Traffic success formula

Website traffic is always a priority for online business owners – without traffic people won’t know your business exists. So just what is the right formula for more website traffic?

Here are my top tips:

#1 – Write and distribute articles. This may seem like a simple strategy on the surface but it can be very powerful. Just writing one or two articles a day will quickly add to a lot of incoming one-way links (the type of links the search engines love most) for your business.

Once you write the articles distribute them to a few top ranking directories. And don’t stop there, distribute a few articles to large online traffic websites directly. Give them exclusive use of the article in exchange for the incoming link. This is a great strategy you can easily apply.

#2 – Make your pages search engine and reader friendly. Striking the balance between writing for your human visitors as well as the search engines is simple if you stick to this rule – write for the reader first and then naturally insert your keyword phrases into your copy.

It’s also a good idea to include all the appropriate SEO tags on all your pages. These tags help the search engines find you.

#3 – Set up a search-engine friendly navigation structure. For the search engines (and your human visitors) to find the content on your website, you need a clear navigation structure. This structure should consist of your top topics which are also your keywords and then for each of those main pages you’ll have sub pages including extensions of that main keyword.

By having the main keywords as your top topics on your navigation structure, your readers and the search engines will easily find your deeper pages of content. It’s also a good idea to include a back link to your home page on each page of your website. A clear and well-defined site map is a great addition as well.

These three key steps are the starting point to your traffic success. Apply them regularly and ensure that your content is fresh and up-to-date and you can’t help but to win over both the search engines and your human visitors too.

Got a traffic tip of your own? Leave a comment – we love hearing from you!

You probably already know that on the internet, keywords are terms or words that relate to particular topics.  Keyword research will involve various aspects, such as finding sales oriented keywords or driving maximum qualified users to increase online sales.

Keyword research is the first step towards a successful search engine optimization campaign. You have to be very careful when selecting keywords, as it can be very tricky to select targeted keywords for a website.  The selection of keywords should always be based on relevance to various aspects of your business such as product names, services, brands, or other related terms.  Often people forget about targeting geographical terms when they have global presence.

When doing keyword research, do a thorough market research analysis to find the best keywords, and find out what keywords are targeted by competitors who are doing well in marketing on the internet. You’re looking for high search / low competition terms. You want to fish in the “blue ocean” – not where everyone else is already fishing.

The first step in finding the best keywords is to make a list of the products, topics, and services that you offer.  You can also make good use of your website logs to know which keywords have brought you the traffic in the past.  Be sure to select keywords that clearly define your business and products to drive traffic from the search engines.  There are some websites which get high levels of traffic through general keywords although they might not end up being sales.

Today, anyone who uses  search engines is aware of how they work for searching products and services on the Internet.  Users always look for the better products, locations, etc.  Therefore, you should cover all terms for each – products, locations, and other . There are numerous tools available which will help you identify keywords that are suitable for search engines.  The challenge here, is to determine which keyword is the best to generate traffic.

I myself use the Google Adwords keyword tool.  Once I’ve performed a little keyword research and come up with a handful of juicy terms, I paste them into a spreadsheet along with the number of global monthly searches with the number of search results for that term. Then I use the Google search engine to find out how many results there are for each search term; I use quotation marks around the term to narrow the search. I enter these results into my spreadsheet, and I do a little calculation. By dividing the number of results by the number of searches, I come up with what I call my Blue Ocean Index – a percentage that indicates how competitive the term is. (Yep, you heard it hear first – that’s my own lingo.)

In most cases, the Blue Ocean Index is below 30%, and that means there’s a lot of competition. If you can find terms that are close to 100%, you can rule the niche. That means there are almost as many people looking for your term as there are people catering to them. What happens if your chosen term has a Blue Ocean Index of greater than 100%? Well… be sure to send me a postcard from your tropical island resort. With a little effort, you can pack a bag and take your laptop to the beach. See you there!

For more insider tips and tricks like this one, check out http://www.eCommerceGal.com/blog.

It’s no secret that there’s a lot of money involved with affiliate marketing.  This is only true however, for those who are serious and hard working on their affiliate program.  The biggest part of succeeding depends on your perseverance and determination.

Even the best of affiliate programs won’t prosper if you don’t build the business on a solid foundation. Nothing happens if the banners and links you place on a website just decoratesthe pages.  The affiliate must convince visitors to click on the banner or link then proceed to the program to buy products.

