How to earn money online (part-5)

 Promoting Affiliate Products on a Blog

It can be tempting to just throw some graphical ads in the header and sidebar of your blog in an effort to make sales. These types of ads can be effective, but they're rarely as effective as mentions of the products in your blog posts. If you are building a rapport with your readers, they will be interested in the products you recommend, or even just mention.

Just casually working in a reference to a product is the simplest way to get your affiliate link out there. You could mention using the product, or discuss a news story that involves it. If the product appeals to your target market, you should get some clicks, and eventually some conversions.

But the most effective way to generate affiliate sales is to review the products you're promoting. If the product is appropriate for your audience, they will appreciate an in-depth review. And if you've established trust with your readers, a recommendation could be extremely lucrative.

Reviews are also great for bringing in search engine visitors who are interested in making a purchase. Those who are debating whether or not to buy a specific product often do searches for reviews of it. If the search brings them to your blog post, and they like what they see, there's a good chance that they will click your affiliate link and complete the transaction. There's also a good chance that they will bookmark your blog.

When doing product reviews, it is essential to be honest. Your first instinct might be to avoid saying anything bad about something that could make you money, but if every product gets glowing reviews, your readers are going to get suspicious. It's better to lose a sale and keep your readers' trust than vice versa. If you lose a reader's trust, you may never get another opportunity to make a sale to him.

Blogs and affiliate marketing are a match made in heaven. But in order to get the most out of your blog, you must keep it updated with fresh, high quality content. If you can't work an affiliate link into every post, that's okay. In fact, throwing in a promotion-free post every now and then will keep your audience from feeling like they're nothing more than a prospect to you.

Ever heard of Podcasting

The days of the Internet being a text-only medium are long since over. Today it's filled with all sorts of sights and sounds. There are elaborate flash applications, games, videos, radio stations and much, much more.

Audio on the Web is a wonderful thing for a lot of reasons. It makes it more accessible for the visually impaired, and it makes it easier for those who learn better by hearing than by reading to grasp what's being said. It also makes the Internet more personal. Even the best writer can't fully convey the emotion of what someone is saying in print.

In light of these factors, it's no wonder that affiliates have taken to podcasting as a means of promoting their websites and products. This gives them a different avenue for building relationships and loyalty with their target market. It also makes their messages more portable if they make their podcasts available for download, because listeners can put it on their MP3 players and take it with them wherever they go.

A podcast is more or less the audio equivalent of a blog. You can use it to inform your audience, or to provide commentary on various topics. It's also a great medium for doing interviews with professionals in your niche, or even merchants whose products you are promoting.

To get started in podcasting, there are a few things you'll need. The first is a good microphone. This is important because it will reduce the amount of background noise and accurately capture your voice. A good sound card is also something you should have in your computer. Additionally, you will need software such as Audacity to capture your podcast, add in music and other sounds, and compress the files. Some podcasters also utilize a mixer, but that's not a necessity when you're starting out. You can always buy one later on if you feel the need.

You have a few options for posting your podcast. One is to post it on iTunes. To do this, you'll need to upload it to a server and submit your RSS feed to iTunes. Making your podcast available via iTunes lends an air of legitimacy, but listeners will have to have an iTunes account and software in order to access it.

Another way to make your podcast available is to post through a blog. There is some wonderful WordPress plug-ins (such as WordPress) that makes posting podcasts very easy. And if you include a link to your RSS feed on your blog, listeners can subscribe so that they may listen to new content as soon as it becomes available. You can also include some descriptive text and clickable affiliate links on the podcast page if you're publishing through your own blog.

Podcasts can be short tidbits of information, or they can be more like radio shows and run for a half hour or more. If you're working with a small niche, a few minutes’ worth of content should be sufficient. It will also be more easily digestible than a long podcast.

Not every affiliate uses podcasts, and they're not one of those things that you have to do in order to succeed. But they can add greatly to your marketing efforts. If you can come up with topics for a blog, you can come up with topics for a podcast, and you don't need lots of expensive equipment to get started. So it can't hurt to at least give it a try.

Affiliate Marketing with Videos

Anyone who has been living under a rock for the past few years might not have heard of YouTube. But the rest of us know that it's one of the hottest sites on the Internet. Anyone can submit videos, and visitors that enjoy a video are often eager to spread the word about it.

Affiliate marketers are often intimidated by the idea of creating YouTube videos. Some of them are very polished, and you can tell that no expense has been spared in making them. But videos do not have to be professionally made in order to be effective. Even funny home videos have been successfully used to get traffic!

Even if you're on a tight budget, you can create videos for YouTube. Windows users have a handy program called Windows Movie Maker on their computers, and they can use it to make videos without even needing a video camera. You can use images and text to get your point across, and add some music or a voice recording for sound. If you have a digital camcorder or webcam, you can use video and audio from that as well.

Another popular tool for marketers is a piece of software called Camtasia. Camtasia allows you to capture video from your computer screen and audio from a microphone to create videos. This works very nicely for marketers in technology and Internet marketing niches. With it, you can make great instructional videos with ease.

You can mention your website and affiliate links in YouTube videos. It's also a good idea to include the links you're promoting in the video's description. And after you've uploaded a video to the site, you can add annotations to it that include links. This ensures that even if users embed the video onto their own site, viewers can easily click through if they are interested.

YouTube videos are viral marketing at its best. A good video could potentially get thousands of views and bring lots of traffic to your website or affiliate link. And as easy as it is to create videos, anyone can take advantage of this powerful marketing channel.

Affiliate Email Marketing

Aside from talking in person, email is the least expensive way we can communicate with others. It's not surprising that marketers realized the benefits of email early on. Unfortunately, scammers and spammers also seized the opportunity to make contact with people at very little cost, and they haven't let up since.

The prevalence of spam, along with Internet users' dedication to avoiding it, has prompted some critics to conclude that email marketing is dead. But tell that to affiliates with large lists and equally large incomes, and they will laugh. They'll tell you that as long as you play by the rules, email provides an unparalleled opportunity to stay in contact with your target market.

What are these rules? Here's a summary.

Gain your audience's trust. These days, people do not take giving up their email address lightly. Those, who have read your website or blog and found it useful and forthright, are most likely to sign up for your mailing list. Some of your subscribers will be people who just happened by your opt-in page, but the majority are usually people who are already familiar with what you do and know you're on the up-and-up.

Don't waste your subscribers' time. Instead of just sending out emails to keep your name out there, provide them with something of value. It could be helpful tips, product recommendations or links to relevant news items. Whatever it is, put yourself in the reader's shoes. If you wouldn't be interested, neither would they. And disinterested subscribers quickly become former subscribers.

Keep it fairly short. Marketers often feel obligated to send out a long email with several articles. But few people are willing to wade through a long email any more, even if it's on a subject they're passionate about. A short note or a single article is much better received. If you have more than that to say to your readers, direct them to your website.

Avoid making every email a hard sell. Your objective is to make money, but if you pursue it too aggressively, you'll turn your readers off. There's nothing wrong with openly promoting products, just don't do it every time you hit the “Send” button.

Take steps to avoid spam filters. Try to make sure that email subjects and content do not appear spammed, and remind subscribers to whitelist your email address.

Honor all unsubscribed requests. Sending out unwanted emails isn't going to change anyone's mind. If anything, it will make them more determined not to listen to anything you have to say. And it will also give you a bad reputation, making others who hear reports of unsolicited email wary of signing up for your list.

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