SFI AFFILIATE TEAM-BUILDING ON STEROIDS!
13th May 2012- I've promised to give away 15 affiliates to 3 members of my team in June.
- I've given away 4 affiliates to 4 member of my team so far in May.
- I've gave away 60 affiliates to 12 members of my team in April.
- I gave away 101 affiliates in December 2011. (A Record!)
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Archive for February 2012
Zaapza: A Clever Way To Promote On Facebook And Twitter
Zaapza is a neat new tool to help you get the word out about your free ebook on Facebook and Twitter.
The idea behind it is that people will be more willing to download a free ebook or digital product in exchange for tweeting about it on Twitter or “liking” it on Facebook than they would be if they had to fill in a form and join a mailing list, especially if all they need to do is click a couple of buttons without having to write the tweet themselves.
That’s good for you, the promoter, as well, because you get to write the tweet that you want them to post and Zaapza automatically links out to your Zaapza splash page, which means that if someone with a lot of social media friends “likes” your ebook or tweets it, it could go viral and lots of people could be downloading your ebook or digi product…
This is how Zaapza describe their service:
Let customers pay for your products with a Tweet or Wall Post!
In today’s world “Word of Mouth” and “Social Marketing” are very powerful. So powerful that giving products away for a tweet or wall post could promote your product better than thousands of dollars spent on other promotions.
Zaapza Is Easy To Use
The site is very easy to use. I created my first Zaapza button to promote my new TE Traffic Storm ebook in less than five minutes and received the links to the download page and two extra splash pages directly in my email inbox.
Zaapza Buttons?
The only thing that confused me was that Zaapza invites you to Create Your Own Zaapza Button! so I was expecting to get a button that I could post on my website. Instead, just got URL links to the pages that the site created for me.
Zaapza Testing
At the moment I’m testing the effectiveness of the three splash pages against my main splash page for the TE Traffic Storm campaign across several traffic exchanges. I’m not sure that TEs are the best vehicle for this sort of thing, but so far they are attracting more clicks than the standard splash page. We’ll see how it develops.
I will also add a sidebar widget with a clickable button inviting my blog visitors to download TE Traffic Storm in exchange for a tweet or a like (and probably give ‘em a choice as to which they want to do).
Zaapza is free to use and you don’t have to”join” or anything, but of course, to create and receive the button you’ll need to give them your email address. If that’s too big a step for you to take then you should really forget about promoting your stuff on the Internet altogether!
One other thing I like about Zaapza is that they automatically add your book to their Zaapza Product Listings – so as the site gets more popular, more and more people will visit it and browse the books; and who knows how many of them may want to tweet or like your book so they can download it…
Here’s a video of Blain explaining what Zaapza is all about:
Zaapza was designed by Blain Jones and Shane Bost, the boys at BadMarketing.com .
Traffic Exchanges Beware: TE Traffic Storm Is Launched!
My latest ebook, TE Traffic Storm, was completed earlier this week and as of today it is being actively promoted on the traffic exchanges and safelists.
TE Traffic Storm is based on my own experience after having used traffic exchanges for several years. When I was a “newbie” affiliate marketer I found traffic exchanges offered a quick, easy and fun way for me to get traffic to my affiliate and biz op pages.
The only problem was that nobody ever seemed to sign up to the programs I was offering on my generic biz op pages. After wasting countless hours clicking for credits, only to see those credits go down the drain with zero results, I was ready to write off traffic exchanges as a waste of time for everybody except the TE owners…
That, however, would’ve been a BIG mistake.
Traffic Exchange Passion: Learning From The Owners
What I noticed was how passionate a lot of the TE owners were about their services. I started reading the blogs of industry leaders such as Jon Olson and Tim Linden, and began to see where I was going wrong.
1. For a start, I was promoting the same old generic and impersonal biz op sign up pages as every other inexperienced – or just plain lazy – marketer out there. 
2. Another thing I was doing wrong was remaining anonymous, i.e. I wasn’t “branding myself” on the traffic exchanges. Basically, that means the pages I was promoting on the exchanges said nothing about who I was and what MY business was.
3. The third mistake was that I was NOT making and using my own “splash pages”.
- A splash page should capture attention & arouse curiosity. Here’s the one I use on the TEs to promote TE Traffic Storm.
A splash page is a very basic web page that has a simple, but compelling message, and a free incentive (such as an ebook or report) to encourage the TE surfer either to click through to a squeeze page or to join your list right there on the splash page in order to receive the freebie.
