertising campaign's. Read on more below:

Free traffic from search engines

Submit your website manually to search engines after you optimized your website. Sometimes your page will not get indexed after you submit it, wait a couple of days and then repeat the process.

Optimizing overall appearance of your website

Make sure your website title, description and meta tags are correctly configured to the subject of your website. Search engines use these factors to place your site accurately for relevant traffic, this is also important for your website to stand out from the crowd.

Post actively on forums and blogs

Participate in forums where your target audience is reachable. Post useful responses to people's questions, and include a signature with your website on your profile. Don't spam, as you might likely be banned for doing so.

Submit articles or feedback that is useful to other people, it could be the next big thing that is most likely to be passed around by others to their friends, which is good for your viral marketing.

Publish an e-zine for your web site

E-zine is comparable to a newsletter, when people read your e-zine, they will be encouraged to visit your website for more information. You can find many free directories where you can add your digital newsletter.

Examples of free websites to add your e-zine is: EzineArticles and freesticky.

Start your own community online

Use a blog or online forum to build a group around your online business. Once your community starts to grow, more users will be motivated to participate. This method requires much patience.

Social Bookmarking

Submit your website to social bookmarking websites, this will add a backlink to your website, adding value in increasing your page rank.

Affiliate Marketing

This is a technique which is used to let other people sell your products. Imagine thousands of people promoting your website without spending any money, at least not until you make money and share it with your affiliate marketer. There are many good platforms to participate in.

Example: ClickBank.

Manage e-mail marketing for repeated traffic

Getting a lot of traffic to your website can be a difficult task. As you collect contact information and e-mail addresses of your visitors, you can send them newsletters regularly, driving them back to your website. Just make sure you have relevant traffic.

We have covered some important strategies in this article, before you perform these strategies, make sure you read more about the particular subject. A little bit of research can be handy, and will also help you figure out what you need to, to make your website successful.

You don't need to be an expert to perform these strategies!

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Promote-Your-Website-Without-Spending-A-Dime&id=8763062

3 Essential Online Traffic Generation Methods for Beginners

Everyone hates traffic jams on the road, but not when it comes to websites. Driving traffic to your website is the key component to generate leads and get exposure, but with so many competing websites vying for attention, this process can become quite difficult. For brands that have started doing SEO only recently, traffic generation can be even more cumbersome, especially if they have no past experience with pay per click advertising, social media marketing, or content creation.

We listed our favorite online traffic generation methods for beginners below.

1. Get Your Visitors to Tell Their Friends About You

When starting a website, perhaps the hardest part of all is enticing readers to visit it and engage by posting comments. A good way to drive more traffic to your website is asking your existent visitors to do it for you. Create posts, free "tell a friend" buttons, contests, product giveaways/draws, quizzes, and other such content that can encourage readers to distribute a link to your website on social networks or email.

The more engaging your content is, the more visitors you will get - and you don't even need to be an online marketing or SEO expert to get satisfactory results. Make use of tools and plugins that make link sharing easy and stress-free, as not everyone will be willing to copy and paste URLs (which is a common reason why many don't).

2. Use Email Promotions

One of the most efficient methods to drive qualified traffic is sending email promotions to your list of customer or subscriber emails. People who have signed up for your newsletter, participated in contests or surveys, or left positive reviews about their experience are far more likely to buy your products as compared to someone who has never heard of you before.

Encourage visitors to regularly return to your website by sending them attractive offers via email, such as discounts, coupon codes, notification of a sale or contest, or even free products or services that you are giving away.

3. Invest in Pay per Click Advertising

Pay per click (PPC) advertising has become one of the most popular ways of driving traffic to a website, and it's a recommended option for beginners that haven't yet established themselves as authorities. Google's AdWords pay per click platform is perhaps the most popular, giving website owners the opportunity to get more exposure for specific keyword categories almost instantly.
The best part of all is that your website will show up at the very top of the first result page, which will give you more exposure and a lot more opportunities as well.

As your website gets more traffic from PPC advertising, your popularity will gradually increase, which will improve your organic ranking as well.

