In a discouraged economy, many people turn to a home-business to help make ends meet.  Some look at Network Marketing, while others prefer Affiliate Marketing which is typically an online approach.  There are certainly values in both.  While this site is predominantly focused on Network Marketing and building a traffic funnel to a business opportunity, one can argue that Affiliate Marketing is still a form of Network Marketing.  With that, let’s explore some elements of Affiliate Marketing.

Look at this example of a Fast Mobile Income system, that happens to be an affiliate marketing program.  Check it out at:  www.fastmobileincome.com

Okay, so some marketing affiliate programs are what you might consider hard-core.  They are programs where you seriously devote yourself to the building of online ad campaigns and the promotion of products, and where your affiliate manager assigns you the campaigns and supervises and assesses your results.  But most affiliate programs are a little more low-key.  If you’re just getting started, then it will be useful to learn what different types of programs are out there, to help you decide on the degree of effort you want to put in.

(By the way, this is a shameless plug, but it fits perfectly here)… the Fast Mobile Income system, is an extremely low-key and automated approach.

There are many companies now, both bricks-and-mortar establishments and those that are solely online, that have discovered the benefits of using an affiliate marketing model.  Most of these don’t view such programs as their primary source of sales, but are rather casual, offering these internet marketing partnerships as a small way of adding to sales while still keeping this marketing effort as a sideline to their main business.  Even Walmart and Office Depot participate in affiliate programs now, but of course the granddaddy of all such programs began with www.amazon.com back in 1996.

However, another site that’s been doing affiliate marketing programs for almost as long as Amazon is www.clickbank.com.  The company recognized the potential of affiliate marketing early on, and for ClickBank, these marketing affiliate programs are pretty much all the company does. The site brings together three groups: vendors who have products to sell, people who want to buy the products, and affiliate marketers who take those products and promote them on their own websites. The vendor works out the price and commission with ClickBank, and as sales are made, payments are divided between the vendor, ClickBank, and the affiliate. ClickBank is the go-between for everyone.

Whether you want marketing affiliate programs as casual as the one used by Amazon, you want a more structured program like what ClickBank offers, or want to go whole hog and treat your marketing almost as a full-time business, there’s some sort of affiliate marketing network that will answer your need. Be sure to explore the various possibilities first, so you’ll know what you’re getting into, and can plan your activities accordingly.

Podcasting is an amazing and easy tool for traffic generation.  Anyone can create a podcast on any subject, and it can be started without major expense.  The issue is, many people just don’t know how to begin.  With that, I want to answer the question “What is Podcasting and How Can I Start Today“?

Podcasting is a system that lets you download audio programs directly to your iPod or other media player.  You may listen to these audio programs later on whenever and wherever you want to listen to them.   Many people like to download podcasts so they can listen to them while they exercise or do housework.  The advantages of Podcasting is that it allows a person to listen to audio content of their choice without any charge – and at a time of their convenience.  Therefore, Podcasting has proven to be a far better alternative to the traditional radio.

So, how do I Start Podcasting?

Podcasting is a very easy process. You do not need anything other than an Internet-ready computer and a portable media player.  Even if you do not have a portable media player, you can begin Podcasting simply using a computer  that has an Internet connection.    There are many websites that really help you get started with Podcasting.  One of my favorite sites that allows you to create audio content is BlogTalkRadio.   Without question, they are the best-of-the best when it comes to ease of use, unmatched value, and quality service.  They are one of the treasures of the internet for providing convenient marketing resources without major expense and a difficult learning curve.  Obviously, I highly recommend the resource and believe it can be a major tool in your marketing arsenal – especially for creating quality audio content.

There are certainly other resources available to help you gather information on podcasting and audio creation, and to get you started quickly.

Years ago I shared the importance of the emerging social media trend in building traffic.  At the time, I called podcasting and social media the direction that online marketing was heading – and the emerging importance in the marketplace.  Obviously, we can see that value on display today in every area of the internet community.

