Now I don't know about you but if there were two people I would love to have a deep and meaningful chat with saying "why did you throw it all away?" it would be Mike and Britney.
They had everything and they just lost it. But they are trying to claw their way back...will it work?
No.
For the main reason in that they are not targetting the audience that brought them there in the first place.
Take That in the UK have done really well in that they saw their primary audience increase in age as they have done. So instead of making teeny pop music, they instead evolved their music to fit their new, matured audience. While in the same vein keeping their music listenable and even..."cool".
But Britney went adult too quick. Even at the start of her new song "gimme more" she says "its britney bitch". Which, not taking any moral high ground, is wrong and then the video alienates her audience totally.
Britney wasn't gone for too long and her core audience is still there. The young teens looked upto her as an idol- so where do they go to now...Spice Girls...oh my.
If Britney pulled out some great pop songs rather then the adult market she seems to be aiming at, she would have had a better reception and her audience would have loved it. This is seen by the amount of times I have to endure Britney tunes on the music channels. She was good at them.
Now Michael Jackson, apart from his poor news reports how can he come back? Release new songs? He tried that and I have to say they were boring. Just dance videos with music in the background.
You may say "but that is what we want!" Well no, you can't see music videos on the radio or when you are playing them in your car or on a CD. So they were lost. Back in the day, his songs were so catchy that they could easily be played with or without the dancing. In fact the dancing made you watch the videos. You toe tapped and just watched in awe as he performed those moves.
So how can Mike pull it back? He could change his music style and become grown up. But I think Michael is really talented so why not open a Dance School! How many people would go to that, it would be booked out into next year- 5 years even...the money potential of this would be amazing. Because this is what his targetted audience knew of him and remember him for.
So what can we do? We must target our music towards our targetted audience. If we make dance tunes, don't promote rock. You could fuse the two...or better still do what professional musicians do: Make two identities one for rock and one for dance.
By listening to our audience, targeting them and ultimately NOT alienating them then they will pass your music onto their friends etc and you can be pigeon holed and marketed better.
This is the first thing that master marketing types do. They make a profle of their targetted audience and gather research about them. It can even save you loads of cash by targetting specific advertising areas where your audience hangs out.
Sunday, 16 December 2007
Saturday, 15 December 2007
Adsense Mega Money
I had an email today that made me think what how do people see the Internet with regard to money making.
I think they see it predominatly as a cash machine. put a website onto the Internet and just watch that money rush in...hotels and fast cars a plenty.
However, a scary statistic is that only 5% of all businesses make any "business money".
The email came to me and stated- "how much money can you make from adsense to give me great profit?"
Now I tend to blame alot of marketing sites for this. How many times have you seen "make $1000/ day"..."tell your boss where to go today!". The Internet is full of them.
Now you see these especially for Adsense, in that Google is a money machine and will give you plenty of cash. The truth of the story is not that easy to swallow.
What we have to ask ourselves is this: How much time and effort has gone into something like this?
To make serious money with Adsense you need the following:
1- A site or blog. Now this is where your ads will be. If you look on the right hand side of this blog you will see Adsense ads. Great.
2- A topic. Now with this idea you need to be making updates to your site or blog regulary (more than once a week for a blog), this then makes your site or blog popular. Your topic needs to be focused and something you can constantly and consistantly write about weekly. On topic sites and blogs generate on topic Adsense ads that will target your visitors.
3- Your topic is expensive. Now there are some topics out there that are more money hungry than others. Finance, marketing, trading, real estate, diet, casino, mortgage, insurance are just some of the best topics that have a good cash-per-click. Casino can get you $2/ click. But can you talk about anyone of these? But remember they have some tough competition.
4- Traffic. The more traffic you get the more likely someone will click on a link. If you have 5 people a day to your site, then it is unlikely they will click. More traffic = more clicks = more money.
5- More sites. Now for one site to attract loads of visitors, to keep the content going etc you are going to do some major work. So the money comes when you increase the number of sites covering many different topics. That is where the money comes from. If you are getting $1 per day from one site through clicks, then if you add 10 sites you will get $10/ day.
6- Profit? Now if you make $10/ day for doing nothing, you will say yay! However, you need to calculate in your time, your hosting (free if it is blogger), and your marketing. Some people who claim $10,000/ month actually spend $250/ day on Adwords...
So you see, for all that work you might not be making that much of a profit, and it is this that the marketing types forget to tell you.
How did they make their own businesses? Through time and effort. They are on the ball, 24/7- have you noticed all the articles and ebook that they churn out? A successful business is one that you work at. Unfortunately the Internet is not a profit machine. Sure it can get you infront of a wider targetted audience alot cheaper than other methods, but you still need to work at it and treat it like a business.
Free income from Adsense? Yes, but to get major profits you need to work at it and be prepared to put to one side some major time.
I think they see it predominatly as a cash machine. put a website onto the Internet and just watch that money rush in...hotels and fast cars a plenty.
However, a scary statistic is that only 5% of all businesses make any "business money".
The email came to me and stated- "how much money can you make from adsense to give me great profit?"
Now I tend to blame alot of marketing sites for this. How many times have you seen "make $1000/ day"..."tell your boss where to go today!". The Internet is full of them.
Now you see these especially for Adsense, in that Google is a money machine and will give you plenty of cash. The truth of the story is not that easy to swallow.
What we have to ask ourselves is this: How much time and effort has gone into something like this?
To make serious money with Adsense you need the following:
1- A site or blog. Now this is where your ads will be. If you look on the right hand side of this blog you will see Adsense ads. Great.
2- A topic. Now with this idea you need to be making updates to your site or blog regulary (more than once a week for a blog), this then makes your site or blog popular. Your topic needs to be focused and something you can constantly and consistantly write about weekly. On topic sites and blogs generate on topic Adsense ads that will target your visitors.
3- Your topic is expensive. Now there are some topics out there that are more money hungry than others. Finance, marketing, trading, real estate, diet, casino, mortgage, insurance are just some of the best topics that have a good cash-per-click. Casino can get you $2/ click. But can you talk about anyone of these? But remember they have some tough competition.
4- Traffic. The more traffic you get the more likely someone will click on a link. If you have 5 people a day to your site, then it is unlikely they will click. More traffic = more clicks = more money.
