Why You Should Twitter?

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BWMagic's Internet Marketing News!


Read This Newsletter Online:
http://www.bizwaremagic.blogspot.com




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Contents:

o Do You Twitter?

o My Biggest Affiliate Marketing Mistake

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o Do You Twitter?


I just had to do it! After hearing top online
marketers raving about Twitter and how good
it can be as a marketing tool - I had to take
a second look.

Personally, I don't use IM (Instant Messaging)
and at first I couldn't see the point of me using
Twitter. I heard about it a while back but dismissed
Twitter as a messaging tool for the college-set to
find the latest party.

But when John Reese and Willie Crawford started
singing Twitter's praises - I knew it was time to
join Twitter and see what all the fuss was about.

And Webpronews sealed the deal when they created
Twellow.com which is like a directory that allows
you to search all the people on Twitter. I had
no choice but to join and find out first-hand
what is going on here.

If you haven't heard of Twitter, you're probably
not alone, it is a relatively new program which
allows you to post short statements about what you're
doing at this very moment in time.

It was intended as a means for friends and family
to keep in contact and know exactly what they're
doing. Sort of IM (Instant Messaging) on steroids.

"Twitter is a free social messaging utility for
staying connected in real-time."

You can follow different people and see what they're
doing. Simple concept that works. Twitter is becoming
very popular very quick.

Of course, Internet Marketers pounced on the marketing
angle of this new vehicle... it is a great way to keep
in touch with other marketers and let them know about
any new projects or products you have on the go. It is
also a great way to draw attention to any new blog posts,
articles, ebooks... well you get the picture.

Twitter's strongest point, besides keeping in touch
with what's happening with your friends and colleagues,
is the SEO aspect - it is very SEO friendly.

The search engines love this kind of thing... even the
posts are only 140 characters long, which is easy to
display and index. It's current, it's relevant and it's
real people. Like blogs, using Twitter can be very
helpful at building links - as long as you don't
over do it.

Then there is the whole "list building" aspect to
Twitter... you're really building contacts which
will keep in touch with you and what you're doing.

Twitter is one marketing tool you can't iqnore,
as it becomes more and more popular - it will probably
become a great way of getting your message "out there".
Letting everyone know about your site, product, brand...
and of course about "you"!

Twitter is worth checking out. You can find it here:
http://www.twitter.com


Or my own Twitter url is here:
http://www.twitter.com/bizwaremagic


Darren Rowse has written an excellent piece on how
to use Twitter. You can find it here:

How To Use Twitter


o My Biggest Affiliate Marketing Mistake

We all make mistakes, here's my biggest mistake
I made with Affiliate Marketing... it has
cost me thousands of dollars over the years.

Don't let the same thing happen to you. Avoid
my faith.

Read more here:



My Biggest Mistake In Affiliate Marketing
(And HOW You Can Avoid It!)



We all make mistakes, it's a fact of life. It's no
big deal in the whole scheme of things as long as
we learn from our mistakes and move forward. The
same goes with affiliate marketing since everyone
will probably make mistakes at first, but as long
as you fix them, it's no big deal.

However, some mistakes are much more costly than
others and we are not just talking monetary costs.
These mistakes are the ones we only discover years
down the road after we have lost hundreds of
thousands of dollars and more importantly, wasted
valuable time doing something that was totally the
wrong way to do things.

Recently, one of my biggest mistakes in affiliate
marketing hit me front and center. Although I make
a very comfortable living as a full-time affiliate
marketer, this mistake has cost me significantly
over the years.

Perhaps a brief rundown of the common mistakes many
affiliate marketers make would prove helpful.

Some of these mistakes are:

- you forget to build a list

- you fail to track your affiliate links/traffic

- you don't develop your own unique selling position

- you link directly to your affiliate link instead
of going thru an interior keyworded page

- you ignore MSN and Yahoo

- you forget to diversify your affiliate products/networks

Plus, the one major mistake many beginning affiliate
marketers make: they try to sell products directly to
potential customers.