Final Word

When it comes to online traffic generation methods, there are countless options that webmasters can choose from. It's important to keep in mind that, while traffic itself can help your website thrive, you should focus on offering visitors a reason to come back to your site in the future. By taking the time to review and further improve your website through actual SEO best practices, you will soon be driving qualified traffic coming from your targeted audience.

If your still unsure where to start and would like to have a 'Guide' to follow then you would be wise to check out http://www.trafficsolutionsking.comfor your 'Power Traffic Tactics!

http://ezinearticles.com/?3-Essential-Online-Traffic-Generation-Methods-for-Beginners&id=9043129

Luring Clients Through Your Blog

Blogging can be an extremely effective, inexpensive, and compelling way to get your readers to become clients. If your blog posts are well written and thought-provoking, they will ensure that your brand and your offerings affect your readers in a way that makes the content stick with them and gets them not only to think about what you are saying but also to keep you on tip of their tongues when it comes to their needing what you are offering.

Allowing your blog to lure clients: If you do it right, your blog will produce many positive results that will keep on giving to you, many times over. You want your blog to elevate your professional reputation, boost your visibility, build your credibility, and ultimately get you more clients. There are several ways in which you can accomplish all of that, including the following:

• Offer up fresh blog content frequently and consistently: When it comes to your commitment to blogging, the number of blogs that you post per week is less important that your consistency. Of course, it goes without saying that the quality of your content must also be top notch each and every time you post a blog. You may be surprised at how quickly people will get used to your wonderful blogs and they will definitely be able to tell the difference quickly if you offer any quality that is less than what they are used to reading. In a big way, it is a compliment that they are paying such close attention to what you are sharing with them. The one objective that you should have in mind more than other objective is that they should not only keep coming back to read your content over and over again but that they should also value it enough to want to share it with other people.


• Use your company's domain name: If your domain name contains your company's name, by all means, use it. It is a great way to get people to remember your business (and you). Another positive result that will happen will be that the search engines will index your company's name if it keeps showing up over and over again. That means that your search engine rankings will be higher than they would be if you used some other name (including your personal name). It is important to remember that the higher your search engine rankings, the greater your visibility will be and the more easily people will find you online.


• Find your voice: It is extremely important that you have a unique voice, which will come through loud and clear in your writing. If you can develop a unique voice, people will react positively to what you are saying and to how you are saying it. Your voice should be a clear representation of you and your business. Your voice should express your passion, your ethics, and anything else that you hold near and dear to your heart. If you aren't sure how to find your voice, it may make it easier for you if you can identify other people's voices in your niche or industry. If you are able to identify what you like about those other voices, you can emulate them.


• Don't forget the links: One of the best ways to start interacting with your prospective clients is by providing them with links that are valuable to them. Of course, in addition to links, you must make sure to include a call-to-action so that they can reach out to you and your relationship will start to develop. Your included links will allow your prospective clients to get to know you and your business.


• Blow your horn loudly: Your blog is one of the most powerful tools that you have. Make sure to promote it effectively so that you get the mileage from it that you deserve and want. Push your blog on your website as much as you can and people will pay attention to what you are saying. It is critical for you to remember that your blog is a thing of value and you owe it to yourself to push its positive attributes as much as you can.


• Get as much mileage out of your content as possible: When it comes to well-written content, you may be able to get a lot more use out of it than you think. Repurposing or recycling previously posted content can work really well for you. It is important to remember that if you are going to repurpose your content, it should not be time-sensitive. It should be content that can be used at any time.


• Show them your hook: It is very important that you have a unique selling proposition (USP). You need to find an unusual angle that will attract people. You want to get people to stand up and pay attention, with a clear understanding that what you are offering them is better and more exciting than what anyone else is offering. That will be your calling card.

Conclusion When it comes to luring your clients, it is important that you clearly express the idea that your story connects with them on a human/emotional level. If they can't relate to what you are saying, your relationship won't have the chance to develop and to flourish. The relationship is at the heart of your success.

