Submit Articles to Article Directories

Article marketing is the backbone of almost every marketing campaign, and article directories are your resource for it.  For starters, you will have keyword specific backlinks to your web page.  This can drive targeted traffic to your page, which is great.  The article itself can usually get page one status, since article directories are considered to be authoritative pages by the search engines.

If listbuilding is your objective, then your link in the author bio or resource box will need to lead to your opt-in.  If someone clicked on the link in your bio, then they already want to know more about what you have to say about your niche.  In other words, they want to be on your mailing list.

Blog for Fun and Profit

Writing a blog is another great way to draw attention to yourself.  Simultaneously, you can show that you are an authority in your niche and can entice people to join your list on a more personal level.

You can make the blog itself into a list by using RSS feeds.  Including this button on your blog or some other “subscribe now” option can keep people informed of the developments you’ve made or have noticed in your niche.  If you use products like FeedBurner, you get free analytics on your list.  This will help you to more easily add contextual advertising, which can be challenging on your own.

Get Into Joint Ventures with Other Marketers

While marketing can often be a cutthroat business, joint ventures are still a great way to build a list.  As a beginner especially, the saying “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” applies.  The top shelf marketers can be powerful enemies or powerful allies.  It’s your choice.

If you’ve researched your niche properly, you know what marketers you want to team with.  Write them individually, thank them for what you’ve learned from them, butter them up however you choose to, and propose a joint venture.  Do a list swap, and even if you only get as many people as you give, you’ve still doubled your list.

Giveaways are a Great Listbuilding Strategy

Giveaways are pretty much a staple part of listbuilding these days.  The idea is pretty simple:  If you want people to give you their names and e-mail addresses, you have to give them something in return.  Here are some popular ideas for giveaways.

Self help courses or eBooks are a hot commodity.  Whatever your niche, people like lessons in having the right attitude.  You can also provide free webinars on your niche subjects.  You can also provide marketing tools as an additional impetus.  Whatever your giveaway is, it must have value to the customer and cost you virtually nothing to provide.  In this electronic world of information, it’s pretty easy to come by.

Promising a 100% Guarantee

There is only one situation where you should present a 100% guarantee on results.  That is the situation where you’re willing to bite the bullet with EVERYONE on your list.  Nothing is absolutely certain in business, and to say so is setting yourself up to lose everything.

Let’s Go Viral!

While viral marketing is a good strategy, you shouldn’t rely on it as the central part of your marketing scheme.  As I said before, there aren’t any guarantees in business.  Viral marketing is as much of a gamble as anything else.  The payoff is great if it succeeds, but you should have something more stable as your lynchpin.

Promising Free Services

The problem of offering free services for your clients is that it’s you doing work for free.  You got into affiliate marketing to make money with minimal work.  Not only are you not making money by providing free services, but you’re also losing money by not providing paid services during that time frame.  Your free stuff should be things that didn’t cost you anything and require no further effort on your part.

Being Accommodating or Humanitarian to a Fault

To an extent, you want to be accommodating to your list, but you can’t say “yes” to everything.  I like to call this “being humanitarian to a fault.”  Remember, you’re in business, and you should keep in mind these basic rules:

• Get your opt-ins and deposits BEFORE you do anything.
• Just because “no” wasn’t said, it doesn’t mean “yes.”
• Never rush a project or launch just because a client wants it.

Endorse Yourself as a Full Service Agent

You should also avoid playing like you’re a full service agent.  You’re not running a gas station, and they even have specialists.  If you portray yourself as the resolution of “all their problems,” you may come to discover that there are problems that you simply can’t solve.  Ally yourself with specialists in all aspects of marketing and endorse them for specific issues.  Not only does it save you from the embarrassment of finding out your limitations the hard way, but it makes you seem helpful in the referral sense.

Saying “Just Wait” is also Shooting Yourself in the Foot

There is no instance in affiliate marketing or any other Internet business where saying “just wait” is a good call.  Whether you’re talking about waiting for the money to roll in, waiting for your product to launch, or whatever, “wait” should not be in your vocabulary.  On the one hand, saying that they should just wait for the profits is an unreasonable promise, and on the other, no one wants to wait for anything.  There should be a sense of urgency about everything you say to them.

