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Affiliate Marketing Success - Using Niche Marketing As Your Success Tool

Affiliate marketers come and go with the seasons, sometimes they even change like the weather. Affiliate marketing is not a get rich quick scheme and it does not promise over night success. If this was the impression you were under then I suggest you run for it right now. Affiliate marketing is a business, better yet it's your business and you call the shots. Your success with affiliate marketing is solely up to you and it's the amount of effort you put into achieving your goals that will determine how successful you are. The success rate with affiliate marketing is about 98% failure to about 2% success and I am sure you would rather be within that 2% success rate. That 2% may sound small but in the large scheme of things but 2% success rate is actually a large amount of people when compared to the 100's of millions of persons using the internet to market their business online. So knowing that there are maybe 100's of thousands people who have done it successfully before you, doesn't it comfort you knowing that you can model your success from their blueprint.



Most of the people who fail at affiliate marketing never even took the time out to learn how to market their affiliate business properly. You must first be a student before you become a leader. Be a student of success and learn as much from person's who were successful before you and model your success on what they did to be successful. The blueprint was laid out before you and its there for you to learn from and apply to your life so that you too can reap success. Effective internet marketers don't just rely on their knowledge the utilize systems, systems that are proven to work. Effective internet marketers utilize systems to execute their plans.

To be effective with internet marketing it would be wise for you to utilize a system when executing your place. I learned that SYSTEM can actually be a very neat acronym and this has really stuck with me throughout this past year and it goes like this.

S ave
Y ourself
S tress
T ime
E nergy
M oney

Systems are designed for you to save yourself, stress, time, energy and money. As an affiliate marketer there are already systems in place to help you with affiliate marketing and there are successful individuals who are willing to help you achieve that same success. When working within a tried and proven system, you cut out the useless work by just focusing on what actually works already. Somebody already tried it and tested it out and made note that this works and that doesn't work. So it's wise to go out there and do your research to figure out what has worked for affiliate marketers before you and if that same plan can work for you. I want to introduce you to one of the systems that the internet marketing guru's use to their advantage all the time. This technique is called Niche Marketing.



Using Niche Marketing As Your Affiliate Marketing Success Tool

"Online niche marketing, an often used technique for affiliate marketers. By seeking out smaller segments of larger markets, a website can be developed and promoted quickly to uniquely serve a targeted and usually loyal customer base, giving the affiliate a small but regular income stream. This technique is then repeated across several other niche websites until a desired income level is achieved." - defined by Wikipedia

So this really is a powerful tool you can use to help achieve your success with affiliate marketing. When deciding what market you want to focus on you want to take the time out to do the keyword research necessary to find what people are searching for in that respective market. You want to compare different markets you could be interested in trying to find the most in demand keywords and phrases for each niche. You are going to want to make a note of 5 main keywords and 25 sub-category keywords, all in high demand and low supply. You know a keyword is in high demand by how many times per month it is being searched and you know if it is low in supply by checking the search engine's results for those keywords and seeing how competitive the websites in those results are. When checking how competitive these website really are you need to understand how well their site is optimized for the search engines, so that you can optimize yours better.

Optimizing Your Website For The Search Engines

Search Engine Optimization is a matter of setting up your website for optimal performance on the search engines. There are 3 major search engines Google, Yahoo and MSN. With Google being one of if not the biggest search engine there is I feel it would only be appropriate to use Google's page rank system to model our search engine optimization campaign from and you can also download Google's toolbar which tells you the Google's page rank of every website you visit by displaying a green bar. With Google it seems their search spiders crawl their indexed pages and high rank pages first before anything else because it's based on popularity, link popularity. They also rank pages on their relevancy based on keywords and overall content relevancy. So I believe we should focus on these two key things when optimizing our website for search engines; link popularity and content relevancy.

Content relevancy would refer to the content of your website and how relative it is to your niche market. Your content relativity is going to be determined based on how well you have placed your keyword and keyword phrases around your website. Since search engines display first the title of your website and then your website description it is wise to have your keywords in both your title and your description. After placing keywords in your title and description it is now time for you to focus on actual website content and placing the keywords you found from the research you did about your niche market. When writing content you want to write content with your keywords in mind so that you can place them within your content but allowing your content to still remain legible with correct grammar.

Link popularity refers to how many websites are linking back to your website. Links can be broken down into two groups; two-way links and one-way links. Two-way links are when you and another website exchange backlinks and they are often called reciprocal links. One-way links are when you don't have to link back to the website that is linking to you. One-way links carry more weight than reciprocal links and are view as more important. The relevancy of the reciprocal links or the one way links also help search engines know how important your website is to your niche. Also getting links from websites with a high Google page rank are also important, especially for optimizing your website for Google. It would be a good idea to try and get one-way links from websites with a high Google page rank and that will help your website to get indexed in search engines quickly as their search spiders crawl higher ranked pages often. Building your link popularity is extremely important as it dictates to the search engines how important your website is to your niche but link popularity without content relevancy is pointless and vice versa. Both your content relevancy and your link popularity need to be done properly and I suggest starting with content relevancy first and work on your link popularity every day.

