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Monetizing your website

Making money from your website can be actualized through a number of strategies that have been proven over the years. Monetizing your website is not a myth and is, therefore, doable for everyone so long as you are able to follow the simple and proven strategies for making money through your website. As a matter of fact, website owners have in the recent past been able to transform their hobbies of blogging and frequent use of the internet into an income-generating activity. Nonetheless, this comes with hard work and to a limited extent good luck. Here are a number of strategies and processes that can be resourceful when it comes to making money through your website.

Carry out affiliate marketing on your website

Affiliate marketing is considered as not only the quickest but also the most universal means of making money through your website. While most people have an idea of what affiliate marketing entails, it is noteworthy that some may not be conversant with this term. Therefore, it is imperative to provide a summarized definition of affiliate marketing. This kind of marketing refers to the act promoting products and services from different producers and earning commission from their sales. On most occasions, affiliate marketers take advantage of their traffic to develop products and services that may be appealing to their audience. It is for this reason that traffic plays an imperative role when it comes to affiliate marketing. Making money on your website through affiliate marketing is easy but requires a lot of commitment. The very first procedure in affiliate marketing is always to find the most appropriate products and service. Coming up with the most preferable products and services is always dependent on the type of audience on your website. It is important to note that the products and services you anticipate to promote on your website must be relevant to the type of audience you attract. For example, if a greater percentage of your traffic is adults then you must choose products and services that are highly likely to sell amongst the adult population. Therefore, it is vital to chose relevant products and services for the purpose of affiliate marketing on your website.

After choosing the most appropriate products and services to promote on your website, the next step is to endorse the products or services on your website. It should be noted that the traffic generated to your website comes because visitors find your website useful in one way or another. Therefore, any content you share on your website will most likely appeal to your audience. With affiliate marketing, you will always get a commission for every sale of product or service that is purchased through your website. Producers of these products and services are always true to their words and commissions are generated automatically from the sale of products and services made from your website. When your promote products and services on behalf of their producers on your website, there is a likelihood that your website will gradually become a marketplace for your audience. A constant promotion of related products and services will make your website famous for such products and hence your visitors will always refer to your website when they need to make certain online purchases. The commissions offered for such affiliate marketing and referrals are always ranging from 30% and above. On some occasions, the commissions go as high as 70%. You can imagine a case where you successfully promote an e-book worth $100 that pays 30% commission. This is an indication that you will have earned $30 from merely posting the link to the e-book on your website. This is a pretty good deal.

The task in affiliate marketing is to find an appropriate place that holds services and products that can be marketed. There have been a number of proven platforms from where you can be able to obtain products and services to promote on your website. For instance, Commission Junction is an online platform that offers countless products and services that website owners can promote on their websites. This platform is reliable and has timely payments. Another famous platform where you can obtain products and services to promote on your website is the ShareSale platform. This is also an online platform that makes a lot of money for website owners. ClickBank is yet another platform from where you can obtain products and services to promote on your website. With these recommended platforms, you are therefore able to obtain reliable products and services to promote on your website and earn commission from their sale in return.

Make an attempt of selling your own digital product

With your website, you are in a position of earning more form selling your own digital products. While you only earn commissions from affiliate marketing on your website, coming up with your own digital product like an e-book for instance makes you 100% of the income generated from the sale of that particular product. In the event hat your visitors find your digital products appealing to them, they are likely to purchase them. This will in turn earn you a lot of money through your website. However, you should note that not all digital products will be attractive to your audience. Most website owners fail to align their digital products and services with the demands of their audience. As a result, they fail to make returns through the promotion and subsequent sale of these products and services. In order to succeed in selling your won digital products and services to your audience, it is important to take your time and learn your audience. Always ensure that you monitor the behavior of your audience when they visit your website. Take note of the length of time they spend on particular pages of your website. You can place bait on your website with the aim of ascertaining the interests of your audience. It is only through a comprehensive comprehension of your audience’s behavior that you can be able to tell their interests.

These interests can be transformed into demand for particular products or services. After an unequivocal analysis of the behavior of your audience, you can go ahead and design products or services that will meet their demand. Since this service has does not include middle man that expects commission from sales made, it is pretty strain forward and earns you money instantly. It is also important to note that this service does not incorporate other broker websites that offer you products and services to promote. As a result of this, selling your own digital is the most reliable mechanism of making money through your website.

Make use of Google’s AdSense

Google has an immense network that you can take advantage of to make money through your website. While AdWrods are the ads that appear on Google search engines, AdSense allows other users to tap into the immense network of Google to take their advertising to the next level. With this platform, you can make money per click of the promotional material you promote on your website. AdSense allows bloggers and most especially website owners to earn money from clicks on their websites. In order to make use of this service, you are required to sign up with Google. After registration, Google will embed a code on your website that will align the content of your website to relevant products and services related to your content. One of the most interesting aspects of this service is the fact that all you need it to sign up your website with Google and the rest takes care of itself. With enough traffic on your website, you are in a positional to make unimaginable amount of money by doing pretty noting. Once your website is signed up with Google and related products and services displayed on it, you will make money each time a visitor clicks on the advertisement. In fact, you will earn your money whether the visitor purchases the products being advertised or not. It is that simple.

