To our existing HD Publishing Group affiliates, I am happy to announce that our new affiliate management system is setup and ready for action! I will be sending you a personal email with your new user name and password so that you can get started. Our new system will allow you to have greater flexibility in the campaigns you decide to advertise and how you choose to display the campaigns. There are now pop-ups, pop-unders, rotating Ads and a variety of services from which to choose. There is greater ease of reporting and you are now able to download your statistics as .csv file for ad hoc reporting. When you log, in please check your contact and website information to ensure it is up to date. Your advertising sites will be reviewed to ensure that they are in compliance with our guidelines as as seen at HD Publishing Group Affiliate Guidelines.

Within the next few days, we will be migrating all of affiliates into the new affiliate management system. If you are an affiliate who is recruiting new sign-ups, we will need you to change the affiliate signup link you host on your pages.

You can still log into your existing account at https://www.hdpublishinggroup.com. We want you to begin using this new system. You can still track your sales on the first system. Eventually, we will only use the second. Let me know if you need any help with it or switching your links.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. My goal is to make this transition as smooth as possible. I am excited about getting you and your sub-affiliates migrated to our new, improved system!

As always, feel free to contact me at
affiliates@hdpublishing.com.
There are many answers to questions you may have in our Affiliate FAQs or visit HD Publishing Group’s blog .

Thank you,

Jennifer Dix

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by Jennifer Dix

Yesterday, I was going over a long-time affiliate’s stats and noticed that his PPC traffic had dropped down to nothing late Friday. Worried about an affiliate with whom I have developed a great relationship, I emailed him to find out what was going on. He emailed me back late last night. He had dreaded news; Adwords has shut down all his accounts. Why?

Some of you may remember last year when Google stepped up its policies and policing efforts closing many pages that it deemed not relevant or scams. This effected many HD Publishing Group affiliates. After a quick Google search this morning, you can find numerous similar sad stories of Adwords accounts recently shut down littering the net. When your account comes under scrutiny there is not much you can do except follow Adwords guidelines and hope your account is reinstated. Unfortunately, Adwords is under no obligation to take you back if they deem you to be a problem. If this has happened to you, you are not alone.

What proactive steps can you take to avoid having your account suspended? Every online marketer using Google Adwords should review Adwords’ Advertising Policies.

Remember, all ads in the AdWords program will be reviewed. If your ads do not meet Adwords guidelines or are performing poorly, they will notify you by email. Adwords will often stop running your ads until you’re able to make the necessary changes. As soon as you’ve made and saved the changes, your ads are automatically resubmitted to Adwords for review.

Farazdak Nasrulla of Google Blog Site posted “…many customers who want to use AdWords and do not know how to use it outsource it to third party providers. These providers are contacted through any project bidding site. There these customers post their requirements and set a budget that they think they can afford. Many of the providers bid on those projects. Some providers bid as low as $50 for a project that is worth $500. Looking at the affordable price many customers award these AdWords projects to these providers…After a few days the AdWords customer gets very disappointed and posts a negative remark against the provider in the project bidding system. And then after a few days their account also gets suspended.

So what would be the solution to prevent such situations from occurring? The solution lies in searching for a good provider who has the necessary credentials for optimizing an AdWords account.”

Things you should know (following is pulled directly from Adwords):

Adwords has restrictions on duplicate content. If Adwords find that there is no unique content between your site and your affiliate’s or reseller’s site, Adwords will link your site to theirs. Affiliates or resellers may also be linked to each other for this reason.

AdWords won’t show multiple ads leading to identical or similar landing pages at the same time. This is true even if the pages have different domains. Try refining your site so that one of the following is true: your site contains additional products which are not found on your parent company’s or other advertisers’ sites, or your site serves a different purpose than your parent company’s or other affiliates’ or resellers’ sites.

