Before starting Affiliates Marketing - Special Experience by Jessica Biel

Affiliate Marketing may be the secret of success of unlimited persons now but also it has many disadvantages let us learn together about many of other pioneer people mistakes and for my real surprise I found it usually repeated and common

Many people had been attracted  to affiliate marketing because it is always financially rewarding and you may be just staying at home.
so, many have rapidly engaged to get into the cycle without even knowing the mechanisms or trends and found themselves in the false direction .
They already realize that there is no absolute easy fortune in any industry and that it should be taken very serious for those who intend to have success in this business category.

Affiliates marketing is of course the best way to earn money through internet . This Internet based business contributes a revenue sharing between a merchant and affiliates, wherever the publisher or affiliates attains a commission through their affiliate campaigns .

The most important risk in affiliate marketing happens when marketers  are unaware of the facts.

There are those who involve themselves in great hopes that there is easy money in affiliates marketing system. They do not know that many people wasted efforts, time, and money in this campaigns and get nothing

Fault may be in forecasting  wrong steps that could prove their downfall.

so , affiliation system marketers should  understand how this business is going very early
identification of factors that drive success or failure, and make an action plan for every  step . This can be done through an online research or reading   blogs and, conversations with experienced marketers on forums.

It is crucial to study the markets and customers because there are differences between the ways of buying , selling and ads on the internet and others .

Affiliates must  understand search engines work  .

as expert affiliates declared that 90% of their revenue came from search engine results 
If a website is  optimized to for better search engine ranking, there will be maximum traffic on it that raises opportunity for sales and money.


Another major fault of affiliate marketers is banners and links that do not provide  information about the product or service.
so links or banners must have much work.
 to encourage every visitor to watch the link and purchase  .

users must have choices and alternatives on those websites not only one product 

Customers should be given enough options and capability of comparison.
also do not promote so many products

Factors or Tactics that may increase your rate of success are as follow

- dedicate a website or complete page for a product or same group of products although the high cost of hosting

- include testimonials from satisfied customers

- targeted Website traffic which can be increased by writing specific topics about your product and service and open comments for your visitors or users



-

Is it so Quick ?

Before you are included into any affiliate marketing business   you must  understand opportunities of excution.

  you need time to learn major information and to link it  together and be and master your advertising techniques before you achieve an ATM on request!

Only 4 % and or higher are real successful 

because only 4-6 % are doing it right That's only 4% to 6% that are actually doing well,  but when they do it , it is done

the Pioneers in the affiliate marketing believe the following:

#1. When it goes hard  the hard goes!
#2. It is done by others so you can do.
#3. They understand what is Time Management.
#4. They never look back they are always working  to improve capabilities.
#5. They understood the importance of study and learning.

The Boston Matrix Analysis Market Share & Market Grawth

(Also called the BCG Matrix, the Growth-Share
Matrix and Portfolio Analysis)
Focusing effort to give the greatest returns

If you enjoy vivid visual metaphors for business, then you'll love the Boston Matrix!
Also called the BCG Matrix, it provides a useful way of screening the opportunities open to you, and helps you think about where you can best allocate your resources to maximize profit in the future.

Understanding the Model

Market Share and Market Growth

To understand the Boston Matrix you need to understand how market share and market growth interrelate.

Market share is the percentage of the total market that is being serviced by your company, measured either in revenue terms or unit volume terms. The higher your market share, the higher the proportion of the market you control.

The Boston Matrix assumes that if you enjoy a high market share you will be making money. (This assumption is based on the idea that you will have been in the market long enough to have learned how to be profitable, and will be enjoying scale economies that give you an advantage).

The question it asks is, "Should you be investing additional resources into a particular product line just because it is making you money?" The answer is, "not necessarily."

This is where market growth comes into play. Market growth is used as a measure of a market's attractiveness. Markets experiencing high growth are ones where the total market is expanding, meaning that it’s relatively easy for businesses to grow their profits, even if their market share remains stable.
By contrast, competition in low growth markets is often bitter, and while you might have high market share now, it may be hard to retain that market share without aggressive discounting.  This makes low growth markets less attractive.

Note: The origin of the Boston Matrix lies with the Boston Consulting Group in the early 1970s. It was devised as a clear and simple method for helping corporations decide which parts of their business they should allocate their available cash to. Following the credit crunch, this is newly important in some sectors because of the limited availability of credit. However, the Boston Matrix is also a good tool for thinking about where to apply other finite resources: people, time and equipment.

