15 Ways To Monetize

15 Ways to Monetize Your Blog

April 1, 2013 Sonia Jackson 21 CommentsinShareHere are fifteen ways to monetize your blog. The key fact about each of these points is that they are all actionable (except for the sponsorship one). In other words you can leave this article after reading and do any of these points right away (except for the sponsorship one, which requires research first). It is up to you which of these methods you choose to monetize your blog, but there is little stopping you from doing almost all of them at the same time.

1 – Set up a donations widget i.e. beg!

There are widgets out there that are titled “Donation”. They exist so that viewers can give you their money with no incentive and no reward. As you can imagine, your donations are going to be few and far between, but your blog may provide a viewer with an answer that they repay with a donation.

2 – Install Pay Per Click Advertising on your blog

These are the adverts that pay you if your viewers click on your adverts. They only pay a few cents and they look pretty tacky, but they are a way of monetizing your blog.

3 – Install Cost Per Mile advertising (CPM)

CPM is an online inevitability. Every affiliate advert may not gain clicks but will gain lots of impressions. Sometimes building a brand involves getting your name out there. Companies can easily create adverts that are not very clickable, but have a positive effect if they are seen. For example, having an advert that is just your logo and your tag-line will be enough to remind the viewer of your company. All they need is an impression of your advert; they do not need to click on it. If you are the webmaster then you can host these types of adverts under a CPM program. You get paid for how many impressions your adverts get, and not for how many clicks they get.

4 – Install Pay Per Action Advertising on your blog

These are adverts that only pay you if there is a sale as a result of your advert. The chances of getting a sale are slim, but the payment for a sale is far larger than payment for just a click. One sale via PPA per quarter may beat all of the payments you get for clicks.

5 – Gain corporate sponsorship for your blog

Finding a sponsor is harder than you think, but is not impossible. How you are going to go about it is up to you. If people knew how to get them then they would not write it on an article, they would do it themselves.

6 – Sell Advertising space on your blog just like a shop window

Create a box or two on each post and offer to sell the space to people who wish to advertise there. Offer to keep the advert there until the blog is decommissioned, or offer a time limit so that you can re-sell the space later.

7 – Install In-Text Ads / rollover text ads

Certain keywords are highlighted in the text and if the mouse pointer rolls over the text they will expand a box with an advert in. The advert must be clicked for you to be paid, but they are a very surreptitious way of installing adverts into your blog.

8 – Install In-Image Ads / rollover image ads

These are adverts that will not run until the user moves his or her mouse pointer over the image. They still have to be clicked for you to be paid, but they are a nice way of hiding the advertising on your website or blog.

9 – Advertise within your blog videos or start a Vlog

Some people install videos into their blog. There are affiliate advertisers that will happily add an advert at the beginning of your videos and pay you to have it watched. You could even set up a video log and dispense with the text itself.

10 – Direct sell your own goods on your blog (new or secondhand)

You can set up your own little adverts for stuff you want to sell. You may also create blog posts about the things you are selling. For example, you could review a motorbike that you just bought, and at the bottom you could offer to sell your old motorbike.

11 – Use your blog to compile an Email Marketing/Newsletter email list

If you are good at blogging then you will have people sign up to your RSS feed. If you are really good, you may be able to get them to sign up to your newsletter. If you do then you can use the email list to send out marketing messages, through which you make your money.

12 – Offer to sell your services

Assuming that your blog is good and on a certain niche, you may be able to sell your services as a consequence. For example, if your blog is on Java programming, then at the end of your blog you could offer to solve your readers’ specific Java problems for a fee.

13 – Demand a paid membership for access to your blog

Assuming again that your blog is of a very high quality and on a certain niche, you could charge to gain access to your blog. You could sell it like a subscription that people have to renew after a few months. You could advertise your blog on social media and via affiliate advertising in order to gain new members.

14 – Build your blog so that you can sell it

Build it up with a great design, smashing content, a weighty daily traffic score and a stunning Google PageRank or Alexa Rank and then sell it off. It takes time, effort and care to create such a blog, and many people do not have the time or skill to do it. So you can sell them their own popular blog that is already set up, running, and effective. If you can gain access to reliable metric numbers to show people then you can set up a bidding system and make some cash.

15 – Sell links from your blog

If your blog is very popular, or it has a good Alexa or Google PageRank then you may be able to sell links from your website. People are always looking to link from high ranking and popular sites. The problem is that Google does not like people selling links. You can get around this by asking people to contact you if they want to link from you. When they make contact, respond with a price list and method of payment.Filed Under: Blogging, Internet Marketing Tagged With: Blog, make money blogging, Monetize

If you're going to stuff up, at least make it cool....

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THE BASICS OF BLOGGING AND ONLINE PUBKISHING

By Brandon Cox

Blogging is such a weird word. We never used it until people started keeping “logs” on the “web” of their life called “weblog” and for some reason, we dropped the “we” and were left with the art of blogging. And in a sense, it has changed everything. How? Because now, everyone is a publisher.

Every business, and every institution is now a publisher, and those who publish with the most gusto win. It’s the age where people with few connections and little resources can grow their voice in the marketplace in inexpensive and creative ways.

I’m writing this post for those who haven’t jumped in yet. I’d love to dialog about the latest developer’s beta version of WordPress or Google’s search algorithm, but my goal is instead to reach out to those who are on the verge of blogging and push you over the edge to take the dive. If you need to read no more, head over to WordPress or Tumblr and get started! If you’re still looking to rationalize your decision, read on…

WHY BLOG?

Still with me? Let me give you some reasons to jump in.

Everybody is doing it. This is normally a stupid reason to do anything, but in this case, what I mean is that everybody is talking and conversing about everything, and your voice matters.

It’s easy. There was a time when you needed to know html or write the code for your own blogging platform. Now, with a few clicks you can sign up and from your smartphone, you can blog.

It’s cheap. In fact, it’s usually free, or costs peanuts, to get started.You can earn some income. Don’t plan on getting rich off of blogging. It’s been done before and will be done again, but don’t assume you’re going to be the next John Chow, who makes money online by telling people how to make money online. Most of the “six-figure bloggers” were in the game early, but you can still earn a bit of an income if you’re patient and consistent.You can expand your influence. Ideas change the world, and today, ideas are shaped by the conversation online.

In other words, this isn’t just for geeks and nerds anymore. It’s for you too (assuming you don’t fall into either of those categories).

WHAT TO DO

Convinced? With me? Good.

Now what in the world are you going to blog about?
What does “blogging” look like for you? You can make blogging a time of personal journaling, but I want to challenge you to think a little harder than that. Let’s re-define blogging as putting your passion into words for the world to experience.

Your passion.

If you are passionate about underwater basket-weaving, blog about it. If it’s vintage and retro living, go for it. If you’re all about the latest flip-flops coming out of the fashion scene, blog about it. The blogs I read are those written by people who are passionate, whose passion spills out in a contagious way. In words.

Blogging can include video and other forms of media, and will more and more as time goes on. What I’m getting at is that blogging is the act of allowing your passion to escape your heart and find expression online in a form others can consume.

For the world to experience.

I talk a lot about the experience of reading blogs because I’m a design and communications nut. For me, content is highly important, but so is its aesthetic surroundings. I’m not drawn to mere words. I’m drawn to the experience of reading them in their creative context.

BLOG ON TOPIC

So blog about what you know, what you love, and what you can speak authoritatively about to the world. Stay focused. I blog about an array of subjects, but they are mostly related to each other. If I started blogging entirely about weedrat recipes, I’d lose my readers, no matter how good weedrat stew might be.

NETWORK WITH OTHERS

Writing is good, but reading is better. Speaking is great, but listening is even greater.

Blogging isn’t simply the dissemination of information. Rather it’s the joining of an ongoing, developing conversation about a niche. The more people you help, connect with, and pour into, the more you and your blogging influence will ultimately benefit.

READ GREAT BLOGS ON BLOGGING

Don’t read them all – you’ll go nuts. There are too many of them.

But some of my own favorites are:
WeBlogBetter.com (I started this one, but Kiesha Easley has taken it beyond my wildest dreams).
ProBlogger (A lot about earning money, but a lot about powerful networking too).
Copyblogger (A whole lot of longer posts about writing, communication, and marketing).
Fuel Your Blogging (I used to be the Editor, but Christopher is much better!).
Kikolani (She gathers together some of the best resources on the web).
Social Media Examiner (Not all about blogging, but the broader topic of social media, of which blogging is one part).
Chris Brogan (An expert who blogs his expertise rather freely).
Danny Brown (Few understand blogging activism like Danny).
Michael Hyatt (He understands blogging from the perspective of a respected publishing executive).
For Bloggers By Bloggers (A steady stream of great tips).
Blogussion (Another great site with great tips).
Hubspot offers another list of great blogs too.

