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September 29, 2005

A Company Law Jargon Buster.

Company law is full of confusing terms, and if you don't know what they mean then settung up a company can start to look far more scary than it really should be. Read through this jargon buster and you should find it much easier to understand what starting up is all about.

Capital. This is money that is going to be invested in a business. Example: 'I am starting my business with $5,000 capital, $2,000 of which is my own'.

Contract. When you sign a legal document, you are entering into a contract. Starting a business lets you sign and enter into contracts on behalf of the business -- the contract will be between the other person and your company, not you.

Director. The people ultimately in charge of a company are its directors. For a large company, there will be a boards of directors, appointed by the shareholders. For a home business, though, you can appoint yourself as the sole director since you are also the sole shareholder (see 'shareholder').

Incorporation. This is the formal name for the process of starting a company. Example: 'My business was incorporated in March 2000'.

Insolvency. When a company cannot afford to pay its debts. The type of company you have set up will affect what happens in this situation -- you may be liable for all of the debt yourself, or for none.

Limited liability. A limited liability company is one where you agree beforehand how much responsibility you will take if anything goes wrong. This protects you from being destroyed financially if something bad happens to your business.

Office. Your company's 'office' isn't just a place with computers -- it's also a legal concept, meaning where your company is based. Your company must have a registered office, which means that you can't start a company unless you have an address which would be legal to use for this purpose.

Private. A home business will be private, which means that members of the public cannot invest by buying shares. This does not stop individuals from buying percentages of your company if you are willing to sell, though. Starting your company as a private one also doesn't stop you from converting it to a public one later on.

Proxy. Someone who acts as a proxy for you acts on your behalf -- you have given them the legal right to speak for you. For example, if you get a lawyer to handle the incorporation of your company, they will be incorporating it for you by proxy.

Shareholders. The shareholders are the people who own the company. In your company, you will be the only shareholder (and so own 100% of your business), unless you've made a deal with someone else for them to own a share.

Latin.

When you're dealing with law, the amount of Latin involved can be confusing. Here are some Latin terms you might come across when you're setting up your company.

Bona fide: 'in good faith'. This is used to mean that someone says they are telling the truth.

De facto: 'in fact'. Used when something has happened that makes the 'real' situation take precedence from the legal one.

De jure: 'in law'. The opposite of de facto.

Ex gratia, 'out of grace'. When something will be done for no fee.

Prima facie, 'at first sight'. Something that seems true but is wrong.

Quid pro quo, 'something for something'. When a fee will be charged for a service (or services will be exchanged).

Be Careful with Jargon.

However much jargon you might begin to encounter as you start your work at home business, don't start to use it yourself. It will make it so that only 'insiders' will understand what you mean, and everyone else will feel either a little silly or a little annoyed. By the same token, if you're speaking to someone (your accountant, for example) and they use some jargon you don't understand, there's nothing wrong with asking them to explain what they mean -- it's their fault for using an overly technical word, not yours for not knowing it.

If you're not sure, there's a simple rule: jargon is for communicating very specific, technical meanings. It shouldn't be used to replace everyday language, as it does nothing but cause confusion.

Posted by OneWebCo at 10:52 PM | Comments (0)

September 24, 2005

A Credit Card Jargon Buster

Credit cards, as part of the financial industry, use a massive array of jargon. You can’t be expected to recognise all these technical terms, and some of them are quite important – so here’s a quick guide, in alphabetical order.

Affinity Card This is a credit card that gives a certain amount to a charity of your choice, depending on how much you spend. It is generally best to avoid any charity that wants you to sign up for such a card – don’t let guilt lead you to a high interest rate.

APR Annual Percentage Rate. This is your overall interest rate, calculated yearly, and given as a percentage of your balance.

ATM Automated Teller Machine. A cash machine. It will give you money when you put your credit card in, but will probably charge an extra fee.

Balance Transfer This is when you transfer your debt (‘balance’) from one credit card to another. The usual reason for this is to try and keep as much debt as possible on a lower-interest card.

Credit Limit Your credit limit is the maximum amount you can spend or withdraw from your card. Going over your credit limit will result in your card no longer being accepted, and you being charged an over-limit fee.

Fixed Rate A fixed rate card is one where you are given a rate when you sign up for the card and that rate, at least in theory, stays the same for the whole time you have the card. In practice, though, interest rates can be changed for almost any reason.

Grace Period Your grace period is the amount of time between when you spend money and when you start paying interest on it. Good cards can have a grace period of up to two months – bad ones might not have one at all.

Minimum Payment A minimum payment is the absolute lowest amount you can pay back to the credit card company each month – you should pay more, but you don’t have to. Minimum payments are usually around 2% of your balance.

