Do You Understand The Importance of Referrer Logs?

The Importance of Referrer Logs

Referrer logging lets website owners find out where their visitors have arrived at their sites from. This data is useful for both marketing and security purposes. You’ll be able to find out which search engine was used to find your website or whether your visitors came there from a link on another website; and if so, which site contained this link.

Most hosting accounts will not include referrer logs by default, but you can typically subscribe to this service for an additional fee. If your web hosting company doesn’t offer graphical representations of the referrer logs, you can also look at these logs by logging into your web host’s server using FTP programs such as these:

• FTP Explorer

• LogMeIn

• SmartFTP

• FTP Voyager

The log file will be available on the server which you can view or download to look at on your own computer. There are some log analysis tools which can be used to create a graphical report from these logs which is easier to interpret. Some of the better tools are:

• Referrer Soft

• Log Analyzer

• Abacre Advanced Log Analyzer

You can also examine your log files using Word, Word Perfect, Notepad or Wordpad. This is information which is very important for your business’ marketing strategy – make use of it.

Besides telling you where your visitors have arrived from, referrer logs let you know which keywords or key phrases your visitor used to find your site.

Some people feel that referrer information constitutes a privacy violation – so some browsers let users avoid sending this information, as do web proxies and firewalls. This can cause problems for some users, since there are sites which block access to users who do not send this information – this is to prevent deep linking and unauthorized bandwidth usage.

Proxy software often gives the top-level URL of the target site as the referrer, which prevents the user from being blocked while still protecting the user’s privacy. The referrer can be faked, so keep in mind that your referrer logs should be looked at carefully.

Affiliate Commission Understanding Your Payment Schedules

One of the most exciting moments in your career as an affiliate marketer is receiving your first commission check. That first payment represents all of the work and time you have put into promoting the affiliate program. And there it is; the proof that your efforts are paying off, it such a nice feeling – I can tell you.

To give you a deeper understanding about affiliate marketing program payment systems, let’s look at the basics of affiliate commission payment schedules.

Getting paid

As an affiliate, you earn in the form of commissions. This can either be a set amount per sale or a percentage of the purchase price of the product you are promoting. With some programs, this may also be part of the revenue generated by your down-line.

There is a schedule which affiliates are paid by. This is different depending on the particular affiliate program, but there is usually a minimum amount and/or a cut off date to this schedule.

Wondering why affiliate programs don’t just send a check whenever you make a sale? It’s very simple – since there are quite a few affiliates in any given program, it is far simpler to pay everyone on the same schedule so as to keep things organized.

Finding out the schedule of commission payments for your affiliate program

When you first sign up with an affiliate program, be sure to read their FAQ. This will generally include information about their payment schedule, as well as other useful information about the company and the affiliate program. This is important to know before signing up with an affiliate program and may well influence your choice of program.

How often is the payment disbursed?

The schedule of commission payments will vary from one affiliate program to another. Affiliates don’t have much influence over this; the schedule of payments is usually bi-monthly or monthly. Some programs, LinkShare for instance, pay out commissions on a weekly basis.

What methods are used for affiliate commission payments?

There are three payment methods used by affiliate programs. These are: checks, wire transfer and electronic payments (PayPal, for instance). How long it will take payments to reach you depends on the method of payment.

If the payment is made electronically, it can take as little as 24 hours, while checks will take 3-7 days, on average. A wire transfer will take from 3-6 business days.

Is there anything that will affect the schedule of affiliate commission payments?

The schedule of commission payments in affiliate programs is more or less set. In some cases, delays may occur; particularly when there are minimum amounts for disbursal – if an affiliate has not met this minimum, then it will take longer to receive payment (until they make the minimum amount of commissions).

This minimum amount is anywhere between $10 and $100. If an affiliate brings in less than this, then these earnings are carried over until they have met the minimum amount, at which point their payment will be disbursed.

Niche Affiliate Marketing – You Decide

Niche affiliate marketing has already made it mark in the world of online business. Not only has it become popular but also is because it is such an effective means of generating revenue.

To get in on affiliate marketing, you don’t need to acquire a whole lot of specialized knowledge – affiliate marketing is not rocket science. All it requires is for one to identify a particular niche and then become committed, focused and a lot of effort.

• So what is niche affiliate marketing?

It’s simply the act of promoting someone else’s website or product and being paid a commission for it. This is not automatic method of making money – far from it. You will need dedication and hard work to succeed, as well as the basic tools needed to bring visitors to the merchant’s website.

The more visitors you can get to the merchant’s website, the more money you’ll make. In a nutshell, that’s how affiliate marketing works. Before you even begin a serious involvement in affiliate marketing think along these lines:

• Are you ready to get into a competitive field?

