Many online entrepreneurs begin their career with Affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing allows a flexibility and freedom that many other methods do not. It allows a marketer to promote products and services without needing to provide technical support, payment processing, returns, refunds, checkouts, or any other overhead. It leaves them the freedom to just do marketing.
A great affiliate program to start with is Amazon Associates. Amazon is one of the fastest growing market places on the internet, and they sell goods, services, books, and ebooks in almost every conceivable niche. They don't pay as well as some other programs, but customers trust Amazon, and make purchases from them that they would not make from any other online retailer. I have, however, listened to many Internet Marketers that say they haven't been able to make any money with Amazon. I have found that they all suffer from one or more of these three deadly Internet marketing mistakes.
Deadly Mistake #1 - Not Being Helpful
Many Internet marketers start their business with a goal in mind. That goal might be to make extra income, it might be to become financially independent, or it might be to become very rich. Now, don't get me wrong, goals are important, and can be a driving motivation for all that you do or accomplish, but as long as the business is about you, you aren't going to be very successful. That is the honest truth. It might make some people mad, but I'm going to say it anyway, if you want to be successful on the Internet, you have to be out there every day trying to solve other people's problems.
Take a step back if you will. Why do you do searches on the Internet? Usually it is to find some piece of information. Sometimes what you are looking for can be solved by buying something, but in almost all cases you are looking for information that might solve a problem.
Other people are just like you in that respect. You have to provide some content, some information that is helpful. Specifically, that information must be actionable, relevant, and useful.
Let's say that you found a crock pot that you would like to market. You do need to put a picture of the item and some information about it on your web page, but give your readers something useful as well. Maybe you could give out recipes to use the crock pot with, and display a picture of the finished food to give credibility to how wonderful the crock pot is. Perhaps you could add a researched list of health reasons to use a crock pot, instead of frying, and provide links to sources so your customers can do more research on their own. Or you could add stories of how a crock pot has enhanced your life, saved a lost situation, or simply added to the enjoyment of a special occasion.
All of these types of things can be helpful information. Some of these informational items, like the recipes, are even things that your customers would have to pay for somewhere else, so you could be saving money for your customers to boot. Customers, or potential customers, will like you for that kind of treatment. You are solving their problems, while making a buying recommendation.
You could take some time and create an ebook of 10 or more recipes that you could offer as an incentive for customers to buy the item from your link. Tell them to use the link you provide and then send you the Amazon order number in an email, and you will email them back the recipe book. Or better yet, send them to a squeeze page to get their email on your auto responder list. Send them the ebook of recipes in the first email, but continue sending them helpful information from time to time, and throw in a useful offer in some of the emails.
The more helpful you are, and the more that you give, the more others will give back to you-and you will be successful. Make your Internet business about your customers and you will make more money than you know what to do with.
Mistake #2 - Much Too Salesy
Maybe salesy isn't a real word, but I think you know what I mean. In today's world people are bombarded with advertizing. They get it on television, on the internet, on the billboards as they drive to work or where ever they go, on the radio, even at the movie theater, and sometimes even on bumper stickers. Well guess what-people just seem to know when they are being sold to. If they can see that the first words on your page are a sales pitch, then they are likely to hit the back button immediately, and not even give your web page a chance.
Internet marketers make the mistake of thinking because marketing is in the name, they have to be "selling" something all of the time. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. When you are only marketing, it just shows through and you don't earn any trust with your customers. People buy from someone that they trust. Earn their trust by giving to them before you make a pitch, and by not making the pitch the central part of your message.
Make the page interesting. Put a little time into finding good information for your users. State a weird fact about an item you are selling or related to an item you are selling. Let the web page be more about the story than about the pitch. This may sound counter intuitive, but if you can connect to the user, give them information that is useful to them, and provide solid reasons for needing an item or product, they will naturally start to question themselves if they might really need to get the product you have mentioned in your story. You really don't need a sales pitch at all, the usefulness of the item in your stories or illustrations will sell the product by itself.
Once you have let people know how an item can help them and what problems the item has solved for other people, then you can tell them just a little bit more about the item and where to get it (from your affiliate link to the product on the Amazon market place, of course).
Mistake #3 - Not Unique
If you simply list an item or product you are selling, post a picture of the product, and regurgitate the product description given on the Amazon site-then what value have you added?
Well, Google knows that you haven't added any value, and will label the page as duplicate content, relegating it to the supplemental index. What this simply means is that your page won't rank in the Google search results and you won't get any search engine traffic to your page.
Many marketers will hear this, and throw up their hands-well if I can't use the product description, what can I say on my web page?
Well, don't despair, you will still need the product description, however, select just a few specific features to address. Don't just list the features on the page. Address how each feature will actually help your customer. What problems will those features solve? How will those features expand the uses of the item or product? Who will benefit from these specific features?
Also add how the product has helped you or someone you know. You can even compare and contrast feature by feature with another product, making your page more of a product review. Make the product you compare it with be another Amazon product, and have affiliate links to both products. You win regardless of which product the customer finally ends up buying.
Can you see how you can make each and every post completely unique to you and your web pages? Being unique will set you apart from other marketers, and will give you some much needed search engine love.
Actually, there is a fourth deadly mistake, and it is the worst one of the bunch. Visit my blog and find out about the worst of the deadly mistakes right here. Can you guess what it might be?
My name is Dean Giles, and I want to help you be successful on the Internet. Internet Marketing is an art and a science. A little planning, a little monitoring, making small changes, and consistent effort will produce consistent IncomeNow.org.
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