5- More sites. Now for one site to attract loads of visitors, to keep the content going etc you are going to do some major work. So the money comes when you increase the number of sites covering many different topics. That is where the money comes from. If you are getting $1 per day from one site through clicks, then if you add 10 sites you will get $10/ day.
6- Profit? Now if you make $10/ day for doing nothing, you will say yay! However, you need to calculate in your time, your hosting (free if it is blogger), and your marketing. Some people who claim $10,000/ month actually spend $250/ day on Adwords...
So you see, for all that work you might not be making that much of a profit, and it is this that the marketing types forget to tell you.
How did they make their own businesses? Through time and effort. They are on the ball, 24/7- have you noticed all the articles and ebook that they churn out? A successful business is one that you work at. Unfortunately the Internet is not a profit machine. Sure it can get you infront of a wider targetted audience alot cheaper than other methods, but you still need to work at it and treat it like a business.
Free income from Adsense? Yes, but to get major profits you need to work at it and be prepared to put to one side some major time.
Wednesday, 12 December 2007
Pay Per Play- PPP. The New Revenue Maker For The Musician.
Recently I was given an email telling me about this "revolutionary service" called pay Per Play- PPP.
Now, anything that is called revolutionary I am wary.
The basic idea of Pay Per Play that I have interpreted it to be is this: In essence it is basically a TV/ radio ad on your website that lasts for 5 seconds. For the privilage of this you get to keep 100% of the revenue.
So you become the broadcaster, and companies pay you a percentage of the advertising cost to host this snippet on your site.
It has been going for some time and the stats from the Pay Per Play site are quite impressive. You play the advert and you get to keep the money. Great I hear you say.
Now I am the only one who is skeptical of this advertising method. Type into Google PPP or Pay Per Play and find countless number of articles promoting this service. But my problem is historical. And here is the main reason:
TV and radio ads are ok, they aren't too bad. They are however competing against Adsense. Adsense is great because it is hyper targetted to a specific webpage and client and the advertiser will only pay if someone clicks on their link. If the ad doesn't match up it is removed or lowered in positioning.
With PPP the only winner is the website. Targetted as it is, PPP is not targetted in the fact that the advertiser doesn't know if the ad worked, i.e. someone bought the product.
Can you see where I am going here? In the very short term, you can earn alot of cash from this. Because it is new. I have signed up because I know that in the future this is going to happen:
Advertisers pay out (the ones with more money throw cash at any new marketing method before thinking. It happens every time with no exception) and they can not assess if the ad is working or not. They throw out x amount of thousands of dollars and their sale increase minimally. They get frustrated. So in the long run, they will go back to Adsense and older, more trusted marketing ideas.
It was the same when pay-per-click banner ads were present. With that idea, the website got money just by someone clicking on the link, regardless of whether they bought or not. Now it is very hard to find this sort of advertising as it doesn't work.
The website is very cool, check out the Pay Per Play- PPP website, and sign up quickly, get some quick cash when the links arrive in a week or two, before the advertisers know what happened :)
Now, anything that is called revolutionary I am wary.
The basic idea of Pay Per Play that I have interpreted it to be is this: In essence it is basically a TV/ radio ad on your website that lasts for 5 seconds. For the privilage of this you get to keep 100% of the revenue.
So you become the broadcaster, and companies pay you a percentage of the advertising cost to host this snippet on your site.
It has been going for some time and the stats from the Pay Per Play site are quite impressive. You play the advert and you get to keep the money. Great I hear you say.
Now I am the only one who is skeptical of this advertising method. Type into Google PPP or Pay Per Play and find countless number of articles promoting this service. But my problem is historical. And here is the main reason:
TV and radio ads are ok, they aren't too bad. They are however competing against Adsense. Adsense is great because it is hyper targetted to a specific webpage and client and the advertiser will only pay if someone clicks on their link. If the ad doesn't match up it is removed or lowered in positioning.
With PPP the only winner is the website. Targetted as it is, PPP is not targetted in the fact that the advertiser doesn't know if the ad worked, i.e. someone bought the product.
Can you see where I am going here? In the very short term, you can earn alot of cash from this. Because it is new. I have signed up because I know that in the future this is going to happen:
Advertisers pay out (the ones with more money throw cash at any new marketing method before thinking. It happens every time with no exception) and they can not assess if the ad is working or not. They throw out x amount of thousands of dollars and their sale increase minimally. They get frustrated. So in the long run, they will go back to Adsense and older, more trusted marketing ideas.
It was the same when pay-per-click banner ads were present. With that idea, the website got money just by someone clicking on the link, regardless of whether they bought or not. Now it is very hard to find this sort of advertising as it doesn't work.
The website is very cool, check out the Pay Per Play- PPP website, and sign up quickly, get some quick cash when the links arrive in a week or two, before the advertisers know what happened :)
Monday, 10 December 2007
A quick, free and easy music marketing idea
Competitions are a great music promotion idea. Most people are competitive, and if the prize is any good competitions will draw in traffic to your site.
Music promotion should be fun and simple to do but have the ultimate desire to get people willingly do download your music, recognise you, or for you to sell something. A competiton does just that.
You could even offer the competition to subscribers of your mailing list only, it acts as an incentive for people to subscribe- especially if you state this as one of the benefits of joining your email list (and you are targeting willing visitors and rewarding them for their email address).
The prizes are the main thing. You need to combat that "why should I" attitude. Offer something that you yourself would like. Offer their music for download on your site. Have First, Second and Third placements, with first being downloadable for 3 months, second being downloadable for 1 month, and third being downloadable for 2-3 weeks. A great advertising advantage for your subscribers. Free advertisement and recognition from an already established site is a great incentive.
Some people even offer a PayPal donation box. The winner wins the donations so it is in their interest to contribute a little bit of cash.
Other sites team up with a company who offer prises. The best way to do this is to actually ask an ebook author to offer their ebook as a prize, or team up with a membership site and ask for a free month subscription. If they think about it you are promoting their products, giving extra exposure.
This sort of music promotion are great because they can be run every few months. If you find some really good songs, ask for collaboration between yourself and the artist responsible, and offer the song for download. It acts as another incentive for people to take part in the competition. It will also make the other artist advertise the collaborated song- more free advertisement for you.
