New York Online Affiliate Business

New York online affiliate business Business 101 An “New York online affiliate business” is a business that sells the wholesale products or services of another business, called a “merchant”, via a link on the New York online affiliate business’s website.

When a sale take place, the New York online affiliate business receives a commission.

New York online affiliate business business is popular because it is performance-based; wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants with New York online affiliate business programs incur promotional costs, in the form of commissions, only when sales are made.

By comparison, sellers that promote their wholesale products or services via ads, TV commercials, direct mail and the like, pay for these marketing costs whether or not the media is successful in bringing them sales.

Affiliates typically do not pay to participate in New York online affiliate business programs.

When a business joins the New York online affiliate business program of an online merchant, they are assigned a unique link that they put up on their website, or include in email messages.

When one of their site visitors clicks on the link, they are directed to the merchant’s website.

If they make a purchase, the New York online affiliate business is credited with a commission, but if they don’t buy, there is no charge to the merchant for “window shoppers”.

In order to maximize their earnings, it is important for affiliates to choose wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants whose wholesale products are expected to be of great interest to their site visitors.

For instance, it is unlikely that a link for custom fishing lures will generate many sales from a site selling professional cookware.

However, a site for potted culinary herbs may do quite well.

By entering into New York online affiliate business relationships with appropriate wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants, businesses can not only increase their online earnings, but provide a valuable service to their site visitors by introducing them to wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants of interest and wholesale products they’re ready to buy.

Making Your New York online affiliate business Site Attractive to wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants have nothing to lose if you sign up to sell their wholesale products on your website.

Or do they? wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants, or advertisers, have a brand to protect, and don’t want to sign up just anybody as affiliates.

Think of what it would be like if they hired a commission-only salesperson in the offline world.

This too is pay for performance, but if the salesperson representing them in unkempt, doesn’t know the product, does a bad job qualifying potential buyers, the merchant looks bad.

They spend time setting the salesperson up on the payroll system, giving them training and materials and coaching.

Time and money they could have spent with someone who could do a good job for them.

Because it dilutes their marketing managers efforts too much having many unproductive sites, the want to be pretty certain that you will bring them real customers or people who will do what their site is built to do – such as take a survey.

You need to be able to show them that you know quantitative and qualitative information about your site visitors – age, income, location, that they’re buyers, and _what they’re interested in.

Your site will also be reviewed.

The “No’s” are pretty obvious – nothing off-color, no opinions that a human resources department would find troubling, nothing derogatory about the category of business, kinds of business practices or their business in particular.

The “Yes” includes a site with real value to the user – and that means one where they can learn something, have fun, connect with others with similar interests, buy something, etc.

The more you know your self and the more have to offer, the more likely wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants or advertisers will see you as a potential source of valuable leads….

And the more you stand to earn from New York online affiliate business marketing.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Are Larger New York online affiliate business Commissions Always Best? Because there’s only so much space on your site, it stands to reason that you want to make the most of merchant links and banners.

But is it always best to choose the programs with the highest percentage commissions? Most merchant or advertiser sites will pay you between 15 and 25% for a click-through that results in a sale or other action, such as a sign-up for a newsletter or the completion of a survey.

So, within reason, why shouldn’t you evaluate potential merchant partners based on commission percentage? The most important thing in your New York online affiliate business plan is the total amount of commission earned, not the percentages paid by each seller.

To do this you need to evaluate wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants or advertisers based upon their appropriateness to your site visitors.

If your site focuses upon young men, 16-22, who enjoy off road motor sports and trips, your best New York online affiliate business relationships would likely be those that include vendors of parts and accessories, travel sites that focus on extreme sports and active wilderness vacations, and perhaps motor sports apparel.

The travel sites may only pay you a small percentage commission or flat fee, but a large percentage of your site visitors may be interested in booking a trip.

Information sites – for videos, ebooks, dvd’s and cd’s usually pay a very high percentage of sales, because an additional sale costs them very little –because customers just download and print.

But select your media offerings carefully.

A book with maps about traveling the Oregon coast may be great, but one on travel tips for parents of teenagers is likely to do poorly, waste the time of your site visitors, and have them wonder if you really know them well.

Well chosen apparel sites may do better, even though they offer a lower percentage commission, because more of your visitors will buy and buy repeatedly.

Choose after carefully predicting what they will buy, then track your sales by category and vendor and continue to fine tune.

It will be better for the site visitor and for you, the commission earner.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Where Are Those New York online affiliate business Commissions I Earned? When you sign up for an New York online affiliate business program, you have the highest of expectations, and begin doing the math: x number of an item at $50 each, times your commission rate, and you’ve earned yourself a bundle! If you have a site that’s an authority on a certain subject or a gathering place for people who are, you may do very well.

But you still may not be seeing the big checks in your mailbox.

Why not? There are a number of possibilities: 154 Your wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants or New York online affiliate business network may pay only on a monthly basis.

155 You may be working with a merchant who pays only after you reach a certain threshold of sales.

156 Commissions may be paid monthly, with rollovers from a prior month if your click-thru’s didn’t hit the threshold the prior month.

157 Your commission account may have been debited for returns or order cancellations 158 Or, worst, your merchant may not be able to pay the commissions.

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Returns are a tricky one, but one way to reduce them is to be certain you link only to sites with high quality wholesale products.

Check out the advertiser’s site and see how it strikes you.

If you think they’ll be important to you, order something, or go through the ordering process, up to the point of confirming the order.

What are the return policies? Also, make certain that you aren’t unsuspectingly creating a buyer’s remorse situation.

If your gardening site caters to people with average-sized yards and homes, should you really provide links to wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants offering three thousand dollar grills? Your visitors may order on a whim, and feel sorry in the morning.

Staying with what’s appropriate or a small reach is likely to work out better for you.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Product Reviews and the New York online affiliate business In order to be approved as an publisher or New York online affiliate business site, you’ll need to have a site that is of value to your audience.

One with good content that is of interest to those people who are likely to buy your merchant’s or advertiser’s wholesale products or services.

One way to increase the value of your site is to provide unbiased reviews of wholesale products or services.

Your audience is busy and doesn’t necessarily have the time to understand the difference between the 10 different fleece vests offered by 6 different retailers.

If you know that fleece vests are worn by most of your site visitors, you can do a review or comparison of several popular ones and post it on your site.

This doesn’t mean saying one is best, or panning others, but bringing out the advantages, disadvantages and the “who this is for” of each.

For instance, one with larger armholes may be better for those who chop wood, the lightest weight one is better for hikers with backpacks who stay warm through movement, and the most stylish one in the jazzy colors, for the timekeeper at the end of the race, rather than the one who runs it.

By taking the time to proactively answer a question your site visitors want answered, you are providing a valuable service, as well as pre-selling them on the product that makes sense for them.

It’s a way of personalization.

Your wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants or advertisers will benefit too – they’ll get the click from someone who is highly motivated to buy, rather than someone who is “window shopping”.

They have a better chance at a sale, and you have a better chance at a commission.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net New York online affiliate business Site Focus Why did you start your website? To pursue an interest, or to sell a certain product or line of wholesale products? Maybe to explain the mission or services of a non-profit.

Have you made it very clear in everything you do who you are targeting? Do you know you are successful, because your target market acknowledges that you are focused on them? If so, you have the basis of a great New York online affiliate business marketing site.

wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants want and need visibility on the sites where their targets visit repeatedly and participate in an environment in which they feel comfortable.

For example, if you are a site devoted to saving a range in the Harriman Mountains, you are the perfect publishing or New York online affiliate business site for the dude ranch in the area, a local horse rental corral, and motels.

If you have a sizeable group of interested parties and donors, you may also be attractive to wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants who sell riding gear, and sports outfitters.

It all involves having a well-defined profile of site visitors and a large number of visitors.

If people are passionate about a subject, such as conservation and the outdoors, they’ll not only want to stay up-to-date, but they’ll spend a good percentage of their disposable income on this interest.

If you have them coming back to your site for news and information and camaraderie It’s likely that they’ll have a new pair of boots on their mind when they’re on your site, and because they’re in a good frame of mind, they’re more likely to buy.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Newsletters as an New York online affiliate business Tool According to statistics, it takes between five and seven impressions before an online visitor buys a particular product or service.

So, as long as you are attracting visitors with the subject matter and content of your New York online affiliate business site, the trick is to keep them coming back on a regular basis, to increase the likelihood that they will become buyers.

This is a situation where developing a newsletter makes sense.

Think of information these site visitors want or need to know.

Trends, news, updates on the big players, whatever it is – real information, not a re-hash or a copycat site.

Is there already a truly authoritarian source for this information, or could you become this source? Even if there is one (or a few), study them to understand their focus.

There still may be room for you to become the source of information or news for a well-defined segment of your market.

Perhaps you have a site focusing on boating on the Long Island Sound, the body of water bordering parts of Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York.

You may already New York online affiliate business relationships with boatyards and yacht clubs with transient moorings, and food and equipment sellers.

Would a newsletter focusing upon the new water-accessible restaurants, food and liquor delivery services and recipes for the local catches and tips for the on-board cook be welcomed by your market? Ask them, and test with some related articles, to see how well they’re received.

With the newsletter, you can begin to create a sense of community, you can ask for subscriber opt-in, and keep your site before the interested and engaged people who will buy your New York online affiliate business wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants’ wholesale products and services.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Affiliates: Poll your Visitors Keeping an New York online affiliate business site relevant isn’t easy.

You have to make sure your site visitors find your site and its content fresh, and that they keep coming back.

As an New York online affiliate business or publisher, you have relationships with wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants who expect a certain level of activity (clicks and the ultimate purchases) in order for your relationship to continue long-term.

This requires many little changes over time, and some larger ones on a regular basis, at least once a year.

After all, you’ve put in all this effort, why not maximize your gain? So, how do you fine tune and keep your site the place your users go back to for authoritative information, and wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants like because of your access to their target market? Poll your site users.

Ask them what they like and what’s missing.

What they used to like but no longer find relevant.

See if the look of you site and its navigation still have the right “feel” for them.

Just because it was fine, or even cutting edge a year ago, doesn’t mean it is doing all it can for you now.

See what they think of your New York online affiliate business offerings, and what they’d like to see.

You can use check boxes regarding parts or features of your site, but be sure to ask them to tell you what they think by providing a free-form comment box.

Why will people tell you what they think? Some will do so simply because they feel a part of your site.

But others need an incentive.

You can offer something free – a downloadable tips booklet, a discount at a relevant business, something small and highly relevant to their interests.

It’s worth the expense and effort.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net New York online affiliate business Expectations wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants, particularly those who work through New York online affiliate business network, do a reasonable due diligence evaluation of New York online affiliate business or publisher sites to make sure they have a reasonable chance of leading to incremental sales, and don’t have the obvious potential to hurt their brand or reputation.

For wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants, it’s a numbers game.

They need to be sure that they’re receiving value from all their affiliates.

A partnership with an New York online affiliate business costs the New York online affiliate business nothing to set up, and the commissions offset any site expenses, if they’re even reasonably successful across their entire program.

But for a merchant such an arrangement requires monitoring, reporting, and management.

For them, it important that every site they link to is appropriate, exhibits a high level of professionalism and, most of all that it delivers qualified buyers.

But affiliates are putting their site’s reputation on the line also.

Once you’ve signed an agreement with an New York online affiliate business, wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants have some basic responsibilities: 159 Seamlessly providing their site visitors with an easy way to buy your wholesale products.

No link or fulfillment problems.

160 Delivering the product as advertised, on time, and providing good customer service, including easy returns and refunds.

161 Honoring the New York online affiliate business agreement and paying commissions without fail, and on time.

162 Keeping wholesale products up-to-date, so the New York online affiliate business’s site visitors will continue to feel compelled to buy.

163 Being on the lookout for dishonest sites that may mimic your affiliates and steal away their would-be buyers.

These include sites based upon misspellings, or those identified as using spamming, pfishing , or other techniques designed to profit from an New York online affiliate business’s good name.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Asking For a Better New York online affiliate business Status As an New York online affiliate business or publisher with a new site, you’re in the position of convincing wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants or advertisers that you will bring qualified buyers to their sites.

Your traffic, demographics and content of your site will be reviewed by the wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants, and you will be approved by those who feel you can bring them additional sales.

So, you’ve gone on for six months or longer, and some merchant sites have done better than others.

Some have done MUCH better than the others.

How can you capitalize upon this? Well, flesh and blood salespeople often earn the right to higher commission rates and benefits once they have proven themselves.

And a great online sales originator can often get additional consideration.

Remember – you are a no-risk proposition to a merchant or advertiser – and for them getting the same level of sales from a group of super affiliates simplifies life considerably.

Ask the program manager at the merchant site how you rank in their pool of affiliates, as well as in your category of merchant, such as women’s apparel.

If you’re in the top group, there may be room for re-negotiation of your commission agreement.

wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants value being able to predict good sales from your site, and an increase in commission for a partner that produces and is easy to deal with, and keeps up their end of the bargain is important.

Bolster your case by quantifying your increase in sales over time, and be prepared to show that this is not a fluke.

For instance, catalog the improvements in your site that have made it more content rich and more attractive to the buyers they seek to reach.

And show them your plans for further enhancing your site.

You may even be able to negotiate a reciprocal link, where they send visitors to your site.

This is the cat bird’s seat of the New York online affiliate business partnership! You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Are you Running Your New York online affiliate business Site Like a Real Business? If you’re like most website managers or owners, you didn’t create your website solely for the purpose of generating revenue from an New York online affiliate business program.

But the many of the same principles apply for both running a site that’s attractive to an New York online affiliate business and running one that will be successful for your own purposes.

Both require the following: 164 Understanding the site visitor and why he/she is attracted to your site.

The wholesale products? Information? Sense of community? 165 Having good content, no matter what the purpose of the site is.

Make sure information is highly relevant to your site visitors and changes frequently.

166 Using both offline and online ways to attract site visitors – such as newsletters, reciprocal links, and opt-in email campaigns.

167 Continually taking a fresh look at your site, being certain that you are using the latest conventions and that it is easy to use.

168 Stay abreast of your competitors to check their direction and site additions, as well as the new affiliates they may have added.

169 Continually checking your numbers to understand where you’re making money (translate: serving your site visitors) and where you’re not.

Making adjustments to fill in the gaps in your product and service offerings.

170 Capitalizing upon the fun factor.

Make using the site so much more than reading a magazine article.

You have the advantage of being interactive, so use it! Have a give and take with your site visitors, so you know what they want.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Getting Repeat Visits to your New York online affiliate business Site What makes your site special? Do you have enough deep content that the search engines serve you up first? Or do you have little conventional content, but the word of mouth of your target audience who finds value in the community you have created? Perhaps you advertise in offline venues that are well-targeted.

Whatever the reason, you’re cleared the first hurdle.

Now you just have to get your visitors to come back on a regular basis.

Obviously repeat visits are good – you have the chance to showcase your own newest wholesale products, or the newest content you have developed.

But repeat visits are critical if you are to be a success as a publisher or New York online affiliate business site.

Because people buy after five or six impressions, it is important that you not only attract new users to your site, but that you get repeat visits from the same site visitors.

People need to find your site either useful or fun, or, ideally, both.

There are ways you can do this, and not be just a “utility” type of site.

Take, for instance, the maker of a prescription drug, who has set up a website.

If someone is prescribed the drug by their doctor, they might visit the drug maker’s site to learn about the drug.

This would be a one-time visit, and unless the drug is in the news or particularly controversial, they wouldn’t be likely to visit again.

But add a blog where users of the drug can discuss symptoms and tips and side effects, and you have automatic repeat visitors.

They are also likely to mention other helpful wholesale products by name and brand, Add wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants who sell vitamins, spa treatments, and see how the New York online affiliate business sales ratchet up.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Making Real Money As An New York online affiliate business The amount of money you can make as an New York online affiliate business will depend primarily upon the popularity of your site as well as the “fit” between the focus of your site and the wholesale products and services offered by the merchant or advertiser.

Advertisers pay differing commission percentages for sales or other actions such as the completion of a survey.

For sales, the most common sales commissions are between 15% and 25%, except for downloaded information wholesale products which pay considerably more, but require careful review because of the variability in quality of the wholesale products.

