If you are yet to read my previous post on Email Marketing, you can check it out here.

4. Affiliate Marketing
Right, so what’s affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is simply getting other people or businesses to promote your products or services and rewarding them for each referral or sale. Rewards are usually in the form of commissions per referral or sale.

As a small business owner, affiliate marketing is one of the cost effective ways to market your business. Your affiliate does all the work required to get you potential customers, and you simply pay them an agreed commission for it. I’ll say that sounds a lot more attractive than spending hundreds or even thousands on advertising with no guarantee of any returns.

So how does affiliate marketing work?
Simple, there’s a large number of individuals and even businesses out there who run websites solely to promote other company’s products and services. These individuals and businesses are called affiliates. Affiliates usually belong to affiliate networks such as Affiliate Future and Commission Junction. The networks act as a middle man bringing together merchants (company’s that want to promote their business) and affiliates.  Read more...

Advertising, affiliate marketing, Affiliate Programme, Marketing, Online Business, Search Marketing, Strategy Hide

As a small business owner marketing is one of those things you can do to increase sales, revenue and even customer retention. Online marketing in particular is fast gaining popularity amongst marketers and small businesses. This is probably because unlike traditional marketing strategies (i.e. Radio, Direct Mail, TV, Outdoor, Trade Shows), online marketing strategies are more cost effective, environmentally friendly, and are very easy once you get your head round it.

I’ve compiled a list of my top 5 online marketing strategies which I think are a must. Not only have they been proven to boost sales, but I’m quite sure you’ll enjoy implementing them as well.  Read more...

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Social media optimization (SMO) is an important ingredient within your SEO and SEM campaigns. In the past, social networking sites were not much more than an oddity. Today, many have received enormous ranking authority from top search engines. If you are not leveraging these sites to increase your exposure and communicate with your niche consumer, your search engine positions are vulnerable to your competitors. In this article, we will describe the influence that SMO currently has on search engine marketing. We will also give you the rules of engagement for executing an effective social media optimization campaign. We’ll explain what SEO social media is, and the advantages of hiring an experienced SEO consultant to spearhead your social media optimization efforts.

The Influence Of Social Media Optimization On Search Marketing

Search marketing has always relied upon exposure in the search engines to drive targeted traffic. For years, gaining that exposure was based solely upon the development of your site and generating links pointing to your site. Both are still important today. However, social media optimization has shifted the landscape of search engine marketing.  Read more...

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Next year may just prove to be one of the most challenging times for pursuing online or Internet marketing on the web. It may just be a watershed moment for many marketers struggling to keep abreast of all the different factors which have come into play in recent months. Most of these changes will stem from two main sources for potential upheaval: the first being the New FTC (Federal Trade Commission) Guidelines regarding Testimonials and Endorsements and the second being “ALL” the recent changes within Google. Actually, we already have the new FTC Guidelines which came into effect on Dec. 1st of 2009, but how these new rules are enforced will play out in the coming year as test-cases are brought to court. Basically, these new rules call for absolute disclosure and full transparency regarding Testimonials and Endorsements when a product or service is being offered for sale. Any business (monetary) relationship between the endorser and the company must be made known to the potential buyer. Obviously for those in online or affiliate marketing this could have a great impact if these new rules are strictly enforced. Just imagine all the website owners and bloggers who slap a few banners or affiliate links on their sites to cover hosting or operating costs… will they now have to disclose all these business arrangements?  Read more...

Advertising, Adwords, Bing Yahoo, Google, Marketing, Online Business, Real Time, SEO, Twitter Hide

Make some noise online by giving your sites a well-considered refresh. Craig Grannell finds out how to clear away the cobwebs

As the global economy continues to stutter its way through 2009, companies are increasingly fighting to be heard. In recent months, investment has shifted abruptly from traditional media and ‘real world’ environments to the internet, which provides the means to reach the largest possible audience in a relatively cost-effective manner.

In theory, this is great news, but in practice the picture isn’t entirely rosy. As Clearleft’s managing director Andy Budd explains: “Many people view a website as a one-off project, rather than an ongoing concern. Organisations often go through a big redesign and then let a website fall into disrepair.” Instead, he recommends training yourself and your clients to think of a website as a staged process, which should be updated every three to six months: “That way, it’ll always be up to date and will last longer, rather than spending the majority of its life underperforming.”

Instead of tearing a site down and rebuilding it from scratch, figure out ways to make the existing site work harder. “Breathing new life into a site through a design refresh is one such option,” suggests Budd. “Smart companies also explore usability improvements to help conversion rates – small tweaks to registration and checkout processes can see conversions skyrocket and pay for themselves in no time.” The trick is in knowing the difference between an expense and an investment. While some sites are too outdated to make do with subtle tweaks and need a radical revamp, you can often do a lot with a little, thereby finding yourself in tune with companies cutting back on large capital expenditures.  Read more...

content, Craig Grannell, Design, Marketing, Online Business, Opportunity, Press, Re-Design, Twitter, video, Web 2.0, Web Design Hide