Not sure why you should care?

Then you have probably missed my introductory Test Tube article on Twittollower, the service that builds your list of Twitter followers automatically (in my test tube articles, I put various tools/software/strategies to the test on my main web sites, and report the results to you!).

This service promises to add a minimum of 2,000 niche-targeted followers to your list each and every month. This, at an introductory cost of $67 per month, rising to $99/month after the first 200 participants.

I subscribed to the service to determine several things…

1. Does the Twittollower service deliver the volume of followers that it claims?
2. Do these followers appear to be niche-targeted as advertised?
3. Do those followers respond to my “tweets”? Build my business? Deliver traffic in a cost effective means?

Once I got to playing around with the Twittollower service, Twitter, and “tweeting”, I quickly realized that it would be very difficult to assess the true value of the Twittollower service and make general, wide sweeping statements about its effectiveness/ineffectiveness based on my experiences.

In the lingo of my science-based supplement review site UltimateFatBurner.com, this is a “n=1″ experiment. These results may not be applicable to you – no more than the guru who is preselling the Twittollower service based on his/her own positive experiences. In other words, this is my UNIQUE experience and yours may be different – depending on your audience, its demographics, your offers, the effectiveness of your “call to actions”, your tweets, your niche, etc, etc.

Keep this in mind as you follow along with my experiences…

1) Does the Twittollower service deliver the volume of followers that it claims?

Absolutely. In the month I remained subscribed to the service, my brand new Twitter account obtained 2953 subscribers, and as you can see here, it has generated another 600 followers or so, in the few days since my cancellation…

2) Do these followers appear to be niche-targeted as advertised?

It’s almost impossible to tell.

Sometimes, the “twitter” handle is indicative that your new follower is targeted to your niche, but most of the time, it is not. For example some of my recent followers are “bitchogram”, “metroscreen” “hotelsreviewed”, “onlinesalsa”, “redhottips4u”, “janetjackson5″ and “beabillionaire”. Certainly nothing here to indicate these new followers are the slightest bit targeted to my niche.

At the same time, just because their Twitter handles are not indicative of that, doesn’t mean they do not have such an interest.

I can, however, attest that the Twittollower algorithym does have a glitch or two. I was none too pleased to find for instance, that I was “following” “yourdailyporn.”

Not only do I highly doubt that this “tweeter” is interested in what I have to offer, but who you follow is readily available for perusal by your audience on Twitter. Having porn related material in the list of people you follow is hardly what I would describe as a positive “brand building” exercise.  It undermines your credibility and calls your integrity into question. I was lucky to catch this one, but since Twittollower generates so many leads, if you’re not actually checking each and every one of newly generated followers, some will slip by.

Not good.

3) Do those followers respond to my “tweets”? Build my business? Deliver traffic in a cost effective means?

This is probably a better measure of whether Twittollower delivers the targeted followers it promises. And since it was recommended to start a brand new Twitter account for use with the service, I was able to compare its performance against the already-established but rather pathetic account (28 followers as of today’s date) set up for UltimateFatBurner.com.

And the results? These two charts from Hootsuite tell the tale. First, the chart for the original UltimateFat account (click here to view full size image in a new window)…

And next, the chart for the brand new “dietpillguru” account (click here to view full size image in a new window)…

As you can see, over the same 30-day period, Tweets to the existing account received 65 clicks, while those sent to the new one generated a mere 84 clicks. Considering that the new account had 20 times the number of subscribers of the established one within a week of its inception (now a whopping 150 times as many!), this is hardly a rousing endorsement. It’s pretty pathetic, but it confirms what I suspected – real targeted followers are the ones who are “wowed” by your great content, products, services and so on, and sign up to receive your updates from your web site.

As you can see, this is neither an efficient nor a cost-effective way (about $0.80 per visitor to date) of driving traffic or building a business – at least, it certainly isn’t for me.

So why did the service fail so dismally for me?

From what I can tell, it could be any number of reasons…

My “tweets” weren’t compelling enough: At the beginning of this experiment, I read a lot of tweets to get a feel of what sort of material was flying around the “tweetosphere.”

In the end I settled on a blend of material that inspired curiosity (i.e. “It’s a bit hard to believe that Microsoft hates fat people…” “Are millions really wasting their time jogging?”, “Cheat your way thin? Really?”) or a deliberate “call to action” (i.e., “You HAVE to check out “The Ab System” if you’re looking to get lean, mean, and save big too!”, Download our newest publication “Dirty, Rotten Tricks; Supplement Company Lies That Cost You $$$” FREE:”).

