Make Money Online

comScore released its February 2010 U.S. Search Engine Rankings yesterday, announcing that 14.5 billion core searches were conducted, with Google Sites taking 65% of the search market.

The comScore press release listed Yahoo! Sites next, taking 16.8% of the search market, followed by Microsoft Sites (11.5 percent), Ask Network (3.7 percent) and AOL LLC (2.5%).

While the numbers are encouraging to the affiliate marketing industry, they are down 5% from January 2010 figures. On the plus side, Facebook.com showed a whopping 10% increase to 436 million searches, and Craigslist jumped to fifth position with 629 million searches.

We found this drop a bit surprising, considering that February includes Valentine’s Day, which usually makes for a busy search season. Plus, the Olympics were taking place, which often has sports enthusiasts searching for athletes and results.

On the other hand, February is a shorter month, and I’m wondering if, since it seems fewer people searched for Valentine’s gifts, perhaps there were a few more Americans slumped in front of their TVs during the Olympic Games—with broken hearts.

Now, who can search with a broken heart?

Related posts:

1. Vancouver 2010 Olympics Facts
2. Bing’s Got Bang!
3. Do Free Shipping Offers Attract Customers?

Read more:
Americans Conduct 14.5 Billion Core Searches in February Alone

If you spend enough time around people who use computers to make their living, eventually you are going to run into a Star Wars fan. Really, it is so obvious that it almost doesn’t warrant a mention. Nevertheless…

Mark John’s Law states that for every 1.272727 computer users, there is one Star Wars fan.

I have worked as a computer programmer, currently make my living in the online marketing business, and I am a Star Wars fan. Of the 14 people who sit within about 25 feet of me and use computers for programming, SEO, writing and design, 11 of them are Star Wars fans to one degree or another. That is 1.272727%. While this is a very small test group, I know, I am reasonably certain that one could extend this over a broader group and still get very similar results.

As a Star Wars fan, every now and then, when I am faced with a difficult task, I ask myself, “What would Luke Skywalker do?” And this morning, as I was thinking about writing a blog post, I asked myself that question and it got me to thinking that Luke Skywalker would make a great affiliate marketer. Here’s why:

He got the right training from a mentor
If you’re a new affiliate, I highly recommend spending some time with someone who knows the business. Make friends with them and ask them to show you the way. Luke had several mentors. He got training from Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda on how to leverage The Force to meet his needs. Without that training, he’d probably still be on Tatooine farming moisture. Just like young Skywalker, new affiliates need a mentor.

Talking to an affiliate manager who can spend some time with you is a great way to get your start as well. Those who know and understand The Force in affiliate marketing are often very willing to share their knowledge with new affiliates, so don’t be shy, get out there and ask for help!

He can sense disturbances in The Force
Affiliates have to stay in tune with current trends and practices. For example, the recent inclusion of certain types of social media in Google search results may take some affiliates by surprise, and they could end up losing out on some excellent opportunities if they’re not following the latest technology developments.

It’s also important to keep up with industry trends. Seasonal trends are just as important. Can you imagine getting to the holiday season and not using it to leverage your marketing campaigns? It is important for affiliates to understand what’s about to happen in the world of online marketing, and how to adapt.

Use your instincts. If Luke had not followed his heart and used The Force to destroy the Death Star, who knows what untold horrors would have befallen the Rebel Alliance!

He got his hand cut off and kept going
Many affiliates have seen their sales decline dramatically, or watched their rankings in search engines drop off. If Luke Skywalker had this happen to him, would he have given up? No way!

Tenacity is a quality that an affiliate marketer can’t do without. Regardless of what might happen, it is extremely important to hang in there and renew efforts to make affiliate marketing campaigns successful. Remember that no matter how bad it gets (and it can’t get much worse than your dad chopping off your hand with a light-saber), hang in there, and all will be well.

He made friends with robots
In the same way that Luke could communicate in robot language with R2D2, affiliates with websites need to make sure that they are communicating with search engine bots in a way that’s going to get them on their side. Make sure your code is up to date and you’re creating relevant, keyword-rich content that the bots and spiders can understand. When the robots are your friends, they’ll help you along on your quest.

