Internet Marketing: A Beginners Perspective

There’s a lot of areas regarding Internet Affiliate Marketing, that I still don’t know much about. Some of it I find rather confusing.

SUBMITTING ARTICLES PART 1

It’s been recommended that I submit some of my written articles to different Article Publishers. Many people have indicated that I can earn money by doing this, but I don’t understand exactly how that works.

I admit that I have a hard time, wrapping my mind around the concept that I’m supposed to allow my writing to be published for free. Apparently if I submit my articles to as many publishers as possible, that will help to increase my by-name recognition. I don’t understand how submitting my articles to multiple publications for free, will later lead to my earning money, either through the writing of my blog or from those published articles.

My blog is new. So far I’m promoting other people’s products or web sites. I don’t have any products of my own to promote, except for my writing ability. I don’t yet have products I can resell, or give away to anyone who might be reading my blog.

I feel like I’m missing something here. How does it go from point A, submitting my articles for free publication, to point B, earning money in the future, from those articles? People say you can earn money by doing this, but nobody explains the details of how that actually happens. I’m one of those people who needs to know the details.

Other people hold a different viewpoint about submitting your articles to as many publishers as possible.

"So what does that mean for that article you wrote and submitted to 50,000 publishers… It means that it did just that – it was submitted to 50,000 publishers. You do not know who it was submitted to, whether they are a respected website, whether they actually have any reasonable amount of traffic, or even if they will publish your article without your permission. You have no
control over what happens to your article."

Mark Daoust, goes on to say that this is not what publishers want from the writers who are submitting to them. He indicated that it’s not in the writer’s best self interest as well.

“The idea of submitting an article to as many publishers as possible is obviously contrary to what a publisher is looking for. At the same time, though, it is also contrary to what you should be looking for. The secret to writing successful articles starts with a simple concept: you want to control who publishes your article, and you want to help promote that article. If an editor chooses to publish an article and sees that it was well-received (and brought in a lot of new traffic), they will be more inclined to publish future articles from you…A properly written, distributed, and promoted article can be far more effective than any other form of marketing, and far more cost effective.”

A web site owner might need content for their web site, but he or she, might not want content that’s already been circulated widely over the Internet. A publisher would prefer that one specific article from a writer, is not being submitted and published by many other publishers.

As a writer, I’ve put in time and effort writing that article, to be as well-written as I can make it. That not only includes the writing itself, but proofreading, editing, and revising my article, before I submit it anywhere. I may have needed to research my topic, before I even put my fingers on the keyboard.

These days, with so many people blogging and writing, it certainly seems there’s much more writing competition for all of us to contend with.

My article might be viewed by some people, as nothing more then a long written ad, for something I’m promoting. Many Article Publishing sites don’t allow the writers’ to place direct links to the items we’re promoting, within the body of the article itself. The writers are allowed to include a link to our blogs or web sites, within the Author’s Resource box at that publication site.

But I feel I’m making my potential customers take extra unnecessary steps. First they hopefully read my article about whatever it is I’m promoting. Then they’re supposed to travel back to my blog. Once they get there, they need to find the link to the product I’m promoting as mentioned in my article. Then when they click on that link, they’ll finally be getting their first look at what I’ve been trying to promote to them all along.

It seems like I’ve sending my potential customers on a long scenic route, with a few extra detours thrown into their Internet Highway travels. If they get lost or it’s dark out by the time they arrive at whatever it is I’m promoting, they’re probably going to expect that I’ll be putting them up for a night or two and that I’ll be feeding them as well.

I've found reading what more experienced Affiliate Marketers recommend to be quite helpful. I just want it to make sense to me. So far submitting my Articles to a large amount of publications for free, doesn’t seem logical to me, but I'm willing to give it a try. Maybe someday I’ll have discovered all the missing pieces I now have with this Article Submission writing puzzle.

But for now, I’m new at all of this.

Source: “The Misunderstood Marketing Method” By Mark Daoust, from
http://www.homebiztools.com/marketing-method.htm

Internet Marketing: A Beginner's Perspective

My new journey into things I’ve learned so far about Affiliate Marketing continues.

WEB SITES AND BLOGS

Some sources said it was necessary, that I have my own web site, while other things I read said it wasn’t a requirement. No wonder I’m confused. At first, I thought I wouldn’t really need my own web site, as I was promoting other people’s products.