Affiliate marketing can be easy if you have planned your campaign well and have taken the right steps towards success.  Choosing the right product and designing your website with banners and the right material are keys to making things happen.

An ad tracker is a software program that will allow you to trace and monitor every click that is made by visitors through your referral link.  To make things even better, you know exactly where you placed the link.  You can either use a service provider or purchase ad tracking software.

With ad trackers, you can monitor the progress of your campaigns, even advertising offline.  If you have several affiliate accounts, this tool can be very good to have.

Each and every decision you make should be well grounded in facts.  By using an ad tracker, you’ll be able to generate traffic reports for your personal sales page.  Armed with the proper knowledge and an ad tracking software program, you’ll have no problems succeeding in the affiliate marketing world.  It can be tough to get started – although once you start making money you’ll be glad you took the chance!

Rebates! Rebates seem to be all the rage in today’s marketplace. Rebates are everywhere. Out in the brick and mortar world there are ‘mail-in’ rebates and instant rebates offered on every product imaginable from computers to home appliances to cars. In cyberspace the rebate is everywhere as well. Rebates are offered on all kinds of programs, software, products and services.

A rebate is simply a discount in fancy clothes. The principle is exactly the same. The customer pays less than the list price for whatever the program, software, product or service might be. The customer is getting a bargain. That’s true. The question, however, is what exactly is the seller getting?

The answer to the question, what is the seller getting, is pretty simple. The seller is getting less money than he is entitled to get on every sale he makes.

If the seller is giving a 50% rebate that means that he will have to sell twice the number of programs, software copies, products or services to make the same amount of money he would have made had he not offered the 50% rebate.

The seller is giving away his profit especially if the seller is an affiliate marketer because any rebate an affiliate marketer offers his customers comes out of his commission. For example: if you are marketing a product that sells for $197.00 and you earn $98.50 from it, offering a rebate of $50 means that your commission is only $48.50 per sale.

You aren’t going to be earning very much per sale. That can’t be a good thing. There has to be a better way than offering big rebates…and, fortunately, there is.

The answer to the rebate question is just this: give your customers a good reason to buy from you at the full price. Even if you have to pay something for incentive bonuses, it is better than offering a rebate to the customer.

You will attract a better class of customers who will continue to buy from you. Many affiliate marketers think that offering incentive bonuses that are valuable enough to entice people to pay full price for an item is just too much trouble. They will tell you, that it is easier, quicker and just a lot less trouble to simply offer a rebate of a discount than it is to find bonus incentives.

Okay. I agree. Offering a rebate or a discount is certainly easier, quicker and a lot less work than finding bonus incentives that are of enough value to make a customer pay full price for a product or service. However; it is simply not the best thing to do. If you are willing to go to the trouble, put in the work, and make the effort to find incentive bonuses that make it possible for you to sell products at their full price to your customers, you will leave other affiliate marketers eating your dust.

It really isn’t necessary to settle for less – to offer a large rebate or a deep discount to sell a quality product or service.

Don’t discount the product or offer a rebate. Increase the value of the product instead. Remember this; increasing value is better than cheapening the product or service that you are trying to sell. People don’t always see a discount or a rebate as value. They sometimes see it as an attempt to entice them into buying a product that wasn’t worth the full price in the first place.

People need, want and will pay for quality products and services. It isn’t necessary to give away your profit if you will just work harder and finding incentive bonuses that will entice your customers to buy the products and services that they need from you.

For more about making money with Affiliate Marketing, check out this article on my website: Making Your Affiliate Marketing Website Pay Off.

Most of us are incredibly comfortable in our own homes – it’s where all of our creature comforts are kept. Part of the daily grind of a job is having to leave home, often including a tiring commute. The task is a lot more difficult if you have children to consider. Many of us would love to be able to work from home. We are more comfortable and can be much more productive without the constant interruptions so often involved in the typical workplace. However, very few regular jobs offer the type of flexibility we’re looking for. Most companies want their employees on-site where they can be watched and their productivity can be monitored more closely.

If you’d like to make a living working from home, an affiliate marketing business could be the answer. If you have a computer with internet access, your home office could become your new home business given the proper activity.

