Tag Archives: Marketing

Email Marketing Tips for Affiliates and Entrepreneurs

Email Marketing Tips That Work

Email marketing is an excellent way to let people know who you are and what you have to offer them that will enable them to move closer to the goals they wish to achieve. When I am sending out emails to promote affiliate products I craft them in a way that will enhance the credibility of the product creator, share a story about the product and how it will be helpful, and also explain the bonus I am offering and why it is relevant to what I am promoting. Here are some email marketing tips for affiliates as well as online entrepreneurs.

Recently I took part in an affiliate contest where I was promoting a package that included twenty-five coaching lessons on getting started with internet marketing. It was originally written and created by Sean Mize, who had then sold a package of this and many other products to Dennis Becker and Barb Ling. I know all three of these people quite well and have for many years, so it made perfect sense to me to offer this to my community. I knew it would be confusing to explain, so I set about the process of sharing a little about Sean and how I had already gone through all twenty-five lessons when he first released them a few months earlier.

Over the course of three days I sent five very detailed emails. I decided to come from the perspective of someone wanting to teach internet marketing to others and shared how they could repurpose each of the lessons into their own coaching program. I referred to this as an “earn while you learn” strategy that could serve them very well.

When questions began coming in about this product and how it could be used it became clear to me that my audience wanted and needed training on how to use PLR in their businesses. So my bonus package included a training webinar the following week on exactly that – using PLR to build an online business. This is an example of how the situation dictates what you could offer that would be the most beneficial to those who will be receiving it.

Each day during the three day promotion I shared more information on how this product could solve the problem of not knowing how to get started as an online entrepreneur and the importance and value of being able to offer a coaching program that you owned the rights to. I included examples from some of the lessons and shared even more about how well they were prepared. I could vouch for the quality and validity of this program because I had gone through it myself, so credibility was not to be an issue.

As the sales kept rolling in I became more excited about the bonus webinar training I was going to be delivering the following week. I added more details of that in my final emails and even more people came aboard and purchased. I hope these email marketing tips in relation to affiliate marketing have been helpful.

And yes, I won Dennis and Barb’s affiliate contest!

Be sure to take a look at Affiliate Contest Secrets, a training I created to share with you how I have been able to consistently win affiliate contests since coming online over a decade ago.

I’m Connie Ragen Green and I work with new online entrepreneurs to help them get into profit as quickly as possible with information products, affiliate marketing, marketing for small businesses, blogging, authorship, and more. Download your Online Entrepreneur Blueprint and get started right away.

Email Marketing for New Entrepreneurs

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Email marketing is the preferred means of communication between those wishing to learn more about a topic and those providing this information. You may be surprised that I didn’t say that social media served this purpose, but the fact is that the social media experience is connected to down time from thinking about business and other important issues for the majority of people. When you want to connect directly with prospects and clients, do it with email.

I send out emails to my community anywhere from seven to ten times each week. This allows me to share a little about myself and what I am doing, as well as to let my people know what is available to them to help them to reach their online business goals. I may recommend my own or other people’s products, services, and courses, or to tell them about my latest blog post on a topic of interest to them. It is also a way to stay connected with people in order to build relationships over time.

Email Marketing: When Do You Begin?

Begin your email marketing campaigns as soon as you have even one person on your list. This is an activity that takes some time to master, so there is no time like the present to jump right in. I began sending email messages to my list when there were only about a dozen people and this gave me the practice and the experience for when more people joined. By the time I had a hundred people I was already accustomed to staying in touch regularly. And remember that people join your list by choice and may unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the link at the bottom of your message. This is in accordance with the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, signed into law by then President George W. Bush on December 16, 2003, establishes the United States’ first national standards for the sending of commercial e-mail and requires the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to enforce its provisions.

My emails tend to be about two to three hundred words in length, and I break this up into about a half dozen short, narrow paragraphs. My goal is for people to not be forced to scroll and to be able to easily read my messages on any device they are using. I want the user experience to be a positive one for them. I also include at least two clickable links within each email I send out.

Even though some people in the online marketing community strongly believe that email will soon go by the wayside, many of us still have faith in this system. And there are no viable alternatives available at this point in time. I only want to receive text messages from friends, family, and some retailers, and social media is not the best way to share information with your community for a variety of reasons. Email marketing works and I would encourage you to learn more about this today. I offer my Really Simple Email Marketing training course both live and in Home Study and would love to have you come aboard.

