THREE QUALITIES YOUR AFFILIATE MARKETING SITES SHOULD HAVE

It isn’t enough to know what kind of affiliate marketing site to establish. Even if your site caters to a single product or multiple ones, they have to have certain qualities to ensure success. To encourage profits, your unique affiliate marketing site should be:

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What In The World Is Blogging (continuation)

There are many free blog hosts that will not allow users to import JavaScript at all.  This means that you will not be able to use Google Adsense or any of the other popular ad income programs.  Others, mainly Wordpress (http://www.wordpress.com) will not allow users to participate in paid review programs.  Already two potential revenue sources have been cut out for you and your business.

There is also the issue of competition.  Most free blog hosts and platforms encourage visitors to browse blogs that contain related content.  The host will also include links to their own affiliates and sponsors on your blog.  This means that you could easily loose a lot of the traffic that you have generated for your own business or site to a strong competitor.

With that in mind, if you are really interested in earning a profit with your blog you are going to have to invest some money.  Having your own personal domain name (this is assuming that you don’t already have one) will amplify your credibility and make your blog eligible for more revenue earning opportunities that are not offered to those hosting their blogs on free sites.  Also you will have more control over your blogs design, content, and availability.  No more fear of losing traffic or business because the free blog host has gone down or is under going maintenance for several hours or days.

If you are a new blog creator and worried about investing in a domain name and hosting set your mind at ease.  Once your blog is up, running, and recognized you will be able to easily earn back the money spent on a domain name and hosting.  Most domain registrations range from $1.99 to $10.99 and hosting is often between $4.95 and $10.95 monthly for a basic hosting account.

There are some hosting companies that offer one free domain name for life for as long as you host with.  One of the most respected and trustworthy companies which I personally use and recommend is HOSTMONSTER. They offer easy, one click, solutions to help get your blog up and running quickly.
CLICK HERE TO SIGNUP FOR HostMonster.COM NOW.

Another service they offer is a one click install for the Wordpress blog platform which is the only one that I will use for my professional and personal sites.  These one click installs are exactly what they are described as.  You can easily install the software on your site with one click of your mouse after answering a few questions about what directory you want the blog to be in and what user names/passwords you want for your databases.

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What In The World Is Blogging (continuation)

A wide variety of blogging platforms exist to assist individuals and businesses establish, and run, their own blogs.  Some of these blogging platforms are on sites completely dedicated to blogging and others are part of social networking and content management websites. The most well known blogging platforms are:

B2evolution:  http://www. b2evolution.net

Blogger:  https://www.blogger.com

Blogharbor:  http://www.blogharbor.com

Boast Machine:  http://www.boastology.com

Blog Drive:  http://www.blogdrive.com

DasBlog:  http://www.dasblog.info

Drupal:  http:///www.drupal.org

Expression Engine:  http://expressionengine.com

Geeklog:  http://www.geeklog.net

Joomla:  http://www.joomla.org

Livejournal:  http://www.livejournal.com

Mambo:  http://www.mamboserver.com

Movable Type:  http://www.movabletype.com

Pmachine:  http://www.pmachine.com

Serendipity:  http://s9y.org

Type Pad:  http://www.typepad.com

Wordpress:  http://wordpress.org

The first blogging platform I tried was Blogger (http://www.blogger.com).  I chose Blogger because it was simple to set up and many people I knew had active, highly trafficked, bloggers accounts.  A few businesses I knew of had even set up Blogger accounts, registered domain names, and then redirected their domain traffic to their Blogger accounts, very easy to do and effective if you want to stick to Blogger.

The benefits of using Blogger for me were that it was extremely easy to set up, affiliated with Google, and had a very user friendly dashboard..  There were virtually hundreds of free Blogger templates available that didn’t need that much html knowledge to use.  Also (though I didn’t appreciate it at the time) Blogger allows users to earn revenue through Google Adsense (nice).

The cons as far as I was concerned was that other than Google Adsense Blogger doesn’t offer a whole lot of revenue generating opportunities.  Also it was a little bit too common.  It seemed as though everyone with an interest in blogging had a Blogger account and chances were they were using the same, or very similar, template that I was using.

The cons of the Blogger platform apply to almost all of the blogging platforms that allow users to sign up for free and then supply a free sub domain on their site.  A lot of the accessible templates are so heavily used that it is nearly impossible for you to differentiate your message, business, or product from other bloggers on the same platform.

Continued here…

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I’ve touched on how much blogging can help your commerce grow and help non-business owners earn money in the How To Benefit From Blogging Post , but I haven’t really explained what blogging really is.  Blogging is contributing a variety of content to a web log (blog) that is usually published online and made available to millions of internet users worldwide.  These blogs can be anything from very simple online reports to major, interactive, resource providers. Most blogs provide news and opinions on particular subjects that vary from current events to celebrity gossip.

As of December 2007 over 110 million blogs with readers could be found online with new ones being formed everyday.  The world of blogging is no longer dominated by opinionated individuals with web awareness, now many publications, entertainment companies, and miscellaneous businesses operate their own private blogs.

