Beldames’ Saloon

To be super at anything means to excel beyond the scope of average or achieve superiority status.

Super affiliates do just that. They are ordinary people achieving superior status in what they love. They devote their time, talents and resources to making their dreams a reality.

Let’s take a look at ten strategies that have helped ordinary affiliates become “super” affiliates.

1. Find Your Passion

Finding a product or service to get started in is often a difficult task. I find it’s always best to start with what interests you or what you are most knowledgeable in. For some, what you are most knowledgeable in might not be your passion or vice versa. In this case, my advice is do the thing that most excites you. If you need knowledge, go and find it. Learn as much as you can, become an expert.

2. Look for a niche

Once you’ve found a product or service that you are interested in see if you can narrow it down to a smaller niche. For example, you may choose to sell dolls. Since dolls come in many varieties and types, you might narrow it down to only porcelain dolls. This will be your opportunity to grab the smaller niche and specialize in the share of the market that the larger companies don’t care about.

Finding a niche also helps eliminate competitors and can help build referrals. Competitors often refer clients to those that can best serve the needs of the customer. If their need is your niche, you’ve got a winner.

3. Create a web site

Affiliate marketers often send their customers directly to affiliate websites. While this type of marketing can work for some it won’t help you achieve the “super” affiliate status.

Pre-sale has become the term du jour. It focuses on building trust and credibility when making a sale. There’s very little sales effort and trust built when you simply send someone to a site to buy something. If your viewer is not familiar with that site or the products how can they trust it.

Building a website introduces the products and introduces you. It sets the stage and whets the appetites of your visitors. A well designed website will allow your visitors to become comfortable with what you have to say and they will begin to trust your recommendations. A “super” affiliates best friend is gaining trust.

4. Create an opt-in mailing list

This is an important key to obtaining “super” sales status. Your mailing list establishes a following of readers that want to hear what you have to say and offer.

It’s important to build on that relationship by sending helpful tips, strategies and information that will help your readers. Don’t bombard them with flashy ads and constant sales information. Offer them recommendations on products that you have used. Provide them free tips and strategies. Run contests and provide motivation. Build friendships and trust and you’ll soon build sales as well.

5. Know the products your are selling

Don’t try to sell things that you are not familiar with. It’s difficult to describe to someone how wonderful a product is if you don’t know exactly what makes it so wonderful.

When selling a product you should examine it carefully, detail all of its features and benefits. List exactly what you liked about it or don’t like about it. How did you benefit from the product and how might it benefit others. Don’t be afraid to mention some less positive aspects of a product. As long as it doesn’t discredit the product your audience will appreciate your candor.

6. Write product reviews

Product reviews are an excellent way to achieve sales. It sums up the highlights and provides your readers with a personal touch that describes the finer details of a product they may not otherwise be aware of.

A good review will include a product overview, features, benefits, a personal review, accolades and costs. For installation products you should also include product format, installation requirements, and specify if free trials are available.

7. Offer free bonuses

Everyone loves to get something for free. When you walk into a store and they give you a free sample or offer a free t-shirt, doesn’t that make you want to shop around and see more?

The same principle works on the internet. It’s a good will gesture that entices your viewers to see what other goodies of interest you may have. It’s also an excellent way to entice viewers to sign up for your newsletter or online form.

8. Make yourself available

Allow your visitors to contact you either by email or phone. It’s also a good idea to include your address on your site. This helps add to your credibility and shows your visitors that you are a real business.

Encourage feedback and invite questions and suggestions. Always respond to your viewers in a timely manner and be courteous and helpful. People appreciate it when you can take the time to respond to them. You may even reap a reward or two in sales.

9. Chose your affiliate programs carefully

Not all affiliate programs are created equal. There are several things to look for such as how often you will get paid? What is the minimum payout? How much commission does it pay? Is there credit for recurring sales? Will you be rewarded for bringing in new affiliates? Are cookies used to track sales? etc. These are just some of the options you need to investigate.

