Everyone can make money from internet without any investment, all you have to need is a computer with internet connection.
Here we have explained the most common internet money making method.
Affiliate marketing is the best way to make money online without any investment.
Affiliate Program Basics
Affiliate Program is a ground floor opportunity. All you have to do is send visitors to your affiliate web site by placing a textlink or banner on your website and receive a commission on each sale, without the complication and expense of selling anything yourself.
Instead, you earn a commission for producing a ransaction. Affiliate programs, also known as Referral Programs, Associate Programs, Profit Sharing Programs or Reseller programs, give affiliates the ability to create an online business selling thousands products and services.
One of the first affiliate programs was run by the mega- bookstore, Amazon. They still have the largest base of affiliates on the net although they may not be the best affiliate program for many! with over 600,000 web sites being affiliated.
Affiliate programs are generally offered by sites selling goods or services, although some affiliate programs reward other types of transaction such as getting a visitor to sign up for a free newsletter, or a download.
Some affiliate programs pay per lead rather than per sale, in other words, you bring them a prospective customer and they pay a fixed "finder's fee" for the chance to market to that customer.
This is a typical arrangement for affiliate programs in the insurance, real estate and credit card industries, for example:
Types of Affiliate Programs
Pay per sale: If you refer a visitor to the online merchant's site and if visitor makes a purchase you get a percentage of the sale as commission
Pay per lead: You get paid a one-time fee for generating a lead for the merchant. Usually you get paid $2-$5 if the visitor you referred fills out an application.
Pay per click: You get paid for every visitor you send to the online merchant regardless of any sale or purchase. Usually companies pay $0.05 - $0.15 per click.
Two-Tier: You get commission on direct sales you generate and also you get commission on sales generated by affiliates you recruited. Usually companies pay 25% commission for direct sales and 5% for sales generated by your affiliates.
Bounty: You get a one-time finder's fee payment for the visitor you referred. You will not get commission on any future purchases that customer makes.
When you join an affiliate program, you will be given a specially formatted URL (Links) that you should use to link to the affiliate provider's site.
This will enable the affiliate provider to monitor traffic to your site and pay according to the type of affiliate program.
The Benefit of an Affiliate Program
Is that you just need to drive traffic to your affiliate site. Write a few articles and provide a few links.
You don't need to find or deal with brokers, wholesalers, inventory, process orders, shipping & handling, customer service, tech support, handle returns, warranties, employees, etc-
An affiliate doesn't even have to be present, your site will keep earning money while you're sick, on vacation, or just doing something else.
Another advantage of being an affiliate, is that you do it from almost anywhere in the world..
How The System Works?
Many affiliate programs pay a commission based on a percentage of the revenue generated by purchases made by visitors coming from your website.
For example; if you're participating in an affiliate program that offers a 25% commission and you
send a visitor who purchases US$100 worth of products, you've just earned US$25 in commissions.
The commission rate itself can vary from 20% up- to 50%+ in the case of intangible products such as eBooks or website subscriptions.
Affiliate programs vary widely in terms of overall quality, reliability, commission , statistics, the amount of help that the merchant site offers in marketing the products or services it sells, and so on.
By thoroughly understanding an affiliate program, you'll minimize the risk of not getting paid - and maximize your potential earnings.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Affiliate Program Introduction
What is an affiliate program? Everyone who surfs the web has come across affiliate programs. You may have seen a banner on a website that says, "click here", and once you do, you get access to whatever's being promoted. Or you could click on a link in an email you've received. You're using someone's affiliate program.
Basically, the company that sells the product sets up an automated way for people to be paid a set amount to help them promote their products or services. The links send you to the company's website where you can buy the product. The owner of the originating website or email gets a fee for taking you there.
The bookstore Amazon was the first company to heavily promote affiliate marketing on the internet. Although this type of marketing is ideal for businesses that only operate online, it's also become popular with businesses that have both an online and bricks and mortar presence. Affiliate programs are an ideal way to make your web site profitable. With the huge range of affiliate programs now available, there's almost bound to be something to suit you and your website. How it works
Perhaps you've created a website about the city where you live. People find your website while searching for information about your city. Once they've read your pages they check out your recommendations. They might click a link to book a flight there. You get paid a commission. Then they clink your link that points them to somewhere they can book a hotel room. Another commission for you. Then they might want to buy a guide-book or street map. Yet another commission.
Or perhaps you have a website connected with your hobby. Maybe you want to share your enthusiasm about the crafts you do. Your website could point people towards suppliers, books on the subject, magazine subscriptions.the list is endless. And all the time you're earning your commission. The commission is paid in different ways according to the company you're affiliated to. You can be paid per impression, per click, per lead or per sale. The stronger the likelihood of a sale, the higher your commission will be.
The advantages for youThere's no need for you to develop the products - it's already been done. All you need to do is to pick the best out of those available. You don't need to spend money on making or storing the product. Sending people to your affiliate merchants means you don't need to take or process a single order, or worry about processing payments. You don't have to handle or mail the product - your merchants do that. You don't have to offer customer support. Affiliate programs are usually free to join. You can run your affiliate business part time for a little extra cash while making minimal effort.
Choosing your affiliates
It's worth spending some time making sure that you choose the right companies to affiliate with. Different companies have different requirements. Some require you to have a minimum number of visitors to your website, while others require you to have your own domain name.
The best way to choose an affliate program that will suit you is according to the type of people who visit your website. If your website is about guitars, you're unlikely to have much success with affiliating with a company that sells gardening products. The first thing you need to do is know your target audience. You also might consider whether you want to join every single affliate program that comes your way. A lot of people find that they make the most money from using only a small number of programs. Also, concentrating your advertisements may allow you to be paid faster.
Sometimes, it can be hard to choose between two similar companies. What works well for someone else may not be the best choice for you. It's not just about how much money you can make - you'll want to feel confident in your recommendations.
You can maximize your income by thinking beyond the obvious. If your website is aimed at parents, obviously you might think of affiliating to a toy company. But what about books, clothes, videos, DVDs, child oriented software.
If you're thinking about affiliating with two similar websites, you might want to choose the one that easiest to use or offers the greater benefit to a visitor, even if it pays less in commissions. You'll do best with programs that represent a subject you're personally interested in. Your own interest in the subject will entice others.
To join an affiliate program, you simply go to the site and complete their online application form. Some programs approve you instantly, while others check out your application before it is approved. Once it's approved, you're given some HTML code that you can cut and paste onto your web page. How do I make my money?
Before joining any program, you should probably be aware of the different payment programs available. Pay Per Impression
Here you are paid according to the number of times the advertiser's banner is displayed on your site. The amount paid is usually small, but it is easy to earn as everytime a visitor loads the page, you earn. The more vistors your site attracts, the more you earn.
Pay Per Click
With this method you're only paid when visitors click the advertiser's banner on your site. It generally pays higher than the pay per impression program. You'll get better results if your banners are carefully selected to suit your target audience.
Pay Per Sale or Lead
You only earn if your visitors click through the banner and buy the product or service. Often, to avoid wasting resources in issuing checks for very small amounts, advertisers will accrue the amount owed to you until it reaches a certain amount before they pay you.
How do they keep track of referrals?
Every affiliate banner or link that a visitor clicks on has some type of coding added to the URL - this differentiates it from other affiliates' links. The most common means of tracking affiliate links is by "cookies" Cookies are tiny files stored on your computer by a web browser when you click on an advertising link. Cookies are generated to track visitors to websites. This is how they can "remember" what you bought when you visit there again.
For an affiliate company, the cookie records information on which affiliate referred the visitor to the company, and when. As some computer users block or delete cookies, there are other methods used to track referrals. For example, CGI-based scripts related to the individuals affiliate code attached to the URL links and database matching algorithms are used.
Second tier programsA two tier program allows you as an affiliate to sign up other affiliates under you.
You earn a smaller commission on the referrals or sales that arise from their advertising efforts as well as your own.
