KISS – The Smoochy Approach to Easy to Read Content

KISS – Keep it simple silly.

It’s easy to become mired in the amount of information you have to share and the amount of content you want to cover.  However, too much information crammed into an article, particularly an article intended to be published online, sends the reader into a state of confusion and whoosh they’re gone.  You’ve lost them.

As readers, we don’t want to wade through an article to pick out the nuggets of beneficial information.  We want them laid out for us; readily apparent and easy to read.

Writing this type of content can be tricky.  Here are a few tips to get started:

#1  Define the goal for your piece.

• Are you trying to show people how to do something?
• Are you introducing a new concept?
• Are you singing the praises of a product or service?
• Are you hoping to inspire?
• Incite?

#2  Make your point.

Once your goal is established list 3-5 points required to achieve your goal.  They must be directly related to your goal for the article. For example, if you’re striving to show people how to accomplish something then a paragraph on how great a product is will only distract from your goal.

#3  Summarize.

A client of mine once said – "Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em, tell ‘em, and then tell ‘em what you told ‘em and then tell ‘em why."

Now what if you want to double up on goals?

What if you want your how to article to also sell a product or a service?  Tread carefully!  Write your article with your main goal in mind and then go back and insert a few sentences, where appropriate, to help you accomplish your secondary goal.

OR

Tighten your focus – Write your how to article using the product or service you’re promoting.  Rather than "How to Groom Your Dog" your article becomes "How to Groom Your Dog Using Environmentally Safe Products."  Now you can mention your products or services as you go through your step-by-step points.

Happy writing!

Do You Need an Affiliate Manager? Why of Course!

In my last post, I touched on getting started with your own affiliate program. In that post I hinted to the fact that you can outsource setting up and maintaining an program to an affiliate manager. I don’t know about you, but the less busy work I have to do, the happier I am. ;-) Less busy work gives me the ability to concentrate on planning and marketing my business so that it continues to grow.

In case you’re wondering some of the things an affiliate manager can do so that you won’t have to, here you go:

• Recruit new affiliates
• Follow up with affiliates through an autoresponder
• Teach those new to affiliate marketing and the program how it works
• Maintain an affiliate center
• Pay affiliate commissions
• Keep affiliates informed of new and upcoming product launches
• Help brainstorm ways to get affiliates motivated i.e. contests, specials, etc.
• Aid in evaluating what’s working and what isn’t with your program and implement changes to make it more profitable
• Create promotional tools (graphics, text promotions, etc.) for affiliate’s use

Just because the list above doesn’t seem very long (there is more that an affiliate manager can do but these are the basic areas you’ll be looking at) or the tasks performed by an affiliate manager don’t seem difficult does not mean it’s not a time consuming task. Recruiting affiliates and keeping them happy is a job all in its own, especially if your affiliates are new to this form of marketing and might require a bit more hand holding in the beginning of their efforts. Having someone on hand to help with all that helps ensure that your affiliate program continues to grow and become more profitable.

Generally speaking, affiliate managers are often paid a retainer fee plus a percentage of commission. How much you’ll pay will depend on how much work you need your manager to do and their level of experience.

Starting Your Own Affiliate Program is the Ultimate Outsourcing

For the past couple weeks, we’ve been talking about promoting products as an affiliate. Let’s take a look at it from the other side and actually creating your own affiliate program. One of the simplest ways to generate more income in your business is to implement an effective affiliate program for your products or services.

Think of an affiliate program as simply outsourcing – but even better because you only pay for results. Sure, you have to do the work to get your program up and running, recruit affiliates and maintain it, but for the most part, your affiliates will be doing the hard work for you. Not only that, they will do the work over and over again.

But really – think about this for a minute. The best part about managing your own affiliate program is, unlike other tasks you may outsource in your business, you don’t have to pay a dime for the work until it pays off. Only pay affiliates a commission when they make a sale.

Just like with any other outsourced assignment, you’ll need to give your affiliates tools and resources to help them get the job done. The least of which should be promotional graphics and text ads. The more resources available inside your affiliate program, the more enticing it will be to potential affiliates. It’s also a smart idea to set up a list that affiliates can join so that when you add tools to their arsenal and release new products or services, you can let them know. The sooner they can begin using and promoting your items, the faster you’ll reap the benefits.

Managing an affiliate program is one of the most valuable tools you’ll have as an online business owner, but only if you can bring affiliates on board who are motivated and eager to sell for you.

Resources:

If you’re ready to get started with your own affiliate program, here are some free tips to help you get tons of affiliates who are ready and willing to do the hard work for you.

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