I’m Connie Ragen Green and I’ve been an online entrepreneur since 2006. If you are ready to get started on your journey to multiple streams of online income, visit my site at Online Entrepreneur Blueprint and download your complimentary training to get started today.

Podcast: Affiliate Marketing for New Entrepreneurs

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New Rules for Online Marketing It is estimated that about ninety percent of the people who get started online begin by choosing the business model of affiliate marketing. New entrepreneurs can get started in this way without having products of their own and by partnering with some of the most established names in their niche. I recommend this strategy as well.

In this podcast I go into great detail about getting started with affiliate marketing as your first stream of online income. Throughout this training I reference my latest Focus Guide on affiliate marketing. Download it here to follow along with what I am sharing. It will open up in a new window so that you may save it as an important resource for your business.

Affiliate marketing for new entrepreneurs is an excellent opportunity. As I enter my eleventh year as an entrepreneur I am more committed than ever to helping you succeed, and this is the way you can easily get started. Early on in my career as an online entrepreneur I earned the status of “super affiliate” and you can do the same thing if you are willing to put in the work and learn as much as you can. These are some of the topics I cover during this podcast:

First, let’s define exactly what I mean here. Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s (or company’s) products. You find a product you like, promote it to others, and earn a piece of the profit for each sale that you make.

I have always described affiliate marketing as recommending what you love in exchange for a commission on whatever is sold. I even wrote a bestselling book on this topic, entitled Huge Profits with Affiliate Marketing: How to Build an Online Empire by Recommending What You Love where I explain exactly how to do this successfully.

Knowing which products and courses to promote as an affiliate marketer needs careful consideration. When I was just getting started I was taught to choose the most popular products and those that paid the highest commissions. But that did not feel right to me, so I abandoned that advice in favor of the strategy I still use today. I only recommend the products and services I have used and benefited from. I continue to refer to this as “recommending what you love” and it has served me well over the past decade.

Knowing what an affiliate leaderboard in will help you to compete successfully in affiliate contests. Instead of focusing on just one affiliate contest at a time I now compete across several contests simultaneously for best results. This adds to your credibility and visibility and establishes you as more of an authority in your niche.

I also discuss how to handle affiliate refunds appropriately and why bonuses are so important. Both of these topics will be a part of your business as an affiliate marketer and will make a huge difference in your bottom line.

Promoting affiliate products requires you to get in front of the people who are most likely to be interested in what you are promoting. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways that I will share with you here.

Build a list of people who are interested in your topic
Blog about your topic and discuss affiliate products within your posts
Write reviews of the products you wish to promote on your blog
Add a “resources” page to your blog and include these products
Start a Facebook and/or LinkedIn group on your topic
Submit articles on your topic to sites like Medium and LinkedIn Pulse
Host your own webinars and teleseminars on your topic
Create short videos on your topic and add them to your YouTube channel
Start a podcast on your topic
Write a book on your topic

As you can see, the process of promoting affiliate products to others requires that you connect with people who are most likely to be interested in the topic of these products. Affiliate marketing for new entrepreneurs just makes sense. Be sure to visit the link below to listen to the audio version of this article.

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Affiliate Marketing and Social Media

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Do Affiliate Marketing and Social Media Fit Well Together?

Affiliate marketing and social media might seem to go together like peanut butter and chocolate – but do they really? Let’s explore the myths and the facts around promoting affiliate products on social media sites.

First of all, think about why you joined social media in the first place. Most likely it was to connect with your friends and family and to share photos, videos, and updates. You may have gone along this road for several years before you had the idea to get involved with affiliate marketing on some level. So you posted a link to the latest product or course or service and kept your fingers crossed that someone, anyone would click on your link and buy what you were promoting.

It probably didn’t turn out this way at all. Maybe friends and family members thought your social media profile had been hacked, or maybe they were offended that you would post such a thing. No matter what the outcome, you should not have been surprised.

So now let’s discuss the most effective way to use affiliate marketing and social media in unison. I like to think of this as starting a conversation around a topic of interest to many and then drilling down to a more focused discussion about something much more specific. Let’s use dogs as an example.

