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Jagger, Google Analytics, and the Future of Search & SEO
Two big things have just happened in Google-land: Jagger and
Google Analytics. Together, these two events may have changed
the face of search forever.
Jagger
First, let's discuss Jagger... Just like hurricanes,...
Search Engine Metrics… Organic Search vs. Paid Placement
Let me preface this report by citing advertisers in 2004 have spent 4 Billion dollars on search engine marketing according to (SEMPO) the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization. Website marketers cited Search engine positioning was the...
Search Engine Optimization - A Beginner's Guide
Getting your site listed in the top search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN is no small job. There is lots of work that needs to be done to guarantee the highest placement possible, and even more work is needed to keep your ranking for any...
Ways To Promote Your Site
Looking for ways to promote your business? Here's a list of different ways for you to promote. 1) Write articles and give reprint rights. Submit them to websites who take article submissions. Be sure to include you byline. 2) Put your business...
You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet!
How's your business activities coming along? If you're not up to your eyeballs in new customers and new downline agents, consistently, every week, then let me ask some questions: Do you understand what it could mean for you, financially, if you...
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How To Select Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs offer most promising opportunities to earn
money, to grow contacts and to establish yourself on the net.
But this is easier said than done. There are so many affiliate
programs available - genuine programs and the other ones.
Joining most of these programs is extremely easy. The natural
question is - how do you locate good programs that will suit
you?
This is an important question and needs careful consideration.
It is better to do a little research before joining a program
rather than realizing later that all is not well.
The first consideration is the reputation of the program. It is
worthwhile doing some research on this to satisfy yourself.
There can be several ways of doing it. You can get in contact
with the person who referred the program to you and find out his
experience with it. Visit the website of the program and look
for testimonials. If you know someone who is well versed with
internet marketing he can offer you some advice. There are also
websites that evaluate various affiliate programs and you can
find them quite easily by searching on Google.
There are affiliate directories which provide some details of
hundreds of affiliate programs registered with them, such as:
http://www.cj.com
http://www.associateprograms.com
http://www.affiliatematch.com
http://www.becomeanaffiliate.com
http://www.affiliatedirectory.com
http://www.refer-it.com
http://www.linkshare.com
http://www.2-tier.com
http://www.lifetimecommissions.com
Generally affiliate programs found at these directories can be
trusted because these directories do their own verification of
the programs before registering them. However, this should not
absolve you from doing your own little research.
Once this issue is settled to your satisfaction, you have
crossed a big hurdle. I shall assume that you are interested in
long term relationship and your own persistence with the program
will count as much to your success as the benefits you get from
the program.
Another consideration is how much it will cost to join the
program. Many programs offer free affiliate membership and to
that extent risk is minimized. Therefore it will be advisable to
go for free or low cost affiliate programs unless you have
definite information that it is worth paying for the program of
your choice.
Payment schedule of the affiliate program is another issue to be
considered. There are wide variations. Various programs pay
weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly and some programs give
immediate payments. There is now a tendency towards immediate
payment and many affiliate programs are adopting it. This is
facilitated by using payment processors like PayPal and
Stormpay. The method of payment also varies - payments may be
made by checks, direct deposit in the bank account or thru the
payment processors. Also different programs have their own
policy regarding minimum commission that must accrue before
payments can be made to the affiliates. You will be in the best
position to decide whether the program's payment policy suits
you.
Another factor to be considered is - what is the hit per sale
ratio? This is the average number of hits to a banner or text
link it takes to generate a sale based on
all affiliate
statistics. Many programs make this data available to the
affiliates which is a big help. This factor is extremely
important because this will tell you how much traffic you must
generate before you are likely to earn a commission from the
sale.
Now almost all the affiliate programs track the computers which
are used to access the affiliate sites by placing cookies on
those computers. The lifetime of these cookies varies from few
months to the lifetime of the computer. This is necessary to
give credit to the affiliate for any sales made thru his
promotional efforts. The period of time that those cookies stay
in the system is also important. This is because most of the
time visitors do not buy initially but may want to return later
to make the purchase. It will be advantageous to know if you
will still get credit for the sale if it is done some months
from a certain day.
Success of promotion can be improved only by trial and error.
There is no fool-proof strategy which will work for all
situations. This has to be done the hard way. The affiliate
program should give ad-tracking services to their affiliates to
keep track of their promotional campaigns. The data these
services generate should be available online anytime you decide
to check them out. Constantly checking your individual stats is
important to know how many impressions, hits and sales are
already generated from your site.
The affiliate program should offer physical goods, goods in
electronic form and/or services of some value to their
customers. As an affiliate you should have good knowledge about
what the program offers. It will be to your advantage if you
actually own and use any of those products - you will be able to
narrate first-hand experience to your prospective customers. If
by any chance you do not really understand what the program
offers, it is better not to join such program.
Does the affiliate program have a single tier or multi-level
structure? A single tier program pays you only for the business
you have directly generated. A multi-level program pays you for
the business, plus it also pays you a commission on the sales
generated by any affiliate you sponsor in your program.
Multi-level programs help you leverage your earnings which grow
to huge amount with consistent effort. In the process you have a
chance to get to know your up-line and down-line affiliates well
and develop personal relationships with them.
Lastly, what is the commission paid by the program? What other
payments are made by the program? There can be one time
commission for selling a single item, recurring commission for
services or memberships, leveraged earnings and bonus of various
types. Understanding the compensation as well as affiliate
structure is necessary for an affiliate.
These are some of the important considerations for evaluating an
affiliate program. It is not a complete list by any means. The
affiliate needs to remain watchful for surprises. Even then some
element of risk will always be there. The success of the
affiliate will depend not only on the program, but also on his
own efforts.
About the author:
Sanjay Johari is an author and an internet marketer. Visit his
website for network marketing opportunities, resources, articles
and other information: http://www.sanjay-j.com
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