Benjamins Yarn

Every time you turn around it seems you see another affiliate program which promises you vast riches. They give you all the sales material you need, and even throw in a free web page. How can I loose, one might think. Everything is all set up for me, and all I need is get a bigger PO Box to handle all the checks that will roll in. Your web site will be carried by the search engines, you have the “pre-written” ads ready to go - how can you lose?

A few ads are placed here and there, and the responses “trickle in” but there are few, if any sales. Time for a reality check.
If you have seen one affiliate web site for a particular product, service or opportunity, you have seen them all. There are a number of affiliate programs, which have thousands of people who have bit. Why should a person go to your site when they know from the URL (address of your web page) what it is already?

They won’t. Am I saying that affiliate programs don’t work?
No - I am saying that the tools they provide “don’t cut the mustard”. It is a proven marketing fact that it takes 5-7 exposures to your ad before someone might purchase from you. If you have a “canned” web site, what are the odds of them coming back to you to buy? Slim to none.

So how does a person who is serious about marketing an affiliate program get you to buy from them? First, they “deep six” the affiliate web site as their primary web contact, and create their own. On their web site they provide content which is interesting for anyone who stops by. They also change the content on a regular basis to keep them coming back, and let them know when it does change. They also provide a link to their affiliate web site.

The next step is to try to get a listing on the search engines.
Now, think about this. There are most likely several thousand people who have an identical web site to the one you get as an affiliate. What do you think the odds are of someone “stumbling across” your site when surfing the web? Again - slim to none.
But if you have your own site, your chances take a giant leap forward. The link to your affiliate site is a minor part of your web site, even though it is where you want them to eventually wind up.

Now - can you use a site that is not your own domain? While not the preferred route to take, it is “head and shoulders” above the link you get from the affiliate program. Most ISP’s give you web space free. Learn a little HTML code and you’re in business.
Or, if push comes to shove, hire someone to do it for you. Let’s face it, if I see a URL that I recognize as an affiliate program, and I’ve been there before, I will simply “click away”.

The old saying, that if “salespeople sell themselves first, the sale of their product or service, follows shortly thereafter” is certainly true. Establish yourself on the web and in the newsletters/ezines as someone who can be trusted, and is knowledgeable in their field. If people get to know and trust you, your recommendation to join your affiliate program will carry a lot more weight.

Now that you have control over your web page, you should have a guest book that visitors can sign. Now you have their email address. Folks, these are literally worth their weight in gold.
You can now send them email about upcoming events on your web site, and not be accused of spamming.

Run a contest on your web site - the prizes don’t have to be off the wall. An ebook (and there are a number available for free) can be your prize - and again more email addresses. Write a free newsletter/ezine and publish it on a regular basis - even more email addresses. As long as there is content of interest, they won’t mind a gentle reminder to visit your web site.

Consider a “non-competing” partner to help you with the site or to write articles for the ezine. It makes no difference to you if there is another link to another affiliate program on your site. If they are willing to share the work in return for the link, it is to your advantage. The key here is “non-competing”.

So - are affiliate programs a sure thing? If you simply join and sit back waiting for the money to flow, no. If you are a “take charge” type of person and are willing to work a little, it can be a great opportunity.

Did you know that subscribers to Bob Osgoodby’s Free Ezine the “Tip of the Day” get a Free Ad for their Business at his Web Site? Great Business and Computer Tips - Monday. Wednesday. and Friday. Instructions on how to place an ad are in the Newsletter.

Subscribe at: http://adv-marketing.com/business/subscribe2.htm.

In this holiday season online shopping is hotter than ever!
According to US Commerce Department online sales continue to
grow with a robust 25-27 percent this year over 1992. Online
holiday shopping at a rate of 10 percent is also considerably
outpacing the 5.7 percent growth of overall retail sales. Goldman
Sachs predicts 23 percent of all gift-buying this holiday season
will take place online!

