Are you an affiliate marketer?

You are not alone. Before the birth of the internet, if you wanted to sell a product or a service, you had a lot less options. The internet and a whole host of easy to use software programs that allow for easy creation of a website have changed how we do business today.

Whether you are new to affiliate marketing or you are an old pro, you can become a super affiliate. The great thing about being an affiliate marketer in this day and age is that you don’t even have to know how to set up your own website if you don’t want to. You can become an affiliate and send traffic to the website set up by the product owner. All you have to know is how to copy and paste links into your ads and articles to send traffic to your link and make money.

But, while you can chose to market your affiliate links in this manner, this is what beginner affiliate markets do. One of the best ways to become a super affiliate is to direct all traffic to YOUR presale site and then forward the customer to the payment link. This way you make sure that you get paid and that the customer doesn’t get directed off to some other page, thereby losing you your affiliate commission.

In order to set up your own page to redirect your customers to, you will need a web host. There are a lot of reasonably priced web hosting plan out there that have user friendly sites. HostGator and Blackwire are just two of them. Both of these hosting services provide good customer support.

Super affiliates dominate one niche at a time. Pick your niche and stick with it until you have conquered it. It is easy to be tempted to jump from affiliate program to affiliate program. But you will lose focus and you won’t make any money from your online marketing efforts.

Super affiliates know how to build lists using squeeze pages to collect names. They then send out special promotions and offers to their list. A good quality list that is not over used will generate you a lot of income. So, use your web hosting to set up squeeze pages and landing pages to direct traffic to your niche products.

Super affiliates also know how to set up membership sites and get people to join them. They then provide free content to their members. They give away reports, software, scripts, newsletters, webinars, etc. to keep people on their list. Their members pay for the fresh content that the super affiliate posts every month. This recurring income really ads to the bottom line over time.

These are just some of the ways that you can become a super affiliate through niche marketing. Are you feeling overwhelmed and don’t have any idea where to start? Don’t be. There is help out there if you are a complete beginner to affiliate marketing or even if you have just gotten off track and need help getting back on. There are programs out there made just for internet marketing newbies. Just be sure you don’t fall for any “make money fast” internet scams because there is no way to start an internet business and “make fast money”.

Check out this review of Mining Money. This system was created with the beginner in mind. It will take you by the hand and walk you through the process. You can be up and running in no time with this system. CLICK HERE to get the help you need to get started.

First many of you are probably thinking what the heck is inbound marketing? It’s been around for a while but hasn’t had great exposure until recently.

Traditional marketing or “outbound marketing” is blasting your marketing messages outward. It can be in the form of TV commercials, newspaper and magazine adds, direct mail, email marketing and so on. The biggest question that surrounds this traditional method is how do you know your message is being heard?

Inbound marketing is establishing your company or yourself as the “subject matter expert” in your chosen field. You make relevant, timely, and current information, that your potential clients are looking for, available, and they’ll find you. When they do you have a prospect that is directly interested in the products or services you’re offering.

As I said this isn’t a new concept, why then is this just getting exposure? In a word, noise. There is such a glut of information thrown at us everyday it’s impossible to sort through the noise to get at the information we want. We are bombarded with email marketing, TV commercials that we all mute, direct mail that even if excellent provides a 2% hit rate. We are buried with stuff!

It is getting harder and harder to see an acceptable return on investment from traditional marketing methods.

If you can’t get the market’s attention, you can’t get them consider your products or services let alone buy them.

In my book, Bottom Line Focus, I talk about marketing being your platform to educate your market why they need the product or service you are providing, what to look for when they decide to buy in order to get the most value for their money.

The next step toward better sales results is convincing them that with all of the products or services available to them in your particular market, yours is the best value and the obvious choice.

Like someone said long ago, “build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door”. Update that and to say provide meaningful information and the world will beat a path to your website.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have undoubtedly heard about Facebook, the popular social networking site. Many network marketers are wanting to leverage Facebook in their business pursuits, but aren’t quite sure how to do it.