Understanding the Matrix

The Boston Matrix categorizes opportunities into four groups, shown on axes of Market Growth and Market Share:

Drawn using SmartDraw. Click for free download.

These groups are explained below:

Dogs: Low Market Share / Low Market Growth
In these areas, your market presence is weak, so it's going to take a lot of hard work to get noticed. You won't enjoy the scale economies of the larger players, so it's going to be difficult to make a profit. And because market growth is low, it's going to take a lot of hard work to improve the situation.

Cash Cows:
High Market Share / Low Market Growth
Here, you're well-established, so it's easy to get attention and exploit new opportunities. However it's only worth expending a certain amount of effort, because the market isn't growing and your opportunities are limited.

Stars:
High Market Share / High Market Growth
Here you're well-established, and growth is exciting! These are fantastic opportunities, and you should work hard to realize them.

Question Marks (Problem Child):
Low Market Share / High Market Growth
These are the opportunities no one knows what to do with. They aren't generating much revenue right now because you don't have a large market share. But, they are in high growth markets so the potential to make money is there.

Question Marks might become Stars and eventual Cash Cows, but they could just as easily absorb effort with little return. These opportunities need serious thought as to whether increased investment is warranted.

How to Use The Tool:

To use the Boston Matrix to look at your opportunities, first download our free worksheet and then use the following steps:

Step One: Plot your products on the worksheet according to their market share and marke growth.

Step Two: Classify them into one of the four categories. If a product seems to fall right on one of the lines, take a hard look at the situation and rely on past performance to help you decide which side you will place it.

Tip 1: There’s nothing “magical” about the position of the lines between the quadrants. There may be very little real difference, for example, between a Problem Child with a market share of 49%, and a Star with a market share of 51%. It’s also not necessarily true that the line should run through the 50% position. As ever, use your common sense. Tip 2: A similar (and equally powerful) tool is the Action Priority Matrix, which helps you pick projects which legitimately give you the quickest and highest value returns. By using the BCG Matrix and Action Priority Matrix together, you get the best of both worlds!

Step Three: Determine what you will do with each product/product line. There are typically four different strategies to apply:

• Build Market Share: Make further investments (for example, to maintain Star status, or to turn a Question Mark into a Star.)
• Hold: Maintain the status quo (do nothing)
• Harvest: Reduce the investment (enjoy positive cash flow and maximize profits from a Star or a Cash Cow)
• Divest: For example, get rid of the Dogs, and use the capital you receive to invest in Stars and Question Marks.

Tip 3: From a personal perspective, you can evaluate the opportunities open to you by substituting the dimension of "Market Share" with one of "Professional Skills". Plot the options open to you on the personal version of the BCG Matrix, and take action appropriately. Tip 4: A similar (and equally powerful) tool is the Action Priority Matrix, which helps you pick projects which legitimately give you the quickest and highest value returns. By using the BCG Matrix and Action Priority Matrix together, you get the best of both worlds!

Key Points

The Boston Matrix is an effective tool for quickly assessing the options open to you, both on a corporate and personal basis.

With its easily understood classification into "Dogs", "Cash Cows", "Question Marks" and "Stars", it helps you quickly and simply screen the opportunities open to you, and helps you think about how you can make the most of them.

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The Marketing Mix and 4 Ps product positioning

Understanding how to position your market offering

What is marketing? The definition that many marketers learn as they start out in the industry is:

Putting the right product in the right place, at the right price, at the right time.

It's simple! You just need to create a product that a particularly group of people want, put it on sale some place that those same people visit regularly, and price it at a level which matches the value they feel they get out of it; and do all that at a time they want to buy. Then you've got it made!

There's a lot of truth in this idea. However, a lot of hard work needs to go into finding out what customers want, and identifying where they do their shopping. Then you need to figure out how to produce the item at a price that represents value to them, and get it all to come together at the critical time.

But if you get just one element wrong, it can spell disaster. You could be left promoting a car with amazing fuel-economy in a country where fuel is very cheap; or publishing a textbook after the start of the new school year, or selling an item at a price that's too high – or too low – to attract the people you're targeting.

The marketing mix is a good place to start when you are thinking through your plans for a product or service, and it helps you avoid these kinds of mistake.

Understanding the Tool

The marketing mix and the 4 Ps of marketing are often used as synonyms for each other. In fact, they are not necessarily the same thing.

