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Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4 Chapter 1....................................................................................................................................................... 5 Why You Need Affiliate Marketing ........................................................................................................... 5 Strategies for Making the Most of Affiliate Marketing ............................................................................ 6 1. Build Your Lists ................................................................................................................................. 6 2. Make the Most of Your Lists............................................................................................................. 6 3. Put Quality Content Out There......................................................................................................... 6 4. Target the Right People .................................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 2....................................................................................................................................................... 8 Why You Need Social Networking ............................................................................................................ 8 Strategies for Succeeding with Social Networking ................................................................................... 8 1. Become a Web Presence .................................................................................................................. 9 2. Network with Groups ....................................................................................................................... 9 3. Create Viral Marketing ..................................................................................................................... 9 4. Stay Up to Date .............................................................................................................................. 10 Chapter 3..................................................................................................................................................... 11 Strategies for Integrating Social Networking and Affiliate Marketing to Increase Your Business and Revenue .................................................................................................................................................. 11 1. Use Social Networks to Build Your Brand....................................................................................... 11 2. Dont Neglect Facebooks Advertising Feature .............................................................................. 12 3. Use SEO in Your Posts..................................................................................................................... 12 4. Link Your Page to Your Blog ........................................................................................................... 12 5. Increase the Benefit of Your Articles.............................................................................................. 12 2

6. Forget the Hard Sell........................................................................................................................ 13 7. Keep It Personal.............................................................................................................................. 13 8. Engage and Offer Value .................................................................................................................. 13 Summary ............................................................................................................................................ 14

Introduction
As a business owner in todays tech driven world, you need to have a solid strategy and business plan if you want to get ahead. No matter what product or service you offer, you will find that there is always competition. The World Wide Web has made it easy for people to create and market businesses, and while this is extremely beneficial in terms of increasing your potential customer base, it also means that you have competition from all over the globe. As a web based business, you need a plan that will help you reach the most prospective customers or clients possible. Thankfully, the social networking trend presents the perfect opportunity. When you make use of websites such as Twitter and Facebook, you can reach thousands or even millions of prospective clients. In this book, we will teach you the best strategies for making use of social networking to ensure that your business sees the most benefit possible. We will also take a look at affiliate marketing and how it can be used to help you grow your business and increase your profits. Most importantly, we will offer a wide range of strategies that will help you combine affiliate marketing and social media to get the biggest boost to your revenue. These strategies can work for any type of business, and once you understand how to make the power of social networking effective for you, the potential for a major profit increase will become crystal clear.

Chapter 1
Why You Need Affiliate Marketing

When you are selling a product or service, visibility is everything. The more times a consumer sees your product or name, the more brand recognition you are creating. When a web user sees your product or service everywhere, it creates a sense of trust in the brand. Affiliate marketing allows you to have other people sell your product or service for you. When you set up affiliate marketing software, you are giving regular computer users the chance to create their own businesses around your product or service. Depending on your affiliate software program, you may even be able to provide your affiliates with the tools they need to best promote your business, including banner and text links and even their own version of your product website. Each affiliates links, banners, and sites use a unique ID that helps you track their total sales, and you will distribute a portion of your sales or traffic profits to the affiliate that generated them. Affiliate marketing is a win-win scenario for you and your affiliates. You can end up with significantly greater profits by having a variety of sites and ads that you do not have to directly maintain, while your affiliates have the tools they need to effectively market your product and make an easy profit. An added benefit is that your affiliates are all unique, which means that while you may have a number of ideas for where to place ads or links, your affiliates will find markets of their own, greatly increasing your overall visibility. If you are questioning whether affiliate marketing is right for you, consider this. No matter what you sell, there are numerous people out there that sell the same thing or something that meets the same need. Gaining affiliates helps increase your presence in the market, making it much easier for you to ensure that you are reaching as many prospective clients as possible. The leading affiliate marketing software can be found here http://www.osiaffiliate.com. 5

Strategies for Making the Most of Affiliate Marketing

1. Build Your Lists
The simple fact is that you are not going to gain a lot of affiliates on your very first contact. Getting someone to come to your page and see what you have to offer is great, but you want to really be able to show them what you have to offer. The average person is on a website for less than two minutes, and you need to make the most of that time. The best way to do this- offer them something in exchange for their email address. It can be a free eBook, the ability to view an article that answers an important question, or the chance to win a prize. Do what you need to give them something they want in exchange for what you want- their email address.

