How to Deal With Criticism Like a Champion

Ways To Deal With Criticism In Online Marketing

The idea that a business can be universally admired and loved is false. This is true both traditional and on the web. Even if you feel your company is amazing, you are going to have to confront some criticism. It is actually what you do when you find out about that criticism that counts. This is especially important to do when you do your business on the web -- where people don't have a lot of chances to interact with you personally to counteract the negative opinions they read. These are the things you need to do.

Reply to any kind of criticism you see without delay. This is extremely vital. You don't want to merely let a negative review sit somewhere without answering it. If the criticism was left in a public discussion board, leave a reply on the same thread thanking the person for his or her criticism. Tell him or her that you are investigating it and ask them for permission to talk about their concerns privately. It will prove to others that your priority is the creation of the best possible product... and that you do not respond poorly when a person criticizes you. This helps encourage respect from others.

Actually verify if the feedback is about something that must be resolved. The differences between a troll and a real review are evident. "You suck" does not justify your reply. "I ran into a 404 page" or "The formatting is messed up" are things that you are going to need to correct. Check everything out and if the change is something you need (or would like) to make, make it. This would prove that you genuinely do pay attention and will take action only when it's justified.

Each answer you give must be individualized. If you do choose to make a change or a fix, tell the one who posted the feedback that you're making the changes they asked you to make. It is also good to publish something like this openly. This demonstrates that you do not merely get angry when someone criticizes you. It demonstrates that you make an effort to give people what they really want. This is good, even when you decide against making changes people have requested. State that you looked into it but chose to leave things as they are. Be sure you clarify why this is.

Try to remember that, beyond anything else, the way in which you respond to opinions is all about managing your reputation. If you simply criticize somebody for criticizing you, you appear dumb. If you dismiss the criticism people have given to you and insist that everything is good, you are going to appear as if you do not understand your business or product well. Keep your vanity in check. People, more often than not, are not attacking you personally. They didn't have a fulfilling experience with your product. You must make your product better so they won't have the same experience later.

The manner in which you deal with feedback tells people a lot about both you and the business you are running. Make an effort to be as positive as you're able to about it!

Affiliate Marketing Is A Complete Waste Of Your Time and Money

I'm just saying what a lot of other people are feeling.

I want to preface what I'm about to say by saying this - I love the affiliate marketing model mostly because it is so easy to do and requires little or no money to get started, but there lies the problem.

Affiliate marketing has its problems and for many of us who have tried this approach to make money online know what they are. Just about everywhere you go on the internet today you will see some type of affiliate marketing advertisement. These ads are designed to invoke an emotional response that relies on one of three things:

1) Desperation - due to the lack of funds as a result of living beyond our means, loss of a job or maybe a medical travesty that has affected your life.

2) Greed - your love of money and the want to have as much as you can because you feel that being wealthy will bring about true happiness and power. You love the fancy cars, the nice watches and the VIP section at your favorite nightclub and you especially love to show it.

3) A better life - you're looking for ways to offer more for your family. A way to add more to your bank account and not rely on your employer, an employer who might not be here tomorrow. Whatever your reasons, these ads can have an alluring effect on the people who see them and the affiliate marketers know it, that's why they use them.

The Danger Signs

There are many red flags to look for when reading an affiliate marketing advertisement. Most of us will agree the signs are obvious, but for someone who has found themselves in a desperate situation, emotionally overwhelmed or just blinded by greed, common sense is sometimes amiss and the red flags are overlooked. What are some of these danger signs:

    Guaranteed - If you see this word in any part of the ad other than the part where it says "money back guaranteed", this is a red flag. There are no guarantees in life other than death. I can guarantee that you will die one day and that's about it. If an advertiser if guaranteeing you success with his or hers products, my suggestion is to be cautious, read the reviews and really think about it before committing.

    Make Millions of $$$ - This one should be an easy one - move on and don't waste your time. Is it possible to make a million dollars a year as an affiliate marketer? Yeah, all things within reason are possible, but I would guess that 99% of the people who jump into the affiliate marketing arena are making far less than that.