"Marketing mix" is a general phrase used to describe the different kinds of choices organizations have to make in the whole process of bringing a product or service to market. The 4 Ps is one way - probably the best-known way - of defining the marketing mix, and was first expressed in 1960 by E J McCarthy.

The 4Ps are:

• Product (or Service)
• Place
• Price
• Promotion

A good way to understand the 4 Ps is by the questions that you need to ask to define you marketing mix. Here are some questions that will help you understand and define each of the four elements:

Product/Service

• What does the customer want from the product/service? What needs does it satisfy?
• What features does it have to meet these needs?
  
  • Are there any features you've missed out?
  • Are you including costly features that the customer won't actually use?
• How and where will the customer use it?
• What does it look like? How will customers experience it?
• What size(s), color(s), and so on, should it be?
• What is it to be called?
• How is it branded?
• How is it differentiated versus your competitors?
• What is the most it can cost to provide, and still be sold sufficiently profitably? (See also Price, below).

Place

• Where do buyers look for your product or service?
• If they look in a store, what kind? A specialist boutique or in a supermarket, or both? Or online? Or direct, via a catalogue?
• How can you access the right distribution channels?
• Do you need to use a sales force? Or attend trade fairs? Or make online submissions? Or send samples to catalogue companies?
• What do you competitors do, and how can you learn from that and/or differentiate?

Price

• What is the value of the product or service to the buyer?
• Are there established price points for products or services in this area?
• Is the customer price sensitive? Will a small decrease in price gain you extra market share? Or will a small increase be indiscernible, and so gain you extra profit margin?
• What discounts should be offered to trade customers, or to other specific segments of your market?
• How will your price compare with your competitors?

Promotion

• Where and when can you get across your marketing messages to your target market?
• Will you reach your audience by advertising in the press, or on TV, or radio, or on billboards? By using direct marketing mailshot? Through PR? On the Internet?
• When is the best time to promote? Is there seasonality in the market? Are there any wider environmental issues that suggest or dictate the timing of your market launch, or the timing of subsequent promotions?
• How do your competitors do their promotions? And how does that influence your choice of promotional activity?

The 4Ps model is just one of many marketing mix lists that have been developed over the years. And, whilst the questions we have listed above are key, they are just a subset of the detailed probing that may be required to optimize your marketing mix.

Amongst the other marketing mix models have been developed over the years is Boom and Bitner's 7Ps, sometimes called the extended marketing mix, which include the first 4 Ps, plus people, processes and physical layout decisions.

Another marketing mix approach is Lauterborn's 4Cs, which presents the elements of the marketing mix from the buyer's, rather than the seller's, perspective. It is made up of Customer needs and wants (the equivalent of product), Cost (price), Convenience (place) and Communication (promotion). In this article, we focus on the 4Ps model as it is the most well-recognized, and contains the core elements of a good marketing mix.

Using the 4Ps Marketing Mix Model

The marketing mix model can be used to help you decide how to take a new offer to market. It can also be used to test your existing marketing strategy. Whether you are considering a new or existing offer, follow the steps below help you define and improve your marketing mix.

1. Start by identifying the product or service that you want to analyze.
   
2. Now go through and answers the 4Ps questions - as defined in detail above.
   
3. Try asking "why" and "what if" questions too, to challenge your offer. For example, ask why your target audience needs a particular feature. What if you drop your price by 5%? What if you offer more colors? Why sell through wholesalers rather than direct channels? What if you improve PR rather than rely on TV advertising?

Tip: Check through your answers to make sure they are based on sound knowledge and facts. If there are doubts about your assumptions, identify any market research, or facts and figures that you may need to gather.

4. Once you have a well-defined marketing mix, try "testing" the overall offer from the customer's perspective, by asking customer focused questions:
   
   1. Does it meet their needs? (product)
   2. Will they find it where they shop? (place)
   3. Will they consider it's priced favorably? (price)
   4. And will the marketing communications reach them? (promotion)
      
5. Keep on asking questions and making changes to your mix until you are satisfied that you have optimized your marketing mix, given the information and facts and figures you have available.
   
6. Review you marketing mix regularly, as some elements will need to change as the product or service, and its market, grow, mature and adapt in an ever-changing competitive environment.

Key points:

The marketing mix helps you define the marketing elements for successfully positioning your market offer.

One of the best known models is the Four Ps, which helps you define your marketing options in terms of product, place, price and promotion. Use the model when you are planning a new venture, or evaluating an existing offer, to optimize the impact with your target market.

