Affiliate marketing is dependent on several factors in order to be successful. The success of an experienced affiliate can be measured mainly by how often a visitor clicks on the merchant's banner or text link that they have placed on their site with the intended goal of referring traffic. Many factors are involved in contributing to this success and in so doing, squeezing the highest conversions out of an ad campaign. In this column, I will address the point of influence over the visitor, the advertisement itself, and more specifically, jpeg and gif banner ads.
The most difficult aspect to designing a banner ad is using your given space wisely. If an advertisement is too vague, it is unlikely to convert. On the contrary, if it is crammed with information, it will not attract the attention of the visitor. One must strike a delicate balance between providing sufficient information for the visitor to recognize the offer, while at the same time avoiding a cluttered appearance. It is also important to leave some information untold in order to entice the visitor to click on the ad. Even larger banners provide limited work space and in most cases, the merchant will prefer to provide more information than is possible.
A simple way to determine what information to include on a banner is to use “who, what, why and when” as a guideline. The “Who” question, refers to the demographic to which your ad is targeted. Frequently, this information is provided simply by including a picture. For example, an advertisement for a multi-vitamin for the elderly may include a smiling, healthy-looking older woman; where as, an ad for a fitness supplement may show a professional cyclist.
The “What” question refers to the product being offered. By providing the visitor with this information, one can ensure a higher conversion rate, because the visitor knows precisely what the advertisement is offering, and will therefore be more likely to purchase after the click. Also, it is advisable to provide the features and benefits of the product or service being offered. This creates a clear sense of advantage over competing products.
“Why” tells the visitor precisely why they must try this product or service. This can be supported by testimonials, guarantees, and other facts that add to the validity and value of the product or service. “When” is simply a call to action, such as “click here,” and can also include a sense of urgency, such as “while supplies last” or an expiration date for the offer.
The most difficult part of including all or most of this information is creating a design that will not clutter the given space while also maintaining eye appeal and visibility. One way in which to do this is to separate unrelated text as much as possible. This can be done by sectioning off the creative with an image, or by changing the color of the text and its background color.
I will now apply the above suggestions to an example. Pretend that the merchant is a website containing answers to common medical questions. Firstly, consider the demographic, otherwise known as the “who”. For this banner, a good choice would be a picture of a doctor, or possibly a patient. The banner could then ask a simple question such as, “Should I get a flu shot?” In this example, envision this as white text on a black background. Considering the recent flu shot shortage, this headline would attract the attention of a very large audience. Just below the headline a call to action could be placed on the banner such as, “To find out who should be receiving flu shots, click here”. This time we'll use black text on a white background. The contrast of colors creates separation of the banner, making it easier to read and more likely to capture the attention of the visitor.
The above banner could also make reference to the overall purpose of the site, such as “Search over 10,000 medical questions and answers”. Also, it is necessary to provide an offer that is related to the headline. In this example, we may offer a “free guide to conquering the flu”. This creates an even greater incentive for the visitor to click on the banner.
Banner design may seem simple in nature, but can become complicated when one is trying to include all of the pertinent information in one advertisement. This difficulty arises when deciding what information to include on the banner, and what information to reserve for the landing page. If it is impossible to include enough information, or if one desires to catch the visitors' attention more thoroughly, animation may be used to present additional information.
However, one must beware! Animation has the potential to sabotage your click conversion if it is implemented improperly. Use the animation for two purposes only: To either capture the visitor's attention, or to provide supporting features and benefits. At any given time, the visitor should be able to see the “who, what, why and when.” Animation should be used solely for additional benefits that will add validity or value to the offer. This ensures that the visitor will understand the offer even when viewing only part of the animation and will still be likely to click on the advertisement. One should, at all times, avoid using rapid animation or continuously looping banners that do not have a pause of four seconds or more between cycles. Not only can these banners be annoying to the visitor, but affiliates are also less likely to deploy them.
Though the preceding guidelines are rather simple, they are of the utmost importance for producing advertisements that convert well. Even the most experienced designers can take this advice into consideration and should cross-reference all of their banner work with this simple advice.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Internet Casino Affiliate Marketing Works!
The largest problem you will face is to find out which casino affiliate marketing strategies really work, or just as importantly – which don't. There is so much misinformation about internet affiliate marketing that it's very difficult for the beginner to find the truth. Most wind up using wrong or outdated casino strategies and techniques that leave them working hard but getting nowhere.
Both poker and casino affiliate marketing are effective and profitable. Don't let anybody convince you otherwise. Today thousands of companies and individuals from all over the world promote gambling services via the Internet and make good money relatively easily. You can too.
It may take a while to learn the ropes before you start turning a decent profit, especially with all the garbage advice that's floating around. Understand that you will always be learning anyway, because today's killer internet affiliate marketing strategy could be tomorrow's dud. And understand that you will get it wrong sometimes. I've been involved in marketing for most of my life, but even so, I've made many mistakes since coming online in 1997 and I'm almost certain to make more.
The difference between those that make it and those that don't is simply this: The ones that made it refused to give up and kept trying until they found what worked.
Both poker and casino affiliate marketing are effective and profitable. Don't let anybody convince you otherwise. Today thousands of companies and individuals from all over the world promote gambling services via the Internet and make good money relatively easily. You can too.
It may take a while to learn the ropes before you start turning a decent profit, especially with all the garbage advice that's floating around. Understand that you will always be learning anyway, because today's killer internet affiliate marketing strategy could be tomorrow's dud. And understand that you will get it wrong sometimes. I've been involved in marketing for most of my life, but even so, I've made many mistakes since coming online in 1997 and I'm almost certain to make more.
The difference between those that make it and those that don't is simply this: The ones that made it refused to give up and kept trying until they found what worked.
Friday, December 28, 2007
How To Integrate Keywords Into Your Web Site Copy
Here is a another great article I run across today and thought I'd like to share.
By Kalena Jordan
If you're reading this and your web site doesn't contain any body text on the home page, give yourself a good smack and go to your room without supper. When you're ready to behave and design your site with the search engines in mind, come back out and read this article.
The simple truth is this: search engines read text and not much else. You absolutely, positively need to use text on the pages of your site that you want indexed and ranked highly. Not graphical text that you created in your fancy design software, but actual, visible body text. Not sure if your site uses graphical or body text? A good rule of thumb that I learnt from search engine guru Danny Sullivan is to try and highlight the text with your mouse. If you can drag your mouse over the text when viewing it in a browser, chances are this is body text and the search engines can read it.
Ok, so you've created your body copy and your site pages are loaded with good old-fashioned text. But your job's not over! Now you need to get targeted. Search engines aren't going to rank your web site about socks highly if your body copy talks about foot sizes. You need to get specific. If you sell socks, then for heaven's sake, make sure your site copy has plenty of references to the word socks! At the risk of sounding like Dr Seuss, if you want to be found for, big socks, small socks, cotton socks and wool socks, then mention them all. Better still, sort your copy into categories based on your products and services. If you sell blue socks AND red socks, then have a page dedicated to each kind. This allows you to target niche keywords within your copy and meet the relevancy guidelines for logical search queries.
It sounds so obvious, but I'm constantly amused by the number of web sites I see selling particular items without once making reference to those items in their body copy. For example, there are thousands of sites on the Internet promoting web site design services right? Next time you see one, take a look at their body copy. You'll be surprised how often you'll see flashy looking sites without a single mention of the phrase "web site design" in their page copy. Instead they'll use fancy all graphic pages or Flash movies. Or if they do use body text, it might include cryptic jargonised language like "Internet Solutions" or "online brand building".
What the heck does this tell a search engine about their business? Absolutely nothing. Are these sites going to be considered a relevant match for search queries about "web site design"? No way! The creators of these sites might think they're being clever, but they are really missing the boat entirely. What's the point of having a web site if you are going to sabotage its ability to be found?
Anyway, back to you and your web site. So now you've added plenty of text to your pages and the copy flows well for the reader. You've researched your keywords and phrases using WordTracker or something similar and now you're faced with the dilemma of integrating the keywords into your carefully written copy. So how do you satisfy the search engine's craving for keywords without interrupting the copy flow for the reader? The answer is: very carefully.
Let's take a look at a practical example. We have a client that specializes in luxury adventure travel. Before I optimized their site, part of the home page copy read like this:
"We specialise in providing vacations for people who want a personal service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing reputation as one of the world's top travel providers. We can put together packages that include all adventure activities, accommodation, transport and food".
Extensive WordTracker keyword research for the client had determined that the home page should target the following key phrases:
· adventure travel
· best adventure vacations
· tailored travel
· overseas adventure travel
· luxury travel packages
So taking our original home page text, the challenge was to integrate these keywords carefully and naturally so as not to disturb the logical flow of the copy and lose the interest of the visitor. Here's how I did it:
"We specialize in providing the best adventure vacations for people who want a personal and tailored travel service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing reputation as one of the world's top overseas adventure travel providers. We can put together luxury travel packages that include all adventure activities, accommodation, transport and food".
Note that the key phrase "overseas adventure travel" accommodates the phrase "adventure travel" too. Voila! The search engines are happy because the site contains text content relevant to related search queries, the client is happy because we were able to integrate the keywords without distracting the visitor and I'm happy because I know the site is going to rank highly for the client's target search terms.
Now go and apply the same principles to your own site...
Copyright © Kalena Jordan 2002
About the Author: Article by Kalena Jordan, CEO of Web Rank. Kalena was
one of thefirst search engine optimization experts in Australasia and is well known and respected in the industry worldwide. For more of her articles on search engine ranking and online marketing, please visit
http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com
By Kalena Jordan
If you're reading this and your web site doesn't contain any body text on the home page, give yourself a good smack and go to your room without supper. When you're ready to behave and design your site with the search engines in mind, come back out and read this article.
The simple truth is this: search engines read text and not much else. You absolutely, positively need to use text on the pages of your site that you want indexed and ranked highly. Not graphical text that you created in your fancy design software, but actual, visible body text. Not sure if your site uses graphical or body text? A good rule of thumb that I learnt from search engine guru Danny Sullivan is to try and highlight the text with your mouse. If you can drag your mouse over the text when viewing it in a browser, chances are this is body text and the search engines can read it.
