Social Media Marketing Company - Philadelphia - PA - NJ - NY - USA

Integrating Effective Social Media Strategies into the Marketing Mix

The Key to integrating Social Media into the traditional Marketing Mix is the “willingness” to develop new and different relationships with people. If we closely examine the 4 P’s of the traditional Marketing Mix Model - Product, Price, Place and Promotion, we discover the primary objective of marketing has always been to develop a stronger connection with the people who comprise our target markets.

A decade ago, we were all focusing on the primary objective of Relationship Marketing – building stronger and more meaningful relationships with customers and potential customers.

Today, we find ourselves trying to take advantage of Social Media Marketing – the next step in the evolutionary development of companies looking for the “best” and most effective marketing strategy to connect with their target audiences. This raises the question – How much has marketing really changed in the last fifty years? From the beginning, the basic objective of every Effective Marketing Strategy has always been the same – establish or develop stronger connections or relationships with people.
Social Media Marketing – The next step in creating New Marketing Relationships

I recently expressed the following opinion on a Social Media Blog Post – “I believe we are in the Toddler Phase of Social Media Marketing. Some companies will walk and talk faster than others - but we ‘ALL’ want to walk.” While not intending to “Coin a Phrase” - the more I thought about it, the more I realized how accurately it describes the growing pains most companies are experiencing in trying to integrate effective Social Media Programs into their 2012 Marketing Mix Strategies.

Being a Social Media Toddler should be viewed as a “good” thing. We are all “Social Media Toddlers” when it comes to Integrating Social Media Marketing into the Marketing Mix. The more we experience the positive effects of Social Media Marketing, the more inclined we are to take advantage of Social Media Strategies in new and different ways.

Some Marketing Consultants have also started to utilize the phrase “Re-inventing Social Media” as a possible solution to some of the challenges associated with Social Media Marketing. I believe it’s a little premature to re-invent something many companies still don’t fully understand. The greatest challenge associated with Social Media Marketing involves the integration of Social Media Strategies into the mix of our more traditional marketing strategies.
Effective Social Media Marketing: How should Social Media be integrated into 2012 Marketing Strategies?

If we employ one of Albert Einstein’s aphorisms to examine the impact of Social Media on traditional marketing strategies, the resulting premise might be the best starting point for any company trying to ascertain the importance of integrating Social Media Marketing into their 2011 - 2012 Business Marketing Strategies.
Social Media without an effective Marketing Strategy is Lame; however, Marketing without an Effective Social Media Strategy is Blind.



Regardless of whether your company likes or currently believes Social Media Marketing is an effective business strategy, one thing is absolutely certain - Social Media is “Real” and smart companies will start to take advantage of it, some sooner than others.

If we simply search Google for - Social Media Marketing, one will find more new strategies and ideas coming online every day. This tells me many businesses are still in the Toddler Phase of developing an effective approach to Social Media Marketing. Similar to toddlers learning to walk and talk, our natural business instincts tell us Social Media might be an advantage in generating new business; however our uncertainty over unknown negative consequences creates an atmosphere of cautious indifference.

Certain unanswered questions only create more uncertainty; such as, What corporate resources should be devoted to Social Media Marketing? What are the negative implications associated with integrating Social Media into the Marketing Mix? These and numerous other questions need to be addressed before any company has the “willingness” to completely integrate Social Media into their overall Marketing, Media Advertising and Internet Marketing Strategies.
Social Media & Marketing Integration – The three categories of Social Media Toddlers

The first category of Social Media Toddlers includes companies that are aggressively integrating Social Media Programs into most of their Business Marketing Strategies. They have started to experience some short term benefits; however, they have also made some mistakes along the way. The key component of their strategy is willingness. They might be described as Social Media risk takers. They are not afraid of making some initial mistakes – but after falling down, they pick themselves up, evaluate the consequences, and keep moving forward.

This does not mean a company in this phase of their Social Media development is any better or worse than any other company. In some cases, these companies have to be more aggressive because they are either in the start up or rebuilding stages of their business development.

The second category of Social Media toddlers are the “cautious” companies. They have usually invested a great deal of time, money, and resources into developing their Brand Marketing or Product Branding Programs. Their marketing strategies have been successful and they are unwilling to risk the reputation of their Brand on Social Media strategies which often operate outside of their control.

The majority of companies fall into this category. Willingness is not the problem. Trust is the issue. They just want to fully understand the best way to integrate Social Media into their overall Marketing Mix – before they are willing to “Trust Social Media” as an effective strategy.

The third category can be described as the Social Media Skeptics. These companies manage their Marketing Campaigns under one simple premise – If something is not broken, don’t try and fix it. They vigorously defend traditional marketing ideas and reject any Social Media Strategy as just another “passing phase” in the world of internet marketing.

While respecting the success of certain companies in this category, history shows businesses resistant to new marketing ideas often remain stagnant over the long term. The likely outcome for most companies in this category of Social Media Skeptics – The smart ones will start to see their competition gaining ground on them and eventually say – better late than never.
The Key to Social Media Marketing – Integrating Social Media into Your Marketing Mix

The various stages of Social Media development can never be restricted to three over-simplified categories; however, we believe these three categories can serve as a starting point for any company interested in evaluating their Social Media Strategies. Regardless of past mistakes, companies willing to objectively evaluate Social Media will find a strategy that works for them.

From Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to PR Marketing Releases, Video Optimization Strategies, and online Marketing Blogs, Social Media has the potential to generate significant new business if effectively integrated into your overall Marketing Mix.

In order to be fair to companies holding Social Media beliefs similar to those described in categories two and three; one final question needs to be addressed – What are the negative ramifications of Social Media Programs? This question can only be evaluated based on the unique circumstances of your individual business. For the most part, our experience has shown the answer to this question usually centers around three words – risk, control, and willingness.

Some Social Media platforms (Facebook being a good example) involve giving up some measure of control over what is being said and written about your company, products, and services. The key to integrating an effective Social Media Strategy into your Marketing Mix is the “initial willingness” to take certain marketing risks in order to achieve the business rewards.

As with any marketing strategy, a balanced approach to integrating Social Media into your overall Marketing Mix, developed consistently over the long term, should enhance the effectiveness of your overall marketing objectives.

Thinking About SEO For A New Website

Are you launching a new website? There's no better time to think about search engine optimization than prior to launching a new site. By giving consideration to your on-page optimization factors, you can increase your chances of achieving top organic search results.

To prepare your site for easy indexing, be sure to follow these basis guidelines:

1. Design your site in html or similar format that minimizes the use of java script and flash. The more complex you make your code, the more difficult it becomes for the search engine spiders to read your content and prescribe the appropriate Google PR to your web page.

2. Make sure that your meta tags are coded properly and include the Robots.txt tag. Many individuals downplay the importance of meta tags. Although meta tags themselves won't drastically change the organic ranking of your site, they do create the display text users will see when your site appears in search results. If your meta tags are search engine optimized and compelling, you increase the changes of improving click-throughs.

3. Apply the proper tags to your page. H1, H2, and H3 tags are a great wall to call attention to your content and promote your keywords and keyword phrases. Try to use each tag at least once, but don't force the issues. You want your text to flow and appear normal.

In addition to ensuring that you've made your page easy to access and presented text that is optimized, you also want to consider other factors that can help long-term with your SEO efforts. So often, web designers get caught up with on page factors, that they overlook the requirements for establishing a foundation that supports long-term initiatives.

In particular, consider adding pages that you can add to over time that support link building and accessibility for search engine spiders. Be sure to include:

1. An html sitemap and an xml sitemap. Including a sitemap on you site makes it easy for search engines to access all of your website pages and index your site accordingly. Your sitemap should be in both html as well as xml. Although users would not access the xml sitemap, search engine spiders use this version to crawl websites. Additionally, key search engine submission resources like Google's Webmasters Tools require xml site map versions.