JUMP IN!

Here’s my step-by-step guide to getting started with blogging in a half an hour or less. Understand that if you can get hosting, a domain, and a custom-designed WordPress theme, you’ll be better off in the long run. But this isn’t the long run. This is the moment of taking the plunge.

So here’s my challenge:
Sign up for an account at here.
Pick a nice theme that reflects the personality of your blog. You can change later, and even move your WordPress blog to a self-hosted platform. For now, pick something pretty.
Create an “About” page where you tell the world whom you are and other ways to connect with you (link to your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social profiles).Write a blog post. No, “This is your first blog post.” doesn’t count. Craft a catchy, attention-getting title and briefly pour your heart out.

Post the hyperlink on Twitter, Facebook, and wherever else you hang out online. Don’t be shy. Do it!

Oh, and below, in the comments, tell me where you blog! What would you add to what I’ve said (for the soon-to-be newbie bloggers)?

Source: BrandonACox.com

Entrepreneurship & Small Business

As a Budding Entrepreneur, Where Do You Start?

Michael Skok -
LinkedIn Influencer13 Jun 2013

I am often asked by prospective entrepreneurs how I got started and what they might learn from it.
But my answer is: “Don’t follow me.” Follow your own path by finding a problem worth solving that you are uniquely qualified to solve* and can get passionate about. Then have the persistence and patience to pursue it.

Problems

Passion

Persistence

Patience

Problems

Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.”
The key is to look around and get in front of a mega-trend and then look to solve a major problem or issue in order to fully leverage that trend. The good news is we don’t lack for major trends represented by multiple, multi-billion-dollar underlying markets.

Take for example:
Living in a Resource Constrained World:
The world population will grow by nearly 30% in our lifetimes to 9 billion people. Population growth stresses natural resources and it will be compounded by economic development across Asia, India and Africa – areas that are already stressed from a resource standpoint and by consumption per capita that is forecast to grow more rapidly than population, further straining resources.

Using energy as a proxy for other resources – today, the United States consumes twice as much oil as China. But as China’s total energy demand surges 60% in the next 15 years, it will consume 70% more total energy than the US.
Note that India, Indonesia and Brazil (just to name a few) have higher rates of growth in per capita energy consumption than even China.

According to the International Energy Administration, $620 billion a year in oil and gas investments are required just to fill this demand.
Thus, game-changing innovation and entrepreneurship is mandatory in areas like: solar, access to hard-to-get resources and low-cost energy storage systems.
There are problems of equal magnitude in food, water, electronics and healthcare – terrific opportunities for entrepreneurs and innovators.

Everything as a Service:
The “out-servicing” era:This is a revolutionary, highly-disruptive approach to technology and business models across multiple industries – all driven by software. Consider the post-PC era of tablets, mobile devices, and the “Internet of Things” – from cars to appliances to industrial equipment – that are connected to the cloud 24 x 7.
It will allow new entrepreneurs to zero in on their core value with laser precision – innovate there and outsource or as I call it “out-service” the rest.

It’s a major reason why the current $15 billion software-as-a-service revenue will leap to 10 times that as we move from discrete systems to continuous cloud services – another huge opportunity.

The Need To Scale Infrastructure:
In order to enable and support the “out-servicing” era, whether it’s cloud computing, big data or mobile, there’s an insatiable appetite for content and connectivity.
Today, there are about 9 billion mobile devices and that is forecast to grow to 50 billion connected devices in 2017.
In 2012, networks handled more mobile data traffic – than in all preceding years combined and yet it’s forecast to grow at a 66% compounded rate until 2020.
So, the opportunities to develop scalable, software-defined infrastructure, policy engines, data mining systems, content and applications from gaming, to education, medicine or wearable computers is huge going forward.
Know that along the way you will of course run into naysayers, challenges and even failure. To overcome those you will need a healthy dose of passion, persistence and patience.

Passion:
Pursue your passion, find your flow, trust your instincts.
In order to pursue these kinds of big problems, you will need to learn to tap your internal energy.
That energy may initially come from a basic need. For example, if you’re just starting out, it might be the need to pay off your student debt. And those needs are important if not critical.

But in time, I believe our passion is the sustainable source of positive energy.
If you’re not already aware of your passion, start by finding your flow.
Flow is literally that activity where you find yourself free flowing and lose track of time it’s so natural. Composers find it in music. Athletes find it competing.
Programmers find it coding. Where will you find yours? Here’s a paradox: you will only know when you find it because you will lose yourself in it. So it may take careful self-observation.

There’s a wonderful TED talk on this subject here.It can take time to find your true passion. Enjoy the journey, the exploration and the learning about yourself. As you navigate, you will build your compass that will help you find your true north, your true calling in life.
And precisely because you focused on and took time to find that passion, you will build the conviction and instinct to pursue it. And you will need that as many people and things may conspire to divert your flow.
Don’t let them; it will sap your energy. Eschew the cynics; find your own path to positive energy.

And always trust your gut instincts. They will ultimately serve you well, even though it may not be obvious at the time. Sometimes the hardest decisions are the best. And they may include what NOT to do. So often “less is more” in everything from products to life.
And in that vein, if the noise gets too great, keep taking things away until you find silence. Learn to meditate if necessary and in the peace, reconnect with your convictions. It is often in the pause or the gap that the “breakthrough thinking” has room to arise.

Persistence and Patience

Great entrepreneurs have a bias for action that’s admirable.
They get in the flow and focus on doing a few things well and build on success. They ask more questions than they answer, and they listen more than they talk. But even with all that it takes time to build something of impact and importance.
And while you may get lucky, luck is a poor basis to build a life on. By contrast, patience and persistence really do pay off.

On average in our business it takes 5-7 years to build a company of any significance. And typically even longer than that to build a sustainable, independent public company.

So, while I hope you’ll find a breakthrough to prove those averages wrong, be compassionate with yourself if you find it’s taking longer and proving harder than you thought.

In the immortal words of Winston Churchill “if you’re going through hell, keep going!”

Some of our greatest investments took longer and traveled more tortuous and twisted paths than we could ever have imagined but then ended up being bigger successes than we ever thought possible. If you can just get back in the flow and enjoy the ride, you may never want it to end and that’s the basis to build something really enduring.

Wishing you a life of entrepreneurship, passion and the persistence and patience to enjoy the journey!

*If you’re not sure what you are uniquely qualified to do or perhaps you are just starting out in life and have no experience, read this.

This column was originally published in Forbes.

Michael Skok is the creator of Startup Secrets. Held in conjunction with Harvard innovation lab, Startup Secrets is a series of workshops (taught by Michael) designed to create a framework for entrepreneurs to think through some of the key steps that could accelerate their success in starting a business.

MLM Top Earners Ranks Update March 2013 - Business For Home

Stephen Scott – The Team Building Project – Joins Empower Network

Ted Nuyten.
12 Jun 2013 

Stephen Scott is founder & CEO of The Team Building Project an organization with 36,000 members around the world.

The Team Building Project was conceived and developed by Stephen Scott, a proven Digital Marketing Expert with over 20 years of business development, web site design & architecture, database design, viral marketing, social networking and computer programming experience.

In addition, Stephen is considered a network marketing and MLM expert having successfully developed organizations in multiple countries.

Stephen: "Empower Network’s Viral Blogging System is the lucrative solution to a complicated online marketing world.

Empower Network offers world class marketing, business and life training from people who walk their talk and get results with what they teach.

The company also hosts one of the Internet’s largest publishing platforms and content networks for bloggers and content marketers.

The Empower Network provides several different products.

The first is the blogging platform and Fast Track training series.

The blog is set up instantly when you join and optimized, all you have to do is create content.

The blogging system comes with a series of eight Fast Track training videos.

Empower Network provides an in-depth explanation of how and why the blogging platform works.

Empower Network also covers some core business principles that will help in your new success blog. The blogging system and eight Fast Track videos are only $25 per month.

The second program is the audio series of interviews with industry experts is called the Inner Circle. The Inner Circle is a library of audios which feature a lot of good information from industry experts, the Empower Network founders and successful Empower Network team members.

This is everything you need to get started!And we have an affiliate program for marketers that pays YOU epic 100% commissions!

You want to join? Click here!!

Are You Allergic to Your Company?

