Hey school housers – I don’t think that is a word, but it is now. Anyways, I landed in San Diego about 2 hours ago and headed on over to the Hard Rock hotel. The lobby is stunning and the people working here are really nice. Anyways, I have made my first video from my room, while hanging out with one of my best friends, @wirelesspacket – “Lenny” via iChat. The blog posts will be fast and furious, short and to the point because the bulk of the content will be in video form. So, with that said, here is your first video. I hope to bring you alot of fun video for the next 4 days so that you can be a part of this epic conference. As Diddy says, “LETS GOOOOO!” I’m locked in….
More to come – stay tuned. You are getting to go with me…
I have a passion for beautiful web design, handsome graphics, and slick icons. I could literally spend hours surfing the web to marvel at amazing design. I have decided to add this passion of mine to the affiliate school house. We will begin featuring posts surrounding design for those affiliates who like to build their own sites and graphics. Have you been looking for some fresh “follow me” twitter buttons to spruce up your blog or website? I’m hopelessly addicted to nice buttons and icons. One of my favorite places to visit for twitter buttons is…wait for it….wait for it…TwitterButtons.com.
Original name, I know. But, nonetheless, this site is a great resource for your twitter button needs. Simply browse through their extensive catalog of free twitter buttons, find the one that you like, enter your twitter id within the id capture box, click copy the code, and then embed on your site! Voila! Couldn’t be any easier.
Putting one of these on your site is not as user friendly as twitterbuttons.com. On these sites you will need to do the following:
1. Find the twitter button or twitter badge that you like
2. Right click on the twitter image you like and save to your desktop
3. Upload that button to your server via FTP
4. Insert the button into your blog using the add image tool feature or hand-code the html to add to your website.
<a href=”http://www.twitter.com/yourtwitterusername><img src=”http://www.yourdomainname.com/your_images_folder/your_twitter_button.jpg></a>
This morning, when I came into the office, I found a white box sitting on my desk from Google Adwords. In it was a letter from Google and a book, Always Be Testing – “The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer”. It was a great surprise! Google is doing it’s best to remind advertisers and businesses to keep marketing, even during these uncertain times, as this has been shown to dramatically increase business. At first, it does seem odd to ramp up marketing efforts during a time of economic uncertainty, but Google is right! Now is the time that businesses have to maximize their advertising efforts and focus on conversion.
I can’t wait to get into this book and share the information with the readership here, at affiliate school house. As you may already know, your website/landing page content, layout, and graphical elements, all play key roles in coversion rates. Apparently, Google has endorsed the authors of this book , who will show us the best strategies for increasing coversions by utilizing the Google Website Optimizer Tool – a power users guide, if you will.
Watch the video below where I share with you the contents of the box and explain what it is that Google is doing for their advertisers. It’s nice to receive a surprise in the mail. We operate so much of our businesses online, that it is very easy to forget about snail mail. Nice thought on behalf of Google to reach out to their advertisers that are using their marketing product – Adwords.
Are you just starting out in affiliate marketing and PPC advertising? Are you a veteran PPC player that is looking for other ways to maximize profits with little marketing spend? Have your PPC campaigns recently drained your pocket book with little ROI? It happens to the best of us. Sometimes a PPC space is hyper-competitive and your advertising costs can skyrocket due to a number of factors including: keyword competition, veteran marketers, poor ad copy, non converting landing pages, weak urls, the dreaded quality score (Google), and a host of many other factors depending upon the search engine you are using for your marketing efforts.
Have you ever seen a drop card or a promo post card flyer? Of course you have! In the world of guerrila marketing, street teams are hired to go out and use drop cards to market businesses, music artists, club events, sporting events, etc. This type of marketing costs pennies in comparison to some PPC campaigns.
Still not sure what a drop card is? No problem, I’ll explain. A drop card is nothing more than a simple business card or post card that has effective ad copy, eye catching graphics/color schemes, and a URL. These drop cards are strategically “dropped” in public places with high traffic, such as: gas stations, shopping malls, strip centers, restaurants, cafes, clubs, bars, college campuses, car washes, bookstores, movie theaters, etc. in order to maximize visibility and exposure to potential customers. Beginning to see the idea? You basically blanket your local area with your advertisements for very little spend. I will show you where you can pick up your own drop cards to test this offline marketing method.
500 Premier Business Cards
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custom text and logo $145.00 no doubt about it these are expensive but just look at them!
