The Alternatives to Google AdSense

by harjeet kaur

Google AdSense is the most widely used content-based advertising program by webmasters and web publishers to help generate extra income. Publishers register for a Google AdSense account, enable Google ads relevant to the content on their websites and make money when a visitor clicks on an ad. However, although Google AdSense is generally considered the current leader in content-based, online advertising, it's important for web publishers to realize there are many alternatives to this program, whether they are used instead of or in addition to AdSense.

Furthermore, many web publishers may find too many problems with Google AdSense. For example, they can be too picky in suddenly terminating people's accounts. When web publishers lose their Google AdSense accounts, they need to know what other 

options they have.

In addition, Google AdSense's terms and conditions are such that some publishers are not even accepted into their program. Finally, some publishers find that Google AdSense does not provide a large enough selection of relevant ads that match their content. It is definitely worthwhile to consider alternatives to this program.

Pay-per-click advertising besides Google AdSense is one type of alternative, including such programs as:

Adbrite,
BidVertiser,
Chitika,
Clicksor and
Yahoo! Publisher Network.

Adbrite, a customizable e-commerce site, is considered "The Internet's Ad Marketplace," and enables the publisher to not only control their own ad rates, but also to approve or reject every ad for their website.

BidVertiser allows the publisher to display text ads on their site with advertisers bidding against each other, and they display the highest bidders for maximum revenue-earning potential.

Chitika, an impulse product merchandising service and comparative shopping engine, features interactive eMiniMalls. Clicksor boasts higher payouts per click along with a larger range of advertisers, supporting feeds from more than one advertising provider and the chance to earn more by either displaying relevant banners or underlining a section of clickable text on their websites.

Yahoo! Publisher Network is a newer model and allows the publisher to not only display relevant ads and earn from each click, but also to integrate other features and programs of Yahoo! on their site, such as Y!Q and Add to My Yahoo! (RSS).

Other pay-per-click advertising alternatives to Google AdSense growing in popularity include:

Affiliate Sensor,
ClixGalore,
Kanoodle,
Nixxie,
Revenue Pilot,
Searchfeed,
TargetPoint and,
Vibrant Media.

However, pay-per-click, content-based advertising programs are not the only ways for web publishers to generate online income. Affiliate marketing works great as well, using affiliate programs such as:

Commission Junction,
Clickbank,
Amazon, and
Linkshare.

Affiliate marketing involves an affiliate promoting the services or products of a merchant on their site and is rewarded for every visitor, registrant, subscriber or customer that comes through them on a pay-per-click, pay-per-lead or pay-per-sale basis. Other alternatives to Google AdSense include networking opportunities, merchandising, RSS advertising, donations and sponsorships.

There is a plethora of alternatives to Google AdSense for publishers to choose from. A common piece of advice presented to amateur web publishers is to include more than one type of revenue-generating program on their site to unleash greater income-earning potential, for security, protection and for backup in case Google AdSense suddenly decides to close down their account.

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Did you find this article useful? For more useful tips and hints, points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques, and insights pertaining to eBay, do please browse for more information at our websites. The Google Fund Google ATM Machine

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Message from Bucaro Techelp Webmaster: Although this is a very good article by harjeet kaur, I would like to give you a few warnings about pay-per-click affiliates.

1. Before you sign up, learn what other webmasters have to say about the affiliate program by visiting an Affiliate Programs Directory that provides reviews, like AffiliateScout

2. Be aware of the minimum payout level. For example, the minimum payout level for Google AdSense is $100.00. Until you reach $100.00 in commissions, you're putting money in the affiliate's bank while getting nothing for yourself. Many - in fact I would say most websites will NEVER earn $100.00 in commissions, they simply don't have the traffic.

3. Be aware that many of these affiliates are Google AdSense sub-affiliate programs. In other words, their code displays Google AdSense ads on your website and they keep half or more of the commission for themselves. You don't need them if you can qualify for Google AdSense directly and keep all the commission.

Four Models of Successful Internet Business Sites

by Stuart Elwell

One of the best methods of learning how to succeed in your Internet business is to first find a successful site to model your business on. Over the years I have studied many successful web sites to try to find out what it is that is making them a successful Internet business. And not just in one particular field, but many fields, from the many different types of websites out there.

Next time you view an Internet site that you know is very successful, stop for a moment to try and decipher why it is so successful. You will find successful sites on just about any subject matter you care to think about. There seems to be no barrier to developing a successful site in any field. You name it, people are probably making money out of their website in that specialized area.

Just about anything, if planned appropriately, can be sold online. If you want to be successful too, why not look for examples of businesses which have already achieved the success you would like, and model your business after that, i.e. play follow the leader.

It would be too much information to try and describe every single model of success, but I would like to introduce you to just four model websites which keep springing up. Sites that are obviously benefiting from being a successful online business model.

Look at these models to see if you are on your way to becoming just like that type of business.

Model No.1 - Opt-In List Builder

This is a good model to build your site around by providing a free newsletter' or ezine. If you are building a mailing list this way, then you must provide high quality information to your list on a weekly or monthly basis. Never send just ads or useless information. If your newsletter is just an excuse to push ads you can be certain it will not grow. On the contrary, your subscribers will opt-out quicker than you can replace them, and you'll probably not make any sales anyway.

Learn how to write effective testimonials instead of blatant ads. These should be a small part of informative articles. They should fit in nicely and naturally along with this information, indeed be a part of it! Once your list gets into the thousands, you should start to see an almost guaranteed income. Continue to use your website to build your list up each month and watch your monthly income grow alongside it.

It can be an effective way to create income, but you have to be willing and able to write a weekly or monthly newsletter. It doesn't have to be long, in fact it shouldn't be. But it does have to be informative. If you hate writing this may not be the route for you.

