As you may know, many marketers of information products seek affiliates to help them sell their products. The idea is that these affiliates reach new prospective customers (at no cost to the product developer), customers that the developer would otherwise not reach, and, consequently, sales would rise. To attract affiliates into the sales campaign, the product developer often provides extra incentives and sales tools so the affiliate is motivated to come on board and work hard. Incentives include monetary prizes and physical prizes (we have seen prizes as large as a new car) for the affiliates... [...]

If you are an online marketer, it’s worth your while to follow me (@pcullum) on Twitter. On the IM NewsWatch website, we typically cover 30 news items daily, all intended to help you be more successful online. Due to our publication deadline, that’s about all we can manage. In my Tweetstream on Twitter, though, I can share additional stories throughout each day that could not be included in that day’s edition of IM NewsWatch. By checking once or twice daily, you will get new marketing information that will contribute to a more up-to-date picture of your competitors and the arena... [...]

It’s an old marketing adage that you must know your customers if you are going to succeed. Without this knowledge, you won’t know: • What products and services to offer • What prices to charge • Where to advertise • How to write persuasive sales copy and • You’ll be flying blind for a lot more marketing decisions you will have to make. If you are an offline marketer, finding out who your customers are (or can be) may involve study of the census data, doing surveys and questionnaires, checking out what existing merchants in your niche are doing, etc. Online,... [...]

Many of us use MS Windows in our business. Occasionally we fall victim to the dreaded Blue Screen of Death or BSOD. Our computer is frozen, our in-process work is lost, and there’s nothing left for us but to re-boot our computer and hope for the best. We just learned that Microsoft has a whole rainbow of screens of death. They have chosen different colors to distinguish various types of errors. This distinction helps Microsoft technicians find the problem more quickly and thus solve it, with less phone support time (and cost to Microsoft.) There’s an interesting article on The Windows... [...]

Whatever your job there are times when things aren’t going well. You aren’t seeing the progress you hoped for and are wondering if things will ever get better. Solopreneur online marketers feel this more often that most, I suspect. We often work alone we don’t really know our customers or our suppliers and some days no sales are coming in. In times like these, you need to find ways to stay optimistic and charged up enough to keep doing the things that will eventually bring the success you are looking for. Rachel Rofe and her team decided a while back to investigate this phenomenon... [...]

Marketers are human, after all. We want to look like flawless experts to our clients, but we know that surface appearance usually looks better than reality. What happens when the reality becomes known, and it’s not flattering? One recent case occurred in Australia. The Asos online fashion store printed 17,000 bags and there was a typo in the printing. They handled it gracefully and earned a lot of goodwill in the process. They admitted the error, with humor, on Twitter. People loved the story and interacted with it over and over. People even are clamoring for the misprinted bags when they... [...]

We just noticed (a little late) that effective October, 2017 Google has taken action to build a more secure web by using their 50% share of the browser market to warn their Chrome customers whenever they visit a site that doesn’t have an SSL certificate. Fortunately, it didn’t impact us because we have had an SSL certificate for tears, but you might not be so lucky. Most people get worried when their browser warns them about a site they are visiting. They may choose to go elsewhere for their purchases. The warning only is shown on pages where the visitor can enter information, so squeeze... [...]

It’s been happening for nearly 25 years; sales online are growing much faster than offline sales. Indeed, many offline merchants are finding it hard to continue operations as a result of their declining dales. The explosion in online sales began when Amazon.com started selling online in the mid-1990s. Since then, many major offline sellers have seen the inevitability of online sales becoming the dominant marketing platform. Even the largest and oldest offline merchants have seen the importance of online sales. Sears, Kmart and Walmart, for example, are putting major emphasis on their online... [...]

For many years WordPress has been the premiere blogging platform. Now this is changing. Beginning in 2013, the team developing the core of WordPress has been working on a revolutionary new vision of what WordPress aims to be. No longer content to be the world’s favorite blogging platform, WordPress is intent on becoming the world’s favorite site building platform. There have been many services in the last 5-10 years that have aimed to make it easy for non-specialists to create a website. Wix, Weebly and SquareSpace come to mind. The new goal for WordPress is to become a better site... [...]

Patric Chan, a long-time internet marketer lives in Penang state in Malaysia. His country was hit with major flooding. Patric and his family are safe, but majny of his neighbors are not. Here is how he describes the situation: We have a shelter above our head, we have electricity, we are driving our cars… our lives are as normal as it is. But at the same time, there are many others who are not as fortunate as us because of a recent flood… They have lost so much. Some are now having shelters in schools, mosques, temples, churches, public halls and so on. The number of flood victims... [...]