Summary:

Sometimes you need to step away from your company.... Don't ever overlook the importance of meeting with the leaders in your industry. Your business always benefits from their insight one way or another.

Read on for more...

I remember when a mastermind meeting where something incredibly strange, something that has never happened to me before went down.

I'll explain in a few as it's implications have a direct effect on your business, but first . . .
I want to say simply, that the reason I was to meet and mastermind with other business builders. To be in such an environment is crucial to your success.

Why?

Two reasons . . .
First, you're in a new environment that will afford you the opportunity to think outside of your regular box of business building.
Every time I put myself in such a position I come away with new insights that directly effect my bank account.
Sometimes it's not from exactly what was said, but rather the insights spring from being the environment itself.
I can't tell you how many times the answer that was alluding me for months simply popped up at a meeting like this. If you are serious about reaching the pinnacles of your success - making millions, or simply being on the cutting edge at all times
I highly suggest you do the same.

Second, because the online world can be very myopic - you against the world.
When things aren't going right it's easy, when it's just you, to think you're the only one. Only when you continually meet with other high level success seekers do you truly see and comprehend that your problems aren't so individual and gain strength in that insight.
Only in such an environment can you calm down, refocus, and realize that "all is well" and charge forward.

But to my strange day . . .
The second day of our little meeting something that has never happened to my before in my life happened.
I walked into the meeting room about 10 minutes early for our 8:30 am start and started sneezing. Nothing new here . . .
But what was strange is the sneezing never stopped. It got so bad that I had to go back to the room and take a nap.
Even then, when I awoke I was still sneezing.I missed more than half the day going through this craziness.
Even in the afternoon when we reconvened I was still sneezing.

I was allergic to something, and it frustrated the heck out of me. I wanted to be in the room learning and growing with the other participants, but my allergies wouldn't let me.

In your business, understand that there is a very real possibility that the same exact thing is happening to you.
Sure, you're not sneezing your head off like I was, but there very well could be something that is keeping you back.
So many people I've consulted with are quite literally allergic to something in their business, and they don't even know it. The result is less than the result they'd like.

For some, it's that they are not in the RIGHT business for them. Meaning they're not putting themselves into a vehicle best suited for their unique talents and abilities.
For others, they're listening to the wrong advice. Just because your upline "says" do something doesn't make it the best possible solution for you to create wealth.

In fact, it could be the very thing holding you back. Let nothing stop you.
When I was sneezing the only way for me to know that it was, in fact, the hotel we stayed in was to leave and see how my body reacted to a different environment.
Maybe the same advice would do you well. Maybe it's not you that's holding you back. Maybe it's your company or your upline, but you won't know unless you take a step back to see.

Pull yourself out . . . Look at the situation analytically. Try a few new things on your own, and just maybe you'll find that you were allergic to something you didn't even know.
That the effort you exerted was right, but where and how was way off.

Well if so, fix this one thing and you're on easy street.There is no greater truth than to understand that JUST because you're in a business doesn't mean it's the right business for you.

Take sometime to really think about this today . . .

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Http://www.empowernetwork.com/almostasecret.php?id=debagta12

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate's own marketing efforts. The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as 'retailer' or 'brand'), the network (that contains offers for the affiliate to choose from and also takes care of the payments), the publisher (also known as 'the affiliate'), and the customer. The market has grown in complexity, resulting in the emergence of a secondary tier of players, including affiliate management agencies, super-affiliates and specialized third party vendors. Affiliate marketing overlaps with other Internet marketing methods to some degree, because affiliates often use regular advertising methods. Those methods include organic search engine optimization (SEO), paidsearch engine marketing (PPC - Pay Per Click), e-mail marketing, content marketing and in some sense display advertising. On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques, such as publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.Affiliate marketing is commonly confused with referral marketing, as both forms of marketing use third parties to drive sales to the retailer.However, both are distinct forms of marketing and the main difference between them is that affiliate marketing relies purely on financial motivations to drive sales while referral marketing relies on trust and personal relationships to drive sales.[ Affiliate marketing is frequently overlooked by advertisers. While search engines, e-mail, and website syndication capture much of the attention of online retailers, affiliate marketing carries a much lower profile. Still, affiliates continue to play a significant role in e-retailers' marketing strategies. Click Here!

Affiliate Marketing Trademark Bidding

Trademark bidding Affiliates were among the earliest adopters of pay per click advertising when the first pay-per-click search engines emerged during the end of the 1990s. Later in 2000 Google launched its pay per click service, Google AdWords, which is responsible for the widespread use and acceptance of pay per click as an advertising channel. An increasing number of merchants engaged in pay per click advertising, either directly or via a search marketing agency, and realized that this space was already well-occupied by their affiliates. Although this situation alone created advertising channel conflicts and debates between advertisers and affiliates, the largest issue concerned affiliates bidding on advertisers names, brands, and trademarks. Several advertisers began to adjust their affiliate program terms to prohibit their affiliates from bidding on those type of keywords. Some advertisers, however, did and still do embrace this behavior, going so far as to allow, or even encourage, affiliates to bid on any term, including the advertiser's trade marks. And some affiliates abuse it by bidding on those terms by excluding the location of the advertiser alone in many Search engines. Lack of self-regulation and collaboration This section's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions.  (August 2009)Affiliate marketing is driven by entrepreneurs who are working at the edge of Internet marketing. Affiliates are often the first to take advantage of emerging trends and technologies. The "trial and error" approach is probably the best way to describe the operation methods for affiliate marketers. This risky approach is one of the reasons why most affiliates fail or give up before they become successful "super affiliates", capable of generating US$10,000 or more per month in commission. This "frontier" life combined with the attitude found in such communities is likely the main reason why the affiliate marketing industry is unable to self-regulate beyond individual contracts between advertisers and affiliates. Affiliate marketing has experienced numerous failed attempts to create an industry organization or association of some kind that could be the initiator of regulations, standards, and guidelines for the industry. Some examples of failed regulation efforts are the Affiliate Union and iAfma.Online forums and industry trade shows are the only means for the different members from the industry—affiliates/publishers, merchants/advertisers, affiliate networks, third-party vendors, and service providers such as outsourced program managers—to congregate at one location. Online forums are free, enable small affiliates to have a larger say, and provide anonymity. Trade shows are cost-prohibitive to small affiliates because of the high price for event passes. Larger affiliates may even be sponsored by an advertiser they promote.Because of the anonymity of online forums, the quantitative majority of industry members are unable to create any form of legally binding rule or regulation that must be followed throughout the industry. Online forums have had very few successes as representing the majority of the affiliate marketing industry. The most recent example of such a success was the halt of the "Commission Junction Link Management Initiative" (CJ LMI) in June/July 2006, when a single network tried to impose the use of a Javascript tracking code as a replacement for common HTML links on its affiliates. Compensation Disclosure Bloggers and other publishers may not be aware of disclosure guidelines set forth by the FTC. Guidelines affect celebrity endorsements, advertising language, and blogger compensation. Lack of industry standards Certification and training Affiliate marketing currently lacks industry standards for training and certification. There are some training courses and seminars that result in certifications; however, the acceptance of such certifications is mostly due to the reputation of the individual or company issuing the certification. Affiliate marketing is not commonly taught in universities, and only a few college instructors work with Internet marketers to introduce the subject to students majoring in marketing. Education occurs most often in "real life" by becoming involved and learning the details as time progresses. Although there are several books on the topic, some so-called "how-to" or "silver bullet" books instruct readers to manipulate holes in the Google algorithm, which can quickly become out of date, or suggest strategies no longer endorsed or permitted by advertisers. Outsourced Program Management companies typically combine formal and informal training, providing much of their training through group collaboration and brainstorming. Such companies also try to send each marketing employee to the industry conference of their choice. Other training resources used include online forums, weblogs, podcasts, video seminars, and specialty websites. Code of conduct A code of conduct was released by affiliate networks Commission Junction/beFree and Performics in December 2002 to guide practices and adherence to ethical standards for online advertising. Marketing term Members of the marketing industry are recommending that "affiliate marketing" be substituted with an alternative name. Affiliate marketing is often confused with either network marketing or multi-level marketing.Performance marketing is a common alternative, but other recommendations have been made as well. Sales tax vulnerability In April 2008 the State of New York inserted an item in the state budget asserting sales tax jurisdiction over Amazon.com sales to residents of New York, based on the existence of affiliate links from New York–based websites to Amazon. The state asserts that even one such affiliate constitutes Amazon having a business presence in the state, and is sufficient to allow New York to tax all Amazon sales to state residents. Amazon challenged the amendment and lost at the trial level in January, 2009. The case is currently making its way through the New York appeals courts. Cookie stuffing Cookie stuffing involves placing an affiliate tracking cookie on a website visitor's computer without their knowledge, which will then generate revenue for the person doing the cookie stuffing. This not only generates fraudulent affiliate sales, but also has the potential to overwrite other affiliates' cookies, essentially stealing their legitimately earned commissions. Click to reveal Many voucher code web sites use a click-to-reveal format, which requires the web site user to click to reveal the voucher code. The action of clicking places the cookie on the website visitor's computer. The IAB have stated that "Affiliates must not use a mechanism whereby users are encouraged to click to interact with content where it is unclear or confusing what the outcome will be." Affiliate services Affiliate tracking softwareAffiliate programs directoriesAffiliate networks (see also Category:Internet advertising services and affiliate networks)Affiliate manager and Outsourced Program Management (OPM or APM) (manages affiliates)Category:Internet marketing trade shows