I own several little dogs (actually, they own me!) and I like to share photos of them on my Facebook page from time to time. It seems that most of my friends love small dogs because they are cute and sometimes act silly. So let’s say that I’d like to recommend a product on how to prepare natural, healthy food for your dog through my affiliate link.

Even though the majority of my Facebook friends are willing to “like” or even “love” my post about how my Yorkie is snoring once again, very few will be interested in cooking healthy meals for their dogs. But I believe that out of my almost five thousand friends there will be a small percentage who are interested, so I’m willing to go for it.

I start the conversation with a photo of my dog sleeping in her basket and make a comment about her snoring. As people begin to comment I gently turn the conversation towards the food I have been preparing for her. If even one person asks me a question about this or shares their own experience in this area, then I will add my link to the product and share why it is a worthwhile one to check out.

What is even more effective is if you create a Facebook page on your general topic and then make recommendations there over time. I would recommend making it breed specific and addressing the common concerns of owners of this breed. Then people who like that page would be good prospects for what you will promote. Does this make sense?

Social media and affiliate marketing can indeed be a good match when you approach it in a logical way where everyone benefits.

I’m Connie Ragen Green, online marketing strategist, bestselling author, and international speaker on the topics of entrepreneurship and inner game mind shifts. Let’s connect to see how I may best serve you in the near future. And please be sure to check out my Really Simple Affiliate Marketing training course. Affiliate marketing tips will help you to achieve the success you want and deserve. And be sure to pick up a copy of my bestselling book, Huge Profits with Affiliate Marketing: How to Build an Online Empire by Recommending What You Love.

Refunds in Affiliate Marketing: What Now?

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Affiliate marketing refunds are a natural part of this business model. You may be wondering what happens when someone asks for a refund for a product you have recommended and promoted. There are actually two answers to this question. The first one is that the platforms we all use to sell and track our sales have built in systems for handling refunds. Whether someone paid for a product with PayPal or using a credit card through a merchant account, the transaction can be reversed and everyone made whole again. That’s the legal term for this event, but it certainly does not tell the entire story.

First of all, you never, ever want to recommend a product or service from someone you are not familiar with. This is just good business sense, especially because we are doing business on the internet in a global environment. Also, if you have not purchased a product and used it yourself it doesn’t make sense that you ask others to do so. The only exception I make to this rule is if someone I have done business with online releases a new product, and then I am very likely to recommend this to my community because the vendor has already established their credibility and has a track record.

Another way I work to avoid affiliate marketing refunds is to offer a generous bonus to those who make their purchase through my affiliate link. This way people are far more likely to consume the product they purchased and to make use of my bonus as well. I make every effort to offer bonuses that make sense for the product I am recommending so that everyone benefits.

And if all else fails, I stand behind from I recommend and promote. I offer what I refer to as my “Green Seal of Approval”, meaning that I will give someone a refund if for any reason the product creator will not. This has only happened once since I became an online entrepreneur. No one I know has ever recommended that person’s products again, and that is how it should be. It’s kind of the way we filter out the people who come online and do not serve others. The online world is a small one, and no one is able to stay in business for long if they engage in practices that are not fair.

I hope this article has been helpful to you in understanding more of the affiliate marketing business model. I continue to earn about forty percent of my income as an affiliate marketer and love connecting with people who create the products and services that we can all benefit from. Over the years these relationships become even deeper, and some of these people are the ones I count as my close friends on the internet. Do not allow the fear of affiliate marketing refunds keep you from becoming someone who is willing to recommend and promote products and services to others.

Affiliate Marketing: What Should You Recommend?

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Affiliate Marketing for New Online Entrepreneurs

Knowing which products and courses to promote as an affiliate marketer needs careful consideration. When I was just getting started I was taught to choose the most popular products and those that paid the highest commissions. But that did not feel right to me, so I abandoned that advice in favor of the strategy I still use today. I only recommend the products and services I have used and benefited from. I refer to this as “recommending what you love” and it has served me well over the past decade with my affiliate marketing efforts.