This costs you far less time and money for each sale if some of them aren't yours. In effect, you have your own sales force and pay a commission to your sub-affiliates. Except that the commission comes out of the affiliate company's profits rather than yours.
The affiliate company benefits by a possible exponential growth of its sales force for no more effort on its part - you're providing that.
It's not hard to recruit people under you in two tier programs. A second level can be a great advantage to you as an affiliate. Even if you only spread the word amongst friends and family, you never know when someone who signs up under you will really take off. They could earn you a lot by their own efforts in spreading the word about a program. You might not get rich, but you'll get some welcome extra income.
A multi tier affiliate program builds on the concept of a two-tier program. Not only can you earn from sub-affiliates, but you can also earn from their sub-affiliates, and perhaps their sub-affiliates. With a two tier program, you have an incentive to sign up sub-affiliates.
A multi-tier program gives you the incentive to help your sub affiliates sign up others.Is it for me?If you have a website then there's guaranteed to be an affiliate program to suit your needs and audience.
For minimal effort you can make your website earn money, even while you're happily sleeping. Perhaps it won't make you a fortune overnight. And it's true that no-one hands you money for doing nothing. But with some careful thought and planning, choosing an affiliate program that fits in with YOUR website and sells products that YOU are confident in is a straightforward way of increasing YOUR income. And it costs you nothing.
Basically, the company that sells the product sets up an automated way for people to be paid a set amount to help them promote their products or services. The links send you to the company's website where you can buy the product. The owner of the originating website or email gets a fee for taking you there.
The bookstore Amazon was the first company to heavily promote affiliate marketing on the internet. Although this type of marketing is ideal for businesses that only operate online, it's also become popular with businesses that have both an online and bricks and mortar presence. Affiliate programs are an ideal way to make your web site profitable. With the huge range of affiliate programs now available, there's almost bound to be something to suit you and your website. How it works
Perhaps you've created a website about the city where you live. People find your website while searching for information about your city. Once they've read your pages they check out your recommendations. They might click a link to book a flight there. You get paid a commission. Then they clink your link that points them to somewhere they can book a hotel room. Another commission for you. Then they might want to buy a guide-book or street map. Yet another commission.
Or perhaps you have a website connected with your hobby. Maybe you want to share your enthusiasm about the crafts you do. Your website could point people towards suppliers, books on the subject, magazine subscriptions.the list is endless. And all the time you're earning your commission. The commission is paid in different ways according to the company you're affiliated to. You can be paid per impression, per click, per lead or per sale. The stronger the likelihood of a sale, the higher your commission will be.
The advantages for youThere's no need for you to develop the products - it's already been done. All you need to do is to pick the best out of those available. You don't need to spend money on making or storing the product. Sending people to your affiliate merchants means you don't need to take or process a single order, or worry about processing payments. You don't have to handle or mail the product - your merchants do that. You don't have to offer customer support. Affiliate programs are usually free to join. You can run your affiliate business part time for a little extra cash while making minimal effort.
Choosing your affiliates
It's worth spending some time making sure that you choose the right companies to affiliate with. Different companies have different requirements. Some require you to have a minimum number of visitors to your website, while others require you to have your own domain name.
The best way to choose an affliate program that will suit you is according to the type of people who visit your website. If your website is about guitars, you're unlikely to have much success with affiliating with a company that sells gardening products. The first thing you need to do is know your target audience. You also might consider whether you want to join every single affliate program that comes your way. A lot of people find that they make the most money from using only a small number of programs. Also, concentrating your advertisements may allow you to be paid faster.
Sometimes, it can be hard to choose between two similar companies. What works well for someone else may not be the best choice for you. It's not just about how much money you can make - you'll want to feel confident in your recommendations.
You can maximize your income by thinking beyond the obvious. If your website is aimed at parents, obviously you might think of affiliating to a toy company. But what about books, clothes, videos, DVDs, child oriented software.
If you're thinking about affiliating with two similar websites, you might want to choose the one that easiest to use or offers the greater benefit to a visitor, even if it pays less in commissions. You'll do best with programs that represent a subject you're personally interested in. Your own interest in the subject will entice others.
To join an affiliate program, you simply go to the site and complete their online application form. Some programs approve you instantly, while others check out your application before it is approved. Once it's approved, you're given some HTML code that you can cut and paste onto your web page. How do I make my money?
Before joining any program, you should probably be aware of the different payment programs available. Pay Per Impression
Here you are paid according to the number of times the advertiser's banner is displayed on your site. The amount paid is usually small, but it is easy to earn as everytime a visitor loads the page, you earn. The more vistors your site attracts, the more you earn.
Pay Per Click
With this method you're only paid when visitors click the advertiser's banner on your site. It generally pays higher than the pay per impression program. You'll get better results if your banners are carefully selected to suit your target audience.
Pay Per Sale or Lead
You only earn if your visitors click through the banner and buy the product or service. Often, to avoid wasting resources in issuing checks for very small amounts, advertisers will accrue the amount owed to you until it reaches a certain amount before they pay you.
How do they keep track of referrals?
Every affiliate banner or link that a visitor clicks on has some type of coding added to the URL - this differentiates it from other affiliates' links. The most common means of tracking affiliate links is by "cookies" Cookies are tiny files stored on your computer by a web browser when you click on an advertising link. Cookies are generated to track visitors to websites. This is how they can "remember" what you bought when you visit there again.
For an affiliate company, the cookie records information on which affiliate referred the visitor to the company, and when. As some computer users block or delete cookies, there are other methods used to track referrals. For example, CGI-based scripts related to the individuals affiliate code attached to the URL links and database matching algorithms are used.
Second tier programsA two tier program allows you as an affiliate to sign up other affiliates under you.
You earn a smaller commission on the referrals or sales that arise from their advertising efforts as well as your own.
This costs you far less time and money for each sale if some of them aren't yours. In effect, you have your own sales force and pay a commission to your sub-affiliates. Except that the commission comes out of the affiliate company's profits rather than yours.
The affiliate company benefits by a possible exponential growth of its sales force for no more effort on its part - you're providing that.
It's not hard to recruit people under you in two tier programs. A second level can be a great advantage to you as an affiliate. Even if you only spread the word amongst friends and family, you never know when someone who signs up under you will really take off. They could earn you a lot by their own efforts in spreading the word about a program. You might not get rich, but you'll get some welcome extra income.
A multi tier affiliate program builds on the concept of a two-tier program. Not only can you earn from sub-affiliates, but you can also earn from their sub-affiliates, and perhaps their sub-affiliates. With a two tier program, you have an incentive to sign up sub-affiliates.
A multi-tier program gives you the incentive to help your sub affiliates sign up others.Is it for me?If you have a website then there's guaranteed to be an affiliate program to suit your needs and audience.
For minimal effort you can make your website earn money, even while you're happily sleeping. Perhaps it won't make you a fortune overnight. And it's true that no-one hands you money for doing nothing. But with some careful thought and planning, choosing an affiliate program that fits in with YOUR website and sells products that YOU are confident in is a straightforward way of increasing YOUR income. And it costs you nothing.
How to make money with Affiliate Programs
Every day, thousands of would-be marketers scour the internetlooking for any and every affiliate program, sign up, sit backand wait for the money to pour in and get frustrated just asfast when the bank balance still shows a big, fat ZERO!There are tons of guru's floating around and even more eBooksand articles claiming to know the latest and greatest trick tomake tons of money with no effort at all (oh and of course,unless you use their method then you will never, ever getanywhere in your online business and stay broke the rest ofyour life).
We've all seen these before.Let's get real for a moment. If you don't put any effort into your marketing and don'tspread the word of whatever you are marketing, then you willget exactly that much out of your effort. Zero effort = Zero results!I hope that's plain enough and now let's have a look at thesensible way to market your affiliate programs, so you canactually earn some of that Internet-Money-Pie (and it's yummytoo).
There are two types of affiliate programs generally. Those thatpay you (1-tier) and those that pay you, plus they pay you abonus for actions taken by visitors sent by other webmastersyou have referred (2-tier).Let's think about that for a moment.