We are pleased to provide you with the insightful comments contained herein. For a complimentary assessment of your online presence, let's have coffee.

Michael Cohn is the founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of CompuKol Communications. He has over 25 years of experience in IT and web technologies. Mr. Cohn spent a significant amount of time at a major telecommunications company, where his main focus was on initiating and leading synergy efforts across all business units by dramatically improving efficiency, online collaboration, and the company's Intranet capabilities, which accelerated gains in business productivity. He also reduced company travel and travel costs by introducing and implementing various collaboration technologies.

His expertise includes business analysis; project management; management of global cross-matrix teams; systems engineering and analysis, architecture, prototyping and integration; technology evaluation and assessment; systems development; performance evaluation; and management of off-shore development.

Mr. Cohn earned a Master's degree in project management from George Washington University in Washington, DC; and a Master's degree in computer science and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, NJ.

Mr. Cohn is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

http://ezinearticles.com/?Luring-Clients-Through-Your-Blogs&id=9060460

How To Properly Use Lead Generation That Results in More Sales

Tell tale signs you're leaving money on the table and how to create more sales with your marketing.

Marketing can mean a lot of different things to entrepreneurs and business owners. For some, it's a form of advertising and to others, it's getting more known on Social Media. Still others see marketing as a means for lead generation: doing whatever it takes to get people into a database list.

According to the American Marketing Association:

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Indeed, marketing is the cornerstone of any business, large or small. Without marketing, you will have a very hard time creating a sustainable business.

And for those that direct their marketing efforts into list building, this act alone is not enough.

You also need a plan in place to actively nurture these leads. Sadly, many fall short in this critical step to converting those leads into paying customers.

After reading this article, you'll discover specific ways you can optimize your lead generation efforts and convert those leads into sales. Have you given any thought to lead generation marketing before? Leave a comment below and share your biggest take away from the 5 tactics below.

Are you falling short with your marketing efforts?

Here are some signs you're leaving money on the table:

- you send occasional newsletters only when you feel inspired or when you have the time;

- you don't respond to those who comment on your social media;

- you offer free downloads but don't require an opt in for people to access them;

- you don't have a way to capture names and email addresses on your website;

- you don't have a plan in place to lead people through your product funnel.

If you are guilty of any of the above scenarios, then more than likely your marketing efforts are being done in vain. The fact is, most modern businesses rely on marketing for sales success.

And if you haven't given list building any attention at all, you are missing out on a big opportunity to get more sales.

Here's how to create more sales with your marketing:

1. Provide a free giveaway. Because it's rare that someone who first visits your website will buy from you, a free giveaway of something your target market will want to have is a means to capture their contact information and put them into your mailing list. You want to create an irresistible offer like a free PDF download, CD or video that's available on your website pages or as a standalone landing page. From there, you are now able to continue to build a rapport, share information, and send promotions that will keep you top of mind.


2. Reach out to social media leads. When followers leave a comment on your social media accounts, send them a private message and tell them how insightful their advice or comment was. Offer a free consult, product discount or something else of value as a thank you. You can gather your fan's contact information who have liked/commented on your social media page and email them a personal note thanking them for being a fan and offering a special "insider discount" or something exclusive they can't resist. Remember it's against the law to automatically add them to your bulk mailing list without their expressed permission first, so this tactic can only be done by individually emailing these people. If you use Facebook ads, you can create a specific list in the Facebook Power Editor to target those who have liked your page. Then create an ad campaign that will be seen by those who already know of you and are possibly in your target demographic.


3. Work your network. Are you letting your LinkedIn contacts just sit there? Send your connections a personalized note thanking them for the connection. Tell them you'd love to set up a time to talk on the phone to get to know each other's business better and how you can help one another. You can also be cognizant of their birthday or other milestone and wish them a great day or congratulate their accomplishments. This can lead to referrals or even new clients. Be honest and genuine with the intention of truly serving others and they will be receptive to your offer.