He did not give in to the Dark Side
As tempting as it may have been, Luke Skywalker never gave in to the Dark Side. There is a lot of temptation for affiliate marketers to employ Black Hat SEO techniques to get business. Some affiliates use other questionable tactics to get traffic, but we all know by now that the most successful affiliate marketers are the ones who are straight up and honest about what they do. Take a cue from Luke and don’t give in to the Dark Side.

He had Han Solo and Chewbacca on his side
Make friends! This industry is blessed with a great community of affiliates who love to explore new ideas with each other. Of course, it’s not an entirely Utopian society where people are holding hands and skipping down the street with each other, but there are some great people to get to know. Take advantage of the great community aspects of affiliate marketing. You never know when you’re going to need a ride on the Millenium Falcon.

Jedi Mind Tricks
This is not about manipulating people into taking action on websites, but a call to action is imperative to making a sale. “These are not the droids you seek” is probably not exactly the kind of thing you’re after. However, you will find that your results will increase when using the right language in your Call To Action.

Can you think of any other reasons why Luke Skywalker would make a great affiliate marketer? Let us know in the comments section below!

May The Force be with you.

Related posts:

1. How to Become an Affiliate: Part 3—Types of Affiliates
2. Top 10 Working-from-Home Survival Tips for Affiliates

Here is the original:
Why Luke Skywalker Would Make a Great Affiliate Marketer

Morning Coffee Run

5 a 7

Sunday Brunch

Date Night

Jump into Spring with all the latest trends in fashion at AdditionElle! Timeless classic pieces dominate the collection with trending pieces that pop with the latest spring colors to keep your outfits current and contemporary. Give your fashion traffic some great new ideas, flip through the current flyer offered on the AdditionElle website.

All AdditionElle customers now have the chance from March 10th to March 30th to enter and win a $1000 wardrobe! Not to mention they can take advantage of the current promotion which gives 40% off their second item bought online!

And affiliates! You can benefit from their sales even more, because the 1-plus.com affiliate program is providing cash bonuses all month long!!. For more information, click here!

For any questions at all, send us an email at 1plusaffiliates@shareresults.com

Related posts:

1. This week at AdditionElle
2. Spring Fashion, Spring Banners
3. Cash Bonuses for all 1Plus affiliates

The rest is here:
Win a $1000 Shopping Spree at AdditionElle

Whether you’re just getting started as full-time affiliate marketer, or are thinking about moving into full-time efforts, if you’re going to be working from home, we have a list of the top 10 working from home survival tips to help you make it.

Many people think that working from home means an easier life, but it’s not always the case.  As someone who worked at home for several years, I can tell you that I came by these tips for working from home by trial and error. However, after experiencing it for myself and discussing the right way of going about things with people who had experience at working from home, I came up with these 10 tips for surviving in your home office. Here they are!

1. Get Your Own Space
It’s probably fair to say that at the last place you worked, you didn’t sit at a kitchen table, or on the couch. To be able to get to the task at hand, you are going to need to cordon off a space that is yours for work. Carve out a niche in your home with lots of light that is quiet, and allows you to concentrate on your work.

2. Eliminate Distractions
This does tie in a bit with the first point; however, it’s worth mentioning that in order to get quality work done, you will have to find a way to eliminate any distractions that might come up throughout the day. Don’t keep the television on all day, as it will only take you away from concentrating on your work. If there is someone else in the house at the same time that you are, make sure that they understand that this is your time to work.

3. Regular Hours
One of the most important working from home survival tips is working regular hours. The tendency might be to do your work when you’ve done whatever else you’ve got going on that day, but remember that unless you are getting it done, it’s just not going to get done. Be accountable to yourself, pick regular work hours and adhere to them. Remember, you’re running a business.  And more importantly, you’re running your business.

4. Get Dressed!
It sounds like a funny thing to say, but for myself, I couldn’t get in the right mind frame for me to get my work done during the day until I had dressed like I was going to work. This doesn’t mean that I wore a suit everyday to walk down the hallway to my office; it just meant that I didn’t walk down that hallway in my bathrobe and slippers. Feel comfortable, but feel like you’re going to work.