AdSense automatically identifies the products and services relevant to the content of your website. For instance, if your website is about farming, this service will begin displaying ads related with farm produce, pesticides, farming tips and best practices and framing machinery. It is important to note that these ads will run independently from the daily activities of your website. The purpose of AdSense is to bring relevant ads to your website. The term relevant in this case refers to the ads that promote products and services that are highly likely to be purchased by your audience. Usually, you will earn between $0.5 and $5 for every click on the ads displayed on your website. It should be noted that payments of such services are always reliable and timely. Therefore, the use of AdSense is one of the many strategies that you can use to monetize your website.

Sell your own ad space to prospective clients

It is important to note that AdSense is just one mechanism of monetizing your website via online marketing. Instead of approaching online marketing of ads through AdSense, you can decide to find your own clients and sell your ad space to them. This sounds a little cumbersome as compared to the latter. However, this service only requires enough traffic on your website. In the event that you have enormous traffic on your website, companies will almost automatically want to promote their products and services on your website. Through this, such companies will be rest assured that their promotional materials will not only reach the desired audience but also a greater population of probable buyers. Selling your own ad space to prospective requires that you approach the right companies whose products and services related to the content of your website. Companies will only agree to promote their services and products on your website if you have a large volume of visitors to your website at a particular time. Besides that, such companies will only agreed to do business with you if they find your website content relevant to their products and services. This is an implication that they will only agree to promote their products and services on your website when they are assured that the audience attracted by your website has demand for their products and service.

In order to succeed in this form of marketing, ensure that you make use of the many strategies of attracting visitors to your website. Once this is achieved, you ought to approach companies that produce goods and services that are highly likely to be purchased by your audience. This is followed by a negotiation of the monthly charge for your d space. If you agree, companies will offer you an agreed monthly fee for promoting their products and services on your website.

Therefore, the direct selling of ad space to your clients allows you to carry out the duties that would have otherwise been carried out by an AdSense service. Despite the prevalent high yield of directly selling your ad space to clients without involving AsSense, the challenge is always finding these clients. It is important to note that finding clients that are willing to buy your ad space might be a challenge especially if you do not know where to begin from. Nonetheless, finding clients for ad space has been made much easier with BuySellAds and AdvertiseSpace sites. These sites have played an imperative role in linking website owners with prospective companies that can buy their ad spaces with the aim of taking their online marketing to the next level. Therefore, the direct sale of ad spaces to prospective clients is no longer a challenge with sites like BuySellAds and hence can be resourceful when it comes to monetizing your website.

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Introduction

There is no doubt that almost every one of us has witnessed a case of a viral video phenomenon first hand. There have been numerous ads from the cats playing a piano to the latest ads on Cars all of which have attained the viral status. We also know that there is great potential in having content that is viewed by an astonishing number of people and even better if those people are interested in your content. It is important to note that video is not the only content that has the potential to go viral; in the recent past there have been quite a number of forum comments, blog posts, images, and infographics that have reached that acclaimed status of viral. Any marketer that is worth his salt has some sense of understanding of the potential that lies in marketing via the internet. However, comprehending that and coming up with content that disseminates like wild fire are two separate things - the latter being a tad bit of a challenging feat. The underlying principle here is that for content to go viral it is completely dependent on having a large number of people who have a similar emotional reaction to that content that you have shared. There have been a number of skeptical marketers that have categorically proclaimed that is virtually impossible to come up with content that will go viral and the characteristic of being viral is not a product that is independent but it is more of an effect. This means that there can be a viral reaction to a given post be it a blog post or an image but the content in itself does not have the attribute of being viral.

Can you really create content that is viral?

In this guide you are going to learn a number of things concerning making viral content. The aim is to give you a comprehensive knowledge on the subject matter that will help you come up with content that will go viral. The guide will cover the following:

1. What is the definition of viral content and why do people share it?

2. Understanding the customer and then charming the viewers with your content

3. Reviews of case studies of the past

4. An outline of the processes for coming up with the content that will be shared.

There will be use of some academic studies that will encompass a number of real life examples together with a couple of innovative ideas in order to offer you the best possible guidance. Remember, this is in no way a step by step guide that will enable you to make your content go viral. The objective here is to uncover the possibility of planning and designing a content that will be able to go viral and then give you some direction on where to begin. It would not be possible to offer you a step by step guide given that creating an excellent content needs to be approached to from a number of different perspectives for each business. It is not a one size fits all type of thing, because let us be honest there is a strong correlation between viral content and emotional response. After reading the guide the outcome that you should expect is that you will indeed have a clearer direction as to the path that your digital marketing plan needs to take in order to achieve higher levels of engagement.

What is a Viral Content and why are they usually Shared?

It is quite difficult to foretell what content is going to go viral; there are so many excellent contents that have achieved this status of viral and similarly there are those that have never really taken off. What makes these differences? And what similar attributes, if there are any, exist between the content that have gone viral? There was a research study that was carried out by Jonah Berger and Katherine Milkman to find out what causes content to go viral online. This research entailed countless hours of studying over 7000 articles in The New York Times over a 3 month period. Additionally, a control experiment was performed in a laboratory with a number of participants. The aim of this research was to unearth the underlying emotional component or sentiment that was in the articles that received the most number of shares to understand if there were any discernible patterns. After doing this, the scientists performed the controlled lab experiments to recreate and measure the levels of arousal in the participants in order to understand how this affected to sharing of content. It would be worth your while to read the research paper by the two scientists if you are fascinated by the workings of the psychology of social sharing and the corresponding sentiments that result in a viral blog. The findings of Berger and Milkman were as follows:

• There is a higher likelihood that positive content will become viral as compared to negative content, but the workings of this are not so binary.