Don’t make the mistake of signing up with an affiliate program that does not contain an affiliate agreement. Always look for, read and understand the agreement carefully before signing up. It may protect the affiliate merchant but it also protects you.

10. Maintain patience and persistence

Patience and persistence is my motto. You won’t get far in this business without it. Nothing on the internet happens overnight. It takes hard work, good planning and a persistent desire to be successful.

Don’t give up when things are moving slow. Stay focused on what you can do, not on what you can’t do. Don’t be too anxious and above all, stay persistent.

Elizabeth McGee has spent 20 years in the service and support industry. She has moved her expertise to the world wide web specializing in affiliate sales. Elizabeth remains dedicated to helping businesses find trusted tools, enhance customer service, build confidence and increase sales. You can visit Elizabeth’s sites at:
http://www.pro-marketing-online.com
http://www.homenotion.com

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Pearl chose to celebrate her 94th birthday with her family and friends at a local restaurant. Although she had always enjoyed the restaurant, she specifically chose it because she was a member of its frequent diner program and was entitled to free desserts for all her guests on her birthday.

She graciously offered each guest whatever dessert they wanted “on the house.” The waitress overheard Pearl and asked for the card that was sent to her announcing this offer. Pearl hadn’t brought the card with her. The waitress apologized, but refused to offer the desserts saying “There’s nothing that I can do. It’s policy.” Pearl was embarrassed, not only for forgetting the card, but also for putting her guests in an uncomfortable position.

One of the guests asked for a manager hoping that someone would do the right thing. No such luck. The manager repeated the same mantra, “Sorry, there’s nothing I can do. It’s policy.” The manager “allowed” the guest to call the corporate headquarters. Two phone calls later; a corporate manager said, “No problem!”

Of course, there was a problem. A big problem! Pearl was humiliated and angry. No one left the restaurant feeling fondly about what had been a great meal celebrating a momentous occasion. It will be a long time before Pearl or any of her guests return to this restaurant, if ever.

What had been accomplished? In an effort to “save money” by not allowing people to take advantage of the dessert offer, the restaurant had lost five good and loyal customers. Doesn’t seem to be a smart business move, does it?

But it wasn’t just five customers that were lost. This lunch was such a bad experience for Pearl and her guests that they’ve been telling this story over and over and over.

People love to tell stories. They especially love to tell horror stories. Interestingly enough, customers won’t tell stories about satisfactory experiences. Too boring… what would be the point? But they will tell stories about exceptionally bad or exceptionally good service.

Consider these three examples:

You order a new door for your home. The company comes on time and replaces your door. Are you going to share that story with anyone? Doubtful. You are a satisfied customer. End of story.

You order a new door for your home. They come to install it and find that the frame was measured incorrectly. This is the third wrong door delivered. Are you going to share THIS story? You betcha! Every friend and family member will know the name of the company and they will tell their friends and family to stay away!

You order a new door for you home. They come to install it and find that the frame was measured incorrectly. The installer apologizes sincerely, telling you that he understands what a waste of time this has been for you. He promises that he will personally make sure you have the right door in a week. Then he asks, “Would that satisfy you?” When you say “yes”, he sets the day and time.

The installer comes the next week as promised and installs your door. You are now a satisfied customer. But he wants you to be more than a satisfied customerhe wants you to be thrilledso he takes 20% off your bill to compensate you for your trouble. The following week the owner gives you a call to see if everything is okay.

Are you going to share this story? Without a doubt! In so doing, you will become the company’s cheapest and most effective form of advertising!

So, how can you turn your disgruntled customer into your biggest fan?

Customers enter into every transaction with a set of basic expectations. When you create a problem for your customers by failing to meet these expectations you’re faced with meeting a new set of even more challenging expectations.

There are simple steps that will work to not only meet these expectations, but exceed them. Imagine the following scenario: Mr. Jones has arrived at your dealership to pick up his car at the promised time; however, his vehicle is still being worked on. Mr. Jones is becoming irate. What should you do?

