Sunday, May 6, 2012

iPhone 4 Anti-Glare, Anti-Scratch, Anti-Fingerprint - Matte Finishing Screen Protector






(3 Packs) iPhone 4 Anti-Glare, Anti-Scratch, Anti-Fingerprint - Matte Finishing Screen Protector






Monday, April 30, 2012

Building a List to Sell Amazon Products!


Amazon is without doubt my favorite online retailer to work with as an affiliate. Since they're selling hard goods, the percentage of the sale they pay you is not nearly as great as with digital products (through ClickBank, for instance), but to my mind the fact that customers really trust Amazon probably outweighs the lower commissions.
Actually Amazon's commissions are right in line with most companies for whom you might be selling an actual item, something that has to be made and shipped. Circuit city used to pay only 3%, or 4%. Most of the companies on Commission Junction pay in the single digits. It's only when you get to selling downloadable products that merchants can afford to pay a significant part of the sale to you. That's because with these types of products, it's all profit--or nearly so.
But there's something to be said for making money selling digital cameras and flat-screen tv's! For one thing, lots and lots of people need them, or think they need them. I've actually made thousands of dollars selling Amazon products! What are my secrets? Well, for one thing, I build lists!
When I first started selling Amazon products, I built sites and sent my traffic directly to the site. My traffic source was usually article marketing. I realized, however, that I was missing a lot of sales. Although in general, half of the visitors to my sites clicked through to Amazon's site, if they didn't buy within the time frame of Amazon's cookie, I would miss the sale completely. Also, if they found someone else's site and clicked through to Amazon from there, my cookie would no longer be primary, and I would miss the sale.
I needed a way of keeping my hard earned traffic in the game, so to speak. So, I started using this traffic to build a list.
I did this in two ways.
One, instead of sending the traffic to a web page that pre-sells the Amazon product (usually a blog), I experimented with sending the traffic to a squeeze page that offered a giveaway, usually a buyer's guide to whatever I was selling. That method actually works great! About 40-30% of people sign up. I'm quite sure that the other 70% weren't going to buy anything anyway.
The other method, I've experimented with is using my Aweber account to create what's called a light-squeeze page. Light squeeze pages work like this. You send the traffic to the blog, but after the person's been there for a few seconds, the blog darkens, and a box appears in the middle of the page. The box offers the same deal - download a buyer's guide for free. I get about a 20% sign up rate, here.
Honestly, I haven't been able to figure out which works best in terms of which makes more money overall. But I'm quite sure that either works better than just letting your traffic show up at your page and leave...FOREVER!

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Make Money on Facebook With Amazon Affiliate Program