• The vital component in social sharing comes down to the overall level of arousal in the reader or viewer. Basically the more highly aroused an individual is whether positively or negatively the more their activity is going to be in sharing the content in question; this is regardless of whether the content they are sharing has a relation to the cause of their mood.

• Content that is positive that is characteristically amusing, surprising or awe-inspiring is likely to be shared more often.

• Content that is negative but causes feelings of anxiety or anger is likely to be shared more often.

• Content that is not emotive or does not arouse is naturally not going to be viral

• One of the reason that people share content is because they hope that the content will result in the same social standing in others or will generate reciprocity or simply to be of benefit to others.

In their control experiment, Berger and Milkman attempted to control a number of factors such as the length of exposure, the page published, the notoriety of the writer, and other factors in order to make sure that it was only the content and its overall emotiveness that caused the reader to share the content.

What can Marketers learn from this?

If the characteristic of being viral can be comprehended via the prevailing emotional state of the person sharing, and the level of arousal, then it is possible to prepare the video content or the written content to generate the relevant emotional response. Basically, what you can learn here is that there is no need to play this in a very conservative manner. In order to provoke the necessary levels of arousal like surprise, awe, amusement anxiety or anger, then you need to be prepare to push the boundaries and come up with something that is original.

Understanding your Customers and then Charming Them

Now that we have given you some insight on why people chose to share content like they do, in a bid to make this guide as useful as possible, you should now look into creating content that is fascinating and capable of arousing your customers in a manner that it will cause them to share it. Scholars have come up with a number of personality triggers that are capable of captivating and persuading your readers. Sally Hogshead wrote in her book about the 7 personality triggers that have the potential of persuasiveness. This was written following years of research on fascination. This book is very insightful and if you are interested you should look into reading it. The following are the triggers of fascination as they were listed in the book:

1. Passion or Lust

It was noted that the companies and individuals that have this trigger for passion are capable of making connections with others and develop a close relationship with their customers. Can you think of the first time that you strutted into an Apple store and almost instantaneously you started to salivate over the latest iPhone? Well, that is called lust. Human beings often get a similar level of psychological effect when they think of food, sex, cars, and many other products or services that are capable of evoking some anticipation of a pleasurable experience.

2. Alarm

Alarm can be defined as the instinct that is within all of us and we use it in order to stay alive in those stressful moments – it is often referred to as the fight or flight instinct. Your body will go into a state of alarm during an event such as losing your child or when you are walking in an unsafe area late in the night. Naturally people will tend to avoid situations that are not pleasant or dangerous, therefore the alarm trigger is used to warn your body of the unpleasant possibilities that would come to be if you remain inactive thereby causing your body to have a rapid reaction. Here we can take an example of the FedEx company that has amalgamated to trust (which is another kind of trigger) and Alarm to come up with a very successful business. Here as a marketer you can clearly outline the consequences that exist and then come up with deadlines. This is simply a case of leveraging fear.

3. Mystique

This can be defined as the action of withholding something and refusing to reveal it. Naturally, humans will develop a sense of curiosity when there is a lack of fulfilment. The author of the book posits that there are 4 distinct ways in which you can cause mystique. First you cause curiosity, then you ensure that you with hold information about it, then develop some mythology around it, and lastly ensure that access to it is limited.

The key to mystique is in the narration of stories and not in the actual facts. Take the case of Coca-Cola, it is known that the secret ingredient to their drink is well kept in a vault somewhere, and the mythology here is that there are only 2 people in the world that have a list of the ingredients.

4. Power

There are some cases in the social interactions of human beings in which they do not wish to be in control; they would prefer to give the reigns of control to other people. One good example of such a situation is with the personal trainer at the local gym or with a digital marketer. A great majority of the small business owners prefer to focus their energy and attention to the core business and have the digital marketing done by someone else like an agency so that they do not have to ponder over it.

5. Prestige

Prestige can be described as a perceived sense of respect by others. Naturally, individuals will tend to obsess over the symbols of respect or rank. People will strive hard to attain high standards and the physical evidence of their so called success; this could be in the form of a simple thank you, gift card, or even a high salary. You can find a diverse array of prestige on the supermarket shelves today. Why would you prefer to pay significantly more for a product that is branded as compared to the brand of the supermarket? Why is it that an iPhone will cost so much more than a similar phone of another brand? If you intend to leverage the fascination trigger of prestige then you will need to limit the overall availability and access of your product, you can start hiking the price so that the accessibility of the product is limited. However, you need to be able to live up to the expectation created by the higher price. You should note that this strategy requires a leap of faith, patience and willingness to invest for the long term.

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Introduction

Assuming that you consider yourself a savvy internet user then you must be quite conversant with the social media sensation that is Facebook. That being said, I am sure that you, like any reasonable person, hates it when that annoying ad pops up when you are watching that funny video of a cat playing the piano. I am also sure that you have often thought to yourself how much of a waste of time this business is right after you skip the ad. Well, sorry to say but this opinion, could not be more wrong! Facebook is well on course to turn in revenue of more than 4 billion dollars this current year from advertising alone. Yes, from those same adverts that even the best of us cannot seem to skip them fast enough. Okay, now with those astronomical figures then there is definitely a potential for making money. Then here is the million dollar question, “How do you get the viewers to click on your ad?” And an even more important question, “How do you get these viewers to purchase your product?” Admittedly the pioneer marketers took a shot in advertising through Facebook ads, particularly in the early days of Facebook, and they determined that it was not a worthwhile venture. Well this article will tell you do not believe them. In this particular guide, you shall be able to get some insight on the kinds of business models that are best suited for Facebook ads and how to turn them into lucrative campaigns. This guide will encompass some of the most common errors made by markers and the most significant factors for the success of you ad campaign.

