The Blog of Mark Shilensky

Archive for the ‘Affiliate Marketing’ Category

I’m not going to get into a lot of details about this program, except to tell you to CLICK HERE to see the whole story on this awesome product.

I’ve been a full time internet marketer for almost 6 years and have made a very comfortable living to this point.  In order to stay ahead of the changes in the industry, I’ve always got my eyes open for new “tested” ideas that people are using in order to increase my online profitability.  This is a product that I am going to be reviewing myself in order to test their results.

Check back to future posts for my results.  In the meantime if you’re ready to find out more about what this is all about and run a test for yourself, just CLICK HERE.

I’ve been involved in Internet Marketing and especially Affiliate Marketing, today I had the chance to review an amazing new product called Commission Blueprint that was created by Steve Clayton and Tim Godfrey.  This is a complete training package about how to maximize both affiliate profits and click-thrus using Clickbank and Google Adwords in combination.  This course is, according to the authors “a no-holds barred step-by-step course showing every last secret we know”.

This product consists of a one-time $97 charge for both videos and training manuals that provide more details and examples of some of the more technical material discussed in the videos.

The Creators

Tim Godfrey is an internet marketer that has been successful in the health and golf niches and ran a very profitable online gambling website.

Steve Clayton is an expert on marketing and technology and was a VP for a Fortune 500 company in North Carolina and currently manages over $1,000,000 in Google Adwords campaigns each year.

Commission Blueprint: The Product

The videos are narrated by the creators.  In all there are more than three hours of video that explains how they creators used this exact system to become a super affiliate with Clickbank.  This product claims to be a step-by-step training in how to find the best Clickbank products to use with the system and what you need to do to get the most out of marketing these products.

What’s Included in the Product:

• Keyword Research
  • How to pick four to six products and test them for profitably
  • How to avoid making the costly mistakes of paying too much for Adwords and lose money rather than make a profit
  • Explained how to read and understand all of the statistics that Clickbank provides
  • Defined the terms Clickbank gravity, cost per click, conversion rate, commission payout and click inventory then explained why they are important
  • Showed how to use a spreadsheet that is part of the product to decide if a product is worth marketing and explained what number combinations make a product worth pursuing
  • Demonstrated tools that he uses for keyword research
  • Provided a formula to determine which keywords are profitable and how much you should pay for them
  • Performed a step by step demonstration on how to do keyword research and use Google Adwords statistics to analyze them to determine which one are most likely to be profitable for you to use
  • Showed how to estimate the amount of traffic for a given keyword using google’s free tools
• Domain Names and Hosting
  • Steve explained why you need a domain name and what factors you should consider when selecting one such as length and demonstrated a few tools to help you choose good keywords
  • Explained the best type of web hosting to buy to make running your business easier
  • Explained how to use domain names in your Adwords ads
  • Demonstrated how to set up the correct DNS server for your domain name
• Creating Landing Pages for Adwords Campaigns
  • Explained how to set up landing pages and what you need to do to get a good quality score from google and how to create a page that will sell your product
  • Explained how to make sure there is sufficient continuity between the Adwords ad, the search term, the story you are telling and the offer made by the Clickbank product and why it is important
• Managing Adwords Campaigns
  • Explained how to use the Adwords information in combination with the data from Clickbank to manage your keyword ad campaigns for profitability
  • Demonstrated how to determine which keywords are not converting well enough to prevent losing money
  • Explained why you need to use Adwords Editor
  • Showed how to optimize your ad position and click through rate
• Scaling Your Affiliate Business
  • Explained how to scale your business (how to increase your daily commissions)
  • Discussed the methods that have proven successful for increasing your earnings as your campaign matures
  • Demonstrated how to optimize your bids to increase profitability
  • Discussed when it’s time to move your ad campaign over to both Yahoo and MSN
  • Discussed when it makes sense to do offline advertising
  • Discussed when to use email campaigns or JV with other marketers
  • Discussed when to start using SEO for you campaigns
  • Discussed when to use opt in pages
  • Explained how to create Thank You pages
• Cash Flow
  • Explained how Clickbank pays out its commissions so you know how to budget your money to pay for your Adwords campaign and made several recommendations on how to manage your budget
  • Explained why you need to get a tax advisor and/or an accountant to prevent problems with the IRS if you live in the USA

Conclusion

Once you get through the introductory fluff in videos 1 & 2, this is an excellent product that will benefit anyone trying to get an affiliate marketing business up and running.  The templates provided in the package are very well designed and work perfectly with the system presented in the videos and manuals.  They provide templates for: a review site, a sales letter, and two for opt-in pages.  The opt-in page allows you to insert your own video and is great for the technically challenged.