Individual wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants will negotiate relationships with you, the percentages of which will vary.

The best way to negotiate a good commission percentage is to be an authority in your field.

If you are women’s adventure travel, be certain your content is second to none.

And that means trying every search you can with variations on your keywords or the key phrases used by women who are contemplating rugged travel, outdoor adventure, scenic outdoor travel etc.

Study your competition, but don’t copy them, do better than them.

Have more articles, more reference material, calculators, fitness exercises, product reviews and comparisons, packing lists, how to books, maps, guides.

Then negotiate links with the greatest companies in the women’s adventure travel space.

Don’t worry if they don’t advertise an New York online affiliate business program.

This is a plus – You’ll have an exclusive or be one of a few, rather than offering something your site visitors can get anywhere.

Keep focusing on what your site visitors want – and make the little changes that over time let them know you know who they are, and are not just focusing on but catering to their changing needs.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net New York online affiliate business Site Content for People Not Engines When you last visited a site that disappointed you, what did it look like? A collection of links on a page, or content with keywords and key phrases littered throughout worthless copy? Gone are the days when a site might rank well but be either of little worth or a terrible annoyance to the site visitor.

Those sites just hoped that you would, in frustration, click on one of their wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants, and that they’d be tagged to receive commissions for a certain number of return days.

The web has changed from a transactional sales channel to one that is significantly more relationship-based.

What does this mean to the New York online affiliate business who is faced with heavy competition? Two words: Differentiation and value.

If your site has a “plain vanilla” look and lots of links on the landing page, you’re destined for what pilots call a “touch and go” – a quick landing followed by an almost instant takeoff.

People require context and an environment they’re comfortable in, and the mood is set by that first page.

If you have a long distance bicycling site, a review of the season’s newest hydrating drinks, or a how-to about fixing a new kind of gear, or maybe an article about a once-in-a-lifetime breathtaking trip.

This takes the visitor into the environment of biking, and your site become more of a sales consultant than a bazaar hawker.

Which do you think sells more? Just as in the offline world where it’s not enough to just set up shop without something special, neither can the online seller.

Use your primary and secondary keywords, but make the copy they’re in valuable to the site visitor.

Tell them something new, show them how to do something, entertain them, give them product reviews or comparisons, downloadable freebies, tips, reprints (with permission, of course) of terrific articles written by authorities.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net How Can You Help People Find Your New York online affiliate business Site? You can have a niche site that people visit for specific information, to solve a problem, or be entertained.

As an New York online affiliate business marketer whose financials are impacted by the number of people who visit, how do you get more people to your site? 171 Traditional press coverage is essential.

Go online and research the publications that cover your subject, both off and online.

See what their editorial calendar is – what articles they’ll feature in upcoming months.

Then send them a release that ties your site to their focus.

If your offer wholesale products, send them a sample.

If you receive coverage, ask for permission to post the article on your site.

While you’re at it, you may want to see if it makes sense to develop an New York online affiliate business relationship with the publication.

You could be a source of business that would benefit you both.

172 Check with the managers of sites that appeal to your site visitors, but don’t compete head-on with you, and discuss reciprocal links.

It will help both of you by giving site visitors a greater range of information from one entry point.

173 Find the blogs that discuss your site’s subject or focus, or that appeal to what you know is your target visitor.

Be seen as an expert by providing a point of view and good, solid information, never blatant plugs for your site.

If you give tidbits of new information, news or ideas, you show the bloggers that your site is a place where they would feel comfortable and should visit.

174 Boost your rankings in the search engines by providing a deep and valuable site, with articles, information, research, trends, all the essentials for new as well as return visitors.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net New York online affiliate business Site Development: Writing Good Content It’s important to learn the secrets to writing good content, or having someone write it for you – because content provides added value and is critical to the ranking of your New York online affiliate business site: 175 Be sure the copy is easy to read, and straight to the point.

People want nuggets of information, advice, humor etc.

and don’t have the time to read a dissertation.

If you need to convey something complicated or lengthy, provide a summary first, or a download of a long document such as a report.

176 Write like you and your niche market speak.

If they’re conservative and formal, you need to be also.

But if they’re like the norm of website visitors, they’re fine with sound bites and partial sentences, as long as the read is smooth and to the point.

177 Refresh your content regularly.

If your plan calls for people to visit your site once a month, then you need to provide new content even more frequently, such as every three weeks.

Then archive the other content in an easily searchable mode, preferably indexed by subject.

178 Ask for feedback – or you’ll be writing into a vacuum.

Was the article useful? Did the tip work for you? What do you want to hear about? What subject is overdone and needs a rest? 179 Draw the site visitor in.

Ask for their contributions – in articles, or perhaps a blog.

Have a contest for the most unusual use of your product, photos of your product in out-of-the way locations, or a case study detailing the return on investment achieved by a company using your services.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net New York online affiliate business Site Development: Writing Product Reviews Your site fills the needs of a niche, and you’re getting to be the “go to” place for your subject.

You have a great archive of articles, and you authoritatively answer questions from your target group.

What’s missing? Product or service reviews.

By reviewing wholesale products and services, you provide your merchant partners with an invaluable service – pre-selling.

You’ve already done the first step of the work when you decided to form New York online affiliate business relationships with certain companies.

You know the buyers of their wholesale products and services.

But different people want different versions, price ranges and features.

You are ideally situated to help them move forward with a purchase, one that makes commissions for you! A product review can be in-depth descriptions and discussions of individual wholesale products, in a “Featured Product” showcase.

A second form is the comparison of several wholesale products, for instance, stadium blankets.

Read through product descriptions and come up with the attributes that people look for in stadium blankets.

Then make a grid with New York online affiliate business wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants listed in the left column, and half dozen of the most important attributes listed in columns across the top.

Then fill in the information about five or six wholesale products.

You will also want to have a column for your comments, and perhaps a designation of “Best Value” or “Hot Product”.

Have fun with it.

Use things, try things on, and really learn about your wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants or advertisers.

And if you find that the wholesale products of a particular merchant just aren’t measuring up, you might want to investigate further.

The quality of merchant wholesale products does reflect on your site, and you need to constantly be guard it.

By doing product reviews, you’ll be doing a service to your site as well as to your site visitors.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net New York online affiliate business Site Development: Writing FAQ’s In order to keep people visiting your site to buy your product or service or participate in the community you have created, you need a way for them to feel embraced, and a part of your site.

By preparing a Frequently Asked Questions section, you can help orient someone who is new to the subject of your site, and who needs a little help wrapping his arms around a subject.

If they feel they’ll be kept up-to-date by you, they’ll return.

Some ways to use FAQ’s: 180 To explain the information on your site in another way, reinforcing a process or a complicated piece of information.

181 To cover the questions repeatedly asked in your “Contact Us” section, so staff time won’t be used on individual replies.

182 To provide solutions to visitors queries about a subject – not necessarily about the wholesale products you sell.

For instance, answering questions about techniques for hiking downhill doesn’t directly sell hiking socks, but it does help to establish you as an expert.

It follows that they’ll trust that what you sell is quality.

183 To understand what subjects are of interest to visitors, for content development purposes.

If a counter indicates that your visitors click on the FAQ about the rising time of dough, maybe you need to develop expanded content – copy and photos about successfully working with yeast.

Your visitors will now be in the situation of having their questions pre-addressed – and it shows that you are in synch with their concerns.

FAQ use provides you with a gauge of what you need to explain and can help you set the future direction of your site.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net New York online affiliate business Site Development: Merchant Ad Placement Once you have created a site for your niche market and created relevant content, placing merchant ads becomes a priority for capturing sales revenue.

You’ve worked hard to ensure that your site is highly relevant to your visitor’s needs, and need to take the same amount of care in ensuring that the ads you place on the site add, rather than detract, from the quality and relevancy of the site.

You want each page to be easy to read and you don’t want the ads to get in the way of the activities the reader is there to perform.

Finding the best place for ads, and the optimal density of ads is a trial and error exercise, but there are a few guidelines: 184 Consider the placement of ads based upon the purpose and content of each and every page.

185 If a page contains an article, putting an ad at the end of an article is a natural – the reader will see it, but it won’t be jarring interruption of the text.

186 If there are functions that are to be performed on the page, put the ads near the radio buttons, fill-in boxes or other controls.

187 Ads for your most important wholesale products should generally be placed near the top of the page, clearly visible to the viewer without the need for scrolling.

188 Consider designing some pages with no ads, even if most of the site has them.

This will support the feeling of an environment of value without commercialism.

Magazines do this effectively.

189 Decide how prominent, in terms of size and color, the ads should be.

Don’t disguise ads as copy, but don’t let them take over your pages.

190 Think service provision, not hard sell.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Affiliates and Pay Per Click (PPC) Services When someone uses a search engine, and are served up sites with the best keyword match, the ads that appear alongside the search results get a lot of eyeballs.

And the wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants with these ads pay only if someone interested clicks on them.

How does it all work? Sites first fine-tune and optimize their keyword advertising.

Many use special consultants and programs that analyze their sites and advertisements to help them in the bidding for keywords.

The more a merchant is willing to pay per click, the closer his ad will be to the top of the search results.

Certain top keywords that have a lot of competition, and are very costly per click.

Click thru rate can be boosted by creating headlines, product and service descriptions and URLs that are highly attractive to your target market, and it’s becoming a highly specialized business with parameters that are constantly changing.

Consultants, such as Google Adwords or Yahoo Search Marketing find targeted search terms that are applicable to your site, and provide analysis to help you in the bidding process.

Their objective is to lower the cost per click and improve the quality of visitors who click your ad.

They also analyze your keywords and make recommendations based upon the content of your site so you won’t miss underused and highly cost-effective keywords.

By preventing wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants from overbidding and eliminating bid gaps, they help wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants manage their return on investment on their PPC program.

They can also set bid parameters to keep your total bids within your monthly advertising budget.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net The Power of Freebies on an New York online affiliate business Site You may think that because people pay for the things they value, that giving something for free will cheapen your New York online affiliate business site.

Actually, if a freebie is done well and relates directly to the purpose and target visitors of your site, it can go a long way in helping you form relationships with site visitors.

Because of the trend toward relationship building on the web now, sites that just sell a product or service don’t create the atmosphere visitors are looking for.

Yes, they’re reasonably likely to buy the jacket they were looking for, but if that’s all there is, they won’t necessarily stop back to see your site, and are just as likely to be attracted to another site, and stick with it if yours doesn’t have the value added kicker.

Some freebies to consider: An excerpt of an e-book, the full version of which you have for sale; a compiled book of tips from your archives; a recipe that relates to your product (how many people wearing the jacket would like to have a recipe for spiked cider or some creative, but easy tailgating recipes?); a chapter of a serialized story including a character created for your site – one who personifies your target customer; a how-to for a seasonal task such as getting the storm windows to slide using a common household product.

Affiliates usually provide information rather than product, due to the cost of production and shipping, but if your site has a prestige or popular following, you might also consider giving a small, but exclusive branded item to loyal buyers.

Something that will be displayed on an office desk, for instance, and provoke the “Hey, how’d you rate that?” question and keep your site’s buzz getting and getting louder! You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Writing a Newsletter to Strengthen Your New York online affiliate business Presence As an expert in a particular niche, you have visitors coming back to your site to get more information and updates on your area of specialty.

A great way to capitalize upon this and to gain new visitors is to create a newsletter.

Use an opt-in sign up box on your website, and place it prominently in many places on your site.

Once you have received a sign-up, make sure you automatically send an email to the address provided to confirm the subscription, and give the recipient an easy way to opt out if, for instance someone else provided their address and they’re not interested.

Structuring the first issue is the hardest, but once you get the format set, it takes far less time and effort each time.

Here are a few guidelines: 191 Don’t use it as a blatant advertisement.

Yes, you do promote the wholesale products and services of wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants or advertisers, but give them something of value, or they’ll opt out immediately, and you won’t see them back on your site again either.

192 Show people how to do something new, do something better, or make money.

Tips are great and you can re-purpose them in other forms.

193 Include case studies of others using your product, taking action related to the subject of your site.

194 Give updates of information they would not be likely to get elsewhere.

Or give your viewpoint on how specific events are likely to affect your niche group.

195 Publish answers to questions you’ve received from visitors to your website.

Website questions as a barometer of the interests and problems of your site visitors.

Staying relevant means addressing them.

196 Ask others to write articles for your newsletter.

Many authorities will want the exposure.

197 Ask for permission to reprint or excerpt particularly relevant articles.

198 199 You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: 200 http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net 201 The Value of How To’s on an New York online affiliate business Site People on the web are usually searching for answers to something – and many of them want to know how to do something – from wallpapering to washing the dog.

Does your New York online affiliate business site lend itself to providing How To’s? Do you sell a product of your own on your site? How To’s that relate to your product categories and those of your merchant partners will draw visitors to your site, provide real value and set buyers up for purchases of the items needed in the activity.

Links to wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants of books and videos are particularly appropriate here.

Does your site sell a service? Showing people how to perform once of your activities, step-by-step won’t necessarily undercut your business.

Many people will see the effort and skill required and decide to hire the expert – you.

If they don’t you still stand to win, by placing links or banners to the tools or other resources they’ll need right in context of the instructions.

Does your site promote a cause or is it a the place to learn and share about a specific niche subject? For instance, a local conservation website can include how to’s about composting.

Gardening sites that promote compost bins, accelerators and pitch forks are a natural for this subject.

By providing your site visitors with real, actionable information and instructions, you are earning their trust and winning their allegiance.

You are also creating a depth to your site that will help in its recognition by search engines.

Creating a situation where buyers are pre-sold will also help you in negotiations with wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants and advertisers -- they’re looking for relevant sites that will help pre-sell their wholesale products and services.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net New York online affiliate business Sales: Banners or Links? As an New York online affiliate business you customarily have many options for displaying the “click point” that your visitors use as a launch point to a merchant or advertiser site.

Most affiliates will begin with adding one of the banners provided by a merchant in an New York online affiliate business network.

They’re easy, can’t be altered and present the branding of your chosen merchant.

They also look like the ads that they are.

What should you use links and when should you use banners? Say an individual visits your site because it is the expert site for migrating birds, and they read up on Purple Martin houses.

If, at the end of an article on building a house, you placed a link entitled “wholesale products” or “bird houses”, you’d probably get a reasonable number of clicks.

But if you displayed a banner for a company that clearly sold purple martin houses, you’d be likely to get more because you’re being more specific.

But if in the text of the article you have links for bird house lumber and purple martin nesting materials, why would anyone go anywhere else? Consider the following: 202 Banners clearly brand and spell out what they’re selling, and getting to the point of sale doesn’t require the site user to do any reading of lengthy text; they just click a box.

Sometimes this is what people want, and you need to poll visitors and observe their habits.

203 Links are great in the context of the provision of information.

This means in an article or product review.

204 Sites with listings of links, even those arranged in categories, are a turn-off to most people who either know what they want and need the quickest path there, or want product solutions in the context of information.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net New York online affiliate business Due Diligence: Researching Merchant Companies A merchant or advertiser site is a reflection on your New York online affiliate business site, so you need to choose wisely.

Some tips: 205 Have a plan.

Make a list of the kinds of wholesale products and services your site visitors will expect.

206 Never take for granted the description of the site, and don’t just do a quick look.

It’s easy just apply to many programs on an New York online affiliate business network site such as Commission Junction and LinkShare, but see for yourself what you think of a merchant and their offerings.

207 Go through prospective sites and their content, if it isn’t just a shopping site.

Does the site have the same point of view as your site visitors? 208 Is the site high quality? Good images and descriptions of the wholesale products or services? Is the selection or range of wholesale products good? 209 Use the shopping cart and take a purchase almost to completion.

Was it easy? If the product or service appears to be important to your site visitors, buy one.

See how the fulfillment experience is, and how the company interests with you, a customer in your site visitor’s shoes.

210 Do the wholesale products duplicate those of a vendor you already have a relationship with? Be sure you are adding value, not clutter or dilution.

Remember a merchant will want to see a certain amount of sales from you in order to continue a relationship with you.

211 Are there sites you would like to have a relationship with that don’t appear to have New York online affiliate business relationships.