Podcasting has gained a prominent place in the social marketing community, and the growth-rate continues to rocket across all continents.  If you pick any niche topic and do a search, you will likely find podcasts already available on the net – and ranking high in the search engines.   Podcasts are available on a almost any subject, but the missing and valuable information may be YOU.  Only you possess your unique opinion and perspective, so that makes your content valuable and relevant.  You could very easily possess the next viral podcasting audio message that penetrates the marketplace, and creates a massive traffic funnel to your opportunity or site.

If you still have any doubt in your mind about the value and importance of podcasting, simply do a Google search on the term “Podcasts”.   At the time of this post, there are more than three hundred seventy five million results returned.  That should certainly interest you and wipe out any doubt about the effectiveness of audio content in the marketplace.   The simple fact, Podcasting is really in it’s infancy as a means of delivering marketing content and driving targeted and relevant traffic.  There is immense growth ahead, so getting started now will certainly give you an edge in your niche.

Podcasting is a Great Tool For Home Based Business Owners
If you run a business from your home, you can make use of Podcasting very effectively to build your brand and grow your business.  Getting your podcast launched will help build credibility and establish your authority on your subject.  Sharing the information with your listeners makes you an expert in their eyes.  As they continue to “follow” you, they will have confidence in what you share and will be more likely to purchase from you or join your business opportunity.   With that, I believe podcasting is the ultimate Virtual Prospecting tool.   Simply put, it enables you to reach new customers in the marketplace.

So, if you really have a passion about your product or service, Podcasting gives you an amazing vehicle to share that passion with others.  The best thing is that you need not to be a software expert or have any other technical expertise to start Podcasting.  All you need is the desire to take action and get started.

As we discussed last time, getting prospects to your Network marketing opportunity is the lifeblood of your business.  It is a numbers game – and those who get the most numbers, win.  Traffic generation is a vital point in that process.  Let’s discuss some other solutions to generating traffic to your opportunity.

Networking Swaps

In certain business networking circles, you are able to build a list of prospects and referrals even if you are in a different line of work.  In reality, many business groups exist specifically for the networking.    There are Business networking organizations like BNI (which is one of the biggest networking organization in the world) that are designed to facilitate this.

Of course, all this depends on the rapport and friendship between you and the other members.  You certainly do not want to get involved and immediately start hammering people to join your gig.  You need to build relationships first – and then share your opportunity.  It’s the same strategy as social networking online.

Online Prospecting

In today’s marketplace, getting prospects can be an easy and automated.  You still have to take massive action and follow-up with any leads you acquire, but the fact is you can build a strong prospecting funnel without spending a lot of money.

There are many ways you can acquire prospects online without spending a fortune on Google AdWords, or other ppc advertising.  On the Network Marketing Traffic website, we have discussed multiple ways to generate traffic to your opportunity.   “Virtual Prospecting” can be an excellent income building system, but you must understand some basic strategies.  We’ll discuss a few here to round out this post, but you should also look over the site for a more indebth discussion of many of these methods.

You can drop by people’s blogs, go to forums or build a mailing list of prospects in order to build relationships and meet new people.

Social networking sites like MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, MyBlogLog, twitter, and many other sites are a great place to meet new people with similar interests and make friends with them.

You must be very careful of one thing, NEVER, NEVER EVER SPAM forums, blog comments or other people’s email. It is a very quick way to get a bad reputation or banned from those forums.

If you are looking to build your business, you should immediately consider how to expand your business social network. There are lots of prospects just waiting to join you – they just need to know where you are!

The business world is very competitive and if you do not try to catch up with the latest trend, you will surely be left behind. Entrepreneurs who refuse to innovate and reinvent their business strategies often do not survive the competition.If you do not want to end like these people, you should make it a point to continually improve your products and services. You should also see to it that you expand your business connections and client base.

Expanding your social business network online is very convenient and easy to do. As an entrepreneur, you need to learn how to use technology, especially the internet, to your advantage. The best part of it is that you can easily develop your social network online without spending a lot of money.There are a lot social networking sites that offer their services for very affordable prices.To save money, make use of those free business social networking sites.