Ok, so you've created your body copy and your site pages are loaded with good old-fashioned text. But your job's not over! Now you need to get targeted. Search engines aren't going to rank your web site about socks highly if your body copy talks about foot sizes. You need to get specific. If you sell socks, then for heaven's sake, make sure your site copy has plenty of references to the word socks! At the risk of sounding like Dr Seuss, if you want to be found for, big socks, small socks, cotton socks and wool socks, then mention them all. Better still, sort your copy into categories based on your products and services. If you sell blue socks AND red socks, then have a page dedicated to each kind. This allows you to target niche keywords within your copy and meet the relevancy guidelines for logical search queries.
It sounds so obvious, but I'm constantly amused by the number of web sites I see selling particular items without once making reference to those items in their body copy. For example, there are thousands of sites on the Internet promoting web site design services right? Next time you see one, take a look at their body copy. You'll be surprised how often you'll see flashy looking sites without a single mention of the phrase "web site design" in their page copy. Instead they'll use fancy all graphic pages or Flash movies. Or if they do use body text, it might include cryptic jargonised language like "Internet Solutions" or "online brand building".
What the heck does this tell a search engine about their business? Absolutely nothing. Are these sites going to be considered a relevant match for search queries about "web site design"? No way! The creators of these sites might think they're being clever, but they are really missing the boat entirely. What's the point of having a web site if you are going to sabotage its ability to be found?
Anyway, back to you and your web site. So now you've added plenty of text to your pages and the copy flows well for the reader. You've researched your keywords and phrases using WordTracker or something similar and now you're faced with the dilemma of integrating the keywords into your carefully written copy. So how do you satisfy the search engine's craving for keywords without interrupting the copy flow for the reader? The answer is: very carefully.
Let's take a look at a practical example. We have a client that specializes in luxury adventure travel. Before I optimized their site, part of the home page copy read like this:
"We specialise in providing vacations for people who want a personal service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing reputation as one of the world's top travel providers. We can put together packages that include all adventure activities, accommodation, transport and food".
Extensive WordTracker keyword research for the client had determined that the home page should target the following key phrases:
· adventure travel
· best adventure vacations
· tailored travel
· overseas adventure travel
· luxury travel packages
So taking our original home page text, the challenge was to integrate these keywords carefully and naturally so as not to disturb the logical flow of the copy and lose the interest of the visitor. Here's how I did it:
"We specialize in providing the best adventure vacations for people who want a personal and tailored travel service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing reputation as one of the world's top overseas adventure travel providers. We can put together luxury travel packages that include all adventure activities, accommodation, transport and food".
Note that the key phrase "overseas adventure travel" accommodates the phrase "adventure travel" too. Voila! The search engines are happy because the site contains text content relevant to related search queries, the client is happy because we were able to integrate the keywords without distracting the visitor and I'm happy because I know the site is going to rank highly for the client's target search terms.
Now go and apply the same principles to your own site...
Copyright © Kalena Jordan 2002
About the Author: Article by Kalena Jordan, CEO of Web Rank. Kalena was
one of thefirst search engine optimization experts in Australasia and is well known and respected in the industry worldwide. For more of her articles on search engine ranking and online marketing, please visit
http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com
Black hat SEO to do or not to do?
What is Black Hat SEO?
Black Hat search engine optimization is customarily defined as techniques that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner.
These black hat SEO techniques usually include one or more of the following characteristics:
* breaks search engine rules and regulations
* creates a poor user experience directly because of the black hat SEO techniques utilized on the Web site
* unethically presents content in a different visual or non-visual way to search engine spiders and search engine users.
One should try and stay away from black hat seo, as it will give you good rankings in the beginning but will cost you in the long run.
So try to stay away from using this methods:
ALT Tag Stuffing
A Normal Alt Tag image src=file.jpg alt="nice picture"
A Stuffed Alt Tag image src=file.jpg alt="SPAMMY words that you use to increase the keyword or word count on your page without anyone really realizing that you did anything like this and that has nothing to do with your web site like mesothelioma and lawyer because those are both high cost words in Google Adsense"
The stuffed alt tag is invisible to users, but visible to search engines. When they build out the index of words found on your web site, those stuffed tags get added to your word count as something relevant to your web site.
Google will Drop your site from the index for doing this. I modified the image src so that it will show up in this entry.
Meta Tag Stuffing
Much like ALT Tag stuffing, meta tag stuffing follows the same concepts, shove as many words in there that you think will rate high in the Google or other search engine index (usually based on data from Google Adwords).
Normal Meta Tag
Meta name="description" content="something relevant about this web site"
Stuffed Meta Tag
Meta name="description" content="more spammy content stuffed with high value words like asbestos lawyer, mesothelioma, lawyer, and others"
Meta keywords are also stuffed in the same context as the content meta tags. Any meta tag can be stuffed, just depends on how much the black hat SEO wants to cut and paste or type.
Google will ban your web site from their index if you do this.
Title Pages
They are also great to have a lot of massively non relevant words in the title as well. Although this is usually not as heavily abused as people will see this wrapping around the top of their web browser.
Hidden Input
Using words the same color as the background of the web site
Script type text followed by words
Form elements like "input=hidden" followed by words
NoScript followed by words
These inputs are generally much like Tag Stuffing, and Google will ban your web site if you try to use these techniques.
While many people want to get their sites ranked higher in the search indexes, some times the methods used have a negative ramification more than a positive one. If you are thinking about hiring an SEO company, make sure that they follow good SEO practices rather than bad ones. People pay a lot of money to get their sites ranked higher, no sense in wasting it on a group of folks that will get your web site banned.
Black Hat search engine optimization is customarily defined as techniques that are used to get higher search rankings in an unethical manner.
These black hat SEO techniques usually include one or more of the following characteristics:
* breaks search engine rules and regulations
* creates a poor user experience directly because of the black hat SEO techniques utilized on the Web site
* unethically presents content in a different visual or non-visual way to search engine spiders and search engine users.
One should try and stay away from black hat seo, as it will give you good rankings in the beginning but will cost you in the long run.
So try to stay away from using this methods:
ALT Tag Stuffing
A Normal Alt Tag image src=file.jpg alt="nice picture"
A Stuffed Alt Tag image src=file.jpg alt="SPAMMY words that you use to increase the keyword or word count on your page without anyone really realizing that you did anything like this and that has nothing to do with your web site like mesothelioma and lawyer because those are both high cost words in Google Adsense"
The stuffed alt tag is invisible to users, but visible to search engines. When they build out the index of words found on your web site, those stuffed tags get added to your word count as something relevant to your web site.
Google will Drop your site from the index for doing this. I modified the image src so that it will show up in this entry.
Meta Tag Stuffing
Much like ALT Tag stuffing, meta tag stuffing follows the same concepts, shove as many words in there that you think will rate high in the Google or other search engine index (usually based on data from Google Adwords).
Normal Meta Tag
Meta name="description" content="something relevant about this web site"
Stuffed Meta Tag
Meta name="description" content="more spammy content stuffed with high value words like asbestos lawyer, mesothelioma, lawyer, and others"
Meta keywords are also stuffed in the same context as the content meta tags. Any meta tag can be stuffed, just depends on how much the black hat SEO wants to cut and paste or type.
Google will ban your web site from their index if you do this.
Title Pages
They are also great to have a lot of massively non relevant words in the title as well. Although this is usually not as heavily abused as people will see this wrapping around the top of their web browser.
Hidden Input
Using words the same color as the background of the web site
Script type text followed by words
Form elements like "input=hidden" followed by words
NoScript followed by words
These inputs are generally much like Tag Stuffing, and Google will ban your web site if you try to use these techniques.
While many people want to get their sites ranked higher in the search indexes, some times the methods used have a negative ramification more than a positive one. If you are thinking about hiring an SEO company, make sure that they follow good SEO practices rather than bad ones. People pay a lot of money to get their sites ranked higher, no sense in wasting it on a group of folks that will get your web site banned.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
How to drive free traffic to your website.
There are many ways to drive traffic to your website but none can better than getting it for free.
Here are a few links for you to take a look at:
http://www.trafficattheraces.com/
http://www.trafficbunnies.com/
http://www.freetrafficvault.com/
http://www.hits2u.com/
http://leaptraffic.com/
Do a search for more free traffic links on yahoo or Google.
You should be able to drive over 5,000 new customers to your site every month by using these methods.
Here are a few links for you to take a look at:
http://www.trafficattheraces.com/
http://www.trafficbunnies.com/
http://www.freetrafficvault.com/
http://www.hits2u.com/
http://leaptraffic.com/
Do a search for more free traffic links on yahoo or Google.
You should be able to drive over 5,000 new customers to your site every month by using these methods.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
SEO and Blogging
A blog is an online interface where people can post their thoughts, opinions, and ideas. Blogging is one of the most popular Internet activities online today. Blogging for business has recently emerged as one of the top trends for making business Web sites more accessible to the search engines and creating an online interface where customers and corporate representatives can interact and exchange information. Understanding how blogs can help you to improve your search engine rankings can help you make the decision to start a blog to improve your SEO efforts.
Link Building
Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to build incoming links to your web site. Once you develop a following for your blog, other bloggers and Web site owners will link to your posts and may even promote your blog on their Web sites. Having a blog is an excellent way to have one-way links generated for your site. These one-way links will lead search engines right to your site so your information can be indexed.
Keyword Optimization
Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to optimize each of your posts with specific keywords and help drive targeted traffic to your site. Using keywords in your blog can be as simple as making a keyword-rich post or using keywords in each of the links you build on your blog page. If you use carefully researched keywords and implement them correctly, you can boost your search engine rankings with your blog.
Improved Site Usability
Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to build a Web site with relevant and useful content. Web content is one of the most important tools you can use for optimizing your Web site, so using a blog as an SEO tool can help you to have a site that is rich with content and information. All of your posts, comments, and other information can be considered content so it is important that everything you place on your site have some relevance to the products and services you are offering. This relevance will help you to boost your SEO efforts.
Interactivity
Most Web sites lack interaction between the Web site owners and visitors. This is because the message is being displayed for visitors to read but there is no way for visitors to add messages. With a blog, you can allow your visitors to post links, add comments on your posts, and suggest topics for future posts. This added interactivity will make your Web site a resource that people turn to again and again.
Build Relationships
This is a simple viral marketing tool you can use to improve your SEO results. Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to build a strong relationship with prospects and customers. These people will come to enjoy reading your blog and may recommend it to other people. When customers see that you are making an effort to provide them with a forum for their questions and comments, they may develop more loyalty for you and your business.