This is not the way to proceed on the Internet. You must
try to solve a problem first and then sell later. Most people
using the web want to solve a problem, anything from how to
lose 50 pounds to finding the right student laptop for
a son or daughter. They want help solving a problem first
and foremost. Your goal as an effective affiliate marketer
is to solve their problem for them... selling should always
come second or as a by-product of this whole interaction.

Help first - sell later.

By giving advice and help, you establish your credibility
and trust-worthiness with your potential prospect. It is
a win-win situation, they get valuable helpful information
to solve their problem and you end up with a sale or a
friend.

This whole idea of pre-selling is a very effective method
for affiliate marketing but is a common mistake many beginners
make or rather fail to do. So if you're just starting affiliate
marketing make sure it is not a mistake you're making.

But my biggest mistake had nothing to do with those
discussed above; from the get-go I was building my
lists, linking to keyworded interior pages, optimizing
for all the search engines, diversifying my affiliate
products/networks. Most importantly of all, I was "pre-selling"
by helping my potential customers with online guides,
e-courses, advice... and only selling as a fall-out
from all this online trust building. All these steps worked
wonders for my online marketing and my bank account...

However, I missed one key factor or element in my
affiliate marketing. I didn't "leverage my returns"
or rather I didn't max out what I could get from my affiliate
marketing efforts. I settled for what the affiliate networks
were offering... this ranged from 2-3% up to 50-70% commission
on a sale. All good money, considering all you had to
do was find the customer for the client/company and they
would handle all the rest such as order taking, delivery,
customer service... all you had to do was deliver the potential
customer to their affiliate link.

Let me explain further, for years I was satisfied with
this arrangement because it suited me to a "T". It gave
me an easy lifestyle anyone would envy: own boss, work
at home, automatic income while I slept. All you had to
do was deliver traffic to your affiliate links to earn
a comfortable income online - no headaches, no hassles
- just receive your countless checks each month. But there
was one problem, these were only one-time sales, i.e. most
affiliate sales thru the major affiliate networks like
Commission Junction, Linkshare, Shareasale... only paid
you commission once and that's it.

Now, why was that a problem? Well, in one of my niches
I was selling/promoting a service where I knew the customers
I were delivering would be long-term paying customers earning
those companies money for years to come... I was only getting
a one time sale and perhaps a bonus incentive if I worked
really hard.

My Biggest Affiliate Mistake

This was my biggest mistake: not going after long-term
residual affiliate income from the start. Like most affiliate
marketers, I concentrated all my marketing on getting that
one-time sale. I eventually realized my mistake and approached
the companies involved, a few even gave me private deals with
"residual income" for the life of the client. Now, which companies
do you think I will be concentrating most of my marketing efforts
on in the future?

But why stop there?

I could further leverage my affiliate income even more
by offering a "white label" or a co-branded service thru
my own website. It would greatly increase my share of
the sale and give me long-term revenue. I believe, this is
where many affiliate marketers drop the ball, they don't
fully explore "white label", "co-branded products", "full resell
rights", "back-end profits" and "residual income" when
they think of affiliate marketing.

Now some may argue this is more of a "hands-on" arrangement
and may involve more work on your part but the rewards
will be well worth it; for instead of getting a one time sale
you could be building long-term residual income for years
to come.

Likewise, you should try to "leverage your returns" when
picking affiliate products or programs to promote; if possible,
always go for those with residual income. Don't make the
mistake of settling for less, always check out the maximum
return you can get on your affiliate marketing. Investigate
special private deals or arrangements with your affiliate
partners and bargain for a bigger share of the pie.
Like me, you may be pleasantly surprised at the results.





...

The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous websites,
including two sites on Internet marketing. For more tips
on affiliate marketing try: Affiliate Marketing Guide
Or why not try these excellent free training manuals and videos:
Free Marketing Courses
Copyright © 2008 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed
if this resource box stays attached.













Kind Regards,

Titus