The Principles Behind Facebook Ads

There are many different varieties of Facebook ads that are available for the average user. For instance on may choose to promote their page, the actions of other users, the posts on the users page, or the website in its entirety. The recent focus on native advertisements and maintaining traffic on their own site by Facebook, notwithstanding, there are still endless possibilities for one to direct users to one’s own website. Facebook ads are often designed to target the end users on the premise of their demographic, location, and the information on their profile. Most of these unique alternatives are only available on Facebook social media platform. Upon creating an advertisement, a prospective marketer then identifies a budget and makes a bid for each individual click or the hundreds of impressions that the specific advertisement will receive. Following which, users will view the ads on the sidebar of their Facebook page. This guide will take you through the various steps as well as practices that are involved in the creation of CPC ads that channel traffic to the website. The other ad options that are offered by Facebook are quite efficient for channeling engagement as well as brand awareness, however ads that direct the users from the Facebook site are still the most lucrative option for looking to turn a quick profit.

Who is Best Suited to Advertise on Facebook?

One of the most common reasons behind the failure of Facebook advertising is simply because they are the like fitting a square peg into a round hole; it simply does not fit. There is an inherent need to try out and test the available marketing channels, particularly if there is suspicion that the demand will result in the prices shooting up, but most importantly ensure that the business model that you are currently using is a good fit to the particular network that you have chosen. It is important to note that Facebook ads have more similarity in characteristics with display ads than they do with search ads. The main aim it create demand for a product as opposed to fulfilling that particular demand. Never forget that the bottom line of Facebook is for the users to connect with their friends and not to seek out products that they can purchase, the latter being a fortunate consequence.

Conversions with Minimal Friction

It has been noted that the business that succeed in using Facebook as a marketing platform employ the subtle art of imploring and convincing users to sign up for things, as opposed to buying. It is important that you also employ this tactic of conversations that have minimal friction if you are to succeed. Let us explore the scenario that a visitor has been directed to your website through the advertisement, however, he was not looking to purchase any of your products. It was merely a combination of pleasant whimsy or just general boredom. In the event that you are relying on him to purchases something on the spot which would in turn make your ROI appear very presentable then it is likely you will fail. By characteristic the users on the Facebook platform are fickle; after all that is the whole point of social media. It is therefore expected that majority of them will opt to return back to the Facebook the very instant that you demand for a substantial commitment or purchase upon entry to your site. However, there is a simple way of keeping them on your site and that is maintaining conversations that are simple such as first signing up for the services that you offer, filling out a simple form, or even just providing an email address. Regardless of whether you offer products or services, it is imperative that you focus on a sustainable conversation such as ensuring that the prospective customers first sign up for something such as a newsletter. Following which you can move to marketing to them through their email. This minimizes the chances of putting off the customers even before they like your page.

Sites that offer daily deals for instance, AppSumo, Groupon, and Fab are the embodiment of the businesses that are most likely to succeed with this type of marketing. The moment that you click on one of the ads that they run on Facebook, they only require your email address. They will then follow up on a sale later on as they have your email address.

Business Model

Okay now that you have stuck to the playbook and only required an email address after clicks on your advertisement, eventually there will be a need to actually make some revenue from these visitors if your ad campaign is expected to be profitable in any way. From studies, it is evident that the business models that are most suited to fit Facebook ads are those that draw revenue over an extended period of time as opposed to drawing it all at once. Here, a user may have provided you with her email address but that does not necessarily mean that she will buy anything from your site; you will need to substantially gain her trust prior to her being comfortable in purchasing anything. It is wise that as the marketer not to depend on one big purchase from this individual customer. Ideally, one should target a series of many purchases for a healthy business model. As earlier noted, subscription sites and the daily deal sites are the perfect embodiment of business models that are most suited for Facebook advertisements. These business are characteristically defined by customers whose inherent value is stretched out over a period of half a year or more. As a business model, you can try to focus on convincing the users to sign up upon their first visit to the page. By choosing to place a six month timeline for profitability after spending on a Facebook ad as opposed to a day, it is possible to convert the Facebook users into long-term clients or customers. For instance, at the beginning one can choose to focus on a 20 per cent payback on a given advertisement on the first day and 100 per cent payback after approximately six months.

Targeting Facebook Advertisements: How is it done?

One of the most common mistakes that is committed by marketers who use the Facebook platform is the failure to properly target the desired market. Without a doubt the targeting options that are provided by Facebook are almost unparalleled; there are so many alternatives that one can use to effectively target the desired market. One can choose to target their users through the following characteristics: Age Location Interests Gender Relationship status Connections Education Languages Workplaces Each of the above mentioned options can prove to be extremely valuable depending on the audience that you are targeting. As a base template, most marketers will tend to focus on age, location, interests and gender. These will often cut across all the different parameters for selling any given product.

