How to Easily Create Amazon Affiliate Links

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Feb 27, 2012 in Internet Mastery | 2 comments

I have a lot of clients who signed up to become an Amazon affiliate somewhere along the way and then never did anything with it because creating those affiliate links for products was just too complicated for most people.

Amazon Associates Central has finally made it a bit easier for the layman to create links and I am quite glad to see it.

Here is how to create links in just a few easy steps.

1. Login to your Amazon Associates Central account.
2. Type the product, book title or author that you are searching for in the search box.

Choose your product and then click on the orange “Get Link” button. When the HTML code appears click on the “Shorten URL with amzn.to hyperlink.

That will give you a tiny hyperlink that you can use on your website, in mailings, on FB, Twitter, etc.

Affiliate Marketing Terms Defined

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Aug 4, 2011 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

For new online marketers it can get a little confusing trying to define what some of the more common affiliate marketing terms are. This quick explanation should help.

Affiliate Program: This is a system that is built to track sales by third parties. The third party’s incentive to sell is defined by the affiliate program owner and is usually a percentage of the sale or a pre-determined one time payout. A high quality affiliate program will include a control panel to view traffic and sales, obtain sales materials for the product or service that you (the affiliate) is marketing, and the ability to keep in touch with the affiliate with news and updates.

Affiliate: An affiliate (you) is simply a person who signs up to sell another merchants product or service. The affiliate (you) is paid a commission for each sale they create for the merchant.

For example, one of the greatest affiliate marketers I know is Rosalind Gardner, author of the Super Affiliate Handbook. This book is one of the very first books that I purchased online as a download and is an important part of my entrepreneurial library. I also recommend and promote it as an affiliate, which is exactly what I am doing now as an illustration. I know Rosalind. I have followed her career and business advice for many years. I have interviewed her several times on my Internet radio show, Your Partner In Success Radio. So am I confident that I am promoting one heck of a product? Yes. In fact, let’s make that a “Hell Yes!” I greatly admire Rosalind’s work and am hoping that if you are interested at all in affiliate marketing that you will purchase and study her book and follow her on her blog. She is in my opinion, quite simply the best person to learn affiliate marketing from. If nothing else, connect with her on her blog and on Facebook!

Some of my favorite affiliate programs:

• ClickBank
• Commission Junction (CJ.com)
• Shareasale

What you need to know:

When I mention a product or service in my blogs, I give you my word that I am using it myself and think enough of it to endorse it. I NEVER promote a product or service that I am not fully familiar with and that I don’t use for myself in my own life or business. More often than not the link is my affiliate link, and if you click through using my link and purchase something, I will get paid. Not all links are affiliate links however, as I am always willing to share great advice, tips, products or services from people who do not have affiliate programs set up.

Offline Article Marketing Secrets

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Sep 25, 2010 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

Offline Article Marketing Secrets

“No task is a long one but the task on which one dare not start. It becomes a nightmare.” ~ Charles Baudelaire

While most people associate article marketing strictly with online promotion, you can get even more bang for your article buck by promoting your articles – and your business – offline. Start by thinking local. Yes, the internet has opened up a whole new world of customers to business with websites, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore your local market.

Here’s how you can turn your online articles into offline marketing engines:

Submit articles to local papers and newsletters.
Many local newspapers, neighborhood associations or local organization newsletters will accept contributed articles. By submitting your articles on a hot and timely topic, you can increase your exposure and potentially gain new subscribers or customers.

For instance, I recently rebuilt a flash-animated website that we had built for my dentist a few years ago and moved him over to the WordPress platform. Why? Because his articles on dental proceedures and gum health show up regularly in a couple of local newspapers and it made perfect sense to publish those same articles to his new WordPress website/blog and then to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. His very informative articles are now available both offline and online.

To find local sources for your articles, you can do a simple Google search. Enter “CITY newspaper” or “CITY shopper” (quotes included) with CITY being your location, or nearest major metropolitan city, in the Google search bar. For instance, “Nashville newspaper” or “Seattle shopper”.

You are highly likely to find multiple small publications in your area. Don’t overlook neighborhood associations, as well as schools, day care facilities, gyms, community centers, churches, and clubs and organizations that create newsletters for their members. If their readership matches your target market, getting featured in these is free and can help you to grow your online business.

Make a list of publication names and contact information, and then either email them a link to your articles, or print out a copy and send it to their mailing address.

Share your content with associates and potential clients.
Print one of your favorite articles and mail it to prospective clients, business associates and others who might find the content useful. Include a sticky note that says “Thought you might find this helpful,” and sign your name. Be sure your website address or contact information and a business card are included as well. Then hand-address the envelope, include your name and return address, and drop it in the mail. If you make it a practice to send out a few every week, it can pay off in added readers, website visitors and customers.