If they’re important, contact them, market yourself, and propose a relationship.

This adds tremendous value to your site by giving your site visitors something they would be unlikely to get elsewhere.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Building an New York online affiliate business Email List You can’t sell through your site if nobody can find it, and one of the most reliable ways to get them to visit is to invite them.

And the easiest way to invite them is to via email.

But beware, and approach email as if a “do not email list” existed today, as it may in the future.

Is someone hasn’t given you express permission to email them something with a commercial message, do not send anything.

This is considered spamming and it will ruin the good will you’ve worked so hard to build for your site.

It can also subject you to fines and other penalties.

So, how can you create an email list? 212 Draw people to your site via search engines, and offer them something of value, such as an ezine or newsletter subscription, in exchange for their email address.

213 Speak, network, and give classes; have participants sign up for your electronic newsletter or ezine.

214 Be sure your brochures, marketing materials, and handouts reference your site and the free information available.

When they visit, have a form so they can subscribe to your information.

Once anyone subscribes, autorespond , asking them to confirm that they indeed do want to hear from you in the future.

215 NEVER take a shortcut by borrowing or renting an email list.

Once you have built a list, keep these targeted visitors interested by periodically providing them with a e-publication that addresses their information needs – anything from updates on legislation to e-book chapters to tips and how to’s.

Give them a way to contact you to ask questions, and actively solicit their opinions on your site and new information they would like to receive.

Always give them an easy way to opt out of your list, every time you communicate with them.

This way you will have a highly targeted list of qualified buyers – a must for online commerce.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net The Power of the New York online affiliate business Pre-sell Your site has a niche and you have carefully chosen the wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants or advertisers you feel (or after time, know) your visitors buy from.

There are ways to increase the sales of your wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants and your New York online affiliate business commissions.

Instead of just having the banners, links or ads on your site, you need to actively promote the use of these wholesale products and services, in a useful way.

This is called pre-selling.

For instance, say you have a site relating to kayaking in certain region or river, with all the tips, maps and guides.

It stands to reason, of course that you will have New York online affiliate business relationships with local kayak stores as well as outfitters, book and map sellers, camping gear vendors etc.

But if your site only includes kayaking techniques, maps of special areas, events etc, that you should of course have, you will be missing on making a real connection to the merchant and helping the visitor get something he needs to make kayaking safer, and more enjoyable or adventurous.

If you write about a stream with currents and mention how your paddle tether is a godsend when you felt you would lose the paddle and be up a creek, it is helpful information.

So is discussing the relative merits of different kinds of kayak covers, and the fact that they’re needed in certain months in your area to keep out spiders.

Who knew? You have provided a service to your visitors, and done some pre-selling for your vendors.

You don’t need to mention a particular brand, unless there is a certain product that has no competition.

You are giving helpful information and advice to people who are able to act on it with a click.

It’s like placing them in a store with a need – the likelihood of purchase is much higher.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net How Merchant Companies Reflect on Your New York online affiliate business Site To the uninitiated, the more the merrier in the New York online affiliate business marketing game.

But you have a site focused upon a particular subject, cause, product, and the choice of inappropriate wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants or advertisers devalues your site.

People don’t like clutter.

Just think – where do people enjoy shopping more—a superstore full of hundreds of thousands of items, or a boutique that features the ones they want and need? Knowing your site visitors is essential for your focus as well as your New York online affiliate business program success.

Not all wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants or advertisers are for your site visitors, even if they sell the category of product your visitors buy.

Remember, that while you’re not censoring what they’re buying, you are filtering.

Just as a personal shopper knows that a certain client is a 31 year old career woman who wears jackets and tailored pants to work, you know that your typical site visitor is, for instance, between the ages of 25 and 44, looks for value in classic clothes, and won’t spend over $120 for a pair of pants.

It therefore stands to reason that you will look over the women’s apparel sites carefully to weed out those with the super-cool girl-trash look, or the designer sites where the smallest accessories cost more than your visitor’s entire outfits.

If fact, you owe this to your visitors, who trust that the advertisers you feature will be as appropriate as the content you offer.

It’s just another way you can show your site visitors you are focused on them, and adding enough value to deserve a return visit.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Affiliates: Be Sure You Own Your Content Rights As a site with New York online affiliate business relationships, you need to meet certain standards, and make certain assurances to the wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants or advertisers who, in turn, need to make certain they are dealing with a responsible and honest business.

One of the common clauses in a program agreement is that you do not and will not violate the intellectual property rights of other companies or individuals.

How does this affect you? You need to be certain that the content of your site was written, designed or otherwise created by employees or as work for hire that gives you full ownership rights to the material.

This means also that you need to have strict, written policies for employees that forbid plagiarizing or otherwise copying the works of others.

If you use contractors to write and design for you, you need to receive written assurances from them that they also are in compliance with this company policy.

If you do use the works of others, such as the reprint of an article, be scrupulous about doing so only after receiving written permission.

Why is this so important for New York online affiliate business sites? Merchant partners have their branding at stake and can’t be involved in practices that may in any way reflect upon them.

If you are drawn into a messy lawsuit with an author or designer, or even worse, proven guilty of infringement, no matter how innocent you feel you are, you are likely to find that your wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants will take off in droves.

Reclaiming your reputation will be difficult, if it is possible at all.

So, put the procedures in place, and make no exceptions, because you want to run a site and make money, not pay lawyers and defend your reputation! You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Return Days and New York online affiliate business Profitability “Return days” are the number of days an New York online affiliate business can earn commission on a sale or lead from a customer relationship that originated on their site.

Beginning New York online affiliate business or publishing sites may feel that people will either click through and buy or not, but many people do not.

These are considered purchases, made after comparison shopping and thought or discussion by the buyer.

A shopper may click through and buy a book or toner for their printer, but will be likely to do some price and feature comparisons if buying, for instance, a patio heater.

The merchant or advertiser recognizes this and in their programs will set a duration of the cookies placed on the shopper’s computer that will tell them the buyer was referred from your site.

For example, this is referred to as “7 return days” or “45 return days”.

This identification is customarily linked to the buyer, regardless of whether they ultimately buy by visiting the New York online affiliate business site or go directly to the merchant site.

In the situation where a buyer has visited more than one New York online affiliate business site prior to buying, some wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants credit the last New York online affiliate business visited, and others credit the first.

wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants generally set their return days based upon the complexity of the purchase decision.

Affiliates should look for wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants that have generous return cookie durations in order to maximize their commissions.

In the situation of a negotiated agreement, affiliates may have to educate wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants, and should be careful not to negotiate away their return days on complex wholesale products and services.

When they’re set correctly everybody wins.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Is Your New York online affiliate business Email Welcome and Relevant? Email is a great way to keep in touch with those visitors to your site who have given you permission to periodically contact them.

The most common method is an opt-in for a newsletter or ezine.

Visitors provide you with their name (for personalization) and email address and authorize you to email them information.

This is generally a two-step opt-in process that requires them to confirm their subscription by answering an email sent to them by your autoresponder.

Decide whether you want your autoresponder to reject opt-ins from free email services.

, many of which are used as secondary addresses by people who wish to segregate (and maybe not read!) commercial email.

By rejecting these sign-ups you can keep your list to a manageable size with primary addresses, but you may also alienate interested people who happen to have a free account, and don’t realize that they won’t receive your information.

No method is best for everyone, and you’ll have to test the waters for your target group.

You also can set up your site to serve up a blank email, the way hitting “Contact Us” works, whenever a user clicks the subscribe button.

This way you’ll get a blank email pre-populated with the user’s primary address.

Be certain your process includes confirmation so there are no misunderstandings.

Once you’ve been through the process of offering information to site visitors, you need to be certain that you give them something of value each and every time you email them.

It’s a two way street: you worked hard to convince them of the value of your information and you have their attention, as long as you produce.

Make every issue special, even if they have to be pretty infrequent at first, or your hard work marketing yourself will not only be eliminated, but turned to a negative.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Affiliates – Disappointed with your wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants? If you aren’t generating the commissions you expected from your wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants, do some investigation.

First, be realistic .

This is not like selling more Girl Scouts than the other kids because your mother works in a big office and brings home the orders to you.

To be successful at the New York online affiliate business game you have to really work for it, and you need to pay attention to two factors: uniqueness and appropriateness.

If you signed up through New York online affiliate business marketplaces with all the New York online affiliate business programs that were remotely relevant to your site and that would have you, your results will be related to the number of people who visit your site, and who happen to realize they need or want something at a represented merchant at the moment they’re on your site.

They can get to the merchant directly or from many, many other sites, and yours happens to be the one this time.

In all likelihood they have good wholesale products, represented fairly, but dealing with highly exposed sites isn’t likely to give you the best conversion per click.

However, if you spend the time to search out specific sites that have private programs, operated on private New York online affiliate business management software, you stand a chance to bring new, different and highly focused wholesale products and services to your site visitors.

Things they won’t find everywhere.

You’ll be doing your niche a service because you’ve spent the time finding and checking out these sites, and made your visitor’s path to them as easy as a click.

In addition to earning you commissions, these merchant relationships will reinforce your visitor’s sense that you understand them and have created an environment just for their needs.

And that means repeat visits and future sales.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Foil New York online affiliate business Hijackings with Cloaking As with anything profitable, the New York online affiliate business business has its share of people who would rather steal your sales commissions than create a bonafide sales program of their own.

In order to hijack your New York online affiliate business site, the thief replaces your New York online affiliate business link with theirs.

They do this by using adware programs that write over your New York online affiliate business id with theirs.

For instance, if the merchant site is www.

greeeeatproducts.

com and your New York online affiliate business id is 12345, the URL used to credit you with commissions is www.

greeeeatproducts.

com/12345.

If the hijacker’s New York online affiliate business id is 67890, the overwrite sends the sales to www.

greeeeatproducts.

com/67890.

The good news is that New York online affiliate business marketplaces, such as Commission Junction and Linkshare crack down hard on these thieves, called hijackers, by tracking them and banning them from their programs.

The bad news is that they just pop up elsewhere.

But there is something you can do – it’s called cloaking, which involves creating a directory that links a substitute New York online affiliate business ID to the one given to you by the merchant, and displays the substitute.

A site visitor will see the new, simplified New York online affiliate business ID, and not your “real” one, but when he clicks on it, he reaches the merchant site through the actual assigned id.

This can be accomplished by using utility programs, many of which are free on the web.

But, two important caveats: Be certain your merchant or New York online affiliate business marketplace’s contract does not prohibit any alterations, additional links or changes of this nature, or you could be mistaken for a hijacker yourself and be thrown out of their program.

And be certain, if you decide to use such a program that you copy your New York online affiliate business link exactly, or you will not be identified as the party due the commissions.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Search Engine Optimization for Affiliates Organic search engine optimization is a process that involves analysis of your website’s structure, code, content, links and tags.

Based upon the current algorithms used by the major spider-based search engines, such as Google, changes and enhancements are made to your site in order to push your site up in the rankings and deliver it earlier in the search results delivered by the engine.

For your site to rank in the first page or two of sites delivered in a search, it’s pretty much essential to use optimization software or a consulting service that keeps up-to-date on this fast changing industry.

So what will they do for you? Constantly monitor and adjust, things you don’t have time to do if you’re going to be marketing and advertising your site, adding content, blogging, creating partnerships and adding other wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants.

By collecting site data and analyzing a huge number of sites, they identify patterns in the way pages are evaluated and achieve rankings.

They understand the changes in the algorithms used by the major search engines.

Your site and others receive continual reviews and updates, and changes in statistics are monitored .

These companies will identify the keywords that will bring buyers to your site.

They will take care of submitting the pages of your site to the major search engines and online directories.

They can also advise you and make changes to your linking, as links to other quality sites will help your ranking by the search engines.

Because they see how so many sites rank, some can also help you in increasing the usability of your site and use and placement of ads, and merchant links.

They may be able to advise you about reducing your drop-off rate (those who don’t buy) or conversion rate (those who click to a merchant and buy).

It’s an option worth real consideration you need to monetize your site to the best of your ability, and can’t do everything.

There’s no sense in doing all the work related to maintaining a site and having nobody find you.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Getting your New York online affiliate business Site Mentioned in The Press Not all New York online affiliate business sites are visited because of keywords or key phrases in a search engine.

Some are found the “old fashioned” way, through offline methods.

Try some other ways of getting noticed by your niche market: 216 Public speaking, specially if you have a product or service provided in a limited geographic location.

Put your website information in a handout, on the chalkboard, on your slides, and in the course catalog.

217 Chamber of Commerce, a place to make contacts, and come face-to-face with people interested in your niche, specialty or product.

Your listing in their directory will include your website address.

218 Articles in the local press, both written by you imparting useful information, or a feature about you and your web-based or web-enhanced business.

It’s worth a pitch letter to a reporter, and reprints (by permission) are great on your site.

219 Tell the press about your activities or special events you’re holding -- send releases to newspapers and local magazines.

Always include a succinct description of your company and your website address.

220 National press takes more effort, but can be the bonanza your site needs.

Make a list of highly targeted publications, using internet research and such sources as The Writers Market, and ask for editorial calendars.

In advance (weeks for papers and months for magazines) send a release about an event, special item, contest that showcases your business and website, without blatantly selling it.

Even a few lines in national publication can make your site visits skyrocket! You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net The CAN-SPAN Act and New York online affiliate business Responsibility If there’s one New York online affiliate business absolute it is to NEVER, for any reason, send an unsolicited email to anyone that is promoting anything.

No commercial messages, unless the recipient has specifically requested that you send him/her email promoting a product or service.

And don’t ever buy, borrow, lease or trade email lists.

If you send commercial email at all, carefully read up on spam regulations and penalties at http://www.

spamlaws.

com/federal/can-spam.

shtml .

The CAN-SPAM (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing) Act took effect on January 1, 2004.

It is a federal act, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission that requires unsolicited commercial email to be labeled as such.

Included in the regulations (again, read it all, and any amendments that may be passed) is the requirement that all unsolicited email must include subject lines that are not deceptive, as well as opt-out instructions and the sender’s physical address.

At present, the FTC is authorized to establish a “do not e-mail” registry similar to the “do not mail” and “do not call” registries, but it has not yet done so.

Not wanting to antagonize recipients, however targeted they may be, most mailers stick strictly to the double opt-in method, in which site visitors subscribe to a newsletter or ezine, are sent a confirmation email to the subscriber.

Only when the subscriber confirms by return email that they wish to be a subscriber does the site begin sending them emails.

Every ezine, newsletter, newsletter link or other email-based commercial message must include an opt out method, usually a link, as well as the actual street address of the mailer.

There’s just no point in sending unsolicited email.

It dilutes your efforts and damages your reputation and makes you much less attractive as an New York online affiliate business partner.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net 37 The New York online affiliate business Site as an Expert Resource Why would site visitors sift through generalities when they can get specifics that focus on people like them? You know they won’t, so you started a web site for a niche market – on a subject near and dear to your heart, as focus and enthusiasm show.

Say, do-it-yourself furniture caning.

Then what? 221 Go to Manhattan conferences, read books and articles and do some interviews in order to find out just what a do yourself caner wants to know.

222 Put up your content with a twist specifically toward your niche.

No need to skip the more general or related articles or information, such as the history of caning, or art museums that have exquisite caned chair examples, but provide them by using links to broader, more general sites, and complementary sites that target offshoots of your core subject 223 Pull together the best instructional materials you can on every aspect of caning, organized the way you’ve found your visitors think and proceed.

videos, charts, how-to articles on techniques of caning, minor repairs to a chair before caning, how and when to stain, oil or paint, common materials used for caning, etc.

Now, ask novice caners to go through your site, and see where they got lost.

Terminology? Maybe you need a glossary.

Instructions too difficult or assume things? Maybe you need more steps or drawings.

Perhaps a help line in the future, sponsored by advertisers? Do the same with experts – and see what they want to learn, or even better, share.

Ask them to author articles or write a column on the site.

Ask visitors about caning events in their local areas, and start compiling the great caning event calendar.

Host a contest or competition.

Write articles and send them to your local and national press, especially if you’ve found that there’s an annual caned chair day.

