Market Research & Purpose

Hi There! Welcome to this blog of great information.

Today I want to take you on "Market Research" and the purpose of it.

Market research can be define in several ways by various individual according to their own understanding;
Market research is simply the activities undertaken by a person or an organization to determine the nature of its customers and competitors, as well as the demands for its products or services. Its to determine the human demand or want of products whether low or high and take decission base on the result.

Another good definition:
Market Research is a systematic, objective collection and analysis of data about a particular target market, competition, and/or environment. It always incorporates some form of data collection whether it be secondary research (often referred to as desk research) or primary research which is collected direct from a respondent.




The Purpose of Market Research...

Market research is the most important first step in any online venture. You should never sell a product or service or build a website without first determining what the market really wants.

There's not that much competition online. If only you know how to determin the market.
If you don't research a market before diving into it you're crazy. You will waste an incredible amount of time, money and metal resources if you jump into a market blindly without following a process to:

Determine the profitability of the market
Determine what customers want and need in the market
Determine if there are already products available that are popular in the market
Determine how the top rated websites in the market are selling the hot products that you find.
Back engineer the selling strategies of the most profitable websites in the market
Determine which websites dominate your market and why
Determine how the most popular websites in the market make money
Determine profit potential in the market


The above points are just a few of the things you need to know before jumping full force into a market that is new to you. Your new (or existing) market is not going to go anywhere so you have time to sit back and calculate a market dominating strategy.


If you are new to Internet marketing then market research is exactly where you need to start. If you don't know how to design and publish a website then I suggest that you Google the word HTML Tutorial or buy a good book on the subject. While you are learning HTML and website design you can begin researching the market that you will go after in the future.
If you already have an online business then market research is exactly where you need to start. You need to learn how to tap unfound corners of your market, increase your search engine rankings and involve yourself in WEB 2.0... All of this stuff is covered in SEO20/20.
It doesn't matter if you are a complete new comer or a seasoned Internet marketing professional. It doesn't matter if you are a black hat or grey hat SEO or the CEO of a fortune 500 company... You will gain insight here.

I started in ternet market making this mistake and roaming about the internet without making much profit but spending all the way, untill i sat down and started reading came across some internet marketers like the founder of SEO 20/20. Since then not a day goes by where I don't learn something new.

The Internet marketing industry is full of deceit and lies pushed forward by profiteers. Do yourself a huge wallet saving favor and unsubscribe from all the "product of the week" mailing lists you are on. And first start by researching the market and then you can choose which way you want to go start.


Why do you need market research?

You need market research because it will reveal to you a systematic, step-by-step blueprint (process map) that you will be able to follow based on your schedule.


If you follow an "exact map" that leads you or your company to the top then you have effectively learned how to mine gold online. You will have the power to own a major market share of traffic, customers and sales in ANY market you choose to focus on.


Where you lay your focus is the biggest question. If you already have an online business then you already know where to begin. If you are looking to start over or are completely new then you have to go through a process of discovering markets that are profitable enough for you & are appealing to you. Do you want a fortune 500 CEO's salary or are you content making $3000 a month? Only you can answer this question and only you can find the market that meets YOUR demand.
If you are new or starting anew then you need market research to tell you which market to get into based on:

*Profitability
*Product availability
*Your desire to succeed in that market
*Time
*Profitability - One corner of a market may be wildly more profitable than another. Which one is the best?
*Product availability - Now that you've determined your most profitable market are there any products that you can sell in order to monetize it?


Your desire to succeed in that market - Are you passionate about the market or are you just mildly interested? The less interested you are in the market you choose, the less likely you are to succeed in it.

If you want fairy tales and lies you won't find them here. I am not writing about short-term success strategies. I am writing to inform you on long-term, asset-building market domination strategies. If you want a quick or push button solution then you are in the wrong place.
Most quick button solutions quit working in 2005. All those quickie deals fell off the face of the earth. If you are a black/grey hat webmaster then you are constantly having the "reinvent the wheel" in order to hold on to your income streams.

I don't believe in reinventing the wheel. I believe in online asset building. I believe in building web presences that withstand the test of time, the shifting of search engine algorithms and the shifting of the Internet marketing landscape.

