Super Affiliate Lynn Terry recently asked her Facebook followers to share their top affiliate marketing problems. The 10 listed here were among 20 major issues people mentionned.

Here’s Lynn’s list of the top 10 Problems With Affiliate Marketing:

1. Choosing a Profitable Niche
2. Working with Affiliate Links and HTML Code
3. Getting Traffic
4. Making Sales
5. Writing Content
6. Writing Sales Copy
7. Motivation & Time Management
8. Working with Affiliate Program Managers/Merchants
9. Link Building
10. Building a Responsive Mailing List

If like me, your online business involves promoting other people’s products as an affiliate marketer, you’ve surely struggled with most of the problem’s on Lynn’s list.

What is really cool about Lynn’s post is that she not only identifies the problems affiliate marketers face, but she also links to previous blog posts she has written that provide solutions to these problems.

With the post and the links, you’re getting a terrific education from a very successful affiliate marketer. So I strongly recommend that you visit her site to read Top 10 Problems With Affiliate Marketing. You don’t want to miss this.

 2011 should be a year of great opportunity as well as many challenges. Many of you are trying to keep your small businesses alive or starting new ones to replace lost incomes.

The good news is that you have never had such a positive array of marketing vehicles to help you succeed. Here are 10 savvy marketing ideas to help you promote your small business this year.

1. Exploit social media by developing a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and other sites, focusing on the sites most appropriate for your business. Facebook is on fire this year so most businesses should have a presence there — either a fan page or group. We’ll talk more about this in future blog posts. The social media sites you select should mirror your marketing concentration.
2. Define and expand your small business brand. If you don’t have a brand, develop one. In case you’re wondering, we specialize in savvy marketing for tiny businesses — the one you’re running from your kitchen table at home, a small shop or office, or the back of your van or truck.  To develop your brand, decide what you do best and what you want to be known for. Work your brand into everything you do and all of your marketing. Use your branding to set your business apart from your competition.
3. Use video marketing as effectively as possible. There are a variety of ways to use video in your marketing. This topic is complicated so we will do a post on video marketing very soon. Stay tuned.
4. If yours is a local business think mobile. How will customers find you from their cell phones? How will your site appear on those tiny screens? Will they find what they need — your location and possible phone number quickly without a lot of scrolling?
5. Create a blog and post regularly — at least once a week — on topics of interest to your target market. Your blog can be written, audio, video, or hopefully a mixture of these content forms. You can include photos, other graphics and even photo slide shows as some of the big sites are doing.
6. Provide great content – content marketing is hotter than ever! Keep an eye out for content in various formats that will appeal, educate and entertain your target market. We’ve carried several posts about content recently, but look out for much more as the year develops.
7. Do keyword research to find the issues and products your target customers care about. This is one of my least favorite activities but I am conceding that you can’t succeed without doing keyword research to discover what your market wants.
8. Concentrate on buyer keywords. Using the right keyword phrases, you’ll be able to connect with your audience just when they are ready to buy. I am working on a special feature on keyword research, so join our list or register for our RSS feed.
9. Focus – don’t use a shotgun approach in your market. Develop a plan and stick to it. That doesn’t mean you can not be flexible when challenges arise. But you should avoid jumping on every band wagon that comes along, or listening to whomever shouts the loudest.
10. Use the talent within your organization to exploit the areas where you are strongest. If your people are better at talking than writing, concentrate on audio media — such as blog talk radio or Ustream. If your team includes writing talent, concentrate your marketing efforts on article marketing, blog and forum posting, and press releases. If you have people who know what to do with a video camera, than concentrate your efforts on video. You need a little bit of everything, so focus on your strengths in house, but be prepared to outsource the things your staff can’t do well.

That list of savvy marketing ideas should keep you busy. Whatever you do,  keep learning. As I told you last time we are in the middle of a media revolution. Things are in a state of flux and if you snooze in this environment you will definitely lose. We promise to help you stay on top of all the changes, so visit often.

We’d love to get your thoughts on our 10 Savvy Marketing Ideas. So leave a comment. Tell us what you are doing in your business. Tell us what has worked, or not worked for you.

High-traffic content website

If you’re still up in the air about what type of website is best for your small business, or you’re toying with including a blog, here are a few facts that may help you decide.  

Despite all the hype, a blog is really nothing more than a website. Essentially a blog is a website with an easy to use content management system that allows for quick updating in chronological order.  

Blogs or “weblogs” as they were originally called, trace their roots to online journaling and community building efforts. However, used as a business tool, blogs are uniquely positioned to make you money. Here’s why.  

The structure of blogs is perfect for revenue producing efforts.  