If the answer is yes, keep reading. A lot of people have understand the power of niche affiliate marketing and have gone that way, so there will be a high level of competition out there. You’re going to run across old pros and as a beginner; you may not be properly equipped to deal with them. You’re going to need to have the proper resources to be competitive.

Let’s say that you have a blog.

As a blog owner, you want to make sure that your blog is one which is worth reading. You need to target it to a specific audience and create content which will appeal to your readers. You should also add some banners to your site. They can be attractive, as long as they are well designed. Also, these banners will be the links to your merchant affiliate partner; meaning income for you.

You can’t get visitors to your partner’s site if your own site doesn’t get a lot of traffic. Therefore you might want to learn more on different ways to attract targeted website traffic because you are going to need that traffic in order to succeed.

Niche affiliate marketing is a field which has been around for a while now and there is a lot of competition – you need your site to truly stand out if you want to be successful.

As a last though, do not get discouraged – niche affiliate marketing is not as difficult as it may seem. You need to develop a sound approach to your target market and decide how affiliate marketing will work for you, not the other way around.

Affiliate Marketing System

Successful Internet marketers prefer to set up an affiliate marketing system in place which as you may already know is basically all about selling other people’s products on line.

An affiliate marketing system is a win – win situation for both parties because you have others to market and sell your products and services on your behalf and in turn when a sale is achieved you reward them by paying them a commission for doing so.

This system is quite similar to selling off line and receiving payment for your sales, except for the fact that absolutely all business is conducted on line. And just like off line where you have to do your homework and work hard, the same principle is true on line.

As an affiliate marketer you will carry out thorough research to find products the best affiliate products to promote on your website and each and every time a sale is achieved through your affiliate link you will pick up a percentage of the sale as commission.

Affiliate commission rates vary from as little as 7% to a whopping 50% from company to company, this means that for those who succeed, then affiliate marketing can be one of the most rewarding career.

The way an affiliate marketing system works is simple really, when you sign up for a particular product you will have a unique affiliate ID allocated to you which, when tracked, enables the sales you make to be recorded.

A good affiliate program will provide and supply to you with several tools to promote what they have on offer along with an area specifically for members where you can keep an eye on your affiliate sales and the commission you have earned.

Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to get started with an on line business because there is no requirement to spend time developing a product or purchase, hold and distribute stock inventories. This means that you can be up and running in a very short space of time.

The person whose products you are promoting is responsible for fulfilling the order and all other aspects of the sale. You simply make the referral and get paid for doing so.

As an example, you may have a passion for cooking so you set up a website based around related topics like recipes, reviews, tips and tools to help with cooking in general. You then search for affiliate programs on line and choose which products you would like to promote on your website.

Searching for products to promote is easy and straightforward – you simply type “cooking” and add “affiliate program” and numerous options will appear on your screen. Affiliate programs can also be found at such places as CJ.com.

Of course, affiliate marketing is not as simple as it may sound and it going to require you to do more than just set up a few links and banners and hopefully sitting down and waiting for your income to come rolling in. It’s going to require you to be smart, innovative and as always have the will, power and perseverance to work hard toward achieving your goals.

Once you identify a good affiliate marketing system, the best way to achieve long term success is to make sure that your website provides good quality information and only has links to affiliate products which are relevant.

You should try to review the products you promote in order to be able to give an accurate description of the features. Your customers will thank you for your honest opinions and are likely to continue buying from you if they feel they have received good quality and sincere information.

Why is Giving Away a Free Special Report a Great Idea?

I’m most certain that as an affiliate marketer, you must have seen or received a free special report elsewhere on the internet as a gift, bonus or enticement to sign up for a newsletter.

In the course of this journey, as an affiliate marketer you must have by now realized that your prospective customers look to you to provide them with quality products and detailed information.

This will entail giving away a quality and informative free special report, which not only will be a great way to build your mailing list but also will enable you to have a lasting impressive standing in the minds of your potential customers, who will regard you as an expert in your field and someone that they can trust.

• Now bear in mind that I used the term quality and informative.

If there is one way of tarnishing your image and ruin your affiliate marketing business opportunities, then flouting crabby report will help you do that. You should always resist the urge to give away something for free for the heck of it. It might come back to haunt you.

The good news is that the report you get to send to your prospective buyers will be on their computer and available for them to access at any time they choose. It is also commonly believed that customers who receive and download a special report feel an increased sense of value to the affiliate marketer.

This is even compounded more if you take the time to produce an interesting report with an interesting cover for your report so as to increase the sense of value on the free report and make them want to download your report.

An interesting question therefore is;

• At what point and time in your affiliate marketing strategy should you write and give away a free special report?

The answer to this question is simple in that you can write your report at any time. However, a good time to write your free special report is when you are promoting your products to your targeted market. This implies that you have already taken your time to discover the needs and wants of your niche market.

