PaulTouranjoe.com

Today, many of us want to go to work for ourselves – and why not? You can usually make more money by running your own business. Research shows those that run their own businesses make more money and are happier than those who have a “job” and work for someone else. However, the difference between those who want it and those that actually do is staggering. Those that do make the attempt have two options open to them. Create their own sole proprietorship (usually a brick and mortar business) or go into an affiliate marketing business. Both can be quite productive. The difference?


Any business requires a great deal of work despite the avenue you take. The more you put into it the more you are likely to get back. However, the sole proprietorship requires much more time and commitment and has a much greater degree of risk. Creating your own business is  difficult. Unless you have a unique idea that is marketable you are going to have competition with other businesses. You have to create strategies to attract customers away from the already well known & established businesses in your area and over to yours. If you succeed the rewards can be immense but if you fail you could loose everything. Being a sole proprietor is incredibly risky. If your business fails like the vast majorities do, your sole source of income has just ended and depending on how much debt your business had and how your financed the venture, you could lose much more than income – like your house if you put that up as collateral. 


Affiliate marketing businesses provide several advantages in this area. First, you are marketing products that are already in existence. Known brands are not as hard to sell especially if they have a good reputation. Good and trusted businesses or products will attract customers much faster than something new and unknown. Affiliate marketing takes care of all of this for you. 
Affiliate marketing takes most of the risk away. You're paid according to how well you perform. You don't need to worry how the overall business is performing as much as your business is performing. You get your commissions based on products you sell,  sign others  up, etc. Affiliate marketing businesses are usually well established so you don't have to worry about them folding up and going bye-bye at a moments notice.


Advertising is an integral part of either business. If you're a sole proprietor, the advertising depends on you. You'll have to have enough in your budget to hire a professional or devise a campaign yourself. The first costs money and the latter requires a great deal of time. 
With an online affiliate marketing business, the advertising is sometimes taken care of for you though not always. Actually, I'd much rather do my own advertising than rely on some advertising model that's been around for God knows how long. And I like to be creative in my advertising. You're usually given what you need such as banners, e-mails, cards to hand out, vehicle signs and other information about your business. You're also likely given good advice on how best to sell the products or services. Affiliate marketing programs should try to help you as much as possible. Generally, they better you do the better they do.



Help and support as a sole proprietor will probably lead you to the Small Business Association – SBA. Here you can get advice for free or you may need to hire out a professional, meaning extra cost to you. With an affiliate marketing business, there should be a representative on hand or up-line, that you can contact for support and advice. This service is usually free to all members.
 
Business is tough no matter how you slice it. Either route you take will require hard work, dedication and funds. However, if you want to work for yourself, join a program where most of the hard work is done for you. With an online affiliate marketing business, the risk is taken away and you don't have to re-invent the wheel – just follow directions. This allows you time to concentrate on what needs to be done, like advertising, signups, making a profit and building your business.

Above all, join a online affiliate marketing company with a history of being in business for a number of years, has a solid Better Business Bureau – BBB rating, has a history of paying their affiliates in a timely and consistent basis and has great customer service when you need help, because you ARE going to need it at some point.

I like totally agree with the SEO method. You just have to do what feels good to you and works for whatever website you have to rank. This search engine marketing stuff is totally new to me but I can learn it and do OK with it. People will visit your site if you give them what they want and need.

Working to apply the search engine marketing principles and Google algorithms  to your site and maximizing your SEO efforts will invariably bring you the intended results you are seeking, thus leveraging your efforts in the ranking world. If you can invariably turn your visitors into buyers, your efforts are achieving the intended result .

You can learn and apply SEO (search engine optimization) to your site to get the results you want. If you do it the right way, the people you're looking for (targeted traffic) will want to visit your website and come back to see what new things you are adding to help them. Search engine optimization is the best way to get organic traffic( people who are searching for what you are offering).

Right now, you're probably thinking – what is he talking about?  Let me explain.