4. Share the love regularly with your fans. Keep the relationship with your newsletter list, blog readers, and social media fans strong by posting often and regularly. Give them the feeling of community and that they are getting something special by being a part of your fan base that they can't get anywhere else. When your rapport is strong, your followers will be more receptive and excited when you share offers for free consults, teleseminars, special offers and product sales.


5. Automate your follow-up. Write a series of prescheduled autoresponder emails that people get when they first sign up for your list. This can include further valuable information to enhance the giveaway they received, an invitation for a free consult, how to connect with you on your social media pages, links to popular blog articles, answers to most asked questions, and a special "welcome package" that contains offers and bonuses. Automation saves you time and helps nurture the lead by further sharing something of value. It helps to continue to build the relationship and gets it off to a great start.

What? You don't have TIME to do this?

Unfortunately many entrepreneurs try to do everything themselves. They get so caught up working IN their business that they don't work ON their business nearly enough.

The key to breaking through this barrier is to hire a team to make sure qualified leads aren't slipping through the cracks.

If you aren't making the kind of money you'd like, take a review of your marketing processes. Chances are you'll see places where your lead generation activities could be refined and tweaked to get you much better results.

Remember to never skimp or cut back on your marketing. It's not a question of whether or not you should have a marketing budget or how much to spend, it's making sure that you have thought through the entire lead generation process from beginning to end and have put adequate resources into place that will get you the biggest return on your investment.

It may be the most important thing you do for your business.

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Properly-Use-Lead-Generation-That-Results-in-More-Sales&id=9067804

Benefits of Content Marketing

A content marketing plan offers a very different perspective because you "own" the attention your company or brand receives. You are taking strategic steps to build brand awareness and cultivate your audience with the intent that they will read your blog, share your content on social media and ultimately buy your products or services.

Google is the largest search engine in the world. Their job is to connect people with the people, places and things that they are looking for. In order for you to take advantage of the billions of people looking for products or services similar to yours, you must have fresh, updated content posted on your website that match the search terms that people are using.

Content marketing gives you the benefit of building and fine tuning an audience that is custom-made just for your company or brand. And the more relevant content on your site the larger that audience will grow.

Basically, the definition of content marketing is someone who writes and publish articles and or posts online and then use various methods to spread knowledge of that content across as many social media platforms as he/she deems necessary in order to increase brand awareness.

Your audience is searching the web and doing their own research on the things they want. They are downloading information, comparing prices, asking for referrals from friends and family and talking about their desires on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and a host of other social sites.

Make no mistakes about it, your brand will absolutely benefit from social media marketing. It's the same as content marketing except you will re-post your articles on social media networks in addition to publishing it on your blog or website.

If you have a product or service that match what people are looking for, why not create content for your website that matches their search and allow Google to send them to your website instead of elsewhere? This is the essence of what digital marketing is all about. Digital marketing is simply finding creative ways to connect a willing audience to your product or service.

If your content is the content that continuously shows up in search results, when a customer is ready to make a purchase, he will more than likely be drawn to your site and consider making a purchase from you instead of someone else.

The reason for that is because they have seen your brand's name mentioned in search terms over and over again and therefore a certain level of "trust" has developed in their mind which leads them to feel as though you are a good and safe choice when it's time to make a purchase.

There are a lot of aspects to having a content marketing plan that I have not gone into detail about. However, if there is one takeaway I would like for you to have it is this, content is king and if you want to take advantage of the billions of people using search engines to find products or services like yours, you are going to have to create engaging content that offers value and that readers will enjoy enough to share on social media which will drive a massive amount of free traffic back to your site.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Benefits-of-Content-Marketing&id=9051535

What Does It Really Take To Succeed In Affiliate Marketing?

Though affiliate marketing can provide many benefits as in earning unlimited income and flexibility on managing your time, spending more time with your loved ones and enjoying life, they will only happen if you know what and how to do it correctly.

Because if you don't, you could end up in square one and the sad fact is that when people are in that situation, they gave up their dream of achieving financial freedom and internet lifestyle and go back to their 9 to 5 jobs.

Even sadder is that when they become parents and their children want to be entrepreneurs, they objected exactly the same way their parents did. Hence becoming an obstacle to what their children want to do rather than helping them.