5. Don’t Juggle Home and Work
Wouldn’t it be great if you could take care of your kids, do all the housework, and work for a living, all at the same time? If you’re going to work from home, you’re going to have to forget that you’re at home.  By doing so, you’ll be able to ignore the fact that there are dirty dishes in the sink, your kid’s clothes are on the floor and your partner still hasn’t done their laundry. It’s hard to do, but you have to separate you’re “at home” time from your “at work” time while you’re working from home.

6. Take Regular Breaks
Just like working in any other office, you have to take some time away from the monitor to refresh your eyes and your brain. The danger here is getting caught up in your “home life” while you’re supposed to be at work, so find a way to get that break done without returning to the swing of things in your home. Remember number two on the list of working from home survival tips and incorporate it into your break-time strategy.

7. Find Social Time
Working at home by oneself can be a lonely proposition, so make sure to take some time to be social. When I worked from home, I lived alone, so in an effort to remain a social being, I would go for lunch somewhere every day. If the only contact I had in a day was with the waitress who took my order, then at least I had some human contact. Like any other job, making time for friends and family will increase your overall feeling of well-being, invigorate your energy levels and make you a more productive person.

8. Exercise
Chances are that you want to work from home because you have a desire to improve your life, so don’t let the desk and chair get in the way of your health. A sedentary lifestyle can greatly reduce your quality of life, so be sure to incorporate an exercise strategy into your day, even if it just means a 15-minute walk.

9. Be Prepared for Long Hours
Working a 9-to-5 lifestyle is mostly possible when someone else is paying you, or if you have people working for you. Working from home as your own boss means that if you’re not doing it, then it’s not getting done. So, a very important working from home survival tip is to make sure that you are prepared for the fact that you may have to put in longer hours than you might at a traditional job. It’s not going to happen for everyone, but it will for many, and especially at the beginning of your business venture.

10. Monitor your ROI
What is your time worth? Are you working 20 hours a day and only making $4/hr? Are you willing to invest that much time in a small profit margin? If not, it might be time to re-evaluate your at-home business or, at the very least, the way you’re going about it. If working from home means working twice as much, ask yourself if it’s worthwhile. Of course, one can expect to put in more hours, especially in the beginning of your own business, but the goal is to strike that balance that all of us are trying to achieve.

These are some of the tips that I have found helpful when working from home.  They have helped keep me focused and productive, and moving my business forward.  What kind of strategies do you use for working from home?  Tell us here!

Related posts:

1. Tips for New Affiliates
2. Survival of the Savviest: Mobile Marketing
3. 12 Tips for Social Media Newbies

View original post here:
Top 10 Working-from-Home Survival Tips for Affiliates

Welcome to the newly redesigned Share Results blog. We’ve been working hard to make this space more accessible for affiliates who are looking for information on the industry, affiliate marketing tips and techniques and information on how to use the Share Results software to leverage their affiliate marketing campaigns.

Not only does the site look a lot different, we have also added some new functions to open up the space to encourage interaction between affiliates and commenting on blogs. The intention of the redesign was to create a forum where affiliates and merchants can learn more about the business, and get involved in the conversation.

Our goal at Share Results is to provide merchants and affiliates with the tools they need to spearhead successful affiliate marketing campaigns. Lately, we have been writing blogs about how Facebook might affect affiliate marketing campaigns, what makes for effective affiliate managers and tips for merchants on brand bidding. Of course, we also use this space to let affiliates know about promotions that affiliates can take advantage of by being a part of the Share Results network. And if you’re looking for tips on how to write effective blogs, you’ve come to the right place.

If you like a blog entry, you can use one of around 220 different networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to immediately share it with your friends. You can also vote on each article to let us know whether you like it or not. And be sure to let us know why in the comments section!

The whole team at Share Results gets involved with blogging. You will find posts from our marketing department, affiliate managers, and even our designers like to get in on the blogging action from time to time. If you’re looking for entries by a specific person, you can now click on their name, read their bio and find all of the articles that they have contributed.

Affiliate marketing works best when it happens within a community, and we’re proud to present an arena for affiliates to become a part of a community. We also want to share with you some posts by other bloggers that we think are pretty great, so look for lots of interaction and information.

Stay tuned for more great articles and exciting affiliate offers. We have some great contests coming up for affiliates, so make sure to come back and check us out regularly.

We’d love to know what you think about the new blog and our articles. Make sure to leave us a comment and let us know what you think!