Affiliate Marketing Past And Current Issues

Past and current issues Since the emergence of affiliate marketing, there has been little control over affiliate activity. Unscrupulous affiliates have used spam, false advertising, forced clicks (to get tracking cookies set on users' computers),adware, and other methods to drive traffic to their sponsors. Although many affiliate programs have terms of service that contain rules against spam, this marketing method has historically proven to attract abuse from spammers. E-mail spam In the infancy of affiliate marketing, many Internet users held negative opinions due to the tendency of affiliates to use spam to promote the programs in which they were enrolled. As affiliate marketing matured, many affiliate merchants have refined their terms and conditions to prohibit affiliates from spamming. Search engine spam As search engines have become more prominent, some affiliate marketers have shifted from sending e-mail spam to creating automatically generated webpages that often contain product data feeds provided by merchants. The goal of such webpages is to manipulate the relevancy or prominence of resources indexed by a search engine, also known as spamdexing. Each page can be targeted to a different niche market through the use of specific keywords, with the result being a skewed form of search engine optimization.Spam is the biggest threat to organic search engines, whose goal is to provide quality search results for keywords or phrases entered by their users. Google's PageRank algorithm update ("BigDaddy") in February 2006—the final stage of Google's major update ("Jagger") that began in mid-summer 2005—specifically targeted spamdexing with great success. This update thus enabled Google to remove a large amount of mostly computer-generated duplicate content from its index. Websites consisting mostly of affiliate links have previously held a negative reputation for underdelivering quality content. In 2005 there were active changes made by Google, where certain websites were labeled as "thin affiliates". Such websites were either removed from Google's index or were relocated within the results page (i.e., moved from the top-most results to a lower position). To avoid this categorization, affiliate marketer webmasters must create quality content on their websites that distinguishes their work from the work of spammers or banner farms, which only contain links leading to merchant sites.Some commentators originally suggested that affiliate links work best in the context of the information contained within the website itself. For instance, if a website contains information pertaining to publishing a website, an affiliate link leading to a merchant's internet service provider (ISP) within that website's content would be appropriate. If a website contains information pertaining to sports, an affiliate link leading to a sporting goods website may work well within the context of the articles and information about sports. The goal in this case is to publish quality information within the website and provide context-oriented links to related merchant's websites.However, more recent examples exist of "thin" affiliate sites that are using the affiliate marketing model to create value for Consumers by offering them a service. These thin content service Affiliate fall into three categories:Price comparisonCause related marketingTime saving Consumer countermeasures The implementation of affiliate marketing on the internet relies heavily on various techniques built into the design of many web-pages and web-sites, and the use of calls to external domains to track user actions (click tracking, Ad Sense) and to serve up content (advertising) to the user. Most of this activity adds time[citation needed] and is generally a nuisance to the casual web-surfer and is seen as visual clutter.[citation needed] Various countermeasures have evolved over time to prevent or eliminate the appearance of advertising when a web-page is rendered. Third party programs (Ad Aware, SpyBot, pop-up blockers, etc.) and particularly, the use of a comprehensive HOSTS file can effectively eliminate the visual clutter and the extra time and bandwidth needed to render many web pages. The use of specific entries in the HOSTS file to block these well-known and persistent marketing and click-tracking domains can also aid in reducing a system's exposure to malware by preventing the content of infected advertising or tracking servers to reach a user's web-browser. Adware Although it differs from spyware, adware often uses the same methods and technologies. Merchants initially were uninformed about adware, what impact it had, and how it could damage their brands. Affiliate marketers became aware of the issue much more quickly, especially because they noticed that adware often overwrites tracking cookies, thus resulting in a decline of commissions. Affiliates not employing adware felt that it was stealing commission from them. Adware often has no valuable purpose and rarely provides any useful content to the user, who is typically unaware that such software is installed on his/her computer.Affiliates discussed the issues in Internet forums and began to organize their efforts. They believed that the best way to address the problem was to discourage merchants from advertising via adware. Merchants that were either indifferent to or supportive of adware were exposed by affiliates, thus damaging those merchants' reputations and tarnishing their affiliate marketing efforts. Many affiliates either terminated the use of such merchants or switched to a competitor's affiliate program. Eventually, affiliate networks were also forced by merchants and affiliates to take a stand and ban certain adware publishers from their network. The result wasCode of Conduct by Commission Junction/beFree and Performics,[26]LinkShare's Anti-Predatory Advertising Addendum,[27] and ShareASale's complete ban of software applications as a medium for affiliates to promote advertiser offers.[28] Regardless of the progress made, adware continues to be an issue, as demonstrated by the class action lawsuit against ValueClick and its daughter company Commission Junction filed on April 20, 2007. >

Affiliate Marketing From The Advertiser's Perspective

From the advertiser's perspective Pros and cons Merchants favor affiliate marketing because in most cases it uses a "pay for performance" model, meaning that the merchant does not incur a marketing expense unless results are accrued (excluding any initial setup cost). Some businesses owe much of their success to this marketing technique, a notable example being Amazon.com. Implementation options Some merchants run their own (in-house) affiliate programs using popular software while others use third-party services provided by intermediaries to track traffic or sales that are referred from affiliates (seeoutsourced program management). Merchants can choose from two different types of affiliate management solutions: standalone software or hosted services, typically called affiliate networks. Payouts to affiliates or publishers are either made by the networks on behalf of the merchant, by the network, consolidated across all merchants where the publisher has a relationship with and earned commissions or directly by the merchant itself. Affiliate management and program management outsourcing Main article: Affiliate managerSuccessful affiliate programs require significant work and maintenance. Having a successful affiliate program is more difficult than when such programs were just emerging. With the exception of some vertical markets, it is rare for an affiliate program to generate considerable revenue with poor management or no management ("auto-drive").Uncontrolled affiliate programs did still do aid rogue affiliates, who use spamming, trademark infringement, false advertising, "cookie cutting"[citation needed], typosquatting, and other unethical methods that have given affiliate marketing a negative reputation.The increased number of Internet businesses and the increased number of people that trust the current technology enough to shop and do business online allows further maturation of affiliate marketing.The opportunity to generate a considerable amount of profit combined with a crowded marketplace filled with competitors of equal quality and size makes it more difficult for merchants to be noticed. In this environment, however, being noticed can yield greater rewards.Recently, the Internet marketing industry has become more advanced. In some areas online media has been rising to the sophistication of offline media, in which advertising has been largely professional and competitive. There are significantly more requirements that merchants must meet to be successful, and those requirements are becoming too burdensome for the merchant to manage successfully in-house.An increasing number of merchants are seeking alternative options found in relatively new outsourced (affiliate) program management (OPM) companies, which are often founded by veteran affiliate managers andnetwork program managers. OPM companies perform affiliate program management for the merchants as a service, similar to advertising agencies promoting a brand or product as done in offline marketing. Types of affiliate websites Affiliate websites are often categorized by merchants (advertisers) and affiliate networks. There are currently no industry-wide standards for the categorization. The following types of websites are generic, yet are commonly understood and used by affiliate marketers.Search affiliates that utilize pay per click search engines to promote the advertisers' offers (i.e., search arbitrage)Comparison shopping websites and directoriesLoyalty websites, typically characterized by providing a reward system for purchases via points back, cash backCRM sites that offer charitable donationsCoupon and rebate websites that focus on sales promotionsContent and niche market websites, including product review sitesPersonal websitesWeblogs and website syndication feedsE-mail list affiliates (i.e., owners of large opt-in -mail lists that typically employ e-mail drip marketing) and newsletter list affiliates, which are typically more content-heavyRegistration path or co-registration affiliates who include offers from other merchants during the registration process on their own websiteShopping directories that list merchants by categories without providing coupons, price comparisons, or other features based on information that changes frequently, thus requiring continual updatesCost per action networks (i.e., top-tier affiliates) that expose offers from the advertiser with which they are affiliated to their own network of affiliatesWebsites using adbars (e.g. AdSense) to display context-sensitive, highly relevant ads for products on the siteVirtual Currency: a new type of publisher that utilizes the social media space to couple an advertiser's offer with a handout of "virtual currency" in a game or virtual platform.Video Blog: Video content that allows viewers to click on and purchase products related to the video's subject.File-Sharing: Web sites that host directories of music, movies, games and other software. Users upload content to file-hosting sites, and then post descriptions of the material and their download links on directory sites. Uploaders are paid by the file-hosting sites based on the number of times their files are downloaded. The file-hosting sites sell premium download access to the files to the general public. The web sites that host the directory services sell advertising and do not host the files themselves. Publisher recruitment Affiliate networks that already have several advertisers typically also have a large pool of publishers. These publishers could be potentially recruited, and there is also an increased chance that publishers in the network apply to the program on their own, without the need for recruitment efforts by the advertiser.Relevant websites that attract the same target audiences as the advertiser but without competing with it are potential affiliate partners as well. Vendors or existing customers can also become recruits if doing so makes sense and does not violate any laws or regulations.Almost any website could be recruited as an affiliate publisher, but high-traffic websites are more likely interested in (for their own sake) low-risk cost per mille or medium-risk cost per click deals rather than higher-risk cost per action or revenue share deals. Locating affiliate programs There are three primary ways to locate affiliate programs for a target website:Affiliate program directories,Large affiliate networks that provide the platform for dozens or even hundreds of advertisers, andThe target website itself. (Websites that offer an affiliate program often have a link titled "affiliate program", "affiliates", "referral program", or "webmasters"—usually in the footer or "About" section of the website.)If the above locations do not yield information pertaining to affiliates, it may be the case that there exists a non-public affiliate program. Utilizing one of the common website correlation methods may provide clues about the affiliate network. The most definitive method for finding this information is to contact the website owner directly, if a contact method can be located.