Having watched webinars of various successful internet marketers such as John Thornhill whom I subscribed to regularly, these are the important things you need to know and implement if you are serious about achieving success in affiliate marketing and live the life you want instead of just daydreaming.

1. Having The Right Mindset

This is by far the most important of all.

Most people want to make money but they have the wrong mindset in regards to the process of doing so.

They see internet businesses as get rich quick ways like lottery and betting.

Just because they see other marketers earn thousands and millions in their salesletters and videos, they have the misperception that if they signed up for their courses, they will earn the same amount by tomorrow or in a week or month.

Because that is what most hyped up salesletters and videos say.

But if you are a mature adult and entrepreneur, you know as well as I do that is not going to happen. Like any businesses, you need a lot of dedication, hard work and effort to get to where you want to be.

And if they don't earn, they will either give up or signed up for another course with the same mentality.

2. Stop Buying One Internet Marketing Course After Another

That brings me to the second point.

That was also my mistake when I first got started online. It is also what I defined as Newbie Trapor Shiny Object Syndrome.

What they do is signed up for a course and tried out for a while say 1 or 2 weeks or just 2-3 days. And if they don't make money, they bought another program.

And this trend could continue and do more harm as they spend more and more money without making any in the long run.

If you are a complete newbie in starting your online business, you should read again and take note of this so that you will not fall into the same trap which could ruin you as it had for others financially and emotionally.

3. Investing Into Your Internet Business

As much as it is important not to earn your hard-earned money buying one internet course after another, it is just as important to invest into your internet business.

In contrary to what most average and lower income earners especially family and friends, one thing I like you to know - according to what I learn from my mentor friend and Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Poor Dad - is that there is a difference between spending and investing.

To put it simply in internet marketing, if you buy courses after courses just to learn everything without taking action to achieve success, you are spending your money for nothing.

But if you put your money into one proven course or system by a marketer who has succeeded in what you want to accomplish and genuinely want to help you as well as tools like autoresponder, domains and web hosting, you are investing your money into what can make you more money in the long run.

Just like you have an office, shop or cafe for offline businesses, you need those things for your online business as well to grow your income and customer database aka subscriber lists.

The only difference is while offline businesses require thousands of dollars in capital, you only need 20 to 30 bucks to start an online business.

4. Follow Instructions And Do The Necessary Things

Just because you have taken the first step to signing up for a course by proven mentor, it does not mean you are on track to achieve your ideal income and lifestyle.

Another most important thing is to be able to follow your mentor's instructions and do what is necessary to accelerate your success.

In order to do that, you need to forget and let go everything you need to know or think you know about making money online.

Why?

Because those things you learn and even implement so far does not really generate full time job replacing income into your bank account.

Moreover because your mentor has gone through various trial and errors and actually achieved success, he knows what is best for you and you to do what he says.

5. Staying Focused And Productive

As you are working on your own, it is very easy to get distracted by all kinds of things be it on-or-offline.

Unless those things help to generate thousands of dollars for you regularly, they are not really productive.

As your own boss, you should stay focused on the essential things that mattered. This is very important as it helps you to not only accomplish what you need to do faster but also sets a good example for you should you decide to hire people and run your own company.

6. Set Daily Schedule For Your Activities

This is another critical factor.

Besides working hard and being productive, you need to be able to do so in the least amount of time.

It does not make sense to spend 8 to even 20 hours of your time but not being able to achieve the results you should have as compared to what another people can in just 4 hours or less.

This is what I learn from reading a book called 4 Hour Work Week.

You need to set certain amount of time for each of your tasks aka your work and the time you need to spend with yourself and loved ones as well.

7. Stay Healthy

If you have to, turn off your computer for 2 or 3 days a week and engage in healthy activities like jogging, swimming and working out at the gym.

Also take note of what you eat as well as having a healthy and balanced diet are just as important for you to remain productive in your work.

8. Network With The People Around You

Besides families and friends, it is also essential to network with the people around you.

Besides socializing in sites like Facebook and iPhones which everyone does these days, you need to go out and connect with people.