Review Adwords Content Policy Overview. Some restrictions of which you should be aware:

• Don’t promote inflating ad clicks or impressions. Advertising is not permitted for the promotion of inflating clicks or impressions on ads, such as pay-to-click, pay-to-view, auto-surfing, automated ad clicking, and other guaranteed traffic programs.
• Accurately represent your product or service. Your ads and keywords must directly relate to the content on the landing page for your ad. When users see your ad, they should be able to understand what kind of product, service, or other content they will find on your site. Products or services promoted in your ad must be reflected on your landing page; ads can be disapproved if a promoted product is not offered or available for sale as promised. As a basic rule, use clear, descriptive, and specific ad content that highlights the differentiating characteristics of your product/service. You can distinguish your ad by including your company name, line of business, or by highlighting one specific product. If you offer a local service or product, you might want to indicate your location in your ad.
• Support competitive claims. Competitive claims are statements implying that your product/service is better than a competitor’s. If your ad text contains competitive language regarding other companies, specific support for this claim must be displayed on the landing page for your AdWords ad.
• Support advertised prices, discounts, and free offers. If your ad includes a price, special discount, or ‘free’ offer, it must be clearly and accurately displayed on your website within 1-2 clicks of your ad’s landing page.
• Don’t use unacceptable phrases. Avoid call-to-action phrases such as ‘click here’ that could apply to any ad, regardless of content. This includes phrases in the third line of your ad that lead into your display URL, such as ‘See this site:’.
• Your site must allow a browser’s ‘Back’ button to work. Links to your website must allow users to enter and exit the landing page easily. Once reaching your site, a user must be able to return to the page where they found and clicked on your ad by clicking once on their Internet browser’s ‘Back’ button.

• Display URL must be accurate. Your display URL must accurately reflect the landing page URL of the website you’re advertising. It should match the domain of your landing page so that users will know which site they’ll be taken to when they click on your ad.

HD Publishing Group is committed to offering you the best services to promote. We recommend that you add additional services and helpful information to your pages often to ensure that your site is unique, relevant and dynamic. Work on your SEO rankings to guarantee that you are not whole relying solely on one ad publisher as your main advertising source.

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Answer:
ACH transactions and wire transfers are often
confused with each other. They are both electronic transfers of money, but they are not the same types of transactions. Wire transfers are typically used for transferring large dollar amounts of funds between banks very quickly. In the United States, wire transfers are processed through the Federal Reserve Wire Network.

The acronym ACH can stand for “Automated Check Handling” or “Automated Clearinghouse.” ACH transactions are electronic checks, and are used for processing lower dollar amount payments. They are processed in a manner similar to that of paper checks, and do not travel directly from one bank to another.

ACH transactions are processed through a clearinghouse divides that handles crediting and deducting accounts of the originating and paying banks. It typically takes one or two days to settle ACH transactions.

Wires are more expensive because:
(1) royalty payments
(2) operation fee for use of the “wire”
(3) manual end sorting or confirmation required, depending on the bank’s
system.

Typical ACH applications include:

• direct deposit of payroll
• dividends
• annuities
• monthly payments and collections
• federal and state tax payments

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By Jennifer Dix

As the Affiliate Manager of HD Publishing Group, home of one of the very first background internet programs- Net Detective, I get a lot of questions in the course of my day. The one I invariably am asked is “How can I increase traffic to my page and boost my sales?” Of course this makes sense. No matter how great your page or your offer is, no traffic equals no sales.

So how do you drive high quality traffic to your page and then keep them coming back? How do you add the most bang for your buck? Sell the sizzle?

In the olden days of the internet, it was enough to have a website. A URL alone equated sales. But the Wild, Wild West days of the internet are long gone. Modern internet marketers not only compete with each other for the most valuable real estate on earth- Google’s first page, but also have to contend with changing guidelines from not only Google and the FTC, but also the ever-changing mindset of the internet consumer.

Nothing replaces a great offer, and very little can substitute for a good SEO plan, but given that these are items you are researching and monitoring using Google Analytics or a tool like Yahoo! Web Analytics, you still need to build repeat business.  “How do I accomplish this without spending all my profits on advertising?” you ask. Many marketers have found that blogging (sometimes called flogging when it’s commercial) helps to get them over the hump.

Blogging has been around for years- moms shooting stream of consciousness play-by-plays of the Little League team’s exploits, angry voters blasting politicians, or even teachers updating parents on class projects. In recent years, the internet has seen an explosion of commercial blogging, sometimes referred to as fake blogging, or flogging.

