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Thanks for continuing to part two.
As we discussed in part one of this guide on conquering Clickbank as a beginner, the initial steps toward marketing a product are often the most important. When you’re deciding on a product, it’s easy to get locked up in the massive amount of choice available, and begin to focus on metrics that aren’t that useful to you. These simple strategies and ideas will help you pick products that convert, not products that waste your time. Remember, half of your work is in picking an viable product, and the other half is in marketing that product effectively. Don’t create more work for yourself by choosing something that puts you at a disadvantage from the start.
In order to pick a great product to market, you need to set some criteria that help you align your marketing ideas with the results that you want. If you need 100 conversions per month, there’s no point picking a product that sells low quantities. On the other hand, if you’re trying to build an income that’s based around occasional, and very lucrative one-time sales, it’s best to pick a product that can offer you hundreds of dollars per sale. Balancing commissions with your priorities is one of the most important parts of any Clickbank affiliate marketing strategy.
How do you do this? Look at two primary factors:
1. Check out the commission payout for the product.
2. Verify the average conversion rate for the landing/sales page.
When you’re marketing a product, you need to be aware of both, as they’re the variables that have the most control over your online sales success. Make sure that your project is ranked relatively high for both of those variables, as without them you’ll either have an unsteady commission income, or an income that comes steadily but pays very little money in total. The best products offer a combination of both factors, although it can sometimes be an intelligent strategy to combine the two variables through different products.
However, there’s a third factor that often goes ignored. That’s the enjoyment and passion factor. With so many marketers dead keen to jump on the latest trend and hot product, it can become difficult to align your affiliate marketing career with what’s truly important in your life. When you can combine your income with your passions and hobbies, then you’ll be much more successful and satisfied with your affiliate marketing career.
How do you do this? Find a product that you can easily see yourself buying. It doesn’t necessarily have to align completely with your interests, just present itself as something that you could see a use for personally. This achieves two massive benefits for you; it gives you a product that you’ll actually enjoy marketing, and it allows you to put yourself in the eyes of your customers. When you’re selling a product that you really love, you’ll put everything into making sure that it makes it.
Of course, as you’re learning the ropes about marketing other people’s products, you should be keeping an eye out for products that are needed that you can create yourself. When you start marketing your own products, your income will have a much greater potential.
To read part 1 of this article, check out the free Clickbank Starter Kit. Feel free to distribute this article in any form as long as you include this resource box. You can also include your affiliate link if you sign up at Clickbank Pirate.
Before we discuss the manifold virtues of Clickbank, let’s review the concept of Affiliate Marketing. Affiliate Marketing is an easy way to make money online selling other people’s products if you do not yet have any products of your own. Services such as Clickbank have an inventory of thousands of products in every conceivable niche. Clickbank takes care of collecting money, paying you reliably, and customer service. It is a signal service that you should take advantage of whether or not you have your own products. When you do develop products, you will also want to let Clickbank handle them for you so that you can get an army of affiliates to market for you.
Clickbank is one of the most popular and revolutionary online affiliate marketplaces. With options available for sellers, buyers, and affiliate marketers, it’s the go-to spot for budding affiliate marketers, online entrepreneurs, and experienced marketers alike.
If you’re new to the internet marketing field, it might come off as large, scary, and difficult to figure out. Don’t worry; Clickbank is relatively simple to understand when reduced to its core elements. With a basic understanding of Clickbank, it’s possible to turn your marketing enthusiasm into a massive, online income.
There are three primary goals for beginners:
1. learn how Clickbank commissions work.
2. figure out what products are worth selling.
3. learn how to market your Clickbank products effectively online.
The first step is learning the dynamics and fundamental ideas that drive Clickbank. When you’re a beginner, it can be all too easy to focus on the wrong metrics. Without a good understanding of Clickbank, you can fool yourself into thinking you’re picking better products than you really are.
Let’s start with the absolute basics: Registering an account on Clickbank is simple, and gaining access to the many products available is as simple as searching through the online product bank. Once you enter your search terms, you’ll be presented with a list of products that fit your criteria. You will also get a basic summary of the product’s statistics and specifications, and informational pages that describe the product. From here, go to the product’s sales page with supporting material to get a good feel for each item.
As a beginner, it’s best to look through the entire Clickbank marketplace in order to determine which products you’re most comfortable advertising. No matter what strikes your fancy, you’ll undoubtedly find that some of the products you’re most interested in aren’t hot sellers, or are massively competitive for the commission they offer.
