If you’re a small business owner, an affiliate marketing program is a fantastic opportunity to make a lot of money without having to have a lot of capital or overhead costs.  And if you have a web page, affiliate marketing is a great way to make quick cash without adding a lot of extra work.

But just because you find a popular webpage to promote your product or the right product to promote on your page, doesn’t mean it’s going to work.  In affiliate marketing, it’s all about the link.  The kind of link you use and what you link to are going to make all the difference.

Here are the most common methods of linking for affiliate programs:

Photo Courtesy of Paul O’Connell

– Text links These are a good way to put links on your site because they stand out, but at the same time, still look natural and don’t have the appearance of an ad.  When you have a related word in your text, just embed a link in the word to a product or website.  But if you overload your text with links, it will become unreadable or just annoying.

– Banner Links These are ads that are usually at the top or side of the page.  They can be plain, but are often catchy to try to get the attention of the reader.

Just remember that people who surf the internet a lot see hundreds of banners in a day and ignore pretty much all of them.  If you’re going to make advertisement banners, make something that’s going to stand out and get you noticed.  The more clever and unique, the better.

– Search Box Most people are familiar with search boxes embedded in a website that will do a Google or Yahoo search of the web.  You can embed search boxes that will do this type of search, but search a marketer’s webpage instead of the whole internet.  That way people can search an affiliate marketer’s website, sometimes without even knowing it.  And they can find exactly what they’re looking for, even if the marketer has thousands of products.

Just because they’re linking to an affiliate marketer, doesn’t mean all links are the same.  The link depends on what the affiliate and the vendor want.  Here are the most common options:

– Website main page This is better if you’re selling services or simply looking for business connections rather than selling specific products.

– Specific product This is a good idea if you have one product that is expected to make high sales and pertains directly to the website it’s linked from.

– Vendor Storefront If a vendor sells a variety of related products, this is a great idea.  If there is more variety in the products, you may be better off using a search box instead of a direct link.

I personally use my own website www.verarecommends.com to hold all of my product recommendations. Just remember that links aren’t everything; you still need quality products and a popular webpage to make money on sales.

I’m A Graduate! But I Don’t Have My Certificate Yet 😉

Update: You can read here my latest blog post about the program, with a fun picture of Yaro & I when he came to Vancouver, BC.

I started Yaro’s Blog Mastermind Program and am now a Graduate! 🙂 The good thing about the Blog Mastermind Program is that it’s a program that is handy to refer back to here and there. No I didn’t follow every single step, but I will.

When I feel I’ve given the program all I’ve got, I will report back on every single success this program has brought me. I have achieved some pretty cool things, there will be more to come on this in a bit.

So far I’ve been pretty excited about the people I’ve even come into contact with through Yaro’s program.

My Cool Checklist – Well It’s Nothing Fancy But It Gets the Job Done!

A while back I put together a checklist for myself for every single step that I need to complete through this program. I sent off an email to Yaro and let him know that he is able to use it within his program for his students. I find checklists help me out BIG time! I’m all about learning, pondering, thinking, etc. But nothing gets things done like a Checklist. 🙂

Another good thing about the Checklist is that I’m going to offer it as a bonus to anyone who purchased through my affiliate link. So If you purchased the program with my link, please forward the receipt to vera @ smallbusinessbranding.com.  And I will forward you the Checklist no problem.

Success With The Program

I’m SO amazed at how much Success others are having with Yaro’s program and I’ll be reporting back my own findings soon. If you’re ready to join me in my journey you can sign up to the program here.

People buy for a number of reasons.  We buy because we like the personality behind a product or company.  We buy because the product or service taps into an emotional need and we buy because experts tell us to – credibility and authority.

Customer testimonials can help tap into all of these buying behaviors and they’re much more effective than sales copy because they’re coming from an outside, presumably unbiased, source.  Testimonials are worth their weight in gold!  Here’s how and where to use them to their fullest.

Website real estate. One of the popular locations to place your most powerful testimonials is right on your home page. Many website owners situate them in a sidebar so they stand out from the rest of the content on the page or they place them in the midst of the content in a call out box. Your most powerful testimonials will be the ones:

Provided from notable personalities or names in your industry. For example, if you’re a commercial real estate agent then a testimonial from Donald Trump would certainly warrant prime website real estate.  Anyone who is highly thought of in your industry would definitely capture the attention of prospects and customers.

Glowing endorsements.  Let’s face it, while all testimonials are good some testimonials are better than others. Place the extra powerful, glowing endorsements right where your prospects can see them, on your home page.

Sales Copy.  Any good sales letter will include testimonials from happy and enthusiastic customers.  It’s often the extra umph that people need to make a purchase.  In fact, quite often people skip reading the body of a sales letter and read the offer, the postscript and the testimonials.

Autoresponders and enewsletters.  Email is a positive way to stay connected with your clients and prospects.  It makes good business sense to include testimonials in these communications. It’s not bragging, it’s sharing your good fortune with others and encouraging them to become part of your community.  Of course, it’s still important to stick to 80% information, 20% promotion.

A separate website testimonial page. When you collect enough testimonials, you may want to create a separate page on your website to share them.  You can call it your “Testimonials” page or “Success Stories,” whatever feels relevant for your website and your industry.

Testimonials are a strong motivator.  They help prospects see the power and benefit of doing business with you.  Because they’re provided by an outside source, they’re perceived as unbiased and therefore carry more weight than sales copy.  Encourage testimonials from your customers, reward them for their success stories, and share them with the world.

For the last year I’ve been operating a ghostwriting business, I hired ghostwriters to provide content for my clients. The business got very busy VERY fast. It turned out that I was spending 90% of my time working on requests, editing content, and getting things back to the client.

Having to deal with being in and out of the hospital, the stress of it all made my decision pretty easy to let go of the ghostwriting business. I have a GEM here at Small Business Branding and I’d rather work hard at bringing valuable content and ideas to the readers here. The site that I owned “Get Content Results” is now owned by Anne Marie, one of my very close personal assistants.

Today I wanted to share with you some ideas on how to become a ghostwriter if this is something you’re interested in doing.  You can also contact Anne Marie here to become a writer for her, just tell her that Vera sent you from SBB 😉

What is a Ghostwriter?

A ghostwriter is someone that gets paid to write for other people. Once a ghostwriter has written the article, book, speech, etc, and the customer has paid the ghostwriter, the customer then owns sole rights to it, can put their name on it and use it however they choose. The ghostwriter retains no rights and gets no public credit for the work.

If you are a skilled writer, proofreader, etc. ghostwriting could be just the business for you.

What skills are helpful?

To become a ghostwriter you need to have reading, writing, proofreading, communication and grammar skills. You also need strong researching skills as you often find yourself writing on topics that you have no personal expertise in.

What tools are needed?

Ghostwriters need to have a computer with a word processing application like Microsoft Word. You’ll need an internet connection and fax machine. Keep a good dictionary and thesaurus handy as well.

How do you get started?

To start a ghostwriting business you need a website. You can use a site builder or hire someone to build it for you. You will also need a really good reliable host. Your website needs to clearly define your services available, your rates, etc. The next step is to find some clients.

Take a little time to research your competition and find ways to stand out above them. Don’t expect to have a website up and running one day and the next to be swamped with work, that’s not reality, although there is a big demand for skilled ghost writers among the internet marketing community.

Online networking groups are a great way to get out there, advertise you, and start building some relationships. There are freelance sites that allow clients to post projects for you to bid on. Some of these sites require a paid membership from you to participate.

Building up your business will take time and a little elbow grease. If you have the desire to be your own boss, be home for your family then that motivation should keep you going even in the slow times.