Bob's Home Business Blog

If you’re just starting out online with your home based business and you’re looking for a profitable opportunity to begin your career affiliate marketing may be your best option. For the uninitiated this technique involves selling other people’s products for a commission on each sale. Here are 5 reasons why this business model is such a great starting point for anyone new to Internet marketing:

1. First and foremost, you don’t need your own product to promote. You’ll be advertising other people’s products so you won’t have the expense of having to create your own merchandise or the investment of time required to accomplish this before you can even think about making money.

2. You don’t even need a website because your only task will be driving targeted traffic to the product owner’s sales page via your affiliate link. You can accomplish this in a number of ways including writing articles to distribute online with your link included or by initiating an aggressive email marketing campaign with all links leading back to your affiliate product offer.

3. Most new Internet marketers and home business owners online have very little start-up capital to invest in their new Internet venture so this makes affiliate marketing a logical choice because it’s so inexpensive to get started.

There are many free traffic generation techniques available on the Web and since your primary concern will be attracting people to the owner’s sales page your only expense will be an email account.

4. This marketing technique provides a tremendous opportunity to learn as you earn so you can generate some cash to reinvest in your home business and become better established both financially speaking and in terms of acquired knowledge of your market. This will help give you a fast start toward achieving the success you want online.

5. Affiliate marketing provides you with the chance to select only the most attractive or most profitable niches to approach with your product offer. This strategy allows you to pick and choose which merchandise you’ll promote on the Internet and of course you’ll want offers that pay the most commission for each sale. You’ll also want to research your potential partner’s merchandise to find out which ones are most popular and have the highest conversion rates.

So as you can see affiliate marketing is really the best option for any new home business owner starting out online. Not only because of the reasons already mentioned but also because it can be a very rewarding career, not only financially speaking, but also in terms of knowing you’ve helped someone find a solution to their problem by providing them with a quality product.

Bob Withers

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Click Bank is the largest supplier of digital merchandise on the Internet and their affiliate program provides home business opportunities for many aspiring Internet marketers online. If you’re looking for a work from home idea then Click Bank may be right for you. However, before you decide to join there are several things you should consider before subscribing:

1. Your first consideration should be whether or not you have your own product to sell and if it’s digital in nature? Click Bank doesn’t deal in physical goods but if you have an ebook, software or some other type of downloadable digital product to advertise then they’re the Internet distributor for you and your home business merchandise.

2. If you don’t have your own product to promote then you should ask yourself if advertising other people’s products as an affiliate by adding links to your website is something that interests you as an Internet marketer. If so then collecting commission from these product offers may be the opportunity you’re trying to find on the web.

3. Who is your target audience when you’re trying to drive traffic to your website? Are you trying to attract other online home based business owners and other Internet marketers who would be interested in purchasing Click Bank merchandise? If these are your type of website guests then this may be an idea whose time has come as your Internet enterprise.

4. Do you generate the amount of traffic you’ll need to make this a successful venture with little or no risk involved? It doesn’t make sense to take on this responsibility if the numbers just aren’t there in terms of targeted visitors to your home page because you just won’t make the sales you’ll need to make this a profitable proposition.

5. Do you own your own domain name or is your website hosted free of charge by an outside service provider? If the answer is no then you must buy your own domain name and pay to have it hosted in order to satisfy click bank’s requirements.

This will require learning how to choose an appropriate website moniker and knowing how to register your name as a self hosted site so you can keep your product provider happy.

Click bank has given countless numbers of people the financial independence they’ve been searching for online via a home based business. However, before joining their program you should ask yourself all of these questions so you can make an informed decision and be confident this is the opportunity you’ve been looking for on the web.

Bob Withers

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Many people just starting out online with a home based business often turn to affiliate marketing as a jumping off point for their Internet marketing career. For the uninitiated affiliate marketing, in its purest form, involves selling other people’s products, as an affiliate, for a commission on each sale. In addition to pay per sale there are several other income models including pay per click, pay per lead and residual income.

