Monday, December 7, 2009
Friday, December 4, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
TO TWITTER OR NOT TO TWITTER?
Expert Article
How Not to Use Twitter for Affiliate Marketing
By Nathan Hangen
I need to get something out of the way...I am a Twitter
fanatic. In fact, it would come as no surprise to me if
my wife was spending every minute she has in order
to learn how to become a hacker so that she could take
it down and have her husband back (I'm really not that
bad, but you get the idea).
So considering that fact that I spend a lot of my time
learning how to master the art of Twitter marketing and
that I've even created my own Twitter products, what I
am about to say might be a little too close to the
bone - even for me.
However, the truth is the truth and we can't hide from
it: 99% of the affiliate marketers on Twitter have zero
idea how to market correctly.
Furthermore, many of those that don't get it are
teaching new users how not to get it too, leading
to a cycle of spam, crappy auto-DM's, and accounts
that get suspended or marked as spam before they
have even had a chance to flourish.
If you want to sell an affiliate product on Twitter,
you cannot expect to be able to do it in 140
characters, and yet, that's what many marketers
try to do. Their Twitter streams are filled with
blatant sales pitches, so much so that you start
to wonder if there is a real person behind the
curtain.
Look, if I don't know who you are, I don't know
where you are linking to, and I don't see anything
but pitches in your Twitter stream, then I am not
going to click through. If I do, if you get lucky,
you will see me hit the back button before the page
even finishes loading.
You cannot take over someone's DM's (Direct Messages)
and have them send out spam on your behalf. Aside
from the fact that it is extremely annoying, it takes
advantage of people that don't know any better. You
are actually hurting your customer in the process.
Hit-and-run business tactics are shameful and will
not help you in the long run.
Creating a product that only teaches people how to
make money on Twitter by promoting your "make money
on Twitter" product is, well, just sad. Sure, you
might make a few bucks, but what does that get you?
Again, it is this type of short term thinking that
turns Twitter into a madhouse and creates an
environment where marketers are no longer
trusted. At that point, you've ruined it for
all of us.
Perhaps the most blatant offender is the reply
spammer, which is relatively new to the scene.
These people reply to popular Twitter users with
an affiliate link, and try to trick people into
clicking. These reply spammers also try to trick
the popular person's followers, because at first
glance, it looks like the Tweet is coming from
them. Considering most of these tweets look
identical, I simply click the block button and
move on. Get blocked often enough and you'll be
suspended.
So Why Are They Doing It?
Most affiliate marketers on Twitter are doing
this because they are too lazy to learn how to
effectively sell affiliate products. You shouldn't
try to sell someone in a PPC ad; you bring them to
your sales page so that your sales letter can do the
selling. It's the same with Twitter. To do this, though,
you've got to be relevant, which means that not
everything you say can be a sales pitch. When it is,
though, it has to address the needs of your list.
Sending out blanket replies just doesn't work.
Sadly, many people buy systems that tell them that
these methods work. To make matters worse, many of
them use viral friend adders that help them get
recognition and more marketers promoting their products.
Eventually, regardless of how faulty the system is, it
spreads like wildfire. Everyone gets caught, no one wins.
They aren't interested in helping people. The last
category is comprised of marketers that use the same
tactics in other venues. They use software to generate
new accounts by the dozens, so they don't care if they
get suspended. They aren't interested in helping
people - they simply want to make an easy buck.
So How Do You Sell on Twitter?
I've written about this extensively because
it is a matter that I am extremely passionate
about. I am tired of shady marketers ruining it
for everyone and more importantly, I'm tired of
seeing new people get taken advantage of.
So here's the truth:
If you want to sell on Twitter, you have to build
relationships and create targeted lists based on
interests. Once you learn how to build these networks
(which really is easy to do), you can link to relevant
affiliate offers without having to worry about getting
unfollowed or blocked. The key is to let the content,
not a Tweet, do the selling. If everything you say on
Twitter is a pitch of some sort, it won't work. However,
if you learn to be relevant and helpful, your random
pitch will not only be noticed, but will be appreciated.
People love to buy...we love to consume great content.
However, we have to be warmed up before we do it. On
social networks, it's the relationships that sell, not
the message. It's really up to you, though. You can spam
people and make a quick buck (maybe), or you can build
credibility and build a successful business. In my
opinion, taking the latter route is much more efficient.
Nathan Hangen writes about web entrepreneurship at:
http://nathanhangen.com/blog/
This article originally appeared on the ClickBank Blog
and was edited for this newsletter.