Model No.2 - Free Services

There are many services on the Internet that people like to use, or even desperately need. Examples include such services as providing an autoresponder service, traffic generating services, providing free webspace, reciprocal link checking etc. Sites which provide something valuable for free can often become extremely popular. Once this popularity is achieved, and you start getting a lot of daily traffic, then you can start to charge for allowing advertising on your site.

You're probably thinking something like "how could I possibly provide such a valuable free service, surely you need lots of programming knowledge and experience to run such a thing?". In reality it isn't that difficult. All you need is the right pre-written script to add to your website. Have a look here: www.cgi-resources.com. This website provides many CGI programs, many of which are low or NO cost. Some of their scripts could make great traffic generators for you if you use them on your site in a highly relevant fashion.

One of the biggest advantages of this web business model is you don't necessarily ave to pay for any advertising. A good press release might be all you need, particularly if you are providing something unique. The hard part is coming up with a good idea. But if you can, because you are providing a valuable free service, word of mouth can get round very fast.

Model No.3 - One Product Page

If you have a hot product that you want to sell, then create a good sales page and focus all of your marketing efforts towards bringing that page to people's attention. When you present just one choice at your site, you decrease any distraction which may come from offering multiple alternative pages.

Getting interested people to click through to this web page can produce excellent profits, but this is also the hard part. You will probably have to pay for all of your traffic so a well thought through pay-per-click campaign may be your best choice for this business model.

Model No.4 - Affiliate Programs

A popular website model for new webmasters is to create a site that catalogs many different (but hopefully related) products within their site. To do this you will either need a number of different affiliate programs to sign up with, or you'll need to join an affiliate network such as Commission Junction or Clickbank. These bring a huge number of affiliate programs together - under one roof as it were (i.e. all available through the same intermediate provider).

In order to make this work you have to develop a specialized site. It needs to be an information source primarily, but definitely not a sales pitch. Your visitors will want to be provided with up to date information related to their subject of interest which brought them to your site in the first place.

You have an unlimited array of possible subjects to choose from, but you should opt for something that interests yourself very much. This way you'll have no problem deciding what other people with the same interest will want to read, learn or talk about.

Within this context you can then have recommended products directly related to whatever you think people will be interested in, so long as it is genuinely related and of value to your readers. If your visitors value your site and are interested in your opinion you will make sales.

The real beauty of developing this kind of site is you can potentially do very well in the search engines, and that can provide you with a lot of free traffic. I have provided lots of information to help you with this at my site. Working your pages around popular keywords is how its done, and when people type these words into their favorite engine, you want your site to come out as close the number one spot as possible.

Each of these website business models represents a possible online business for you. Can you integrate the one which interests you the most in with your favorite hobby or pastime? What do you enjoy doing the most? What do you like to think about when you have the free time. Whatever this is, there's probably a wide audience of people with the same interest. Why not build them a website they can visit. You could find it relatively easy to make money at the same time.

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Article by: Stuart Elwell, Webmaster for WebSmart-Marketing.com ...which provides good advice and strategies for making money from the Internet.

Google AdSense Rewards Content with Advertising Revenue

By Shelley Lowery

If you've been looking for an easy way to increase your website's revenue, Google AdSense may be your answer. Google AdSense is a phenomenal new advertising revenue program that is taking the Internet by storm. It was specifically designed to enable content rich sites to increase their advertising revenue simply by displaying Google AdWords ads.

Google AdSense makes selling advertising space easy, as they handle everything for you. With access to a database of 100,000 advertisers, you'll never have to worry about finding advertisers for your website again.

The concept is simple. If you have a quality site that provides content, such as articles, you may qualify to display Google AdWords text ads on your web pages. If your site is approved, you will receive a portion of the pay-per-click payment.

The great thing about Google's sophisticated advertising system is that the ads that display on your web pages are relevant to your content. They scan each page to determine what your page is about and display the ads accordingly. This will increase your click-through rate considerably, as relevant text ads combined with quality content are highly effective.

Although the AdSense program is free to apply, your site will be reviewed and must be approved in order to begin displaying the ads. As there have been many sites turned down, you'll need to ensure your site meets Google's criteria prior to applying. You can find the guidelines at the following web address: Google AdSense Program Policies

They're basically looking for quality sites offering content. The keywords here are "quality and content." If your site is under construction, loaded with advertising and/or broken images and links, don't even waste your time applying, as you won't be accepted. However, if you have a quality site and provide your visitors with content, you will most-likely be accepted.

The more content pages you have, the more advertising revenue you can make. It's really that simple. If you don't have your own content, there is a wealth of content available on Internet completely free. Subscribe to any of the following article announcement groups to receive new article submissions each day:

Article Announce - All types of articles

AABusiness - Business oriented articles, including: Business, Ecommerce, Sales, Networking, Business Communication, Internet Marketing, Promotion, etc.

AAInternet - Internet oriented articles, including: Ebooks, Ezines, Search Engines, Web Design, Web Development, Web Sites, etc.

AAHome - Home and Family oriented articles, including: Parenting, Relationships, Cooking, Recipes, Crafts, Gardening, Home, etc.

AAHealth - Health and Fitness oriented articles, including both physical and emotional health.

AAGeneral - General Interest oriented articles.

With your subscription to any of the above groups, you'll not only receive new article submissions delivered to your email, but you'll also have access to the archives which contain thousands of quality articles. Visit the following web address for further information: www.web-source.net/articlesub.htm

Once you've located articles that are relevant to your website, simply create a page for each. For example, if you find ten appropriate articles, you can create ten new content pages in which you can display Google AdWords ads. Not only will you be adding valuable content for your visitors, but you'll also increase your website's traffic and revenue. It's a win-win deal no matter how you look at it.

