WeiChen Marketing Group

Each year around this time we should start to think about all of the insane money that is to be spent in the 4^th quarter of the year.  Even though now it is just the end of September, everyone is already getting ready for the massive spending that is going to take place just for Halloween alone.  According to last year’s reports, the Halloween related products have become a business with $7-billion volume.  Halloween costumes are the biggest seller and when it comes to finding that perfect costume for your party or even for your kids, there is no lack of money they will be spent. Obviously the best way to make money from Halloween is through the promotion of Halloween costumes.  We should register as an affiliate of an online Halloween costume store.  In this way, we can just send customers to their websites and earn a nice commission on every sale.

Listed below are some of the top affiliate programs online for promoting Halloween costumes.  Each of the programs has different costumes and other Halloween merchandise, along with affiliate payout rates and where they host their affiliate programs.

1. BuyCostumes.com.  This is the largest online store for buying costumes online, with over 10 billion costume combinations!  If you are going to be promoting costumes throughout the year and looking for the largest selection, BuyCostumes is a must to checkout.  The BuyCostumes affiliate program stands out from others as they also offer affiliate promotions and contests for big cash prizes.  They host their affiliate program at Commission Junction: 10% commission per sale / 25% commission on costume of the week.
2. SpiritHalloween.AffiliateTechnology.com.  Spirit Halloween is one of the sites and brand names that you simply cannot ignore.  These are the same people that usually set up the local Halloween stores in your area and malls.  Check out their excellent site and massive inventory for everything relating to Halloween.  Spirit Halloween also boasts one of the largest affiliate payouts in the Halloween niche!  Their affiliate program is also hosted at Commission Junction: 13% commission per sale.
3. CostumeCraze.com.  Costume Craze is another excellent site that has seen amazing growth over the years.  Just like BuyCostumes, they have an amazing collection of costumes and accessories and they also boast some of the best prices online.  Hosted at Commission Junction: 12% commission per sale.
4. FrightCatalog.com.  Fright Catalog has an excellent and fast loading online store that allows you to quickly run through their site and inventory, while they also have great sorting options for finding the best costumes for men, women and children.  In addition to their great site navigation they also have thousands of costumes, decorations and props for any occasion.  They host their affiliate program at ShareASale: 12% commission per sale.
5. HalloweenExpress.com.  Halloween Express is another very large site for finding and buying Halloween costumes and merchandise online.  However, with so much competition in the Halloween costume niche, it would be tough to promote their affiliate program when they pay 8% on most orders, and 5% on the rest, while other affiliate programs pay in the 10-12% range which is almost double.  Hosted at ShareASale: 5-8% commission per sale.
6. HalloweenMart.com.  Halloween Mart is one of the oldest online stores for selling Halloween costumes, as they say they have been in business since 1994!  Much like the other online stores for Halloween costumes, they have a selection of thousands of costumes and an easy-to-navigation store.  Hosted at ShareASale: 10% commission per sale.

As for which affiliate programs you are going to promote, there are two networks that you need to sign up, Commission Junction and ShareASale.  While Commission Junction might have the bigger name brands like BuyCostumes and Costume Craze on their network, ShareASale makes up for it in volume.  When performing a search for “Halloween” on Commission Junction you will get 42 relevant advertisers.  The same search on ShareASale will result in more than 200 related merchants/services to promote.  Be sure to create an account with both so that you can view all of the affiliate program options that are available.

As an affiliate, your main objective is to sell the products and services offered by your partner merchants.  Unless you can do this, you can never hope to make a significant amount of money with affiliate marketing programs.  So how do you boost sales?  All things being equal, you will need to increase your site traffic before you can experience more sales.

Here are a few tips that can help you boost your site traffic:

1. Optimize for the search engines.  The most successful sites on the internet are the most visible ones.  Now there are various ways to achieve increased visibility on the internet, but the foremost method is that of search engine optimization.  The details are too technical to discuss here, but the purpose of search engine optimization (SEO) is to help your site achieve higher rankings on the search engines.  If you have used a search engine, you will notice that any particular keyword search will return thousands, if not millions of results.  Most people will not bother to browse through all those results; they will prefer to look into the sites already displayed.  Statistically speaking, the sites listed on the first results page will garner the highest amount of traffic, putting those sites in a better position to make money.

