What’s the Deal with Affiliate Marketing and Social Media?

By now you’ve heard a little something about affiliate marketing – enough to know you should be an affiliate. You’ve also heard how imperative social media is.

Wanna hear my two cents? Below you’ll find a 20-minute audio where I was interviewed by Pam Zimmer. Feel free to download, SHARE, or listen straight from this post.

What questions did I answer?

Why would someone want to sign up as an affiliate and what are the benefits?
What is a “mask URL” and when/why would you want to use one?
How can you leverage being an affiliate to market and grow your business?
If someone is new to social media and wanted to create the most opportunity for a book release, what are the top things they should do?
What other tips can I offer to have more success with affiliate marketing and social media?

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Aligning with Promotional Partners to Gain Exposure, Share Your Message and Make More Money Online

There’s no doubt you have a powerful message to get out to the world. You have great ideas spurring all the time even. But are you strategically positioning yourself to gain faster success and make more income?

Brendon Burchard is right when he says people are uncomfortable talking about making money – especially off their message. They WANT to do it and NEED to do it, but they’re uncomfortable talking about it. I am too, but it’s natural and necessary. We need to put income in our pockets to sustain the message.

One way to “make money more quickly” online is with promotional partners. This can be an affiliate who registers to *sell your product for a commission*. A promotional partner can also be someone you joint venture with where you combine forces to sell a product or service – anyone that has an audience, that aligns with your message, that can help promote you. Collaboration is KEY and there are a few things you need to be educated about to make the most out of gaining these promo partners.

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4 Steps to Develop a Product

I know you… you have ideas all day every day about blog posts to write, products to develop, workshops to host – all the ideas to grow your business and make a profit.

But at the end of the day, the week, the month… does your value and expertise get transformed into a product your audience can buy? Are you consistently adding new products to continue having a stream of income to turn a profit in your business?

The nerve-wracking thing about the online world is that there are SO MANY DISTRACTIONS. You know you need to be on Facebook so you go spend a lot of time on Facebook (maybe too much? wink). You are getting pulled in every which direction with flashing lights and signs “pay attention to this!” .. “download and learn about this cool new widget you must have” .. “one time only to learn about x, y, z to fuel your business!”

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Top 12 Author Marketing Moves for 2012

A Great Guest Post by Rob Eagar

As we face a new year, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with resolutions and the desire to improve upon last year’s success or the lack thereof. But, sometimes the hardest part is placing proper focus on the right priorities. With a plethora of choices to market your message, it’s easy to fall into analysis-paralysis. So, I’ve provided twelve marketing tips to prevent you from freezing up and get 2012 off to a great start:

1. Enhance your author brand

If you don’t have an author brand, your first marketing move of 2012 is to start creating one. With all the voices competing for your audience’s attention, you must stand out more than ever. A brand is what makes you memorable and communicates your value. Thus, make sure your brand is infused into everything you do, including any of your books, products, services, bios, social media pages, etc. If you’re struggling to create a brand, review these seven principles on my website (http://www.startawildfire.com/buildabrand.html).

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6 Ways to Make Your Video Go Viral

This is a guest article by #1 bestselling author, film producer, screenwriter, attorney and owner of her own production company – the lovely and talented Beth Rosen:

The best way to reach a large number of people and get your message across on the internet today is through video but not just any video. It must be a video that captures and keeps your audienceʼs attention.

Video is considered by Google as a higher form of engagement than a simple blog or article and ranks higher in the ratings. Therefore you have a better shot at reaching more people if you do a video rather than a simple article. And the more people that watch your video, the higher you will rank on Google and the more likelihood people who are searching in your niche market will see a link to your video and watch it.

'Evolution of Dance' Example Viral Video

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21 Questions to Evaluate Your Efforts of Building Your Online Platform

Every once in a while I like to pose a series of questions to offer a ‘big picture’ view, instead of lasering in on a specific topic and teaching you about it. Today is such a day.

There is a TON of valuable information in this post. All of the links open in a new window and the content will laser in on that topic. I invite you to spend some time here and really take advantage of this FREE platform I’ve developed just for you.

For those of you who are just getting started online, this post would be excellent for you to print out and keep by your computer as you
build your online platform (your website, social networks, leads – it is all-encompassing of your touch-points online). For those of you who think they are on a great track online, this may be a good post to see what has slipped between the cracks or what area you could build up for better results.

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Are You Going to the Small Biz Success Summit?? (255 seats sold already…)

Earlier this week I got an email from Michael Stelzner (founder of the great SocialMediaExaminer.com) about the upcoming Small Biz Success Summit 2012. Tickets just went on sale Tuesday, Nov 1 I believe and already they’ve sold 225 tickets in it’s first day!! Here’s what I read:

“Social Media Examiner presents the web’s largest fully online small business social media conference, Small Biz Success Summit 2012. Discover how to quickly attract quality customers, build loyal fans and grow your revenue with social media.

Here’s why this summit should interest you:

100% small business focus: No big businesses and no speakers who target big businesses. This is fully for the tiny business.
This it totally new content: Broadcast new media, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, video marketing, blogging plus search and much more. Social media is always in flux and this event will cover what you need to know now. If you’re working off what you learned six months ago or longer, you are ages behind.

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Your Impact on the Web Is What You Make of It

Today I just had to share this video made by Google which made me think of our impact on the web. It really struck me as one of the coolest commercials and messages I’ve seen in a long time.

(Bear with the Lady Gaga part! This must be watched all the way through!)

We all have a sphere of influence online. This goes from your website, to your social networks and off to someone else’s Facebook page when content is shared. It goes from your blog posts out into Google’s search engine, then back to someone else’s website who re-posted your content on their site.

Your influence and impact on the web truly is what you make of it.

Each day that you get up and have the “good intention” to write a blog post… Every time that you commit to working on that product that will further build out your online platform… and with each call you take to a prospective client or a potential collaborative partner… it truly is what you make of it, isn’t it?

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Get Your Facebook Cover Header Designed – the NEW Facebook Timeline

There is wild buzz online as Facebook changed it’s entire layout. Many changed to the new timeline months ago through use of the Facebook Development App.

Facebook now gave us an 850px X 315px Cover (or header) that sits at the top of our Facebook profile pages! (hint hint – I can design this for you!) The new Facebook cover is a HUGE amount of space to promote you, your business and your services – it’s SO exciting!

Total Facebook Branding
There are three ways to brand your Facebook page(s).

One is with a Facebook Cover as discussed below. This is to be used only on personal profile pages, and may be added functionality on your fan pages soon.
The second is with a Facebook Profile Image which is a medium-sized vertical banner located at the top left of your fan pages.

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