Affiliate marketing lets you earn money online by getting other people to sell your products f0r you. They earn a commission and you get money for jam. In theory. Copywrite Matters is a member of a few affiliate programs but I am extremely picky, only recommending products that I have used myself, or where I have a lot of trust in the creator.

One of those trustworthy bods is Danny Iny at Firepole Marketing and I interviewed him recently about the launch of his first affiliate program.

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Every now and then you come across something that is worth your hard earned cash.

Finding online courses that will actually boost your bottom line is tough. In the first year or so of running my business I was pretty sceptical of almost every online course I saw. I thought I could do it all myself, which was pretty arrogant. I quickly realised that investing in help from experts would improve my business much quicker than I could ever do on my own.

I got a chance to look over a marketing program run by Firepole Marketing and I was impressed. It’s like an ultra-marathon of marketing but the prize is a super accelerated business.

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Danny Iny  recently published his book ‘Engagement From Scratch!’, a collection of essays from some of the world’s most prominent online experts that answered the question: If you had to start from scratch, how would you build an engaged online audience?

As I read each essay I had at least one light bulb moment that had me scrabbling for my ideas notebook. These ideas will definitely be shaping my business marketing over the year to come and I’ve jotted a few of them down for you.

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I had an idea. I wrote it down. It’s just a small flame now but, with your help, that flame will ignite something big…

The following is an excerpt from my finalist submission in Firepole Marketing’s “Marketing That Works” Ideas Contest.

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Guest post by Karen Gunton from build a little biz.

One of the things I talk about a lot over at build a little biz is how your brand is more than your logo. Your brand is the message you send out to the world about your business and you send that message in two ways: with your look and your voice.

Most little biz builders invest a lot of thought and budget into creating the right look for their brand. They choose the right biz name, get a fantastic logo, make sure they have good product images and get nice business cards printed. That is fantastic, and an important part of branding, but equally important (if not more important) is the voice of your brand.

The ‘voice’ of your brand exists in the copy on your website and promotional flyers, in your emails, your newsletter and your blog posts. It is a part of your product descriptions, tagline, and sales pitches. It is in your tweets, Facebook comments, and (more literally) in your in-person conversations. If your voice doesn’t match the rest of your brand message, you can undo all of the work you have done to get your name out there and attract customers to your biz.

So how do you make sure the ‘voice’ of your business matches the brand message you mean to send out?

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One of the most effective ways to gain new customers is to give your product away. For free. Now while that might seem counter intuitive, giving away your product can actually be more beneficial to your bottom line than discounting.

I want to share the benefits of giving away your product, how you do it effectively and the story of how a free product sample took this old copywriter from uninterested shopper to loyal fan. read more

We’d all love our product or service to appeal to everyone but you’re living in a fool’s paradise if you think that’s possible, or that it’s good marketing. Trust this old copywriter when I say that the right words into the right ears will get your much further than taking a megaphone to a crowd of people.

What are the right words? Well that’s for another time. Today I’m going to tell you how to find the right ears. Here are 23 questions you should be answering to find your target market – the group of people who are most likely to buy from you.

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Last week I started a series of tips on writing an effective marketing plan. I rather cruelly stopped just after I talked about how to establish your marketing objectives but this week I am going to deliver the goods and continue with tips on planning effective marketing tactics to achieve those SMART marketing objectives.

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It’s a new financial year, which means you should have a new marketing plan all ready to create a lead generation machine. No? Don’t worry; you’re not alone. The number one reason that business owners don’t write a marketing plan is…. lack of time. Did you nod? If you are busy now, that is wonderful but writing an effective marketing plan will help you stay busy and it’s worth taking time for.

If you’ve never written a marketing plan or you aren’t sure if your marketing plan is up to scratch, here are some tips on what you should include and the keys to success. read more

You have a nice looking website, you’ve got your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter profiles setup and you’re starting to gather a following. Your blog is helping to boost your search engine ranking …. So where are all your customers?

If you’ve asked yourself this question you could be committing the single biggest mistake businesses make online.

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