If there isn’t one, start one, by putting reminders on your site, stationery, press releases.

Have everything refer back to your site.

Now you are ready to add highly focused affiliates that your visitors are likely to buy from – from specialty paint stores, to artisan caning reed sellers (how else would anyone outside of their locale find them?), book and video sellers, handicraft schools.

You have the market they’ve been looking for.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Budgeting for the Successful New York online affiliate business Business It’s true that it doesn’t cost the New York online affiliate business anything to sign up with an established program of a merchant or advertiser.

But just because the cost of this mechanism – the cookies, links, banners, specials, check payments etc – are paid for by the merchant, that’s no reason to treat the New York online affiliate business role as if it’s cost-free.

An New York online affiliate business needs to devote resources to keeping up a site that’s current, relevant, informative, fun etc.

and to promoting the site so the greatest number of sales possible// are directed to your merchant sites.

So what should you spend money on? 224 Analysis: Rank the wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants and/or wholesale products you are selling, and understand why.

Are they seasonal, increasing in volume, decreasing in volume? Be on the lookout for trends, so you can make changes before you’re caught in the complacency = loss of profitability equation.

225 Content: If you can‘t write, or don’t have time, pay others do it for you.

But be specific about what you want, including length, specific subjects, keyword and key phrase density, ownership pf content, absolutely no plagiarism etc.

Content is king in search engines (along with blogs) so paying up here is an investment, not just a cost.

226 Site continuity and navigability: If your site isn’t easy to read and use, visitors will be gone before that even realize you have merchant partners.

Keep a file of bookmarks labeled ”Great Sites”, no matter what business they’re in.

Include all the sites that just hit you right, and take note of how they make the segue between content and/or wholesale products and the wholesale products of their merchant partners.

Successful sites know change is constant – budget for it.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net SEO Copywriting for Affiliates SEO copywriting or Search Engine Optimized Copywriting is the writing (or re-writing) of text – articles, product reviews, comparisons, how-to’s etc.

in a way that they rank high in a search engine search.

That is, if a person is searching for a particular keyword, (“swan”) or key phrase (“mute swan signet”) and one or both are keywords/keyword phrases for your site, that you will rank well in a search.

The first page or two are what counts, because most people won’t go any further.

SEO copywriting needs to accomplish two objectives: To attract the search engine and obtain a good ranking once it crawls the site, and to provide interest and value to the reader.

When your site ranks high, more people will see it and visit and you will have the ability to increase your sales or fulfill other objectives, such as membership or contributions.

Using search term tools, such as Wordtracker, find relevant words and phrases that describe your content, and are popular, but not highly competitive, with a multitude of users.

There’s no exact science to the number of keywords or density percentage on a page, but they should be spread throughout the page and always appear in the first sentence and the headings.

Be sure to use singular and plural of the words as well as synonyms, and other related words, such as waterfowl in the swan example.

The keywords and Key phrases should use HTML header codes H1 for primary headlines, and H2 for subheads.

Title tags appear as the title of your page in search engine results, and should contain your most relevant keywords for each page, so the searcher is delivered to highest area of interest and remains there to take the action it was created for.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Where should an New York online affiliate business Begin in Finding Merchant Partners? Every New York online affiliate business needs to define its user groups.

Interests, product needs, wholesale products they probably already have (with potential for upgrades), favorite activities, income – describe the typical visitor as you would a person.

Then describe the focus of your site or primary wholesale products.

Then the easiest way to begin is to review and add a few highly relevant sites from New York online affiliate business Marketers, such as Linkshare and Commission Junction.

Then go to the sites of brands and wholesale products you know appeal to your market.

Look for a link to their New York online affiliate business program and join them individually, once you are satisfied with the site quality and the quality of the wholesale products.

Decide where on your pages you want to put New York online affiliate business links and banners.

You may not want every page to be a selling page, and the best positioning on each page will depend upon the content.

Links at the end of an article are a natural, following the flow of the reader’s eye.

Links or banners on pages that are transactional, with buttons and boxes, work better near the action.

Once your site visitors have had the opportunity to shop at your merchant sites, take a hard look at what is working and what is not, and make some adjustments.

With knowledge of what your visitors want, make a wish list of companies and wholesale products that will round out your merchandise offerings.

Then search the web and identify the sites.

There’s no problem if their sites don’t make reference to New York online affiliate business programs.

Approach them anyway, and negotiate an agreement.

You’ll know the range of commissions customarily paid for their categories of goods and services from your relationships with other wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants.

And if you are polling your site visitors you’ll know wholesale products, product features and accessories they are ready and willing to buy.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Affiliates and Blogger Safety We’ve all heard stories about teenagers meeting dangerous people in chat rooms.

The scary crossroads where people take web conversations and relationships to the offline world.

But people who are now beginning to add postings to blogs often forget that over time, they might give out too many personal details about themselves that once combined, could put themselves in potential danger.

What does this have to do with New York online affiliate business sites? Many affiliates are in the process of setting up blogs as a way for their niche communities to share information, opinions, product reviews and the like.

Once some people become comfortable on such a site, they begin relating their experiences and may let down their guard and reveal too much personal information.

When you create a blog, it’s a good idea to remind people that personal information can be accumulated and used in identity theft and threats to personal safety.

Some tips to share: 227 Use first names or nicknames, but don’t give anyone your full name.

228 If revealing your location is relevant to the discussion, don’t give your exact address or clues to the location of your home or office.

229 While you know to never give your credit card or social security numbers, also don’t reveal license plates, boat registration numbers, tax ID or any other identifying numbers.

230 Birthdays, graduation dates or service discharge dates should never be revealed.

231 Photos are not a great idea for adults, but never post photos of your or anyone else’s children.

A big dog, however, isn’t a bad idea! You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Internet Crimes Complaint Center – What Affiliates Need to Know Affiliates can do a lot to protect themselves from those who would take advantage of them by dealing with companies that have good reputations in the offline world, and carefully doing their research on the online-only ones.

New York online affiliate business Networks have also put into place strong regulations for the purpose of thwarting and blacklisting serious offenders.

But where there’s easy money to be made, the unscrupulous flock.

No matter how they attempt to protect themselves, it is still very possible for an New York online affiliate business to be hit with one of the scams of dishonest companies.

These include cybersquatters who steal or mimic domains and funnel away money while injuring their reputations, abusers of pay-per-click programs, wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants who never intended to pay commissions, hackers and more.

What recourse does an New York online affiliate business have? In response to these cyber crimes, the US government has established the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

It is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C).

It’s charge is to serve as a focal point for businesses to report cyber crimes, where they are researched, and referred to the proper federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

By reporting and following up on the status of their reports of illegal activities, affiliates can not only further the resolution of crimes against their companies.

They will be assisting in industry-wide recognition of the worst offenders, helping to bring to light the newest twists in illegal activities at a level where information can be assimilated and distributed for an effective counter-attack.

It’s up to all of us.

Bookmark www.

ic3.

gov.

You should check out this book, it’s written by one of the top earning affiliates: http://closeout01.webvista2.hop.clickbank.net Private High-End New York online affiliate business Relationships If you have a niche New York online affiliate business site that reaches a select, documented high-end demographic, you have a market ripe for marketing to select wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants and advertisers.

Instead of offering this group access to existing, established wholesale products and services, you have the ability to negotiate special product purchase arrangements and exclusive service arrangements.

Start by understanding what your market wants.

Ask and observe.

Are they the super-wealthy who want access to the most exclusive independent concierge in New York or London? Do they need to outfit a large home with china, crystal and silver for 48? Or perhaps they want to take protective and evasive driving lessons from the undisputed master.

If you have the market, the providers are likely to negotiate a special deal with you.

Specially negotiating a contract is worth it for the New York online affiliate business because it not only brings in revenue, but it solidifies relationships with extremely demanding people, who want exactly what they ask for.

And many of them are accustomed to a life of negotiation, so giving them a price break on large quantities of goods shows that you are in tune with their desires.

wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants may be willing to call big orders wholesale accounts, and make money by eliminating the middleman.

Just ask.

And, while you may not get a price break on services (or you may, based upon the number of users you can potentially send them), you can negotiate to get them provided exactly as you define.

If you are a company’s one “super New York online affiliate business” they won’t be equipped with the reporting and automated processes you would enjoy at traditional wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants.

You’ll need a combination of trust, open books and confidentiality agreements to ensure that you’re getting the commissions you are due.

But the incentive to stay on the straight and narrow is high, because the value add you bring to them is so great.

Affiliates Re-evaluate your Merchant Relationships Just because affiliates aren’t charged in order to place merchant links on their sites doesn’t mean that they’re free.

They occupy valuable space on your site and need to reflect the interests of your site visitors to earn their keep.

It’s a question of opportunity costs, and an New York online affiliate business needs to make sure that the individual wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants and the merchant mix overall meets the needs of their site visitors.

It’s simple to see if they are voting with their dollars, and make changes if certain wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants are no longer earning their site real estate.

Making changes to your merchant list is healthy for both the experience of the site visitor and the profitability and credibility of the New York online affiliate business site.

As affiliates gain experience and site visitors change their preferences, adjustments in the mix will be both inevitable and ongoing.

Keep a close eye on your merchant statistics and watch both the direction and magnitude of the trends.

Find what your visitors want now and tomorrow, and make proactive moves rather than reactive ones.

Investigate new wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants, both those with established programs and those you may need to convince to come on board.

Continually make incremental changes based on site statistics and visitor polling.

Be certain that the presence of the wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants as well as their banners and banner placement complements rather than overshadows the focus of your site.

Purchase opportunities that naturally flow from the context of site content will be welcomed by your site visitors.

Strike a good balance by continually pruning some and planting others to keep the product opportunities as fresh as the content is a good mix.

New York online affiliate business Auditions Why should a site visitor buy from your site and not just go directly to the merchant or vendor site? Because you provide value added services.

You don’t just slap links on your site, you carefully review wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants to make certain they’re appropriate and that they remain so as both your sites change and grow.

You perform New York online affiliate business auditions.

Before you join an New York online affiliate business program, roam around the company’s site, evaluating the environment, wholesale products, advice, articles, ease of use, shopping cart and customer service options.

Scrutinize the images and descriptions.

Buy something.

Return it.

Ask questions.

Check your credit card bill.

Then go on a search engine and see how their top three competitors stack up.

Once you’ve chosen a site or two, avoiding as much duplication as possible, begin writing product reviews, and comparisons.

Which home décor and linens site would you want to visit, the one that provides a rating of flannel sheets based upon the six most popular criteria, or one with a mass of links and no distinctions between the wholesale products? The latter makes buying harder, not easier and the visitor will click off, never to be seen again.

You have the advantage of knowing your audience.

If you reduce the time it takes to choose, as well as the potential for your visitor to be disappointed, there’s reason for him to return.

Keep up the trust by regularly reviewing your New York online affiliate business sites and the commissions they generate.

Write reviews of seasonal and new wholesale products.

Ask site visitors to review wholesale products they’ve bought through the site.

Make it fun and people will return to see what you’ve found for them now.

New York online affiliate business wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants and Mystery Shoppers Retailers routinely pay mystery shoppers to evaluate their stores on a specific set of criteria.

They rate their experience in everything from the availability of sale items to the cleanliness of the changing rooms.

What do you, as an New York online affiliate business, want to know about your wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants? Have a contest and recruit some mystery shoppers from your target group, give them an assignment to buy a product in a certain category at several wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants or and have them tell you specifically about their experiences, in depth, with a certain merchant.

Depending upon the product, pay them or pay for the product they buy.

Ask about the feel and experience at a site, the product depth and breadth, displays and descriptions, product reviews and rankings, customer service, both interactive and email, shopping carts, payment options, bonus gifts, gift wrap, special offers, delivery experiences, returns.

Have them tell you what they expected to find at a merchant, but didn’t.

If they’ve been to a competitor, ask specifically what’s better and worse at your New York online affiliate business site.

Use the results to swap one merchant’s New York online affiliate business program for another, understand where you need to do product and service reviews of your own and where they’re unnecessary.

Decide if there are wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants you should contact to discuss service expectations – in most cases they want to know what they should fix in order to encourage their own return customers.

Find gaps and add new wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants, even if it’s just for one very hot product.

The market never stays exactly the same, nor do service levels and merchant focus.

By fine tuning on a regular basis you can stay relevant to your visitors and ahead of the competition.

Affiliates, Style Setters and Merchant Agreements Are you among the cool group in your city (usually in cities)? Are there others like you or who want to be like you? Are you an acknowledged style setter? If so, you’re in the position to not only craft a website to communicate with like people, but you stand to effectively monetize your position, without the cloud of crass commercialism that would turn off the members of your group.

Think about it – What did the athletic shoe makers do to make inroads with the inner city kids who shoot hoops, dance and skateboard? They knew they had to immerse themselves into the culture.

If you are a style setter, in clothing, footwear, music, etc.

you can pull together a site that reaches your group.

Your site will be as different as night and day from, say a site for a business consultant.

But you’ll both have news, blogs, photos, info, articles.

And you both can sell product.

You’re in the position of becoming an New York online affiliate business and offering prime placement to the wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants who produce specific wholesale products you and your group considers cool.

You know the wholesale products.

Go on the web and find the contacts and list any vendor you like.

Contact them to discuss an New York online affiliate business arrangement.

It’s likely they will have the software in place for the processing aspects of New York online affiliate business arrangements, but even if they don’t, you are worth the investment on their part.

You are in the position of negotiating better commissions than a less-focused New York online affiliate business.

You can ask for a special version of a product, in a limited edition.

You can even earn money advising them on mini web sites that your group may access on their cell phones.

You know the lifestyle, and even if they can research it, they’ll always be behind if you aren’t there to clue them in on what’s coming up tomorrow.

With your focused advice and their responsiveness, you both win.

Information Product Sales for Affiliates When you have a clearly defined niche, you want to provide every possibility for your site visitors to immerse themselves in your site’s purpose, subject or information.

You’ve established arrangements with wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants of wholesale products as well as service providers.

Information wholesale products are another avenue to pursue.

These are digital wholesale products –ebooks, audios and videos, and software provided as downloads of files.

The commissions on these wholesale products are very high compared to wholesale products, typically 50% or more, because the only cost to the seller is a small fee to an New York online affiliate business information marketplace (if they sell that way), and a commission to you.

A good place to start investigating is a marketplace called www.

clickbank.

com .

Take a look in the various categories and review the descriptions of “titles” you feel your site visitors may want to buy.

Be sure to click on the site to review the actual website of the seller, and see how the product is described and marketed.

Many sales sites consist of long letters written with a sense of urgency.

There’s nothing wrong with this if you feel the product provides value and is in keeping with your site’s tone and environment, and your niche market’s needs.

Review any sales statistics that may be provided for each product.

Do you want to sell an ebook that has had no sales to date?.

Check the sellers’ bonus gifts, newsletters and return policies.

If you decide to try a few wholesale products, buy them yourself first.

See if they would give your typical site visitor new information or insights.

And as with all wholesale products, ask for feedback from buyers, and monitor your statistics as you would those of a physical product to understand whether you’ve made a good choice for your site visitors.

Link Building for Affiliates Once you’ve found out the number of links to your site by using www.

linkpopularity.

com or another link checker, It’s likely you will want to add quality links to your site.

There is software that can do this, but beware of any software or service that promises you a large or automated increase in links.

Some of these companies simply create reciprocal links among their clients, regardless of the appropriateness of the links or the content on the sites.

The patterns of site reciprocity created by such companies has been identified by the major search engines, and they will discount such efforts in your rankings.

The better approach, from a business as well as a site ranking viewpoint, is to identify, using LinkPopularity again, the companies that link to your competitors, suppliers, research sites that serve your industry, consumer forums, government statistics – anything your site visitor will be interested in.

Then see which ones do not link to you.

Review these sites to determine what benefit both sites could get from reciprocal links.

Then send a request – kind of like a sales letter— to each of these sites, stating why you feel a link would be advantageous to both of you.

If they agree, be sure to monitor their links regularly to ensure that your links are still active.

By carefully building a network of links, you will increase the likelihood that your site will rank higher in the search engines.

You’ll also build relationships with companies and other sites with potential for future sales and partnership efforts.