Now, before you start thinking that business social networking sites are worry free tools in promoting your business, bear in mind that not all networking sites as what they claim to be.However, not all of these business social networking sites are good vehicles to promote your enterprise so do not just join any online networks simply because they are free and they are accessible. To find a good social networking site, take the time to do some research and read reviews.Choose at least five business social network that suits your taste and your needs then check out their sites.

Social networking works both ways so you need to interact with your fellow members.In fact, if you are good at making friends online, you may be able to expand your business through your contacts.If you have some questions about online business, post it on the message board.To do this, you need to visit the networking site at least three times a week, post some messages and interact with your online friends.

Is it safe to trade personal information with other members of the online social network?As a general rule, you should never divulge any personal information to strangers online. Note that there are a lot of scammers and identity thieves online and if you are careful, you could end in a lot of trouble.Remember that there are lots of identity thieves lurking in the internet and if you are not careful, you could be their next victim.

Here are a few brief insights that might help you build a prospect funnel that will flood your opportunity.   Specifically, if you are looking to build a following to your network marketing opportunity – get busy learning the ropes of podcasting.  Become a podcasting pro!

If you have a lot of material and are looking to make a daily podcast you might want to consider a very short podcast of two to five minutes.  Like e-mail that gets stacked up in your inbox, podcasts that don’t get listen to pile up very quickly.   If a subscriber is too busy and doesn’t get a chance to hear a few of them in a row, obviously, they will likely never take the time to listen to the older podcasts.

Typically, what happens after that is they will delete the whole batch because they figure they’ve missed too much vital information.  The worst part is, they will probably un-subscribe.  That’s what we want to avoid.

On the other hand, too infrequent of a podcast will mean that people do not feel the same “ownership” in listening as they would from something a little more regularly.  There has to be a sense of urgency in the information if you want to hold your listeners attention.  You have to find a good balance between too much information, and too little.

When it’s all said and done, you need to know what material you need to cover and how much time you have to spend on podcasts in order to determine how frequently you are going to podcast.  This is the length-to-width ratio:  the length of your podcast in relation to the width of the material.

Look at other podcasts to see what kind of material they may cover and the relationship that has to the frequency they produce in these podcasts.

CNN, for example, can produce a daily podcast that is very short because of the nature of its “headline-style” material.  Their podcasts are very short, and of course, quite popular.

A podcast covering the world of baseball, might be better off podcasting every week since they will be able to talk about a couple of the games is well is some news.  Their podcast can be 15 minutes to half an hour, which seems appropriate.

Lastly, a financial specialty podcast might only come out once a quarter and can be an hour long as they discuss business news and economic developments in the past three months.  The length of their podcasts, based on the weighty material they are covering, seems appropriate.

In each of the cases above, it is possible to imagine a subscriber spending the time listening to each podcast because their length is appropriate for the material.  You must carefully evaluate your niche, to help determine the length and frequency of your podcast.   The question then becomes…

How much time should I put into my podcast?

Being aware of the length-to-width ratio of your podcast will help you determine how appropriate a frequency you need.  But there’s another factor to consider as well.  It is the “how-much-work-is-it-going-to-be-for-me?” factor.

If you are running a business or are busy at your day job, you will likely not have the time to put in the effort to create a quality podcast on a frequent basis.  Obviously, if you are not putting together a quality product- your listeners will not stay with you.  It becomes critical that you take careful inventory of the time you have to invest in developing your podcast.

It doesn’t take much for CNN to create a five-minute podcast about news headlines because they are in the business anyway.  And it doesn’t take a lot for the financial analyst to create a one-hour podcast every three months because they spent the past three months gaining the material.

Your challenge as a podcaster is to create a regular podcast that does not take so much of your time that it loses its enjoyment.  You need to determine whether you are a personal podcaster (podcasting on an area of interest, or a hobby), or a business podcaster (podcasting on your business or industry).

And if you are a business owner, you know how little time you have already, so you may not want to spend an hour or two a week to create a 15 minutes to half an hour podcast with such regularity.

There has been a lot of discussion about the ideal frequency of podcasts.  It usually boils down to the length-to-width ratio that you need to consider whether you can maintain the momentum.

