“hOw tO cHoOsE aN AfFiLiAtE pRoGrAm”

When you plan to join an affiliate program of course it is really important for you to review first the merchants background.Ask questions to them so that you can have a further information about them and if the company is less responsive then don’t waste your time anymore  to that program,try to find another program that could provede you the information you need.But,be sure that you alrerady had prepared the question you want to askand be sure that those questions are not included in the affiliate package because it might make a lousy impression for you.Let us take a look at some of the possible questoin you might ask.

Is the company reputable?In the business world, the longer the firm exist in tha market the more reputable they are.This also holds true in affiliate marketing,of course,ww all know that most merchant are reputable operators but just because someone has a web site doesn’t mean that they’re legitimate and trustworthy.In thiis case, commissio junction could be a big help for you because commission junction post the date that merchants join their affiliate network.So, when the company has been associated with commission junction for a year or more we could say that they are in business to do business.You can also determine whether the company is not part of an affiliate or listed in the affiliate directory by the number of link point to their site.If they had many affiliate promoting their product you can safely assume that tha company is reputable,you can find out hopw many “links in” asit has through AltaVista http://altevista.com.Upon knowing if the company is reputable or not you can avoid being cheat by those programs.

Then you also have to ask if there is an affiliate agreement and the conditions  of the agreemanet.In dealing with peole in business it is very important to ask for an agreement or it is bettre if they had an agreement because if they don’t have it published on their site then they can easily shaft you for money you’ve earned and you can’t go after them in case of misunderstanding happen.So, when they have established an affiliate agreement it is uaually lenghty and we sometimes ignore it but we should read them completely and carefully so that we won’t be surprised if anything happen.We might questioned them for such case but it has been clearly stated in the agreement that there events that they are imposing fines or something and since we didn’t read it completely we don’t know it so we can’t accuse them for doing so.

These are just some of those question you might ask to the affiliate program you want to join and there are lots of it that would surely help us in choosing an affiliate program we want to join.

“hOw tO cHoOsE a DoMaIn NaMe”

Most business are known because of its name and product that are proven and tested.In affiliate program your domain name is your business  name in the web and it represents you and your business.So,you mustbe very carefulland you mustbe very wise inthinking and choosing of what should be your domain name.

In choosing the domain you want for your business there are lots of things to consider that would probably help you in choosing your domain name.The very first thing to consider is to choose the best domain name extension such as .com,.net,.biz, and many more others.But, most of the people usually think of .com when you say web address since it is the commonlyuse domain name extension.So, if you dont want your potential customer to get away then choose the domain name extension that is surely easy to think of and is quite popular.Next is be very sure that the domain name you choose is relevant to the product and services you want toi advertise,you can put at least one of your keyword so that when your visitortype in the keyword your page will surely come out.lets say for example,when you are selling cosmetics product of course you will make a site that is relevant to product because if ytou will put another name like beautiful.com as your site it would likely create confusion nto the customer and might drive them away.You can go to the wordtracker.com to check if the keyword combination you used is searched most often.WordTracker has a free trial to establish which of your keyword is the most popular.Then, if you want to attract more visitor you should make sure that your site is memorable.You can make a short,unique,relavant and memorable name that people can remember every time they search or think fort that product.

putting hyphens may also add confusion to your customers because customers usally search sites without hyphens.So, instead of going to your site they might be going to your competitor who happen to have same product you are advertising and does not use hyphen to their site’s name.So, instead of you generating profit its your competitor who will gain.You should also avoid a name that need to be spell out,because all of these maight totally drive you visitor away to your site.And lastly, you should not infringe on atrademark,you should make sure that the domain name you are going to buy doesn’t have a trademark because this will laed in a legal battle and you surely don’t have any right for it because they own that trademark and the court can quickly shut your site down.

In choosing a domain name you can nvisit NameProtect.com http://nameproptect.com and the Trademark Association http://inta.org for some help and querries.