When I work closely with new online entrepreneurs and I share this method of affiliate marketing, they ask me where to find these products and services. The answer is that exactly what you need is already stored securely on your hard drive or in your cloud storage. Go through your purchases and downloads to see what you have that you are using and getting real value from and that will be the start of your inventory.

These days I am inundated with emails from people who would like for me to recommend their products to my community. But seldom are these ones that I would share. I prefer to find valuable products, services, and courses organically, and to then go through them and implement what they have to offer. Then I can make a knowledgeable decision as to whether or not I will recommend them.

Also, remember that I make purchases almost every single day. But this does not mean that I will share them with others. I am at a different level in my business than most of the people on my list, so it would not be in their best interest if they were to make similar purchases. Instead, I’m always looking for simple and straightforward products that will help the people in my community to move forward in a logical way.

If you are on the product creation side of this equation, think about the target audience you are serving. Then look for the people who also serve the same or a similar market and approach them about promoting your products to their list. Many times I shake my head in disbelief when product creators approach me with something that my list and community would never be interested in hearing about from me. I often joke that most of my people could stand to drop a few pounds and love animals, but that doesn’t mean they would want to purchase products on weight loss or dog training from me. It isn’t how they think of me and not what they signed up for when they opted in to my list.

Choose the products and services that make the most sense for your market. Make sure you have purchased, used, and benefited from them first before recommending them to others. This advice will serve you well over time and just makes good sense for all affiliate marketers.

Affiliate Marketing Tips: Recommending What You Love

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Affiliate Marketing Tips: Recommending What You Love

When I made the decision to leave my teaching job and part-time real estate business to come online back in 2005, I had no idea how I was going to earn a living. Looking back I realize that I took a leap of faith and believed in myself and my ability to figure everything out in due time. But it was affiliate marketing that made my dreams turn into reality.

Think back to the last time someone asked you for a recommendation for a restaurant, movie, or anything else. More than likely you shared a story about whatever it was, along with some details that made the story more personal. The example I like to use is one in where I was walking one of my dogs and ran into my next door neighbors, Michael and Valerie. They wanted to go out for pizza and asked me if I could recommend a good place locally.

I proceeded to tell them a story about a place in the downtown section of our city. I told them to park in the lot in the back, to enter through the back door, and to ask for Joey once they were inside. If you ask Joey for a table near the front of this pizzaria you’ll be able to see other patrons coming in through the front door as well as the city lights once the sun goes down. Then I reminded them to ask for the garlic rolls slightly warmed up because they are so scrumptious. Valerie is a vegetarian, so I told them to look at those selections on the menu to get a half and half pizza. I also shared that asking the waiter to have the pizza prepared a little well done would make it even more mouth-watering and added that if they wanted to take whatever was left of their pizza home with them this restaurant would put it in a box that could go directly into the oven when they got home.

By this time Valerie and Michael are ready to go, their eyes wide and their mouths watering. I have recommended something that met their criteria (good pizza, close to home) and I have personalized it by sharing details about parking, where to sit, and the ambiance once they are there. I went above and beyond by providing bonus information about the warm garlic rolls, having the pizza extra well done, and the convenience of the box they could put in the oven if they took any of it home with them.

All of what I have shared with you here is crucial to successful affiliate marketing. Tips like these will make all of the difference in your level of success. Also, another point that might be the most important of them all is that the only reason I am able to recommend this restaurant in this way is that I have actually eaten there and had these experiences firsthand. My recommendation to you is to only tell others about products and services you have purchased, used, and benefited from personally.

Why a Marketing Calendar Makes Sense

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Marketing Calendar for Online Entrepreneurs

I learned early on as an online entrepreneur that I would need to be stay organized if I wanted to be effective as an internet marketer. This meant planning ahead as to what I would be recommending to my community in terms of my own and affiliate products, services, and courses. Instead of waking up each day and wondering what information, details, and links I would share, I would simply go to my marketing calendar and see what I had scheduled. This has turned out to work extremely well, has significantly increased my online productivity, and has also turned me into quite an effective marketer.

The idea here is to schedule out at least thirty days into the future, and preferably ninety days. I always leave some room for last minute promotions, but for the most part I work a quarter ahead when it comes to what I will be recommending in my daily emails and on social media. One glance at my marketing calendar makes this part of online entrepreneurship both simple and manageable. And if you travel as much as I do this strategy can work effectively to give you the time freedom and lifestyle you are working towards.