What's the easier way tomake money? You sell a bunch of products and get paid on thatalone, or if you sell product and also introduce the affiliateprogram to a bunch of webmasters who in turn also sell and theyearn a nice commission and you get a bonus every single timethey sell something, just for having referred them to theaffiliate program?Ok, I know you probably just smacked your forhead andsaid 'Duh' quite loudly and think I am stating the plain andobvious.
If you can get others to do the same thing you are doing, bykeeping in touch with them and helping them and duplicatingyour efforts, then of course it stands to reason that the bonusyou receive for referring the webmasters will generatepotentially a large team of people making you money.So, your first task is to find good, well-paying 2-tieraffiliate programs.
You can always use single tier programs asa back end sale or on other projects, don't get me wrong, theywill still make you money, but right now, we want to get youstarted off on the right foot to your own internet income.
So, you've gone out and found a well-paying affiliate program,and you are ready to rumble and make money... Not So Fast!!!How are you going to promote it? What is your plan of attack?That's another problem many marketers run into, they just runoff and don't think before they act and that again results in alot less return for all of your efforts.
Here's what I have done in the past and always do each time.Feel free to try this out and see the results for yourself.After finding the affiliate program I want to promote, I checkthe resource material provided by the program.
Sometimes,depending on how new the program is, I use their material toget things rolling but almost every time, I start to write someads of my own, perhaps an article or even an ebook that I canuse to promote the product and the affiliate program with.Some of those resources are available to readers of theeBusinessCornerNews newsletter if you are interested.
Another thing I do, after putting together all the marketingmaterial I want to use is to check out the competion that'salready in the market. I don't really care if there iscompetition, as a matter of fact, many times that is a goodindicator that there is a good demand for the type of product Iam promoting.
You can do this pretty easily by just going to asearch engine and typing in keywords you associate with theproduct for example (there are a lot of additional ways to dothis that we discuss in our newsletter).
There are a ton of places you can advertise your product, andthe marketing material you are using, such as articledirectories, free advertising forums or websites, you can evenfind a lot of ezines that allow you to place free classifiedsand websites you can post your ad on, at no cost.Another thing that is handy to have is a website of my own,where I can post my thoughts and comments (nothing sells betterthan your own, plain english comments and reviews) along withany other articles I can find that will help to draw visitorsin and make the search engines list my site better.
Most of the time, I will take a few of my articles and turnthem into a free ebook, or post the articles in articledirectories where other webmasters are permitted to reprintthem in their own newsletter, provided they leave my resourcebox (see the bottom of this article for an example) in place.
So now they are spreading the word for me, driving traffic onmy behalf and generating orders too. But I like to help, as much as I like to earn money too, sohere's what I do most of the time. When I find a good newsletter that I like then I touch basewith that publisher and offer him the article, but I also tellhim it's for a 2-tier affiliate program and if he would like,then he could use my article, if he either leaves my box inplace or signs up under me and then I let him add his link intomy box, so he can earn the bigger piece of the pie and I getthe bonus commissions from his sales. Now, why would I do that? Simple... I do that, because there's a much better chance that he willsend out my article sooner, rather than later because now hehas the potential to earn money with it too.
Find a few publishers like that and you are well on your roadto getting a nice piece of the pie and the great thing is thatanytime you find a new affiliate program to promote and write anew article, you already have made contacts that you can sendit to, so it gets easier every time and takes a lot less efforton your part.
Well, there you have the sensible way of making money withaffiliate programs. (Note: There are a lot of other methods available to marketyour affiliate program and earn money, but this is one of thebest methods I have ever used.)Here's to your success,XavierP.s. Quit reading this article already and get out there andfind yourself a good affiliate program and start making money.Now get moving...
We've all seen these before.Let's get real for a moment. If you don't put any effort into your marketing and don'tspread the word of whatever you are marketing, then you willget exactly that much out of your effort. Zero effort = Zero results!I hope that's plain enough and now let's have a look at thesensible way to market your affiliate programs, so you canactually earn some of that Internet-Money-Pie (and it's yummytoo).
There are two types of affiliate programs generally. Those thatpay you (1-tier) and those that pay you, plus they pay you abonus for actions taken by visitors sent by other webmastersyou have referred (2-tier).Let's think about that for a moment.
What's the easier way tomake money? You sell a bunch of products and get paid on thatalone, or if you sell product and also introduce the affiliateprogram to a bunch of webmasters who in turn also sell and theyearn a nice commission and you get a bonus every single timethey sell something, just for having referred them to theaffiliate program?Ok, I know you probably just smacked your forhead andsaid 'Duh' quite loudly and think I am stating the plain andobvious.
If you can get others to do the same thing you are doing, bykeeping in touch with them and helping them and duplicatingyour efforts, then of course it stands to reason that the bonusyou receive for referring the webmasters will generatepotentially a large team of people making you money.So, your first task is to find good, well-paying 2-tieraffiliate programs.
You can always use single tier programs asa back end sale or on other projects, don't get me wrong, theywill still make you money, but right now, we want to get youstarted off on the right foot to your own internet income.
So, you've gone out and found a well-paying affiliate program,and you are ready to rumble and make money... Not So Fast!!!How are you going to promote it? What is your plan of attack?That's another problem many marketers run into, they just runoff and don't think before they act and that again results in alot less return for all of your efforts.
Here's what I have done in the past and always do each time.Feel free to try this out and see the results for yourself.After finding the affiliate program I want to promote, I checkthe resource material provided by the program.
Sometimes,depending on how new the program is, I use their material toget things rolling but almost every time, I start to write someads of my own, perhaps an article or even an ebook that I canuse to promote the product and the affiliate program with.Some of those resources are available to readers of theeBusinessCornerNews newsletter if you are interested.
Another thing I do, after putting together all the marketingmaterial I want to use is to check out the competion that'salready in the market. I don't really care if there iscompetition, as a matter of fact, many times that is a goodindicator that there is a good demand for the type of product Iam promoting.
You can do this pretty easily by just going to asearch engine and typing in keywords you associate with theproduct for example (there are a lot of additional ways to dothis that we discuss in our newsletter).
There are a ton of places you can advertise your product, andthe marketing material you are using, such as articledirectories, free advertising forums or websites, you can evenfind a lot of ezines that allow you to place free classifiedsand websites you can post your ad on, at no cost.Another thing that is handy to have is a website of my own,where I can post my thoughts and comments (nothing sells betterthan your own, plain english comments and reviews) along withany other articles I can find that will help to draw visitorsin and make the search engines list my site better.
Most of the time, I will take a few of my articles and turnthem into a free ebook, or post the articles in articledirectories where other webmasters are permitted to reprintthem in their own newsletter, provided they leave my resourcebox (see the bottom of this article for an example) in place.
So now they are spreading the word for me, driving traffic onmy behalf and generating orders too. But I like to help, as much as I like to earn money too, sohere's what I do most of the time. When I find a good newsletter that I like then I touch basewith that publisher and offer him the article, but I also tellhim it's for a 2-tier affiliate program and if he would like,then he could use my article, if he either leaves my box inplace or signs up under me and then I let him add his link intomy box, so he can earn the bigger piece of the pie and I getthe bonus commissions from his sales. Now, why would I do that? Simple... I do that, because there's a much better chance that he willsend out my article sooner, rather than later because now hehas the potential to earn money with it too.
Find a few publishers like that and you are well on your roadto getting a nice piece of the pie and the great thing is thatanytime you find a new affiliate program to promote and write anew article, you already have made contacts that you can sendit to, so it gets easier every time and takes a lot less efforton your part.
Well, there you have the sensible way of making money withaffiliate programs. (Note: There are a lot of other methods available to marketyour affiliate program and earn money, but this is one of thebest methods I have ever used.)Here's to your success,XavierP.s. Quit reading this article already and get out there andfind yourself a good affiliate program and start making money.Now get moving...
Affiliate programs guide
PICK THE RIGHT AFFILIATE PROGRAM.