1. Blog sites tend to be heavy on content and their ease of use makes it easy to add updates.
2. Regardless of which blogging platform you use, you’ll be able to produce a content-based site with a series of well-targeted pages.

Why does this matter? It’s critical because search engines love content. Textual content keeps search engine spiders well fed and persuades them to visit again and again. Google, Yahoo and MSN reward information-packed sites with better positioning in search results and index these sites quickly.  

Blogs have an advantage when it comes to traffic.  

Effective blog use produces high search engine rankings and, thus, great traffic levels. Traffic is a key to profitability. Your site won’t make you money if no one sees it. The traffic advantage blogs enjoy with search engines is one of the main reasons to consider choosing a blog for your website or adding one to your existing static site.  

You’re probably thinking you can just add a lot of content to your static site and accomplish the same objective. But you should know that adding fresh content to a static site could be more of a hassle, depending on your setup.  

Ease of Use Makes Blogs Easier to Update.  

Unless you manage your own site, adding fresh content might mean writing the content (or paying to have it written), converting it to HTML, inserting the content into the static page and then uploading the page to the server again. Unless you are using a very easy site manager, it’s probably going to take less effort to add new content to a blog.  

If it’s complicated to add fresh content, you’re less likely to add updates as often as you should. Blogging solves this problem. All major blog platforms allow users to create new “posts” and to add them to the blog with a few simple mouse clicks.

There are two other benefits of the blog platform: 

1. The comment feature makes it easy for site visitors to providefeedback.
   

   RSS symbol

2. The RSS “real simple syndication” feature lets visitors sign up to get your feed when your site is updated.

This combination can make your blog sticky, making return visitors far more likely. That traffic, when coupled with the right moneymaking strategy can produce great results.  

If your business website is strictly static, you should consider adding a blog. With a blog’s proven traffic-generating advantages, you may be able to create a profitable, high-traffic site that requires minimal effort.  

In upcoming posts, we’ll talk about ways to outsource the content creation for your “hungry” blog. So join our list or sign up for our RSS feed to make sure you don’t miss anything. And leave a comment below to let us know if you found this post helpful.

Special Guest Post by Sierra Miller from JobDescriptions.net

A small business blog can be a fantastic way to boost revenue. The most successful ones ensure that they do this by adding quality content. This may sound like a simple enough formula, but defining quality content can be confusing. So, how exactly can you tell if the content is considered “quality”, and how do you find it?

Quality Standards Begins with the Reader

Producing quality content begins with the audience. Keywords are, of course, an essential part of driving traffic. However, there has to be a demand for the information you are posting.

Make sure that keywords have the potential to generate traffic. This means that internet users are searching for the information. Knowing the demographic and what they want to learn about is essential.

A good way to do this is to browse forums related to the subject material. Through diligent observation, a small business blog owner can identify topics that generate interest.

Create Content with a Purpose

High quality content gives the reader information they can use. A common mistake that some blog owners make is that they fail to offer the reader value. What does value mean? It is the process of including information that the reader can use, for free.

Each blog post should be between two hundred and four hundred words. Since there is a lot of room for variation in the length of the post, it can be helpful to know what you want to tell the audience in advance.

An easy way to do this is to think about each post as if it is answering a question. For example, a small business blog about appliances may tell the reader how to unstop a dishwasher clog. Alternatively, the topic may be how to make your refrigerator more energy efficient. The possibilities are limitless.

Write Well

A small business blog needs for the reader to feel like they are gaining expert knowledge. This makes the blog more credible, and therefore more likely to make money. For this reason, blog posts need to be well written and flow naturally. Mistakes in grammar and spelling, keyword “stuffing”, or incorporating the use of keywords poorly can create a bad impression.

Keyword density should be between 2% and 5%, as long as the post makes sense. Remember, the goal of a small business blog is to satisfy the reader and create a demand. If no one visits, then there is very little opportunity for performance.

This article was contributed by Sierra Miller from JobDescriptions.net, a complete job description guide. Learn more about managing a small business from her business administration job description.

Small business owners who worry more about how their website looks than what it says are making a critical error. That’s because site visitors and search engines pay more attention to a website’s content than they do looks.

In fact some elements often found on small business sites such as flash doorways are more likely to prevent a site from being found by humans and search engine robots.

So why is the content of a small business website so important?

One reason is that consumers don’t venture onto the web looking for information about your business. They often aren’t looking to buy something. They want information to solve a problem. Even when they are searching for information about a product or service, they are trying to get the facts that will help them make the best possible choice.

