Online Sales to Soar in 2007
The State of Retailing Online 2007, a study conducted by Forrester Research, Inc., forecasts that online sales will soar again this year.
According to report, 2007 online sales (including travel) are expected to rise 18 percent to $259.1 billion. Sales excluding travel will reach $174.5 billion. This strong growth will come off of an impressive performance in 2006. Online sales last year rose 25 percent to $219.9 billion. Excluding travel, online retail sales rose 29 percent to $146.5 billion, representing six percent of total retail sales in 2006.
Apparel has taken over the top spot in terms of online sales volume. Online clothing sales are forecast to hit $22.1 billion in 2007, and 10 percent of all clothing sales are expected to occur online in 2007.
Why such dramatic growth?
“Retailers are doing such a great job online that in some cases it’s easier to find and buy clothing on the web than it is in a store” said Scott Silverman, the executive director of Shop.org. Free shipping policies, more merchants and making the buying process easier are also responsible for the increases.
Computers, autos and auto parts, and home furnishings round up the top 4 online retail sales categories. For more information about the study (and more niche market selection ideas), read the full National Retail Federation press release.
Popularity: 27% [?]
Can You REALLY Make Money with Paid Online Surveys?
I list paid surveys as a work-at-home job for those who don’t want to become an online merchant or affiliate marketer, and have been asked many times whether or not it’s possible to really make money with paid online surveys.
My answer - From the little bit that I tried, you can probably make some money, but just like any other opportunity, you’ll have to really work at it to make any significant earnings. But I’m not an expert in that realm, so I found someone who is…
And so, here’s the answer from the ‘opinion expert’, Deborah Casey who has been getting paid for her opinions for the last 30 years and then discovered the first paid online surveys database in 2001.
Read the interview with Deborah Casey now.
Do you have experiece with paid online surveys? Leave a comment and tell us about it!
Popularity: 15% [?]
Earn MORE from Your Google Referals
Do you sell products to Internet marketers? Then you’ll appreciate these improvements to the Google referal program.
I talk about using pay-per-click advertising a LOT, because it works! In the latest Affiliate Census, there was a decided correlation between those who achieve success as affiliate marketers and their use of paid search marketing.
And as an affiliate marketer who teaches other affiliate marketers, I appreciate that I can share my knowledge about what works, point you to good service providers and make a few bucks in the process from referals to Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft AdCenter and Enhance Interactive.
However, I was always slightly cheesed in the past with the Google Adwords referal program in which publishers only earned $20 after the advertiser they referred spent $20.
Well, I’m pleased to say that Google has made improvements to their referal program that include bonuses of up to $2000 buckeroos! Read more
Popularity: 20% [?]
Linkshare Enhances Affiliate Interface
On January 26th, Linkshare sent out a notice to affiliates about improvements to their interface as follows:
Interface Alerts
To keep you updated on the latest news, enhancements, and system alerts, LinkShare has added a new section to the Home page of the Affiliate Interface in the upper left corner. This new section will enable you to quickly see information important to your program. Alerts will be posted by level of importance with red being the most urgent message and yellow being the lowest level.
Affiliate Private Offer Management
To make it easier to display all private offers that are extended to you, LinkShare has added a new Private Offer page to the Your Account tab in the Affiliate Interface. You will now see private offers from Merchants whose programs you are a part of, as well as from additional Merchants who wish to extend to you a private offer. You will have the ability to accept or reject these private offers.
Merchant Status Screen Update
In the past, when a Merchant’s status changed in the LinkShare system, Affiliates partnered with that Merchant received an email to that effect, but the email did not include any reason for the change. Now, if a Merchant’s status changes, Affiliates partnered with that Merchant will receive an email from LinkShare notifying the Affiliate of the change and the reason for the change. LinkShare will continue to update the Merchant Status Update page under the Your Account tab with the Merchant changes in the Affiliate Interface.
I dunno… I keep checkin’ in, and haven’t seen any Alerts as of yet. 
Maybe that’s a good thing?
Popularity: 23% [?]
How to Easily Add eBay Listings to Your Site
Check this out. I’ve placed eBay listings on our travel blog at Roamsters.com - the link goes to our Suitcase listings.
The eBay links are commissionable and eBay pays its affiliates between 40% and 65% on their revenues earned from a listing and between $12-22 per Active Registered User (ACRU).
Ah, OK. You’ve seen that type of page a thousand times before and maybe you think that incorporating eBay listings on your site isn’t such a big deal?
Well, doing so used to be a HUGE pain in the butt for us non-geek, tweak-hating affiliates.
Previous software solutions required that you had tp sign up for eBay’s developer program and do a WHOLE lot of tweaking before you’d see the listings on your site. Quite frankly, none of those solutions ever worked for me not even when the software developer was supposedly helping me out… which is why you haven’t heard me talk about other software in this category before.
So, I was therefore absolutely thrilled when Kelvin Firminger told me about his new “ Build A Niche Store” (BANS) software that does not require developer skills to incorporate commissionable eBay links on your site.