Link Building
Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to build incoming links to your web site. Once you develop a following for your blog, other bloggers and Web site owners will link to your posts and may even promote your blog on their Web sites. Having a blog is an excellent way to have one-way links generated for your site. These one-way links will lead search engines right to your site so your information can be indexed.
Keyword Optimization
Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to optimize each of your posts with specific keywords and help drive targeted traffic to your site. Using keywords in your blog can be as simple as making a keyword-rich post or using keywords in each of the links you build on your blog page. If you use carefully researched keywords and implement them correctly, you can boost your search engine rankings with your blog.
Improved Site Usability
Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to build a Web site with relevant and useful content. Web content is one of the most important tools you can use for optimizing your Web site, so using a blog as an SEO tool can help you to have a site that is rich with content and information. All of your posts, comments, and other information can be considered content so it is important that everything you place on your site have some relevance to the products and services you are offering. This relevance will help you to boost your SEO efforts.
Interactivity
Most Web sites lack interaction between the Web site owners and visitors. This is because the message is being displayed for visitors to read but there is no way for visitors to add messages. With a blog, you can allow your visitors to post links, add comments on your posts, and suggest topics for future posts. This added interactivity will make your Web site a resource that people turn to again and again.
Build Relationships
This is a simple viral marketing tool you can use to improve your SEO results. Using blogs in your SEO strategy allows you to build a strong relationship with prospects and customers. These people will come to enjoy reading your blog and may recommend it to other people. When customers see that you are making an effort to provide them with a forum for their questions and comments, they may develop more loyalty for you and your business.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
marketing budget and planing.
A marketing budget is more than something you “have to do” each year. It is the framework upon which your casino affiliate marketing success depends. As you begin the budgeting process for 2006, keep these important tips in mind:
1. Be strategic. There are more good marketing programs out there than you can shake a stick at, much less implement. Your job is to figure out – through the budgeting process – which of those programs make strategic sense for your business.
The marketing budget can then help you stay focused throughout the year.
Think goals and objectives. A strategic marketing budget is about identifying marketing programs that will result in achieving your business goals.
Start with the big picture objectives then define general strategies that support those goals. Finally, identify specific marketing programs that can “make it happen” for your business.
For example, a goal may be to expand sales of the Widget Brand by 15% in the coming year. Potential strategies for doing this could include: (1) Improving the existing Mini Widget, (2) increasing sales force penetration and (3) creating a new line of Widgets. Each strategy is a different approach to increasing Widget sales, and each requires different supporting actions and marketing programs to achieve the goal of increasing sales by 15%.
Programs to improve the Mini Widget could include (1) adjusting pricing, (2) updating the packaging or (3) adjusting the marketing message to emphasize a more appealing benefit. Contrast this to programs designed to increase sales force penetration (such as bringing on a new broker or establishing the ability to gather leads and take orders online).
The right actions and programs for your particular casino affiliate program can vary dramatically, depending on your goals and strategies. Consequently, strong strategic analysis behind your marketing budget can make a dramatic difference in the success of your marketing efforts.
2. Understand that feeling uncertain is normal. Feeling overwhelmed or incredibly confused at the beginning of the budgetning process is expected. The purpose of budgetning is to find your way to the best actions for your business. As you progress towards the end of the analysis, the best programs to include in your marketing budget to grow your particular business will become clearer. Just remember internet casino affiliate marketing works, it is just a matter of persevering.
3. Be realistic. Optimism is a plus in marketing your casino affiliate site, but understand your company’s limitations. A small or one-person business can implement only a fraction of the marketing programs that large companies can. So, choose programs carefully and concentrate on seeing them through as the year progresses.
4. Stay focused. Your marketing budget is only as good as your implementation. Keeping your “eye on the ball” – rather than spreading yourself too thin and implementing poorly – can make the difference between profit and loss.
5. Watch the budgets. For each marketing program included in your budget, spend some extra time and collect real-world costs to use in the budget. This can prevent overspending later on.
6. Put measurements in place. It is difficult to tell if a marketing program is a success if there are no mechanisms to measure results. Write up what you wish to accomplish with the program, how you are going to measure those accomplishments, and your baseline measurements. Later – during and after execution – you will be able to identify and fix problems as well as pinpoint reasons for success.
7. Don’t forget all four of marketing’s P’s. Promotion gets a lot of attention. Pricing, place (distribution strategies) and product are equally important to the bottom line. Consider adding new or improved products/services to the mix, evaluating pricing strategies and improving distribution, along with advertising and promotional campaigns.
Following through with these seven casino affiliate marketing budget tips will strengthen both the long-term and short-term foundations upon which your business depends. A marketing budget is more than something you “have to do” each year. It is the framework upon which your company’s marketing success depends.
1. Be strategic. There are more good marketing programs out there than you can shake a stick at, much less implement. Your job is to figure out – through the budgeting process – which of those programs make strategic sense for your business.
The marketing budget can then help you stay focused throughout the year.
Think goals and objectives. A strategic marketing budget is about identifying marketing programs that will result in achieving your business goals.
Start with the big picture objectives then define general strategies that support those goals. Finally, identify specific marketing programs that can “make it happen” for your business.
For example, a goal may be to expand sales of the Widget Brand by 15% in the coming year. Potential strategies for doing this could include: (1) Improving the existing Mini Widget, (2) increasing sales force penetration and (3) creating a new line of Widgets. Each strategy is a different approach to increasing Widget sales, and each requires different supporting actions and marketing programs to achieve the goal of increasing sales by 15%.
Programs to improve the Mini Widget could include (1) adjusting pricing, (2) updating the packaging or (3) adjusting the marketing message to emphasize a more appealing benefit. Contrast this to programs designed to increase sales force penetration (such as bringing on a new broker or establishing the ability to gather leads and take orders online).
The right actions and programs for your particular casino affiliate program can vary dramatically, depending on your goals and strategies. Consequently, strong strategic analysis behind your marketing budget can make a dramatic difference in the success of your marketing efforts.
2. Understand that feeling uncertain is normal. Feeling overwhelmed or incredibly confused at the beginning of the budgetning process is expected. The purpose of budgetning is to find your way to the best actions for your business. As you progress towards the end of the analysis, the best programs to include in your marketing budget to grow your particular business will become clearer. Just remember internet casino affiliate marketing works, it is just a matter of persevering.
3. Be realistic. Optimism is a plus in marketing your casino affiliate site, but understand your company’s limitations. A small or one-person business can implement only a fraction of the marketing programs that large companies can. So, choose programs carefully and concentrate on seeing them through as the year progresses.
4. Stay focused. Your marketing budget is only as good as your implementation. Keeping your “eye on the ball” – rather than spreading yourself too thin and implementing poorly – can make the difference between profit and loss.
5. Watch the budgets. For each marketing program included in your budget, spend some extra time and collect real-world costs to use in the budget. This can prevent overspending later on.
6. Put measurements in place. It is difficult to tell if a marketing program is a success if there are no mechanisms to measure results. Write up what you wish to accomplish with the program, how you are going to measure those accomplishments, and your baseline measurements. Later – during and after execution – you will be able to identify and fix problems as well as pinpoint reasons for success.
7. Don’t forget all four of marketing’s P’s. Promotion gets a lot of attention. Pricing, place (distribution strategies) and product are equally important to the bottom line. Consider adding new or improved products/services to the mix, evaluating pricing strategies and improving distribution, along with advertising and promotional campaigns.
Following through with these seven casino affiliate marketing budget tips will strengthen both the long-term and short-term foundations upon which your business depends. A marketing budget is more than something you “have to do” each year. It is the framework upon which your company’s marketing success depends.
Friday, December 21, 2007
Casino Affiliate Link Development
Obtaining vital online casino affiliate links is a long process but a necessary one, unless you want to spend a fortune buying them. For most though that's not an option. This guide is to learn how to do this properly and get new sites off to a flying start.
The Page Rank (PR) is Google's way of 'grading' a site's importance and is taken as a sign of status - with every site awarded a number (rank) that ascends with time and not solely based on content. Page Rank is generally accepted as some sort of 'award' and although it's not official, apart from Alexa it's currently the only thing available with which to grade a casino affiliate site.
Many place great authority on PR, and some trade, exchange and only deal with sites of a certain rank e.g.: PR6 and above, this is very foolish. A site can be really awful, possess little content or usefulness and still be given a fairly high PR (I've seen sites with PR 6 that are no more than shells) not to mention missing out on real good quality traffic because of a bad judgment based on the little green bar. Some casino affiliate site owners refuse to exchange links with sites lower than PR4, so it will largely depend on how desperate you are for links. The foolbar needs to be thought of more like a 'reward bar' as sites rise in rank and are given a higher rank with the passing of time, usually every 3 months or so. So a higher rank should give you some better status, and thus make it easier to obtain online casino affiliate links, if human nature and incentive is anything to go by.
Traffic is the most important and the main reason for online casino affiliate linking. At the end of the day a website needs traffic to build more traffic, sales, reputation and presence on the web, and swapping links is the best way of doing it. For one thing it's free and the only cost is the time it takes to perform the exchange. The benefits are that links get spidered and can generate additional links, some sites will approach you and some will just link without your immediate knowledge. But not all links are equal in PR or traffic levels, so any unknown links may be untargeted and not favorable.
Try and get links on top casino affiliate sites as this will provide both sets of visitors with useful information and make life a bit easier for everyone. I'm always thankful for webmasters who go to the trouble of setting up a few pages of extra links that point me in the right direction and your visitors will like this too.
It is quite easy to approach and ask for links, well the approaching bit anyway - but it's harder to convince the bigger sites to link with you, if they are more established. Good sites just don't always link easily, and why should they give you a link when they can charge for it.
If you managed to get a few PR6's to link with you, then I say that's an achievement, but it's near impossible to get PR 7 and above to grant you that favor, especially when you are the new site on the block! As earlier stated, PR is given according to the time a site has spent on the web, so a new online casino affiliate site can't expect to be a PR 4 status right away - it has to pay it's dues and EARN that PR.
To approach webmasters all you need is a simple email. Just ask politely saying their site is nice looking, targeted and would be useful to your needs and place a link to their site first. This normally does the trick - I've gotten hundreds of exchanges this way, and it works very well.
