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To those who are not familiar with affiliate marketing, two-tier could be a new term to you but to those who are involved in this kind of money-making experience; it could mean a stream of income. Two-tier is an enticing feature of a particular affiliate program wherein, affiliates are allowed to sign-up additional affiliates below them. So that when the sub-affiliates otherwise known as second tier affiliates, earns a commission, the affiliate above receives a commission too.

In two-tier system, the first tier of commission is just like in the usual affiliate program. The sole difference is that it has an additional tier/s or sub-affiliates, whereby marketers also gain a commission once the people that the additional tiers referred to the program generate sales. Theoretically, affiliate programs can have multi-tier program with infinite number of tiers, however, there are practical limitations. As tiers increase, the affiliate program draws more webmasters who are mostly interested in gaining profit from other’s work and effort.

Two-Tier affiliate program is also recognized as Multi-Level Marketing. When you sign-up for an affiliate program, you are identified as the first tier and the person that you have recruited or encouraged to sign up is the second tier. If there are additional tiers, then the system can now be regarded as multi-level marketing (MLM). But today, MLM isn’t as effective and successful as it was several years ago. It is because at present, affiliates can freely select from thousands of affiliate programs and they can quickly switch from one program to another.

You could probably go wrong if you’re thinking that you can depend on your second tier to do the job for you. So if you want to use two-tier affiliate program to your advantage and generate more income by encouraging sub-affiliates to sign-up below you, make sure that you carefully choose your affiliate merchant. Pick those merchants who generate stable stream of high quality products, give high or just commissions, offers real time tracking, furnishes you with a proven and tested advertising arsenal and treat their affiliates very well. You can also sign-up for the merchant who gives high visitors-to-sales conversion rate.

It is also advisable if you engage yourself with a web merchant that has a user-friendly website which you can access anytime so that you can monitor your statistics including visits and sales. And if possible, choose the one with powerful marketing tools which you can use in promoting their products.

You’re just wasting much of your time and effort and worse, damaging your integrity once you promote poor affiliate program because your visitor will surely presume that the product or service you are reselling must be dreadful too. That’s the reason why it is important to pick first-rate affiliate programs. Through these, you can not only build up a good relationship with your visitor, but also, you can easily get more tiers to sign-up under you. You should also be cautious of some affiliate programs that give more importance on the profits to be earned in taking on other affiliates than on the income from sales, because you’ll just eventually find out that someone has already close those sales without informing you. Usually, this kind of affiliate program offers a very low first-tier payment but a sky-scraping second-tier commission.

If you want to start an affiliate program of your own, you surely have to decide whether it will be a single tier or two-tier affiliate program. Who am I to say which of these two programs are better? But let me tell you the benefits you could get out of two-tier affiliate program.

First, your profit will increase due to increased sales from the customers that your second tier has referred. Second, you have a much broader customer base to which you can sell your products and services. Then, you gain more and stable income because the customers referred by your affiliate and sub-affiliates could probably develop a lifetime loyalty on your site and your products. Plus, you have an army of sub-affiliates who will promote and resell your products and services to their visitors and subscribers.

Two-tier program has been a proven winner and should be the number one choice for the budding affiliates as well as for the affiliate program managers. When you start gaining profits from your site as well as your tiers, this is now the right time to say that you have used two-tier affiliate program to your advantage.

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Filed under: Marketing

Here we are early in 2008 and many are taking a long look at their career plans. Here are some ideas that should help you keep your career on track or help you in your career planning.

Take time to evaluate your present and future position. Set aside some time every three months or so to seriously evaluate where you are and where you want to be. Keep alert to what is going on around you. What is going on in your industry or market niche? Are there challenges your company is facing related to government actions? Are there new tools or techniques that will impact your career or job?

Remember the only job security you can count on is the transferability of your own skills. Do whatever it takes to keep your skills and qualifications fresh and marketable. Forgo that night in front of the TV and take a course at a local college or technical school. This will assure your skills are up to date.

Upgrade your networking skills. Regularly participate in professional organizations. Volunteer to represent your employer before outside groups. Keep in touch with those your meet and if asked provide whatever help you can. Nurture your contacts as you never know when their help might be needed in helping you advance your career or to help you find the right job.

Got a business idea in mind? Analyze and carefully plan out the career move. There are many advantages in running your own business, develop a comprehensive business plan. Take advantage of your networking contacts-they can provide you with valuable advice.

Perhaps starting the business part-time makes more sense. Start on a small scale and as you gain experience you can ramp it up to a full time business and career.

Always take the long view regarding your career. Don’t force yourself to work in a career or job where you are miserable. How are you progressing in you career? If things need to be changed, moving in small steps can be more rewarding than one big leap.

If you have to change job or careers, or perhaps you position has been eliminated, part of your career plan should be to keep up to date on job hunting. Web skills you should master include using the internet, on-line resumes, scan able resumes, and social networking are just a few of the skills used today in finding a job. Don’t overlook more traditional method of job hunting; finding jobs in the hidden job market, powerful resume cover letters and interviewing skills.