The commission information for each product is displayed on its sales and information page. When you’re looking for information and incentives to market each product, look for the commission total, the average conversion rate, and the item’s popularity. High commission products don’t necessarily mean big money, as there are many other variables that you need to take into account when marketing a Clickbank product.
When you’re presented with thousands of different products to market, it becomes exponentially more difficult to decide on which one is actually right for you. Instead of focusing on whatever you can see, it’s best to set some criteria for the products that you want to promote to prevent you from wasting your time on products that aren’t worth the effort.
To read Part 2 of this article, check out the free Clickbank Starter Kit. Feel free to distribute this article in any form as long as you include this resource box. You can also include your affiliate link if you sign up at Clickbank Pirate.
 There is a lot to like in the slick new Palm Pre Plus. With the WebOS operating system, it is a radical departure from the Palm and WM operating systems of other familiar Palms. With the new OS, come some welcome and innovative features. This phone is only available through Verizon.
Perhaps the first thing to note is that this platform supports multiple applications being open at the same time. The home or launcher screens of the Palm Pre Plus (PPP) display all the available applications. In the beginning there are three screens, but more can be available as they fill up with launching icons. You can use the screens to organize your apps if you wish.
Navigation is accomplished by a set of gestures (tap, swipe, drag, flick, pinch) with the screen smoothly gliding and scrolling. It’s really a pleasure to use as there is not the slightest hesitation or sluggishness.
An upward finger gesture removes any open application from the screen and reduces it to a small card. You can rotate among all the open applications represented by small cards on the screen with the flick of a finger, which is very convenient.
A task bar across the bottom displays your favorite applications such as phone, contacts, messaging, calendar, and launcher. Even when not present, this bar can be dragged into view from the bottom of the screen for easy access.
   
The large 3.1 inch HVGA screen is a big improvement over some of the former Palms with a small screen that accommodate a keyboard. This Palm has a nifty vertical slide-out keyboard that does not interfere with the screen. What I like best about this KWERTY keyboard is that it is easy to use with one hand so you can text while you drive (just kidding).
With domed, discreet keys, the keypad is easy to use without making typos. Some keyboards I have tried lately are completely flat without individual key definition, which makes accurate typing difficult. My personal preference is a vertical keypad rather than a horizontal one. I just find it easier to use. The horizontal layout usually requires two hands to operate. I find this cumbersome in comparison.
I was a little surprised to find a three megapixel camera instead of five, which is common these days. But the pictures and videos are certainly sharp and clear, so no complaints really. It’s easy to attach a photo or video to an email or multimedia message. There is a nice LED flash too.
With a sleek, curvy design and rounded black body, this cuddly device feels good in your hand and weighs in just under five ounces. There are few visible external controls. On the top of the unit is a power switch top right with a ringer/vibrate on/off switch next to it. Top center is a 3.5 mm headphone jack. A volume control rocker switch is on the left side. A micro USB port is on the right side that serves for charging and syncing with a mother ship.
Other nice features include 3G connectivity, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS all built-in and ready to go. Another brilliant aspect of the PPP is that you can use it as a modem to connect up to five other devices wirelessly to a Wi-Fi network. See, I told you there was a lot to like.
But wait, there’s more. Web browsing is a pleasure as you flick and scroll, pinch and expand with your fingers. The system creates a screen displaying the most recently viewed Websites for easy future access, which a like a lot. You can even add your own favorites.
With the Doc application, you can view files in DOC, DOCX, TXT, XLS, XLSX, PPT, and PPTX formats. But you cannot create or edit any of these documents, which is most unfortunate. It also comes with a PDF document viewer.
I was disappointed not to be able to access all of my Outlook data from my desktop. To get around the contacts, calendar, and tasks problem, I simply used my Gmail account. I synced my calendar, contact, and task data from Outlook to Gmail and then imported these data into the Palm with no problems, and it became a non-issue.
The PPP uses a USB micro cable to connect to a desktop or laptop. When connected the unit will charge, and you can transfer files back and forth. However, there is no syncing as you would with a Windows Mobile device or with the Palm OS.
In an attractively designed box containing the Palm Pre Plus, you find a USB cable that can be plugged into a computer or directly into a wall charger that is also included. There are some quick start manuals and a nice velvety carrying case with orange accent.
