If you’re involved in the European Online Marketing space, a4uexpo London is a must attend event attracting over 1,000 of Europe’s leading affiliate marketing professionals.

This is the marketing show I will be attending this year. I almost went to the Amsterdam show but couldn’t make it in the end. This is going to be a great show this year.

To take advantage and save £100 you need to register by Monday, 31st August. Once the Early Bird Period is finished, passes will increase from £249 to £349 for Affiliates and from £349 to £449 for Merchants, Networks and Agencies.

Make sure you don’t miss the opportunity to save £100 and register now.

You will have seen the term affiliate marketing being bandied around on the web, and you have probably worked out that it has something to do with making money. But what exactly does an affiliate have to do to make that money?

Affiliates essentially act as middle-men in the world of ecommerce. They earn commission from companies in return for recommending new customers to those companies. Anyone with a website can become an affiliate. Most web sites have a certain amount of ‘white space’ on their pages, and affiliates simply populate this unused space with advertising banners.

Of course some high traffic sites will charge advertisers for the privilege of posting banners on their pages. Although you don’t have to operate in the big league to be a successful affiliate. Even the most low-key sites get at least some visitors. If those visitors happen to be in the market for the product(s) that you’re advertising - you’re in business!

“So how do you set up as an affiliate?”

Sign up to an affiliate network online. These are the ones I will personally  recommend.

• Affiliate Window
• Trade Doubler
• Buy At
• AffiliateFuture
• Link Share
• Paid On Results
• Click Bank

“So what do I do now?”

1. Join up to the merchants you would like to promote.
2. Choose which promotional banners and links you want to post on your website.
3. Then every time your visitors follow a link to purchase a product you earn commission.

It is really that simple.

Being an affiliate has never been easier. Most of the networks above have a very simple control panel which makes it easier than ever to manage your accounts, check their latest commission rates and choose which advertising media you would like to use on your site as they differ from network to network.

Best of all you can see exactly how much money you’ve made with up-to-the-minute account summaries and reports.  This will become easier to understand as you start to use the different systems.

Another clever way to make money using social media like Twitter is to sign up to this website www.be-a-magpie.com on this website they take a look at your twitter account and find ads that are relevant to your topic.  You have total control of how many ads you display and what kind of model you use i.e. pay per click, pay per lead, etc. You could even advertise your business which generates many more click throughs than Google Adsense. Why not try it for yourself. www.be-a-magpie.com

Please feel free to comment on this post or contact me directly at http://www.ikandiblog.com or mikey@ikandiblog.com .

Confirmed opt-in as defined by SpamHaus, who is one of the most respected anti spam organizations in the world:

Known as “COI” in the legitimate bulk email industry, also known as “Confirmed Opt-in”, “Verified Opt-in” or sometimes “Double Opt-in”.

With Closed-Loop Opt-in the Recipient has verifiably confirmed permission for the address to be included on the specific mailing list, by confirming (responding to) the list subscription request verification. This is the standard practice for all responsible Internet mailing lists, it ensures users are properly subscribed, from a working address, and with the address owner’s consent.

In the event of “spam” accusation:

The Bulk Email Sender is fully and legally protected because the reply to the Subscription Confirmation Request received back from the recipient proves that the recipient did in fact opt-in and grant verifiable consent for the mailings.

Source:Spamhaus Website

Numerous myths have circulated regarding confirmed opt-in and its effects. There are many misconceptions out there, and we’d like to help clear those up.

Myth 1: My List Size Will Decrease Because Of Confirmed Opt-In.

Some addresses entered into your form will not confirm – that much is true. The percentage of addresses that don’t confirm depends on many factors, including the quality of your traffic and how effective your thank-you page, confirmation message and incentive for confirming are.

Percentages aside, there are compelling reasons that having fewer addresses on your list is a good thing.

Sometimes Less is Better

I know. You may be asking, “How can a decreased list size be a good thing?” Well, let’s consider:

5-20% of all web form submissions are undeliverable right off the bat.

This means that of your total list size you can cut that by 5-20% because these email addresses are simply dead. Remember these are not temporary undeliverable but permanent dead addresses.