Neither worked particularly well in generating interest with my followers.In most cases, I made a deliberate attempt to avoid making tweets that appeared as crass marketing messages, since many Twitter users find such things offensive.

I didn’t send enough tweets: Since I’m not an active Twitter user, I’m not really sure of the accepted protocol of tweeting. In other words, how many times will my followers tolerate a message for me in a day?

I experimented with 1-3 tweets per day; once in the morning, once at lunchtime, and once in the evening. As far as I could tell, the frequency of my tweets or the time of day they were sent made no difference at all.

I didn’t spend long enough establishing my credibility: At first I thought this might be an issue but then it dawned on me…”… how can I establish my credibility if people don’t take the time to follow up on the links included in my tweets?” I have yet to be convinced that one can build huge amounts of credibility 140 characters at a time. People need to go the extra step if they are to assess the value of your offerings. And if they don’t do that… you’re done.

The demographic of my followers is not ideal: Are the people using Twitter who are interested in my niche the same demographic as the visitors to my web site? I know that for the section on fat burners, the largest majority of visitors is middle-aged women.

Are my followers comprised mostly of middle-aged women? Somehow, I doubt it. Still, it hardly accounts for the fact that virtually none of my tweets received much of a response – even ones that elicit a natural curiousity (i.e., “It’s a bit hard to believe that Microsoft hates fat people…”)

My followers just weren’t all that interested in what I had to say: Ultimately, it occasionally comes down to this – sometimes, the people you are trying to reach really could care less. Perhaps I haven’t been doing anything wrong, and it’s a simple matter of the fact that my followers are not targeted, and therefore not interested.

By now, you’re beginning to see the problem; there are a LOT of variables which can be factored into the equation to account for the failure (or even its success for that matter) of both Twittollower and the use of Twitter as a marketing medium. While Twittollower certainly delivered on the number of followers it promised, how targeted they really are is difficult to assess with any real degree of accuracy. In my case, I have a hard time believing they were extremely targeted – my results give no indication of that at all. But I need to be fair.

Do I have other concerns about marketing with Twitter, and services like Twittollower in general?

You bet.

As services like Twittollower grow in popularity and marketing with Twitter becomes more prominent, the tweet “signal to noise ratio” is going to increase substantially. Even in this experiment, about a quarter to a third of the people I received Tweets from (usually as a result of being added to their follower list) sent some sort of marketing message. In other words, they were using Twitter to promote their own interests – just like I was – and were unlikely to be responsive to mine.

As this percentage grows, expect Twitter users to become less and less responsive to any marketing message of any sort. In other words, “tweets” originating from people outside an established network of friends, family and colleagues are likely to be viewed with great suspicion. My gut feeling therefore, is that there’s a very limited time line for effective Twitter marketing, even if your business seems perfectly positioned to benefit from it.

Secondly, isn’t Twitter largely something enjoyed with cell phones? How many people are able to browse a large text-based web site easily and effectively on a cell phone or PDA? Seems to me that if that’s the case, my business is definitely not ideally suited for a Twitter marketing strategy.

I had several goals as I embarked upon this quest. First, I wanted to continue to build the UltimateFatBurner.com brand, by driving new visitors to its high quality, researched content. Second, I wanted to increase revenue by sending visitors to reviews of affiliate products I recommend.

I was unsuccessful in both counts. However…

I suspect using Twitter as a marketing medium could be very effective, but I also suspect it depends on your offers, and more importantly, your demographic. If your business appeals to a young, hip, “permanently-attached-to-their-cellphones” audience, then using Twitter and (even Twittollower), might make sense to you.

At least for the time being.

Build hundreds, even thousands of targeted backlinks to your web site in minutes by using software that “searches out” blogs targeted to your niche, and automatically submits your comments (and your link). Some of these software services claim to be able to randomize your material, thus submitting numerous, but all entirely viable versions of your comments to the various resources.

Riiiiiiight.

If you think this is a viable way of building links, let me provide you with a real life example. As you know, I run a successful online business in the sports/weight loss supplement niche (with UltimateFatBurner.com & Real-Customer-Comments.com). Both of these sites make use of the WordPress platform to some extent – as a content management system, and to leverage the power of visitor comments to build fresh and relevant content. And yes, we have a honest-to-goodness blog which is updated daily.

