Many entrepreneurs don’t know what they don’;t know about sales and marketing. This often has dire consequences for the bottom line. Good sales copy is an example of something that most business owners know nothing about. Dan Kennedy, aka the Millionaire Maker calls creating great sales copy, “writing your own check”.

By definition a sales letter is something in print that is meant to influence someone to buy your product. Without getting caught up in formality, a sales letter just has to work to earn the title of good sales letter. Most businesses never get around to even writing a bad one.

This omission is devastating to the bottom line, or at least what the bottom line could be. To clear it up, there is no one way or format to create a blow them out of the water, panting for more sales letter. So have no fear.

To get started: Go to the nearest library and pick up a pile of magazines from the popular genres. The areas you are most interested in are sports, fitness, health, fashion, and entertainment. Pick a specific category within the genre and then a more general one. In the area of health and fitness, pick up Men’s Health and then more specifically one dealing only with getting bulky through weightlifting. Read through them and focus on the ads.

The sales letters are often full or half page. They sometimes can be half page. Many times they offer a free written or audio material when you get in touch with them. You’ll notice that the sales letter focuses heavily on the service or product offered and not at all on the company name. It is an unfortunate false perception that the big corporations are masters of advertising. In reality, most have not clue about how to draft or use a good sales letter.

How do you find really good sales copy? It finds you actually. It stands out and sucks you in and makes you interested enough to maybe spend money on the product offered.. Mark the page in the magazine and immediately go get a couple of recent back issues. Browse those for the same or similar ad. A repeat means the ad is probably successful. The more back issues it appears in, the better indicator of being successful.

What the big companies do is promote a brand with entertaining ads with dancing lizards or whatever. Before you begin to think that sort of thing is real world advertising, remember that advertising must be readily measurable. Did it work or didn’t it. Often, these companies can’t measure the return on the millions spent. This is not for you. You have to get the benefit of your product to the average potential customer right now.

Strategy #2 is to provide your unique benefit to your customer. You want to answer the question: “Why should I be doing business with you and not others offering the same product or service. What is it can you do for them? Always keep that question in mind in creating winning advertising copy.

It is likely that you have heard about the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and the power of a good one. Billionaire philanthropist Tom Monaghan turned Domino’s Pizza into the goliath we see today with this USP: “Fresh Hot Pizza delivered in 30 minutes or Less, Guaranteed.”

By conveying a unique benefit, unlike any other in the marketplace, Dominos moved to the head of the pack.

But you might have noticed that having a powerful USP is strategy # 2. Where is strategy 1?

Well, the order is backwards in the article because rule #1 is to have a good headline. But learning how to do a sales letter means understanding what one is and that means a commitment to learn. Headlines are a topic for a future article.

Source: Business

While most mystery shopping companies have solid reputations, there are a few that don’t. The mystery shopping industry has skyrocketed with the consumer demand constantly on the rise; there are over 400 mystery shopper companies within the US alone. The best mystery shopping companies will have the customer’s interests at the top of mind and will ensure that there mystery shopper experiences provide true value. Over the past few years, the amount of mystery shopper companies has grown over 11% per year, making this industry sector a $600 million per year business.

Most people have a good idea of what to look for in good mystery shopper companies but we wanted to dedicate an article about the specific things you should avoid. Unfortunately, some people become greedy, always looking for ways of making money but without putting in the time and effort to do it the right, or even legal way. This means that customers are ripped off, often for large sums of money, and shoppers are paid with bogus cashiers or standard checks. You need to all you can to protect yourself when making a decision about mystery shopper companies.

The most common issue that pertains to some mystery shopper companies is the issuance of fraudulent payments. This is most commonly done by using classifieds to find individuals willing to work, offering to pay them quickly, offering a cashier’s check or some other fraudulent payment and requesting an immediate forward of cash to a foreign address.

The way that these mystery shopper companies get you to cash the checks involves telling you that you get a percentage of what the check is worth. However you will usually find that a couple of days after you have cashed the check, you will get confirmation from your bank that the check bounced and you will owe them quite a lot of money – usually thousands of dollars. If you take a look on one of the top mystery shopping companies known as GFK, you will see that they are trying to let people know about this type of crime as they want to ensure that people know that they can be trusted.

Another one of the top mystery shopper companies is called MSPA. In fact, this company is the largest, professional trade association, one that has a true dedication to improving customer relations and satisfaction. Using mystery shoppers has proven to be a significant tool in accomplishing this goal. With a shopper, customers will have an opportunity to see the customer’s experience in an entirely different way. However, illegal schemes are being exposed by MSPA too.

