Amazon Affiliate Program-The Best Way to Monetize Your Blog

Sara Sentor
Saturday, January 29th, 2011

You begin to consider monetizing your blog as soon as you build loyal readers.

You start researching the topic of monetizing a blog, and uncover hundreds of tips and tricks. Reading about the methods available makes you feel that there is at least one method that will suit you.

You narrow it down to say, writing an e-Book. Just do what you are good at (writing) and sell the e-Book to your loyal readers. Sounds easy right? Theoretically, yes. But once you get into it, you will find that it’s more complicated than you imagined.

Months into the journey you’ll feel frustrated, and use the low risk, low return method; which is placing AdSense all over your blog. Maybe some of you have more patience, I didn’t, and I know tens of others in the same boat as me.

My advice: Don’t give up too easily. Do not settle for AdSence, there is another low risk method that provides a higher return. It’s called, “Amazon Associate Marketing.”

What’s So Great About Amazon Affiliate Program?

Straight forward answer: Amazon is the most popular and trusted online store. Yes, their commission is low compared to other affiliate programs, but promoting products from a trusted store makes it easier to convert your readers into buyers — as long as you are promoting products that are relevant to the post.

Amazon affiliate marketing gives you peace of mind when it comes to tracking sales and producing summary reports. Amazon has a sophisticated system to help you track clicks, earnings, conversion rate and much more.

All this is user-friendly and easy to read. With Amazon you don’t worry that the vendor won’t respond to your emails and questions. Neither do you wonder whether the vendor will be honest when it comes to transferring the commission to your bank account.

The different ways Amazon allows an Associate to promote their products- is the icing on the cake. You can promote products using links, widgets or by creating a niche store using an eStore.

The one that I like the most is Amazon widgets. These small customizable widgets can be added at any location in your post. You need only know how to copy-paste to create them.

So if you want to monetize your blog all you have to do is:

Login to Amazon associate central.
Choose the method you will use to promote Amazon products. For example, an Amazon widget.
Follow the steps to build the widget.
Copy the widget code.
Paste the code into your blog post.

You are done!

You now have Amazon products placed on your blog. If you are a Word Press blogger and looking for more options and customization than what Amazon provides, use one of the Amazon Word Press plug-ins available out there.

As I said, if you want to monetize your blog easily without allocating too much time or cash to it, then the Amazon Affiliate Program option is great. Once you give it a try you’ll wonder how you did without it.

Byline:

Areej is the coauthor of WinkPress.com–a web resource about leveraging WordPress and its tools for online publishing. She enjoys anime and dreams of becoming a pianist.

Tags: blog posts, Blogging, Blogging Tips, Starting a Blog.
Posted in Blogging Advice | 3 Comments »

Top 5 Reasons Small Businesses Fail in a Slow Economy

Sara Sentor
Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Small businesses always have to struggle to retain their business. A faltering economy does not help. So what are the ways a small business can survive in a struggling economy?

I am resident of New Jersey. Last week, I decided to go up to Flemington, NJ to buy some dinnerware. A friend knew of some shops there that had unique china. Well, we got there to find a ghost town! Apparently, the economy caused so much damage that most if not all the shops had closed down. These were shops that had been there for twenty years or more!

This got me thinking. How is it that a thriving business slows down so much it is unable to survive a slump in the economy?

I did some research and found out that the reasons for failure of a small business can be attributed to five main causes.

The Five Main Causes of a Small Business Failure:

1. Refusal to Diversify

Small business owners fear change. They have one successful product and decide that this product will make them money for years to come. For the most part they are right. A unique product will bring them a lot of money. However, they have to retain that unique perspective and create a bigger market.

If I am a writer and am able to write great web content for say $45 per page for a while I will be able to find work. However, over time new writers will enter the market and they may offer the same services for less. At that point I have two choices: Diversify or Fail.

Lowering my price would not be a failure. What I could do is create a more user friendly package. Say write web content for the same price, but add a free marketing feature. Regardless, of a products success, it is necessary to keep updating or upgrading to retain the target audience.

2. Refusal to become more Technological

Living in a technological world it is amazing to realize that there are hundreds of business owners who simply cannot change with the changing technology. Let’s take the example of the shop owners selling dinnerware in Flemington. Did they consider having an e-commerce site? They could have created a website with a full inventory online. This would have reduced the overheads in their stores and maybe there would still be a shop in Flemington selling china!

3. No Risk Policy

The greatest fear of a small business owner is failure. They are so scared of failure that they refuse to take any risk. They have a great service or product but they play it safe. They refuse to market aggressively. They refuse to take a chance on online marketing. They refuse to spend money on growth of the business because they fear failure. The sad part is, this no risk policy causes them to fail!

4. Lack of Management

Small and home based business whether service based or product based usually start with one owner. As the business grows, the one owner mentality stays. They offer personal and customized service. They put in their own money. If business is slow, the owner does not pick up their salary. They sometimes allow customers to pay late.