Picking the right affiiliate program for your web site is essential if you want to generate any revenue from it. There are a wide assortment of affiliate programs to choose from and weeding through ones is tedious work which requires filling out a lot of forms and reviewing the pro's and con's of each program and if it would be of value to you and your visitors.
THE AFFILIATE PROGRAM HAS TO MATCH YOUR SITE.
That sentence sums it all up for me. If you are running a website doing movie reviews and your affiliate program banners are advertising baby products or health care you seriously need to rethink changing your affiliate program to one which better suits your target audience. For our example here, the movie review site, you might be better off with a movie-poster ad campaign, or perhaps even DVD's. Try to stick as close to your subject matter as possible.
READ THE FINE PRINT.
Some lesser know affiliate programs can discontinue your affiliation for no reason at any time. Some bind you into only displaying their advertising and disallow you to place them in rotation with other programs. Know what you are getting yourself into and what you are signing away.
WOULD YOU PURCHASE THE PRODUCTS YOU ARE ADVERTISING?
This question I have often found myself asking when choosing which advertising to place. I have found that I look for affiliations with sites I already use or feel is something I would like to see. This gives you a better spin when shifting users offsite to your advertisers site. You can recommend products or services which you have personal experience with, thus gaining confidence from your website users.
MONITOR YOUR PROGRAM.
Watch your affiliate program closely, try to check it once a day to see if they have added anything new. I have found that just by simply changing a banner ad the clicks have doubled for a period of several days. Your users notice things that are new at your site. They gloss over things which they have seen many times and fail to notice them. Keeping fresh content keeps people coming back.
If your advertiser does not have regular content changes or new banner advertisments, email them and ask for fresh content.
DO NOT BE AFRAID TO CHANGE PROGRAMS.
If your affiliate program is not making you money, start looking for one that might. Select several and roate them through over a period of several weeks and compare which ones do the best, select the top two or three and rotate through them until you find the right program for your site.
ALWAYS REMEMBER TO "REMEMBER" YOUR ADVERTISER.
If you send out a mailing list, make sure that you include a link to your advertiser, if it is an HTML formatted mail then use banners at the top and the bottom. mention them at once "in text" on each page, even if it just a small "thank you" at the footer, this increases user familiarity with the product.
SOME IDEAS FOR PROMOTION.
If you have long articles on your site, have a mid-section break, creates "Fun facts" section in a quotebox and right below or to the side have a "This fun fact brought to you by ..." This increases user interactivity with the product and begins the association process. With each mailing you do, invite your users to check back on your site for a "special promotional offer" which includes a link to your advertiser to one of their latest promotions.
Picking the right affiiliate program for your web site is essential if you want to generate any revenue from it. There are a wide assortment of affiliate programs to choose from and weeding through ones is tedious work which requires filling out a lot of forms and reviewing the pro's and con's of each program and if it would be of value to you and your visitors.
THE AFFILIATE PROGRAM HAS TO MATCH YOUR SITE.
That sentence sums it all up for me. If you are running a website doing movie reviews and your affiliate program banners are advertising baby products or health care you seriously need to rethink changing your affiliate program to one which better suits your target audience. For our example here, the movie review site, you might be better off with a movie-poster ad campaign, or perhaps even DVD's. Try to stick as close to your subject matter as possible.
READ THE FINE PRINT.
Some lesser know affiliate programs can discontinue your affiliation for no reason at any time. Some bind you into only displaying their advertising and disallow you to place them in rotation with other programs. Know what you are getting yourself into and what you are signing away.
WOULD YOU PURCHASE THE PRODUCTS YOU ARE ADVERTISING?
This question I have often found myself asking when choosing which advertising to place. I have found that I look for affiliations with sites I already use or feel is something I would like to see. This gives you a better spin when shifting users offsite to your advertisers site. You can recommend products or services which you have personal experience with, thus gaining confidence from your website users.
MONITOR YOUR PROGRAM.
Watch your affiliate program closely, try to check it once a day to see if they have added anything new. I have found that just by simply changing a banner ad the clicks have doubled for a period of several days. Your users notice things that are new at your site. They gloss over things which they have seen many times and fail to notice them. Keeping fresh content keeps people coming back.
If your advertiser does not have regular content changes or new banner advertisments, email them and ask for fresh content.
DO NOT BE AFRAID TO CHANGE PROGRAMS.
If your affiliate program is not making you money, start looking for one that might. Select several and roate them through over a period of several weeks and compare which ones do the best, select the top two or three and rotate through them until you find the right program for your site.
ALWAYS REMEMBER TO "REMEMBER" YOUR ADVERTISER.
If you send out a mailing list, make sure that you include a link to your advertiser, if it is an HTML formatted mail then use banners at the top and the bottom. mention them at once "in text" on each page, even if it just a small "thank you" at the footer, this increases user familiarity with the product.
SOME IDEAS FOR PROMOTION.
If you have long articles on your site, have a mid-section break, creates "Fun facts" section in a quotebox and right below or to the side have a "This fun fact brought to you by ..." This increases user interactivity with the product and begins the association process. With each mailing you do, invite your users to check back on your site for a "special promotional offer" which includes a link to your advertiser to one of their latest promotions.
Tips to Affiliate Program
Tips to Choosing a Successful Affiliate Program
When selecting an affiliate program to join you need to know how to choose a successful affiliate program. Look in the wrong place and you might find a dud but look in the right place and you might be on to a winner.
Here are 7 tips to help you choose a successful affiliate program to join:
1. Look at associateprograms.com This is the ‘affiliate central' of affiliate programs. You can virtually guarantee to find a successful program here and you can choose from tons of subject areas.
2. Look at clickbank.com Nearly every product they have for sale has an affiliate program. Many of them are extremely good and most pay very high commissions. (some over 50%)
3. Affiliate resource sites usually offer their best affiliate programs. As affiliate resources sites are specialists in affiliate programs you can be pretty sure of choosing a successful affiliate program from them.
4. Look for affiliate programs that are offered through any ezines you receive. Chances are the ezine owner has an affiliate program and if they have a good ezine they probably will have a good affiliate program.
5. Think of things that ALWAYS sell. Like web site design, ebooks, music and travel. Stick to proven online sellers and the affiliate program will have a much greater chance of being successful.
6. Seek out articles on affiliate programs. There are many good writers out there who have been successful with affiliate programs. Try to find articles they have written to see what has worked for them.
7. Take courses. Many sites offer free online email courses for affiliates. Take some of these courses to learn more about what it takes to be a successful affiliate. Affiliate programs are a great way to make money but one of the secrets to affiliate success is to choose the right program in the first place. Use these 7 tips to help you succeed.
How To Cash In Promoting Affiliate Programs
How To Cash In Promoting Affiliate Programs
1.Build your site around a topic you enjoy.Becoming a webmaster will require a lot of time on your part. Make sure that you first build your site around a topic that you enjoy and can spend time on.Think about what topics you enjoy most, and that you know a lot about. This will allow you to easily write about that topic to your visitors and share your insight.
2. Keep narrowing your focus until you find your niche that makes your site unique. For instance instead of sports, make your site about your favorite team or instead of marketing choose to make your site about ezine publishing.
3. Once you've decided on a topic for your site, you have also selected your target audience, and are ready to join affiliate programs that sell products to that audience.
4. When deciding on affiliate programs to join look for affiliate programs that offer a line of products -- this will allow you to earn further commissions when your referrals come back and order something else.
5. Choose affiliate programs that offer a two-tier commission structure, where you get paid a commission on the sales of people that you refer to the affiliate program, or affiliate programs that offer you the chance to earn a residual income.
6. Track your promotional efforts. This is essential in helping you identify what ad copy generates the most sales and what marketing techniques are most profitable.
7. Generate repeat traffic to your site by making your site a valuable resource.Publish your own articles, tutorials, ebooks, your ezine archive, as well as the promotional materials provided to you by the affiliate programs you've joined.
8. Keep your site updated regularly with new material.
9. Write recommendations.Make a recommended links or products page where you share with your visitors the benefits that the products that you promote will provide to them -- how those products have helped you.
