Affiliate marketing is an internet business strategy where an existing business rewards a person for bringing them increased traffic or revenue. As businesses recognize the important role of affiliate marketing, they are offering more competitive payment plans. This has created exciting opportunities for those who are interested in making money online.

Professional Marketing International has noted that some of the greatest benefits to affiliate marketing are that it requires low capital and risk, yet offers huge profit potential. Affiliate marketing is a billion dollar industry and is growing larger every year. There are many different strategies and methods involved, with the common denominator being that those who use them effectively are able to make significant amounts of money.

There have been major advances in affiliate tracking technology and the strategy has moved into physical media channels such as printable coupons and gift cards. Many entrepreneurs have made their fortunes working with credit card companies and other related businesses. The bottom line is that there are opportunities everywhere and affiliate marketing offers more latitude than almost any other business strategy. You can tinker with various techniques until you find something that works for you. And as mentioned earlier, your campaigns require little or no capital and have minimal risk. If you have considered affiliate marketing in the past, there’s no time like now to get involved with this amazing opportunity!

As blogs and websites become increasingly user friendly, more people are able to upload and manage their own images without the assistance of a web designer. This is particularly handy for entrepreneurs because it allows them to personally update their blogs or websites quickly and accurately. The most common question is no longer how to upload an image, but rather where to find the images to use.

There are numerous sources available, with many requiring registration or payment of some kind. Before using an image from any collection or website you should always read the fine print. Make sure that you are familiar with its specific terms and limits. Here are some suggestions from Professional Marketing International for the best places to find a broad range of suitable images.

Free Stock Image Collections: The images available from these collections are largely free, but you should still take the time to carefully read the terms for each site.

• FreeFoto.com
• openphoto.net
• stock.xchng

Creative Commons: This is a great place to start. The search functions are easy to use and the images are sometimes free. Check out the following sites to get started.

• Creative Commons Website
• Google Creative Commons Search
• Yahoo Creative Commons Search
• everystockphoto.com

Commercial Image Collections: These websites all provide top quality images. Because they are top tier, they require registration or payment.

• iStockphoto
• gettyimages
• clipart.com
• BIGSTOCK

Simply put, webmaster tools are a set of tools designed to assist site owners with the management and promotion of their site. These tools help you develop a sitemap, list external links, see what keyword searches lead to the site and track other site statistics. Two of the most common webmaster tool providers are Google and Bing. Both of these services are free and quite easy to use. Due to increasing competition, they have broadened their product selection and improved their performance.

Google webmaster tools have a solid reputation among website owners. They make is easy to track your site’s performance and searchability. By offering Google search-related information, these tools provide many benefits to entrepreneurs. Most importantly, you can find out what keywords are relevant to your site, which assists you in optimizing it for greater traffic. Check out the Google webmaster center here.

Bing launched its webmaster tools a little late in the game, but they offer a fine selection of functions. Like Google, the Bing tools allow you to add a site map. New features also include geographic targeting and top search queries. Bing’s tools make it possible to monitor multiple sites and can be an excellent choice for many site owners. Check out the Bing webmaster center here.

Webmaster tools are essential to efficiently running your site. The tool kits offered by Google and Bing are both provide excellent options. Professional Marketing International recommends you take the time to research these tool providers before you decide which is best for your site.

Facebook is a social media giant with over 400 million active users around the world, providing entrepreneurs with an unparalleled marketing platform. One of the most remarkable Facebook statistics is that more than 200 million users log on to the site on any given day. And each user clicks about ten pieces of content each month, meaning Facebook is generating millions of ad clicks every week. With this in mind, the internet gurus at Professional Marketing International have compiled these suggestions for tapping into the Facebook phenomenon.

 Accessing the Facebook Community

One of the quickest ways to access the Facebook community is to create a group or fan page for your business. Whether you offer products or services, you can customize your own page and begin gathering fans. This is an excellent way to spread the word about promotions, announce major events and maintain a relationship with your network. Because Facebook doesn’t allow entrepreneurs to market to groups and fan pages they didn’t create, this is by far the most effective way to get a direct link to a loyal community of fans. Creating a group or fan page is easy and Facebook provides instructions every step of the way.