Although you can research on your niche and target market, nothing beats communicating with real people and hearing what they have to say.

Especially those in your niche.

You can take part in your local community club activities and events such as the ones in Meetup whereby people either conducted or joined outdoor group activities to get to know new friends.

9. Giving Value To Others

Zig Ziglar once said: You Can Have Everything You Want In Life If You Helped Enough People To Get What They Want.

This is especially true when it comes to running internet business.

You see, most people get into these just to make money for themselves.

However one thing I need you to take note of and understand is that as much as it is important to make money for yourself and loved ones and pay bills, it is just as important to give value to others.

As in what they can benefit from buying your products and services rather than your competitors.

According to what I learn from my Facebook friend and successful entrepreneur Sant Qiu, people don't just buy products and services.

Besides buying based on their needs and wants, they buy from marketers they liked, trusted and saw as the go-to-person or consultant.

10. Keep It Short And Simple

Though there are many ways to make money, you do not need to learn and know everything to make money.

What you need is one way that you feel comfortable and confident with and stick to it until you are making enough money to replace your job income consistently and regularly.

Then you focused on other ways.

Makes sense?

http://ezinearticles.com/?What-Does-It-Really-Take-To-Succeed-In-Affiliate-Marketing?&id=9062092

8 Ways to Improve Your Affiliate Marketing Strategies

There have been significant changes to the affiliate marketing landscape over the past year. Staying on top of your game means keeping up to date on the techniques that are working right now. As a serious affiliate marketer you want to get ahead of the pack, rather than being left behind in the dust. Keep reading to find out the 8 essential things you need to be doing in your business for successful campaigns.

1. Stay focused on your niche.

It's much better to stay in one niche and try a few different products than to bounce around from one niche to another and never really get anything accomplished. Once you have mastered your first niche, go ahead and experiment with another one.

2. Content is still King.

Create great content your competitors can't hold a candle to. It's essential in order to stand out especially in a competitive niche. Be the one your readers can't forget. Large brands spend a great deal of time getting their content approved. You can be much faster than them, and turn out great content to make money with while they are still in meetings deciding about their content.

3. Build a strong affiliate income foundation by choosing products and programs offering recurring revenue.

When someone buys a product through your link, you receive a one-time affiliate payout. However, when the same customer signs up for a monthly newsletter, membership or other learning materials delivered on a monthly basis, you receive a recurring revenue from those monthly payments. This gives you money in the future as well as the immediate payment.

4. Make sure all your content, sites and landing pages are mobile friendly.

Did you know that 46% of affiliate clicks were done via mobile? This can have a great effect on your bottom line if your content isn't mobile-friendly. You could end up losing a great deal of potential income if mobile customers are clicking off your sites because they aren't coming up properly on their mobile screen.

5. Diversify your traffic sources.

When Google released the panda update in February 2011, many affiliates discovered their business would probably fizzle out in a few weeks or months. Then Penguin hit in April of 2012. Top affiliate marketers encourage us to own our audience rather than rent it. Make sure your business model is supported by several different traffic sources. If you rely on only one and it dries up, you will have a problem. Owning your own sites is another advantage in the ups and downs of the Google Zoo updates.

6. Go with the flow of seasonal and break-out trends.

You can usually predict a seasonal trend, and it will be recurring in the sense that it will come around again next season. An example of this would by Halloween costumes. A break-out trend can make you a lot of money in the short term, if your timing is right, and may not ever come back around again. An example of this could be affiliate products based around a fad diet or a popular cartoon character. They peak in popularity and then taper out as interest dies down. Your affiliate marketing efforts should be a good blend of these two types of trends as well as evergreen topics such as health and wellness.

7. Experiment with different ways of presenting your content.

There are many different social media accounts you can use to increase exposure for your affiliate products. Using written content, video, audio and even webinars for higher ticket items is also effective.