So not only am I a passionate internet marketer, the fact that I manage several successful web sites allows me to comment on certain promotional strategies from a different perspective – from the other side of the coin, so to speak. In other words, not only do I get to investigate automated comment software, I see the end results directly.

And it ain’t pretty.

This morning, whilst perusing the previous evening’s comments, I came across a real gem. It was submitted by some genius named “Sam” in an obvious (but ridiculous) attempt to build links to the “Master Cleanse Diet” web site (the post in question thoroughly debunks the entire detox/cleanse fad that’s “in vogue” at the moment).

Of course, Sam himself (herself?) did not actually write this, but instead is using some automated software service which is scraping text from already approved and posted comments and serving them up in garbled mess. Here’s the comment…

“LOL – surface, flatbottom if it did “work” (at both aim) before, it sounds rattling much equal the lard crept stake on again. If that’s the containerful, such a programme is no fitter than your characteristic, “yo-yo” diet syndrome. What’s there to crow virtually?

I’ll response my own converse here: it has nada to do with the results. It has everything to do with making sure everyone knows how “disciplined” he is.”

Uh-huh. Can you tell me what that means exactly? Yeah, me neither.

If you check the post it “scraped”, you can see the resemblance, but you’ll notice the difference – Elissa’s comment makes sense in the context it is offered. This, on the other hand is garbled crap. The software has pulled some material from the post, and then apparently, inserted some randomized text to do what, exactly? Fool the moderator?

Which really makes me question why people invest in this stuff. Consider…

• How many really good, quality blogs do you know of that are not moderated? Uh-huh. And how many moderators are going to allow a post like the aforementioned to go live?
• If blog/comment posting software is only useful for posting links on “un-moderated” blogs, how much value are such links likely to deliver, anyway?

The reason why software like this sells is the same reason fat burners and weight loss supplements sell. They both offer a quick, easy, and appealing solution to a task people perceive to be tedious. In this case, the software automates the link building process. For the weight loss supplements, they promise to eliminate the hard work and smart decisions that lie at the foundation of any successful weight loss programs.

In either case, there is NO easy solution. Obtaining quality links that will actually help the link reputation of your web site is a “hands on” process. I’ve written about the value of posting quality material on theme-related web sites and blogs. It’s a worthwhile endeavor to be sure, it just ain’t a quick one.

And while there might exist “scraping” and “comment posting” software that actually compiles bits and pieces of approved posts into something that better resembles the King’s English, there’s one thing I can guarantee you…

Such a post will never, EVER see the light of day on any blog of value. The question then becomes…

What’s the point at all?

This morning I received yet another e-mail from some “marketer” or another, promising me the secrets of the guru’s for an unbelievably low price.

Uh-huh.

Amazing how such a large majority of marketers – even some of the most successful ones apparently – can’t seem to spell. Yep, they can dominate the search engines, suck ooodles of cash out of the pockets of hapless surfers, and effortlessly deliver truckloads of back-links to their web sites, without having mastered the basics of grammar.

Guru’s.

With an “apostrophe.”

The apostrophe in this case, denotes possession. As in… “this is the guru’s pen.” The apostrophe “shows” us that “this is the pen belonging to the guru.”

The thing is, these are the people who are supposed to know better. It’s a well-established fact that online, spelling and grammar mistakes severely undermine your credibility. After all, a new visitor does not have a whole heck of a lot upon which to judge whether or not you are a credible authority in your field.

How many really successful business people or companies are you aware of that have blatant spelling mistakes in their promotional copy?

I know that as soon as I see something like “guru’s”, my respect level immediately drops a notch or two. Rightly or wrongly my first thought is…

“How much can you REALLY know about marketing if you can’t master basic English?”

Now I have to be honest here; I’m famous for my thoughts getting ahead of my typing. This will occasionally result in some interesting “word stew.” And everyone makes honest mistakes. But if you’re doing business online in any capacity, you cannot afford to do so. That’s why in addition to using a spell-checker, I have someone review ALL my material (even this is not foolproof, but it does eliminate 99% of errors).

You need to do the same.

If you run a large business, you can delegate the appropriate person to the task. If not, get your spouse / friend / daughter / son to do it. The bottom line is this – get another pair of eyeballs on your material.

You can’t afford to make credibility-demolishing mistakes and expect to become successful with your online business.

Like “guru’s.”