Starting my own web site intimidated me. I knew it would take time to get it set up, with the colors, fonts, style, and placement of things the way I wanted it to be. I could see myself easily getting bogged down with all those details. And after doing all that, it might not work right, since my knowledge about html and the other high tech stuff is rather limited.

I soon realized that I had no central location, where that mass of internet humanity would be flocking to my web site, just to see what I would be promoting next, or what I might even be ranting and raving about from time to time. I decided to start a blog, which did take time for me to set up, but I’m now glad I have one.

The only thing is, now that I have my brand new blog, I don’t think I’m getting much traffic, if any. My blog must have been placed on some rural road somewhere. No one told me, I wouldn’t be able to pick the location for my blog. I thought I’d just be able to direct the blog movers, to what I thought would be a good location for my brand new blog, on that vast extensive Internet Highway. I sure didn’t expect that my Blog would be placed in the middle of nowhere.

So what’s my next move? Am I supposed to stand in the middle of the road, trying to flag down whatever few cars might pass by, so that maybe somebody, anybody, might stop, take a look at my blog, and buy a product from me that I’m promoting there? Is begging an option?

In addition, I don’t yet have any items I’m directly trying to sell myself, except for those potential hand made affiliate cloaks I’m thinking about knitting or crocheting. As an affiliate marketer, I’m promoting other people’s products, and not any of my own.

So if anyone visits my blog, and clicks on my ads, at best they might go visit, a program I’m affiliated with. Even if they sign up under my cloaked referral affiliate links, they might just sign up for the free versions of the programs like I did, and I still won’t earn any money by them doing that.

As a writer, I’m glad I now have a blog. Especially since there are few restrictions about what I can blog about or how long or short my blog posts are supposed to be. In school, I had to write my essays about the topic the Teachers assigned me. At an online writing site, where my writing first went public, I had to get my writing to within their suggested guidelines for both a minimum and maximum word length to my articles.

Now having my own Blog, I can blog about whatever comes to mind. It feels freeing and empowering to be able to do that.

Then there are the recommendations that you’re supposed to write to a specific “niche”. With all the time I've already spent setting up my very first brand new blog, not much writing will ever get done that way. I guess you can expect that I will probably divert off that specific “niche” topic I’m writing about, from time to time.

As a driver of my car, I often enjoyed going off on some unexplored side road, just to see where that road would take me. Why should blogging on the Internet Highway, be all that different from those spontaneous side trips, I used to enjoy taking in my car?

Since my web site link is currently about promoting things, that leaves my “niche” topic
wide-open doesn‘t it? I could promote my two cats, deep-dish pizza, the weather, even myself from time to time. This is Jan’s Promo Place, after all.

Maybe I’ll need to get more specific? Maybe I’ll need to narrow it down more, as to what my specific blog “niche” will actually be? Well I kind of like having my particular “niche” be wide open and spacious, like the rural country road, my blog seems to be currently residing on. I like being able to promote whatever it is I want to promote.

Right now, it seems to be working well for me, but as I’ve mentioned to you before, I’m new at all of this.

Internet Marketing: A Beginners Perspective

I continue learning more things, with my new journey into Internet Marketing.

AFFILIATE LINKS

It seemed obvious to me, when I started looking at my own affiliate links, that I was trying to promote something or other. Once again, I had to wonder why anyone would buy from me, when my affiliate links were practically shouting out to anyone who looked at them, that I was trying to sell something to somebody.

Then I discovered the many different sites that “cloak your links”. This protected me from the possibility that my future potential customers would bypass me. Seeing my obvious Affiliate Links, they might buy whatever I was promoting, directly from the parent company instead of buying it from me. If I didn’t cloak my links, it was possible that other devious internet users could replace my affiliate links with their own. There go my hard earned commissions that I hadn‘t even earned yet!

Here's one of the programs I like to use for cloaking my Affiliate Links.
http://www.virallinktracker.com/vlt/links/4898.

Granted the links that contain words like “sign up to be my affiliate slave” “buy from me now or else”, “I’ll make money, you might not” are dead giveaways that other affiliate marketers are creatively cloaking their links.

We often wave or honk our internet car horns at each other, as we pass each other on this vast Internet highway we’re all traveling on. There goes another affiliate marketer, who is cloaking his or her affiliate links just like I am. We’re all members of the same big team after all.

