Successful Affiliate Marketing With Online Forums

Posting to relevant online forums is a tried and tested way of successfully marketing a product or service you are promoting as an affiliate and remains a popular technique with people who are serious about their Internet business and establishing their online reputation.

Forum posting should be an integral part of your overall marketing plan.

Online forums are a type of social networking site, but unlike many such sites, online forums are places where people regularly participate.

Often this is two to three times a week and may even be on a daily basis. They ask real questions because they want a solution to their problem or they want to make a helpful contribution to the discussion taking place.

Why you should participate in online forums

As a marketer promoting a product or service as an affiliate, there are two main reasons for forum marketing:

The first reason for posting on forums serving the niche or market segment you are targeting is that your readers are already interested in your topic. They are a warm market, so there is no need to “qualify” them as you would have to with writing free reprint articles. Prospects from a warm market are much more likely to make a purchase than unqualified leads.

The second reason is that your signature can contain a link back to your website. This is the equivalent of your resource box in article marketing. Your goal is to get the prospect to go to your website. It is there that the selling is done, not on the forum.
Forum commenting to promote a product or service as an affiliate is free, but it does take time and some effort on your part as it must be done in a subtle way.

Each forum has its own rules and has an etiquette to follow. Most online forums are moderated. That means your post will

have to be approved before it is published. Overtly promotional posts are unlikely to be published.

Take a little time to view some potentially suitable forums to get a feel for them and check out their rules.

How to promote your affiliate product or service

Forum marketing takes time, not only to do, but also before you will start to see the fruits of your labours. The following five steps will set you on the path to forum marketing success:

The first step is to select one or more suitable forums in your niche.

It would be a good idea to only join one forum if you are just starting out in this type of marketing. You can join other forums when you have become established in the first forum. You will, however, need to follow the remaining four steps, but they will be second nature to you by then.

To find suitable forums, make an Internet search for your niche + “forums”. For example, “Type 2 diabetes forums”.

The second step is to sign-up and complete your profile.

Make sure your forum signature includes a link to your website. If the forum allows it, include a good photograph of yourself. Properly and fully completing your profile is important because many forum members will view your profile. Putting a face to your name will help you stand out from the crowd.

The third step is to introduce yourself to the forum.

Most forums will have an “Introductions” section, which is designed for this very purpose. Don’t just say “Hi!” or “Hello forum”, give it a bit of thought. Explain who you are and why you joined the forum (for example, to give and receive advice and offer assistance to other forum members).

The fourth step is to add value to the discussions in the forum.

You need people to notice you. You will need to post regularly for that to happen. If they notice your posts, it builds trust and they will also see your links. After you have created a great, informative topic or insightful reply, you will see your profile count grow and your signature URL clicks follow.

Establish yourself as someone that is there to improve the community.

Do not post unless you can add value to a conversation. This is where most people fail with forum marketing; they only post to get their links published. Spamming the forum will very quickly get you banned and all your posts removed.

The fifth step is to build up positive feed back.

Most forums have a feedback system. Give positive feedback to other posters. It will be reciprocated if your contributions benefit the forum.

Positive feedback helps to establish you as a reputable member

of the forum. Better still, if someone is looking for the product or services that you offer, they will come to you, over a new member with no reputation. So, don’t let this golden opportunity pass you by.

Don’t log onto a forum, make a post, and then stop posting just because you haven’t been successful in attracting visitors to your website. The key to successful forum marketing is to be regularly involved. Aim to post at least two to three times a week. This should start to build up your overall credibility.

Online forums are a good place to establish your expertise in your subject and to build a relationship of trust and confidence, not only with other members of the forum, but also with forum visitors. Adding value to the forum and receiving positive feedback help establish your good reputation.

People prefer to do business with people they know and trust and will follow the link in your forum signature. This, after all, is why you are doing forum marketing.

When the visitor reaches your website:

give them even more helpful information;
provide a cogent reason for them to join your mailing list; and
make sure you tell the visitor what you want them to do.
They may not buy the product or service you are promoting on this visit, but you can keep in contact with them by email to continue building your relationship with them.

Use your forum marketing to establish a relationship of trust and confidence,which your website and regular email communications further develops into a long-term relationship that benefits both you and your prospective customer.