For anyone looking for legitimate ways to make money online, affiliate marketing is the best way to get started.
It's all about finding products online that have affiliate programs, promoting them and getting a commission when online shoppers buys from you.
It's very straightforward and simple to understand, but it's not that easy.
Promoting a product online requires a plan and a strategy, there's no free lunch.
Here are the most common ways to do promote a product online:
Article Marketing: Write articles about the product you want to market. 
  • Pros: Free, Build Your Credibility
  • Cons: Time Consuming, Competitive, Requires Writing Skills
Web Site or Blogs: Create a Site or a Blog and put links to your products 
  • Pros: Low Cost or Free, Flexibility & Control Over Your Content (More Money)
  • Cons: Time Consuming, Very Competitive, Require Technical/SEO Skills
Social Media Marketing: Share links to the product you want to market on social media sites 
  • Pros: Free and Very Easy, Nothing To Set Up, Huge Audience
  • Cons: Very Competitive, Require Social Skills, Can Be Labeled As Spam
Why Facebook?
In this article, we focus on the Social Media approach, and on Facebook in particular.
Facebook is a place for friends.
As the saying goes, all things being equal, people prefer to do business with their friends.
And all things being not so equal, people still prefer to do business with their friends.
People will likely purchase something from people they like and trust. If things are done right, and in the spirit of trust and mutual benefits, Facebook is a very fertile ground for good business.
It's also the biggest social network in the world with next to 700 million users. That's a lot of people.
Decide who you are going to be
Before we get started, you have to decide who you are going to be: 
  • A savvy user who wants to earn an extra cash effortlessly but occasionally.
  • An internet marketer who wants to make big bucks promoting a niche product to online shoppers.
As a savvy user, your goal will be to share with your friends and encourage them to start making money together using the Amazon Affiliate program.
As an internet marketer, your goal will be to promote Amazon products on a Facebook page for a niche topic and build an audience of fans who will trust you and buy from your recommendations.
Step-by-step instructions for the savvy user
1. Get an Amazon Affiliate ID
Go to Amazon Associate site and sign up. It's free, it's safe and it's very simple. The only caveat is that U.S. residents from certain states do not qualify for the program, due to differences in state tax legislation. Read carefully Amazon's operating agreement and make sure that you, or a legal representative, can qualify.
2. Find out more about what your friends need and like
This is where Facebook starts to come into play. Facebook has a wealth of information about what your friends like. You can check their profile and find out what are their interests. It can be a certain artist, it can be an activity, or a hobby. Also look what's popular, see if friends of friends like the same thing. You can also directly ask your friends what they need or be aware and take notes when they post about something they want.
3. Find Products to Share
Find items on Amazon that matches what your friends need or like. Find a way to create a link to the product with your affiliate ID, and share that link on your wall or on your friends wall.
DO NOT SPAM. Ever. When you share product links, make sure they are based on what you or your friends like. also make sure not to post too many links on your friends wall. If you want to promote several products, do so on your own wall. You don't want to lose time and lose your friends.
If your suggestion is good, your friends will like it, and Facebook viral mechanism can make your suggestion become very popular. Friends in common and friends of friends can see it and may also want to purchase it. And when someone buys from your link, you get paid.
4. Reciprocate
This is the secret sauce.
Make sure to be upfront and tell your friends what you're up to.
Share your own interests, needs and likes. Reciprocate when your friends share links on your pages.
Make sure they understand that when you need something, you can purchase from theirs links, and they will get paid.
When they need something, they can get it from your links and you will get paid.
Everybody wins.
Step by step instruction for the internet marketer
The steps above are fairly simple, and should be an easy way to start making money between friends by purchasing things you need from each other.
But, If you're going to be an internet marketer and promote products to online shoppers, it's a different story.
The first step for getting an affiliate ID is still the same.
Here are the next ones.
2. Choose a niche and be distinctive.
Select very specific topics such as left-handed guitarists, handbags from a certain brand, luxury beauty products, HD cameras, books about arts and crafts, etc.
Check Amazon best sellers for a list of hot products to promote in your niche.
Use Google AdWords keyword tool to see what is the demand for a specific product/keyword and what is the competition (the less the competition, the better the niche).
3. Choose products you like
You're going to be doing product reviews and recommendations, so pick a topic that you enjoy and know something about.
If you can't stay passionate about the topic, that will show, and it also won't hold your interest.
4. Create a Facebook page
Use a very simple title related to your topic. You want people to find your page when they search on Facebook. There are several guides and tips on how to successfully promote a Facebook Fan page. Make sure to read these. Here are a couple ones: 
  • Use proven internet marketing techniques (newsletters, subscriber/mailing list, SEO, YouTube, etc.) to promote your page.
  • Start by Inviting your Facebook friends who fit your target market profile. Use the "Suggest to friends" link on your page to send them an invitation.
  • Add a Facebook Like Box Widget on your Website / Blog if you have one.
  • Look for an application named Facebook Fan Page Twitter App. It's a great way to attract your Twitter following back to your fan page.
5. Share on your page
Share products with your affiliate links on your page but make sure you balance offers you post with other less commercial, engaging, fun and useful content to keep your fans happy.
It's very important to build trust and relationships. Again, people will likely purchase from a source they like and trust. That's what all this is about.
Be patient, keep learning and have fun
Like many things in life, you need to be a patient and consistent to have all this kicking in smoothly. Never forget to keep learning and to have fun in the process, and good luck.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Recommending Amazon Products on Squidoo