But some will refuse, or insist that your PR be higher before they exchange (even though their site has lower value), and some will even insist they get a homepage link in return for a recipe page placement from them (yes, these parasites do exist) but most webmasters are kind hearted folks and are usually chuffed you approached them! Either way, don't forget that internet casino affiliate marketing works; it's just a matter of perseverance.
A word of warning though - DON'T use link exchanges paid or free! They only ever send untargeted and desperate pleas for links that won't provide decent traffic or referrals, and once signed up with these exchanges, it's very tough to cancel or unsubscribe from the emails and offers. Just beware that's all
The Page Rank (PR) is Google's way of 'grading' a site's importance and is taken as a sign of status - with every site awarded a number (rank) that ascends with time and not solely based on content. Page Rank is generally accepted as some sort of 'award' and although it's not official, apart from Alexa it's currently the only thing available with which to grade a casino affiliate site.
Many place great authority on PR, and some trade, exchange and only deal with sites of a certain rank e.g.: PR6 and above, this is very foolish. A site can be really awful, possess little content or usefulness and still be given a fairly high PR (I've seen sites with PR 6 that are no more than shells) not to mention missing out on real good quality traffic because of a bad judgment based on the little green bar. Some casino affiliate site owners refuse to exchange links with sites lower than PR4, so it will largely depend on how desperate you are for links. The foolbar needs to be thought of more like a 'reward bar' as sites rise in rank and are given a higher rank with the passing of time, usually every 3 months or so. So a higher rank should give you some better status, and thus make it easier to obtain online casino affiliate links, if human nature and incentive is anything to go by.
Traffic is the most important and the main reason for online casino affiliate linking. At the end of the day a website needs traffic to build more traffic, sales, reputation and presence on the web, and swapping links is the best way of doing it. For one thing it's free and the only cost is the time it takes to perform the exchange. The benefits are that links get spidered and can generate additional links, some sites will approach you and some will just link without your immediate knowledge. But not all links are equal in PR or traffic levels, so any unknown links may be untargeted and not favorable.
Try and get links on top casino affiliate sites as this will provide both sets of visitors with useful information and make life a bit easier for everyone. I'm always thankful for webmasters who go to the trouble of setting up a few pages of extra links that point me in the right direction and your visitors will like this too.
It is quite easy to approach and ask for links, well the approaching bit anyway - but it's harder to convince the bigger sites to link with you, if they are more established. Good sites just don't always link easily, and why should they give you a link when they can charge for it.
If you managed to get a few PR6's to link with you, then I say that's an achievement, but it's near impossible to get PR 7 and above to grant you that favor, especially when you are the new site on the block! As earlier stated, PR is given according to the time a site has spent on the web, so a new online casino affiliate site can't expect to be a PR 4 status right away - it has to pay it's dues and EARN that PR.
To approach webmasters all you need is a simple email. Just ask politely saying their site is nice looking, targeted and would be useful to your needs and place a link to their site first. This normally does the trick - I've gotten hundreds of exchanges this way, and it works very well.
But some will refuse, or insist that your PR be higher before they exchange (even though their site has lower value), and some will even insist they get a homepage link in return for a recipe page placement from them (yes, these parasites do exist) but most webmasters are kind hearted folks and are usually chuffed you approached them! Either way, don't forget that internet casino affiliate marketing works; it's just a matter of perseverance.
A word of warning though - DON'T use link exchanges paid or free! They only ever send untargeted and desperate pleas for links that won't provide decent traffic or referrals, and once signed up with these exchanges, it's very tough to cancel or unsubscribe from the emails and offers. Just beware that's all
Thursday, December 20, 2007
PPC Tips
Pay-Per-Click is a paid form of advertising, popularized mostly by Overture.com (formerly GoTo.com). The concept is fairly simple. Businesses bid to be placed at or near the top of the search results for particular keyword phrases. The bidding is done on a "per-click" basis, meaning that a company pays a specific amount every time the engine sends them a visitor. The two top players; Google and Overture, do not allow casino ads.
Affiliate Casino PPC marketing campaigns have some advantages over traditional search engine optimization. First of all, they require no changes to a current site's content or look to obtain top positions, just a willingness to pay. Also, the implementation of a pay-per-click campaign is relatively quick- it can take just a few minutes to start getting targeted traffic, versus sometimes months for standard internet casino affiliate SEO campaigns. Finally, unlike search engine optimization, the implementation of a casino affiliate PPC campaign is relatively easy and does not necessarily require any specialized knowledge (although experience with search engine marketing and keyword research is a definite advantage).
Obviously, there are limitations to this type of casino affiliate advertising. New bids can lower the positions of other firms, and many will react by raising their bid to regain a previous ranking. Monitoring of positions becomes crucial. These campaigns can also become prohibitively expensive, depending on the competitiveness of the keyword phrases and the aggressiveness of the competition.
In addition, many of the "savvier" search engine users have learned to recognize casino affiliate marketing PPC results as paid advertising and bypass them without consideration.
Understanding how much each casino affiliate website visitor is worth is vital to the success of a strategic casino affiliate pay-per-click marketing campaign. If it costs $50 in a click-through to make a $40 sale, the campaign has failed.
The formula is relatively simple, but some specific historical data is necessary. In the most rudimentary form, it is the profit from the website over a given period divided by the number of total visitors for the same period. If a site netted $1000 in profits from services in a given period, and there were 2,000 visitors during the same period, each would theoretically be worth 50 cents (profit divided by visitors). But this is only the breakeven point. Depending on the desired profit margin, the optimal price to pay per click would probably be something much less than 50 cents. Popular keyword phrases can often run more than this, so it then makes sense to bid less money on less popular terms to pay an acceptable amount per visitor.
As with typical search engine optimization, keyword research is critical to the success of a PPC campaign. Unlike typical search engine optimization, there aren't practical limits on the number of phrases to target. Usually, there is no extra cost to add as many casino affiliate keyword phrases as possible. This makes the keyword selection process easier, since there is not a good deal of resources committed to optimizing a site for a particular keyword set. Under-performing keywords, while still an annoyance, do not cost extra (except for the time involved in setting up the account). To help identify casino affiliate keyword phrases, Overture has a tool on their site that allows advertisers to see how often particular search terms are actually typed in their engine. It also gives out popular suggestions based upon the terms you enter.
With a typical search engine description, the object is to entice as much traffic into a site as possible in the hopes of converting that traffic into customers. With PPC, a different approach is mandated. It is undesirable to pay for unlikely prospects, so the description is designed to eliminate the "tire kickers" while attracting highly targeted traffic. For this reason, the description should describe exactly what the business offers- a company wouldn't want to pay for every visitor looking for "insurance" if they only sold renter’s insurance, for example. At the same time, proven casino affiliate marketing copy techniques should be employed to insure that the description is enticing enough to attract ideal prospects.
It is crucial to the success of any PPC campaign that it be monitored regularly, since positions can and do change every day. If the price gets too high, it is usually prudent to withdraw and pursue a different key phrase (the only way to really "lose" a bidding war is to pay too much for each visitor!). Apart from position monitoring, it is important to track and analyze the effectiveness of individual casino affiliate keyword phrases on a monthly basis. Viewing click-through rates and studying visitor habits can lend valuable insight into their motivations and habits, and help to further refine a Pay-Per-Click campaign.
Pay Per Click campaigns may bring large numbers of highly targeted visitors to your website. However, these campaigns can become prohibitively expensive (and unlike "traditional" search engine optimization, the costs of any PPC campaign are likely to increase in the near future due to the increasing popularity of this type of advertising). It is crucial to the success of the campaign that you pay a reasonable price for each visitor, that each visitor is highly targeted, and that you monitor your positions to maintain your exposure over time.
Robert Green
Affiliate Manager
www.Viploungecasino.com
robertg@viploungecasino.com
Affiliate Casino PPC marketing campaigns have some advantages over traditional search engine optimization. First of all, they require no changes to a current site's content or look to obtain top positions, just a willingness to pay. Also, the implementation of a pay-per-click campaign is relatively quick- it can take just a few minutes to start getting targeted traffic, versus sometimes months for standard internet casino affiliate SEO campaigns. Finally, unlike search engine optimization, the implementation of a casino affiliate PPC campaign is relatively easy and does not necessarily require any specialized knowledge (although experience with search engine marketing and keyword research is a definite advantage).
Obviously, there are limitations to this type of casino affiliate advertising. New bids can lower the positions of other firms, and many will react by raising their bid to regain a previous ranking. Monitoring of positions becomes crucial. These campaigns can also become prohibitively expensive, depending on the competitiveness of the keyword phrases and the aggressiveness of the competition.
In addition, many of the "savvier" search engine users have learned to recognize casino affiliate marketing PPC results as paid advertising and bypass them without consideration.
Understanding how much each casino affiliate website visitor is worth is vital to the success of a strategic casino affiliate pay-per-click marketing campaign. If it costs $50 in a click-through to make a $40 sale, the campaign has failed.
The formula is relatively simple, but some specific historical data is necessary. In the most rudimentary form, it is the profit from the website over a given period divided by the number of total visitors for the same period. If a site netted $1000 in profits from services in a given period, and there were 2,000 visitors during the same period, each would theoretically be worth 50 cents (profit divided by visitors). But this is only the breakeven point. Depending on the desired profit margin, the optimal price to pay per click would probably be something much less than 50 cents. Popular keyword phrases can often run more than this, so it then makes sense to bid less money on less popular terms to pay an acceptable amount per visitor.
As with typical search engine optimization, keyword research is critical to the success of a PPC campaign. Unlike typical search engine optimization, there aren't practical limits on the number of phrases to target. Usually, there is no extra cost to add as many casino affiliate keyword phrases as possible. This makes the keyword selection process easier, since there is not a good deal of resources committed to optimizing a site for a particular keyword set. Under-performing keywords, while still an annoyance, do not cost extra (except for the time involved in setting up the account). To help identify casino affiliate keyword phrases, Overture has a tool on their site that allows advertisers to see how often particular search terms are actually typed in their engine. It also gives out popular suggestions based upon the terms you enter.
