Article Marketing? Try Article Joint Ventures!

Below's an article that was published in 1 & 1 Internet inc's affiliate enewsletter, going to more than 100,000+ affiliates.

I hope you'll find it useful too.

By the way 1 & 1 is a great web hosting and domain registration company, so you can consider them for your online business needs.

They are the top 5 hosting service in the US (#2) with over 7 million+ satisfied customers so they know how to take good care of you.

Anyway here's the thing:

When you're able to find major partners in your market, and propose to provide content for them for free - you can leverage on the traffic and credibility you'll receive from this content joint venture partnership.

This takes article marketing to a higher, and much more profitable level.

You should definitely use this article joint venture strategy, besides just submitting your articles to article directories like everyone else.

Provide exclusive content to major players in your market instead. This may likely do more for your business than 100+ article submissions.

A simple and extremely powerful strategy which can maximize your article marketing campaigns. Period.

Anyway here's the article, hope you like it:

"Small Niches, Big Hosting Commissions!"

(C) 2008 Ewen Chia

One of the easiest ways to increase your hosting sales is simply to target smaller niches.

This is based upon the proven strategy of specialization, which works especially well for the internet.

While there are millions of customers online looking for hosting solutions, it is easier to target a smaller audience who are looking for specific solutions to their problems.

It is difficult for an affiliate to try to be "all things to everyone." When we try to please everyone, we often dilute our efforts and spread ourselves too thin.

This is true whether you are optimizing content for SEO or using paid marketing strategies.

We need to focus and specialize on a targeted niche and try to become an expert in our own more tightly focused market.

For example, instead of targeting on a huge market like golf, you would do better by specializing in a smaller niche like "used golf equipment".

This will reduce your competition in SEO and lower paid advertising costs due to lower competition, while allowing you to serve a smaller and more targeted group of people.

When this happens, you are able to provide specific information and cater your affiliate recommendations to a more precise segment of the market more effectively.

What this means is, you can become the "go to" hosting person in this segment and build a successful business ...without having to compete with thousands of affiliates and companies in the bigger, more general 'hosting' market.

I refer to this as the "Niche It" method.

Together with the power of specialization, you can "niche" your hosting affiliate business to a smaller market and then work to dominate it.

What you can do is give specialized (and I suggest very personal) information and very specific hosting recommendations and position these tothe small niche you are targeting.

For instance, to provide hosting solutions for small businesses, one might choose 'niche themes' like:

Small business web site hosting, the do's and don'ts.

Why businesses need SharePoint hosting solutions.

Build a Business web site without Breaking the Bank

Linux share hosting, is it right for your business?

In fact, here is a powerful 5-step "Specialization Strategy" action plan you can use immediately:

Step #1: Target a smaller segment of a hot market

As explained previously, your role as a profitable affiliate marketer is to effectively serve a specific group of people.

Focus and specialize and make more money. It is that simple.

Become the expert in your chosen market segment by providing people with valued information which will help them make easier decisions.

Step #2: Create a review for the hosting product you are recommending

The internet is primarily an information medium and when you give people information to help them take action easier, you will make more commissions.

Remember, few people like to be sold something, but we all like to buy. That is human nature.

So your role is to help them to decide by reviewing various hosting plans, and telling them exactly which you think is the best choice for their specific needs.

Focus on how the hosting plan you write about will solve the problems faced by your visitors. Benefits don't change as often as features, so outlining benefits is often a good way to help increase the 'click-to-buy ' ratio of your readers.

I go into more details of how to do this with an article or an affiliate review web page in http://www.superaffiliates.com/

Step #3: Build an opt-in list with your review web page

If you want to build a solid affiliate business and earn repeat commissions for the long-term, then you need to start building your opt-in email list.

There's a saying that goes "the money's in the list" and this is true of all businesses, online or offline.

Your database is always an asset to your business so you have to start building it if you have not. Make sure you have a way for your visitors to join your list on your review web page so that you can follow up with them continuously.

Step #4: Provide a time-sensitive affiliate bonus

A simple way to instantly increase your hosting commissions is to give prospects a special bonusfor signing up for your recommended program. Incentives work!

For example, you can give them a special report or video tutorial worth $x amount as a bonus if they act on your recommendation.

However, ensure that you have a time or quantity limit to your bonus, as this creates urgency and encourages people to act fast. You can provide that bonus right on your affiliate review web page.

Step #5: Market your review page to your audience

The last step is to simply advertise and promote your affiliate review web page back to your niche.

You can do so using free advertising methods like press releases, articles and social network traffic, or paid methods like pay-per-click advertising and paid text links.

What is important here is this: you only want targeted visitors specific to your market segment.

This will not only get you the best visitors, but also lower your paid advertising costs.

That is the power of specialization. Remember - smaller hosting niches = bigger hosting commissions!

About the author:

Ewen Chia is known as the "World's #1 Super Affiliate".
Discover his insider secrets at http://www.superaffiliates.com/

To Your Success!

Ewen

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