Sub-Prime This is a phrase used in the industry to describe customers who are a bad credit risk, but are seen as worth lending to anyway. If you are identified as sub-prime, you’ll start getting offers for loans secured on your property – they know that if you can’t pay, they’ll get their money anyway.

Teaser Rate A ‘special offer’ low rate, usually written in enormous letters. You will see many offers with “LOW 4.9% APR” in inch-high letters, followed by “for first six months, 21.9% thereafter” in microscopic ones. Teaser offers can sometimes be worth taking, but not if they tie you in for longer than the period of the offer.

Variable Rate This is an interest rate that is worked out by adding a certain amount to the current base rate. Taking this option will allow your credit card to be affected by changes in national interest rates – a good idea if you think they might go down, and a bad one if they’re on the way up.

Bill Enross
How To Eliminate Credit Card Debt

Posted by OneWebCo at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2005

Work From Home Businesses

Work From Home Businesses: the Pros and Cons.

If you’re thinking of starting a work from home business, you’ve got to realise something about life. Life has a certain balance: there is no pleasure without pain, and there are no pros without cons. Here’s a look at the upsides and downsides of work from home businesses.

Pro: Independence. You do what you want, when you want. No-one else can screw up your hard work, and you don’t need to depend on anyone but yourself. Your days of being told what to do are over. And there’s no dress code, either! Many people who work at work from home businesses admit to sitting around in their pyjamas all day, or even working in the nude.

Con: No Security. With independence, though, comes responsibility. There’s nobody to carry you if you do badly one day – if you don’t make any money for the business, then you don’t get paid. People like certainty in their lives (that’s why they spend big bucks on insurance) – it can be hard to live with this ultimate step into performance-related pay. You might find yourself quickly wishing you had a regular paycheck again.

Pro: Flexible Working. You decide your hours with a work from home business. If you want to take Wednesday off and work Saturday instead, then no-one’s stopping you. If you’d like to get up early and cram all your work into the mornings so you can have the afternoons off, then hey, you’re the boss. Such flexibility can be a massive relief after years of working nine to five.

Con: Work Never Ends. When you work at a work from home business, it can be tempting to be constantly monitoring things, even when you’ve decided you’re not working. The only person who can handle a crisis is you – and crises have a tendency to happen in the middle of the night, or on your day off.

Pro: Keeping All the Money. Everything you earn is yours to keep. It can be truly disheartening to work somewhere where cash is being handled, and realising that the takings for the day add up to a hundred times more than you got paid. You know that someone’s getting rich off your back, but it’s not you – working from home makes you the fatcat at the top.

Con: Doing Everything. Not all that money was profit, you know. It goes on things like marketing, management, stock control, deliveries, and so on. Suddenly you have to manage everything that goes on in your business – you deal with suppliers on one end and customers on the other, you have to do all the budgeting and spending, and you become your own marketing department. You get to deal with all the fun tax issues, too.

Pro: No More Commuting. Commuting is expensive, painful, and can feel like a complete waste of time – just think of all the time and money most people spend travelling to and from work. When you have a work from home businesses, you just get up and you’re right next to your workplace – isn’t that convenient?

Con: One Less Room. Your house can feel a lot smaller when you’ve had to set one room aside as your ‘home office’. When you’re not working, it just sits there, useless, and meanwhile your kids are getting upset at how small their bedrooms are.

Pro: A Healthier Lifestyle. When you only have an hour’s lunch break to do everything you need to do, you can end up running yourself into the ground and not eating properly. Working from home lets you do your errands when you want, and eat good food every day.

Con: The Loneliness. If you’re the only one around in your house during the day, it avoids distractions – but it can also feel very lonely. If you’re the kind of person who likes being around other people, you can start to get quite depressed.

But…

If you talk to anyone who has a work from home business, they’ll probably say to you that, for them, the pros far outweigh the cons. Once you’re doing your own thing and feeling great, it’s hard to go back to a salaried existence – and remember, it’s far easier to work around your problems in a home business than it is to deal with any problems you might have at work.

Bill Enross
WorkAtHomeOne.com

Posted by OneWebCo at 08:41 AM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2005

Make More Sales

To Up Sales, Up Words!

I first taught this technique in 1998. While there have been tons of improvements since then, today I still see copy on so many websites, sales letters or emails using a language that only the person who wrote them understands.

People still seem to ignore their readers.

Abraham Maslow once commented, "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Abraham Maslow may have been a psychologist, but he probably knew more about copywriting and particularly selling than what most people cared to admit.