Once your site has been approved, you simply select the style of ads you'd like to display and paste the code into your web pages where you'd like the ads to display. Although all of the ads are text ads, there are currently four layout options to select from:

 Standard 468 x 60 banner format (displays up to 2 ads)
 Vertical 120 x 600 skyscraper ad (displays up to 4 ads)
 Horizontal 728 x 90 Leaderboard (displays up to 4 ads)
 300 x 250 Inline rectangle (displays up to 4 ads)

Although all four ad styles can be effective, the "skyscraper" ads placed toward the top right side of your page or the "Leaderboard" ads placed at the top of the page generally will provide a higher click-through rate than the other two styles. However, each page is different and will produce different results. For this reason, you may want to test your pages and display the style that produces the highest click- through rate.

Once you begin displaying the ads on your website, you can visit Google and log in to your account to see how the ads are performing. You can view the number of impressions, clicks, click-through rate and your earnings.

If you're concerned about displaying ads that may compete with products or services you're promoting, Google offers an option to filter out unwanted ads. In addition, you can display the ads along with any affiliate programs you may be promoting, as long as the ads don't look like Google ads.

Google AdSense is the hottest advertising revenue program on the Internet. Isn't it about time you got paid for your content? Visit Google AdSense for further information:www.google.com/adsense

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Copyright © Shelley Lowery. Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, Web Design Mastery.www.webdesignmastery.com And, Ebook Starter - Give Your Ebooks the look and feel of a REAL book.www.ebookstarter.com Visit Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to Etips and receive a copy of the acclaimed ebook, Killer Internet Marketing Strategies.

Seven Compelling Reasons For Building Niche Content Websites to Make Money Online

By Rangarajan Chakravarthi

Introduction:

Alright, you have done your market research and keyword research. You have also identified profitable markets and are ready to launch your online money making business. Perhaps you have already decided upon the types of products⁄ services you plan to offer to your customers. It is time for the next crucial step. The right choice now will determine how fast you will make money online with your internet business.

The most powerful tool for you to promote your business and to make money online, is your website. There are several factors to be taken into account to decide the right model for your website. The most important factor that influences the design of your website is the answer to the question; "What do people look for on websites?". You will automatically cry " Information"! Yes, that is right.

Information is what people search for online. This awareness is the driving force behind the development of content rich websites. Hundreds of ebooks and audio programs, on generating the right content from different sources, are available online. Practically every internet marketer strives to build his websites rich in content. However, those who go about this task in a systematic manner reap rich dividends, compared to those who pursue the hammer and tongs approach.

Are you beginning to appreciate why, niche content sites are the sensible choice, if you are planning to build a network of sites that will generate steady and growing income for you? The way developments are taking place in the internet world, more so in the online business scenario, this trend will only grow as time progresses and those who focus on this key area while building thier websites will have greater success rate in making money online.

This is because people get disheartened when they, mistakenly, believe that they have to write all the content themselves. It is the problem with many; but you will discover that content writing can be outsourced for a small fee, or, you can get content from other websites and article sites. So do not allow this factor to bog you down. Solutions are readily available. You only have to look around.

Let me explain, the major reasons you should seriously consider, for building niche content websites, that will empower you to build your virtual real estate empire to make money online.

1. Content Rich Websites Attract The Search Engines To The Sites.

It is common knowledge, that, Search Engines love content and that is what you are providing, in plenty, when you set up Niche Content websites. The more content you offer, the more pages will get indexed by the search engines, which will lead to more exposure to your target audience and hence more chances for you to make money online. The page rank of your site also will be high which will drive massive traffic to your sites. You will soon discover that, this is a great way to grow your business. At the same time, you will be offering what your prospects are searching for.

2. Niche Content Sites Attract Targeted Audience.

Because your sites are loaded with niche specific content, the visitors to your sites will be targeted audience who are more likely to convert into your customers. Niche Content Sites, as the name implies, contain primarily rich content within the niche, that pull your target audience and feed their hunger for information. Recall what was mentioned earlier about why people come online in the first place.You are simply giving your visitors what they are hungry for and in the process deriving several benefits for which you are hungry!

3. Freedom To Leverage On The Content From Other Sites.

You can take advantage of the rich content from other sites, by publishing them on your sites. Thus, you will be providing variety in content on your web sites, which, your visitors will love to access and sign up to be your subscribers. Content is the engine that drives the online business. Network with some of the content publishers, on the internet, who are looking for similar websites to submit their content for publication.

You could also sign up with some of the article directories, like, ezinearticles.com, isnare.com etc, where, thousands of high quality articles are displayed under different categories. You can publish these articles, on your sites and thus offer ample content to your viewers. So, you can be assured that, you will always have an abundance of content to continually grow your network of Niche Content Sites.

4. Niche Content Sites Are Ideal For Making Money With AdSense.

Millions of online marketers are making money online with Google AdSense. It is one of the easiest ways to monetize your niche content websites. Placing Google ads on your websites is a simple process, which is explained to you, when you sign up for Google AdSense. Just follow the directions and keep updating your content regularly and you will have a steady income stream form your Google AdSense account. Yes, Google will bring targeted traffic to your websites.

5. Build Huge Lists Of Qualified Customers.

Getting subscribers, by generating leads through various techniques, takes time and money. Then there is the possibility of several subscribers leaving you, since. they can't find the information they want, on your websites. You will have to generate more and more leads, spending more time and money, to keep building your list.

The scenario changes with niche content sites. Since the visitors are drawn to your sites, by the content they are looking for, they are very unlikely to unsubscribe after they sign in. Hence you will continue to build your list gradually to a huge size in a relatively short period, with a low unsubscribe rate.