Successfully Build a Passive Residual Income Through Niche Marketing

The key to building a residual income through niche marketing online comes with learning how to monetize your website. Monetizing your website is essentially turning something that is non-profit into something profitable, in this case turning your website into a cash machine. Setting up your website and optimizing it for the search engines is the first step and now monetizing it will almost complete your online cash machine. You have a couple of choices when trying to monetize your website; choosing to sell advertising space, using pay-per-click ads and/or selling products through affiliates. Since our focus is on affiliate marketing then selling products through affiliates is essential but it isn't necessarily the most lucrative way to go about utilizing your traffic from the search engines. I suggest using all three ways to earn money from your website. Sell about 3 advertising spaces from your webpage by joining ad networks that will sell your ad space for you. Place PPC ads within your content, articles or blog posts, they are more likely to be clicked if they are within your posts and you get paid for each click. Place affiliate products relative to your niche around your content or at the end of your posts.

Affiliate marketing is a tool that can aid you to becoming an internet marketing success but it is essential that you do it correctly. Utilizing PPC ads on your website as well as selling advertising space gives you leverage and a lot of leverage. PPC ads allow you to get paid for every single click to those ads and if spread correctly within your content they will get clicked all the time. When selling advertising space you have the opportunity to sell space ahead of time and get paid in full and that is cash in hand and you don't have to rely on somebody clicking your ads to get paid. The beauty of affiliate marketing is that by placing your ads given to you by your affiliates around your content and throughout your page you will have an opportunity to earn more commission when you make a sale through your affiliates. Instead of earning a couple dollars here and there, you can earn up to 70% commission making sales through your affiliates. With the potential earning power of all three monetizing opportunities you can really earn a passive residual income through this method.

All that is left after setting up your website, optimizing it and monetizing it is simply continuously adding content to your website. Search engines love new content and taking advantage of your traffic from the search engines because you have optimized your website for the most searched relevant keywords to your niche and earning as much money as possible from that traffic can provide up to a couple thousand dollars a month. $3000 a month may not be something to retire on but when this process is repeated over and over in different niches it will add up and can really put money in your pocket every month. This is the success tool that niche marketing brings to affiliate marketing. Become an internet marketing success, any amount of income you desire can be achieved just keep building profitable websites and optimize them for search engines.

Alexander Day, making money online with affiliate marketing is easy. Learn how to market their own affiliate business and products on the Internet for little or NO out-of-pocket cash.

Affiliate Marketing Success With Alexander Day.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alex_Day

How Security Officers Should Handle Angry Customers

We all have to respond to angry customer complaints from time to time. To be able to handle these complaints effectively is an important skill. Here are some tips that might help.

Are they angry? It's takes time for them to calm down. Scientists say that it takes about 20 minutes for someone to cool down if they are really angry. That's how long it takes for the adrenalin to be flushed out of their system. It is important to remember that during the first few minutes of talking to an angry customer there is a physical process going on that has nothing to do with us. Our job is to weather the storm in a professional manner.

Listen to the entire complaint! Don't jump in with any extended comments right at the beginning. Let the person tell their whole story. If we start to talk and they interrupt us, we stop talking talking and let them continue. They will eventually get to the end of their story and will give us a chance to respond.

Our first comment is the most important. First summarize what they said in one sentence. For example we can say "So what you're saying is that....". Let the person know you heard what they said. This is half the battle in customer service.

Make an empathetic statement. For example you can say, "If I were in your position, I'm sure I would feel the same way". This expression of empathy assures the customer that their feelings are valid. At this point in the conversation it is important not to talk about who is right or wrong.

Gather the facts. The next step is to write down the facts of the complaint...and do it in detail. By the time you get to this point, the customer will be calming down. Once we have gathered the facts, we can move forward with finding a solution.

Call them back with our response. This gives us time to find an answer to their problem. This also gives the customer time to calm down further. If we let them have their say and we have been empathetic, the customer will give us the time to find some answers. Here's where we get to the nuts and bolts of problem solving. Our goal is to solve the problem if we can. Even if it is not our job!

Lastly, a complaint is a golden opportunity! Whenever the phone rings and it is a complaint, don't wince! Rather we should consider it a wonderful opportunity to surprise the customer with our outstanding service.

David is the founder of Oates Security, LLC in Atlanta, GA. He retired from the military after serving 20 years as a linguist proficient in Chinese, German, and Czech. He also worked closely with the National Security Agency and the National Reconnaissance Organization on various projects. He can be reached at david@oatessecurity.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=David_Oates

How to Profit Selling Imports

In general, it's easier for the home-based international trader to make big money in exports than it is in imports. Exporters usually deal in larger quantities and/or products that are of higher value. As a result, the profit potential is greater. In addition, many small-timers are enticed into importing and end up competing against each other. You are certainly aware of the companies -- some of whom advertise on television -- who try to lure you into importing through their "import-export" programs. They tell you what to buy and where to buy it. As a result, a great many people end up selling the same little trinkets and charms to the same boutiques.

