Archive for January, 2007
Autoresponding to Your Opt-In Needs – Part 1
Posted by Matt Van Atta in Affiliate Marketing, E-mail Marketing Friday, 19 January 2007 18:37 No Comments
In my post on December 7, I explained how a squeeze page can help affiliate marketers build those all-important opt-in lists of email addresses. Once you begin collecting those email addresses, the autoresponder becomes an absolute must-have tool for your email marketing efforts.
In its basic form, an autoresponder is a software program that receives a message or inquiry from an email address and automatically, almost instantaneously, sends a reply to that address. No humans are used in the sending of such replies, so you can arrange to send them whenever you want.
Microsoft Outlook contains a classic example of this. Outlook’s “Out of Office Assistant” (available to Microsoft Exchange Server email account users) is an autoresponder that allows you to reply to anyone who sends you an email while you’re away. That way you can get away from it all and not have people think you’ve flown the coop.
But for affiliate marketers, autoresponders go way beyond just sending the “I’m not here” message; they serve as means through which to deliver marketing content to your opt-in list, keeping potential customers engaged in what you have to offer.
Say you’ve built out that squeeze page, offering a report or other piece of free content to the visitor if he or she provides an email address. When the visitor submits the email address, an autoresponder can reply right away, sending the content and thanking the recipient for his or her interest.
Through an autoresponder, regularly scheduled content delivery is easy – whether it’s a monthly or weekly newsletter, a series of report segments, or other content that helps to promote what you are selling. Simply prepare your emails for distribution, set up the autoresponder to send the emails on your schedule, and you’re good to go.
Autoresponder software enables you not only to communicate and maintain your message to your target audience, but also to maintain your overall opt-in list. However, your opt-in list will hopefully grow (and one would expect it will if your website is well thought out and well built). It may become difficult to write content, program the autoresponder, and keep track of unsubscribes.
Also, there are other matters related to your opt-in list to attend to, all while you’re working on other aspects of your business. That means you have more to do than time in which to do it.
That’s where an autoresponder service can come in… which I’ll cover in Part 2.
Do You Have A Great Product… That No One Knows About?
Posted by AC Editorial Team in Affiliate Marketing, Best Business Practices Thursday, 18 January 2007 20:59 1 Comment
I just had a real-life experience that I think can teach us all a good marketing lesson.
During the holidays I decided to get my friend one of those cool Black & Decker Power Scissors. You may have seen the ads. They are the battery powered ones that can cut through anything!
However, since they were highly advertised, I couldn’t find one anywhere! Everyone was sold out of them (and still are). So, I printed off a picture and gave that to her – and have been looking for them ever since.
Today I went into Home Depot and asked about them for about the fifth time. The girl there was very nice; she said that they had them last year, but they all went out on the clearance rack recently.
I was surprised that they were on clearance already, so I asked – “These were just released this year, why were they on clearance so fast?”
The lady doing inventory told me that they actually came out for the 2005 Holiday Season, but Black & Decker didn’t advertise them so they just sat around for a year until they finally put them on clearance. Then, when they finally decided to advertise, they sold out almost immediately.
Ohh, the power of advertising! My experience with this little gift brought up a few questions that I wanted to ask fellow affiliates.
Do you have a great product to sell, but no one knows about it?
If so, you need to get better at marketing and advertising. You need to get the word out as quickly as possible, before you get tired of the product and give up on it. At the very least, make sure you have done the following to get exposure:
- Write articles and submit them to article directories.
- Use PPC advertising for more exposure.
- Contact other marketers who have complementary products in your niche and ask them to promote your product.
- Post messages on other people’s forums and blogs with a signature line that leads back to your product
- Get some business cards made up and leave them wherever you go (even in bathrooms, gas stations, and grocery stores if possible).
Never just sit on a product and hope that the buyers will come. It won’t happen. Unless you are actively out there promoting the product, you may find yourself selling it for less than it’s worth. And that’s never a good thing!
