"Making Money Online Was Never So EASY!"

Even if your business is Internet based and has no physical store or office, you can still make excellent use of offline advertising to promote your business. Some of these methods will be free of charge, while others will cost very little in the way of financial resources.

Here are just a few of the ways you can create new customer opportunities with the use of offline advertising.

One of the easiest ways to kick off your offline traffic program is with the use of a flier. With the quality software that is on the market these days, you can easily design fliers that help to advertise your business.

The real question will be where to place the fliers, so they are not an irritant and can be placed legally. For this, you will need input from the local authorities.

Contact your city or town government and find out what the local laws and regulations are when it comes to passing out fliers for a business. In many cases you will find that there is some restriction when it comes to municipal parking lots.

It may be possible to obtain a permit that will allow you to place fliers at a specific event that the city is sponsoring. Also, the city will often know which shopping centers around town allow fliers to be placed on cars in their parking lots.

Along with the local government, check with the local chamber of commerce. You may find that they will have events coming up where you will be free to pass out fliers to persons entering or leaving the event.

You may find the chamber especially receptive to this idea if you sponsor or co-sponsor an event, which is another way of saying you agree to pay for part of the cost of putting on the event. While you may not want to do a lot of this sort of thing, it may very well help you to try it out once or twice.

Another place to think about fliers is at local retail stores, such as supermarkets. Many grocers now provide community bulletin boards that allow fliers to be posted for a specified period. This is also true with some restaurants. While the placing will not be permanent, at least the information will be in front of people for an extended period of time.

Along with the flier, you will also get a lot of mileage with a business card. Of all the forms of advertising, a business card is one of the easiest ways to cultivate sales opportunities. Any conversation is a chance to leave a card with your web address in the hands of a potential client.

You can place a business card in a fish bowl at the local eateries, post them on bulletin boards, and give some to friends to pass on to interested parties. You may also try some unorthodox methods, such as “accidentally” leaving one or two of your cards at the table or booth when you go out to eat, or even leaving a couple on the sink in a public restroom.

Believe it or not, this can actually lead to some sales.

Contrary to popular opinion, business cards do not have to be unusual in order to be effective. A plain card that sports simple fonts may be just what you need in some businesses. Have some fun with the color scheme on the card, but make sure the information is easy to read.

More important, make sure the card works well with card scanning equipment. Many people who are interested in your products will run the card through a card scanner as a quick way to put your information in their address book. If the card has fancy fonts the scanner software does not recognize, or the text fades into the background, the scan may fail and your chances of being added diminish.

At the same time, there is no rule that says you can’t have some fun with your business card. Try making it a little thicker, so the card stands out in a pile. Consider putting text on both sides of the card for some added interest. Also, you could try a circular card rather than a rectangular card. Just make sure the circle will run through a card scanner without jamming it.

Just as you can leave a flier or a business card in your wake, there is also the matter of leaving behind a brochure. Home printing software allows you to create some excellent trifold brochures that are ideal for use around town.

They also are great for use at business shows, conventions, and trade shows. As an added bonus, a trifold brochure fits nicely into a standard business envelope, which makes the piece ideal for use in direct mail campaigns.

If you design your own brochures and save the templates, it is very easy to customize the brochure for special occasions or for a particular campaign. Keep in mind you will need to get paper that is the proper weight for a brochure, if you really want to create a slick and professional look.

Along with brochures, think about the use of post cards as a means of promoting your business. This excellent direct mail option works very well, since research indicates people are more likely to take a moment to check both sides of a post card before discarding.

That is one side more than most people check when it comes to envelopes. This second chance may be just what you need to create interest and get the recipient to check out your web site.

Post cards can be created at home using software, or you can use an online printer for the job. Doing the cards yourself is very cost effective, but a postcard that makes good use of the stock formats and images of an online printing service may not be as expensive as you may think.

In fact, you may find that the savings on time and supplies may be enough to make the use of the service well worth the effort. Just make sure the spelling, punctuation, and layout of the post card is exactly what you want before signing off on the print job.