Affiliates— Narrow Down your Niche The temptation in creating an New York online affiliate business site is to develop on that will meet the needs of the masses, so you’ll be able to sell a wide range of goods and services.

But stop and re-think.

Amazon.

com already exists as do the sites for the mega-box retailers.

Most people know the sites that meet their needs for favorites such as music, computers and office supplies.

So, how do you decide the subject and scope of your site? You need to develop a niche site, and balance the scope of the site with the number of potential visitors.

For example, if you decide to create a site for the pachysandra, your research (begin by Googling the term) may tell you that there isn’t enough demand for information about this ground cover.

However, if you research the keyword “groundcovers” or the key phrase “low maintenance groundcovers” you may find that you have a market.

Why is creating such a niche necessary? People have specific needs and are becoming increasingly demanding in web searches.

While they may have been satisfied years ago with “almost” results, they now expect to land right on a page that will provide them with a solution or an answer.

If you also provide articles on planting bulbs in established groundcover beds, transplanting and propagating pachysandra and other groundcovers, you will found yourself a place in the visitor’s world.

When they’re on your site learning, and think about buying a trowel (perhaps one you reviewed) or special fertilizer, they’ll be ready to buy through a site that’s trusted resource.

Isn’t it better to have 2000 highly targeted and involved visitors, than 2 million who care about the general subject of gardening or yard care? Cybersquatting and the New York online affiliate business You’ve spent the time and effort to create a site with rich content that provides real value to your visitors.

You have a special environment and niche, and a name that is getting known in your industry or by your user groups.

All of a sudden your site traffic is slowing.

Your New York online affiliate business commissions aren’t grinding to a halt, but they’re slowing also.

What can you do? Check Whois to see if another site has registered a name that’s close to yours, perhaps in an attempt to do business based upon your reputation.

If this is so, check with the New York online affiliate business programs you’re enrolled in to see if the offender is registered.

If so, register a formal complaint, and provide them with documentation.

Also contact ICANN and register a formal complaint.

If your site is karlysquilts.

com and someone has recently put up karrleysquilts.

com, with many of your affiliates, every time someone makes the typo of an extra ‘r” your reputation is on the line, and you stand to lose a commission.

Conversely, if they were there first, you didn’t realize it, and you can see that they’re a legitimate business, you should quickly contact them to discuss the situation.

Worst case is that you may find you have to bow out if it appears that you are unintentionally misrepresenting them.

How can you reduce the possibility of such a situation? Before you register a site name, research to see if a trademark for a name is registered by the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS).

If not, register all possible versions of your name, including common misspellings and .

net, .

org, .

biz etc.

, and redirect them to your active site.

Make it a regular practice to check for “misspellings” or permutations of your name under new domains, such as .

tv.

How the Right Keyword Linking Text Helps Affiliates In perfecting your New York online affiliate business business model, the devil is in the subtleties.

Once you prepared useful content, product reviews, articles and the like, most likely you added banners and PPC ads.

Then maybe it became obvious by studying your visitors behavior, that you should add New York online affiliate business links to buying opportunities in or around your text.

Or you may want to link from an article to additional facts, photos, charts or diagrams.

It’s simple to just put in a click here button for the information or product.

Even easier to put it next to or at the end of the text.

But there are good reasons not to take the easy way out.

Statistics have shown that many more people will click on a product name in the context of an article or product review than will click on one beside the review.

And still more will click on a link that is descriptive of the product.

The same goes for making the effort to obtain additional information – the more specific the link name better.

So take the time to name your link teak toy train or tide tables for New London CT, and the results will be worth the effort.

And this is one of the situations where the actions you take for the search engines is the same as the ones you take for the humans reading your copy and buying from your site.

Search engine bots operate on changing sets of complicated algorithms, but it is known that they value specificity and the logical and judicious use of keywords.

Using them in your links is likely to have the effect of assisting them in digging deeper into your site and seeing more of the content you want to win points for.

Affiliates, Whose Keywords Are They Anyway? Attracting users to your New York online affiliate business site is supposed to be easy – just be certain your headlines and content are full of the right keywords and key phrases, and that your content and links are focused and of high quality.

If only it were that simple! Take a hard look at how you describe your site focus – if you use the term golf clinic and they use the term golf lessons or golf vacation, your best customers won’t make it to you.

You’ll be so far down the ranking list that they will have found your competitors who speak their language, without ever learning you exist.

Just as you do in offline marketing, identify the ways your customers describe your wholesale products and services.

And beware that they may not be exactly the same for the people who visit you online vs.

offline.

How? Take variations of your key words and key phrases and do a Google search.

See how other sites describe what they do.

Poll your site visitors, go to Manhattan conferences and see how people you meet refer to wholesale products, services and your niche in general.

Visitors’ terms rule.

Make sure you use the right the keywords on each page to accurately describe the content of the page.

You want a visitor to land on the page for their specific interest, such as rag wool socks.

Understand that it’s important to know the difference between the keywords people use when they’re browsing or information gathering, and the ones they use when they’re buying.

They will use the key phrase “space heaters” when researching, but “silver quartz heater” or “Brand x heater” when they’ve done their research and are ready to buy.

Optimizing the correct words or phrases on each individual page will go a long way to turning researchers to buyers – on your site.

Affiliates and the Importance of Backlinks Backlinks are incoming links that point to your web page.

If many other sites point to your website, it is assumed by search engine algorithms that these sites value the content or wholesale products on your site.

Search engine rankings are positively affected by a large number of backlinks, as well as the quality of these links.

There are two ways for a site to get a higher number of backlinks: 232 Some backlinks are created when another site links to yours because you have information of product they feel their visitors want.

These sites provide links to complementary sites, not competitors.

233 Some sites work together to exchange links, by mutual agreement.

These are called reciprocal links, and they have benefits in search engine ranking as well as in business generation.

The quality of backlinks is dependent upon the origination of a link to your site.

If the site linking to yours is a complex, quality site, it is more valuable to your search engine ranking than a one page mini-site.

And a higher quality site with a complementary focus will, just like a reciprocal link, deliver you more potential for economic benefit, search engines aside.

If a site links to hundreds or thousands of sites, its value to you as a backlink in a search engine will be diminished.

Do your homework before you proceed.

Check to see which companies link to your site, and check the sites of potential reciprocal link sites at www.

linkpopularity.

com.

You can even sign up for a monthly update of your statistics.

Are Your wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants Competing With Your New York online affiliate business Site? The purpose of your site is to make money.

Well, that’s true for everyone but the family hobby sites, charitable organizations (although they want your contributions) and some non-commercial research sites.

So after you identified a niche and pulled together the site elements they want in terms of information and participation, you established New York online affiliate business relationships with wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants who sell the kinds of wholesale products and services they want to buy.

Or maybe you have always had direct product sales on your site, and you added wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants with complementary but not competing wholesale products and services.

But have things changed? Maybe you have changed the focus of the direct product sales on your site.

Certainly your merchant partners have made changes, expanded product lines, even bought other sellers.

Perhaps you’ve written a book or an ebook.

It’s time to take an inventory of the fit between your on-site sales and the offerings of your wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants.

If a merchant’s product line overlaps your significantly, see which one makes more money.

Is it time for the merchant program to go? If there’s prestige in having your own wholesale products, that’s fine as long as it’s a conscious decision.

Once you’ve determined and decided what to do with the overlap, then take a look at your competitors’ sites and see which wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants they have as affiliates.

Some of them would probably serve to strengthen your product line and give you the opportunity for additional sales.

As a niche site in their space you should have no trouble negotiating a favorable agreement.

Now continue reviewing and fine-tuning and it will pay you back in both visitor loyalty and commissions.

Affiliates and Charitable Contributions Mention online charitable contributions and listen to cautions and protests of the doubtful! How can affiliates become involved in ethical online contributions, to further both their business and the fundraising of charities? Some charities will pay New York online affiliate business commissions for the contributors they send them.

Some wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants will also pay a small percentage of sales to a particular charity.

When the commission paid is equal to or less than the costs of alternative methods of fundraising, the charity is a bonafide one, and there is a logical link between the niche of the New York online affiliate business’s website and the purpose of the charity, why not consider it? Consider the costs of printing, making personal presentations, mailing, depositing checks.

Fundraising can have steep administrative costs.

And one measure for evaluating charities is the percentage of funds received that flow directly to the organization’s programs.

Affiliates with an interest or mission related to the charity can help them with more than a flow of money – with a way to accomplish more and increase their standing and credibility.

Researching the record of a non-profit can often be done online, at sites such as www.

guidestar.

org where mission statements and filings are available online for many charitable organizations.

A thorough web search of news and a review of the company’s site should be done, at a minimum.

Being the unfortunate New York online affiliate business linked with a dubious charity can hurt your name immeasurably.

If the charity checks out, and is related to the cause of your organization, helping its efforts by including it in your New York online affiliate business options is one more way to enrich your site, your pocketbook and the perception of your company with your visitors.

New York online affiliate business Links – To a Site or a Product? If, as an New York online affiliate business, you’re using text links in your content to link to wholesale products of your wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants, there are two ways to approach the hand-off of the potential customer: major keywords and specific keywords.

There are two schools of thought.

Some people would like to land on a merchant’s descriptive page to learn more about the company, and others would like to go directly to the page of the specific product.

If you’re selling a high ticket product or service, it’s likely that the buyer will want to become familiar with the company, it’s specialties, product line, guarantees, return policies and the like.

If you’ve reviewed a number of wholesale products, and have a link in the review, it make more sense to bring the customer directly to the product under discussion.

This is the difference between sending them to www.

thenameofthecompany.

com and www.

thenameofthecompany/9845hikingboot.

com.

New York online affiliate business network programs often have their New York online affiliate business links pointing at the home page of a company, so the buyer has to go through the process of searching for the item once he’s landed on the site.

This is, of course, because they can’t make links for every product in their wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants’ inventories.

It is something to think about when negotiating agreements with independent affiliates, as well as once you’ve had experience with an New York online affiliate business, and know that your site visitors are very interested in particular wholesale products.

It is to everyone’s benefit for you to have direct links – the merchant sells more product with fewer dropped sales, and you earn more commissions.

New York online affiliate business Terms New York online affiliate business Business – The business of linking web sites with special niches or content (New York online affiliate business sites) with advertisers or publishers who wish to sell goods or services to this specialized group.

The affiliates gain by collecting additional income from their site, and the wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants gain by having a cost-effective way to add new customers.

New York online affiliate business programs are promoted by New York online affiliate business networks such as LinkShare and Commission Junction, as well as by individual companies.

New York online affiliate business – A company with a web site that displays advertisements for wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants’ or publishers’ wholesale products or services.

The New York online affiliate business’s site is valuable as a selling venue because the New York online affiliate business provides value added services, such as the provision of articles and information, such as product reviews, to the site visitor.

The New York online affiliate business places these ads on his site in order to collect pay-for-performance commissions for sales, pay-per-click fees when his site visitors click the merchant links, or fees per 1000 clicks that visitors to his site make on the merchant’s ad.

Merchant or Publisher – A company with an online presence created for the purpose of selling goods or services.

These companies use a variety of methods, besides direct promotion of their retail websites, to attract qualified buyers to their sites.

These include pay-for-performance, pay-per-click and PPC, payment per one thousand clicks on their ads placed on the sites of affiliates.

Service Provider - A company that provides services and technologies to affiliates and wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants, enabling them to partner in online selling.

Some service providers also act in the capacity of New York online affiliate business networks, where wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants and affiliates negotiate arrangements for partnerships for selling purposes.

How Smaller Focused Affiliates Can Compete with Offline Giants There are still big companies that think they can compete effectively online solely by virtue of the reputation they have earned in the offline world.

And yes, people visit their branded sites for transactions, coupons, recipes and sweepstakes.

But many of them have done nothing to create an environment that compels visitors to return regularly.

Affiliates can use this to their advantage.

You can create a site that has information and solutions that have value in themselves, without selling anything.

You can give advice, review wholesale products and services, reprint expert articles, publish studies.

Provide tips and detailed FAQ’s.

Become a voice and an advocate of your niche.

The difference is that you are creating a relationship, and they are furthering a transaction.

For example, a brand name auto supply store sells car waxes and polishes.

Your New York online affiliate business car detailing and accessory site links to stores that sell similar wholesale products.

The difference is that you have several articles about getting bugs and sap off a car before waxing.

And more articles about the number of times a car can be run through a car wash before different wholesale products are washed off.

A humorous article by a site visitor about the perils of an electric buffer.

Add these to some charts with cost, time to apply and overall ratings of wholesale products.

Why would anyone buy from the other site, unless they couldn’t find you in a search? (That’s another article, but the more content on your site the better you will continue to do in searches.

) If you have enough good content, you’ll find that even after the buyer has bought the product with a manufacturer or distributor web address printed on it, he’ll return to you – because you may have the next greatest thing he may have missed otherwise.

Now that’s how to compete! Continual Updating for Repeat New York online affiliate business Site Visitors Your New York online affiliate business site visitors are really getting pretty sophisticated in searching the web, and in addition many receive ezines, newsletters, RSS feeds, research subscriptions and other sources of information.

They have a multitude of options for shopping and services both on the internet and off.

They can easily find many of the wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants you have as New York online affiliate business vendors without going through your site.

So why should these visitors continue visiting your site? Because you have spent your time creating an environment for the niche market they belong to.

You provide them with value added wholesale products and services , and your site is the place they go to see what is new on your particular subject, what is fashionable, what the latest statistics are – whatever they want to find in one place.

And you’re continually doing the following: 234 Continually upgrading the site – the look, the navigation, and features 235 Polling your visitors to understand how they use your site and what they want that you don’t have 236 Evaluating your merchant statistics, to understand which sellers and wholesale products are successful, and fine tuning as site visitors change and new options become available 237 Adding relevant copy, articles, studies and other information they want 238 Providing great customer service, promptly answering their questions and proactively upgrading service 239 Creating forums for them to express their opinions and share information 240 Asking experts to share information on your site 241 Giving site visitors the ability to review wholesale products and services and write articles about relevant topics 242 Promoting your site both offline and online venues 243 Speaking at seminars and Manhattan conferences Site visitors return because you’ve earned their trust and allegiance.

And you have to keep earning it over and over.

Search Boxes on the New York online affiliate business Site Affiliates are always on the lookout for ways to add value to their site without cluttering it up, diffusing its niche feel, or Confusing their loyal visitors.

One way to give site visitors extra value is to add a highly targeted search box or two.

There are many available for download to your site, on almost any imaginable topic.

Choose from dictionaries, kids, business, health, law, maps and everything in between.

A good place to start researching what’s available is http://www.

writerswrite.

com/research/sbox.

htm .

By adding a search box, you give your site visitor the ability to look up information without leaving your site to go to a search engine.

Consider this scenario: a mother has been reading a blog on your site with entries and advice about car seats for toddlers.

People have given her the benefit of their personal experience in properly installing the seats, what to fabrics are easiest to clean, and what features are best for large and tall toddlers.

Your site has product reviews of the most popular seats, complete with “best value” and “best overall” categories.

What else does she need? She has two children and one old seat, and needs to know how the regulations for car seats have changes since her first born was a toddler.

She doesn’t have to go out on the web searching for regulations if you have a search box for “everything kids” that turns up the regulations in a few clicks.

Isn’t she much more likely to buy from you than someone else when she only needs to click on her back button and be right at an authoritative place to shop? The New York online affiliate business Home Page: Your Billboard to the World You know your business well.

Can you describe what you do and who you do it for in a sentence of two? Do you have a good tagline? This belongs on your home page along with options for the most important things you are and do, with prominent links to them.

Make it easy for the search engines to find you by making sure your titles and subtitles are tagged with your company name and a succinct description.

And make it easy for the visitor to find what they want by having easy navigation and a search box on the home page as well as every other page.

And as much as you may want to, don’t put any advertising on your home page.

Not even if the major purpose of your site is to be a prosperous successful New York online affiliate business.

There are plenty of opportunities to sell product in context with content throughout the rest of the site, where it will be more useful to the user.

If you’re not a designer, hire one.

Just because you can design a web page doesn’t mean you should.