Microsoft’s Outlook 2007 – Why Affiliates Should Care
Posted by AC Editorial Team in Affiliate Marketing, E-mail Marketing Wednesday, 17 January 2007 14:40 3 Comments
If you’re doing Affiliate Marketing correctly, you have at least one subscriber list developed and are sending regular newsletters to your subscribers. Now, there’s something new to consider before you set up future newsletters.
HTML or Text?
Most of my newsletters are basic text messages. I’ve done this for the sake of convenience, but I find that sometimes I would like to add a banner or another form of advertising to make my message a little “prettier,” and more clickable.
That’s why I made the decision to ”step up to the plate” and develop the newsletter for my next website in HTML format. However, now, due to the changes Microsoft is making with the release of Outlook 2007 (which is only a couple weeks away), I may have to reconsider.
Here are a few things you need to know to make sure your newsletter continues to be readable by subscribers who have updated their Outlook programs:
For security reasons (I guess) Outlook will use the Word 2007 HTML parsing and rendering engine to display HTML emails – NOT Internet Explorer. That will cause a major problem in how messages and images are displayed when viewed.
Here are a few things you will NOT be able to add to your HTML if you want them retain their format:
- Background images (HTML or CSS)
- Forms
- Flash, or other plugins
- CSS floats
- Images instead of Bullets in lists
- Animated GIFs
It looks like all of the things that would make my new HTML message “pretty” will now make my messages practically unreadable!
So what does this mean for you? I’m thinking it means that your HTML emails now need to go back to (or remain) being very simple; almost text-like again.
I guess it’s back to the drawing board!
If you have a lot of HTML based emails, Microsoft has a tool to let you know which parts of your eZine will become unreadable in their new software.
Oh, thank you so much Microsoft!
Affiliate Classroom Magazine January 2007 Released
Posted by Jeffrey Perren, AC Magazine in Affiliate Classroom Magazine, Affiliate Marketing Tuesday, 16 January 2007 12:08 No Comments
At Affiliate Classroom Magazine, we’ve decided to make affiliate marketing fundamentals our focus in 2007. In the January issue we’ll help you choose the right programs and merchants.
Our cover story illustrates how a working affiliate goes through the process of selecting a good program. Beginners will find useful tips for merchant selection, and intermediate and advanced marketers may learn a thing or two as well!
For non US-based affiliates, there’s an article on international program selection. No theory here, just practical advice on finding programs, getting accepted, and increasing conversions from international buyers.
And if you’re curious about who won Affiliate Classroom Magazine’s Product of the Year Award, don’t miss this issue. It’s not just the most versatile marketing product of the year… it’s free!
Determining if your SEO is Successful
Posted by AC Editorial Team in Affiliate Marketing, Free Traffic, SEO Saturday, 13 January 2007 19:29 1 Comment
I’ve read a lot of literature that explains how to set up web pages for the best natural Search Engine Optimization. However, there is very little written on how to measure that success.
You spend a lot of time optimizing the pages, so here are a few things you can do to see if that time was spent wisely.
Check your Rankings. If you are using a large number of keywords to bring traffic to your site, it will not be feasible to track each one. For this reason, pick a subset of the large list – the main keywords that are increasing sales – and track them.
To best select your keywords, use the words that are ranking high for traffic and revenue in your PPC campaign. Then you can easily measure success by watching for words that climb or drop in search-engine rankings.
Revenue: One might think that measuring Revenue is the easiest way to determine if your SEO is working. But you need to do it right. You can’t just put up the new pages and start tracking money coming in. Revenue is the most important, and most accurate thing to try to compare, but it has to be an ANNUAL comparison.
Since different times of the year have highs and lows, when you track annually, you can get a good average and determine if the overall strategy is working.
Traffic: It’s sometimes hard to measure traffic exactly. Use your web site’s Administrative Control Panel as the best resource. The charts and graphs show monthly traffic, so it should be easy to compare current traffic to last year’s traffic during that same time period.
Just be sure to take into account any special promotions that may have been done during that time that would skew the numbers.
If you’ve done your homework correctly, and have your pages highly optimized for the search engines, all of these areas should show increases throughout the year. And, you’ll be well on your way to effective SEO!