So if you’re creating a website as part of your marketing arsenal, the site needs to work for consumers. It needs to provide the information they are looking for before you can begin to prove that you’re the best company to do business with.

Small Business Websites Need to Speak the Consumer’s Language – Meaning they need to use the keyword phrases consumers are searching for.

Most consumers begin their web exploration by putting keywords and keyword phrases, also known as tags into search boxes – probably on Google.com, although other search engines get a fair amount of searches too.

All of those search engines uses robots to crawl millions of sites using complicated algorithms designed to return the best possible results. If the robots see that the individual is using a computer in Kentucky, based on the IP address from which they are accessing the internet, they are likely to serve up any available local resources when you are looking for a dentist or chiropractor.

On the other hand if geography is not a factor, the search engine robots will look for the most reputable sites with lots of smaller sites linking to them. It’s a good bet that there are a great number of websites all vying for the same keyword phrases. So your first challenge is to identify keyword phrases or tags that give your business a chance to get on the first page of the search results.

That’s not going to be easy unless you have an older domain and lots of sites linking in but that’s a different lesson. It’s important for you to understand the challenge.

Now let’s talk about content.

Search engines robots can’t see your pictures or your site’s design. They prefer sites with lots of relevant content. The site visitor also will respond well to strong content that relates well to their search. You know yourself, that when you perform a search, you will move past entries that don’t appear to offer the information you are looking for.

It’s only after the searcher has determined that you have the right information that they are likely to pay attention to the site’s aesthetics. So you do care about how the site looks but that is only a small part of your strategy in building a website to market your business.

In tomorrow’s post, we’ll talk more about what content really is. A lot of things you may not see as content could be just what your visitors are looking for.

Goal setting graphic with person reaching for a star

It’s that time again. Time to evaluate what worked well or failed with your marketing activities in 2010. It’s also time to look at today’s marketing trends to decide which activities you plan to pursue in 2011.

After examining my own business activities, my list includes:

1. Focusing on building my lists
2. Nurturing my lists
3. Using video marketing
4. Developing more content using varied media
5. Expanding my use of social media and social marketing
6. Consistently providing quality content on my blog
7. Using article marketing correctly and writing many more articles.
8. Posting on forums regularly in my niche
9. Continuing to learn to be a better internet marketer by reading leading blogs in my niche, books, and attending webinars and live events when possible.
10. Teaching what I learn.

That’s a pretty tall order, but if I succeed in doing even half of what I am planning, I will consider 2011 a success.

It’s important to stop long enough to plan. Sometimes taking a hard look at your business is painful. But there are important lessons to learn from the process.

How do you do this?

• Take a hard look at your stats using such tools as Google Analytics and Awstats (the stats available from your web host.
• Determine who your visitors are (their demographics) , where they are coming from (referring sites) and what pages they are visiting on your site?
• What keyword phrases or tags are they using to find your site? What opportunities are you missing — by that; I mean related keywords you could use to develop additional content?
• Determine what your bounce rate is and where your most avid visitors are coming from. For example, I didn’t distribute many articles last year to article directories, but one of the things I learned was that site visitors who come from Ezine Articles are more likely to visit several pages and spend more time on my site. At the same time, I discovered that people referred by search engines like Google often bounced right out after only a few seconds. That suggests that I need to pay more attention to my keyword research, and that I should write more articles.
• Spend time on Google’s Webmaster tools to determine who is linking to my site and try to develop ways to get more links from high ranking sites in my niche.
• Focus on projects until they are completed – I have a fair number of projects in the works that I need to wrap up before starting new ones.
• Determine how well your site is converting visitors to subscribers and customers.

This is my list. Yours may be different depending on which business model you are pursuing and the niche and the type of content your site has.

Why discuss my evaluation process?

One reason is to let you know that it takes serious effort to succeed online regardless of what some marketers suggest. Often you don’t know what you’re doing badly until you do it and examine the results.

Some marketers test everything they do – every headline, every email marketing campaign, every call to action and every landing page. Those who take the time and effort to subject their efforts to such scrutiny often experience greater success in terms of subscribers or leads, sales and conversions.

So I suggest, you take a couple of afternoons and dig deeply into your site’s stats. Look at everything closely – to learn whatever you can because that examination will show you what and where you need to improve.

To learn more, join the list for this blog. List members will get special reports on some of the topics mentioned in this post.

Our ginger bread house

My thoughts turned to craft businesses this week when my daughter and I headed off to Michael’s, America’s largest specialty arts and crafts retailer, to buy supplies for a holiday craft. We had thought of making ornaments but Lisa didn’t like the available materials so we decided to make a ginger bread house instead. For anyone who doesn’t understand the appeal of crafts, it’s not always the way your finished item looks; it’s the experience of creating it.