Turn an article into a press release.
Newspapers are always looking for interesting news and stories they can use for their broadcast or print media. If your article has a strong news hook related to a recent event or season, you may be able to pitch a story as a press release. First, do some research to find out who your best contact at the newspaper is. For instance, if you’re a landscaping company, identify who covers home and garden, then read several of their past articles to observe what topics they cover. Next, email or call them. Introduce yourself and ask what type of stories and news releases they want to receive and how (via email, fax, phone or mail).

Once you know what the reporters are looking for, you can direct appropriate stories their way. If your article topic fits, format your article as a press release and send it to them as they requested. Keep in mind that reporters and newspapers receive hundreds of releases, many of which were written and sent by people who haven’t taken any time to get to know the reporters or what they are looking for. By doing your homework and developing a relationship with them, you stand a much higher chance of getting your information published.

Click here for a great free online press release tool from Lisa Manyon called the “Write On Creative Press Release Producer”.

Create print booklets of your articles.
Take a few of your favorite articles and compile them into a booklet. Let’s say you bake absolutely gorgeous and delicious cakes in your home and deliver them to customers who have found you by word-of-mouth raving reviews from family and friends. Yes, the happy customer will remember the cake and will undoubtedly take pictures of it, but what if you also include in the delivery your business card, a booklet with photos of some of your most glorious works of art, a recipe or two and a couple of well written and instructional articles about how to work with marzipan or different types of icing? That booklet will more than likely become a permanent part of their cookbook collection. It would in my house! I would also be going to your website to find more pictures, recipes and “how-to” tips.

Here’s how:

1. Lay out the articles in a word processing program (OpenOffice.org is free) or your desktop publishing software.
2. Add an “About Us” page and contact information. Include your email address and website URL.
3. Include a free offer inside the book, if the reader joins your email list.
4. Print one sample booklet to make sure the formatting is correct.
5. Copy the booklets at home or at your local print shop.

Here are a couple of excellent places to create your business card online using your own images.

Vista Print

Overnight Prints

Then, it’s time to distribute the booklets.

• Mail them to prospective clients
• Include them with all physical purchases
• Offer them as a free gift to subscribers
• Bring them to networking events and leave at information tables or booths.

There are many ways to use offline article marketing strategies to enhance your results. Be creative and search for new places to display articles and locate readers and subscribers. By offering them your well-written articles, you can establish yourself as a local expert and go-to person when they need your services or products.

But, before you embark on this program, there may be some housekeeping tasks that you need to address before doing everything you can to drive new customers or prospects to your business.

1. Give your website a good spring cleaning. Are there broken links, broken images, or outdated materials? Be sure that it looks professional, welcoming and offers the visitor all the information that they need to make a decision about whether they want to return to your site, read your blog, or visit your physical business location if you have one. That first impression is probably the only one you will get!
2. Make sure your contact form and your newsletter opt-in form is working.
3. If you have social networking icons on your site, be sure they are pointing to the correct URL.

And finally, believe in yourself. Because if you don’t, nobody else will either.

Be sure to signup for our newsletter so these articles arrive in your email box when they are published.

What Kind of Articles Work Best?

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Sep 23, 2010 in Internet Mastery | 0 comments

What Kind of Articles Work Best?

“Winners have simply formed the habit of doing things losers don’t like to do.” ~ Albert E.N. Gray

There are limitless topics that you could write about. But to make the biggest positive impact on your business, the articles that work the best are those that match the interests of your niche market.

If your business is selling information products to stay-at-home moms who want to start their own work- from-home virtual assistance practice, then you want to write articles that demonstrate your expertise in that area. When those readers get to your resource box at the end of your article, they’ll click on the link expecting more of the same great content. Writing recipe articles for foodies, for instance, when your target market is aspiring work-from-home Virtual Assistants just doesn’t make sense.

The best explanation I’ve ever heard of this was by Jimmy D. Brown who coined the term “useful but incomplete”. What he meant was that your articles should be “useful” to your target audience, but “incomplete” in that they should lead the reader hungrily to seek more information from you. They’ll turn to your resource box in search of more.

Keep in mind that people will come to your website or blog or read your articles online for one reason and one reason only. How can it help them? What solutions, advice or tips are you offering that will assist your reader in answering questions that they have about your niche or industry? If you consistently offer great, and GOOD content to your readership, they will return and bring friends with them.

Quality Content is Critical

While anyone can throw together a few sentences, combine a few paragraphs, paste on a resource box and call it an article, this slap-dash method is not likely to produce the results you desire. Quite simply, quality content is the key for any kind of success in article marketing.

Online article directories are filled with articles written by non-native language writers who don’t understand grammar or sentence structure, or by those who have simply copied what someone else wrote and plugged it into an article spinner without thought for the value of the finished article. Using such shoddy marketing methods will never help your article marketing efforts, and will likely brand you as unprofessional and harm your reputation as a business owner.