I must be a “hard sell” as I’m not easily willing to part with my money. And considering that I haven’t earned anything yet, in my new adventures of Internet Marketing, it might be near impossible for some of those other affiliate marketers to convince me to buy their products.

At least now, I’m less likely to lose those commissions that I haven’t even earned yet. My affiliate links, are proudly wearing their lovely new cloaks. They come in a variety of sizes and colors.

Plus my links and I could use that added warmth. We’re in the middle of that cold, snowy, season here, fondly known as winter. There can be ice, snow, rain, slush, and extreme wind chill factors where I live. I sure wouldn’t want to present ice cold, numb, frostbitten affiliate links to anyone. I don’t think that would go over too well, with my future potential customers.

It’s been recommended that I should have my own product to sell. Maybe I should pick up my knitting needles and my crochet hooks, and start knitting my own hand made cloaks designed to fit a wide range of affiliate links. I’ve got plenty of yarn and different colors to choose from. I have a love for both knitting and crocheting.

My hand made cloaks, will be warm, practical, colorful, and reasonably priced. I’m sure I’ll soon be overwhelmed by the amount of people, now rushing to my blog, wanting to buy a handmade cloak, from me to protect their affiliate links.

I’m glad that my precious affiliate links will now be wearing their nice warm cloaks of protection. They’ll still be wearing them even when it’s 90 degrees outside, and high humidity in the summer time.

I don’t understand why there would be so much protest about having to wear those lovely affiliate cloaks, in warmer weather, but I’m new at all of this.

Internet Marketing: A Beginner's Perspective

In my continuing new journey in Internet Marketing, here’s some other things I’ve learned so far.

CLASSIFIED ADS

Many of the classified ad sites were free to join. Some I only had to register with in order to frequent their web site. Others I could place an ad without registering there first. This would be good if I wasn’t going to be placing too many ads too often, but that seemed to defeat the purpose of trying to promote things frequently.

I got very excited when I received a few email responses to my earnestly written ads. The subject lines said things like “I saw your ad!” or “Question about your product?” Well of course I immediately had to read and respond to those emails, thinking I might soon be making my very first sale.

Only to find out, those emails were from other affiliate marketers, once again promoting something to me. They knew I wouldn’t hesitate to open those emails, with those misleading subject lines. They weren’t at all interested in what I was trying to promote.

It’s not nice to get a newbie’s hopes up like that! Especially when the bill collectors are rapidly gaining on me.

One classified ad site seemed quite extensive. It must have been recommended to me, from one of those links I must have clicked on, from one of those emails I must have read, that I must have gotten from one of those members of that safe list I had joined. This could be the beginning of the Affiliate Marketing House that Jan is trying to build.

This classified ad site had a number of services available for both their free members and their paying members. Some of these services included an email account, a traffic exchange, the ability to start a blog or web site, from that Classified ad Site, or the option of becoming an affiliate member there.

This wasn’t just about placing some classified ads somewhere, but this was much bigger than that. This was a community where I could learn from others, and share my new and growing knowledge and experiences with many of them.

I’d recommend you take a look at this Classified Ad and Community Site.

http://www.virallinktracker.com/vlt/links/5016

Shortly after I signed up there I quickly received over 40 requests to become “friends” with other members there. I’ve never made so many friends, so quickly in all of my life. That sure didn’t happen for me in high school! At last I had finally achieved that lifelong dream, of quickly becoming “popular” with many other people, and I didn’t even have to make much effort at achieving that popularity. I agreed to join that Classified Ad Site, and shortly after that, I had over 40 people requesting to be my new online "friend".

It kind of reminded me of campgrounds, with many Recreational Vehicles, (RV’s) parked in that one location, one right after the other. Campers are usually friendly people, as many of these people seemed to be from this site that not only allowed you to place your classified ads there, but had a large supportive community as well.

So what, if many of the other campers parked at that site, had air conditioning, satellite tv, and screened in porches on their RV’s. While I only had an icebox, no fridge, a portable radio, no tv and a fly swatter with my camper, and no screened in porch.

I mean… so what if many of them had already sold 100’s of items, had years of experience in Internet Marketing and were now enjoying early retirement at their luxurious beach homes, while I hadn’t yet sold one item. They still were requesting my friendship. I was honored. I was grateful to accept those offers of friendship from so many people, who didn’t know me at all.