Facebook group and fan pages provide entrepreneurs with amazing marketing opportunities that aren’t just limited to fans in a regional area. Consider this – each day more than 20 million Facebook users become fans of various pages. All told, Facebook pages have created more than 5 billion fans. This is an incredible opportunity to grow your network and introduce new contacts to your business!

Targeting Your Ads

In addition to your group and fan pages, you should consider Facebook’s PPC ad options. Despite its immense collection of users, Facebook offers incredibly accurate targeting tools to help you maximize your marketing success. A keyword box is provided where you can enter the words you’d like to target. Facebook will also suggest related keywords for you to use. These keyword suggestions often provide ideas you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.

 The most important part of ad targeting comes with the ten elements Facebook provides you with to help you target your marketing: location, age, birthday, sex, education, workplace, relationship, interested in, languages and connections. A successfully targeted ad uses a combination of these elements, which is called “layering,” and utilizes maybe five or six of the targeting elements to narrow your ad to an accurate profile of who your customer is. Facebook’s easy-to-use interface allows you to experiment with these components until you find the most effective combination. For example, you could target your ad to men in California, between the ages of 18-24, who speak German, have a college degree and are interested in surfing. This flexibility helps you maximize your success and get the most out of Facebook’s marketing platform.

 As you go through the targeting process, Facebook provides you with an estimate of how many users would be reached. As your category selection narrows, the number of users goes down. A good number to shoot for with your first campaign is 65,000. In subsequent campaigns you can always expand or tighten that number. Facebook also provides you with data on those who clicked your advertisement, including what other kinds of advertisement they also clicked on. This information is extremely helpful as you optimize your ad in the future.

Landing Pages

Facebook allows your ads to direct users to any legitimate landing page you choose. Many entrepreneurs use a squeeze page that enables them to collect the user’s name and email address from the get-go. Just make sure that any promise made in your ad is delivered on your landing page. Facebook will check this and cancel any ad that they deem misleading.

 Another strategy that PMI Education consultants suggest is to link to a Facebook group or fan page for your business. This can be beneficial because some users are leery of leaving the Facebook site when they click on an ad. The disadvantage to this is that your group or fan page will still be a Facebook page with a lot of other ads and distractions. The user may even be intrigued by a competitor’s ad that they see on your own page. In this regard, using a landing page outside of Facebook may make some users a little uneasy, but it gives you more control and removes these distractions.

Conclusion

Facebook is a powerful marketing tool with incredible staying power. The current lack of advertiser competition provides entrepreneurs with amazing opportunities. By applying these strategies, you can effectively reach your target audience and drive major traffic to your website.

A hosted platform houses your blog on their server. Blogger.com is an example of this type of platform. Hosted platforms offer several benefits to users. They are generally user-friendly and free, making them a particularly good choice for beginners. After a quick registration process, you are given a URL (web address) with the name of your blog. A hosted platform URL also includes the name of the platform. For example, scubadiverpro.blogger.com. Platforms such as Blogger.com already have good page ranks with search engines, giving your blog the opportunity to rank quickly.

One disadvantage to hosted platforms is they can be generic. With their general lack of customization control and limited design options, hosted blogs often look very much like the other blogs on the platform. A big contributor to this sameness is the generic URL. The requirement of including the platform’s name makes it hard to create a distinct name. And like it or not, your blog URL will be forever tied to any hosted platform you sign up with. If you decide to change to a different platform, you’ll have to create a new URL, because you obviously can’t take a name like scubadiverpro.blogger.com with you to a non-hosted platform like WordPress.org. Creating a new name means you will have to start over again in the search engines and you may also lose some of your readers.

Many experienced bloggers opt for the freedom and dynamic control of a non-hosted platform. If you have web design skills these platforms can be especially beneficial. By creating and purchasing your own domain name, such as scubadiverpro.com, you have full control. If you were to move to a different hosting service, you could take the name with you. Also, original domain names are more professional-looking. For those wanting to monetize their blog, this is a great way to give it a distinct and recognizable brand.

With a non-hosted platform, you must find hosting elsewhere. Because most ordinary bloggers don’t have access to their own server, they use a third-party server. Non-hosted platforms like WordPress.org and Textpattern.com provide affiliate companies that will host your blog for a price, such as BlueHost.com. Setting up a non-hosted platform can be complex, so beginners should be wary. Options such as BlueHost.com, however, make it simple. Also, you will have to pay annual fees for hosting and your domain name. If your purpose is just to share some news and photos, a hosted platform is a great option because they’re free and user-friendly. But for those who have bigger plans for their blog, such as operating an affiliate business, a non-hosted platform provides the versatility to adapt to changing needs.