7 Internet Marketing Secrets That the Internet Marketing Guru’s Will Not Share With You

You know, it never ceases to amaze me how much people want there Home Business, MLM, AND Internet Business to succeed, but they will never seek out the proper expertise and Knowledge that will Turn there Business around and bring change to their lives.Even when the world could be falling to pieces around them, because of there ‘Old Ways’ of doing things… humans will still continue to HANG ON for dear life, and to their ideas or habits, out of pure fear of the unknown.The sad part is (for those who do that), the other side of that equation are usually $35,000 Per Month, Online Part Time”.The fact of the matter is, if you are going to succeed in any business On-line, You must first be willing to do two Things:1) Be willing to try New Thing and Tactic, if the one you have right now is not working.
2) At the beginning stages of your internet or Home based business, you must be willing to invest as much time as possible. You must be willing to research and find out what is out there that is working for other Internet Marketers in you Niche.This Article is meant to help reduce your mistakes and stop you from wasting your Money, Time, AND Resources, buying Internet Marketing programs from Guru’s that hardly know what Internet Marketing is all about. Before we continue, I want to take a little time, to thank you upfront for reading this ARTICLE. I’m sure you will enjoy it and find it beneficial to your business. But first, and foremost who am I? and Why should you even listen to me? What can I truly offer to help you and your business?I was involved in Internet Marketing for a number of years barely making ends meets; in fact, my Expenditures outweighed my profits by a few thousand dollars over the course of three+ years. No matter what I was told at meetings, /trainings, from On-line Guru’s I’ve Subscribed to or, from the company who’s product am selling; nothing, was working. I was told to i.e. make a list of 100 people I know (family, friends, colleagues), maintain your company website, hand out 5 DVD’s every day with sufficient brochures to supplement, business cards, etc., etc., etc. These techniques were fruitless and frustrating. Lots of time and energy was invested for little or no results. Nothing worked for me, and it hardly worked for anyone I knew. That’s why I am providing this information today. I spent thousands of dollars on tools that always over-promised and under-delivered (and I have a closet full of souvenirs to remind me…ugh!). So I want to give you some great information to help you put some cash back in your pocket OR before you spend it unwisely. Beyond this article, I will be discussing many other subjects and strategies to help you grow you business. Things like:– A functional outline for the online marketing of your products and services– How to use the 3 greatest business growth tools that you have at your fingertips to your greatest advantage– How to position yourself as an expert in your product or service– How to find THOUSANDS of people that are demonstrating a need and desire for what you have– How to master copywriting skills that will have your prospects watering at the mouth…But before I get ahead of myself, the first step is to Show you 7 thing you can do now to Place you Home Business, MLM, Network Marketing and Internet Marketing Business on the Fast Track. Enjoy it, and stay tuned for more great Knowledge information to turbo-charge your business.”7 Simple No-Fail Methods To Earn Yourself Towering 5-Figure Monthly Commission Checks And Rake In Piles Of Cold Hard Cash…Marketing ” Whatever You Want!” Does that sound impossible? At least a little unbelievable? It’s not. It’s more than realistic, even conservative. And I’m about to show you why.1. Target Your Market! Since you can’t rely on your warm market for long-term growth, who are you supposed to talk to about your business? The answer: Your target market. Who is your target market? It depends on what you are marketing. Your target market are those people who are most likely to buy from you. You have to resist the temptation to be too general in the hopes of getting a larger slice of the market. That’s like firing 10 bullets in random directions instead of aiming just one dead center on the mark – expensive and dangerous if ignored, lucrative and rewarding if heeded. Here are some questions to get you started:o Are your target customers male or female?
o How old are they?
o Where do they live? Is geography a limiting factor for any reason?
o What do they do for a living?
o How much money do they make? This is most significant if you’re selling relatively expensive or high-end products. Most people can afford a $20 bottle of health juice. You can’t say the same of a $500 anti-aging treatment.
o What other aspects of their lives matter? If you’re marketing a telecom service, your target market probably already have some sort of phone service.
o What is important to them? What are their fears, hopes, desires? Once upon a time, business owners thought it was enough to market their products or services to “18- to 49-year olds.” Those days are a thing of the past. These days, you have to be specific, and you have to understand what your market looking for.2. Stop Selling — Start Sorting It’s easy to slip into the habit of convincing people that what we have is legit. We are taught that we have to “sell” everyone on our product and opportunity. We have to beg, plead, and follow up endlessly, until they finally relent and say “yes”. That’s a great way to burn out fast. Convincing and selling take a lot of time and energy. It’s a painstaking process, and it’s very uncomfortable for most people to try and “sell”. I hate selling. I never sell. I sort. Here’s the difference: Selling is trying to create demand, and convince people that they need what you have. Sorting is about finding people that are already interested, and simply creating the urgency to buy from you. Sorting is fun. And it pays much better than selling.So how do you sort? You sort by filtering your prospects. In your Sales funnel, you design different “check points” that require a prospect to take an action before proceeding on to the next phase of the sales funnel. That process weeds out the people that are NOT interested, and leaves you with the people that are interested. When starting, the top of your sales funnel should be a prospecting script