Affiliate marketing means that you work on behalf of another company. You’re helping to expand a company that already exists. This provides you with several advantages. First, your marketing brands or products that already exist. You don’t have to create a new product, package it, develop the design elements, put it in front of focus groups, and present it to the public. If the brands are fairly well known, then attracting customers to your campaign shouldn’t be too difficult. It is much easier to capitalize on a product that has an established reputation than it is to break into the market with something new.

Advertising the product will already be taken care of. The vendor will have some suggestions and marketing collateral available to help advertise the product or subscription. This minimizes your investment, so the risk is minimal. You just need to concentrate on selling the product and maximizing your earnings.

Affiliate marketing is a great business to pursue from the comfort of your own home. You can put as much or as little into the venture as you like. You’re paid according to how well you perform – no one is checking what time you clocked in. What you produce is what you are paid for. Your commission checks reflect your performance, and how much you work is entirely up to you.

However, running an affiliate marketing business does involve effort. You’ll want to make the most of your skills and talents, and sometimes that means working some very long days. Don’t be fooled by affiliate marketing companies that promise the world for very little effort. You’ll have to promote the products that you decide to sell. However, if you are willing to work hard and use your creative abilities, there is no reason why your affiliate marketing home business can’t be a huge success.

If you want to work from home, then affiliate marketing is one great way to cancel your commute. With minimal risk to you, you will be able to employ you skills for your own benefit. You’ll have to work hard and keep at it. But there is everything to gain and very little to loose.

Are you looking for a reputable affiliate program to join? GoDaddy.com offers affiliate commissions on a wide variety of products with recurring income. Not only do they support their customers with world class service, they’re the biggest domain dealer and hosting company in the world.

So is that my affiliate link to GoDaddy.com? Oh, you bet! I’ve been happily using them for years! I have 79 domains, 30 blogs, and more than 50 sites hosted with them. If I’m this happy with them, odds are that you’ll be satisfied too – and you’ll be able to make a sincere, positive recommendation to your friends and customers.

Do you have a working-from-home tip? Feel free to leave a comment. We love hearing from our readers!

Since there are so many people getting involved in affiliate marketing these days, it’s no wonder that the competition has gotten pretty stiff. The challenge is to stand out from other affiliates and dream up  creative ways to put your message across.

What better way to wow your prospects and customers than to record and publish streaming screen-captured videos? This is the power of Camtasia. Demonstrating an affiliate product for your customers so they can actually see how it works is truly powerful. This one idea can explode your online sales.

You don’t need to have much training to use Camtasia, and it’s easy to see how this system can work to boost your affiliate sales. Camtasia is designed to be easy to use. Just about anyone can create compelling videos, multimedia tutorials and step-by-step presentations and show them online. It’s like having your customers seated next to you and looking at your desktop as you show them the product’s features and benefits.

Here’s a look at what Camtasia can do.

1. It can record your desktop activity in a single click. No need to have to save and compile all your files because it is recorded on the fly.

2. It can easily convert your videos into web pages. Once converted you can have your customers visiting your page for a full demonstration.

3. Publish your pages on blogs, RSS feed, podcasts and video sites like YouTube. Your Camtasia videos can be visible on multiple sites to advertise your product and get your message through.

There are other things you can do to boost your affiliate sales using Camtasia. You can…

Create multimedia presentations that are proven to increase sales because all the senses are engaged. This also tends to reduce skepticism among hard-to-please customers.

Reduce refunds and other customer issues by demonstrating visually how to use your product and how to do it properly. Complaints will also be minimized because all the facts and the presentation are there for the customers to just see and hear about.

Promote affiliate products and services using visual presentations. This is an effective way of redirecting your viewers straight to your affiliate website after they are finished with the video.

Publish valuable info products that you can sell for a much higher price. It will be all worth the price because of the full colored graphics menu and templates that you will be using.

Minimize miscommunication with your customers. Instantly showing them what you want they wanted in the first place is making them understand clearly the essence of your affiliate program. The good thing about multimedia is, nothing much can go wrong. It is there already.

These are just some of the things you can do with Camtasia that can be very helpful in your chosen affiliate program. Camtasia is a powerful tool that can boost your affiliate revenue dramatically.

Do you have other ideas for setting yourself apart and increasing affiliate commissions? Please share! Feel free to post a comment below.

Some people have heard horror stories about affiliate programs and networks. A few marketers are even wary of joining affiliate programs for fear of stumbling onto illegal programs or pyramid schemes. Fortunately these schemes aren’t all that common unless you’re looking for them. Still, it pays to be cautious.