So, if you don’t have a product of your own to sell online, how
can you profit from this exciting trend?

One of the finest ways of making money online is to promote
other people’s products or services by becoming their
affiliates. Affiliate is a term used for a website that drives
traffic to another website in exchange for a predetermined
commission.

Thanks to the success of several affiliate programs in
the early days of online business, most merchant websites,
today, use some kind of affiliate programs to promote their
sites and generate sales.

Considering the sheer numbers of affiliate programs
available on the Internet, you may feel overwhelmed.
However, if you set some basic criteria, it would be lot
easier to find a good program that suits your need.

Free sign up

The affiliate program that you are planning to join must
be absolutely free. There are way too many good programs
available for free, why should you pay for one? Moreover,
the programs that require payments to join are mostly multi
Level Marketing (MLM) programs. Although, there may be many
good MLM programs existing on the Internet, I don’t think
it’s a viable option for an average person.

Good commission

You deserve handsome compensation for all your hard work!
No matter, how you look into it, in most of the cases,
promoting a product or service is not an easy job. Since you
are doing the uphill struggle of bringing the client to the
merchant’s door, your commission should be real good one.
What is an acceptable commission anyway? If you are promoting
an information product, don’t go for less than 50 percent.
For more tangible products and services your bare minimum
commission should be 15 percent of the sale. If you are
promoting monthly subscription, choose a program that pays
a portion of subscription fee as recurring commission to
you as long as the client referred by you stays subscribed.

Tow-tier affiliate program

An affiliate program which pays certain percent as a
commission from the sale for bringing in a client and
another if that client brings in other clients. Two-tier
affiliate programs are more preferable since once a client
base is built, it becomes a great source of residual
income.

Quality affiliate tracking system

The merchant should have a very good and well-organized
affiliate sales tracking management software system. You
have to be absolutely comfortable with the statistics
generated by the affiliate program. The program should
show such important aspects as repurchase, if any, by the
client referred by you, your second tier affiliates,
activities by your second tier clients, etc.If you do not
feel comfortable with the tracking system provided by a
merchant, better stick to the merchants, who use third party
affiliate managing system. At least, you will know that a
dishonest merchant won’t be able to defraud you.

Efficient customer support

You should feel satisfied with the service and support you
get from your affiliate program owner. A good program highly
values its affiliates and gives priority to its customer
support system. As the clients that you are sending to the
merchant are primarily your site’s visitors, you should be
extremely picky about the quality of customer service the
program renders. After all, your own site’s reputation is
also at stake here!

Promotional materials

If you are planning to promote an affiliate program, you
will need more materials then mere banners. Unfortunately,
even many high-end affiliate programs do not carry enough
promotional materials to satisfy the need of the affiliates.
Promotional material should include: contents to build
mini-sites, various ad articles, different kind of text
links, product brochures or presentation, etc.

Commission payment policy

The affiliate program should have a sort of minimum payment
policy, where you can receive commissions if even you have
made just one or two sales. A reasonable amount is US $25.
Less than that is not viable due to processing costs.
Commission should be paid each month. If you are located
outside of US, see if the merchant makes payment through
Paypal or other similar services or not. For most of the
countries checks issued in other countries are not a good
option.

If an affiliate program meets all these above mentioned
criteria, you can consider joining in this program. However,
to get best result from your efforts, before signing up, you
should also consider the following rules:

You have to like the product you are promoting
Any salesman will confirm you that this is one of the
fundamental rules of selling. If you are selling a product
or service you must have confidence in it. If you like the
product and will use it yourself gladly, you found a product
to promote! Don’t waste your time with a product that is not

up to your taste!

Promote a product or service consistent to your website’s
subject matter If your site is all about soccer, you will
be better off with products and service related to soccer.
If this same site promotes,for example: pesticides, no matter
how hard you try your success will be very limited! Before
joining in any affiliate program first you should identify
who your visitors are, what do they like and which products
they will probably buy online. Once you know your niche market
it’s lot easier to find products or services for it.