Flogging has come under fire. The Public Relations Society of America called flogging a “ …“fake blog,” where an organization or its representative creates an online forum that appears to be from a private citizen expressing personal opinion or experiences, when, in fact, it is being maintained for hire with an undisclosed agenda.)” Bloggers School says “A flog is a fake blog used by people who don’t really care about quality content or sharing valuable info that may help others.” But there are those who disagree.  Grant Griffiths, the founder of Blog For Profit, describes many opportunities for exposure and profit that he has been able to legitimately achieve through flogging.

The problem with commercial blogging, or flogging, is not with using social media to make a profit. The danger lies in not being honest about your motives. If you are an independent person offering real insight into products you have researched or with which you have had good success, use it to your advantage. The best advice always comes from a real end user. Never mislead the public, or say that the product  accomplishes things it can’t. This will ultimately hurt the product, your ability to sell it, and the reputation of your own website. Google has recently shut down many websites for this reason.  Google offers clear guidelines as to what it expects from your website. The FTC just last year published new rules relating to internet marketing that directly affect flogging.

Ready to develop your own flog? Read up on the Google and FTC guidelines and then follow these simple rules:

• Set aside time to flog. Condition your readers to see new pieces come out from your site on a routine basis.
• Keep the content fresh. If you see an interesting bit of news that relates to your niche jot it down. Keep a note pad handy so that when you flog, you have fresh ideas waiting.
• Find other sites related to your niche. Research online to find third party websites, industry voices, and bloggers with whom you can build relationships and exchange ideas.
• Get involved. Join forums, discussions, contribute to other blogs, submit articles and ask website owners for a link back to your flog.
• Let your readers comment. Your reader’s comments are unbiased opinions and add value to your site. Moderate them as necessary, but the more the better.
• If you are getting paid to flog, say so. Most HD Publishing affiliates are independent marketers who make no commissions unless sales are made. If you are receiving money simply to flog, be upfront about it. Everything can be explained, except dishonesty.
• Use the SEO techniques you already know to promote your flog. Use analytics, back links, and other smart tools you already have to promote your website, and then don’t forget to link the flog to your website.
• Use Social Media sites to promote your flog. Have friends? Online? Make new postings to your flog a part of your social updates. Keep the content fresh and pertinent to your audience and watch as the traffic comes in.

Flogging isn’t brand new, but it is becoming an increasingly important part of the online marketer’s tool belt. Like all tools, quality is much more important than quantity, and make sure you know and follow the rules for use.

Good Luck Marketers!

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by Jennifer Dix

Once upon a time SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, was simply a matter of making one’s website appear in the first few page of Google. And the biggest challenges were getting around search engine filters like Google’s PageRank. Having a high Google Page rank is still an ongoing goal, but it’s hardly the only factor in getting your page seen. As with everything on the internet, change is the only constant.
Even though each of our affiliates is advertising Net Detective or the National Alert Registry, every business is different. There is no one size fits all strategy these days. You may find the need to apply different SEO techniques than you have used in the past.
Net Detective and the National Alert Registry are what you would call a virtual service or product. Apps, images, music and movie downloads, for example, are also completely virtual. As such, end user cannot see or use the service without your help. You have to create ways for the end user to “see” the service.
While there is no substitute for site content, keyword density, amount of code, registration length of domain, and the lengths of time visitors stay on your page, here are few high impact things you can do:
• Blog- Blogs get noticed. A dedicated blogger maintain two or three blogs. The traffic gets your site noticed.
• Use backlinks- Partner with other non-competition sites, then have them incorporate links to your site. It’s a great way to get free traffic.
• Create a Facebook Fan page- Facebook quickly has become an important search engine. Sharing news with potential buyers virtually is a cost free way to get the word out.
• Tweet it-Improvements on your page? Innovations in the services you offer? Contest? Tell the world about. Get a Twitter following and tweet often.
• Try an Ad Exchange- No negotiating, price and site transparency, and flexibility make this relatively new channel worth exploring.
• Build your Brand- Build trust, links, and authority with a Home Page.
• Test, Test, Test- Document your website changes and follow how they effect your traffic, sales and competitors.