Even now, most of the copy I critique disobey this important rule the most. Their sales message doesn't communicate with their readers, particularly at THEIR level. Now, I'm not talking about a socioeconomic or educational level. I'm talking about the level at which they understand and, above all, make buying decisions.

They fail to use what I call "upwords."

It's an acronym that means...

"Universal Picture Words Or Relatable, Descriptive Sentences."

Upwords are words that paint vivid pictures in the mind, or expressions that describe an idea to which the mind of your reader (or prospect) can relate to.

I once took a communications course in which I discovered an interesting example of the way the mind works. As part of a given lesson, a videotape was shown of a televised newscast during which a journalist was about to give a live report on a fire that was devastating a large forest.

The news anchor in the television newsroom said: "We now take you to Sally Smith, who's in the station's helicopter flying above the scene of the fire." He then turned around to face the background screen, which showed a live bird's-eye view of the raging fire.

He asked: "Tell us, Sally, how big is the fire?"

In a voice partially drowned by the whizzing sound of helicopter blades, Sally reports: "John, it's so big, it's covering well over 140 acres of land -- now that's about 200 football fields back-to-back for you and me."

As you can see, people think in pictures, not in words and certainly not in numbers (unless it is told to do exactly that). The mind hates confusion. It will naturally translate words or phrases into a visual equivalent.

For instance, if I told you to think of a garbage can, you're not going to think of the letters "G," "A," "R," etc. Your mind will automatically visualize some sort of garbage can.

Microsoft and MacIntosh dominate the marketplace in operating systems because, rather than typing some elaborate command for your computer to execute, you can simply use your mouse, point to an icon that represents the command (or program) and click.

Icons represent commands, which are translated into programs (i.e., codes or languages) that the computer understands. In the same way, the mind works very much like a computer does.

People who know little about computers will likely have a difficult time understanding the various written commands, scripts and codes that the computer needs to process. But on the other hand, most of use can easily identify the icons that symbolize them.

Similarly, the brain instantly translates the information it receives into something it can easily understand and execute -- something it already knows and can easily refer to. Albeit a quick one, there is always a translation process going on. And we must be aware of that.

The challenge facing marketers is certainly that of ensuring that their copy communicates effectively to its audience, especially when communicating the benefits of an offer is at the heart of making profitable sales. The "big test," therefore, is to put ourselves in our reader's shoes.

It is important to communicate using a language that people in your target market can easily understand and appreciate. It is Mark Twain who once said, "Numbers don't stick in the mind; pictures do." So, the more you use upwords in your copy, the more your reader will not only grasp what you're trying to convey but also appreciate it at a more intimate level.

And THAT is the level I was referring to, earlier.

Upwords are words and phrases that help messages to be easily read, understood and interpreted by the majority of the people to whom the message is targeted, like with the use of mental imagery, examples, analogies, metaphors, picture words, etc.

For example, a challenge among cosmetic surgeons is the fact that people will call for a quote over the phone when a doctor needs to see the patient beforehand to make an assessment.

But obviously, cosmetic surgery is an uncommon process. People don't understand why doctors can't simply give out quotes over the phone.

So, I tell doctors to use a more common approach, such as cosmetic dentistry, for example, as an analogy. Why? Because unlike cosmetic surgery, most people have had their teeth done at some point. Their brains have something it can remember, picture and relate to.

So when asked for a quote over the phone, doctors will say: "Just like a dentist, I can't give an estimate over the phone without any X-rays of your teeth" or "without the knowledge of how many cavities you really have."

Marketers are certainly in a similar position. Many tend to communicate in a language that only a few understand. If you're a programmer selling your services to business owners, and your copy is laced with technical jargon that only geeks will understand, you will obviously do very poorly.

You must therefore mold your message in a way that it can be easily understood by your target market. Speak their language!

If your market consists of artists, use art examples. If your market consists of managers, use business analogies. For example, you sell customer service consulting to florists.

You can say: "Clients are like fresh-cut roses; they need to be handled efficiently. But if handled improperly, they can prick your business or simply wilt away."

Here's a recent example.

One website I recently critiqued sold "microdermabrasion" skincare lotion. It's a facial scrub that smoothes away wrinkles. But the problem is the fact that she only used the term "microdermabrasion." However, nobody understood that. The only benefit mentioned was "skin regeneration."

So I realized that her lotion offers three main benefits.