Things Slowly Begin To Improve…
I began to experiment with more personal squeeze pages and began to see some results. I mean, people were actually beginning to respond to my offers. Not at first, but after a series of trials and errors over a period of about 18 months.
The Missing Links To Real TE Success!
Even so, there was still a couple of missing ingredients in the Traffic Exchange formula. Once I’d worked out what they were I began to see much better results. The key is in the subtitle of TE Traffic Storm:
How To Set The Traffic Exchanges On Fire By Giving People What They Really Want!
What people really want on the traffic exchanges is most likely NOT the thing you are trying to offer them… Once you “get” that, and have worked out both “WHAT” to offer and “HOW” to offer it you will be on your way to setting up your own TE Traffic Storm.
The result?
Well, if you persistently practise the method that I have worked out and which I explain in TE Traffic Storm you’ll have an excellent chance to start generating income “on the front end” of your business while you grow your main business “on the back end”.
Does that make sense?
TE Traffic Storm sells for $7.00 here – but readers of my blog can download a free copy from this page for the time being… 
David Hurley
P. S. If you like TE Traffic Storm, but don’t know where to start in setting up a “Traffic Storm” of your own on the exchanges, you might like to go the easy route and use a rebranded version of TE Traffic Storm campaign package which I will set up for you. Check the TE Traffic Storm Rebranding Page for full details.
Introducing SFIAffiliateBusiness.com
I completed my latest SFI project a couple of days ago. It’s an SFI affiliate website for Ron Jackson who I’ve been working with for a month or so now to help him promote SFI on the Internet.
- Ron Jackson’s SFI affiliate business website.
The site has a couple of pages which introduce the SFI affiliate business opportunity and the Tripleclicks ECA program for small business retailers. There is a blog for regular updates, an About Me page and a Contact Page.
Ron also bought my SFI Splash Page pack, which includes a free ebook about Working from Home on the Internet, a splash page, a thank-you page, plus a set of 10 email letters loaded onto the free Listwire autoresponder. That package works fine as a stand-alone package on the traffic exchanges and safelists, but I have also added it to the website – you can see the invitation to subscribe to a free ebook in the top left corner of the website.
To help Ron promote the website, I recommended that he sign up for a free account with Adzly and posted an Adzly widget on his website, bottom left. We are also working on some other free and low-cost ways to promote the website, but are taking things one-step at a time because it is very easy to suffer from information overload when you set up an Internet affiliate business.
If you would like me to make a website for your affiliate business, there are two ways to go about it:
1. Join SFI via my affiliate link and earn a free website by maintaining Executive Affiliate status for three months. (A free website with unique content is just one of the rewards I offer my active direct referrals. Check this page for full details.)
2. Head over to my order page and order a website. I charge $85 for this service if you already have your own web hosting account, or just $65 if you open a hosting account with DavidHurley.RunHosting.com before you order a website.
David Hurley
P. S. If you are just looking for free or low cost web hosting and don’t want me to make a website for you, click here for my web hosting services site.
Insider’s View Of The Adzly Viral Ad Network
Every Internet marketer is constantly searching for quick and easy ways to get their ads seen and the Adzly website offers a quick and easy, free (or low cost) advertising solution.
The Adzly Widget
Adzly is an online advertising service that allows you to post a simple ad widget on one or more of your websites and earn credits for the number of unique page views it receives. The more websites that have the widget, the more credits you are likely to receive.
The widget has some basic configuration options, such as size and background colour, but that’s about it. You can’t change the font parameters. On the plus side, it is very quick and easy to set up.
Two-Tier Referral Program
The power of Adzly as a viral ad network lies in the two-tier referral program. It allows you to receive ad credits on the page views of widgets on your referrals’ websites, and on the websites of those whom they refer.
By posting an Adzly ad widget on three or four of your sites and referring just a handful of people, you position yourself to receive hundreds or even thousands of credits a day, depending on the amount of unique traffic that each web page receives where one of “your” widgets is showing.
Start Earning Credits Fast
I tested Adzly’s claim that you can start generating ad credits in less than 5 minutes from sign-up and found that it can be done quite easily.
The sign up process is very straightforward. After you sign up you will be presented with a one-time-offer, but whether you take it or leave it, you will quickly arrive on your admin page.
The admin page is very clearly laid out and easy to navigate.
