Make Money Online

Have you started taking advantage of the cash bonuses the 1-plus.com affiliate program has made available for March at Addition Elle?

If not, you should log in now to Share Results and become an affiliate for the 1-Plus affiliate program - because for this week Addition Elle has some exciting promotions ready for their online clientele only!

From March 3rd to March 9th, 2010 Addition Elle is offering all their online clientele the chance to Buy 2 Bras and get the 3rd one FREE! This is an excellent opportunity for retail affiliates to write some value-added content, highlighting all the features of The Convertible Bra – a versatile, comfortable, flexible bra with seamless design.

For more information on how to promote this brand, send us an email at 1plusaffiliates@shareresults.com

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This week at AdditionElle

Based on the book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, by Robert Fulghum

Share everything
One of the great things about the affiliate marketing community is that it really is a community. If you discover a new technique for online marketing that you’re finding successful, don’t be afraid to share it with your friends. In turn, they’ll share their tips to success with you, which makes everyone richer; figuratively AND literally.

Play fair
This can be a tough business, and the temptation exists to employ questionable techniques, like Black Hat SEO, for example. When employing these techniques, rest assured that they are very likely to come back at you with unfavorable results, eventually. Play fair, work hard, and reap the rewards.

Don’t take things that aren’t yours
As above, affiliate marketers who attempt to get their traffic by duping people into coming to their site most often end up bouncing a far greater amount of traffic than they convert. The rewards just aren’t there, especially when one considers the harm that this does to legitimate affiliate marketers. Trust is what motivates a sale, above all other conditions.

Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some
Incorporate that balance into the work aspect of your day as well. Endeavour, on a daily basis, to learn something new about affiliate marketing. Find out about new SEO practices. Discover how other affiliates are converting traffic. Read about website analytics; read someone’s affiliate marketing blog. Get to know your affiliate manager. Constantly test your methods of marketing and employ new ones to see what works best. Find the techniques that work best for you by constantly trying different things. It’s all about trying to achieve that balance.

Take a nap every afternoon
Seriously. Life as an affiliate marketer can be trying, so take a rest when you have a chance. When I was working as a full-time affiliate marketer I took a 45-minute nap every single day on my couch and it helped me get re-energized for the rest of my workday, no matter how much longer it was. We last a lot longer when we take the time to recharge our batteries.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together
Many of the people I know who are successful affiliate marketers have made a point of becoming active members in affiliate marketing communities. There are a lot of benefits to getting to know people that are also involved in this business, and I guarantee that you’ll be surprised at the amount of people who are willing to help you out. Of course, there are some who do not play well with others, but there always have been, and there always will be. Just seek out positive people who are headed towards success and you’ll be following in their footsteps in no time.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned – the biggest word of all – LOOK
I can never stress enough the importance of testing and then analyzing your campaigns. Use affiliate marketing software that lets you see track impressions, clicks and conversions. Having affiliate marketing software that provides you with in-depth analytics can make the difference between a lukewarm program and a red-hot one. Keep testing and analyzing, and never, ever take your eye off the prize. It’s there for you; all you have to do is reach out and grab it.

If anyone can think of a way to incorporate the “warm cookies and cold milk” part of this into an affiliate marketing strategy, let me know in the comments section below!

All I Need to Know about Affiliate Marketing I Learned in Kindergarten

If brand bidding will be part of your upcoming PPC campaigns, there are some definite pros and cons worth highlighting, and important considerations to keep in mind for merchants and affiliates alike.

Brand bidding is when an affiliate targets specific keywords associated with a brand, as opposed to a generic word, such as a noun or adjective that describes the product.  Usually when brand bidding, an affiliate is bidding on a trademarked name, and is often therefore “competing” directly with the merchant.

Today’s blog will look at brand bidding from the merchant’s perspective, and tomorrow we will examine this somewhat controversial subject from the affiliate’s standpoint.

Considerations for Merchants
Our first recommendation, and perhaps one of the most important things to say, is that no matter how you feel about brand bidding, it’s definitely something that needs to be clearly indicated in your Terms & Conditions.  Affiliates will be looking for this information, and you need to make your policy very clear.   To ensure there is no confusion, it’s a good idea to create a list of specific keywords that are off limits to affiliates, as well as a list of words that are allowed.