With a competition you offer comments and a scoring criteria, and a tally of points gained and lost. People always want to do better, so you must tell them how to. Remember to put up the rules of a competition on your web site, and stick to them. You could even offer a judge placement for the highest ranking artist, or veteran.
Friday, 7 December 2007
Affiliate Basics, Why aren't I getting commissions?
You have an affiliate product, and now you put the links on your site. But you are not getting any signups, cash or anything like what the company said...why?!
Here are some pointers of why you are not getting the cash that you deserve.
1. Increased traffic brings increased signups. If you have 10 visitors a day it is unlikely that you will have any signups. The more traffic you get the better the rate of signups.
2. Just because you have an affiliate link on your site doesn't necessarily mean that people will actually click to buy. Not all people on the Internet are actually looking to buy anything. Remember that the Internet was built to ferry free information from one place to another. People look for free info not things where they have to buy.
3. If you webpage has on it all free information, why should they buy anything? Catch 22 isn't it. Provide free info and they might not buy anything. So you pre sell them something- increase their hunger for the product using content and information. Make a webpage about a review of a bit of software, of a bit of equipment, of something that has to be bought. Provide proof that you used it (YouTube vids, scans etc). This then targets people who are looking to buy and are looking for a review. For people to buy something, you need first to target those people who want to buy. They are about.
4. The affiliate product is totally unrelated to the website/ webpage. I have talked about this constantly but it still is a big reason why people don't get the click. Even with a music site you should never put on "marketing literature" unless you have a related article page about music promotion. At least you will have people already in the frame of mind that go onto this area who are willing to learn and are interested in the material.
5. Most sites state that an email to your subscribers is the best way to make cash. It is, but again you need to be clever. Most people subscribe to 3 or more newsletters. Most companies give out promotional emails to send to your subscribers with your affiliate link embedded. Problem...how about if those people had the same email? People can smell a sale a mile away. If you make it out like you have actually seen/ read/ played with the product then your subscribers will believe you. Some marketing types actually include page numbers, sentences etc to prove that they have read the product (if an ebook).
6. The price of the affiliate product. It is well known that very few people actually buy high price products, so putting a $150 affiliate product on your site is less likely to attract people to buy. It takes much more marketing to even tempt people to buy "high ticket" items, and usually involves phone calls and emails. You will get much more people to buy a product if it is low price ($5-40) than high.
7. The type of product. A product that will help someone will be sold better than a product that doesn't do that much. Info products like ebooks are high sellers because they are targetted for people who want to know something, therefore the webpages used to promote these are also targetted to increase knowledge.
8. The type of advert. As we have already stated a text link is much better then any other affiliate promotion. Banners and flashy lights tell people that an advert is present but it all depends on the advert itself- if it converts lookers to buyers. I have installed a banner ad from Google onto my site on a page that is specific to that ad. Out of thousands of views, I have got 1 sign up. With a text link on the same page, I have got countless sign ups.
Here are some pointers of why you are not getting the cash that you deserve.
1. Increased traffic brings increased signups. If you have 10 visitors a day it is unlikely that you will have any signups. The more traffic you get the better the rate of signups.
2. Just because you have an affiliate link on your site doesn't necessarily mean that people will actually click to buy. Not all people on the Internet are actually looking to buy anything. Remember that the Internet was built to ferry free information from one place to another. People look for free info not things where they have to buy.
3. If you webpage has on it all free information, why should they buy anything? Catch 22 isn't it. Provide free info and they might not buy anything. So you pre sell them something- increase their hunger for the product using content and information. Make a webpage about a review of a bit of software, of a bit of equipment, of something that has to be bought. Provide proof that you used it (YouTube vids, scans etc). This then targets people who are looking to buy and are looking for a review. For people to buy something, you need first to target those people who want to buy. They are about.
4. The affiliate product is totally unrelated to the website/ webpage. I have talked about this constantly but it still is a big reason why people don't get the click. Even with a music site you should never put on "marketing literature" unless you have a related article page about music promotion. At least you will have people already in the frame of mind that go onto this area who are willing to learn and are interested in the material.
5. Most sites state that an email to your subscribers is the best way to make cash. It is, but again you need to be clever. Most people subscribe to 3 or more newsletters. Most companies give out promotional emails to send to your subscribers with your affiliate link embedded. Problem...how about if those people had the same email? People can smell a sale a mile away. If you make it out like you have actually seen/ read/ played with the product then your subscribers will believe you. Some marketing types actually include page numbers, sentences etc to prove that they have read the product (if an ebook).
6. The price of the affiliate product. It is well known that very few people actually buy high price products, so putting a $150 affiliate product on your site is less likely to attract people to buy. It takes much more marketing to even tempt people to buy "high ticket" items, and usually involves phone calls and emails. You will get much more people to buy a product if it is low price ($5-40) than high.
7. The type of product. A product that will help someone will be sold better than a product that doesn't do that much. Info products like ebooks are high sellers because they are targetted for people who want to know something, therefore the webpages used to promote these are also targetted to increase knowledge.
8. The type of advert. As we have already stated a text link is much better then any other affiliate promotion. Banners and flashy lights tell people that an advert is present but it all depends on the advert itself- if it converts lookers to buyers. I have installed a banner ad from Google onto my site on a page that is specific to that ad. Out of thousands of views, I have got 1 sign up. With a text link on the same page, I have got countless sign ups.
Thursday, 6 December 2007
Affiliate Basics- Don't get conned before you start.
Affiliate this, affiliate that, masters of the affiliate universe!!.
Don't you just hate it when someone says that you can be super rich just by putting one of their links onto your site?
I do, and I realise that they are trying to make a good bit of cash through affiliate links, but give us the truth!
So, affiliate basics: What is an affiliate programe?
Well, you sign up to a company, for free, and they give you links or banners to their site or to their products. The links that they give you have your code embedded within them. So, if someone clicks through on one of those links and buys then you get the credit and a percentage of that sale. You don't pay for anything (no shipping, returns, customer complaints etc).
It is a scheme that pays for results, and it is one of the best things that ever happened to the Internet. It has been occuring off-line for ages, but Amazon brought it out into the open and they haven't looked back.