Writing for a website or blog:

Look at the samples above.

 In the first example, you sound like an idiot. If you come across as  someone that sounds like you don't know what you're talking about, how many people are going to actually going want to read what you're trying to say? Not too many. For me, it seems as if you're trying to muddle through the piece.

In the second example, you come across as talking down to people. Unless you're giving a seminar or writing a scientific paper that's geared to like-minded people on a particular subject, it's best to steer clear of this kind of writing. It also comes across as trying to impress people when you really don't have to.

The last example I think, shows best what you're writing so everyone knows what you're trying to convey. When I write, I try to give you the subject I'm talking about and what it means in simple terms. In my example above, it's SEO. Experts will know what I'm talking about when I say SEO, but people not familiar with the term won't, so I want to tell you easily and help you to understand (in parenthesis) – "You can learn and apply SEO (search engine optimization)". This writing method is pretty simple but it goes a long way.

It's kind of a fine line. You don't want to talk down to the experts, but don't want to talk above almost everyone else that's never heard of SEO. Hopefully, people will understand what you're trying to explain while at the same time you're not annoying anyone. You actually have to write at an 8th or 9th grade level to appeal to the greatest number of people for a website or a blog.

Something else I think you need to remember when writing for your site or blog and especially for sales copy is not come across as too formal. What I always attempt to do when writing posts is to write as if my readers are my friends, which they ARE! If you think about it, there are millions of blogs across the internet and many more millions of websites. To have people want to visit your blog or site is an honor. This is the way I've always approached it. A big reason why I think this blog is successful is that  I try to genuinely help  people. Now, I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, I'm just telling you the WAY you write and why you write goes a long way in determining your success or failure. It makes me feel very good when I get comments from people saying they like my style of writing. Believe me I've worked on it for years and I'm still learning every day. 

Copywriting:

Copywriting is the art of writing for advertising or ad copy. People have been doing it for many years. The next time you watch yet another TV commercial remember this is ad copy for whatever they are trying to sell you. Most people writing for online business and salespeople – about 80% – are in this category. They usually work for companies and get paid by the company. The best copywriters are also usually  paid a commission for each article or ad that generate sales. Also in this copywriting category are people running their own online business.They are busy writing sales letters and squeeze pages that hopefully will get you to click through and buy their item or service.

Great Copywriting:

The top maybe 15% in the copywriting field are consummate professionals that usually work by the job. They are hired by other professional business owners who want the best copywriting they can get, want to outsource the work and know these people will be able to sell whatever they are offering. They've done previous work with these copywriters and know what they will be getting for the price they are paying.  I said in that previous post that professional copywriters will charge you $10,000 and UP for a single sales page. The first two questions they will ask you is who your target market is and what you are selling. Most of that 10K is taken up in research. That's right – professional copywriters will research your target market extensively as well as what you're selling to write a sales page for you that will sell (convert) for you. The actual copywriting they do for you won't take long at all. After their research is done, they'll blend the sales page copywriting seamlessly with what you are selling.

The other 5% of copywriters usually start their own business showing others how to write like they do. They are the "cream of the crop", usually have many successes under their belt and are able to hire and pay a team of other copywriters to work for them to show people that join their membership sites how the pros write. You usually pay $500 or more for monthly dues, or $2000 to $5000 for a seminar where you can meet your copywriter in person. So you'd better take in everything you learn. If you do, it's an investment in your future. 

 So, great copywriting lets you write the ticket to your own future. If you can learn to move people by your words alone you're on pace to become a self-made millionaire.

Tip: Try writing easy three line ads first. All you need to do is brainstorm about the headline first. You'll need a GREAT headline that will make people stop and want to read your ad. Then write the other 2 or 3 lines about what your ad is about and always, always split test – which is simply a five dollar word to see if people actually click on your ad. A great way to split test is to use a word press plugin that I use. It's called "smart affiliate links". It free and will show how many people actually clicked on your link.