BANS uses RSS technology which makes it easy as pie to install and set up. Just plug the code into your site template and you’re up and running.
You can put all of eBay’s offerings on your site or choose from any of eBay’s 28,926 niche specifc categories…from golf equipment to digital cameras bringing relevant products to your site visitors at the click of a button.
The BANS package includes the script, 32 site templates, a manual, a members’ forum, unlimited site licence, the ability to build either an eBay.com or an eBay.co.uk store, an 8-week risk-free trial and the package is priced at a very modest $97.00.
Best of all, Kelvin is accessible, friendly and very helpful.
I won’t be surprised if Kelvin’s “ Build a Niche Store ” software qualifies as my ‘best of 2007′ software picks — maybe even my TOP pick. I therefore HIGHLY recommend the BANS software if you want to expand your affiliate earnings without the pain of tweaking.
Popularity: 47% [?]
John Reese Debunks MSoI
John Reese posted a video to his blog a few days ago in which he disputes the widely held notion that marketers must pursue multiple streams of income (MSoI) in order to succeed.
Although he’s taken a lot of flack for this position, I am in total agreement.
The biggest problem that I encounter with most new marketers in this industry (besides the fact that they don’t build lists) is that they don’t focus on getting the first site right - dare I say ‘perfect’ - or at least to the point where the site is earning a significant chunk of change before they move on to the next project.
Too often they have an internet marketing site and their kitty site and their fashion blog and their credit card site and in most cases, not one of the site is generating affiliate commissions.
To drive the point of FOCUS home during client consultations, I simply refuse to discuss or review more than one website. Work on the first one, get back to me when all the changes are made and IF everything is done, THEN we’ll discuss the second site.
Popularity: 2% [?]
ReviewMe.com: Write Reviews for Cash
ReviewMe.com is yet another way for bloggers to monetize their blogs.
How does it work?
Bloggers create a free account to submit their site for inclusion into the ReviewMe publisher network.
If your blog is accepted into the ReviewMe publisher network, you will be paid $20.00 to $200.00 for each completed review that you post on your site.
Just make sure you don’t go into competition with your own affiliate offers for the sake of a piddling 200 bucks.
Popularity: 6% [?]
It’s Your DUTY to Get Stinkin’ Rich
Last Friday, I went to see former President Clinton speak and on Saturday attended Remembrance/Veterans Day ceremonies here in town.
Both events got me thinking about how we can motivate ourselves as Internet marketers (or anything else) to become more successful.
For me, it all comes down to gratitude, capacity and duty.
First, we must be truly GRATEFUL for the opportunity to freely pursue our goals and ambitions.
Secondly, we must appreciate our CAPACITY to become successful.
This might be a shocker… but simply by virtue of location and politics, 1/3 of the world’s people see little correlation between action and effect. In other words, they have no hope of succeeding, regardless of what they do.
We DO.
Lastly, we have a DUTY to those who went before to seize the opportunity, exercise our capacity and do great things for ourselves, our families and those less fortunate.
So, do you want to become more successful at everything you do?
Then throw off any self-imposed constraints and perceived ‘lacks’.
Appreciate the gifts, realize your capacity and do your duty… and get stinkin’ rich to help yourself and others!
(And just in case no one ever told you this - you CAN do anything you want to do and BE anyone you want to be, but YOU have to MAKE it happen.)
Speaking of stinkin’ rich, Michael Green IS someone who seized the opportunity, became stinkin’ rich and wants you to do the same. He’ll even set you up with a ‘game plan’. Check out What’s Your Game Plan?.
Other posts this past week include:
* The ‘Secret’ is Out
* Is Your Site Down?
* ShareaSale Update
‘Til next time, blog and prosper!
Cheers ~ Ros
—
Rosalind Gardner is author of the best selling “Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made 436,797 in One Year Selling Other People’s Stuff Online.
Popularity: 2% [?]
eBay Seller: Impressive to Say the Least
Rob Frechette has been the #1 volume seller on eBay the last 4 months!
He got in touch with me and mentioned, “My dad and I sold over 200,000 products during this period”
Holy cow!
Rob has just written a book about his experience as a top eBay producer, called Grand Stage Selling: How I grew a $2.2 million eBay business that sells 50,000 items per month on eBay with one full-time employee! and he’s priced it at a very reasonable $29.95.
If want to start selling on eBay, I recommend that you pick up Rob’s Grand Stage Selling ASAP!
Popularity: 7% [?]
Planning to Sell Through Clickbank? Think Again!
I’ve used Clickbank to promote the “Super Affiliate Handbook” since it was first published in May 2003. The built-in affiliate program and easy affiliate signup process was primary reason I chose Clickbank over other third-party payment processors. That ‘ease’ of affiliation is also the best reason NOT to use Clickbank as a merchant.
Learn more in “Merchants: One Good Reason NOT to Use Clickbank to Promote Your Products“.
Cheers ~ Ros
Popularity: 6% [?]
