Free-Reprint Article Written by: Kim Roach
See Terms of Reprint Below.
************
*
* This email is being delivered directly to members of the group:
*
* internet_marketing_
*
************
We have moved our TERMS OF REPRINT to the end of the article.
Be certain to read our TERMS OF REPRINT and honor our TERMS
OF REPRINT when you use this article. Thank you.
This article has been distributed by:
http://Article-
Helpful Link:
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act - Overview
http://www.gseis.
------------
Article Title:
============
Franchising Your Online Business
Article Description:
============
Franchises have proven to be much more successful than the
traditional small business. Almost 80% of new business start-ups
fail each year. Franchising, on the other hand, allows an
entrepreneur to open up a new business based upon a proven brand
and business model.
Additional Article Information:
============
1833 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line
Distribution Date and Time: 2006-09-29 09:48:00
Written By: Kim Roach
Copyright: 2006, All Rights Reserved
Contact Email: mailto:kim@seo-news.
Kim Roach's Picture URL:
http://blog.
For more free-reprint articles by Kim Roach, please visit:
http://thePhantomWr
============
Special Notice For Publishers and Webmasters:
============
If you use this article on your website or in your ezine,
We Want To Know About It. Use the following URL to let
us know where you have used this article, and we will
include a link to your website on thePhantomWriters.
http://thephantomwr
HTML Copy-and-Paste and TEXT Copy-and-Paste
Versions Of Article Are Available at:
http://thePhantomWr
------------
Franchising Your Online Business
Copyright (c) 2006 Kim Roach, All Rights Reserved
SEO-News
http://www.seo-
According to Wikipedia, Franchising is:
"a method of doing business wherein a franchisor licenses
trademarks and tried and proven methods of doing business to a
franchisee in exchange for a recurring payment, and usually a
percentage piece of gross sales or gross profits as well as the
annual fees. Various tangibles and intangibles such as national
or international advertising, training, and other support
services are commonly made available by the entity licensing the
'chain store' or franchise outlet (commonly shortened to the one
word: franchise), and may indeed be required by the franchisor"
Franchises have proven to be much more successful than
the traditional small business. Almost 80% of new business
start-ups fail each year. Franchising, on the other hand, allows
an entrepreneur to open up a new business based upon a proven
brand and business model.
The franchiser is able to quickly expand their brand across
countries and even continents as long as their business model
and standard operating procedures are executed properly and are
easily duplicated.
Some of the most successful franchises include McDonald's,
Subway, and Dunkin Donuts. Each of these businesses have
successfully duplicated themselves in thousands of locations.
The concept of franchises can be duplicated in an online
business as well. They are known as affiliate programs. This
marketing technique can enlist hundreds, even thousands of web
sites to promote your product or service with zero risk on your
part.
These unique partnerships are a great way to get other people
to promote your products for you without paying any additional
money on advertising. You simply provide your affiliates with
marketing materials and they promote your product to their
mailing list and within their website. For every paying customer
your affiliates refer to your web site, you pay them a
commission.
This form of marketing can drastically reduce your advertising
costs. At the same time, your brand exposure can increase
exponentially as you enroll thousands of highly motivated
affiliates to advertise your product or service.
As for the affiliate, they receive an opportunity to earn a
substantial income without the risk of developing a proven
product, fulfilling orders, handling customer service or
merchant accounts. They simply promote the product and receive
a portion of the revenues while you get increased exposure all
over the Web. It's a win-win situation for both parties
involved.
However, to develop a truly successful program, you must
create an optimized system that can be easily duplicated,
recruit hundreds of affiliates, and keep your affiliates highly
motivated. Read on to find out how you can succeed in each of
these steps.
Keys to Creating a Successful Affiliate Program
The first key to a successful affiliate program is that it be
built around a proven product and excellent customer support. If
you don't have a great product that fills a need in the market,
then you are simply wasting your time.
However, don't think that you have to do everything yourself.
This is one of the number one mistakes made by small businesses
and one of the biggest reasons for their failure. To be
successful online and offline, you must have a business that has
systems in place that allow it to expand and grow.
You are responsible for expanding your business, not working in
it. If you are spending a couple of hours every day responding
to customer support issues, then you are simply wasting time.