Joining an affiliate program offers a lot of benefits. Successful affiliate marketing allows you to work part-time. It gives you the opportunity to build a generous residual income. And it makes you the owner of a small business. Affiliate programs are living testimony of how hard work, continuous effort, motivation and training pay off.

How do you choose a good affiliate program to promote? Here are some tips you may want to look over before choosing one:

1. Choose a program that you like and have interest in. Choose a product you’d purchase yourself. Then test it and sincerely recommend it. If it’s something you like, chances are there are a lot of others who would also enjoy the product. Also, look for a program that comes recommended by a company or expert you trust.

2. Be sure the program is catering to a growing target market. This will ensure that there will be continuous demand for your product. There are forums and discussions you can participate in to get good and reliable feedback.

3. Be clear about the commission structure. Select a program with a compensation plan that pays residual income, and be sure the commission is greater than 30%. Don’t waste your time with programs that do not reward adequately for your efforts. Watch out for affiliate programs that impose pre-requisites before you get your commissions. Be sure that you are able to meet their requirements.

4. Make sure you’ll be supported. Select an affiliate program that offers plenty of tools and resources that can help you grow your business in the shortest possible time. Not all affiliate programs offer these. Also, getting paid should be quick and easy. If the company is located in another country, be sure you can get compensated electronically.

5. Research the product’s history and consumer confidence. Be aware of any issues that members or customers are not happy about. You can do your research through discussion forums, through an online search, or through word-of-mouth on the social networks. There is ho harm asking if there are many downsides involved. You might be surprised by what you find – sometimes pleasantly!

Make a thorough and extensive review of the affiliate program and network you will be promoting. Knowing the kind of program you are getting yourself into will prevent future problems and launch you in the direction of affiliate marketing success.

These are just a few tips for researching affiliate marketing programs. Do you have other ideas? Leave a comment – we love hearing from our readers!

You can get more tips on Affiliate Marketing and eCommerce on my website at www.eCommerceGal.com.

In affiliate marketing, it’s not enough to opt-in with a company and commit to promoting their product offering. You have to actually go to work, be an advocate, and take the necessary steps to spread the message. In other words, you have to show up!

I had lunch with an esteemed colleague today, a gal I’ve known more than 5 years. Like me, she’s a marketing consultant with a creative bent and an avid interest in helping people. I’ve watched her develop her clientele and effect real change in their businesses. She’s bright and savvy and a delight to be around. That’s why I was so surprised to hear she’s an affiliate with 3 different online companies. I had no idea. It’s almost like she’s kept it a secret.

Not only did I learn that my good friend, the marketing consultant, is a “secret agent” – someone who is shy when it comes to telling friends and family about her product affiliations – but she acknowledged of her own accord that she hasn’t been doing enough to promote her chosen affiliate products. So I planted my tongue in my cheek and asked her a couple of questions about the product line. It was like winding a key toy – she immediately came to life, breathlessly extolling the features and benefits of the products and the way they improve people’s lives.

We talked about ways that she can market the products. She’s short on time, what with 2 jobs, a husband, a time consuming hobby and a marathon that she’s training for. One of the most effective ways to market affiliate products is through article marketing on the top article directories. She plans to write an article a day, taking only about half an hour, and include her affiliate link in the About box. She’ll get traffic both from visitors to the article directories and from readers on the sites where the articles are republished. In a couple of months, she’ll have created a minimum of 180 back links to her products by posting to the top 3 directories. Even in the off-chance that her articles are not republished, those links will help her traffic rank and boost her affiliate revenue stream.

When we parted company, I went to her website and, after digging around for awhile, I found the product links. They look promising, and at the end of the day, I’ll likely convert.  Why – because she’s my friend? No, I don’t think that’s it. It’s that her enthusiasm is so infectious. I don’t believe she frivolously made the decision to become involved. She saw something in these products. I trust her judgement and her unbridled enthusiasm – and that’s the key to conversion.

Now if only she’ll follow through with her plan to tell the rest of the world, she can win the affiliate jackpot. Yet like a lot of other contests, in affiliate marketing, you must be present to win.

For more tips and techniques on affiliate promotion through article marketing, see my website at www.ecommercegal.com/article_marketing/index.html.

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