Soon their business closes. Small businesses pride themselves on having a ‘family’ type of management. However, a business can never be a family. Business must always primarily be a business to succeed.

5. Lack of Planning

A successful business is 1% innovation and 99% planning. If a business owner is not careful, methodical and hard working –the business fails.

A business plan is essential for a business’s success. The problem is most small businesses start unrealistically and future projections are ignored.

In order to be successful a small business must:

Have a business mission, vision, goal and plan
Have a HR policy
Have a capital investment
Have an accounting policy
Create an analysis of competition
Manage marketing and growth and
Suggest an annual budget and management policy

All these five factors are essential for a small business to be successful. The lack of even one can cause a business to fail.

Tags: Business, small business, Small Business Marketing
Posted in Small Business and Online Business | 5 Comments »

8 Ways to lose a Viewer.

Sara Sentor
Saturday, January 15th, 2011

We’re talking blogs here, not the myriad other avenues through which you could lose a client. Still, it’s good to know what things irk viewers and potential clients enough that they hit the backspace button after glancing at your site or not even clicking your link at all. After all the brainstorming your company’s done and designs the site has gone through, you don’t want to blow business on something as small as the aesthetics of your site.

The Quantity Category

Overkill, Text. One of the most damaging things you can do to your blog is to put too much text into one page. Even a diatribe is best broken up with subheadings, bulleted or numbered lists, pertinent images, and the like. You can mourn the death of the written word all you want (believe me, I do), but that won’t get you any more clients.
Too many ads. Whether you’re a business or a stay-at-home mom blogging her thoughts, the presence of too many ads gives your site a trashy, cheap appearance and you one lacking in credibility. At the very least, remove all ads that glitter, blink, and suggest viewers to “cartoon” themselves.
Too many voices. Unless you accept guest posts and have multiple writers (in which case each writer needs to be clearly attributed), your site needs to maintain the voice of one person for the sake of consistency. How would you have liked it if Morgan Freeman’s voice in Shawshank Redemption turned into Ron Howard’s voice midway through the film?

The Quality Category

Cheap hosting. No level of excellence in grammar and business skills will impress viewers and clients when your website ends with .blogspot.com.
Poor quality video. If you’ve incorporated video into your blog, good for you. If it’s grainy, shaky, blurry, not properly white-balanced, has poor lighting, and you look like you just rolled out of bed in it: don’t bother. Scrap it and start anew, and this time, comb your hair.
Poor quality images. This isn’t Microsoft Word. Clip art is out of the question. There are plenty of stock photos available online. It’s not a bad idea to use your own, either, as long as they’re well-lit, not blurry, and reflect the content of your article.
Poor navigability. This includes not having your most recent blog post above the fold, not displaying your archives in plain sight, and not having a clearly visible “about me” tab. If your company only has a blog and not a corresponding website, the “about us” page is critical for your viewers so they can turn into potential clients. Without one, your viewers don’t know who you are and therefore won’t trust you with their business. Make sure that this tab is above the fold and easily found so even the most impatient clickers will find it.
No search box. You really don’t expect viewers to read the title of every last blog post since November 2008 just to get to the one about the leopard, do you?

Guest Blogger Bio: Maria Rainier is a freelance writer and blog junkie. She is currently a resident blogger at First in Education and performs research surrounding online degrees.

Tags: Blogging Tips, web content, Website Traffic, Writing
Posted in Blogging Advice, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Web Content-Contributing Content with Value

Sara Sentor
Monday, January 10th, 2011

When I write for my blog I have to think twice before publishing a post. I have to research every title. The reason is simple. I want to contribute value added content. There are thousands of blogs online and there are hundreds of blogs on the same topic as mine. So how do I contribute content with value?

Website and Web Content

Most webmasters realize that without valuable and unique content, their website has no hope of being successful. Websites may get listed in search engines, but to be competitive webmasters have to add unique and value-added content on a regular basis.
Search engines prefer sites that have new content and will give the sites a better ranking.

Qualities of Web Content

The types of web content search engines seem to prefer have the following qualities:

Unique content
Rich in keywords without spamming
In-text links to relevant sites
Consistently updated content

Creating Titles from Long Tail Keywords

You have a website, and you are ready to update it with new content, what is the next step?

The next step is to find keywords and titles that are user friendly. If you use the ‘Google Keyword Tool’ to search for the word, ‘blogging’ chances are there are thousands of searches. You think to yourself, ‘this is the perfect keyword’.

Think again.

This keyword has been saturated online. If there are thousands of searches, then chances are thousands of people have used the word as their main ‘keyword’. Your blog post will become a shooting star, glorious, but unseen.

The trick is to find the long tail keywords. Find the keywords that are the least competitive. Find the keywords with low search ratio.

So, if you use the ‘Google Keyword tool’ and put in the word ‘blogger’, go ahead. But find a phrase that has very few searches and write an article on that e.g. ‘Blogging for Cash’. Though not many people are searching for the phrase; those few who are will likely end up on your blog.