If you have a clean uncluttered look to the home page, and people can easily understand how to navigate, you’re way ahead.

If you don’t have a logo, have the designer create one for you, and place it professionally, along with any other graphics so the site isn’t confusing or busy.

Show some substance right up front.

Put some excerpts of good news, hot information or timely articles as teasers on the front page, and continue them to content-rich pages.

Even the smallest company can easily can project a professional image in their niche and pave the way for appropriate links and successful New York online affiliate business relationships.

What’s the Difference Between the Big 2 New York online affiliate business Networks? As an New York online affiliate business it’s likely that you’re accustomed to writing product comparisons to enrich your website.

If only it were that easy to compare the two largest and most popular New York online affiliate business networks.

Both have an array of high quality merchant partners that affiliates can sign on with to forward buyers and receive commissions.

There’s no reason why an New York online affiliate business wouldn’t want to deal with both networks.

The terms and conditions for participation vary somewhat, but both have in place mechanisms to connect reputable wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants with the need for an additional sales channel with affiliates, or advertisers who are willing and able to direct qualified customers to them.

The networks streamline the process for both the merchant and New York online affiliate business, doing the record keeping and administration, so the merchant can concentrate on sales and the New York online affiliate business can focus upon his site development and profitability.

Some of the things both do: 244 For advertisers: Offer programs with wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants, provide merchant links with associated commissions to the advertiser, monitor the sales attributable to the advertiser, accumulate commissions and pay at a specified interval, provide the advertiser the ability to generate reports for the purpose of planning and management of their New York online affiliate business business.

The networks also have in place mechanisms to screen wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants to weed out those who cannot and will not pay agreed-upon commissions.

245 For wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants: Provide a marketplace where affiliates can apply for the wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants’ programs.

Provide merchant links of the appropriate commission level to the affiliates, provide management reports for merchant evaluation of program metrics and ROI.

New York online affiliate business Referrals to Regulated Businesses As an New York online affiliate business you may not have a license to sell stocks, bonds, firearms, prescription drugs or to loan money or provide investment advice.

These businesses are considered regulated businesses, and representations about or the provision of their services can only be done by individuals with appropriate licenses.

However, as an New York online affiliate business you still have the ability to “hand off” a site visitor who is interested in the services of one of these businesses.

But you can only do this if you make no representations about such a service, are not involved in providing any physical wholesale products, and are not, in any way, involved in providing such services.

This means that you simply place a banner or link from the provider of such services on your website.

You are not allowed to change or add to any such materials provided by the merchant, provide any services or provide any customer service functions.

Individual wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants as well as New York online affiliate business networks have very strict guidelines about such services, and for them to do otherwise could put their licenses in jeopardy.

Affiliates need to be careful to abide by the regulations.

So why do wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants want affiliates to advertise these wholesale products that require extra diligence, and what is the attraction to affiliates? Some of these wholesale products have created a great deal of interest, and a high volume of subsequent transactions.

Mortgages, refinancing and home equity loans are good examples.

People want to have the ability to comparison shop, and in many cases geography is not an issue in service provision.

The internet provides a marketplace where both sides of a transaction can look for the best possible deal.

Affiliates gain by bringing the two participants in the transaction together.

New York online affiliate business Site Branding Many affiliates consider themselves information sources, or niche environments where people with specific interests meet and communicate.

They (and their visitors) consider them to be experts in their fields, but they often don’t think of themselves as a brand.

Thinking of their site in terms of brand identity is a jump for them.

But branding isn’t just for monolithic companies like Microsoft or Procter & Gamble.

You have your own unique identity, you do things a certain way, people expect certain things of you – they trust you.

You’ve earned what the annual reports of the big companies call ”goodwill”.

Goodwill is the value of the company above and beyond the pile of cash they’d receive if they sold everything the company owned.

A niche site with a following has plenty of goodwill.

So how do you capitalize upon it? Create a special logo, typeface and “look” for your site.

Take a look at your competitors and be sure that no one, no matter how quickly they look will mistake you for a competitor.

Let your own personality shine through in everything.

If you have pet phrases, what better than having them become part of the “speak” of your niche group.

Develop a tagline, or better yet, have an online contest for a tagline.

Who knows the brand better than the people who’ve invested in it? In everything you do, from answering questions on your blog, to choosing the tone of informational articles, keep your brand in mind.

You’ll know it’s working when you hear your niche group refer to something as a very (your brand name)y way of doing things! New York online affiliate business Activity Reports When you, as an advertiser or New York online affiliate business join New York online affiliate business networks such as Commission Junction or LinkShare, you have the ability to run reports of the sales that show you the sales made on merchant sites as a result of click-thru’s by visitors to your site.

There’s almost no variation of report you can’t generate.

(The same is possible also for the merchant.

) If you have negotiated individual programs with wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants, they also will provide reports that will tell you the number of click-thru’s, the page on your site, location on the page, dollars spent, commissions earned, and payouts to you.

You can slice and dice this many ways, but do you? The successful New York online affiliate business makes time to eye these reports like a hawk.

The unsuccessful (or very lucky!) New York online affiliate business knows they’re available, but is busy with the content focus of the site, cashes the checks, and vaguely sees that they’re getting smaller and smaller.

Unless you’ve won the lottery and are running your site purely for fun and feedback, you need to carve out a portion of your weekly schedule for the review of the “money” part of the business.

A single week’s data is good to know, but watch for the trends.

Have you gone from good to almost zero at a site for water sports a the onset of cold weather? Do you have about as many affiliates as you’d like to manage? Why not consider switching to a great vendor of ski and water sports? There’s more to merchant choices than the numbers, but the numbers can lead you to explore options and consider possibilities that are better, both for you and your site visitors.

The New York online affiliate business As An Authority And Speaker As a successful New York online affiliate business you have the ability to promote your site and your merchant partners wholesale products off as well as on the Web.

One way is as a speaker.

Through experience you’ve learned more than you realize about some very specialized techniques that others are anxious to know.

And you’ve learned the hard way more than once how to recover from the pitfalls of this ever-changing field.

As a speaker you become regarded as an authority in your field – whether it is the calculations of ROI statistics, as a vigilant watchdog against fraud, or as a negotiator of deals with exclusive partners who’ve never considered New York online affiliate business programs before.

People are hungry for information, and anxious for shortcuts in their path to success.

Where can you speak? At New York online affiliate business business Manhattan conferences, forums sponsored by New York online affiliate business marketplaces, at your customer’s sales Manhattan conferences, adult education, Chamber of Commerce, sales and marketing conventions.

Based on the subject of your site, you can probably think of many more.

The important thing is that you get before appropriate business audiences and the press, so they learn that you’re both legitimate and experienced.

What can come of this? You’ll have an easier job of convincing companies who are good partners for your business to join you as wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants.

And you’ll increase the visibility of your site among people who are interested in the niche you serve.

A number of these people will buy through your site, earning you commissions.

And you’ll attract bright people who want to work for you because you are both visible and successful.

Off Page Optimization to Boost New York online affiliate business Performance Off page optimization is the term used for the actions taken off the actual web page that positively affect the performance of the page and the site.

This includes everything from links from other sites, exchanges of links with complementary but non-competing sites, and the actions taken offline that affect the performance of the site.

Links from other sites are votes of confidence by these sites, that say that they feel information on the “linked to” site is valuable to their site visitors.

This happens when the content of the first site contains articles by knowledgeable people, product reviews, and sources for additional online and offline information.

Exchanges of links are made by arrangement between the two sites, based upon the expectation of mutual gain.

Visitors to one site may obtain information on the other, and may also shop on the site of the other complementary but not competing site.

This type of arrangement gives each site more credibility as valued partners.

Actions taken offsite that affect the performance of the site include, speaking, writing, promotions and loyalty programs with wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants’ retail sites.

If you become an authority that people recognize fin offline venues it serves to strengthen their bond with you.

This is especially true of sites that are focused upon user groups that did not grow up using the web, instant messaging and cell phones as a matter of daily life.

All of these serve to strengthen the “brand” of your site and your visitors’ confidence in its relevance.

Affiliates and Paid Advertising Programs The majority of affiliates begin by adding merchant partner links to their sites in order to earn commissions on purchases made by site visitors they deliver to the merchant.

Affiliates earn no commissions if the would-be buyer lands on the merchant site, but decides against buying.

This type of program is called pay for performance, and is popular with many wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants because they have no upfront costs if sales don’t materialize.

Some wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants are, however, re-evaluating their programs because they are seeing a high percentage of their New York online affiliate business buyers coming from their catalog or customer lists, and feel many are buyers they could have reached themselves.

Some companies will, as a result, be more selective in their New York online affiliate business approvals.

And some super affiliates (high producers) may also see changes in programs that reward them with higher commission levels.

But there are other commission programs: 246 Pay per lead – Under this type of program, the merchant or advertiser pays the New York online affiliate business for each lead that is referred to the merchant or service provider, regardless of whether a sales is made.

These programs are often used by providers of professional services or regulated services, such as brokerage or insurance.

This is also called pay-per-click, because all that is required is that the customer click from the New York online affiliate business website to that of the seller.

247 Pay-per-sale – In this type of arrangement, the seller pays the New York online affiliate business a flat fee for certain types of sales.

One industry that uses the flat rate commission model is travel, with some sites offering affiliates specific amounts for referrals that lead to sales of airline tickets, and the rental of hotel rooms and cars.

Successful affiliates utilize a combination of the above programs, and conduct partner negotiations based upon the models typically used in their wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants’ industries.

The New York online affiliate business Site Expert and the Ebook When you’ve spent time, major time, developing a successful New York online affiliate business site, you’ve learned things it would take others years of trial and error to learn themselves.

Information you can sell.

Perhaps it isn’t about creating the perfect New York online affiliate business website.

Or how to make money focusing a site on guys who delight in finding certain software bugs.

But something that has a large and broad audience, such as an aspect of blogging behavior.

Offline publishing takes months, maybe years to get to market, even after you’ve written it.

Printing costs are huge, and even if you find the right agent and editor, you’re faced with the daunting task of self-promotion, because only the stars get whirlwind publicity tours and book signings.

And in a fast-moving industry, the information could become out-of-date by the time the presses stopped.

How can you capitalize upon this knowledge? Ebooks are a great way to share current information, with almost no expense, and the potential for good profit.

You can promote them on your website and the sites of others.

They are ready as soon as you convert your text to a .

PDF file and create a good cover.

But what about the contents? How did all those people with ebooks get started, never mind finished? Some used systems developed and marketed by people who’ve been successes in this field.

One useful system, an ebook itself, www.

7dayeBook.

com takes you through identifying a good, marketable subject, a system for outlining and writing, marketing tips and pricing.

You won’t just be creating a saleable item, you’ll be raising yourself up a notch in the expert group! What’s New on your New York online affiliate business Website? A loyal following is essential for a successful New York online affiliate business site.

But people are busy – and they don’t visit as often as both you and they might like.

How can you make it easy for them to keep up with what you’re doing and what’s new? Create a special section on your site for the most recent news, a link to the latest blog entries, and a few wholesale products of the week, based upon the time of year, or activities site visitors do at that time.

While having new content is good for search engine ratings, it is essential for keeping the attention of your loyal site visitors.

And highlighting it on your home page is a way for you to keep them coming back for a quick check.

You could also offer an opt-in email newsletter highlighting the same “What’s New” items, with links to additional information.

Items you can include in a “What’s New” section: 248 Industry news and your take on how it affects your niche 249 Customer success stories 250 New wholesale products and exciting accessories for the ones they have now 251 Excerpts of articles they can read in detail when time permits 252 Hot news on people, software, the season’s newest fashion color – whatever your visitors will take a few extra minutes to check in on.

A “What’s New” section won’t get many people to your site if you haven’t invested in the entire structure and environment behind it, but it will go a long way to keeping the interest up and encouraging repeat visitors.

RSS and New York online affiliate business Content RSS, or Rich Site Summary is a format for sharing content from one website to another.

It provides for the distribution of information without the use of email, so the receiver’s email box isn’t filled with reading matter.

Instead of searching for information or news on the web, people can log on to a website that has received the feed and read it.

What does this mean for affiliates? It means that they can selectively add syndicated content to their sites by subscribing to an RSS feed.

This can range from news feeds from a newspaper or television station, blogs, press releases from an online distributor, or newsletters and ezines.

All the New York online affiliate business has to do is enter the URLs of the feeds, and the rest will be automatically delivered to them via software called an aggregator.

By choosing carefully, an New York online affiliate business can automatically add relevant content to their site, and save time in content management and updates.

RSS readers or aggregators are available free as downloads.

Publishers of the content need special software to create the RSS feeds, and affiliates may want to consider doing this also in order to distribute content and raise awareness of their services and site.

Because RSS has not caught on with the majority of newsletter subscribers, it would be wise for newsletter providers to continue to offer an email option for delivery, until they see the changeover.

To view a directory of feeds, see www.

2rss.

com, and check the sites of all major newspapers for feeds.

Using Blogs on Your New York online affiliate business Site Blogs can help affiliates increase traffic to their website, both by helping to produce better search engine results, and in increasing the return traffic to a site.

You can raise your search engine results because the keywords that are relevant to your site will be repeated in the context of other synonyms and phrases related to your site’s subject.

Your site will show up in searches of people who are ready to buy.

By including a blog on a site, you have an automatic means for updating information and opinions.

The entries are dated, so visitors don’t wonder how old the information is, something especially important on a fast-changing subject.

Blogs complement content-rich sites, by providing yet another level of information that makes your site more valuable to visitors.

Blogs draw people with a specific interest in a subject and the willingness to converse about it.

By having them congregate on your site, you are setting up a circle of experts, and the inference is that you are an expert also.

Once a site is seen as the expert venue, it is logical that visitors will trust the recommendations and reflections of the bloggers.

They will feel more informed and prepared to buy.

Once you see the subjects of interest of bloggers, it will help you in enhancing and structuring your other site content.

Based on their input you may decide to do product reviews or comparisons, two important types of content that pre-sell visitors and move them closer to buyers of your wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants’ wholesale products.

You can ask a particularly credible blogger to write an article or opinion piece.

Use the blogs as a way to keep your finger on your visitors’ pulse, and provide them precisely what they want.

Google AdSenseTM and Affiliates Content rich sites can earn additional income, instead of or in addition to the use of traditional New York online affiliate business banners -- by using Google AdSense.

Adsense serves up contextually targeted text and image ads that are targeted to particular pages of your site.

They are designed to give ongoing, appropriate product purchase opportunities to your site visitors, with a minimum of effort by the site publisher.

Once approved for the program, the site publisher places one link per site page, and is served up to three ads when pages are opened.

Google creates the relationships with the advertisers and only delivers the most appropriate ones to your web pages.

Based upon keywords, a real time auction takes place as a visitor opens a page on your website.

Based upon bids placed by advertisers, Google AdSense places relevant cost-per-click (CPC) and cost-per–thousand-impressions (CPM) ads on your page.

Publishers need to carefully read the conditions for participating in the AdSense program.

They include not obscuring the ads in any way with color or graphics, not launching a new browser when the ads are clicked on, placing the links only on pages with content, not displaying them on pop-ups, pop-unders or email, and not changing the code provided by the program for pasting into your web pages.

Bringing unnatural attention to the ads by advertising on other websites or mass mailing is also prohibited, as is labeling the ads with anything other than “sponsored links” or “advertisements”.

It may seem like a daunting list of no’s, but upon inspection they make sense because they protect you, your site and the advertisers, to prevent misuse and fraud.

If you read the rules carefully, use common sense, and don’t try sneaky maneuvers, the upside possibilities are certainly worth a try.

253 254 Structuring an New York online affiliate business Marketing Program For wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants an New York online affiliate business marketing program may look like an attractive way to make sales without having to pay upfront for advertising or salespeople.

You can create a sales force of almost any size, and commissions are paid only when sales are made.

What should wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants do to make the most of their New York online affiliate business programs? 255 Look carefully at the affiliates who apply to your program.

They should offer something that you don’t that will positively dispose the site visitor to buy from you.

Articles, product reviews, blogs and newsletters are some of the value adds you should expect an New York online affiliate business site to have.