8. Keyword targeting is the old, topic targeting is the new.

It's no secret Google has been penalizing those affiliates trying to focus on narrow keywords. It's much more beneficial to take a topic and generate many LSI keywords (latent semantic indexing) describing the product and use those on your page. These are synonyms Google can collate together to identify what your page is all about.

http://ezinearticles.com/?8-Ways-to-Improve-Your-Affiliate-Marketing-Strategies&id=9053320

How To Be Successful When Trying To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing

If you are trying to get into the wonderful world of affiliate marketing you will have no doubt noticed the massive lengths that it takes to get things put in the right place, and to make sure that you are taking things forward in the right way. To do this, though, you need to know what makes a success within something like affiliate marketing. Typically, those who succeed are;

• Not afraid to make new friends and experiment with fresh ideas
• Always trying to implement new ideas and keeping things moving forward in the right way
• Happy to provide assistance to new members of the affiliate marketing community
• Able to communicate in an honest and unique fashion that will gain the interest of those they are talking to

Likewise, you will find that using affiliate marketing as a means of making money can be easily done if you are able to follow the messages above. By holding an honest, professional and open-minded mentality you can make sure that you will be taken seriously by people when trying to get yourself noticed and your products purchased. Whatever it is that you decide to do with your affiliate marketing strategy, you need to follow these rules of conduct to have the best chance possible of success.

To get there, you simply need to make sure that whatever you offer to people or actually implement into your website/blog is going to be progressive. Much like a government, if you aren't offering products and/or solutions that are genuinely going to help those that you are working with, you will struggle to get the kind of representation that you would have been looking for - in this case, sales. Whatever it is that you decide to do, though, you'll find that working with affiliate marketing as your main income stream can be a hugely effective thing to do so long as you try and adhere to these rules as much as you possibly can.

It's all about being able to give people what they expect, as well as ensuring that your message is clear and easy to follow for even those who have never heard of what you offer before. Being courteous, friendly and up-front about the future and what it holds if people work with you is going to be the catalyst to making sure that you are a success within an affiliate marketing business.

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Be-Successful-When-Trying-To-Make-Money-With-Affiliate-Marketing&id=9036595

The 5 Steps To Success With Affiliate Marketing Sales

Affiliate marketing programs are an excellent way to begin a home based internet business. There is a simple 5 step blueprint that all prosperous affiliates use, irrespective of the products or service that they are selling.

1. Your Lead Capture Page.

It is unlikely that anyone who visits a sales page for the first time will buy from you there and then. Therefore, to remain in contact with a potential customer you need to persuade them to join your email list. The primary purpose of a lead capture page is to get your prospect to enter their email address into your opt-in form in exchange for something of value for free. This could be a free report or video tutorial.

2. The Download Page.

After your prospect enters their email address, you can email them the freebie that you promised. However don't just send them the link for the PDF or video. Create a download page that contains the download link and more importantly an advertisement for a high-converting paid offer which is closely related to what they originally opted in for. When people buy this offer, it allows you to recoup some, or ideally all, of the affiliate advertising costs that you incurred driving traffic to the squeeze page.

3. Main Offer Follow-Up.

Of course, not everyone will buy from you as soon as they have opted into your email list. The next step is to follow-up with a series of emails that explain the benefits of your product or service. On average it takes a prospect 7 points of contact with a product before they buy and that's one of the reasons why the follow up emails are so crucial.

4. Provide Value.

Not everyone will buy the specific product that you are selling at this time. But that doesn't mean that they do not have a need for your product. They may not be ready to buy for several reasons. A common reason is that they have not yet come to trust you. So be sure to help them solve their problems by delivering as much value as possible. As they start to see the benefit of the information you provide, they will be much more likely to buy products or services from other relevant affiliate programs you offer in the future.

5. Promote Related Products.

While trust-building is an ongoing process, you should also recommend good quality products from other affiliate marketing programs that are related to what they first opted into your list for. You will always make more money with high ticket items than just selling low-priced offers all the time, but this is only possible when you have a trusted relationship with the people on your list.