Using Search Engine Optimization to Bring ‘Em In

Still to this day, search engine optimization is an essential part of Web page promotion.  There are a number of things you can do on the website to get it to rank better on the search engines.  Keyword placement, ease of navigation, and quality content are essential parts of onsite SEO.

More and more, what you do offsite is more important than what you do onsite.  Offsite SEO is where you should work the hardest to bring people in.  Posting links on social media sites, article directories, and forums are all standard parts of offsite SEO.  Using each of these media demands its own post, but the essential element is that you shouldn’t “just” post your links.  You have to build trust by interacting with people and posting things other than your links.

They’re Here; Now Make Them Opt-In

Getting people to fill out the opt-in form is the hardest part.  It’s like the old adage, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”  The issue is that you pretty much have to make them drink, especially if you’re paying for your keywords.

Your first line of attack is to offer them something for free if they opt-in.  By and large, people like free stuff.  If they have the remotest interest in what your products are, offering them a free e-book or video will usually convince them to go ahead and opt-in.

Website Tools to Keep Them from Leaving

Sometimes the offer of something free isn’t quite enough to get a viewer to opt-in.  You’ll need some website tools to keep them from leaving your page.  They may know that you’ll be sending them e-mails that they “probably” don’t want.  Out of this group, there are a number of visitors who aren’t quite as decided about leaving as others.  They may be thinking about coming back later, but for some reason they never do.

You have a few options.  One commonly used tool is to have a pop-up appear that has the appearance of a virtual assistant.  However, it’s become less popular lately since viewers can often figure out the ruse.  Lately, one tool that has become more popular works this way: Once the visitor’s cursor leaves the screen, heading toward the back button, a corner of the page peels back and asks him to wait.  This is your opportunity to make another offer.  At this point the visitor will either go ahead and opt-in, or they really didn’t want your products anyway.

When Making Friends is Listbuilding

Listbuilding is a snap on social media sites.  All you have to do is make friends.  Facebook has an upper cap on how many friends and fans you can have.  For the most part, you’ll never have to worry about it, but if you do reach the limit, just set up another account and try not to overlap the friends’ list too much.

With that said, it doesn’t take very long to build a decent friends’ list on Facebook.  The more you “friend” people, the more their friends will “friend” you.  Once you think you’re at a good starting place, start posting messages.

You don’t want to start right off posting links, and you certainly don’t want to make every post a link to your affiliate sites.  Remember, to get people to follow your links, they have to trust you.  You’re not going to win their trust if all you do is post links.  Be personable occasionally, and you’ll keep your list.

Posting Links to Your Affiliate Sites

Facebook is different than many other social media sites when you want to post links.  The big difference is that you don’t have to use html coding to create a hyperlink.  Linking to your affiliate sites just takes entering your URL in a message.

So, how frequently do you want to post your links?  A good average is about one out of every three posts.  The other posts can be just stuff that’s happened that day, some tidbits of marketing information, or you can link to your other social media sites. (YouTube videos are a hot item.) The trick is to keep traffic moving to your site as much as possible without being a marketer too much.

Creating Groups for Your Affiliate Links

A great feature of Facebook is that you can create fan and business groups.  If there are some affiliate links that you really want to promote, create a fan group for it.  You can easily import your list to these groups and more overtly plug your sites.

Another great part of having a group is that for some odd reason, friends of your friends will see them joining this group and they just have to follow.  Then their friends see what’s going on and want to join in.  All you have to do is throw up links, and there’s your traffic.

With this kind of marketing, the pursuit of the search engines’ front pages is virtually obsolete.  Competition is diminished, and it takes away a lot of the dubious psychology of predicting web surfers.  You get a more concrete example of group psychology and conducting traffic is much easier.