Social Bookmarking can be a traffic magnet.  To build solid traffic and generate prospects for your opportunity, you need to understand what Social media is, and how to maximize it to your advantage.

Keep in mind, the whole Social marketing concept involves building relationships.  I have emphasized several times that the focus of Web2.0 strategies (especially Social Networking), is the perfect marriage between internet marketing and Network Marketing.

Social Media :  It is about…

* Weaving your content and messages into the social web
* Making friends with your target audience
* Communicating with those friends in real time if possible
* Listening to those friends and responding accordingly

It’s Just Human Nature to build relationships, and the Social Networks make it possible to build relationships virtually.  Those relationships become excellent prospects for our opportunity.

It’s just in our nature as human beings that we like to communicate about what we are interested in.  But there are more reasons than just learning more about what we are interested in that moves many of us to want to communicate about it openly and in public.

People want their opinions to be heard. They like to see their ideas in print. They like getting replies from other people about their opinions.

People like being part of a community of like minded individuals. They like feeling like they are actually a part of something. They like getting involved.

Some people like controversy or having a controversial point of view. Some like to create controversy just to see if they can stir up others in a community to create buzz about differing opinions.

All of the above human traits and more are the reason that Social Sites like MySpace and FaceBook’s owners became millionaires almost overnight.

But those Social Sites are either print interactive or one way communications such as podcasts or videos.

The next step in the evolution of Social Interactive Media is Live Internet Talk Radio.  I’ve taught about it in live Advanced Training seminars, and am now created a course explaining the great benefits of Talk Radio Traffic.

Its obvious how many millions of people love to share their opinions, ask question, get answers and learn through the social sites. How much more do you think it will appeal to people to become involved with a community by joining in on live conversations, where they can hear themselves espousing their ideas and getting immediate feed back and interaction from experts or hundreds of other people, with potentially thousands more people listening in?

Now that is POWER!

The beautiful part is; you can facilitate making that happen for them in your niche. You can control the entire social interaction and make more money doing it.

If you want more information on the Social Media marketing, I have several courses available on the topic.

If you have been marketing online or driving traffic for any length of time, you understand the necessity of evolving with the marketplace.  In fact, the marketplace actually evolves with introductions of new technologies.

Conversely, if you want to increase your marketing reach and prospecting- you need to stay updated with your understanding of technology, and what is available for getting additional visitors to your site.

Let’s take a look at a couple strategies that are becoming increasingly important in traffic generation and marketing – using videos and audio (specifically, podcasting).

Using streaming videos in the internet as a form of marketing is a relatively new approach.  Currently, most marketing brochures and newsletters are using text and pictures in combination to attract a consumer’s attention. Some pictures are a combination of still and animated objects to better the
chances of attracting a prospective customer.  But, if there is anything advertisers and consumers have learned about marketing, television advertisements are still the best way to attract attention for a product and keep it in the consumer’s memory.

To fully understand why internet streaming videos are the next step in online marketing, we need to be able to grasp the objective of advertisers and the effects of the different methods of advertising.

To begin with, online advertising began mainly with newsletters in the form of emails or pop-up screens containing pure text and some inanimate pictures.  As internet users became more and more accustomed to surfing the web, these newsletters and pop-up advertisements gradually turned into annoyances.   Strategies to block e-mails and popups emerged to combat the annoying distraction – and have made newsletter, e-mail and popup marketing quite difficult.

As far as email newsletters and advertisements are concerned, a similar phenomenon is occurring where they have suddenly evolved into what is known as junk mail or spam mail in internet language.  Again, anti-virus protection software creators incorporated spam mail protection within their software while numerous sites in the internet make available free, downloadable anti-spam software.  The biggest blow to spam mail marketing was when e-mail providers decided to add anti-spam or spam blocking utilities in their website.  As a result of these measures against pop-ups and spam messaging, an avenue in internet marketing is about to close.