2. Include a partners page. Previously referred to as a links page, the partners page is essential for reciprocal linking. This strategy isn't as powerful as developing one-way links, but until your site has been assigned a Google PR, one-way links can be difficult to acquire. So begin your link exchange program with a partners page that allows you add or remove link quickly and easily.

3. Submission pages that encourage new content. One of the most powerful seo techniques is the addition of new content. Make it easy for your users to add or submit content to your website. When search engines see new content, they rejoice. Don't underestimate how important it is to make it simple for your browsers to add or submit content.

When focusing on search engine optimization, especially with a new website, follow the basic ideas outlined above. There are a number of other factors to consider as well. However, you should always start with a strong foundation - a site design that meets basic SEO standards but one that also supports your long range search engine optimization goals.

The Top 10 Marketing Tips of All Time

With more than a decade of experience in marketing, ranking from pay-per-click to direct mail, I’ve seen a lot of failures and far more successes when it comes to marketing.

Today, the art of marketing is far more complex than it once was. However, many of the same basic principles still apply. Too often, professional marketers and small business owners overlook the basic techniques that have separated successful campaigns from those that never turn a profit. Here is my all time list of effective marketing tips.

Know your audience. Successful campaigns get that way because marketers know their audience. They fully understand their needs, how to help meet those needs and how to create demand. Knowing and understanding your audience through proper market segmentation means a well targeted campaign that generates a profitable return.

Focus on the offer. A marketing offer is the driving force of marketing promotions that drive results. In fact, market testing has proven that the offer is the most significant criterion for conversion. Focus on your offer if you want to be successful.

Split test. Never ever run a campaign without testing something. One of the most common is a split test which allows you to simultaneously test two versions of something. It can be a web page, post card, or email. Split testing is essential for improving performance.

Never work alone. The most creative ideas come from working with other creative people. Don’t feel like you need to have all the answers or great ideas. You may start with an idea, but an open dialog with creative individuals will make it better.

Don’t sell on price. I’ve seen so many marketers fail because they sell on price alone. This leads to a discounting war, lower profitability, and often bankruptcy. Rather, focus on creating so much value that the perception of price becomes insignificant.

Consistent messaging. Consider the entire user experience before you launch a campaign. From email to website to offer, is the prospect having a consistent user experience? If they are, your campaigns stand above 98% of others.

Create value after the sale. As marketers, it’s our job to understand our market segment and build relationships, not dump people off at the front door of our store and walk away. Focus as much of your energy on building relationships with customers as you do prospects.

Test. Test. Test. In addition to split testing, you should consider multiple forms of testing in each marketing discipline. For direct mail, test headlines, offers, copy, time of direct mail drop, etc. Consider testing a life long mission.

Integrated Marketing Works Best. You can’t rely on one form of marketing to carry you to success. It’s okay to generate most of your leads or sales through PPC marketing if you will but what happens when that dries out? Use multiple media sources to meet your goals.

Nothing can replace experience. You can run out and hire all of the best consultants in the world, but you still have to do the work. Nothing can replace actual experience. It will make you a stronger marketer and more successful in the long term.

Apply these helpful marketing tips if you want to be truly successful. These techniques and tips are applied by successful marketers on a daily basis. The result is an ever growing success rate of marketing success.

Pay-Per-Click - Meet Search Engine Optimization

How to use your PPPC marketing to achieve #1 Google rankings that matter


As I continue to work with companies seeking to improve the return of their Internet marketing dollars, I’ve gained a new appreciation for the marriage of search engine marketing and search engine optimization.

Just a like a company’s house list, the information they gather from their own PPC campaigns can provide a significant boost to the effectiveness of their search engine optimization efforts. The key is to know what information you’re looking for and how to use it to generate qualified visitors to your website.

Qualified visitors are those that have a higher degree of interest in your products or services and a greater likelihood of purchasing your products. I’ve often seen websites that have reduced their traffic while significantly improving conversion rates. The result is lower costs related to traffic acquisition and higher revenue. With more revenue and less expense, margins reach a new level of success.

The concept that I teach in SEO training is the most effective way to combine pay-per-click advertising with search engine optimization is to focus on conversions. What keywords have you promoted through pay per click advertising that led to conversions? If you’ve been running PPC for a while and you are still unsure, then consider expanding your analytics to include Google conversion tracking.

Once you have the answer and know which terms produce the greatest conversions, regardless of ad variation, then you SEO keywords have been determined. You want to generate organic traffic to the same keywords you’re promoting through PPC as long as they are generating your highest conversions.

An example of this might be someone promoting an ebook on how to fix a car. If the highest converting keyword is, “car repair”, then you should consider car repair as a keyword phrase you must optimize for. Organic traffic to this term will produce targeted web site visitors and conversions for little or no money as you improve your rankings.

The last piece is to take your highest converting landing pages and build in some or all of the elements into your website. Once you’ve tracking and optimized landing pages via PPC, you can duplicate what you’ve learned from a conversion perspective organically. Consider applying the landing page elements that have generated the highest return for you on your pay-per-click advertising.

Whether you’re new to SEO or consider yourself a search engine optimization expert, leveraging your pay-per-click advertising is the best investment you can make. Determine which keywords generate the type of traffic that is most valuable to you and optimize around these terms. They will generate more traffic and revenue at a lower cost.

Where Has All The Good Marketing Gone?

What You Can Learn From Top Marketers


I don’t know about you, but I feel like there is a scarcity of good marketing today. What do I mean “good marketing?” You know the kind of marketing that sticks with you and drives you to take action. The only marketing that has really moved me in the last couple of years has been from Apple. How do I know? I own 3 ipods.
You might be thinking to yourself that it’s more the product that drives behavior than the marketing, and when it comes to the ipod I don’t necessarily disagree. However, I would argue that in some ways, the marketing has to be even better than it does with your run of the mill product.

Apple has maintained a certain level of success with their marketing and now that marketing must not only tie together with previous marketing campaigns, but convince current customers that their current products are no longer sufficient.

It appears that this is done, not through slight of hand, but by showing you what you can’t do with your current device. By illustrating this in a manner that is contradictory to your current satisfaction, it does make you feel like your ipod – which was fine until a moment ago has suddenly become inadequate. To me, that’s really good marketing.

So what can be learned from the tens of millions that Apple spends on advertising every year? I think the answer to that question is to work in lock step with your product development team to showcase developments and tap the emotions of those using your products. When I use my iTouch, I feel empowered, cool, and complete. I wouldn’t have reached that conclusion without the help of marketing to get me there.

The lesson that I’ve learned is that marketing, if done correctly, helps us to define how we feel about a product. Once you have prospects and customers attaching emotions to your products, you develop loyal customers. The next time that you’re thinking about a marketing campaign, consider how you want your customers to feel about your product.

Manage the entire purchase decision process in order to consistently manage the experience to reinforce or produce these desired feelings. Once you’ve been able to do that successfully, your creative, marketing messages and promotions should be relatively easy to produce. Now that’s what I call good marketing.

Skechers toning shoes buyers can get refund under lawsuit settlement for false advertising

Consumers who purchased Skechers Shape-ups or other toning shoes made by the company will be eligible for a partial refund from a $40 million settlement that the company made with the Federal Trade Commission and 42 states with class action lawsuits. The settlement is being finalized Wednesday in a federal court in the Northern District of Ohio, according to the FTC.

“Skechers put its foot in its mouth by making unwarranted claims,” said David Vladeck, director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection. Ads for Shape-Ups claimed that the sneakers with the rounded bottom toned muscles, improved posture, and encouraged weight loss., while reducing stress on knees and ankles

For consumers who purchased these shoes for $50 to $100, Vladeck added, the “only thing that got a workout was their wallet.”