Long ago I had very few products of my own, so almost everything I shared was an affiliate offering. This meant that I had to know when new products would be launched so that I could be timely with what I would recommend. I also needed to decide which people and products I wanted to promote regularly over time. This demanded that I build relationships with people I did not know at all, which was uncomfortable for me. Once I moved out of my comfort zone with this everything began to fall into place.

These days I have almost sixty of my own products and courses, so the focus and goal is to make sure that I recommend my own digital inventory a majority of the time. I find that if I promote my own products approximately sixty percent of the time I can meet my financial goals quite easily each month. This also positions me as more of a credible authority in my niche market.

Along with this comes the need for me to reach out to those who will be my affiliates, and to make sure they have ongoing products and courses to recommend. This motivates and inspires me to create more digital products so that my affiliates are never without an opportunity to share what I am doing with their own list and community.

A marketing calendar makes sense for you even if you are new to the world of online marketing. Being able to look thirty to ninety days into the future and know what you will be promoting has its advantages. Even though many products will be evergreen, allowing you to include these links in blog posts and short reports, most of what you will share with your prospects and clients will be time sensitive. Make this marketing calendar system a part of your daily work and you will enjoy the best possible results in your online business.

Podcast: New Rules for Online Marketing 2017

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New Rules for Online Marketing Each year at this time I write about the “new rules” for small business owners and entrepreneurs in the new year. This year I thought I would share my thoughts and observations here with you, and the link to the audio version of this discussion is at the end of this article.

We have now welcomed the new year of 2017 and it’s time to take focused action in your life and business to ensure this is a year filled with success and prosperity. But first, think back to 2016. How would you sum it up, personally and professionally? Are you accepting full responsibility for both the positive and the negative events that occurred?

Let’s begin by tying up any lose ends from 2016. First, complete any projects that you intended on finishing, unless you have abandoned the idea or concept completely. Next, take the time to thank and acknowledge those who helped and supported you last year. Finally, write down your goals and plans for 2017 to give yourself a roadmap to guide you in the right direction every single day. Commit to reviewing these goals at least on a monthly basis.

Each new year brings with it new opportunities, as well as new challenges. As I enter my eleventh year as an entrepreneur I am more committed than ever to helping you succeed. Make sure you have positioned yourself for success by following the “new rules” for life and business. These are my suggestions for 2017.

1) Become a bookworm and read every day. Give yourself the gift of a business education through reading books that will make a difference in how you think about and approach business for the remainder of your life. Also, read books for pleasure and for spiritual enlightenment.

2) Set and achieve your goals and dreams. Decide exactly what you want from your life and business. Write down your ideas and goals for at least the first quarter of 2017 this week. Review these and update them regularly.

3) Focus on time management and productivity. Be selfish and greedy when it comes to spending your mental and physical energy with people and activities that do not serve you well and do not lead you to your goals. Every moment is precious!

4) Write every single day. Once I got myself into the habit of daily writing, my world expanded and my life changed forever as a result. Writing allows you to find your voice, shape your ideas, and share your message with the world.

5) Seek out opportunities to speak and present to others, both virtually and in person. Public speaking opens doors you previously could not have imagined were even a possibility for you. People need to hear and learn things from you.

6) Be willing to “up your game” for 2017. Do whatever it takes to accomplish your goals. We live in a global economy, filled with people who have a strong desire to share their perspective with the world. How can you approach a situation in a way that embraces this world view?

7) Embrace a ridiculous work ethic. Get up earlier, give up activities that simply pass the time, and reach for a level of accomplishment that scares you. Once you work hard and achieve success you will never be able to go back to the status quo.

8) Begin each day with the end in mind. What will you have accomplished fourteen to sixteen hours from the time you awoke? How will you get there?

9) Join a Mastermind group filled with people who are smarter and more successful than yourself. Get involved in conversations that expand your thinking and encourage you to take inspired actions towards your future.

As you can see, these “new rules” are direct and to the point. Any entrepreneur or small business owner can commit to working on these areas of their life and business very easily. Will you be one of them? Be sure to visit the link below to listen to the audio version of this article and to download your own study guide for reference.