Location is an option that allows the marketer to target the users that are within a specific geographic location such as country, state, zip code, city and any other parameters that would be deemed necessary in this endeavor. Age as well as Gender targeting should be based on the customers that already exist in the portfolio on the marketer. If for instance, the majority of the customers on a given profile constitute of women that are aged between 22 and 45, then it is only logical to begin by targeting these individuals. In the event that they prove to be profitable, it is then that the marketer can expand the existing market. Targeting interests. This is arguably one of the most powerful features of the Facebook ads but more often than not it is misused. When one is creating a given advertisement, they are provided with a fixed set of two options: precise interests and broad categories. Targeting by Broad Categories Broad categories will encompass topics such as consumer electronics, horror movies and gardening. In the recent past, Facebook has included additional targets such as engaged (1 Year), has Birthday in 1 week, Expecting Parents, and Away from Hometown. This option of broad categories appeals as a very efficient method of reaching vast numbers in terms of audiences. However, it is important to consider whether this is the right option for you as it obvious that this specific option will cost a significant amount and more often than not they will spend very little in comparison. To this effect, one should always stay clear of broad categories targeting particularly if they are just beginning to start up the business.

Targeting by Precise Interests

This specific option enables the marketer to target the user based on the information that they have provided on their profile page which will include their documented interests and likes, the pages that they often frequent, the apps that they commonly make use of, and other content that they have occasionally provided in their timeline. It has been noted that the best Return on Investment has been achieved by the use of Precise Interest Targeting. There is a diverse array of interests that Facebook has to offer from which a marketer can target. These can range from Game of Thrones to Jet skiing. The most difficult part is choosing the one that is right for the specific advertisement or product that one has to offer. When one is focusing on precise interests, Facebook will offer the size of the audience that one would require alongside other suggested interests and likes. As a marketer, one will not have access to any competitive data. After one has selected the interests for a specific ad, Facebook will then proceed to providing an aggregate cost for a bid. Most marketers are in the habit of selecting the largest groups that they can possibly find. It is vital that you understand that is a big mistake! These groups are often more costly and offer very little in terms of targeting.

Instead of focusing on broad terms for your unique product such as “yoga” of “travel photography”, one should concentrate their focus on specific interests are will prove worthwhile in the long run. It would prove effective to research the blogs or the magazines that your prospective customers prefer to read, which related products they tend to buy, and who they tend to follow on Twitter. These tunnel vision focused interests such as the aforementioned, there is a higher likelihood that one will reach a higher number of people that are more interested in the topic that and are more likely to spend money on the given item. For instance, let us take the scenario that one is looking to start a new DJ course. It would be unwise to the simply the target the interest “Disk Jockey”. A more efficient strategy would be to create advertisements that target publications that focus on DJs such as a DJ Magazine or an urban music oriented publication. This would be supplemented by another ad that would target other DJ Brands that are available in the market. In effect this would translate to aggregating smaller interest groups that are interrelated providing an audience ranging from fifty thousand to one million viewers. Such a structure will result in a substantial audience of potential customers that are likely to translate into a sale. For the more advance users, it would prove quite effective to employ the use of Facebook Connect as an additional sign-up option to one’s site. Here, when the users connect through the use of Facebook, then it provides you as the marketer a platform to analyze their various interests. You can then proceed to index these interest in relation to the overall number of fans that are available in the Facebook page. This will leave you with the high-affinity interests. Through the use of this method, it is possible to create a target group that could ultimately be the best performer for a number of years. Visual presentation and Images for Ads on Facebook Arguably, one of the most important aspects of your advertisement is the image that will be selected. It is possible that you are indeed one of the most gifted writers and SEO specialists in the world, but if the image of your ad is not captivating enough to the user, then you quite simply will not get any clicks.

It is important that you do not be frugal with the quality of images by preferring low quality, generic stock of photography. Also, do not make use of images that you do not have express rights to make use of. Often, marketers have been culpable of stealing images straight from Google Images and using it on their advertisement, needless to mention that we live in a litigious society and such an action could have various ramifications. Additionally, in the event that your company is not globally recognized it is imperative that you avoid making use of your brand. Now that all the don’ts have been covered, then this brings the question of what should prospective marketers use for images in their ads? In order to avoid lawsuits and other such encumbrances, it is advised that one makes their own photos, purchase them from the image rights holders, or make use of the images that have a Creative Commons License. Below is a description of all the images that work with some degree of efficacy and the best place to locate such images.

Humans

The images portraying individuals are often very appealing, particularly their faces. It is advisable that a prospective marketer makes use of close-up faces that are attractive and have a significant resemblance to the overall target audience. Also it is important to note that younger faces do not necessarily mean that they are better. In the event that one is targeting a group of baby boomers or retirees, then it is only prudent to make use of images of individuals that are aged 60 and above. Here making use of an attractive 24 year old model would be oddly misplaced and inappropriate. The images that are used in Facebook ads are often small in size (100 by 72 pixels). In light of this, it is important that the marketer concentrates on the face of the individual and crop it if there is need for it. Never should there be an excuse for making use of a blurry image or dark picture, it would definitely be unattractive to the end user and nothing will be purchased from the website. Tip for Advanced Users: It has been found that when browsing through advertisement, the average consumer will be attracted to a face that is facing the right side. This is because the user will trail the subject’s line of sight and are therefore increasingly likely to read the text in the ad and thus enhancing the chance that the audience would actually be interested in the advertisement.