If you’ve been online for awhile you no doubt have heard the term super affiliate which refers to someone who’s been very successful in this particular field on the web. These marketers have become millionaires as a result of their endeavors and being new to this business model you may ask why they’ve gotten to where they are today and also wonder what goes into the makeup of these individuals that drives their success.

Many of the so called newbie’s online approach Internet marketing with a mindset that there’s some magic formula you must uncover before you can achieve your goals of new found wealth and independence. In order to make it to the top  in this area of expertise you must first rid yourself of this attitude.

The only magic pill defining success on the Internet, as in any offline endeavor, is hard work. You must approach your online affiliate marketing home business with a sound work ethic and the proper can do attitude which will help get you through the struggles as well as the triumphs. As with any new business you will experience, at times, difficult challenges during your startup phase which you must overcome by continuing to take action toward reaching your goals.

Super affiliates are only human beings just like the rest of us except they have a mindset which doesn’t allow mistakes and or failure to defeat them. They simply learn from their errors and move forward with a never give up outlook based on their optimistic feeling that nothing is going to stop them from ultimately reaching their goal of wealth and independence.

One of the biggest contributors to failure online is procrastination. Many people simply don’t possess the “don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today” outlook that is a must for success with any enterprise. By delaying your efforts and by not being consistent in applying your affiliate marketing strategy you will eventually reach a point of no return when no matter what you do you can’t catch up and get to where you want to be.

Don’t get caught in the never ending continuing education strategy which impedes the progress of many new affiliates online today. These people feel the need to try every new Internet marketing program and product that’s advertised on the web with the hope that this is the one that’s going to take them to the top.

The only thing that will make you number one is your experience which is gained by taking action and not achieved by continually reading e-books and by experimenting with every new technique that’s introduced on the web.

So in order to have any chance at achieving super affiliate status online with your home based business you need to have a strategy in place, you need to, as the commercial says, just do it and you need to have the proper mindset that’s based on eternal optimism and a never say die attitude which will guide through any setbacks you may encounter along the way. Consistently applying these tactics will eventually get you where you want to be with your Internet enterprise.

Bob Withers

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Affiliate marketing can be a very lucrative business model to use to make a living from home online. Regardless of which approach you take you should make sure before beginning that this is the right path for you and that you thoroughly understand what’s involved.

For the uninitiated: “Affiliate marketing is the process of selling someone else’s products for a commission on each sale you make.” This is the most basic approach however there are several variations including pay per click where you receive a payment each time someone clicks on one of your ads or banners. Another version is called pay per action where you’re reimbursed when your prospect fills out a form or requests more information.

1. First of all, when you finally decide which route to take how you approach your new venture will go a long way towards determining your ultimate success or failure online with your home business. If you decide this is only a part time endeavor where you want to make some extra money to pay the bills or to finance a night out then these are the kind of results you can expect.

However, if you want to replace your full time income offline then you must treat your new affiliate venture as a full time job. If you approach it as you would any new business you’re starting offline then the greater your chances are of succeeding. Working 8 hours a day on your new enterprise will make you successful much faster than working only a couple of hours per day.

2. Once you decide to enter this field listen to what the successful affiliate marketers are saying. These people didn’t do well by accident. They know what they’re talking about and getting to know them and associating yourself with these individuals can only be of benefit to you in the long run. In my opinion, having a mentor or someone who can coach you down the road to success will help you achieve your goals much faster than trying to do it on your own.

3. What works for one affiliate may not achieve the desired results for another. Recognizing this fact in the beginning will save you a lot of headaches in the long run. There are many ways to succeed in this field and if one approach doesn’t produce the results you were hoping for then try another technique. You mustn’t be afraid to fail as long as you learn from your mistakes.

4. I’m sure you’ve heard by now, whether it was offline or on the Internet: “Always do what you enjoy doing and you will be successful.” There’s nothing worse than hating to have to do something. Whether it’s your full time job or some project you’ve undertaken things always seem to go much smoother and the results seem to be much better when you enjoy completing the task at hand.