Unlike the iPhone, there is a removable battery, which is a good thing. It is difficult to assess battery life, but it seems reasonable under normal conditions, and I have no complaints. The specs suggest 5.5 hours talk time and 350 hours standby.
Wish List
As a new platform, the PPP has some gaps to fill and some maturing to do to bring it up to the level of a workhorse productivity tool that I am accustomed to with a Windows Mobile device.
For instance, without seamlessly being able to create and manipulate documents that everyone uses everyday, it’s usefulness is limited.
I wish there were a way to hook up a Bluetooth remote keyboard for inputting efficiency while on the road or in meetings. I have grown accustomed to being able to travel without a laptop because my Windows Mobile device will perform all the functions of a laptop. The PPP does not have that kind of productivity yet.
I wish there were a more robust GPS program built-in. Yes, it is possible to use a minimal version of Google Maps for navigation, but it lacks all the features one finds on a Droid for instance such as voice commands and rerouting. However, the automatic photo geo-tagging feature is very nice. There is an application available for an extra $10 a month that will provide a more full-featured GPS experience, but all these monthly charges begin to add up quickly driving the price beyond what many would consider reasonable.
One function I miss sorely is the ability to display the handheld screen on my monitor so that I can type from my computer keyboard to input on the small screen as well as drag and drop files back and forth. I wish some enterprising developer would come up with such an application.
Frankly, there is a dearth of applications available for the WebOS platform. But this is not surprising as it is relatively new, and it takes time. As I understand it, the developer kit is very user friendly, so hopefully we will be seeing a flood of new apps soon.
One surprising and serious lack is that there is no word processing program, not even a note taking program available so far for the PPP. My solution has been to use Google tasks for list making, and Google Notebook for notes. There is a little sticky note Memo program that comes with the unit, but it’s not exactly what you would want to use to write a novel.
While there is a generous amount of memory available at 16 GB, I wish there were an expansion slot that could be used for photos, tunes, and videos.
Finally, I wish there were a way to record voice on this device. It seems inconceivable that there would not be, so let’s hope it appears in a future version. Look at how long it took for iPhone to get such features as cut and paste and video, and a host of other things that are still missing.
Conclusion
As I said in the beginning, there is a lot to like in the PPP. However, it is still in its infancy and has a way to go before it can be considered a heavy duty workhorse with all the productivity of a Windows Mobile device. I feel certain that these issues will go away as the platform matures and more applications and peripherals become available. For people who want a fun phone with some great, user friendly features, the PPP is an excellent choice. To tell you the truth, I have really grown fond of the little fellow.
Specs
Size
- Dimensions 3.96 x 2.34 x 0.67 inches (100.5 x 59.5 x 16.9 mm
- Weight 4.89 oz (138 g)
Battery
5.5 hours (330 mins) of Talk time
- Standby
- 350 hours (15 days) of Stand-by time
Main Display
- Resolution
- Type
- Physical Size
- Touch Screen
Camera
Multimedia
- Video Playback
- Music Player
- MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WAV, AMR
Memory
Software
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· Smartphone
o WebOS 1.3.5
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Input
· Predictive Text Input
o Yes
· Keyboard
o Full keyboard (QWERTY)
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Connectivity
· Internet
o HTML, WAP 2.0
· USB
o microUSB
· WiFi
o 802.11b/802.11g
· Bluetooth
o 2.1, Stereo Bluetooth
· Headphone connector
o 3.5mm
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Other Features
· PhoneBook
o Capacity depends on system memory; Ring ID, Picture ID, Multiple numbers per contact
· PIM
o Alarm, Calendar, To-Do / Tasks, Calculator, Notes, Memo
· Voice
o Dialing, Commands, Speaker Phone
· Email
o IMAP/POP3/SMTP/Microsoft Exchange/Microsoft Direct Push e-mail/Push e-mail
· GPS
o GPS
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When you step into the world of online marketing, whether it’s affiliate or PPC based, you’ll inevitably spend a lot of time focusing on things that, in the end, don’t really affect your business and income that much. It’s called Pareto’s Principle, and it can be a guiding action in many people’s lives. 80% of our actions ultimately account for only 20% of our results, and the other 20% of actions account for the remaining 80% of our results. While this sounds depressing and uninspiring to many people, it’s really an inspiring and impressive statistic, that with a bit of work can transform your work-life balance, and provide the life that you really want.
