• New affiliate program
• How to Use Viral Marketing for Online Profit
• Writing reviews equal free links

In WEBmarketingcues newsletter, I cover the many aspects of website marketing. Today I have an article on viral marketing, a cheap marketing strategy that is so effective.

I also share with you my affiliate marketing strategy: two programs to meet different needs. And to conclude, take advantage of two opportunities of free links to boost your search engine ranking and affiliate sales.

Hope you enjoy the newsletter,

Henriette

Good news! I have a new affiliate program for my ebook

Those of you who are already selling my products would know that ClixGalore is my existing affiliate program. A picture of my book or a banner on your website linking to my product information page attracts 25% commission on sales. Customers pay in Australian dollars and affiliates are paid in AU$ or US$. Unfortunately, I had a few fraud attempts so I now process each order manually. It’s OK for customers who can wait 24 hours before the order is processed, but unsatisfactory for customers who buy an ebook to take advantage of cyberspace prompt deliveries. They want their ebook now, with no delay.

For this reason, I’ve joined ClickBank, an affiliate program specialising in digital products e.g. ebooks. ClickBank processes credit card payments in real time. This enables customers to download instantaneously their ebook. Technology at its best. Within a few minutes, customers can start to view web examples and implement some of the 200 best marketing website ideas. ClickBank sales are in US$ and attract 50% affiliate commission.

Both programs have their respective sales pages to avoid confusion. Compare the sales pages: ClickBank and ClixGalore. Similar content but different location.

To help affiliates, I’ve added a review of my book/ebook on my ‘Join our affiliate program’ page. Edit and personalise the sample review to suit your target market. The affiliates that sell most are those who read the book/ebook and can recommend it personally to their loyal subscribers or clients. There is nothing like viral marketing (word of mouth).

By the way, I have no objection that you use your affiliate link and receive a commission on your own purchases.
 

by Daegan Smith

When Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith founded Hotmail.com they promoted it with a simple idea they called “Word of computer” advertising. Every message sent by a subscriber had a one-line promotional message attached….”Get Your Private, Free E-mail from Hotmail at www.hotmail.com”. Within the first 18 months of business they claimed 12 million sign-ups to their service… more than what CNN and AOL could garner in the same time period. With a cost per acquisition of just 4 cents this was a resounding success and a brilliant use of Viral Marketing Technique.

Viral marketing describes any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message’s exposure and influence. Like viruses, such strategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the message to thousands, to millions.

It is an extremely effective form of word-of-mouth online promotion strategy used for amazing success by web frontrunners like Hotmail and Bluemountain.com. For a home-based or small business, viral marketing is a smart and cost effective way to promote business and generate new sales leads. It is easy and fun.

The biggest benefit of viral marketing is that it helps you maintain a cost effective level of brand awareness at all times. It can reach beyond your target audience and mine for new leads; it creates a buzz around your products and services and provides accountability when tracked.

Also see: http://hackvan.com/pub/stig/etext/viral-marketing.html

Here are some tips for you to get your viral marketing campaign on the right track:

1. Have a great idea: Unless you have a really remarkable idea, it is going to be hard to get people interested in it; much less share it with others. A boring idea doesn’t get passed on. If you have a regular consumer product to sell and still want to use viral marketing, put on your creative hat and craft a promotional message that will make people want to pass it on to others.

 
2. Identify your core group: Your core group or “hive” is a group of people who share a common interest and talk to each other about it. The core group can also be called ‘agents’. These are the guys who will be responsible for sending your ‘virus’ ahead. If your product/idea/ service doesn’t move this group, it isn’t going to get any further.

 
3. Ease of use: Have you ever received an email with a mile long URL in it, asking to be sent to “15 people for a free gift”? if your answer is ‘yes’ then you know what I am talking about. Make it easy for your agents to tell their friends about your company. if they have to download pages of text or heavy graphics, they are more likely to hit the “delete” button and get out of there, fast!

 
4. Make it persistent: When you have built a sizeable community of converts, keep them happy. It is harder to go out and get new agents than making the existing ones work for you.

 
5. Referrals: A good way of utilizing viral marketing for your site is through referrals. If you are offering content or service, you can put up a “Tell a Friend” button that lets customers recommend products or Web pages via email to friends. Recommend-It and BigNoseBird.com are some of the sites that offer these services for free. These services allow you to keep track of those who recommend your site and the people they recommend it to.

Writing reviews equal free links

Free inbound link to increase your link popularity

Link popularity is one of the criteria used by search engines to determine your rank in search engine results. It is based on the number of incoming links from other websites. Those links are also called inbound links.

By increasing your inbound links, you can

1. Achieve a better search engine ranking. "External approval raises a page's ranking" says Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google.
2. Receive more visits from search engine spiders. This means that your site is more likely to be re-indexed frequently and remain in search engine databases.

Obtaining free inbound links is the difficult part.

This is my thank you gift to those who purchased my book/ebook: write a short book review (just a few lines) and I will publish it on my website with a hyperlink to your site. A free inbound link for your website. To benefit from this offer, go to http://www.marketingcues.com/addReview.htm. This inbound link will not necessary drive lots of traffic to your website but it is part of linking strategies to increase your search engine ranking.

Free affiliate link on affiliatescreen.com

Clay Mabbitt, manager of AffiliateScreen.com invites Marketing Cues affiliates to post a review of my affiliate program on his web page http://www.affiliatescreen.com/?fa=program.main&programs_id=854.

This is what he emailed to me:

“Programs that have been reviewed by visitors appear first in search results and generate the most traffic. If you have a newsletter for your affiliates, we encourage you to suggest to them visiting AffiliateScreen.com and posting a review of your program. We allow reviewers to include a link at the end of their reviews; this link can be to your affiliates' mini-site or even their direct affiliate link. A well-written review will generate pre-qualified traffic, and that's something that will increase profits for you and your affiliates!”

If you are a Marketing Cues affiliate, consider this opportunity: write a review (hopefully positive!) of my affiliate program, include your affiliate link and increase sales prospects.

To take advantage of this offer, join our affiliate program at http://www.marketingcues.com/affiliates.htm  and post your review at http://www.affiliatescreen.com/?fa=program.main&programs_id=854.

P.S. If you are looking for products to sell on your website or want to list your own affiliate program, I highly recommend www.affiliatescreen.com.

Feedback and suggestions are most welcome. Send to