The same thing can be said for affiliate marketing; don’t just do it because you heard it’s a good way to make money online. Try it and if you enjoy it continue to do it. Otherwise, find some other home business idea online that you will enjoy doing.

By taking these 4 approaches to your affiliate marketing career your road to success on the web should be a much smoother journey and you should achieve your goals much sooner rather than later.

Bob Withers

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If you’ve decided to build your online home based business around affiliate marketing then promoting Click Bank products may be the best route to take to generate some fast cash from home. Click Bank is the largest supplier of digital products online and they provide all the information and support you’ll need to begin promoting their merchandise on the web.

Next you have to find a product that’s going to be in demand, that’s going to sell and that’s going to provide a nice return for your marketing efforts. There are several steps involved in finding and selecting the product that meets all of your search criteria however this process isn’t as difficult as some Internet marketers will have you believe if you follow these steps.

First of all, when you’re looking for a winning digital product to promote you should look for a sales letter that’s going to have a high conversion rate because it contains the following information:

It should possess a powerful headline that drives home the benefits of the merchandise. The body of the message should use strong language which highlights the benefits while demonstrating how it’s going to solve your prospect’s problem or make their lives easier in some way. This information however, should be presented in a summary bullet type fashion which makes it easier to read.

Like any good sales page it should also contain testimonials from satisfied customers and from other Internet marketers who have tested the product, if possible. It should also offer valuable bonuses to anyone who buys which makes it difficult for people to say no. Finally, the letter should outline a direct call to action by telling your prospects exactly what to do next.

Secondly, if possible try out the product yourself and grade it in terms of quality and performance. Does it fulfill or meet all the claims made in the sales script? After all, your reputation as an affiliate marketer is on the line and you don’t want to be affiliated with any false claims or unscrupulous promises.

Next, you should check out the commission rate to determine whether or not this product is worth your time and effort to promote in terms of revenue earned per sale. Most affiliate marketers have a cut off point with regard to the amount earned per sale and if the rate of return falls below this mark they will move on to the next product.

You should also look at the gravity score for the product. This number indicates how many affiliates are promoting this merchandise and it should give you a good indication of how much competition you’re going to have from other members who are selling this product.

However, a high gravity number also shows that the product is selling very well. This means you must determine, in your own mind, if the competition from other affiliates will be too intense even though the merchandise is selling well. Personal experience, over time, will help you choose products with more confidence according to the gravity number after having had some success marketing your choices.

Some Internet marketers believe a gravity score of between 75 and 150 will give you the balance you need between demand for the product and the number of affiliates advertising the merchandise to make it worth your while, monetarily speaking, to decide to advertise this product.

Finally, the percentage referred number will also help you determine if too many people are selling this product to make it worth while for you to get involved. If this number is around 50%, after taking all of the other factors into consideration, you should consider promoting it.

As you can see there are many different variables which come into play when trying to find the right product to promote on Click Bank. If you can become consistently accurate with your product choices in terms of selecting the merchandise with the proper gravity and referral percentage then you should experience financial success with your affiliate marketing home based business online.

Bob Withers

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If you decide, as a home business owner online, to make affiliate marketing your website theme then you have many things to consider when searching for an affiliate program and product that suits your needs and more importantly is tailored toward your target audience’s expectations.

One of these considerations is how good is the sales copy provided by your program? This question could make or break your marketing campaign because a poorly constructed sales page can provide disastrous results for your enterprise.

How can you tell if your affiliate product’s sales copy is going to persuade people to take out their wallets and buy your merchandise or if it’s going to make them want to continue looking for a different solution to their problem? There are several important points to consider including these six concerns:

1. The headline is, without a doubt, the most important aspect of any sales page. Because you only have a limited time frame to capture your potential customer’s attention the headline must be compelling and speak to your audience and address their needs. It should contain words that are descriptive and are coercive without being offensive or too in your face for your readers. Research has shown that a script with a bold red font is the most effective at attracting your prospect’s eye to the title.

2. The page itself should be straight forward and clean and neat in appearance. It shouldn’t be jumbled or crowded and shouldn’t provide the reader with too many options. It has to be a direct response script telling the person what to do or stating a call for action. Confusion on the part of your reader will usually result in a negative response.

3. Well crafted sub-headings are also a key ingredient to the success of your copy. These titles should lead your reader from one topic to the other in an organized and straight forward manner. They should flow naturally while keeping the reader’s attention and interest in your subject, which of course is your product.

4. People always want to know how your merchandise is going to benefit them or how it’s going to make their lives easier in some respect. You sales copy should outline these advantages clearly while telling your potential customers precisely what they’re getting for their investment. Once again, confusion is a bad thing when it comes to understanding your script so a good sales pitch should be on topic and directed toward your audience.

5. Post scripts or PS’s at the end of your script are a tremendous technique to use to reiterate the most important points of your message. For example, they should restate your call to action, create a sense of urgency to purchase and highlight the benefits of buying your product.

6. Finally your sales copy should be pleasing to the eye by having paragraphs that are well formatted and well spaced with equal amounts of white space between subjects and by being neat in appearance. And of course, there shouldn’t be any spelling mistakes or grammatical errors within the script.

Compelling and persuasive sales copy is a must if you’re going to enjoy any measure of success with your home business affiliate marketing endeavors on the web.  

Bob Withers

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Once you’ve decided to create a home based business online and you’ve built your website you must now decide how you’re going to make money from your home page. There are many money making opportunities online so finding something that works shouldn’t be too difficult. The majority of successful entrepreneurs on the web create income from multiple sources or  have multiple income streams flowing into their paypal account which helps increase their monthly profits.

The only danger associated with this strategy is the possibility of spreading yourself too thin by trying to concentrate on more than one opportunity at a time. The best approach in this situation is to make sure you have one aspect of your business running smoothly and making a profit regularly before attempting to create another income online. This way you’ll be sure to have one money making endeavor to fall back on while you’re establishing your new venture.

Here are 5 ways you can create these income streams one at a time to ensure money is flowing into your home business account on a regular basis.

1. If you’re just starting out online one of the easiest ways to create an income almost immediately is by selling other people’s products for a commission or a percentage of each sale. There are many affiliate programs available on the web to choose from but you must be careful to find one whose products are in demand and who provide a profitable return for each sale. Clickbank is a great place to find other people’s merchandise to sell from your website and is also a tremendous research tool for finding the right affiliate program for your home business.

2. Website flipping can be another lucrative source of income for your enterprise. You simply build a website related to a particular niche market which you’ve researched and create content on this site related to your niche topic. For example, if your theme is “how to quit smoking” you would research information on the topic and write articles about how to accomplish this goal and post them to your website.

You can also create back links to other similar sites which contain relevant information in order to build your content base even further which will help drive targeted traffic to your home page. After two or three months, when you feel you’ve created a website which draws a significant number of visitors each and very month and which is ranked on the first page of Google you simply put a price tag on your home page and offer it for sale on many of the related forums and websites who cater to this business. 

3. Private label rights products can be another very profitable home business opportunity on the Internet. PLR merchandise are goods which you acquire either through purchasing them or through some other business arrangement with the owner such as a joint venture agreement.

Once you own the private label rights to these products you are then allowed to change the content in any way you wish and place your name on the result as being the creator or author in the case of an ebook for example. Once you’ve modified your products you’re then free to package them and sell them from your website at your own set price and in any manner you wish.

4. If you’re into article writing you can create an ebook by combining several of your editorials into separate chapters and make it available for sale from your home page. Ebooks remain one of the most downloaded information products online today; so the demand is still quite high for this type of merchandise as long as you select a topic that’s popular as well.

Once you create your electronic book you can then divide it into separate reports on different topics and create another revenue stream by selling these reports individually to your niche. Once you have your own information product many other opportunities with other entrepreneurs online will present themselves, such as joint venture opportunities, which will create even more income for your home business.