Those who own a pair of the toning shoes can apply for a refund on the FTC’s website; claims must be filed within the next eight months.

Skechers released a statement on Wednesday saying it “denies the allegations and believes its advertising was appropriate, but has decided to settle these claims in order to avoid protracted legal proceedings.”

Last September, the FTC settled with Reebok over false advertising claims for its toning shoes and fitness apparel. Hundreds of thousands of consumers applied for refunds that will be paid out from that $25 million settlement. Vladeck said the FTC will be mailing refund checks within the next few months but hasn’t yet calculated the amount each consumer will receive.

As with Reebok, the amount of the refunds from the new settlement will depend on the number of individuals filing claims.

After reviewing the research on which Skechers was basing its advertising claims, Vladeck said, the FTC determined that “studies were false” and that “people were gaining weight” while wearing the toning sneakers, rather than losing.

When researchers independently compared toning shoes against traditional sneakers in a small study published last July, they found that toning shoes didn’t promote calorie-burning or muscle-building any better than basic sneakers. As I previously reported, University of Wisconsin researchers tested three toning sneakers -- Skechers Shape-Ups, MBT, and Reebok’s EasyTone -- against traditional New Balance running shoes (not the toning kind) in 12 physically fit female volunteers who walked on treadmills. There wasn’t any difference in muscle activity in such areas as the calves, quads, back, and abs when the volunteers wore the various toning shoes, compared with the running shoes.

Steve and Kristen Blake prepare full-court press against cancer

Fourteen years later, in 2001, Ketchum's health now was failing. He wore a Terrapins jersey. And though he would die a week later, he wore a smile on his face. That was how Ketchum went through life; despite his illness, he maintained a positive attitude.

"I knew he'd want me to push through it, not dwell on it, and just move forward," Blake said about his loss. He also said that playing basketball helped him get through his grief.

Blake knew at that last visit that he wanted to do something that would make a difference. And he has.

He is involved with several charitable causes, some devoted to cancer research and treatment. Several family members of Blake's wife, Kristen, also died from the disease. Steve's father survived a brief cancer scare, and his former coach, Denver's George Karl, fought throat and neck cancer two years ago.

"We all share that together," Steve Blake said, as he sat next to Kristen during a recent interview at their home. "That's why I think it's so important for all of us to give back and help in some way."

In anticipation of her 30th birthday on March 27, Kristen Blake set up a website at kristensbirthdaywish.com to provide links for people to donate to various charities she and Steve support.

Steve Blake has partnered with the Children's Cancer Assn. in honor of Ketchum. Blake also signed up with Athletes vs. Cancer, a foundation that Lakers forward Matt Barnes founded in 2008 after losing his mother, Ann, to lung cancer. Kristen Blake is currently training for the Hollywood Half Marathon on April 7. She hopes to raise at least $1,300, which Steve will match, to donate to Samaritan's Purse, an international relief organization. They also will visit a sponsored child this summer in Rwanda through Africa New Life, which provides medical supplies.

Kristen said that collecting donations instead of birthday presents seemed appropriate after last Christmas, when Steve's sister, Debbie, gave her a wrapped receipt showing she had donated toys to a family as her gift to Kristen.

"One of the most awesome Christmas presents I ever received," Kristen said. "It made me really happy."

Steve's spirits were often lifted in the time he spent with Danny.

They played T-ball. Growing up in Miami, the two often watched University of Miami and Florida State games together. Danny regularly attended Steve's high school basketball games. When Steve moved on to the University of Maryland, Danny decorated his room with plenty of Terrapins memorabilia. The two often watched tapes of Steve's high school and college games when Steve visited Danny in the hospital.

To teammates and friends who didn't already know his cousin, Steve kept pretty quiet about his special kinship with Danny. Considering Danny didn't show physical effects from his cancer, Steve said they hardly noticed.

Tebow to Cubby Tees: Stop selling on my name

Thou shalt not take Tim Tebow’s name in vain.

Lawyers for the new Jets quarterback have fired off a cease and desist letter to a sports clothing company that was using Tebow’s name to hawk T-shirts, TMZ reported yesterday.

The green and white shirts produced by Cubby Tees were done up to look like a Jets logo — but instead of saying “NY Jets” with a drawing of a football, it reads, “MY Jesus” with a drawing of a fish.

Though the shirt doesn’t have Tebow’s name on it, the company’s website made clear it was Tebowing to Tebowmania.

“Jets for Jesus!” “He’s not just looking to cure lepers, but heal Gang Green!” the company said on its site, cubbytees.com. “We don’t take sides on the field or the hereafter — we just try to make fans happy, and this shirt should fit Tebow followers to a tee.
Tebow’s lawyers told them to stop selling the shirts immediately.

“As you know, Mr. Tebow has not granted Cubby Tees any rights to use his name or likeness in any manner,” their letter says.

The company told TMZ it was going to stand in the pocket against the attorneys, but as of yesterday afternoon, its website was down.

Kevin Doolan of Cubby Tees said they wouldn’t be pushed around by “corporate bullies.”

“We are artists and have no desire to trespass on anyone’s legitimate intellectual property rights, but we also will not roll over and sacrifice ours,” he said.

Donna Summer succombe à un cancer

Donna Summer est décédée jeudi matin en Floride à la suite d'une bataille contre un cancer du poumon. Sa mort a été confirmée par sa famille, à l'Associated Press. "Tôt ce matin, nous avons perdu Donna Summer Sudano, une femme pleine de talents, le plus grand étant sa foi. Tandis que nous pleurons sa perte, nous célébrons en paix sa vie extraordinaire et son héritage continu. Les mots ne peuvent pas vraiment exprimer combien nous apprécions vos prières et votre amour pour notre famille durant ce moment sensible", a déclaré la famille dans un communiqué. La chanteuse a été diagnostiqué avec un cancer il y a de cela dix mois et l'a caché au public. Seul son mari, Bruce Sudano, et ses enfants, Brooklyn, Amanda et Mimi, étaient au courant de sa lutte contre la maladie.

Reine du Disco, Donna Summer, LaDonna Andrea Gaines de son vrai nom, fut l'une des rares à connaître une relative longue carrière. Celle qui a formé sa voix dans des cœurs de gospel, s'est vraiment fait connaître du public par son titre sexy Love To Love You Baby, où l'on entend la chanteuse faire des halètements torrides. Gagnante de cinq Grammy Awards, elle a été une source d'inspiration pour de nombreux artistes qui ont repris ses plus grands hits : Last Dance, Hot Stuff, She Works Hard For The Money, Bad Girls, On The Radio, I Feel Love et bien d'autres encore ...

Sa mort a suscité de nombreuses réactions, notamment sur les réseaux sociaux. Le légendaire producteur Quincy Jones a déclaré : "Repose en Paix chère Donna Summer. Ta voix était le battement de cœur et la bande sonore d'une décennie". "Peu de chanteurs ont eu un impact dans la musique et le monde comme Donna Summer ! C'est la fin d'une ère. Prières & Paix pour tous ceux qui l'ont aimée. Elle me manquera !" a dit d'elle Gloria Estefan, grande star de la musique latine. Aretha Franklin, autre légende, a elle aussi fait le commentaire suivant : "Tellement choquée d'entendre que Donna Summer nous a quitté. Dans les années 70, elle a régné sur l'ère du disco et a gardé le disco. Qui pourra, oubliera 'Last Dance'. Une excellente interprète et une très gentille personne". Elton John a quant a lui déploré le fait qu'elle n'est jamais été introduite au Rock and Roll Hall of Fame : "Ses albums sonnent aussi bien aujourd'hui comme avant. Qu'elle n'ait jamais été introduit au Rock and Roll Hall of Fame est un déshonneur total particulièrement quand je vois les talents de seconde zones qui y ont été introduit. C'est une grande amie à moi, tout comme pour la fondation Elton John AIDS et elle me manquera énormément".

