How Do I Use Affiliate Links Offline?
Q: Hello Alice, My question is the following one: I would like to do some flyers in my neighborhood for some affiliate programs. How do I publish the long affiliate URL so it doesn’t show? Is there a way to do this? Or should I make a special website and direct them there?
Greatly appreciate all the wonderful work that you do for WAHMS. Marie
A: First of all, thanks for the kudos. I really do appreciate it. For those who don’t know WAHM stands for work at home moms and that’s where I started teaching Internet marketing. As a mom in business myself, I always want to see other moms successful. Of course, my help expands beyond moms to Dads and people from all walks of life. There’s room for everyone to have a piece of the Internet pie and I love spreading the word about it.
Now, onto the question. It’s easy buy a domain and redirect it to the company site. Alternatively, you might want to develop the domain that offers a special offer, asks for an email address or offers a product review BEFORE you send them to the affiliate site.
You can buy a domain inexpensively here.
Redirected domains are invaluable. You can use them for printed media, PDF documents (that are often printed), emails, speaking events and articles for redistribution.
Imagine, the next time you’re on a teleseminar and you want to recommend a product, but you don’t want to spell out a complicated URL. Give them a domain name instead. That saves people the time (and confusion) of trying to type it out AND it looks like an honest recommendation (which it should be), instead of a blatant product promotion.
Or what about when you distribute articles and want to recommend a highly recommended product within the article. Many directories and website owners won’t accept an affiliate link, but if you place a domain in the article, it is more likely to be accepted.
If you have domains for your most commonly recommended products, it’s easier to reply quickly to people who ask for your recommendations. You don’t have to search for an affiliate link or feel guilty giving them the obvious affiliate link. Give them your domain name with confidence.
Another good thing about the redirect is you have control over the link. If the company goes out of business, changes their affiliate system or you just decide you don’t want to promote the product anymore you can change where the domain redirects very easily.
But what about the cost? Domains are cheap these days. Usually it takes only one sales (or maybe two) to recoup your costs. It’s a valuable investment into your online business.
Further Resources:
Affiliate Marketing Sweetie: This easy to follow course teaches you how to make the most of your affiliate marketing efforts.
August 23, 2006
Do You Believe in Ghosts?
A quick search around Internet marketing communities will tell you that people are using ghostwriters all over the place. With everyone on the “Content is King” bandwagon, people are starving for unique and original content for the Virtual Real Estate Empires (VRE). Problem is, good ghostwriters are short in supply. I have people asking me for recommendations ALL the time, but most good ghostwriters I know are full-up with work.
If you love writing and would like to earn an extra income to pay some bills or to reinvest into your business, you might be able to fill a need. My friends and savvy online business owners, Kelly McCausey and Nell Taliercio have put together a Ghostwriter Success teleseminar to show you how you can get involved in ghostwriting.
It’s not likely that a career in ghostwriting is going to make you independently wealthy, but get a few clients and you can be earning a steady income. In fact, I started my online career as offering my ghostwriting/copywriting services on the side. It allowed me the extra money for bills and to really get the passive side of my business going.
If you’re interested in ghostwriting, definitely check out what these great gals are offering:
http://www.ghostwritersuccess.com
Should I Hire Someone If I Can’t Figure it Out
Budding online entrepreneurs can easily hit a brick wall with their online business and they don’t know how to get out of it. I’m no exception…it happened to me (but I soon learned a secret to help me out of it)…. [Read more]
How Do I Get People to Say Yes to Interviews?
Q I am thinking about doing something similar to List FX but in another niche. The problem is I don’t have the contacts to do the interviews. Many of the gurus in the field will be at a cruise in November that I will be attending. Should I wait until then to approach them or should I try to contact them now? Also should I build the website first to build credibility or get the contacts first? How did Keith meet you and approach you for List FX?
August 14, 2006
An Experiment in Productivity - Email
For a long time, I toyed with the idea of having a Blackberry or some of other high-tech toy like that. I always hesitated because I just didn’t like being THAT connected to my online business. I value my time-off and didn’t want to interfere with that.
Still, in February, when I needed a new cell phone, I decided to give my cell phone provider’s similar product (The HipTop - the girl in The Devil Wears Prada used this phone and so did the mom in Arrested Development, if you’re interested) a try. I thought I’d use it to connect to the Internet when needed, send out email from my private cell phone address if necessary and write notes.
I loved it. I wrote notes at the gym, checked on my forums, accounts, etc. I used it when I was waiting for the kids somewhere or whenever I had idle time. It was also useful for personal use and I really can’t live without it now. I check on movie showtimes, win arguments with friends (if we have a disagreement, I just instantly look it up - and yeah, once in a while, I lose the argument too), do banking, etc.
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve tried something different and I dared to connect myself to my business even more - in an effort to keep me away from my computer more. Yes, I know it sounds a bit contradictory, but let me explain.
I’ve added my pop3 email address to my phone. So now I get all my email on my phone. This is what I was trying to avoid, but to my surprise, it’s working out great.
I have a ticket system where support requests and general inquiries are handled, so that’s NOT coming to my cell phone. If it was, I don’t think this experiment would work as well as I’d be married to my phone.
However, here’s the benefits I’ve seen:
- I can quickly respond to questions from my support people, so they can answer any tickets they need help with.