Once there, it takes about a minute to set up a widget, leaving you with four minutes to get the widget on your website and earning credits. On a couple of my websites I had generated 8 credits within a couple of minutes of posting the widget. (Free members earn 2 credits per page view, upgraded members earn 6 credits per view.)
Easy Set Up
Next, I created a text ad. It was simply a matter of typing in a short headline (up to 25 characters), the main body of the ad (up to 75 characters) and the website URL, rather like creating an Adsense ad. If you have already prepared an ad or are good at creating them on the fly, everything else is very easy to do.
Upgraded members also have the option of creating image ads. Clickbank marketers also have the option of using pre-written ClickBank ads. It takes a while to get your ad approved by admin, but as soon as it is approved it is added to the Adzly network.
Free Or Upgrade – Pros & Cons
As I mentioned, you can join Adzly as a free member. Free members can post up to 5 text ads and get 2 credits each time one of their widgets is viewed, and a credit each time widgets two referral levels deep are viewed. However, to qualify for the referral credits free members need to achieve a minimum total of 50 unique widget loads per day, something that is not required of upgraded members.
There are two upgrade levels to choose from, “Plus” ($14.95 per month) and “Pro” ($29.95 per month). Many of the upgraded benefits are similar, but one huge advantage for Pro members, which is that they get 40,000 credits applied to their account each month.
Upgraded members get to post more ads and can also post image ads. They earn 6 credits each time one of their widgets is viewed and a credit each time a widget up to two referral levels deep is viewed. Upgraded members also get to choose whether or not they want image ads on widgets that they place on their own websites and they can also block specific ads from appearing on their widgets.
Another cool upgrade feature is that you can set your own widgets to show your own ads only, but you won’t earn credits from your page views for those widgets.
Upgraded members also earn 30% commissions on direct referrals and can buy credits at discounted rates.
The widgets you place on your websites are branded with your Adzly referral link and the best thing is that you will generate ad credits from your free as well as upgraded referrals.
There is a lot to be said in favour of Adzly. I’m very pleased that I decided to join Adzly as a Pro member, taking advantage of the OTO. It is certainly a much cheaper option than Google Adwords and well suited to the Internet business niche. With a small amount of promotional effort you could easily generate a constant stream of traffic to your web pages.
David Hurley
5 Online Home Business Marketing Mistakes To Avoid
If you are running your own online home business, marketing mistakes can wipe out your profits or send your business spiralling into the red. Yes, the most common marketing mistakes can actually be easily avoided if you are aware of them. Here’s a quick look at five common online home business marketing mistakes that are easily avoided.
1. Trying to Target Everyone
One of the biggest mistakes in Internet marketing is trying to create a campaign that will appeal to all audiences. Every demographic has specific triggers that will be more effective for them than anyone else. A common reason why online home businesses target everyone is that they have not clearly defined who their primary target market really is. Even the most basic market research can go a long way in helping you better define the direction of your marketing campaigns.
2. Relying on Rational Responses
A common mistake with many marketing campaigns is that they depend too much on a rational response from their target audience. In very few cases will rationality win out against emotions and feelings when making a purchasing decision.
The reason for this is that people are driven by wants, needs, and desires which they “rationalize” later to justify purchasing the product. By basing your marketing on these key emotions and desires will always prove to be more effective than basing it on a rational rational approach.
3. Always Favoring “New”
If you look at online product sales pages that have the highest conversion rates, many of them will follow the same basic, old, tried and tested copywriting strategies that have been successful for decades – even before the Internet existed! Just because a marketing technique is “new” doesn’t mean that it will actually improve your sales.
If you do try to do something completely new, then make sure you are always testing results to determine whether or not it is worth integrating into your long-term marketing strategy.
4. Starving Your Budget
This problem is particularly relevant to online home business owners because they often simply don’t have the capital to invest a lot of money in their marketing. While there is no reason to spend beyond your means, you should try to invest as much is possible in your marketing. This is especially true once you start establishing a baseline of success. The easiest way to do this is simply to reinvest a certain percentage of every sale back into your marketing budget.
5. Not Taking Action
The biggest mistake that someone starting a home business can make is simply not doing anything. Creating a marketing plan is essential, but it won’t do you any good if you don’t follow it. Follow-through is one of the biggest reasons why online home businesses fail.
By avoiding these five common online home business marketing mistakes, you will set yourself apart from 90% of the other Internet marketers that you are competing against.
New 2012 Edition!
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