In recent years, unsolicited emails have become a huge headache for consumers online. Also known as spam, these emails often contain offensive material or are used by scammers to obtain personal information for criminal activity. Like all legitimate internet educators, PMI Education applauded when in 2003, Congress took action by instituting the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM). In conjunction with this Act, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) implemented rules to stem the tide of unsolicited content.

Here are some of the key requirements of the FTC’s rules*:

• Identification – Unsolicited commercial e-mail sent to non-wireless accounts must be clearly identified as a solicitation or advertisement for products or services.
• Offering a Way to Reject Future Messages – Commercial e-mail senders must provide easily-accessible, legitimate ways for recipients to reject future messages from that sender.
• Return Address – All commercial e-mail, and e-mail considered transactional and relationship messages (about existing transactions), must contain legitimate return e-mail addresses, as well as the sender’s postal address.
• Subject Lines – Commercial e-mail senders must use subject lines that are accurate. Using misleading or bogus subject lines to trick readers into opening messages is prohibited.

These laws help make life easier for everyone. For one thing, you won’t have to spend as much time sifting through junk emails. Also, when you do receive unwanted messages, you should be able to easily opt out of them. Legitimate email marketers will find that their emails will be more effective as they comply with the FTC rules. Prominent opt-out information may lead to more people remove themselves from email lists, but that is better than dealing with complaints from frustrated customers down the road. CAN-SPAM has provided a strong set of rules to help electronic communication be safer, cleaner and more efficient.

*http://www.fcc.gov/

A domain name is a convenient way to identify a web address. Rather than a collection of meaningless numbers like http://349857345897.com, you can choose a word or combination of words. So if you wanted to create an online store called Bob’s Bargain Basement Birdhouses, you would have the option of using one or all of these words to name and describe your website. You could use all the words (BobsBargainBasementBirdhouses.com) or a select few (BobsBirdhouses.com). Wouldn’t you agree that both of these names are easier to remember than a numerical series like http://432507328901.com?

Domain names are unique, so if you wanted to call your website ToyBarn.com and someone else already owned that name, you would be out of luck. It is sometimes possible to get a domain owner to sell you a domain name, but this can be an expensive option.

You may have noticed that some domain names have an ending different than .com. Examples of this would be .gov and .org. As you could probably guess, .gov is a domain specifically for government websites. And .org is for non-profit entities. There are even country specific domains, such as .fr for France. If you are starting a basic website that isn’t related to the government, a non-profit organization or based in a country other than the United States, you would most likely register your domain name in the .com domain.

A URL is a unique address that allows you to find a file on the internet. A URL is different from a domain name because a domain name will merely direct you to a website, but a URL can take you to any given page within that website. For example, if you typed ToyBarn.com into your browser, you would be taken to whatever page the website owner chose to route the domain to…most likely the homepage. But if you typed the URL ToyBarn.com/clearance, you would be taken to the Clearance page of the website. Or if you were to type ToyBarn.com/FAQ, you would be directed to the FAQ page. In this way, a URL can serve as an internal address to a website, making any page accessible.

Understanding the basics of domain names and URLs will help you effectively run your website and get the most out of your web experience. Professional Marketing International is proud to offer world-class consulting and their consultants are available by phone to help answer clients’ questions and take full advantage of their extensive program.

An SSL certificate is an essential asset for any Professional Marketing International client wanting to conduct business through a website. PMI education representatives always utilize SSL certificates for their own personal websites., Why? Because SSL certificates make visitors feel safe and secure on your site.  Your customers will not want to submit their credit card numbers and financial data unless they are absolutely sure that this private information is protected from spurious interception. An SSL certificate is the best way to do this.

Registering your SSL certificate with an established authority, such as GoDaddy.com, ensures that your certificate is recognized and trusted by web browsers. Your customers’ browsers will verify your website identity and security each time it is accessed, allowing them to safely send encrypted information. In short, your certificate is the way your website proves to a browser that it is legitimate and safe. If you have ever made an online purchase with your credit card, you certainly understand how important this is. With the increasing sophistication of modern criminals, you don’t want to take a chance that your financial information might be compromised.

