Affiliate Marketing- A Freelance Affiliate Marketer's foretaste on Home Business Opportunities!!

TAGS : Viral Marketing; Internet Marketing Blog; Earn Money Blog; Blog Promotion; Internet Marketing, Best Affiliate Program

"A weblog (usually shortened to blog, but occasionally spelled web log) is a web application presented as a webpage consisting of periodic posts, normally in reverse chronological order"-en.wikipedia.org.As you add content to your blog, new posts are automatically positioned on top of previous posts, so your visitors can see "what's new." Then they can comment on it or link to it or e-mail you if they choose to do so. A weblog is edited, organized and published often through a content management system or CMS. The blogs are online diaries or journals where blogger expresses his feelings, creativity, research work with like minded surfers through her periodic articles. Or weblog can be resembled to an online diary where blogger submits his frequently visited links for reference of the visitors.

The history of weblog can be traced back to the first website, http://info.cern.ch/, the site built by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN. In the '90s there were a handful of websites and the life was so easy. But with with the cluttering of thousands of new websites each day, things turned to be complicated and it became harder to find relevant information easily. Some novel eWiz like Brigitte Eaton,Jorn Barger,Peter Merholz, James Garrett,Cameron Barrett produced an alternative way to thread a particular topic related websites in a page or link for more convenience of the surfers to find content oriented sites in a single bucket ! The idea grew popularity, and a number of webmasters each day sent their URLs for listing in their websites. The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger in December 1997. The shorter version, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz in 1999. As of March 2003, the Oxford English Dictionary included the terms weblog, weblogging and weblogger in their dictionary. Until '98 there were only a handful of weblogs in the net, but according to a report, more than 14 million blogs being published by the first quarter of 2005 !!

The popularity of Weblog is gaining momentum. As per a survey conducted by Comscore.com,50 Million US population ( i.e- 1 in 6 of total US population or 30% of the total US online population) visited blog sites in the first quarter of 2005. This represents a 45% increase compared to the quarter one of 2004. Blog visitors are 11% more likely than the average Internet user to have incomes of $75,000 or more. According to the study, an average blog visitor spends 23 hours per weak online, while average Internet users spent 13 hours online."The study also found that the blog visitors are 30% more likely to buy products or services online. While less that 40% of the total Internet population made an online purchase at Q1 of 2005, 51% of the blog visitors did"- Comscore.com. This is just a replica of the universal acceptability of weblog these days. If you are an online marketer or thinking to start an online venture, I believe weblog is the best tool of Internet marketing. Do you don't think so??

Like Ezine ads, an Affiliate can use weblog as a futuristic tool of online marketing. With a decent and cool content writting, even a starter categorically can create a big blogsphere and use it as a perpetual passive mean of generating targeted traffic. The advantages of weblog over concurrent websites as a tool of online marketing are astoundingly multifarious.

First, weblogs are SE friendly i.e. you never have to submit your blog to any search engine. After you publish, your blog it will be submitted to the common search engines by the blog service provider. You never have to bother about on page criterions. Your META TAGS and KEY WORDs will be set automatically, eliminating the risk of keyword manipulation.

Second, zero designing and operation cost. You never have to hire a web designer for designing your weblog, just choose the right template and publish.

Third, Ping and Podcasting facilities promoting weblog as a viral marketing tool. With single click you are informing the whole world about your latest article updates.

Fourth, the next advantage of weblog over a web site is the trackback facility, an automatic notification between websites of related content—such as a post on a particular topic or one which responds to a post on another blog . Use Trackback links when you quote or refer to other blog posts.

Fifth, blogs are more likely RSS( Really Simple Syndication) integrated. All blog service providers, including Blogger.com provide RSSfeed link. When you update your new posting in weblog and you use RSS feed, the SE crawlers will visit your site and publish your content to across world wide web, all silently.

Sixth, another great feature of blog is use of comment

Seventh, blog is a more personalized form of ezine. In ezines and websites we express either our knowledge or services, but in blog we can express our live experiences as if we are talking to our best friend. Personalisation of postings increases the Conversion Ratio of traffic to customer.

"Let's be honest here... We're all good at justifying excuses to ourselves. I've even done it a few times myself ! But there really is no excuse for not following your dream. You're only hurting yourself." - Corey Rudl. If you are an ambitious online marketer or if you are new to weblog, I can name a few of the best blogging service providers like Blogger.com, Livejournal.com, 360.Yahoo.com, Typepad.com, Blogs.com, Xanga.com, DiaryLand.com where you should publish your first blog to realize your dreams. Choose the write one and publish your own blog today. For more cross reference, content, RSS Feeding and listing of your blog you can use some of the Blog Directories like-Masternewedia,Blogger, Blogrankings, Blogcatalog, Blogsearchengine, Blogwise, Weblogs, Blogrolling, FeedBurner, EmarketingBlogs. Blog advertising related services are provided by-BlogExplosion.com; Prosperall.com,Blogclicker.com. Pluck.comprovides free download toolbar which helps to customize your weblog searching. I highly recommend you to give a glance at their site. If you are dummy, please visit Samizdata.net for blog related glossary and content.