Anyhow, I just wanted to follow up on this discussion and say that thanks to some tips from Kevin Riley’s new Twitter Vending Machine publication, the whole “Twitter-Tweeting-Tracking” thing is going much more smoothly.

The key to making the process a whole lot easier (thank you, Kevin!) is the effective use of the HootSuite service. Hootsuite is a free online service that allows you to…

• Compress your URLs – this allows the performance of your tweets to be tracked, as well as providing you with more “room” (i.e. characters) to get your message across.
• Manage multiple Twitter accounts from one interface.
• Schedule “tweets” – this is an awesome feature which allows you to schedule for all your tweets in advance, freeing you up from having to access multiple Twitter accounts numerous times a day to post tweets.

How to use HootSuite properly was just one of the things I learned from Kevin Riley’s Twitter Vending Machine. Like all of Kevin’s products, it’s competitively priced (under $20) and delivers great value. If you want to learn how to build and manage a huge list of Twitter followers to leverage your business, you’ll love this publication. Highly recommended.

Here’s where you can learn more!

Check it out…

And…

It all seems pretty impressive, no? I’m curious to see if these followers actually impact my business. Stay tuned for updates…

That’ one of the reasons I let my WordPress developer talk me into setting up a Twitter account for UltimateFatBurner.com and integrate Twitter on the blog.

If you visit the blog, you’ll see how visitors can “retweet” posts to their own followers (new blog posts are automatically sent out as tweets) and are even encouraged to “follow us” with a slick Twitter “badge” that slides up and down the right-hand side of the page.

Cool, huh?

Yes, and practically useless for getting my site in front of more eyeballs. As you can see from the stats, we’ve accumulated 11 “followers” in the 8 or so weeks since we’ve made the implementation.

I can’t say this surprises me; Twitter is a social media tool, a tool for interacting. If I want to build a large list of followers, I need to follow other people, so that I can gain access to their followers and so on. Twitter is a not a medium to which you can sit back and broadcast your message. Nope, in order for you to use it effectively you need to use it the way it was meant to be used. And quite frankly, I have neither the time or the inclination for such an experiment.

That’s why I was intrigued to hear about a service called Twittollower. It was recommended to me by a Kevin Riley, a marketer I have found to be credible, so I decided to take a closer look at the service.

In essence, Twittollower builds your list of Twitter followers automatically – mostly by “following” credible Twitter authorities within your chosen niche or theme. Many of these people will “follow you back” to return the favor, and in turn, your exposure grows.

The bottom line simply is this; Twittollower guarantees you a minimum 2,000 new followers in your chosen niche each and every month for a cost of $99/month ($67/month for the first 200 participants). And they promise you’ll grow your follower list quickly – right from day 1.

I decided, “what the heck” and locked in at the $67 per month rate (depending on when you read this, there may still be spots open at this price). As I plunked down my credit card, I said to myself..

“At the very least, it will make an interesting Test Tube experiment for No BS Marketing.”

Getting set up is easy; it takes about 5 minutes, and that includes setting up a brand new Twitter account (unfortunately, it was not recommended to use any existing accounts, which is a drag considering I just had one set up a few months ago).

I completed the set up on January 22 (2010), and as you can see from the chart at TwitterCounter I have accumulated nearly 500 followers in just a couple of days…

Of course, this appears to be very impressive. It does, however, remind me a little bit of purchasing newsletter subscribers (from services like Glen Hopkins’ ListOpt) back in the early 2000’s. It’s all great to have zillions of newsletter subscribers, but it doesn’t do you any good if none of them are interested in your message, or even read your newsletter.

In other words, $67 or $99 is a great deal for 2,000 (or more) Twitter followers per month, but only if they are responsive to your message, your offerings, your content, and your theme. Although it’s early days indeed, Twittollower’s service certainly appears to deliver exactly what it promises. Whether or not these followers are targeted and responsive to my messages and actually help build my business is what I intend to determine with this Test Tube experiment.

Stay tuned.

In this post, for instance, I discussed the logistics of how to create videos for your web site.

In this one, I introduced the strategy of converting your popular articles into videos, and finally, in this one, I outlined the process I developed for creating effective videos quickly.