All of this work should be given to someone else so that you can
focus on growing your business.
To look into hiring a professional customer support staff, go to
http://www.pro-
The second key to creating a successful affiliate program is to
set high commissions. To keep your affiliates motivated, you
should pay them at least 50% of your profits per sale. (Remember,
these are sales that you could never make alone. By giving your
affiliates a better incentive, you will be able to recruit
higher-end affiliates.) You can afford to pay out higher
commissions because online products have much higher profit
margins. Offline businesses do not have this luxury due to
the many expenses involved in operating a brick and mortar
business.
Thirdly, ensure that your sales page converts well before you
start your affiliate program. Your sales page must convert at a
rate of at least 2% or better. If it does not, then what reason
would people have for promoting your products?
Therefore, you must test first. One of the easiest ways to do
this is by advertising with Google Adwords. Pick out some very
targeted keywords, place your ads, and direct people to your
sales page. You should be testing a number of different sales
pages to see which one converts the highest.
Finally, you must have the appropriate software to track the
traffic and sales of your affiliates. I would highly recommend
a program called AssocTrac, which you can find at
http://www.assoctra
Within this software, you will be able to customize your
affiliate program, set your own commissions and provide your
affiliates with all of the resources they'll need to make you
the most money.
You will want to include the following promotional tools:
emails
banners
text links
articles
interviews
ezine ads
press releases
self-branding ebooks
and more...
You must also show them exactly where to advertise. I suggest
using Camtasia videos to teach your affiliates step-by-step how
to market your product down to the smallest detail.
John Reese does a great job of training his affiliates to
promote his product at
http://www.auctions
Offer your affiliates a very simple, step-by-step process in
which they login to the affiliate site and then copy and paste
the promotional materials that you have made for them.
In fact, you should tell them exactly what to do and in what
order they should do it.
Here's an example:
Step One - Send this email to your subscribers
Step Two - Add this article to your site
Step Three - Add this review to your site
Step Four - Send out this ezine ad to the following newsletters
Step Five - Change Your Email Signature to this
Step Six - Change Your Forum Signature to This
Step Seven - Offer this branded ebook to your newsletter subscribers
So, why does this tactic work? It is basic psychology. Our
brains hate to see any step go unfinished. We feel as though
things are incomplete when we don't complete all of the steps.
If you use this simple aspect of psychology within your affiliate
program, you can greatly improve your income.
In addition, you are also creating a very systematized approach
for your affiliate program. Affiliates should never have to ask
how they can be successful promoting your product. You must have
a system set up that provides them with all of the training and
tools they need to be successful.
This is how you duplicate yourself. You teach others to promote
your products and services.
I would also suggest that you develop a two-tier affiliate
program. While this may not seem like a crucial element, it can
make a huge difference in your profits. With a single-tier
affiliate program, you pay your affiliates a commission for
any sales they refer and that's it. However, with a two-tier
affiliate program, you pay your affiliates a small percentage
of any sales generated by affiliates they refer to your program.
This motivates your existing affiliates to recruit other people
to join your affiliate program. This one simple concept can
exponentially increase your affiliate sales.
This way, your affiliates recruit affiliates, who then recruit
even more affiliates. Are you starting to see the true power of
this marketing technique?
Promoting Your Affiliate Program
Now it's time to recruit those super affiliates to spread your
marketing message to every corner of the web. You can do this
in a number of ways. I'll show you 5 of the most successful
practices in place today.
1. Go to the search engines and begin searching for the top web
sites within your industry. Look for web sites that have a large
list that targets your particular visitor demographics. Once you
have found these web sites, send them an email and tell them why
you feel that they would make for a great affiliate and how they
stand to benefit. Remember to make it personal. Get to know
them and their website before you attempt to send them an email.
Better yet, why not give them a call. With today's spam filters
it can be extremely hard to get through to someone's email. If
you really want someone to take you seriously, contact them on
the phone with a personal invitation to join your affiliate
program.
2. Send out a press release announcing the release of your
affiliate program.
3. Advertise your affiliate program in newsletters and ezines
that serve your target market.