Marketing Jobs

When it comes to marketing jobs in 2012, so much depends upon whether companies believe consumers and businesses will have the money to buy. Economic malaise may continue to limit the growth of both agencies and corporate marketing departments. 

But the new year will have hot spots for marketing professionals in a number of vertical and horizontal niches. Here are some of our top picks for marketers.

Interactive, SEO, Market Research Jobs Will Grow
In 2012, leading-edge Internet technologies will again be a leading generator of marketing jobs.

Donna Farrugia charts demand for Internet marketing specialties according to the salary increases they command. “Interactive marketing managers, [as well as] SEO and SEM specialists will see some of the highest gains,” says Farrugia, executive director of The Creative Group, a staffing firm in Menlo Park, California. “Market researchers are also seeing high increases. Companies are realizing again that they have to be in touch with what customers want, and do competitive analysis.”

Find interactive marketing manager jobs, SEO specialist jobs, SEM specialist jobs and market research jobs.

Analytics: Looking for a Few Marketers Good with Numbers
The marketing job market of 2012 will be good for workers who can extract actionable meaning from the swelling tide of data generated by Web analytics, observers say.

“The good entry-level jobs in 2012 will be for new graduates who are comfortable engaging in some form of analytics,” says Larry Chiagouris, professor of marketing at Pace University and author of The Secret to Getting a Job After College: Marketing Tactics to Turn Degrees into Dollars.

Marketing departments and agencies want “people who come somewhat well-rounded, who are not afraid to wrestle numbers to the ground, but [who] are also able to express themselves in writing and make recommendations intelligibly,” Chiagouris says. “They look at budgets, sales data and forecasts, and analyze which marketing media and channels are working and which aren’t.”

Junior-level jobs with an analytical bent come with titles like marketing analyst, assistant brand manager and assistant marketing manager.

Find marketing analyst jobs, assistant brand manager jobs and assistant marketing manager jobs.

Mobile Devices Need Marketers, Too
There’s a marketing-driven app for that, but only if organizations can mobilize the talent to churn out the content as well as the code.

“Mobile has jumped onto everyone’s radar,” says Farrugia. “All organizations need to get their content onto phones and tablets. The marketing specialists who can do that will be highly sought-after in 2012.”

Find mobile marketing jobs.

Wanted: Marketers with Events Expertise
Seeking to make a big impression on media-saturated young minds, marketing departments are turning to event marketing to make their brands and messaging pop.

“It’s hard to say how much we’ll grow in 2012,” says Marlena Wilmot, director of human resources at MKTG, an events-marketing agency that employs 255 people in accounts, creative, production and other marketing jobs in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Cincinnati. “But we’ll probably add about 15 people, depending on whether we land new business and if so, how big.” MKTG will likely post job openings for digital and social media strategists and digital project managers, among others.

Find event-marketing jobs, social media jobs and digital project manager jobs.

Marketing to Growing Demographic Segments
Demographics will be another key driver of marketing careers in 2012.

“A lot of clients seeing the results of the 2010 Census have created a growth opportunity for marketing to the Hispanic population,” says Alain Groenendaal, CEO of Wing, a marketing communications agency in New York City with a specialty in Hispanic marketing. “In our space we seek a multicultural sensibility, people who are interested in travel abroad and in languages, though some of our staff don’t speak Spanish.”

The rapidly growing, highly interactive Hispanic market will be a leading creator of marketing jobs. “Hispanics use their cellphones, tweet, blog and download music much more than the general market,” Groenendaal says. “We grew about 50 percent in 2011; next year we’ll be looking for account, creative, planning and digital people.”

Find multicultural marketing jobs.

‘Healthcare Marketing Is a World Unto Itself’
Healthcare providers -- driven by lean years to boost their higher-margin services -- will commission lots of marketing work in 2012. From cosmetic surgery to six-figure heart treatments, hospitals will count on marketing experts to bring in revenue.

“Healthcare is booming,” says Farrugia. “There’s so much outreach going on to so many different kinds of patients. Healthcare marketing is a world unto itself.

Vector Marketing

You surf the net in search for a job, any job that will help you pay off your student loans and accommodate your busy student routine. You come across a job ad that offers $15 to $16 an hour to act as a sales representative to sell Cutco cutlery. Sounds pretty easy, right? You worked at a retail store once and know how to deal with customers. Eager, you continue to read the job ad, looking for the perks. And perks, there are. You can be own your boss! Make your own schedules, budgets, and meeting times. You call and send in your resume, thinking you may not get the job, because it sounds too good to be true. But,

Delighted, you follow up the offer. You get hired as an independent contractor, and are given a list of strict rules to whom you can sell to and how to demonstrate their product. To receive your demonstration kit you need to purchase it or least pay $145 dollars. You must also pay to attend training sessions to polish your sale techniques. A small price to pay, for a job that will help you pay off you're loans, right? No!

despite your

In reality, after paying for your kit and training you barely make more than $3 a day… It's nothing but a scam!

doubts, you
The infamous company behind this scam that targets students nationwide is the U.S.based company Vector Marketing. This company takes advantage of the fact, that it encourages contractors to sell to their relatives. Relatives who'll feel obliged to buy the cutlery, mostly their infamous knives.
How's this a scam? The scam lies in the fact, they ask you to pay before you can start earning. Ever wonder, what kind of company charges for training and demonstration kits?
receive a call praising your resume, and a job offer.

Vector Marketing List of Offenses

In past, the company admitted to fraud in settlements with the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (1999), Wisconsin Consumer Protection Dept (1994), and Arizona Attorney General (1992). In 1992, 940 Wisconsin Vector Marketing recruits were surveyed and the survey found nearly half of the recruits earned no pay or lost money while working for Vector.
Recently the co-founder of SAVE (Students Against Vector Exploitation) a group formed by students to fight the Vector Marketing scam, won a case with the New York Department of Labor, proving that Vector violated the independent contractor- client relationship, making her an employee. This breach of contract required Vector to compensate for her training.
To join the fight against the Vector Marketing Scam you can click here.
Amendment: We have received some letters from salespeople from Vector Marketing who have said they have made great money working with this company and that the above surveys and complaints are fraudulent. One letter even stated that upon returning the start-up kit, he received a full refund and another woman claimed she earned over $2000 working with Vector Marketing.
We can only report to you the facts as we uncover them. You now have two sides to the story. It is up to you, our readers, to decide for yourself.
To read some of the email responses we have received about this article, many from people claiming to be Vector Marketing employees, click here

Top Affiliate Marketing Predictions for 2012

Now that we’ve recapped the top affiliate marketing stories of 2011, such as the Amazon Affiliate tax in California, the war on online poker, and Google Panda, it’s time to look toward the future.
What’s in store for affiliate marketers in 2012? How will the industry continue to meet challenges such as the onslaught of state sales taxes and Amazon’s weak response? What avenues of promotion will be the best way to generate traffic for our affiliate sites?


Here are my predictions:


Affiliate Nexus Tax — While it might be easy to think that the confusion unleashed this year because of the Affiliate Nexus Tax in California and other states would lead to some kind of well-planned legislation with a clear process to help online retailers collect sales taxes, don’t hold your breath.


The U.S. Congress is proving that it’s incapable of passing even the simplest legislation without bickering and stalemate. And more complex issues such as the debt ceiling have showed the willingness of a minority in Congress to derail legislation to meet the wishes of their narrow constituency. If you think that’s a recipe for Affiliate Tax clarity, think again.


