John Melanson

Ed Dale’s Challenge – Module 1 Review

Well, anyone that’s begun Ed Dale‘s Challenge knows that we’re now done with the first module or week of the challenge. Ed changed things up a bit this year. Instead of blasting through all of the learning and then applying it in 30 days Ed’s decided to take a markedly more laid back approach and I think it was a great idea.

Be Challenged

This year each module is 7 days with a week off in between each of the seven modules. You can work your way through the first week/module each day as it comes out and (if you’re busy, like many people) you can either use the seven day break to catch up or to apply what you’ve learned so far. In this early stage though, it’s more about learning to use the suggested tools for doing your keyword research and finding viable and profitable markets, niches and micro-niches.

The most essential tool that Ed uses and suggests is Market Samurai (<<<< FREE trial link). It’s an amazing and robust tool that will save you hours of switching between online keyword research tools and manually gathering your data. We all need excellent tools in order to produce excellent products and Market Samurai is that tool. It gets my highest recommendation. (I had bought the paid version even before Ed’s Challenge…it’s THAT GOOD!)

Without giving away the whole basket of eggs, let me just say that the first week of The Challenge was a great lesson in how to properly do keyword research in a way that will reveal profitable markets to you. The other side of the coin to finding a profitable market is to ensure that you can adequately compete in that market with your chosen keywords. Sometimes your market will be ripe with buyers. If you choose the right keywords within that market it can make the difference between a site earning $100/month and a site earning $5000/month.

Using the “week off” constructively, I’ll be drilling down in some niches that I’ve always had an interest in but haven’t taken the time to do the research to find the if/what/how/why and profitability of them.

Ed’s choice to use Market Samurai in The Challenge is brilliant. There is no better utility available to do the type of research that’s necessary to successfully launch, promote and succeed with your websites and blogs. In fact, once you’ve finished your keyword research there are modules that will automatically find products for you to promote and content to share…but those are for another module.

It’s NOT too late! Run over to The Challenge and sign yourself up. Use this week to catch up and then follow through by completing the whole challenge. Ed’s got forums and a blog to help support you through your journey and LOTS of helpful folks that are right there in the trenches with you slugging it out in their own niches.

Take the Challenge…You’ll be Glad You Did!

Try Market Samurai Now for FREE!

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Your Checklist to Use When Deciding on an Affiliate Program

With so many affiliate programs flooding the Internet, how do you choose?

It’s easy; just make use of this easy checklist, and selecting your next set of affiliate programs will be stress-free. Remember that not all of the programs that come your way should be selected. And not all of these programs are beneficial for your websites.

What to look for in your preferred affiliate programs

Image via Wikipedia

That is why you need to carefully select your next batch of affiliate programs and this checklist help you decide:

• Go for the affiliate program that offers the highest quality affiliate products and services. The companies and the sponsors should also be among the most reputable. Your image and reputation online are connected to the kind of products and services promoted in your blogs and websites.

• Consider the amount of commission that you will get. Getting into affiliate marketing is tough, and maintaining the program is tougher. For this reason, it is important that the expected commission is commensurate (equal) to the efforts that you have used in promoting the affiliate products and services. Choose a higher pay-out rate, but make sure that this is just right so that your potential customers will not shy away from your websites. Affiliate products and services that cost less than $100 are a good start. And speaking of commissions, you should select the affiliate program that offers the highest commissions. Commissions are the payouts that you receive for every successful referral. Commissions should be between 15 to 50 percent, anything below 10 percent is not worth your effort. As always, it is best to know your value online.

• In looking for that perfect affiliate program, consider the method or the payout plan of the company. Target at least once a month payment from your company, and speaking of payouts, consider as well the minimum payouts. There are companies that will not pay you unless your earnings have reached a certain amount, say $300. The good news is that there are affiliate companies that have $100 as the threshold. Do you have a PayPal account? Consider these things when choosing affiliate programs.

• Look for an affiliate company that offers a tracking mechanism. This way you can monitor your earnings and check your performance over a certain period of time. In order to get the best response to your efforts you need to track them. By adding separate tracking codes from each location that you advertise the product you’ll learn where your best responses are coming from and be able to duplicate that effort in your other ad spots. Constantly track, test, re-test, split test and re-test till your response rates are at a level that you’re comfortable with.

• Make sure that you sign up with an affiliate program that offers customer support. The company that you sign up with should be always available just in case you have questions with regards to the offered products and services. The support that can be offered by the affiliate company can come either in the form of phone or e-mail. There is no such thing as a perfect affiliate product or service so you have to be ready with answers- and customer service provides that.

Use this checklist every time there is a need to get a new set of affiliate programs. This checklist works for a number of experienced online entrepreneurs, and surely this checklist will apply to you as well.

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Let Your Content Guide You in Choosing Affiliate Programs

Is there are recipe for success in affiliate marketing? Nobody can say decisively if indeed there is one. But unofficially, and if you check out forums for sure you will know that the kind of content that you post on your websites will have a say in the direction of your affiliate programs. And the quality of the content posted as well will determine if your affiliate marketing efforts will soar or fall short.

It could be said that the content on your website should serve as your guide in choosing affiliate programs- and can be your anchor as well, in affiliate marketing success.

This kind of strategy has been verified by many marketers and proven to have delivered the goods. And if you want to have a career in affiliate marketing, then you should take note of this suggestion.

For many, it is important that the affiliate programs that you choose should be similar or should match the subject of your blogs and websites. If you are still without websites, it is imperative that you built your website around these affiliate programs.

If you are a marketer with an existing blog and website to show, then you need to select the affiliate programs based on what you currently have.

Here are some things that you should keep in mind when you are shopping for an affiliate program;

• The affiliate programs that you should get should be related to the focus of your blogs and websites. You have to assume that your blogs and websites are now properly developed and as such your sites have focus. You need to assess your sites and find the focus. From there you can narrow down the affiliate programs that you will join.

• The affiliate programs that you choose should be easy to integrate into the overall schema of your site and content. Please be reminded that your affiliate programs will work and will have better success rate if the programs and the products and services are effortlessly woven into the content of the websites. Programs that were deliberately added will not look good, and internet users can easily look through this kind of strategy. You need to pursue tight integration so that you can get better results. From the perspective of the readers, it would appear that you are not really promoting but simply showing your love for your preferred topic.

The moment the content has been aligned with the affiliate programs and the sites, then that would be the time that you can promote your websites through search engines, discussion boards, news groups and even e-mail. The work after aligning the content with the program will be easier.

So make sure that in targeting your next affiliate programs, you should consider first your niche and usual topics. If you are into cars, then by all means try focusing on affiliate programs showcasing cars. If you follow this kind of tactic when choosing affiliate programs, you’ll soon realize that affiliate marketing is one fun work to do!

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