Authority sites employ the geniuses of the best of webmasters to Monetize websites. With increased competition getting the king’s share of web traffic on Internet space it is imperative that you know the right ways to monetize your authority sites. Popular websites seek innovative and user friendly approach towards generating fast flow of website traffic. Latest softwares and Internet marketing tools help to monetize authority sites. In e-biz, every detail of the authority website counts. The content infrastructure, web design and copywriting of the text add to the value of authority sites.

Monetizing Authority Sites Using Affiliate Programs

Authority sites get quick popularity with massive traffic generation from the affiliate programs. The affiliate programs run numerous social networking and B2B or B2C operations, promoting the steady flow of traffic from one website to the next. Some of the highest commissions paid by affiliate programs range within 20% to 60% of the total traffic. The most rewarding affiliate programs are the ones with life commission packages. These are ones with longest running membership and have built in database. Every time a new product is launched the data can be used for promotion.

Some of the most sorted techniques to Monetize authority site are by establishing links. A 2-tier affiliate network with multi-income facility would be extremely popular among the visitors. The authority sites would collect multi commission based on the flow of traffic. The first income is from sales via visitors and latter during the reference via visitors. The website would earn commission from both the sales and further sales generated through references. The referral links add the number of visitors along with the income from the multiple commissions.

Moreover, e-newsletters, link baits, and link exchange programmes published on affiliate website help to increase income. Choose an effective affiliate program with theme that matches to the products and services on the authority site. A percentage of the revenue would be based on the traffic generated from the affiliate site. Use an e-mail auto-responder that acts as round the clock newsletter for authority site and post a link on the affiliate sites.

Monetizing Authority Sites Using Contextual Ads

Contextual Ads on authority sites are user friendly as well as owner friendly. It turns out to one of most practical tools of advertising online. Search for the theme based websites related to the services and products displayed on the authority site.

Maximize the concentration of keywords for easy listing during scanning by the search engines. Some of ways to Monetize authority sites by contextual ads is to pay attention to key areas. Page match, automated topic suggestion, topic based bidding for ads, site targeting should be focus areas while building contextual ads for authority site.

Mentioning the link topic on the links and not the link ads would drive in more visitors interested to the product. Contextual ads are frequently displayed real-time, these targeted at highly specialized consumers on the Feeds.

The latest buzz in contextual advertising is a sure shot technique to Monetize authority site. These techniques involve categorization along with keyword bids. They refer to one another for generating a larger response. Effective URLs accompanied with real time indexing establishes new real time range. Cost – Per – Click has a different meaning for Monetizing authority sites.

Have an in-built auto bid system for evaluating CPC by the visitors. Overall, the optimization of contextual ads is the root to success for Monetizing authority sites.

In many respects online word of mouth is as effective as any other medium to convey the worthiness of a product or service. This methodology can be illustrated simplistically – someone writes that they had a certain experience with “X”, this comment is then read by other individuals who believe that this person or the place the comment is being made is a trustworthy way of collecting opinions on something that.

Trust is key in this situation – the person must trust the source of his or her online information before forming a judgement which in turn will have them vote for or against the topic of interest. Studies have shown that consumers are much more likely to be influenced by online word of mouth than by radio or TV advertising, with print ad’s falling to a much lower level than that prior to the advent of the internet.

This form of consumer generated media has increasingly become a favorite among younger generations, people in their thirties and below, with teenagers the most likely to have both read about and being influenced by online commentary, and to have added their own comments. This type of social commentary has been found to be extremely powerful on areas about health, transport and consumer electronics, all of which could be viewed as high expense arenas.

For online word of mouth sales to be capitalized on, marketing needs to be targeted towards the demographic most likely to be influenced by it, as mentioned above. The exponential growth of social networking has relied on this sort of advertising, with a number of sites and indeed multimillion dollar businesses enhanced by increasingly complex ways of targeting the right segment of the population, at the right time with the perfect product.

So how do you get WidgetX known online as a good product? So, having a quality product at a price point that targets the masses is important (why buy WidgetX if it’s 3 times the cost of a comparable other WidgetY?), which coupled with an understanding of exactly who it’s aimed at and why it’s of benefit to that market is key.

Think about it, consumers today are more intelligent than many marketers may presume, so, some companies might spend tons of cash on high ticket advertising campaigns, offline and online, still to see their product bomb or fail to ring in any profit, simply because consumers were not motivated to spend money on the product.Then they spread the same dialogue to others. This is why online word of mouth is enormously successful for those who succeed with it, and why it exerts so much influence over just about every market there is.

The viral marketing business model was first described by Tim Draper and popularized in 1997 to describe Hotmail’s practice of adding advertising to the outgoing mail of their users. However, viral marketing has been around for as long as people have been selling things. Basically, it is word-of-mouth advertising.

It relies on the average person’s tendency to “tell their friends”. It is really just the terminology that is new. Surveys tell us that the average person has at least six close friends. If they have a good experience with a product or a service provider, they will tell those six people about it.

Those same surveys tell us that when an internet user finds something valuable, informative, funny, interesting or free on the internet, they will share that with 12 of their “online friends”. Thus the internet is the backdrop for the most successful viral marketing business model.