2. Joining internet directories.  While internet directories are no longer as widely used as search engines, some people do use them.  It is important that you do not overlook the potential customers that these directories can bring to your site.  To join an internet directory, you will have to submit your site for approval, and you will be categorized accordingly.

3. Provide fresh content.  Your site must continually be updated if you expect your visitors to keep coming back.  Your site must have useful content, as well as tools that will help your target audience.  Make your site as easy to navigate as possible, and be sure that your links work the way that they should.  There is nothing that frustrates people more than a “broken” website, and once your site has been labeled as such, chances are slim that many people will want to come back.

4. Build an online community. In other words, build relationships with your potential customers. Make your visitors feel welcome and appreciated, and they are likely to come back. Be interested in solving their problems and they will thank you with their business.
Making your affiliate marketing program work is really not that much different from operating a traditional business. The only way you can keep your customers is to treat them right. The Japanese have a saying: The customer is God. As long as you treat your customers with respect and exert effort in trying to meet their needs, you will find that they will be more than willing to help you with yours.

Every affiliate marketer is always looking for the successful market that gives the biggest paycheck.  Sometimes they think it is a magic formula that is readily available for them.  Actually, it is more complicated than that.  It is just good marketing practices that have been proven over years of hard work and dedication.  There are tactics that have worked before with online marketing and is continuing to work in the online affiliate marketing world of today.  With these top three marketing tips, you will be able to able to increase your sales and survive in the affiliate marketing online.

What are these three tactics?

1. Using unique web pages to promote each separate product you are marketing.  Do not lump all of it together just to save some money on web hosting.  It is best to have a site focusing on each and every product and nothing more.

Always include product reviews on the website so visitors will have an initial understanding on what the product can do to those who buys them.  Also include testimonials from users who have already tried the product.  Be sure that these customers are more than willing to allow you to use their names and photos on the site of the specific product you are marketing.

You can also write articles highlighting the uses of the product and include them on the website as an additional page.  Make the pages attractive, compelling and include calls to act on the information.  Each headline should attract the readers to try and read more, even contact you.  Highlight your special points.  This will help your readers to learn what the page is about and will want to find out more.

2. Offer free reports to your readers.  If possible, position them at the very top side of your page so that they simply cannot be missed.  Try to create autoresponder messages that will be mailed to those who input their personal information into your sign up box.  According to research, a sale is closed usually on the seventh contact with a prospect.

Only two things can possibly happen with the web page alone: closed sale or the prospect leaving the page and never return again.  By placing useful information into their inboxes at certain specified period, you will remind them of the product they thought they want later and will find out that the sale is closed.  Be sure that the content is directed toward specific reasons to buy the product.  Do not make it sound like a sales pitch.

Focus on important points like how your product can make life and things easier and more enjoyable.  Include compelling subject lines in the email.  As much as possible, avoid using the word “free” because there are still older spam filters that dumps those kind of contents into the junk before even anyone reading them first.  Convince those who signed up for your free reports that they will be missing something big if they do not avail of your products and services.

3. Get the kind of traffic that is targeted to your product.  Just think, if the person who visited your website has no interest whatsoever in what you are offering, they will be among those who move on and never come back.  Write articles for publication in e-zines and e-reports.  This way you can locate publications that is focusing on your target customers and what you have put up might just grab their interest.

Try to write a minimum of 2 articles per week, with at least 300-600 words in length.  By continuously writing and maintaining these articles you can generate as many as 100 targeted readers to your site in a day.

Always remember that only 1 out of 100 people are likely to buy your product or get your services.  If you can generate as much as 1,000 targeted hits for your website in a day, that means you can made 10 sales based on the average statistic.

The tactics given above does not really sound very difficult to do, if you think about it. It just requires a little time and an action plan on your part.

Try to use these tips for several affiliate marketing programs.  You can end maintaining a good source of income and surviving in this business that not all marketers can do.  Besides, think of the huge paychecks you will be receiving…

If you look at the top online retailers in any industry sector, you shall immediately realize how affiliate programs are working to increase conversion rates.  Almost all companies that were selected as the top 50 e-retailers in the ‘The Internet Retailer Best of the Web Top 50 Retail Sites’ have affiliate programs.