    How I make over $10,000 a month - I see a lot of ads from people claiming they're earning $10k-$12k a month from a particular product. Some even show their bank accounts or their marketplace accounts and the large account balances as a means of validating their claims. Let me just say this: As I do believe the earnings are possible, especially for the committed, full-time marketer. I do not believe the majority of the claims. I cannot tell you the number of claimants I've followed up on whose websites disappeared 2 to 3 months after their ad campaign started or after releasing an amazing video declaring to the world this money-making secret they want to share. It's easy to fake the bank statements and their account balances, even if they're logging into the account live on video. I don't know about you, but if I was earning $10,000+ a month (legally) selling a product or service, I don't think I would shut down my website for any reason, even if I had a bad month or two... and neither would you.

    Overnight - Another red flag. If they're promising some form of overnight success or any variation thereof like "within 48 hours" or " the first 7 days", the red flags should be going up. Here again, this is just another variation of "guaranteed".

    Price - Beware of the price. I understand that sometimes it takes money to make money. There are times when we need the help of an expert or to use the services of a professional who can do it faster or better than I can. But we need to be reasonable and practical with our finances. More times than not I've seen people dump a lot of money into every product, service or feature enhancement they can sink their teeth into in an effort to achieve an impractical goal - making a lot of money as fast as possible. I won't say anymore than this about the price of a product: If the item is priced less than $50 and the majority of the reviews are positive, then go for it. But anything above that amount and especially if it's a monthly charge, you really need to do your due diligence and know what others are saying about the product before investing.

Is Affiliate Marketing a Scam?

Like a lot of things in life, it can be. But there are plenty of quality products out there produced by honest, hardworking people and I wouldn't hesitate a second to buy or even promote any of those products. Therefore, it is important that you do your homework before investing money into somebody's eBook or software or whatever program they are offering. Affiliate Marketing is opportunity for the person who is looking for a reasonable and practical means of earning a secondary income from a home based business.

I Want to Become an Affiliate Marketer

Like I stated earlier - Affiliate Marketing provides an easy and practical means for just about anybody to earn a secondary income from their home. After all, working from home is quickly becoming a normal way of doing business and for the stay-at-home moms or dads, the disabled or anybody looking for a way to enhance their lives, a home based business is a blessing.

You can get started with very little money. I'm talking less than $50. All you really need is a laptop or a PC and an internet connection, which I'm assuming most of us already have. You'll need to build a website and before that you will need to decide on a niche or what your site will be about. Afterwards, you will want to find some products to promote on your website. Sign up with one of the popular Affiliate Marketplace websites and you are good to go.

Final Thoughts

Affiliate Marketing can provide a secondary income and is not a waste of time for the committed person willing to do what it takes to make it work and grow their business. Making $500-$1000 a month is a reasonable goal when first starting out. However, this will not happen overnight. It takes time! You can expect about 2 to 3 months of working on your site, improving the SEO, adding content and writing posts and submitting articles before you'll see enough traffic to your website that can offer a steady stream of income within that range. People are inherently lazy and many times will stop before things get started. Success requires work, otherwise wait for the lottery.

Once your first site is up and running efficiently things become easier and you won't need to spend as much time working on it. Just a little maintenance here and there and submitting new articles at a rate of one to two times a week. At this point nothing is stopping you from duplicating your efforts with a second website. Find another niche that people are looking for and build another site. Your second website might do even better or maybe a little less than your first, but my point is this - Don't Stop! The potential for making a full-time income as an affiliate marketer by adding more and more sites as time and money permits is highly practical. It is not unreasonable to expect to one day be able to surpass the salary you earn from your employer, but it will take some time. If you do your research, work hard, stay committed and set reasonable goals that day will come.

ClickBank Cash and How to Make Money Online

If you need to make some cash, here is a quick and easy way to make some money. You can make money with ClickBank. This digital marketplace has been in business since 1998. ClickBank has over 50,000 digital products available to promote at any given time. There are many people using ClickBank to make money from home. All you need is internet connection and basic computer skills. You can also be making money online as a ClickBank affiliate.