- I can quickly forward any emails that should be handled by support.
- I can send out emails when I have an idea I’d like to share with someone.
Also…
- I can also stay in touch with what’s happening without feeling the “lure of the computer“
What’s the “lure of the computer“? I’m sure you know. It’s when you’re computer’s off and you feel like you should probably log on and JUST check your email. Then you check your email and then you get distracted and suddenly, you’ve been on the computer for hours. Now, I can rest assured there are no fires to put out and I really don’t need to be hanging out at the computer all day.
I also use email less because:
- Even though I’m pretty proficient with my tiny keyboard, it’s still a bit of a pain to type. Therefore, I don’t send out needless emails (But a great feature of my HipTop is that all my email is automatically placed in an online account, so if I have to retreive any attachments or really need to type faster, I can do it online)
- I’ve stopped checking my email on my computer…and that has the added benefit that I’m not distracted by email when I’m actually working.
Anyway, so far so good. If you have a huge volume of email, I don’t think this would work as well. Your family would be complaining about your texting throughout dinner and you might find yourself in trouble. But for my situation, this was perfect.
Have you got any email productivity tips to share?
August 8, 2006
What Are You Doing with Your Eggs?
Recently on the Reese Report forum, a member pointed to a , where one of their well-respected regulars started a heated thread on Web Pro World about Adsense.
The member, Janeth, said she had closed her Adsense account because she felt it was bad for her business. She said they were doing $10,000 per month with Adsense, but that when they removed the ads their sales went up. It wasn’t worth it for her company to use Adsense.
This is good information for someone who may want to test out the same on their websites. But then, Janeth went on to write about what she felt were universal truths about Adsense and that’s where I think she may have led some people in the wrong direction. Most of what she shared were opinions not universal truths, by any means.
And this caused a lot of other people to question that what they were doing might be a bad idea. Problem is, what she wrote was based on her presumed facts:
- All Adsense publishers make crappy websites
- Adsense on a site causes you to lose credibility.
- Adsense publishers only use SEO (search engine optimization to get traffic)
- Adsense publishers only have Adsense as a revenue model.
- Adsense publishers are using ads on ecommerce websites and aren’t testing whether or not it reduces conversions on their own products.
Well, if those assumptions were true, I might have agreed with her. If you’re using Adsense and all of the above (or any of the above) true for you, then you need to reconsider.
BUT if you’re working this smartly:
- You make quality websites that encourage visitors not only from search engines, but by word-of-mouth, repeat visitors, publicity (nobody wants a press release from your garbage website), article marketing and other promotional methods.
- You earn an income from several revenue streams that should include:
o Selling affiliate products
o Selling your our own products
o Building your mailing list from your incoming traffic which creates a continuous revenue stream.
o You can even sell advertising yourself if you’re so inclined.
- If you add Adsense to your ecommerce sites where you sell your own products, for goodness sakes, test the results. Sometimes you might find Adsense adds to your bottom line and other times it might take away. The same might go for your opt-in pages and even content sites. If you don’t test it, you’ll never know.
So, the underlying message is what you’ve been taught all your life. It’s the old adage of “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” Whether it’s traffic strategies or income models, every online business benefits from diversification.
And as far as losing credibility goes, if text advertisements caused sites to lose credibility nobody would visit Yahoo, Google, MSN, CNN, Technorati, About.com or almost any other huge information portal. We are Internet marketers and we view other websites through Internet marketer’s eyes our perceptions are not the same as the general public. Something to keep in mind.
Be wise in your business planning and make sure to understand what works best for you.
August 4, 2006
When Alice Met Kristie
Just a story for you.
Let’s go back two years to June 2004. I was attending a seminar in Chicago for information publishers. A woman named Kristie Tamsevicius - just call her Kristie T. it’s easier 
- was there as an attendee too.
It was one of those seminars that offered great information (and I have to credit this seminar as being an important turning point in my business), but it was highly orchestrated to generate a bunch of back of the room sales. The organizer, Fred Gleeck was very choosy about who he let speak and you couldn’t just come off the street and ask if you could speak to the audience.
Or could you?
A couple days into the seminar, the organizer was announced that he had a special guest coming on. That special guest was Kristie T.
She had spoken to the organizer earlier and told him that she had written a book that she managed to make a bestseller and just had completed a national publicity campaign, traveling all over the country for TV interviews.
Needless to say, he was impressed and said, “Can you put together a presentation tonight and have it ready by tomorrow?”
She said she was up for the challenge and she most certainly was. She delivered amazing information on publicity and the audience was astounded as you could tell by the huge
applause.
Not only does this woman know her stuff, she’s a go-getter that walks the walk and talks the talk.
Well that go getter has put together a great package to help you make your website sell better, gather publicity and create your own personal brand. She even has a list of 3700 entrepreneurial media contacts that she’ll hand over to you. Yes three thousand and seven hundred! Sweet.
The package has been massively discounted, but the discount ends tonight. If you want to take advantage, go here.
August 3, 2006
I Aint No Adwords Expert, but I Know Someone Who Is
A few people have asked me about my take on the recent Adwords changes. Me? I’m no Adwords expert, but I think we all know who is, so let’s listen to that guy instead.
Frank Kern sent out an email about an mp3 with THE Adwords expert, Perry Marshall, and says we can pass it around. Download yours here:
