Tag: marketing

    Digital Marketing or Affiliate Marketing Pros and Cons

    digital marketing

    The Digital Product vs. Affiliate Business Method

     

    Which Business Model will fit into your Lifestyle?

     

    When starting an online business, many newbies can’t decide on the business model which will fit their lifestyle while making them revenue. When starting a business, the decision often boils down to two options – promoting other’s products or selling their own products.

     

    There are definite pros and cons to each one, and some of that is based on your own personal skills and preferences. But other aspects of your decision will be based on things like profit potential, ease of implementation, and even the speed with which you can earn.

     

    There are some new things that have changed in the marketplace in recent years making it easier than ever for people to choose either of these methods for their business – or, combine them into one lucrative option!

     

    Below, we’re going to go over some things that might sway your mind to select one over another, and help you start off on a path that will not only be profitable, but personally fulfilling as well.

     

    How Fast You Can Get Your Money

     

    There’s a big difference between how fast you can earn money and how fast that money is deposited in your bank account. We’re starting off with this point, because for many (if not most) people, the desperation they feel in needing to get paid is palpable.

     

    In order to calculate the speed with which you can earn, several factors come into play. For example, as a digital vendor of products like eBooks or video courses, you have to factor in the product creation time and whatever amount of time you want to spend recruiting affiliates.

     

    This is going to vary for everyone because it takes some people months to create products and others a few hours. It’s feasible for some people to come up with a product idea, create it in a day, tell affiliates about it and start having money in their PayPal or Stipe account within 24 hours.

     

    But that’s not usual for everyone. Most people take at least a few weeks. Once it’s live, though, you will only have to check to see how fast your payment processor is in depositing the funds to your bank.

     

    Affiliates’ payments also vary by many factors. Each platform may have their own unique payment system. For example, ClickBank is going to pay affiliates on Fridays, two days after the end of the pay period and if you’re going direct deposit, you can get paid weekly.

     

    But on Amazon, you’re not getting paid until 60 days after you earn, and the payments are once a month. On Warrior Plus, you will have your affiliate earnings going into a site wallet, and the speed with which you can get those funds varies, too – from a few days to an entire month.

     

    How Much Money You Can Earn

     

    Now let’s dig into how much you can earn through each of the two business models. This is going to have variations as well. For example, as an affiliate, you have a myriad of options available that will impact the amount you earn.

     

    You might promote digital products, which have a low-price front end but an entire funnel of upsells and downsells that contribute to higher profits (not to mention some affiliate contests you can earn from, too).

     

    You might be promoting recurring income items that build your profits like a snowball, or you may choose one-time commission items instead. Even if you promote tangible products, there will be high ticket items that are harder to convert but pay more – and low ticket items that convert easily, but pay less.

     

    As a digital vendor, your earnings are going to be impacted by several factors. The first is the speed with which you release new products. Then there’s the matter of how many upgrades you have to add more profits to your bottom line.

     

    You also need to take into consideration whether or not you are going to spend time split testing your sales letter for improved conversions and recruit the top affiliates for your launches.

     

    There’s also the matter of control. You can earn as a digital vendor because you’re in control of your process. But as an affiliate, you’re at the mercy of the product creators and platforms, hoping you get approval to promote.

     

    There are some affiliates and vendors who only earn three figures each month because they’re slow or they just aren’t very good at what they do. Then there are seven and eight figure earners online, with many five and six figure earners as well.

     

    Basically, there’s no crystal ball that will tell you how much you can earn because everyone is unique and their process will vary from others’ processes, even if they try to copy someone else verbatim.

     

    What It Requires to Get Started

     

    The requirements include a mix of skill, tools and money. For some, it doesn’t require any money upfront. For others, it may require minimal investment – but nothing big or insurmountable for either business model.

     

    Let’s look at the cost of getting started first. If your plan is to launch products as a digital vendor, you pretty much need a domain and hosting. It is possible to set up a store on Etsy or elsewhere, but most people want control over their business, and if you’ll be creating sales pages, JV (joint venture) pages for affiliates and download pages, you’ll need to get a domain of your own.

     

    Look up GoDaddy coupon code and find a $0.99 dot com domain and then pay for a small hosting plan that should not cost more than $5-10 per month. From there, you can use WordPress themes for free.

     

    But if you want to, you can invest in a page building tool that will help you create   professional pages made from templates. The platforms (like Warrior Plus) won’t cost anything up front to sell on – but they’ll take a small fee from each sale as their cut.

     

    If you’re operating as an affiliate marketer, you definitely want to have your own site eventually, but it’s not a requirement up front. You can get started, though using social media platforms instead.

     

    You can promote products on YouTube, Facebook and other places that allow your links without having to buy a domain and hosting until you feel you can afford it. The only other investment you may want to make from time to time is of a product you’re reviewing, but that’s not a necessity.

     

    Now let’s look at the tools you may need to learn. In addition to WordPress or page builders, you’ll likely want a good keyword tool. This can be a free or paid tool, but it can tell you what the needs of your customers are and help you craft products and reviews.

     

    Graphics creators are another type of tool that will come in handy. But luckily, you can pair a free stock photo site with a tool like Canva (the free version) and use the built-in templates to create what you need.

     

    Last, let’s consider the skills you need to succeed with these business models. As a digital product creator, you have to know how to write well or how to record your course, depending on your preferences and those of your customers.

     

    You’ll also need to know how to create listings on platforms like Warrior Plus, JVZoo, ClickBank or an individual platform like Thrivecart, depending on how you want to set it up.

     

    There’s also the matter of customer service. As a digital product vendor, you’re going to need to deal with people directly. But as an affiliate, you’ll simply be the bridge between the vendor and customer, so the vendor will handle any customer service issues that arise.

     

    As an affiliate, you’re also going to need to know how to write or record your product reviews. Plus, you want your reviews to get found easily, so you have to learn more about search engine optimization than if you were a digital vendor getting traffic through a launch.

     

    For both business models, you’ll need to have good research skills. The good news is, there are tools that can help you with content creation, SEO and even customer service.

     

    Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can spiff up your content, it can conduct research on your behalf, engage in social listening and predictive analysis to help you create something your audience craves and more.

     

    How You’ll Get Customers

     

    This is one aspect that’s very different between the two business models – the way in which you’ll get customers. As a digital product vendor, if you have a launch coming up, you’ll want to recruit affiliates to promote for you.

     

    If you were to optimize your own site and promote it, you could also get customers that way, but it’s far more time-intensive than recruiting the right affiliates. They will send a recommendation of your product to their list of subscribers on your behalf.

     

    So in order to make sure you achieve this goal, you have to first ensure the quality of your product and that it’s something that will be in demand. Then price it so that it gives value to the buyers, with an upsell funnel that caters to the commission needs of your affiliates.

     

    The more you can do to entice affiliates onboard, the better. That means creating an informative JV page with readymade swipe files they can use, hosting a cash prize contest, and giving them advance notice so they can create a bonus (or give them a bonus to use instead).

     

    Traffic as an affiliate is a bit different. You’re going to need to optimize your content - whether it’s on social media or Google and other search engines. That means learning the algorithms and hashtags, which thumbnails will grab the attention of users and more.

     

    Knowledge You’ll Need to Have

     

    This brings us to the knowledge you need. In addition to what’s already been covered about research, tools and SEO, you will have other knowledge needs. For example, if you are a digital vendor, you are going to be immersed in a continual learning cycle.

     

    You must constantly pay attention to trends and research within your niche so that you can teach what your audience needs to know. But in addition to niche-based learning, you also have to stay on top of the marketing aspect have your business.

     

    There will always be new evolutions in marketing strategies, so you're going to have to learn how to sell in a way that allows you to be competitive. There also will be new ways of developing products.

     

    For example, webinars and video products were not always an option in the early days, where people had to teach from text only. Anytime a new strategy emerges that consumers embrace fully, you want to be aware of it so you can use it in your business.

     

    As an affiliate marketer, you're going to have to stay on top of different trends and marketing methods that are used on social media and elsewhere. But you also have to pay attention to different products that are being released within your niche.

     

    It's not just an affiliate’s job to present the product and tell people about the features and pricing. You have to know enough about the niche itself, such as the problems and pain points you are audiences having as well as the new technology or strategies that are being released so that you can select the right products to review.

     

    Time Benefits and Obstacles

     

    Lastly, you want to compare the time benefits and drawbacks of both business models. Many people avoid being a digital vendor because it's more demanding than affiliate marketing.

     

    If you decide to have an info product launch, you are going to be setting a date for the release of that product that your affiliates are going to expect you to abide by. That means you will need to put yourself on a schedule with boundaries in place to ensure your launch goes live at that date and time.

     

    It can be a bit more pressure filled than working as an affiliate, where you are on your own timetable discussing products that are already released, unless you are getting ready for a vendor’s product launch and trying to create a bonus or review for it.

     

    As a digital vendor, you're also going to be restricted by time when it comes to providing support to your customers. If you have an inbox filled with customer service requests, you need to make sure you are replying to them in a timely manner rather than letting them go unaddressed.

     

    With affiliate marketing, there's more pressure to scale your business so that you can continue bringing in profits, so you must be consistent with your reviews. As a digital product creator, depending on how well your post launch sales go, you may be able to take your foot off the gas a bit and slow down in the development of your next launch.

     

    With both options, you'll be able to scale your business into something bigger, but it's going to require you to invest more time and effort so that you can continue serving your audience well and even expand your audience base.

     

    There are definite benefits and drawbacks to both business models, but that’s true of every option you have available to you. The key is to find what you enjoy and pursue it vigorously so that you build a thriving online empire – even if that means combining them into one!

     

     

    Categories: Run a Home Business Tags: Tags: , , ,

    Word of Mouth Marketing is easy and effective way to promote your business

    How Word-of-Mouth Marketing Makes You the Go-To Expert in Your Market 

    Do you want to become the go-to source of expertise for your audience in your niche? There are many marketing strategies you can employ to do this, but the most effective and efficient is word-of-mouth marketing.

    Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) is, at its most basic definition, free advertising that happens when a customer having a great experience with your company. The happy customer is so delighted, they can’t help singing your praises to anyone who will listen.

    lt is that new people hear about how amazing you or your company are from a trusted friend, not an advertisement. This subset of social proof is a highly powerful way to make sales. You can use word-of-mouth marketing to grow your customer base, make sales, and boost your business’s brand.

    If you can harness the power of WOMM, you can get more out of your marketing efforts and grow your reputation using the oldest method of advertising known to mankind.

    How Word-of-Mouth Marketing Works

    The reason WOMM is so powerful is that people have gotten used to advertising hype. They’re savvier than ever before and they know online marketing when they see it. As a result, they’re less likely to listen when they see your promotional content online.

    But with word of mouth, the message comes from friends who are giving an honest recommendation. According to marketing research, people are much more likely to make purchase decisions based on what their friends say, rather than advertisements.

    When was the last time you tried something because of a friend told you about it? If you think back on your own experiences, it’s easy to see how word-of-mouth marketing works.

    Organic vs. Accelerated Word of Mouth

    Word-of-mouth marketing is nothing new at all. People have been spreading information about products and services for as long as language has existed. One person tells two friends, they each in turn tell two more, and so on. It’s the pre-internet version of viral marketing.

    This is also called “organic” WOMM. It’s organic because it happens naturally, with no action taken on your part. But you don’t have to rely on the hope that people will talk about you. Instead, you can make it happen by using “accelerated” word-of-mouth marketing. This is when you launch a campaign and employ tactics specifically designed to encourage word of mouth.

    The idea behind accelerated WOMM is to create a buzz that gets people talking. Businesses create products and content with shareability in mind. They leverage influencers and brand advocates to help spread the word and may even offer incentives to their audience members for telling others.

    There are strategies you can use that are guaranteed to get people talking and give them the nudge necessary to spread the word. All it takes is a little planning and effort.

    Word-of-Mouth Marketing Examples

    There are many ways businesses are using WOMM to spread awareness.

    In our business with my husband, we don’t need to advertise or market because we get word of mouth marketing working for us for the last 15 years. Once you get good recommendations from your clients, the word of mouth spreads and grows!

    One example would be to run a contest or challenge where customers make videos highlighting original, unusual, or funny uses of your products. You choose the best ones and give them awards, sharing all the submissions with your audience.

    Another example would be a coffee company that creates content teaching its audience about its ethically sourced beans and how it supports local communities and causes. The company’s customers support the business not only for the coffee, but also for the core values they share. This gets people talking and telling others about the coffee that everyone should be drinking.

    Another simple WOMM idea is to gather reviews and comments from your customers and post them on your website.

    Best Practices for Harnessing the Power of Word-of-Mouth Marketing

    Offer Expert Advice and Information. Create and share content that helps your audience solve problems they’re facing. Offer this help free with no strings attached. If your content is unique and offers value, people will be much more likely to tell their friends about it.

    Excellent Products and Services. Offer excellent products and services with stellar customer service. If you offer the highest quality possible, people will tell others, especially if they get results from using them.

    Learn How to Build Buzz. Since WOMM works best when people are talking, take the proactive steps to get them talking. Make everything shareable. Create events that will get talked about. Take advantage of current and upcoming trends.

    Do One Thing Really Well. Don’t try to be all things to all people. Focus on one thing and do it really well. If you can do one thing better than anyone else, you’ll get to be known for that specialty. You’ll gain an edge over the competition and word will spread.

    Exceed Expectations and Wow People. Go above and beyond what people expect of you. Give them unexpected surprises that will create a wow moment. These experiences are memorable and build buzz. The easiest way to wow people is to make promises and overdeliver on them.

    Tell a Good Story. Learn to tell stories well. If you share stories that connect with your audience through the core values you share, this will build a great relationship. People will buy from you because of your story, and then they’ll spread the word.

    Create an Experience. Don’t just create a product or service. Create an experience. Think about the journey your customer takes from initial contact to becoming a repeat purchaser and brand advocate. Make each step as engaging, helpful, personal, and enjoyable for your customer as possible. Seek ways to add value at every step along the way.

    Stay in Touch with Your Audience. Good communication with your customers is the key to making WOMM work. You need to know what problems they face and why they buy from you. You should have a plan for consistently gathering both positive and negative feedback that you can take action on, continually creating an even better experience.

    Ready to Make Word-of-Mouth Marketing Work for You?

    Ready to get started? The first step is to identify some strategies you can use to get people talking about you. If you know your audience well, you can easily find some ways to build buzz over your products and services. Go ahead and pick from some of the ideas and examples in this article to start with. Then let your own creativity kick in.

    Implement and refine, and soon you’ll know exactly what you need to do to get your customers talking about you and telling others.

    For more ideas and creating a word of mouth marketing strategy , you can check out the word of mouth marketing course in The Business of At Home Business Membership.

    Categories: Run a Home Business Tags: Tags: , ,

    Recruiting New Subscribers Based on Your Reputation to Serve

    Once you start a list, it will be your job to grow the number of subscribers that you have over time. While it may seem meager at first, with subscribers only trickling in, it will pick up steam when you put more effort into it.

    Word-of-mouth is a powerful indicator of who to follow and who is trustworthy in any niche online.

    When you can generate positive word-of-mouth and recommendations as a niche leader, you will see your subscriber numbers soar.

    You do this by maintaining your ethics and showcasing a true desire to step up and help people. There are many of your competitors who are only in it for the money, and when you can set yourself apart from them as someone who truly cares, you will find that people naturally flock to you.

    You want to be open and honest about your own journey in the niche. Whether it’s online success or weight loss, telling the story of how you overcame obstacles and succeeded will resonate with your readers. They will want to share your stories with the people they care about – such as friends and family members.

    Some people try to position themselves as guru marketers who have never made a mistake. And while these individuals do develop a following of like-minded people, it’s more ethical and honest to be transparent about your journey.

    If you want to develop a reputation as someone who consistently shows up to serve your audience, then you’ll want to invite people to contact you. You can have a contact form or give out your direct email address.

    Make sure you respond to emails and contact in a timely fashion. If your audience grows to a level where you can’t handle all of the communication on your own, then you might want to host a webinar where your people can frequently interact with you or hire a virtual assistant to help you maintain communication flawlessly.

    While many marketers focus on their responsibility to provide good information to their audience, keep in mind that it’s also your responsibility to protect your followers from bad information.

    When you turn down opportunities to make fast cash by only recommending quality products as opposed to anything and everything, word will spread of your morals and subscriber numbers will increase.

    Make sure you’re strategic about growing your subscriber base. Whether you participate in giveaway events, create valuable content to be shared by others, or simply develop friendships with competitors who will sing your praises, you can’t rest on your laurels and expect people to flock to you for no reason.

     

    There is free training on setting up AWEBER and MAILCHIMP at HOME BUSINESS STARTUP TOOLKIT.

    If you want help with setting up an email subscriber service you can check out the HOME BUSINESS STARTUP TOOLKIT set of FREE Trainings here 

    Categories: blogging, Grow a Home Business Tags: Tags: , , , ,

    Guerilla Marketing to Grow Your Business

    It’s about growing your own home business by using some offline tactics to do your marketing that are traditional but have been working for ever. So for those of you who have never tried to grow your home business, there are three point six billion people online. So remember to get your Web site up there like I mentioned on Thursday so that you connect with those people.

    If you want at first start connecting with your local community. Believe it or not,  yes, Yellow Pages is a great way to start. Get your advertising info into Yellow Pages and that does cost money but that will last you a lifetime in order of “word of mouth.” Once people start to get to know that you’re in the Yellow Pages in the directory, they can look you up easily and get your phone number and your address also maybe depending on the Yellow Pages. And of course, it is put up in the Yellow Pages on the Internet. And once they have your web site, you have a Web site up and an address. You can put that Web site and your phone number and e-mail and your mobile phone on business cards. On your Web site, have a contact form to “contact us” form as they say on your Web site that they could fill in and contact you for more information about your business.

    You can actually pay for the domain and pay for the hosting for a web site and it is certainly less than a hundred dollars You could easily learn WordPress. I know you don’t want to but obviously you could and that would be also free. Once you have that, you could put up a few blog posts and you have a Web site or you could hire someone to do that or get a free Web site as long as they allow you to attach a email auto-responder that will make a list of the people who contact you. Once they get onto your e-mail address list then you are in business with possible customers because that’s a very simple way for you to start your business growing is by getting on the Internet.

    But anyway, for those of you who are local businesses, you have to do some marketing for your business. There are still direct mailers out there depending on your community they could be reasonable. Send out a press release saying that you’re in town and available or you could do some ads in your local paper.

    You could also network out there in your community. There’s a lot of business networking groups. I’m not sure if they’re free to join in your community. The Chamber of Commerce in our community you pay a yearly fee but you have a lot of free networking by being in the chamber. Go out and volunteer in your community at a local food bank or any local business entrepreneurial type group. Go to a Meetup networking event. Meetups are free and create your own Meetup where you provide information and people can come and learn about your business or service depending on what you actually do and you could actually be there and meet up with others who are in business. Those are just a few of the ways that you have to be able to get out into the community so people get to know about you as you have to network.

    You have to market your business. So obviously you could also do a press release send it to your local newspapers saying that you’re in business. They’re always interested in profiling new businesses this community. Those are some of the traditional ways that Jay Levinson of the Guerilla Marketing book series has for you and let me just get his Web site because of course everybody has a Web site now and you can go and get some more guerilla marketing hacks for your local business that you don’t have to cost too much money to spend to get them.

    Gmarketing.com or his book “Guerrilla Marketing” by Jay Conrad Levinson.

    But anyway , so guerrilla marketing is a great way to save money in order to grow your business when you’re offline. Obviously there is some cost to be an offline business in people finding you in your local community. Tell all your family and friends that’s an inexpensive way. Hand out cards to your family and friends note cards to anyone you know. So for our offline business it’s now of course you can get online and get more business from the Internet. That’s why you need a web site. So as I mentioned get your Web site up there. Then you’re going to have to go and participate in social media.It doesn’t cost money to get on to social media and just chat and add your social media pages.  So that’s another hack is to get your Web site up and then get connected on some of the social media that might be of interest to you.

    So we’ll be talking about some of them that we’ve talked about in season one like Facebook and Instagram and Pinterest  and  Twitter .  Then you can see that it is possible even if you have a shipping company to be successful on his Instagram or even of course company like Ikea it can be very successful on Facebook. So hopefully you’ve got a few ideas today and I’ll give you some more when I get Guerrilla marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson out!

    Categories: Networking, Run a Home Business Tags: Tags: , , , , ,

    Twitter Engagement

    Twitter – who wants to bother? who has the time?

    The Twitter may scroll quickly through your life but it is worth participating in Twitter to get engagement and potential awareness for your brand.  Also, you can connect with others who you might want to partner with when you converse on Twitter.

    According to this Twitter study in 2014 by Stone Temple Consulting, you can get engagement!

    If you are a well-known authority in your field, it will be easier for you to get followers.

    It is true that image attached to a tweet will increase re-tweets and “favorited.”

    Increasing hashtags in a tweet doesn’t make a significant difference.

    Most interesting is that the time of day didn’t affect how much engagement was given.

    As you can see, Twitter is worth sending out your messages in and there is training in The Business of At Home Business membership. 

     

     

    Please include attribution to www.stonetemple.com with this graphic.

     

    Study

     

     

    Categories: Twitter Tags: Tags: , ,

    Testimonials, do you do them?

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    Testimonials for companies that you work with and you are happy with the customer service and the information that you learned, do you do them?

    Do you ask for testimonials from your customers when the work or service you did for them is complete?

    No.

    Then you are missing out on the best form of lead generation for your business.

    I did this testimonial for www.hangoutmarketingu.com as I was asked and I was very happy with what I learned about Hangouts On Air in the program.  When I am asked how I learned to do Hangouts On Air, you can bet I will be referring them on to Hangoutmarketing because I was pleased with everything I learned for doing the lessons.

    Is there a  better way to get free leads back to your business with happy customers telling everyone they know about your service?  No!

    In the  structural engineering business with my husband, we do absolutely no advertising other than a listing in the Yellow Pages.  Remember the Yellow Pages!  We get all our customers from referrals. Whether it is from customers who we did work for before and their neighbour wants some advice on a good engineer or it is a local contractor who wants to make his new customer happy with good service, we get ALL our leads from referrals.

    Customer referral marketing is one of the marketing strategies that is rarely talked about, especially online.

    Does your customer give you any feedback after they receive your service or product about how happy or what was missing that made them unhappy? Do you ask?

    Does your customer get a request from you for a testimonial if they were pleased with your service?   Do you follow-up and see if there is a quick way you can get them to submit something?  It could be a quick interview on video; it could be a survey to quickly fill in or a written testimonial.

    I always use Consumer Reports when I am buying an expensive item for the house like a T.V. or car.  Why wouldn’t people want to know what other people got out of your service or product before they purchase!

    Customer service is key to a successful business whether offline or online and this is what we talk about, as well as other topics, in the Business of At Home Business membership!  Check it out here.

     

    Categories: Run a Home Business Tags: Tags: , ,

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