“dOmAiN iSsUeS”

In economics our basic principle is that “NOTHING IS FREE,EVERYTHING IS SCARCE” and most probably it can be applied into our different activities.Similarly,in affiliate programs free domain names and web sites host are worth precisely what you pay for them.Well,as you would thoroughly examine everything you would soon find out that those domain names that are offered for free was just akind of scam of the worst kind.At first,they would make you believe that you have brought traffic to your site and the money or revenue is generating only to find out that as time goes by it had already stopped generating revenue,You might be surprised that you already had lost your site.They will just encourage you to join them and build your site to bring visitors until such time that they would steal the traffic you have done and lost the revenue you supposed to earned.

Since we already know that the free domains are not that reliable let us further discussed the drawbacks to hosting your site on free servers.First,is lose credibility.In doing business on free server is more likely a street vending,it is like buying an inexpensive thing that is guaranteed no value so you have just waste your money.Next is the banner  advertising on your page,as what i have said “nothing is free” and it is really true because in exchange to the free space you have in their server the host would also place their own banner advertisement on your page and their banner detract you business.Third is a funky long address,of course you should make an address that is easy to familiarize and not too long because you might lost the visitor that is willing to visit your site for they might forget or be confused in its broadness.The fourth one is lack of features,since it is a free server you can’t decide on what or how much space they are going to give you so you can’t put all the necessary features you want to include on your site thus, it makes your site look very shallow to your visitor and might lost their interest to your site.Fifth is the slow loading page, of course the main reason why people shop online is to save their time.So, if you had a very slow loading page your perspective customer might get away on your site and they might fail to complete online order displacement.And the last one is the customer service because it would help you ensure that you can ask whenever you had confusions and question about their offers.Me also as a customer would probably look onto the site that has a customer service line that can help me and assist me.

After knowing the drawback to hosting your site on free server we can now easily decide on to what site or server we are going to join that we can assure its reliability and quality.

“A gOOd pRoGrAm tO jOiN aNd A pRoGrAm tO aVoId”

After all your research on the different factors of the affiliate program you choose you are now ready to join the group.In joining the program, you would probably receive a welcome note from that firm to confirm you as their newest affiliate.

The affiliate program’s welcome letter contains a thank you note for you becoming an affiliate.Then, they would give you the information you need to asses your affiliate statistics,link to the product and contact of the company in case you need help or further information.So. a great welcome note will show your affiliate ID ,password and your specialized affiliate web URL,it also include the things you would first do, the text links, the banner links a warning note and the general information of the program.They would give their customer service department’s e-mail for you to contact.

There are lots of program that would entice you to join them and most probably you might be interested to it.But, if there are those good program to join there are also programs that we must avoid.Of course, as an affiliate you should always make sure or lookout for a good quality of services/products you offer to your customer or visitor.And most probably your merchant would help you by letting you know about their new products and services they offer.Since, we want to earn more of course we should take a look at the commission specially on recurring sales and you should also take a review on the numbers of member that the program has and the quality of their product or services because you would not probably refer them to those program that are unreliable because  your customer might loose their trust to you or they will be disappointed to your referrals.

It is really very important to review or check the difference between two programs so that you can differentiate and make a sound decision on to what programs you should avoid.

“EeNy,mInEy,MiNeY,mOe…..CHOOSING BETWEEN AFFILIATE PROGRAMS”

We already have discussed that in business there is always a competition because some merchants offers the same product that we as an affiliate would like to pursue for business.So, if you are having hard time choosing between two similar products there are factors that would help you decide on to whom you are going to affiliate such as the amount of the commission that the company pays and the brand name of the products.

I would probably say that our primary reason why we affiliate is of course to earn and we have already learned that if we want to earn more we should carefully take a look at each product and commission that a merchant offer so that we can make comparison on the commission of each product and services that they offer.By doing this, we can  now determine on which product or services should we most actively promote.Upon knowing the comparison rates that the company offer top promote their product or services of course we would probably go to the company who offers a higher commission for us to earn bigger.But, we must remember that we should check the basis of getting a higher commission and weigh it before affiliating.