With a typical search engine description, the object is to entice as much traffic into a site as possible in the hopes of converting that traffic into customers. With PPC, a different approach is mandated. It is undesirable to pay for unlikely prospects, so the description is designed to eliminate the "tire kickers" while attracting highly targeted traffic. For this reason, the description should describe exactly what the business offers- a company wouldn't want to pay for every visitor looking for "insurance" if they only sold renter’s insurance, for example. At the same time, proven casino affiliate marketing copy techniques should be employed to insure that the description is enticing enough to attract ideal prospects.
It is crucial to the success of any PPC campaign that it be monitored regularly, since positions can and do change every day. If the price gets too high, it is usually prudent to withdraw and pursue a different key phrase (the only way to really "lose" a bidding war is to pay too much for each visitor!). Apart from position monitoring, it is important to track and analyze the effectiveness of individual casino affiliate keyword phrases on a monthly basis. Viewing click-through rates and studying visitor habits can lend valuable insight into their motivations and habits, and help to further refine a Pay-Per-Click campaign.
Pay Per Click campaigns may bring large numbers of highly targeted visitors to your website. However, these campaigns can become prohibitively expensive (and unlike "traditional" search engine optimization, the costs of any PPC campaign are likely to increase in the near future due to the increasing popularity of this type of advertising). It is crucial to the success of the campaign that you pay a reasonable price for each visitor, that each visitor is highly targeted, and that you monitor your positions to maintain your exposure over time.
Robert Green
Affiliate Manager
www.Viploungecasino.com
robertg@viploungecasino.com
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
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Cgi scripts
Did you know you can get cgi scripts for free?
You can find free cgi scripts for setting up anything on your site:
Access counters
Access statistics
Ad rotation
Affiliate tracking
Auctions
Audio
Bulletin boards
Calendars
Chat
Classifieds
Clocks
Communities
Content management
Cookies
Customer support
Databases
File downloads
Forms
Greeting cards
Guestbooks
Images
Link managers
Mailing lists
Page editing
Password protection
Recommend a friend
Redirection
Search
Shopping carts
Surveys
Web promotion
and many many more uses.
You don't have to be super smart to use cgi scripts, you only need to read the instructions and instill the script.
My faviorte site to grab free cgi scripts is located at:
http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/
Or you can do a quick Google search for free cgi scripts.
Have fun and enjoy!
You can find free cgi scripts for setting up anything on your site:
Access counters
Access statistics
Ad rotation
Affiliate tracking
Auctions
Audio
Bulletin boards
Calendars
Chat
Classifieds
Clocks
Communities
Content management
Cookies
Customer support
Databases
File downloads
Forms
Greeting cards
Guestbooks
Images
Link managers
Mailing lists
Page editing
Password protection
Recommend a friend
Redirection
Search
Shopping carts
Surveys
Web promotion
and many many more uses.
You don't have to be super smart to use cgi scripts, you only need to read the instructions and instill the script.
My faviorte site to grab free cgi scripts is located at:
http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/
Or you can do a quick Google search for free cgi scripts.
Have fun and enjoy!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Reciprocal links
Reciprocal links are the best way to drive traffic to your site.
I have found a great article listed on Wikipedia.com
A reciprocal link is a mutual link between two objects, commonly between two websites to ensure mutual traffic. Example: Alice and Bob have websites.
If Bob's website links to Alice's website, and Alice's website links to Bob's website, the websites are reciprocally linked.
Website owners often submit their sites to reciprocal link exchange directories, in order to achieve higher rankings in the search engines.
Reciprocal linking between websites is an important part of the search engine optimization process because Google uses link popularity algorithms (defined as the number of links that led to a particular page and the anchor text of the link) to rank websites for relevancy.
Automated linking
In order to take advantage of the need for inbound links to rank well in the search engines, a number of automatic link exchange services have been launched.
Members of these schemes will typically agree to have several links added to all their web pages in return for getting similar links back from other sites.
Three way linking
Three way linking (siteA -> siteB -> siteC -> siteA) is a special type of reciprocal linking. The attempt of this link building method is to create more "natural" links in the eyes of search engines. The value of links by three-way linking can then be better than normal reciprocal links, which are usually done between two domains.
Link exchange
An alternative to the automated linking above is a link exchange forum, in which members will advertise the sites that they want to get links to, and will in turn offer reciprocal or three way links back to the sites that link to them. The links generated through such services are subject to editorial review.
read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocal_link
I have found a great article listed on Wikipedia.com
A reciprocal link is a mutual link between two objects, commonly between two websites to ensure mutual traffic. Example: Alice and Bob have websites.
If Bob's website links to Alice's website, and Alice's website links to Bob's website, the websites are reciprocally linked.
Website owners often submit their sites to reciprocal link exchange directories, in order to achieve higher rankings in the search engines.
Reciprocal linking between websites is an important part of the search engine optimization process because Google uses link popularity algorithms (defined as the number of links that led to a particular page and the anchor text of the link) to rank websites for relevancy.
Automated linking
In order to take advantage of the need for inbound links to rank well in the search engines, a number of automatic link exchange services have been launched.
Members of these schemes will typically agree to have several links added to all their web pages in return for getting similar links back from other sites.
Three way linking
Three way linking (siteA -> siteB -> siteC -> siteA) is a special type of reciprocal linking. The attempt of this link building method is to create more "natural" links in the eyes of search engines. The value of links by three-way linking can then be better than normal reciprocal links, which are usually done between two domains.
Link exchange
An alternative to the automated linking above is a link exchange forum, in which members will advertise the sites that they want to get links to, and will in turn offer reciprocal or three way links back to the sites that link to them. The links generated through such services are subject to editorial review.
read more here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reciprocal_link
Monday, December 17, 2007
Building a mailing list.
One of the most effective ways of communicating with and building up your client base is by creating a mailing list.
+
It is getting harder and harder to do that with new SPAM laws, mail filters and the general consensus that signing up
for a mailing list on a website will guarantee an instant deluge of unwanted email.
First, let’s start with how to build your list.
Before you start, you will need to start by creating a privacy policy. You can find a free privacy policy generator by visiting:
http://www.the-dma.org/privacy/creating.shtml
This website will walk you through the processs of creating a rock solid policy that will enable your business to function smoothly, and build client confidence.
When you are finished creating your policy, you will need to post links on your website that are easily visible to your clients.
It is also a good idea to include a link to this policy on the page where you’ll be collecting your client’s data.
Your next process will be to figure out how you would like to collect the client data. There are several free mailing list managers available.
You can choose between remotely hosted mailing lists, which handle all of the details for you, including set-up, storing information and sending out emails.
Before selecting a company to handle your remotely hosted list, you will want to make sure that they do not sell client data and that they have a good reputation.
You can also choose to install software on your site that will handle list creation and management.
These programs often include a web-based control panel, which make it very simple to send out messages to your clients and maintain their data.
If you plan to have a large list, make sure that your software and you have the capability of handling it.
Plan ahead to avoid loss of data, switchovers and the need to start from scratch.
If you plan on running the list manually, using your email program to send out client messages, back up your data frequently.
You will also need to check with your web hosting service to see if they require clients to “double opt-in” to your mailing list.
Basically, this means that the client will have to reply to an email generated by the list managing program before they are added to your list.
This ensures that clients will not be included to lists that they have no desire to be on, and will help you to stand out from spammers.
Now that all of the technical stuff is done, you can get to the business of building your list.
You will need to make sure clients can find your mailing list, so you will need to post links on your website that are easy to find.
It helps in the startning stage to offer a free gift, or free information as an incentive for clients to sign up.
You can also include a link to sign up clients automatically if they place an order on your site.
Many sites now have pop-up windows to encourage sign-ups and this does increase your client base significantly.
However, there is nothing more annoying than a persistent pop-up. It is best to have the pop-up appear once during a client’s session.
Now you’ve got your client list up and running, how do you keep them interested and most importantly,
how do you keep them coming back to your site for more? One easy way to do this is to offer a free ezine to your mailing list.
This can keep them informed and increase their level of trust in you as a business.
People feel more secure about ordering items from companies they know. You can send out your ezine daily, weekly or monthly.
Just make sure your clients know how often the ezine will be sent out ahead of time, to cut down on spam complaints.
It is possible to run an informative and lucrative ezine with just a few minutes of your time.
Proper planning and effective list management software will ensure your success in creating your own mailing list.
I always recommend EasyList, it’s free to try for 30 days and is real easy to use.
http://www.focalmedia.net/easylist.html
+
It is getting harder and harder to do that with new SPAM laws, mail filters and the general consensus that signing up
for a mailing list on a website will guarantee an instant deluge of unwanted email.
First, let’s start with how to build your list.
Before you start, you will need to start by creating a privacy policy. You can find a free privacy policy generator by visiting:
http://www.the-dma.org/privacy/creating.shtml
This website will walk you through the processs of creating a rock solid policy that will enable your business to function smoothly, and build client confidence.
When you are finished creating your policy, you will need to post links on your website that are easily visible to your clients.
It is also a good idea to include a link to this policy on the page where you’ll be collecting your client’s data.
Your next process will be to figure out how you would like to collect the client data. There are several free mailing list managers available.
You can choose between remotely hosted mailing lists, which handle all of the details for you, including set-up, storing information and sending out emails.
Before selecting a company to handle your remotely hosted list, you will want to make sure that they do not sell client data and that they have a good reputation.
You can also choose to install software on your site that will handle list creation and management.
These programs often include a web-based control panel, which make it very simple to send out messages to your clients and maintain their data.
If you plan to have a large list, make sure that your software and you have the capability of handling it.
Plan ahead to avoid loss of data, switchovers and the need to start from scratch.
If you plan on running the list manually, using your email program to send out client messages, back up your data frequently.
You will also need to check with your web hosting service to see if they require clients to “double opt-in” to your mailing list.
Basically, this means that the client will have to reply to an email generated by the list managing program before they are added to your list.
This ensures that clients will not be included to lists that they have no desire to be on, and will help you to stand out from spammers.
Now that all of the technical stuff is done, you can get to the business of building your list.
You will need to make sure clients can find your mailing list, so you will need to post links on your website that are easy to find.
It helps in the startning stage to offer a free gift, or free information as an incentive for clients to sign up.
You can also include a link to sign up clients automatically if they place an order on your site.
Many sites now have pop-up windows to encourage sign-ups and this does increase your client base significantly.
However, there is nothing more annoying than a persistent pop-up. It is best to have the pop-up appear once during a client’s session.