It reduces the appearance of wrinkles,
It comes in a easy-to-use homecare kit,
And it's gentle on skin, or "pH balanced."
But these are NOT benefits let alone ideas her target market can easily appreciate. Granted, they may understand what these are, and they likely understand what "microdermabrasion" is. But they don't understand what those benefits are at an intimate level. So, I told her to change it to:

"Reverse the aging process and give your skin a youthful radiance with our non-acidic, non-greasy facelift in a jar! Imagine, no inconvenient clinics. No risks associated with harsh chemicals peels or injections. No costly doctors or surgeries. Get beautiful skin in hours in the comfort of your own home! It's like the power of a sandblaster applied with the gentleness of velvet glove!"

Of course, there are many more ways of applying upwords to your sales copy. Here are some brief examples of how to mold your message in order to communicate more effectively ...

1) Repetitious Words

As the adage goes, "Repetition is the parent of learning." Repetition aids comprehension and increases retention, especially of complex or critical ideas. But the objective is not to repeat the same words over and over. It's to use different examples to illustrate your point and drive the idea home.

To that end, substitute certain words with synonyms and add new pieces of information each time the idea is repeated. Here's an example to show you. In order to drive the idea that privacy policies on a website help to increase sales, it can be repeated with:

"Privacy policies promote purchases,"
"Privacy statements increase sales,"
"Confidentiality is a key to online success,"
"Posting a privacy policy is profitable," etc.
2) Emotional Words

Again, words are not messages in themselves. They are symbols. Different words mean different things to different people. As such, they can be interpreted differently. While several words can be used to communicate a single message, your choice of words is the most important decision you will ever make. Words can actually alter the impact of your message. For example:

Instead of "cost," say "investment,"
Instead of beautiful "teeth," say beautiful "smiles,"
Instead of "skinny," say "slim" or "slender,"
Instead of "products" or "services," say "solutions,"
Instead of "cost-effective," say "return on investment,"
And instead of "house," say "home."
3) Positive Words

As my friend and copywriter, Rachel McAlpine, often says, "Avoid using negative words -- say what it is, not what it isn't." I agree. Rachel is absolutely right on the money.

Maxwell Maltz, who wrote the bestseller "Psycho-Cybernetics," states that the brain is a goal-seeking organ. It needs a goal in order to function. For example, if I told you to NOT think of a white carnation, you will have hard time since your brain needs a goal. It will naturally picture what it is supposed to avoid. The mind needs a reference point. A visual equivalent.

On the other hand, if I asked you to think of a pink carnation instead of a white one, you will think of a pink carnation. (And you won't think of a white one!) I gave your mind a goal rather than taking one away from it.

By stating what something isn't can be counterproductive since it is still directing the mind, albeit in the opposite way. If I told you that dental work is painless for example, you'll still focus on the word "pain" in "painless."

Here are some examples of using positive words:

Instead of saying "inexpensive," say "economical,"
Instead of saying "this procedure is painless," say "there's little discomfort" or "it's relatively comfortable,"
And instead of saying "this software is error-free" or "foolproof," say "this software is consistent" or "stable."
One of the most negative words we use is the word "but." "Buts" can turn any message, which in essence may be positive, into a negative. Plus, a statement followed by the word "but" subtly communicates to others that what was said up to that point was a lie and what follows is the truth.

Do you remember when a former girlfriend or boyfriend dumped you? They probably said: "You're a really nice guy and I really like going out with you, but..." (I'm sure you know the rest.) Consequently, leave the "but" out. Rather, use "and" and then focus on the positive.

For example, you're a website designer. Instead of saying to your client, "It's a great website but expensive," say "it's a great website AND worth every cent." Instead of, "it's a great website but it's going to take at least a month to create it," say "it's a great website AND it will only take thirty days to get it up and running." Can you see the difference?

We all come from different backgrounds. Each individual has a unique education, experience and environment. They all condition our thinking. So use analogies, metaphors and imagery in your copy that will make your message easier to grasp by that person's set of circumstances.

As Jack Trout once said...

"A word is worth a thousand pictures."

About the Author
Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker and consultant. Watch him rewrite copy on video each month, and get tips and tested conversion strategies proven to boost response in his membership site at TheCopyDoctor.com today

Posted by OneWebCo at 05:46 PM | Comments (0)

September 05, 2005

The Importance of St. Albans V ICL Case

By David Callan

The case of St. ALBANS CITY & DISTRICT COUNCIL v INERNATIONAL COMPUTERS LIMITED of the mid Nineties set the precedent for subsequent cases involving the sale of software, both off the shelf and bespoke custom developed software. The case effectively shook the legal side of the software industry to its core and left companies in the industry rushing to their lawyers for advice.

Classification of software

The problem with disputes brought to the courts related to the sale of and use of software prior to the St. Albans v ICL case was the presence of some very important questions: are suppliers of software systems supplying goods or services? Clearly computer hardware is "goods" but what about intangible software, what is the legal status of software - goods or services? The aforementioned questions are some of the most debated in computer law.

