Promote an Affiliate Product or Service – Review the product/service you are an affiliate of:

When you begin to promote your product/services, you’ll want to write a review for each one you promote. A review is usually only one page and it contains the following information:

1. Product, service, or website name

2. Description—A brief description of the product, service or website

3. Availability—Where the item can be purchased or accessed

4. Pros—What you feel is good about the product

5. Cons—What you don’t like about the product

6. Price—Do you feel the price is fair, too high, or too low

7. Recommendation—Why would you recommend or not recommend this product and who would you recommend it to

8. Additional comments

9. Contact information—Let them know the contact information of the product/service/website owner

If you’d like to get products you can try out and then review on your blog, there are two ways to get them:

1. Join a blog review network—Just complete a form with information about you and your blog. Once you do, you will get review invitations. You decide which ones you accept and which ones you decline. If you accept the invitation, you usually get a product, and it’s yours to keep. You use it and then write a review. Sometimes, in addition to the product, you’ll get a form of nominal compensation like a gift card or sweepstakes entry.

The downside to blog networks is not being able to select the invitations you get. You may be interested in technology, and your blog may be centered on it. You want to find good products to become an affiliate with and you want to try them out first to see that they are quality products, but you may get invitations for dish detergent or shampoo instead. You can decline, of course, but actually accepting and doing reviews for them gives you a good opportunity to practice writing reviews for the products you do want to become an affiliate with. They also help grow your audience, which is important. This is a great way for new bloggers to start increasing traffic to their site.

2. Ask for them—Find the company you’re interested in becoming an affiliate with. Ask them if they‘d be interested in sending you a product you’d like to write a review on and possibly promote on your site. Tell them a little about you and your blog. It takes a little work to get your inquiry crafted so that it is clear and persuasive, but once it’s done, it will be worth it.

Make sure when you accept, it’s a product you think you can stand behind. In other words, if you’d never pay $100 for a pair of jeans, then don’t accept the invitation when you receive it. It will be difficult for you to convince someone else to buy them. It would also be difficult for you to promote them on your site if you wanted to become an affiliate.

Create a video tutorial on how the product/service works—Video tutorials are a great for explaining “how to” topics. You can actually show your audience how to do something, and they get a great visual which can give them a better understand of how a product/service works.

Here are the steps you should follow to prepare a good video tutorial:

1. Write a script—Select a concept or short task you can briefly describe. You’ll want to make it around 300 words, since videos are ideally three minutes and no longer than five minutes long. Make the script as much like conversation as possible. Read through it several times and actually walk through the steps you want to show your audience. Having your script on a monitor with the places where you are to perform an action highlighted can help you stay focused and on task during the video.

2. Prepare a simulation—Decide the kind of information, event, or other task you want to show and run through it. Make sure it works and you can show it in a simple way. Practice it a few times so you can be sure that your actions line up with your script.

3. Record the simulation and narration—Ideally, this is done in three steps:

· Record your script on one monitor and the simulation on another monitor. Don’t worry if you find yourself slightly deviating from your script. It happens when you’re trying to be conversational, and that’s alright. Try to keep your voice natural, but focus on the simulation. Get clean, smooth screen action. If it’s a computer simulation, don’t use a touchpad mouse. The movements can be jerky. Instead, use a regular mouse and drag it smoothly. Avoid

moving the mouse around when you talk, because it causes editing to be difficult.

· Record the audio again—You’ll need to separate the audio from the video. Then read your script again. Make sure you pause where you need to pause. When doing this type of voiceover, try to be aware of things such as: varying the pitch of your voice, avoid rhymes that are repetitive, enunciate, speak clearly and confidently, and mix the pace of your speaking so you will sound as natural as possible.

· Match the timing—After you record the audio again, play both tracks simultaneously. Match the timing. Your pauses may not match up perfectly, but don’t worry about that. You can adjust the space between audio waves and come close.

4. Simulation post-processing—Go through the audio and the simulation and take out any long pauses that are unnecessary or any moments of inaction. You can add callouts where necessary to call attention to something you want to show on the screen. Give your video about a two-second title slide. Make sure it describes the purpose of the video. Fade in your recording as you fade out the title.

The type of software you are using will make a difference in the options you have for callouts, annotations, and animation. Just be sure to keep it as simple as possible. The more you add to your video, the greater

the file size. The greater the file size, the more time-consuming it will be to produce. If you want to integrate a music track, you can browse Getty Images to find a loop or sting.

5. Publish and integrate the video—Make the video to an MP4 format. Then upload it to your server. If you upload it to YouTube, it will automatically render it in HD. Using HD allows any text you use to show up clear and not blurry. YouTube also has voice recognition software that automatically syncs your caption with the voice. Simply upload the script in the captions section. The auto-sync program helps non-native speakers and those who have difficulty hearing to know what your video is saying. Search engine optimization is also increased.

Recommend it on your Site or Blog

Once you’ve created the tutorial, you want as many people to see it as possible. Remember you want quality content. If your audience is engaged and excited, then they’ll come back to your site more often, and they’ll stay on it longer.

