In the beginning stages of any affiliate’s online life when your knowledge about internet and affiliate marketing is still pretty vague… you seem to always come across these blogs or informational sites telling you about the best ways of making money online. Everything from PPC, driving traffic with AdWords, using paid advertising to promote a product to doing paid reviews etc. But most of these methods to start making money you actually need to spend some money to make money, now this can be pretty dangerous for newbie affiliates. While I’m not saying that you shouldn’t do it, you just have to be careful to who you listen to and make sure you do some homework on the preferred method.

Now, there is one method in particular that I personally used back in the day when starting off online. It’s free and if done correctly and persistent - it could really make your worth while. This method has been around for ages and tons of internet marketers have used it to great success. The method I’m talking about is called Bum Marketing AKA Article Marketing.

So What exactly is Bum Marketing?

Well it’s a real easy concept, where you write a bunch of relevant and keyword rich articles on your specific niche. You then take those articles and submit it to EzineArticles.com and GoArticles.com… Continue the process by doing it over and over each time broadening your reach inside the niche gaining more and more views within these article directories.

The more popular your articles becomes the higher it will move up in the search listings seeing that ezine is extremely powerful and absolutely loved by Google. The higher your rankings both inside and out of Ezine - The more traffic you’ll receive - equaling more clicks and eventually more sales.

The ultimate secret to succeeding with bum marketing is… to Dictate. Dictate and Dominate every possible search term (targeted Keywords inside a niche) for your specific product or service. Make sure to especially target the long tail keywords in your niche, the ones with lower search results as well as low competition. Go ahead and write articles for every unique keyword.

So why should you use bum marketing?

- Start off with a zero to very low budget.
- No advanced computer skills or techniques are required.
- If done correctly and diligently the rewards are SUPER.
- You can start whenever, like Right now…

Why shouldn’t you use bum marketing?

- It takes a fair bit of time when writing it yourself.
- Article marketing could sometimes be topic and niche dependent.

My solution to… Why shouldn’t you use bum marketing?

- It takes a fair bit of time etc. Well that’s unfortunately how it works if you don’t have the money to outsource your article you’ll have to pay with time. The same go’s for if you have some money to spend on getting 10 or 15 decent articles written by a proffesional writer. Which by the way can be really easy to acquire online and would probably cost you $30 - $45 for the whole batch.

- Article marketing could sometimes be topic and niche dependent… What I meant by that is that you can clearly see some articles in ezine with low views being submitted years ago. These guys are failing with one of two things. Their article doesn’t target good related keywords meaning that it won’t ever show up in the search results or no one searches for that term.. Or they are marketing a dead niche, meaning they are going through all the effort to write about something which very few to no people are interested in. So make sure to know and use the keywords you wish to target and rank for before submitting your article. By doing just a couple of minute’s research you’ll turn your time spent into money for sure.

Seeing that you now pretty much know what Bum Marketing is it’s time to go to work. I’ve provided below a Free Option or plan for you to use to start a Bum Marketing Campaign.

The Free Option:

1. Find a profitable niche and product to promote.
2. Do keyword research on your niche. Try targeting less searched with less competition to use in your articles - Free by using Freekeywords.Wordtracker
3. Use Squidoo to setup a pre-sell page for your Affiliate Promotion - Free
4. Write 10 - 15 articles related to your product niche - Free
5. Now go ahead and submit your articles to Ezine and GoArticles.
6. Bookmark using Scribd.com - Free
7. Finish off by creating Squidoo and hubPages for extra traffic and backlinks Linking to your articles - Free

What do YOU think?

“I’ve used this technique with great success, do you want to learn more about bum marketing techniques? Just comment and let me know, and I’ll let it rip!”

“Ready to Get Stuck in and Earn you First Commission? Come in and we’ll show you how… through step by step video Guidance and Personal Power Affiliate Assistance…”

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All the best
Jean Matthee

Well after seeing the post heading you might think OMG what’s going on… The fact is while PDF’s might not be dead yet it is surely fading and going nowhere slowly in my opinion! Especially for the affiliate promoting it.

I started my online and affiliate marketing journey way back when the internet was still pretty undeveloped and people kept making jokes about why your mouse is called a mouse and CD drives got used as Coffee Stands etc. Now back in those days me and most of the internets affiliates were making good amounts of cash selling e-books in the form of digital products. Things went well and my sales were super high with not much effort needed.

You have to remember that back then the PDF was the next best thing and people were blown away by the e-book concept… They just couldn’t believe that you could now read a book on your computer WTH, haha it’s true. So to continue with my story, I was doing well and then suddenly my conversions started dropping. I mean the same traffic was still plowing in but I simply wasn’t making the same amount of sales, so I changed my approach a bit with adding new promotions and soon it went up again. But after a while the same problem occurred with my new promotions and strategies.