EXAMPLE:
Running some CPA offers for ringtones? Are you finding that some PPC keywords are way too expensive? Perhaps you should try drop card marketing. Here is a real example of how an affiliate marketer might employ this offline marketing tactic. Let’s say that you own the url, RingToneKing.com and you use this url for your online marketing efforts (not sure who owns this, but hey, you just got some free exposure – you’re welcome) and you are finding that your PPC efforts are not doing as well as you would like. So, you begin a drop card marketing campaign in your local area to generate some traffic and hopefully, some conversions. I have written a fast action guide for you to model in your marketing niche. Let’s get started!
1. Purchase A Separte, Unique Domain
In this example, let’s say you decide to buy RingToneOffers.com, which is different from your primary domain, RingToneKing.com, that you market online (SEO, social media, PPC, etc.) You want this separate domain name so that you can effectively track your offline efforts. When we say “offline”, we simply mean that our marketing is done offline but our conversions happen online, since we are driving people to our domain via our drop cards. This new domain should have some form of analytics running: google analytics, awstats, or something similar, so that you can see that people are coming to your site from your offline marketing efforts. You will only want to use this new domain for your offline marketing efforts. Head on over to GoDaddy.com to pick up your “drop card domain”
2. Carefully Select Your Placements
Since you are marketing ringtones, you know that your target audience is somewhere within the demographic of male and females between the ages of 15 to 30. You have decided that your best areas to advertise with your drop cards would be near local highschools and colleges/community colleges. Scout out local movie theatres, movie rental businesses, theme parks (if applicable), sporting events, shopping malls, fast food restaurants, starbucks, cafe’s, ice cream parlors, etc. that are in close proximity to these areas. You might also consider areas where young adults hang out such as: clubs, bars, etc. and use your drop cards accordingly. Young people buy ringtones, so you need to advertise to those areas. This isn’t rocket science! Think of this type of offline marketing as online marketing within the Google content network or on sites like adbrite. How is that the same? Well, you get to select your placements within these content networks, right? So, do the same in regards to your offline efforts. Select your placements wisely and they will convert, but just like online marketing, you MUST have great ad copy, the best design that fits both your budget and your product, and a unique URL.
3. Budget, Ad Copy & Design
As you already know, the success of your online PPC marketing is contingent upon your budget, focused keywords, great ad copy, good urls, and awesome landing pages. This also applies to your offline marketing efforts. You must decide what your budget is for offline marketing, as this will determine what options you can include on your drop cards. The larger your budget, the more design options are available to you. You must also focus on creating good ad copy, so that your potential customer completes the first call to action, which is picking up the card and taking it with them. The design factor of your card: color, fonts, and background must also be taken into consideration, as this plays a key role in the potential customers completing both the first call to action and the second call to action. This second call to action includes retrieving the card to get the url to visit the website. (On a side note: this is why selecting a great domain name for offline marketing is so important. Someone may pick up your card and read it, but not take it with them. However, if you have a solid domain name and your ad copy was good – it is possible that they will remember the domain name!!)
4. Start Dropping!
Now that you have an idea of what drop cards are, and how you use them, you must order your first run and start dropping these cards in high traffic public areas!! Good luck!
If you are considering CPA marketing, you will want to check out this FREE REPORT that I found by Gauher Chaudhry. This awesome guide is packed full of information that will help you understand what CPA marketing is and will give you several examples of how you can maximize your ROI within this affiliate marketing space.
Gauher Chaudhry, for those of you who don’t know, is a super affiliate, CPA rockstar, and all around nice guy. He has helped many people get their start in CPA marketing, including Jonathan van Clute, who was the 2008 winner of the Top Affiliate Challenge. Jonathan was able to accomplish this win through his mentorship with Gauher. Jonathan was clearing $3,000.00 per day in commissions when he won this competition. $90,000.00 per month sounds good doesn’t it? Would you like to start making money like Jonathan? If this sounds like something you would be interested in pursuing, you can get your start by becoming acquainted with Gauher Chaudhry and his CPA strategies: Download his FREE CPA Marketing Guide Here.
This report could easily sell for 47.00 – 97.00! This 89 page CPA guide is full of information with no fluff. Make sure you check this free resource guide out while it’s still free.
As you may have already heard, Mr. Mike Filsaime, is giving away an unprecedented 5,000 copies of his Butterfly Marketing 2.0 software and manuscript. The copies will be given away on March 24th, starting at 12:00 PM for those people who signed up for the early bird list – you still have time to get on the VIP list for free. Just sign up here. If you have had the chance to read the original Butterfly Marketing manuscript, then you know how powerful this system is.