My prediction is that nothing improves until after 2012′s elections. But we can look for some kind of federal guidelines on sales tax collection in 2013.


Google Panda — I don’t think there’s anyone out there who thinks that Google got it right in 2011 with their incremental updates that have pushed spammy affiliate sites off the top pages of the search results pages. Expect more from Google in 2012. And if you’re the owner of one of those spammy affiliate sites, my advice is that it’s time to start creating better content.


Social Media — Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are going to become less of a big deal. The kind of sharing and recommendation that happens on them will become a part of almost every site we visit. And the big-name social media sites are going to make it harder for affiliates to directly monetize their social accounts.


Growth — Market research firm Forrester predicts that retailers will spend $4 billion on affiliate marketing by 2014. That’s 16 percent growth each year!


Online Poker — In the United States, the lack of legislation governing online poker will continue the uncertainty cast over the industry this year. And while creating clear national guidelines for online gambling would make sense for the country, see my rationale regarding the Affiliate Nexus Tax as to why this won’t get done in 2012.


Mobile — It’s getting easier and easier to buy stuff on your mobile phone. And that means affiliates are going to need to embrace mobile in 2012. Depending on your site, that could mean creating an app, or it could mean optimizing your site for mobile.

Bestand top Niches for Affiliate Marketing in 2012

When it comes to online marketing, the first step — finding a profitable niche market to go into — is often one of the most challenging things to do for a newbie but crucial since your niche determines what kinds of affiliate products you are going to be selling, so I thought I would compile a list of just some of the best niches markets for 2012 as well as some suggestions on how you can  enter the markets and finally some recommended training so that by the time 2012 gets here, you will have already made some money!
Weight loss – global epidemic, people are always making new year’s resolutions to lose weight, P90X – more than 2 million searches a month for this one keyword, “Biggest Loser” – related products
Learn guitar – really popular hobby, people who want to learn to play guitar can often use recommendations for a quality guitar, look for brands of guitars used by popular musicians
Dating/Relationships – who wants to be alone, especially during the holidays?  Dr. Phil has built his entire career on it, Steve Harvey has a popular book geared toward women, there was also that book and corresponding movie about He’s Just Not That Into You.
Video games – big for the holidays and year around, in addition to promoting the games promote gaming systems and accessories
Electronics – given recent events, all things Apple come to mind, also a good idea to promote products that come out on a yearly basis or whatever that are part of a series
Learn Spanish – Spanish is the 2nd most-widely spoken language in the world, spanning many countries and continents, important since we know live in a global society, used in workplace, for hobby, by travelers
Fashion – can be broken down by gender, brand and more, think celebrity clothing lines and beyond
Shoes – can be broken down by gender, brand, purpose of shoe, and more, think celebrity and beyond
Golf – expensive, recreacational hobby where people have lots of money to spend, think celebrity equipment and such, can be used for other popular sports as well
Quit Smoking – shockingly more than 800,000 people are trying to kick the habit on a monthly basis, especially around the new year
Gardening – saves people money and promotes healthy eating and responsibility, outdoor and indoor products – the Aerogarden
Pet Industry – training for animals like dogs, pet insurance, clothing and accessories and more
All of the niche listed above are profitable, so the one you choose is all about your personal preference.  The earlier you start, the better because right now, the competition is practically non-existent.  Now that you have an idea of some of the top niches for affiliate marketing in 2012, all that you need now is the proper training so that you can position yourself in the search engines so that you can cash in.  For recommended training (no crappy software), I invite you to click the link below.

Affiliate Marketing Success Story

Jeff Ostroff, whose main website gets 10,000 to 15,000 visitors a day, was on his honeymoon in St Lucia 1996 when he got the idea for his first site.

"I thought it would be neat to create a website with photos I took for my family to see online so I would not have to make copies for everyone," he says. "I knew nothing about domain names or how to get a '.com' name."

His ISP provided the web hosting. It wasn't until 1998 that he bought the domain name BridalTips.com.

"I grew BridalTips.com with advice for other brides and grooms because I saw so many scams, and nickel and dime fees in the wedding industry, and vendors who make brides feel like dirt for not buying this or that," he says.

"I started to get a lot of positive response from couples going through the same problems we had, and added sections on DJs, photographers, limos, bridal registry scams, bridal shop scams. Then the idea hit me like a ton of bricks! The Internet is a pretty powerful medium to get your message out to people. It was time for me to start warning the world about crooked car dealer scams based on my past experiences with GM."

So his main money earner, CarBuyingTips.com, was born. He's been running it since 1997.

The site gives free advice on buying new cars, used cars, auto leasing and avoiding car buying scams.

"We hate to see you scammed by some of the morally challenged, so enjoy this politically incorrect site that dealer lawyers tried to shut down," the site tells visitors.

When I first interviewed Jeff in 2000 he had already set up ConsumerNet, created a bunch of consumer advice sites, and built a reputation as a consumer advocate.

He was also the top affiliate, or a top 10 affiliate, in several affiliate programs.


Co-workers became business partners

In 2003, Jeff and two of his co-workers, who choose to stay anonymous, quit their well paid jobs at Motorola to concentrate on the ConsumerNet websites.

"Two of us are electrical engineers, and the third partner is a software engineer. We all learned HTML just by working with it, trial and error," Jeff says.

Now, eight years later, the partnership is still going strong

Affiliate Marketing & Dummies

You may have heard of people working from home and making big money out of their projects. You could have noticed them bragging concerning what they do saying it’s easy and fast-buck making. Several of those people have gotten into affiliate marketing, a system through which they behave as advertisers on the internet and try out their very best to enhance traffic on retailers’ websites while they do this. If you plan on becoming this kind of a marketer, you need to examine each affiliate marketing for dummies guides and buy training books focusing on describing the way to become profitable in this field
Online guides titled ‘Affiliate marketing for dummies’ are pretty beneficial to start with. You can find quite a few websites which take you from the fundamentals, describe what affiliate marketing is and then continue with tips and strategies that happen to be very best to use. They will offer you with definitions, techniques and strategies, guidelines on how not to get cheated, and several more. Many men and women who have started from scratch within this field have created critiques
Together with the on-line instructions usually published by affiliates who want to assist newbies, you may additionally depend on imprinted materials and books offered in shops. Whilst you could think that there’s a book referred to as Affiliate Marketing for Dummies on library shelves and lookup for this, you might come across a broad range of titles intended to offer you the fundamentals of online marketing. The closest for the dummy collection you might have heard about is Web Marketing All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies.
The e-book deals with this sort of approaches as pay per click, search engines and their mixture; additionally, it talks about how to generate lists of keywords and the way to bid on these; and finally, this concentrates on the lawful elements of affiliate marketing whilst making sure that men and women that get into this enterprise are nicely knowledgeable regarding the dos and don’ts. An additional book resembling an affiliate marketing for dummies guide could be the Complete Guide to Affiliate Marketing on the internet last printed in the year 2008, and taking you in the fundamentals to the smart tricks you may resort to.
In addition to clarifying techniques and ideas, this books additionally teaches you the fundamentals of market study and figures based on which you should establish your marketing methods. Overall, understanding affiliate marketing is not challenging specially in case you have a present for talking people into performing things and therefore are skilled in employing the computer. The business may be discovered extremely fast each theoretically and practically.