However, one thing I have not discussed is how well my videos have fared at pulling in eyeballs, and more importantly, converting those viewers into visitors to my web sites. Well,  I’ve finally got a bit of data to draw from, so let’s do that now (incidentally, I’m going to report YouTube numbers only. I have submitted to other video sites, but the vast majority of views come from YouTube)…

Video #1: Nutrex Lipo 6 Hardcore Fat Burner Review
Date Submitted to YouTube: November 24, 2009, 10:10 AM
Views to date (Jan 20, 2010): 360

Video #2: Kim Kardashian / Quick Trim Fat Burner Diet Pill
Date Submitted to YouTube: November 22, 2009, 09:02 AM
Views to date (Jan 20, 2010): 1,883

Video #3: hCG For Weight Loss – Does It Really Work?
Date Submitted to YouTube: November 13, 2009, 12:37 PM
Views to date (Jan 20, 2010): 101

Video #4: The 5-7 Day Fat Burner & Diet Pill Free Trial Scam!
Date Submitted to YouTube: March 13, 2008, 10:23 AM
Views to date (Jan 20, 2010): 19,096

Video #5: Jillian Michaels Maximum Strength Fat Burner
Date Submitted to YouTube: December 01, 2009, 08:30 AM
Views to date (Jan 20, 2010): 272

Video #6: UltimateFatBurner.com
Date Submitted to YouTube: November 26, 2009, 11:40 AM
Views to date (Jan 20, 2010): 30

Video #7: The Ab System from Isatori
Date Submitted to YouTube: January 15, 2010, 11:05 AM
Views to date (Jan 20, 2010): 30

One thing that is immediately evident by viewing this data is the vast range in the number of views; we’ve got everything from a few dozen to a couple of thousand views depending on the video. One video has generated almost 20,000 views in just under a two year period.

To put this data into slightly better perspective, consider…

Videos 1, 2, and 5 were all created following the process I outline here, and probably took me around an hour each to create (so roughly 2,500 views in a two-month period for 3 hours of investment. Not too bad).

Videos 5 and 6 were created for placement on UltimateFatBurner.com, and aren’t intended to drive traffic from YouTube and other online video resources. So their performance is not a concern.

Videos 3 and 4 took a LOT longer to create, and as you can see, only one has experienced any significant success.

And how effective are these videos at driving traffic to my site? According to Google’s Analytics, YouTube now ranks in the top 20 “non-search engine” referrers. That sounds more impressive than it is, of course. I figure about 5% of viewers actually click through and visit the site.

So what are the take home lessons here?

1. If you’re going to invest in creating videos, get a system down (or follow mine) so you can create them quickly and efficiently. While the success of your videos will ultimately depend on the popularity of your targeted keywords, and how well your business / niche / theme translates into interest from video surfers, to make this a worthwhile venture, you need to be able to create videos fairly quickly.

2. You need to create LOTS of videos, targeting different keywords within your theme. As you can see from my data, some material fares better, and generates more interest from the YouTube community.

And remember…

Using online video marketing is about more than simply generating traffic…

• It brands your business.
• Some online video sites do not use the “no follow” attribute, so posting your video and accompanying links builds link popularity.
• It builds your credibility in the mind of your visitor / potential customer.
• When used on your web site, it adds a whole new dynamic. My girlfriend Marilyn and I were amazed how using introductory videos on my UltimateFatBurner.com and her Flowers-By-Marilyn.com web sites added a new (and very cool) “vibe”.
• It may add credibility to your site in the “eyes” of the Search Engines. Google, for example, is comfortable featuring video results from YouTube prominently on its results pages. Will a considerable presence in YouTube bode well for such sites that maintain such a presence? Who knows how Google (or any Search Engine for that matter) will manage its ranking algorithyms over the coming years.

Bottom line?

In my opinion, video marketing remains a worthwhile venture (and I don’t exactly have the greatest niche for attracting “eyeballs). There’s a big IF here though; IF you can create videos quickly and efficiently. Check out the process I developed, if you don’t think you can come up with one yourself.

Now that I’ve got a bit of breathing space, it’s time to get back to work over here.

Since we’re at the start of a brand new year, I think it is the perfect time to speak to those of you who are struggling to make a “go” of your online business, and have yet to see any financial payoff from your efforts.

Of course, since I don’t know you personally, I can’t speak directly to your specific issues. I can only address some of the more common issues and barriers I have seen over the years, that come between beginner Internet Marketers and earning a living online. And there are a few common ones…

1) Patience & Perseverance: No matter what you have chosen as your business model,  it takes time to build an online business to the point where it starts to generate revenue (yes, despite what the gurus selling the “quick fix” solutions might say). Unless you have unlimited financial means, incredible marketing savvy, or a series of established joint venture relationships with trusted online individuals or resources, you simply cannot expect your online business to start making money tomorrow.