Many webmasters think that in order to make money through
affiliate programs, all you have to do is to come up with a
site and fill up the site with affiliate links. Sooner all
later people will click on them. Unfortunately this does not
work! Making money through affiliate programs is also a
business and like any business you have to have a proper
business plan. Only a well prepared businessplan followed
by its meticulous implementation can bring success to
your affiliate endeavor.

Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present
CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he
has wide experience in Business Consulting, International
Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz is a Global B2B Emarketplace
with solutions to start and run online business.
You can contact him at mailto:nowshade[at]rusbiz.com,
http://ezine.rusbiz.com, http://www.rusbiz.com

Most people think that “just turning up the effort” a bit is all that it takes to truly Delight a customer. They believe that customer satisfaction is a linear relationship, the more effort, the more you put into it the happier the customer. That just isn’t the case.

There really is a couple of ways we can differentiate this. The differentiator:

• Something the customer expects

• Something the customer never expected, but values once he has it.

First let’s look at something that a customer “expects.”

• If he isn’t getting what he expects he’s unhappy. When he finally gets it, he’s contented, satisfied.

• When a customer EXPECTS something you can only go from unsatisfied to satisfied, no higher.

An example of that is when a customer expects something to work..

• If it doesn’t work he’s VERY unhappy.

• If it works but just not quite like he expected he may be not be as unhappy.
• When it finally works to his expectation he is content. He isn’t delighted, a long way from it.

Satisfied, or contented, can be defined as almost a non-event, unsatisfied a negative event. So, there is only one way to go….down, discontent.

Now let’s look at an unexpected result for a customer.

• If a customer isn’t expecting something he is content because he doesn’t miss it. It is a non-event.

• Once you start delivering something unexpected, and valued, that becomes a VERY positive event, a delighted customer.

An example of this might be that you delivered what he expected (a non-event, contented customer), but delivered it in half the time that others have before, that saved him money (now that’s a positive event, delighted customer). It was so much faster than anyone had ever delivered it, he wasn’t expecting it. He’s a very delighted customer.

Of course, we MUST make absolutely sure that when we deliver the unexpected, that it satisfies a customer’s wants or needs, otherwise it wouldn’t be valued.

Let’s restate that:

• If a customer expects something, no matter how much effort you put into the result you can only turn a customer from unhappy into contented, or satisfied. Basically a non-event. He expects this from everyone, every time. You now become “average” as the best you can be.
  Once you “satisfy” the customer, more effort just doesn’t produce a higher level of satisfaction.

• If a customer isn’t expecting something and it isn’t there, he’s a contented customer, basically a non-event. When you start delivering the unexpected you CAN turn him into a “delighted” customer, if it is something he would value. The only direction is from contented (average, non-event) to a delighted customer.

So, what is the bottom line.

• You have to deliver the expected every time to even make the customer contented, and get a so-so, expected result.

• To make a customer truly delighted you have to be finding ways to deliver the unexpected that the customer would value.

Alan Boyer, President/CEO of The Leader’s Perspective, LLC, is considered one of the world’s leading breakthrough specialists. He has worked with some of the worlds largest companies, on projects in the multi-billion dollar area, and with single proprietor companies. He has worked on many hundreds of projects with companies that have resulted in multi-$100 million savings or gains.
With over 35 years of business, quality, and process experience, he has catapulted businesses lightyears ahead in weeks. Some have doubled and some have jumped 10 times. He claims the key to that is:

Helping the business owners/employees develop the business skills

• Helping them overcome the limitations and attitudes that they built between their ears (the self imposed limitations, I can’t, this won’t work for me, I’m different)

• By helping them find the breakthroughs in their business and thinking

Helping companies worldwide reach further than they EVER thought possible…FASTER

http://leaders-perspectie.com

mailto:AlanBoyer@leaders-perspective.com