How many Internet marketers pull 80 hours weeks obsessing over their ad campaigns, worrying about their sales copy, and stressing over their sales rate? It’s something that frustrates all of us, and it’s neither good nor healthy. Don’t let yourself become one of those people — obsessing over minuscule results that, in the end, are part of that 80% of meaningless results. When you truly focus on the 20% that does matter, you’ll end up happier and richer than you can ever imagine.
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It’s something that everyone wants to do. You slave over a desk for 60 hours a week to maintain your internet marketing business, and end up with the opposite of what you wanted. Your dreams of liberating yourself from work are over and you’re back to where you started; working too hard and for too little lifestyle enjoyment. There are two ways to deal with this — bury yourself in your work, or learn from what’s happened and develop an internet marketing income that scales to your life and your abilities.
Take the second. It’s not impossible — there are people just like you making it happen all the time. Laziness isn’t necessarily a bad thing, for it can create the best business ideas — the type of businesses that scale to your lifestyle rather than your effort inputs, and create a passive income for you while you enjoy your life. This isn’t a pipe dream, it’s a reality for many people, and something that any internet marketer can achieve by just taking a few easy steps in order to maximize their internet marketing potential.
Just start with one thing, one optimization, and see how much free time it saves you. Don’t know where to start? Just think lazy. What is one thing that you could automate, or outsource? If you’re having trouble thinking, check out this free guide that answers many of the key questions for lazy marketers.
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Some of the top online marketers follow these rules and ideas, and let them guide their marketing principles and lifestyle choices. Don’t let yourself become a slave to your work, instead let your work be something that you both enjoy and don’t need to commit a lot of time to. This free report can set you in the right direction, and is definitely worth a read.
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Digital Marketing Blog
 A number of sales reps have come to me lately and asked how they win a deal when the prospect tells them, “I don’t need to do SMS marketing because I am doing Twitter, and it has an SMS component to it.”
Twitter is an important communication channel that businesses need to adopt as a strategy, but it is vastly different from an SMS marketing strategy.
Let’s take a look at the two channels side by side and begin with the similarities:
- Limited Character Set: You need to be really good at making short, impactful statements. SMS allows 160 characters, while Twitter only allows 140. One could argue that you don’t even get 160 characters with SMS because of the standard “best practices” footer you need to have for unsubscribe and help.
- Database Development: In both cases, you need to develop your database. In Twitter you get followers (i.e., Twitter handles), and with text message marketing you collect cell phone numbers.
- Mobile Reach: In both cases, messages can be received on-the-go.
- One-to-Many Broadcast: Both Twitter and SMS are one-to-many technologies that allow you to broadcast a message to a group of people. If you are not using a mobile service provider, you are limited as to how many text messages you can send thru your cell phone to your friends, and in Twitter’s case, you are going to reach anyone who follows you (hashtags and @replies aside).
- Link Sharing: Both channels are used to share links. URL shortening services like Bit.ly became popular on Twitter first; however, adoption rates for smart phones (which offer full HTML viewing) are quickly growing, giving link sharing traction over SMS.
Now let’s look at the channels side by side when it comes to marketing:
- Database Control: SMS marketing is similar to email marketing in that you get to control who is in your database. You can upload subscribers, have a registration form on your site, or send someone a message asking them to join your list. With SMS, you can even set up a keyword on a short code and ask people to text in (Example: text JOIN to 99158). This can be promoting on everything from billboards to TV commercials. However, with Twitter there is only one way to opt into someone’s Twitter account and that is to follow them. You cannot upload Twitter handles. You can ask people to follow you, but you have no control over your database.
- Usage of Twitter vs. SMS: Ninety-nine percent of cell phones in the U.S. now have SMS capabilities, and 78 percent of cell phone users are sending text messages. There are now over 280 million people in the U.S. with cell phones. SMS usage in the U.S. is growing at a staggering rate, with an estimated 1.36 trillion messages sent yearly. Compare that to Twitter, which is reported to have around 15 million users and only just sent its 10 billionth tweet a couple of weeks ago. While Twitter is an important service that is getting a ton of media attention, it dwarfs in comparison to SMS usage and popularity.
- SMS with Twitter is Optional: SMS is an optional feature with Twitter. Most people who are following a lot of people do not have SMS messages sent to their phone as they want to avoid carrier fees that would bankrupt a small third world country.