Brand name is also a factor to be considered in making decisions on to whom you are going to affiliate.Of course, it is very common to us to buy a product with high quality and there enters the brand name. So, when the product with a brand name that had been proven to be with high quality such as Chanel bags,Nike shoes an the like, we would probably buy those product.Brand name can probably drive more visitors to your site and you don’t have to bring them back to your site again and again before they are ready to buy your products.So every time we were left to make a choice between two product which maybe totally unknown and a nationally known product then we should probably choose the one with the brand name of course.

Through this factors you can now that you have chosen a good if not the bets affiliate program.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO ADVERTISE?

In business it is really important for your product to be known so that you can gain more profit from it and businesses are doing so many ways in order to introduce their product to the market and the most popular means of introducing a product is through advertisements.Advertising usually includes the name of a product or service and how that product or service could benefit the consumer, to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume that particular  brand.But before going into an advertisement you should have know how much does it cost?

The very first thing to do is to research on how much other sites pay for their advertisement because it will tell you a lot about your possible competition and market for your product.

You can use a lot of market research tool that would help you with this problem such as “FINDWHAT.COM” and “7SEARCH.COM” this sites will help you deliver more traffic.Well, if you are going to find out if a word is on the top bid per click then chances are high that you are going to pass on that topic.you can also put your chosen keyword at the bottom because prices may drop from top bid to the one at the bottom so it would appear that you’ve got a high demand keyword that might be worth at lower price.

So, advertising cost is an important factor to determine in advertising.

WHO IS YOUR COMPETITION?

In business it is better for you to know who your competitors are for you to better establish your own business because knowing them would help you learn some of the basic in business

While searching how much advertiser within your category are willing to pay for keywords,make use of the time also by visiting other sites. In this way you will know who are willing to pay for the advertisement.By visiting the sites that advertise, you will discover that there are two different types of sites that pay for keyword advertising in your category.These are IRRELEVANT SITES and COMPETING MERCHANT AND AFFILIATES SITE.

I will not further discuss irrelevant sites because as its name suggest they are totally not relevant to the  keyword you search and they are useless.While competing merchants and affiliates sites are used to find the merchant with great product and affiliate programs as well as good ideas for your sites. You can determine the site if it is an affiliates site or a merchants site by  “CURSOR OVER” it is when you put the cursor to the link and check your browser’s status bar to see if the links are affiliate product links. But,many affiliates are now using “CLOAKING DEVICE SOFTWARE”  or “MOUSE OVER SCRIPTS” hide and protect their affiliate links from commission theft are what we call as “hackers”.Finding your competition is a very important step in affiliate business because it will tell you a lot about the business you want to pursue.

Sometimes competition can also be good because  the more competition there is the larger the market exist.

Competition is essential because it leads to one very important thing, innovation and people are always looking for products with more features and capabilities, products that cost less but can do more, and products that just plain solve their needs/wants better than any other product can. When companies compete, consumers get what they want.So in short, “COMPETITION WILL LEAD TO INNOVATION”

Where to find products to sell?

We already have learn the kind of market niche we want to target.So now we have to find the merchant that sell related products and services through their affiliate programs.We will be able to find products and services to sell through affiliate networks,merchant web site and affiliate program directories.But, what are the benefits we gain and what are our chances of having the product we want to advertise?We will now take a look at affiliate network method.

What is an affiliate network?Well, affiliate network is a company that acts as a middleman between merchants and affiliates.So, through this merchant can put their product and details of their programs where affiliates can use their various programs available and then sign-up to the one they choose.Affiliate network are both beneficial to the merchant and the affiliate.Through affiliate network merchants can find a lot of eager affiliates for their product and they can save more because it is the affiliate network who administer their affiliate program.While if you are joining as an affiliate you can gain an equal benefit like the merchant because these merchants are willing to pay for good network management services and the whole process of finding and selecting programs are simplified through categorical search facilities and most of all joining is free. And if you are an affiliate member of a network you will receive notification and they will only send notices of merchants that are relevant to your site so you can save time.And also some networks would let you know which merchant programs are low in funds and therefor may not be a good idea to promote at a given time.So, this method is really useful and beneficial to both merchant and affiliate.