6. Make Money By Promoting Affiliate Programs.

If you have loaded your website with content from other sites, that is bringing in lot of targeted traffic and making you money with your own products and services, why not make money by promoting other products as an affiliate and set up additional income streams? Sounds interesting? Yes, that is another virtue of these niche content sites.

Get paid, through targeted affiliate programs, that are in tune with the content within your niche content sites.You make money online, for referring other people's products, that directly reflect the content in your niche content sites, set up by you after careful research and analysis.

You can see, that, having a niche content site gives you a great opportunity to presell, your affiliate products, to your target audience. From your site, when they go to the sales page of the affiliate products, they are ready to take out their wallets. So, find out good products, relevant to your website content, in the market places like Click bank and Paydotcom, sign up for their affiliates programs and promote the selected products on your websites. You set up these once and the income keeps coming without you having to do anything more. How nice that would be!

7. Establish Yourself As An Expert In Your Niche.

The quality of the content on your sites will determine how your standing is perceived by the internet community. Even when you display relevant contents from other webmasters, on your site, you will be credited for providing valuable, truthful and good quality content in your niche. Over a period of time you will be recognized as an expert in your niche area. This will help you to promote your brand and thus pave the way for major joint ventures with webmasters of repute. You will be witnessing the cascading effect of the high quality content you have loaded on your website as the days progress. All this because you chose the winning path to make money online.

Conclusion

Building content rich niche websites need not be a nightmare. You can learn build them in a jiffy. To make money online, you need a list of qualified customers and you need to have your websites with quality content to attract qualified audience. When you hear "Money is in the List" or "Content is King" you know why the winners keep harping on these two phrases. It is the content that draws qualified visitors to your site who sign up to be your subscribers and thus grow your list. It is this list that will make money online for you for years to come.

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Rangarajan Chakravarthi is an internet marketer and an off line business Consultant in Marketing and training. For more information on niche websites, niche marketing and making money online, visit his website: EasyBiz Income

How to Generate a Powerful Tornado of Web Money

By Stephen Bucaro

Tornadoes are one of the most feared phenomenons in nature. A tornado is a powerful rotating funnel of air. Scientists have measured wind speeds of over 300 mph inside a tornado. The rotation of a tornado feeds upon itself, often spawning smaller counter-rotating tornadoes as it pulls in everything in its path. Wish you could create a powerful tornado that pulls in money from the Web? You can!

Your main tornado consists of a website with free downloads and an associated newsletter. Let's assume people start at your website, drawn in by the valuable content it provides. To download the freebies, they must sign up for your newsletter.

Your newsletter draws them back to your website for more content and more downloads. Round and round they go from newsletter to website to download. As they are exposed to your products, services and advertising, they generate a powerful stream of revenue. This main tornado can spawn smaller tornados that pull in more money from the Web.

You distribute the articles that you write for your newsletter to free content archives throughout the Web. As the articles are published, people reading the articles visit your website and sign up for your newsletter so that they can download the freebies. Round and round they go from articles to newsletter to website to download, generating a powerful stream of revenue.

You distribute the free downloads that you create for your website to freebies archives throughout the Web. People who download the freebies visit your website and sign up for your newsletter so that they can download more freebies. Round and round they go from download to newsletter to website to download, generating a powerful stream of revenue.

In your newsletter you give free reprint permission (as long as resource box is included). In your downloads you give free distribution rights (as long as no changes are made). Your articles and downloads are distributed throughout the Web. People encountering your articles and downloads visit your website and sign up for your newsletter so that they can download the freebies. Yet another tornado is spawned.

Want to spawn more tornadoes to generate an even more powerful revenue stream? How about creating mini courses distributed by auto-responder? Your website - newsletter - downloads promote the mini-courses. People encountering a mini-course visit your website... By now, all these tornadoes are probably making you dizzy.

You start a Web tornado by creating a set of Web products that feed upon each other, articles, websites, newsletters, mini-courses, and downloads. Round and round people go in your Web tornado. As they are exposed to your products, services, and advertising, they generate a powerful revenue stream. Why not begin spinning your own revenue stream generating tornado today?

Successful Small-business on the Web

By Tim North

Stripped of all the hype and hard sell, it's still realistic for the average small business to expect to make money by selling products or services on the web. Don't expect it to be easy, though. Making money on the web is (and always was) hard work. This article discusses how to avoid the many pitfalls that await you.

Choose your field of battle

If you're looking to make money from the web, there are four main offerings that you can provide:

1. You can sell physical products like books, videos or CDs. Clients visiting your web site order these online using credit cards. You then post out the products.

2. You can sell online products like software, e-books or subscription-based newsletters. Clients can purchase these online using credit cards and then immediately download them.

3. You can advertise in-person services in which you meet face-to-face with your clients. Such services include accountancy, plumbing, gardening etc. Clients then pay in- person, not online.

4. You can advertise online services for which you don't need to meet the client, but can deal entirely via e-mail; e.g. proofreading.

The first step to making money on the web thus requires you to choose which of these offerings you plan to provide. You may decide to specialise in a single one, or you may try to cover all four.

Find a niche

The days when the Internet was considered new are long gone. Current estimates are that there are several hundred million computers hosting web sites and many billions of web pages. It's almost certain that whatever product or service you're going to sell, a lot of other people are selling it too.

A remedy for this situation is to specialise. Find a niche that's little covered. For example, if you wanted to sell music, you might specialise in Australian music or even Australian country music. By doing so, you're lessening the size of your audience, of course, but you're also lessening the number of people you're competing with.

The trick is to find a niche that will have a large enough audience to sustain you yet is specific enough that you have few competitors.