- Targeting: With SMS, you can segment out your database and target a specific group of customers. With Twitter, any message you post will be read by anyone following you. The only kind of segmentation you can have is by having multiple Twitter accounts, but this is not a very scalable solution.
- Adoption: Purewire (operator of tweetgrade.com) came out with a report in June of 2009 which shows that 80 percent of Twitter accounts have fewer than 10 followers. Compare this to mobileStorm’s average SMS customer database size of over 1500. There are many Twitter users that have massive followings, but this is not the norm. It’s not easy to build a large following on Twitter. You need to devote loads of time to tweeting and trying to find people to follow you.
- Personalization: With Twitter, one message fits all. There is no way to tweet out a message that is personalized with everyone’s first name. When you send out a message on Twitter, everyone knows you are sending it to the world; it’s not personalized.
- Selling: People don’t want to be sold on Twitter. Asking for business over Twitter is a very fine line and somewhat of an art form. However, if someone opts into your mobile club, he expects that you are going to offer him incentives. He expects you to sell.
So the next time you think about choosing Twitter over an SMS marketing service because Twitter has SMS, think again. However, both channels are important to growing your business. I always tell my clients that no matter whether you are building a following on Twitter, growing a list of cell phone numbers, or gaining fans on Facebook, you need to be developing your database in as many channels as possible. People are unique, and the more ways you can communicate with them, the more you will have a leg up on the competition. Just remember, every channel comes with its own set of challenges, policies, and best practices. Partner with the right vendors to make your business stand above the rest.
Posted in Digital Marketing Blog
By Amy Porterfield
Published March 29, 2010
Social media networks are fields of dreams for marketers. With over 500 million active users on Facebook today, there’s no doubt that Facebook is a social media powerhouse. And although Facebook is a social networking favorite, it’s not alone.
Marketers are taking note of many different social media opportunities and beginning to implement new social initiatives at a higher rate than ever before. Here are 3 new studies that show social media is still on the rise:
#1: Small Business Doubles Social Media Adoption
One positive result from the economic downturn is the rapid growth of social media marketing.
A recent study, “The State of Small Business Report,” sponsored by Network Solutions, LLC and the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, points to economic struggles as the catalyst for social media’s rapid popularity.
The study results show that social media usage by small business owners increased from 12% to 24% in just the last year, and almost 1 out of 5 actively uses social media as part of his or her marketing strategy.
Here’s a breakdown of what the small businesses reported as the main uses of social media marketing:
- 75% have a company page on a social networking site
- 69% post status updates or articles of interest on social media sites
- 57% build a network through a site such as LinkedIn
- 54% monitor feedback about the business
- 39% maintain a blog
- 26% tweet about areas of expertise
- 16% use Twitter as a service channel
According to the study, different industries are adopting social media marketing at different rates, and while many industries have started using social media marketing in their efforts to reach more customers, many still have not positioned it as their top priority.
According to the survey, “Professional services firms, real estate businesses and entertainment/food/lodging businesses rely more on email marketing than other types of small businesses. Firms in the education/health/social services sector rely more on social media marketing and direct mail. Not surprisingly, retailers depend more on print and broadcast advertising.”
The report also measured small businesses’ expectations of social media. While 58% feel that social media “met expectations,” 12% feel it has “exceeded expectations,” while 25% feel social media has “fallen short of expectations.”
Some of the reasons given for social media’s shortfalls were:
- 50% feel it has used up more time than expected
- 19% believe social media has lost them money
- 17% feel social media has allowed people to criticize their business
Here’s a breakdown from eMarketer that shows the performance of social media tactics, according to U.S. small businesses:
Overall, social media use by small business is a major growth area. The report says it best: “This dire environment has not stifled innovation. The most successful small businesses are competing by offering superior service and creativity and small businesses are rapidly embracing social media as a way for keeping engaged with customers and tapping knowledge resources.”
#2: Nearly 20% of Marketing Dollars Will Go to Social Marketing in 5 Years
In just the last 6 months, marketers have shifted their attitudes toward social media marketing spending. This was recently affirmed in the new study, “The CMO Survey”, from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association. A key finding: Social media marketing budgets continue to rise. According to the results, businesses currently allocate 6% of their marketing budgets to social media, an allotment they expect to increase to 10% during the next year and 18% over the next 5 years.
