subject: Branding -The Power Of You -Step #1:Your Own Website [print this page] Branding -The Power Of You -Step #1:Your Own Website
Internet Marketing,just like offline marketing is all about positioning,or branding your name(in the former case)online.
To put it another way:
97% of all Internet Marketers are failing,simply because they're doing it all wrong.The cart is before the horse.
Many think by joining some affiliate program and spreading their main affiliate link all over the Internet,the money is going to come pouring in from all across the globe.Well,it may,but only for the owner(until it's taken down,that is!)and the only list that gets built is the Affiliate Program owner's!
Secondly,selling instead of building one's list.
The way it should be done is:
Get a domain name -either your own name,2 keyword choices,product,or trade related.
Add a professionally designed' website,or template(at least).
Add an an autoresponder form
Add an Ezine,or Email series of 7 letters,or more
If you have Affiliate Programs you like,add their banners,or links to your OWN website.
Get a self-hosted word press blog and either add it to the same domain,or get another domain,perhaps in your own name.
Choose a product,or products to sell on your website.Maybe even invent some of your own.
This is what all the Big Guns do.
I'm sure you've been to one of their websites.You saw a page advertising ie: "Killer Traffic Secrets(I made the name up,but I may write it one day!)",which you had to enter your name and email address to get access to ,either via an email download link(after you confirmed your email address),or via a direct "thankyou page".
Three things happened:
A Sales funnel: some people won't give their details,so they leave the site.The Sales Funnel did its job.Interested parties did enter their details and if it required payment,did so.Maybe it also had banned domains.ie:no Aol,Hotmail,Yahoo,etc -that means: "FREEBIE SEEKERS aka: Tire-Kickers" need not apply!
You subscribed to their list.They sell to their list,repeatedly.
Their product links,affiliate links(if any)and their website(s) and blog links are in the Ebook that you downloaded.
To get back to the previous discussion,if one must go solely with Affiliate Programs alone,then at least use a Splashpage with a webform,an autoresponder and Ezine,the object being,of course to build your list,then develop a relationship with your list and sell to your list.However..read the next few lines..
Secondly,search engines DO NOT like affiliate links(because they're basically duplicate websites),or any other duplicate content,but,they love Websites and they really love Blogs,especially if the content is being constantly updated and that Blog is getting a lot of traffic.
Thirdly,studies have proven that Affiliate Programs sell much better on websites and blogs,again,one,for the reason I just stated,but also because visitors might have a better sense of theirpurpose.For example,marketers might not see the need for an autoresponder alone,but after realizing the importance of building their list,it might make more sense why they should never be without one!