Put Keywords in Your Bio

It definitely stands to reason that you’ll want to relate your bio to your niche.  A great way to do this is to put keywords in your bio.  Many people do it without realizing it.  Since you know that keywords will get you noticed, you can use them as ways to draw people to your profile.

What’s really great about profiles and bios is that you can virtually stuff them with keywords and get away with it.  However, I would advise a little bit of caution.  While you have free reign to put as many keywords in your profile as you can fit, you should still have a readable profile because now that they’re here, you want them to follow you, right?

Build Your List Yourself at First

Once your bio is complete, you can build your list right off the bat.  Make some friends by doing keyword searches.  Most people on social media sites are “friend collectors,” so it shouldn’t take you long to get a decent list going.  You should do this off and on as your campaign goes on.

Before too long, people will start seeking you out.  Then you can choose whether you want to allow them to follow you or not.  Keep in mind that there are other marketers out there, and they may not be interested in your products.  You’ll usually want to reciprocate if someone starts to follow you, but the last thing you want is to be marketed to.  If a new profile following you smells like someone who’s trying to sell to you, they probably are.

Narrowing Down to a Targeted List

It doesn’t take much effort to build your list.  The real trick is maintaining it.  Culling down to a targeted list seems irrelevant, but don’t be fooled.  Twitter’s “prestige points,” as some people call them, aren’t awarded by how many followers you have.  Instead, it’s based on the ratio of followers versus friends.

As a result, it becomes necessary to cut off the dross accounts.  The ones that you’ll want to remove most of all are the ones that haven’t put up a Tweet in months.  These accounts are considered inactive and aren’t worth anything to your Twitter influence.  Besides, you know for a fact that you’re not making any money off of them.

Shopping for List Managing Tools

Naturally, since so many marketers are on Twitter, there are Twitter Tools that help with several aspects of your Twitter campaign.  Some are virtually useless, while others are quite handy.  My two favorites are Twinfluence.com and Twitter Karma.

Twinfluence.com is a great resource since it shows you who the top 50 Twitter members are at the moment.  Follow these guys, and you have a quick “in” to a goldmine of prospects.  Another great tool is Twitter Karma.  This tool helps with cutting off the inactive accounts from your list.

Building a List with Quizzes—First Stages

The first thing you need to know about building a list with online quizzes is that the quiz itself doesn’t have to have any relevance to any of your products.  This leaves you completely wide open for the subject matter of the quizzes you use.  The most important aspect of your quizzes should be that they have great viral potential.

First, you should analyze the most popular quizzes to figure out what people actually want to see.  IQ and physical feature tests are universal favorites, as are comparisons to popular TV and movie characters.  The trick with the latter is that they tend to be more short-lived than IQ Tests, so if you go that route, be prepared to create lots of quizzes to keep up with the times.

How List Building Works in Quizzes

In social media sites like Facebook, you have the option to create “Apps” or “Quizzes.”  Depending on the social media platform you’re using, this could involve coding language (as in the case of Facebook), or you can use walkthrough tutorials.  However you go about doing it, and where, there’s one essential element that you’ll want to observe.

You should always, in every quiz, provide an opt-in opportunity.  In fact, many Apps will have several, sometimes including the opportunity to download browser add-ons.  If you have one, great.  There shouldn’t be any problem getting it included in your quiz since they will often allow spyware toolbar opt-ins to be included.

Where Your Opt-In Box Should Go

Usually, there isn’t much confusion about where your opt-in should be.  Most quiz builders will figure it out for you.  However, if you encounter a quiz builder that doesn’t decide this for you, you should know where it goes.

Your opt-in should be cued to appear after the viewer takes the quiz, just before they get the results of the quiz.  If it comes before they answer any of the questions, they’re more likely to just bail out of the quiz and not fill in the opt-in.  If it comes after the result, they’re not likely to fill it out either.  They’ve already gotten the reward for taking the quiz and have no reason to do anything else with it.

What’s really great about using quizzes for listbuilding is the opportunity for the quiz to go viral.  Most of the time, people will want to display their quiz results in their blogs, and you should provide them a way to do it if the social media site doesn’t already.

