Need help with marketing

[12388brs]

I've been writing articles for about 3 months now and i've only made 2 sales and that was over 2 months ago. I started by using the average joe income package, however the guys has not been any help when i email him with questions, maybe you guys could tell me what to do. I am not going to spend any money because the income package was enough.

I'm using clickbank, but maybe you guys could tell me a better program to get with. I will not give my social number, amazon asked for it and i will not give it.

please, anything would help

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi 12388brs,

Welcome to 5 Star.

Well 1st off CB is about the hardest place to start and most newbies biggest mistake is trying to start there. At least if you are focusing on webmaster, web marketing or make money online type CB programs - that's a problem.

But any legit affiliate program is going to request SS to pay you. They have to by law.

Read the stickies in the newbie forum for lots of articles about how to start, why CB is a tough way to go. Then read the niche forum to discover some ideas and tools for finding a good, but low competition niche you can start with.

 

[kpfingaz]

You made 2 sales. Now that you know this works stick with it. Don't quit. Excellent advice from Linda. Clickbank is really hard to crack and if you are trying to promote 'make money' type programs then you are not really going to get very far.

Your SSN is safe with legitimate affiliate networks and affiliate programs. Its kinda like your employer has to have that to pay you so you would give it to him. The networks pay you so you need to give it to them as well.

Jay

 

[bklogan]

The Internet is literally overflowing with quality products to sell (through affiliate programs).
...The problem is, very few people know how to advertise (and how not to) these products effectively using free and low cost online advertising techniques.

 

[fitnfree]

Jay is right, you're info is really pretty safe with affiliate programs and such. I've had to give mine to I don't know how many and never had any problems.

However, if you really wanted to avoid giving our your SSN, but you're very serious about running your own affiliate income business, you can always get and EIN from the IRS. I did that last year and can't deny it feels a bit better using that now than the SSN#!

 

[jcorkern]

I would like to make a comment about the articles. The articles work because of one main part if using them for marketing, and that is the headline/title. If you do not get this right, you will get linited clicks into the articles.

Example: Article title 1. lose weight fast with new program.

Article title 2: 5 Amazing, but little known secrets to eat what you want and still lose 10 lb a week!

Now, you will get 500 to 1000% better clicks into the article with the second title over the first.

It has been documented that the body of the article is less inportant for a click on the bio links than the title.

Learn to grab their attention.

Do a search for "headline templates" and i am sure you can get some free ones to learn from.

But I, like Linda agree that CB is not for beginners.

 

[Teli]

All the advice offered here is solid, especially what Linda and fitnfree said.

ClickBank is a tough route. And also consider that the merchant's site may not convert well. There are a number of factors which could be affecting the turnover of traffic. You need a way to track your clicks to purchase ratio (i.e. your ROI). Unless you're actually tracking, then it's impossible to truly know how well your articles are converting to click-throughs and how many of those click-throughs are turning into paying customers.

Also, if you're truly worried about giving out your personally identifiable info (such as your SSN), then you truly should consider setting up a business and applying for your Employer Identification Number (EIN), sometimes referred to as your Federal Employment Identification (FEI).

Another way to check whether an affiliate program sign up is securely transporting and storing your information is to check for the lock on the sign up form and make sure they are using a secure server. (Does the address in your browser address bar start with https: or just http:? The 's' in https means that it's a secure sever.)

If a merchant springs for a secure server, it usually means they are concerned with and working to protect their affiliates sensitive data. Of course, this is not the only means by which to judge the intentions of a merchant. Last, but not least, if you truly are worried about giving that information online, contact them to see whether you can give the information to an authorized representative of the company over the phone.

~ Teli