Classified ads in magazines, newsletters, and the local newspaper may be worth looking into. Normally contracted on a fixed rate per word or characters, take a long hard look at the circulation figures for the publication. Also, keep in mind the sector of the public that reads the paper or magazine.

For example, if you sell vegetarian foods, there is not much point in placing your ad with a publication that caters to people who love to eat meat. On the other hand, a newspaper may be ideal if your products or services are attractive to a wide variety of people.

With any type of offline advertising, make sure that you understand what opportunities are right for your business, and learn all you can about that medium before committing to any sort of advertising arrangement. This will help to ensure that you get an equitable return on your investment.

"Making Money Online Was Never So EASY!"

When you boil it all down, Clickbank affiliate marketing is really just a matter of securing traffic with an interest in the product or its niche and directing it via a hoplink to the sales page.

After you’ve selected a product, you’ll need to start driving traffic to that sales page. Let’s look at some of the most common methods Clickbank affiliates use to get the job done.

Search Engine Traffic

Search engine traffic is the holy grail of Internet marketing. Everyone wants it and it’s immensely valuable. Search engine traffic is pre-qualified in the sense that the visitors were intentionally trying to find information related to the product. Additionally, one doesn’t need to pay on a per visitor basis for search engine traffic. It’s cheaper than
advertising.

There are many factors at play with respect to securing search engine traffic and a full discussion of techniques will be covered in my next ebook, due out around the end of July. However, it is worth noting that using search engine traffic as a way to produce affiliate sales will generally involve construction and maintenance of a web site unique from the product sales page. Affiliates attract traffic to their site and then direct it to the product sales page.

Article Marketing

Over the last few years, article marketing has emerged as one of the most popular ways to engage in Clickbank affiliate marketing.

Affiliates write informative articles on the topic area to which the product relates. They then place these articles on free article directory sites. These sites (EzineArticles.com is the best known but actually not my preference when it comes to promoting affiliate products ) allow the author to place a bio or resource box on the bottom of the  article. This resource box may contain links to the product sales page or to a landing page specifically designed to pre-sell the product (EzineArticles doesn’t allow direct links from articles to affiliate sales pages, making landing pages a must).

People find the articles either by browsing the directory site or by conducting searches online. In that sense, article marketing is a variation on search engine traffic strategies.

Article writing does require a certain set of skills and an understanding of effective keyword research to produce optimal results. When it’s done correctly, it can be a powerful way to drive traffic. For more information on the correct methods of writing and promoting articles you could go to the A.I.D.A. ebook on the left side of this page, or Article Cannon which you can also find through the link on the left side of this page.

Social Networking

Social media sites are the new frontier in traffic production. Networking and social sites like Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and others provide a unique opportunity to advise others of a product and to direct them to a landing page or the product’s sales page.

If you’re experienced with these options, you’ll know that it’s possible to reach a large and targeted group via social networking sites. Although the jury is still out with respect to this technique’s overall effectiveness via every social media site, there is little doubt that Twitter is a powerful tool in the right hands.

PPC

PPC stands for “pay per click”. PPC advertising involves bidding on keywords to obtain placement of your advertisement alongside organic search results at search engines like Google or on partner websites. Note: PPC is a good way to lose your shirt, if you do not know what you are doing, so I suggest you undertake some sort of training before embarking on any PPC campaigns.

You’ve undoubtedly seen those little “powered by Google” ads on other sites and on the sidebar of the pages when you perform a search. These are paid advertisements and they’re a well-known example of PPC advertising.

With PPC, you pay the program administrator for every click your ads receive. Although it can be very effective, it can also be quite expensive if not managed correctly. Again, PPC isn’t the best option for the raw beginner, but many Clickbank affiliates have found that it’s a great way to produce regular profits.

It’s important to note that most of the better PPC programs (most notably, of course, Google’s Adwords program) won’t allow advertisers to send visitors to an affiliate sales page. If you plan on working with PPC, you will need a landing page or website to which visitors can be sent. Note: Many PPC programs will punish you if your landing page does not contain quality, related content. Never use PPC campaigns to send visitors to a page that contains nothing more than an email capture facility and a direct link to an affiliate product. Google, for one, frowns on email capture pages so be sure to have at least a few paragraphs of related content on any page that you use Google Adwords to provide traffic to.

