The #1 Insurance Affiliate Program

Ah, the flu. At some point we all get it and fortunately we all get over it. It’s flu season and for some of us, we know it will happen. The fever, the headaches, and all the coughing can be annoying. But just like getting over the flu, being successful in affiliate marketing share some similarities. Don’t believe me? Just ask Geno Prussakov at the amnavigator.com/blog. He has been battling the flu and for a few days and started to notice some trends. Maybe it was the medicine talking, but Geno give us 3 key elements to success, whether it’s for the flu or affiliate marketing.

• Discipline
• Systematic Approach
• Having the right remedies

http://www.amnavigator.com/blog/2011/01/20/how-tackling-affiliate-marketing-is-like-combating-flu/

The internet is full of advice about everything imaginable. You can find tips with just just a few keystrokes, but how do you know who’s advice to listen too? When it comes to affiliate marketing, it’s pretty simple, find an expert and listen to what they say. One of my favorite bloggers and affiliate marketing experts is Jeremy Shoemaker at shoemoney.com.Here is one of his older posts and still holds up today. It is the 9 Random Tips On Being A Successful Online Marketer. The cliff-notes version is below and here is the link. http://www.shoemoney.com/2007/02/24/9-random-tips-on-being-a-successful-online-marketer/

• Surround Yourself With Other Successful Marketers
• Understand Branding
• Holidays/Events
• Awareness of Memes and Current Events
• Analytics
• American Express Blue Card
• Embrace Adversity and Failure
• Do not Fear Change
• Pay your taxes

When it comes to SEO, everyone knows about backlinks and content, but the user’s experience also impacts whether or not your content will convert. This is especially the case as we start the new year with both Bing and Google now counting who tweeted you and your “likes” on Facebook in their ranking algorithms. This means that, moving forward, social media will start having a bigger influence on your SEO. Adam Riemer has written a thorough article at revenews.com that really hits this topic home. Here are a couple of things to remember while working on your SEO this year.

• You will need tweets and Facebook likes.
• Too much content can be a bad thing if you cannot navigate through it.
• Don’t keep pages without a product to sell.
• It’s all about the end user.

http://www.revenews.com/adamriemer/smart-seo-is-not-just-about-backlinks-and-content/

No matter who you are or what you do, you have failed at something and failed miserably. It’s a part of life that everyone must go through. Everyone makes mistakes and is responsible for their own actions but you must learn from them so you don’t make the same mistakes again.

I know that everyone has heard this before but it is important that we should all keep this in mind for when your next failure pops up. If you need a reminder of how failure is the road to success, then you should bookmark this article by Joel Comm.  It speaks on some of his mistakes and what he has learned from them. It is a constant reminder that everyone fails at some point but you have to keep moving forward.

http://joelcomm.com/failure-is-the-road.html

We all know about niche marketing but sometimes we don’t break our niche down enough.  There are niches within niches that are often overlooked and ripe for the picking. A lot of sites and blogs are spread too thin by not focusing on enough niches. If you are looking for a great way to breakdown niche marketing and take it too another level, zacjohnson.com has a great guide for you. He does a great job of taking a large category like video games are showing you how to break it down to find the niches within the niches. The great thing about insurance is that there are infinitely more niches than something like video games.  So the next time you are start your ad campaign, don’t forget your niches.

http://zacjohnson.com/niche-marketing-breakdown/

A quick search on Amazon.com for marketing books shows 382,008 results. Obviously you cannot read them all but some are going to be better than others. To help you out with your decision, Shawn Collins over at affiliatetip.com recommends Everything I Know about Marketing I Learned From Google by Aaron Goldman. The book applies to marketing in general and not just online marketing. You can see what Shawn has to say about the book here.

It’s often easy to overlook certain things while setting up your website. One of those things is the “contact” page. Rebecca Kelley tells an interesting story over at shoemoney.com about sites that have lost business because they did not have a phone number listed on the page.  She also talks about the importance of having a “contact” page to add legitimacy. It’s a good read for anyone that operates their own website.

Everyone makes mistakes – even entrepreneurs. No matter how experienced you are, mistakes are still going to happen. Running your own business is tough and some simple things can be overlooked. To help keep you on track and make sure you are pointed in the right direction, jonathanvolk.com has given us 9 mistakes that entrepreneurs often make.

• The big client syndrome
• You think that you have a super idea
• Low price
• Money is not handled with care
• Lack of focus
• Single sale
• Chasing perfection
• Lack of return on investment
• My product sells itself

You can view the entire article in detail here http://www.jonathanvolk.com/business/9-mistakes-that-entrepreneurs-often-make.html