Common mistakes made by Affiliate Money making newbies

The business of making money online is not always an easy one, most especially when you are not too informed about the in depth of the affiliate money making business. For an absolute newbie making money online may well be an uphill task, because he has not been able to furnish him self with the right method to grow a successful online affiliate money making business.
In this article I will want to shed light on the major mistakes made by affiliate money making newbies, do not start that affiliate marketing business until you have digested the entire content of this article, so that you don't see your self being on the list of unsuccessful Online affiliate marketers. These 3 mistakes are the common things that make an online affiliate marketing business fail, avoid them and use workable methods as enlisted below.
1.  The website mistake: Many people jump into the pool of online affiliate money making business, but rather to see them selves flourishing in this online wealth pool, rather, they get a poor out put like one that has fallen into a pool of mud. This can be possibly caused by a mistake of not purchasing a website or domain on the path of the affiliate marketing newbie, which you will utilize in marketing your online affiliate products. Many savvy internet newbies always refuse to invest any money into their online business. What we should know here s that in any business, you must make a little investment to get it started, so like wise online affiliate money making business, your first investment must be to purchase a domain name and web host, this you will use in setting up your affiliate money making business. Your website will give you unique online popularity, which will greatly improve your affiliate sales and profit. Avoid this mistake, even if you can not buy a website, use a free service like Blogger, but again, it is still wiser for you to get a proper domain name for your business.
2.  The web Traffic mistake: Many affiliate money making newbies, may be able to scale the first hurdle of owning a website or domain, but yet, still do not succeed in the affiliate marketing business, yes because without patronage, no business can survive, so you need tons of website traffic to your affiliate money making mirror site, so that it can gain greater exposure on the internet. There are lot of quality paid advertisement services, as well as top quality free online advertisement methods, which you can utilize to attract traffic to your website daily, so as to keep your online affiliate money making business flourishing. Because no matter how beautifully you have designed your affiliate mirror website, without proper advertisement, no body may know about it, so pay proper attention to techniques on how to build huge targeted website traffic.
3.  The sales conversion mistake: Many affiliate marketers, have mirror websites, designed in similarity with the given website of the affiliate merchant, this is a big mistake, because you are not doing any good for your online affiliate money making business, what you should do, is to create a website, which you regularly update with content, do not think to sell to your prospect at the first instant, by spreading your affiliate product images or links across your entire website page, rather think of helping your prospects solve their problems, let your mirror website be updated daily with rich content, which will make your prospect glued to your website,  and after finding absolute confidence in your daily updates, which you provide free of charge, they will be compelled to take your recommendation on a given topic, to at least buy a product and see how it works. This mistake is commonly made by affiliate money making newbies, because they are always very eager to make quick sales. All you need to do, avoid the anxiety take your time to build a solid relationship with your prospects, and soon, they will be buying what ever you recommend to them, there by making you a successful affiliate marketer.
As an affiliate money making newbie, try to avoid these 3 mistakes, and take the right step towards building for your self a life time passive income, through online affiliate marketing.

Successful Affiliate: Becky Turner

Becky Turner is not only a successful affiliate with a website that attracts 2 million visitors a year. She also has created her own product which she sells via ClickBank.
She earns about $4,500 to $5,000 a month, with sales now increasing rapidly.

The topic of her most successful affiliate website is lucid dreaming.

A lucid dream is a dream in which you're aware you're dreaming. Becky says lucid dreaming is the ability to consciously direct and control your dreams.

"It transforms your inner dream world into a living alternate reality - where everything you see, hear, feel, taste and even smell is as authentic as real life. Lucidity occurs during altered states of consciousness when you realize you are dreaming - and your brain switches into waking mode inside the dream."

Becky, who born in England in 1983, says she began lucid dreaming at the age of 14 when she developed a keen interest in dreams and psychology.

"I love learning but never went to university. I've worked in office admin and later as a financial journalist before escaping the rat race."

She now lives in Auckland, New Zealand, with her partner Pete and works from home running her Lucid Dreaming site and a few others.

I interviewed her about her success as an affiliate and also asked about her experience as an affiliate vendor.

Simple Steps For Newbies To Start In Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an arrangement between an online merchant and affiliate, in which the affiliate earns a commission for generating sales, leads and/or clicks for the merchant's web site.

Affiliate marketing works in a win-win situation for the merchant and the affiliate. The merchant gains opportunities to advertise his products for free to a larger market which will increase his sales. The more hard-working affiliates he gets, the more sales he can expect. By getting affiliates to market his products and services, he is saving himself time, effort and money in looking for possible markets and customers. When a client clicks on the link in the affiliate website and purchases the product, recommends it to others who look for the same item or buys it again, this way the merchant leverage his chances of earning. On the other hand, the affiliate marketer benefits from each customer who clicks on the link in his website and who actually purchases the product or avails of the service provided by the merchant. Usually the affiliate gets commission per sale, which can be fixed percentage or fixed amount. The best is that it won't cost a single dime to join an affiliate program
If you want to be an affiliate marketer and make money out of the Internet, you may follow these three most basic steps to start your effective affiliate marketing campaign.

Your first step is to identify a particular niche you are interested in or passionate about so you won’t be bored and forced to develop your affiliate web site later on. Focusing on a specific area you known well, it will help you bring out your best. Here are a few places you can research on - ClickBank Marketplace, AssociatePrograms.com, LinkShare.com, CJ.com etc

Secondly is to look for good paying merchants and high converting products .Make a list of good paying and high converting affiliate programs for your chosen niche and create a website. In choosing the products, you must also consider the support they are giving - Marketing materials may include articles, text links, banner ads, classified ads, reports, etc.

There are many affiliate networks and affiliate solution providers that can give you info on the most profitable products and best paying merchants. So be wise enough to choose the right affiliate program

Now that you have decided which products to promote and the merchant you are supporting and have created your own web site with a domain name and reliable hosting, you are ready to promote. This is the toughest part, since it is through this that you would be able to increase traffic to the business website, sales and of course, profit. In affiliate marketing, it is possible to earn large sums of money in a short span of time if you use the right strategies and methods.

On how to promote the products would need a separate discussion. You must continue to educate yourself by reading books, courses or other articles online about the best and proven advertising techniques.

Remember, there is no quick path towards success. Affiliate marketing may seem very tempting due to numerous encouraging testimonies of merchants and affiliate marketers alike who have benefited from it, but it really involves in a great deal of hard work and persistence. You also need to be creative and flexible.

Most affiliate marketers don’t understand this, so when they don’t make sales, they quit, look for other programs and carry on the same mistake. In the end, they said that affiliate marketing is just one of those scams in the Internet. You can work your way to great success if you employ the right strategies in affiliate marketing. You can make money as an affiliate marketer if you willing to do what it takes.

The Mysteries of Affiliate Programs

In today's Internet marketing world, there are many question being imposed. Questions such as, how are people earning money from the internet 24/7 everyday and how is it being done?

What are the ways, which can be used to make from internet?

How do I know what kind of products to sell and where can I find these products?

As you know, there are hundreds of ways to make money off from the internet, some for the long term and some for the short term, but what solid ways are there to make money and how do you go about approaching it.

Well the best way to start off is to look for a Affiliate program, as you know in the internet marketing business, Affiliate is a very popular word and you may also have heard that it is the fastest and easiest way to make money off the internet, simply because we are practically doing it every day in our life's by mere fact sharing information with friends and family, we do not earn money from doing that, but by using the same methods that you are doing everyday which is sharing information with friends and family through the internet and making money out of it, now this is something interesting don't you think?

So then what is an Affiliate Program, how do I make money out of it?

Affiliate - is the person who acts as a referrer to products or services of a company/business and receives commission on every successful sale. For example, John is selling an eBook. John has a friend named Christina, Christina sells John's eBook to another friends. Because Christina helped John to make more money, John gives Christina a commission 50% of the eBooks price.