For instance, if the product you are endorsing is about how to learn to read phonics program aimed at the parents of young children, your report could include information about how important it is to read to children and how early reading improves the self esteem and vocabulary of the child.

You should then use examples of stories about children who have improved reading skills because of the use of phonics and include some statistics on the subject to back up your theories and portray you as an expert that the reader may want to buy your other products or what you suggest through an affiliate link.

Most importantly remember that your free special report should concentrate on giving the customer the information they need and in no way should it read as if it’s a sales pitch for your product.

At various places within the report you can include your affiliate link to what you consider to be a good phonics program or if you have your own product, then do not shy away from referring the reader to that product or service.

Bear in mind also that it is also important that the products you link to should be of superior quality and also relevant to the subject matter.

• In conclusion, how long do you think your free special report should be?

This is going to depend on the product that you are promoting, how much information is available for sharing and how well versed you are with the product and with your niche.

As a general guide, a reasonable quality free special report should be between fifteen and seventeen pages on average, but reports vary on the target audience and the sort of information they are seeking. I have downloaded and read affiliate marketing niche free reports or internet business free niche reports that are over hundred pages long.

Providing a free special report is a great way to get ahead when promoting affiliate products you feel confident about and have faith in. Why not download my free special report now

Webmaster Affiliates Free Ebook

Webmaster Affiliates Free Ebook.

As I promised earlier on my previous post – how to write for your human visitors, on this post I’m just going to provide to you with a download link where you can get hold of a free webmaster affiliates ebook.

One key to success with affiliate marketing business and / or any other niche is the art of mastering how to write great informational based content.

The trick is to write. Then write more. And write even more…and more.

This of course doesn’t mean that you churn out useless post after another that are meaningless. I think that is spamming.

There is more to that.

The ebook you are about to download will teach and help you master this complicated and delicate aspect of balancing the act of writing for your human visitors and also writing an optimized page for the search engines.

Download the webmaster affiliates free ebook here.

You will soon discover how really easy it easy to write for both the search engines and human beings by providing great content.

Miss U.S.A Video - The Great Fall.

Miss U.S.A Video - The Great Fall.

I have just finished watching Miss U.SA video on Youtube, the same scene that was shown on CNN and played in most television networks across the country and all over the world and also circulated over the internet.

What a great fall, and a quick make over by the pretty queen of beauty!

But as I replayed this video over several times it suddenly dawned and something suddenly became very clear to me. Here is the video, hit play to watch Miss U.S.A video – the great fall.

Suite yourself, hit play to watch it over again but this time round take note on how she takes the fall with self confidence and then how she quickly recomposes herself and takes those gracious steps once again as if nothing happened!

This is my take home lesson that I have learned from her fall.

It don’t matter how you fall.

What matters most is how you take the fall and most important what you do after that. That, my friend is what separates success from failure.

My 2 cents to your internet affiliate marketing success.

New Feature on Google Keyword Tool

I’m sure by now you have heard about the new feature that has been added to Google keyword tool. Previously the tool used to return only little bar graphs on their search results.

With the new feature that has been added, you now get real numbers whenever you conduct a search using the newly redesigned Google keyword tool. Here is a picture snap shot of how the results actually look like.

So why is there so much excitement in town about this new feature?

• Google’s keyword tool now showing search volume numbers

• Search volume comes to Google keyword tool & live search updates

1.) For one, with the new added feature, the timing has never been perfect considering that Yahoo Overture tool has finally been put to rest.

2.) Secondly, by including numbers on its result instead of bar graphs, the tool has become an even more useful source of data for conducting basic keywords research.

3.) Finally, it’s still totally free. This of course comes in handy for those affiliate marketers or any other webmaster that is operating under a shoe string budget and recognizes the importance of using keywords in any of their online campaigns.

• The obvious question then, is now what!

• Is there any more need for paid keyword tools?

I belief this is going to be a major debate question for the next couple of months as people become more familiar and get adapted to the new added feature on Google keyword tool.

I bet by now most affiliate marketers are already on it trying to test and compare the results generated by Google keyword tool against their own keyword toolkit.

Ken Evoy has published an interesting post entitled how to use Google’s new search volume data. On this post he talks about 10 key points to have in mind as you go about using or testing the new feature.

This post is particularly helpful to those of us who are proud users of SBI and most important to any serious affiliate marketer keen on succeeding with affiliate marketing business.

Internet marketing landscape changes so fast, there is always and will always be new features, new tools, new technologies, new software’s and just about anything new coming out each and every single day. 

But success will always be defined by setting up goals and remaining focused, persistent and adopting the 80/20 rule while having a blind eye to all the internet noise, so I think!

Long Tail and Affiliate Marketing Business.

Long Tail and Affiliate Marketing Business.