Get the ZIG when everyone else is ZAGGING.
Market research is the key, the answer & the "fortune teller". By following SEO20/20 I assure you that you will build online assets that will continue to produce income, grow your business and help you achieve levels of success that you never thought possible.
Again, I don't care if you're a CEO of a fortune 500 company or a complete beginner... I am talking to you.
Always remember that what I bring to you on this blog is written for myself more so than anyone else.

To your success,
Udoh Christopher.

What Do Affiliate Wants

Hi There! Welcome to this blog. Just in case you are new here, i advise that you look at my achive and read through my older post to enable you understand all we have done here.


Having learnt all that about internet marketing, and affiliate marketing, I want to quickly talk on the topic below;



WHAT DO AFFILIATE WANTS.

There are several key factors that affiliates are looking for when signing up for a new program.


Some of the factors are:

* You are offering a specific method of payment for each sale or predetermined action.

* The product or service you offer is of good quality, fits with the aims of their business and adds value for their customers.

* Linking to you will generate additional revenue for them and add credibility to their site.


Becoming an affiliate should involve more than simply signing up to a program and posting a link on your website. Merchants and networks must make being an affiliate attractive so that people will not only sign up but also recommend it, thereby growing the network.

One of the most important aspects of managing affiliates is to foster a feeling of partnership between the merchant and the affiliate. An affiliate who feels "part of the team" is more likely to actively promote the merchant's offerings. It is also important for the merchant to maintain an active partnership with its affiliates, even when those affiliates are recruited and managed by a third-party network. If the merchant takes a total hands-off approach to its affiliates, the relationship ends up being owned by the network and affiliates can easily start switching to other merchants in the same network.

As in all business dealings, the use of special offers and/or incentives can be an excellent tool in motivating affiliates to actively participate and promote a merchant's services. The greater the promotions and incentives, the more likely an affiliate is to join up and promote the service. Many affiliates look for incentive drive plans where the percentage commission increases as the revenue they generate increases.

Key to the development and maintenance of any business partnership is communication. Most affiliate programs and networks use both discussion boards and email newsletters to provide a forum for communications between merchants, network mangers and affiliates.

Discussion boards are generally hosted by the third-party network managers and provide an online forum where affiliates can ask questions, comment and receive answers and feedback from the community of fellow affiliates, as well as from the merchants and managers.

A good affiliate program manager will issue email newsletters on a regular basis, usually once a month, to keep affiliates informed of new campaigns, incentives etc. Most affiliate networks also issue email newsletters to inform affiliates of new programs in the network, as well as give feedback on existing programs.



Tips For Creating A Successful Affiliate Marketing Program:

Decide on your Niche Market - The Web makes it easier to find and market to audiences with special interests.

Find Suitable Partners - Once you have identified your market, locate and form partnerships with website owners and content providers that have a record and a good reputation in that niche. Offer potential partners something they need that they can incorporate in their own websites without disruption. The affiliate/merchant relationship should be a win-win for both.

Keep Searching - Keep looking for new partners that can help you spread the word. Consider partners that may have some peripheral but related connection to your niche market or product. The best affiliate programs are those that have organic growth.

Provide Good Copy - Give your affiliates marketing messages, images, ads, etc. that they would be happy to display on their websites. Provide snappy, well-written content for them to use. If you make the affiliates' job easier and provide compelling materials that lead to significant amounts of click-throughs, they are more likely to actively support and promote you.

Communicate - Keep your affiliates informed through email, newsletters, forums, etc. Listen to, and act on, their feedback. A well-informed affiliate will feel more a part of the overall team and develop a sense of ownership.

A good affiliate marketing program takes time to build, but it can be the most cost-effective investment in the marketing budget there is, leading to increased revenue for life for a minimal cost.

Thank you for coming to my blog and for taking time to read. Know that reading does to the mind, what exercise does to the body.

And remember, its about working smart not working too hard.

Bye for now.

Types of Affiliate Programs explained.

Hi there, and once again i say welcome to my blog! In the last few articles we have tried to explain marketing, and we are trying to resolve what AFFILIATE MARKETTING is all about. As you already or may wish to know, affiliate marketing is huge and so its broad when tackling it.


Today i will continue on affiliate marketing on the below subject.



