Bum marketing or article marketing is easy and if done well can be an effective marketing technique. However very few people find writing articles easy when they first start but with a bit of practice and persistence most people can master this art. It is best to start with a subject that interests you and you have some expertise as that helps make your first article a little easier to write. As you get more experienced will be able to tackle researching and writing on almost any topic.

To make article marketing a little less daunting for you here are some tips for writing better articles.

• Before submitting your first article ask someone you know to read it and give you some feedback. It takes a little practice to write articles that have a convincing call to action so that you entice people to act. If you get negative feedback ask them why and give it another go. Next time you read an article that makes you want to find out more on the subject, study this article so that you will be able to write similar content.
• The resource or bio box is the most important part of an article for you as this is where your readers either click through to your promotion or leave to read something else. Spend a little more time here, writing different versions and ask someone which one works best for them. More experienced marketers will test different versions of the resource box to see which one has the best conversion rate for them.
• If you are getting very little traffic to your website from your articles you need to work out why. Find other articles that seem to work and study them to see how they differ from yours. Are they more convincing to the reader? Read the rest of this entry

Affiliate marketing is a popular and effective way of earning money online. Affiliate programs are easy to join, pay commissions earned on a regular basis and are relatively easy to set up and promote.

However, as with other businesses, people make mistakes every day that cost them money and in some cases a large percentage of any profit they make.

So what are the common mistakes that should be avoided by affiliate marketers?

1. Joining too many affiliate marketing programs.

At some point of time you will find yourself joining way more affiliate programs that you have the time and resources available to promote. Worse still is that you join multiple programs in the hope of maximising your earnings. There is nothing wrong with having multiple sources of income but it is better to join one program at a time. You can then develop multiple income streams over time and not be attempting to promote them all at once.

The best way to get good results is by joining just one program that pays a 40% commission or better. Then give it all your attention researching and promoting it. As soon as it is making a reasonable profit for you then maybe you can now join another affiliate program. The idea is to avoid rushing into things and to do it slowly but surely.

2. Choosing the wrong affiliate program to promote.

In the rush to make money online as quick as they can people just chose a product that they think is in demand or “hot” even though that product has no appeal to them at all. It is better to choose something that interests you or appeals to you because it is easier to promote rather than one that only interests you because it might make you money.

So pick a product in a niche that you have some interest in and then do some research into it to see if there is enough demand for you to make money promoting it. A bit of time spent here doing some research could save you from spending a lot more time promoting a product that does not make a lot of sales for you. Read the rest of this entry

There is no doubt that the internet has become the best friend of the small business, with its wealth of easily accessible information and the availability of otherwise difficult to source individuals and products. There are very many ways for the modern business to utilize the web to good effect, a perfect example being the business blog.

Many businesses are now learning just what an amazing marketing opportunity having a business blog is as it generates not only sales but will contribute to increasing the profile of your business in a labour saving and cost effective way. It is important to be aware however that venturing into the world of the business blog and getting it wrong can be as damaging to your business as getting it right can be an aid to its success.

Probably the worst thing a business can do with their blog is to start with gusto posting like mad, only to flag a few weeks in and stop up-dating altogether. A business blog needs to be a regular thing, if your intention is to use it to drive business your way, there is absolutely no point posting a few times and then getting bored, like all other forms of marketing it needs a sustained approach. If for some reason you cannot dedicate regular amounts of time to its up-date then delegate the responsibility, pass the job to a colleague or outsource to a blogging firm and if your regular blogger is going to be absent for any length of time, always ensure a replacement, treat your business blog as an important tool and you’ll reap the rewards.

It is also important to remember that your business blog is a marketing tool for your business and not a place for you to vent your spleen or converse with friends; a business blog should at all times be used with the utmost professionalism if you plan on being taken seriously in your chosen market. Of course blogging is a new and exciting and much less formal way of communicating with your potential customer base, but it is important not to get too carried away, respect your audience and never lose sight of who they are, they are potential customers and other business owners and you will be judged on your postings, so get everything vetted by someone else before it is published, nothing should go on to your blog before it has first been seen through the eyes of a colleague, this will not only prove a form of gentle censorship, but will act as a proof-reading hopefully picking-up missed grammatical and/or spelling mistakes. Read the rest of this entry

If you sell digital products online you are no doubt aware of the two most popular affiliate networks, ClickBank and PayDotCom.

While both of these are great and I highly recommend each of them, today I came across a brand new service that really caught my attention. It’s called PaySpree and the reason it caught my attention is that ALL its members get paid for their sales instantly by PayPal.

Even affiliates get paid for their referred sales instantly by PayPal.

I expect it to become quite a hit as the lure of ‘instant commissions’ played a big part in the massive success of products such as 7DollarSecrets and the RapidActionProfits scripts.

I’ve actually come across products for sale that are just lists of affiliate programs that pay instant paypal commission. And I’ve seen many threads in the various internet marketing forums asking about where to find instant commission affiliate programs. Now there is an entire site and marketplace dedicated to them.

As soon as you become a member you can start promoting any product in the marketplace, and you can add your own products so affiliates can promote them for you. All commission payments are handled automatically by PaySpree, it sounds like a winner to me.

I’ve just signed up and had a look around the site and it seems pretty simple and non cluttered, check it out at the link below and let me know what you think:

http://www.kerriesheehan.com/payspree