10. To increase your commissions promoting two-tier affiliate programs, also provide a top rated affiliate programs page where you recommend your affiliate opportunities to your visitors.
11. Follow up with your visitors by providing free e-mail courses.Your courses can be those provided to you by the affiliate programs you promote, or you can create your own free e-mail courses from your own articles or tutorials.
12. Publish an ezine.Running an ezine will allow you to successfully drive more new and repeat traffic to your site, successfully market your affiliate programs to your visitors by keeping in touch with them, and also allow you to promote several different affiliate programs within your ezine's content.Publishing an ezine is also an excellent way to establish yourself as an expert or resource in your field which will generate more commissions for you as your subscribers respond to your recommendations.
Affiliate Research Results
Affiliate Program Research Results
Are you an online marketer or an ezine publisher and you interested in Affiliate program? Let's start from basics.
What is Affiliate Program?Affiliate program is a program introduced by web business owners where opportunity is been created for other people to participate in selling their products and service on the internet without necessarily buying the products or services and they are paid a percentage of the amount, paid for the products or service or a particular amount as comission made from sales of those products or service.
If you are a web business owner, my advice to you as an online marketing strategist is you invest having an affiliate progam in your website, because it helps you create markerters for product or services free, there by boosting sales for your products and services real fast.
For more information, visit www.clickbank.com, www.assoctrace.com Who is an AffiliateAn Affiliate is somebody who advertise the products and service of a web business owner for a comission of the product made from sales, all he does is register with the web master's Affiliate program and he is given an affiliate link which he will use to refer people to the website, write a good advertisement and advertise his link to draw customers to the website and when it results to a sale he is paid a part of the profit made from sales as comission.
What Makes a Good Affiliate ProgramAs i browsed through the internet and visit search engines to search for a good affiliate program to join, though I get to join, some affiliate programs but i found out something that i should let you, do you know some affiliate progams are not worth joining despite the fact, they promise to pay you a "fat" sum as comission.
So carefully read the next few listed points and I suggest you stick by it and always read these points before you join any affiliate program because i have learn't my lessons so i dont want to hide it and allow you make the same mistakes because it could be a very ugly situation you might not forgive me for not telling you because this article was written to empower you on what makes a good affiliate program and how to make good use of your time advertising good programs you 've joined.
My Research ResultAlthrough my research on how to make money on the internet, the concept of Affiliate program has proved to be the easiest way on how to make money on the internet because, you
(i) Don't need to have your products before you join an affiliate program, though some web marketers insist you buy their products and services before you can market them but it is very rare to find such programs online but they exist.
(ii) You don't need a website, but in most cases, when you want to really earn a living onlne through affiliate program, i suggest you need a website to advertise as many programs as possible, all you need to do if you want to go into this kind of affiliate advertising, just place the programs in categories, i tell you this is the secret of making $10,000 a month without owing a product, but if you just want to go into part time Affiliate advertising, you don't need a website, effective affiliate advertising will be discussed in my next article coming up soon.
(iii) You don't need to wait for long before you earn commissions except if you have not advertised your affiliate link or you did not write a good and catchy advert or promotion, there is every possibility you can earn a commission in the next six hours with a good advert.
BELOW ARE THE POINTS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER BEFORE JOINING ANY AFFILIATE PROGRAM.
(i) Products and Services of the Web marketer, whether it is a one-product or multiple products web business, they must be market moving products (i.e fast selling) information or "how to" products.
(ii) Is the website an interesting site that customers can really get in and dont want to go anymore they just keep reading the sales letter and eventually buy to know if the owner has put up a cachy salesletter, read it for your self does it entice you to buy or make you feel bored reading such letter tip. If it is a good and catchy salesletter, you can even catch some points in the letter and form a good advert for the program.
(iii) Did the site owner create a way of following up visitors by inviting visitors to signup for his ezine or newsletter on his site, because that is an excellent way to ensure your visitors buy from you and that's commission for you as his affiliate. for referring customers to his website.
(iv) Does (web marketer) after a two-tier affiliate program where people can sign with their affiliate program under you, thereby building a down line for your self and it is another way you can earn commission when members of your down line makes sales, you are paid a percentage commission (eg 6%)
(v) How is the sign up process, do you spend up one hour signing up or a few minutes people tend to ignore joining his (webmarketer) affiliate program if the sign up process is difficult to complete, you should be able to tell this fact since you signed up with his affiliate program.
You can get more of these facts on what makes a good affiliate program, if you sign up for newsletter. I advice you signup for my newsletter because there are still more to know on what makes a good Affiliate program if you know these things you still enjoy be earning fat residual income on monthly basis. So be empowered.Learn the basics and stick to it.It's worth knowing. To your success
Whats Google AdSense?
Whats Google AdSense?
AdSense may be one of the fastest and easiest ways to monetize traffic to your web site whether you have products or services for sale or you simply provide free content to your visitors.
Simply stated, Google AdSense enables website operators to place some code on their site that connects to Google’s ad server content database and pulls keyword-relevant advertising onto the web pages. The webmaster gets paid a percentage of the fee that Google receives from the advertiser every time a visitor clicks on an ad. There is no charge for the webmaster to participate in AdSense. All costs are covered by the advertiser who participates in the AdSense sister program called AdWords.
Google’s sends out digital “robots” which use proprietary algorithms to parse the host web page and analyze the content in an effort to determine what keywords are relevant. It reports its findings back to Google’s ad server which then serves ads matching those keywords. Given that the entire process is automated, the “ad robots” do a pretty good job of getting the advertising content right most of the time.
The History of Google AdSense
Google AdSense has its roots in the old “Google Content-Targeted Advertising” program which they introduced back in March of 2003. Although this program was similar in concept to AdSense, there was no automated way of participating. Each webmaster negotiated a deal directly with Google, and websites that served less than 20 million page views per month were not welcome to participate.
As Google grew, they began to see how much money they were leaving on the table by excluding the smaller sites, which greatly outnumbered the sites serving over 20 million hits that were willing to serve other people’s ads. Their answer to that problem was AdSense which has no minimum traffic requirements and is open to all sites meeting Google’s content and decency requirements.
How much can you make running Google AdSense?
The answer to that question depends upon three factors:
1. How much traffic your site draws
2.How many visitors click on your ads
3.How much those ads pay per generated click
With some ads paying as much as $5 or more, it’s possible that you can generate a serious income with AdSense. There are relatively well documented cases of some people earning as much as $500 per DAY and more. Numbers like that are rare exceptions however. Even so, there is no reason why you can’t earn somewhere around $1,000 per month, or more, once you get the hang of it.
How to get started using Google AdSense
Make a visit to Google’s AdSense Site (https://www.google.com/adsense/) and sign up. Make sure that you read their Acceptable Use Policy and that you follow their content requirements. Google has their own “AdSense Police” who will have no problem booting you out of the program if you fail to walk the line.
Using Google AdSense on your site is like collecting free money. There’s no reason not to do it and potentially thousands of dollars worth of reasons to do it.
The Easy Way To Have A Google Adsense Account
The Easiest Way To Have A Google Adsense Account Fast
Google Adsense is one of the easiest way to allow webmasters to make money from content websites. You just need to add some simple javascript codes on the web pages, and then when visitors click the ads, you make money. No need to sell and think yourself, Google does all thinking for you. Very easy, right?
Google Adsense is really a gold mine. People are creating niche websites just to display the ads and make easy money everyday - automatically. There are so many success stories about people earning thousands of dollars a month from Adsense
If you don’t have an Adsense account yet, you should get one and start profiting from it!
However, not all who applied for an Adsense account gets approved. You need to show your content websites to Google first to get approved.
Then how if you don’t have a content website? No need to worry, here is a secret method to get approved - fast and easily - just read on...
Google has its own blogging service - Blogger.com (http://www.blogger.com/). You can start a blog on Blogger.com with any topics you like - and it is completely free. Once your blog is created, post two or more related articles on it. Wait for a day and then you can apply your blog for an adsense account using this link:
Wow, your Adsense account will get approved in several days. Happy profiting from Adsense!