Step One: Empathetic apology. It isn’t sufficient to mumble the word “sorry” and expect it to have a positive effect. Your apology needs to show your customer that YOU understand how YOUR mistake has negatively impacted his or her life.

Step Two: Take ownership. You want the customer to understand that you are the person who will fix their problem. Ask the customer what you can do to “make it right”. Often people are afraid to ask their customer this question. They don’t want to become obligated to meet an unrealistic demand. You needn’t be afraid of their answer, because simply asking does not obligate you. Most customers are reasonableat worst, you have the beginning of a negotiation.

Step Three: Fix the problem immediately. In the case of Mr. Jones, you would want to get his car to him ASAP. Sometimes you can’t fix the problem immediately, in which case you need to show him that you’re making a sincere effort to resolve the problem.

Step Four: Get your customer’s buy in. Asking for the customer’s agreement will ensure that he will at least leave satisfied.

Try something like, “I am so sorry Mr. Jonesnot having your vehicle ready at the promised time must have really inconvenienced you. I will personally make sure that your vehicle is ready in the next 20 minutes. Will that be satisfactory?”

With small problems, these four steps should satisfy your customer. But remembera “satisfied” customer doesn’t talk about his experience. Now, take the opportunity to add value, so that your customers will talk about how great you are. To do this, you need to take two additional steps.

Step Five: Symbolic atonement. You need to go the extra mile to show that you are truly sorry. A small token can go a long way to ease the pain your mistake caused. In the case of Mr. Jones, an offer of a free oil change might be appropriate. This gift shows that you understand that an apology alone cannot fix the problem. Reflect on what you know about this customer and choose something that has meaning and value to him.

Step Six: Follow up. This is where you can really shine! After a short period of time, call, e-mail or write your customer and make sure they are satisfied with your efforts. This is also an opportunity to ask for more business and referrals.

None of these steps take an inordinate amount of time or money, but they can really create delighted customerscustomers who will tell stories that promote you to their friends and family.

Now, let’s go back to Pearl’s birthday lunch. Why wasn’t the permission to provide the free desserts enough to turn it into a “good story?” The weight of the damage that was done was so much more than the effort it would have taken to make it right at the beginning.

What should this restaurant have done? An empathetic apology would have been a start. “Mrs. Grey, we are so sorry that we ruined your birthday. We hope these desserts will make it a little better.” (Steps 1-3 in action) But they needed to go the extra mile. She should have been sent a letter apologizing again and offering a free meal to compensate her for her discomfort. (Step 5) The final touch that could turn this nightmare into an opportunity to create a loyal customer would be a phone call after she redeemed the free meal to make sure that it was good experience. (Step 6)

People are telling stories about you and your business. What kind of stories are they telling? View every customer problem as an opportunity to produce a cheerleader for your business. Turn your potential nightmare into a great story. Do the right thing.

Laurie Brown is an international speaker, trainer and consultant who works to help people improve their sales, service and presentation skills. She is the author of The Teleprompter Manual for Executives, Politicians, Broadcasters and Speakers. Laurie can be contacted through http://www.thedifference.net, or 1-877.999.3433, or at lauriebrown@thedifference.net.

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“People Are Making Upwards of $11,000 a Month as an Affiliate
for My Net-Marketing Center!”

FREE Associate Program Become our associate and earn money!

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Would you like to receive fat checks every month, simply by
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Many of our affiliates wonder what happens when their visitors
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of our sites, and later order instead of right away. When any
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When the customers order months (or even years) later, you will
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Payout Schedule

You will receive your checks (drawn by an American bank in the
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Our state-of-the-art tracking system was created with your $$$
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After you sign up, you will be assigned a special Affiliate ID,
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Once your visitors come to our site via the link above, your
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A good percentage of visitors you refer to our sites will sign
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into our database forever and you will be paid if they buy
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With the increased use of popups on sites - when you enter,
when you leave, while you are there - Popup killers (or
stoppers) are all the rage.

