- A Substantial Increase in Buying Power : Buyers are only a click away from comparing competitor prices and product attributes on the Internet. They can even name their price for a Hotel Room, Airline Ticket, or Mortgage. Business buyers can run a 'Reverse Auction' in which sellers compete to capture their business. They can readily join with others to aggregate their purchases and achieve deeper volume discounts.
- A greater variety of available goods and services : Amazon.com quickly became the world's largest bookstore but has since branched into retail sales of music and movies, clothing and accessories, consumer electronics, health and beauty aids, and, home and garden products. Buyers can order goods online from anywhere in the world, bypassing limited local offerings and realizing great savings by ordering in countries with lower prices.
- A great amount of information about practically anything : People can read almost any newspaper in any language from anywhere in the world. They can access online encyclopedias, dictionaries, medical information, movie ratings, consumer reports, and countless other information sources.
- Greater ease in interacting and placing and receiving orders : Today's buyers can place orders from home, office, or mobile phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and quickly receive goods at their home or office.
- An ability to compare notes on products and services : Social Networking Sites bring together buyers with a common interest. Compareindia.com provides comparitive information, mostly based on consumer reviews, prices, features, and users' experiences pertaining to a variety of products. These incude electrical and electronic gadgets and equipment, kitchen accessories, and office equipment. Another website, that provides comparative information and reviews of gizmos and gadgets is Techtree.com. Similarly, Mouthshut.com provides consumer feedback and users' experience of products classified into different categories. Many people, particularly the younger generation, who are more comfortable with the Internet, visit some of these Web sites to make informed choices.
- An amplified voice to influence peer and public opinion : The Internet fuels personal connections and user-generated content through social media such as Facebook, Orkut, MySpace, and single-use social networks such as Flickr(photos), Del.cio.us(links), Digg(News Stories), Wikipedia(Encyclopedia Articles), and, YouTube(video). In late 2004, Kryptonite, a firm that makes high-priced bike locks, found itself in an awkward position when several blogs showed how the firm's U-shapped locks could be easily picked using only the plastic casing of a Bic pen!
New Consumer Marketing Trend
Customers today perceive fewer real product differences and show less brand loyalty, and they are becoming more price and quality sensitive in their search for value. Consider what consumers have today that they didn't have yesterday:
Maximize Advertising Revenue by Testing
If you are trying to make money by publishing a blog or other information website, a popular revenue stream is to display advertising. In order to maximize the advertising revenue your blog generates, it requires patient and diligent testing of your many options. Here are a few tips for effective testing.
1. Diversify Your Lineup
Try a combination of different advertising types to maximize earning potential. For example, contextual pay-per-click ads convert well from search users (ie., first time readers looking for specific answers), but may not work as well in your feed or newsletter because regular readers learn to ignore ads.2. Move Them Around
Play around with your layout to give different ads more or less exposure. Placement of ads is especially important around "the fold", or the top 768 pixels of a Web page. That is the portion of a web page that nearly all visitors can see without scrolling. Moving an ad block a few pixels up so it's above the fold for more visitors may result in a significant bump in revenue. You can also try moving advertising closer to content or near navigation elements.3. Try Different Colors
Most text link ads work well when blended to be the same color as the content, but on some sites, it might work better when the ads contrast the content colors and really stands out on the page. Without trying both ways, you won't know what works better for your unique audience.4. Less is Sometimes More
In an effort to maximize revenue, many bloggers throw ever more ad blocks into their sidebars. Be careful of making your site too ad heavy. Readers come to your blog to read content, not click ads.5. Explore the Possibilities
Make sure you are being paid accurately and in a timely manner. Monitor your performance and if you are not happy with the service or results, try another company. There are so many options, you don't have to live with an ad program that's not a good fit for your site. Don't be afraid to check out what's new.
What is Affiliate Networking?
Definition : A broker between advertisers and individual Web sites.
Most Web sites do not have enough traffic to attract large advertisers. To solve this problem, smaller websites join ad networks which can combine their traffic into larger inventory packages that are more attractive to advertisers. Ad Networks usually charge a commission rate of 40-60% for their services.
6 Tips on How To Make Money From Affiliate Ad Programs
Affiliate programs can be a great way to supplement your income but to the most out of them you must also be willing to spend time and effort into building an affiliate network.
Affiliate programs are not likely to make you rich overnight but joining the right programs can help you earn several hundred dollars per month on a moderately sized website in a relatively short time. The larger your website is, generally the greater your traffic draw from content will be. The higher your traffic rate is, the more likely you are to be successful with affiliate ads.