For the one who wants to become a ClickBank affiliate, there are many tools at your disposal. One of the best tools is google AdWords. When you use the correct keywords, you will attract targeted buyers who are looking for what you have to offer. AdWords make money. To use AdWords effectively, you will need insider information about how to master ClickBank affiliate marketing. In addition, you will also need some lucrative google secrets. The Profit Miracle reveals these priceless secrets. This system will show you exactly how to maximize the commissions you receive as a ClickBank affiliate.

The Profit Miracle will also help you navigate through the maze of affiliate marketing. There are many different strategies available to attract the right kind of buyers to your product. Learn how to dominate the search engines with free advertising. The tools that are needed to have success when placing free classified ads are also found in the Profit Miracle. When you know how all of this works, you will be able to maximize the return on your efforts. Online shoppers will take notice, and you will make sales. Watch your commissions increase. With a little work, you will have a nice wad of cash in your ClickBank account.

This is one of the few products that actually gives you examples of ads that really work. Use these examples to design your own marketing campaigns. In addition, it teaches you how to use keywords in your ads and articles. The Profit Miracle is an excellent business model in a box, and promoting ClickBank products is one of the easiest ways to make money online. You don't have to spend money to find or develop products. Make easy money just by selling other people's products. If you want to make some cash, just find a product to promote in ClickBank. Then apply the marketing strategies in The Profit Miracle. This is one of the best ways to generate online income. Get started today and make some money now.

The Novice and Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a great way to either replace your current employment or supplement your income. It requires great diligence to study and learn this market. What is affiliate marketing, you may ask? In general, this type of marketing is when a company pays you a commission or a percentage for your sales. When a company decides to allow others to sell their products they will start an affiliate program. As an affiliate to these companies you have choices on how you will go about promoting the products or services of the companies. It requires you to have your own website for someone to look at then the product is purchased through a unique affiliate link. You can utilize your own website or use a link to the company's product by using social media sites through clicks.

Once you begin to research this method of marketing you will notice the amount of companies that utilize an affiliate program. Some of these pay one time commissions on a sale; others such as Google AdSense offer it on a click by click basis. Some may even offer a lifetime commission. Others pay per lead. Companies may also just give a free trial or samples of a product in exchange for a name and email. For example, to get approved for an affiliate program with a company such as Google and their AdSense program you will need a site that is filled with new, fresh, and interesting content. The best site type for this is one related to a blog. Google pays attention to sites set up as blogs due to its fresh daily or weekly content. Having a static site does not get your site a high rank with Google. In addition, focusing on one niche and a group of products vs. a garage sale type of site will bring much more success. Other affiliate programs to consider would be ClickBank.com, Amazon.com, GoDaddy.com and HostGator.com.

As with any new venture you will be challenged. You may even begin to experience self-doubt. The important mindset to have from the beginning is that this is a marathon not a sprint.

Suggestions:

• Get involved with a group of online bloggers.

• Attend seminars with other affiliate marketers and entrepreneurs

• Utilize YouTube for video and begin following other entrepreneurs; I have listed a few of my favorite below:

    Lisa Irby of 2creatawebsite.com
    Maria Forleo at MariaForleo.com
    Matt Morris, Author of The Unemployed Millionaire
    David Siteman Garland of RiseToTheTop.com

• Once you start with an affiliate network get yourself acquainted with the site and the terms of service.

• If you choose to do a niche blog, find campaigns that deal with your niche's topic.

• On your blog or website, be sure to choose ads and links that are relevant to your niche topic.

Overall, the key to this business is being focused and passionate. Remind yourself why you decided to do this. Maybe you have debt that you want to pay off. Or just want to supplement the family income so your wife can stay home with your new baby. Maybe you want to quit that stressful job. No matter what it is important to stay the course and remain vigilante to achieving your overall goal. This is a very lucrative business with limitless potential.

Understanding ClickBank Gravity - Bigger Is NOT Better

I've read a lot of books on affiliate marketing over the years. Considering that dozens come out every single day, it's really not too difficult. Anyways, there's something a bit disturbing that I've noticed. When most of these guides are teaching you about ClickBank's gravity numbers, they give you bad advice!

Yup- promoting ClickBank products with the highest gravity is NOT a good idea. How can I say that?