The St. Albans v ICL case answered these questions in a roundabout way. The court said that a program by itself would not be "goods" whereas software delivered on "hard media" was, i.e. a standard software system incorporating software was protected by the UK Sales of Goods Act 1979.

The protection meant that in effect, packaged software should not contain any bugs which would render it unfit for its purpose. If the software was faulty, buyers could recover the cost of the system and any losses suffered as a result of the software failing.

St. ALBANS CITY & DISTRICT COUNCIL v INTERNATIONAL COMPUTERS LIMITED

The case itself arose after International Computers Limited, a UK hardware and software manufacturer company agreed to supply St. Albans City and District Council with a computer system of both hardware and software which the council needed order to administer and collect the Community Charge ( poll tax ) which was then to be introduced. The computer system would maintain a reliable database of the names entered on the community charge register, accurately count the names, and accurately retrieve and display the figures resulting from the count. It had to be reasonably fit for the purpose of maintaining and retrieving a reliable register. The system was to calculate and dispatch bills for the Community Charge.

In early November 1989 the UK government instructed all councils that they were required to make a return of the relevant population by the 8th of December.

At an important meeting before the system was first used, ICL's project manager who was providing consultancy services to St. Albans assured representatives of the council that the figure to be returned to central government could be extracted from the transaction processing screen. At no point between then and the 8th of December was any indication given that the figures on the transaction screen could not be relied upon. This in fact was the case and in late February 1990 the council began to suspect the figure they had taken from the transaction screen and subsequently submitted to the government before the 8th of December of the previous year was incorrect.

The number submitted by the council to the government was 97,385. In fact, the number should have been 94,419 and hence the number used overstated the population by 2,966. This overstatement of the population resulted in an undercharging of each chargeable resident; therefore the council suffered a total loss of £1,314,846.

St. Albans council therefore sued International Computers Limited for these losses along with costs on the grounds that the software did not meet its intended purpose and was inherently flawed. In the end St. Albans was awarded £1.3 million.

Liability

Another important element to emerge from the St. Albans v ICL case was the fact that ICL’s limitation of liability clause which set their liability to £100,000 at most was thrown out. The judge of the original case (an appeal was launched by ICL) Scott Baker J said that the defendant had not justified the figure of £100,000 which was small both in relation to the potential risk and the actual loss, noting also that the defendant was insured for £50 million worldwide. If the loss were to fall on the council it would ultimately be borne by the local population. He did not think it unreasonable that he who stood to make the profit, who had been well able to insure and in this case was insured, should carry the risk and therefore awarded damages to St. Albans well over £100,000. This decision by Baker J caused a reaction in the industry which saw suppliers reviewing their limitation clauses to make them as effective as possible.

Conclusion

In the last paragraph the issue of liability relating to the St. Albans case is discussed this however is not the most important aspect of the case. The real importance of the St. ALBANS CITY & DISTRICT COUNCIL v INERNATIONAL COMPUTERS LIMITED is the fact that it demonstrates that software stored and installed from a physical storage ‘good’ can be classified as a good and hence protected under the UK Sales of Goods Act 1979 and other similar country specific acts. This caused a major review of standard terms and conditions of companies within the computer industry. Many cases have been interpreted on the precedent set in this case and hence St. ALBANS CITY & DISTRICT COUNCIL v INERNATIONAL COMPUTERS LIMITED is firmly a part of modern case law.

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Article by David Callan. David is an Internet marketing professional and webmaster of AKA Marketing.com webmaster forums. Visit his webmaster forums for the latest discussions on search engines, website authoring and Internet marketing related issues and topics.
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Posted by OneWebCo at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2005

Marketing With eBooks

y David Callan

Ebooks are electronic books which can be downloaded from any website or FTP site on the Internet. Ebooks are made using special software and can include a wide variety of media such as HTML, graphics, Flash animation and video.

As a rule of thumb you should remember that almost anything that can be displayed or listened to on the Internet can be packaged into an ebook.

This means that an ebook can be interactive and can be very visually pleasing. This can be done without worrying about download times as once the ebook is downloaded the first time all the media and associated files are stored on the users computer.

What's also great about ebooks is the fact they can be updated with the click of a button so the user always has the most current version on his or her desktop.

Marketing with ebooks
Using ebooks when marketing and promoting your site or affiliate program can be a very powerful method, especially with free ebooks.

Let's say you wrote an ebook on your subject and offered it free on your website, people love free things and especially love free information about a topic they're interested in so they will download it.