Affiliate programs are also recognized by terms such as “associate programs” or “publisher programs”.  This is how affiliate programs work: You build a website for your own business, products and services, or with the sole purpose of promoting different types of gadgets or merchandise.  You sign up with the affiliate program of a website and strategically place their link or banner on your website.  A visitor to your website finds that the description of a particular product coincides with exactly what he has been looking for.  He goes on to click through to the product manufacturer’s website. Any visitor who purchases your affiliate partners product owing to your promotion, earns you a commission.

All websites want to have very high paying affiliate programs.  It is a misconception that affiliates only promote computer software, like anti-spyware products, or gambling websites.  Affiliate programs cater to all kind of businesses.  You as an affiliate may earn as much as over $1 million per year or as less as $2 per week.  Your earnings are directly proportional to the hard work, effectiveness of strategy and technique, and the number of products you promote.  If you start out the right way, the sky is the limit!

Following are factors to consider in order to be part of the highest paying Internet Marketing Affiliate Programs:

• Advertising space on your website is very valuable to you. Thus, selecting companies and retailers that not only pay you more for your services, but who offer a product that complements your website and is directly or indirectly related to your line of work.
• If your website has been constructed with the very purpose of promoting other people’s stuff, it is important to stick to one industry, for instance, do not showcase computer software or hardware with something as incongruous as products in health, weight loss, skin care and adult supplements.  If the advertisement stands out like a sore thumb, your visitor may recognize it as an overt marketing tool and move on.
• To effectively monetize space on your website, avoid catering to too many affiliates.  A web page crowded with advertisements and banners will fritter away traffic.
• A great review, with excellent content and attractive graphics would tempt visitors to click on the available link to visit your affiliate’s website to learn more, and maybe purchase the product too!
• The placement of banners on your website must be above the fold, which is the area the user can see before scrolling down.  Also, an advertisement placed at the top left corner would attract more attention than one that is placed towards the bottom.  It should be worked into the design and almost appear to be an integral part of the website.

There are two ways of locating a company with high-paying affiliate programs.  You may visit various websites running affiliate programs or simply search for quality affiliate programs through affiliate program directories.

Thus, to establish an affiliate partnership with Paynet Systems, you may find the affiliate program featured in ‘Gr1innovations.com Directory of Ways to Make Money’ or you may simply log on to http://www.paynetsystems.com/html/affiliates.htm.  Paynet Systems offers an opportunity to make $50-$100 for every approved merchant account generated by your website or referred verbally.  This is a highly lucrative offer and the choice is yours to make.  Fill out the affiliate online application form and Paynet Systems support team will always be available to help or to answer any question.

Making money through affiliate marketing is one of the most rewarding careers one could ever have.  What’s good about this business is that anyone can join and make their way to success.  Affiliate marketing has been known to be cost-efficient, assessable method of conveying long-term results.  In fact, you can start even with a shoe string budget.  And with affiliate marketing, you can have the benefit of working from home and enjoying the freedom and flexibility of working for yourself.

But there are also some people who failed in this kind of business.  It could be because they lack knowledge and tactics.  If you are a web site owner and you want to join in an affiliate marketing business, you should know where to get good affiliate programs.

Clickbank is an ideal place to start.  Here, you can find one of the largest affiliate marketing programs in the industry.  You just need to visit their site, http://www.clickbank.com, and secure a clickbank ID.  From the Clickbank’s home page, proceed to “Earn Commissions” and look for the products and services that perfectly fit you and your site.  These products are typically ranked according to their popularity.

Clickbank is one of the affiliate networks that serve as a 3rd party between the web merchants and the associated affiliates.  It is responsible in providing the technology to deliver the merchant’s offers and campaigns.  The affiliate network also do the job of collecting commission fees from the merchant and giving it to the affiliates involved in the program.

Clickbank provides you a large and increasing network of publishers or affiliates to tap into.  To be more specific, clickbank has more than 100,000 affiliates who are experts in finding potential customers for your affiliate program.  The reason why more and more affiliates are joining Clickbank is obvious – the process of gaining commissions in this network is absolutely fair and transparent.