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About the author:

Blogger Purna Borkotoki is a part time Affiliate Marketer.Blogger has tried his best to compile his three and half years of real-life experiences in the field of Affiliate Marketing in his blog http://refdem.blogspot.com. If you are an experienced online marketer, his Free downloadable master course "Net Writing Master Course" is albeit a good choice for review. Join any of his Free Affiliate Programs and earn monthly residual income for the next years to come.

by Willie Crawford

One of the questions I see frequently asked on online discussion forums is, "Can You Really Make Money From Blogging?" People want to know if there's some way to profit from the time they spend maintaining their weblogs or personal online journals.

My answer is an emphatic "YES," because I do it... everyday!

Today I'll share with you how I do it.

Let me begin by saying that I don't make thousands per month from MOST of my blogs. However, I do have many making hundreds. Since I don't put in a lot of time maintaining them, and I enjoy blogging, I consider the money a bonus. I blog while sitting in my yard with my laptop (on a wireless connection)...watching the clouds roll by.

Another bonus I get from blogging is that it helps my regular websites that
are set up as my "money machines."

The search engines visit my blogs more often than they visit my regular sites, and they follow the links from my blogs pointing to other sites. Some of these links point to my sites, and some point to sites of partners. This doeshelp the search engine rankings of these sites MASSIVELY.

How Do I Monetize My Blogs?

I monetize my blogs by creating blogs on topics people are searching for...
and that they are spending money on. I know which niches are hot to an extent based upon what my research proves pay-per-click advertisers are willing to spend their advertising dollars on.

I run Google AdSense ads on my blogs. I simply insert these ads in my menu bar and other strategic places on the webpage. I also experiment with other paid advertising on my blogs.

I sell affiliate products from my blogs. I simply find affiliate products at
places like PayDotCom.com and Commission Junction. I incorporate these into my
blogs. I do things like product reviews, how-to articles, etc. You can also locate suitable affiliate products by typing your target keywords + "affiliate program" at any major search engine. This should point out numerous websites with suitable affiliate programs to you.

How Do I Setup/Host My Blogs?

I have blog hosted on some of my own domains using Moveable Type. This is just one of many great pieces of blogging software. You have other choices... my programmer recommended this one to me.

I also have blogs hosted for free on Blogger.com. I have them on Blogger.com
because they are incredibly easy to set up and maintain. A secondary reason have them on Blogger.com is that Google OWNS Blogger.com and they index webpages hosted on their servers OFTEN and FAST!

The secret to getting Google and Yahoo! to visit your blogs often is a technique called "blogging and pinging." It's a method of notifying all of the major search engines, and blog directories, each time that you update your blog. The search engines come to take a look and they follow links from your blog tospider other blogs/sites. It's very powerful.

I won't go into too much details on blogging and pinging here. If you want more information on that topic I invite you to drop by my free, Internet marketing discussion board and ask any and all questions! It's at: http://cure-nail-fungus.blogspot.com
The above site currently ranks Number 6 on Yahoo for the term "cure nail fungus." It's a small niche but one that makes me $2400 per month... just from that one blog.

If you searched on the same term at Google, this site is not very highly ranked. However, THIS page is Number4: http://www.chitterlings.com/no-more-nail-fungus.html
That happens to be one of my pages too :-) I won't tell you what ALL I'm up to on that page... that's another article. The technique involves using your own domains to promote affiliate products rather than advertising someone else's domain... so it improves your link popularity.

I'm not going to show more of my blogs because that just invites competition. Instead, I'm going to answer another question you have to be wondering...

"How do I find time to maintain all of these blogs, even if they are profitable?"

Well, first of all, I don't really need a lot like the "sacrificial lamb" that I showed you above to keep me satisfied.

I do have a number of secret weapons though. One is called AutoBlogger. You can check it out at: http://WillieCrawford.com/auto-blogger.html

What AutoBlogger does is allow me to queue up a number of posts for my various blogs in advance. It lets you queue up "articles" which can really be anything you want. Then you tell the software at what frequency to make a post.

My AutoBlogger account allows me to automatically post to an UNLIMITED number of blogs.

WARNING: A program like AutoBlogger can get you in trouble if you misuse it! If you use it to spam or abuse the search engines, it's just going to get you banned. If you use it to abuse the blog hosts, they're just going to delete your blogs.

Here's how I use AutoBlogger:

I have sites where I discuss Internet marketing... as just one example. On these sites I share many of my articles and tidbits. I simply queue up these articles/tidbits to post at a given frequency. This frequency can be a set number of hours, days, weeks, or months. So theoretically, I can set up a blog, pre-schedule 50 posts, and not touch it in months, while it is automatically posted to for the next 50 intervals.