5. Another technique which can create an income almost instantaneously for so called newbie’s on the web is Google’s adsense program. AdSense is one of the fastest and easiest ways to monetize traffic to your website whether you have products or services to promote or you simply provide free content to your visitors.

Google AdSense enables webmasters to place code on their site that connects to Google’s ad server database and attracts keyword relevant advertising onto your web pages. The website owner gets paid a percentage of the fee that Google receives from the advertiser every time a visitor clicks on an ad. There is no charge for you to participate in AdSense because all costs are covered by the advertiser and it’s very easy to join this program just by visiting Google’s website and providing the necessary information.

Anyone new to Internet marketing or home business ownership online can very easily establish one revenue stream from either of these opportunities and eventually turn one income stream into several sources of profit by expanding their enterprise into several different markets by implementing more of these ideas.

Bob Withers

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When your sales become stagnant and your website traffic plateaus you need to find ways to jump start your advertising to increase your website visitors and coincidentally your sales and profits. One way to accomplish these goals is to breathe new life into your promotional materials by upgrading your written advertising. Here are 6 very effective tactics you can employ to bring your online home based business back to life.

1. Include a valuable tip or trick in your advertisements to help your potential customers solve a problem or satisfy a need. Providing something of value to your visitors helps build rapport and assists in establishing relationships with your guests. Relationship building is a key step in the sales cycle because people are more likely to do business with someone they feel they know and trust rather than with a perfect stranger.

2. Create a story around your advertisements related to you and your home business. Tell your visitors about your past struggles and how you’ve over come them to get where you are today. People love to hear how others managed to overcome the odds and become successful after hitting rock bottom because this helps encourage them and helps them believe they too can make it online and create a comfortable living for themselves.

3. Relate stories about your past customer service experiences and how you helped people solve a problem they were having or helped them meet a need. Also inform them of any awards you’ve received or special goals you’ve accomplished. Customer service is very important to people especially when they are considering becoming a paying customer. By relating these types of narratives about your service success you’re instilling confidence in these potential customers that they will be well looked after if they become a client.

4. Expound on your community involvement efforts including any special events you’re business has sponsored in the area. Tell people about the different charities you support either in a monetary nature or through volunteer work. You could even sponsor a fund raiser on your home business website with all money raised going to one of your favorite charities in your locality. People like businesses who care about and take interest in their community and these types of efforts may attract more customers to your website.

5. Inform your visitors about any special associations you have or have had or are planning to have with other successful entrepreneurs online. Tell them about profitable joint ventures you’ve participated in or any other business agreements you have established.

People are impressed with ventures who do business with thriving enterprises and you’re status as a business person online may be raised just by associating with these individuals. This may clinch the deal when people are thinking about buying your product or service.

6. Include an entry form in your advertisement for a contest on your website. For example conduct a monthly draw for all new customers who have done business with your enterprise before the end of the month draw date. Your prize could be monetary in nature or could be a free piece of Internet marketing software to help promote their new business. Whatever you decide it must be something of value to your potential customers in order to entice them to sign-up.   

There are many different advertising techniques you can use to get your home business back on the road to success and improving your promotional script can be a winning strategy to employ.        

Bob Withers

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You’ve probably heard other Internet marketers say this or you’ve probably received email advertising proclaiming “Amazing Profits With The Push Of A Button”! The first thing you ask yourself is how can I possibly make money by pushing a button?

The simple answer is you first have to automate your online home based business from the time people enter your website and sign up for your ezine to the point where they become paying customers by making a purchase. The next question that comes to mind is obviously: “How do I automate my online business?” This article will describe how to run your enterprise on autopilot.

Autoresponders are an Internet marketer’s best friend because without them running a successful home business on the web would be virtually impossible and at best a nightmare. Can you imagine trying to capture each of your visitor’s contact information and follow up with them individually immediately after signing up for your ezine?

Your email autoresponder not only builds your email list for you by capturing your guest’s email addresses but also follows up with them on a regular basis by delivering your bi-weekly magazine and any additional advertising you want to send, at times determined and set by you at your discretion.