Much of your success depends on two things:the quality of your website content, and how selective you are in choosing affiliate program ads to compliment your site.
Top 10 Commandments of Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate programs can be a big source of revenue. The key to maximizing your earnings is engaging your readers. Unlike traditional ads where you are paid for impressions or clicks, affiliates are only paid when if a specific action is performed. The action might be a purchase or signing up for a newsletter, but regardless, you are not paid until you've compelled your readers to act.
With that in mind, here are the Top 10 Commandments for affiliate marketing success.
1. Know Your Audience
The most successful way to use affiliate programs is to anticipate and meet the needs of your readers. Consider why they are coming to your site. What are you providing that they are looking for? Make sure the affiliate products you are promoting provide a solution to your audience's problems.
If you are writing about sports, don't put up affiliate ads for printer toner just because everyone has a printer and those programs have a high payout. The people who are coming to read commentary or get stats for their favorite teams aren't thinking about those things when they're on your site.
The more relevant the ads are to your readers, the more likely they will use them.
2. Be Trustworthy
Readers are savvy. They know an affiliate link when they see one. If you break their trust by promoting a product you don't believe in or take advantage of their visit with too many ads, they will leave and never come back.
It is your repeat visitors that will drive traffic. They are the ones who will give you linkbacks, spread the word, and recommend your site as the go-to place for valuable content. You need to build a relationship based on genuine content.
If your visitors don't think you're being honest, they won't read anything else you have to say.
3. Be Helpful
Think of affiliate ads as additional resources that complement your content. Give value to your content by making it helpful, useful, and informative.
Don't put up a list of your favorite books, hoping people will click on the affiliate link, purchase the books (just because you listed them), so you can cash in on a sale. Take some time to write a detailed review, and use affiliate ads to point them in the right direction if they decide to act on your information. That's what affiliate ads are for. If you write a great review recommending a book and readers buy the book because of it, you should get something for that.
But just throwing out links to products with no rhyme or reason will result in a quick exit by visitors.
4. Be Transparent
Always disclose your affiliations. Your readers will appreciate your honesty, and will feel better about contributing to your earnings. If they sense that you are being less than honest about your affiliations, they are savvy enough to bypass your link and go directly to the vendor just to avoid giving you referral credit.
Honesty and full disclosure is a necessary part to building a loyal reader base. They know they are supporting you by using your referral links. Make them happy and eager to do so.
5. Select Carefully
Take the time to go through all the different options for products or services available through the programs. Put some thought into which products or services your readers may need or like. Also, change the ads around often, try different ones, and use different graphics and text to see which are the most effective.
It may take some time before you figure out the best formula, and you may also find that you need to continually rotate ads to attract more attention.
6. Try Different Programs
If one particular program doesn't seem to be working for you, try another one.
Affiliate Programs don't look the same. They offer different products, services, and payment structures. Some programs will have a lifetime payout on sales while others will limit it to 30-90 days. Some programs allow much more flexibility in the types of ad units available, as well as colors and design so it fits better on your site's layout.
Also, check your favorite vendors to see if they run their own affiliate program. Sometimes you can go directly to the source. You're not limited to big Affiliate Networks.
Integrate "Systematic Ad Testing" into your strategy to maximize your profits.
7. Write Timeless Content
Your old content can still be valuable even though it's no longer on your front page. Take advantage of the long term opportunities by making sure you provide timeless content.
If visitors come across your older content first, and find that it offers dated information, they will leave right away. Of course, information moves forward, so relevant content changes quickly. You can make your content timeless simply by adding links to your updated articles on your old ones.
Many platforms allow you to show "most recent" or "most popular" or "related articles" on every page, so no matter how old the article is, it will always show access to your new ones. Your old content can make money for you indefinitely.
8. Be Patient
Affiliate revenue grows and builds up with time. Remember that some programs offer lifetime payouts. If you refer a visitor, you may continue to make money from that one visitor even if he doesn't come back to your site. Also, as long as you have referral links still active in your old posts, they may still payout for you.
Affiliate programs aren't a get rich quick plan, but it provides opportunity to make passive income in the future.
9. Stay Relevant
Keep up to date on the latest offerings of your affiliate programs. New ad units, advertisers, and tools are constantly being added to improve usability and be more visually appealing. Small changes go a long way in motivating action by readers. You may be left out in the dust by being complacent with your strategy.