Current corporations that publish blogs on their business websites include, but aren’t limited to:

.Wells Fargo

.Wal-Mart

.Marriott

.McDonalds

.Nike

.Southwest Airlines

.Time Warner

.Ford

.Amazon

Blogging has aided these companies in establishing a more client/corporate interaction since many customers, and random surfers, will happily utilize a blogs comment features to share feedback on their own experiences or ask questions.   Blogs have helped some prominent corporations with damage control.  Blogs can let companies quickly, and publicly, make statements that will be read by millions.

Currently almost every company with a web presence has some kind of blog accessible for surfers to read and comment on.  A few companies that jumped in late on the blog bandwagon have publicly acknowledged their regret at hesitating.

Continued…

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Also keep in mind that if you are allowing readers to comment on blog posts you need to take steps to monitor the content of these posts.  While there is software available to help prevent comment spam there are always times when some spam will slip through the cracks.  Manually monitoring comments will avoid embarrassing situations of inappropriate comments being published on any of your blogs.

If you are somebody that has an existing site, establishing and maintaining a blog is going to drastically increase your traffic to that site.  Many blog readers are attracted to a blog site by one, or more, posts on a specific subject.  Once the reader is at that blog post they will more than likely explore other products and services they might not have otherwise shown an interest in.   If there is a link to your previously established traditional site in your blog, chances are readers will visit that site as well which increases its traffic.

What this does is create an opportunity for free publicity and advertising.  Many blog readers are often trying to find news and content for their own site.  Your existing traditional site might be just what they were looking for.  There have been many times when I have been checking my backlinks and found out that the blog of one of my readers, or former clients, has a link to my blog promoting a certain motivating post or product.

Even if you do not have a definite product to sell, or message to spread, it doesn’t mean that you can’t earn revenue from blogging.  Many profitable blog owners are those who started their blogs to use as a personal diary and began doing little things to earn income.  First adding ads to the blog and then doing other things to capitalize on traffic and monetize the blog .

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Now that I was  able to take charge of how, and when, information was posted  on my new blog site instantly increased my sales, site traffic, and general interest in my domain.  Clients no longer felt that the site would always contain the same, out of date information.  They knew that in order to catch my latest promotions they would have to subscribe to my blog or bookmark my site to return to it often in order to avoid missing out on anything important.

I put in a great deal of time in setting up my initial blog posts and interacting with my clients.  In many cases my posts for the entire week were prepared by Monday and published on the blog at  set intervals throughout the week.  Each and every time someone commented on a blog post I did my best to respond to it, or acknowledge these comments.  Even if it was just to say ‘thank you for reading and commenting’.

Making it possible for users to comment on your blog posts can increase your companies business and reputation tremendously.  Many prospective clients make their decision to buy a item or use a service based solely on testimonials and reviews left by other customers.  Since comments often offer feedback on your products and services, they can sometimes be more affective than the most expensive, well thought out, advertising campaigns.

These comments can also serve as an unofficial Frequently Asked Questions section.  Often surfers  are more likely to read the comments on posts that relate to a question or problem they may be experiencing than they are to visit your sites FAQ.  By making it possible for clients to post comments publicly, and answering comments publicly, you might keep someone else from asking the same question.  This will cut down on the amount of emails you have to answer and phone calls you might otherwise receive.

Continued here…

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If you already own and maintain a web site, having a blog can improve your current web presence. The capacity to supply your customers, and readers, with brand new content on a daily, or weekly base can keep your business running even during lean months.  Blogging is also a wonderful way for small business owners, with little web design understanding, and small budgets to set up a professional, attractive, web presence.  Many designers will charge less for a completely tailored blog design and installation than they would charge for complete, traditional, html or flash website design.

Initially when blogging first became popular among businesses  I was slow to perceive the change.  It seemed to me as though more and more of my competitors were closing down their regular sites and replacing them with well designed blogs.  Other competitors kept their existing sites up, but added links to their websites with the intention of sending surfers to their companies newly formed blogs.  I was determined to learn more about blogging, but I didn’t want to change my entire website design until I was sure blogging was right for me and what I wanted for my business.

I fooled around with a few different blogging platforms on a personal level trying to find out what all the buzz was about.  I set up a simple personal blog on Blogger and later a weight loss blog on Typepad.  After trying out all of the major blogging platforms I came to the realization that using a blog platform to power my site rather than the current html design could work magic for my business.  In addition to being able to make my blogs look, and feel, professional with little design knowledge, I was also able to easily add photo and text content to my personal blogs without much assistance.   This was  something I would never have been able to do on my traditional site.

Considering that any of these discoveries would have inspired me to turn my existing site into a blog, the deciding factor for me was a confrontation with my website designer.  I needed my site updated to promote an upcoming event my business was affiliated with but the designer would not be available to complete the update until after the concert was over.  I instantly began researching how to create my own blog on my own domain so that I would no longer be reliant on a web designer.

Continued here….

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