This is where streaming video comes in.  It is undisputed that television commercials are still the best way to attract attention.  The advertiser needs to make the product look good in TV, but their primary objective is to attract the consumer’s attention.  Their second goal is to make the video memorable enough so that the customer remembers the brand name when they have need of the product.

One of the greatest strengths of internet marketing through streaming videos is the ability to grab attention.  The only thing that you as an advertiser have to do is to make the video interesting enough that it maintains or improves on that initial level of interest.  When the video is old enough to become common place, you replace it with a new one.  Unlike pop-ups or spam messages or newsletters, they cannot become an annoyance because the first thing it does is to grab the consumer’s attention and curiosity.

With the use of videos, the consumer gets a clear picture of what your product or idea is all about.  This is an added bonus to the attention grabbing feature of using videos for your marketing or advertising campaigns.

Using audio is another way of drawing attention to your product or service, and is another excellent way to build relationships with your visitors.  It helps to grab attention, and certainly can be more interesting than simply having words on a page.

Here are a few tips for the Podcasting beginners to help you get started generating traffic by podcasting.

The most amazing thing about Podcasting is that it gives you the ability to air your voice across the continents all over the world. You need not have to be the head of any country to send your message through the media. The advent of Podcasting lets you do what used to be a privilege of some powerful personalities only.

In simple terms, you can imagine Podcasting as an audio version of Blog. Podcasters record the audio program just like any other radio program. Then they upload these programs on Internet with the help of MP3 files or RSS feeds. End user has the liberty of downloading program of his choice on his iPod or any other portable media player. Later on, he can listen to theses programs whenever or wherever he wishes to at his convenience. However, in the sharp contrast to the radio programs there is no regulatory body the controls the Podcasting. It gives you the liberty of talking on any topic of your choice.

Several months ago I introduced a concept and wrote an article on [tag-tec]Virtual Prospecting[/tag-tec].   Basically, the general theme of the article was to identify the importance of building a targeted traffic flow, that a site owner could ultimately convert into prospects for whatever opportunity the site was promoting.  It is certainly a valid concept that carries great importance for anyone who is interested in building a strong prospect list for their [tag]Network Marketing Opportunity[/tag].

Since that time, I’ve developed a far greater appreciation for building a prospect base through my traffic flow.  The busier I have gotten in other areas of my life, the more I have recognized the value of developing a strong Virtual Prospecting system by converting my traffic into top quality prospects.

The term Virtual Prospecting perhaps has a different meaning to those who are reading this article.  I initially introduced the term to identify the process I use in developing prospects “virtually” through the use of traffic generating systems.   It is my strong contention that simply getting massive amounts of traffic will not accomplish much, unless those virtual visitors take some sort of directed action.  In my case, I want to convert the visitors to targeted prospects for my opportunity.

Virtual Prospecting has a deeper meaning for me than simply creating a large volume of visitors that simply fill out a form to get a free report.  Some people design their site simply to develop a huge list of “leads”.  Leads are a good thing, however, in today’s Network Marketing recruiting environment leads are generally very low quality.  Of course, that’s my opinion.  If you don’t believe me, try purchasing a lead list for yourself and see how well you do in developing prospects.

I personally would much rather spend time developing a virtual Prospecting system – by developing a steady flow of targeted traffic, and then through my site content convert those targeted visitors into quality prospects for my opportunity.   That way, when I get a prospect, I know they are specifically targeted and interested in my opportunity.  In fact, in most cases the prospect already knows much about me and my opportunity, so when we speak I am able to get right to the point of our shared interest.

Developing the right content that converts traffic into prospects, is part of the strategic approach to building traffic.  Simply building a large flow of traffic, is not going to get the results I want.  I’d much rather have tightly targeted visitors, who are much more likely to have an interest in my opportunity.  

In the days ahead, I will be sharing more articles on my Virtual Prospecting system, and how I’m utilizing the techniques to convert my traffic into quality prospects.   Until then….

Being a website owner on a mission, I know it can get a little tough trying to find the time to [tag]build traffic[/tag]- especially if you write your own web content. With a little discipline and determination, anyone can do it.  I know, because this is the way I started out struggling to find the time to write some web content for my website that would [tag-tec]funnel prospects[/tag-tec] to my site.