That’s when I finally came to the realization that it wasn’t a drop in traffic, me being lazy or bad strategies. The e-books were seemingly starting to lose their value in the online marketplace. This was due to competitors jumping into the mix the moment a new e-book was released by providing similar content to that of the original. Also I started seeing a pattern around refunds evolving, ever since I started I had a refund rate but never as high as then.

That was the final straw for me and I decided to go ahead and start promoting physical products within the niches I was already familiar with. First couple of months were tough, but after 2 months the sales started coming in and picking up. My income then stabilized at about $4500 a month for my physical products. And that number stayed consistent sometimes going up with 10% - 13% and some months dropping with 4% - 7%, this is when I realized that I had to put all my effort into making this concept work. I soon realized that physical product promotions as an affiliate helped me gain some sustainability as with the e-books who made me constantly wonder where my business’ future will lead. It was also the first time that I could see my online endeavors turning into an online business that produced over $15000 per month. And that was what I was striving for all along… The consistency and longevity factors.

Don’t get me wrong I still think E-books are Great, great for the merchants that is. These merchants put out a week or so, do some research and bust out a e-book with a catchy and almost death defying title. They create buzz, get stacks of affiliates on board and before you can say “cheese & ham bam” they create a short burst of income. The e-book makes money for a few months, dies and after decomposing they simply do some more research… followed by some rehashing and goodness gracious here comes the sequel and so it goes on and on.

Here are my reasons for saying that the PDF is Dying…

High Refund Rate:
Info Junkies are the scum of the info and e-book world. These guys go out there and buy e-books read it, but with the sole purpose of refunding after they are done. They simply take everything on board and before long you have a whole list of refunds for your product.

PDF’s Value Dropping More and More:
Look at the average price of a e-book nowadays. And you can keep your eye on it, cause sure as hell it will keep on dropping. There are plenty of reasons for this factor - like the content getting outdated and rehashed, amount of competition, free vs paid and way more… The value simply isn’t sustainable anymore and offers little to no longevity for the affiliate.

Why Buy if it’s Available Free of Charge:
The newest trend, well not that new is to give away free reports in the form of a PDF. And heck some of these guys could actually charge for what they are giving away. So I ask you why would you buy something old and rehashed if you can get something better for free?

Customer Support is Considerably Low or Non Existent:
How many of these e-book offers actually come with support and if they do what’s the use. By the time you are done reading it the chances are that what you learnt is already outdated and why then even bother asking for help and support. But like I said how many actually offer hands on support?

Scammers taking Advantage:
Scamming in the e-book world is a predominant factor and one that the buyers are picking up on and nowadays they do fair amounts of research before actually buying. This makes it hard for the person promoting it - where in most cases they don’t know about it. Another factor is that so many e-book offers are misleading; they offer something with big catchy headlines and almost never produce. What happens the buyer catches up to it and sorry I want a refund a easy as that.

The Merchant Solution:

It’s up to you guys to be creative and offer your product or service in such a way, broadening sales and future prospects to ensure online survival. Try staying clear of PDF’s and go into the multimedia direction - providing customers with intriguing and informational videos, DVD series, audio files etc. In this day and age with technology booming all over you need to make use of it, the info is available all over the net and if you aren’t going to offer them something unique then someone else will… That you can be sure of.

The Affiliate Solution:

Instead of solely promoting Physical products or just sticking to digital - go for both and combine the two. Promote Physical products and offer your visitors free e-books available for download online or create them yourself. You can also up sell on one or the other, for example in the golf niche where you say for instance are promoting golf clubs… Up sell with a perfect swing DVD series or e-book manual. Use their interests and the relativity and fuse the products, which I like to call Strategic Affiliate Promotional Fusion.. Free and Paid Reports are great for extending promotional value along with grabbing extra leads to follow up on.

The most important point I’m trying to make with this post is that you need to keep customizing and monetizing your online approaches and strategy’s. I simply don’t see it happening that often in the PDF Ebook world cause of all the rehashed and outdated content available… So make sure you promote something unique that stands the test of time!

“Ready to Rule the Affiliate Arena? Come in and we’ll show you how… through step by step video Guidance and Personal Power Affiliate Assistance…”

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All the best
Jean Matthee

Earlier in the week we released our new Advanced Keyword Research video in the member’s area. It mainly focuses on gaining and finding those ultra important keywords that are profitable and commercially viable. In the video we use an awesome new tool to check the keywords commercial intention so that we can remove the weak non profitable terms from the profitable ones.

“This tool can detect your customers’ intention to acquire information or to purchase products based on his or her search queries or recently visited URLs. For example, if a customer searches for “canon digital camera”, it is likely that he or she wants to purchase a canon digital camera; therefore, the online commercial intention is strong, with a confidence level bigger than 0.5.”