Included in your ebook you're going to have links back to your website, product or affiliate program, since the ebook is on the users computer they'll have permanent access to it, if it's a good ebook with lots of information and one that you regularly update they'll use your ebook again and again constantly seeing a link or banner which directs them to your site.

The more of your website visitors that download your free ebook the more free exposure and repeat visitors you'll get.

The real power behind ebook marketing however is the viral aspect of it. Imagine that you post a little message inside your ebook and on your website saying that other webmasters can give away the free ebook too on their sites, they'll love this as it'll attract visitors and add value to their sites. Again the more times their visitors download it the more exposure and free traffic you'll get.

There are also lots of ebook directories on the Internet where you can list your free ebook, so it's not unusual for a good ebook full of information to be downloaded 10,000 times. This means every time one of the users read it they'll think of your website and see your banner or link. Using ebooks truly is a great way to get lots of free traffic in a short amount of time and to constantly have your message in front of lots of people.

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Article by David Callan. David is an Internet marketing professional and webmaster of AKA Marketing.com webmaster forums. Visit his webmaster forums for the latest discussions on search engines, website authoring and Internet marketing related issues and topics.
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Posted by OneWebCo at 11:08 PM | Comments (0)

September 03, 2005

Increase Your Affiliate Check

By David Callan

You've got a decent amount of traffic to your site and your signed up with some affiliate programs hence you want to know how you can make the most money from with these programs, right?. Well there are a number of ways in which you can increase your affiliate check at the end of the month, this article will try and educate you on these ways.

First I'm going to make sure your doing the most important thing necessary to being successful as an affiliate. That thing is of course to target your market. This means that you only join and promote products from affiliate programs that are related to the theme of your website and which your visitors are likely to buy.

If you sell teddy bears and promote an Internet marketing course you're not going to be successful because few if any of your visitors would be interested in the course. The moral of the story therefore is to always pick programs that fit into your site, this way visitors to your site will be interested in the products from the affiliate program and will be more inclined to buy them.

Most webmasters already knew that but I just had to make sure.

To start off then, don't just use banners. You've slapped that big banner across your main page and you wait for the money to roll it, but little or none does. This is because the Internet is saturated with banners and people tend to ignore them resulting in very low click-through rates and of course very low or no commission from sales. I'm not saying don't use banners, by all means do but don't rely on them alone because results are generally poor.

When you use banners to promote products always have them above the fold, either at the top of the screen or the middle, these are the places where people will see them most. The fold for those of you that don't know is the point on a webpage whereby you have to start scrolling to continue reading.

The banners which always get a higher click-through are ones that appear as though they're part of the website, these banners are commonly known as 'fake banners'. People think they're clicking on links to other parts of your website because either the banner graphic looks like a link with blue underlined text and the text has the words click here or the banner looks like a drop down navigation menu of the site, but in fact both are banners with a link to your affiliate URL.

The other banner type thing you could use to get click-through's to your affiliate URL is what's referred to as the HTML banner but in fact it's not actually a banner. It's a real drop down menu except every link goes to the same place, your affiliate URL. These work the best because people really do think they're just going to another part of your site, they've no idea it's an ad.

That covers the banner ad bit, don't however forget about simple text links as these guys pull in a lot more visitors than banner ads any day of the week. You may have a textual menu on your site, if you do simply add a link to your affiliate URL at the end, make the link sound as interesting as you can.

Other ways to integrate your affiliate URL into your site with text links include writing an article related to the industry of the product which your affiliate URL promotes and have links to your affiliate URL throughout the article. Don't forget about your links page, make sure you've your affiliate URL at the top of the bunch with a nice description of it too.

However the most powerful way to use simple text links is to put them in personal recommendations. Various Internet marketing professionals suggest that personal recommendations can increase click-through's to an affiliate URL by 400%, this in turns means a massive increase in commission.

It's best if you actually own and love the product your recommending yourself, this way your recommendation will seem more genuine. If you've a quality site with lots of valuable information people will value your opinion and check the product out. If you've an Ezine be sure to place a personal recommendation in that too. Imagine having 10,000+ subscribers all seeing the recommendation around the same time, your commission would surely skyrocket.

Another method which you can use on your website is the pop up window. Pop up windows are very powerful as they catch your visitors eye just as they're leaving your web site. In the pop up window you could place your recommendation of the product or a simple text link. Beware however that some people don't like pop up windows, so if you decide to use this method be sure to use it sparingly.

Most of the above methods can be done through either your website or Ezine, well except for the banner and pop up window bits as Ezines are just emails, but there's another method just for your Ezine or opt in list, it's the classified ad.