This morning I posted an article titled is the long tail concept by Chris Anderson flawed in reaction to an article on the Harvard business review website. On this post I’d like to continue on and discuss more on how the Long Tail Concept can be beneficial and relevant to affiliate marketing business.

Let me start off by stating that if there is two thing that most of the internet affiliate marketers go wrong, then it could be the following two:

1.) Assuming or not carrying out and using the right combination of keywords.

2.) Failing to break down and organize their main site into niches inside niches.

As a consequence a lot of us fail to capture the optimal traffic leading to lost opportunities and sales. The advantage of using the long tail concept in our affiliate marketing business is two fold.

First of all, you get to target and attract traffic from the long list comprising of a wide range of niche keywords. And because you are using a broad number of key terms as opposed to just a few, chances are that you business will develop a higher degree of resistance from traffic fluctuations that is normally occasioned by changes in search engine algorithms.

Secondly, because you are attracting traffic from some of the most specific key phrases within the niches in you niche, there is a higher chance of more sales due to a higher conversation rate. The main reason being that someone typing those low searched keywords are people who already know the product they want and are probably on the last phase of the buying cycle.

It is therefore very critical that you understand this long tail concept and how you can use it in the right way in order to help you grow and expand your affiliate marketing business.

Because this concept is very important for you as an affiliate marketer to grasp, I am going to seek the help of two of the leading and most respectful internet marketers, namely Mr Ken Envoy President of Sitesell and Seth Godin Founder member of Squidoo. Both of these experts are going to address this concept from two different perspectives.

So let’s get started.

Seth Godin.

Most affiliate marketers are guilt of making this terrible mistake. They concentrate most of their efforts in trying to win over the most searched for and sought after keywords. Sometimes back, Seth Godin posted this very interesting post entitled small is the new big, it will warm you up for our next section below.

Ken Evoy.

Ken talks about three forces that you must understand as far as the Long Tail Concept is relevant to small businesses, namely:

1. Tools Of Production.
2. The Internet Aggregators.
3. Filtering Software That Connects Supply And Demand.

Read the whole post and see how it’s appropriate to affiliate marketing business here.

Therefore in conclusion, it’s important to understand the long tail concept for three main reasons.

• It will enable you to understand the future of affiliate marketing business.

• It will enable you to know how you fit in as an affiliate marketer.

• And lastly it will help you understand ways on how to monetize effectively.

Is the Long Tail Concept by Chris Anderson Flawed

Is the Long Tail Concept by Chris Anderson Flawed?

The Long Tail concept is a term that was first coined by Chris Anderson in the year 2004 and ever since then it has managed to gain and attract considerable popularity and acceptance across a wide range of industries.

So then the question is - what is this Long Tail concept?

Wikipedia defines it this way:

The phrase The Long Tail (as a proper noun with capitalized letters) was first coined by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 Wired magazine article[1] to describe the niche strategy of businesses, such as Amazon.com or Netflix, that sell a large number of unique items in relatively small quantities.

However, the concept of a frequency distribution with a long tail — the concept at the root of Anderson’s coinage — has been studied by statisticians since at least 1946…

Of course the first impression that the definition implies is that the concept has to do with an economic concept within a niche set up in order for this concept to work effectively.

Let us have a visual presentation of this concept to better grasp this idea.

We will now take it a step further and try to understand this concept.

A while ago Ken Evoy the president of SiteSell a leading company dedicated to helping small business people around the world to set and establish their own successful online businesses had an interview with Chris Anderson about this concept. You can read the written transcript of the interview here.

This concept has of late been applied to other non business related issues.

Donald Latumahina wrote an interesting post last year on which he discussed 7 ways that you can get ahead in life by applying the Long Tail concept.

Presently, the Long Tail concept is much alive and still talked about even as I write this post. Here are two latest blog posts addressing this concept.

• An argument against the long tail

• The social mobile Long Tail 2.0

Based on all that has transpired ever since Chris Anderson coined this term and how much interest this concept has continued to attract, I must say it was surprising to read this interesting article in which an Harvard associate professor Anita Elberse presents a different picture.

It was a compelling idea: In the digitized world, there’s more money to be made in niche offerings than in blockbusters. The data tell a different story.

So now the question lingering my mind is:

Do you think the Long Tail Concept by Chris Anderson Flawed?

That is an answer I will be wise enough to leave it upon you to read and come up with your own conclusion. You can read the full article on the Harvard Business Review by clicking on the link above.

On the next post we will take this concept and apply it to affiliate marketing business and see how the Long Tail concept is relevant to any affiliate marketer and ways we can use it to gain a competitive advantage over those affiliate who are not using this simple but powerful concept. Till then have a wonderful day.

Update:

Here is the post I promised. Long Tail and Affiliate Marketing Business

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