For More Information and To Purchase This Package, CLICK HERE!

Affiliate Marketing 102

Affiliate marketing is the revenue sharing between online advertisers (and merchants) and online salespeople.  Compensation and pay is based on performance measures, normally in the form of clicks, sales, and registrations.

The advertisers and merchants are normally referred to as affiliate merchants, and publishers or sales people are known as affiliates.

The many benefits of affiliate marketing include the potential for making lots of money.  You can automate a lot of the advertising process and receive payment only for desired results, which includes sales, registrations, and clicks.

Even though most merchants will assume some level of risk with fraud, there is still a level of risk involved.  Once you know what you’re doing with affiliate marketing, you’ll be on top well before you know it.

Affiliate marketing has been a contributor to the rise of many companies online, including Read the rest of this entry »

Affiliate Marketing 101

Affiliate marketing programs are a great way to get income for your website, and a great introduction to e-commerce.  The more people that drop by your website, the great your chance will be at creating an excellent income.

Affiliate marketing programs are where a company offers to pay you a set amount for either a click through from your website, or a set amount for visitors signing up, or even a percentage of a purchase made by visitors as a result of being referred from your website.

Even if visitors don’t make a purchase immediately, almost all programs offer cookie duration, normally consisting of 30 – 90 days.  What this means, is that as long as the visitors have the cookie in their cache, you’ll still recieve a profit from the sale. 

The biggest amount of time in maintaining your site will be searching and implementing affiliations with various companies.  Even though there’s a lot of money in affiliate marketing, you have to take the time to search for the best programs.

One thing that you may not be happy with, is the idea of other companies banners littering your website.  If you use too many banners or links on any web page, it can confuse and help to irritate your visitors.  More than one animated element on a web page can be very distracting as well.

Affiliate tracking can also be a problem.  Once you have applied to become an affiliate for a company, they’ll usually supply you with a personalized link or code.  It’s very important that you implement this code into your page correctly, or you may be sending visitors to the company without recieving any profit.

A majority of snippets in the code will contain a unique user ID, which the company uses to distinguish which site sent traffic.

Mark A. Shilensky is an Entrepreneur who has owned his own business for the past 21 years. Having been successfully involved in Network Marketing, Internet Marketing, and multiple Home-Based Businesses, Mark is an excellent source of information on many subjects.

For more Information about what Mark is working on, make sure to check the links on his personal blog (www.MarkShilensky.com).

Building Affiliate Marketing Websites The Easy Way

There are some myths in affiliate marketing, which attract a lot of people to it believing they are true. First is they think managing an online business is easy and second, they think that one can make a fortune through online marketing in an instant. Probably not even 10% of those who are into affiliate marketing became rich overnight. There may be some who fortunately achieved overwhelming success in just a short span of time after setting up an affiliate program, but not a majority of them can confidently say they only had luck. Anyone who is successful in this kind of business would say he worked hard to get to where he is right now. Success in affiliate marketing takes time and hard work, but it’s worth it.

If you are planning to start an affiliate program, one of the things you have to consider is having your own website, not just an ordinary website but a professional looking one. How do you build an affiliate marketing website? What are the easy steps to build one? First, you must have already decided on the theme or niche of your website. It would be better if you already have an idea what products or services to promote as this would help you plan the design and lay-out of your web pages. The next thing to do is to choose a domain name and get it hosted. The domain name is a unique name used to label the actual address of your website on the Internet.  In deciding what domain name to register, look into the type of products you are endorsing and the theme of your site. Having the right keywords in your domain name would give you better chances of drawing more visitors to your website. Also, choose a top level domain or extension, such as .com because it is more popular. In selecting your web host, consider the security of servers and up time guarantees.

Now, you can start creating your webpages. Don’t be disheartened when you know a little in this field. There are page generation tools and fast launch sites available online; you just have to search for them. Countless online sources could help you build an affiliate marketing website, though you might need time to study and learn the whole process. This is one of the reasons why your site or the products you are going to promote must match your interest. Building your marketing website for the first time would be a lot more fun if you know very well the theme of your site. If you don’t have time to make your own website, you can use templates or purchase readily available websites. The latter, however, is a more expensive option.
 