Email advertising is a powerful Internet marketing tool which can create a need for your visitors and close sales for your home business on autopilot. By creating a series of email ads and loading them into your autoresponder to be delivered at specified intervals throughout the month you’re able to remind your former guest’s of any special promotions you may be running in order to entice them into becoming paying clients.

You can also automate your traffic by creating a pay per click campaign with either Google or Yahoo. The big advantage of using this strategy is you can set it and forget it. By telling your provider how much you’re willing to pay for each visitor they send your way and then setting a budget for your campaign which will stop delivering potential customers when the money runs out you can walk away. You only have to come back to check your sales stats and the amount of your remaining budget on a regular basis. This is automation at it’s finest.

Using clickbank is another terrific way to automate your home business because they very literally do all the work for you and your enterprise. They’re a tremendous vehicle to use for selling your product and you can also set up an affiliate program through their website and have affiliates selling for you as well. Clickbank will manage your program for you by providing the form you need to sign up your sales team, by tracking your clicks and sales and by paying your affiliates for you.

Internet marketer’s are always looking for ways to add fresh content to their website on a regular basis in order to maintain their friendship and their ranking with the major search engines online. A tremendous strategy to employ to accomplish this goal automatically is using RSS feeds. RSS or Really Simple Syndication is a way to display content from other websites on your home page automatically.

If you can find websites related to your home business theme who you feel have valuable content which is updated regularly you can subscribe to their RSS feed. When they update their content it automatically feeds into your site providing fresh information for your page to satisfy the search engine’s requirements.

So as you can see you can automate virtually every aspect of your online home based business. From closing sales, to driving traffic, to adding fresh content, to promoting your venture and paying your sales team automation provides the time you need to do the things you love while building your online business empire.

Bob Withers

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After creating your online home based business your next focus should be building a highly targeted and responsive email list. I’m sure you’ve all probably heard the old Internet marketing adage “the money is in the list”. This axiom still rings true today and maybe even more so than it did ten years ago.

If there’s one thing all of the millionaire gurus online have in common is they all have very large email lists. In this case size does matter because with the push of a button, if you own a sizable list, you can generate thousands of dollars from a single offer.

The best way to build your directory of names and email addresses is to capture your visitor’s contact information when they visit your web page. Here are 5 strategies for persuading these individuals to give you their contact information before leaving your website:

1. People will only part with their contact information if they receive something of value in return. Therefore a very effective tactic would be to offer your guests a freebie related to your particular niche. For example, if your target market is home business opportunities you could give them a free report outlining the top home based business money making ideas online today if they provide their name and email address.

2. Your landing page should be simple in design, straight forward and to the point. It shouldn’t contain any other links other than your opt-in form.

3. Your squeeze page must look professional and be professionally written. Its sole purpose, after all, is to persuade people to leave their contact information so you should treat it as a sales letter while remembering you aren’t trying to sell the person on their first visit. You may turn off your visitors if you indulge in a hard sales approach and no matter what you’re offering as a freebie they may decide to leave your website.

4. Concentrate on high lighting the benefits of your free offer. Remind your potential customers they are receiving more than a free subscription to your newsletter by outlining the benefits your gift can provide and the problems it may be able to solve for them.

If possible include a dollar value for your freebie to illustrate the value they are receiving for nothing. People love to receive something for nothing and if they see a monetary value associated with their gift they are more likely to sign-up.

5. Building a targeted, responsive email list isn’t just about capturing your visitor’s name and email address, it also involves relationship building. Therefore placing a picture of you with your name underneath on your landing page may help start this process.

If people can associate a face with a website or a particular offer they may begin to feel as though they know you. People are more likely to do business with someone they feel they know and trust rather than with a perfect stranger.

An effective list building strategy is a vital component of the overall Internet marketing plan for any home based business or any other venture, for that matter, online today. Once you’ve created a directory of hungry buyers who are interested in your niche you will virtually guarantee the long term success of your enterprise on the web.      

Bob Withers

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