Achieving success

Having decided what products and services you want to sell -- and researched how much competition you'll have -- there are still a few major hurdles remaining:

1. If you're going to be selling online, you'll need to be able to accept credit card payments.

2. You'll need to be able to set up a web site.

3. You'll need to be able to market it effectively.

It's beyond the scope of this brief article to cover credit card payments in depth, so I will only mention my own experience and say that I have found Digibuy to be very a reliable means of accepting online credit-card payments.

Services like these allow you to accept credit-card payments without having to set yourself up with a merchant account. Of course, if you already have a merchant account, your bank can provide you with more details on how to use it to accept online payments.

Setting up a well designed web site and marketing it effectively are difficult tasks. In fact, unless you know what you're doing, they can be the most difficult stages in the entire procedure. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments regarding any of these matters.

Best regards,

Tim North

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You'll find many more helpful tips like this in Tim North's much applauded range of e-books. All come with a 90-day, money-back guarantee. www.scribe.com.au/ebooks.html

Download Sites and Affiliate Programs

by Dakota Downloads

I have been running shareware download sites in one form or another for over three years and during that time I have become intimately familiar with many of the various shareware affiliate programs out there. In those three years I have also been able to formulate an opinion related to most of these programs and some, by no means all, of the vendors that choose to "participate" in these programs.

Out of the big three or four programs out there, RegNow,Share-It!, Plimus, and to a lesser extent eSellerate andRegSoft, only one really has a program in place to help affiliates make the most out of the program. That affiliate program is RegNow with their certification program.

This program was put in place to help affiliates identify vendors that properly participate in the program by making it possible for affiliates to choose the vendors that use RegNow in a way that allows affiliates to earn commissions for their referrals.

Considering the fact that I have also used other affiliate programs like Commission Junction, Share-A-Sale andClickbank, the question needs to be asked as to why any kind of certification program would even be necessary.

With these programs and most other larger programs, a prospective vendor must provide a way for any of their affiliates to earn commissions for any referrals, if they don't the affiliate program in question does not allow the vendor to join or stay in the program. In the case of shareware affiliate programs, this isn't the case.

Even with RegNow's certification program and in the case with just about all shareware affiliate programs, vendors are not required to, and a large number of them do not, participate in a way that ensures affiliates get credit for referring a sale.

Shareware affiliate programs do work differently than normal programs as they rely on prospective buyers trying the product first before requiring them to purchase it. What this means is normally an affiliate will refer someone to download the trial version than rely on that visitor later buying the product.

In almost all cases this requires that a cookie set when the user downloads the trial to be recalled later when the user returns to the vendor's site to purchase the program. This is where the fatal flaw is in regards to shareware affiliate programs.

Why is this a problem? Cookies are the basis of most affiliate programs and other than the inherent flaw with cookies in general in regards to some people not allowing cookies to be set or those that regularly delete them, many vendors that participate in shareware affiliate programs choose not to use that program as their payment provider while others use that program along with other providers allowing the visitor to choose among several payment options. What this does is ensure that even with a cookie set, the referring affiliate has little if any chance of earning a commission for their efforts.Now the question needs to be asked is why do affiliate programs allow this and why do many vendors choose to operate this way? In regards to the affiliate programs, vendors are their bread and butter, the more vendors they have the more opportunity they get to receive fees for their services. Whether or not an affiliate gets a commission or not does not figure into their bottom line as their money comes out of the vendors pocket, so as long as the vendor is happy, they are happy.

That leaves the participating vendors, why do they choose this route? As far as I can tell, there is pretty much only 2 reasons for them not providing an affiliate friendly program. The first would be ignorance, in theory I suppose a vendor could honestly not realize that they are making it impossible for their affiliates to earn a commission. They may not realize that the majority of affiliate commissions come from trial downloads that are later purchased versus a customer purchasing directly from buy links on an affiliate's site.

The second and far more sinister reason in my mind is that the vendors realize this but think they can get a larger number of sales by duping unsuspecting affiliates. Affiliates that do not know better spend their time and money doing the marketing for a vendor's product and get nothing in return. They refer customers to the vendor's site who then use other payment options outside of the affiliate program thus ensuring the vendor doesn't have to pay the commission to the affiliate.

This tactic has been discussed at great length in the Regnow forum as well as other places and it still amazes me to hear some of the excuses brought forward by some of these vendors. One excuse relates to how these vendors feel that RegNow charges too much to process their payments so they must use other cheaper payment options and still others complain that they feel they shouldn't have to pay affiliates because they don't feel they earned a commission. They bring up the fact that many affiliates don't do much to promote their product and hence shouldn't be paid for this perceived lack of effort.

Now even looking at this from an affiliates point of view, I understand that many of us do not promote as heavily as we should, or as some vendors would like, but those that don't will not last long anyway and as far as a vendor is concerned, why would you care? Even if an affiliate brings you nothing as far as sales, you are not losing anything as you only pay for sales, plus if an affiliate happens to bring you a sale, it is 1 more than you would have had.

New affiliates need to be aware of the pitfalls of shareware affiliate programs and if they choose not to spend the time and effort weeding out these vendors, they have no one to blame but themselves. In a perfect world, the affiliate programs would do this for you but that isn't going to happen. And my question for vendors that join these programs and then choose not to properly participate, what is your excuse?

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Dakota Downloads webmaster running several shareware directories for over three years with intimate knowledge of the shareware affiliate program industry.

Affiliate Marketing - Avoid This Critical Mistake

by Lawrence Hamilton

Sometimes we get overwhelmed with the methods necessary to succeed with Affiliate Marketing. There is no doubt that we can find so called expert advice everywhere we look in our quest to learn about this type of on line business. Do we need websites? Do we need to advertise and where can we do it effectively? Do we get into Joint Ventures, or do we join community sites that offer quality tool building for your skill level? How do we determine who happens to be right and who are the shylocks? I can't give you a definitive answer to all of these questions, but I can provide some insightful information.