However, because this is now seen as the must thing to do, there are bandwagons of companies offering major incentives just to get a better army of sales people. However, there are also many people who try to recruit affiliates with very poor incentives knowing that people will just see and sign up.
That is what I want to clear up today...not all affiliate programes are any good..
But if you do go down this route, and do it well, there is plenty of money to be made. Always remember though that there are other people who sign up to the programes as well...so you are usually in competition with those people.
So what do you need to check before you sign up?
0. Signup?
The golden rule to all affiliate programes is this: If you have to pay to sign up, leave it well alone. Affiliate programes are meant to be free to signup, you are doing them a favour. When someone asks for a certain amount to join their affiliate system, they are being greedy and too selective.
1. Is the product any good, and is it relevent to your site ?
This is one that always gets to me. I see affiliate signs everywhere for casinos or for dating sites. But on music sites? Unrelevent sites won't convert any people into buyers so don't do it. Check to see if the product is any good by actually buying it and trying it out. If you wouldn't buy it then don't get your visitors to, because they will just ask for a refund. A review of a product that looks like it has been actually tested is much better than the companies sales blurp...100% guranteed.
2. Is the company any good?
You are representing the company, if the company sucks and blows at the same time, then you will too, even if your side of the sales process is really good. Check them out, what are their customer sales like?
3. Is their sales page any good?
When people come onto your site and then click on the link to the sales page/ product page that is you click through rate (total amount of people clicking through the affiliate link, over, the total amount of people going to your initial page. You could have the best converting site in the world that people just love. But if the page where you are sending them to is pure kindergarden, then you will have no chance in making a sale. You need to find out conversion rates (the amount of people who went to that page who actually bought something 5-10% is very good- 5 people out of 100 bought). If their site is really good, then they should be shouting the rates from the rooftops, if not, enquire.
4. How many other affiliates have they recruited?
Now this is important because it determines how much competition you have. Too much competition and you will be spending more to promote the products. Some good affiliates will actually have a cut off line and won't accept a certain number of affiliates.
5. What is your percentage?
A very important one this. You are actually doing the hard work, so you need to get paid. Now are you going to risk a lower commission rate for a good product? For hard goods (computers, lamps, discs, hardback books etc) you are looking for a commission rate for about 3-20%. 3% is too low, 20% is high, so look at it carefully. For soft goods (like computer programmes, ebooks etc) you can have commissions from 10% all the way to 75%, the average being 40%. Soft goods are more marketable because they are instant products- you download after you buy, but they have more competition.
6. How do you get paid?
Paypal and Cheque are the two commonest ways to get paid. Never receive direct cash. A cheque can be cancelled and traced so it is better for you. Also when do you get paid? After a certain amount has been first achieved? Twice a month, once a month? Also how do you check your account, via password etc? Make sure as well that you know if you have to pay (a couple of dollars) to receive a cheque, like with Clickbank.
7. What is the cookie?
When a person clicks through your link, usually a cookie (a little text file that has your details on it) is placed on their computer so that it tracks the sale back to you. Now what will happen if the customer went away, thought about it and then went back onto the site without clicking on your link. Do you get the commission?
This is something that alot of people forget about and they lose commissions big time. make sure that the tracking cookie is set for a minimum of a month. If they have to buy straight away then you will lose money because usually people like to browse and come back at a later date after checking out similar products. Some of the best affiliate programmes have yearly cookies, some have programmes to track the computer rather than loading a cookie onto it (most security software wipe out cookies), others offer a lifetime cookie.
The problem with lifetime cookies is that if you have made all the right moves and spent time with the customer and they bought through you, and you know that they did, if they already visited a site previous to you that had a lifetime cookie, they get the commission.
8. What do they offer you to promote their stuff?
It may be well and good trying to sell something, but it would be nice to be given a helping hand wouldn't it? Some good affiliate sites offer email text, ebooks, articles, free software and a whole host of other affiliate information to help you make money for them. This is a good relationship because they want to help you, and usually the stuff that they provide has worked because they try it out.
9. What tier is it?
Now this is not usually necessary but it is more rewards for you. You are first tier, you signed on to become an affiliate. Now you can recruit other affiliates using links embedded with your code to make money for you. They are therefore called, second tier affiliates. Usually the commission you make on their stuff is smaller (5-10%), but it is extra money for doing nothing! It is not a pyramid because people have to buy the product first.
So there we have it, 10 points you need to check out before you even start signing up to any affiliate programe.
Next we shall chat about some of the ways that you can promote affiliate products. But this is such a large topic so you will see affiliate related articles come up alot of the time within this blog.
Don't you just hate it when someone says that you can be super rich just by putting one of their links onto your site?
I do, and I realise that they are trying to make a good bit of cash through affiliate links, but give us the truth!
So, affiliate basics: What is an affiliate programe?
Well, you sign up to a company, for free, and they give you links or banners to their site or to their products. The links that they give you have your code embedded within them. So, if someone clicks through on one of those links and buys then you get the credit and a percentage of that sale. You don't pay for anything (no shipping, returns, customer complaints etc).
It is a scheme that pays for results, and it is one of the best things that ever happened to the Internet. It has been occuring off-line for ages, but Amazon brought it out into the open and they haven't looked back.
However, because this is now seen as the must thing to do, there are bandwagons of companies offering major incentives just to get a better army of sales people. However, there are also many people who try to recruit affiliates with very poor incentives knowing that people will just see and sign up.
That is what I want to clear up today...not all affiliate programes are any good..
But if you do go down this route, and do it well, there is plenty of money to be made. Always remember though that there are other people who sign up to the programes as well...so you are usually in competition with those people.
So what do you need to check before you sign up?
0. Signup?
The golden rule to all affiliate programes is this: If you have to pay to sign up, leave it well alone. Affiliate programes are meant to be free to signup, you are doing them a favour. When someone asks for a certain amount to join their affiliate system, they are being greedy and too selective.
1. Is the product any good, and is it relevent to your site ?
This is one that always gets to me. I see affiliate signs everywhere for casinos or for dating sites. But on music sites? Unrelevent sites won't convert any people into buyers so don't do it. Check to see if the product is any good by actually buying it and trying it out. If you wouldn't buy it then don't get your visitors to, because they will just ask for a refund. A review of a product that looks like it has been actually tested is much better than the companies sales blurp...100% guranteed.