Make Money Quick With Google Adsense
Make Money Quick With Google Adsense
Do you want to make money quick? In this article we are going to talk about one of the quickest ways you can make money. Making money quick is not only possible there are people doing it everyday with Google Adsense.
Google AdSense delivers text and image ads that match the content on your website. These are very targeted ads that you can choose the size and color of and they come across to your customer as helpful more than an ad itself.
Google Ads require virtually no maintenance and they help you put advertising on your website without actually having to deal with advertisers yourself. If you can copy and paste a small code you can have targeted advertising on your website in minutes.
Adsense is simple to join and it is free to join. Whether you are an internet newbie or a veteran you can profit quickly by placing Google Adsense ads on your web pages.
Since Google does all of the work by finding the most profitable ads for your pages you can do what you do best....provide good content and lots of it. The more web pages you create the quicker you will be making money. You can learn more here
Once you have joined Google Adsense you will want to combine Google search with AdSense to monetize more of your web pages. You can do this by placing a Google search box on your pages. Google AdSense combines Google's search technology with thousands of keyword advertisers to deliver targeted text-based ads to search result pages. People find these ads useful and click on them, and when they do, Google pays you. You can see an example of how this works right here on this web page. In fact we combine Google search and Google Adsense on almost every website and web pages we create. We have found it a very easy way to make money quick and to make money over and over. It's great.
The internet offers many ways to make money quick. The nice thing about Google Adsense is you have the largest search engine in the world doing your advertising for you. This truely allows you to make money quickly and you can do it over and over with as many products as you want.
Affiliate Marketing vs. Google Adsense
Affiliate Marketing vs. Google Adsense
Lately there has been a lot of discussion on how to make tons of money with Google Adsense. In fact, many people are making the claim that Adsense sites can earn a higher revenue then an affiliate-marketing site. So that brings us to an important question:
Which is a better online business - Affiliate-Marketing sites or Google Adsense sites?
Let's explore each one and then find out which online business is better option: Google Adsense How do you like the idea of earning money without dealing with customers or answering emails. This is possible when you run a Google Adsense site. With Adsense sites, you can have a virtual passive-income that requires little maintaining. But is this the best option for an online business? Here are the positives of Google Adsense sites:
· They are perfect for people who run information sites that have no related affiliate product · You can set it and leave it. With Google Adsense, you can create a content page, and there is little need to update the content.
· Adsense sites are easy to scale. Since they require little upkeep, you can easily create multiple websites that each make a nice income. Here are the negatives of Google Adsense sites:
· They are not a great long term solution. Instead of getting your visitors to subscribe to a mailing list, you are focusing on getting people to click on ads. Real online businesses concentrate on building assets that can use for long-term growth.
· These sites are dependent on search engines. Most Google Adsense sites make the mistake of depending on search engines for the majority of their traffic. If the SE algorithms change then your income might drop significantly. Affiliate Marketing Being an affiliate marketer is great for those who want build a theme site.
With this type of business, you can easily create web pages around a topic and get people to buy products through your products. If done correctly, you can easily build a loyal following that will help you make money for years to come. But can affiliate marketing make you more money then Google Adsense? Here are the positives of affiliate marketing:
· A great advantage of affiliate-marketing is that you can build a long term business that will bring in a revenue stream for years.
· With affiliate-marketers you need to focus on building an email list. This list is a major asset of your business. Every time you have an offer, you can go to your list and increase your profits.. · Unlike Google Adsense sites, which only concentrates on high paying keywords, an affiliate marketing site can be centered on a topic that you have an interest in.
Here are the negatives of affiliate marketing:
· You have to learn how to write persuasively and get people to purchase the product that you are recommending. For many people this is a difficult skill to learn. · Each affiliate marketing site requires a lot of effort.
You must spend a lot of time writing product reviews, building your email list and creating web content. So which is better:
Affiliate marketing or Google Adsense? The answer is that both are great solutions for an online business. Instead of choosing one over the other, you should create websites that can take advantage of both.
Here is how you can do this:
1) Create a content site on a topic that you are interest in, while paying a good amount per Adsense click.
2) Integrate your Adsense into the menu bars and the top of your web content.
3) Add web pages for affiliate-products and your opt-in email list. But, make sure that you leave out the Adsense blocks on these pages. This way you are ensuring that you are building your long-term assets.
4) Create optimized web page articles that focus on a specific keyword phrase. Place your Google Adsense in these blocks.
5) Provide your email list with good content and product recommendations. Once in awhile, email your list and provide a link to some of your web articles. That way, you can earn a little bit of m*ney from your subscribers while giving them good content. By focusing on both affiliate products and Google Adsense, you will be building both short-term and long-term profits.
Google AdSense and Blogs
Google AdSense and Blogs
If you have a blog, or are thinking about starting a blog, then you are definitely going to want to read this article. It’s all about how to line your pockets with money that’s just waiting to be made without working much harder than you already are.
No only are blogs the hottest thing on the ‘net right now, but they are custom-made for Google’s AdSense program. Why? It’s simple. Blogs represent constantly changing and fresh content to Google’s search engine spiders. Feeding fresh content to those little spiders is just like tossing raw meat to a tiger. They just gobble it up. The more pages of your blog that get indexed, the more traffic you get. And the more traffic you get, the more exposure your AdSense ads get. Are you beginning to see where I’m heading here?
Well, “never” is a strong word because there actually IS a way to pre-test your blog’s ads before you post your newest edition. Here’s what you do:
• Write your blog article like you normally would
• Plug in your AdSense code and then post your newest page to a sub directory that’s not part of your blog.
• Click refresh a few times until Google wakes up and starts sending ads.
• If you don’t like what you see then fine-tune the article until you see the types of ads that you’re looking for.
With some ads paying as much as $5 per click or more, I’d certainly spend an extra 30 minutes or so tweaking my blog. That’s for sure. If you’re working hard to get your blog in front of visiting eyeballs, then it doesn’t make any sense at NOT to be using Google AdSense to draw every penny out of your site that’s possible. OK, that’s the end of the article. Now get busy tweaking your blog and checking your ads. You’ve got money waiting to be made!
If you have a blog, or are thinking about starting a blog, then you are definitely going to want to read this article. It’s all about how to line your pockets with money that’s just waiting to be made without working much harder than you already are.
No only are blogs the hottest thing on the ‘net right now, but they are custom-made for Google’s AdSense program. Why? It’s simple. Blogs represent constantly changing and fresh content to Google’s search engine spiders. Feeding fresh content to those little spiders is just like tossing raw meat to a tiger. They just gobble it up. The more pages of your blog that get indexed, the more traffic you get. And the more traffic you get, the more exposure your AdSense ads get. Are you beginning to see where I’m heading here?
Well, “never” is a strong word because there actually IS a way to pre-test your blog’s ads before you post your newest edition. Here’s what you do:
• Write your blog article like you normally would
• Plug in your AdSense code and then post your newest page to a sub directory that’s not part of your blog.
• Click refresh a few times until Google wakes up and starts sending ads.
• If you don’t like what you see then fine-tune the article until you see the types of ads that you’re looking for.
With some ads paying as much as $5 per click or more, I’d certainly spend an extra 30 minutes or so tweaking my blog. That’s for sure. If you’re working hard to get your blog in front of visiting eyeballs, then it doesn’t make any sense at NOT to be using Google AdSense to draw every penny out of your site that’s possible. OK, that’s the end of the article. Now get busy tweaking your blog and checking your ads. You’ve got money waiting to be made!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Resume For Your Dream Job
Resume Writing Tips
PURPOSE OF A RESUME
The resume is a tool with one specific purpose: to win an interview. If it does what the fantasy resume did, it works. If it doesn't, it isn't an effective resume. A resume is an advertisement, nothing more, nothing less.