4. Get your affiliate program listed in affiliate program
directories. Here are a few to get you started:
http://www.affiliat
http://www.associat
http://www.affiliat
http://www.affiliat
http://www.affilait
http://www.top-
http://www.affiliat
http://www.affiliat
http://www.refer-
5. Most importantly, have a page on your website that sells the
affiliate program. Your affiliate program information page is a
sales document. You are selling involvement in your affiliate
program. Do not take this lightly. An affiliate program can
drastically increase your income. You may even want to hire a
professional copywriter to create your affiliate information
page.
To see an example of a very effective affiliate program sales
page, go to
http://www.auctions
Keeping Your Affiliates Motivated
Whew! This is becoming quite a complex process, but we're not
quite finished yet. You must also continually motivate your
affiliates. You can do this in a number of ways.
As soon as a new affiliate logs into the affiliate site, welcome
them with video or audio, informing them of how they can make
money and why they need to act now with the promotional tools.
If you do not encourage your affiliates to act now, they will
soon forget about your products and move on to other ventures.
You must also stay in regular contact with them. You will want
to send out an affiliate newsletter at least once a month to
remind your affiliates about special promotions.
Create contests for your affiliates, offering prizes to the top
performing affiliates over a certain month.
Announce the highest performing affiliates in your newsletter.
This gives them recognition and will also encourage the rest of
your affiliates.
Offer your affiliates a higher commission rate for a certain
period of time. This can be especially popular during the
holiday season.
When you do find that someone is performing especially well, go
out of your way to reward them. Contact them by phone to thank
them personally, give bonuses for sales over a certain amount,
or send them a nice card or gift.
Simply being thoughtful can go a long ways.
I hope you see the amazing opportunities that can be found in an
affiliate program. They will reduce your advertising costs,
dramatically increase your brand exposure, and explode your
income when used correctly.
------------
Kim Roach is a staff writer and editor for the SiteProNews
(http://www.sitepron
newsletters. You can also find additional tips and news on
webmaster and SEO topics by Kim at the SiteProNews blog
(http://blog.
kim @ seo-news.com
This article may be freely distributed without modification and
provided that the copyright notice and author information remain
intact.
--- END ARTICLE ---
Get HTML or TEXT Copy-and-Paste Versions Of This Article at:
http://thePhantomWr
............
TERMS OF REPRINT - Publication Rules
(Last Updated: May 11, 2006)
Our TERMS OF REPRINT are fully enforcable under the terms of:
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act
http://thomas.
............
*** Digital Reprint Rights ***
* If you publish this article in a website/forum/
You Must Set All URL's or Mailto Addresses in the body
of the article AND in the Author's Resource Box as
Hyperlinks (clickable links).
* Links must remain in the form that we published them.
Clean links should point to the Author's links without
redirects having been inserted into the copy.
* You are not allowed to Change or Delete any Words or
Links in the Article or Resource Box. Paragraph breaks
must be retained with articles. You can change where
the paragraph breaks fall, but you cannot eliminate all
paragraph breaks as some have chosen to do.
* Email Distribution of this article Must be done through
Opt-in Email Only. No Unsolicited Commercial Email.
* You Are Allowed to format the layout of the article for
proper display of the article in your website or in your
ezine, so long as you can maintain the author's interests
within the article.
* You may not use sentences from this article as an input
for any software that steals sentences from others in
order to build an article with software. The copyright on
this article applies to the "WHOLE" article.
*** Author Notification ***
We ask that you notify the author of publication of his
or her work. Kim Roach can be reached at:
kim@seo-news.
*** Print Publication Reprint Rights ***
If you desire to publish this article in a PRINT
publication, you must contact the author directly
for Print Permission at:
mailto:kim@seo-news.
............
If you need help converting this text article for proper
hyperlinked placement in your webpage, please use this
free tool: http://thephantomwr
============
ABOUT THIS ARTICLE SUBMISSION
http://thePhantomWr
service. thePhantomWriters.
are owned and operated by Bill Platt of Stillwater, Oklahoma USA.
The content of this article is solely the property
and opinion of its author, Kim Roach
http://www.seo-
------------
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
------------
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch format to Traditional
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___
No comments:
Post a Comment