One note: more and more employers and conducting job interviews using the web cam rather than the traditional telephone interview. Brush up on you video broadcasting skills.

With all this going on maybe taking a look at you career and your career planning should be more that a once every three month event. Keep alert daily what is going on around you. With this strategy you’ll be better able to quickly adjust to the ever changing employment scene and put your career on the track to success.

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Filed under: Careers

Lots of companies offer bundled services of their telecommunications products, but only Comcast can provide you with the right combination of advanced technology, great services, and value that your family deserves! That’s because it offers the most feature rich digital cable TV service, the fastest high speed Internet service, and the best value on phone service in existence!

The phone service that Comcast offers is a great example of its commitment to providing its customers with the best value and technology! Because of the fact that Digital Voice combines all of the most advanced call management technology with free long distance to numbers in North America, it’s truly indicative of this company’s commitment to its customers!

Digital cable TV from Comcast is even more impressive. Thanks to the miracle of digital TV transmission, this service delivers in incredibly clear picture and high quality sound that you might never have experienced except when watching a DVD! That’s because using a digital signal that’s transmitted over a buried cable provides an means of transmitting TV that’s extremely resistant to interference! In addition, digital TV allows Comcast to provide an interactive on screen program guide with all of its digital TV subscriptions. The interactive on screen program guide will let you navigate through each channel and each time slot that describes what’s on in the present and the immediate future so that you can decide what to watch. Each entry in the program guide will describe everything that you need to know about a program in order to decide whether or not to watch it!

Comcast also provides a number of more advanced digital TV features as well! For instance, its ON DEMAND video on demand service will let you choose what to watch as well as when to watch it! It’s a pay per view service in the sense that you’ll have to pay to access recently released movies, but ON DEMAND will also let you select from a variety of other kinds of video at no extra charge!

With access to HDTV channels, Comcast provides another essential service. There are more and more HDTV channels coming online all the time and this company is committed to bringing them to you as quickly as possible so that you can enjoy the high resolution, wide screen viewing experience that only high def can provide!

An optional DVR will round out the list of digital cable TV services that you can get through Comcast and let you enjoy TV on your own terms. This is done by allowing you to record TV and then watch it later. It’s even possible to have the machine record TV when you aren’t at home or are otherwise unable to be there to supervise. A DVR from Comcast is really everything that the VCR was supposed to be, but much more advanced and easier to use!

With high speed Internet from Comcast, you’ll be able to enjoy the best multimedia experiences that are currently available online! You’ll go from reading text and maybe looking at a few pictures to listening to music, watching video, and even experiencing virtual worlds! With up to 16 Mbps of download speed, you’ll be able to harness the full power of the web and still have bandwidth to share with the rest of your family!

All of these services exemplify what Comcast can do for you!

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Filed under: Television

As a copywriter, clients often ask for my advice on how to improve the results they get from their advertising. I’ll talk today about the common mistakes small businesses make when it comes to advertising and help you get a better return on your advertising investment.

Layout

Many small business ads look like a shopping list, this is the biggest mistake to avoid.

They’ll put the company name at the top instead of an attention getting headline and follow with dry copy which simply does not hold the reader’s interest. No compelling reason is given to follow up; and the ad concludes with a phone number and address.
These ads are ineffective; they don’t get prospective customers to care about your company. Your reader wants to know one thing: what’s in it for him or her.

Here’s a better layout for selling that works well in almost any situation:

You need a headline to lead in, it doesn’t have to be all that clever, just clearly state the biggest benefit of your product or service to the consumer.

Include a contact number or perhaps a coupon at the bottom right. This corner is called the “anchor point”.

Company name and address at bottom left (where the prospect will find it once they’re convinced.)

If you are using photos or illustrations, place headlines underneath them to keep your reader’s eyes moving down the page. Make your headlines and photos part of a narrative.

It’s a good idea to outline the benefits of your product or service with bullet points. Long copy is great, but it’s a lot harder to write.

How are your ads? Do they read like a shopping list, or a compelling story ending with a call to action? If the former, I know you’ll get great results from changing your formats.

Failing to Test and Track Ad Response

You should always test and track your ads. Even a slight change can generate many more sales for the same product or service. Testing and tracking can help you to cut out what isn’t working and keep what performs well.

How to Track Advertising Response

It’s very simple to track your ads. For instance, you can ask callers how they found out about your business. If you have a lot of different ads out there, you can track things with more complex methods such as the following:

Coded coupons in your ads Different coloured reply-paid postcards Different department numbers Asking your callers to mention an offer or ask for someone by name etc.

Online advertising makes things even easier. There are plenty of ad tracking tools which you can use.

One of my clients a while back tracked their advertising response rates and found that their expensive print ad campaign was bringing in almost no responses, while a nearly free flyering campaign was generating a lot of business. They were able to drop the print ads and save a lot of money while having a more effective advertising and marketing campaign.