Pros
If you’re new to the online platform or don’t have your own PPC marketing strategy in place, then allowing affiliates to market your brand name online can be an effective way for you to build your brand awareness.

Say, on the other hand, that you have an established online business, and you invest in your own PPC campaigns—are there still benefits to allowing brand bidding?  Many people feel that allowing brand bidding contributes to increased visibility on a more consistent basis, and that this strategy can only help your business’ bottom line.  You may also choose to allow affiliates to use your brand name, limiting their usage to markets or search engines where you are not active.

Cons
Once you allow brand bidding, quality assurance does become a bit of a concern.  Affiliates could bid on your brand name to promote a competing brand, or use this keyword to send visitors to a rinky-dink site or to a site that also promotes other brands—that you may or may not want to be associated with.

For merchants who sell items that might also be sold by non-trademark owners (like the knock-offs you find on the streets of New York), allowing brand bidding may actually contribute to promoting your competitor’s fraudulent brand.  Major apparel, luxury, jewelry, fragrance, and other well-known and sought after brands are the hardest-hit by trademark infringement.

Misconceptions
Some people mistakenly believe that allowing brand bidding will drive up your bid price because more people are bidding on your keyword.  While this is true to a degree, the truth is that having relevant, high-quality content landing page and a high quality score will give you access to cheaper keywords, and is a more important consideration for search engines like Google.  Relevancy and high-quality content will, therefore, more strongly contribute to the price you will pay for a keyword, than having a competitor bidding on the same keyword.

Allow High-performing Affiliates to Brand Bid
On a final note, you might consider using the Share Results affiliate marketing software to segment your affiliates and assign different rights to different groups.  This is a great way of allowing your high-performing affiliates to take part in brand bidding, ensuring your brand name is always associated with high-quality affiliates. 

Check back tomorrow for more on brand bidding for affiliates!

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Brand Bidding for Merchants: the Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Now that the holiday bustle is over, it’s about that time of year where you start looking for warm alternatives.

According to TripAdvisor, Sixty-one percent of travelers will visit a beach destination in 2009. 2010 is projected to grow even more, and this means that the associated retail business is also trending upwards.

People are heading south to escape the wintery weather and while on vacation not only do they want to feel fabulous, they want to look fabulous.

Addition Elle, Penningtons and MXM have decided to get us on the track to warmth and sun. More power to them I say!

With swimwear promotions at Penningtons starting this week, it’s time to get your customers’ minds off of the current temperature and in preparation for what is to come.

With savings of 25% off selected swimwear, your customers can benefit from some great savings for their all-inclusive resort vacations, upcoming spring break, or even just in preparation for June!

Affiliates, this is a perfect time to promote these three great brands. Awesome promotions, new stylish fashions and big savings – a timely trio!

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Vacation Bathing Suits On Sale!

In our first post in this series, we looked at the first steps of how to become an affiliate. We talked about the amazing income opportunities available to those willing to put in a little bit of effort, as well as a few of the different kinds of affiliates. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at a few of the different ways of marketing products as an affiliate.

So, what is the best way to start marketing products online? That’s going to depend on the individual. Everyone will have a different level of knowledge and ability, and there are various ways that people are marketing products as affiliates.

Specialized Website Affiliates

Perhaps you already have a website, or you’re planning one that has a specific focus. For example, you may have a site with articles on sports.  From there you might market different sporting goods, services, tickets, and even training. Regardless of the focus of your website, what’s important is that your content matches the products you’re promoting.

Blog Affiliates

Those who already have a blog will like that they can use it to start earning income.  For anyone interested in starting a blog, this is perhaps the easiest way to go about posting your own content on the Internet. There are several sites where anyone can sign up to start a blog, and post their content for free, like Blogger.com and WordPress.com.

There will be some trial and error in ascertaining what the most profitable affiliate programs are going to be when establishing a blog for this purpose, but it is a great way to get your feet wet. Try to express opinions about goods and services and then link to those products. There are lots of banners and text links available from merchants to help you get started. Once again, relevant content is best.

Community Affiliates

If you’ve ever been in a chat room and someone has posted a link to a site where they were selling a product, then you have already had an encounter with a community affiliate. This marketing tactic is often used in forums as well. This is not a method for those with thin skin, as it can result in abuse from other members of the forum or chat room, but if you’re willing to invest some time into becoming a trusted member of the community you’re targeting, the chances for success do exist.