Classified ads are an easy but extremely profitable way to promote your affiliate URL in your Ezine this is because users value and trust you as the publisher of your Ezine and know that you won't allow poor products to be advertised in it. If you had an Ezine with 10,000 subscribers you could make hundreds of dollars just from that one ad.

Another excellent way to gradually increase your affiliate check is to place these banners, text links and personal recommendations in free ebooks that you give away. Allow other webmasters to give your ebooks away also and list it in all the ebook directories you can find.

The better the ebook the more people will download it. 10,000+ people could download your free ebook giving you almost unlimited free exposure of your affiliate URL. This of course will increase your commission check greatly, however it takes much more time to see the results of a campaign like this than to see the results from a new banner ad or recommendation you have put up.

A method that has brought some people success is one that uses pay per click engines like Google Adwords, Overture.com and Findwhat.com. Most PPC engines won't allow you to link directly to an affiliate URL, but you can easily get around this by having a landing page which links to the affiliate URL. I know you've to pay for visitors from these type of engines but they can be highly targeted and that means the people that click-through are highly likely to buy.

This strategy works best if your commission rate is high or very high. If you earn around $50+ a sale it's well worth experimenting with.

Let's say for example you bid $.10 cents on some detailed keyphrase related to the product your promoting which eventually takes the visitor to your affiliate URL, because it's very detailed your likely to make a sale from every 50 click-through's or so.

Now imagine you made $65 commission each time you made a sale. $.10 multiplied by 50 equals $5, this is what it costs to make a sale and $65 minus $5 equals $60. This $60 is profit, so in other words it costs $5 to make $60 in this case anyhow. The above figures are just general examples but they do illustrate what can be done with pay per click engines.

Remember to concentrate on affiliate programs that pay high commissions per sale. This will allow you to afford more clicks or higher bids while still keeping the majority of your commission per sale. More tips on using PPC engines to your advantage can be read in my article entitled Pay per click search engine guide.

The final method you could try to increase your check is time consuming. It involves posting in newsgroups and forums with your affiliate URL in your SIG file. You'll also want to watch out for posts where people are looking for others to recommend a good product or posts which give you a chance to direct others to your affiliate URL. Never spam newsgroups or forums though as other posters will report you and you'll be banned from your affiliate program for life, many programs will even withhold your current commission balance.

That brings to an end this article, in it you've learned what you can do to increase your income from affiliate programs with techniques such as fake banners and using pay per click search engines. I hope you can put these techniques into practice successfully.

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Article by David Callan. David is an Internet marketing professional and webmaster of AKA Marketing.com webmaster forums. Visit his webmaster forums for the latest discussions on search engines, website authoring and Internet marketing related issues and topics.
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Posted by OneWebCo at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)

September 02, 2005

What To Look For In An Affiliate Program

By David Callan
Affiliate programs have quickly become the most popular way for webmasters to use traffic to their sites to make money.

The amount of money however an affiliate earns depends on three main factors:

1. Level of traffic to the affiliate site.
2. Where / how the affiliate promotes the program on his site.
3. The quality of the affiliate program itself.

In this article I'll be dealing with point number 3 - "The quality of the affiliate program itself" and going through what you need to look for in a program before joining it. Remember if you join a poor program you mightn't be getting all the commission you deserve.

You should look for the following qualities when joining an affiliate program, nearly all good programs have these qualities.

Make sure the website has an established presence online. It's advised that you look for websites which have been online a while and are trusted before you join their program. This is vital as you want to be paid what your owed and paid on time. Many webmasters have signed up to untrustworthy programs because of promises the programs made and have waited months for checks which never arrived.

Next you'll want to check out an affiliate programs product line. Each of its products should be a quality high-value one which you'd use yourself. Don't ever join a program if its products are bad because it pays high commission. It'll damage your image greatly if you do and you'll not be able to recommend other products ever again because people won't value your opinion. Be sure also that the programs product list is regularly growing, this will enable you to update your visitors on new products which they might be interested in.

It's vital that the affiliate program has a good commission rate for all its products, if it doesn't you could be making much more elsewhere. What is a good commission? Well the answer to that is tough but generally 20% to 25% of the product price is what's expected of good programs. I know of programs offering up to 65% but programs such as these are rare.

Many good programs operate what's called a two-tier system, this means that you can create an extra stream of income without doing anything for the life of the program. It works like this, every time you refer another webmaster to the program and that webmaster joins he or she will be constantly acting like a sales rep for you. This means that every time that webmaster makes a sale you get what's called a sub-refferal commission because you were the one that recommended that person to the affiliate program in the first place. The more they sell the more sub-referral commission you get. With this in mind I recommend trying to look for programs with two tiers. Keep in mind however that the bulk of your affiliate fees will always come from your own direct referrals, having two tiers is merely an advantage, it's not something that's vital.

