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Is Your Site a One Trick Pony?
Copyright 2004 John Gergye
Dont know about you but I really look forward to watching
The Apprentice on TV each week. Because it almost always
offers a lesson in online marketing.
Take the recent episode where the two teams were charged by
The Donald with making money any way they could selling
services to dog owners.
Drama aside, the team that lost was a so called "one trick
pony". They pinned their success on one thing - dog
washing. A good idea but not quite good enough. Because
the winning team not only offered dog washing but dog
massage plus nail clipping too. I dont think its a
coincidence that by offering a variety of services they
earned three times as much.
Income diversification is also a winning strategy online.
One I mention to all who will listen. Thats because its
dangerous to depend on one products cash flow for your
sites survival.
So here are three ways to avoiding the fate of most one
trick ponies.
===== Promote Your Own Product
I strongly believe you should have your own product to
promote.
Ideally something digitally delivered like an eBook or
software? This way your "bread and butter" cant suddenly
be taken away from you should the product owner decide to
no longer use affiliates. Which happens you know?
Even better its smart to develop a higher priced back end
product that offers even more help. Doing so knowing that
if you offer a high quality product a certain percentage
will want even more ideas and solutions from you. And
these back end sales are the easiest kind.
Oh and dont think I didnt hear that groan two paragraphs
ago. But anyone can develop a starter info product in 24
hours.
Develop a list of 25 pressing questions those in your
niche want answered.
Have a friend interview you for an hour over the phone
asking you those questions.
You provide insightful answers while taping the call.
Transcribe the audio tape and convert the text into a PDF
file.
There you go - nearly instant product. If it sells flesh
it out further and raise the price to reflect the added
value. If not try again with another topic.
===== Promote Related Affiliate Products
But what if your visitors dont want YOUR product? Well,
dont let them slip through your fingers without a fight.
In this case affiliate products ARE the perfect solution.
Because a site focusing on weddings can not only sell a
wedding planning book it can also offer one on how to throw
a bridal shower. Or another how to get the best deal on
your honeymoon.
Now to find such related eBooks available at Clickbank I
use Affiliates Alert. Its time saving software that runs
from your desktop. With it you can find top selling
products by keyword or commission payout by searching the
entire Clickbank Marketplace or just a selected category.
Best of all you can download it for free from
www.AffiliatesAlert.com.
===== Cash in on Waste Traffic
Still not every visitor is going to buy from you no matter
how many tempting solutions you dangle in front of them.
In fact the vast majority wont. But that doesnt mean you
still cant make money off them.
The most common way to cash in on waste traffic is to use
Googles Adsense. Thats where you display Google Adwords
ads on your site for some unspecified cut of the action.
The nice thing about Adsense is you can be up and running
in no time. All I do is incorporate the Adsense code in my
page templates using SSI or server side includes. That way
every new page added gives me more opportunities to make
money.
Now if the mystical and magical nature of Adsense is a
turnoff, there are other services that offer similar
revenue sharing programs. Even better some, unlike
Adsense, let you specify the keywords you wish to target.
Here's a short list of them.
Searchfeed www.searchfeed.com
RevenuePilot www.revenuepilot.com
AllPPC www.allppc.com
BidClix www.bidclix.com
Azoogle Ads www.azoogleads.com
Of course maybe you dont want to settle for pennies and
would rather shoot for dollars? Okay so what if the ads
served up were for ClickBank products? Here are several
ways to do that.
CBAdwords http://cbadwords.com
CB Clicks www.cbclicks.com
ClickAdWords www.clickadwords.com
CB Ad Generator www.procoversdeluxe.com/cbgenerator
The thing to remember about Adsense, or any of the
alternatives, is visitors cant click on the listings if
they cant see em. So make sure you display the listings
front and center. In the visitors face. If at all
possible within the actual page content. For sure not at
the bottom or below the fold somewhere lost in the recesses
of the web page.
So there you have it. Three ways to diversify your online
marketing efforts. Play your cards right and you wont end
up washing dogs for a living.
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John Gergye shares more ideas like this in his just updated
eBook "Traffic From Google in 35 Days". Find out more
here: http://www.traffic-test-tube.com/j/tfg35cl.shtml Or
test your search engine IQ by taking his seo quiz
http://www.traffic-test-tube.com/search-engine-quiz.shtml
and get the free special report "Coming Out On Top".
More articles by John Gergye - http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/John-Gergye-158/
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