There are a number of
methods for promotion of affiliate links and we will discuss the two major ones.
Banner
Advertising:
First, here is a little
info on how banner advertising works; you place html code on your website and every time you have a
visitor to your website the banner records an impression. The normal return is for every 2
impressions of their banner on your site, you will receive one impression of your own
banner on another site on the web.
Ask yourself this one simple question. How many times
have you clicked on a banner that came up on your monitor? If your answer is never, you
then should understand why banner advertising is not always successful. This
said, a lot of marketers swear by banner advertising and since it is
relatively cost free, you should give it a try.
You do not need to
have a website to promote your affiliate links with banner advertising. Simply select the
banners you would like to use from the ones supplied by the company and sign up with some
of the banner exchange companies like BannersGoMLM
or any of the others on the
web (a google search for "banner exchange programs" will
return 432,000 pages). You will need to buy the impressions from some
of these companies
if you do not have a website to insert their html code for the exchange feature.
Note: Banner exchanges
also can be part of your multiple income stream if you sign up as an affiliate for them.
If someone signs up from one of the banners on your site, you then receive impressions
from their banners also - giving you more exposure. You might also be entitled to receive
commissions from any purchases of banner impressions from your "downline".
Establishing
Your Own Site:
Depending on the type
of site you want to establish, this can be relatively low cost or it can be extremely high
cost. I suggest you check out the free hosting companies first. They allow you to choose a
subdomain name that will be part of your url address. Give this a good bit of thought
before selecting one.
If you are establishing a gaming/entertainment portal, be sure the
name you select reflects your site's emphasis.
Example: gamblingheaven, casinomall,
entertainmentdoorway, gatewaytofun.
The search engines look for urls that match the
keywords in a search request. If your site address is "joesplace.stormpages.com"
and someone has requested "online casino" in the keyword search, your site will
not be in the results (unless your meta tags (discussed later) reflect that your site is
an online casino portal).
If your address is "joesonlinecasino.stormpages.com"
then your chances of being listed in the results are greatly improved.
The next thing you
need to understand about "free" web hosting is that all of them come with the
host's own banner advertising. This means that when you upload your pages, you will have a
banner at the top of the page from the web hosting company.
Is this Bad? Depends on how
you feel about having a banner that may be advertising a competitors site flashing on your
page. If you do not want the banner up there, most of the free hosting sites offer banner
free sites for a small fee (about $5 per month).
Also, most ISPs
(Internet Service Provider) offer free web hosting (up to 10 MB - the exact amount
will vary from ISP to ISP) together with internet access. Using your own unused web space
is highly recommended for those of you with little to no experience setting up web pages.
"How do I know if I have any web space?
And if I do, how do I make a web page with it?"
The best place to start is the FAQ page on your
ISP's home page. Most ISPs have a page where you can select files on your hard drive to
upload -- while others will simply provide you with a FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
address. (example - ftp://login.netmar.com)
To upload files to an FTP server, you will
need a software program that will allow you to freely upload and download files. I
recommend BulletProof FTP - its the one I use myself
and I consider it to be dummy-proof.
If you want to go for
your own site with your own registered domain name, then your cost will be a little
higher. First you will need to register your own domain name: (never
pay an outrageous fee for your domain - the ones below will register
your domain for less than $12 a year.
HOMS
Hosting (12.95 per year)
Lowest Domain Rates
($11.95 per year)
You will then need
to sign up for hosting with one of the many hosting companies or just go to
our HOMS Hosting and take advantage of the free web design offer shown on our Web
Hosting
page. When selecting a web host, you will need to consider the services offered in their
packages. Be sure you will have enough space and bandwidth. The bandwidth is
very important if you plan to launch a full scale advertising campaign. This can get
a little technical so suffice it to say that you will need enough bandwidth to cover an
onslaught of visitors to your site during a one month period. If you use all of the
bandwidth allocated for your site, the hosting company may close your site down until a
new month starts. This could be devastating to an advertising campaign.
Next you will need to
design a website and for that you will need some software (very expensive in most cases -
can range from $150 - $400). But wait, there is freeware available and it is WYSIWYG
(what you see is what you get) software. Just download EvrSoft's 1st Page 2000.
If you have never used web design software before, start with the "Easy
Mode". You can find website templates by doing a search on yahoo
or google for "free website templates" . After you have your page designed, simply upload it with an FTP software (see
above) or through your web host's file upload utility.
If you need more help
with this step, please send me an email
with your phone number and a convenient time to talk and I will give you a call.