Above we've discussed qualities such as the website running the program, the product line, the commissions and two-tier programs, but none of the above will matter if the program hasn't got excellent tracking.

All good programs have excellent tracking systems, you want programs that track visitors to their site using both CGI and cookies so you always get accredited with sales that originate from your site.

You also want to be able to check your stats in real time, this will allow you to see what method of promoting your affiliate link is working best. Another point that you might want to check out regarding a programs tracking before signing up is this, how long do they track visitors for? Some affiliate programs like Amazon will track the visitor from your site only once and if they leave then come back the next day and then buy you don't get a penny even though your site was were the sale originated. Try to look for programs that track for 30 days or more.

Other things you might want to check out include: how often do they send checks out and do you've to earn a certain amount before a check will be sent out.

Well there you have it, if a program has all or most of these qualities then your on to a winner and it's worth putting effort into it. If it has few of them then don't bother, the chances are good that your going to be ripped of.

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Article by David Callan. David is an Internet marketing professional and webmaster of AKA Marketing.com webmaster forums. Visit his webmaster forums for the latest discussions on search engines, website authoring and Internet marketing related issues and topics.
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Posted by OneWebCo at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)

September 01, 2005

Affiliate Programs FAQ's

By David Callan
What are affiliate programs?

Affiliate programs also known as associate programs, referral programs and partner programs among others things are Internet sales systems whereby a website which sells products or services can have hundreds and even thousands of other websites helping them sell their inventory.

The webmaster of the helping website is called an affiliate and the website which runs the affiliate program is usually called the merchant.

The affiliates help the merchant by exposing the merchants products and services to visitors of their web site. This is done by the careful placement of banners and links, sometimes merchants even provide an actual page on their own server for their affiliates to promote.

Why would anyone want to promote someone else's product on the Internet? Well it's what the merchant offers in return to affiliates which makes affiliate programs attractive to webmasters. In return for promoting the merchants products and services the affiliate receives a percentage of sales that they've referred.

Imagine for example someone visits xyz.com and clicks on a link to abc.com and then buys product X on abc.com for $100. The webmaster of abc.com has in this case just created a sale for xyz.com and will receive anything from around $10 to $60 for creating it.

The percentages of commission that affiliates receive varies widely and depends on the price of the product and how much profit the merchant is willing to share with his or her affiliates.

There are two main types of affiliate programs, these are one tier and two tier. One tier programs allow only the direct referring affiliate to make a commission based on sales referred, whereas with a two tier affiliate program you as an affiliate receive a percentage of sales from any affiliates who join the affiliate program through you.

Affiliate programs are great if you've a medium to high traffic website but you don't have your own product. Nearly all products are catered for by affiliate programs so you can easily find one which your websites visitors will be interested in.

How do affiliate programs work?

In order for affiliate programs to work the merchant has to have specialized scripts installed on the same server that his website is hosted on, or use a third party service like clickbank.

Both the scripts and services provide each affiliate with an affiliate id which is unique to them, they then direct a new affiliate to a webpage or email them the HTML they need to place on their page, this HTML will contain the affiliates ID.

Whenever a visitor clicks on an affiliate link be it a text link or an image link they're immediately taken to the merchant's website. The merchant tracks where the visitor comes from by using cookies. If that visitor then buys from the merchant then the affiliate will receive a referral fee.

Usually every month the merchant will send all his affiliates who referred sales a check for all the commission they've made. The merchant is not losing money by sharing profits because without his affiliates he would not have made profits in the first place.

Can affiliate programs make me rich?

The simple answer if your an affiliate is no, you'd have to run a mega traffic website to expect to get rich through affiliate programs. You can however create a very healthy income through them if you've a medium to high traffic website. It's not uncommon for knowledgeable webmasters with 10,000+ visitors a month to make around $2000-$3000+ a month. In most cases however a $500 fee would be a successful month for any affiliate.

It's a different story altogether however if you're the merchant, in this case they can make you rich. Imagine 200 high-traffic sites recommending your product. Your bound to make hundreds of sales each month, this is hundreds more sales than you would have on your own. Next you give your affiliates their cut and you take the rest. It's a win-win situation.

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Article by David Callan. David is an Internet marketing professional and webmaster of AKA Marketing.com webmaster forums. Visit his webmaster forums for the latest discussions on search engines, website authoring and Internet marketing related issues and topics.
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Posted by OneWebCo at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)