Companies use Popup killers as a marketing tool for
frustrated webusers - they kill the Popup, the webuser uses
their service be it as an ISP or Toolbar.

New ISP Disks, Toolbars, and Browsers all now come with some
form of Popup killer. While we all want to stop the
frustration of having several popups being delivered while
surfing around the web, to the webmaster a Popup killer can
totally kill a site’s normal functionality.

** What do I mean?

If I said rename a Popup killer to a Javascript killer,
(which is how some Popup killers work), then you wil get the
gist!

With some SEOs advocating hiding links that they don’t want
a search engine to spider or to hide affiliate links within
Javascript functions, having a user visit your site with a
Popup killer enabled could kill more than that annoying
Popup.

It could mean that when a user clicks on your apply button
or affiliate link, it won’t work! The user can click on it
as often as they like. It won’t work!

This could be costing you sales and applications.

** We tested it out!

We tested this on our Loans site (www.polarloans.co.uk). We
delivered 1,000 visits to the site where the application
process was a javascript function. We had 1 application.

We then switched the apply buttons and links to a normal
HREF link and sent another 1000 visits to it. We have a 10
fold increase in applications.

The only on-page changes were the Apply button links and we
drove the visits via PPC spend.

** What can you do?

It maybe time you looked at the major links on your site to
your product sale pages on affiliate links. If they are
running as Javascript functions it may be wise to try
switching them to normal HREF links and test the results.

You can always change them back if you need to but consider
the potential revenue option.

It certainly has worked for us!

Jason Hulott is Director of J2 Squared, leading specialistsin Internet Consultancywhose specific aim is to drive more revenueto websites. Their main area of focus are the insurance,finance, and automotive industries.

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You can make money online. But it is up to you to find the best route for making it.

There are two basic approaches you can take to making money online. One involves starting an online business based on an idea you have. This would be an idea which you either came up with yourself, or was inspired by something you saw or heard.

The other approach to making money online is based on the copy cat formula. This formula simply consists of watching what other successful online entrepreneurs are doing and copy them.

While this approach does not conjure any heroic ideals, it can definitely provide a short cut to fast Internet profits.

And if you still insist on developing your own business idea, why not at least copy the technical and strategic steps that other successful online entrepreneurs used?

By using the copy cap formula you will save time otherwise spent on research, and you will avoid plenty of trial and error mistakes.

For starters you need to find these highly successful online entrepreneurs before you can start copying their strategies. How do you find them?

Simple, go online and see who the top advertisers in your field are. If they can afford to spend a great deal of money on advertising, it would seem to indicate that they are making money. Even better if they have been advertising for at least a year.

Next, study in detail their advertising strategies. Are they offering free samples? Do they have a free ezine visitors can sign up for?

Check out their pricing structure. What is their minimum purchase? Are they focused on price or quality?

Compile a list of the key words they use in their advertising and sales copy.

Finally, implement what you have discovered. Without implementation your research will not make you money.

Start slowly and see what the response is to your campaign. If you are not receiving positive results you need to go back and reexamine their business strategy.

Once you have a close copy of their business strategy you should start seeing substantial profits.

Donny Lowy runs http://www.closeoutexplosion.com an online wholesale and closeout business that supplies eBay sellers, retailers, and flea market vendors.

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The other night, I watched a rerun of the original Superman film from 1978. In it I noticed a considerable amount of time was spent showing how Superman ended up on planet earth. We saw his parents on Krypton, the escalating doom affecting that planet, and why his parents took the decision to place him in a pod and send him to earth. We saw his father Jor-El rationalise this to his wife, explaining how the differing gravities, and less advanced life forms of Earth would give their boy a positive advantage.

What did all this serve to do?

It rationalised Superman’s superhero powers. He would be able to fly because he was from a planet with a different gravity, he would be superfast & superstrong because his molecular structure was different, etc.

Basically it gave a reason why.