There are basic fundamentals you need employ before you will ever get traffic to your website. Traffic means conversions to sales, so following certain fundamentals will ultimately lead to success. Lacking the skills and knowledge to convert your prospects into sales will severely limit your success and add to your frustration. What are the most basic of fundamentals? I submit to you the following as probably the most important tactics you need to master:

o Researching and finding a niche product people want
o Creating a price point that offers value
o Planning an effective strategy to generate traffic
o Creating ad or marketing copy that generates both interest and a sense of urgency

Knowing this, I want to address today's headline which is the mistake you want to avoid with Affiliate Marketing. It is of critical importance that you follow up with those prospects that opt in to your website or landing page but don't buy the first time in. With confidence I can tell you that follow up marketing is the single most important method you need to employ to be successful on line. If you do not employ an E-Mail follow up system, you are committing the absolute NUMBER ONE marketing mistake. Any where you turn, you will always hear that the money is in the list; and that is a true statement.

Let's analyze why an E-Mail follow up system is so important. No matter how you market the product of your choice, you will only get a certain percentage of those people to visit your site or landing page. Of those that visit, maybe 10 percent of those prospects will opt in. Of those people that opt in, only 2-3 percent of those people might purchase your product or service. This is how you calculate your conversion rate. So, the obvious question becomes; what about all those prospects that opted in but never bought? How can I use the tools available to me to get them to return and purchase what I have to offer?

To properly answer this query, we have to analyze sales in its most basic aspect. People will enter keywords to find their desired product and may come across your site. If they do, they will look at it and make a quick determination if you are worth their time. Have you bothered to give them a reason to buy from you? Because people are busy, they might forget you, or get distracted and go on to something else.

If you have created good copy and offered a price with value, your prospect may opt in to at least check out your features, advantages, and benefits. Opting in is where you can begin the process of converting the prospect to a customer. Here is a simple fact about the internet and Affiliate Marketing; the last site a person visits is the one who gets the sale. That is why it is so imperative we get these prospects back to our site. The answer to getting them back is to create that E-Mail follow up system.

Let's further analyze some basic sales facts and statistics. These people that visit your site don't know you, care a thing about you, or give a darn about your efforts to present a quality product. They certainly don't care about whether or not you succeed at your on line business. The key is to develop some type of relationship with your prospects. It's a proven sales statistic that end users will not buy until a person makes some sort of viable presentation to them six to seven times. You have the opportunity to do just that with an E-Mail follow up system.

You have the ability to send follow up messages to your prospects explaining why you use this product, what it has done for you, and how it has benefited you. These follow up messages, which should never be hard sell, gives you the opportunity to develop a relationship between two parties. You need to create a reason for the prospect to buy from you. In fact, all things being equal, they would rather buy from you, because you are no longer just a website, you are someone who displayed an interest in satisfying their needs.

How to create an E-Mail follow up system

The main things to remember about this formula are that you do not have to be a professional writer or outsource your messages to be effective. Writing even simple messages to thank them for visiting is ten times better than writing absolutely nothing at all. I am going to call each section of the formula action steps because you can't just think about them, you have to take action.

Action Step: Write down several reasons you use this product or service. Explain why you use it, what benefits you have received from it, and the advantages over similar products or services. Say them out loud to yourself so that eventually everything you have listed is in a logical order. You want to ensure your prospects can easily read your messages, and they make sense. Putting things in a haphazard order creates confusion and diminishes your chances at being effective.

Action Step: Take those reasons you created about your product or service and develop concise, short messages about each benefit you identified. You should introduce yourself, thank them for visiting, and convey a separate message about each one of your reasons to buy this product. The final ending is always a P.S. Here is where you can place additional copy and create a sense of urgency to take action.

Action Step: Now you must employ a method to deliver your messages. This will generally cost you some money, so bear that in mind when creating your budget for this project. You have to use an auto responder company, and some are free. I can assure you, however, free auto responder sites will never give you the support, service, or training you would get from a paid source. Any good auto responder site will offer many outstanding features and provide a training syllabus to teach you how to use the system effectively.

Action Step: Your first message should go out immediately. You have the customer looking NOW, so you want to show your interest in satisfying their needs straight away. Then set up the next four messages to go out every two days after the initial message. Toward the end, set your final messages to go out every four days. You can certainly modify this after you have mastered the principle and get better at it. Just remember, you have your prospect looking for a product now. Don't wait too long or space your messages out too far, as you could lose that prospect.

Action Step: Make sure that your opt in box is on the top right or top left side of your website and also at the bottom. If your prospect breezes through your website and fails to notice your opt in box at the top, they will see it at the bottom. The placement you decide upon for your opt in boxes must be the same on every page you have on your website; not just the home page. If people are jumping through your pages seeking more information, they could easily miss your opt in box, if it is not on every page. This is a critical element because the more often they see this opt in box, the more likely they are to actually give you their name and E-Mail address.

If you take these action steps, you will develop a follow up system that will help you convert more prospects into customers. I will reiterate that this is a method to develop relationships between you and your prospects. Take the time to create messages that convey a sincere desire to help your prospect make a decision. Avoid the hard sell dialogue and help your prospect with his decision to buy from you. The money is in the list, so take the time to learn how to use it, and then use it properly. Nothing you do will be more important than this aspect of Affiliate Marketing.

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Larry Hamilton is an aviator and retired entrepreneur who is passionate about teaching people how to succeed on the internet. To learn more about building a solid foundation in Affiliate Marketing, you are one click away at: Academy for Internet Income

Eight Step Guide to Generating an Affiliate Income

by Tamba Joseph Foyah

Okay - So you recently discovered that you would like to start making money online but:

• You rather not pay the expenses - you are down on your luck and don't have the funds to pay

• You rather not create a website because of all the hassle

• PPC, SEO and CPL are all internet acronyms that you rather not learn or be bothered with

• You just want to find a quick and easy way to make a few bucks.