Are you stumped by Google’s formula that determines ad serving, quality score and CPC values? If so, I have come across a video that will surely help you make sense of the Google PPC marketing mystery. Mr. Hal Varian of Google does a fantastic job of explaining and frankly, demystifying, the phenomenon surrounding the Google Adwords Ad Auction process. He also explains how your max CPC bid and quality score determine how much you pay for a click on Google. Hal does an awesome job by giving real world examples on his nifty dry erase board – seriously, this concrete, real-world example is very good. If you have been confused by Google’s methods of determining ad placement, quality score, and CPC values you will definitely want to see this video.
Our lesson for today will include some very important Do’s and Dont’s when it comes to promoting your products or affiliate links on the web.
1. DO NOT SPAM YOUR PRODUCT LINKS OR AFFILIATE LINKS
How many times have you seen someone on Twitter or Facebook spam links all day long about some $4.95 trial for Adwords Crusher or something like that. I know I have. Unfortunately it seems that many people in this space will do anything to make a quick buck, even if that means resorting to spamming. This annoying practice occurs daily, via email (as almost all of us know), Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, Forums, as well as many other places. I would fill up this entire post if I listed every way that marketers spam. These so-called internet marketers and affiliate marketers are not connecting with their audience and will ultimately never build a sustainable business. Don’t follow the advice of others if it includes this type of behavior. Be wary. Nobody, and I mean nobody, likes a spammer.
2. DO NOT ANNOY THE “BIG DOGS” – AUTHORITY VOICES
It’s smart to build relationships with the authority voices within your space, but do it the right way. Constantly emailing, or pinging these individuals for business advice, support, or begging them to promote your site, blog, links or products is a great way to burn a bridge. This will not help your business.
3. DO NOT LOOK FOR FAST MONEY
There is no get rich quick system out there that will earn you respect and build you a lasting business. Sure, you might make a few quick bucks but you will alienate alot of people, annoy others, and be left with nothing worthwhile. Think about it.
Similar to spamming, nobody likes to be around people who only talk at them and not with them. What do I mean by this? It simply means that it’s important to engage in conversations, instead of always talking about what you do or what you are promoting.
2. DO BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUR AUDIENCE, AUTHORITY VOICES, & AFFILIATE MANAGERS
This one is a no-brainer. If you build relationships you will be able to move your business to the next level.
3. JOIN THE BEST AFFILIATE NETWORKS
Always seek out the best affiliate networks, affiliate programs, and products to promote. Don’t try to join every program out there. You will just end up overwhelmed and confused. Speak to a representative at these networks and have them sell you on why you should promote their products.
4. PROTECT YOUR GOOD NAME
Word travels fast within the internet and affiliate marketing space. This means that you should strive to build the very best reputation that you can by forging quality relationships, by sharing quality content, and by helping others achieve their goals. Helping someone can open many different doors. It’s how I met one of my best friends on the internet and it has helped me tremendously.
**Authority Voice: I can’t stand the word guru or expert so I choose to use authority voice as a substitute.
How many times have you got excited about getting started with affiliate marketing, internet marketing, building your own product, creating a blog or forum, etc., only to gas out before accomplishing anything because you get so wrapped up in the possibilities of failure, the endless details or become overwhelmed with fear. My friends, you are suffering from analysis paralysis, and I have been the victim of this success crusher many times. What is important to note here is that you can overcome analysis paralysis. How? It’s easy. You just have to take action. It’s really that simple.
Here is a common day dream scenario: How many times have you said these things?
“I want to make money online”
“I want to work from home because I hate commuting to my horrible job”
“I want to be the next internet millionaire”
“I want to supplement by current income with part-time money making on the internet”
“I want to be an internet rockstar and have many followers who come to me for information”
“I want to become successful by starting my own internet based business”
Most of us have said those statements either to ourselves or to others. The problem is, most of the time we fail to get past these stumbling blocks because we become crippled with analysis paralysis: the most common excuses/statements:
“Im scared that I will fail”
“If I fail, I will be a disappointment to myself and my family/spouse”
“If I don’t make alot of money at the beginning, I will not be successful”
“My spouse, family, and friends will not understand what I am trying to do.”