Related posts:

1. Make 2010 your Best Year Yet
2. Affiliates, Merchants, Join us for our Holiday Blogging Event to Get Ready for the Holiday Season!
3. Share Results Enters the New Year with a New Website Design

Read the original:
The Newly Redesigned Share Results Blog

Social Media is a complex and highly integrated marketing practice and at times can be quite more bamboozling than necessary.  DaveFleet put together a visual model to highlight social media as an evolving tool in a “marketing media ecosystem”.   His model visually describes different marketing media including social media and how they can connect to a corporate brand including Linkedin, facebook, msn, etc [personally I would have loved to have seen affiliate marketing in the diagram ]

Secondly,  he put forward the idea that social media should be a forth model considered in Corcoran’s Model on owned, paid and earned media.  Corcoran describes that all marketing media can be categorized into these three groups and Dave has put forward a forth, “social”, because these categories on there own do not singularly encompass social.  Irrespective of how you wish to define your media in your marketing mix,  these models pose interesting questions to an affiliate marketer including:

-          Am I leveraging the most opportunities available to me to promote my message?

-          How does our approach to affiliate marketing impact on the brand we represent?

Furthermore, depending on your philosophy and approach to affiliate marketing your affiliate program can infiltrate into all forms of marketing media. 1) As a brand you own your affiliate program  creatives/messages – via affiliates we influence how we are seen on the internet and the community.  2) If your budget is big enough you can buy affiliates’ real estate with commissions, bonuses, prizes or 3) You can earn your affiliates by building trust and transparency through good affiliate management practices and affiliate software.  4)You can use social media to support your affiliate marketing activities and strengthen your overall marketing mix.

Related posts:

1. Using Social Media to Drive Sales
2. 12 Tips for Social Media Newbies
3. Social Media Updates Now Part of Google and Bing Search Results

Read the rest here:
Social Media Ecosystems and Affiliate Marketing

If you read our blog regularly, then you know how much we like to talk about the importance of testing different things on your sales, or landing pages. One of the important aspects of those pages that should be taken into consideration is the color of your page. There are a lot of psychological influences at work with page colors, and these can be used to build a sense of trust from the audience that you are targeting. Here are a few tips on how to use colors on your website to put your customers in the right frame of mind to purchase the products that you are selling.

Basically all colors can be divided into three groups. Thus, blue and green are considered cool colors, whereas red, yellow, pink and orange are warm ones. Black and white are neutral.

Blue represents a feeling of security and trustworthiness. Subconsciously it is associated with the sky. This particular color is recommended for business-related websites (e.g. banks).

Green, on the other hand, represents wealth (deep green) or calmness (light green). Emotionally it is related to the color of money (”the color of success”), while light green is related to trees and spring. Therefore, dark green is suggested for finance related websites. As for light green, it is recommended for entertainment and leisure related websites.

Among warm colors, red is a very powerful color, able to grab attention and make one energetic by subconsciously activating one’s pituitary gland. Red is recommended for eye-catching logos and calls to action.

Black is also a very powerful color. It creates a feeling of color absence, and should be used for promoting expensive products.

Yellow is a color of optimism, subconsciously associated with the sun. This is why yellow is often used on attention-grabbing websites, especially when it is used in contrast with other colors.

People often think of pink as a feminine color. Hot pink stands for energy, while lighter pink represents romantic feelings. Both should be used for websites related to products for young women and girls.

Orange is a cheerful color, making us think of citrus fruit. You will quite often see these associated with children’s websites.

White is the color of simplicity and purity and effectively catches the eye. There are numerous associations related to this color, from weddings to hospitals. It is why the response to this color can be unpredictable. White is highly recommended for health-related product sites.

The main purpose of colors on a website is to put your visitors in a mindset that is in tune with the goal of your site. All these techniques are widely used to improve the appearance and effectiveness of websites. This is because our subconscious minds consist of our feelings, thoughts and aspirations. So, in order to make a connection on a subconscious level with visitors, it is important to put them in the right mind frame by using a color that makes the right association with the product that you’re promoting.

Have you played with color on your website? Tell us about the kinds of products you promote, and the colors that you use to convey your message. What colors work best for you?

See the original post here:
What Color is Your Website?

Twitter, long the poster child for hype-heavy, profit-low Web 2.0 sites, may finally be seeing where the money is.