For web merchants, joining Clickbank is so easy.  You just need to sign up in their site for free and allow them to sell your products.  Keep up a promotional web site that gives your potential customers detailed information about your offered product or services.  At your website, you must also maintain a comprehensive technical support pages for your product.  In return, Clickbank will promote and sell your product, give customer service for your product, allow their affiliates to pass on traffic to your web site, enable you to encourage new affiliates to advertise your web site, furnish real-time sales reporting for you and the affiliates and send you and all affiliates a paycheck  twice a month.

If you’re a Clickbank affiliate wannabe, you surely won’t find it hard to be a part of this network.  First, you are required to place their link on your website and if you don’t have a Clickbank account, you need to complete the Clickbank affiliate form and create your own account.  Then, if you already have a Clickbank username, you are free to choose whatever marketing tools you want to use bring in more clicks and generate more sales.  After selecting marketing tools, you can now get your affiliate link.

That’s how simple it is to join Clickbank.  But being a Clickbank super affiliate is no minor achievement.  It means you need to possess the ability to sell lots of affiliate products.  You also need to have expertise in search engine optimization, email marketing, newsletter marketing, reciprocal linkage, link exchanges and other methods of promoting your merchant’s goods and services.

Among the secrets to become successful in affiliate marketing is to come up with good content based website and put your affiliate links in all your content.  Your main purpose here is to give your visitors good quality content about the things they are interested in.  Set aside the job of selling.  It must be done by the sales letter page you are transferring them to.

Promote multiple affiliate programs in your website but don’t promote everything the world has to offer.  Just choose the affiliate programs that fit your site and focus on it.  Then, it is advisable to automate the whole process, giving you more time for other ventures.  Yes, you’ve read it right!  Automation is another key to become a super affiliate.

Of course, you have to spend more time in reading, learning and taking up the changes in affiliate marketing business.  Through this, you’ll remain on top of the trends.  If you are knowledgeable with online marketing, you’ll understand how important it is to stay up-to-date.  In this kind of business, what worked and what was accepted few months ago may not work at present.  So always see to it that you know what’s new in affiliate marketing everyday.

It’s really hard to be a Clickbank super affiliate, but you shouldn’t say NO to the thought of giving up.  Bear in mind that in affiliate marketing business, you need to develop persistence, patience and knowledge.  These traits will teach you to carry on no matter how tough the job is.  Also, check your statistics.  This will help you find out what is working and what is not.  Make necessary changes if needed but do it one at a time and be patient.

Don’t forget that in affiliate marketing, everything won’t take place overnight.  And it will not happen without blood, sweat and hefty time commitment.  Again, just encompass patience, persistence and knowledge; then do above mentioned tactics.  Before you recognize it, you will start gaining profits.  Believe me, the fruits of all your efforts here in affiliate marketing will be way too sweet.

There are huge benefits to promoting affiliate programs with your own home-based Internet business.  Let’s look at 15 of the reasons to join affiliate programs.

No Production Costs:  The cost to develop and produce a new product is prohibitive for almost anyone who wants to start a home-based business.  With affiliate programs, production costs are not an issue.  The product has been developed and proven – all on the merchant’s nickel.

Low Cost Set-up:  Compared with building a brick and mortar store, starting a home-based Internet business is relatively cheap.  You probably already have a desk, Internet-connected computer and word-processing software, which is all the equipment you may need to start making money from affiliate programs.

No Fees or Licenses:  I often compare doing business as an affiliate, with distributing a line of products in the real world.  The biggest difference is that the distributor must often pay for a license to distribute products within a limited geographic region.  Affiliate programs, on the other hand, are usually free to join, and geographic market reach is limited only by the affiliate’s ability to promote his website.

Sell Almost Anything:  What isn’t sold online?  That list must be shorter than the one describing all that is sold online.  There are thousands and thousands of affiliate programs selling every product under the sun.  That makes it easy to find products related to your current or planned web site.

No Sales Experience Required:  When I started my affiliate business, I had absolutely no sales experience.  That wasn’t a problem, however.  The companies I affiliated with provided excellent marketing materials.  Using their sales copy, I was able to get my first affiliate site up in less than a day.