256 Review the wholesale products the proposed New York online affiliate business sells, and be sure that you aren’t competitors, or you’ll do a lot of set-up work and you won’t see the sales.

257 Review the New York online affiliate business site’s subject and “environment”.

Is it a quality site with subject matter that is in line with the wholesale products you sell? 258 Ask for site metrics, including the number of visits over a specific period of time, and any other information such as income and education that will help you decide if their visitors will logically convert to qualified buyers.

259 Once you’ve signed on an New York online affiliate business, review their progress regularly.

Get to know your top affiliates, and offer them benefits such as a special status designation for their website, and a higher commission percentage.

You don’t want to find out too late that they’d hoped for this, but got it from one of your competitors.

260 Be sure the affiliates understand payment practices and timing.

They’re in this for the money and misunderstandings could turn off a potentially profitable program just as it was beginning to ramp up.

261 Keep on the lookout for innovative new sites, and invite them to join your program before your competitors do.

Site Ranking 101 for Affiliates By now most sites have updated and enhanced content in order to appeal to search engines, and Google in particular.

Optimized keywords and key phrases will increase the popularity of your links and at some point Google will spider your site if it is optimized.

Google’s methodology is constantly second-guessed, but the algorithms are top secret and ever-changing.

The Google bot may spider any part of your site during a visit, so it’s in your best interest to optimize your site overall with quality content, blogs and easy navigation.

Because Google’s bot searches so many pages, may of which are unchanged or inactive, getting your entire site spidered may take quite some time.

To get your site spidered more quickly and efficiently, you can submit it to Google Sitemaps.

Google offers a sitemap generator that you can use to provide them additional information on your site.

This is particularly important when your site is one where all pages are not connected with traditional links, such as those with dynamically created pages.

Once your site has been spidered, it is added to the Google index, and the spider will return at some point.

If you have made changes to your site, such as adding pages or a significant amount of keyworded content, it would be wise to submit an update to Google Sitemaps Google provides their Sitemaps service free of charge in an effort to provide more current information in their index.

By collaborating with webmasters it has produced a win-win in terms of better and more current search information, one that site managers should take advantage of.

Technical Optimization for Affiliates Technical optimization refers to all the factors related to the technical details of your website, and how they affect the ranking of your site in search engines.

They are important because they give valuable information to the spider that crawls your site, and ultimately decides how close to the top of a search you are placed.

And this visibility directly impacts the traffic and profitability of your website.

Optimizing includes: 262 Keywords in your URL (optimal, but not always possible) 263 Keyword density of about 8% per page 264 Key phrases that relate to the keywords of very page 265 Keywords in titles and headings 266 Bold and capitalized words 267 Keywords in the first and last sentences of each page 268 Keywords and secondary keyword optimization on the site’s home page 269 Logical linking of pages within the site 270 Backlinks and reciprocal links with complementary high quality sites 271 Provision of sitemaps to Google, and updating them after site modifications Making the most of technical optimization is important, but it is only the first step in creating a solid, useful site that earns repeat visits from its target market.

Other factors involved include: 272 Focusing the scope of the site to address the needs of a particular niche 273 Creating a sense of community 274 Providing useful information 275 Introducing new concepts or trends 276 Offering highly targeted wholesale products and services 277 Offering advice 278 Giving access to experts 279 Solving problems 280 Providing a forum for the exchange of ideas 281 Providing links to focused research and other resources Local Advertising for Affiliates While the web was once a way for advertisers to promote national brands and sell regardless of geography, the move to localization has begun.

In the past, local advertisers, by virtue of their market size, tended to focus primarily on local yellow pages and local or regional newspapers.

Now, specialty retailers, department stores, doctors and dentists, realtors, insurance agencies and financial services providers, such as banks and mortgage companies have significantly increased their spending on the web.

With this comes opportunities for sites that focus on particular geographic areas.

A site that provides information on a region (there aren’t usually enough sites for a single town) can begin to monetize their process of local information provision.

Local civic and religious organization news, sports schedules, weather, municipal matters, such as road closings and water main flushing, tide charts can be supported by local advertisers, much in the same way that local independent weeklies were supported by advertising in the past, before many were folded into the larger local and regional dailies.

With about 20% of the population moving each year, the demand for content rich local and regional sites, with links or advertising of local businesses should soar.

But the time is now, because a local or small regional area can only support one such content site, and the content site, at this point, can only make money as an New York online affiliate business in an environment with little competition.

Local businesses will need education about advertising and there may need to be a shift in the party providing New York online affiliate business business services.

It is likely that the site may need to provide the New York online affiliate business linking capabilities, management and tracking, completely transparent to the merchant vendor.

Tweaking Offline Content For An New York online affiliate business Site Some businesses have brochure content, articles and research that would be valuable resources in a niche website.

But it isn’t keyword optimized, and to do so would take more money and time than it took to put together the rest of the site.

What can you do? 282 Get the electronic versions of the material and divide it up into pages of 250 to 350 words.

If you only have hard copies, scan the material in, using the editable text option in your scanner’s software.

283 Divide the text up, using headings and subheadings, into a quicker “web read”.

284 Link any studies or charts with descriptive links, which do better in search engines and are clicked on more often by readers than generic links.

285 Make sure headings and subheadings are edited so they contain relevant keywords.

Read through the text and make some quick substitutions of words – basically changing terms such as “it” “that” and “the product” to more specific words, keywords, as long as the meaning of the document doesn’t change.

286 Pay attention to the titles on each page, making certain main keywords are included in each of the page titles.

287 Write highly descriptive keywords in your meta tags for your page descriptions.

Good new content is very important to both search engines and your site visitors.

Search engines will spider it and recognize the site as one with deep content.

With original content you will keep your visitors on your site longer, and they’ll be more likely to return.

Getting Press As An New York online affiliate business Affiliates who rely solely upon search engines or links to deliver their audience are only considering half the picture.

Press releases sent to appropriate media are likely to bring you site visitors you haven’t reached in other ways.

But what should your release highlight? An announcement, a new product, additions or changes to management, new partners, site features or wholesale products.

Maybe an amazing piece of advice that turned up in a blog and how it changed the sites of many of your visitors.

Once you’ve decided upon the topic, follow these guidelines: 288 Type in a word processing program, but convert it to PDF for distribution 289 Use your company stationery 290 Center the words, “News Release” at the top 291 Center the Headline in bold type, larger than the body text, which should be 10 or 12 pt.

292 Note the press contact’s name, address, email and telephone numbers 293 Begin the body text with “For Immediate Release” of “For Release on___” 294 Include the date 295 Paragraph one: The big idea or announcement in a couple of sentences.

If it sounds like an advertisement, and you can’t make it into bonafide news, stop here and wait until you do have news.

296 Paragraph two: Details related to paragraph one, including the benefit or good news 297 Paragraph three: Additional details if you need them.

It’s better to be succinct than too detailed.

298 Paragraph 4: Information about the company and the website 299 The end, signified by ### Most news releases can be sent online to targeted publications, sites and online wire services.

New York online affiliate business Marketing through Blogging We’ve all seen blogs with obvious commercial messages.

They fool no one and annoy everybody so much they probably go out of their way to NOT buy the product or service the writer was pushing.

This is because the marketer violated the basic idea of blogging – sharing information, and opinions in an atmosphere of trust.

Bloggers build relationships and get to know one another as they discuss mutual interests, and give advice and opinions.

Anyone who wants a quick win, thinking they can convince a group of people they don’t know to do something they aren’t convinced is in their best interest is simply dreaming.

But if someone wants to have an influence on the members of a forum, they can possibly do so.

In selling terms, this is called working the relationship, not the transaction.

Find forums where your signature can include your website.

Learn about the forum and its participants.

Read pages and pages of entries.

See what’s been said, done, tried and discussed to death before you arrived, Understand the tone and see who the authorities are.

Ask a few relevant questions.

Comment on something if you have something substantive to say.

If you feel you have something worthwhile to share, do so, once a week or once every few days.

Don’t start suggesting solutions until you really understand the problems.

After a while you’ll be considered a regular with good ideas.

You will have earned trust and added value.

People will begin to recognize your name, and some will click on your website to see what it is that you do.

This will be the beginning of a relationship – and people buy from those they know and trust.

Increasing the Value of Each New York online affiliate business Sale Restaurants have perfected the art of upselling, making you happy you ordered more than you ever planned—a little appetizer, a special salad, the to-die-for dessert.

And it doesn’t work just because liquor is involved! People want all that and they’re in an environment that pre-disposes them to ordering it.

Many times customers don’t at all feel as if they’re being pressured or oversold if, and only if, what you’ve presented to them as an option is something they really want, need or didn’t know existed.

As an New York online affiliate business you have created the environment where people learn about a subject, and buy related wholesale products, often based upon your recommendation or evaluation.

You are invaluable to your merchant partners because you try their wholesale products, and pre-sell them by writing product reviews, comparisons and articles.

You also can play a valuable role in helping to upgrade sales and in selling add-ons and accessories.

By this I don’t mean pushing things people don’t want or need – no hard selling.

You’re in a position to know the unmet needs of your target group.

You hear about their frustrations and the things that work well for them.

You probably have verbatim quotes from other visitors who’ve solved a problem that others are now facing.

You can be a part of a solution sell, having just the right thing available when people are predisposed to buying it.

For instance, several states are instituting hands-free cell phone laws.

If you do articles and reviews you will be able to direct cell phone users, (even those in the states that do not mandate hands-free), to buy an earbud and microphone, based upon safety concerns.

By upselling, you’ve both made an sale and provided a valuable service.

Easy Does It – Why Scream At New York online affiliate business Customers? Anyone who has clicked on an online ad, particularly mini-sites for e-books and other information wholesale products, knows what screaming online means.

Capital letters.

Lots of yellow and red, repetition and teasers.

But they have your interest and you keep reading.

You start out feeling you need this information.

You sign up for the free newsletter.

After the third or forth page, you feel the fatigue setting in despite the zinging exclamation points.

Through glazed eyes, with your last ounce of strength, you click the little “x” box and escape the frenzy.

What was all that, and why was it so painful? You really wanted the information, and understand that the seller needs to convince and differentiate his product from all the others, but why does his site resemble a hawker at a bazaar? Many online sellers feel that this is the only way they can get your attention.

They’ve been told that capital letters and ridiculous densities of key words, key phrases and secondary keywords will jump them forward in the search engines.

In truth, these practices will help a little, but content is king, and their sites are usually just hype and sales letters.

They forget one big thing: Search engines don’t take out their credit cards and pay for wholesale products, people do.

So try writing for real people.

People who read sentences not headline after headline.

People who want to know real facts about your product in order to make a decision.

If you’re selling an e-book, give us a few excerpts.

Tell us something useful we can use right now, and promise more.

If you have a product, give us reviews by real people and verifiable experts.

We’re here and we’re ready, just not for any more screaming.

Spam Filters and Your Opt-In New York online affiliate business Email Program It’s a sad fact for affiliates with ezines and newsletters that spam filters are on the attack – keeping so many of their messages from reaching their opt-in email list.

What can an New York online affiliate business website manager do? - The obvious – never send anything without an invitation and a confirmation in the form of a double opt-in.

300 When you ask for an email from an individual signing up for your newsletter, ask for an email that’s not a free one.

Very often, free sites severely limit the size of files that can be received, and falsely identify legitimate emails and attachments as spam.

301 Don’t use the words such as fr*ee, pro*it, or any other of the buzzwords you see in the headlines of spammers’ email.

Some filters also block the html codes for bright colors in combination with dubious terms.

302 Ask subscribers to include your website in their address book, so your newsletter will be recognized as friendly email when it is received.

303 Include links to the site of the email text so there’s an alternative way for your subscribers to get to your information.

304 Consider an RSS feed, as it is not email dependent.

305 Tell subscribers what the title of your emails will contain and standardize them.

Some spam detection and eradication programs require a user to click on offending emails to designate them as spam Once they have done so, the address and the company, product and service names included in the email are captured.

Future emails including these words are blocked.

Thin Affiliates Being thin may have its advantages offline, but online it’s a dirty word.

Google gives a rating of “offensive” to thin affiliates, the ones that simply duplicate other sites send traffic to the second site, earning New York online affiliate business commissions with no value added content or services.

If a site isn’t unique or helpful and just acts as a middleman, adding nothing to the buyer’s decision process or the sales process, it is called a thin New York online affiliate business or an New York online affiliate business doorway.

What do thin affiliates do that put them on the bad side of Google….

and what Should you NOT put on your site? 306 Links overwhelmingly pointing to one New York online affiliate business merchant – it begs the question, why not just go there first? 307 Images located exclusively on another site 308 Pages of almost zero content that house PPC ads 309 New York online affiliate business merchant data feeds 310 Hidden links 311 Keyword stuffing for search engine bots, with text no human could comprehend 312 Hidden text – such as white text on a white background, loaded up with keywords 313 Content or images displayed only on pop-ups 314 Ads displayed to look like search engine results The bottom line is that if you are considering anything that will have the effect of looking different than it is, easily misleading someone, technically tricking search engines, or profiting on the back of someone else, forget it.

You do so at your own peril and the peril of your site.

This isn’t the wild west anymore.

Legitimate companies base their livelihood on fair and honest dealings on the web, and those who don’t subscribe to honest practices will be left in the dust.

Affiliates: Wake up to the power of Viral Marketing What better way to convince someone to buy a product or service than to have their friend recommend it? Viral marketing is a way of passing along a marketing message from person to person.

It depends upon a large percentage of people receiving a message passing it along to others.

The benefit attached to the message is often in the form of a freebie or some valuable information, identified by a product name or brand.

Viral marketing can be thought of as the word of mouth of the internet.

It is based on the principal of one person forwarding a message on to several others who do the same to several others, and so on.

As long as recipients continue sending the message to several friends, the growth in awareness is rapid.

One of the first Internet-based viral marketing campaigns was for free email from Hotmail.

Every email sent included a tagline about the benefits of Hotmail, causing an almost exponential increase in brand awareness and subsequent use.

Because email based viral marketing messages can look like spam and be deleted by the sender’s friends, many sites now have “send to a friend” options that open a dialogue box and email address box.

Senders emails populate the “from” box and the friend fills in the “To” box with the address of a friend or friends.

They can usually personalize the message or use the default that indicates that the sender thought the addressee would enjoy the information attached.

A site that does this well is www.

highbeam.

com , a research service that allows subscribers to send copies of articles to friends they feel would be interested in them.

The friend gets something of value, a sample of the service targeted to his exact interests.

Writing Effective New York online affiliate business Emails Once you’ve built an email list of subscribers, one that has agreed to receive newsletters and other focused communications from you, it’s time to write an informative letter to them, proposing a product or service that will meet unmet needs you have learned they have, or would be likely to have.

How do you start? 315 Headlines should show a benefit to them – that as an expert, you’ll provide a solution to problems you know your niche group is facing, that you’ll teach them something or save them time or frustration.

For instance, “Success tips and tricks for installing XYZ software” rather than “Get XYZ running and making you $$$$$ fast!” .

316 Address the email to a person, using their first name.

You’re acknowledging that they’re part of your group, and it’s a warmer more familiar beginning.

317 Tell them right up front what the email is about – recommending a specific product or service that you feel they’ll enjoy, that they’ll need or want, based upon what you know of your site visitors.

Directness counts.

If they aren’t interested, they’ll still understand why you sent the email and be glad you didn’t waste their time.

318 Tell them if you’ve used the product or service, or if you created it, why you did so.

Tell them how it solved a problem.

If you wouldn’t sell it to your sister, don’t try selling it to them.

You want longevity and that means selling quality and not overstating benefits.

319 Use short sentences, and partial sentences.

Keep it conversational, and when you’re done, wrap it up and say no more.

320 Try differing styles of emails, perhaps one with a formalized product review.

See what works for your specialized audience, and keep perfecting it.

Holidays and the New York online affiliate business Site Some New York online affiliate business sites lend themselves to holiday celebrations and promotions, and the holiday spirit does wonders for New York online affiliate business sales.

This isn’t just true of the traditional holidays, but the many lesser known holidays, such as National Clean Out Your Computer Day, the second Tuesday of February, referenced on the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) Chicago-area site at http://www.

napo-chicago.

org/holidaysandevents.

asp.