In the next post we’ll be looking two more types of affiliates. Check back for more, and to find out more about how to become an affiliate, contact one of our affiliate marketing managers here. They have all the answers to help you become a successful affiliate marketer.

Source:

The New Year is a time to reflect upon the year behind us, and to look forward to the prospect and the opportunity of the future.

As 2010 begins, we see a bright future for the online marketing industry.  With a strengthened economy and new possibilities, we see the potential to bring growth to the affiliate marketing community, and the online businesses it has partnered with.

Our goal this year, as it is every year, is to continue to develop new partnerships, as we build upon the ones that we have begun.  We’re excited about 2010, and we are eager about moving forward and gaining momentum, together.

Very best wishes to you and yours for 2010.

The Team at Share Results

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Happy New Year!

Excerpt from:
Holiday

Many experts recognize the role of affiliate marketing in online marketing strategies. It adds value to the business domain and maximizes the potential revenues. There are two parties involved in Affiliate Marketing.

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Using Affiliate Marketing on Online Marketing Strategies Posted By :

Knowing how well your marketing campaigns are doing is vital to the survival of an affiliate marketer. Without the proper information on where campaigns are succeeding or failing, it will be impossible to know where adjustments need to be made. This is true all year round, but is especially poignant during the holiday season, as the smallest error can be extremely costly.

According to Steven Leung,

“Estimating unique visitors is today’s most popular measurement of a site’s popularity and success. And marketers can easily use this metric to measure the popularity of their campaigns.”

With this in mind, it is important for affiliates to establish metrics for campaigns that can give them important data on success and failures. This will lead to common goals for all campaigns, which is the Conversion Ratio. Goals for Conversion Ratios will be different for everyone, depending on the product being marketed, but knowing what percentage of your visitors are actually converting into sales will show affiliates where to adjust their campaigns to help them reach their goals.

Share Results’ software is equipped with reports that can track impressions, clicks, and conversion rates to measure every aspect of a campaign. Affiliates can also take advantage of Share Results tools such as the ACID feature which the affiliate can use to track the performance of any keyword for their campaign.
If a site isn’t getting many page views, then affiliates will want to explore ways of generating traffic. Similarly, if a site is getting a lot of visitors, but few clicks, then looking into a change in creatives would be worthwhile.

Email affiliates have to measure how often their emails are being viewed, how often their links are being clicked and then how many people actually purchased based on those emails. Measuring Deliverability, Open Rate, and Click Through rates will help to measure if you are reaching your target audience and where to make changes, if necessary.

Being armed with the right statistics is the key to successful campaigns. Lord Kelvin said that,

“If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.”

Knowing where campaigns need work, will help affiliate marketers to adjust their campaigns to become more successful in the future.

Continued here:
Tracking Your Affiliate Campaign Success

Marketing is generation of leads. Sale is converting these leads into business. The aim of marketing is to mould the companies business, services, products and messages so that they achieve the targeted profits and growth.

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Here Is A Quick Way For Marketing Money Online Posted By : Ranju Kumar

A recent Web Marketing Group article reveals very promising Internet usage statistics:

• Around seven new people use the internet every second
• For the millions of Internet users, every 4th person is using it to purchase something.
• An average of US $1 billion in Internet transactions are conducted every month.
• In a year, this figure rises to roughly US $1 trillion.
• In a year, there are 88 million new users. And this figure is constantly rising.

Suffice it to say, there’s a huge online market out there, ready and willing to buy. But with different backgrounds, tastes and interests, it’s not just about advertising everything, to everyone. Research shows that knowing who your audience is, what their needs are, and how they behave are key factors to making a successful sale.

This is crucial information to keep in mind during the holidays, when affiliates may want to look at trends for seasonal products and services, which they may not otherwise promote. Having this information will help you to invest your time and energy in markets that are more likely to provide an excellent return on your investment.

Affiliates will also do well during Q4 by looking at their own interests and expertise. If you are passionate about something, ideally something that is also part of a seasonal trend, it will be much easier to promote and sell.

If you’re a PPC affiliate or a blog affiliate, knowing your target audience is even more important. Without this information, these kinds of affiliates may be using irrelevant keywords, and providing content that is uninteresting and indeed unconvincing when it comes time to make the sale.