Affiliate Marketing Compensation Methods

Compensation methods Predominant compensation methods Eighty percent of affiliate programs today use revenue sharing or pay per sale (PPS) as a compensation method, nineteen percent use cost per action (CPA), and the remaining programs use other methods such as cost per click (CPC) or cost per mille (CPM, cost per estimated 1000 views).[citation needed] Diminished compensation methods Within more mature markets, less than one percent of traditional affiliate marketing programs today use cost per click and cost per mille. However, these compensation methods are used heavily in display advertisingand paid search.Cost per mille requires only that the publisher make the advertising available on his website and display it to his visitors in order to receive a commission. Pay per click requires one additional step in the conversionprocess to generate revenue for the publisher: A visitor must not only be made aware of the advertisement, but must also click on the advertisement to visit the advertiser's website.Cost per click was more common in the early days of affiliate marketing, but has diminished in use over time due to click fraud issues very similar to the click fraud issues modern search engines are facing today. Contextual advertising programs are not considered in the statistic pertaining to diminished use of cost per click, as it is uncertain if contextual advertising can be considered affiliate marketing.While these models have diminished in mature e-commerce and online advertising markets they are still prevalent in some more nascent industries. China is one example where Affiliate Marketing does not overtly resemble the same model in the West. With many affiliates being paid a flat "Cost Per Day" with some networks offering Cost Per Click or CPM. Performance/Affiliate marketing In the case of cost per mille/click, the publisher is not concerned about a visitor being a member of the audience that the advertiser tries to attract and is able to convert, because at this point the publisher has already earned his commission. This leaves the greater, and, in case of cost per mille, the full risk and loss (if the visitor can not be converted) to the advertiser.Cost per action/sale methods require that referred visitors do more than visit the advertiser's website before the affiliate receives commission. The advertiser must convert that visitor first. It is in the best interest for the affiliate to send the most closely targeted traffic to the advertiser as possible to increase the chance of a conversion. The risk and loss is shared between the affiliate and the advertiser.Affiliate marketing is also called "performance marketing", in reference to how sales employees are typically being compensated. Such employees are typically paid a commission for each sale they close, and sometimes are paid performance incentives for exceeding objectives. Affiliates are not employed by the advertiser whose products or services they promote, but the compensation models applied to affiliate marketing are very similar to the ones used for people in the advertisers' internal sales department.The phrase, "Affiliates are an extended sales force for your business", which is often used to explain affiliate marketing, is not completely accurate. The primary difference between the two is that affiliate marketers provide little if any influence on a possible prospect in the conversion process once that prospect is directed to the advertiser's website. The sales team of the advertiser, however, does have the control and influence up to the point where the prospect signs the contract or completes the purchase. Multi-tier programs Some advertisers offer multi-tier programs that distribute commission into a hierarchical referral network of sign-ups and sub-partners. In practical terms, publisher "A" signs up to the program with an advertiser and gets rewarded for the agreed activity conducted by a referred visitor. If publisher "A" attracts publishers "B" and "C" to sign up for the same program using his sign-up code, all future activities performed by publishers "B" and "C" will result in additional commission (at a lower rate) for publisher "A".Two-tier programs exist in the minority of affiliate programs; most are simply one-tier. Referral programs beyond two-tier resemble multi-level marketing (MLM) or network marketing but are different: Multi-level marketing (MLM) or network marketing associations tend to have more complex commission requirements/qualifications than standard affiliate programs.

Affiliate Marketing History

History Origin The concept of affiliate marketing on the Internet was conceived of, put into practice and patented by William J. Tobin, the founder of PC Flowers & Gifts. Launched on the Prodigy Network in 1989, PC Flowers & Gifts remained on the service until 1996. By 1993, PC Flowers & Gifts generated sales in excess of $6 million per year on the Prodigy service. In 1998, PC Flowers and Gifts developed the business model of paying a commission on sales to The Prodigy network. In 1994, Tobin launched a beta version of PC Flowers & Gifts on the Internet in cooperation with IBM, who owned half of Prodigy (Reference-PC Week Article Jan 9, 1995). By 1995 PC Flowers & Gifts had launched a commercial version of the website and had 2,600 affiliate marketing partners on the World Wide Web. Tobin applied for a patent on tracking and affiliate marketing on January 22, 1996 and was issued U.S. Patent number 6,141,666 on Oct 31, 2000. Tobin also received Japanese Patent number 4021941 on Oct 5, 2007 and U.S. Patent number 7,505,913 on Mar 17, 2009 for affiliate marketing and tracking (Reference-Business Wire-Jan, 24, 2000). In July 1998 PC Flowers and Gifts merged with Fingerhut and Federated Department Stores (Reference- Business Wire- March 31, 1999). On March 9, 2009 Tobin assigned his patents to the Tobin Family Education and Health Foundation. The Foundation licenses the patents to many of the largest affiliate marketing companies in the US and Japan. Tobin discusses the P.C Flowers & Gifts service on the Internet as well as the other nine companies he has founded in his book entitled “Confessions Of A Compulsive Entrepreneur And Inventor”. The concept of revenue sharing—paying commission for referred business—predates affiliate marketing and the Internet. The translation of the revenue share principles to mainstream e-commerce happened in November 1994, almost four years after the origination of the World Wide Web. Cybererotica was among the early innovators in affiliate marketing with a cost per click program. In November 1994, CDNOW launched its BuyWeb program. CDNOW had the idea that music-oriented websites could review or list albums on their pages that their visitors might be interested in purchasing. These websites could also offer a link that would take visitors directly to CDNOW to purchase the albums. The idea for remote purchasing originally arose from conversations with music label Geffen Records in the fall of 1994. The management at Geffen wanted to sell its artists' CD's directly from its website, but did not want to implement this capability itself. Geffen asked CDNOW if it could design a program where CDNOW would handle theorder fulfillment. Geffen realized that CDNOW could link directly from the artist on its website to Geffen's website, bypassing the CDNOW home page and going directly to an artist's music page. Amazon.com (Amazon) launched its associate program in July 1996: Amazon associates could place banner or text links on their site for individual books, or link directly to the Amazon home page. When visitors clicked from the associate's website to Amazon and purchased a book, the associate received a commission. Amazon was not the first merchant to offer an affiliate program, but its program was the first to become widely known and serve as a model for subsequent programs. In February 2000, Amazon announced that it had been granted a patent on components of an affiliate program. The patent application was submitted in June 1997, which predates most affiliate programs, but not PC Flowers & Gifts.com (October 1994), AutoWeb.com (October 1995), Kbkids.com/BrainPlay.com (January 1996), EPage (April 1996), and several others. Historic development Affiliate marketing has grown quickly since its inception. The e-commerce website, viewed as a marketing toy in the early days of the Internet, became an integrated part of the overall business plan and in some cases grew to a bigger business than the existing offline business. According to one report, the total sales amount generated through affiliate networks in 2006 was £2.16 billion in the United Kingdom alone. The estimates were £1.35 billion in sales in 2005. MarketingSherpa's research team estimated that, in 2006, affiliates worldwide earned US$6.5 billion in bounty and commissions from a variety of sources in retail, personal finance, gaming and gambling, travel, telecom, education, publishing, and forms of lead generation other than contextual advertising programs. In 2006, the most active sectors for affiliate marketing were the adult, gambling, retail industries and file-sharing services. The three sectors expected to experience the greatest growth are the mobile phone, finance, and travel sectors. Soon after these sectors came the entertainment (particularly gaming) and Internet-related services (particularly broadband) sectors. Also several of the affiliate solution providers expect to see increased interest from business-to-business marketers and advertisers in using affiliate marketing as part of their mix. Web 2.0 Websites and services based on Web 2.0 concepts—blogging and interactive online communities, for example—have impacted the affiliate marketing world as well. The new media allowed merchants to become closer to their affiliates and improved the communication between them.Web 2.0 platforms have also opened affiliate marketing channels to personal bloggers, writers, and independent website owners. Regardless of web traffic, size, or business age, programs through Google, LinkShare,Clickbank and Amazon allow publishers at all levels of web traffic to place contextual ads in blog posts.Forms of new media have also diversified how companies, brands, and ad networks serve ads to visitors. For instance, YouTube allows video-makers to embed advertisements through Google's affiliate network.