In other words…

If you lost your job yesterday, don’t expect your online business to cover your bills this month or next, or even in the immediate future. In my opinion, beginners need to build their online businesses in their spare time, relying on a regular day job until the time comes that your online business can sustain yourself. Otherwise, you end up chasing rainbows.

I started my online business in 1999. It took 6 months before I made a cent, 2 years before I was receiving checks on a semi-regular basis, 3 years before those semi-regular checks amounted to anything, 4 years before those checks arrived regularly and had an impact on my monthly financial commitments (they made my car payment), and 5 years before my online business was actually paying all of my bills.

Of course, while I was building my online business, I was working a full time job (now of course, this is my full time job, and I answer to no one but myself). This is the way to build an online business; in your spare time.

So be patient, and persevere.

2) Direction & focus: You’d think lack of direction would be one of the most common issues for newbies who looking to earn an income from the Internet.

Not so.

Most newbies are focused. For a while. Then they grow impatient with the lack of results and income. Inevitably, some guru comes along offering some “instant riches” solution and they abandon their current business models for something new. Recognizing that for the vast majority of us, building an online business is not a “get rich quick” solution, you need to stay focused on your business for as long as it takes.

3) Passion: I’ve seen people enter niches simply because they show promise for profitability, not because they have any particular interest in the subject/theme. Established marketers, of course, have the cash and savvy to get new sites up and generating revenue relatively quickly. But as a beginner who’s learning the ropes, you can expect to have to put a lot more time and effort into the project.

Given that you’re going to be at this for some time (which will vary according to how much you can devote to your business on a daily/weekly basis, and what your goals/expectations are), it pays to be involved in something for which you have some passion. One of the reasons why I was able to plug away at UltimateFatBurner.com for so many years despite minimal financial reward was that I loved what I was doing.

4) Belief: Obviously, you need to believe strongly in what you are doing and the business model you have chosen. If you weighed the various options thoroughly before beginning your business, there’s no need to question them now. On the other hand, if you really didn’t do your due dilligence prior to starting your online business, it may be time to do so before proceeding any further.

OK, let’s wrap this up…

I believe everyone can earn income from the Internet. The exact amount is going to vary greatly according to your topic and business model, but I can guarantee that each and every one of you can make enough to make a substantial contribution to your monthly finances. You may not be driving a fleet of Porches or living on some exotic beach somewhere, but I’m sure you’d be thrilled to have your online business cover your mortgage/rent and/or your car payment.

Stay focused, persevere, work hard, and believe in your niche and or business model, and 2010 will be your year for success!

Since my initial post on the subject, I’ve created several other PREselling video commercials. Not surprising, it’s taking less and less time to do so. In addition, I’ve developed a streamlined process and taken steps to address the issue I identified as being the biggest possible detriment to the success of my videos.

Before continuing, have a look (and a listen) at one of my newest videos…

I hope you noticed the soundtrack. If not, turn up your speakers and watch the video again. Because these videos are nothing more than basic slideshows and are not visually compelling, you really need all the help you can get to ensure your viewer makes it to the end of the video without losing interest.  (Yes, this is the main detrimental issue I identified as I watched a few of my previous videos again).

To that end, I’ve made a point to include a compelling soundtrack in this video; a driving hypnotic beat with a touch of suspense. It drives the video along, and makes it easier to watch, don’t you agree? (I’ve appealed to the good nature of several friends to confirm this conclusion .

That said, here’s the process I’m currently using for the development of PREselling video commercials…

1) Pick an appropriate article on your web site to drive PREsold traffic to: You may be tempted to drive traffic to pages that are effective income generators on your web site. This makes sense, but keep in mind that in order to find your video, folks need to be performing related keyword searches at video hosting sites. They are probably not performing searches on Internet Marketing related tools and what not, for example.

2) Write a compelling script: To keep videos to 60 seconds or less, you need 10-12 “slides” (in the above video, I used 10 slides, plus an entry and an exit screen). You want 10-12 pithy lines that piques your viewer’s  interest and creates curiousity in the viewer. Try to keep sentences short, and if possible, tie some of them together, so your visitor is compelled to wait for the next frame. Keep in mind that the more material on the frame, the longer it takes your visitor to read it.

3) Try not to allow your video to creep much past the 60-second mark: Online, viewers want instant gratification. The longer your video is, the less likely a viewer is going to commit to watching it, or should he/she decide to do so, actually make it through the entire presentation.