With trends suggesting that consumers will be spending less this holiday season, it’s more important than ever to make sure your Q4 marketing campaigns are on target.

“Consumers are more aware of their spending than ever and are very active in trying to find the best deals. Coupon websites are still growing rapidly in popularity, with nearly two-thirds of consumers checking for coupons when they shop online,”

said Guy King, co-founder of RetailMeNot.com.

For more techniques, tools, tips and great resources to make sure you’re getting every last drop out of your affiliate marketing campaigns, be sure to come back to the Share Results blog . Until November 27, Share Results is throwing a big Holiday Blogging Event, packed with all kinds of seasonal information regarding trends for Q4, tips to get the best deals, consumer trends and how best optimize your affiliate marketing campaigns.

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Attracting your Affiliate Audience: the Who, the What and the How

Halloween is in two days and falls on a Saturday this year so the parties and get togethers will be in full swing. It doesn’t matter if you’re throwing a Halloween jam or giving out candies – dressing up in a costume can make it more fun and enjoyable.

So who will you be dressing up as this year? According to a recent article from MercuryNews.com, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga and Kate-minus-Jon will be some of the hottest costumes in 2009.

Halloween can also be a great time to start an affiliate marketing career. Brian G. Johnson from NetMarketingCourse.net said that:

“It is estimated that during the 2009 Halloween season, consumers will spend more than 7 billion dollars on costumes, candy, decorations and other assorted seasonal niche items.”

This can be a huge opportunity for new and established affiliates to generate revenue and ride strong into the holiday season.

Happy Halloween from the Share Results staff!

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Halloween 2009

According to a recent article from eMarketer.com, the No. 1 metric of success for the marketing and sales managers polled was the number of new customers acquired. Lead generation and increased sales were also tracked by more than two-thirds of respondents.

This holiday season, it will be more of challenge than ever for retailers to attract new customers to both brick and mortar and online stores. That is not meant to imply that there will not be shoppers. In fact, Marketing experts National Retail Federation (NRF) have predicted that the holiday sales for 2009 will see flat growth largely due in part to the recent recession and consumers being much more money conscious.

So, there will likely be a bevy of shoppers this season, but a post-recession, research savvy new breed of shoppers, best described as the selective consumer. That means that this season, more than ever, it is important to stand out, and make educated decisions about where advertising money should be spent.
That means operators will have to roll out customized promotions that are tailored to their customers. More significantly, it means that the operators who can forge a relationship with their customer base will be those who succeed this Q4.

“Marketers have been aware of the effectiveness of building relationships and trust with content since long before the Internet,”

said Gordon Plutsky, director of marketing and research at King Fish, in a statement.

“Technological change has rapidly increased media channel options and the patterns of information consumption among consumers. More and more marketers are abandoning old media—and traditional advertising—to venture out on their own with original content.”

The marketers studied in the eMarketer.com article considered their corporate Website the best method for achieving their top goal of reaching prospective customers. Social media and custom content and media were not far behind.

As the shift into more in depth consumer research continues, this season will see more value shoppers who will browse research and compare products on the Internet using Social media. Consumers are using social media more to search for deals and coupons via Twitter and Facebook, so marketers may want to channel more resources into that avenue.

For more techniques, tools, tips and great resources to make sure you’re getting every last drop out of your affiliate marketing campaigns, be sure to come back to the Share Results blog (http://blog.shareresults.com/). Until November 27, Share Results (www.shareresults.com) is throwing a big Holiday Blogging Event, packed with all kinds of seasonal information regarding trends for Q4, tips to get the best deals, consumer trends and how best optimize your affiliate marketing campaigns.

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Measuring Success during Q4

Whether you’re an existing affiliate looking to optimize your campaigns, or just getting started in the industry, here are some the most important tools you need to succeed in the upcoming holiday season.

Optimize Search Campaigns
Online customer acquisition strategies expert NetElixir predicts a 7-10% increase in search campaigns this holiday season. That’s a lot of potential for new sales, and affiliates will want to make sure they’re in a position to capitalize on this opportunity. PPC affiliates wanting to make sure their campaigns are running smoothly should be constantly testing their campaigns, running keyword reports, running promotions early and getting ready for Cyber Monday. Affiliates can also take advantage of SR tools such as the ACID feature which the affiliate can use to track the performance of any keyword for their campaign.