Back in August 2009, marketers had already planned on devoting more money to social media. However, in February 2010, marketers reported that they plan to allocate one-fifth of their marketing budgets to social media marketing in the next 5 years. This is a definite increase from the 2009 projections. The study features the following comparison from August 2009 to February 2010:
Current marketing budget spending on social media:
August 2009: 3.5%
February 2010: 5.6%
Marketing budget spending on social media in the next 12 months:
August 2009: 6.1%
February 2010: 9.9%
Marketing budget spending on social media in the next 5 years:
August 2009: 13.7%
February 2010: 17.7%
As stated by the director of the survey, Fuqua professor Christine Moorman, “Even though many are still experimenting and learning how best to use social media tools, these results indicate that marketers think social media marketing is here to stay and will play an increasingly important role in their work in acquiring and retaining customers in the future.”
#3: Mastering Social Media: A Top Goal for Marketers
Anderson Analytics and Marketing Executives Networking Group recently released a report titled “Marketing Trends 2010” with some interesting insight into the minds of marketing executives.
When marketing executives were asked to choose the most important trends and buzzwords to pay attention to in 2010, marketing ROI (getting a good return on marketing efforts) was number one, with 58% saying it was the most important trend to keep an eye on. But what’s even more interesting is that social media made the top 10 list, with 42% choosing it as one of the top trends to watch. In addition, 72% said they work for companies that are planning social media initiatives in 2010.
The study also explored social media presence and reported some very interesting findings when comparing personal social media use among marketing executives and their company’s social media use. The table below, courtesy of Anderson Analytics, shows how personal and company presence are not very similar and highlights the key differences. Individual executives are most likely to use networking tools like Facebook and LinkedIn, while companies are more likely to keep a blog than individual executives.
Equally interesting is the consensus on how to carry out the social media initiatives. Marketers turn to internal employees, social media consultants and interactive agencies for support and are less likely to use PR and ad agencies.
When selecting a vendor for social media initiatives, marketing executives focus on the influence over a target market and the extent of a consultant’s network as major deciding factors. The table below shows the total breakdown of the importance of specific criteria when choosing a social media consultant:
These three surveys are great indicators that we will continue to see social media marketing rise and perhaps over time see less of the traditional marketing strategies.
We want to hear from you: Have you seen a major shift to social marketing initiatives in your company? Is there still a hesitancy to make a substantial leap to this new way of marketing or has the shift been an easy transition? Tell us about your experiences below.
Tags: american marketing association, amy porterfield, anderson analytics, blog, broadcast advertising, business, christine moorman, cmo survey, creativity, direct mail, duke university, education, email marketing, emarketer, entertainment, facebook, food, fuqua school of business, health, interactive agency, linkedin, lodging, marketing executives networking group, marketing roi, marketing spending, marketing trends 2010, network solutions, print advertising, professional services, real estate, robert h smith, school of business, service, service channel, small business, social initiative, social marketing, social media adoption, social media consultant, social media expectations, social media growth, social media marketing, social media marketing budgets, social media opportunities, social media powerhouse, social media reports, social media research, social media studies, social media tactics, social media tools, social networking, social services, state of small business report, twitter
About the Author, Amy Porterfield
Amy Porterfield is a social media strategy consultant. Her passion is helping companies, authors and speakers create raving fans using social media and online marketing. Other posts by Amy Porterfield »
A couple weeks ago I noticed I was suddenly making a lot fewer sales than I was used to. Now I wasn’t quite sure what was causing this – especially since this is normally one of the best times of my year for selling. I went ahead and remade my opt-in pages and rewrote my entire sales funnel and split tested. The results? Absolutely no difference, it was converting at under 5%… that’s atrocious!
After spending some time talking to others and trying to get to the bottom of this I realized why I wasn’t making sales – or rather, why I wasn’t getting credit for the sales that I actually WAS making. Apparently there is a new problem called link hijacking that is becoming more and more prevalent with affiliate marketing. Basically this means that no matter how good my sales funnel was, or how many people it convinced to buy a product, I wouldn’t get any sales.
I guess I should quickly explain how link hijacking works. There are two different ways with the second being more common and more easily avoidable – if you know how.
The first way is that when you direct someone to a product, they change the affiliate ID to their own to credit themselves with the sell. This is hard to stop because they know what they’re doing and are most likely an affiliate themselves. This is just something you have to get used to, but this shouldn’t affected your sales nearly as much as the next way.
Click here to download your free Cloak and Dagger Affiliate Secrets Report.