Some things that you can do to avoid choosing the wrong company are to say no to anyone who requests you to pay them a few for being associated with their company. Also, if anyone asks you to cash a check and wire money, it is likely a fraudulent situation. If you avoid these things in your search, you will be able to avoid any potential negative company choices, allowing you to select a great match to earn extra income.

Source: Business

Utilising the Internet to generate publicity may sound a little speculative, but in fact through the affiliate marketing program a number of industries have experienced nothing short of phenomenal growth. Take the online poker industry, the affiliate program provided them with a vast platform from which to advertise without any of the overheads that traditional advertising can accrue. Due to the unique advertising opportunity generated by the affiliate program, initial costs are kept to a minimum whilst the audience remains unrestricted.

The poker affiliate program as with all others works as a commission based advertising network, utilising a vast number of individual websites. By offering webmasters the opportunity to host advertisements on their site in exchange for a revenue as and when the adverts attract a new customer, affiliate programs can create significant interest among sites. This interest is increased further when you consider that neither the affiliate nor the primary affiliate program needs to pay any cash up front.

In all affiliate programs the website owners are rewarded as and when they produce a new customer. This is tracked by unique URL's attached to each linked banner or other advertising source on their website. In most affiliate programs this will be a small one of cash payment, or a percentage of a sale or group of sales. However the poker industry offers a unique problem, in so far as they are not actually selling anything to a customer. Therefore to overcome this the poker affiliate program has designed an equally unique but spectacularly successful reward program.

Rather than merely offering a one-off payment scheme, the poker affiliate program offers their websites the opportunity to earn a percentage of the revenue generated by each player. This percentage can top 35% and rather than being for a few games or a couple of months, this payment is made for the entire lifetime of a player. This means each and every time a player generated by an affiliate site plays and generates revenue for the poker site, they also generated a percentage for their affiliate.

It is an amazing marketing strategy that has worked wonders for the industry, and has created a number of multi-million dollar sites. Poker affiliates keep flocking in due to the amazing revenues that they can command through this program. Therefore with extra affiliates joining up the poker sites can increase their own visibility and sphere of influence, without paying out. This in turn guarantees the future of both the affiliate and the poker industry, making it one of the most profitable marketing partnerships around.Discover how to become a super Party Poker affiliate and generate a massive income with poker affiliate programs at http://www.epokeraffiliate.com/

Source: Blog

The first problem many people run into is advertising. Many marketers believe that affiliate programs will help them to "get rich quick" and they fail to put in the effort required to succeed. Advertising, however, is the most important thing you can do in any business. You cannot rely on luck alone. Because of the competition in affiliate marketing, it is imperative that sites be appealing and informative to keep a visitor's attention, eventually making the sale.

Another reason many people fail at affiliate marketing is a lack of preparation. Research is involved as the affiliate must be knowledgeable about the product he is trying to sell. It helps to be interested in the products you are trying to sell. This interest will help keep you focused during slower periods. It will also make it easier for you to spend the time on learning all you can about the product and keeping updated on changes related to the product and/or industry. Remember that you will be providing information to potential customers and must be as knowledgeable as possible.

Along with lack of preparation when it comes to product knowledge, many people fail to prepare for their website. Your website is the core of your affiliate marketing business. You need to plan the layout, domain, content, and ads that will be included. Remember that you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Visitors may leave your site without even looking at your products if you do not have an attractive homepage. Also keep in mind that visitors are looking for information. Provide interesting, relevant content that includes plenty of keywords to help your search results. Finally, keep in mind that you are going to have to prepare to continually update your site to keep visitors coming back again and again.

Above everything else, do not close yourself to more learning. There is always something to learn in affiliate marketing. Whether you are studying up on techniques to increase visitor hits or ways to increase the attractiveness of your site, or simply increase your product knowledge, you are making an investment in yourself and your future. Those who are able to maintain success for the long haul are those who are willing to put in that time and energy.

Whatever happens, do not give up. It is not easy to find quick success with little work. This is no "get rich quick" plan. Keep trying and consider selecting a different program if the one you first doesn't work for you. There's no shame in that. Remember, with effort and perseverance, you are on your way to success!TheAffiliateMarketingBlog.com focuses on educating readers about the profit potential of being an affiliate marketer.

Source: Blog