Email Marketing

One of the most popular sayings in the Internet marketing world is “the money is in the list”. It refers to the fact that one can generate a great deal of traffic and sales by  building a large list of prospects and emailing them with offers. Email marketing has long been a popular means of generating sales and it can work well for Clickbank affiliates.

No Limitations

The traffic generation methods listed above represent only a tiny fraction of available options. You’re limited only by your creativity when it comes to driving traffic. You might be a whiz with videos. Perhaps you’ll use forum posting to drum up interest. You could have a plan to buy non-PPC advertising. There are many options and all of them can, at least hypothetically, work.

Don’t limit yourself to the basics. Feel free to experiment and to pursue all available sources of traffic.

Landing Pages

When someone clicks on your PPC ad, they’ll arrive at your landing page. That landing page will also be the destination for those who read your articles and then click on the resource box link. Landing pages are a key component of successful affiliate marketing and they deserve some serious attention!

The average landing page is a one-page mini-site designed to accomplish a few goals. First, it meets the requirements of various traffic generation options who won’t allow you to send traffic directly to the sales page. Second, it will introduce the visitor to the product, emphasizing the product’s desirability and “pre selling” the visitor. Third, it will give the reader a convenient and unmistakable way to move on to the actual product sales page. Fourth, it can be used to collect email addresses as part of a list-building effort, but remember what I said earlier – capturing an email address must NOT be the primary objective of the landing page, it must contain content related to the product or service that you are promoting.

Most landing pages are relatively brief and focus on either promoting one specific product or multiple products within a niche. This should be the focus of the page and the email capture should be secondary to the actual product information. Theoretically, you could make money as a Clickbank affiliate without using landing pages. You could work with traffic generation techniques that allow the use of your hoplink and you’d never have to create or manage a landing page of your own. However, that would be an uphill struggle. In practical terms, you probably need a sales page. The best article directories require them. The good PPC programs require them.

Plus, there are actual advantages to using landing pages that no one should dismiss.

Obviously, using landing pages increases your flexibility and allows you to access a variety of traffic producing options that are closed to those who rely exclusively on utilizing their hoplink. There are other advantages, too. First, research suggests that a good landing page can actually produce a higher rate of conversion than simply sending visitors to the sales page. Pre-selling works. Second, maintaining a landing page gives you a chance to collect email addresses. You can build your own valuable list by using a smart landing page.

Elements & Tips

If you have a good landing page, it will be that much easier to profit as a Clickbank affiliate. Here are a few recommendations for creating a landing page that will boost your sales numbers.

Structure

Keep it simple. This isn’t the place to show off your fancy design skills. You want to “force” one or two actions. You want to move the visitor to the sales page and you want to capture his or her email address. Good-looking design will help you out, but bells, whistles and complications are unnecessary and usually counter-productive.

Content

There are different ways of handling landing page content. Some people like to push the product relentlessly ( not recommended ). Others prefer to offer more neutral informative material. Some will focus more on capturing email addresses than on the product itself ( be careful where you obtain your traffic for this method ). Others create review sites as a way of encouraging traffic flow to the sales page ( I find this works extremely well ).

No matter what system you use, you do need to keep it relatively brief. Your landing page should not take the form of a sales page. It should contain relevant information in an effort to encourage visitors to click through to the sales page. You also want to make sure you’re using high quality material. Spend some time writing your landing page for maximum effectiveness and readability. If that’s not one of your strengths, find someone else to take care of the job for you.

Collecting Email Addresses

No Internet marketing resource would be complete without using the old saying at least twice. So let’s do it again. The money is in the list. You should use your landing page  to get access to that money!

Why it’s important

If you aren’t collecting email addresses, you’re limiting your relationship with visitors to a one-time meeting. You get them, you send them to the sales page and you hope they buy something. If they do, you’ll make money. If they don’t, you won’t. And you’ll never get a second chance. Even if they do buy, you won’t get another chance to deal with them. If you’re not collecting email addresses, you’re just letting these potential (repeat) customers get away.