The Internship

Entrepreneur How to Build a Culture Like Google: 7 Practical Ideas From 'The Internship'   In The Internship, the comedy feature film that portrays two middle-aged, unemployed salesmen competing for jobs at Google, actor Vince Vaughn’s character tells his former boss something that is sure to resonate with entrepreneurs. “We’ve had lots of jobs," he says. "We’re trying to build a future.” The summer flick, which arrives in theaters today, was filmed on site at Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. As the first production ever allowed to shoot there, The Internship offers a rare peek into the corporate campus and its culture. “It was fun filming at Google. It was like the chocolate factory; it was crazy!” said Vaughn of the tech company’s facilities at a special screening in New York City. “Google had a sense of humor. It’s better than us calling it ‘Snoogle,’ so it’s good that they let us use the real place.” That real place, real name and those real company values are well-represented in the movie. Here are seven lessons from the lighthearted romp about how to build a company culture like Google's -- without a billion-dollar budget:  1. Don’t skimp on the office decor. Vaughn and co-star Owen Wilson spend their summer surrounded by ping pong tables, gourmet food courts, colorful bikes, an outdoor volleyball court and a giant slide. “It was like being at an all-inclusive resort because the food was free,” joked Vaughn. “They had nap pods that looked like Qantas Airlines!” To simulate this environment in your business without spending a fortune, opt for an open workspace with brightly painted walls, meeting rooms that inspire creativity with whiteboards and couches, and a distinct space for relaxation -- nap pods optional. 2. Articulate your company's unique identity. The film contends that the secret to working at Google is possessing an innate sense of “Googleyness.” A Google spokeswoman who worked on the film explains: “We believe in having a collaborative, vibrant culture where people work really hard, but they still like to have fun as well. We are a serious company, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously, which is one reason that we decided to collaborate on this project in the first place.” Bring your team together by identifying what your company stands for and communicating it to employees. And consider showing off your company's personality in job postings to attract the right candidates. 3. Make your new-hire orientation a celebration. On the first day of Vaughn and Wilson’s internship, all the summer recruits mingle at a meet-and-greet and in a series of introductory seminars, complete with goofy, spinning hats with the brand’s logo. Putting together a fun welcome event, such as picnic or ice cream social, can help ensure that every new hire authentically feels part of the team. Related: To Boost Efficiency, Rethink Company Culture 4. Engage employees with learning initiatives. In the film, Wilson’s character accidentally attends a lecture on HTML5, which mirrors Google’s Tech Talks that feature anyone from an innovator in the health sciences to a chef releasing a new book. "Google is a lot like a university campus," says the company spokeswoman. A business is only as strong as its team, so it's important to continue investing in your employees long after you've hired them. Put together an informal speaker series where upper-level team members share their success stories. Invite experts in a related field to the office for an industry update, or attend local seminars as a group. 5. Create team challenges to motivate employees. Wilson and Vaughn find themselves fumbling through several tech-based challenges throughout their summer internship. Spurring innovation through healthy competition among groups of co-workers can be effective off-screen, too. Consider creating a monthly challenge in the office, or build team bonds with recreational activities, such as a company softball league. Vaughn said of real-life Googlers, “They played that game Quidditch -- like for real, an intramural game.” 6. Provide sales training and exposure to every worker. After the film’s tech-savvy interns compete to create a new app, the final two challenges focus on customer service and sales. By exposing every member of the team, no matter what their position in the company, to these two critical areas of the business, everyone remembers that the customer always comes first. Even the best product on the shelves won’t sell itself. 7. Use your internship program to develop talent. You won't see Vaughn or Wilson fetching coffee, making copies or running menial errands in The Internship. If those are your current intern assignments, hire an administrative assistant and refocus on shaping these potential new hires who could push your company forward. Making this change also gives the interns what they really want. "Try and stay enthusiastic," Vaughn advised the screening’s audience of summer interns. "Even if you get a boss that’s kind of a jerk or doesn’t recognize that you’re doing good, still try to get what you came for, which is the experience.”  Ashley Lee

Network Marketing

The Bottom-line: Recruiting and Sponsoring Not gonna beat around the bush today… How would you feel about your business if you began sponsoring 5-10 new people every month? It takes work, but I have a formula that I have used in 3 different companies over my 20+ years in the industry. In fact, I used the formula to sponsor over 100 people in 9 months and I was named # 1 recruiter in all three companies (one had over 50,000 reps). But the best part about it is that I came up with the formula because I was scared to death to talk to people about my business. I would sometimes even go out of my way to not bump into people at the grocery store because I didn’t want to feel the pressure of bringing up my business to them. I bet a lot of you feel the same way. I am going to share my simple recruiting solution with those of you who take advantage of our Internet Marketing Crash Course - it is somewhat Internet related, but even if you have zero tech skills, this strategy will work for you. There is also a sweet new countdown on the Crash Course page that will tell you two things about the course… 1. When the webinars start. 2. When the doors close. Grab your spot for the Crash Course here: Ty Tribble

Social Media

Facebook to Simplify and Consolidate Its Ad Options This week's need-to-know social-media news. Facebook is dramatically scaling back the number of advertising options it offers to marketers. The social network plans to cut more than half of the 27 ad formats it currently offers and to combine the various types of sponsored stories -- ads that appear in a user's News Feed and resemble normal posts -- into a single kind of ad. Facebook is also doing away with the ecommerce aspect of Facebook Offers, a means for businesses to share discounts and other special deals with customers. In the future, businesses will only be able to advertise in-store deals, not promotions that would lead users away from Facebook to an online store. These changes will be rolling out over the next six months, Facebook says. Once they do, advertisers will first be asked what purpose they want their ad to serve, rather than being confronted with a bewildering array of ad formats. "You are going to pick an objective. Based on that, we will show you a range of formats," said Fidji Simo, Facebook's product manager for ads. The goal, Facebook says, is to eliminate redundancies among its ad options and to make it easier for small- and medium-size businesses to advertise on its platform. –    The New York Times Twitter releases Vine for Android. Since Vine was created in January, the six-second looping video tool has only been available to iOS users. Starting this week, Android users can also download the popular app, which includes features such as a zoom function that isn't available in the iOS version.  Twitter plans to continue updating the app with new features, such as a front-facing camera option and the ability to post Vines to Facebook. The company also has "exciting plans" for features that will be unique to the Android platform, Sara Haider, an Android engineer at Twitter, wrote in the announcement.  -- SocialTimesGeo-targeted tweets may be better than search at driving sales. When it comes to customers discovering your brand, at least one company thinks Twitter can be more useful than search engines. Andy Murray, a search marketing manager for tech giant Lenovo, says geo-targeted Twitter ads "can outperform search" when it comes to getting customers. A new Twitter case study details how Lenovo U.K. used two Twitter ad types -- Promoted Accounts, to gain more followers, and Promoted Tweets, to increase visibility -- to drive engagement and sales during a large consumer trade show. The strategy led to $27,000 in revenue from tweets, 2,576 new followers for @lenovo_uk and an almost 700 percent increase in mentions of the Lenovo brand. As Twitter continues to supercharge its ad efforts, Murray's ringing endorsement is a sign of just how competitive Twitter might be.    -- VentureBeatPinterest adds search to pinboards. Pinterest has added a long-overdue feature: the ability for users to search their own pinboards. Previously, a user had to scroll through what might be hundreds of pins to find, say, that one pair of pants he or she had bookmarked for purchase. Now users can do keyword searches to find them without scanning an entire pinboard. The feature is now available on the web app and will be coming to the mobile version soon.    --AllThingsDWith 'mayor vs. bear' tweets, a Connecticut mayor scores a viral hit. Mayor Mark Boughton spotted a black bear in a tree in his town of Danbury, Conn., and decided to live tweet what happened. His series of pun-filled tweets -- "Please 'bear' with us as we work on the situation," read one --went viral. Boughton is known locally for his odd, casual Twitter style. "Hey peeps, water main break on Well Ave," he&n bsp;began a recent public service announcement. Business owners could take a lesson from Boughton's Twitter personality to learn how to be more relatable -- and funny -- on social media. -- 10,000 Words Brian Patrick Eha