• 1 Comment

Why So Many People Fail In Affiliate Marketing

Author: Shawn C. Mason

More and More people are lured into affiliate marketing and you might be one of them. Indeed, affiliate marketing is one of the most effective means of generating a full-time income through the Internet. It’s a fair deal between the merchandiser and his affiliates as both benefit from each sale materialized.

Like in other kinds of business, a great deal of the profits in affiliate marketing depends on the affiliate’s advertising, promoting and selling strategies. Everyday, as affiliate marketing industry expands, competition heightens as well so an affiliate marketer must be creative enough to employ unique and effective ways to convince potential buyers to purchase or avail of the products and services offered.

Compared to traditional advertising practices, affiliate programs are more effective, risk-free and cost-efficient. But why do many people still fail in affiliate marketing? There are a lot of reasons and a lot of areas in the program to look into. The most critical aspect in the affiliate program is advertising.

Many affiliate marketers fail in this aspect because they lack hard work, which is the most important thing in affiliate marketing and in all other kinds of business as well. Although it pays to be lucky, you cannot merely rely on it.

Affiliate marketing isn’t as simple as directing customers to the business site. If you want to earn big, of course, you have to invest time and great amount of hard work in promoting the products. As earlier mentioned, the competition is very high and customers nowadays are very wise, too. After all, who doesn’t want to get the best purchase—that is, to pay less and get more in terms of quantity and quality.

Lack of preparation is also a reason why one fails in affiliate marketing, whether he is a merchandiser or an affiliate. Part of the preparation is researching. On the part of the merchant, he has to be highly selective in choosing the right affiliate websites for his affiliate program.

In order to be sure he has the best choices, he must have exhausted his means in looking for highly interested affiliates whose sites are sure fit to his products and services. The affiliate site’s visitors must match his targeted customers. On the other hand, the affiliate marketer must likewise research on the good-paying merchandisers before he signs up for an affiliate program.

He must ensure that the merchants’ products and services match his interests so he can give his full attention and dedication to the program. He can get valuable information by joining affiliate forums, comparing different affiliate programs and reading articles on affiliate marketing where he can get tips from experienced affiliate marketers on how to choose the best merchants and products with high conversion rate.

Above all, an affiliate marketer must be willing to learn more. Certainly, there are still a lot of things to learn and so an affiliate marketer must continue to educate himself so he can improve his marketing strategies. Many fail because they don’t grow in the business and they are merely concerned about earning big quickly. If you want long-term and highly satisfactory results, take time to learn the ins and outs of the business. Continue to improve your knowledge especially with the basics in affiliate marketing ranging from advertising to programming, web page development, and search engine optimization techniques. Likewise, study the needs and wants of your site users and how different merchandisers compete with each other.

Keep on trying; don’t get disappointed if your first attempts did not pay off. Thousands are attracted by the possibility of generating skyrocketing incomes through affiliate marketing and so they sign up in any affiliate program without carefully understanding every aspect of the business. When they don’t get instant results, they quit and sign up for another program and repeat the process of just copying links and referring them to others. When you sign up for an affiliate program, don’t expect to get rich in an instant. Work on your advertising strategies and be patient. You’ll never know how much you can get if you don’t persevere.

About the Author:

Shawn C Mason is writer, website developer and internet marketer
With over 7 years of experience online. To learn the exact system
he uses to start from scratch you need to check out the internet
intelligence report. InternetIntelligenceReport.com/report/

For More Articles Check My Blog Blog.ShawnCMason.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Why So Many People Fail In Affiliate Marketing

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The term White Hat and Black Hat SEO has become a good marketing strategy to increase a website’s relevancy and ranking in the search engine results page. White Hat SEO uses strategies which are considered ethically correct and legitimate by SEO’s as well as search engines while spidering a site.

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Choosing the right domain name is very important when starting your new business. To learn more about how to choose the right domain name click here.

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SEO links are very helpful to rank higher on Google. Here are some tips you should know to help you, click here.

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Here is some good info/tools from SEOmoz.

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Beginner’s Guide to SEO (free)

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