Regardless of your age, education or technical skills there are no specific requirements for being successful with affiliate marketing. However you will be more successful if you have a solid business model to work from, clear direction and support. If you don't know where to start or you're not achieving the online success that you want, check out this FREE Affiliate Marketing Business Series

7 Reasons Your Affiliate Products Won't Sell

Are you finding it difficult to sell affiliate products on your website or blog? There is little doubt that affiliate marketing presents an excellent opportunity to make money online, but it is never as easy as many of you may think. On the one hand, you'll find a lot of online or affiliate marketers who are earning a six- or seven-figure income by selling affiliate products. On the other, there are many who are unable to make only a few sales even after trying really hard.

Given below are seven potential reasons that you should watch out for if you are unable to earn a good income from affiliate marketing.

#1. You've Chosen Too Expensive Products

Many online marketers will have just money on their minds. In order to make more money, they choose expensive affiliate products to promote. Actually, the price range will vary depending on the characteristics or the traits of the target audience. If you aren't selling enough affiliate products, you need to take a quick look at the price of products you are trying to sell.

If you see that the products you are promoting are too expensive, you should pick those products that are low cost. If you have an established site with a good amount of traffic, you can quickly increase the number of sales by choosing low cost or cheaper affiliate products.

Even if you are selling low cost products, you'll earn a good commission because you'll get more sales on a high-traffic blog.

#2. You're Selling Non- or Semi-Relevant Products

In desperation to make more money quickly, many people will start promoting or selling even those affiliate products that are distantly or not related at all to a specific niche. There's a simple question - 'Why would a target audience want to purchase a product they don't actually need?'

Whether you are just starting out or have spent some time in the affiliate marketing industry, never get swayed by hyped products that have little or nothing to do with the niche you come from.

#3. You've Not Used the Product Yourself

If you are trying to sell those affiliate products that you have not used yourself, you'll be less likely to get more sales. One of the most important rules in affiliate marketing is to know a product really well before you want to sell it. When you have used a product yourself, you'll also feel more confident to promote or sell the same. Without using a product yourself, you'll never know whether it's good enough to be promoted to an audience. Low quality products will also reflect badly on your reputation, killing your sales in the long-term.

#4. You Don't Have a Compelling Story

Your target audience needs to be told a story, which inspires them and encourages them to go ahead and make a purchase. If you are only selling a product, you'll hardly sell. If you are selling an experience, you'll sell more, and more. That's one of the biggest secrets of successful affiliate marketers.

Before you want to pitch an affiliate product to your audience, try to come up with an engaging story of your own. In this story, try to explain how using this product changed your life for the better. Talk about what makes this product really unique and different from others in the market.

So, craft a compelling story right now!

#5. You've Chosen a Wrong Niche

This can be yet another reason. Do you think you have chosen a niche that's really profitable? If you aren't selling any affiliate products even after trying hard, you may have stepped into a wrong niche.

Though affiliate marketing brings you excellent opportunities of making lots of money online, choosing a wrong niche will easily lead you to failure. While choosing a niche, you should pick one that's less competitive yet offers a good market for selling products.

Most importantly, you should always choose a niche market that you know really well about. If you lack adequate knowledge about a specific niche, you won't be able to sell products. It's because you won't be able to build trust or talk to your audience with authority.

#6. You're Selling Too Many Products

It's difficult to get a good number of affiliate sales also when you are offering too many products. Many affiliate marketers, particularly those who lack experience, think that selling tons of affiliate products will bring them more money. In fact, you'll easily confuse your blog readers or target audience if you are promoting plenty of affiliate products.

Rather than joining every affiliate program that you think is profitable, you should become more selective. When you are promoting too many products, you'll not be able to give the kind of focus each product promotion requires. By being selective, on the other hand, you'll find it easy to focus more on the promotion of each of the products. So, you'll make more sales.

#7. You Don't Have a Good Sales Pitch

Also, you need to have a strong sales pitch or call to action. Though your audience will want to buy top quality products, coming up with good sales pitches will allow you to make more sales. If you want your readers to take a desired action, you must always ask for it. So, don't miss it!

http://ezinearticles.com/?7-Reasons-Your-Affiliate-Products-Wont-Sell&id=9053809