Pastor Bobby’s Blog

Lets take a little recap of the information in the first three articles in this series. We have learned:

1.) Article writing is a great foundation  for building ‘Name Recognotion’ for you

2.) Blogging gives you a platform for offering good information

3.) eNewsletters help build a list of people interested in what you have to say

4.) eBooks are a super viral technique for getting your name and work ‘out there’ on the Internet

There are many other techniques for building trust. Using these methods will open doors that you did not even know where there. Now we need to discuss a great and relatively new phenomenon on the Internet – Social Networking.

Social Networking offers you a sure fire way for develop a following that otherwise would take years. There are numerous website communities that will help you become a ‘recognized’ authority on your chosen subject. Some of these are Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo, Delicious, Squidoo, etc.

Social Networking service is defined by Wikipedia as:
A social network service focuses on building on-line communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.

Social networking has created new ways to communicate and share information. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people, and it now seems that social networking will be an enduring part of everyday life. The main types of social networking services are those which contain directories of some categories (such as former classmates), means to connect with friends (usually with self-description pages), and recommender systems linked to trust. Popular methods now combine many of these, with MySpace and Facebook being the most widely used in North America;[1] Nexopia (mostly in Canada);[2] Bebo,[3] Facebook, Hi5, MySpace, Tagged, Xing;[4] and Skyrock in parts of Europe;[5] Orkut and Hi5 in South America and Central America;[6] and Friendster, Orkut, Xiaonei and Cyworld in Asia and the Pacific Islands.

The Social Network Seevices have offered an immense opportunity for each aspiring Affiliate Marketer to garner followers who are really interested in what they have to say. There are some ‘Internet Gurus’ who have spent literally 10 years or more slowly building a following. When you look closely at these ‘Internet Personalities’ you’ll see that they are in constant communication with their ‘list’ and they are always offering something ‘gratis’ that leads into a sale of a larger product. They spend a lot of time trying to earn ‘trust’ in what they say.

Some of the email newsletter distribution companies have now begun to give you the option of notifying other social networking communities when you publish your newsletter. This is an added advantage because it cuts out some of the work for you.

To say the least, Social Network marketing is on the rise and, if you use them wisely, can give your ‘trust building’ and ‘name recognition’ campaigns a boost. The secret is using them to your best advantage without trying to ‘Spam” them with overt offers to sell. Remember, build trust first. After building trust, which does take time and effort, people will come to you when they are looking for a ‘particular’ niche product with which they know you are familiar.

Building a firm foundation of trust and knowledge will build you a successful business. My best advice is to start yesterday. If you put off begining your ‘campaign’ until next month, you’ll be a month behind those who start today.

We have discussed in previous articles the value in writing articles. This is an important first step. This gives you practice in researching information about ‘particular’ subjects, those that are relevant to your ‘niche.’ Article writing also gives you material that you can use for your other projects, enewsletters, blog posts, website content, eBooks,etc.

There is loads of information and instructions and software on the Internet at your disposal that will facilitate your creation of enewsletters and eBooks and websites. This only takes a little research and comparison on your part to decide which software or service suits your taste and budget. There are some costs involved (there is no free lunch) in these services. There are also some extraordinary benefits. You’re objective with all of this is first to build a ‘trusted name’ and to build a substantial list of potential customers. With things as they are on the Internet, mainly the surge in ‘Spam’ that fills your email inbox, it is extremely important, virtually crucial, that you use an opt-in system for your subscriptions. This gives you more credibility as a ‘trusted’ voice.

Enewsletters are great because you have people who want to hear what you have to say. Remember to give information, not just advertisements. This is also true with creating eBooks.

You have, up to this point, done a great deal of research and writing about your chosen subject(s). You have amassed information and written about something that is of interest to you and to your ‘audience’ of readers. Why not take that information, arrange it into one cohesive body of work, and create an eBook. eBooks are, according to the Wikipedia:

“An e-book (for electronic book: also ebook) is the digital media equivalent of a conventional printed book. Such documents are usually read on personal computers, or on dedicated hardware devices known as e-book readers or e-book devices. Many cell phones can also be used to read ebooks.

Early e-books were generally written for specialty areas and a limited audience, meant to be read only by small and devoted interest groups. The scope of the subject matter of these e-books included technical manuals for hardware, manufacturing techniques, and other subjects.

Numerous e-book formats emerged and proliferated, some supported by major software companies such as Adobe’s PDF format, and others supported by independent and open-source programmers. Multiple readers naturally followed multiple formats, most of them specializing in only one format, and thereby fragmenting the e-book market even more. Due to exclusiveness and limited readerships of e-books, the fractured market of independents and specialty authors lacked consensus regarding a standard for packaging and selling e-books. E-books continued to gain in their own underground markets. Many e-book publishers began distributing books that were in the public domain. At the same time, authors with books that were not accepted by publishers offered their works online so they could be seen by others. Unofficial (and occasionally unauthorized) catalogs of books became available over the web, and sites devoted to e-books began disseminating information about e-books to the public.”

We can see from this information that one of the greatest ‘viral’ marketing campaigns can be attributed to eBooks. You have a choice here. You can either create an eBook as a product to sell or you can create an eBook with great information and links to your affiliate offers and give them away. You would be amazed at how quickly eBooks that offer good information at no cost can be distributed and redistributed to thousands of hungry information seekers.

Giving an eBook filled with useful information as a reward for an action on the part of your reader is a great incentive for them to look for more information fromyou. Each resource of information that you give build trust and your list of readers.

The next article (Part 4 of this series) is very useful for building ‘name recognition’ for you. Name recognition, trust, and your willingness to offer your followers good information will place you much closer to the 3% group of winners in affiliate marketing.