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Introduction

There is no argument that the online marketplace is one of the most rapidly burgeoning markets today. In fact, a great percentage of businesses today have some sort of an online presence. Therefore, learning how to sell products on the internet is not a skill that is optional; it is a necessary skill particularly for new businesses that do not have the luxury of an already established distribution chain. Admittedly, learning how to sell your products can be somewhat of a daunting task to many; this is regardless of whether you are tech savvy or not. Of course, there are a few advantages to being tech savvy but that should not worry you at the moment. You need to figure out what your product is, how to come up with the product (whether to purchase or manufacture), how to market these products and finally how to sell and distribute them online. No matter the size, whether it is a main source of income or a side business, building a business can sometimes be a very overwhelming task, and more often than not time is major constraint as there are other things in play such as increased competition and costs.

However, thanks to the advancement of today’s technology there are countless ways that this particular process can be made so much simpler for you. A couple of decades ago, in order for you to make any money from your small business then you would have to go through the cumbersome task of locating and negotiating a lease for a store front. You would also need a warehouse if your business handles large amounts of inventory, hire staff to help you run the business, and spend countless nights awake wondering whether the tens of thousands of dollars that you have invested in the renovation of the physical store is going to have any substantial impact or not. Businessmen in the world over can now exhale a sigh of relief that these days are finally gone. One of the key benefits of conducting an online business is that a substantial portion of the overhead costs that are associated with the business tend to be minimized as compared to a situation where one would be setting up a physical store. This portion of your budget can now be transferred elsewhere where it can serve in growing your business substantially. By mastering the art of selling products via an e-commerce website also confers the benefit of mitigating a substantial amount of financial risks that you would have otherwise been exposed to. It eliminates the need for you or your business to have a form of physical location or to pen down an expensive multi-year lease. You should note that this information is not meant to imply that maintaining an online business is a walk in the park. It is, however, true that through the application of the technology that is at our disposal today, you are capable of creating and growing an online business with increased expediency as compare to what it was like a couple of decades ago.

How is Technology Beneficial to you when selling Online?

One of the reason the internet has grown in popularity as a medium for conducting business is the fact that it can allow you to have an easy access to millions of shoppers worldwide. Moreover, because of its global reach an online business can literally be open for 24 hours a day every day. This is tremendous firepower in business and if utilized in the right manner it can help you reap serious rewards. Admittedly, technology has its limitations as it cannot possibly guide you on tough decisions such as the kind of business to be in, the services to offer, products to sell, or how to manufacture your products in an efficient manner. However, what it can do is offer you with the capacity to present your products to a huge number of prospective customers online and simplifies the process of getting money from the customers’ pockets into your own. In business there are a lot of tasks that are mundane but are important to the business, quite frankly if we all had a choice we would prefer not to do them. Luckily, with automation you have this choice and you can now free up a substantial amount of your time and devote it towards performing more important tasks in your business. Each and every day, there are millions of shoppers that visit online market places with the intention of finding the right product for them to buy. There are businesses that have already set up their structure to meet this demand and they are moving tons of products already. This goes to show that there is a lot of potential in selling products online.

If you have already come up with your business model and have products ready to sell, there are a number of sizeable market places which provide you with the opportunity of uploading pictures of your product and commence selling them on the spot. Examples of some of these marketplaces are Facebook, Amazon, Alibaba, Etsy, and many more. The benefit of these sites is that they are capable of matching the overwhelming demand with the appropriate product. Therefore, you will always have a market for your goods thus enabling you to move them that much quicker. These kinds of marketplaces are great as they provide you with an easy opportunity to market your products online. However, they are not always free and this will eat into your margins. Furthermore, it takes out a little bit of brand image when you use third party marketers. Your business stands to benefit greatly if you are able to create your own e-commerce website. How this can be achieved will be discussed in detail much later.

Rationale of Developing your own E-Commerce Store

Here you need to ask yourself one important question. Consider the average online shopper that is looking for a specific product but wants the best value for money. Then why would this shopper who is browsing for products on Amazon or eBay purchase your product when it looks almost identical to that of your competitor. You see what these storefronts do is that they arrange their products much like any regular physical store would; according to the category of the product. Coupled with the search function that makes items easier to locate, there is a very high likelihood that the shopper will not see the difference between your product and that of the competitor. The purchase decision will probably come down to mundane things such as color or what is cheaper. Therefore, if you truly want to be successful then you need to consider having your own online store. This will help your product stand out from the crowd and also give your product a sense of authenticity.

Admittedly, it would be simpler to set up your own website and sell your product directly using Amazon, Facebook, Etsy, Alibaba or eBay. In fact, in the recent past these sites have focused on simplifying the task for the average user. There are many benefits to using these sites as they have a greater reach than your starting online store would probably have on its own. However, the most common mistake beginners make is that they rely almost entirely on these sites to run their business. For example, the Algorithm that is employed by Amazon to allow the users to search and find different products is in a state of constant change. Therefore, one day your product may come up in the top searches and the next it may not come up. Also, on Facebook, your shares and ads are dependent on a similar algorithm that is always changing. Moreover, you would be required to spend some significant amount of money so that your shares can reach a certain number of people. These are additional costs that cut into your margins. Not forgetting that there are competitors that are selling products that are similar to yours and will often result to undercutting to win over customers. You will be forced to respond in kind resulting is a situation that can be defined as a race to the bottom. How to Sell On Amazon Basically, if you are planning to sell your products on Amazon you will be one of many merchants competing for the same clients. Amazon can be likened to one huge supermarket and you will be one of the many suppliers. Your products will be categorized depending on functionality so there is likelihood that your product will be displayed right next to the competitors’ products. Given this situation, a lot of merchants will resort to reducing their prices in order to stay competitive. While the end consumer greatly benefits from this, you as the merchant will have a totally different experience. It has long been the consensus that a price war will ultimately confer no benefits to the parties involved; it is a race to the bottom from which everyone does not profit. However, there will always be that one desperate merchant that will always slash their prices so that they can win the customer from you. This is just one of those things that you need to prepare yourself to deal with when you trade on this platform.