So that's an easy task to do right, just by referring products to someone else, you earn 50% commission. There are other products out there that give 75% in commission and this is a great way to start making money online, by just referring other people's products you don't even need a website, your own product or even be a Guinness to be earning money. Because all you need to do is referring other people's products.

Now there are many ways that you can go about to start affiliating other people's products, to have an affiliate business for yourself, you will need a third-party script for your website or find a service that provide an affiliate system. There is a place where people meet to offer their affiliate products to sell. It's called affiliate directory. Usually people go to affiliate directory to find an affiliate products. Some affiliate directory even pay the affiliates using check and bank transfer directly.

Now you know there are big opportunities out there that wait for you to search for and to promote their products and get commissions out of it. The internet is a very big place where dreams and goals can be achieved by using the tool we call the internet.

Affiliate Marketing 101

Invented by CDNow.com at the end of 1994 and pioneered by Amazon.com in 1996, "affiliate programs", also known as Associate Programs or Partner Programs, are a simple way for Web sites to generate revenue by directing traffic toward other sites and a great way for the operating site to increase its traffic and revenue.

Because affiliate programs are so convenient and work so well, they have become the industry's dominant method of online Marketing.

There are 4 different kinds of affiliate programs to compensate "Affiliates" (or referring sites) for generating traffic to the Affiliate Program operating Website: Pay-Per-Impression, Pay-Per-Click, Pay-Per-Lead and Pay-Per-Sale.

Pay-Per-Impression (CPM)
The Pay-Per-Impression and Pay-Per-Click Model are not common to be used in Affiliate Marketing anymore. They were used in the Past, but were mostly abandoned due to Fraud and lack of Results.

The CPM (cost-per-impression) compensation Model was revived by Google for Google AdWords in summer 2005. The feature is called "Site-Targeting" in AdWords and allows you to display your Adsense Ad on a specific Website that runs AdSense Ads.

Pay-Per-Click (CPC) Model

Like the Pay-per-Impression model was the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Model popular during the dot com boom at the end of the 1990th but was mostly abandoned by Advertisers for Advertisements on other Websites due to rampart problems with click fraud.

The PPC Model was kept alive by the PPC Search Engine GoTo.com which became later Overture.com and is now owned by Yahoo! and renamed from "Yahoo Sponsored Search" to Yahoo Search Marketing.

Google launched their PPC Service AdWords in 2000. Ask Jeeves, now simply Ask.com followed with their PPC Service in 2005 called Ask Sponsored Listings and MSN.com in 2006 with AdCenter. Other PPC Services are Miva/FindWhat.com and 7Search.com.

Contextual Advertising

The big come-back of PPC came when Google launched AdSense in 2003, the birth of contextual Advertising. What is Google AdSense? Here is a quote from Google's History at Google's corporate Website.

Google AdSense: "... offering web sites of all sizes a way to easily generate revenue through placement of highly targeted ads adjacent to their content. Google AdSense technology analyzes the text on any given page and delivers ads that are appropriate and relevant, increasing the usefulness of the page and the likelihood that those viewing it will actually click on the advertising presented there."

Yahoo's Version of AdSense called Yahoo! Publisher Network was launched (beta) in 2005. Microsoft is also working on their own Version of AdSense which is expected to be launched (beta) in 2006.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM)

Classic PPC Search Engine Marketing (Cost-Per-Click (CPC) advertising) is not Affiliate Marketing. It is an entirely different type of Internet Marketing and only has some technical details in common with old PPC/CPC Affiliate Marketing.

Ads are primarily displayed at the Search Engine Search Results Pages (SERPs) next to organic, free, Search Results. Contextual Advertising introduced with Google AdSense is also not Affiliate Marketing since no direct Partnership between the Advertiser who creates and pays for the Ads and the Publisher who displays the Ads on his Website.

This type of Marketing is generally referred to as Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and is often and wrongly mixed up and confused with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which is about improving the ranking of a Site in the organic, free, SERPs at major Search Engines via technical means and deep understanding of the complicated ranking algorithms used by modern Search Engines.

Pay-Per-Call Advertising is neither Search Engine Marketing (SEM) nor Affiliate Marketing. Recently developed call-tracking technology allows to create a bridge between online and offline Advertising. Pay-Per-Call Advertising is still new and in it's infancy. It is expected to become the 4th major type of Internet Marketing next to Affiliate Marketing, Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimization within the next years.

The Affiliate Marketing shifted almost entirely to the Pay-Per-Lead (CPA or CPL) and Pay-Per-Sale Model (CPS) which is also known as Performance Marketing. The paid commission is usually a percentage of the referred sales or a flat dollar amount.

The Pay-Per-Lead (CPA or CPL) Model

The Advertiser pays Affiliates a Flat Amount Commission if a referred visitor performs a specific action on the Advertisers Site. It could be Actions like filling out a Form, Signing up for a Newsletter or Creating an Account.

The CPA Model is very popular with Online Services like Credit Card Providers, Insurance Services, DVD and Video Game Rental Services and Loans and Mortgages. Due to the usual high flat commission amount is the CPA very attractive for PPC Affiliates that do not have a permanent Website and an established User Base.

Before you consider the CPA Model for you problem, make sure to have mechanisms in place to validate the quality of referred leads. Your program will be vulnerable to become a victim of fraud, affiliates that generate tons of "fake" leads if you do not have anything in place to verify the quality of the produced leads.

The Pay-Per-Sale (CPS) Model

This Model is used by most Online Merchants today. The Merchant pays a percentage of the Order Amount that was created by a customer who was referred by an Affiliate.

Do not pay commissions that you end up losing money on an order. You will gain new customers because of the Affiliate Program, but you will also pay commissions for returning customers.

Shoppers on the internet are more savvy today. Comparison Shopping Sites, Coupon Sites, Cash-Back Shopping and Charity Sites, that make up a large percentage of successful affiliates, are often visited by Shoppers first. See the Affiliate Program also as a Customer Retention Tool.

CPA or CPS?

If your competitors have affiliate programs and you don't, chances are good, that you are losing a considerable amount of business to them, because the lag of an affiliate program for your site.

If you want to use an Affiliate Program as an Online Merchant for the whole purpose of customer acquisition, consider the CPA Model and pay a flat commission for new customers referrer by affiliates.
Do the math to come up with a Flat Commission that makes it worthwhile for affiliates to promote you. Affiliates are not waiting for you, the next Merchant that has a Program is only one click away.

What you do and what commission you pay is up to you. You can also mix compensation models. The best thing to do is always to check first what your competitors are doing and use their compensation model as reference.

Pay-Per-Sale is by far the most common compensation model. 2/3 to 3/4 of all Affiliate Programs today are Pay-per-Sale Programs. The operating Site only pays "Commission" to their Affiliates for actual Results (a Sale, Sign-up etc.) and not just for promises (Clickthroughs, Banner Impressions).

Affiliate Networks

Operating an affiliate program to drive traffic to your website has never been easier. Most Sites utilize 3rd Party Services (so called Affiliate Networks). Those Services provide the infrastructure for you to track all the traffic and referrals to your Website.

Networks also work as a Recruiting Platform to find Websites willing to promote your Products or Services. The Integration of their Service usually takes just a few days or sometimes just a few hours.

Some of the Networks also help you to keep the generated overhead low (such as Payment of the Affiliates).

Networks usually charge 20-30% of the commission you pay to Affiliates as Fee to you. If the Fee is 25% for example and you pay 10% commission per Sale to you Affiliate, you must pay $12.5 in commission and fee for a $100 Sale.

In-House Affiliate Program Solutions and Software

You might want to have more control over your Affiliate Program and avoid the Network fees by running the program In-House.

You can, of course, develop all the necessary tools and technology by yourself, but that is may be not very cost effective and not as easy as it seems.

The technology has already been developed by various Affiliate Tracking Solution Providers and Software Packages.