There are many ways to make money using Squidoo. A favorite way for many people is to recommend products for sale on Amazon which are related to your subject or niche. For example, if you have a lens built around Luke Skywalker from Star Wars, you can feature Skywalker action figures available for sale on Amazon. If you choose to use the Amazon modules on Squidoo, then you will most likely make 4.25% in commissions on your sale because Squidoo usually lands in the highest bracket for affiliate commissions on Amazon which is 8.5% on general products.
Many people like to use their own affiliate links for recommending available Amazon products, but once Squidoo axed the use of the Iframe, using your own affiliate links went the way of the dinosaurs. Squidutils.com then came along and added the ability to make your own links using their Amazon link building service. To use this service, you have to give up every 10th click on your affiliate link to Squidutils. It really isn't a bad deal, but some commissions from your lens can be lost this way.
You can now set up your own Amazon RSS feeds for Squidoo with a small amount of work on the front end. You will first need to set up a generic Storestacker website which is real simple. Then you need to add a category to your site for the type of product you would like to feature. Once this is done, generate an RSS feed from your category, copy and paste it into the RSS module on your Squidoo lens.
The feeds produced by Storestacker and not as pretty as those generated at Squidutils; there has to be a way to make them look better and you can be sure that I will be searching for the solution.

How to Be a Successful Amazon Associate


Are you a new internet marketer or an experienced affiliate marketer seeking new avenues to generate income? If you answered yes, then this article will help you learn how to be a successful Amazon Associate.
Is a Niche Important To Sell Amazon Products?
If you are thinking about selling Amazon.com products on your website or blog, is focusing on a niche important? If you have a niche specific blog or website, then it would make sense that any Amazon products you sell should be related to your niche. If you have a general website or blog, then you can sell products from multiple niches.
Best Method To Sell Amazon Products?
You can sell Amazon products as an internet marketer via a website, Blog, Squidoo, HubPages or even Facebook. Squidoo, HubPages and Facebook are good internet marketing methods, but may have limitations as to how you can market affiliate products on these sites. The best method for selling Amazon.com products that has the fewest limitations is to use a website or self-hosted blog. WordPress offers a free version of their software, but has some limitations not experienced in the self-hosted version. When you host a blog via hosting companies, such as Blue Host or HostGator, they provide WP for free.
How To Market Amazon Products
Some Amazon Associates place links for Amazon products on their website or blog, use AStore Pages or write product reviews with embedded product links. The most successful Amazon Associates write their own comprehensive product reviews of 1,000 -2,000 characters, rather than use the pre-written reviews available to Amazon affiliates. The pre-written reviews lack detail and do not allow for the writer to add personal experience with the product, or make the review unique.
Low Amazon Commissions
Many people who make money on the internet stay away from Amazon.com because of the perceived low commission fees. Some other internet affiliate networks offer 15% up to 90% commissions per sale, verses 4% to 8.5% available to Amazon Associates. The problem with this logic is while many other affiliate networks offer very attractive commissions, you have to work hard to make a living selling these products, which are usually only available online. The Amazon affiliate program is one of the best affiliate programs has built such a strong name and brand selling unknown and well known products. Amazon affiliate marketers generally do not have to work as hard to convert clicks to sales as other affiliate marketing programs, and thus begin making an income within a few weeks or months of selling Amazon products. In addition, as you sell more you move up from 4% to 6%, up to 8.5%. Some products offer 15% commissions.
Best Tool To Learn How to Write Effective Product Reviews
I have read countless articles by affiliate markers that explain how to set up Amazon Associate accounts, and how to add Amazon product links to websites and blogs, but none explain how to write effective product reviews that convert, or if the authors have actually made any money as an Amazon affiliate. The best e-book for making money online that I found, which shows you how to be a successful Amazon Associate is the Amazonian Profit Plan. This Amazon affiliate marketing-book, written by two women in Australia (Paula and Wanda) who make $10,000 to $15,000 per month in affiliate commissions, is the best affiliate marketing training program. The Amazonian Profit Plan takes you by the hand and shows you step-by-step how to select products to sell, what competition you can expect from other affiliates, how to write comprehensive product reviews, proper keyword selection for SEO, and methods to drive traffic to the product reviews. You can even use the product review techniques for non-Amazon affiliate products.
I saw results immediately after purchasing and implementing the concepts from the Amazonian Profit Plan. Within one week of writing product reviews, they were either #1 or on the first page of Google for one or more keywords, and within one more week I began converting the reviews to affiliate sales. You may or may experience the results I have achieved.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

How to Create an Amazon Storefront


A simple guide of how to create an Amazon store front without knowing how to code around the Amazon Developers Kit. Everything referred to in this HowTo is completely free to download and setup.