Here’s a quick breakdown of how the process works:

1. A customer contacts your site and accesses the secure URL.
2. Your server responds and sends your website’s SSL certificate to the customer’s browser.
3. The customer’s browser accepts the SSL certificate and creates an encrypted code – or session key – to protect all information shared in the session.
4. Your website syncs with the session key and is the only website that can read the unique code.
5. The secure session is established and all communications are encrypted and can only be viewed by your website and the customer.

This process only takes a matter of seconds. You have probably made online purchases in the past and had no idea this process was taking place. That is the beauty of an SSL certificate – it is quick, easy and requires no work from the customer.

The experts at Professional Marketing International know that you must have a merchant account to run a successful e-commerce business today. Customers want the convenience of credit card and debit card payments and if you don’t have those capabilities, you’ll miss out on their business. With a merchant account, you will be able to meet the needs of today’s consumer by making your payment process as painless as possible.

A merchant account is an account provided by a bank or other financial institution that enables e-commerce transactions. Setting up a merchant account enables you to accept online payments via credit card, debit card or e-check. Merchant accounts require you to set up a contractual agreement with the bank or financial institution. Your rights and responsibilities under this agreement will be clearly outlined before you need to sign anything. Common prerequisites for the business include proof of address in the U.S., current business checking account, business website and a valid SSN and Federal tax ID for the account holder.

Once your account has been set up, online transactions will be safe and easy for your customers. When a customer makes a purchase, their credit card information will be received either through a web form or over the phone. The information will then be passed to the credit card processor, who will verify the credit card holder’s billing address to prevent fraud. Whether it is approved or denied, the information is delivered to the merchant account provider as well as the customer. Upon validation of the credit card transaction, the amount is held in the merchant account before being transferred to the business account. This can take anywhere from a matter of seconds to 48 hours.

It is important to research your merchant account options and find a financial institution that works for you. Your merchant account will make your business more accessible to your customers, while providing transaction security through reputable providers.

]]> http://pmionlinebusiness.com/merchant-account-basics-from-pmi-education/feed/ 0 http://pmionlinebusiness.com/email-list-advice-from-professional-marketing-international/ http://pmionlinebusiness.com/email-list-advice-from-professional-marketing-international/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:38:55 +0000 Grant http://pmionlinebusiness.com/?p=64

Developing an email list is one of the most important things you will ever do for your business. Did you know that most people don’t make a purchase from a website until they’ve visited it at least five times? This means that even if you get a potential customer to your site, they probably won’t buy anything. This is largely because people are so protective of their credit card information, with good reason, and won’t give it out unless they trust your business.

Because of this, you need to get their email so that you have the opportunity to stay in contact with them. If they visit your website once and then leave, you’ll probably never hear from them again. You’ve not only lost a sale that day, but the potential for continued business from that person. This is why an email list is so crucial. You can’t do effective business without it!

You could go out and buy a thousand random email addresses from an email broker, but these contacts would have no idea who you are and would probably be annoyed by your unsolicited emails. They could also report you as spam, and they would have a valid point.

So you absolutely must get the email addresses of those who visit your website. They came to you! They are already interested in what you have to offer! These are self-selected sales leads! Experienced internet marketers will do whatever they can to obtain the email address from anyone who visits their website.

Because an email list is so crucial to the success of your business, your list plays a major role in the value of your business if you were to sell it. A prospective buyer would want to know the size and quality of your email list, because this is one of the best ways to ensure the continuity and success of your business. The contacts on your list are self-selected people who are interested in what you have to offer. It would take a six-figure marketing campaign to reach an equal number of people through different means.

The experts from Professional Marketing International recommend that anyone who is serious about their online business get an autoresponder. With an autoresponder system, you can provide an opt-in box on your website where people enter their name and email address.

Here is an example of a typical opt-in:

Typically, you would use a lead magnet here to add incentive. Common lead magnets include eBooks, articles, contests and prizes. When someone enters their information, the autoresponder will immediately fulfill the incentive, as well as sending out a drip sequence over a predetermined time period.

Whatever method you decide to use, you should begin now to develop a solid email list. You list will allow you to stay in contact with both current and prospective customers, helping them become familiar with your business. Also, it will help them understand the specific benefits of your business. Prepare for future success by developing a quality email list today.