Don't get lazy about monitoring trends and exploring new opportunities.
10. Content Comes First
Above all else, your content must be your highest priority.
Your content is your foundation, the life blood on which the site exists. Without valuable and helpful content, readers won't come. Focus on providing excellent content, and the strategies will work out.
Once you start compromising your content to cater to the affiliate programs or Monetizing any other money making venture, you will lose your readers. Once that happens, you will lose the opportunity to receive any earnings from any of your ads, be they CPM, CPC, or referral based.
Blog Post Courtesy : Lynn Truong
What is the Key Missing Component in the Virtual Sales Process?
When marketing virtually you are missing a key component to the sales process. Do you know what one thing is lacking and could cause a potential problem and cost you a loss of sales if not approached with a real solution? The answer is human interaction. This has been the biggest struggle to e-commerce businesses online.
Let's think about this for a moment. When a person enters a physical store they are met with the interaction of a sales person. Face-to-face contact takes place and over 90% of normal communication between the two people is non-verbal.
Websites or virtual storefronts as I like to call them don't allow that non-verbal communication to take place in the traditional way and the friendly sales person is replaced with the cold technology of background code.
Internet Marketing Strategy: Advantage
Having a Internet marketing strategy gives you a measurable and definitive way to target your market and position your business so that those looking for what you have to offer are finding you easily. This is only the first level of the sales process, but it is vital to the success of your online business, but remember traffic marketing is not sales.
Traffic can be increased by search engine optimization, using pay per clicks, or marketing your site in advertising campaigns. After completing the marketing step which brings the traffic you must then turn your attention to selling to your visitor once they get there.
How are you approaching those prospective clients and customers that are visiting your site? Are you persuading them to take the action that you want them to take? Have you defined what it is that you want them to do? Perhaps you want them to...Buy a product? Request more information? Subscribe to your newsletter or request a free report?
There are proven methods and tactics that you can use online to increase your conversion rate and get that prospect to become a customer or client. If you haven't taken time to plan your Internet Marketing Strategy you have made a costly mistake that could be draining to your business and costing you customers.
Consider this "What is the annual worth of one customer to you?" Is it $25, $250, or perhaps $2500? If having an Internet Marketing Strategy would help you cultivate and convert just 1 new customer each week would planning that strategy be worth it to you?
Truth is that Internet Marketing differs in many degrees from traditional brick and mortar marketing, but there are a few strategies that remain the same and must be present in order for your online marketing to be successful.
Top 10 Internet Marketing Strategies
Internet marketing can attract more people to your website, increase customers for your business, and enhance branding of your company and products. If you are just beginning your online marketing strategy the top 10 list below will get you started on a plan that has worked for many.
Blog Post Courtesy : Laura Lake
- Start with a web promotion plan and an effective web design and development strategy.
- Get ranked at the top in major search engines, and practice good Search Optimization Techniques.
- Learn to use Email Marketing Effectively.
- Dominate your marketing niche with affiliate, reseller, and associate programs.
- Request an analysis from an Internet marketing coach or Internet marketing consultant.
- Build a responsive opt-in email list.
- Publish articles or get listed in news stories.
- Write and publish online press releases.
- Facilitate and run contests and giveaways via your web site.
- Blog and interact with your visitors.
Blog Post Courtesy : Laura Lake
About Us
For those involved in Internet Marketing, they need to be aware that the vast umbrella of relevance and the medium of User Engagement is constantly expanding and SERP traffic (search engine result page) traffic is just one layer of the user experience in this Utopian Genre.. In other words SEO is only SEO…and you will need more than just one thing to satisfy multiple users.
What is Holistic Marketing Concept?
The Holistic Marketing concept is based on development, design, and implementation of marketing programs, processes, and activities that recognize their breadth and interdependency. Holistic Marketing recognize that "everything matters" with marketing --- and that a broad, integrated perspective is often necessary.
Holistic Marketing is a great tool for any business whether you are a Therapist, Practitioner, Consultant, or any other type of business one wishes to market effectively. The first step in Holistic Marketing is to start to the soul searching process. You need to look inside yourself in order to figure out what is going on in your life and what you wish to accomplish. Ask questions that will help figure out what inner strengths that you may possess, then figure out how to draw on those strengths. Another step is to figure out what you and the potential clients have in common. Clients need to be able to feel comfortable and trust who they are doing business with, no matter what field of expertise it might be. No one is going to see a doctor if they don't feel comfortable with them.