However, not everyone is like me.   Some people just would rather focus time on marketing their website, and finding ways to get visitors rather than fighting with your PC over web content. I don’t blame you.   The bottom line is, you have to have content to get traffic, so what is the solution?

There may come a time when you have to consider external help…which means hiring a web content writer. Surprisingly, hiring a web content writer is not as expensive as I thought it was. In all sincerity, over the years that I’ve been working and promoting my website online, I’ve met many web content writers, worked with many of them and have really come to know some great content writers quite well.  I’m comfortable having them provide me with content ideas and the complete articles that I use to promote my site and bring in Easy Traffic. 

Having a [tag]traffic freelancer[/tag] gives me time to do other things that I’m much better at.   This is called leveraging on the talents of others. Frankly speaking, if you don’t have the time for web content writing, find a reliable and experienced web content writer for your website and you’ll soon be able to breathe easier. 

When you’re out there hunting for a web content writer, remember, the key to finding the right person for the job is in determining if you can/want to work with this writer long-term. there’s really no point in settling for a half-full (or half-empty) web content writer whom you know is not going to last! It shows….just take a look at the number of years they have been in the business, how reliable they are, how fast the web content writer is in responding to your questions, how specific they are about their needs and your requirements, etc.

Reliability and professionalism are especially important when you’re hiring a freelancer. They are independent contractors, and if you don’t get a good one, they can very well leave the project undone as and when they want. They can just….you know, disappear off the face of the earth and you’ll have no recourse. But it’s a fine line and one can never be 100% sure that the web content writer is reliable unless the contact was referred to you. Just base your decision on how you perceive the web content writer and judge for yourself how serious this web content writer is about his/her job.

Another good point to raise here is independence and resourcefulness. Don’t forget the whole point of hiring a web content writer for yourself….to free up your time and to have fewer headaches. It wouldn’t make sense if the web content writer had to be spoon-fed for everything he/she needs and is absolutely clueless about how to find ideas and resources! If the web content writer is familiar with search engine marketing, all the better – you’ve hit jackpot because they will help bring lots of [tag]free traffic[/tag] to your site.

To build a [tag]stable flow of traffic[/tag] to our website, the first thing we need to know is – Content is KING.  Actually, let me be a little more specific and say, [tag-tec]EXCLUSIVE content is king[/tag-tec].

Simply throwing up random information that is taken from another site, is just not going to produce [tag]excellent traffic[/tag] generating results.  Visitors appreciate fresh information that is unique and creative.  Search Engines reward sites that offer genuine content, and fresh perspective.

Here are a few things to consider as you focus on writing interesting content for your site.

Know your readers. This is the number one rule about writing content for your website!  Do you know what kind of traffic you’re drawing into your website?  Do you know what they’re looking for?  Have you any idea where they’re located, and how they found you?

If you want easy traffic, you need to fully understand a key element in writing [tag]interesting content[/tag] for your website visitors… “Find the “hot button” of your site visitors so that you can push it again and again.” 

The more you connect with your visitors, the more times they will visit.  Keeping your visitors coming will often depend heavily on the kind of content you publish on your website.  So, do a little bit of homework by either asking around, or implement site tools that help you [tag]track your site visitors[/tag].

Keep in the loop. There’s nothing more important than knowing your niche well enough to keep your visitors coming back for more quality information.  Keep in the loop on what is happening within the niche.  Some ways to stay informed may be to:  Do a simple search through your favorite search engine, surf through websites, check the news.  By all means, if you find a website interesting bookmark it or subscribe to the RSS feed or newsletter.  This way, whenever the website have something new, you’ll be the first to know.  It’s important to keep yourself updated as much as possible.

Guest writers. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with publishing another person’s content as long as you think your site readers will like it.  But if you publish another person’s content, remember to ask their permission.  You can often find good information in article directories, but just remember that the article is being shared by many other sites.  If you publish another writers work, I suggest that you share a couple paragraphs of commentary.  It’s important to write something interesting, unique and most importantly ORIGINAL.