Does this sound like you? Good - Because I'm about to discuss the easiest way to making money online. And best of all, it's FREE.

After this there's not going to be any extra clicks, or clicks referring you somewhere else - this is a see-through honest method that has been proven through research and the trial of error of others. However, remember the old saying? "Nothing works if you don't take action!" Even if you are not very motivated a few clicks a day on your part is all that is needed to start seeing some results. The more clicks you put in the more results you'll see.

Simply follow this guide step-by-step and soon enough you'll be mailing me to talk about your success story.

Finding a Niche Product

ClickBank - an affiliate network

1. Go to ClickBank.com and sign up - make sure choose an affiliate ID that can be easily remember because you'll be using it quite often

2. Weight loss, internet marketing, dating and muscle building are the top four income generating niches on Clickbank.

3. Carefully go through the list to find products that you are interested in promoting.

4. Select the ones of interest and click promote. Hint: Sorting products by "Gravity" is recommended.

5. A pop-up screen will appear with the two types of links that you can use to promote the offer.

6. Simply copy the links and place them into a word document. Make sure to save the file in a place and under a name that's easily remembered.

7. Now that you have a product you're ready to start making money online in the easiest way you ever thought possible.

Promoting Your Niche Product

Twitter

1. Go to Twitter to create a niche account that is relative to the product niche you selected at Clickbank. Make sure to use a username that will draw attention. Example: FitnessNut21 is the name of my weight loss niche account on Twitter. Or you can choose to be real like I did with my affiliate marketing account: TambaJFoyah

2. Go to Istockphoto.com and get the image of a sexy guy or girl to use as your profile image. Research shows that those kinds of profiles attract more followers.

3. Use a catchy phrase as your description to tell your followers what you're about.

4. Remember that affiliate link you saved in the word document? Well retrieve it, go to the website Tiny.cc to shorten it and then use it as the website link for your account.

5. Research someone who is influential in your niche, find their twitter account and begin to follow their followers like crazy. Click on the follower's account then click "Follow". Research shows that 1 in 4 people you follow will follow you back without even looking at your page.

6. RT (Retweet) their (the famous person) tweets and add the shortened affiliate link into your retweet.

7. Find an interesting fact in your niche, tweet it and add the affiliate link.

8. Reply to what others tweet with a helpful, relevant response once again adding your link to the tweet.

9. Tweet something controversial, NOT outrageous about your niche and add the link to your tweet. The idea here is that any interaction on twitter yields access to your affiliate link. After all generating clicks on the link is your first step to getting paid.

Yahoo Answers

1. Go to Yahoo answers and register with the same username you used for your niche account on Twitter (This simply makes it easy to remember).

2. Click on the answer tab and "Browse Open Questions", search for your questions in your niche, Example: "Lose Weight"

3. Answer their question to the best of your knowledge and once again link back to your affiliate link. Try to avoid making it sound like a sales pitch. Example: "I had the same issue a little while back and it was very frustrating, but I recently found something that works really well for me. I've already lost X amount of weight and I feel great. It worked for me so I believe it can work for you too. You just might love it as much as I do" - then add in your affiliate link to lead them to the product.

4. Try to answer about a dozen answers a day within your niche.

5. This is not limited to Yahoo Answers; it can be done on any site where people go for advice.

Facebook

1. Go to Facebook.com and sign up for an account if you don't already have one. Once again make sure to use the same login details as Twitter.

2. Find some famous fan pages that have a lot of "Likes" and activity.

3. Use Google to research the top 10 famous people for your fan page list. Names of country also work very well. Fan pages are better to use than adding friends because you don't have to wait to be accepted. Time is money and we don't want to waste either.

4. Find the pages with the best results and "Like" them. This allows you access to the page so you can post content on the wall.

5. Post something interesting and include the shortened URL link back to your affiliate offer.

6. Be mindful of the amount of times and the amount of walls you spot on. If it begins to appear like spamming Facebook will block you. Just make sure to choose a wall with a lot of traffic (activity).

I Hope this article helps jump start your affiliate marketing career. These are the same principles that I've used so there is no reason why they won't work for you.

Commenting (Forums and Blogs)

1. Commenting is a great way to gain some free traffic to your website. Not only will you be helping and interacting with others but you'll also be increasing the exposure to your affiliate offer.

2. Google some forums that are related to the niche in which you chose your affiliate product. If you're involved in internet marketing like I am then a couple good ones for you would be Im4newbies.com and WarriorForum.com (You're welcome). There are more out there but you'll have to do some research.

3. Signing up for these forums is a very easy process but it could take some time creating new profiles for each forum (keep the login you create consistent). Once you're signed up for a few, log in and begin interacting with others by commenting on good posts.

4. NEVER, EVER introduce yourself. I learned this the hard way so take it from me when I say act like a veteran and just get active.

5. Find posts that are relevant to your product⁄niche and reply to them. If you don't have a suitable response then Google one. You'll be surprise what you find.6. Make sure your comments are relevant and sound natural. It didn't take long for me to realize that people in those forums seriously frown upon been advertised to and they won't hesitate to let you know. Don't sell anything yet.

7. Most of these forums require that you have a minimum of ten posts before you can create a signature or put a link in your profile so get active.

8. Once you have ten comments you'll be upgrade. This is when you can use your affiliate product link in your comment signature and as part of your profile. This way you're not selling anything but still giving your offer exposure.