“I am broke. How can I expect to make money when I don’t have alot of extra money to invest”
“I am scared to invest money in internet marketing courses because they might not work”
“I will just buy one more course before I start”
“I will do just a little more research before I begin”
“I don’t have a clue how to set up a website/blog or build a list”
“People might laugh at me or my product”
“People will think that my videos or blog posts are dumb”
“I’m not good at producing content”
“And the list goes on and on…”
By taking action I mean, it’s time to crush all of these excuses and make sound decisions. Now, I am not discounting these statements above, I am just saying that at some point you have to talk through these things and make a decision to become successful and take the necessary steps to prepare yourself for success. A perfect example of a very successful internet entrepreneur is Jeremy Schoemaker of Shoemoney.com. Last night, I was fortunate enough to get in on the Shoemoney webinar hosted by BigMaketingOnline.com and on that call Jeremy answered my question, which was: What did you have to sacrifice at the very beginning of starting your online business and what kept you going each and every morning?
Jeremy said something that really hit home with me. He basically said he knew that he wanted to create and be responsible for his own success and DID NOT want to work in corporate America EVER again. He didn’t want to be forced into a certain salary bracket. He wanted the freedom to do as he pleased. Jeremy also said that he had to sacrifice alot to get where he is today. Basically, he had to “bust it out”, each and every day. What does that mean? Giving up sleep, television, partying, etc. At the beginning you gotta give up some things in order to taste true success. You have to pay your dues. Nobody is gonna give you the game. You gotta get out there and GET IT! Know what I mean?
Watch Jeremy tell you how he got started online: CLICK HERE
I think we all want that. The problem is most of us become paralyzed with fear factors or failure factors that prevent us from being successful. So, we get back into our cars every morning with our coffee, sit in traffic, and head straight to our cubicle when we get to work, where we dream about being successful online.
Here is the take away:
Nobody ever won a cy-young award for pitching in baseball by sitting on the bench for the entire season.Get your rear off the bench and get in the game. It’s time to make some decisions. You either want success or you don’t. That’s up to you. Just know that Affiliate School House is here to help you get started and school is currently in session.
Video Disclaimer: I noticed that I did not tell you guys and gals that it’s important to talk about your ideas and reasons for getting started with your spouse or family. However, YOU ultimately have to decide what is best. You want success? You gotta get out there and go for it! Have faith in yourself and surround yourself with good people.
ADDITIONAL STUDY RESOURCES
MORE ON MARKET RESEARCH AND MARKET UNDERSTANDING:
Ed Dale is a wonderful source for explaining market understanding and research,
which is critical in determining your success as an affiliate marketer. I highly suggest
checking out this resource. It is top notch in both production and content value.
CURRENTLY BEING STUDIED AT THE AFFILIATE SCHOOLHOUSE:
Join the program by clicking the banner and join the Affiliate School House study group.
Morning Marketers!
Let’s dive right into today’s lesson:
I just watched the previous video about how to get started in affiliate marketing and I realized that I didn’t emphasize enough on some key points. I just wanted to make sure that I made myself clear about the defining your passions and researching the market part. After many frustrating hours of studying and testing, I believe that it is super important for new affiliate marketers, or even those who are struggling, to start out slowly and focus your foundations around products that you are passionate about. Sometimes it is hard figuring out what to promote. I find that it is always easier to write/blog/promote products that you really like. Wouldn’t you agree? Let’s say that you are passionate about the Smurfs. Perhaps you believe that there are other people out there that would be interested in buying smurf collectibles: shirts, figurines, glasses, etc.
However, just guessing that there MIGHT be a market for your product is simply not enough, nor a beneficial way of spending your time because you could be wrong. We don’t have time to waste based on market speculation. Being passionate about your product(s) that you want to promote is the first step of establishing a successful affiliate campaign, as long as market exists for your product.
That brings us to the second part of our equation for affiliate marketing success – “market research”. No matter if it’s a product that you are passionate about in your affiliate beginnings, or a product that has great commissions associated with it, there must be a market that is actively purchasing your product to justify promotion. We must use tools at our disposal to research our markets, either a free tool like Google keyword research tool or a paid one. I suggest starting out with free tools first – a tutorial on this will follow soon.
Ed Dale is a wonderful source for explaining market understanding and research,
which is critical in determining your success as an affiliate marketer. I highly suggest
checking out this resource. It is top notch in both production and content value.
CURRENTLY BEING STUDIED AT THE AFFILIATE SCHOOLHOUSE:
Join the program by clicking the banner and join the Affiliate School House study group.