No Employees:  Employee salaries are the biggest business expense.  Although you may need or want someone to work for you on occasion, you’ll never have to worry about hiring full or part-time employees while working as an affiliate marketer.  When you have a project you want to hire out, it is easy to find specialists in every computer-related field who can work for you from the comfort of their own homes.  You pay only for the project, and never have to worry about ongoing employee-related benefits and deductions.

No Merchant Accounts:  Setting up a merchant account is time-consuming and costly.  However, affiliate marketers don’t need merchant account.  Merchants bear all the costs for payment processing.  As an affiliate, you’ll never lose sleep over charge backs, fraud or losing your merchant account.

No Inventory:  As an affiliate marketer, you can sell large items without storage concerns, even if you live in a small one-bedroom apartment.

No Order-Processing:  Forget the problems associated with collecting and storing names, addresses, credit card numbers, etc.  The merchant does all that!

No Shipping:  The cost and hassle to prepare and ship products to customers worldwide could be staggering.  Affiliates never have to worry about packaging supplies or postal rates.

No Customer Service:  Do you hate the prospect of dealing with nasty people or customer complaints?  Don’t worry about it!  The merchant handles the snivelers.

Make Money While You Sleep:  What other business allows you as a sole proprietor to keep your doors open and keep making money even when you take breaks or after you go home for the night?

Worldwide Marketplace:  The Internet is the world’s largest marketplace.  You can drive more visitors to your online store in a day, than a small-town merchant will see in his or her brick and mortar business in a year.

Minimal Risk:  The product you chose isn’t making money? Dump it. Take down your links and promote another!  It’s that easy.  There are no long-term contracts binding you to products that don’t sell.

High Income Potential:  If you have a job, your salary or hourly wage is probably pre-determined.  Maybe there’s not much, other than working overtime, that you can do to increase your income.  With your own affiliate business on the Internet, your income potential is limited only by your desire, effort and imagination.

No other business is so inexpensive to start yet offers such high profit potentials.

Affiliate programs enable you to work from Almost Anywhere in the World!

Being in the affiliate marketing business is not that hard now with the internet at your disposable.  It is much easier now compared to the days when people have to make use of the telephones and other mediums of information just to get the latest updates on the way their program is coming along.  So with technology at hand, and assuming that the affiliate is working from home, a day in his or her life would sound something like this…

Upon waking up and after having breakfast, the computer is turned on to check out new developments in the network.  As far as the marketer is concerned there might be new things to update and statistics to keep track on.  The site design has to be revised.  The marketer knows that a well-designed site can increase sign ups from visitors.  It can also help in the affiliate’s conversion rates.  That done, it is time to submit the affiliate program to directories that lists affiliate programs.  These directories are means to attract people in joining your affiliate program.  A sure way of promoting the affiliate program.

Time to track down the sales you are getting from your affiliates fairly and accurately.  There are phone orders and mails to track down.  See if they are new clients checking the products out.  Noting down the contact information that might be a viable source in the future.  There are lots of resources to sort out.  Ads, banners, button ads and sample recommendations to give out because the marketer knows that this is one way of ensuring more sales.  Best to stay visible and accessible too.

The affiliate marketer remembered that there are questions to answer from the visitors. This has to be done quickly.  Nothing can turn off a customer than an unanswered email.  To prove that the affiliate is working effectively and efficiently, inquiries would have to be paid more attention on.  Nobody wants to be ignored and customers are not always the most patient of all people.  Quick answer that should appear professional yet friendly too.

In the process of doing all the necessities, the marketer is logged on to a chat room where he or she interacts with other affiliates and those under that same program.  This is where they can discuss things on how to best promote their products.  There are things to be learned and it is a continuous process.  Sharing tips and advices is a good way of showing support.  There may be others out there wanting to join and may be enticed by the discussion that is going on.  There is no harm in assuming what opportunities ahead.