Steps

  1. Sign up as an Amazon.com Associate by visiting Join Associates Page
  2. Download this free Amazon SDK wrapper from Associate-o-matic here.
  3. Unzip the files contained in the Associate-O-Matic ZIP file to your local hard drive.
  4. Open your FTP client software (or use the control panel provided by your web host) and upload the Associate-O-Matic files to your server (web host). First, upload (FTP) the encrypted PHP in BINARY mode: shop.php, admin.php, and aom.php. Then, upload all of the remaining files and let your FTP software decide the mode to use whether it be ASCII or BINARY.
  5. Set the permissions for provided files/directories. Normally this can be done by right-clicking on the file or directory from your FTP client. The permissions are as follows and can vary from web host to web host: shop.php [CHMOD 644] admin.php [CHMOD 644] aom.php [CHMOD 777] /aom directory [CHMOD 755] /aom/cache directory [CHMOD 755] all other permissions should be fine by default.
  6. Now that all of the files are on your server, it's time to open the Associate-O-Matic Control Panel. For example, in a web browser open the address replacing "yourdomain" with your domain name: http://www.yourdomain.com/admin.php
  7. Once you enter the Control Panel, you'll see a number of settings. At this point you'll want to make sure you enter your correct Amazon Associate ID and the other information for your site. Don't be overwhelmed by the number customizations you have at your disposal. You can actually save your setting at this point just to make sure everything works. Or go ahead and enter some more of your site details and then save. In the Control Panel Settings section of our online documentation, we describe in much more detail each of the various settings. You can login to your Control Panel at any time and update your settings.
  8. Lastly, view your store from within a web browser. For example: http://www.yoursite.com/shop.php

Tips

  • You may need to modify your permissions beyond the below recommended settings. You'll know because Associate-O-Matic will give you cues that you still need to write and/or read enable a particular folder such as /aom. For example if 775 doesn't work you may need to make it 777.
  • The first time you open the Control Panel, you'll be asked to enter your login username and password. Once set, you'll be asked for this login on all subsequent visits. If you ever decide to change your login, simply delete the file in the /aom directory called cfg.login.php. You'll then have a chance to reset the password. Though we know this is crude, we will build a better interface for updating your login in a future version.

Warnings

  • You must have your own website in order to build an Amazon.com store front.

Related Contents

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

How to Start an Online Store


If you want to keep things simple, you can just list items on your blog or website with prices and shipping costs, and have people pay you through PayPal (or by sending you a check or money order). You can also sell items through eBay, Craigslist, Amazon, and other venues. But if you have a lot of products, this can get cumbersome, and expensive. An online store can help "streamline" the process in a variety of ways (saving you time and money). This article will address how you can establish an e-store.