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5 lessons from Philip Kotler

5 lessons from Philip Kotler

Philip Kotler was once told, "I thought you were the author of one book (Marketing Management) and 34 versions of it." The man who's been called the "messiah of marketing" smiles as he recalls the incident, but there's an element of truth in that quote.

Marketing has undergone a sea change in the three decades since Kotler's first book - now considered a Bible for all marketing management students - hit the stands. Today, Kotler says he would be embarrassed if someone asked him to autograph the first edition of the bestseller.

In Mumbai to address a seminar on "Marketing For Results", Kotler says even his 4Ps theory (product, price, place and promotion), that's taught in every kindergarten marketing course, could do with some additions.

"Several Ps are missing. People, packaging...," he proceeds to take class on the A-B-Cs of marketing. The three As that every marketer should swear by are "awareness, availability and access" and the CCDV concept is to "create, communicate and deliver value".

'India is on a roll'

The problems for marketing? "It has become a one-P discipline. Selling," Kotler declares. Maybe he means "peddling", because the guru is clearly unhappy with the stop-gap approach many managers adopt these days: "Marketing professionals lack accountability and hence take short term decisions."

Kotler recommends that CEOs should get a pay-out several years after they leave an organisation, which may engender more long-term decision-making.

Some lessons from the day-long seminar:

Lesson 1: R&D must be market-ready

Kotler had a poser for his audience. His question: "If you were the chief marketing officer of your organisation, who would you prefer to be close to? The CEO, CFO, CIO (chief information officer) or the CRO (chief research officer)?" There was no single opinion, so Kotler decided to have the final say. He would have had it, anyways.

According to Kotler, the CMO needs to be close to everybody from the CEO to the CRO. Typically, the CFO does not see logic in investing behind brands because he is not close to marketing. And, there is an 80 per cent failure rate in new products.

"The R&D is farthest away from customers, hence they often get it wrong," he explained. Now, even in research-focused organisations like IT giant Microsoft, "marketing has become the front door and their new product success rate has become higher".

Lesson 2: Number-crunching is more than just calculating market shares

"In B-schools most students choose marketing because they did not like accounts," quips Kotler. He recommends that instead, most marketing professionals must be "clued into finance" so that the other functions in the company take marketing seriously.

"The CMO must demonstrate the return on marketing investment," he says. Kotler recommends the creation of a marketing scorecard that captures the number of new customers added every year, measures the satisfaction level of current customers and indicates the brand health.

Lesson 3: The co-creation mantra

"Make your business a workshop where your customer can draw what he wants," recommends Kotler, adding "marketing is the delivery of experience". His example is the Four Seasons hotel chain that customises hotel rooms for its guests. Whenever possible, the next time the guest visits the hotel, he gets the same room.

"While the aim of business is to create satisfied customers, the truth is companies continue to lose unsatisfied customers."

The message: plug the leaks by exceeding customer satisfaction and customer delight, moving to a higher level - customer astonishment. Kotler feels that iconic brands like Harley Davidson and iPod reach these higher levels.

What else? Devise a net promoter score to track customer satisfaction levels. Round up your most loyal customers. Ask them if they would recommend your products to others and become promoters for your brand. If the number of those promoters is increasing, it's a good score. Otherwise get the point.

Lesson 4: Expand market size

Kotler begins this lesson with the story of Jack Welch, the legendary CEO of General Electric who made it a thumb rule that GE would only operate in businesses where it was a dominant player.

When Welch asked his managers about GE's market share in their business, the executives would give impressive numbers in the range of 50 per cent.

Welch would reply, "I think it's only 10 per cent. We have not tapped the rest of the market." Kotler's point: in your rush to hit the bull's eye, don't miss out on the markets that surround the sweet spot. The dart board is bigger. There are more places to hit.

Lesson 5: Strategic trajectory for Indian brands

Indian companies face two challenges - defending their markets against the invasion of foreign labels. The second is to develop strong global brands themselves.

According to Kotler, the trajectory for Indian brands is to move from being seen as low-cost average quality products, to low-cost superior quality and finally to higher-end products.

He gives the example of Haier, the Chinese consumer durables company, which has successfully acquired a global brand status. In its first stage, Haier fixed quality. In the second stage, the company diversified its product basket from just making refrigerators to mcrowaves, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners and other products.

The third stage was to globalise. Most importantly, Kotler recommends that Indian companies must lean on research. "Instead of reducing marketing to advertising and selling, it makes sense to stick to research," says the 75-year-old, with child-like enthusiasm for his pet subject.