The newsletters and ezines were updated days ago, so it is time for the affiliate marketer to see if there are some new things happening in the market.  This will be written about in the marketer’s publication to be distributed to the old and new customers.  These same publications are also an important tool in keeping up to date with the newly introduced products.  The marketer has put up a sale and promotion that customers may want to know about.  Besides, they have to keep up with the deadline of these sales written in the publications.

It is that time to show some appreciation to those who have helped the marketer in the promotions and sale increase.  Nothing like mentioning the persons, their sites and the process they have done that made everything worked. Of course, this will be published in the newsletters.  Among the more important information that have been written already.

The marketer still has time to write out recommendations to those who want credible sources for the products being promoted.  There is also time to post some comments on how to be a successful affiliate marketer on a site where there are lots of wannabees.  Two objectives done at the same time. The marketer gets to promote the product as well as the program they are in. Who knows, someone may be inclined to join.

Time flies. Missed lunch but is quite contented with the tasks done. Bed time….

Ok, so this may not be all done in a day.  But then, this gives you an idea of how an affiliate marketer, a dedicated one that is, spends the marketing day.  Is that success looming in the distance or what?

Credit Reports are one of the strongest niche’s on PPV.  They’ve made plenty of people rich, because they convert so well!  There are so many different ways to promote Credit Report offers, so there is no reason you shouldn’t be running this niche now.  Credit offers now have the volume that Grant offers used to have.  Some affiliates are pushing hundreds of leads a day to credit offers, and sometimes with very little spend and oversight involved.  You can run via direct linking, landers, or you can set up an autoresponder for an EMail list.  Let’s first jump into direct linking.  Before continuing, I would like to note that these offers are very versatile.  They will work almost anywhere if you have the right angle, but let us first start out without any angle at all.

Using a lander makes credit reports much more adaptable to different markets.  You can target Boating, RV, Car dealerships, Grad Schools, Apartment lookup, Real Estate, Banking, really anything that has to do with receiving a loan or anyone worrying about their finances.  The trick here is to fill the gap in-between whatever website they were on and credit reports.  Unlike direct linking, these people aren’t looking for their credit score, so we need to create a landing page that lets them see how important it is that they know their score right now.  The lander can be anything related to the product, for instance, I make a separate lander for Banking, for Real Estate, and for Auto.  You need to remember absolutely no use of copyrighted images in these landers.  You cannot allude to them or use fake logos either, just create a lander that is related to the sector, and then make a short statement about how the credit score is available TODAY only, from (your link provider) and to click here to start now!  Some PPV companies require you to have the terms of payment on your lander.  If that is the case, do a grey on white 10pt at the bottom of your landing page.  This method has proven to be a lot more effective than direct linking, but does require some work and re-tweaking every now and then.  Don’t overdo the lander, you can always ask your AM for assistance.

Start off explaining the benefits of getting a credit report and knowing what your credit report is.  Having a good credit score can mean huge differences in your mortgage rate, your car interest, insurance premiums and a whole plethora for a lot of other reasons.  These credit report offers make it really easy for consumers to find out what their score is, and keep them informed if there are any changes going on.  Credit reports also dominate because they are advertised on television almost everywhere, every night, and on every station.  Half the advertising and branding job is already done for you by the time they reached the page.

With today’s economy, if you have a poor credit score you are going to be screwed out of thousands of dollars in high interest rates.  If your score is low, you won’t be able to buy a house or get a car at a decent rate.  You can utilize these factors as the fear element, playing up the emotions of consumers.  You should also explain exactly what a credit score is and how it’s calculated.  Some people don’t even know what it is in the first place, or they would probably be getting it for free from the government.  You have to realize the type of audience they are actually advertising to, they’re not the smartest people in the world – obviously.  Credit scores are generated by 3 different agencies that factor in payment history, amounts you owe, the length of your credit history, the types of credit used, and any new outstanding credit you have.

PPV with Credit is very competitive, there is no doubt about that.  You can become rich very quickly, and on the flip side you can drain a budget if you’re too overzealous.  The trick with this on PPV is to know you don’t always need to rank No. 1.  It can blow through your budget faster than you can get conversions.  Be sure you don’t spend all your cash on one or two high ranking targets.  A trick with this is trying to keep Rank 3-6 on a very high traffic site, so you can gauge quality/quantity without losing your budget.