Creating an affiliate website on your own would be cheaper and more interesting. In the process of building your website, you may also increase your knowledge in Information Technology and the use of computers, softwares and the Internet. As you educate yourself in these fields, you are increasing your advantage against other affiliate marketers. It helps a lot, though, if you already know the basics in web page development like programming languages and graphics softwares because you can make your site extra corporate-looking, more convenient to use or easier to navigate. Furthermore, if you are knowledgeable and skillful in this area, you can already concentrate more on the content of the page rather than the design.

The key to draw visitors to your website is to have high quality content; thus, the next thing you must pay attention to in building your marketing website is this. There may be several other factors that contribute to the success of your affiliate marketing site, but a good content tops the list. This is precisely the reason why users choose to enter your site. They want to get information and so when they don’t find it, they would definitely go elsewhere. Write interesting articles related to your theme as this would make them frequent your site. If you have already looked for affiliate programs that complement your site, add links to the business sites and other very good informative sites. Links contribute to how well you will be listed in major search engines as well. Also, create pages for the products you are endorsing, but don’t just promote the products by putting hyped-up ads. Keep your readers interested by injecting lots of relevant and useful information. This would make them click the link to the business site and buy the product. Remember that no good content means no frequent visitors, no sales and ultimately, no commission.

Make your site simple yet not without a touch of class in order to make it appear more of a business website rather than a personal website. This would be pleasing to the eyes and more interesting to browse. To help you with the design, you can check some successful online stores to get an idea on how you can make your site look better. Make sure you don’t place too many banner ads since these could distract some site users; and thus, instead of clicking your ad, they might just leave your site and look for other interesting websites. After all, banner ads are not the only means of advertising your products. Now your website is complete, submit its URL to major search engines to increase your traffic.

Grow from where you started. Learn about use of keywords for search engine optimization and apply them in your content. Update your site regularly or add new webpages. Make sure to inform your prospects about the latest updates in your site. You can use newsletters to accomplish this. The Internet offers a huge source of information about just anything, make use of it. Continue to educate yourself on how to improve your website and soon you’ll find yourself successful in affiliate marketing.

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Mark A. Shilensky is an Entrepreneur who has owned his own business for the past 21 years. Having been successfully involved in Network Marketing, Internet Marketing, and multiple Home-Based Businesses, Mark is an excellent source of information on many subjects.

For more Information about what Mark is working on, make sure to check the links on his personal blog (www.MarkShilensky.com).

5 Things You Must Have to Succeed in Affiliate Marketing

The idea of being mere passengers on a ship meant to sail to the farthest points does not appeal to people who like to put their destiny into their own hands.  They have the desire of maneuvering the ships themselves, of being able to be the ones to take it anywhere they want to.  Being aboard a ship on its way to a particularly great destination is something each and every one of them dreams of, and the knowledge that they have the capacity to steer it themselves is what makes them actually want to.

Perhaps this is the reason why more and more people are succumbing to one of the most popular businesses around – affiliate marketing.  It is because in this business, there are no bosses to order the employees around.  There are no deadlines to meet and no clutter of work do to.  One only needs to be equipped with the tools needed to succeed in a business such as this, and he is bound to get what his heart ultimately desires.

Just what are the things needed to be able to succeed in affiliate marketing?  What must one have within himself to be able to do well in this industry?  There is a lot of competition involved in affiliate marketing, and to be able to rise above the norm, one must be equipped with just the right stuff necessary to propel him forward.  There are five things one must ultimately possess if he wants to achieve the glory he is yearning for in this business, and these five things are a must for him to possess to be able to stand out among the rest.

The very first quality one must possess if he wants to try his hand in affiliate marketing is the willingness to learn and be trained.  Treading through unfamiliar territory is scary stuff if one is not properly equipped, and he might get lost amidst a jungle of the unknown.  Learning the tricks of the trade is also an important aspect of the game, and one’s willingness to know it all will give him far better advantages in the business than he could ever imagine.

The second quality one must possess is the willingness to invest time and effort even if direct results do not seem at all apparent.  Although several months may pass without good news, it is important for one who has his foot in the industry to hold on and wait.  It is this quality which would save him from giving up after investing a lot of himself in the business.

The third quality one must possess is self-determination.  If one wants to conquer the affiliate marketing world, he must have the ability to push himself ahead.  Never having to say die is a quality each and every affiliate marketer should possess, and the ability to motivate oneself into scaling greater heights is an ability which would actually take an affiliate marketer there.

The fourth quality one must possess is discipline.  If one knows how to teach himself to work everyday with all the energy he can muster, then he is close to achieving what he has set his heart to having in the first place.