AutoBlogger even lets you set it to start rotating through the posts again when they run out, if you want to. I personally wouldn't do this since you'd just be posting duplicate content.

AutoBlogger allows you to insert RSS feeds right into your blog posts. So in addition to posting articles you can also auto-update by adding new RSS feeds at
a set interval. Since I HATE sending my traffic to other sites (without reciprocation), these RSS feeds generally pull from MY sites. That way, my traffic is only sent to my other sites.

If you don't even feel like queuing up a lot of posts, you can go to a site like Elance.com and hire someone else to do it for you... or just hired your kids to do it for you. It can be as easy as you want to make it.

OK, I've just proven to you that you can make money off of blogs. In-fact,you can make more money than many people make off of their REGULAR websites. It just takes a little thinking outside the box!

It also takes not being too greedy. What I just showed you works for me because I'm not doing anything that's likely to get me banned from the searchengines,Google AdSense, Blogger.com, or any affiliate program. It's only when you get carried away, and do things that harm the search engines that you "shoot yourself in the foot."

Set up blogs providing useful content. Make regular posts to these blogs but not in a manner that seems unnatural. By that, I mean don't auto-post twenty times in an hour, or post every hour for a month! No human can possible post to a blog at these rates for long, so the search engines detect something is "wrong." They don't generally prohibit you from using tools to make your job easier... just don't get carried away!

There are actually, thousands of people earning a living doing things similar to what I just shared... but with little twists. I'm meeting up with many of them in New Orleans in September. You're invited to join us. We'll basically be sharing how we make a fortune off of niche websites and programs such as Google AdSense. You can register today at: http://WillieCrawford.com/meet-in-new-orleans.html

About the Author

Willie Crawford, Navarre, Florida US

willie@williecrawford.com

Learn more about blogging and pinging

Willie Crawford is a corporate president, published author, seminar speaker and
host, tele-seminar speaker and host, retired military officer, karate black belt, network marketing trainer, and lifetime student of marketing. He teaches how to actually generate substantial multiple streams of on-line income using very simple automated systems. An example is at: http://sendoutcards.com/willie

Copyright © 2005 Cutts Group, llc

Do you remember your first day as a business owner? You were probably just like the rest of us... pretty darned happy and bit on the proud side. Yeah, back then we thought we could conquer the world. Now we're too busy conquering our own little corner of the world to pay a lot of attention to the rest of the world... unless it's to learn a few tips from successful marketers just like us who have made it big. Tips just like these... that will apply to every market - regardless of the product or service - are a great motivators to try something new. Yeah, you never know when the next idea will be worth a million dollars!

1. Create a Special Offer

A special offer is exactly that... an offer that is special. Normally, customers would not be able to purchase this product or combination of products, and once the products are gone... sorry!

You don't have to go out and order a bunch of new products to put together a special offer. It don't take a whole lot... just use what you've got. Grab a few items that are related, group them together, discount the price, and your customers will be excited to be getting a good deal. Think about it from your standpoint... you've sold three or four items rather than one. Yeah, combination offers are winning deals for everyone!

2. Address the Small Customer Groups

Niche markets are everywhere, right under your nose! Within the customer audience that you serve right now are groups of people who share common traits. Think about it... maybe you have a group who speaks Spanish, a group of teens, and a group of middle class family men and women.

Evaluate these classes of people, and discover the unique needs and desires they share. That will set you up to customize your advertising campaign directly to them. It’s not hard to take your current ads, and make a few changes to adjust to the niches. They’ll be impressed that you understand THEM, and the increase in your profits will be the best thanks you can get.

3. Set Up a Winning Referral Program

Successful marketers develop the ability to turn their customers into advocates. Often, they don't even have to directly ask customers to refer them to others. Their willingness to go the extra wins customer loyalty and support. Naturally, satisfied customers refer their friends and family to the place that will take good care of them.

Quality service and is the first step toward referrals, but you can easily take it one step further. Studies show that every satisfied customer tells three people about you. What would happen with a little incentive added to the picture? Yeah, a lot more. Give customers who refer friends a thank you - whether it's a discount, special gift item, or a simple thank you card - and watch the referrals spiral!

You can get two birds with one stone by implimenting customer surveys. A few quick questions about what the customer does and doesn't like about your product, followed by a request for the names and addresses of friends and family who would benefit from the product, and you're all set to go with the contact information of a prospective customer!

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Who is Allyn Cutts, and why should you care?

Allyn has spent over 24 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales to current customers. Allyn is a marketing and sales fanatic, providing measurable marketing solutions that drive huge results for small-to mid-size business clients. Allyn works personally with clients to design and deliver off-line and on-line direct marketing strategies that focus on metrics and measurable results. You can learn more about Allyn Cutts at http://www.AllynCutts.com and you can call 610.437.4106 between 10 AM and 4 PM Eastern Time Tuesdays and Thursdays.