Now you’ve got your client list up and running, how do you keep them interested and most importantly,
how do you keep them coming back to your site for more? One easy way to do this is to offer a free ezine to your mailing list.
This can keep them informed and increase their level of trust in you as a business.
People feel more secure about ordering items from companies they know. You can send out your ezine daily, weekly or monthly.
Just make sure your clients know how often the ezine will be sent out ahead of time, to cut down on spam complaints.
It is possible to run an informative and lucrative ezine with just a few minutes of your time.
Proper planning and effective list management software will ensure your success in creating your own mailing list.
I always recommend EasyList, it’s free to try for 30 days and is real easy to use.
http://www.focalmedia.net/easylist.html
Sunday, December 16, 2007
RSS feeds are important.
What is an RSS feed?
"RSS" is about getting live web feeds directly to your computer. RSS takes the latest headlines from different web sites, and pushes those headlines down to your computer for quick scanning.
The acronym RSS stands for many versions of the same thing.
* Really Simple Syndication
* Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)
* RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)
* Real-time Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
Read more here:
More about RSS feeds.
Why use RSS Feeds?
Add RSS Feed to Your Web Site and Make Money, thats why!
Read more here:
Make money with RSS feeds.
Add RSS to your site.
Add any type of feeds you would like by clicking here.
Try to find something that your users may want to read.
Good luck and have fun!
"RSS" is about getting live web feeds directly to your computer. RSS takes the latest headlines from different web sites, and pushes those headlines down to your computer for quick scanning.
The acronym RSS stands for many versions of the same thing.
* Really Simple Syndication
* Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91)
* RDF Site Summary (RSS 0.9 and 1.0)
* Real-time Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
Read more here:
More about RSS feeds.
Why use RSS Feeds?
Add RSS Feed to Your Web Site and Make Money, thats why!
Read more here:
Make money with RSS feeds.
Add RSS to your site.
Add any type of feeds you would like by clicking here.
Try to find something that your users may want to read.
Good luck and have fun!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Writing a Powerful Internet Casino Affiliate Newsletter
Internet casino affiliate newsletters are a great vehicle for small direct marketers. More so than virtually any other online communications, they can level the economic playing field. Costing only a few thousand dollars, digital imaging and other computer-based graphics techniques lets anyone create casino affiliate newsletter retention and informational campaigns that have high production values.
Get the relationship off to a good start
Do privacy, opt-in and unsubscribe right by respecting the newsletter audience member with a documented "no sharing of email addresses" privacy policy, explicit opt-in and readily available unsubscribe capability.
Get their attention
By paying attention to production values, like a great looking newsletter which uses well-designed graphics, an appropriate layout and plenty of images or photos. Offer a high-impact, sophisticated internet casino affiliate newsletter in the same league as large competitors.
Keep their attention
They have opted in and will likely open the first one or two casino affiliate newsletters. Now it's imperative to have great content that will keep subscribers engaged. Think like a publisher as much as a casino affiliate marketing expert and build a community of interest.
Know when to sell them
Cascade your content with adjacent synopses and links to lead the reader from interesting editorial pieces into more offer oriented content with successively stronger direct response calls to action.
Respond appropriately
If someone has shown a deep interest in a particular game, send him or her more information.
Keep their attention for the long-term
Measure not only open rates and transactions, but also content popularity (what are they reading, how long are they spending reading it?). Use that analysis to tune the content over successive internet affiliate newsletter editions to hang on to your audience. An auto dealership discovered that its newsletter readers are more interested in what they could do with their cars - movie or restaurant reviews that would help them plan excursions - than in tips about automotive maintenance.
Segment your audience
Consider providing separate newsletter variations based on clusters of content popularity. For example, offer a specific internet poker affiliate newsletter to subscribers who have shown a more focused interest on poker.
Lower the threshold to viral casino affiliate marketing
Sure you should invite subscribers to "tell a friend" about the e-newsletter, but consider lowering the barrier to vial marketing by making it easy for a casino affiliate subscriber to forward just an article from the e-newsletter.
Sustain and supplement the content with audience contributions
Invite email responses to casino affiliate newsletter content, use and report on surveys in the e-newsletter and consider using a moderated blog with audience posting as a source of newsletter content.
Plan for and play with the future
Try inserting a pod cast in your internet casino affiliate newsletter and see how it pulls. Consider offering you e-newsletter content as an RSS feed, particularly if you have a techno-savvy audience. You can find a great guide on including RSS feeds in your online casino affiliate site.
Get the relationship off to a good start
Do privacy, opt-in and unsubscribe right by respecting the newsletter audience member with a documented "no sharing of email addresses" privacy policy, explicit opt-in and readily available unsubscribe capability.
Get their attention
By paying attention to production values, like a great looking newsletter which uses well-designed graphics, an appropriate layout and plenty of images or photos. Offer a high-impact, sophisticated internet casino affiliate newsletter in the same league as large competitors.
Keep their attention
They have opted in and will likely open the first one or two casino affiliate newsletters. Now it's imperative to have great content that will keep subscribers engaged. Think like a publisher as much as a casino affiliate marketing expert and build a community of interest.
Know when to sell them
Cascade your content with adjacent synopses and links to lead the reader from interesting editorial pieces into more offer oriented content with successively stronger direct response calls to action.
Respond appropriately
If someone has shown a deep interest in a particular game, send him or her more information.
Keep their attention for the long-term
Measure not only open rates and transactions, but also content popularity (what are they reading, how long are they spending reading it?). Use that analysis to tune the content over successive internet affiliate newsletter editions to hang on to your audience. An auto dealership discovered that its newsletter readers are more interested in what they could do with their cars - movie or restaurant reviews that would help them plan excursions - than in tips about automotive maintenance.
Segment your audience
Consider providing separate newsletter variations based on clusters of content popularity. For example, offer a specific internet poker affiliate newsletter to subscribers who have shown a more focused interest on poker.
Lower the threshold to viral casino affiliate marketing
Sure you should invite subscribers to "tell a friend" about the e-newsletter, but consider lowering the barrier to vial marketing by making it easy for a casino affiliate subscriber to forward just an article from the e-newsletter.
Sustain and supplement the content with audience contributions
Invite email responses to casino affiliate newsletter content, use and report on surveys in the e-newsletter and consider using a moderated blog with audience posting as a source of newsletter content.
Plan for and play with the future
Try inserting a pod cast in your internet casino affiliate newsletter and see how it pulls. Consider offering you e-newsletter content as an RSS feed, particularly if you have a techno-savvy audience. You can find a great guide on including RSS feeds in your online casino affiliate site.
Friday, December 14, 2007
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT
What is HTML?
How do I get an HTML editor?
How do I make a simple casino affiliate webpage?
META TAGS
What are Meta tags?
What is SEO?
Search Engine Directories
Spiders / Crawlers / Robots
Why Search Engine Optimization?
How does SEO earn top 10 placements?
Determining factors for Search Engine Optimization
E-MAIL DATABASES?
What is the significance of email databases?
HOSTING & DOMAIN NAMES?
What makes a top casino affiliate domain name?
What should I look for in a hosting service?
Phase I - Determining NEEDS
CONTENT DESIGN?
Why is content design important?
USING OUR MARKETING TOOLS
________________________________________
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT
What is HTML?
HTML- known as Hyper Text Markup Language is a scripting language used to build the WWW - World Wide Web. HTML is not the only scripting language but is the most used to build web pages.
How do I get an HTML editor?
If you are using Windows XP, your computer comes with a text editor such as NotePad or any other plain text editor. It is important to save your html document with a .html or .htm extension so you can see how it appears in your browser.
Example:
Mypage.html (No spaces)
How do I make a simple casino affiliate webpage?
The instructions below are for you to familiarize yourself with a simple webpage before proceeding to more complex applications.
Click start on your desktop
Go to all programs
Then find accessories, which should be at the top of the all programs list.
Another list will appear, scroll down and click on Notepad, which can be used to make your simple webpage.
Copy and paste the following HTML script into your notepad.
HTML code:
head
title My new webpage title
head body WOW! I earned over $1000 in revenues with Viplounge in the first month!
body
html
title My new webpag titleWOW! I earned over $1000 in revenues with Viplounge in the first month!
When you have finished copying and pasting the html, save the document as mypage.htm or .html and close Notepad.
Now open the document to see how the text appears.
It should look like this:
WOW! I earned over $1000 in revenues with Viplounge in the first month!
Once you understand the basics of HTML, you can get creative with colors and tables better.
http://www.freehtmlab.com/htmltags.html
________________________________________
META TAGS
What are Meta tags?
Html is written in tags. A tag is some text inside of triangle brackets know as angle brackets like so:
When you open a tag you must close the tag like so:
Tags are information inserted into the "head" area of your web pages. Information in the head area of your casino affiliate web pages is not seen by those viewing your pages in browsers. Instead, meta information in this area is used to communicate information that a human visitor may not be concerned with. Meta tags, for example, can tell a browser what "character set" to use or whether a web page has self-rated itself in terms of adult content.
In the example above, you can see the beginning of the page's "head" area as noted by the HEAD tag -- it ends at the portion shown as /HEAD.
Meta tags go in between the "opening" and "closing" HEAD tags. Shown in the example is a TITLE tag, then a META DESCRIPTION tag, then a META KEYWORDS tag.
Main HTML Tags
<> +
<> +
<> +
<> +
+ = Centers content
= Break line or spaces
= Start and ends a form
What is SEO?
SEO is an abbreviation for "search engine optimizer." Many SEOs provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted.
There are two types of search engines: Search Engine Directories and Search Engine Spiders. Each search engine (regardless of whether it is a spider or a directory) uses unique criteria for "ranking" casino affiliate websites.
Search Engine Directories
Search Engine Directories rely on humans to gauge web page relevancy and search engine placement. Human editors review each website and rank them according to a set of guidelines such as website content, website functionality, and design professionalism. Yahoo! and the Open Directory Project, DMOZ are the most popular Directory Driven Search Engines.
Spiders / Crawlers / Robots
Spider driven search engines use "robots" to spider websites across the Internet. Robots "crawl" each website and "score" pages based on relevancy. Some engines score the index page while others score individual web pages. A website's score or placement within a spider driven search engine is derived from hundreds of variables such as, link popularity, click popularity, keyword density, website themes and more. Google.com is the most popular spider driven search engine.