that screens and qualifies your prospects. If you design a script that sorts out people that are curious from people who are serious, then you can qualify your prospects, and put the odds in your favor that you are spending your time with a future associate. Really, prospecting is all about sorting, about qualifying, and about spending your time with people that truly want what you have. At this point, you’ve probably been taught to talk to anyone who will listen to you about your business opportunity, and that’s the wrong mindset to have. You should never spend your time with someone unless you know that they are interested or have the tendency to purchase what you are offering. This is why your friends and family doesn’t work — you don’t qualify them, and they don’t respect your time.Most of them don’t have the heart to tell you flat out that they aren’t interested, because they probably care about you. They just don’t want anything to do with your business. That’s a good thing! There are too many other qualified people to be speaking with that would like to do business with you. Besides, once you are successful, most friends and family members will actually approach you, and want to know how to get involved. Let’s say you are marketing a travel service and business opportunity. You could use a very simple script that goes through, qualifies your prospect, and then you can ask them something like “if I could show you a way where you could travel to Hawaii for free or even get paid to travel, would that be worth about 30 minutes of your time to learn how to do that?” Then, you know that they have an interest in your business, and in your service.3. Leverage The Internet OK — so the Internet gets hyped up all the time about how amazing it is, how fast it can explode your business, blah blah blah. Well – it’s true! Make no mistake about it — the Internet has the ability to explode your business faster than any other tool on the planet. Before we even talk about the Internet, let’s talk about your company. Many companies will tell you that they forbid you to advertise, that they have to approve of anything you do if you market on the Internet or anywhere else. This is absolutely true — if you use their trademark names or the name of the company in your advertising.That’s how you market online without having to have everything run through the “company” -you just don’t mention the company. You position YOURSELF first, and talk about the benefits that your product can offer. For example: Let’s say John Doe is a distributor for XYZ company, and they offer a health juice that helps diabetes. John’s natural inclination is to put up a website that says: “Hi, I’m John Doe, and I’m a distributor with XYZ corporation. XYZ is a great company that is changing lives. They have a juice that cures diabetes! Call me for a presentation!” This is bad. Really bad.You might think that John would have to be an idiot to put this kind of stuff on a website or in an ad, but Major businesses have to prevent their distributors from doing this all the time. Their distributors get carried away, and make all kinds of crazy claims to market their product. Let’s say John Doe has the good sense to talk to me before he publishes that ad or website. After we chat, he changes things so that it reads: “Hi, I’m John Doe, and I provide people with powerful information that has been shown to dramatically reduce the chances of developing diabetes. If you are suffering from diabetes, and if you would like to know of a way that could drastically reduce or even eliminate the symptoms, then call me for a free needs-analysis report”Now this is a totally different ballgame. First, John Doe is not speaking in the name of his company — he is speaking in his own name. He’s not making any crazy product claims, he uses words like “has been shown to reduce” and “could reduce”. He’s not blabbering about the company at all, which is good – people like to buy from expertise, and it does John no good to talk about how great his company is, because at this point, HIS PROSPECT DOESN’T CARE. Remember, his prospect is just thinking WIFM – what’s in it for me? John is also offers a compelling reason to take action – he is giving a free needs analysis. This is 100% legit with any network marketing company or home-based business. So long as you don’t mention your company and make claims in their name, you are protecting them from being sued and legal liability, which is why they publish their policies and procedures in the first place. Now let’s talk about the Internet. There are two parts to succeeding with the internet — the traffic, or your web visitors, and your website. Let’s talk about traffic first.The power of the internet is that it allows you to dramatically leverage the number of people that are exposed to what you are marketing. You can drive hundreds or thousands of visitors to a website every single day, and you can target it so that only people that are actively looking for what you have see your site. There are 3 primary ways to drive traffic: PPC — or “paid traffic” SEO — or “organic traffic” Social Media — or Web 2.0good news is… First, PPC is one of the fastest and easiest ways to gain massive exposure and drive high quality visitors and prospects to your site. One of the key steps here is that you need to know how to buy your traffic wholesale. Paying full price on Google Ad words or Yahoo Sponsored search will drain your bank account. PPC is all about using their paid advertising networks to expose your ad to targeted visitors. The best part about pay per click is that only people who want what you have right now are exposed to your ad. That way, you can qualify your prospect before you ever pay a penny, and they have to respond to your message before you pay.There are some very simple strategies you can use to master PPC, but you must know what you are doing, because you can also get hurt if you just start buying traffic ignorantly. The second way to drive targeted traffic is with SEO, or search engine optimization. This is powerful because it is free traffic, but you must have the technical skills to understand what a search engine is looking for when it ranks websites. Search engines have bots, or web crawlers, that go out and search the websites out on the internet. And if you know what these web crawlers are looking for, you can blow by your competition and get ranked at the top of the search engines. There