Month: March 2015

Suitable Articles & Banner Ads for Your Niche Sites

Woman in a neon triangle

Selecting suitable articles and banner advertisements for your niche sites is a process which must be approached and completed with the utmost care, because both these content types should be in conformity with the niche site theme. Articles must discuss the niche site topic in a manner that is intelligent and engaging, thereby demonstrating to readers that they were well-researched; and banner ads – which are graphical in nature – must depict images that relates to the niche topic or a topic that correlates to it.

In both cases the objective is to generate income, which results from increased traffic created by the articles and direct payments from merchants whose products/services are reflected in the banner messages and whose websites (product landing pages) to which the banner URLs are pointed. Another aspect of placing banner ads on high visibility websites – whether such websites are niche sites or not – is providing the site owner with a continuous source of income via monthly fees whether clicks result in sales or not.

It is important to point out here that in order to command a monthly fee for banners ads placed on a site, that site must have a demonstrated history of high traffic volume that must justify payment of such a fee; thus the term “high visibility” websites. Interestingly enough this is also where the attractive quality of articles placed on such sites are integral to the sites’ traffic generation attributes; so the articles and banners which represent 75 to 90 percent of a typical site’s content must compliment each other.

Consider for a moment that you are the website owner and your aim is to utilize free website content articles for whatever reason (unwillingness or inability to write your own), then it may be difficult for you to find articles that contain your exact keywords; so you may have to either make revisions to these articles – which may not be allowed on some free article writers – or base your keywords on articles you find, which could leave you with very competitive keywords that would be too costly and time consuming to attain a high ranking for.

If you are going to buy content, make sure that you let the writer know what your niche keywords are and what specifically your preferred keyword density and placement are. Remember, the wrong articles can leave you with little traffic and very low search engine rankings if they do not fit in properly with either your niche or with keywords that are easy to attain high rankings for, either of which could derail your marketing (income?) objectives before you even gain a little traction.

Where banners are concerned the most important thing is for you to create an informative website filled with relevant, engaging and useful articles, so that you can generate a high amount of returning visitors. And as your site rises in credibility, reputation and position in search engine rankings, the blank spaces on your site will begin to look more and more appealing to advertisers, at which time you can command fees which will both be acceptable as well as guaranteed.

Keep in mind that anyone can be an affiliate, but when affiliate marketing is compared to having a banner or several banners placed in good spots on high-ranking websites, the latter will bring that site owner the most revenue. So once you have established your website as one that can be profitable for merchants and advertisers, you can rent different spaces on your sites for them to place banner ads. Each month you will be paid the same fee, no matter how much they do or do not make off of your efforts.

 

The Affiliate Marketer: A Day In the Life Of

A primary business tool on hold

Any reasonable observer might accept the correlation between today’s affiliate marketer and yesterday’s commission salesman; including the door-to-door salesman, telemarketer and corresponding salesman. If such a correlation can withstand criticism from, and debate among, members of the respective groups and as a result, these groups can therefore be viewed as similar in nature, it can also be said that a major difference between the two is the Internet.

Being in the affiliate marketing business is not as difficult today because those who engage in it have the Internet at their disposal. There is little doubt that an affiliate marketer’s job – while being done in a much more competitive environment – is made much easier by the Internet as compared to the days when marketers/salespersons had to make use of the telephones and other tools and resources of the day, to get up-to-date news, statistics and industry information on their respective fields, as well as to “track” the progress of their programs.

That having been said, let’s take a look at how technology has affected the sales (affiliate marketing) profession. Assuming of course that most affiliate marketers conduct business from home, this is an attempt to depict a day in his/her professional life…

Upon waking up and after having breakfast, the computer is turned on to check any new developments in the network. As far as the marketer is concerned there might be new items to update and statistics to keep track of.

The site design has to be revised. The marketer knows that a well-designed site can increase sign ups from visitors, as well as help in the affiliate’s conversion rates (the conversion rate is measured as clicks on product links divided by the number of product displays).

That done, it is time for the affiliate to submit his/her program to directories that lists affiliate programs. These directories are used by merchants and other affiliates to attract interested parties to join existing affiliate programs, and are therefor considered a surefire way of promoting an affiliate program.

Time to track down any sales the affiliate is getting from the efforts of other affiliates in a fair and accurate manner. It is important to point out here that phone and mail orders still exist and therefore must also be track, although to a lesser degree. Additionally, the affiliate will also check to see if they are new clients checking out the products. S/he Notes down the contact information that might be a viable source in the future.

 

There are lots of resources to sort out. Ads, banners, button ads and sample recommendations to distribute because the marketer knows that this is one way of ensuring more sales. It is always best that an affiliate marketer stays visible and accessible to the marketplace.

The affiliate marketer remembered that there are questions to answer from visitors to the various websites and product pages; but this has to be done quickly because nothing can turn off a customer like an unanswered email.

To prove that the affiliate is working effectively and efficiently, inquiries would have to be paid prompt attention to since nobody wants to be ignored; and as most seasoned affiliate marketers will tell you, customers are not always the most patient of individuals. So it is important to provide a quick answer that should also be professional courteous.

In the process of doing all the necessities, the marketer is logged on to a chat room where s/he interacts with other affiliates and those under that same program. This is where they can discuss things on how to best promote their products.

There are things to be learned and it is a continuous process. Sharing tips and advice is a good way of showing support, as there may be others wanting to join and may be enticed by the discussion that is going on. There is certainly no harm in anticipating what kind of opportunities lie ahead.

The newsletters and ezines were updated days ago, so it is time for the affiliate marketer to see if there are some new things happening in the marketplace. This will be written about in the marketer’s publication to be distributed to old and new customers alike.

These same publications are also important tools in keeping up to date with newly introduced products the marketer has put up a sale and promotion that customers may want to know about. Besides, they have to keep up with deadlines for these sales written in such publications.

The time has come now to show some appreciation to those who have helped the marketer with promotions and sales increase. Nothing like mentioning the persons, their sites and the great job they have done in helping to make everything work. This of course, will also be published in the newsletters among the more important information that have already been written.

The marketer still has time to write out recommendations to those who want credible sources for products and services being promoted; and there is also time to post some comments on how to be a successful affiliate marketer on a site where there are lots of wannabees.

Two objectives done at the same time is when the marketer gets to promote his/her product, as well as the program s/he represents and promotes. Who knows, someone may be inclined to join, right? Time flies however, and although the affiliate missed lunch s/he is still quite content with the tasks performed and can say: Job well done with a self gratifying pat on the back. Bed time….

Okay, so this may not be all done in a day; but it does give you an idea of how an affiliate marketer, a dedicated one that is, spends the marketing day. Is that success looming on the horizon, or is it just a mirage of wishful thinking? You be the judge!