What To Test

You should test these things in your ads:

Headlines Offers Body Copy Guarantee Price

Hint: You’ll get the greatest return by testing headlines first.
When you find something that works, stay with it until you find something better. It really isn’t hard to improve your marketing ROI if you use this approach, yet hardly anyone does it! If YOU decide to take action on this tip, you can save money, leverage your marketing budget, and put some distance between you and your competition.

Simply making your ads sell harder can boost your business massively, start by testing and tracking your ads, and consider hiring a good copywriter, a small investment in professionally written copy will makes your advertising dollars work much harder.

Not Making The Most of a Powerful Guarantee

Many small business fail to include a strong guarantee in their advertisements. This is a shame, since a powerful guarantee can mean response rates which are at least 50% higher.

Gurantees work because they remove the risk of purchase from your customer, making it easier for them to buy. When you guarantee your product or service, you’re showing confidence that it will produce the result you claim, customers respond to that.

Here’s how to use a guarantee in your ads in a way that gets responses:

1. Your guarantee should be a specific promise of performance or results.

Don’t use boilerplate phrases like “Satisfaction Guaranteed” or even “Money-Back Guaranteed”. While these are probably better than nothing, they don’t have a fraction of the effect of a specific promise like:

“If you don’t love our product, we’ll pay you to go to our competitors”

” 50% increase in traffic to your site in 60 days or your money back”

“Send $45 to [Your Company Name and Address]. If you’re not satisfied, we’ll send you back $50.”

2. Test Your Guarantee

As a copywriter and small business consultant, I spend a lot of time working with my clients to produce guarantees which get the reader’s attention. A lot of business owners worry that they will have a lot of customers taking advantage of their money back offers. If this is the case, then start small ? publish one ad with this guarantee, another without. Track your response rate and the number of returns you see. If it works for you, keep offering the guarantee.

I’ve always found that a strong guarantee generates more than enough additional sales to cover any returns or refund requests.
Also test different aspects of your guarantee (e.g. wording, time period, conditions etc.) The difference in sales generated by a 30 day and 60 day guarantee can be significant.

3. Make your guarantee highly visible

Your guarantee should be a headline; you don’t want your reader to miss it.

Think about what guarantee your business can offer customers to entice them to do business with you instead of your competition.

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Filed under: Marketing

Not too short, not too long – Your answers should be 1.5 to 2 minutes long (3 minutes if the subject is broad). Any longer and you will put the interviewer to sleep. Any shorter and you will simply not have the time to provide any valuable information about yourself.

Having a strong structure concentrates on 3 or 4 well defined areas. Ideally, you will announce your structure upfront. This signposts the interviewer, so that they know what to expect. So if asked about your 3 main strengths – begin by saying “I would say that I have 3 main strengths.” If questioned about your choice of speciality – talk about the 2 main reasons that attract you about this speciality. When discussing your research skills – talk about the research based and generic skills that you learnt from your research project.

Once you have announced your message in the introduction, expand on it within the body of your interview answer. Know the principal message that you want the interview panel to receive and then ensure that the panel hear that message early on within your answer. Keep control over the information flow and ensure that you deliver your point well. Stay direct and focussed on delivering your message. Then back up your message with specific examples.

Make sure that you fill your answers with back up statements. Provide genuine facts about your skills and abilities. Don’t use generalised statements such as “I really enjoy working in teams” or “This field really interests me”. Talk about why you enjoy working in teams or why you find this field interesting.

Get Personal. Use singular, first person pronouns – me and I – not plural pronouns, such us we and us. Claim the skill that you are describing in your answer as your own. If you say that you did something – it will be perceived as true. If you say we did something – that too will be perceived as believable, but it will be less powerful in terms of suggesting that you have the skill (team working, time management, organisation skills, etc) in question.

Provide objective measures of success. Discuss letters of thanks, senior management review outcomes or course qualifications, that validate the idea that you possess a skill. Don’t merely talk about the fact that you have good man management skills. Try to bring into the conversation the fact that your boss commented on your excellent handling of the computer teams implementation of the new upgrade. It’s always more powerful to use an external validation.

Try to broad the question out and initiate a discussion at the end. If you can increase the proportion of time spent listening to the interviewer, you will enhance your chances of interview success. The interviewer will perceive you as a good listener and may also consider you to be more of a peer than a subordinate.

Think laterally and diversify the argument. Ascertain whether you are able to describe additional accomplishments that you are able to talk about because part of your response. E.g. talking about conflict could direct you to talking over how expert communication terminate conflict. Ensure that everything you talk about refers the answer back to you and the task. Whenever the question is hypothetical for example. “What constitutes a good doctor?”, “What skills should an effective leader have?” then answer the question and close by explaining how you match the criteria i.e. why YOU are a good doctor or why YOU are a good leader. By broadening the debate, you will create a discussion; this should help you develop a better rapport with your panel and may give you an edge over the challenger.

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Filed under: Careers