Strategizing for the Year to Come

New Year's Party Invitation by gravityx9
Create notecards at zazzle.com

Happy holidays and a happy healthy New Year to everyone!

This week between Christmas and New Year is often one that people waste when it comes to business, but I recommend that you use this "down time" to assess the last year, and strategize for the year to come--2010.

This is the time to take a summary of your activities, figure out which ones have brought in the most money, and which ones were a waste of time. There will always be some business experiments that do not go as planned.

Look at the year coming up and plan your marketing plan at least two to three months in advance of any major event or holiday because it takes time for your articles to ripen and mature. People also shop ahead of time, especially online.

Decide what your strategy for the year is and what your goals are. Then work towards them.

This is what I will be doing this week, so you can think of me when you are doing your planning. :)

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Commission Junction Success

I have been trying to figure out why I am doing so well with my Commission Junction lenses over other affiliates right now, and I think part of it is the volume of lenses that I have with cafe press items. Today I had a $200 sale on this lens, Hands Off My Belly! - Maternity Shirts with Attitude which netted me a $30 commission. Definitely nothing to sneeze at.

And I am sure that you will agree with me that the lens itself is far from being one of my best. But I am not going to knock it where the sales are coming from. I am just going to continue building on the success.

I do think that there is something to be said for creating a cluster of lenses on similar topics that complement each other. Then focusing on the group of advertisers that you want to promote on those lenses. On this particular lens, Cafe Press and Amazon are really the only two things being currently advertised. Following my own advice, I am going to upgrade this lens since it is getting attention.

Promoting Your Brick and Mortar Retail Business with Squidoo

If it seems like I am pushing this idea, I am. This is a great opportunity for lensmasters to make a few extra dollars by going to local businesses in their area and offering to build a Squidoo page for them.

Squidoo is a unique concept online, and many business owners, especially small business owners DO NOT HAVE A CLUE when it comes to online promotion, social networking, and the internet.

I have just finished writing this lens, Are You a Retail Business Looking for Free Reputable Marketing and Another Income Stream? to help business owners understand what they can do with Squidoo. But this idea would work even better if you were to email or call local business owners and ask them if they would like you to build a lens for them for a small fee.

What can you gain?

Don't Forget the Basics

New and established lensmasters are always looking for new tricks to get their lenses noticed by the search engines. We should remember a few basic steps with each lens we publish.

Some of them are really basics. Link to other lenses, lensroll to other lenses, etc.

I suggest started with the connections that Squidoo offers first. Each time you publish, lensroll, squidcast, then from your lens's published page, link to delicious, facebook, digg, and myspace. I also always bookmark my lenses on tagfoot. Then the next step is to go to Squidoo related sites, lensroll.com, isleofsquid.com, squidutils (automatic once you sign up), etc. That is enough to get your lens going. You also should apply to some groups within Squidoo. Then go on to your next lens.

Don't obsess about just one lens. Keep going on to the next one.

Is Marketing Evil? A Response to Seth Godin

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
In the UK--Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

This post is in response to a great post that Seth Godin wrote in his blog, Seth's blog-- Is Marketing Evil?

Seth's answer can be totally applied to Squidoo. You should really read his post, but the essence of the post is that marketing is not evil, but the intention of the people behind the marketing is what can be evil. I totally agree with this. Marketing by definition is a chance to tell your story or explain what your product is about to your potential customer. It is not evil in itself. It becomes a tool for evil when it is used to lie to a customer or deny the customer the entire truth. This is one reason that I really abhor drug commercials, because drugs should be prescribed by a physician in concert with a patient knowing all of the facts for that particular patient. As each patient's physical make up is different, drugs need to be chosen that will not harm that person.

Squidoo is a blank slate with the potential for terrific marketing of your message, whether it is for selling a product or service, or for introducing a charity. You can tell your own story, talk about your company, or promote a political platform. It is not evil in itself to do any of those things, but if you are persuading someone to buy something illegal, or risky, then what you are doing is. This is one of the reasons that Squidoo does not allow specific subject that they consider spambait. Spamming inherently invites immoral advertising and possibly illegal.

Selling a product is not evil. Selling an evil product is.

Linkshare Affiliates

I have recently been examining Linkshare as an affiliate partner more closely, and have been very pleased with what their site and programs offer.

One of my pet peeves on some other sites is the lack of quality search ability, or that I have to wade through loads of product links to get to the one I want. Linkshare's site seems much more sophisticated and they have attracted some very big name clients as well. Examples of these are Itunes, Macy's, Vera Bradley, Dick's, and Bobbie Brown. It does mean that you would have more competition with those companies, but also that they are much more well known, leading people to have more trust in them. If I am a customer, and someone tells me I can get what I want or need at Nordstrom, I am not going to worry about the quality or reliability of the service or the merchandise.

And in this economy, with companies going out of business left and right, your affiliate vendor is much more likely to still be in business in 45-60 days when your payout is expected.

For most of these companies, you can earn money on gift cards as well. It's definately worth the time to explore.

Cafe Press Affiliate Program

I have to say that one of my favorite affiliate programs is the Cafe Press one. I have have been slowly but surely getting regular incremental sales from various lenses that feature Cafe Press items. Each sale is usually between a $3 to $5 commission but that is pure profit, and I don't have to buy, ship or pack the item. I can sell anyone's work, not just my own, which gives me a very large selection to choose from.

To sign up to be a Cafe Press affiliate, you have to register for CJ or Commission Junction.

To see a lens where I use Cafe Press products, go here Due in February Maternity shirts

How Can You Earn Money with Squidoo?

Can you earn money with Squidoo? Yes, you can. And lots of people do.

There are basically three ways to earn money with Squidoo. The first way is through shared revenue. Squidoo shares its Adsense, Glam and other ad revenue with all of the lensmasters. (That is what they call writers on Squidoo.) Depending on your average Lensrank for the calendar month, you will earn a percentage of that revenue.

The second way is to sell merchandise through the modules that Squidoo provides. There are several types, and you can use one or all of them on each lens. The most popular are Ebay, and Amazon but Squidoo HQ keeps adding more. Squidoo will split the commission on those sales with you anytime you sell something from your lens. Squidoo earns the highest commission rate, so you will split that rate with Squidoo.

The third way is to become an affiliate seller yourself. There are thousands of companies that you can register for to earn a commission. Generally it is free to register, and you earn a percentage of each sale that comes from your promotion.

For more information about affiliate selling on Squidoo, follow this link to my article Exponentially Compound Your Squidoo Earnings With Affiliate Marketing.