2. Is the company any good?
You are representing the company, if the company sucks and blows at the same time, then you will too, even if your side of the sales process is really good. Check them out, what are their customer sales like?
3. Is their sales page any good?
When people come onto your site and then click on the link to the sales page/ product page that is you click through rate (total amount of people clicking through the affiliate link, over, the total amount of people going to your initial page. You could have the best converting site in the world that people just love. But if the page where you are sending them to is pure kindergarden, then you will have no chance in making a sale. You need to find out conversion rates (the amount of people who went to that page who actually bought something 5-10% is very good- 5 people out of 100 bought). If their site is really good, then they should be shouting the rates from the rooftops, if not, enquire.
4. How many other affiliates have they recruited?
Now this is important because it determines how much competition you have. Too much competition and you will be spending more to promote the products. Some good affiliates will actually have a cut off line and won't accept a certain number of affiliates.
5. What is your percentage?
A very important one this. You are actually doing the hard work, so you need to get paid. Now are you going to risk a lower commission rate for a good product? For hard goods (computers, lamps, discs, hardback books etc) you are looking for a commission rate for about 3-20%. 3% is too low, 20% is high, so look at it carefully. For soft goods (like computer programmes, ebooks etc) you can have commissions from 10% all the way to 75%, the average being 40%. Soft goods are more marketable because they are instant products- you download after you buy, but they have more competition.
6. How do you get paid?
Paypal and Cheque are the two commonest ways to get paid. Never receive direct cash. A cheque can be cancelled and traced so it is better for you. Also when do you get paid? After a certain amount has been first achieved? Twice a month, once a month? Also how do you check your account, via password etc? Make sure as well that you know if you have to pay (a couple of dollars) to receive a cheque, like with Clickbank.
7. What is the cookie?
When a person clicks through your link, usually a cookie (a little text file that has your details on it) is placed on their computer so that it tracks the sale back to you. Now what will happen if the customer went away, thought about it and then went back onto the site without clicking on your link. Do you get the commission?
This is something that alot of people forget about and they lose commissions big time. make sure that the tracking cookie is set for a minimum of a month. If they have to buy straight away then you will lose money because usually people like to browse and come back at a later date after checking out similar products. Some of the best affiliate programmes have yearly cookies, some have programmes to track the computer rather than loading a cookie onto it (most security software wipe out cookies), others offer a lifetime cookie.
The problem with lifetime cookies is that if you have made all the right moves and spent time with the customer and they bought through you, and you know that they did, if they already visited a site previous to you that had a lifetime cookie, they get the commission.
8. What do they offer you to promote their stuff?
It may be well and good trying to sell something, but it would be nice to be given a helping hand wouldn't it? Some good affiliate sites offer email text, ebooks, articles, free software and a whole host of other affiliate information to help you make money for them. This is a good relationship because they want to help you, and usually the stuff that they provide has worked because they try it out.
9. What tier is it?
Now this is not usually necessary but it is more rewards for you. You are first tier, you signed on to become an affiliate. Now you can recruit other affiliates using links embedded with your code to make money for you. They are therefore called, second tier affiliates. Usually the commission you make on their stuff is smaller (5-10%), but it is extra money for doing nothing! It is not a pyramid because people have to buy the product first.
So there we have it, 10 points you need to check out before you even start signing up to any affiliate programe.
Next we shall chat about some of the ways that you can promote affiliate products. But this is such a large topic so you will see affiliate related articles come up alot of the time within this blog.
Wednesday, 5 December 2007
Making Money Using YouTube Without Making A Video
This is a quick and easy way to make a small amount of income from Google Ads.
If your site is music related, go over to YouTube and find videos that match your interest. I like the idea of "the best techno for 2007". With this you can find out a list of artists that you like in that year, name the song and write a line or two about that song.
Then go onto YouTube and find a video with that group or artist singing that song. If you list ten artists then you should have 10 YouTube videos (YouTube gives you the code to put onto your site, its called embedded). Just copy and paste that code where you would like the video appearing on your page.
Now, log into your Adsense account (its free to join up) and then go for a leader board style and then place the Adsense ads by the side of your YouTube videos. The ads that will only appear are related to the content.
Now if you have a separate page for "the best techno for 2006", "the best techno for 2006" etc, then you will have alot of Google Ads and alot of clickthroughs.
Now you could make this idea slightly bigger and dedicate a whole site just to YouTube videos and place your Google Ads by the side of them.
You could even dedicate a page per artist and have YouTube videos just from that artist.
So how much has it cost you? Well, you are hosting the website anyway for your own group, and any additional html pages are technically free. YouTube hosts the videos, and you get money from your Google Ads.
With this technique you are also increasing the chance of people coming onto your site, and on top of that they are targetted visitors because you will only put "the best...." of your style.
If your site is music related, go over to YouTube and find videos that match your interest. I like the idea of "the best techno for 2007". With this you can find out a list of artists that you like in that year, name the song and write a line or two about that song.
Then go onto YouTube and find a video with that group or artist singing that song. If you list ten artists then you should have 10 YouTube videos (YouTube gives you the code to put onto your site, its called embedded). Just copy and paste that code where you would like the video appearing on your page.
Now, log into your Adsense account (its free to join up) and then go for a leader board style and then place the Adsense ads by the side of your YouTube videos. The ads that will only appear are related to the content.
Now if you have a separate page for "the best techno for 2006", "the best techno for 2006" etc, then you will have alot of Google Ads and alot of clickthroughs.
Now you could make this idea slightly bigger and dedicate a whole site just to YouTube videos and place your Google Ads by the side of them.
You could even dedicate a page per artist and have YouTube videos just from that artist.
So how much has it cost you? Well, you are hosting the website anyway for your own group, and any additional html pages are technically free. YouTube hosts the videos, and you get money from your Google Ads.
With this technique you are also increasing the chance of people coming onto your site, and on top of that they are targetted visitors because you will only put "the best...." of your style.
How to increase sales from your music site.
Now testimonials have got a good reputation, generally...well see for yourself, this is one persons view of this actual article:
"Wow Dominic, I didn't realise how easy it can be to implement this music marketing technique!" R.Greggs, Chicago.
What is the problem with this? Well for one, it is made up. I've just done it. And two...who on earth is R.Greggs?