A great resume doesn't just tell them what you have done but makes the same assertion that all good ads do: If you buy this product, you will get these specific, direct benefits. It presents you in the best light. It convinces the employer that you have what it takes to be successful in this new position or career.
It is so pleasing to the eye that the reader is enticed to pick it up and read it. It "whets the appetite," stimulates interest in meeting you and learning more about you. It inspires the prospective employer to pick up the phone and ask you to come in for an interview.
What IS a resume anyway Remember: a Resume is a self-promotional document that presents you in the best possible light, for the purpose of getting invited to a job interview.It's not an official personnel document. It's not a job application. It's not a "career obituary"! And it's not a confessional.
What should the resume content be about? It's not just about past jobs! It's about YOU, and how you performed and what you accomplished in those past jobs--especially those accomplishments that are most relevant to the work you want to do next. A good resume predicts how you might perform in that desired future job.
What's the fastest way to improve a resume? Remove everything that starts with "responsibilities included" and replace it with on-the-job accomplishments. (See Tip 11 for one way to write them.)
What is the most common resume mistake made by job hunters?Leaving out their Job Objective! If you don't show a sense of direction, employers won't be interested. Having a clearly stated goal doesn't have to confine you if it's stated well.
What's the first step in writing a resume? Decide on a job target (or "job objective") that can be stated in about 5 or 6 words. Anything beyond that is probably "fluff" and indicates a lack of clarity and direction.
How do you decide whether to use a Chronological resume or a Functional one? The Chronological format is widely preferred by employers, and works well if you're staying in the same field (especially if you've been upwardly-mobile). Only use a Functional format if you're changing fields, and you're sure a skills-oriented format would show off your transferable skills to better advantage; and be sure to include a clear chronological work history!
What if you don't have any experience in the kind of work you want to do?Get some! Find a place that will let you do some volunteer work right away. You only need a brief, concentrated period of volunteer training (for example, 1 day a week for a month) to have at least SOME experience to put on your resume.Also, look at some of the volunteer work you've done in the past and see if any of THAT helps document some skills you'll need for your new job.
What do you do if you have gaps in your work experience? You could start by looking at it differently.General Rule: Tell what you WERE doing, as gracefully as possible--rather than leave a gap.If you were doing anything valuable (even if unpaid) during those so-called "gaps" you could just insert THAT into the work-history section of your resume to fill the hole.
What if you have several different job objectives you're working on at the same time? Or you haven't narrowed it down yet to just one job target? Then write a different resume for each different job target. A targeted resume is MUCH, much stronger than a generic resume.
What's the best way to impress an employer?Fill your resume with "PAR" statements. PAR stands for Problem-Action-Results; in other words, first you state the problem that existed in your workplace, then you describe what you did about it, and finally you point out the beneficial results.
Tips for Writing Winning Resumes
Determine your job search objective prior to writing the resume. Once you have determined your objective, you can structure the content of your resume around that objective. Think of your objective as the bull’s-eye to focus your resume on hitting. If you write your resume without having a clear objective in mind, it will likely come across as unfocused to those that read it. Take the time before you start your resume to form a clear objective.
Think of your resume as a marketing tool. Think of yourself as a product, potential employers as your customers, and your resume as a brochure about you. Market yourself through your resume. What are your features and benefits? What makes you unique? Make sure to convey this information in your resume.
Use your resume to obtain an interview, not a job. You don’t need to go into detail about every accomplishment. Strive to be clear and concise. The purpose of your resume is to generate enough interest in you to have an employer contact you for an interview. Use the interview to provide a more detailed explanation of your accomplishments and to land a job offer.
Use bulleted sentences. In the body of your resume, use bullets with short sentences rather than lengthy paragraphs. Resumes are read quickly. This bulleted sentence format makes it easier for someone to quickly scan your resume and still absorb it.
Use action words. Action words cause your resume to pop. To add life to your resume, use bulleted sentences that begin with action words like prepared, developed, monitored, and presented.
Use #’s, $’s and %’s. Numbers, dollars, and percentages stand out in the body of a resume. Use them. Here are two examples: · Managed a department of 10 with a budget of $1,000,000. · Increased sales by 25% in a 15-state territory.
Lead with your strengths. Since resumes are typically reviewed in 30 seconds, take the time to determine which bullets most strongly support your job search objective. Put those strong points first where they are more apt to be read.
Play Match Game. Review want ads for positions that interest you. Use the key words listed in these ads to match them to bullets in your resume. If you have missed any key words, add them to your resume.
Use buzzwords. If there are terms that show your competence in a particular field, use them in your resume. For marketing people, use "competitive analysis." For accounting types, use "reconciled accounts."
Accent the positive. Leave off negatives and irrelevant points. If you feel your date of graduation will subject you to age discrimination, leave the date off your resume. If you do some duties in your current job that don’t support your job search objective, leave them off your resume. Focus on the duties that do support your objective. Leave off irrelevant personal information like your height and weight.
Show what you know. Rather than going into depth in one area, use your resume to highlight your breadth of knowledge. Use an interview to provide more detail
Show who you know. If you have reported to someone important such as a vice president or department manager, say so in your resume. Having reported to someone important causes the reader to infer that you are important
Construct your resume to read easily. Leave white space. Use a font size no smaller than 10 point. Limit the length of your resume to 1-2 pages. Remember, resumes are reviewed quickly. Help the reader to scan your resume efficiently and effectively.
Have someone else review your resume. Since you are so close to your situation, it can be difficult for you to hit all your high points and clearly convey all your accomplishments. Have someone review your job search objective, your resume, and listings of positions that interest you. Encourage them to ask questions. Their questions can help you to discover items you inadvertently left off your resume. Revise your resume to include these items. Their questions can also point to items on your resume that are confusing to the reader. Clarify your resume based on this input.
Important tips for writing effective resume
Having a solid and effective resume can greatly improve your chances of landing that dream job. That is beyond discussion. How does one make sure that his resume is top notch and bullet proof, however? There are several websites with tips around the web, but most bring just a handful of them. We wanted to put them all together in a single place, and that is what you will find below: 44 resume writing tips.
1. Know the purpose of your resume
Some people write a resume as if the purpose of the document was to land a job. As a result they end up with a really long and boring piece that makes them look like desperate job hunters. The objective of your resume is to land an interview, and the interview will land you the job (hopefully!).
2. Back up your qualities and strengths
Instead of creating a long (and boring) list with all your qualities (e.g., disciplined, creative, problem solver) try to connect them with real life and work experiences. In other words, you need to back these qualities and strengths up, else it will appear that you are just trying to inflate things.
3. Make sure to use the right keywords
Most companies (even smaller ones) are already using digital databases to search for candidates. This means that the HR department will run search queries based on specific keywords. Guess what, if your resume doesn’t have the keywords related to the job you are applying for, you will be out even before the game starts.
These keywords will usually be nouns. Check the job description and related job ads for a clue on what the employer might be looking for. You can read more about resume keywords on the article Tapping the Power of Keywords to Enhance Your Resume’s Effectiveness.
4. Use effective titles
Like it or not, employers will usually make a judgment about your resume in 5 seconds. Under this time frame the most important aspect will be the titles that you listed on the resume, so make sure they grab the attention. Try to be as descriptive as possible, giving the employer a good idea about the nature of your past work experiences. For example:
5. Proofread it twice
It would be difficult to emphasize the importance of proofreading your resume. One small typo and your chances of getting hired could slip. Proofreading it once is not enough, so do it twice, three times or as many as necessary. If you don’t know how to proofread effectively, here are 8 tips that you can use.
6. Use bullet points
No employer will have the time (or patience) to read long paragraphs of text. Make sure, therefore, to use bullet points and short sentences to describe your experiences, educational background and professional objectives.
7. Where are you going?
Including professional goals can help you by giving employers an idea of where you are going, and how you want to arrive there. You don’t need to have a special section devoted to your professional objectives, but overall the resume must communicate it. The question of whether or not to highlight your career objectives on the resume is a polemic one among HR managers, so go with your feeling. If you decide to list them, make sure they are not generic.
