How To Be Successful in Gift Home Business

In previous post, I wrote about how to start a gift home business idea which is simple, almost anyone can do it. You will not special skill set or special degree to start up such a business. What I like is that you do not need to invest lot of money upfront, so you can get started right away. Here we will take it further and see how to make it successful.

How To Be Successful With Your Gift Basket Business;

Creating a unique business always gives you the upper hand because it gives you the opportunity to stand out from the crowd. If you live in a relatively small town and would like to start a gift basket business then chances are that you are pretty much the only one in town who is going to do such a thing. As a side note, one of the great things about living in small towns is that you can develop creative businesses without fear of it being replicated too much, but on the other hand big cities usually always have duplicates of small businesses. Nevertheless, though, a gift basket business is not only a lucrative opportunity for you to profit in your market you’re about to advertise to, but it also gives you the chance to hone your creative thinking skills and personality!

If you have already somewhat gotten started making gift baskets and advertising your service to family and friends then you probably already have a lot of orders coming in. This can be a good thing because it allows you to get your feet wet without having a full-fledged brick-and-mortar gift basket store, but once you can keep up with the orders then it may be time to take your gift basket biz to the next level.

What’s the next level, though?  In many businesses people see the “next level” as something that they will eventually reach, but the next level for a small gift basket business often involves making professional ways to advertise your services at the very least. For example, creating a website is just one of the ways you can successfully advertise your services. Another way, though, is through the development of business cards that you can pass around your city or town. The point is, though, to spread the word about your profession so that you will be able to have orders for gift baskets coming in daily. Let’s face it: there are plenty of occasions going on daily that people need gift baskets for and tapping into the market is one good thing about your business.

Another thing that one should definitely do with his or her gift basket business is to keep him or her self as organized as possible. Even though you may have previously just gone out to stores to create gift baskets on a per-order basis, one idea to try would be to keep everything at your house or another storage facility so that you can simply use the resources and materials that you have as you need them. This will not only save a whole lot of money, but you’ll also be saving valuable time as well just in case a whole bunch of gift basket orders come in all at once!

There are plenty of other ways to be successful with your gift basket biz. If you’re just starting out in the business then you may want to experience making many different types of the gift baskets themselves, changing the actual gift baskets that you use, or just mixing things up a bit so that your business will stay as creative as possible!

Also look at How to set up a Gift basket business website

Does Commision Junction Affiliate Work For You?

Today as I was talking with a friend who recently got started with internet marketing, she told me that she started with Commision Junction (CJ) and she hardly makes any sales. While, I am doing IM for a few years, I have yet to make good money with CJ.

I do better with Amazon (not this site) and adsense (again not this site) but I use CJ primarily with this site except for a few exception but my CJ affiliate income is nothing to write home about. I think 1 to 3% is return on affiliate is reasonable but it is not the case with CJ. So, I could not tell my friend what to do to improve the percentage as I am stumped myself. I have called CJ and vendors without much help.

Very few people I know who are in IM are in same boat as my friend or have crazy traffic in order for them to work. Do you work with CJ? Are you getting good earning from it? How to improve your affiliates from it?

I am curious for those of you who are good at earning from CJ, do you have any recommendation on how to work best with Commision Junction Affiliates?

Make Money With Affiliate Program

One of the easiest way for to make money online is via make money with an affiliate programs. What is an affiliate program? An affiliate program is for example you recommend someone a product you really like and share it with your friends, if person buy it from your affiliate links, then you will make some percentage of sale. You will not have to create a product, ship it, or take customer calls for questions and return issues. It is simple enough once you understand the concept. You know what is best thing about promoting an affiliate, most of the affiliate programs are free to join, costing you nothing when you are starting out and short on cash.

All you have to get started is to sign up for these 100% free affiliates and you will receive a special affiliate id that is unique to you or your business. Most affiliates will also show you how to attach a special ID to a product and place it on your site or facebook page. So, if anyone will click on that link and buys something you will get commission.