TYPES OF AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:


More people are discovering the power of affiliate marketing to supplement or even replace their existing income.But there are even more people who would like to have a slice of this exciting world but are unsure exactly what an affiliate program is or what it consists of.
When discussing an affiliate program, it helps to compare it to a traditional networking company where a network of salespeople and distributors are recruited to sell their products to all corners of the globe.


As an example; Instead of a company selling directly to their customers it sells products through a series of distributors and salespeople. In turn, the members of this distribution and sales network enjoy a very good living by promoting the products made by others.

In essence, the affiliate programs found on the internet are distribution and sales efforts taken to the online world. The affiliate web site takes the place of the distributor and sales network, and the individual is paid by the seller of the product when a sale is made. Of course there are affiliate programs where physical products have to be shipped but there are also many other affiliate programs where only software or informational products have to be downloaded.
It is easy to understand why this arrangement is so popular, from the point of view of both the merchant and the owner of the web site. The merchant benefits from increased sales and at the same time, does not have to pay for additional advertising and he can expand his network without the need for additional and sometimes expensive advertising. The affiliate on the other hand may not have a product of his own to make money from and selling someone else's product for a share of the selling price gives him the opportunity to start his own business.


There are three different types of affiliate programs, each of which is described or explained in more detail below.



In-House Hosting
With an "In House" affiliate program, perhaps the most familiar of which is Amazon.com. The merchant or producer uses a commercially available software program to set up and manage a large number of marketing affiliates. As well as specialized software, this also usually requires engaging an affiliate manager to oversee the program.

The chief advantage of setting up and hosting your own affiliate program is that you can set it up exactly the way that you want to. You can set compensation plans different from the industry norms if you want, as well as develop your own contracts and affiliate rules. Hosting your own program may also increase margins as you save on commissions with no middle management tier to pay for. Of course, this may be offset by your own start-up and management costs.


Third-Party Hosting
Most affiliate programs are hosted by third-party specialist service companies, such as myaffiliateprogram.com. They supply the infrastructure necessary to support both the merchant and the affiliates. The advantages to a merchant is that a third-party provider will usually manage the signing and support of affiliates, including tracking referrals, collecting payment information and providing technical support.

As with the in-house solution, with third-party hosting, the commission payment structure and exact terms of affiliate support is left completely up to the merchant.
In some cases, the affiliate third-party service company may collect and offer similar themed programs together and offer them as an affiliate network (see below for more on affiliate networks).



Affiliate Networks
An affiliate network is a combination of various affiliate programs grouped together around a common theme or interest and promoted to potential affiliates who are already providing websites that serve those interests.
For a merchant, joining an existing affiliate network can be an easy way to ramp up a new affiliate program. However, care must be taken in choosing the correct affiliate network to meet your needs.


Some of the leading affiliate networks are:
Commission Junction www.cj.com
LinkShare www.linkshare.com
ClickBank www.clickbank.com
Performics www.performics.com


Different networks have different pricing models, some will demand a set-up fee from a new merchant, while others will ask for a lump sum up front as a deposit against the first payments. Nearly all will take some sort of percentage of the commission paid, so new merchants should always factor that into any margin calculations.

Some networks concentrate on simply building large numbers of affiliates, regardless of their track record for attracting new business. When looking at potential networks it is worth considering the quality of the business per affiliate, rather than just the raw number of affiliates already signed to a network.

Different networks also have different approaches to help you market your services. Some are very much "hands off" and do little more than list your program in their directories. Others are more full service and will assist with creative decisions as well as proactively promote your program. As a merchant you should decide which suits your needs the best.

Another consideration is: do you want to be in the same network as your competitors? Maybe being listed along side one or two could be positive as it fosters competition, but being listed among a large number of people in the same market can just dilute the message and lead to a crowded marketplace.

From an affiliate's perspective, the networks offer a number of advantages.
Several affiliate networks give affiliates the ability to manage and track all of their relationships from a single place. Some networks offer a service to consolidate checks from multiple merchants into a single monthly check.

Affiliate networks are generally open to anyone wishing to join them. In fact, some are totally open with no checking of site relevancy or the amount of visitors to a site. However, more and more networks are starting to insist on a minimum number of verifiable visitors to your site prior to sign up.

Different networks also have different approaches in listing the merchants they represent; some are open and display full directories, while others offer just a taste of the sort of merchants they represent, and only allow access to the full list after sign up and approval.