Earning Top 10 Search Engine Placement is complex and highly competitive for three reasons:
1. The variety and complexity of search engine's "ranking" algorithms
2. Search Engines constantly modify "page ranking criterions"
3. Increasing competition on the web
Why Search Engine Optimization?
Studies have proven that top placement in search engines with other forms of online casino affiliate marketing, provide a more favorable return on investment compared to traditional forms of advertising such as, snail mail, radio commercials and television. Search engine optimization is the ONLY fool proof method to earning guaranteed Top 10 search engine placement.
How does SEO earn top 10 placements?
Every Search Engine ranks Website Relevancy using a unique formula. Another term for a search engine's ranking formula is a search engine algorithm. The goal in search engine optimization is to build a website that meets each search engines "ranking criterion. The closer a website matches each search engine's "ranking criterion", the higher the website scores. Higher scores equal better placement in search engines. The best scores are rewarded with Top 10 search engine placement.
What are some determining factors for Search Engine Optimization?
Each search engine places emphasis on variable factors such as the design and layout, keyword density and the number of relevant sites linking to it. Search engines constantly update and refine their ranking criterions in order to index the most relevant sites. Other variables that have an emphasis on search engine placement include the following:
Keywords: Choosing the right keywords is mission critical.
Link Popularity: The more links pointing your site from "relevant" sites the better. In this case, from other online casino affiliate sites.
Click Popularity: The more traffic your site receives, the higher you score.
Website Themes: Create text heavy pages broken down into "themes".
http://www.monsterwebpromotion.com/
________________________________________
E-MAIL DATABASES?
What is the significance of email databases?
Email marketing is important and highly useful in establishing new clients and maintaining current customer relationships, sending targeted messages, announcing new products and driving online purchases and sales.
Deliver highly relevant messages from permission-based e-mail databases comprised of people who have opted to receive emails targeting their specific interests and needs. Through targeted email marketing, you can reach your targeted prospects and current customers through online promotions. You also have the ability to promote your products via their preferred medium and strengthen your promotional media mix by complimenting your offline marketing initiatives.
http://www.accudata.com/product/emailMarketing.html
________________________________________
HOSTING & DOMAIN NAMES?
What makes a top casino affiliate domain name?
1. Good domain names are easily memorable and easily typed. Generally this means keeping them short.
2. Hyphens should be avoided if possible. When I chose BetterWritingSkills as a domain name, I deliberately didn't include hyphens. I agree that it would have made it easier to read (Better-Writing-Skills.com), but the problem is that it is more difficult to say. If someone asked me for my web address and I said "better hyphen writing hyphen skills dot com" I certainly wouldn't expect them to remember it.
The bottom line with hyphens is that most domains don't include them. So, when you tell someone your domain, they'll probably try typing it without any hyphens.
3. Use a plural form if this seems more natural. If you're selling toy trains, I'd go with "toytrains.com" instead of "toytrain.com".
4. Domain name search programs can help you to choose variations on a name.
5. If you're marketing your products and services primarily to users in a single country (other than the US) then seriously consider using that country's top-level domain.
For example, if you're retailing products primarily to New Zealanders then choose to end your domain with ".nz". In Australia, use ".au" etc. This will help to identify your site as a local one.
On the other hand, if you're marketing your products or services globally (or if you're in the US), use ".com" as your top-level domain.
6. Don't use words that are tough to spell. Similarly, don't use words that are spelled differently in some countries. For example, "ColourChart.com" may confuse those of us in the Antipodes who would probably expect "ColourChart.com".
7. Ensure that there will be no trademark or other legal problems with the domain name you choose.
8. Brand names (e.g. BarnesAndNoble.com) may be preferable to generic names such as "books.com". For many years, it was assumed that generic names were hugely valuable. (Indeed during the late 90s, some generic domain names were selling for millions of dollars.)
These days, many analysts argue that a domain name that features your brand name is more important. For example, if you've invested time and effort building up your brand name (Toyota, for example) you'd be better of using Toyota as your domain name, rather than something generic like "GreatCars".
9. Avoid domain names that are too similar to existing ones. Not only do you want avoid legal issues (tip 7), but you want your brand to be distinct from that of your competitors.
10. Remember, you don't own your domain name. You're merely renting it for a specified period. Don't let your domain name expire, or your competitors may snatch it out from under you.
http://63.134.203.222/design/97081730.asp
What should I look for in a hosting service?
Choosing hosting provider is something similar to choosing the place of your off-line office. Despite the fact that it is as easy to enter the URL and go to web-site that is physically located in Sidney as in Oslo, the final role here plays the speed of connection and stability of the hosting itself.
The problem with hosting comes down to the old statute of running ebusiness - that is RESEARCH before ACT! The easiest thing to do online is to pay money, the hardest is to THINK OVER what I'm paying for! That statement is true with hosting also because you can pay, let's say, $35 monthly for some particular hosting service, without notice that in two mouse clicks there is an hosting offer providing two times better services all for $15 per month only, so you will keep on losing services as well as $20 monthly that accumulates up to $240 annually losses as a Fee for not doing hosting research! Besides you should keep your eyes open for very good discounted offers that could save you 30-50% for the first year of payments.
Phase I - Determining NEEDS
1. Estimate your ebusiness basic requirements: total web-space needed, monthly bandwidth (approximate traffic volume multiplied by the most visited web-pages' total size) and ability to run CGI scripts as a must for every ebusiness.
If it is content rich web-site and example of your first year of hosting may look like this:
30-50Mb of disc space
500Mb-1Gb of monthly bandwidth
cgi-bin to be able to run your own scripts an offer additional services
If it is sales web-site, your first year of hosting should be something similar to these requirements:
50-300Mb of disc space depending on how much info products you are going to sell and therefore upload on your server
1-3Gb of monthly bandwidth
cgi-bin to be able to run your own scripts an offer additional services
In particular case with one-two ebooks and three-four pages sales web-site, 10Mb of storage space with 500Mb of monthly bandwidth, in general, is more than enough, if you are not going to expand it, so look closely and examine your potential but remember: you ALWAYS have a chance to expand, but you will NOT be able to get your money back if you overpay for services or web-space you don't need. That is called efficient ebusiness running.
________________________________________
CONTENT DESIGN?
Why is content design important?
Good writing is the exception rather than the rule in online casino affiliate sites. One reason for this is simply that good writing is hard to do. Another is that many of the people who've been involved with the Web from the beginning have been slow to realize that writing is a very big part of the online experience.
While the Web has important non-textual uses, most people who use it spend an overwhelming amount of their online time reading words on a page. It’s not an accident that we call them WebPages. It follows that quality content—well written, well edited—is essential for the success of any website, including a online casino affiliate site.
In addition to quality content, the design of websites must facilitate finding and reading that content. Web design is about content design. It’s about laying out content so that it can be easily read. It’s about organizing content so that it can be easily navigated and searched.
The number-one design principle for the Web is simplicity. Quality web design should be all about making life easier for the reader to find content, and then making it easy for them to read that content.
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/web_content_style_guide.htm
________________________________________
USING OUR MARKETING TOOLS
What kind of marketing tools will Viplounge.com provide and are they user-friendly?
Viplounge.com provides our internet casino affiliates with a multitude of Marketing Tools in order to maximize revenues and see actual results in the easiest way possible. We send out weekly newsletters so our affiliates are updated on the latest promotions of our merchants. Once you set up an account you will have access to continuously updated banners, as well as pops ups, HTML and text mailers, rich media, auto update and much more. You will have access to a number of features and downloads to attract new players. Our design team can also create customized banners that suit your specific website needs and offline marketing media. Our online casino affiliates can set up special landing pages with great promotions that attract new players and which leads to a higher conversion rate.
What is HTML?
How do I get an HTML editor?
How do I make a simple casino affiliate webpage?
META TAGS
What are Meta tags?
What is SEO?
Search Engine Directories
Spiders / Crawlers / Robots
Why Search Engine Optimization?
How does SEO earn top 10 placements?
Determining factors for Search Engine Optimization
E-MAIL DATABASES?
What is the significance of email databases?
HOSTING & DOMAIN NAMES?
What makes a top casino affiliate domain name?
What should I look for in a hosting service?
Phase I - Determining NEEDS
CONTENT DESIGN?
Why is content design important?
USING OUR MARKETING TOOLS
________________________________________
WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT
What is HTML?
HTML- known as Hyper Text Markup Language is a scripting language used to build the WWW - World Wide Web. HTML is not the only scripting language but is the most used to build web pages.
How do I get an HTML editor?
If you are using Windows XP, your computer comes with a text editor such as NotePad or any other plain text editor. It is important to save your html document with a .html or .htm extension so you can see how it appears in your browser.
Example:
Mypage.html (No spaces)
How do I make a simple casino affiliate webpage?
The instructions below are for you to familiarize yourself with a simple webpage before proceeding to more complex applications.
Click start on your desktop
Go to all programs
Then find accessories, which should be at the top of the all programs list.
Another list will appear, scroll down and click on Notepad, which can be used to make your simple webpage.
Copy and paste the following HTML script into your notepad.
HTML code:
html
head
title My new webpage title
head body WOW! I earned over $1000 in revenues with Viplounge in the first month!
body
html
title My new webpag titleWOW! I earned over $1000 in revenues with Viplounge in the first month!
When you have finished copying and pasting the html, save the document as mypage.htm or .html and close Notepad.
Now open the document to see how the text appears.
It should look like this:
WOW! I earned over $1000 in revenues with Viplounge in the first month!
Once you understand the basics of HTML, you can get creative with colors and tables better.
http://www.freehtmlab.com/htmltags.html
________________________________________
META TAGS
What are Meta tags?
Html is written in tags. A tag is some text inside of triangle brackets know as angle brackets like so:
When you open a tag you must close the tag like so:
Tags are information inserted into the "head" area of your web pages. Information in the head area of your casino affiliate web pages is not seen by those viewing your pages in browsers. Instead, meta information in this area is used to communicate information that a human visitor may not be concerned with. Meta tags, for example, can tell a browser what "character set" to use or whether a web page has self-rated itself in terms of adult content.
In the example above, you can see the beginning of the page's "head" area as noted by the HEAD tag -- it ends at the portion shown as /HEAD.
Meta tags go in between the "opening" and "closing" HEAD tags. Shown in the example is a TITLE tag, then a META DESCRIPTION tag, then a META KEYWORDS tag.