The fifth and last quality one must possess is optimism.  Negative attitudes and hearsays should not discourage an affiliate marketer from pursuing what he has to in order to make life better for himself and for everyone concerned.  Neither should anyone influence his attitude toward the business, because once in it, it is a must for him to be the captain of his ship and the master of his soul.

The ingredients to success in a business such as affiliate marketing are diverse and manifold, but the most important thing one needs to be able to make it big lies in himself alone.  It is he who has the capacity to do everything to be able to realize his prospects, and the desire which fuels his heart in doing so is the gasoline which should keep the engine going.

Affiliate marketing is all about putting one’s fate into his own hands.  The right attitude is the key to being able to steer one’s ship into that part of the ocean where a certain kind of serenity can be found, one that permeates the atmosphere as the ship sails calmly on.

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Mark A. Shilensky is an Entrepreneur who has owned his own business for the past 21 years. Having been successfully involved in Network Marketing, Internet Marketing, and multiple Home-Based Businesses, Mark is an excellent source of information on many subjects.

For more Information about what Mark is working on, make sure to check the links on his personal blog (www.MarkShilensky.com).

3 Necessary Tools for the High Rolling Affiliate Marketer

What does it take to become a successful Affiliate Marketer? What are the ingredients of an affiliate marketing success story? Is there a shortcut to Affiliate Marketing glory? All these questions play around in the minds of affiliate marketers who want to make it big in this business.

Although affiliate marketing is touted as one of the easiest and most effective ways to earn money online, it is not as easy as it sounds. The wise affiliate marketer plans every action and executes it the best way he can. He should also maximize the potential to earn by utilizing the right tools necessary for a successful Affiliate Marketing business. We have consulted some of the most successful affiliate marketers in the business and below are the top three necessary tools for a successful affiliate marketing business.

Important Tool #1: Your Own Website

The most important and indispensable tool in Affiliate Marketing is your own website. The first step in any successful affiliate marketing business is building a good, credible and professional looking website. Your website is the jump off point of all your marketing efforts. Thus, you must first build a user-friendly website, which will appeal to your prospects and encourage them to click on the links to the products and service you are promoting and make a purchase. Therefore, you must first concentrate your efforts in building a website that will cater to what your prospects need.

The most important thing you should consider is that almost all web users go online to look for information, not necessarily to go and buy something. Above all else, make your website full of original, relevant and useful content. People will love articles that are appealing and helpful. Keep in mind that, in the internet, content is still king and good quality content will not only build your credibility, it can also help you achieve a higher search engine ranking. By posting relevant and useful articles, you establish yourself as a credible expert in the field, making you a more trustworthy endorser of the product or service you promote. Establishing a good reputation is a good step in building up a loyal consumer base.

Important Tool #2: Incentives

Competition is extremely tight in the internet world. You must always be one-step ahead of your rivals to ensure that you capture a significant share of your target market. Therefore, you must use every possible means to encourage people not only to visit your site but also to click and proceed to the websites of the products and services you are promoting. Building an opt-in email list is one of the best ways to gather prospects. Offer a newsletter or an e-zine. Better yet, offer incentives to your prospects to encourage them to subscribe to your newsletters. You can present free softwares, access to exclusive services and other freebies that will be helpful to your prospects.

Important Tool #3: Link Popularity

The importance of driving highly targeted traffic to your website cannot be emphasized enough. The all-important web traffic is at the top of the list of the most important entities in the internet world. Attracting people to your site should be the first step you should carry out. Do everything to achieve a high search engine ranking. Link Popularity is one of the factors that search engines use to determine search engine rankings. Therefore, to enhance your link popularity, you must launch an aggressive reciprocal link campaign.

One of the best ways to do this – at no cost at all – is by submitting articles, with your website’s link at the resource box, to e-zines and free article sites. You will not only gain exposure, you will also have the opportunity to advertise for free, just include a link back to your site. The more sites you submit your articles to, the better your link popularity is. Make your articles original, relevant and useful so that more websites will pick it up and post it.

These are but three of the many tools that an affiliate marketer can use to maximize earning potential. The possibilities are endless and are limited only by your imagination, creativity, resourcefulness and determination. You can always explore other ideas and adapt other strategies, which you think might help you become a high rolling affiliate marketer.

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Mark A. Shilensky is an Entrepreneur who has owned his own business for the past 21 years. Having been successfully involved in Network Marketing, Internet Marketing, and multiple Home-Based Businesses, Mark is an excellent source of information on many subjects.

For more Information about what Mark is working on, make sure to check the links on his personal blog (www.MarkShilensky.com).