The other thing that can cause you to not get credit for a sale is spyware. More notably a new type of spyware is invading the Internet that will automatically change affiliate ID’s to those of the spyware’s creator. That means that the more work you put into making sales, the more sales you are making – for the creator of that spyware!
One way to mostly fix the first problem and completely fix the second problem is through the process of link cloaking. This means that you hide the URL to the Website with your own redirect cloak so that spyware can’t change the affiliate ID and users can’t find it to change it themselves.
You may have heard of services such as TinyURL or Bit.LY, these are great services for shortening URLs, but they shouldn’t be used for link cloaking because they often break affiliate cookies (which means you won’t get credit for sales). Instead you should find one of the link cloaks available specifically for affiliate marketing.
I recommend you download this report, ‘Cloak & Dagger Affiliate Secrets’. It covers link cloaking, how to do it, and the best services for affiliate marketing. If you’re sick of missing out on sales that you should be making, or you just don’t want it to happen to you, you should at least read through this report. I’m offering it to you for FREE – so there’s no risk at all.
Click here to download your free Cloak and Dagger Affiliate Secrets Report.
I saw an immediate problem when I opened the Motorola Droid for the first time. My first response was almost to put it back in the box and send it back for the same reason I was never interested in the iPhone when it first came out. It had no built in software for handling Microsoft Office files such as Word, Excel, Access, and PowerPoint, not to mention PDF files. A serious PDA user interested in mobile productivity needs to be able to access, edit, and crate programs in these formats on the go.
What is the solution? Don’t buy anything but a Windows Mobile device? Well, there are some note taking programs that will allow you to do word processing after a fashion. There are some programs that allow you to view various kinds of documents, but you cannot edit them or create new ones, which make them next to useless.
There is, however, one magnificent solution, and that is Documents on the Go. It is the only program that will allow you to view, edit, and create Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents. It also lets you handle PDF files.
If you want to try it out before you buy, or if you only need Word and Excel documents, try the free version, which doesn’t expire. With the trial version available in the Market on your Droid, you will have full access to all the features of this product for both Word and Excel.
Should you need the full version with the additional ability to process PowerPoint and PDF documents, you will need to purchase the full version, which normally sells for $29.95, but for a limited time, it is available in the Market for only $14.95. My advice is the grab it now while the special is still in force.
The Word module allows you to view, edit, and create Word documents including .doc and .docx formats. What I particularly appreciate is the ability to edit docs and track changes and even email them to other contributors while you are on the road. You can literally do almost anything in the Documents to Go program that you can do on your desktop version with some exceptions that wouldn’t matter to most users. The original formatting is preserved when you send or open a document in your desktop.
Sheet to go is Documents to Go’s version of Mircosoft Excel. It will open, view, edit, and create new Excel documents right on your handheld device. It supports both .xls and xlsx versions of Excel. I am amazed at the power of this portable document processor. It can crunch your numbers, update values, insert functions, and monitor your data on the go.
Slideshow to Go is the functional equivalent of Microsoft PowerPoint that, as you may expect by now, view, edit, and create actual PowerPoint docs. What a great tool to have in your pocket on the road when you need to tweak a presentation or quickly create a new one. No, it doesn’t have all the features of the desktop version, but it will serve most of your needs in a mobile environment. It could really save your bacon. You can use it to review slide notes and monitor your timing. It handles both .ppt and .pptx files.
The quadruple suite of document processors is completed with the ability to handle Adobe .pdf files. While you cannot edit or create new .pdf files, you can view them, specify screen format rendering, zoom, rotate, create bookmarks, and search for quickly finding what you need. You can also select, copy, and past text from a .pdf doc. It also lets you deal with password protected files. Now you can manage files in this popular format while you are at home or away with your handheld.
Documents to Go will allow you to open password protected files in all formats, as long as you know the password.
For your convenience, its file manager lets you open recently opened files and gives you the ability to browse files and folders in main memory or on the expansion card.
You can send files as an attachment with your Gmail account or through Road Sync, another DataViz program.
Here is an excellent video on the capabilities of Documents on the Go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iicDyaCrk14
My recommendation
If you are in the least bit interested in mobile productivity, you should not leave home without Documents to Go on your non-Windows Mobile device. It is the only application available that allows you to view, edit, and create Microsoft documents on an Android unit. Do take advantage of the half price offer now in effect before it disappears. It’s available in the Android Market on your mobile device or visit www.dataviz.com .
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