9. The other highly lucrative place to comment is on relevant blogs in your niche. Don't copy and paste comments, type something new and natural.

10. Most blogs require that you sign in before commenting so use that to your advantage by using the link in your profile. This way when someone clicks on the name in your comment they are taken to your affiliate product.

11. If your comment is relevant and helpful you've already presold them on what you're promoting.

12. In your comment itself you can recommend your affiliate product depending on what the topic is at hand.

YouTube

1. Go to YouTube.com and create a profile using the same login details as your other social profiles like Facebook, Twitter, etc.

2. When creating your profile make sure to put the link to your affiliate offer in the spot where it asks for your website.

3. Search for high traffic videos in your niche and leave some relevant comments. I suggest leaving any links out of your comments because they are so many others doing it that your comment will not stand out or worst come off as spam. With strong comments readers will want to know more about you. They will link back to your profile where they can find the link to your offer.

4. If you are very comfortable with your niche you can take it one step further by making your own video that's relevant to the product you're promoting using a simple webcam.

5. In the resource box (author box) recommend your affiliate product in a soft-sell manner. Example: For Weight Loss niche; "I used to struggle with my weight and everything I tried in the past always yielded the same results, NOTHING! But that was till I tried this product (your affiliate offer). It worked really well for me. I feel better than I have in years so I highly recommend you try it too."

6. Everyone loves a recommendation so this should help in getting clicks to your affiliate offer.

Email

1. This one is a simple way of getting some of your associates (friends, coworkers, etc) to view your offer. Don't assume they won't be interested because then you're already limiting your audience.

2. Create a personal email that will entice them to click through to your offer, especially if it's in a niche that may be of interest to them.

3. Increase the exposure of your email by encouraging others to forward it. Offer a prize to the person with the most forwarded email to generate some competition. Unless you have the money to shell out on an expensive prize, something unused that you already own should work just fine.

Fiverr.com

1. This promotion strategy is by far the easiest and quickest way to promote your offer, however it is going to cost you about $5.

2. Fiverr.com is a site where people around the world offer to perform a wide range of services for only five bucks. For the price of a subway footlong you can get anything from having someone roll in the grass wearing a bunny outfit, to doing a voice over, to tweeting your post to their followers.

3. Sign up for a free account and once again try to use the same login details as your other social profiles.

4. Go to PayPal.com and sign up for an account if you don't already have one. PayPal is the payment processing service that Fiverr uses to process your order.

5. Back on Fiverr, search for "Social Networking". You will get a listing of over a hundred people who will promote your product for $5.

6. Look through the results and choose someone who not only has lots of positive feedbacks from other users but also plenty of Facebook fans or friends and Twitter followers.

7. Click on a promotion service that they are offering and the site will guide you through the PayPal payment processor. Simply use the PayPal account information that you set up in step 4.

8. Be sure to check that the person delivered on the service you paid for.

9. Once you begin to see some results you can do this over and over to get more exposure to your affiliate offer.

10. Down the line it can even be used to promote new offers that you decide to promote regardless of the niche that they are in.

Sidenote: Another great affiliate network that I would recommend is ShareAsale.com where you can sign up in five easy steps and begin promoting products instantly. Their advertisers offer some of the best of the best payout percentages in the business.

And there we have it folks, eight simple steps that are sure to jumpstart your online income. It is highly unlikely that you won't make any money with the methods I've shown provided you follow the steps properly and put in the amount of work necessary.

If you're are not seeing the kind of results that you want in the beginning then just keep tweaking it till your income generating machine is running on all cylinders. Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb on one try so the key is to keep working at it.

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Tamba Joseph Foyah is internet marketer and blogger who's passion is using his experience in the industry to educate others on ways of making a living online. See how you can start making $100 - $200 per day online. For more informative content visit his Blog How To Make Money Online Fast Today

11 Tips for Joining Affiliate Programs

By David McKenzie

Here are some things that I look for before joining an affiliate program. They are items I feel are imperative to being in a successful affiliate program.

1. The affiliate program has a great payment structure. For me, a high commission that is also a high percentage of the purchase price is essential. Nothing under 25% commission.

2. Make sure the affiliate program you are joining has a good looking site. You do not want to be sending visitors to a site that you do not like yourself.

3. Make sure they offer a comprehensive affiliate statistics page that lists the number of click throughs, number of sales and amount earned. This should be broken down per month.

4. Also make sure that the affiliate statistics are updated automatically and immediately. You do not want to find out today about a sale you made a week ago.

5. Ensure they give a wide variety of text links, banners and graphics to put on your web page. Although I prefer text links, certain types of banners and graphics still work well.

6. Know how often you are going to be paid. If you are tossing up between 2 programs and one pays monthly and the other pays quarterly, the one that pays monthly is better. You do not want to wait months before getting paid for your hard work!

7. See if the affiliate program gives examples of how the top affiliates are doing. This can be a great pointer to whether it is good or not. If some affiliates are earning many thousands per month, it is a good affiliate program.

8. Along these lines, also see if they give examples of what marketing methods these successful affiliates are using to get the best results.

9. An affiliate program that offers a special monthly newsletter just for the affiliates is great. Here you can get extra tips and techniques that are working well.

10. See if they offer email notification when you make a sale or get an affiliate signed up under you (if it is a 2-tier program). It is good to see `You have made another sale' in your inbox.

11. Ensure top level support is given. If they cannot answer your query straight away make sure they can respond within 48 hours.

There is tremendous demand for affiliate programs and choosing the right one is no easy task. Make sure you do plenty of research before joining one.

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11 Tips for Joining Affiliate Programs - Article by David McKenzie of www.brisney.com For great ideas on promoting your web site or marketing your affiliate programs subscribe to our Free twice monthly newsletter by sending a blank email tobrisney@brisney.com