Creating Value for Users

Once you have chosen your long tail keyword do some research; search for the keyword phrase. See what sort of web content is available. Read the comments people have posted to the articles already done. Most times readers have some great input. Some give opinions, some ask questions. If they have given an opinion, feel free to write a post arguing for or against it. If they have asked a question, write and article that answers those questions. Maybe even link back to the article where the comment was posted; and where you found inspiration-chances are your post will be read by the same readers.

You have to find a niche and fill a need. The more targeted your niche, the more value you will be able to provide your readers!

Tags: Blogging, Blogging Tips, Creative Writing, web content, Writing
Posted in Web Content | 2 Comments »

The Client-the Website and the SEO

Sara Sentor
Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

As a former SEO Manager the most frustrating aspect of my work was getting the client to agree to my suggestions. As the SEO Manager, I would fulfill my job responsibility of getting the client listed in Google-within three months- guaranteed.

The listing was usually for small business owners in their local market. The client website got a ranking on the first page-top three results.

Instead of acclaim-I got complaints.

The client saw that he or she was ranking well but they had no leads.

We asked them to make the site interactive. No deal.
We asked them to provide coupons. No Deal.
We asked them to change the content. No Deal.
Yet my team, as the SEO provider, was considered the failure.

So I ask now, between the client, the website and the SEO- where do the responsibilities lie?

SEO Responsibilities

In an ever changing industry the SEO must constantly research, experiment and adjust a website in order to attain, sustain and retain rankings.
While SEO’s cannot guarantee results they can for the most part assure clients that after a certain time period, the client will see results.

Now here is the challenge. What exactly are results?

In SEO language results refer to ‘rankings’. The SEO will work to ensure the client website gets a good ranking in the major search engines for specific keywords.

The client may define results in terms of conversion. How many new clients they get or how many sales they make.

So another job responsibility of the SEO would be to educate the client.
The SEO must ensure that before they begin work for the client, the client understands what the SEO will be providing.

Client Responsibilities

Clients must be ready to make changes to the website
Clients must understand and have realistic expectations.
They must have a solid business plan.

Why does the SEO need to know a clients business plan?

SEO, like any marketing strategy, requires a business plan. The SEO must know what the client expects out of the search engine marketing efforts. If the client is uncertain of the business plan, the SEO will become unsuccessful.

Yes, the SEO will get the ranking, yes they will get the traffic, but there will be no leads, no new clients.

The SEO will create the marketing strategy based on the business plan. If the client website has a unique selling product [USP] or a service that is different, the SEO will work to promote it. However, it is the client’s responsibility to provide and promote that plan.

The Client-the Website and the SEO

Whenever, I took on a new client my first request would be the client fill a business profile brief. The client’s had a hard time providing answers to something as basic as:

What do you want from the website-leads or sales?

The client thinks that once the site is listed in the search engines, it will automatically be successful. That is wrong.

A website has thousands of competitors. In order to stand out the website requires:

Engaging content
Attractive images and web design
Constant updates
Landing pages
Easy navigations
Ways to engage and retain potential customers
Lead forms
Content updates
And more

An SEO can bring the traffic but unless the client is willing to work with them to make changes to the website in lieu with the business plan all SEO efforts will go to waste.

SEO and ROI

The bottom line for any investment is profit. The problem with SEO is that many times the investments seem out of proportion with the results. It takes 3 months just to start getting results! Once the rankings are in, it is still hard to estimate the tangible conversions.

Think of SEO in terms of ROI. If you have 100 new visitors but only 3 become customers you have a conversion rate of 3%. That is a pretty good ROI.

I had a client, a small contractor who worked in the tri-state area of NJ-CT and NY. He had great rankings and was on top of organic results for the keywords we were using in his campaign. However, he knew nothing about SEO. He allowed us to make changes to his site and work on our own.

He was high maintenance due to his lack of knowledge but we provided custom SEO solutions so we took all the tantrums in stride. Six months down the line he was getting excellent conversions, topping the search engines and we, the SEO team, were very pleased with our work.

The client came in one day and asked me to change the keywords. I was surprised as the current campaign was causing his business to boom. He had apparently been working with someone on a PPC campaign and had been told, our work was ‘competing’ with the PPC. I tried to explain the difference between organic and PPC but the argument fell on deaf ears.

Long story short, the client cancelled the SEO contract so that the work did not interfere with his PPC efforts.

Moral

The moral of this whole article is, we SEO’s have been abused a lot. Sure there are companies and individuals that do a sloppy job and run scams but that is true of any business. However, many times the failure attributed to the SEO comes through the lack of knowledge of the clients.

The clients have as much a responsibility for the failure of any SEO campaign as does the SEO.

Tags: local business, SEO, small business, web content, Website Traffic
Posted in Small Business and Online Business | 1 Comment »