Another thing I like about an affiliate program is that most affiliate program will pay you for other stuff people may buy through your affiliate link. For example, let’s say you have special product link about cannon g12 camera, someone clicked on the link and did not purchase the camera but purchased books, or kids toys, you will still get commission for the things bought. Isn’t that cool? I think so too.

One of the popular affiliates are amazon.com, walmart.com, target.com, bestbuy.com and so on. Some people make money via facebook or free blogger websites, and that is good for starting out. But if you want to make serious money and make sure your links and writings does not get deleted by facebook or blogger host, you should buy and host your own domain and hosting.  You can see how to start a website for step by step guide for details.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email, I am in process of creating a free eBook which you can download, so if you get a chance subscribe to website via email, so you will get news about it.

I also want to share all affiliate programs, I personally use in my online business and share with you one that are successful for me. All of these affiliate programs are 100% free to join. Many of these programs are internationally available, that means you can be China, Africa, Australia, Canada, US or Mexico and you will be able to join and make money with it.

Guide To How To Become A Super Affiliate

Affiliate marketing can be a great way to make money. Finding a niche market with products and services you trust and believe in is the first step to success. There are tremendous affiliate programs which offer you an abundance of tools and materials to promote and market their products. However, what you do with those tools and materials is entirely up to you. You can be just another affiliate or a super affiliate.

What Is A Super Affiliate?

Technically speaking a super affiliate is someone who generates a significant amount of profits for the products or services they represent. A super affiliate can make a healthy living from their affiliate business alone while a standard every day affiliate may need to supplement their affiliate income with, gasp…a 9-5 job!

Benefits To Being A Super Affiliate

The most significant benefit to being a super affiliate is the income. Many super affiliates make six figures simply promoting the products and services of others.

Additionally, if you’re one of the main contributors to a company’s affiliate program they’re going to pay attention to you and your needs. You may receive a higher percentage of sales you may receive first shot with new marketing materials and programs and you’ll get the support you need when you need it.

Here Are A Few Steps To Become A Super Affiliate:

Step One – Commit to publishing content every single day. Content has proven time and again to be the best sales tool available to affiliate marketers. Nothing, not even strategically placed ad copy works as well as providing quality content that pre-sells any product that you’re promoting on your website.

Possible content includes:

* Autoresponders.
* E-newsletters.
* Blogs posts
* Social networking via forums, social networking sites, and chat rooms
* Articles
* Press releases

Step Two – Track and test. Make sure you know where your prospects are coming from, what motivates them to click through and what information they read and respond to – then give them what they need. Tracking and testing is the only way to hone your affiliate program into a smooth running, money making machine.

Step Three – Use the provided marketing materials and be willing to take it a step further. Many affiliate programs do a great job of providing their affiliate with ready to marketing materials including:

1. Banner ads
2. Buttons
3. Email copy
4. Articles
5. Free promotional reports

Use the materials your affiliate manager has provided. It’s been tested and developed for results. That being said, be sure to create your own content too. Even as an affiliate you are your own company and your website needs to reflect your personality and brand. Building a community around your website and providing valuable content is a sure way to create a following that trusts you and your credibility – which will result in click throughs and affiliate sales.

Step Four – Pre-sell. The good news is that your job as an affiliate is to pre-sell products and services. Pre-selling means your content, whether it is a review, article, tutorial, course, or blog post, speaks honestly about the products and services you promote. Pre-selling is about providing value to your website visitors and prospects, making them comfortable with you and your authority to generate interest and a click through to the company website, where the selling happens.

Step Five – Follow up. Just like your affiliate manager follows up with you to see how you’re doing and what you need, follow up with your prospects. A great way to do this unobtrusively is to create a lead list by providing a newsletter visitors can subscribe, a free report, or any number of products in exchange for an email address and the permission to contact them with valuable information and special promotions.

Conclusion: –

Being a Super Affiliate is the only way to go if you want to build a successful affiliate marketing business. Find products and services you trust and believe in and then create a strategy to share information to your target audience. Test and track your efforts, focus on providing value to your prospects and leave the selling to the companies you represent. Helping others live better lives, without having to provide the products or services personally, is a great way to make a living.