My daughter has had a stressed-filled year so I am a fan of anything that makes her laugh nonstop. And the two of broke into raucous laughter as we tried to keep our various candies from falling off our crazy little house. We had the best time making our little cookie house; it was so much fun that we smile every time we eye our little concoction.

Thinking of this I wondered how big is the craft business? Where is there money to be made? Michaels’ and other craft retailers like AC Moore, Toys R Us and Jo-Ann’s Stores appear to dominate this industry that serves the women over 35 who spend the biggest bucks on arts and crafts materials. In this highly concentrated industry, the top 50 companies generate about 85 percent of the revenue, according to First Research data on the toy and hobby industry.

I never found an actual dollar amount for the size of the industry, but my research turned up lots of interesting little facts. In May, Inc.com described cake baking and decorating and the hobby industry in general as one of the best small businesses to start this year citing the comfort factor. When times are difficult people turn to products and activities that provide comfort. So if you’re in the craft business or looking to start one, you’re in the right place at the right time.

Craft 'N Things Magazine

Toys make up about 30 percent of this industry, followed by craft supplies at 15 percent, kitchenware and home furnishings at 10 percent. Other products include games, hobby goods, artificial flowers, and sewing and knitting materials. Toy stores may provide assembly or delivery services. Hobby stores may offer classes, known as “how-to” seminars.

Consumers will continue to be deal minded with emphasis on gifts people will really use and lots of do-it-yourself projects. Large companies offer wide selections with deep discounts. Smaller companies should probably stick to specialty products, provide superior customer service or serve local markets, according to information provided by the Craft & Hobby Association.

The industry is significant enough for the Wall Street Journal to carry a story this week about the  intersection of the craft site Etsy with social media. As the Journal put it, “online retailers (such as Amazon.com and Etsy Inc.,) are experimenting with the idea that friends can make shopping easier.”

Crafts - Beaded jewelry

Etsy has a special challenge. It’s a website where small craft businesses promote their wares. The problem is that the site still is struggling to attract the mainstream consumer. So this social-shopping idea could be major for the many crafters who populate Etsy. The idea is to use Facebook ‘Likes’ to get friends to recommend their preferences – making it easier to give your friends gifts they will actually like.

Such social-shopping efforts are still in the experimental stage, according to the Wall Street Journal. But in a separate article, JWT and Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, two big New York based advertising agencies says such social-shopping efforts or “shopper marketing” is definitely the future. The two agencies have formed a joint venture in North America to help marketers and retailers guide consumers on the so-called path to purchase.

“The battle to land on shopping lists or in shopping carts starts long before consumers set foot in stores as they spend more time researching potential purchases online or asking friends on Facebook what to buy,” according to JWT/Ogilvy Action as the joint venture is called.

So what does all of this mean for the small home based crafter or information marketer? With a little further research I learned that 24 percent of holiday shoppers said they were making gifts, representing an increase from last year.

What can we expect in 2011?

Research by Ogilvy suggests that consumers are definitely still feeling the pinch from the recession. Consequently,
• 52% – cook dinner at home more often
• 33% – keep a car longer than normal
• 30% – pay down debt
• 27% – stop taking a vacation
• 26% – create and stuck to a budget

So what does that mean for marketers?
Summing up the lessons from the research, Graceann Bennett, Director of Strategic Planning at Ogilvy, says marketers have to follow the path the consumer takes from Facebook to groupon to review sites. Coupons and percentage-off deals are no longer enough, said. The pre-sale is more important than ever which is why you’ll see more stores opening at midnight, 3am and other off-hours with limited “special price” to get shoppers in the door.

If you are an affiliate marketing running a review site, it’s important to understand the environment in which you are operating if you’re to succeed in getting commissions.

Well, I started talking about craft businesses and I’ve gotten a little off track. But I hope this information gives you food for thought as you plan your promotional activities for 2011. Have a wonderful holiday and happy crafting.

Most Marketers agree that one of the best ways to get your customers to buy is to get them to sample what ever you are selling. That’s why you give away an eBook, special report or short video to introduce a bigger product or to get people to join your list. For the same reason you’ll see software manufacturers and membership sites offering a free trial in hopes that people won’t want to go without their product or service once they have experienced it.

But nowhere is the art of sampling practiced in such style as the Sonoma Vineyards in Northern California, where you’re sure to take home a bottle or two once you’ve tasted the season’s best vintages.

