Getting Started with Affiliate Advertising
Well you have your ideas and you spent some quality time with your friends, family, & those who could lend some advice. You should have your ideas written down on a piece of paper or some form of media. Here is where we begin with your brand entrance. There are millions of webpages on the web and more being added by the hour. So, you asked, how in the world do I make myself known that I sell trinkets or I am a consultant for xyz? Should be no surprise, but the answer is work hard.
The Internet is a place for information at your fingertips. Nobody gets on the net just to land on a webpage that they don’t want. They search for unique content to find an answer to their problem. You know this, because somehow or another that is how you ended up at this website. Unlike brick and mortar shops that have roads going by them, the Internet is not about location, it is about the quality of traffic. We will keep quantity out of this for now.
Since you have your ideas jotted down, now would be a good time to put them to use. Since we are in a web 2.0 world, there are tons of inexpensive and free ways to get the word out. Just remember, content is king. You need to have something you can write about, and since your the expert in your field you should have a lot to say in your own words.
Well you have your ideas and you spent some quality time with your friends, family, & those who could lend some advice. You should have your ideas written down on a piece of paper or some form of media. Here is where we begin with your brand entrance. There are millions of webpages on the web and more being added by the hour. So, you asked, how in the world do I make myself known that I sell trinkets or I am a consultant for xyz? Should be no surprise, but the answer is work hard.
The Internet is a place for information at your fingertips. Nobody gets on the net just to land on a webpage that they don’t want. They search for unique content to find an answer to their problem. You know this, because somehow or another that is how you ended up at this website. Unlike brick and mortar shops that have roads going by them, the Internet is not about location, it is about the quality of traffic. We will keep quantity out of this for now.
Since you have your ideas jotted down, now would be a good time to put them to use. Since we are in a web 2.0 world, there are tons of inexpensive and free ways to get the word out. Just remember, content is king. You need to have something you can write about, and since your the expert in your field you should have a lot to say in your own words.
Here are some great websites that are 100% free and will bring you some traffic (or also known as phone calls).
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www.linkreferral.com |
Link Referral is a completely free advertising engine if you have a website or any URL. The basic (free) membership is loaded and traffic is key to your webpage(s), so be sure to sign up with them after you get a webpage started or a blog. Just be sure to check out any terms or conditions that your blog or webpage host may have to ensure your not violating any rules. Link Referral is more or less a directory that allows users to find your site by category. |
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www.trafficswarm.com |
Targeted prospects will swarm your site 24/7! Just 5 minutes to set-up, it’s automated, “viral” and proven – and best of all it’s FREE! |
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www.hubpages.com |
HubPages, like Squidoo, below is an excellent resource to get the word out about your product, or a niche you are talking about. Their hubs are indexed fast by major search engines, and if written well, you will begin to drive traffic back to your home page. Or, you can simply sell right off of the hub. HubPages is very strict on spam, so be sure to only write unique content and provide quality only for the best results. |
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www.merchantcircle.com: |
Merchant Circle is up and coming allowing you to advertise your business. This is a great place to start along with Squidoo.com if you don’t want to invest in a website just yet. Our link is: RCCS Merchant Circle. |
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www.servemehere.com: |
Like Merchant Circle, this website allows for a great opportunity to advertise your business and gives you the tools to create appointments and such. This is a must have tool in the arsenal. RCCS Ad is located here. |
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www.facebook.com: |
If you haven’t heard about facebook yet, then go check it out. It is by far the easiest social network to be involved in. |
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www.ezinearticles.com: |
Ezine Articles is a great place to begin to get traffic to a website or just to get your name out. It lets the world know what you know. Doing this will give people a feel for who you are and what you promote. There are strict guidelines to follow, so make sure you read them be getting started. Follow the guidelines and your articles will likely be posted. You can see our articles here. |
After you spend some time on these sites setting up your identity you are very well on your way to telling the world who you are and what you do. Just as a reminder, nothing comes free, either you will invest time or invest money. Sometimes you will need to invest both time and money. Business is built this way. If there is no investment, there will be no return. This wheel cannot be reinvented, sorry.
One other note about the above. If you do create a webpage be sure to do your research on Search Engine Optimization. This is key to ranking up the search engines. I would suggest working on a local scale first to climb the latter and then later focus on a national search latter climb. An example of this is that Ryan’s Computer Consulting Services is really easy to find using a search term like “Greencastle, pa computer repair or Greencastle computer repair.” If you would just type in computer repair, we are nowhere to be found and swamped out by competition. This continues to work with unique content. So write about unique content that is in your niche and run with it.
Now, there are some other ways to advertise, however they will cost you some greenbacks (dollars). Don’t let this scare you that it cost money, after all, isn’t that what you are trying to earn other than a reputation?
| www.ixwebhosting.com: | Ix Web Hosting is a very inexpensive web host provider and very dependable. This website is hosted on Ix Web Hosting. We have had no troubles since we first started with them in 2006. They provide excellent tech support and many tools to get you up and running with a website. |
| www.usfreeads.com: | UsFreeads is an online version of classifieds. We have had success with this form of advertising, and if you do well with an ad in terms of content and quality, it will be found by major search engines. UsFreeAds has a free model as well as a cheap unlimited $9.95 per month plan. |
| www.ClickBank.com: | Clickbank is an effective and affordable way to begin to promote your products online. Once your product is out there on the market, affiliates will go to work for you selling your product on their websites. The hotter the product you have, the more money you make and everybody is happier. |
| Local Yellow Pages: |
The phone book is still used moderately, even with the presence of the Internet. |
| Google Adwords: | Adwords is a pay per click way of advertising on Google’s search engine. If you have used Google, you will notice when you do a search there are relevant text based advertisements on the right side of the screen. Google also advertises on content based websites. |
| Microsoft Adcenter: | Microsoft Adcenter is very much like Googles, except that it uses the MSN network and affiliating websites to spread your pay per click ad over the net. Adcenter is just as creditable as Google. We have used both of these in the past. With both Google and Adcenter, be sure to set a budget, unless you have more money than you know what to do with:) |
| Local Town Flyers: | We began with this method. Our local town flier is the Mercersburg Merchant which is ran by Mercersburg Printing, Inc. This text based advertising is made for a regional area that is delivered on a weekly bases. Very effective way of advertising that is inexpensive comparatively. |
| News Papers: | While a little on the expensive side, the local news paper can be an effective way to run a promotion or special. |
| T.V./Radio: |
These are the most expensive and largely the most effective ways of advertising. Once you have the funds to run an ad or two you should do so. Just don’t put all your eggs into one basket. In other words, try different days of the week and times slots. Keep track of the responses, etc. |
Local clients will gain your trust faster with local advertising versus national. A webpage is a form of local and world wide advertising. It really is up to how you make your visitor feel when they are reading your content. Stay friendly and honest. It is okay to be bold talking about stuff you really understand, but remember you are telling it to somebody that probably doesn’t understand your work language. So, stick with the K.I.S.S. method: Keep It Simple Stupid, and know that “stupid” doesn’t mean to degrade your visitor either, it means for you to remain humble in your approach.
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