It is important to remember the quality rule when you’re selecting your products. A lot of bloggers don’t seem to select their products by the quality. They just promote anything. Other times they may be promoting quality merchandise, but they don’t seem to care how they promote it.

They never use a fresh, new approach to promoting products. You should take the time to consider the vendor. They care about their customers and their integrity. Poor promotion of their products doesn’t make them look good.

That’s one reason video tutorials are such a hit. They give your readers a new look at an old product or a first look at a new product. It helps build trust with your audience when you provide them with content they feel is valuable.

Social media

If you’re looking for a powerful medium that helps you connect with the mass, social media is it. All people who want to be affiliate marketers have to reach out to a lot of people. Social media sites can help you do it. Social media can be a powerful tool for affiliate marketers. Social media websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter give you a chance connect with the people from different walks of life and share what you have to say with them.

There are several things you can do through social media to help make your strategy for affiliate marketing successful. They include:

· Promotion of the affiliate programs—Once you’ve developed your own following, those listed in your friend’s list will be able to post all of your posts and links. You can promote the products for which you are an affiliate through posts and blogs on your page. Fan pages can be created as well, which will help to improve the promotion for you.

· Bond with your audience—You can increase the number of your contacts by adding people that will appreciate what you have to say. By creating interactive groups, you will have better coordination with your audience. Once you share the information about your affiliate products with the audience, ask them for their feedback. Feedback

can be valuable in both building bonding with your audience and in helping you to make needed modifications to your strategy. Let them know about your affiliate products and look for feedback.

· Stay up-to-date—You’ll want to keep current on what is happening in your market area. Through social media, you can about all of the new product launches, and which the public really seem to like. This will help you to know the current trends and help you fine tune your affiliate marketing strategies in the right direction.

Since you won’t be the only affiliate marketer the competition is high to make your strategy successful. Here are a few tips that will help you get an edge over the market on social media sites:

· Focus on relationships—Sites such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter are social media sites. The key word there is “social.” Make sure you make connections with the right people and build a good rapport with them. Try having a fan page that is numberless. This will help you gain more information. Building a good, strong relationship with your prospective clients will help with promotion. They’ll want to pass on what you have to say with friends on their page.

· Add social bookmarking—You can put a social bookmarking button on your website. Then, ask your visitors to follow. This way, if people who visit your posts like them, is easy for them to share. There won’t be a charge for using social bookmarking, so take advantage of it.

Blog smarter…not harder—Some bloggers work very hard and spend hour after hour preparing blogs that are seldom seen. When creating your blog posts you plan to post on your site, blog smart. The main focus should be to grab the attention of the visitor. Once you do, give them informative, precise information that they will find valuable. If you do this, your social media presence will increase.

Boosting your web presence is important, and these tips will help you do it. Once you have a good grasp of social media, you’ll find it easier to find and connect with potential clients. Once you’ve chosen the right products/services to promote, just be honest and honest with your prospective customers. If you do, you can win their hearts through social media.

Email list

A lot of bloggers don’t feel they can make money with email marketing, so they don’t use it. They fail to see the advantages. They just feel that it’s not worth their time, so they don’t try it. Just like a new restaurant…you won’t know what it’s like if you don’t try it. You may be missing out on something great.

There are some factors you don’t want to overlook as a blogger that will later be realized as a mistake. Here are a few things you need to be aware of before you begin your email marketing campaign:

· Build your subscriber’s list—You want to have as many as subscribers as possible on your list. If your email were a blog,

you’d have traffic to it. In email marketing, your subscribers are your traffic. The more traffic you have for your blog, the better the results. It’s the same with email and subscribers. The more you have, the greater the results.

· Be original—Many people using email marketing fail to practice originality in their emails. This is one of the best ways to turn subscribers into un-subscribers. If people don’t feel your emails contain original, valuable information, they’ll unsubscribe in a heartbeat. They don’t want their inbox cluttered with garbage.

· Write to prove you’re familiar with what you’re promoting—Nothing is worse than a “canned” review taken straight from ad copy. Readers want to feel that you know what you’re talking about. They’re looking for a personal touch that shows you know the product. If you can, request the product and use it first. This gives you first-hand knowledge to share with your reader. This way, you’ll be better able to answer questions your readers might have about the products.

· Write honest reviews—Every product you review won’t be “awesome.” Some will just be “average.” Whatever the case may be, just say so. You can give your reviews a simple number rating like 1—2—3—4—5. Be sure, however, to give it the rating you feel it deserves.

· Don’t use too many links—Links are great, and you do want to use them, but there’s no use to have five links in the first paragraph on the same keyword. You can limit the number of your links if you are more creative and effective with the ones you use. For example: Have graphical banners that are custom made which say things like, “Learn more about the product,” “View the product,” or “Checkout my review.” These let the reader know exactly what they’ll be getting at the other end of the link. These attract the reader, and peak their interest in the product.