Main HTML Tags
<> +
<> +
<> +
<> +
= Break line or spaces
= Start and ends a form
What is SEO?
SEO is an abbreviation for "search engine optimizer." Many SEOs provide useful services for website owners, from writing copy to giving advice on site architecture and helping to find relevant directories to which a site can be submitted.
There are two types of search engines: Search Engine Directories and Search Engine Spiders. Each search engine (regardless of whether it is a spider or a directory) uses unique criteria for "ranking" casino affiliate websites.
Search Engine Directories
Search Engine Directories rely on humans to gauge web page relevancy and search engine placement. Human editors review each website and rank them according to a set of guidelines such as website content, website functionality, and design professionalism. Yahoo! and the Open Directory Project, DMOZ are the most popular Directory Driven Search Engines.
Spiders / Crawlers / Robots
Spider driven search engines use "robots" to spider websites across the Internet. Robots "crawl" each website and "score" pages based on relevancy. Some engines score the index page while others score individual web pages. A website's score or placement within a spider driven search engine is derived from hundreds of variables such as, link popularity, click popularity, keyword density, website themes and more. Google.com is the most popular spider driven search engine.
Earning Top 10 Search Engine Placement is complex and highly competitive for three reasons:
1. The variety and complexity of search engine's "ranking" algorithms
2. Search Engines constantly modify "page ranking criterions"
3. Increasing competition on the web
Why Search Engine Optimization?
Studies have proven that top placement in search engines with other forms of online casino affiliate marketing, provide a more favorable return on investment compared to traditional forms of advertising such as, snail mail, radio commercials and television. Search engine optimization is the ONLY fool proof method to earning guaranteed Top 10 search engine placement.
How does SEO earn top 10 placements?
Every Search Engine ranks Website Relevancy using a unique formula. Another term for a search engine's ranking formula is a search engine algorithm. The goal in search engine optimization is to build a website that meets each search engines "ranking criterion. The closer a website matches each search engine's "ranking criterion", the higher the website scores. Higher scores equal better placement in search engines. The best scores are rewarded with Top 10 search engine placement.
What are some determining factors for Search Engine Optimization?
Each search engine places emphasis on variable factors such as the design and layout, keyword density and the number of relevant sites linking to it. Search engines constantly update and refine their ranking criterions in order to index the most relevant sites. Other variables that have an emphasis on search engine placement include the following:
Keywords: Choosing the right keywords is mission critical.
Link Popularity: The more links pointing your site from "relevant" sites the better. In this case, from other online casino affiliate sites.
Click Popularity: The more traffic your site receives, the higher you score.
Website Themes: Create text heavy pages broken down into "themes".
http://www.monsterwebpromotion.com/
________________________________________
E-MAIL DATABASES?
What is the significance of email databases?
Email marketing is important and highly useful in establishing new clients and maintaining current customer relationships, sending targeted messages, announcing new products and driving online purchases and sales.
Deliver highly relevant messages from permission-based e-mail databases comprised of people who have opted to receive emails targeting their specific interests and needs. Through targeted email marketing, you can reach your targeted prospects and current customers through online promotions. You also have the ability to promote your products via their preferred medium and strengthen your promotional media mix by complimenting your offline marketing initiatives.
http://www.accudata.com/product/emailMarketing.html
________________________________________
HOSTING & DOMAIN NAMES?
What makes a top casino affiliate domain name?
1. Good domain names are easily memorable and easily typed. Generally this means keeping them short.
2. Hyphens should be avoided if possible. When I chose BetterWritingSkills as a domain name, I deliberately didn't include hyphens. I agree that it would have made it easier to read (Better-Writing-Skills.com), but the problem is that it is more difficult to say. If someone asked me for my web address and I said "better hyphen writing hyphen skills dot com" I certainly wouldn't expect them to remember it.
The bottom line with hyphens is that most domains don't include them. So, when you tell someone your domain, they'll probably try typing it without any hyphens.
3. Use a plural form if this seems more natural. If you're selling toy trains, I'd go with "toytrains.com" instead of "toytrain.com".
4. Domain name search programs can help you to choose variations on a name.
5. If you're marketing your products and services primarily to users in a single country (other than the US) then seriously consider using that country's top-level domain.
For example, if you're retailing products primarily to New Zealanders then choose to end your domain with ".nz". In Australia, use ".au" etc. This will help to identify your site as a local one.
On the other hand, if you're marketing your products or services globally (or if you're in the US), use ".com" as your top-level domain.
6. Don't use words that are tough to spell. Similarly, don't use words that are spelled differently in some countries. For example, "ColourChart.com" may confuse those of us in the Antipodes who would probably expect "ColourChart.com".
7. Ensure that there will be no trademark or other legal problems with the domain name you choose.
8. Brand names (e.g. BarnesAndNoble.com) may be preferable to generic names such as "books.com". For many years, it was assumed that generic names were hugely valuable. (Indeed during the late 90s, some generic domain names were selling for millions of dollars.)
These days, many analysts argue that a domain name that features your brand name is more important. For example, if you've invested time and effort building up your brand name (Toyota, for example) you'd be better of using Toyota as your domain name, rather than something generic like "GreatCars".
9. Avoid domain names that are too similar to existing ones. Not only do you want avoid legal issues (tip 7), but you want your brand to be distinct from that of your competitors.
10. Remember, you don't own your domain name. You're merely renting it for a specified period. Don't let your domain name expire, or your competitors may snatch it out from under you.
http://63.134.203.222/design/97081730.asp
What should I look for in a hosting service?
Choosing hosting provider is something similar to choosing the place of your off-line office. Despite the fact that it is as easy to enter the URL and go to web-site that is physically located in Sidney as in Oslo, the final role here plays the speed of connection and stability of the hosting itself.
The problem with hosting comes down to the old statute of running ebusiness - that is RESEARCH before ACT! The easiest thing to do online is to pay money, the hardest is to THINK OVER what I'm paying for! That statement is true with hosting also because you can pay, let's say, $35 monthly for some particular hosting service, without notice that in two mouse clicks there is an hosting offer providing two times better services all for $15 per month only, so you will keep on losing services as well as $20 monthly that accumulates up to $240 annually losses as a Fee for not doing hosting research! Besides you should keep your eyes open for very good discounted offers that could save you 30-50% for the first year of payments.
Phase I - Determining NEEDS
1. Estimate your ebusiness basic requirements: total web-space needed, monthly bandwidth (approximate traffic volume multiplied by the most visited web-pages' total size) and ability to run CGI scripts as a must for every ebusiness.
If it is content rich web-site and example of your first year of hosting may look like this:
30-50Mb of disc space
500Mb-1Gb of monthly bandwidth
cgi-bin to be able to run your own scripts an offer additional services
If it is sales web-site, your first year of hosting should be something similar to these requirements:
50-300Mb of disc space depending on how much info products you are going to sell and therefore upload on your server
1-3Gb of monthly bandwidth
cgi-bin to be able to run your own scripts an offer additional services
In particular case with one-two ebooks and three-four pages sales web-site, 10Mb of storage space with 500Mb of monthly bandwidth, in general, is more than enough, if you are not going to expand it, so look closely and examine your potential but remember: you ALWAYS have a chance to expand, but you will NOT be able to get your money back if you overpay for services or web-space you don't need. That is called efficient ebusiness running.
________________________________________
CONTENT DESIGN?
Why is content design important?
Good writing is the exception rather than the rule in online casino affiliate sites. One reason for this is simply that good writing is hard to do. Another is that many of the people who've been involved with the Web from the beginning have been slow to realize that writing is a very big part of the online experience.
While the Web has important non-textual uses, most people who use it spend an overwhelming amount of their online time reading words on a page. It’s not an accident that we call them WebPages. It follows that quality content—well written, well edited—is essential for the success of any website, including a online casino affiliate site.
In addition to quality content, the design of websites must facilitate finding and reading that content. Web design is about content design. It’s about laying out content so that it can be easily read. It’s about organizing content so that it can be easily navigated and searched.
The number-one design principle for the Web is simplicity. Quality web design should be all about making life easier for the reader to find content, and then making it easy for them to read that content.
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/web_content_style_guide.htm
________________________________________
USING OUR MARKETING TOOLS
What kind of marketing tools will Viplounge.com provide and are they user-friendly?
Viplounge.com provides our internet casino affiliates with a multitude of Marketing Tools in order to maximize revenues and see actual results in the easiest way possible. We send out weekly newsletters so our affiliates are updated on the latest promotions of our merchants. Once you set up an account you will have access to continuously updated banners, as well as pops ups, HTML and text mailers, rich media, auto update and much more. You will have access to a number of features and downloads to attract new players. Our design team can also create customized banners that suit your specific website needs and offline marketing media. Our online casino affiliates can set up special landing pages with great promotions that attract new players and which leads to a higher conversion rate.
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Hello
My name is Robert Green, I run the viploungecasino.com affiliate program.
I would like to spend at least 20 min a day helping casino affiliates to make the most of their traffic and to benefit from the lessons I have learned from our top casino affiliates.
I have been in the industry for over 12 years and have seen some affiliates make over 250k a month by using some of the tips I will be posting.
I will be discussing the following topics the next few months:
I would like to spend at least 20 min a day helping casino affiliates to make the most of their traffic and to benefit from the lessons I have learned from our top casino affiliates.
I have been in the industry for over 12 years and have seen some affiliates make over 250k a month by using some of the tips I will be posting.
I will be discussing the following topics the next few months:
Casino Affiliate Marketing - Benginners
Obtain comprehensive information on casino affiliate website development including a basic guide to; HTML, Meta Tags, SEO, Email Databases, hosting and domain names, content design and marketing tools.
Online Casino Affiliate Marketing Intermediate
Get comprehensive information on intermediate casino affiliate development techniques. You will find a basic guide to; image optimization, table’s usage, basic forms and scrolling text.
Online Casino Affiliate Marketing Advanced
A through guide to more advanced marketing techniques; like avoiding Google penalties or using newsgroups, RSS, JPEG and GIF graphics. These techniques have proven to work for many successful online casino affiliate sites.
So please make sure you stop by once a day to read some of my tips or post some tips of your own.
Robert Green
Affiliate Manager
Viploungecasino.com
robertg@viploungecasino.com
http://viploungecasino.com/affiliates.html
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