2. Make the Most of Your Lists

Now that you have started collecting email addresses, you need to know what to do with them. A long email list can be great, but only if you can convert a number of the people who sign up into affiliates. How do you do this? Effective emailing. You need subjects that get people to open your messages. Consider strong, inviting language, such as Ten ways that you can . Or Learn the secret to achieving., and consider software that lets you personalize each message with the recipients first name. Email frequently enough to ensure that people remember who you are, but absolutely do not spam or email too often. Consider using email tracking software to determine which emails get opened the most and to determine what keywords seem to be most effective for you.

3. Put Quality Content Out There

In order to gain affiliates, you are going to have to make a name for yourself. This means giving people information that they need and can rely on. There are two simple ways to do this- article writing and blogging. Using article directories to create straight to the point, informative articles that answer common questions can be a great way to establish yourself as an expert in the industry without using 6

hard sell tactics. People will read the articles, click the link in your bio, and learn more about your company. If you do things right, you can get them to sign up for your emails. With a blog, you can use a bit more advertisement in your content, though you still need content that fills a need or answers a question.

4. Target the Right People

This tip may be the absolute most important of all when it comes to trying to gain affiliates. So many companies see little success with their affiliate programs because they simply do not understand that you cannot market to everyone. Figure out who is responding to your emails, blog posts, and articles and what they have in common. Find out where your core demographic lies and start targeting it. Whether it is forty year old soccer moms or twenty year old skaters, you need to know who believes in your product enough to sell it and start targeting them specifically. If you try to keep it vague enough to appeal to everyone, the chances are good that you will appeal to no one.

Chapter 2
Why You Need Social Networking

As a business owner, and as previously mentioned, you need to be reaching as many people as possible at all times. In todays world, few websites are as popular as the two major social networks: Twitter and Facebook. These sites get more visits daily than virtually any non-search engine site. Many people even have their social networking pages linked directly to their mobile phones and other devices. Simply put, these networks are huge and are packed with prospective clients. When you make use of social networking, you can reach a vast number of people. If your content is engaging or provides some value, others who follow your page can easily share or retweet your posts, sending it in turn to all of their friends or followers. This makes it possible to reach vast numbers of people with only a few simple words or a simple link or video. In a world where business competition is still and people are more conscious than ever about what they are doing with their money, brand recognition and reach are critical. Social networking gives you a chance to actually connect with prospective customers, a key step in helping them feel an emotional tie to your brand or company. This is certainly a step that no business owner can afford to ignore, no matter how large or small their company might be. Todays consumers want to feel like they matter to the companies they buy from. People are looking for alternatives to nameless, faceless corporations, and they want to know that they matter and that they have an input. Social networking is an easy way to start conversations with your clients and to really let them know that your company is interested and listening. There is really no way to emphasize strongly enough just how beneficial this can be to your business.

Strategies for Succeeding with Social Networking

1. Become a Web Presence

We have already stressed the importance of branding your business, and social networking can be an essential part of this. Facebook is likely the best way to do this, as the Like feature allows people to share with their friends what interests them, while the Facebook suggestions feature suggests that people also Like the same things as others who share their interests. Get enough people in your target demographic to Like your page, and your brand starts showing up on thousands of home pages every single day.

2. Network with Groups

Facebook has a feature known as Groups, and there are groups for just about every hobby, activity, belief, and interest under the sun. Start looking for groups that relate to your business as well as to your target demographic and join them. Post a hello message and make sure that you add something to conversations, answer questions, or even pose questions of your own now and then. Engage people in conversation and get them to want to know more about your business. A great idea is to create a group of your own. If you sell eBooks about caring for puppies, for example, you can create a group for people who love or raise puppies. Dont make it a group all about your company, but rather about the interest or need that your company caters to.

3. Create Viral Marketing

These days, anything that is really funny, intelligent, or intriguing has the potential to go viral. Take a look at the average Facebook wall and note how many statuses are reposts of something clever, funny, or inspiring. Consider how many common phrases today stem from home videos that were posted to 9

YouTube and ended up getting millions of visitors. Consider how many Tweets have been reposted by millions across the globe. While you may not be the next Keenan Cahill, posting a video, status, or Tweet that makes people laugh hysterically or spend a moment in deep thought can be enough to get your words and your link into the deepest and most populated parts of cyberspace.

4. Stay Up to Date
One thing you have to know when trying to make the most of social networking is people on these networks are always up to date. This means that you need to be as well. Follow the latest news pertaining to your niche or market, and follow the latest celeb and political news as well. Look for ways to integrate the latest and most high-trending topics into your posts and Tweets. This will keep them showing up in Googles real-time search and will help drive you much higher in search rankings.