We have also been told by the pros that in order to sell something, you need to give something away. I recently read a free e-book about dieting. It made a lot of sense. It was written by the head of a supplement manufacturing company. He suggested that you share the book with all of your friends. His goal, of course, was to sell supplements.

He could have sold the book. It contained as much information as many of the diet books that line bookstore shelves, but he realized the value of giving something away, in order to get something. Not only do people love free stuff, they have a tendency to “trust” people or companies that give them something with no strings attached, especially when that something has value.

You will see numerous software programs on the web that offer a free version and a “pro” version. This is another example of a viral marketing business model. When one person sees this free software program, they will tell, on average, 12 of their online buddies about it.

Social networking is becoming increasingly popular. People on MySpace and Facebook literally have hundreds of online friends and they “share” things with them on a daily basis. If you can provide something that they want to share, then you may have struck it rich.

There are other elements of a successful viral marketing business model. But, coming up with something free that people can share with others is the most important element.

Internet viral marketing comes in many shapes and forms.  People use e-mails, videos, simple text links and dramatic banner ads.  They may buy mailing lists or get lists from free services like Mail-chimp.  If you want to be truly successful with this campaign, there are several steps that you need to take.

First, of course, you need to have a good product or service to sell.You may envision that you have that.  Now, you need to identify what sets your product or service apart from the hundreds of others that seem to be just like yours.

Once you identify those features, you need to turn them into benefits for your customers.  That’s how you will write effective copy for your website.  You could attract millions of visitors to your website with an internet viral marketing campaign, but if the copy on your website does not “sell” them, then it really won’t increase your business.

Assuming your website is top notch and what you have to sell is too, the next thing to do is identify your target market or your niche.  You may actually have several. 

For example, let’s say that you have written an e-book that will help men lose weight and build muscle.Your target group is men.  More specifically, it is men who need to lose weight or want to build muscle.  People that might be interested in your book might also be interested in health, fitness, weight lifting, body building, etc. 

There are social networking groups under all of those categories.  If you can’t find a group that encompasses your target market, you can create one.Groups and clubs work well as a platform for internet viral marketing.

If you are running an email campaign to a massive audience, be sure that what you have to say is dangerously interesting.  Otherwise, you are wasting your time.  The e-mail should be grammatically correct.Spelling errors should be corrected.  If English is not your “forte” get someone to read and edit your communications for you.  While some people might not notice, others certainly will. 

While this type of campaign does not require a huge monetary investment, it does require an investment of your time.If you have little time to get started, look for companies that can assist you.  Internet viral marketing can be a great way to grow your business.  Make sure you are ready for it.It can be very overwhelming.

It’s true that not all people tell the truth, so it’s unlikely that everything you read on the web is going to be that grain of sand that’s going to be a pearl that you require. To counter that, especially when in connection with something as ethereal as word of mouth information, listed here are a number of statistic’s and sources that you (if you so desire) can check for accuracy at your leisure.

1. Family and friend recommendations beat out all others when influencing decisions when giving out word of mouth information (AdAge).

2. Visitors to a site that post commentary will typically visit a site nine times, and are twice as likely to purchase from that site than others (McKinsey and Co./Jupiter Media Metrix).

3. Consumers trust friends more than experts or celebrity endorsements (65%, 27% and 8%, respectively; Yankelovich).

4. A Nielsen worldwide study of some 26,000 users in over 40 markets reported that consumer recommendations were the most credible form of word of mouth information advertising within the 70% plus of respondents.

5. Over 116 million user generated comments were made in the U.S. alone in 2008, with an additional 82 million content creators. With the extended reach and influence of Web 2.0 and social networking, these figures are set to climb (eMarketer).

6. Social network users are three times more likely to purchase a product on the strength of recommendation from a peer rather than any form of advertising. (Jupiter Research).

7. 86% of people asked said they would trust a friend’s recommendation over an experts, with 83% saying they would trust user generated comments over a critic’s (Marketing Sherpa).

8. 66% of social networkers are more inclined to purchase because of a recommendation, as opposed to 52% that aren’t social networkers (Royal Mail home shipping tracker).

9. 81% of holiday shoppers read user generated reviews before purchasing (Nielsen Online).

10. 86% of consumers read reviews on businesses before making a purchase, with over 90% saying that they trust those reviews (Kudzu.com).

11. 49% of shoppers reviewed stated that they have made purchases on the strength of reviews. Of these 60.53% decided on the strength of user reviews; 20.48% due to comparison charts; 15.41% due to editorial reviews and comments; 3.58% due to shared shopping lists.

12. Almost two thirds (62%) of home consumers read on line user generated product reviews before purchasing (Deloitte and Touche) with the same percentage stating that they would consult sites with user reviews in order to make entertainment purchases (Marketing Sherpa).

13. 7 out of 10 people who read consumer generated reviews are more likely to share those opinions, which amplifies the impact they have (Deloitte and Touche).

14. 74% of those surveyed state they base purchasing solely on user generated reviews of their customer service experiences for a product or company (Society of New Communication Research).

As you can see, word of mouth information coming from trusted sources such as friends, consumers, etc. is the most powerful form of advertising.