With the above informatrion i hope i have been able to resolve "AFFILIATE PROGRAMS" Do take your time to know these affiliate merchants if they are able to offer you the kind of services you want.

Till i come your way next time, stay good. And always remember; Its not waorking to hard, its working smart. Bye for now.

Affiliate Marketing & History

Hi there once again welcome to my blog of information.

last time we talk about Internet marketing. A basic medium for meeting peoples unlimited wants in our mordern world. Internet marketing cannot be complete without talking affiliate marketing. And so today i want to take you on:


AFFILIATE MARKETING AND ITS TOOLS

At its most basic Affiliate Marketing is simply the establishment of a relationship between two or more website owners for their mutual financial benefit.

The majority of websites are established to promote products or a service of some kind, yet they are little use if no-one knows about their existence. A website operator may decide to leave the generation of visitor traffic to his site to the various search engines. However, most search engines work by simply taking account of the number of other sites linking to yours as a measure of your popularity. Affiliate Marketing is a way to take advantage of this fact to generate revenue, not only for you through your own site, but also for those sites that point visitors in your direction.

For most of the 20th Century, the traditional sales and marketing model was predicated on spreading your message as far and wide as possible. Traditionally, this was done through media advertising, direct marketing to potential customers and the use of sales teams, both direct and indirect. In many ways, Affiliate Marketing takes this model and applies it to the Internet - with one crucial difference. In traditional marketing, the message is spread hoping that it will reach prospective customers - an outward-bound style of marketing; with Affiliate Marketing, the potential customers are drawn towards the product information - an inward-bound marketing model that is far more effective.

In the early days of the World Wide Web, the message was spread through mutual link exchanges. A simple mechanism where one website would exchange a link with another on the basis of "I'll tell my visitors about your website, if you tell yours about mine." However this was little more than a "hand-shake" type arrangement with no incentive for links to be promoted and no financial benefits attached. Affiliate Marketing takes that concept and expands it.

Assume that you have a store selling a popular commodity item such as books. While you want people to come to your bookstore, it would also be a good revenue generator if people purchased books through your website, saving you overhead and enabling you to order books from the distributors as they are purchased, cutting inventory and reducing risk. So how do you get people to come to your website to buy the books they are interested in?

Offer to pay anyone who sends a visitor from their website to yours a small percentage of any resulting sales;

The owners of that website now have both a benefit from the link and an incentive to promote your store. You can almost guarantee that your link will go from being buried on the "Links" page to being on the front page of their site. They will also spread the word among people of the same interests, and before long you have more people supplying revenue generating links to your site. The link exchange has now become "Look at this cool site and these cool products - Go visit it."

Now you have an Affiliate Marketing program in place. Next we step on below;

Affiliate Marketing
A producer (X) establishes a relationship with another website owner or publisher (Y) wherein he provides a financial benefit for Y to direct visitors to X's web-site.

Of course, the more associate publishers that content producer signs up, the broader his reach and the more revenue will be generated.

Affiliate Network
A collection of similarly-themed affiliate programs collected and offered as a single package to potential affiliates.

Blog
Short for Web log. An online journal.

Click-Through
The action taken by a web user when they click on a link and arrive at a pre-defined target web page.

Content Producer
The person responsible for generating the content on a website that includes an affiliate link.

Content Sites
Websites that provide a lot of information and act as a knowledge resource for a particular group that may be a potential target audience for your affiliate marketing program.

Cookie
A snippet of text sent by a server to the user's web browser that is then communicated back each time the browser accesses that same server.

Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
The amount an affiliate gets paid every time a visitor referred from an affiliate makes a purchase.

Cost Per Click (CPC)
The commission structure where an affiliate is paid an agreed amount when a visitor clicks through from the affiliate's website to the merchant's site, even if no further action is taken.

Cost Per Lead (CPL)
The commission structure where an affiliate is paid an agreed amount each time a referred visitor fills in a form to capture personal contact information.

Cost Per 1,000 Impressions (CPM)
Agreement where the affiliate is paid a set amount for the display of one thousand advertisements or banners, regardless if anyone clicks on them or if the ad results in a sale.

Landing Page
The page on a target website that a customer arrives at after clicking an affiliate link, e.g. a specific product page.

Link Exchanges
A simple mechanism where one website would exchange a link with another.

