http://www.proaffiliatemarketing.com/index.phpblog/ en positionone@me.com Copyright 2010 2010-06-11T18:48:56+00:00 http://www.proaffiliatemarketing.com/index.php/blog/at-last/ http://www.proaffiliatemarketing.com/index.php/blog/at-last/#When:17:48:56Z NobleSamurai have taken the step many of us wish they’d taken long ago and finally created an affiliate program for their awesome market intelligence tool, Market Samurai. If you haven’t heard of Market Samurai before (where have you been?), it’s a market intelligence tool which aims at being a one-stop-shop to enable niche marketers to quickly assess a niche market before building a web presence. Initially promoted via 30 Day Challenge, the product has moved itself into the position of being a mainstream addition to any self-respecting online marketers toolkit. Noble Samurai quote around 150,000 users of the tool worldwide and demand shows no sign of abating. Of course there are other reseach tools out there which do a similar job (Traffic Travis for example) but none follow the workflow involved in building an affiliate site, with the tools required to do the job. You can read more about Market Samurai here, and if you’ve got the tool you can also post your own Market Samurai review too. You’ll need to login or register before posting. Niche research 2010-06-11T17:48:56+00:00 http://www.proaffiliatemarketing.com/index.php/blog/is-affiliate-marketing-dead-or-just-sleeping/ http://www.proaffiliatemarketing.com/index.php/blog/is-affiliate-marketing-dead-or-just-sleeping/#When:19:26:02Z The relatively recent Google ‘slap’ on thin affiliate and bogus review style sites was always on the cards. Online marketers need to up their game. It’s all about the user experience as far as the Big G is concerned, which is why no-one should’ve been surprised when they came down hard recently on thin affiliate sites. That is, sites where no additional information was provided to the site user to enable them to make an informed decision about whether to purchase the item(s) being sold. Essentially, this just highlights the laziness of the marketer. A bit more effort to provide useful additional informative comment to the user and many sites would probably have avoided being ‘slapped’ - having high minimum bid amounts being placed on all keyword bids in a PPC campaign for a particular domain. Just as fake blogs or ‘flogs’ have been rightly hit, so the dodgy review sites. Sites where reviews are deliberately falsified in favour of a higher commission product, are by definition deceitful. The user trusts the information being presented to them, even though it’s false. Why should such sites prosper? Do no evil and the great Google Sun will shine upon thee. It’s a function of the sad fact that much of the Internet marketing industry has an underlying ‘get rich quick’ ethos, with most sales pitches being geared up to making things easier and faster for the unskilled, such that no effort should be required to make money online. Because that’s what sells. The lure of easy money. And this is perhaps the biggest myth of all. Sure, there will aways be some who make money in a relatively short space of time, but only after putting in the effort. The rest are doomed to inaction or failure before they’ve started. So the point to take on board is that there are no quick fixes, no easy shortcuts and there’s certainly no long term benefit to deceiving your site visitors. The silver lining however, is that the pickings will be easier for those affiliates willing to up their game and provide something better than their competition. Web strategy 2009-09-17T19:26:02+00:00 http://www.proaffiliatemarketing.com/index.php/blog/how-not-to-lose-money-on-the-internet/ http://www.proaffiliatemarketing.com/index.php/blog/how-not-to-lose-money-on-the-internet/#When:15:30:10Z Are you jaded by the masses of recycled product and outdated techniques being peddled by self-proclaimed ‘gurus’ in the name of ‘Internet Marketing’? In the ‘real’ world, an ineffective product soon loses its place in the marketplace, since the market - equipped with relevant information about a product’s performance - reacts favourably to those products that work and soon drops those that don’t. The difference in the world of Internet Marketing is that performance information is the most effective power tool vendors have to sell their products. As a result, true performance information becomes thin on the ground. Which is why you need to register with ProAffiliateMarketing.com and rate the products you have personal experience of. ProAffiliateMarketing.com exists because too many people get ripped off, spend thousands on ‘scarce’, ‘hot’, ‘proven’ products, ebooks, membership programs, etc. and achieve nothing. Carefully crafted sales pages and ‘bought’ testimonials accompany PayPal, ClickBank, etc. accounts with varying degrees of successful activity, persuading the buyer through emotional hooks, to part with their cash on the back of the ‘no-brainer’ deal where their risk is removed by the ‘no-questions-asked’ guarantee. Of course, as buyers of much of this information, rehashed and repackaged, we are supported by the existence of these (mostly ubiquitous) guarantees, which enable us to claim our refund if we aren’t satisfied. If it weren’t for Clickbank’s terms, these would llikely not exist for the majority of products we come across - vendors are all too aware that calls on any guarantee are minimal. And besides, how many buyers want to admit to themselves that their decision to buy was misplaced? After all, these guys - ‘gurus’ - know what they’re doing, right? The average Joe is left with an ever increasing credit-card debt, wondering why this ‘proven technique’ hasn’t worked for them. Partly it’s a result of inaction on behalf of the buyer, but it’s also a function of the way the industry operates. The thing is, when you’re coming from a point of ignorance about a product, you need to know something about its subject to make any kind of informed decision about what to do, what to buy, what to avoid, etc. Sadly, buyers place too much reliance on the information provided by vendors, in the mistaken belief that all vendors are acting in their best interests. I mean, you wouldn’t make a life-changing decision without taking some form of external advice would you? Buyers need to start asking serious questions about the efficacy of the products they are being peddled. You can start by reviewing the products listed on this site and rating and commenting on those you have experience of, so the rest of us can get a better idea of exactly where to spend our cash. Training & Techniques 2009-09-05T15:30:10+00:00