Their friends will see the results and want to take the quiz too.  Now the entertainment value of your quiz really comes into play.  If your quiz is entertaining enough, your listbuilding efforts will grow by leaps and bounds.

Making a Fortune with MySpace: Ashley Qualls

Some teenagers are taking a single idea and making a mint from it. Take, for instance, Ashley Qualls. When she was 14, she borrowed $8 from her mother to buy a domain name. She started a company that designed MySpace layouts, targeted primarily to girls.

Today, Ashley’s website gets 60 million page views each month. She paid cash for a $250,000 home and has turned down a 1.5 million dollar offer to buy her business. While her business is not classified as an affiliate marketing business, it just goes to show you how one teen with a simple idea can make more money than most adults. She is now 18 and well on her way to continued success.

Meet Nate Brown—a 14-year-old Affiliate Marketer

Nate Brown is a 14-year-old affiliate marketer who has already learned how to automate his affiliate marketing business. He’s been an affiliate marketer for a year now. He even blogs about how he does it and offers tips and tricks to others who want to do the same. I’m sure we’ll hear more about Nate as his affiliate marketing business grows.

Why are Teens Prime Candidates for Affiliate Marketing?

Teens are prime candidates for affiliate marketing because they haven’t yet become jaded about the Internet. In fact, they’re paving the way for the future of the Web. They have the “I can do anything” attitude that gives them the incentive to learn through trial and error.

Teens are experts at viral marketing because they’ve literally grown up in front of a computer. They know exactly how to get the word out about their favorite music, products, and ideas. They’ve already mastered MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and a multitude of other social networking sites.

Teens Need to Make More Money In Today’s Economy

With the federal minimum wage set at $7.25, teens realize that they can’t get much bang for their buck if they work only part time. The high price of gasoline, insurance, and the cost of going to a movie, is prompting teenagers to look for ways to make more money, more efficiently.

Once mastered, an affiliate marketing program can be automated, enabling a teen to have an active social life without being tied down to a set schedule. Just one successful affiliate marketing site, once set into motion, can give a teenage boy or girl enough money to pay for fun activities without interfering in school work.

Many teens see affiliate marketing as an avenue to generate just enough cash to get by, while others are learning everything they can to create wealth. Regardless of the motivation, more and more teens are turning to affiliate marketing as a way to create a positive cash flow and leave bussing tables and waiting on customers to someone else.

If you’re ready for some new ideas, read on. Here are 10 easy ways for getting traffic to your website:

1.    Focus on viral marketing. Viral marketing is hot! One of the best ways to get traffic to your website is to make sure the content goes viral. You can do anything from creating a YouTube video to adding “E-mail to a Friend” links in your auto-responders. The key to viral marketing is that it must be easy to forward to a friend.

2.    Add a signature file. Add a signature file in all your correspondence, especially if you participate in forums. The signature file should have a short description of your product, service, or blog, as well as a link to your site.

3.    Buy ad space. Find niche-specific newsletters and buy ad space in them. This will certainly increase the traffic to your website. If you’ve never written an ad, hire an experienced copywriter to do it for you.

4.    Create a fan page. You can create a fan page on Facebook to generate a buzz around your website. If you’re not already a member of Facebook, join now and create a fan page loaded with links from your websites.

5.    Create links on eBay. One effective way to attract traffic is to create an “About Our Company” profile on eBay and add your link to that page.

6.    Participate in joint ventures. Teaming up with another affiliate marketer is a great way to get more traffic to your site. You can work together to promote each other’s websites, and get more traffic in return.

7.    Buy misspelled domain names. “To err is human,” and no one knows this better than a website owner who wants more traffic. If you have a website that may be commonly confused with another, buy domain names that are “wrong.” For instance, office.com may be confused with offices.com. If you buy incorrect domain names and have the clicks forwarded to your site, you will see an increase in overall conversions.

8.    Sell classified ads. This isn’t a get-rich-quick road to wealth, but creating and selling ad space will attract sellers and buyers alike.