Steps

  1. Decide what you're going to sell. This may tremendously affect how you go about setting up your store. Here are the main points to consider:
    • Is it a physical product that needs to be shipped, or is it a digital product that can be sent through the Internet?
    • Are you going to have an inventory (more than one) of each product, or will they be one-of-a-kind (e.g. artwork, vintage items)?
    • Are you going to want to sell a wide variety of products, or do you plan to specialize, like selling just t-shirts or books?
    • Are you passionate about the product? Your passion for and genuine interest in a particular niche market or product will give you a competitive edge over other sellers - your focus will differentiate your store from others that are more general in their product coverage. By choosing a category that you are passionate about, you will have a greater chance of enjoying the journey of creating and managing an online store, which will require patience and the ability to overcome adversity. In a way, opening an online store around one of your hobbies or interests allows you to reallocate time productively that you would have spent on your hobby anyways.
  2. Test the waters by selling your items on a small scale. In the real world, it'd be wise to try selling your products through other, low-commitment avenues (consignment, flea markets, craft shows, etc.) before taking the plunge and starting an entire store. The same is true for selling online. Try selling your items individually on eBay, Craigslist, Half.com and the like. Here's what you'll want to look for:
    • Who is buying your product? Offer a discount coupon or free gift if they answer a brief survey. Find out where else they shop online.
    • How much are they willing to pay? Experiment with different prices.
    • How is customer satisfaction? This is a good time to test how well you can get your product to the customer. Are you using good packaging? Is the shipping method reliable? Are they happy with their product? Did you describe it well?
  3. Consider your options. If you've got a big budget, you can hire someone to set up a store for you from scratch. But for the rest of us, there are plenty of services that you can choose from. If your store isn't specialized, compare any general e-commerce service. There are also services geared towards certain kinds of products:
    • General e-commerce services will allow you to setup professional looking online storefronts when you ship your own inventory. Some general eCommerce sites include Flying Cart and Yahoo! Stores.
    • Hosted e-commerce solutions. Such services take care about different problems like storefront design, secure payment, hosting, mailing lists, selling statistics, cutomers support. It is the best choice (unlike CMS [1]) for those who don't like programming stuff. Some examples: Miscake Stores [2], Volusion [3], Shopify [4].
    • Affiliate store services such as Amazon eStores or Zilo. Zilo stores allow you to resell products carried by Buy.com and other merchants by writing reviews of products and focusing on a theme that makes consumers lives easier. Amazon eStores and Zilo stores allow you to get in the game fast, but do not allow you to carry your own physical inventory.
    • eBay - If you've already sold some stuff on eBay, and you're confident that most of your customer base will find you there, then you can "graduate" to an eBay store to save money on listing fees. Your customers will need to be web-savvy enough to feel comfortable using eBay. Note that eBay tends to attract people searching for bargains and one-of-a-kind items (and bargains on one-of-a-kind items).
    • Notemote - This is an oline marketplace where you can post one item or create an entire catalog for free. Just upload some photos, describe the item(s) and price it to sell. It's free to post goods for months without having to update the listing. When the item sells and is $35 or less, it's a 5% fee. If the item is $35 or more, the fee is 3%. On top of putting goods up for sale you can embed videos, blog about your products and services and connect to your twitter account directly from the site for free.
    • Cafepress - This is a service worth considering if you're selling mostly t-shirts, and other stuff you can "stamp" with your unique designs (mugs, stickers, buttons). Customers browse your store, order their stuff, and Cafepress processes the order and the items for you. You can start a basic shop for free, and pay a monthly subscription for more features.
    • Etsy - This is a popular choice for people who make what they sell. There's a 20 cent charge for every item listed, and Etsy keeps 3.5% of your sale price if the item is sold. You get paid directly and are responsible for shipping the item. You're charged fees (depending on what sold) on a monthly basis.[5]
  4. Promote your store. No matter how good your store is, it won't matter if no one knows it's there. It's not a "build it and they will come" kind of thing. Having an easy-to-use store is important, but not as important as marketing, having good products, and providing quality customer service.

Video

A video detailing mistakes to avoid when starting an online business.

Tips

  • Use an analytics account such as Google Analytics to manage and keep track of traffic flows to your site. Once your online store is up and running, don't you want to see how much traffic you are generating and where it is coming from? Analytics are a powerful tool to slice and dice the source of visitors to your site, as well as the popularity of various portions of your site's content.

Warnings

  • Watch out for any service that involves selling products you don't have. These are often called "dropshipping" service and while some are legitimate, many are scams. Even those that are authentic have a low chance of success because you're selling stuff that someone else is probably already selling. You'll need extraordinary marketing skills to make it work in which case, why not apply it to your own products?

Related wikiHows


Sources and Citations

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_management_system
  2. http://stores.miscake.com
  3. http://www.volusion.com
  4. http://www.shopify.com
  5. http://www.etsy.com/how_selling_works.php