Some of My Major Affiliate Marketing Problem Is Fixed

There are plenty of places where we can learn about an affiliate marketing business.  Unfortunately, it is much harder to find someone to do the actual difficult work for you.  Well, I may not have found a long hidden source of free labor, but I know that I have unearthed what is probably nearly as good.

I sell my own digital and physical products, but a sizeable chunk of my income still comes from affiliate marketing, where I began.  I use websites and blogs for all of my online business activities.  I rely quite heavily on search engine optimization (SEO) to secure traffic, but that is a long term strategy.  In some cases, I have used PPC for affiliate products with success, but more often I am lucky to break even. 

Consequently, like many in affiliate marketing, increasing traffic at a reasonable cost is one of my most vexing challenges.  Especially difficult are those times when I have to pass on a new affiliate opportunity because none of my websites are optimized to bring in targeted traffic for the product, so I face the age old question:  How do I get the visitors to the vendor’s site with my embedded affiliate link?

My approach to directing traffic to the vendor’s site is just like many other affiliate marketers, I bring the visitors to my own site initially for an introduction to the product or, perhaps a comparison of competing products.  I hope they’ll click the link that will take them to the spot where they might actually buy the product that will earn me my pittance.  I would like to make that process a bit less involved and take the prospects to the vendors a little more efficiently.

I use content syndication for all of my sites.  While I get some traffic directly from the articles, my primary reason for article marketing is its SEO value, which is considerable.  However, especially for an affiliate marketer, there are two major problems with traditional article marketing.  The first of those problems is that the top tier directories that publish and distribute articles do not allow links within the body of the article, contextual linking.  Instead the links stand alone in a section that they call the author’s resource box, but which screams, “Commercial!” to our readers.  The second big problem, maybe the biggest of all, is that the top ranking article directories all refuse to permit affiliate links even in those little boxes.

At last there is a content syndication service thall allows both contextual linking and inclusion of direct affiliate links.  Yes, you will be able to join the affiliate program of the amazing My Article Network once you become a member of the service.

My Article Network is something of a cooperative that brings site owners (publishers) together with article marketers.  (That link will let you know what I have to say about it on one of my sites.)  It’s another of those Callen projects that most of us who hang around online business for any period of time have come to know so well.

Since I am writing for affiliate marketers, I’ll cut short the presell message and let sales page of My Article Network speak for itself.  I’ve been using it for less than two months, and I am a complete convert to the system.  In fact, I even set up four new niche blogs to make use of the free content that my colleagues provide.  {(Go ahead.  Click the link, you know you want to.)(Do it!  You know you want to click the link.  Come on…don’t you think I deserve it?}

Selecting Authors for Your Business’s Internet Writing Needs

I think most brick and mortar business operators would be stunned to know how much written material is required for an Internet business venture. Using the Internet for commercial purposes requires an immense amount of content. Whether we rely heavily on video or the written word, every utterance or sentence must be carefully crafted.

Your website is often the initial contact a prospect has with your company. While website design and your actual product or service are essential, the quality of the expression of your words will have a huge impact upon the lingering impressions that your prospects have of your company. Therefore, you must be certain that the writers who are doing the work are the best that you are able to afford. This is no place to look for small savings in the budget.

Some businesses are large and diverse operations that choose to handle almost every task within one of the company’s departments. Many of us, on the other hand, do not have the time or, perhaps the in-house talent to meet all of the writing needs that we have. A great many Internet marketers choose to out-source the authoring to professionals–or to whom they hope will be professionals. There are many free lance authors and web article writing services available.

Free lance writers and article services can be cost effective solutions. In choosing among the many possible professional authors, be sure to learn how much they understand your business needs. Any writer you use should meet these criteria:

1) Any writer should be properly trained, of course. Equally important is that the author is naturally fluent in the language of your target market. For example, I grew up primarily in the United States. I speak a couple of other languages, however, I would hire a British writer to at least edit my work if I were writing exclusively for a target market in the U.K. While we write (and speak) the same language, the idioms, slang and many casual expressions are very different.

2) No writer can be expected to be an expert in every subject. However, you need to determine whether the writer who is going to write for you has the ability to quickly learn what is necessary about the subject to be able to write about that topic in an engaging manner.

3) They must be able to write conversationally for the web. Writing for most Internet venues is very different from writing for an academic journal or composing a report for school.

4) The writers must understand your different business purposes for various kinds of articles. They should be able to verbalize the difference in objectives for writing for your website versus writing for article marketing uses.

5) They must recognize the role articles play in your essential search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. Some free lancers will recognize that need because of repeated exposure to writing for the web. Others will have no idea what the term even means.

All of these issues are more important to consider than whether an article costs $10, $30 or even $100. Ten weak articles do not have the impact on your success that one very good piece of prose will.

Highly Effective Article Writing and Marketing in 4 Simple Steps

Articles have been proven to be the driving force to increase traffic to a website. Articles are a major factor in enabling a website to get high rankings in search result pages. Obviously, the higher a site ranks the bigger piece of the traffic pie it gets. As you probably know, the bigger the traffic flow, the bigger the profits and more potential for other income generating opportunities as well.

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