4) Source some royalty-free music for your video (I use MusicBakery.com): Take your time here; find something that really enhances your video. Check out all sorts of genres of music to find just the right fit. For the last two videos I’ve created, it has taken longer to locate the perfect musical score than it has to create the video.

5) Assemble your video: This can be done with Camtasia or similar software. If you don’t have (or don’t know how to use) video creation software, you can do a pretty darn good job with the online service Animoto (which I review in complete detail here!). This video, for example, was created using their service…

… the only thing I had to do was create the actual slides to be displayed (as JPEGs, using PhotoShop). Even the soundtrack was sourced from Animoto.

When creating the slides for your video, try using different fonts, case,  and colors for impact. Check either video posted on this page if you need an example.

6). Promote your video: To speed up the promotion process, sign up for a free account at TubeMogul.com. It is a service that distributes your videos to the top video sites, and provides detailed analytics on their performance.

Rinse, wash, and repeat.

If you’re an affiliate marketer struggling to eke out a living on the Net, no doubt you’re doubly frustrated by the near daily bombardment of affiliate money making “opportunities” – all seemingly sent by some recently penniless college drop out who now earns millions working a couple of hours a day from an idyllic beachfront mansion.

Truth is, if you’re not making money in affiliate marketing, there’s probably a good reason for it.

Back when I started promoting affiliate products, I failed miserably too.

And I continued to do so until I discovered the key to earning referral income on a regular basis, as well as the trick to a high conversion ratio.

Before I continue, let me put one thing into perspective; while earning income – even making a living from referral programs – is well within your powers, only a select few marketers are going to get to enjoy those huge 4 and 5 figure Clickbank checks featured so prominently on the sales pages of the affiliate marketing gurus.

With that out of the way, let’s have a look at the most common reasons why most affiliates fail…

1) No Traffic: Promoting affiliate programs from a web site that does not have a solid base of traffic yet is a lot like putting the cart before the horse.

Suppose you have a page that PREsells some product or another. Let’s assume for every 100 people that arrive to that page, only 10 click through to your partner’s site. And suppose your partner has not-unreasonable 0.5% conversion rate. Theoretically, that means you’ll make one sale every 3 weeks – if the page in question receives 100 targeted visitors per day. Hardly enough to make you rich.

Unfortunately though, sheer numbers and conversion rates are no guarantees; you may never earn a referred sale, a fact likely attributable to the other factors outlined below…

2) You don’t know the products: In order to PREsell any product or service effectively, you need to be intimately familiar with it. That means you have to own it. There’s no other way to speak authoritatively about it, and your visitors will pick up on that instantly.

As an example, check out this diet review I did recently on UltimateFatBurner.com. Here’s the thing; whether this particular program interests you or not, there is one thing you can be sure of – that I have read the program and am familiar with it.

Arguably, it takes a LOT more time to do this than simply post a link.

I had to read the manuals and listen to the accompanying audio tracks. Plus write the review, so we’re talking an investment of several hours. But a review like this does generate referral income, and when you consider that it will continue to generate income as long as there is interest in the program, this really leverages your time. At the time of this writing, I figure this review has paid me back about $75/hour of time invested. And it has only been up a couple of weeks.

To put it another way, suppose we both sent 100 visitors to the sales site in question; you from a text link (”check out this great diet”), and me from my in-depth review. Who do you think will get the higher conversion rate? Uh-huh… moi.

3) You don’t know your audience: One of the most common mistakes made by newbie marketers is to make referrals based on the size commission payouts and  the strength of the various program’s abilities to convert visitors into customers. If you go to the ClickBank MarketPlace, for example, you’ll see there is all sorts of data provided to assess each merchant’s abilities to do just that.

But here’s the thing; in order to convert visitors into customers, you need to present them with products that meet their needs in a very specific way. If you don’t know who your audience is, and what it is they are after, you can’t provide them with “just the right” product. And that product isn’t necessarily the one that pays $50 per sale and on average converts 3% of its visitors.

You’re probably thinking… this is obvious. I know who my audience is.

Maybe.

It’s not as obvious as it seems. Back when I get started out with UltimateFatBurner.com I had a lot of people approach me about promoting exercise programs, online personal training, and membership sites where the goal was to track various parameters and get fit, and so on. To me, such programs were a perfect fit for my audience. They also reflected my own bias which was that diet and exercise – not pills – are the key to weight loss.