Now, add on the bogus and malicious sign ups that undoubtedly will happen. For example, someone comes to your website and decides to put in bob@aol.com. Well, bob@aol.com was once a real email address and because you were not using confirmed opt-in you are now classified as an unintentional spammer.

A recent study by MarketingSherpa and KnowledgeStorm found that only 68% of users always enter a valid email address.

So, nearly a third of respondents knowingly enter bogus email addresses.

- Source

ISPs do not differentiate between unintentional spammers or actual spammers. The potential for you to be blocked or even worse, blacklisted, remains the same.

Less Can Be More Too

A study done by AWeber shows that using confirmed opt-in also reduces unsubscribes and complaints. This means that you keep more of your subscribers (the ones that actually want your email).

Read more about that here.

Myth 2: My Mailing List Is Different! I Don’t Need Confirmed Opt-In.

Let’s be clear, confirmed opt-in is for all businesses, plain and simple. Anyone collecting subscribers and in turn sending email needs to confirm that those people intended to sign up to your mailing list and want to receive your email.

In this age of email regulations and massive volumes of spam email, deliverability can be an issue. Why increase your chances of not getting delivered by putting yourself at risk.

Myth 3: No One Else Uses Confirmed Opt-In. Why Should I?

This is simply not accurate. Our own campaigns here at AWeber use confirmed opt-in for all email marketing activities. When someone signs up for a Test Drive of AWeber, they must confirm.

After setting up an account, if they want to receive our customer training email course, they must confirm. The same goes for our affiliates and their email training. Even when someone subscribes to our blog, they must confirm.

Ok, but AWeber must practice what they preach, who else?

If you want to sign up for the mailing lists of these organizations you will need to first confirm:

CNN	Microsoft
Oprah, CNet	bellagio.com
IRS.gov	weather.com
ign.com	maxim.com
tgifridays.com	olivegarden.com
pbs.org	visitpa.com
Whitehouse.gov

The list goes on and on.

Myth 4: Subscribers In My Market Don’t Know How To Confirm.

The simple solution is to tell them. The first page after someone fills in an opt-in form, commonly called a “thank you page” should tell the visitor exactly what to do next. Often this is done most effectively with a picture showing visitors what the confirmation email will look like.

An excellent example is our test drive sign up video on the thank you page showing visitors what to do.

One variation of this myth is:

“Subscribers in my market don’t know how to click an email link.”

Honestly, if they can’t click a link then you probably should be marketing your business offline. If someone can find your website online I guarantee they can click a link.

Myth 5: My Sales Will Decrease Because Of Confirmed Opt-In.

Have you tested this assumption? The answer is always, “No, but I just assume” or “No, my colleague told me it would hurt sales”.

It’s best not to assume anything, but rather to seek out your own answers by testing and observing your own campaigns. We have found from our own testing that while the raw number of email addresses on our list declined when we switched to confirmed opt-in, sales did not.

This means that the people who did confirm were the ones that truly wanted the information that they had to offer and the ones that didn’t were not left to bloat the mailing list.

Grow Your Business Without Risk

Will your results be exactly the same as AWeber or even anyone else? This can only be determined by proper testing and measuring.

Use confirmed opt-in as an opportunity to make sure that your lists are 100% clean and that you know without a doubt that 100% of the people receiving your mail have specifically requested it themselves.

Spend your time and energy building your business with subscribers who want to hear from you rather than dealing with issues created by people who don’t want to hear from you.

Free Video from Our Confirmed Opt-in Seminar

Ready to optimize your Confirmed Opt-In process?

Join our Education Team for a recording of a recent live seminar for a demonstration of what you need to know to maximize the number of responsive subscribers on your list.

Watch the Confirmed Opt-in Seminar Video

Take A Test Drive

I would like to know where I can find a good and reptuable web design company to promote my business? thanks.

I’m planning on attending a job fair at my college to look for Web design interships. I want to bring a portfolio along with my resume but I don’t want to lug my laptop around. What should I do? Should I make an online portfolio for this occassion and supply them a link or print out screen shots/pictures of the work I’ve done on quality photo paper and arrange a portfolio that way?

ikandi Web Design