really is a formula for this, and it works time and again. Finally, the third way to drive traffic is with Social Media, which is commonly called Web 2.0. These are popular websites such as Squidoo.com, MySpace.com, YouTube.com, and many others that have become popular online hubs. What is interesting is that social media traffic is some of the highest-quality traffic online today, but it is a very different kind of marketing.In order to succeed with Web 2.0, you have to learn how to provide quality content, and build a loyal fan base with your material. If you do this right, you can have 200, 300, or even 500 people per day reaching out to you, asking for more information about what you have. This type of traffic can be presold, so that when they actually see your website or your web message, they are ready and eager to work with you personally. You are already positioned as an expert before you ever even speak with them. There is a downside to web 2.0 though – if you don’t know what you are doing, and just start blasting advertising on these sites, then you will be shut down and lose your account. Like ppc and seo, there is an art and science to using these tools.But the good News is… Anyone, with the right knowledge, can take these tools, dominate their market, and separate themselves from the competition.4) I know you want your On-line Business to grow quickly, and one of the best way to do that is to start bogging. A blog is a website that you can update with quality content on your particular area of expertise. It is highly recommended that you update your blog regularly, whether that is once a day, once a week, or once a month. Whatever the case, we highly recommend that you are consistent with your updates. This is the KEY to success with the blog – consistency. On top of that, you can make money off your blog! If you host advertising on your blog, then advertising networks will pay you for it. So you can blog about the benefits of your product, service, and opportunity, generate leads that are reaching out to you, AND getting paid for advertising. It’s a nice tool to haveSome of the best advertising networks: Google Ad Sense Ad Sense is a must have to make money from a blog. Google displays simple text and image ads on your blog that are targeted to what you’re writing about. You can sign up for a free account at: AdSense.Google.com Bidvertiser Bidvertiser is one of the best ad networks. They sell text links that you see under “Featured Sites” on websites. Bidvertiser is a CPC ad network that competes with Google Ad Sense. The good thing about Bidvertiser is its low $10 payout. With AdSense, you will have to reach $100 in ad commissions before they will pay you – with Bidvertiser, you only have to hit $10 before they pay out. You can get an account at: bidvertiser.com NetKlix NetKlix is another great CPC ad network for publisher (bloggers) to get paid. They pay out each month directly into your checking account. You can get an account at: NetKlix.com Blogging can be very lucrative, and if you are able to build a fan base that frequently visits your blog, you can generate a significant income. I know bloggers who pull in $40,000 per month just from the advertising revenue of their blog. It’s no joke, and it should be implemented if you hope to make money from home. Now there is one last thing I want to talk about – and it’s the most important business growth tool you’ll ever have. And that is — a successful mindset.5) “Someday”? Do you know how to tell a successful person from an unsuccessful one? The easiest way is by how they talk. When you talk to a successful person about their goals and targets, they will tell you what they plan to do and when it will be done. When an unsuccessful person talks about their goals (assuming they even have any), you’ll hear something along the lines of “I hope to do this someday” or “I really wish this would happen”. Here’s a clue for all you losers out there — “someday” never comes. You know why someone with a loser’s mentality always uses words like “someday”, “I hope” or “I wish”? They do it because it gives them an out, and allows them to not be accountable for their words. If they have to place a time limit on the goal and they don’t do it, they fail, and a loser hates to fail. Winners have no fear of failing, because they know success is made from strings of failure. Everyone has dreams and goals. Do you know the only difference between a goal and a dream?A goal is a dream + action. We all have dreams, becoming financially independent, having a family, helping charities, making an impact on the world, etc. Have you ever made a goal to achieve your dreams? If so, did you place a time limit on it, or did you just say “I hope it happens someday”? Can you imagine buying a presale home and not knowing when it will be completed? Can you imagine if the developer just kept telling you “I’ll get it finished someday”. Don’t be afraid to fail. Failure is required in order to succeed. You won’t find a successful person who doesn’t have a few stories to tell about their failure (I know I do). Making a tremendous income with your home-based business is something that lots of people would like to do. Something that many people dream of doing. The question is -Will It Happen “Today” or will it happen “Someday”?Are You Ready To Make It Happen — Starting Today? If so, then You need to know something about the law of Attraction. I can only scram so many strategies into one Article. There are some basic laws of attraction that you have to follow and know to start making your dreams and goals a reality.6) One of those laws is VISUALIZATION Visualize Your Goals Clearly If you consciously believe that you have the ability to be successful and achieve your goals and Dreams, then you need to hold a picture of those goals clearly in your mind long enough and hard enough, till eventually your outer world is correspond with your inner world.7) Finally, guard your thoughts carefully. Whatever you think about, combined with the emotions of desire or fear, you will attract into your life. Be sure that you are attracting what you want by continuing to think only about what you want. keep feeding your mind with new information, ideas and pictures of the person you want to be and the life you want to live. By creating this inner attitude of mind, you change the outer aspects of your reality. The success of you business is dependent on you Positive mental State.