At Cline Cellars, our wine tasting experience began with a stroll through incredible gardens with ancient palm and gum trees. The gardens also featured a tiny zoo of rare birds like pheasants. An old train car sporting a table dressed in a white cloth looked as if it was just waiting for a party. The crisp air and brief stroll put you in the mood for wine tasting. Here you can sample for free.

The atmosphere in the small shop is festive just four days before Christmas. Customers surround the bar where the proprietors describe the merits of the various wines before you pick the ones you want to sample. The bar is crowded and I’m a little winded from my walk so I find a place on a bench nearby.

But a silver-haired gentleman from behind the bar—perhaps the owner—brings me a sample of a special wine that you drink with dark chocolate, a Cline 2006 Late Harvest Mourvèdre.  And I think what a wonderful way to engage your visitors. That’s a challenge webmasters face daily – trying to get your site visitors to stay long enough to sample the content of your website. Perhaps we can learn a thing or two from the Sonoma vintners.

I haven’t been able to blog for a few days, what with packing and spending a day in airports and at 40,000 feet in the air, as I traveled to spend the holidays with my daughter in San Francisco.

If you have only experienced the City by the Bay as a tourist, you may never have seen one of its farmers markets – which as small businesses go, is about as small and as close to your customer as you can get.

So I wanted to share a few photos I took at Alemany Boulevard which serves some of San Francisco’s residential neighborhoods.

It’s the day after a rainy night with turbulent winds. Only a fraction of the normal crowd ventures out after it rains. So it was pleasant walking around the various booths, viewing fruit that for me is a bit exotic such as these pointy, odd-shaped lemons.

I dressed for the cold with too many clothes. It’s drizzling, but not as cold as I expected.

San Francisco is a delightful mix of cultures and colors, unlike what you’ll find in the East. Here my daughter poses with her bag of goodies.

It’s the one place where palm trees and tropical flowers blend with 50 to 60 degree temperatures and that famous San Francisco fog. It was so thick the day before I couldn’t see the bay that is easily visible from my daughter’s kitchen and living room windows. But by Saturday, the fog has lifted leaving only the light drizzle.

If you ask me, this is just one of the great spots that make San Francisco so much fun. Every year, I have a new experience ranging from great restaurants and museums, to Sausalito Shops near the Golden Gate Bridge—one of my faves.

Ironically, in one of the world’s techiest cities, good food, a regular location and a colorful sign get the job done. Marketing doesn’t get any easier than this!

It’s not unusual for home business owners to throw up a website or blog without paying any attention to all of that SEO stuff. “We’ll worry about that after we start making money,” you may think.

Take it from me, your website may die a slow death in cyberspace until you get up to speed on SEO or search engine optimization.

Here’s why SEO is important

Most people looking for information on a topic type keyword phrases into a search box.

Search engine robots crawl millions of pages with those keyword phrases looking for the best results to serve up to searchers. The robots use complicated algorithms to determine which pages to show.

The algorithms change constantly as the robots get smarter and many more pages are added daily. SEO experts attend pricey conferences and conduct plenty of studies to stay up on this topic. So it’s no wonder that SEO is a special challenge for the home internet business.

Crash Course on SEO

Here’s what you need to understand about SEO to succeed. The whole idea behind owning a website or blog is to get people to visit your website, engage with your content and buy your products or services.

A recent study showed that you have just 46 seconds to engage your visitor to prevent them from clicking away. Everything from the headline to the design and structure of the site and especially the content must be appealing and captivating to keep the visitor on your site.

The study also showed that if you can keep the visitor on the site longer than 46 seconds, there is a good chance that they will click around and visit at least 3 pages.

If those 3 pages happen to contain pay-per-click ads or affiliate programs, the chances of making a profit increase substantially.

SEO is not only a product of how balanced and keyword-rich your content is, but also a combination of how your site is built for the major search engine “spiders.” That’s why you should consider SEO when you build your website – not later.

SEO Tactics to avoid:

1. Watch out for companies that guarantee links overnight.  Too many links too quickly will pull whatever site ranking you already have down. The search engine algorithms always manage to catch up with your site if something fishy is going on.
2. Avoid SEO that:

• Links to shadow domains
• Places links to their other clients on “doorway” pages
• Offers to sell keywords in the address bar
• Gets traffic from fake search engines, spyware, or scumware,
• Or, is not listed in Google’s index.

Choose the people that work on your site or the SEO strategies you use very carefully. Make sure you know exactly how they plan to promote it for SEO.  Ranking a site for content relevance takes time, and is a process that cannot be rushed, no matter what so-called expert tells you.

Tomorrow, we’ll talk about SEM or Search Engine Marketing and how to draw traffic to your website.