Now this is what I automatically think of when I go through any site, be it musical or not. The problem come in the fact that most testimonials are just too distant.
Sure people can put a web address down and even a picture. It does actually help a huge amount. It makes you less distant, and now more reliable. However, we are now in the 21st Century and our selling techniques should really keep up with the technology on offer.
The technology? That is Flash. Now I have said in the past that a web site shouldn't be made out of Flash...with the main reason being the search engines will not pick it up. But Flash is such a simple tool that it must be integrated into our web sites for us to stand a slightest chance of selling anything.
So what do we need to do?
First up is to actually embed Flash into our sites so that it is easy to work, preferably free, looks nice, easy to set up and more than anything...fool proof for the user.
Now I have searched high and low for a flash player that meets those demands (I couldn't tell you how many I have downloaded), and I have found one. Now I think that it is a traversty that this software hasn't been shouted about.
The various free players- MP3 or Video (which can be found here). All you need to do is download either a movie player, or an MP3 player, upload the various players components to your site, upload an MP3 or Flash movie file (FLV), then tell the Coding Wizard where everything is stored. It will automatically give you the code. You copy and then paste it in to the source section of your HTML where you want the player...and thats it.
Simple.
As a side note: You see we should do everything ourselves so that we are not reliant on any other service. Youtube has a habit of stopping videos overnight, their quality is poor and it looks like we are cheap. Sure use YouTube for traffic generation and generating leads, but I wouldn't use it to sell on my site - it isn't professional especially if you are selling DVDs or software. Doubts will go into customers minds about your products quality...and the sale will walk away. There are also dedicated movie sites that charge per month...but we want to reduce our money output. So what do we do?
So the best way is to be clever at the start and buy a web hosting package that is cheap yet plentiful. Just be careful about your monthly bandwidth. Most hosting companies now offer incredible bandwidth solutions/ month so you shouldn't worry about that. I am with Superb Web Hosting who give me bandwidth of 750GB/ month...which is more than ample and at a normal hosting price. I don't need specific video hosting, poor quality free hosting and I don't need to pay anymore cash...bargain!
Anyway what do we actually do with our Flash players?
Ahh, I am glad that you asked. Now this is what your competition are not doing. You see you could record customers reactions to your music (especially at a concert) and place these as testimonials.
Promote concerts by recording previous concerts/ Gigs. Then question some of the goers before and after to see what they think? Promise them a free ticket, T-Shirt, CD etc for their trouble. If you get some bad reviews (which may happen), edit them out.
If you are friendly with your testimonial makers, why not get them to do a short piece on your stuff? Only a handful (literally) of sites have done this. Completely novel- they have interviewed buyers of the product to see what they think. Now that "nobody testimonial" has become a someone. It doesn't matter now who they are. How powerful is that style of testimonial? It generates thousands of sales weekly for some sites.
You should be using the Flash players to play your music (please no reduced quality or 1 minute play versions). Now I have increased my sales by well over 100% by doing this technique. Throughout my texts I have placed an MP3. So instead of having a bulk amount of MP3s in one place - where they can easily be forgotten, I have placed them throughout and leveraged the same set of MP3s to a better advantage.
The Flash players should be used to interview your group or yourself. Because the Internet is so faceless, adding a "face" to your site increases your credibility ten-fold. If you are the head of the company/ site, have you on your sales pages stating what you are actually selling- pointing out benefits to the customer, backing up your text.
If you don't like what you look like, the Flash players should be used to play your voice to help and direct people into making the proper decision.
Got a video or DVD? Flash player it at a reasonable size and quality to demonstrate what you have. Sales will increase with a demo of what you have.
Always remember though, that some people do not want to sit down and listen to you stating what you can be done. They want to see what can be done...that is the difference. If you play the guitar...Flash player yourself playing a certain specific style on one page and another style on another page. Therefore if I want to know how to make Flamenco music I don't want to see loads of other styles before you get to mine. Don't speak the specific style, just play it (and make it sound cool, vibrant and listenable).
So as you can see, there are a huge amount of scope for Flash players and they should be right up there with your top music marketing strategies.
Tuesday, 4 December 2007
Autoresponders or money generators as they are usually called.
In advertising there is a saying, people will only recognise your "brand" or product if it is shown to them 7 times. Some people say more, but 7 is a good ball park figure.
There is also the issue of getting past loads of competitors in a very competative environment. How do we do it?
Well we give away stuff. People love free stuff, and the Internet was practically born out of the need to share free stuff.
How do we make our money?
Well we can either relate the freeware to an affiliate product and make it a "how to" product or a report. This is good but we can also add to this. Because what will happen if our product is a bit of software, it is hard to put in affiliate links and make the product our own. So what do we do?
The ultimate thing we need is to capture email addresses. Without this our money making business ideas will sink.
To get our freeware product we need a page highlighting the benefits of our product, i.e. what it can do for them, rather than how it is made. This will be constantly be written about in this blog.
Now, we ask for the email address (say you won't give it away to anyone etc). Now if you have highlighted benefits and done a good job selling the freeware, people will be barking mad not to sign up.
Now you add you autoresponder. the best one is http://www.freeautobot.com/. The site looks adverty, but it is how they make their money, but the bot is totally free and a solid bit of software. Now we can make some money.
Send the person an email about 48hrs after they have downloaded thanking them for downloading. Give them an article with quality info written in, then offer a paid product or even a related affiliate product. Then send them an email about 1-2 weeks after that email with similar info. Then 3 weeks etc...always keeping you in their mind.
I would even offer a newsletter to them, offering other free stuff which they can get once subscribed.
Never spam, always say at the bottom of the email that they can opt out of the email when they want.
And never blatently advertise the fact that they are going to click on an affiliate link. An affiliate link is only good when it is a recommended, reviewed, or how-to affiliate link. People are too wary that everything is a paid for link and they don't really trust what they click on, unless they have asked for it.
So that is how reviews or how-tos work well because these people want to know about your product!
By promoting your freeware like it is a paid product increases its perceived value. Making the whole thing look professional from the start.
Even if people don't go through your site and give you the email addresss, make links within the product to highlight another free product that they can download...if they give you the email address! That address is then linked to your autobot.
With these autobots you can do everything automatically, leaving you time to promote and create products.