Most editors in search of content would rather find an expert on EzineArticles.com, Self Growth or Evan Carmichael with 10 high-quality articles, than one with 500 junk articles. When editors and readers see junk articles, they assume that everything that person does is junk. Clearly this is not a great way to build a business or a reputation!

When you offer well-written, relevant content that helps your reader answer a question or gain new knowledge and understanding of a subject matter they’re interested in, you’ll establish yourself as an expert and advance your article marketing efforts and, ultimately, your business.

Resources

Free Report: 5 Steps to a Big-Profit, S.M.A.L.L. Report Business by Jimmy D. Brown

Easy PLR is a wonderful resource that will help you find an ongoing supply of fresh content for your blog or article marketing efforts. However, I highly recommend that you edit and re-write these articles in your own voice. Use them as a jumping off point and then take it from there.

Need an Article. When you need well-crafted and well-written content for business, for website, or for personal reasons Need an Article has the solution to your writing needs. Again, the same suggestions about editing and re-writing these articles in your own voice applys.

Be sure to signup for our newsletter so these articles arrive in your email box when they are published.

Your Partner In Success Welcomes Rosalind Gardner

Posted by Denise Griffitts on Jul 15, 2010 in Your Partner In Success | 0 comments

Your Partner In Success Radio Show

Are you ready to learn about affiliate marketing?

This week I chat with one of my absolute favorite online entrepreneurs, Rosalind Gardner. Her book “The Super Affiliate Handbook; How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People’s Stuff Online” is one the staples in my entrepreneurial library.

Using a step-by-step plan to help you build you online business, this book answers all the questions you may have about affiliate marketing and many more that you didn’t know you needed answers to. Not only is this book one that I consider an important addition to any small business owners library, the Super Affiliate Handbook is stocked in libraries and used in University and College ecommerce courses. For more information click here.

Do you want to know….

• How you can use your web site, blog, or email list to “presell” visitors into affiliate purchases?
• The strategies that lead to high conversion rates?
• Why it’s critical to pick affiliate products you believe in personally?
• How to write product reviews that convert into sales?
• How to use affiliate offers to solve your customers problems and make money doing it?
• What Rosalind’s #1 success tip for anyone considering information marketing or for those already involved in information or affiliate marketing?
• What Rosalind feels is the biggest challenge or pitfall that she feels holds individuals back from success in Information Marketing?
• Marketing your own products on ClickBank

Why would affiliate marketing be something that you should add to your business building activities?

The profit potential of the Net is growing at an amazing rate. And the list of people who can benefit from becoming involved in cyber commerce is getting longer every minute. For example, over one million retirees have returned to work in recent years after sustaining huge losses in their retirement savings portfolios.

Rather than working at the local laundromat, many have chosen to make MORE money and work at HOME as affiliate marketers.

An affiliate marketing business is perfect for anyone in the scenarios listed below.

Are you…

• An at-home parent with young children?
• An at home caregiver?
• Physically challenged?
• Unemployed?
• A victim of downsizing and at an age when finding new employment will be difficult?
• A Retiree looking for a stimulating activity and/or need extra cash?
• A Student who needs cash and flexible hours?
• A Graduate who lacks job experience?
• An Individual who needs extra cash, but can’t take a second away-from-home job?
• Someone with a real-time business who needs extra cash?
• Someone with skills or hobbies that can be turned into an online service or business?
• Individuals who are ‘stuck’ in their current jobs or businesses?
• Someone who needs a challenge?
• A person who wants an intellectual challenge?
• Someone with expensive habits?
• Someone who could use some extra cash
• Someone with a job who wants to earn extra for retirement?
• A person who wants to make a risk-free career change?
• Someone with a large expense to save for: e.g. college for the kids?
• Those who need more flexible working hours?
• Someone who is ready to fire their boss?
• A person who feels ‘stuck’ in the 9 to 5 rut?
• Someone who wants to stop commuting to work?
• Someone who wants to work at home?
• A person who feels discriminated against in traditional jobs?
• Someone who lives in a remote area where employment opportunities are limited?
• Someone who WANTS to live in a remote area and still have an income?

Learn from a master of affiliate marketing and dial in on Friday, July 16^th to listen to Rosalind Gardner live. She will even stick around for Q&A if you need. If you have any questions you would like to ask Rosalind, or to speak with us live please join us in the chat room or on the phone.

Your Partner In Success Radio Show

When: Friday, July 16, 2010

Time: 9 am PST, 10 am MST, 11 am CST, 12 pm EST

Where: Your home office telephone or computer.

Website: Your Partner In Success Radio Show

Call-in Number: 347-843-4988

We look forward to “seeing” you!

Denise Griffitts