After all, my audience was definitely overweight. There were investigating options to lose weight after all. So I decided to promote some of the programs. I either purchased them or got memberships so I could review them and speak from a position of authority. I wrote my reviews, published and promoted them, and gave them prominence on the site.

The result?

Epic fail. Zero. Nothing. Nada. Nyet. No sign ups, no conversions, and ZERO commissions.

Puzzled, I scratched my head and re-reviewed all my PREselling material. It just didn’t make any sense. I had done everything right. I was familiar with the products and services in question. I was fair and balanced. Yet my audience could care less.

What the heck was going on?

It took me a little while to realize what it was: there was absolutely NOTHING wrong with my PREselling efforts.

But there very definitely was a problem. I’d transferred my bias (that diet and exercise is the best way to lose weight) onto my visitors, and failed to see their real needs. The fact that they were visiting my web site and reading diet pill reviews meant they had weight to lose, sure. But it didn’t mean they were interested in diet and exercise. In fact, almost the opposite; they were looking for the quick fix.

No wonder they weren’t interested in such offering! As you can imagine, this changed everything!

4) Un-targeted traffic: The less targeted your audience, the less likely you are able to divine their needs and wants and present them with products or services of interest. Simple, right?

5) You’re not taking this seriously: I know what you thinking; “this guy is an ass, of course I take this seriously.”

My first question to you then would be… are you making a real effort to PREsell your recommendations? Or does referral consist of a link that says  “click here”? Then I’d ask…

“…do you own the products or services you are recommending to others?”

If not, you are not taking this seriously. How you can expect others to purchase on your recommendation if you haven’t purchased the product / service yourself?

I’m not trying to be harsh here, but this is one of the fundamental and inarguable laws of affiliate marketing. Many newbie affiliate marketers don’t want to spend any money because they are afraid their investment will not pay off in referral commissions. The problem is, if you don’t purchase the product, you will never earn commissions – it’s the perfect Catch 22.

Frankly, not spending a few dollars is a poor excuse indeed. You need some “skin in the game” to qualify your commitment to the model. Without a financial investment, it’s WAY too easy to do all the wrong things and not put in the effort. After all, you’ve got nothing to lose… except your time, of course. Honestly… ALL successful affiliate marketers own the products they recommend.

Sidebar: There are always exceptions, of course. Some super-savvy marketers use low-cost pay-per-click ads to drive targeted traffic to relevant offerings; this is the only way you can side-step owning and knowing the products you recommend. Unfortunately, you still need cash to pay for the ads, and you really need to know what you are doing to select the right keywords to target the right audience. Otherwise… no conversions.

So if you’re not taking this seriously, maybe its time to do so. After all, what other business can you start with a few hundred dollars?

6) Your referral does not appear genuine: Nobody expects every product to be perfect, or to address every need. Your recommendations should be genuine. This includes pointing out the flaws in the product, should there be any. Your visitors aren’t idiots, and they may be wary of overly-enthusiastic recommendations that appear to be made in the sole interest of obtaining a commission.

For example, check out this review on UltimateFatBurner.com. Although I love the diet program itself, sometimes it gets a little long and tedious. So I make sure my audience knows what they are getting into. If they decide it’s not for them, I’ve saved them time, money and effort, and as a result they are more likely to respond positively to some other product.

7) You are not 100% focused on the needs of your visitors: If you are pursuing this business model because of the visions of dollar bills dancing in your head, you need to step back and re-evaluate things.

Becoming a successful affililiate marketer means your focus is on your visitor. It is about providing them with the right solution, even if that solution pays an 8% commission instead of a 40% commission.

You haven’t established a bond of trust with your visitors. This ties into #7. Being focused on your visitor means they will begin to trust you, and trust is another critical element of affiliate success. Your visitors need to feel confident that your recommendations are both credible, and made in their best interests. The best way to establish your credibility is with high quality content.

9) Your recommendations are all over the place: I still see it on occasion; recommendations for products that address back pain mixed in with links to deals on iPods, plasma TVs, DVDs on dream interpretation and so on. If you are guilty of this, stop immediately and re-read #3 on this list. Your recommendations must be in tight accordance with the needs of your audience.

Alrighty then… there you go. If you’re failing with your affiliate marketing attempts now you know why. Make a commitment to both yourself and this monetization model. Done properly, nothing leverages your time or pays out like affiliate programs do!

Good luck!