They are most of the time easy to plug into your existing Sites and have already proven themselves. Be careful with too small or too new Solution and Software Provoiders.

Check the Background of the Company you consider first. Do your diligence!

Outsourcing - Outsourced Program Management (OPM)

When you have your Program up and running, the first and important step was done. Now begins the complicated part starts.

The Wild West of Affiliate Marketing when quick and easy money was made and having an Affiliate Program running on "Auto Drive" generated a huge increase in sales by affiliates that sought out programs and did everything themselves without the need of support and guidance is over. Business on the internet matured and Affiliate Marketing as well.

An Affiliate Program requires attention. To get active and quality affiliates requires active recruitment efforts. Support of existing affiliates also became vital. A clear set of Rules, the Affiliate Agreement, must be worked out and be enforced.

Allocate Resources to the program and don't do it on the side.

Your program is destined to fail if you don't spend the required resources and time for your program.

If you don't have the resources in-house, consider outsourcing of your program management (OPM). There are today a number of quality service companies available that are specialized in this.

Conclusion

Thousands of Websites operating their Affiliate Program successfully today, prove, that Affiliate Marketing is the most cost effective and efficient way to promote your products and services on the World Wide Web.

Affiliate Marketing guarantees a fast ROI (Return of Investment) and for some Online Merchants and Services are the Sales generated through the Affiliate Channel making up a considerable percentage of their total online Revenue.

Important Abbreviations

CPA - Cost per Action

CPC - Cost per Click

CPL - Cost per Lead

CPM - Cost per (Mil) Impression (1000 Impressions)

CPS - Cost per Sale

CR - Conversion Rate

CTR - Click through rate

DRM - Dynamic Rich Media (type of Ad, technology). It has nothing to do with DRM as in Digital Rights Management

EPC - Earnings per Click / Earnings per 100 Clicks

OPM - Outsourced (Affiliate) Program Management

PPC - Pay per Click

ROI - Return of Investment

SE - Search Engines

SEM - Search Engine Marketing

SEO - Search Engine Optimization

SERP - Search Engine Result Page

SID - URL Parameter the Affiliate can pass to get tracked with Sales and Leads

Abbreviations of Websites you will come across

ABW - ABestWeb - Affiliate Marketing Forum

CJ - Commission Junction - Affiliate Network

LS - Linkshare - Affiliate Network

MyAP - My Affiliate Program - In-House Program Solution

PF - Performics - Affiliate Netwok

SAS - ShareASale - Affiliate Network

SEW - Search Engine Watch - News and Resources

SR - Share Results - Affiliate Network

TW - Thread Watch - Internet Marketing News Discussions

WW - Webmaster World Forums

Free Affiliate Marketing Page Pays $755 in Commissions From its First 100 Visitors

Affiliate marketing is an easy way to get started making money online. You just sign up to be an affiliate, and refer new customers to the sales site(s) with a special, coded affiliate link. When your referrals click the link and make a purchase, you get paid a sales commission on the sale. Many of these commissions are now paid instantly, at the time of the purchase, as in the system below.
But few new affiliate marketing sites are as successful as the new system reviewed here. It is a free-to-copy, self-duplicating affiliate referral system that pays growing, residual sales commissions, and actually MULTIPLIES an affiliate's income, from a low, ONE-TIME purchase of less than $30.
From fewer than its first 100 visitors, it produced $755 in INSTANT affiliate marketing sales commissions from a total startup cost of $30. So it produced 25 times as much as it cost, from fewer than 100 visitors. This is a phenomenal return for ANY web site.
As you will come to realize, this new, free affiliate page is very different from anything you have ever seen. This new affiliate marketing system is very powerful and unique, and anyone can use it for free. It has several very innovative features:
First, it combines three special, hand-picked affiliate marketing programs, all of a unique type, which pay the highest commissions possible. (One pays 100%, $100 sales commissions.)
Second, you sign up sequentially, making it pay for itself from that first $30 purchase.
Third, It produces continuing, RESIDUAL income, from just that ONE-TIME $30 purchase.
Fourth, the residual income from the system GROWS exponentially, due to those special affiliate programs. The residual income MULTIPLIES automatically, in the same way that a viral affiliate marketing plan multiplies a merchant's customer base.
Fifth, you can 'set it and forget it'. After you make a sufficient number of new referral customers, it takes on a life of its own, and the income keeps growing, whether you do anything more, or not. You do NOT have to keep referring more and more new customers, to keep generating more and more income. (But your affiliate page can continue to refer more and more new customers as more people find it - each referral customer can start another multiplying pile of those instant sales commissions for you.)
No other affiliate marketing referral system has ever before combined all of these features into such a simple, copy-and-paste free system. It is very simple to use, although the affiliate plans may appear difficult to understand at first.
The secret of its success lies hidden in the special, unique affiliate payment plans. All three programs are lifetime membership affiliate marketing sites, offering 'tons' of marketing expertise and tools for affiliate marketing and traffic generation, for a low, one-time cost.
They use payment processors like Paypal and Stormpay, so a referring affiliate's sales commissions are actually deposited INSTANTLY, directly into the referring affiliate's account, even before the site owner gets his payment for the lifetime membership.
The continual growth of an affiliate's income is assured when his referral customers begin generating affiliate income for themselves. The pay plans are very unique: Every new affiliate gives up his first two sales commissions; they are automatically passed up to a sponsor above. This causes your commissions to multiply, automatically.
They are not MLM plans, they are one-tier affiliate marketing plans with a special, multi-tiered pay provision. This pass-up provision causes the pay to YOU as the referring affiliate to DOUBLE with each successive tier that spreads below you, starting from EACH new customer you find for them, after you pass up those first two sales.
You purchase from the next plan in sequence as soon as you receive $20 instant sales commissions from the first $30 plan. Each successive affiliate plan pays a higher sales commission than the plan before it. Adding up the commissions passed up, you wind up being paid $300 for each successful new affiliate you refer to this affiliate system. Yet you started it with only a $30 outlay, for membership in the first affiliate marketing site.
And those $300 sets of affiliate commissions then start DOUBLING from each tier, automatically, from each new successful referral affiliate you sponsor. From the next tier, you get $600, then $1200, then $2400, etc. That's how it was possible for less than 100 visitors to this system page to pay over $750 in affiliate sales commissions. And that's just the BEGINNING of the income from it.
Most of my referrals have not even finished signing up for all three of the plans in sequence yet, so I have much more affiliate income to look forward to in the near future, with no more effort on my part.
Like me, my referrals start their own doubling sales commissions with their third referral sale, after passing up the first two. And the passing up of the doubling commissions goes on for as long as the viral marketing of the plan goes on below you. It's the most lucrative affiliate plan ever designed.
Making the simple, affiliate system referral page free to copy-and-paste, makes it easy for anyone to duplicate it and keep it growing virally below you. Copying and pasting it for free makes the system easily self-replicating, ensuring the continued growth of your residual income, from that one-time $30 purchase. The system has instructions for setting up your own copy of the page online for free, too.
As your referrals purchase memberships in the rest of the plans and start using them, it will just continue multiplying your own affiliate income from the system.
I put my system in a free blog page, just to keep costs down as I got it started. And free blogs are as easy to use as email - just copy and paste, click a button, and it's immediately online with its own URL. Then just paste in your own affiliate links as you get them, and make some referrals to your page. There's a list of 14 free blog hosts in the system instructions. If you don't want to use a web site, use a free blog like I did.
Although the affiliate pay plans are not easy to understand the first time through, the system 'works like a charm', as the saying goes. As you can see, this free system is entirely different from any other affiliate marketing plan or system in the world. And it PAYS like nothing else in the world, too.