How Not to Use Twitter for Affiliate Marketing
By Nathan Hangen
I need to get something out of the way...I am a Twitter
fanatic. In fact, it would come as no surprise to me if
my wife was spending every minute she has in order
to learn how to become a hacker so that she could take
it down and have her husband back (I'm really not that
bad, but you get the idea).
So considering that fact that I spend a lot of my time
learning how to master the art of Twitter marketing and
that I've even created my own Twitter products, what I
am about to say might be a little too close to the
bone - even for me.
However, the truth is the truth and we can't hide from
it: 99% of the affiliate marketers on Twitter have zero
idea how to market correctly.
Furthermore, many of those that don't get it are
teaching new users how not to get it too, leading
to a cycle of spam, crappy auto-DM's, and accounts
that get suspended or marked as spam before they
have even had a chance to flourish.
If you want to sell an affiliate product on Twitter,
you cannot expect to be able to do it in 140
characters, and yet, that's what many marketers
try to do. Their Twitter streams are filled with
blatant sales pitches, so much so that you start
to wonder if there is a real person behind the
curtain.
Look, if I don't know who you are, I don't know
where you are linking to, and I don't see anything
but pitches in your Twitter stream, then I am not
going to click through. If I do, if you get lucky,
you will see me hit the back button before the page
even finishes loading.
You cannot take over someone's DM's (Direct Messages)
and have them send out spam on your behalf. Aside
from the fact that it is extremely annoying, it takes
advantage of people that don't know any better. You
are actually hurting your customer in the process.
Hit-and-run business tactics are shameful and will
not help you in the long run.
Creating a product that only teaches people how to
make money on Twitter by promoting your "make money
on Twitter" product is, well, just sad. Sure, you
might make a few bucks, but what does that get you?
Again, it is this type of short term thinking that
turns Twitter into a madhouse and creates an
environment where marketers are no longer
trusted. At that point, you've ruined it for
all of us.
Perhaps the most blatant offender is the reply
spammer, which is relatively new to the scene.
These people reply to popular Twitter users with
an affiliate link, and try to trick people into
clicking. These reply spammers also try to trick
the popular person's followers, because at first
glance, it looks like the Tweet is coming from
them. Considering most of these tweets look
identical, I simply click the block button and
move on. Get blocked often enough and you'll be
suspended.
So Why Are They Doing It?
Most affiliate marketers on Twitter are doing
this because they are too lazy to learn how to
effectively sell affiliate products. You shouldn't
try to sell someone in a PPC ad; you bring them to
your sales page so that your sales letter can do the
selling. It's the same with Twitter. To do this, though,
you've got to be relevant, which means that not
everything you say can be a sales pitch. When it is,
though, it has to address the needs of your list.
Sending out blanket replies just doesn't work.
Sadly, many people buy systems that tell them that
these methods work. To make matters worse, many of
them use viral friend adders that help them get
recognition and more marketers promoting their products.
Eventually, regardless of how faulty the system is, it
spreads like wildfire. Everyone gets caught, no one wins.
They aren't interested in helping people. The last
category is comprised of marketers that use the same
tactics in other venues. They use software to generate
new accounts by the dozens, so they don't care if they
get suspended. They aren't interested in helping
people - they simply want to make an easy buck.
So How Do You Sell on Twitter?
I've written about this extensively because
it is a matter that I am extremely passionate
about. I am tired of shady marketers ruining it
for everyone and more importantly, I'm tired of
seeing new people get taken advantage of.
So here's the truth:
If you want to sell on Twitter, you have to build
relationships and create targeted lists based on
interests. Once you learn how to build these networks
(which really is easy to do), you can link to relevant
affiliate offers without having to worry about getting
unfollowed or blocked. The key is to let the content,
not a Tweet, do the selling. If everything you say on
Twitter is a pitch of some sort, it won't work. However,
if you learn to be relevant and helpful, your random
pitch will not only be noticed, but will be appreciated.
People love to buy...we love to consume great content.
However, we have to be warmed up before we do it. On
social networks, it's the relationships that sell, not
the message. It's really up to you, though. You can spam
people and make a quick buck (maybe), or you can build
credibility and build a successful business. In my
opinion, taking the latter route is much more efficient.
Nathan Hangen writes about web entrepreneurship at:
http://nathanhangen.com/blog/
This article originally appeared on the ClickBank Blog
and was edited for this newsletter.
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