8. Put the most important information first
This point is valid both to the overall order of your resume, as well as to the individual sections. Most of the times your previous work experience will be the most important part of the resume, so put it at the top. When describing your experiences or skills, list the most important ones first.
9. Attention to the typography
First of all make sure that your fonts are big enough. The smaller you should go is 11 points, but 12 is probably safer. Do not use capital letters all over the place, remember that your goal is to communicate a message as fast and as clearly as possible. Arial and Times are good choices.
10. Do not include “no kidding” information
There are many people that like to include statements like “Available for interview” or “References available upon request.” If you are sending a resume to a company, it should be a given that you are available for an interview and that you will provide references if requested. Just avoid items that will make the employer think “no kidding!”
11. Explain the benefits of your skills
Merely stating that you can do something will not catch the attention of the employer. If you manage to explain how it will benefit his company, and to connect it to tangible results, then you will greatly improve your chances.
12. Avoid negativity
Do not include information that might sound negative in the eyes of the employer. This is valid both to your resume and to interviews. You don’t need to include, for instance, things that you hated about your last company.
13. Achievements instead of responsibilities
Resumes that include a long list of “responsibilities included…” are plain boring, and not efficient in selling yourself. Instead of listing responsibilities, therefore, describe your professional achievements.
14. No pictures
Sure, we know that you are good looking, but unless you are applying for a job where the physical traits are very important (e.g., modeling, acting and so on), and unless the employer specifically requested it, you should avoid attaching your picture to the resume.
15. Use numbers
This tip is a complement to the 13th one. If you are going to describe your past professional achievements, it would be a good idea to make them as solid as possible. Numbers are your friends here. Don’t merely mention that you increased the annual revenues of your division, say that you increased them by $100,000, by 78%, and so on.
16. One resume for each employer
One of the most common mistakes that people make is to create a standard resume and send it to all the job openings that they can find. Sure it will save you time, but it will also greatly decrease the chances of landing an interview (so in reality it could even represent a waste of time). Tailor your resume for each employer. The same point applies to your cover letters.
17. Identify the problems of the employer
A good starting point to tailor your resume for a specific employer is to identify what possible problems he might have at hand. Try to understand the market of the company you are applying for a job, and identify what kind of difficulties they might be going through. After that illustrate on your resume how you and your skills would help to solve those problems.
18. Avoid age discrimination
It is illegal to discriminate people because of their age, but some employers do these considerations nonetheless. Why risk the trouble? Unless specifically requested, do not include your age on your resume.
19. You don’t need to list all your work experiences
If you have job experiences that you are not proud of, or that are not relevant to the current opportunity, you should just omit them. Mentioning that you used to sell hamburgers when you were 17 is probably not going to help you land that executive position.
20. Go with what you got
If you never had any real working experience, just include your summer jobs or volunteer work. If you don’t have a degree yet, mention the title and the estimated date for completion. As long as those points are relevant to the job in question, it does not matter if they are official or not.
21. Sell your fish
Remember that you are trying to sell yourself. As long as you don’t go over the edge, all the marketing efforts that you can put in your resume (in its content, design, delivery method and so on) will give you an advantage over the other candidates.
22. Don’t include irrelevant information
Irrelevant information such as political affiliation, religion and sexual preference will not help you. In fact it might even hurt your chances of landing an interview. Just skip it.
23. Use Mr. and Ms. if appropriate
If you have a gender neutral name like Alex or Ryan make sure to include the Mr. or Ms. prefix, so that employers will not get confused about your gender.
24. No lies, please
Seems like a no brainer, but you would be amused to discover the amount of people that lie in their resumes. Even small lies should be avoided. Apart from being wrong, most HR departments do background checks these days, and if you are buster it might ruin your credibility for good.
25. Keep the salary in mind
The image you will create with your resume must match the salary and responsibility level that you are aiming for.
26. Analyze job ads
You will find plenty of useful information on job ads. Analyze no only the ad that you will be applying for, but also those from companies on the same segment or offering related positions. You should be able to identify what profile they are looking for and how the information should be presented.
27. Get someone else to review your resume
Even if you think you resume is looking kinky, it would be a good idea to get a second and third opinion about it. We usually become blind to our own mistakes or way of reasoning, so another people will be in a good position to evaluate the overall quality of your resume and make appropriate suggestions.
28. One or two pages
The ideal length for a resume is a polemic subject. Most employers and recruiting specialists, however, say that it should contain one or two pages at maximum. Just keep in mind that, provided all the necessary information is there, the shorter your resume, the better.
29. Use action verbs
A very common advice to job seekers is to use action verbs. But what are they? Action verbs are basically verbs that will get noticed more easily, and that will clearly communicate what your experience or achievement were. Examples include managed, coached, enforced and planned. Here you can find a complete list of action verbs divided by skill category.
30. Use a good printer
If you are going to use a paper version of your resume, make sure to use a decent printer. Laser printers usually get the job done. Plain white paper is the preferred one as well.
31. No hobbies
Unless you are 100% sure that some of your hobbies will support you candidacy, avoid mentioning them. I know you are proud of your swimming team, but share it with your friends and not with potential employers.
32. Update your resume regularly
It is a good idea to update your resume on a regular basis. Add all the new information that you think is relevant, as well as courses, training programs and other academic qualifications that you might receive along the way. This is the best way to keep track of everything and to make sure that you will not end up sending an obsolete document to the employer.
33. Mention who you worked with
If you have reported or worked with someone that is well known in your industry, it could be a good idea to mention it on the resume. The same thing applies to presidents and CEOs. If you reported to or worked directly with highly ranked executives, add it to the resume.
34. No scattered information
Your resume must have a clear focus. If would cause a negative impression if you mentioned that one year you were studying drama, and the next you were working as an accountant. Make sure that all the information you will include will work towards a unified image. Employers like decided people.
35. Make the design flow with white space
Do not jam your resume with text. Sure we said that you should make your resume as short and concise as possible, but that refers to the overall amount of information and not to how much text you can pack in a single sheet of paper. White space between the words, lines and paragraphs can improve the legibility of your resume.
36. Lists all your positions
If you have worked a long time for the same company (over 10 years) it could be a good idea to list all the different positions and roles that you had during this time separately. You probably had different responsibilities and developed different skills on each role, so the employer will like to know it.
37. No jargon or slang
It should be common sense, but believe me, it is not. Slang should never be present in a resume. As for technical jargon, do not assume that the employer will know what you are talking about. Even if you are sending your resume to a company in the same segment, the person who will read it for the first time might not have any technical expertise.
38. Careful with sample resume templates
There are many websites that offer free resume templates. While they can help you to get an idea of what you are looking for, do not just copy and paste one of the most used ones. You certainly don’t want to look just like any other candidate, do you?
39. Create an email proof formatting
It is very likely that you will end up sending your resume via email to most companies. Apart from having a Word document ready to go as an attachment, you should also have a text version of your resume that does not look disfigured in the body of the email or in online forms. Attachments might get blocked by spam filters, and many people just prefer having the resume on the body of the email itself.
40. Remove your older work experiences
If you have been working for 20 years or more, there is no need to have 2 pages of your resume listing all your work experiences, starting with the job at the local coffee shop at the age of 17! Most experts agree that the last 15 years of your career are enough.
41. No fancy design details
Do not use a colored background, fancy fonts or images on your resume. Sure, you might think that the little flowers will cheer up the document, but other people might just throw it away at the sight.
42. No pronouns
You resume should not contain the pronouns “I” or “me.” That is how we normally structure sentences, but since your resume is a document about your person, using these pronouns is actually redundant.
43. Don’t forget the basics
The first thing on your resume should be your name. It should be bold and with a larger font than the rest of the text. Make sure that your contact details are clearly listed. Secondly, both the name and contact details should be included on all the pages of the resume (if you have more than one).
44. Consider getting professional help
If you are having a hard time to create your resume, or if you are receiving no response whatsoever from companies, you could consider hiring a professional resume writing service. There are both local and online options are available, and usually the investment will be worth the money.
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