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Chapter 3
Strategies for Integrating Social Networking and Affiliate Marketing to Increase Your Business and Revenue

While social networking and affiliate marketing are both very effective tools for building a business, there is little doubt that the most effective strategy is a combination of both of these things. Affiliate marketing can certainly be boosted by social networking, allowing you a nearly endless pool of potential new leads and affiliates. Likewise, social networking efforts to boost sales can be greatly increased when people visiting your page are also given the option to become affiliates. The bottom line is that the two strategies, working in tandem, will certainly be your best bet in terms of increasing revenues.

1. Use Social Networks to Build Your Brand

Before you can start getting a large number of affiliates, you are going to need to establish yourself. While there are always some people who are willing to sign on with a completely unknown company, the fact is that the more name recognition you have, the more people will want to work with you. Create a username that will be the same for both Twitter and Facebook, making you easy to find. Once you do this, make sure you are producing content fairly regularly without bombarding people. Start following people on Twitter who may be interested in your products and you will find that many will follow you back. Likewise, look for people on Facebook who are in your area or whose hobbies and interests fit well with your niche.

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2. Dont Neglect Facebooks Advertising Feature

You will notice that Facebook now has the option for you to advertise your company. Believe it or not, the algorithms that the network uses are actually quite complex and accurate. If you give the right keywords related to your product or service, Facebook can recommend your program only to people who are likely to be interested in becoming affiliates. This can help to greatly reduce your overall advertising cost and can help to greatly increase your return on investment.

3. Use SEO in Your Posts

These days, Google and other top search engines are more advanced than ever. You will find that todays Google searches not only scan websites, but social networks as well. Why not link the keywords most related to your site and content in your posts, ensuring that your profile pages come up when people type those words into search engines. It can be a great way to gain new followers and likes for your pages as well as to find new affiliates.

4. Link Your Page to Your Blog

If you are really working to make your affiliate networking program successful, then you likely already have a blog. You should already know to keep your blog updated frequently with content that readers will find both interesting and relevant. Most of todays blogs have built in features that let you link them to your social networking pages. By enabling this feature, every new blog post will automatically post to your social networking pages as well, helping to keep affiliates and potential affiliates alike abreast of your latest entries.

5. Increase the Benefit of Your Articles

Another common marketing strategy for many companies that utilize affiliate marketing is the use of article directories. With these, a company publishes articles that answer common questions or address common concerns about their industry. The articles themselves do not advertise the company or service, but the biography at the bottom will contain a link to the company. Why not post your articles 12

on your Facebook page or add the links to your Twitter feed. This will, in turn, create more backlinks that lead to your page and help to increase your overall ranking within the search engines.

6. Forget the Hard Sell

One of the most common mistakes companies make when trying to blend social networking and affiliate marketing is trying to hard sell their program. People using social networks are most likely checking their pages during work or during a break and are looking for a few seconds of laughter, thought, or relief from stress. If you are bombarding them with sales pitches and advertisements, they are going to unlike this page before you have time to blink. Instead, you need to post relevant content that gives them what they are seeking and work instead to slowly suggest that they visit your page. Let your followers come to you, dont try to force them to click your links.

7. Keep It Personal
For some companies, the word social in social networking seems to get overlooked or ignored. There is a reason that the people you add to a personal page are listed as friends, and there is a reason why people choose to follow your Tweets. They are looking for a personal exchange. Social networking is not about connecting with the market, it is about connecting with individuals. Keep this fact in mind and you will absolutely see more benefit and a higher conversion rate.

8. Engage and Offer Value

If you want to gain the most benefit for your affiliate program through the use of social media, you will find that you need to do two simple but important things. You need to engage your prospective clients in conversation and you need to offer them value for their time. Engaging can be as simple as answering 13

questions on your wall or posting questions to your wall or Twitter feed and then responding to the answers you receive. Give your friends and followers value, even if it is just in the form of a laugh, and work hard to keep them engaged in contact and conversation with you.

Summary
The bottom line is that affiliate marketing and social networking are two of the most powerful tools available for businesses today. Creating an online presence is hard work, but with the right strategies, it can pay off in ways that you may never have imagined. Take the time to really understand your demographic and their interests and to tailor your online presence around these individuals. When you are able to cater to your specific market and to really engage with people who believe in your product, you can not only increase the number of affiliates you gain, but the overall success of their marketing as well. The simple fact is this- by targeting people who genuinely believe in your product, you are going to gain people who are capable of actually selling it.

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