Email courses, sending out products, offering a newsletter sign up etc can all be done with autoresponders.
Give them a go.
There is also the issue of getting past loads of competitors in a very competative environment. How do we do it?
Well we give away stuff. People love free stuff, and the Internet was practically born out of the need to share free stuff.
How do we make our money?
Well we can either relate the freeware to an affiliate product and make it a "how to" product or a report. This is good but we can also add to this. Because what will happen if our product is a bit of software, it is hard to put in affiliate links and make the product our own. So what do we do?
The ultimate thing we need is to capture email addresses. Without this our money making business ideas will sink.
To get our freeware product we need a page highlighting the benefits of our product, i.e. what it can do for them, rather than how it is made. This will be constantly be written about in this blog.
Now, we ask for the email address (say you won't give it away to anyone etc). Now if you have highlighted benefits and done a good job selling the freeware, people will be barking mad not to sign up.
Now you add you autoresponder. the best one is http://www.freeautobot.com/. The site looks adverty, but it is how they make their money, but the bot is totally free and a solid bit of software. Now we can make some money.
Send the person an email about 48hrs after they have downloaded thanking them for downloading. Give them an article with quality info written in, then offer a paid product or even a related affiliate product. Then send them an email about 1-2 weeks after that email with similar info. Then 3 weeks etc...always keeping you in their mind.
I would even offer a newsletter to them, offering other free stuff which they can get once subscribed.
Never spam, always say at the bottom of the email that they can opt out of the email when they want.
And never blatently advertise the fact that they are going to click on an affiliate link. An affiliate link is only good when it is a recommended, reviewed, or how-to affiliate link. People are too wary that everything is a paid for link and they don't really trust what they click on, unless they have asked for it.
So that is how reviews or how-tos work well because these people want to know about your product!
By promoting your freeware like it is a paid product increases its perceived value. Making the whole thing look professional from the start.
Even if people don't go through your site and give you the email addresss, make links within the product to highlight another free product that they can download...if they give you the email address! That address is then linked to your autobot.
With these autobots you can do everything automatically, leaving you time to promote and create products.
Email courses, sending out products, offering a newsletter sign up etc can all be done with autoresponders.
Give them a go.
Monday, 3 December 2007
Adwords for Musicians?
Most people who have seen the Internet have got an idea what Adwords are - the small ads that appear usually on the side of web pages and they are from Google.
Now this has been a great way to market.
Why?
Well, you have people who only click on your ad because they like what they see, they are qualified, targetted and they know that it is an advert so they don't get angry when they see one. They click on the link, you pay Google a small fee per click, and everyone is happy.
Great!
Well yes, for certain businesses it is. But what I have seen regularly are musicians using it to sell their CDs.
This is not a good solution, especially when those musicians post their MySpace address...argghghgh!! Also, who are you? So what if you have released an album, why should I buy it...what is the incentive?
I believe these artists are doing it to get traffic, if that is so, STOP NOW!
There are plenty of free SEO (search engine optimisation) ways to go, and hopefully we will be covering most of them in this blog. However before anyone goes onto Adwords...make sure your site converts first, and you know what you want to accomplish!
This is bonkersly simple, but so important. If you have traffic going to your page where you sell, and they are not buying, then Adwords won't make any differece apart from your bank account will decrease. If people are buying, great...do you really need Adwords?
Also, what are you accomplishing? Sales, newsletter signups, traffic?
If you are a professional musician who is well known, then using Adwords is really good, especially if you say "get a 20% discount, not available anywhere else"...then you will do well. For the musician who isn't signed, why should people buy from you if they know nothing about you and haven't got a clue who you are?
It is hard enough to sell anything online, don't make it harder for yourself by spending out money on something that might give you nothing back in return.
Now this has been a great way to market.
Why?
Well, you have people who only click on your ad because they like what they see, they are qualified, targetted and they know that it is an advert so they don't get angry when they see one. They click on the link, you pay Google a small fee per click, and everyone is happy.
Great!
Well yes, for certain businesses it is. But what I have seen regularly are musicians using it to sell their CDs.
This is not a good solution, especially when those musicians post their MySpace address...argghghgh!! Also, who are you? So what if you have released an album, why should I buy it...what is the incentive?
I believe these artists are doing it to get traffic, if that is so, STOP NOW!
There are plenty of free SEO (search engine optimisation) ways to go, and hopefully we will be covering most of them in this blog. However before anyone goes onto Adwords...make sure your site converts first, and you know what you want to accomplish!
This is bonkersly simple, but so important. If you have traffic going to your page where you sell, and they are not buying, then Adwords won't make any differece apart from your bank account will decrease. If people are buying, great...do you really need Adwords?
Also, what are you accomplishing? Sales, newsletter signups, traffic?
If you are a professional musician who is well known, then using Adwords is really good, especially if you say "get a 20% discount, not available anywhere else"...then you will do well. For the musician who isn't signed, why should people buy from you if they know nothing about you and haven't got a clue who you are?
It is hard enough to sell anything online, don't make it harder for yourself by spending out money on something that might give you nothing back in return.
What Do The Engines Look For?
Ahh the old question...how to get in on around about on the search engines. If we really knew 100% then everyones site will be the same, so ultimately no-one really knows...its a trade secret, what ever anyone tells you.
There are a few hints and tips that Google and the others do send us.
1. Make sure that you have in coming links from worthy sites. Sites that link to yours makes your more appealing (gotta be good if people are linking to you right?). To do this, make up articles and submit them to various directories.
2. Make sure that you post your website into directories. Yahoo! Directory is too expensive and they put you in eventually (why would they want to exclude content rich sites?)
3. Make sure that you post your homepage into one paid directory. I use JoeAnt.com and they are very good. This tells the engine that you are serious and are a genuine person, this then relates back to your site.
4. On topic info is good. Having a page dedicated to similar topic to what you main page is about is good. Having a casino review on a music site is bad, having drumming details on a music site is good.
5. The more content you can build the better chance the placement. Having 40 pages of 20 different keywords is going to bring in better chances, income and traffic than 5 pages dedicated to 5 keywords.
Building links is such a big topic, so we will dedicate many posts down the line to it.
There are a few hints and tips that Google and the others do send us.