After all, it will often prove to be an arduous affair to set apart your brand in marketplaces such as Amazon, Facebook, or eBay. From the consumers’ perspective you will only be another merchant that is selling a generic product. The consumers being the rational investors that they are will often look for the best value for money in these platforms; the only way to tell if a product is valuable is through reviews however reviews can also be faked. That being said, the main factor shall always be money and the consumers will look for the cheapest product that has acceptable reviews. This goes to show that in creating your own brand, in the course of time you will be able to build an online asset that is valuable and unique. A robust brand has the ability to evoke a sense of trust from the shoppers. When it comes to success in online marketing, trust is one of the key features that you need to pay keen attention to. Put yourself in the position of the shopper, would you purchase an item if you did not trust the brand? Probably not.

How to Successfully Build your Online Brand

In today’s competitive business environment, being successful is pegged on ensuring that your company name, brand, identity and also your unique personal brand is accessible in every nook and cranny in the internet. Why do you really need a brand? In the business world of today, people find the need to conduct business with individuals that they trust or have a feeling of attraction to them. Trust is a difficult thing to attain but at the base of it, people will only trust you if they have some sort of relationship with you.

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Introduction

It appears that the internet could be of more benefit other just watching funny cat videos and playing video games – you can build your business and make some money from it too. There are so many opportunities for you to apply yourself in the vastness that is the internet. If you can apply yourself in just the right way, there is a very good chance that you can make a living doing some of the things that you are currently doing. The following are just but a few of the life hacks to start you off on the right track.

Developing Websites

Here, you can assume that the vastness of the internet is like a vast piece of land. Then if this is so then websites can be likened to tracts of real estate. In the real physical world the overall worth of real estate is quite high; in fact it is one of the most coveted items that you can have today. Digital real estates would basically operate under the same principles as this. When it comes to developing a website, it can be equated to building a house on your piece of land. How it is done Just like you would on your own piece of physical land, when you have space on the internet you are at liberty to do as you please with your website. However, we are concerned with making money and therefore there are going to be some few limitations to this; you will need to be more specific with the content that you would like to put up on your website. Let us be honest, only good content will yield good returns. There would be no point of having your digital real estate looking like a junk yard; you will be lucky if you get any visitors and if they visit they are definitely not going to stay long.

When you are developing your website, it would be advisable that you spend some significant amount of time in selecting a platform that would be desirable. A platform can be described as the format in which your website will be hosted on. If you are not particularly tech savvy, this would immediately sound like a task that is overly complicated and the thought of millions of lines of code downright off putting. This was definitely the case a number of years ago when the platforms were a tad bit complicated; the popular platforms were HTML, Flash or CSS. In order to put up your website you would need to invest a significant amount of time to code your website (a task that in itself required countless hours to master). However, you can now breathe easy as this process has been significantly simplified thanks to Content Management Systems (CMS) like WordPress. Simply put, CMS can be describes as a platform that is user friendly that is used in the development of websites and the management of online content. It gets even better, these CMS are mostly free! Once you have selected an appropriate platform, you should then proceed to select a domain name that would suit you and a host. A domain name can be described as a web address like a thisismywebsite.org. Hosting, on the other hand refers to a service that will be able to connect your site to the internet. Earlier we mentioned that making use of a platform like WordPress will be free, however in order for your site to be hosted it may cost you some bit of money. But there is no need for you to be alarmed by this, it is not an amount that will be capable of breaking your bank; it will cost less than you spend on coffee around $3 to $5. You still have the option of having you site hosted for free but the implication of this is that you website will not have a professional appeal. For instance, it would be very unattractive to have a website that reads thisismywebsite.freewebsitehosting.com. Spending a little extra on the hosting will go a long way into ensuring that your brand has an attractive outlook.
After you have come up with an appropriate domain name and you have chosen a host for your site, you only need to tweak and adjust your site a little bit. You will need to add some templates and the necessary layouts for your website so as to increase its appeal. Think of this as the interior decoration of the digital real estate that you have built. Once you have done this, you will be ready to launch your website.

How do you make money? Making money off your website is where the challenging bit begins. In order to get any revenue then you need to attract people to your site, and to do this you will be required to promote and market your site extensively. You can do this on social media, or any other media that will be at your disposal. You are advised to even look into Search Engine Optimization to ensure that your content is easily accessible when someone looks online for it. The whole point of doing all this is to be able to generate adequate traffic to your site so as to be able to sell the products that you have to offer. The more traffic you are able to generate the more likely that you be able to get the attention of companies and they will come to advertise on your website.