HERE ARE SOME AFFILIATE NETWORKS- QUICK LIST

• AFFILIATE FUEL {http://affiliatefuel.com/}
• BeFree {http://reporting.net}
• Casino coins {http://casinocions.com}
• Casino Rewards {http://affiliate.casinorewards.com/}
• Click banks {http://clickbank.com}
• Clickxchange {http://clickxchange.com}
• Clix Galore {http:// clixgalore.com}
• Commission Junction {http:/cj.com}
• Commission Soup {http://commissionsoup.com}
• Refer Back {http://referback.com}
• Dark Blue {http://darkblue.com}
• Fine Clicks {http://fineclicks.com}
• Lead hound {http://leadhound.com}
• Linkshare {http://linkshare.com}
• Quinstreet {http://quinstreet.com}
• ShareaSale {http://sahreasle.com}
• Web Sponsor {http://websponsor.com}

“HOW TO CHOOSE PRODUCTS “

We already had examined the affiliate programs that would help us find products and its merchant. Now we will go on how to choose the product that you know your visitors would love.

Of course the first thing you should consider is that if the product relevant to your site?In this way your visitor will not be confused on the kind of product you are advertising or selling because those added features may create confusion to your page.So, avoid irrelevant products.Next is, if the company’s site is attractive and functional?You should have check if the company doesn’t have a broken links or if it is not hassle to navigate because this might make your visitor irritated.So, don’t send them tacky sites this might put your reputation as an affiliate at stake.Third,find the program that offer great product or services at a reasonable price.In order for you to sell the product you choose effectively you must of course believe in it and always bare in mind that if you are interested  in the product you can say more about it and be sure that it is affordable because your visitor might think that you are selling it much more expensive.So, if you purchased it at a reasonable price you can also sell it in an affordable price .Fourth,have you bought and tested the product?Well, you really had an edge if you yourself had a first-hand knowledge about the product you are selling and you can surely make more attractive advertisement for it since you already know the product.And lastly,you should know if the company provide excellent customer service.In business our first concern must be the on how to serve the customer well.So, if a company will not respond immediately to the customer you would take time to pass the request to the company. In order for you to save time and effort you must choose the company that provide an excellent customer service.

All of this will help you in finding the perfect product to sell.

WHY SHOULD I GO FOR AN ONLINE BUSINESS/JOB?

WHY SHOULD I GO FOR AN ONLINE BUSINESS/JOB?

Working in an office is very stressful because aside from so many paper works waiting in your desk you also have a boss that adds spices in your very stressful day plus the heavy traffic you will encounter in your day-to-day transportation.You have to wake up very early in the morning for you not to come late to the office  and to avoid being scolded by your monstrous boss and to finish all you works.And after that you will go home late and do a lot of  household chores you left at home and  sleep very late at night.So this is how stressful your life is after doing such repeatable work of yours.Well there maybe times that you will think of something that would make your life easy will it may seems impossible but you can make your life more comfortable and transform your job from highly stressful into a much easier one and there enters this what we call ONLINE BUSINESS.

In this kind of job you don’t have to wake up very early,no one will scold you from coming late to the office nor be stock in a heavy and stressful traffic.This time you can wake up in a very warm  morning have some early walk on the park and eat your breakfast without hurrying,you can go to your own home office and you don’t have to commute 2 hours or more and you can do all your chores in any time you like. All you have to do is to check  your e-mail and made some reply and after it you can check your income and found out that you earn much bigger than before and still have a very good sleep at night,So having an online job is much more easier than the usual office works.And these are some of the reason why you should go for an online business.