This week, Twitter started to roll out a business-friendly feature which may portend a direction of more corporate focused applications. With its new “contributors” feature, businesses are going to enable designated Twitter users to tweet on their behalf. Those updates would be labeled as being by a specific author.

The nitty-gritty behind what Twitter is doing is not the new feature, which is fairly benign, but what looks like to be the site’s first steps into a much more sophisticated system for business.

In screenshots of the new feature, Twitter offers a glimpse at its advanced settings, which allow businesses to offer enhanced levels of access for users.

But the settings also hint at a Twitter dashboard, which will ‘soon’ be available to users. This is where Twitter will find a selling point. If your business is able to access important analytics of the way other users interact with your tweets, you will be able to tap into quite a lot of valuable information.

Dial back to what Twitter has done up to this point, including enabling geolocation of Tweets and the list feature, and then you see how it adds up to the creation of a great storehouse of info for businesses. With these analytics, coupled with geo-tagged Twitter users, business will be able to see where clusters of followers or Retweets come, as well as where they are getting no traction. They may also be able to get very granular detail about followers, follower’s followers and so on.

This may be where Twitter comes in and tells businesses they can have this all for the low, low price for $X a month. Suddenly, for the geniuses behind Twitter, a business model.

And who knows where Twitter can go from here, once they show businesses that there is real data to be dug out of the 140-character service? Red tweets for Coca-Cola and blue tweets for Pepsi? There is much to be done with those few little words and Twitter is the only one to peek behind the curtain so far.

View post:
Twitter for Business Services

In the search engine world, your rank means everything. Show up on the first search page and you’re on your way. Land a spot in the top seven and you’re clicking with the big dogs. Reach the top three and your competitors start fuming with envy. Grab the top position and you’re a Google God!

The question now is: What have you sacrificed to get to — or closer to — that coveted number one spot? Search engine optimization is a science. To succeed, it means writing to get noticed by search engines. There are rules to follow (Ten Golden Rules come to mind right off the bat). But unfortunately, search engines only list your pages. They don’t do the purchasing — people do. So, if you don’t also write for your target audience, you’ll be paying the price for a lot more than clicks in the long run.

It’s easy to see if your search engine optimization efforts are working. Just search yourself. But is your copy working? Have your relevant keywords sucked the life out of your content’s creativity? Have your key messages lost their voice in a web of multiple keyword doubletalk? The truth may be lurking in the answers to these questions:

1) Is your copy overly written for search engines … or is it also written to sell what you
offer in an engaging, enticing, entertaining and/or educational way?

2) After reading your copy out loud, do your keywords make it sound like a robotic, dry encyclopedia excerpt … or do your business identity, brand and personality still shine through?

3) Your click rates and visitor counts have been going up … but have your sales?

Search engine optimization should be a critical component of any Interactive marketing plan. Just remember that businesses buy keywords, but customers, clients and consumers buy the pitch behind the keywords. Bottom line: when you optimize your search engine efforts, make sure to optimize the impact of your copy.

View original here:
Guest Blogger – Larry Gotterer – Your SEO Copy May Rank … But How Does It Rate?

This is the second Thursday since Income Access began celebrating of the Best Affiliate Marketing blogs. That’s right, it’s BAMroll time. For those who haven’t tuned in since last Thursday, you should know that there are 16 blogs that are on the list so far, and many more to come. This OPML file will keep you up to date. For those who have had the pleasure of gaining insight from the BAMblogs, here are the next ones:

• Stephanie Agresta blogs as Internet Geek Girl, and if you’re into networking in the world of social media and affiliate marketing, check it out and let us know what you think.
• Geno Prussakov is the other addition of the week. His almost-daily updates offer keen explanations about affiliate marketing and its relationship to management strategy.

For those of you who are on the BAMroll, don’t forget to grab one, two, or six badges of your choice.

Read the original:
BAMroll Update: February 26, 2009

What is working? What is not working? Well, guessing is not exactly what you should be doing. Let your website visitors tell you what they think and want.

Avinash Kaushik and iPerceptions created 4Q, a free survey that enables you to ask the most important questions to your visitors:

-How satisfied are my visitors?
-What are my visitors at my website to do?
-Are they completing what they set out to do?
-If not, why not?
-If yes, what did they like best about the online experience?