Join Programs
Affiliates looking to maximize sales will want to seek out the best product and program offerings. After all, even the most savvyaffiliate will fall short without teaming up with the right merchants and programs. Affiliates looking for new advertisers or products to promote in Q4, should check out the merchants in the Share Results network such as Imaginary Greetings, UnderGroundHipHop.com, Tundra Gear and Cute Kid, all of whom provide products that can be extremely popular for the holidays. Affiliates can browse a full list of our partners by visiting the Share Results website.

Securing High Converting Offers from your merchants
The months leading up to the holiday are important for setting up the promotions necessary to have a successful season. Affiliates should be using this time to get high performing coupons and deals from their top merchants. An excellent example is a free shipping offer. Shoppers flock to free shipping offers around the holidays, so affiliaters who have taken the time to set up these promotions in high visiblity areas on their sites are likely to reap the benefits.

Highlight Shipping Policies and Deadlines
Last minute shoppers are in abundance the last week before Christmas, and a lot of merchants have extended shipping deadlines. It’s important for savvy affiliates to stay on top of shifting deadlines, and to update promotions accordingly. During the Christmas rush, a few days can make the difference between a sale, and a lost sale.

Coupons
According to a recent survey commissioned by Retail Me Not, 62% of online adults look for coupons for online stores and more merchants are embracing coupons as a way to connect with their budget-conscious shoppers. Affiliates looking to capitalize on this trend should be sure to partner with merchants who have coupon offers. Like other offers, affiliaters who have taken the time to set up these promotions in high visiblity areas on their sites are likely to reap the benefits.

For more techniques, tools, tips and great resources to make sure you’re getting every last drop out of your affiliate marketing campaigns, be sure to come back to the Share Results blog. Until November 27, Share Results is throwing a big Holiday Blogging Event, packed with all kinds of seasonal information regarding trends for Q4, tips to get the best deals, consumer trends and how best optimize your affiliate marketing campaigns.

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What Tools Do Affiliates Need to Succeed?

It’s week two of our Holiday Blogging Event, and in our last blog of the week, we ask, what one incentive do online consumers want more than anything else?

According to Forrester Research, 75% of customers prefer to shop with an online retailer that offers this incentive, and The Conference Board Survey supports these same findings, reporting that 90% of consumers say this would also entice them to spend even more online.

The incentive here is free shipping. It’s an attractive enticement, and most consumers have come to expect it, especially around the peak holiday season.

Many merchants debate whether offering free shipping or a discounted purchase price will be more attractive to the consumer. David Bell, marketing professor at the Wharton School observes that

For whatever reason, a free shipping offer that saves a customer $6.99 is more appealing to many than a discount that cuts the purchase price by $10.

Bell also concludes that 60% of online retailers cite “free shipping with conditions” as their most successful marketing tool.

So why is a free shipping offer so important to an online retailer?

• 78% of online customers say that exorbitant shipping costs discourage them from online purchases. (Source: E-tailing Group, 2008)
• 75% of people prefer to shop with online retailers that offer free shipping, compared to 61% in 2007. (Source: Forrester Research, 2008)
• 43% of shoppers abandon their shopping carts because of unexpectedly high shipping charges. (Source: Paypal, comScore, 2008)
• 61 of the largest 100 online retailers offered free shipping as of the week of Monday, November 10, 2008. (Source: Internet Retailer)
• 90% of respondents say free shipping offers would entice them to spend more online. (Source: The Conference Board Survey, 2008)
• 72% of consumers say that if an e-commerce site eliminated free shipping, they would use another e-commerce site that did offer free shipping. (Source: comScore Survey, 2008)
• People are searching for ‘free shipping’ earlier in the Christmas shopping season, and for longer. Searches for free shipping began to rise in October of last year, and actually peaked in the first week of January. (source: eConsultancy.com, 2009)

Need more reasons to offer free shipping this holiday season? Check out Free Shipping.org for a list of retailers who are incorporating this incentive into their marketing strategy—and succeeding!

Is your affiliate marketing campaign ready for the holiday season? If not, this is the blogging event to get you ready for the busiest season of the year. Check out last week’s blogs, and make sure to tune in again next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for more tips and techniques to help you end Q4 with your most successful campaign yet!

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Do Free Shipping Offers Attract Customers?