However far fetched the reasons were, undoubtedly they serve to make the film more believable. They explain why Superman has superhuman powers. And so do many other Superhero films - The Hulk, Spiderman etc, all explain away the superhero’s powers, adding an increased degree of believability that would otherwise be absent.

All this shows that if you can incorporate Reasons Why into your marketing, you will undoubtedly increase your sales.

So how can you make this work for you?

Special offers

Instead of just blindly putting special offers on products, explain why they are on offer. Perhaps the manufacturer had a cancelled order, and offered you an amazing deal which you can pass on to your customers. Maybe as a result of your annual stocktake, you need to reduce your inventory, and so are selling off your widgets at a ridiculous low price.

Limited availability

Tell a story as to why there is limited availability on a product. Perhaps it was the last stock of a production overrun, or “forgotten” stock that was in one of your storerooms that got “lost” behind other stuff. If the type of product you sell is not of a limited availability nature, you can tweak this to justify why a particular special price is for a limited time only.

Why you are the best choice

Perhaps you have over 20 years experience in your field which enables you to know your industry inside out. Or you have particular inside knowledge which allows you to get the best deals and pass these on to your customers. Think about it - you can always find an “angle” to justify why you are the best person to buy from.

Customer Testimonial

In a way these are “reasons why” someone should buy from you. Although they are well used in information product marketing, they are under used when selling physical products. Make an effort to collect testimonials from your customers that emphasise your quality of service, speedy service, helpfulness or cheap prices.

Give people a reason why. Make a story out of it. We all see shops with “Sales” banners up all the time, but when they say the sale is due to relocation or closing down, we take an extra special look, don’t we? The “Reason Why” is a powerful technique that can add that little extra bit of credibility to give your sales a boost.

Robin Porter is CEO of Arpey Internet : Uk Ecommerce website designers and advises ecommerce store owners on marketing at www.e-businessdoctor.co.uk

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Modern day online poker sites must stand in line with one of their greatest assets, the affiliates. These two very different industries survive by making the other as successful as possible. It is almost the epitome of the perfect business structure, with two successful industries feeding the other not only to create further success in their field but also in it’s own. The marketing formula that has been developed by the affiliate program is such that it is not only risk free but hugely effective for the companies that utilises it. Affiliate programs not only allow everyday Internet users to subsidise the investment on their website with extra capital, but also allows big businesses to thrive by being able to spread their zone of influence further.

The affiliate program is a cost effective way for poker sites to advertise purely because they involve no real up front outlay. All the site has to do is to provide advertising materials, such as banners, word links and formatted e-mails and their part in the business is done. Affiliates come to poker sites or poker affiliate programs to ask to host the advertising purely because it is an easy way for to earn a little money from the site. In return for offering their affiliates the chance to earn some money, as well as offering them all the promotional tools for free, the poker sites can broaden the range of people that they can reach out to. With the poker banners proudly displayed on thousands of sites, the site can reach out to whoever ventures onto their affiliates sites, and with more exposure they stand a far greater chance of luring in the all important clients who keep the sites going.

But even though it may seem like a manipulative way for huge multi-billion dollar industries to get ahead, there are bonuses for the everyday Internet user. The affiliate-marketing program allows money to trickle down from the industries big money companies and into the pockets of whoever is willing to take it. The poker sites are by no means stingy with the rewards that they heap, in fact quite the opposite. The sites offer some of the best bonuses and financial packages for affiliates who bring in the all-important customers. If a person follows an affiliates link and becomes a fully signed up member of the poker site in question, the affiliate will be in line to earn anywhere between 20 and 35% of that players money generated for the site. The player does not miss out on the cash, it is simply drained from the profits of the poker site, who incidentally is still happy about receiving the greater share and the associated profits that come with new players.

From what can seem a very small percentage can blossom some significant revenue for the affiliates. It is this financial incentive that drives on the affiliates, which in turn maintains the affiliate program and the poker sites.

Discover how to become a super poker affiliate by promoting the best poker affiliate programs at http://www.epokeraffiliate.com/

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