3 Things You Need to Do to Get Good Affiliate Revenue

Starting your own affiliate marketing business is a good way to earn a full time income if you have the right knowledge and you are willing to work. Like any other successful business, you will need to be able to convince people to purchase the product you are promoting so that you will be able to earn profits. Here are the 3 things you want to do to get good affiliate revenue.

The 1st thing you need to do is to have good understanding of the affiliate marketing business. You need to have good basic technical skills so that you will know how to put the opt in form in your website and make your website live online. Once your website is live online, you will need to apply proven strategies that will drive consistent traffic back to your website. There are many strategies that are available online and you will want to focus on applying one strategy at a time. Having the required skills and knowledge is crucial for your business.

The 2nd thing you need to do is to focus on traffic generation activities that will drive constant flow of targeted prospects to your website. You will only be able to earn consistent income when you are able to get constant flow of buying customers. There are many different ways to drive traffic to your website and you will want to focus on mastering one method at a time. For example if you are going to learn article marketing, you will want to put in the time and effort to become an expert in this method so that you can drive constant flow of traffic to your website.

The 3rd thing you must do is to constantly understand your market. Most customers will purchase the product from you because they believe that the product you are selling will help them to solve their problem. It will be worth the investment of your time to understand your market so that you will be able to provide relevant content to them and promote good products to them. Focus on giving your potential leads values and helping them as they will be more likely to purchase the product you are promoting.

Here are the 3 things that you want to do if you want to get good affiliate revenue. You might feel a bit overwhelm when you are just starting out but you will soon get the hang of it once you have experience operating this business. The most important thing you must do is to ensure that you are following a system that is proven to work.