There are several ways to use Facebook for profit – the easiest way is with their pay-per click option. Let’s take a look:

PPC On FB

The easiest way to get started is to use Facebook’s pay-per-click option. If you select “advertising”, you will be taken to a sign up page where you can create a campaign for direct advertising. The advantage to this is that you are able to target demographics and psycho-graphics that few advertising platforms can offer. What’s more, their user base is growing by the day, which means your market is growing every day.

Some tips to keep in mind are:

- No Replicated Websites. If you try and use your company’s replicated website, you might as well not bother advertising. You need a real website that is designed to get leads or sales if you plan on using FB (or any PPC platform, for that matter).

- Use Relevant, “non-markety” Ads. FB does not allow ads that look like crap. If your ad is “discover how to make lotsa $$$$$$”, your ad will be denied. Give FB too many crappy ads, and they ban your account. Follow their guidelines, and they’ll treat you right.

- Use a bridge page. If you send your traffic directly to your optin site, you run the risk of being shut down. A bridge page is just an intermediary page that the user is taken to after they click your ad. The bridge page connects to your landing page, and that’s how you generate your leads from FB.

The good news with Facebook is that their advertising platform is still dirt-cheap compared to many other advertising networks (Google in particular). Use it properly, and you’ll reap the rewards.

Direct Sales is a method of marketing and selling goods directly to the customer away from a fixed retail location. Direct selling is now the world’s largest provider of part and full time earnings and can be an ideal way of starting your own business and offers unique and rewarding opportunities.

As with any business opportunity is important to choose the right opportunity for you. Here are some considerations to make when making the decision which direct sales business opportunity to choose:

Believe in the product

It is important to choose a business with a product that appeals to you and one that is fairly priced as it is much easier to sell a product that you truly believe in.

Be realistic of your earning potential

Many companies will exaggerate earning potentials. It is important to realise that, as with any other business, a direct sales business will require time, effort and dedication to succeed. However if you are enthusiastic about the product that you are selling then your sales will be easier to achieve.

Keep investment costs low

Good earning opportunities in direct sales generally only require modest investments. It is important therefore not to succumb to invitations to invest large amounts of money into stock. Most reputable companies do not require you to buy goods before you have made any sales to customers.

Generally there are two basic types of direct sales businesses. One is a party plan which involves face to face contact selling products to customers in a party.

The other attractive direct selling business opportunities are internet based businesses. These types of businesses can be hugely successful especially with the continuing growth of the internet search engines. This can offer global opportunities which can earn an income for you even as you sleep.

If you choose an internet based sales opportunity then it is important to ensure that you do not fall prey to businesses that are not genuine direct sales opportunities. One such example is pyramid selling. These companies disguise themselves to look like a legitimate direct sales company but have the following characteristics:

They ask you to make substantial investments in stocks of goods by offering rewards to participants for getting others to do the same.

They also make little reference to direct selling and the need to achieve customer sales. Instead they claim rewards come from getting others to make substantial initial investment.

They do not offer contracts, cancellation rights nor opportunities to buy back unsold goods.

The best internet companies generally are the GPT style companies namely that you get paid today yourself for what you sell.

It is possible to earn a substantial income from direct selling and to build up a long term retirement income. However, as with any business, you will need desire, motivation and commitment to succeed.

Success in a direct sales business will rely on the relationship and trust that you build up with your customers. Once you have made a sale it is important to continue to look after that customer to ensure further sales and ongoing success.

The beauty of direct sales is that it offers the opportunity to work flexible hours and to work from home. This makes is especially attractive to women with family commitments as they can start a business on a part time basis with minimal start up capital. It is an equal opportunity and rewards according to effort and commitment and not based on gender or age. It is even possible to run this business alongside your current job thus ensuring that you continue to earn an additional income while you set up your business.

With direct sales opportunities you can either earn an additional part time income working from home or you can generate a substantial income by working full time in your business. Whatever you choose, your success in direct sales, as in any other business, will be determined by the hard work and commitment that you put into your business.