Also, have you noticed how Google dresses up its logo with holiday themes throughout the year? It sets you up to feel that today is different with new opportunities – all waiting at the end of a search.

It’s easy to build events, online and offline, around holidays.

Contests for the best of and the worst of, as well as articles, photos, advice from professionals, and discussions all lend themselves to holiday themes.

If you pick a holiday related to the theme of your site, visitors will have their own stories and advice to share.

Holidays are also a way to feature related but new and different merchandise offered for sale by merchant partners.

For federally recognized holidays, some wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants will offer special banners for use during a certain period of time.

Others will have discounts and specials.

This gives you new opportunities for product features, reviews and comparisons.

For instance, for the clean out your computer holiday, a site focused on small business office issues could review scanners, key fob storage devices, shredders, spyware blockers, file organizing software, web-based storage, books and electronic devices, to name a few.

These create solution sales in the context of a larger subject – and it’s what sets you apart in online sales.

New York online affiliate business Autoresponders Every online New York online affiliate business or other online seller knows the value of an opt-in email list.

These are your most valuable prospects and customers.

People who want to hear from you and are willing to spend their time reading what you have to say.

So, you’ve attracted people to your site and they’ve signed up for your newsletter or ezine.

You automatically sent them an email asking the they confirm that they want to receive emails from you.

This is a double opt-in, that protects both of you, in case someone other than the recipient added their email to your list.

They don’t need unsolicited emails and will consider them spam, and you don’t need an email list cluttered with unqualified names.

Unless and until they opt-out, (you must put a way to do so on every email), you regularly send them information of value, along with opportunities to buy related wholesale products or services.

Just be sure to do a few things.

Be sure to include information of real value in every email.

Give readers facts, sources, tips, industry insider updates.

Make them feel a part of a special group.

And tell site visitors upfront of the frequency of your emails, ezine or newsletter.

There’s a difference between being informed and being bombarded, and many emailers don’t seem to know the difference.

If you think daily is good, think long and hard.

What’s the rush? Can’t you put all the information together and provide a more useful communication weekly? Or even monthly? Once the novelty wears off, most people won’t have the time to open such frequent communications.

First they’ll just stop reading, then comes the opt-out, and you’ve lost a qualified buyer.

Think through your strategy.

Just because you can easily send something doesn’t mean you should.

Using Wordtracker to Find the Best New York online affiliate business Keywords The benefit is clear – an optimized web page will get you much higher placement in the search listings.

But how can you choose the best keywords and key phrases? Guessing doesn’t work well, but what process does? Software that helps you identify the universe of keywords relevant to your site by identifying the keywords used by your competitors.

The next step in the process is to see how many people used each of these terms in a search.

This is compared to the number of sites that contain the keywords.

One program, called Wordtracker performs this calculation, and helps you identify the number of searchers and the number of sites containing the keyword.

Wordtracker can help you identify niche keywords you may never have thought of.

It tells you the exact terms used by your customers and prospects to find wholesale products, services and information.

Some of these words are used only a small number of times on competitors’ sites.

But if actual search statistics indicate that they’re used by a reasonable number of individuals in searches, you’ve found a way to reach your market with less competition.

Once you’ve mastered the basics of a Wordtracker search, and you’ve observed or polled your customers about their buying behavior, more possibilities for word research will be apparent.

For instance, if you sell binoculars, and you know most of your site visitors use them for bird watching.

You may enter into Wordtracker terms such as migrating birds, or fall migration.

You’ll then have an entire new set of keyword possibilities to consider and evaluate from a competitive perspective.

The more you use it, the more possibilities appear.

Google’s Toolbar And Your New York online affiliate business Site You no longer have to be on the Google site to access the Google toolbar.

Your site visitors can download the Toolbar and have a search box, connected to their browser, so they can find whatever they want on the web – at any time when they’re on your site or any other.

Among its many features are an automatic spellchecker that detects and corrects typos made in online forms, and autolink that creates a link to an online map from an address on a web page.

Other features include the translation of words on English language web pages to another language, the highlighting of search terms, and the great favorite of those who don’t use them for marketing – a pop-up blocker.

New York online affiliate business sites need to consider how their visitors may use their site differently if they have loaded the toolbar.

For instance, should you have more information and product direct links so visitors will only be one back click away from your site? It’s also incentive to do better in the Google search engine, because a feature called Page Rank Display tells the visitor how Google ranks the importance of the page they’re on – your site! A feature of the Toolbar that may make sense for New York online affiliate business site visitors is autofill.

To use this feature, the site visitor enters all his contact and credit card information into a password protected area only once, and uses the autofill to populate shopping cards of online wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants.

And the SpellCheck feature of the Toolbar finds and corrects spelling mistakes whenever the user types into web forms, including discussion forums.

Suggesting it to your bloggers would be a way increase readability! Instant Messaging Opt-Ins For Affiliates Affiliates who have earned the trust of their site visitors generally have built an opt-in email list for the distribution of newsletters.

But it’s not easy to prepare a full newsletter on a regular basis.

And sometimes it makes sense to send a quick message to all or part of your mailing list, reporting some news, a special or an update on a timely matter.

Sending an instant message is an option, if you set your site up to do it.

In your next newsletter, ask for the IM addresses of your subscribers, and tell them exactly how you will use them.

Many site visitors will have instant messaging set up with one of a number of providers, including AOL, MSN and Yahoo.

Because the programs for each do not easily interoperate, software has been developed by a number of companies such as Trillian, Everybuddy and Jabber to give the New York online affiliate business sending a message the ability to issue the message once for distribution to members of the various systems.

Instant message services are set up with a mechanism that detects whether a recipient is online, and allows the recipient to read the message as it is typed.

Alternatively, the recipient’s IM mailbox can hold a message for someone who isn’t online.

With the increase in broadband connections, using IM is a highly efficient way to reach loyal and interested site visitors.

If you decide to use IM, do so sparingly and judiciously, as a way to keep close to your site visitors and give them a quick way to respond to you.

Multi-Tier New York online affiliate business Programs Multi-tier New York online affiliate business marketing programs give affiliates the ability to earn commissions on their direct sales as well as the sales of other affiliates they direct to the merchant.

They are promoted as a way for affiliates to earn additional money without generating additional sales through their sites or adding additional merchant companies.

Who does this make sense for? Affiliates who are willing and able to research the companies offering such programs.

Unfortunately, this type of company uses the same business model as the old offline Multi-Level Marketing companies, which turned some participants off because they were stuck with inventory of a product they were not prepared to sell and the buyers didn’t care to buy.

That said, online programs are different.

The sellers hold no inventory, and therefore assume no risk if the product doesn’t move.

They get also get a percentage of the sales of other affiliates they introduce to the program.

But you want to be sure that every New York online affiliate business you add to your program and feature on your valuable site real estate will earn its keep.

How should you check them out? 321 Buy some of the product, and honestly see if it is of the quality your site visitors would expect.

Is it unique, better or cheaper? 322 Understand why this company would need to pay you to recruit more affiliates.

Are they very small, without the administrative and sales staff to do New York online affiliate business recruiting? Or does convincing an New York online affiliate business to sell their wholesale products take so much effort that it’s not cost effective? 323 Do they pay you for new New York online affiliate business sign-ups, or just the commission on the sales they make? 324 What extra administrative work will such a program bring you, if any? 325 Can you refer them to other affiliates that aren’t in competition with you, or are your relationships primarily in your own space, potentially diluting the sales you’d make? Tutorials on the New York online affiliate business Site The best way to create great alliances is to give without worrying about instantly getting back.

This is true for New York online affiliate business relationships, just as it is for everything from networking to lifelong friendships.

New York online affiliate business sites grow stronger as they add advice, how-to’s and other information site visitors demand.

Sometimes people have a need to learn something relating to the subject matter of your site, and there’s no good source for them to reference.

Tutorials are the answer, and a great opportunity for affiliates to show their level of expertise in a subject, while providing real value to their site visitors.

A tutorial doesn’t need to be lengthy or to cover a broad topic, it just needs to be a hands-on explanation of something site visitors are having trouble doing without help.

How to’s explain processes, such as how to fix a hole in a gutter with waterproof putty.

Tips are one-liners about how to do something or do something better, such as using hair spray to get ink off a blouse.

Tutorials are step-by-step processes for accomplishing a task.

For instance, every step required to create a PDF file using a particular version of PDF creator software.

They promise that if you follow the formula, you will have success in the process.

The bad thing about tutorials is that they take time, precision and careful review for quality control.

The great thing about them is that few sites provide them, so your site will stand out.

And if you find a great demand for them in your field, you may have the beginnings of a longer ebook you can sell on your site.

Loyalty, Credibility and Conversion in New York online affiliate business Business Conversions – they’re a crucial factor in New York online affiliate business sales.

While it’s good to have wonderful, informative content and an environment where your site visitors share ideas and information, you’re most likely in this for the economic benefit.

And that means you need not only to interest visitors in the site’s New York online affiliate business wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants, but do all in your power to see that the sale is completed.

Here are a few ways to help the conversion rate of sales – the percentage of qualified buyers who began the sales process who ultimately complete the sale: 326 Before signing up a merchant, be sure that the wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants is offering wholesale products that are appropriate for and desired by your visitors, and that the actual wholesale products are of high quality.

327 Prepare product reviews and comparisons for your site that help the visitor learn about the product category as well as individual wholesale products and their attributes.

328 Get site visitors to contribute product reviews as well as reviews of their sales experience.

Post them and use them to identify patterns and trends, both good and bad, with your New York online affiliate business wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants.

329 Don’t be shy in contacting wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants whose sales practices have been called into question by your visitors.

If they are serious about their business, they’ll want to make positive changes – they have many other customers who will be likely to have the same reaction.

330 Make sure the links to wholesale products are on pages with highly relevant articles, reviews and information.

331 Ask questions and test their shipping with special requests 332 Go through the merchant’s checkout process yourself and see if it’s onerous or straightforward.

If you’d drop off before seeing the words “sale confirmed”, it’s likely they will too.

Affiliates and Customer Service Affiliates spend a lot of time and money creating a special environment and information for their site visitors.

But sometimes things go wrong.

A visitor was dissatisfied with a product you sold, or it was damaged in shipping.

Someone isn’t receiving your mail newsletter.

A visitor had a terrible experience with one of your merchant partners.

They took your advice and it didn’t work for them.

The way you react to problems and complaints will make a big difference in your visitor’s loyalty to your site.

What can you do? 333 Act swiftly.

Be sure you have someone monitoring the customer service and info email boxes several times a day even if you’re just beginning and only serving a small number of visitors.

Larger companies should continually monitor for problems, and the largest should consider instant messaging for complaints.

334 In almost all cases apologize immediately and take immediate steps to correct the matter.

It takes so long to acquire a loyal visitor, and so little time for him to move on if he feels slighted.

There are too many perceived alternatives.

So replace, repair, rebound or refund fast! 335 Send a follow-up email to see if the situation was resolved to the individual’s satisfaction.

Depending upon the nature of your site, you may also include a freebie or a discount on a future product.

Superior handling of problem can even work to your advantage.

Your site visitor may feel he’s learned more about you, and likes what he sees.

You’re one step further in solidifying your relationship.

Ad Tracking for Affiliates Experienced affiliates know that focusing their campaign properly can make the difference between earning a little and a lot of money.

And it’s impossible to focus a campaign properly without detailed information.

This kind of information comes from a program called an ad tracker.

You can buy and install a program to track ads or use a service to gather the results for you.

An ad tracker is software that gives you the ability to catalog all the clicks made on your site that resulted in a link to a merchant site.

These can be pay-for-performance New York online affiliate business programs, pay-per-click, or even programs that rely on pop-ups or pop-unders.

You can even track links to wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants that you have placed in emails, ezines and online newsletters.

By using ad tracking, you will be able to tell exactly where you placed the link that resulted in a click-through to a merchant – on your site or off.

The software will help you in deciding which vendors are more productive than others, and give you the ability to make changes on a regular basis.

You can tell which pages of your site work better than others, and you can even experiment with locating banner or other ads on different portions of a page.

Since advertising began, in the offline world, advertisers have wanted better ways of determining what is working and what isn’t.

Huge sums of money have been spent and opportunities lost because nobody knew what was working and what wasn’t.

Now, as an New York online affiliate business you have the ability to proactively tweak and manage and get the most profit from your site – use it often and well.

The New York online affiliate business Website: How Important Is “About Us?” In the New York online affiliate business world, developing a website that focuses upon the needs of a niche is, of course, key.

First, you’re passionate about the subject and then you create a rich site, full of what your visitors want – articles, reviews, directories, comparisons, instructions, blogs.

By virtue of the fact that you’re serving the needs of this niche group, it’s likely that you’ll become regarded as an expert on the site’s subject.

You write the information and answer the visitors questions, and, based upon their visits and purchases from your merchant partners, they seem pretty happy.

But how can you create an even greater bond with your audience? With an “about us” section written in the same tone as the rest of the site.

Tell the site visitors why you are qualified to run this site and be an arbiter of what they see and do on it.

Go into detail about your background (no names on those scathing company tales!) and how it relates to the site.

How you came to running the site.

What useful or awful lessons you learned about yourself and running a site in your journey to get to today.

Go into detail about any partners or employees you may have, and if there’s a company pet, offer up the how, why and name, and official duties.

People need to know the credentials of the people who are furnishing them with information, with as many details and nuances as you’re comfortable with, without giving anyone confidential information that could lead to identity theft.

This is one more way you can personalize the site, make people feel a part of a group, and give them confidence that they’re in great authoritative company.

Speaking and New York online affiliate business Experts There are only so many sites in your New York online affiliate business niche that will be considered “expert” sites.

So you need to work on all fronts in gaining recognition and staying highly visible to your target visitor group.

One good way is to be a speaker.

Once you’ve created and managed an New York online affiliate business site, you know so much more than you realize.

Think about where your level of knowledge is versus last year.

Think of the alliances you could make if you share your knowledge.

In the beginning you will probably be asked to speak for free.

Do so and seek out other opportunities.

For every organization that asks you, there are many more that are similar.

Offer your self up at client events, merchant forums, and New York online affiliate business management Manhattan conferences, as well as meetings of specialty groups your niche site visitors attend.

Hone your repertoire down to a few subject areas that you know well and can keep up-to-the minute on, get experience, and send out online and offline press releases.

You’ll be able to reprint your speeches on your site, expand the topics to Q & A, ezines and your newsletter.

Your name will begin to be recognized, and you’ll need to take very opportunity to reinforce your status as an expert.

Get your material printed on related sites that don’t compete with you.

Put together an ebook, perhaps in serial form.

Once you have the word “author” after your name, you’ll have an easier time charging for speaking, because you can be billed as a super expert.

Then you’ll be in the enviable position of being paid to promote your site! 336 337 338 New York online affiliate business Networking Any business of your own can, at times, be a lonely place.

You don’t always have perspective, never mind all the answers.

Just as offline business owners do, affiliates need to have sounding boards for ideas, problems, questions and just plain encouragement.

Who can you go to, besides to your friends, spouse, or colleagues from a prior business who alternate between being jealous of your freedom and incredulous at the risks they think you are taking? Venture out and spend some time with people who can broaden your perspective: 339 Go to New York online affiliate business Manhattan conferences where you can make contacts who understand your business model, but don’t compete in your space.

340 Attend local and regional business meetings in your area of technical specialty, in the subject of your niche site, or in a totally unrelated industry to see how they approach things.

341 Strike up a business friendship with wholesale, closeout, and retail merchants with whom you do business.

New York online affiliate business network contacts are great sources of information, but they’re very busy so don’t expect to chat—ask specific questions, or better yet, offer information that’s constructive.

342 See what’s new at Manhattan conferences of businesses in your industry.

Don’t be shy about striking up conversations with speakers and other attendees.

343 Read offline ecommerce magazines to keep up with the news and identify people you’d like to partner with in the future.

344 Participate in online communities with information, communication and collaboration by fellow New York online affiliate business marketers.

A few sites of this type are: www.

affiliateforum.

com , www.

affiliatecommunity.

com , www.

abestweb.

com 345 and www.

associateprograms.

com