Most Innovarive Small Busines of 2013

10 of the Most Innovative Small Businesses of 2013 Daniel Bukszpan - CNBC8 Jun 2013 No matter how far the marketplace advances, there will always be problems that plague consumers and that no company can seem to solve. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because it creates a niche for the right company to fill. For example, motorists experience considerable straining when cleaning their windshields from the inside. So the makers of the Windshield Wonder saw an opportunity to address an unaddressed problem, a successful product was born, and the rest is history. Small businesses can experience great success and expand their operations when they find innovative solutions to common problems. Often, it can mean cultivating a loyal and much-needed customer base, which any small business needs in order to sustain itself and grow. What follows is a list of 10 innovative small businesses that are making their mark this year with inventive products. Read ahead to see what they are. Yardarm Technologies image credit: Yardarm Technologies Gun legislation has always been a front-and-center topic in the U.S., but it reached a fever pitch in the months following the tragic events in Aurora, Colo. and Newtown, Conn. But while politicians have been trying without success to find a solution, Yardarm Technologies has come up with a high-tech idea--a wireless controller that allows gun owners to disable a weapon remotely. If a gun is moved, an alarm is triggered on the owner's phone, and he or she can then disable the weapon remotely. An Associated Press report said that the technology would cost gun owners an extra $50 per weapon, while the service itself would carry a $12 annual fee. Systems and Materials Research Consultancy image credit: SMRC 3-D printing is a technology that fabricates objects based on a digital model. It made headlines in 2012 when a company called Defense Distributed created the world's first 3-D-printed gun, but Systems and Materials Research Consultancy is currently researching ways to use it to fabricate food. NASA awarded the Austin, Texas-based company a Small Business Innovation Research grant of $125,000to develop food to be printed for space missions. Senior mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor said that the technology could someday be used to address world hunger.

Empower Network

Almost a Secret

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing Viral marketing, viral advertising, or marketing buzz are buzzwords referring to marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks and other technologies to produce increases in brand awareness or to achieve other marketing objectives (such as product sales) through self-replicating viral processes, analogous to the spread of viruses or computer viruses (cf. Internet memes and memetics). It can be delivered by word of mouth or enhanced by the network effects of theInternet and mobile networks. Viral marketing may take the form of video clips, interactive Flash games, advergames, ebooks, brandable software, images, text messages, email messages, or web pages. The most common utilized transmission vehicles for viral messages include: pass-along based, incentive based, trendy based, and undercover based. However, the creative nature of viral marketing enables an "endless amount of potential forms and vehicles the messages can utilize for transmission", including mobile devices. The ultimate goal of marketers interested in creating successful viral marketing programs is to create viral messages that appeal to individuals with high social networking potential (SNP) and that have a high probability of being presented and spread by these individuals and their competitors in their communications with others in a short period of time. The term "VRL marketing" has also been used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaigns—the unscrupulous use of astroturfing online combined with undermarket advertising[clarification needed] in shopping centers to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm. History The emergence of "viral marketing," as an approach to sales, has been tied to the popularization of the notion that ideas spread like viruses. The field that developed around this notion, memetics, peaked in popularity in the 1990s. As this then began to influence marketing gurus, it took on a life of its own in that new context.There is debate on the origination and the popularization of the specific term viral marketing, though some of the earliest uses of the current term are attributed to the Harvard Business School graduate Tim Draper and faculty member Jeffrey Rayport. The term was later popularized by Rayport in the 1996 Fast Companyarticle "The Virus of Marketing,"and Tim Draper and Steve Jurvetson of the venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson in 1997 to describe Hotmail's practice of appending advertising to outgoing mail from their users. Among the first to write about viral marketing on the Internet was the media critic Doug Rushkoff. The assumption is that if such an advertisement reaches a "susceptible" user, that user becomes "infected" (i.e., accepts the idea) and shares the idea with others "infecting them," in the viral analogy's terms. As long as each infected user shares the idea with more than one susceptible user on average (i.e., the basic reproductive rate is greater than one—the standard inepidemiology for qualifying something as an epidemic), the number of infected users grows according to an exponential curve. Of course, the marketing campaign may be successful even if the message spreads more slowly, if this user-to-user sharing is sustained by other forms of marketing communications, such as public relations or advertising.[citation needed]Bob Gerstley was among the first to write about algorithms designed to identify people with high "social networking potential." Gerstley employed SNP algorithms in quantitative marketing research. In 2004, the concept of the alpha user was coined to indicate that it had now become possible to identify the focal members of any viral campaign, the "hubs" who were most influential. Alpha users could be targeted for advertising purposes most accurately in mobile phonenetworks, due to their personal nature.[citation needed]In early 2013 the first ever Viral Summit was held in Las Vegas. It attempted to identify similar trends in viral marketing methods for various media. Methods and metrics This section's factual accuracy may be compromised due to out-of-date information. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.  (January 2013)According to marketing professors Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein, to make viral marketing work, three basic criteria must be met, i.e., giving the right message to the right messengers in the right environment:Messenger: Three specific types of messengers are required to ensure the transformation of an ordinary message into a viral one: market mavens, social hubs, and salespeople. Market mavens are individuals who are continuously ‘on the pulse’ of things (information specialists); they are usually among the first to get exposed to the message and who transmit it to their immediate social network. Social hubs are people with an exceptionally large number of social connections; they often know hundreds of different people and have the ability to serve as connectors or bridges between different subcultures. Salespeople might be needed who receive the message from the market maven, amplify it by making it more relevant and persuasive, and then transmit it to the social hub for further distribution. Market mavens may not be particularly convincing in transmitting the information.Message: Only messages that are both memorable and sufficiently interesting to be passed on to others have the potential to spur a viral marketing phenomenon. Making a message more memorable and interesting or simply more infectious, is often not a matter of major changes but minor adjustments.Environment: The environment is crucial in the rise of successful viral marketing – small changes in the environment lead to huge results, and people are much more sensitive to environment. The timing and context of the campaign launch must be right.Whereas Kaplan, Haenlein and others reduce the role of marketers to crafting the initial viral message and seeding it, futurist and sales and marketing analyst Marc Feldman, who conducted IMT Strategies’ landmark viral marketing study in 2001, carves a different role for marketers which pushes the ‘art’ of viral marketing much closer to 'science.'Feldman points out that when marketers take a disciplined approach to viral marketing by targeting, measuring and continually optimizing their campaigns based on campaign metrics, viral marketing transforms the customer into a new sales channel, a new lead generation channel and a new awareness generating channel. Feldman's innovative reconceptualization of viral marketers went a long way towards making "viral marketing" a strategy that sales and marketing directors at Fortune 500 and Global 1000 companies could legitimately invest in. This disciplined approach to viral marketing that Feldman first carved out, pointed the way towards measuring the ROI of every viral marketing campaign and thus making a real business case for investing in viral marketing. The customer-as-a-sales-channel approach to viral marketing went on to become the foundation for an explosion of technology enabled viral marketing services offered online, offline and in blended hybrid approaches. Methods Viral marketing often involves and utilizes:Customer participation and polling servicesIndustry-specific organization contributionsInternet search engines and blogsMobile smartphone integrationMultiple forms of print and direct marketingTarget marketing web servicesSearch engine optimization (SEO)Social media optimization (SMO)Television and radioViral target marketing is based on three important principles: Social profile gatheringProximity market analysisReal-time key word density analysisBy applying these three important disciplines to an advertising model, a VMS company is able to match a client with their targeted customers at a cost effective advantage.The Internet makes it possible for a campaign to go viral very fast; it can, so to speak, make a brand famous overnight. However, the Internet and social media technologies themselves do not make a brand viral; they just enable people to share content to other people faster. Therefore, it is generally agreed that a campaign must typically follow a certain set of guidelines in order to potentially be successful: It must be appealing to most of the audience.It must be worth sharing with friends and family.A large platform, e.g. YouTube or Facebook must be used. An initial boost to gain attention is used, e.g. seeding, buying views, or sharing to Facebook fans.The content is of good quality. Social networking The growth of social networking has significantly contributed to the effectiveness of viral marketing. As of 2009, two thirds of the world's Internet population visits a social network or blog site at least every week.Facebook alone has over 1 billion active users. In 2009, time spent visiting social media sites began to exceed time spent emailing. A 2010 study found that 52% of people who view news online forward it on through social networks, email, or posts. Notable examples The Ponzi scheme and related investment pyramid schemes are early examples of viral marketing. In each round, investors are paid interest from the principal deposits of later investors. Early investors enthusiastically recruit their friends, generating exponential growth until the pool of available investors is tapped out and the scheme collapses. Early in its existence, the television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 had limited distribution. The producers encouraged viewers to make copies of the show on video tapes and give them to friends in order to expand viewership and increase demand for the fledgling Comedy Central network. During this period the closing credits included the words "Keep circulating the tapes!" Between 1996/1997, Hotmail was one of the first internet business’s to become extremely successful utilizing viral marketing techniques by inserting the tagline “Get your free e-mail at Hotmail” at the bottom of every e-mail sent out by its users. Hotmail was able to sign up 12 million users in 18 months. At the time, this was historically the fastest growth of any user based media company. By the time Hotmail reached “66 million users”, the company was establishing “270,000 new accounts each day”. In 2000, Slate.com described TiVo's unpublicized gambit of giving free systems to web-savvy enthusiasts to create "viral" word of mouth, pointing out that a viral campaign differs from a publicity stunt. Burger King has used several marketing campaigns. Its The Subservient Chicken campaign, running from 2004 until 2007, was an example of viral or word-of-mouth marketing.The Blendtec viral video series Will It Blend? debuted in 2006. In the show, Tom Dickson, Blendtec founder and CEO, attempts to blend various unusual items in order to show off the power of his blender. Will it Blend? has been nominated for the 2007 YouTube award for Best Series, winner of .Net Magazine's 2007 Viral Video campaign of the year and winner of the Bronze level Clio Award for Viral Video in 2008. In 2010, Blendtec claimed the top spot on the AdAge list of "Top 10 Viral Ads of All Time." The Will It Blend page on YouTube currently shows nearly 200 million video views. In 2007, World Wrestling Entertainment promoted the return of Chris Jericho with a viral marketing campaign using 15-second cryptic binary code videos. The videos contained hidden messages and biblical links related to Jericho, although speculation existed throughout WWE fans over whom the campaign targeted. The text "Save Us" and "2nd Coming" were most prominent in the videos. The campaign spread throughout the internet with numerous websites, though no longer operational, featuring hidden messages and biblical links to further hint at Jericho's return. In 2007, Portuguese football club Sporting Portugal integrated a viral feature in their campaign for season seats. In their website, a video required the user to input his name and phone number before playback started, which then featured the coach Paulo Bento and the players waiting at the locker room while he makes a phone call to the user telling him that they just can't start the season until the user buys his season ticket. The Big Word Project, launched in 2008, aimed to redefine the Oxford English Dictionary by allowing people to submit their website as the definition of their chosen word. The project, created to fund two Masters students' educations, attracted the attention of bloggers worldwide, and was featured on Daring Fireball and Wired Magazine. Between December 2009 and March 2010 a series of seven videos were posted to YouTube under the name "iamamiwhoami" leading to speculation that they were a marketing campaign for a musician. In March 2010, an anonymous package was sent to an MTV journalist claiming to contain a code which if cracked would give the identity of the artist.  The seventh video, entitled 'y', appears to feature the Swedish singer Jonna Lee. On July 14, 2010, Old Spice launched the fastest growing online viral video campaign ever, garnering 6.7 million views after 24 hours, ballooning over 23 million views after 36 hours. Old Spice's agency created a bathroom set in Portland, OR and had their TV commercial star, Isaiah Mustafa, reply to 186 online comments and questions from websites like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Digg, YouTube and others. The campaign ran for 3 days. http://www.empowernetwork.com/almostasecret.php?id=debagta12