The simple truth is that importing (and exporting) is not as easy as it's made to appear. But it isn't rocket science, either. In the case of the aforementioned training companies, some of the problems are the quality and cost of the goods. The other problem is finding buyers. Just like in exporting, the trick in importing is identifying a supplier, finding a buyer and collecting your profit. And just like in exporting, you'll make a greater profit if you purchase directly from the manufacturer and sell directly to the end user. The more middlemen in the picture, the less your profit. It's that simple. Beyond that, don't buy on speculation (make sure you have a buyer first) and don't buy if the cost is too high.

Many exporters get into importing while waiting for an exporting deal to come together. Some of them stay, become import dealers and never leave. Others deal in both imports and exports and become real international trading companies. Now let me tell you how many international traders make money in importing on a small scale, then move into the big time. Get ready for a surprise.

Flea Markets for Fun and Profit (and testing too!)

That's right, flea markets and also swap meets. They're an easy, inexpensive and quick way to cash in on importing while testing the attractiveness of your product in the larger marketplace. You can make hundreds, even thousands of dollars for a weekend's work. More on that later. First let's go over a quick and dirty way to find sell-able products at ridiculously low prices.

First you need to identify the kinds of products you want to import. Think long term. If you plan to sell sunglasses to a boutique down the road, then you might want to test sunglasses at your flea market booth. Similarly, if you want to sell toys to a larger market (very competitive), try selling toys at your flea market booth first. If you plan on never selling except through a flea market, then that opens up the range of possibilities to anything being sold successfully at the flea market. It's always best to focus on certain types of products such as toys, tools or leather goods.

Stick with products that sell best for small importers. These include clothing, watches, clocks and electronic equipment, toys and novelty items, housewares, costume jewelry, auto accessories and sporting goods. These are good products because they are available for great prices, they don't require servicing and everybody needs them. Where do you find these items? You can travel to the country yourself (and deduct the trip from your taxes -- thousands do!) Or do what I did and contact trade promotion offices of various countries right here in the U.S. Soon you'll be swimming in catalogs offering low cost products for import. The other possibility is to find companies with Internet sites.

If you're in a hurry, you can skip the next step, but I don't recommend it. That step is ordering samples of the products you've selected. Using the catalogs you've received, determine which products look best to you. Do this by comparing the cost of the product with what flea markets are selling them for (don't forget to factor in shipping and duty costs and a tidy profit for you). Then write professional letters on your stationery to the manufacturers and request sample products. Use international money orders to pay for samples. If the samples are free, suggest the shipment be sent collect air freight. Yes, you can send emails but your letters are more likely to stand out in a crowd of correspondence.

Once you've checked out the samples and know they are of good quality, you're ready to make your first purchase and begin selling. As I stated earlier, use a variety of similar products in your flea market booth. You might want to show sunglasses, toys and costume jewelry. Another combination that works well is leather goods, costume jewelry and accessories. Tools and auto accessories are another profitable mix.

Flea markets are a great place to test out the attractiveness of imports and also a place to make a little money while you're doing it. When you're getting started, make sure to sell a line that is already selling in flea markets and don't buy more than you expect to sell in 3 or 4 weekends.

Today there are even flea market distributors, wholesalers and vendors who will sell your product for you if you don't want to do it yourself. It's an easy and inexpensive way to test out public interest in your product before you start a larger marketing effort.

Your ultimate goal is to develop a line of related products such as automobile accessories or housewares or clothing that you can sell to retail stories, at flea markets or through the mail. By researching the best products in magazines, flea markets and retail shops you can determine which products are most likely to sell for you.

Dennis Hessler is the publisher of The Computer User's Guide to Running Your Own Exporting Company and numerous other books, video tapes, software packages and The International Trade Connection newsletter which is designed to show entrepreneurs new to exporting how to get involved in the booming global market.

Learn more about international trade at his website, http://www.spyglasspoint.com - You can also download a free sample copy of The International Trade Connection at the site. If you have questions about any of his products or international trade in general, e-mail Dennis at Dennis@spyglasspoint.com - Spyglass Point Productions, P.O. Box 13141, Pensacola, FL 32591 U.S.A.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dennis_Hessler

Google Visualization API now in PHP

Here at the Google Visualization HQ we focus hard on making the Visualization API the easiest and simplest platform for visualizing and reporting data on the web. We're always excited to see the community uptake and develop our product, making it even more useful and accessible to other developers. One such initiative is the PHP wrapper class that Thomas Schaefer wrote for the Visualization API.

The class wraps the API and enables PHP application developers to quickly integrate visualizations into their code. Thomas even published reference applications that enable you to get started even quicker.

We love your work Thomas, keep it up!