Simple Ways To Promote Your Affiliate Programs - Without Spending A Fortune On Advertising

Online Marketing Tips and Tricks...

So, you want to make money online, but you're having trouble getting visitors to your website? If so, you're not alone. Many people think that running an online busy is easy - just build a website, and in no time you'll be making money.

Well, running an online business is nodifferent than running any business - you need to find ways to reach people who want and need (and are willing to pay for) your product or service.

Affiliate marketing (selling other people's products) is a great way to make money online.

Yet, it is still a business, and the same rules apply to affiliate marketing - you need to find people who need what you are selling.

The best way to be a successful affiliate is to create your own website, provide information to get people ready to buy, and then encourage them to visit the programs you are representing.

How do you do this, without spending a fortune on advertising?

1) Learn how to get free traffic from search engines

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) means getting the search engines (like Google and Yahoo) to place your website at the top of the rankings. Getting "free advertising" from the search engines is great. However, it is not easy, and it does take some time. The key is to make your site the best possible site for your theme - tricks and scams may provide you with an instant "boost" but this rarely lasts (and sometimes even gets you banned permanently!) Over the past few years, I've made lots of money by having high rankings - and I've lost money when my rankings have fallen. It's part of the process, so you shouldn't count only on free traffic from the search engines. 

2) Create your own newsletter

By creating your own newsletter, you can contact each person who signs up more than once, increasing your chance for a sale. Don't have any ideas for a newsletter? How about a free course. Or monthly tips about the topic of your website. Sign up for a few newsletters in your industry to get an idea of how other websites maintain this important relationship with their current - and future - customers!

3) Write articles

Writing articles provides you with several benefits at the same time - by writing an article you are positioning yourself as an expert; when your article is published, you get a link back to your site (which helps SEO; you can promote your newsletter so you can contact readers more than once. You don't need to have your article published in USA Today to get these benefits. In fact, getting your articles listed in an article directory (such as EzineArticles.com), can help you get listed in more specialized websites, newsletters, and magazines, helping you reach the right people!

4) Place newsletter, magazine, & newspaper ads

When spending money on ads, especially for the first time, start out small. It's very easy to spend a ton of money, without getting any responses (a tough lesson many advertisers learn the hard way!) Email newsletters or Ezines, are a great way to start (start with the ones in your industry that you subscribed to in order to get ideas for your newsletter above). Make sure you offer something valuable - like your newsletter - to get as many people to respond as possible.

5) Watch out for scams! 

Buying 10,000 visitors for only $29.95. Submitting your website to 150 search engines for $19.99. Getting your site listed #1 on all the search engines for just $50. Most of these sound very tempting, especially when you are just starting out. Unfortunately, most of these are great ways to drain your bank account very quickly - and make other people rich.

So learn from the real experts how to build your online business: sign up for newsletters (HighRankings.com is a great resource), read the forums (IHelpYouServices.com and WebmasterWorld.com), read articles (EzineArticles.com). 

Yes, you can make money online. So, get started, keep learning and trying, and don't ever give up!

Best Online Marketing Techniques

101 Tips To Making Money Online

Finally 5 Best Marketing Tips Online

I have been in internet marketing for over ten years and have seen marketing techniques come and go. Some are still around and some are new and innovative. Below you will find what I believe to be the best and most effective online marketing techniques.

Article Marketing - Article marketing was and is one of the most powerful online marketing methods available. Not only does it do wonders for you and your business, it is free as well!

Article marketing consists of writing helpful, informative, easy to understand articles that actually help your readers, not try to sell them something. Then you submit them to article banks, directories and ezine publishers. When your article runs in a popular ezine, it can do great things for your business. Writing articles is not as hard as you might think, so give it a try. You will be delightfully surprised at how much it can affect your business.

Remember:

Don't worry about fancy words. People are looking for help, not big words.

Advertise in your resource box, not your article.

Provide real, helpful info and resources, hot hype!

Write from the heart! Let your personality shine through in your articles.


Blogging - Blogging is a newer form of online marketing that just started becoming popular in the late 90's. Blog is short for weblog and means an online publication in the form of a log or journal. Blogs can increase your customer base, your traffic and your search engine ranking, thus increasing your sales.

Blogging can be done for free through such sites as:
blogger.com
wordpress.com
And livejournal.com

Be sure and update your blog regularly; everyday would be best as people like fresh content, ideas and information.


Ezine Publishing - Ezine publishing has been around much longer than blogging and is far more effective, in my opinion. Your ezine needs to contain helpful resources and information, not just sales pitches. Develop a relationship with your readers. Let them know they can trust you and rely on you when they need your help.

Things to remember when putting together your ezine:

Keep it clean and easy to read.
Limit your advertising and be selective.
Always provide quality content and information.
Add your personality so your readers can get to know you.
Always provide contact info and be accessible.
Be consistent; send your ezine regularly as scheduled.
Be sure and proofread before sending it out.


Online Networking - Online networking, as with offline networking, is very important to your business. This is when you connect with as many people as possible to learn more and share more about your business. Many leads can come from networking. There are several ways to do this online.

Email Discussion Groups: Go to yahoogroups.com and search for appropriate groups.

Message Boards: Be sure and follow the rules for posting and offer your help as much as possible.

Social Sites: Such as MySpace.com, Ryze, Merchant Circle, etc. These can be great ways to make more contacts and get leads.


Joint Ventures - This is when you enter into an agreement with another online marketer that will benefit both sides.

Examples of joint ventures:

Ezine Ad Swaps
EBook Ad Swaps
Subscription Page Ad Swaps
Affiliate Programs
Exchange Advertising for % of Sales

And the list goes on and on. Be creative and come up with new ways you and your associates can help each other.


Podcasting - Podcasting is using digital media files which are distributed all over the internet via syndication feeds. Podcasting is still a fairly new way of online marketing and has great potential. Podcasting can be powerful because it uses voice not written words to get the message across. Offer your articles, do voice interviews, offer a chapter in your ebook via podcast, etc. Again, use your imagination to create new ways to spread the word about your business.


Ezine Advertising - Advertising your business, product, service, etc. In quality ezines can be well worth the money spent. There are a few things you can do to help you choose which ezines to advertise in.

Do a search to find ezines that cater to your target market. For example: if you are advertising kids' books, you don't want to advertise in an ezine about cars.

Once you find several targeted ezines, subscribe to them so you can look them over and see if the publisher is reliable in sending them out. You can also look over the other ads and make sure the publisher is selective in their advertising. You can possibly learn what the other readers think of the ezine as well.

Try contacting the publisher to see if they respond to your email. Ask about testimonials from other advertisers. Find out how many ads they run per issue and what the costs are.

You could also ask the publisher to do an ad swap to get an idea of what the response is like. Be selective in your choices and always code your ads so you know which ezines actually deliver.

I hope this article has given you some insight as to how to market your home/online business. I use several of these methods (and should be using the rest) and know from experience that they work!

The possibilities with the internet are endless and we need to keep up with new and innovative ways of marketing ourselves and our business. And we need to keep using tried and true methods as well.