Not only this tool is free (how you like that for a bailout?), but you will get real-time and complete access to the results.

Now you do not have any more excuses for not digging into what should you have a long time ago. Go to 4Q and begin using your visitors feedback to convert them into customers by giving them what they want and not what you think they want.

See more here:
Free Survey For Your Website cortesy of Avinash Kaushik

Change has come to the federal government, and Barack Obama hasn’t even been inaugurated as the nation’s 44th president. Change.gov — was launched within 24 hours of Obama’s presidential election victory over John McCain.

The interactive Web site of Obama’s transition team is the first sign that the candidate who revolutionized American politics with his heavy use of cutting-edge communications technology and social networking tools is preparing to transform the way the U.S. president interacts with the citizenry.

“Obama is going to be the first global leader of the digital age,” said Phil Noble, founder of PoliticsOnline.com, an Internet information and consulting company. “We are in totally uncharted territory.”

At the turn of the 20th century, William McKinley became the first mass-media president during the newspaper barons’ golden age. Three decades later, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “fireside chats” ushered in the era of intimate radio communication. John F. Kennedy’s performances in televised news conferences brought Camelot to the masses. Obama’s presidency, experts say, will reflect a leap in communications technology that will allow the commander-in-chief to speak directly and unfiltered to the American people. It could also allow the American people to interact in unprecedented ways with the nation’s chief executive and the federal bureaucracy.

Source: Chron 

Read more:
Obama is the first global leader of the digital age?

Blogger outreach can be a useful way to build links for a website, especially if you have a physical product to offer.

Many product review blogs will post an entire entry about your product (including a link) if you send them a free sample. Even blogs which normally do not offer product reviews may consider reviewing your product if it is highly relevant to their normal content.

However, one must be familiar with the blog and the blogger before reaching out or requesting a product review. Take into consideration the blogger’s age, sex and interests before contacting them. Scroll through the blog’s last few posts and read the About and Contact pages thoroughly. If the blogger specifically says they do not want to be contacted for PR or Marketing purposes or that they do not give product reviews, respect their wishes.

See the rest here:
Blogger Outreach 101

A recent University of California at Los Angeles study shows the effects of web surfing on brain activity. In an attempt to refute claims that Internet leads to shorter attention spans and makes people dumber, researchers tested twenty-four volunteers between the ages of 55 and 76 with MRI scans while the participants were given various Web searching tasks and book reading tasks.

The participants were broken into two groups – experienced Web surfers and those with no Web searching experience.

While both groups showed similar levels of brain activity during the book reading tasks, the experienced web surfers showed a significant amount more brain activity while performing Internet searches, much more than while reading a book.

What this means…Internet surfing doesn’t make people stupid. Rather, it triggers brain centers that control decision making and complex reasoning, which can actually help older people fight senility.

Excerpt from:
Web Surfing Stimulates Your Brain

The T-Mobile G1 with Google is the first commercially available phone to run on the ‘Android’ operating system, which empowers developers with tools to create and offer consumers applications that add value to their lives. This is one of many initiatives T-Mobile is working on to lead the industry in bringing real innovation to wireless customers.

The G1 starts out looking like a somewhat chunky (4.6″ x 2.1″ x .62″) PDA-phone, topped by a big 320×480 touch screen. The touch screen is wonderfully quick and responsive. Below the screen are five buttons and a small, slightly slippery track ball. Slide the screen to the right and turn the device 90 degrees, though, and it reveals a full QWERTY keyboard of slightly rubbery, nicely separated keys. There’s a miniUSB charging port on the bottom, and a MicroSD memory card slips into a difficult-to-open slot to the right of the keyboard. (The phone comes with a 1GB card.) On the back, there’s a 3-megapixel still camera.The G1 works on T-Mobile’s 3G network, on foreign 3G networks, and on GSM EDGE networks all over the world, including in the US.

The G1 also has Wi-Fi, though you can’t use it for phone calls. We got 600-700 kbps on a speed test Web site using T-Mobile’s 3G connection, which is a decent speed. You won’t be able to use the G1 as a 3G modem for your PC, T-Mobile execs said at the G1’s launch.

Source:
Tmobile launched first Android Phone The G1