If you do get an email address, you can market to them repeatedly. By putting someone on your list, you have access to him or her until he or she opts out. Instead of working hard to drive traffic that you only interact with as they read your landing page, capturing email addresses allows you to forge longer and more profitable relationships.

How to do it

Capturing email addresses isn’t that difficult. It usually involves putting a simple form on your landing page that requests the address and a name from the visitor.

You can convince people to sign up for your list by offering them something of value. This might be a multi-part e-course. It could be a special file or an ebook that the audience may find interesting. Encouraging sign ups by offering a valuable inducement can be quite effective.

Using your list

Building a list is only half of the issue. The other half is using it to your advantage. The details of successful email marketing are going to be covered in more detail in a future post, but this will outline the basics. There are many ways to maintain and market to lists and all Clickbank affiliates should evaluate some of the more popular techniques.

You should know that successfully using your list will require a willingness to generate email messages and the use of an auto responder system. Use this link to gain access to a high quality free autoresponder service.

The Clickbank Publisher

As you’ve seen, there’s a lot of room to make money as a Clickbank affiliate. There’s also a great deal of potential in being a Clickbank publisher. In fact, it’s often possible to make more money as a product owner than as an affiliate – even when you’re doling out hefty commission payments to your affiliates!

The chief advantage of being a publisher is easy to spot. Instead of being left to try to sell your product alone, you can use Clickbank to recruit a massive organization of affiliates. Even after offering commission payments, the sheer volume of potential sales can make Clickbank publishing a winning proposition. My next post will cover the different aspects of becoming a Clickbank Publisher in more detail.

"Making Money Online Was Never So EASY!"

Mass PPV Traffic is the latest and greatest traffic producing guide by Bobby Walker, Adeel Chowdhry and Kris Trujillo. They claim to be able to produce traffic for around 1/100th of the cost of PPC – So can they?

PPV is not a new concept but, in my experience, it rarely drives anything other than tons of ‘untargeted’ traffic. That is until these experts got together and sorted it. All in all, I would say that this method is geared towards people that know nothing about PPV or maybe even internet marketing.

Of course, you can’t play this particular game without a budget, so for those who can’t afford rent and are looking for an emergency method for quick cash, this is most definitely not for you.

On the other hand, for the marketer with a couple of hundred bucks and who is sick and tired of the usual overpriced, overcomplicated advertising methods and traffic strategies that are getting old and ineffective, then Mass PPV Traffic is going to go down well for you.

"Making Money Online Was Never So EASY!"

So, you have created your own product that has been proven to have great demand, you have a salesletter that has a sky-high conversion rate, but all that would be futile and you will earn nothing if you don’t have a single soul passing by your website. You might be a total beginner and therefore do not have a massive mailing list to sell to, and your website is on the 103^rd page of search engine results. We can change all that with a few tried-and-tested traffic generation techniques.

First and foremost, let me make it clear to you that search engine optimization is not the only way to gain massive amounts of traffic. You see, search engine result pages are in a sense just web pages – similar to regular websites around the web. It is only lucrative to have your website listed on the top of search engine results because many people use the search engine to search for information and arrive on the search engine results page. Hence, loads of people see your site’s link and you attract loads of traffic.

The effect would be exactly the same if your website is mentioned in another website with very high traffic. For example, imagine what would happen if your website was mentioned on the front page of Yahoo’s website! Your website will receive so many visitors your bandwidth might go over the limit. So, the trick is to get other high-traffic websites in your niche to link to your website. To do this, you must give them very strong reasons to link to you – maybe it’s a very thought-provoking article you’ve posted on your site, maybe it’s the ingenious solution to a problem everyone has had all their lives. In short, give people amazing reasons or value to earn a link from them.

Alternatively, you may link to a certain high-traffic website that’s related to yours and ask for a link back. This technique is called reciprocal linking and is a very common technique for gaining links. However, before you even ask for the link, check your own website and ask yourself if you would be proud to recommend such a site to your readers, and whether it will provide useful information to them. In short, make sure your website has its own value and not just an empty shell devised to attract traffic.