B2B Marketing

A perfect example of B2B Marketing would be GetVoip. It can be described as an online business that is based in New York and its main business is an affiliate marketer. This means that the company, or the business model, performs its function as an intermediary or business agent for the business communication providers. The company, makes an effort to maintain a current listing of all the VoiP providers which is a list that encompasses their ratings, comparisons, consumer reviews and a thorough knowledge of the current consumer and market trends. Additionally they are concerned with the expert opinions by all the numerous business professionals on a broad range of topics that have something to do with the business consumers. In terms of being abreast of all the news as well as offering the clients with an analysis that is detailed on the products that are being offered then GetVoip has the capability of coming ups with the required traffic to their website as well as bolstering the overall clout of the business.

It is worth noting that the more a business has online clout, the higher the chances that there would be some revenue stream from it. Let us take for example a case where your company has a good reputation for developing connections that are lasting (much like the VoiP business brand does), then it is prudent to assume that your business will generally have an easy time in as far as developing your brand on the internet is concerned. Your brand is likely to gain some sense of recognition within your community and you will begin to generate some clout within the industry. You should always remember that it is important to track you own numbers. These numbers include the average and total number of people that visit your site, the number of clicks that each advertisement gets, and the number of people that actually visit your site and purchase something. This information is quite useful to your brand as it will offer you the required leverage to grow a given section of your business thus continuing to grow your online presence and reputation.

Google AdSense

AdSense can be said to be one of the most popular way in which you can get some revenue online. If you are new to this then it may look like some complicated terminology involving some complicated tasks, however, with this guide it will be very simple. Here is all you need to know:

• This is an internet service that is owned by Google.

• It is a free service for all publishers.

• It is one of the major income earners for Google as a company with revenue of approximately $3.13 billion.

• The revenue share is split between the publisher and Google on a ratio of 68:32. This means that for every dollar, 68 cent will go to the publisher while 32 cents will go to Google.

• The variety of advertisers utilise the Adwords program in order to advertise their services and products on the AdSensce websites. Payment is only due whenever an individual clicks on the advertisements. This is called pay per click (PPC)

• It is a very convenient system to use

• The calculation of the cost per every click is determined through an auction type of system.

• It is arguably one of the most reliable platforms for advertising online today and it can generate a steady income for publisher in comparison with other PPC systems.

How can you make Money

It has been highlighted that this is one of the easiest platforms to use in which you are entitled to receive over 68 per cent of the entire revenue. Nevertheless, there are some few requirements that you need in order to make any kind of money on AdSense. But you need not be alarmed as they are not too hard to accomplish. Your Website should be rich in Content Google AdSense is best suited for a website that is rich in content. You can put all sorts of content within your website such as images, words, and videos so long as they do not contravene the policies of AdSense. You, should, however, ensure that your content has some text in it so that it can be easy for the web crawler to locate your content. High Quality Given that Google has a fiduciary responsibility to their clients given the fact that they part with hefty sums of money so that their products can be advertised, they would not be amused if their content was placed on websites that were of poor quality. Moreover, it would serve you and your brand better if your website were to have a professional appearance as compared to a messy juvenile web page. High Traffic Like we had mentioned earlier, you stand to make very easy money if you make use of AdSense, nevertheless, this is only possible if you website is able to generate a substantial amount of traffic. The rationale here is that advertisers will pay to place their adverts on website where people will notice them, with low traffic then that is not possible. As a benchmark, you need to aim for approximately 400 unique visits in any given day in order to consider it healthy traffic.

Appropriate Keywords It is vital that your website has the appropriate key words and the same goes for your content if you are to make any money with AdSense. Appropriate keywords refers to the words that are commonly used by the advertisers when they are promoting their services and products so as to increase the overall number of action words. Action words are very important as they have the ability to convert a click into a revenue or sale.

Amazon Associates

Amazon is arguably one of the largest online market places that you can find today. Regardless of the fact that there are more affiliate market places in the world today than it would be feasible to count, a significant proportion of bloggers and large conglomerates are in the habit of selling their products on Amazon. Their Affiliate offers a ridiculously enticing commission range; it can pay you up to 15 per cent of the total sale amount. However this percentage is often very dependent on the kind of sale that you are making. Either way, this is a very good way for you to make money. Let us assume that you are a blogger who specializes in tech gadgets such as mobile phones. You can begin by writing a detailed review of the latest laptop or phone then attach it to an Amazon Affiliate link. At most you will spend approximately 20 minutes of your time in order to fine the most suitable deal, and you can then proceed to make yourself some substantial income. How to sign Up for the Amazon Affiliate Program You will be able to easily sign up to the Amazon Affiliate Program, with only a few things that you will need to consider first such as you desired target market or the geographic location. The implication of this is that if you desire to target an audience in the United States then you need to sign up for the Amazon U. S. Associate program. But this does not mean that you are limited to only one geographic region; if you are keen to promote all the Amazon in all the geographical locations then you should go ahead and sign up for the affiliate programs in the different countries such as Japan, Australia, India and so on.

How to Make Money

Once you have successfully signed up to the Affiliates program then the next logical step would to be find the necessary banners, links and widgets for your site. The niche that you will target here will be inherently dependent on the variable that will let you to select a broad range of links. For example, if you are interested or you have already come up with a blog about tech gadgets, then it would be wise if you were to append a page that is titled “Best Gadgets for You”. If you are writing on movies or music then it would be likewise prudent for you to have a widget at the bottom with the affiliate to the movie or music. There are virtually unlimited possibilities when it comes to marketing with Amazon Affiliates; they will only be limited by you niche. It is up to you to add as many links as you would like and monetize your page to your liking.