9.    Add chat rooms. People love to chat online, and adding chat rooms where people can converse about niche-specific products and services is a great way to generate a buzz around your website.

10.    Buy BlogAds. Buying BlogAds will help increase your exposure in the markets that want what you have to sell.

Getting traffic to your website is about positioning yourself in a way that makes individuals gravitate toward you. There is no real secret to attracting traffic. You’ve just got to be patient, get your name out there, and your affiliate marketing business will naturally grow.

The trick in writing the E-Book is, as usual in marketing, to keep them wanting more. Remember, we’re only generating interest. If your business is lessons in some craft or technique, or the selling of non-material services, write only enough about your service to get people interested, but don’t make it an actual giveaway. If, however, you are selling some material goods, a brochure or menu should be more informative, though it may not necessarily list everything.

The goal, of course, is to make the potential client interested enough in your services or merchandise to spend money at your site. Everything about it should lead them into purchasing from your website. If it doesn’t work out that way, that’s fine as well. It’s entirely possible that this person might know someone who is more interested or able to shop at your site.

A secondary goal of free E-Books is to “spread the word.” As part of writing the E-Book, there should be information pointing the potential client back to your website. Put your URL on the front page. Reference it throughout the document. Make sure it’s clear where your potential client can go if they want more information. This way, even if the first person isn’t interested, they may pass it on to someone else, who may not otherwise know where to go. If the information in your E-Book is presented just right, this part of the composition will be vital, as it may pass from one person to five, to 20 and so on more than exponentially…it can spread like a virus.

Within a short period of time, days in all likelihood, your E-Book can reach thousands, even tens of thousands of recipients. If only a fraction of these follow up on your information, how many visitors will your site have? When these people decide to share your E-Book, how many people do you think that would draw? The fact is, the longer it’s in circulation, the more draw it will have.

In summary, the free E-Book can be a useful draw for traffic to your website. If the balances of information vs. intrigue and content vs. referral are well-positioned, the recipients of this E-Book will have learned just enough about what you do to be interested in more information, and will be provided with a direction to go to get more.

Viral marketing takes advantage of the oldest marketing technique and brings it to a higher level. It’s word of mouth at the speed of light. This concept is what should be in mind with any viral marketing campaign.

Many businesses have misunderstood viral marketing to be just a matter of venue. Companies have posted their television ads on YouTube hoping to capitalize on viral marketing and wondered what went wrong when it didn’t have the desired effect. They miss a crucial part of what viral marketing is.

The essentials of viral marketing are that it has to be free, it has to be “contagious,” and it has to be easily spread. Without any one of these three elements, it doesn’t work. Let’s look at these three elements and how they work.

It all starts with you giving something away. It could be an e-book, an image file, a video, or a podcast. It could also be a great number of other things, but these are the most common. The essential idea is that electronic data is inexpensive to create “in mass,” so it’s the easiest to give away in large numbers.

It should be relevant to your product, because ultimately, that’s what you’re trying to make them want. It should only be a teaser of what your product can do for the customer. It could be a demonstration, a “leaked document,” or merely a catchy advertisement.

“Catchy” is the most commonly misunderstood element of viral marketing. Whatever your giveaway is, it should be something that people want to begin with. Because of this idea, you can’t just dryly demonstrate or describe what your product can do.

There has to be something that keeps their attention WHILE the demo is happening. Don’t go for flashing lights and talks about how crazy you are for making this offer—that tends to chase many people away. Instead, try working this demonstration into comedy. The idea is to make them like the giveaway so much that they have to tell other people about it.

If you do the last part right, you will essentially make marketers out of your viewers. They will want to pass your giveaway on to their friends and relatives. You can expect that they will send a copy of your promo on, and it can be infinitely spread that way. This is where the use of electronic media really has a chance to shine. The promoting will have gone out of your hands, and will spread like—well—a virus. Before you know it, with little effort, you will have drawn thousands of visitors to your opt-in page. It doesn’t take much, but if you’re infectious enough, they WILL opt in.