Why am I going against what 95% of guides out there are saying? I have a few reasons- let me count the ways:

Reason #1: High Gravity Means High Competition

Gravity doesn't tell you how well the product converts, or how many copies sell each month. Nope- all it tells you is how many affiliates have made sales promoting that product. And I'm sure you realize that not every affiliate promoting it will make a sale. Let's say it's 1/10.

So if a product has a gravity of 100, that means at least 1,000 affiliates are promoting it! Over 400? You probably have at least 4,000 affiliates promoting that bad boy. That's insane. If half of them are doing SEO, you're fighting against 2,000 affiliates for those #1 spots in Google. Good luck with that.

Meanwhile, let's talk about a product with a gravity of 7. Using the example of 1/10 mentioned above, that means we might have 70 affiliates promoting it. Those odds are much, much friendlier.

Reason #2: Gravity Has No Relation to Conversion Rate

If you're an affiliate, you want to promote products with good sales pages. It just makes sense- the better the sales page converts, the more money you'll make. But a product with high gravity may not convert well. The product owner may have taken it for granted that tons of affiliates hopped on board. When that happens, they may not bother testing new things to help the sales page convert better. Instead they just sit back and watch the money roll in.

After all, if you're making tons of bank, why change anything? Your affiliates are doing all the hard work!

Meanwhile, a product owner with much fewer affiliates can't afford that luxury. They'll keep tweaking and testing the sales page until it converts like crazy. You'd be surprised at the quality of some of the "unpopular" ClickBank products. If you are sending good traffic to them, don't be surprised to have conversions at 5-10%.

The bottom line is that looking at gravity doesn't mean squat regarding conversions.

Reason #3: High Refund Rates Can Kill

You know those IM products with super-high gravities? Check out the refund rates on them sometime. They are amazingly high. Some reach 40-50%. Why would you want to promote something like that? It was obviously not a good product, and people jumped on the bandwagon without realizing what they were buying. Not good.

If you're trying to build a real business, you get paid to help solve people's problems. It's as simple as that. If you are trying to make a quick buck but not really solve their problem, they'll catch on and unsubscribe. That's why you should pay attention to a product's refund rate. This is a good way to judge a product's quality without having to actually buy it yourself. (That said- I highly recommend buying a product before you promote it!)

Is gravity affected by refund rates? Nope. So it's not much use here. Instead you have to look into using a service or website that tells you product refund rates.

Reason #4: One Time Offers, Upsells, Downsells, and More

This has gotten very bad in the IM field, but it is found in other niches as well. It's getting to the point that the front end product is just a piece of candy. Once you grab the candy, thieves pounce on you to take everything you've got.

One reason for high refund rates is due to these marketing kinds of tactics. Making money on the backend works well if done right, but tons of product owners just abuse their customers.

A bad thing about ClickBank gravity is that it doesn't tell you anything about how many people purchase the upsells or downsells, how much money to expect from them, if they're useful, etc. If you send subscribers to a product just because it has high gravity, they might be in for pop-up and upsell hell. Don't put them through that.

Reason #5: People Purchase through their Own Affiliate Links

This is a huge, huge one- especially in the IM niche. I bet that if an IM product has a gravity of 200, about 150 of those points come from people buying through their own links. Even in the non-IM niches, people purchase through their own links if they want to see the product and review it.

This alone should tell you that gravity isn't the most useful field. So what if Profit Explosion Avalanche Membership Dynamite has a gravity of 300? It only sold a total number of 500 copies last month. Meanwhile, Actually Useful Relationship Product Y sold 5000 copies, with a much better conversion rate.

Conclusion

I know that these newbie guides aren't solely relying on gravity to choose a product. But what I'm saying is that you should use it differently than most. Don't promote those high-gravity products. Look at those with low gravity, have a great sales page, and quality product. Once you've found a few of those, you're golden.

The Ugly Truth About Review-Affiliate Web Sites

Like many of you I always strive to get the best of the best or else the best value for money I can afford. Researching and investigating a product or service online is what makes the internet great! You don't get bombarded by sales people and you are not pressurized into making a decision on the spot! However, the internet is not all sunshine and rainbows as I'm sure you've come to experience and unfortunately there are many dark corners lurking in unsuspecting places.