1. Make sure that you have in coming links from worthy sites. Sites that link to yours makes your more appealing (gotta be good if people are linking to you right?). To do this, make up articles and submit them to various directories.
2. Make sure that you post your website into directories. Yahoo! Directory is too expensive and they put you in eventually (why would they want to exclude content rich sites?)
3. Make sure that you post your homepage into one paid directory. I use JoeAnt.com and they are very good. This tells the engine that you are serious and are a genuine person, this then relates back to your site.
4. On topic info is good. Having a page dedicated to similar topic to what you main page is about is good. Having a casino review on a music site is bad, having drumming details on a music site is good.
5. The more content you can build the better chance the placement. Having 40 pages of 20 different keywords is going to bring in better chances, income and traffic than 5 pages dedicated to 5 keywords.
Building links is such a big topic, so we will dedicate many posts down the line to it.
5000 Search Engines To Submit To?
Oh dear, now that is quite bad and a bit of a time worry to do. So you go for these submission companies right?
No.
Why?
Well for one, there are 3 search engines that will give you 95% of all the free search engine traffic: Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Now I have found that Google then MSN give me the most traffic.
So input your site into them manually. Don't over submit (many times a day), they do have rules. It is usually once a month or once a day. But keep to their guidelines. Once you have done that leave it.
Make new webpages and once the engines know that you are there they will check you site now and then especially if you add content (web pages) on a regular basis.
No.
Why?
Well for one, there are 3 search engines that will give you 95% of all the free search engine traffic: Google, Yahoo! and MSN. Now I have found that Google then MSN give me the most traffic.
So input your site into them manually. Don't over submit (many times a day), they do have rules. It is usually once a month or once a day. But keep to their guidelines. Once you have done that leave it.
Make new webpages and once the engines know that you are there they will check you site now and then especially if you add content (web pages) on a regular basis.
You first marketing task...its a must!
People have always asked..."how do I make money with my music"? Or, "How do I promote my music"?
The best way? It is really an Internet Music Marketing must tip:
Email.
I can hear the moans and groans now, but email has, and will always be the best marketing tool in your marketing weapons toolbox.
Someone has bothered to give you something very sacred and personnal- they are a targetted entity. They want to know about you, they want to know about your music. You can not really buy this type of qualified visitor.
However, sending them only buying alerts will quickly put them off. Each email you send should indicate:
1. What your group is about
2. Exclusive "subscriber only" songs
3. free bonuses
4. T-Shirts
5. Groups news
The list could be endless.
Get a newsletter up and going (from your main site) and attract fans to it, even do a free subscription service/ private area site for email subscribers only?
The best way? It is really an Internet Music Marketing must tip:
Email.
I can hear the moans and groans now, but email has, and will always be the best marketing tool in your marketing weapons toolbox.
Someone has bothered to give you something very sacred and personnal- they are a targetted entity. They want to know about you, they want to know about your music. You can not really buy this type of qualified visitor.
However, sending them only buying alerts will quickly put them off. Each email you send should indicate:
1. What your group is about
2. Exclusive "subscriber only" songs
3. free bonuses
4. T-Shirts
5. Groups news
The list could be endless.
Get a newsletter up and going (from your main site) and attract fans to it, even do a free subscription service/ private area site for email subscribers only?
What is wrong with MySpace and the rest?
If you read my previous post you will realise that MySpace and other community sites rely on traffic being generated from you. You promote your community site and MySpace puts their feet up.
1. The problem with this is that the site relies on traffic generated by you. If some new kid on the block appears and is better than MySpace, then people drift over to that.
2. Also as the site becomes big, you get lost and you need to shout much louder to get recognised. You need to become more dedicated, contact more friends and interact much, much more.
3. MP3.com happened. This was one of the first community sites and it was good, but way ahead of its time. People has MP3.com/Artist.html site names and promoted it in the same way as we do now. But when the site collapsed...so did their sites, they had no back up and they had no way of contacting the traffic to tell them of a new address.
This is why we must always have a base, our own website, just in case.
Most professional artists have their own site PLUS a community site (which their record label sorts out and maintains). Look up Basement Jaxx. They are on MySpace, but, they also have their own website.
Community sites are traffic generators. They can keep you in contact with your "friends" and sort out a network of new fans where you promote and display various deals from your main site
Its the only way to go.
1. The problem with this is that the site relies on traffic generated by you. If some new kid on the block appears and is better than MySpace, then people drift over to that.
2. Also as the site becomes big, you get lost and you need to shout much louder to get recognised. You need to become more dedicated, contact more friends and interact much, much more.
3. MP3.com happened. This was one of the first community sites and it was good, but way ahead of its time. People has MP3.com/Artist.html site names and promoted it in the same way as we do now. But when the site collapsed...so did their sites, they had no back up and they had no way of contacting the traffic to tell them of a new address.
This is why we must always have a base, our own website, just in case.
Most professional artists have their own site PLUS a community site (which their record label sorts out and maintains). Look up Basement Jaxx. They are on MySpace, but, they also have their own website.
Community sites are traffic generators. They can keep you in contact with your "friends" and sort out a network of new fans where you promote and display various deals from your main site
Its the only way to go.
What do I do First?
It sounds really odd, but many people still haven't done this one simple thing...
Get a website!
We have all seen bands showing their MySpace band page etc, but ultimatley you need a website. If you don't you haven't got control over your traffic cominig in, or going out. Also you haven't really got much control over your site looks and what is placed where.
It is a marketing must...get a site for as little as $90/ year which includes enough disk space and bandwidth to place MP3s in streaming format . You keep your traffic and tell it where to go around your site.
I shall talk about community sites like MySpace, facebook etc throughout this blog because they are important.
But first things first. Get your band name up as a dot-com name, find a free template on the web. upload and configure.
Get a website!
We have all seen bands showing their MySpace band page etc, but ultimatley you need a website. If you don't you haven't got control over your traffic cominig in, or going out. Also you haven't really got much control over your site looks and what is placed where.
It is a marketing must...get a site for as little as $90/ year which includes enough disk space and bandwidth to place MP3s in streaming format . You keep your traffic and tell it where to go around your site.
I shall talk about community sites like MySpace, facebook etc throughout this blog because they are important.
But first things first. Get your band name up as a dot-com name, find a free template on the web. upload and configure.
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