Now the buzz around niche marketing and the fact that you can make good money if you apply yourself correctly and target the right niche has been out there for a while. But, how are you as a newbie Affiliate Marketer suppose to know which niche to target without wasting valuable time and well earned cash?

Well I’ve gathered a few questions and tips you might want to have a look at before targeting that niche you have in mind.

1.) List your Passions, Hobbies and General Interests.

Some would say that this isn’t important anymore and it only worked back then when the net wasn’t so crowded and competition this fierce… well the same people would also say just go where the moneys at, while I agree! Just think of the power you’ll have if you are in a seemingly profitable market combined with a good amount of knowledge/passion over that market. If you simply love fishing and you have the benefit of being good at it, catching a lot of fish on a regular basis… Then for you to start a website on fishing, selling equipment and your knowledge would make you super dedicated and wanting your site to actually work. This factor combines Psychology with know how - the know how is offering your knowledge and the psychology is keeping yourself motivated to provide your visitors with what you know. No grab a piece of paper and write down about 10 hobbies, passions or general interests.

2.) Does the market have Commercial/Profitable Sustainability?

Now after writing down about 10 hobbies, passions or general interests go ahead and look if any of those are in high demand on the net. Also be sure to check if there are available affiliate programs and what the commissions are. The easiest way to see if money is to be made is to do a simple Google search. Then have a look at the advertisers on the right hand side. If you are seeing a lot of advertisers over plenty of pages for that particular search then it’s usually an indication of money to be made. Next you want to click on a few of those ads and see where it leads you, soon you should pick up a pattern of who’s selling their own product/service and who’s promoting a merchants product/service. Be sure to make notes of what they are selling, cause after doing this you’ll be wanting to find relevant affiliate programs for the products or services you wish to promote. The thorough follow through of this step will ensure that you are selling the product or service that’s in demand.

3.) Niche Demand.

Now you’ve found some product to promote and you know what they are selling for AND you’ve actually came to the conclusion that people are making money from it. But how many people actually want it, is the Demand Healthy or not? A great tool to use other than your normal keyword researchers is the Google Traffic Estimator. This will provide you with an estimate of daily niche searches along with CPC amounts so you can see what your competition is paying and spending on advertising.

I quickly did a search on some high profile “fishing” terms along with some lower range ones, just to give you a look at what the results are. Now it’s up to you whether you want to jump in at the deep end and go for high traffic and high cpc or if you first want to focus on lower range traffic with smaller CPC prices. The thing is, you need to test this to ultimately see which one is converting the best whether or not you are going to use PPC or only go with natural traffic. Just remember it’s not to say that cause the term “bass fishing” gets way more traffic than “fly fishing rods” that it will do better. I reckon that if you target fly fishing rods and your page and prices are up to scratch that your conversion rate + your profit per click will be way better than bass fishing… Well it’s hard to say before trying, I guess that’s why they call it estimates right?

4.) Market towards Yourself before anyone else.

Because of the fact that you actually participate within your niche and you know a fair bit about it… Indirectly makes you a customer, and that my friend is what you are going to use to your advantage. Think back at some of those old school cop vs. the killer movies where the detective usually runs dry on clues and then suddenly a line pops up saying something like…. “Jimmy my boy, the key is that you have to think like the killer and get inside his mind in order to catch him”.

Well that’s exactly what you are going to do and it should come pretty natural seeing that you know your niche. So think of a site that you would resemble with fishing, think of what you would want to buy, new fishing gadgets, what info do you expect to find when googling the term? By becoming the niche enthusiast, marketer as well as the potential customer will make your visitors and potential buyers relate way better giving you that all important Competitive Edge which by the way, everyone strives for.

5.) Follow through all the way to the finish.

Online marketing and specifically Affiliate Marketing for me is a long haul job where longevity is key. After finding that you are doing pretty darn good in a certain niche, stick to what you are doing. You never know, in a year or two’s time you might be one of the top sites in that certain niche, but that all depends on how hard you work and how difficult your market and competitors are… So before choosing that all important new market be sure to ask yourself if you think it’s possible to get up with the top 10% in that field/niche/market???

Now these are just a few simple tips for extra guidance along the way. Remember to do thorough research before starting your online business, mapping out everything you foresee…

“We have just added a new video into the members are - Advanced Keyword Analysis - Find out if customers will really buy or not…”

Log in here to watch the video:
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All the best
Jean Matthee

Just in!

Amazon just launched their new Mp3 Clips Widget.

“Amazon Associates which allows you to play song samples from the Amazon MP3 catalog with over 5 Million DRM-free songs. Handpick the songs and albums you want to display or select the latest best sellers or new releases from the music genre of your choice.” according to Amazon.

