How Affiliates can become Article Marketer
If you’re at all familiar with Article Marketing, then you know that the main thrust behind your articles is the bio box or resource box which is located at the bottom of all articles. This is where you put a link to a significant website that you’re trying to promote.
But that can be a real problem when you’re attempting to promote a product that isn’t your own.
Affiliate links can be long and very ugly, not to mention obvious. So it becomes pretty difficult to get your readers to see you as an expert when your links have all those “=”, “?” and long arrays of numbers and codes in it.
To add to the problem, most of the article directories now strip out html coding in both the article body and the bio box and hyperlink your URL instead.
So hiding your long affiliate link behind some coded text is pretty much out of the question too. Which leaves you to post your articles with your affiliate link hyperlinked in your bio box. And as you probably know, it’s awfully hard to hide something that’s neon blue against a background of black and white.
There are, however,a few things you can do to hide the fact that you’re promoting an affiliate product. Some of them have some potential drawbacks, but when you’re desperate, anything is better than nothing.
1. URL Shrinkers:
Pros: These are usually free to use and can quickly change any link to a much smaller, cloaked link. You just have to paste your long affiliate link in the box and click one button to get a mini link that will take visitors to the same site.
Cons: Your new URL will have the link shrinker’s domain name. If they are a popular service you might find your links timing out when their servers get over worked.
Seasoned marketers usually know what a shrunken URL means (affiliate link).
2. PHP Script Rerouters:
Pros: Allows you to create alternate links directly on your own domain. Good for Article Marketing because they usually have you place the script in a folder named “recommends” or something similar. So your link looks like . . .
“yourdomain.com/recommends/theirproduct”
Cons: You have to manually tweak php files and upload them to your server. Then you have to have a system where you can keep track of all your real affiliate links, what you’ve renamed them and where they are on your server.
3. Desktop Link Management Programs:
Pros: You fill in a few lines on a form, click a couple buttons and your new links are created and uploaded to your server for you. Your real affiliate links are stored in the system along with the name and location of your rerouted links. Plus you’re able to easily modify the whole process.
You can create hundreds of links for one product, which is a big plus for article marketing because if you use an article submission program you can load all your different links into different bio boxes, which solves the html code stripping problem in the directories.
Cons: They don’t come free. There’s a price to pay for ease, speed and efficiency. Prices vary, but expect to pay at the lowest around $30.
In any event, there are ways to successfully turn an Affiliate Marketer into a high powered Article Marketer. Affiliate links don’t have to look like affiliate links anymore, which opens things up for Affiliate Marketers to use this highly effective marketing venue.
Get Traffic Jams With Referral Links On Your Website
Are you running an Internet business and looking for a way to boost the traffic to your website?
Would you like to increase your opt-in subscribers, get more referrals, quality leads and receive valuable feedback? Well you can, through the fastest growing marketing tool available – referral links. Referral links may cause traffic jams on your website, but in a good way. Internet businesses need website traffic in order to be successful.
The more referral links to your website, the more visitors stop in to look around. The math is simple. Referral links plus visitors equal purchase and profits.
According to a recent online study, over 50% of Internet users have visited websites through referral links. Referral links can bring the best website traffic jams when the referral is coming from a reliable source and can mean a world of difference when it comes to converting a website visitor to a customer. The whole purpose to having referral links is to drive visitors to your website and encourage them to stay long enough to see what products or services you have to offer them. Then it is up to you to convert that visitor into a valued customer.
Most business owners greatly depend on their website to generate a substantial part of their income. Some website business owners depend on the success of their website to supplement their income while some depend on their website for their entire income, whether it is making direct sales or by generating leads to spread interest in your website’s services or products. As with many website businesses, visitors are more likely to zip through your website without reading your site or making any purchases. This happens most often when the website has no eye-catching images or information. This is a common problem among website business owners and can be very frustrating. So, the million-dollar question is this – How do you turn your visitors into customers? The answer to this question can have a tremendous affect on the success of your business website.
Turning your website visitors into customers is a “Conversion.” When someone visits your website and does not provide any real benefit, such as making a purchase, inquiry, or subscribing to your newsletter or any other effects that may become a sales lead. You must convert these visitors into customers by offering them exceptional deals or incentives. Simply put, you must make them an offer they cannot refuse. After all, you have invested a great deal of time and money into getting your website up and running. Now you must invest the time and effort into getting your target audience to visit your website and opt-in to receive future specials and updates. You must think of every visitor as being a potential customer, it’s up to you to convert them, drive them in, and keep them coming back.
Website business owners often measure their success in terms of conversions, not just increased website traffic. Converting a visitor into a customer that makes a purchase of products or services will create a profit. Businesses need to create profits in order to survive or else there would be no business. More customers are more relevant to business websites than mere visitors are, although visitors may eventually become a customer. Not only should you, as a website owner, focus on driving more people to your website, but also you need to focus on getting the right people in there. You need to find your target audience and go after them with everything you have. Lure them to your website by showing them that you have what they are looking for, what they need.
You want those potential customers who will likely become sales leads and create a profit so you can have a great Return on Investment (ROI) for all your money, time and effort you have invested into creating your website. This is why providing referral links on your website is so important. As a business website owner, you need to generate your own traffic and promote your website business to the best of your ability. Although referral links may only account for a small portion of website traffic, they do have a big conversion rate and they are a very wise investment of your time.
5 Ways To Think Up A Great Domain Name That’s Still Available
I’d be a gazillionaire if I earned a dollar each time someone complains that all the great domain names are already taken. It’s just not true, however. Even in a highly competitive industry, you can think up original, appealing domain names for businesses by using naming tactics that few people use, such as these:
1. Focus on results. What is the outcome or end result that people want to have from buying a certain product or service? How do they feel when they have finished the transaction? My own company name, Named At Last, falls into this category.
2. Look for puns. Make a list of relevant keywords, say each out loud and play around with the sounds. Puns are much less likely than other kinds of names to have been registered because their component parts are not actual words. For instance, the name Sitesfaction, for a web design company, was a finalist in our first naming contest – and an available domain at that time despite tens of thousands of web design firms in the English-speaking world.
3. Think slang. Let your imagination and memory fly around for pleasing-to-the-ear expressions. As of today, the domain BoyOhBoyToys.com for an online toy store is unregistered, as is a domain for its sister store AttaGirlToys.com.
4. Go symbolic. Suppose you’re an expert on the horror genre and want to start a paid online community for horror fans. Horrorific.com, horrorgate.com and Horrornet.com are all taken, but as of today, the less obvious and more vivid FrightOwl.com is not.
5. Vary real words. “Google’s name is a play on the word googol, which refers to the number 1 followed by one hundred zeroes,” says the Press Center of the world’s most successful search engine. “The word was coined by the nine-year-old nephew of mathematician Edward Kasner,” it continues – providing another hint for creative naming: consult a kid.
Happy Naming!