Never mind, that a good majority of the people were once again promoting something to me, in the requests they were sending to me to be my “friend.” What else should I have expected from a campground, …I mean a web site that is a community based classified ad site, of other affiliate marketers and web site owners. I could smell the hamburgers cooking on the barbecues. I could hear the beer caps flying off of the bottles. I couldn’t wait to join them at the campfire my first night there.

Of course the Internet deffinition of a “friend” is rather odd to me to say the least. I found myself wishing that there were other labels available I could’ve chosen, depending how it fit each individual. Such as “total stranger”, “major player”, “super salesperson”, “practical joker”, “evil twin”, “outright enemy”. At least I could have classified the individuals better, until some of them actually became my new online “friend”.

I’m glad to have found this site. I hope I’ll learn more there about Affiliate Marketing there. I hope that I actually will become good online friends with some of the people residing at this RV park… I mean that Classified Ad and Community Site that I joined.

I believe deep within me, it is possible to make money by typing from my home computer. I’m willing to spend the time, learning and reading more about it.

But I couldn’t be expected to learn it all at once could I? I couldn’t realistically expect I’d quickly see those large promised amounts of money rolling in for me, as much as I wanted that kind of instant gratification.

After all I was new at all of this.

Internet Marketing: A Beginner's Perspective

As a newcomer to Internet and Affiliate Marketing, I admit I still have a lot to learn about how all of this works. I paid for a program, that has given me extensive, detailed, step-by-step information, how to go about trying to do this for myself. You can take a look at the program I joined here.
http://www.virallinktracker.com/vlt/links/4886

There are still many areas that I don’t know much about or even what my next steps are supposed to be. Here’s a look at some of the things I’ve experienced so far.

SAFE LISTS

The program I paid for, recommended that I join safe lists. A safe list is a listing of other people who have opted in to receive information about that specific topic. In Affiliate Marketing, as a member of that safe list I could send email advertisements, promotions or newsletters to other members about web sites, products, or services that I’m promoting. Those emails are not considered to be Spam, since everyone agreed to receive that information, when we “opted in” by joining that safe list.

Since I’m doing this on a limited budget, I joined one safe list as a free member. Soon I was receiving a large amount of emails, that other members wanted to promote to me. These were emails hoping I’d sign up, join this program, click on that link and most important of all, pay for the products that other affiliate marketers were promoting to me.

As a non-paying member of this safe list, I was allowed to post one promotional email ad per week. That didn't seem quite fair. It soon became an unbalanced ratio of emails I was receiving versus, what I was allowed to send out. I’m receiving fifty or more emails a day as opposed to my one promotional email I could submit each week. What’s wrong with that picture?

Nobody told me how much time I’d be spending reading those many emails. Many did lead me to learning about other useful products and programs that I would never have known about. But soon, I asked to be removed from that safe list. I couldn't’t keep up with all the emails I was receiving daily. And that was from only one safe list.

What would have happened if I had signed up with several of them? It might have caused an email explosion at my email address.

It also made it difficult for me to find the emails I might actually need to look at, such as someone inquiring about actually buying one of the products I was promoting, for instance.

Affiliate marketers, seemed to be promoting their products to other affiliate marketers. Was this the way Internet Marketing was supposed to work? Didn’t that leave out a large portion of 0f the population, who weren’t affiliate marketers, who weren’t promoting anything?

It seemed to me, that as affiliate marketers, we were spending our time and efforts promoting to each other. Why would the other members of that safe list buy any products from a newcomer like me, when they were doing the exact same thing that I was doing? They also had more experience doing it, then I did.

I’m sure there are some positive benefits to signing up with safe lists. I certainly learned some helpful things, and learned about products and services I would never have known about or even where to look for them. But I was spending more time, reading those emails and clicking on all those different links, and less time writing my own promotional ads or articles.

I’ve read that you’re supposed to start building lists: one about your potential prospects, and another list of your customers, who have actually purchased a product or service from you. I just don’t quite understand how other affiliate marketers would fall into either one of those categories, when they’re doing the exact same thing that I’m trying to do.

Maybe I’ll have one of those “light bulb” moments, when I have a clearer understanding of all the benefits I can receive my being a member of a safe list. I haven’t yet had that “aha” moment however.

I’m still learning how Internet Marketing works. After all, I’m new at all of this!