Rich Media
Media that gives the viewer an enhanced experience over that traditionally found in print. This can range from simple animated graphics, to full audio visual productions and downloads.

RSS Feeds
A mechanism to syndicate content from an originating site out to many different locations.

Tracking Pixel
An image tag for a 1x1 pixel that is placed on a page where the desired action (such as a purchase) has been completed.

Tracking Software
Software employed to collect information on the way a user moves around and between websites.

Viral Marketing
A way of spreading a marketing message indirectly through "word of mouth" and referrals.


Affiliate explained;

Affiliate marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's marketer's efforts. Affiliate marketing is also the name of the industry where a number of different types of companies and individuals are performing this form of Internet marketing, including affiliate networks, affiliate management companies, and in-house affiliate managers, specialized third party vendors, and various types of affiliates/publishers who promote the products and services of their partners.

Affiliate History:
The concept of revenue sharing—paying commission for referred business—predates affiliate marketing and the Internet. The translation of the revenue share principles to mainstream e-commerce happened almost four years after the origination of the World Wide Web in November 1994.

During November 1994, CDNOW launched its BuyWeb program. With this program CDNOW was the first non-adult website to introduce the concept of an affiliate or associate program with its idea of click-through purchasing. CDNOW had the idea that music-oriented websites could review or list albums on their pages that their visitors may be interested in purchasing. These websites could also offer a link that would take the visitor directly to CDNOW to purchase the albums. The idea for remote purchasing originally arose because of conversations with music label Geffen Records in the fall of 1994. The management at Geffen wanted to sell its artists' CDs directly from its website, but did not want to implement this capability itself. Geffen asked CDNOW if it could design a program where CDNOW would handle the order fulfillment. Geffen realized that CDNOW could link directly from the artist on its website to Geffen's website, bypassing the CDNOW home page and going directly to an artist's music page.

Amazon.com (Amazon) launched its associate program in July 1996. Amazon associates could place banner or text links on their site for individual books, or link directly to the Amazon home page. When visitors clicked from the associate's website through to Amazon and purchased a book, the associate received a commission. Amazon was not the first merchant to offer an affiliate program, but its program was the first to become widely-known and serve as a model for subsequent programs. In February 2000, Amazon announced that it had been granted a patent (6,029,141) on all the essential components of an affiliate program. The patent application was submitted in June 1997, which predates most affiliate programs, but not PC Flowers & Gifts.com (October 1994), AutoWeb.com (October 1995), Kbkids.com/BrainPlay.com (January 1996), EPage (April 1996), and several others.


Historic development ;
Affiliate marketing has grown quickly since its inception. The e-commerce website, viewed as a marketing toy in the early days of the Internet, became an integrated part of the overall business plan and in some cases grew to a bigger business than the existing offline business. According to one report, the total sales amount generated through affiliate networks in 2006 was £2.16 billion in the United Kingdom alone. The estimates were £1.35 billion in sales in 2005. Marketing Sherpa's research team estimated that, in 2006, affiliates worldwide earned US$6.5 billion in bounty and commissions from a variety of sources in retail, personal finance, gaming and gambling, travel, telecom, education, publishing, and forms of lead generation other than contextual advertising programs such as Google AdSense. Currently the most active sectors for affiliate marketing are the adult, gambling, and retail industries. The three sectors expected to experience the greatest growth are the mobile phone, finance, and travel sectors. Soon after these sectors came the entertainment (particularly gaming) and Internet-related services (particularly broadband) sectors. Also several of the affiliate solution providers expect to see increased interest from business-to-business marketers and advertisers in using affiliate marketing as part of their mix.


Locating affiliate programs;
There are three primary ways to locate affiliate programs for a target website: affiliate programs directories,
large affiliate networks that provide the platform for dozens or even hundreds of advertisers, and the target website itself. (Websites that offer an affiliate program often have a link titled "affiliate program", "affiliates", "referral program", or "webmasters"—usually in the footer or "About" section of the website.) If the above locations do not yield information pertaining to affiliates, it may be the case that there exists a non-public affiliate program. The most definitive method for finding this information is to contact the website owner directly.


Affiliate marketing is a large topic to be treated with care and time. Time is a factor, got to go do something else now. Until i come your way again stay bless. And remember its all about working smart not working too hard. Good Bye.