10 of the Most Innovative Small Businesses of 2013

10 of the Most Innovative Small Businesses of 2013 Daniel Bukszpan - CNBC8 Jun 2013 No matter how far the marketplace advances, there will always be problems that plague consumers and that no company can seem to solve. This is not necessarily a bad thing, because it creates a niche for the right company to fill. For example, motorists experience considerable straining when cleaning their windshields from the inside. So the makers of the Windshield Wonder saw an opportunity to address an unaddressed problem, a successful product was born, and the rest is history. Small businesses can experience great success and expand their operations when they find innovative solutions to common problems. Often, it can mean cultivating a loyal and much-needed customer base, which any small business needs in order to sustain itself and grow. What follows is a list of 10 innovative small businesses that are making their mark this year with inventive products. Read ahead to see what they are. Yardarm Technologies image credit: Yardarm Technologies Gun legislation has always been a front-and-center topic in the U.S., but it reached a fever pitch in the months following the tragic events in Aurora, Colo. and Newtown, Conn. But while politicians have been trying without success to find a solution, Yardarm Technologies has come up with a high-tech idea--a wireless controller that allows gun owners to disable a weapon remotely. If a gun is moved, an alarm is triggered on the owner's phone, and he or she can then disable the weapon remotely. An Associated Press report said that the technology would cost gun owners an extra $50 per weapon, while the service itself would carry a $12 annual fee. Systems and Materials Research Consultancy image credit: SMRC 3-D printing is a technology that fabricates objects based on a digital model. It made headlines in 2012 when a company called Defense Distributed created the world's first 3-D-printed gun, but Systems and Materials Research Consultancy is currently researching ways to use it to fabricate food. NASA awarded the Austin, Texas-based company a Small Business Innovation Research grant of $125,000to develop food to be printed for space missions. Senior mechanical engineer Anjan Contractor said that the technology could someday be used to address world hunger. AMP Americas image credit: David Reede | All Canada Photos | Getty Images AMP Americas is a Chicago-based company that makes compressed natural gas. While the alternative fuel market already has plenty of businesses that call themselves "innovative," this one truly is: Its fuel is converted from cow manure. The company's efforts were highlighted in March in The New York Times, which said the fuel was being used by a dairy farm to power it 42 tractor-trailers that deliver its milk to different states. The article also cited Energy Department officials, who called the technology a "pacesetter." Able Planet image credit: Able Planet People who don't need a conventional hearing aid but want to enhance sounds can use a personal amplifier. Able Planet is a noise-cancelling headphone manufacturer whose personal amplifier was singled out for praise by The Wall Street Journal in September, and in Popular Science in December. The technology uses noise-cancelling technology and is smaller than a dime. In a February CNET review, writer Elizabeth Armstrong Moore said: "I can certainly imagine putting these on regularly when I go to bars, rock shows, and soccer matches where I sometimes struggle conversing with the person right in front of me." SnuggWugg image credit: SnuggWugg | YouTube Changing a diaper is one of life's less pleasant tasks, even when baby is lying perfectly still. Much of the time, however, baby doesn't lie perfectly still, and thrashes and squirms. This created a ripe opportunity for a resourceful entrepreneur to revolutionize the process, and Lisa Cash Hanson was that entrepreneur. Hanson invented the SnuggWugg, which she described in an e-mail as "an interactive diaper changing pillow that helps parents so their babies don't twist and turn on the changing table." The business will launch later in 2013, but it already has the advantage of having won the 2012 Huggies Mom Inspired Grant of $15,000. See the next article. http://www.empowernetwork.com/almostasecret.php?id=debagta12