Basically, you can add a customized widget on your blog showcasing clips of the hottest new songs or even albums of your choice.

How will the Amazon Mp3 Widget help you as a blogger?

1. Increase repeat visits - Some folks might love a song snippet on your widget and they’ll keep coming back to your blog to listen to it.

2. Make 10% on widget referrals - this is brand spanking new so bloggers will grab this fast.  The earnings per widget referral is not yet available, but 10% was announced.

3. People can get addicted to a new song in less than 10 seconds! Enough said.

Amazon has always came out with unique ways to make money with their associates program.  You can see the widget in action on the right hand side of this blog.

To your success,
Reinhardt Gallowitz

P.S - To learn the secrets of the power affiliates, click here.

In this day and age market research is extremely important, it’s almost as if new inventions, concepts and ideas are on a stand still or set in some kind of pause mode…

By that I mean that instead of a lot of new and unique products popping up we see a whole array of copies with slight modification or improvements.

The implication of this being that the competition is ever increasing for a certain market or niche - as soon as one product hits a good amount of sales or buzz you are soon to find someone guaranteeing to better it with his or her new version. There is nothing wrong with that it’s been done for centuries. It’s also smart in a way and not too risky, these guys see a niche forming and strengthening. As soon as it’s strong enough they hop on board with their all improved-seen-on-tv-product and start to dominate.

What does this mean? And how does it Impact me?

Well there are two major implications we as the affiliate marketers need to be aware of. The fact that the actual product we are promoting has it’s competition - like for instance a whole array of weight loss pills competing for good market share. So it’s vital that you stay up to date with what’s wanted and selling the best.

Plus there is the factor that we as affiliate marketers compete against other affiliate marketers selling the same or a competitive product. Now like I said these products your competition is selling could be the same or it could be similar. It’s vital for you to know how crowded or scarce that market is and if is plausible and profitable to enter.

Now it’s important that you set a good foundation in the earlier stages of developing your online business. Over here at AT we like to call it your EMRF ( Early Market Research Foundation). By doing this you will insure that the steadfast growth of your online endeavors won’t ever sway or tumble in any way.

Here are 10 Reasons why Market Research is so Important to your Online Survival:

- Know Your Market, Know Your Customers.
By knowing the basic to moderate ins and outs of your market you will soon gain a better perspective on your customers. This will enable you to better target them and sell them products that are in their price league etc.

- Effective Research helps Target Customer Problems and Needs.
By doing effective research you’ll be able to offer them something that will fit their needs and most importantly solve their problem. Cause mainly a product or service is bought to fill a need or solve a problem.

- Have the Right to Act as an Authority.
If you are seen as an authority people will let you act like one. This way you will set the bar and they will ask how high.

- Cut Costs to the Minimum.
Effective research will enable you to cut down on costs, only paying for what is necessary. If you do all your research right the first time around I guarantee you there won’t be any more cash having to go that way again.

- Have the Competitive Edge over the Rest.
Having the competitive edge means that you will be the go to guy or website - outshining your competition especially if your market is big on word of mouth. Having a good product knowledge and understanding will give you this competitive edge over the rest of the market.

- Product Combinations - Relative Means.
Knowing which products are related to the one you are promoting is vital. Nowadays comparison charts are huge, seeing that there are so many related products out there… people want to know which is the best. So by gathering info on all you’ll be able to provide them with expert reviews and ratings.

- Effective Advertising through Niche Knowledge.
Knowing your market means knowing where your customers are gathering - thats where you want to advertise and nowhere else. this will ensure that traffic through advertising is as targeted as can be.

- Niche Knowledge Combined with Innovative Ideas and Promotion.
Having proper niche knowledge will allow you to see certain patterns. What’s working and whats not. This will allow you to experiment, coming up with new ideas, techniques and forms of marketing our product. The best affiliate is the unique affiliate!

- Product and Niche Knowledge will Ultimately Save you Time and Money.
By doing proper market research well in the beginning stages, you then won’t have to do it again. So do it and do it well the first time around or you will simply waste your own time, time in which you could have gone on to doing something else… Something profitable. Time is money at the end of the day.

- Niche Research equals better insight into business growth and earning possibilities.
Effective market research will gear you towards a better understanding of the capabilities of your future online empire. Things like business growth, sustainability and earning potential will soon pop up if research is done effectively. You’ll mainly realise whether you are sitting on a market that’s on the incline or decline, projecting the longevity of your online venture.

Now that you have the Reasons get your lasy bum into gear end start your RESEARCH. If these 10 weren’t enough drop me a comment and i’ll give you even more, but you might not like them hahaha…

“We have just added a new video into the members are - Advanced Keyword Analysis - Find out if customers will really buy or not…”

Log in here to watch the video:
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All the best
Jean Matthee