That brings me to my point, the truth about review sites. Google any popular item on the internet and you will be overwhelmed with results from review sites freely offering their opinion on what is the greatest and why. You may think "Wow, this will help me narrow down my options!". But unknowingly you end up purchasing a lemon because of two words, and I can't put this more succinctly: affiliate marketing.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is the marketing of a product or service on behalf of a third-party in exchange for commission or payout per successful sale. "I've found this amazing product, and look there is a discount if you click here!", sound familiar? Does it now put the review into perspective?

Hosting is extremely competitive, and probably the most competitive. Why? The internet is the fastest growing medium in the world, full stop. What do you need to grow the internet? Space, and lots of it which is provided by hosting companies. Because it is so competitive, hosts have attractive incentives for their affiliate marketers. Payouts range from $60 to $200 and increase in order to get to the top of prominent reviewers lists. That is a lot of money when considering the host wont even recover that amount from their new client within the first two years. Which begs the question, where does the hosts priorities lie, and where are most of their resources going? Customer care, upgrading servers? Right.

    Hosting is extremely competitive, and probably the most competitive. Why? The internet is the fastest growing medium in the word, full stop.
    How do I know if review sites are genuine?

It's not always possible to determine whether a review is genuine or fake. But there are questions you can ask yourself to weed out the worst.

    Check if there are affiliate programs offered with the service you are interested in. Judging by how much they offer, and how it is offered. Keep in mind, that this is a sliding scale and marketers always barter for better rates in return for better reviews.
    Ask yourself is it logically possible for the reviewer to single-handedly review all these products or services?
    Compare the reviews with other review websites to see if there are any discrepancies or contradictions, with customer service, value for money etc...
    Does the reviewer allow users to comment about the product or service? No product or service is perfect, if every comment is in favour be very suspicious.
    Does the reviewer update the site on a regular basis?
    Most importantly, is the review completely one-sided with very little negative aspects to point out? This is often a telltale sign.

Those are just some things to look out for. But mostly you'll get a gut feel when reading these reviews, if something doesn't feel right it more than likely isn't. Another trend I've been seeing with these unscrupulous marketers is the use of negative keywords such as "service x sucks" in their websites, as they have caught on people are trying to find bad reviews to try work out the truth! Again, these reviews are all one-sided and try lead the reader into believing the service or product is amazing!

How to Get More Referrals for Your Business?

Suppose you have a business and you want to grow it. But you don't know how? There are many ways to improve your business reputation. Apart from your product or service quality, marketing also plays a major role. There are many ways to market your business. Referral marketing is one of them. Nowadays it is considered as a major tool to achieve business growth. Why?

Along with the increase in the global population there comes the increased competition and opportunities. Everybody wants a share of the pie. When your service or product is good, the satisfied customer will definitely speak to others about it. This way actually your customer is marketing to others without expecting or charging any fee for it. That is because the customer is satisfied about the product so he wholeheartedly and voluntarily praises in front of friends and others.

This way you are getting referrals for your business. It helps you to grow further. On the opposite side if your customer is not satisfied with the service then there is a possibility that he may criticize about it in front of many more people there by denting your reputation. Customer with bad experience may give you more negative publicity than a happy customer can give positive reference.

So it is always better to be good to your customers before selling anything or after selling anything. A prompt and courteous after sales service is very critical in getting long-term benefits. A highly satisfied customer always gets you a good number of Referrals and they are of recurring and passive in nature. In the sense it is like a chain reaction of referrals you get about your business from different satisfied customers.

Either you can ask each individual customer who is satisfied with your product or service to refer others to you voluntarily. Or you can offer some kind of rewards and extra benefits for the each successful referral to whom you sell more products. Word of mouth publicity is very important and psychologically most effective form of marketing today. People often trust their friends or neighbors more confidently about the pros and cons of your business. They tend to go with the opinion of others who have already availed of your services. This way you can get unlimited number of referrals from happy customers which in turn increase your business volume substantially in the long run and get you the more revenue.