Marketing made simple? That is what many people think that social media is. But is this approach under-rating the power of using Facebook for marketing?

Here are a few really cool success stories of companies that used Facebook as marketing strategies for promotions:

# Morton’s Steakhouse ran a Valentine’s Day photo promotion on Facebook in 2009. As a result, overall business and sales experienced a marked increase.

# Target has been on board with Facebook since 2007. Instead of just talking about their business and
offering the latest sales flyer, Target started a Party Planning Page. Target experienced a 6 % increase in sales as a direct result.

# The Desert Gallery of Houston was part of a Harvard Business Review case study. Their Facebook Fan Page drew 20% more direct visits to their store from Facebook fans. As an added bonus, Facebook fans spent 33% more than the average customer. (View Article Source)

There are two distinct advantages that your website will gain from submitting articles. One is direct traffic, and the other is relevant back-links. For this reason article marketing for SEO is a very effective strategy. One that will not only increase your search engine rankings, giving your site or pages a higher position in the results, but will gain you a valuable source of direct targeted traffic.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is basically making your site look attractive to the search engine spiders. This will lead them to place a higher importance on your website in response to a search query. Mastering this will give you a great deal more traffic. Properly written articles are a very important tool in your SEO arsenal. The increased direct traffic, plus keyword rich back-links, article marketing brings will help your site seem the best option for a surfer who is looking for what you have to offer.

The search engines are in business to provide what their user is looking for, and the articles you write will show them that you are the best place to send that customer. If you give them what they want, by providing a relevant informative web page, as well as a great article, you are already well on the way to winning and getting the desired boost from your SEO rich articles.

Target keyword:

The first thing to look at when you are article marketing for SEO is your keyword. This keyword is important as it is one of the ways you will show that your writing, link, and website, is relevant to a certain niche. Obviously keyword research is a very important skill any article marketer should strive to master. This is a massive topic, and there is plenty of help available online. In essence however you are trying to second guess what your potential visitor is going to type as a query if they are looking for what you have to offer.

Write a list of some terms you think may be effective for you. Start by typing what you would search for if you were looking for your site, and go from there. Once you have your ideas on paper you can then move on to find out two important factors about each. These are the actual number of searches done for the term, and the number of websites that are competing with you. The second number is important as the higher it is the harder it will be to get in those all important first ten results.

The article:

Once you have your keyword you now have to write your article. As we are talking about article marketing for SEO purposes you should make sure the key-phrase you selected is in your title, plus the first and last paragraph. It is a good idea if it is also the anchor text of one of the live links back to your site. All of this will help to establish the relevancy of your writing.

Most people are earning good revenue from affiliate programs these days.

The key to maximize your earning potential would be to engage your readers. As opposed to traditional advertisements where you will be paid for clicks or impressions, affiliates will only be paid if and when a certain action is carried out.

This action may be for newsletter subscription or a purchase, but in any case you will not be paid if your readers are not urged to act.

Having said that, these are some of the top 5 most important affiliate marketing tips that will help you to be successful.

First, this is a brief explanation to let you understand what affiliate marketing is. This is really a web-based marketing practice where a business gives rewards to one or even more affiliates for every customer or visitor that is directed to them from the affiliate’s promotional efforts.

Recognize Your Target Market

Essentially the most successful approach when it comes to using affiliate programs would be to anticipate and satisfy the requirements of your customers. Think about the reason why they are visiting your website. Ensure that you are promoting products that will provide solutions to help resolve any problems that your target market is struggling to overcome.

In case you are writing about sporting topics, you should not use advertisements for a printer toner because the printer sales might give a bigger payout. When people check out sports sites they want to read about commentaries or get statistics for their favorite players and teams.

You Should Be Trustworthy

Nowadays, readers are very savvy and can quickly identify affiliate links. If you break your readers trust by marketing a product that you do not believe in or even take advantage of their visits by giving too many advertisements, they will certainly leave your site and never return.

Always remember that you need repeat visitors to drive traffic to your site. These people will provide link-backs, recommend others to your site and spread the word that you are offering valuable content. It is advisable to build relationships based on truthful content and visitors will regard you as honest.

Be Helpful

You should think of your affiliate ads as supplemental resources to complement your written content. Ensure that your content has value by providing readers with informative, useful and helpful materials.

You should not give a listing with your favorite books, with the expectation that people will click the affiliate link, purchase the books and allow you to cash in on sales.

Make an effort to write an in-depth review and then use affiliate advertisements to point your readers in the right direction in cases where they want to act on the information provided.

When you write a good review that is recommending a certain book and the readers purchase the book after reading it, then this will give you something in return.

Always Disclose Your Intentions

You should always disclose all your affiliations. Your potential customers will truly appreciate that you are honest and will not hesitate when they can contribute to your earnings.

In the event that they get the impression that you are less than honest, they are smart enough to sidestep your link and visit the vendor directly instead of giving you a referral credit. Full disclosure and honesty will be key components to build-up a loyal customer base.

Make Careful Selections

Spend some time to browse through the options available for products or services through the programs. This is one of the most important affiliate marketing tips, because you have to identify services or products that readers might want or like.

In addition, you should modify the ads often, experiment with different ones, as well as use different text and graphics to determine the most effective ones.

Keep in mind that when you are just getting started, it might take a while before you find the best formula. Besides that you might also discover that you need to rotate the ads continuously to attract more visitors.

The reality is that short sales aren’t going away time soon in many markets across the U.S. Sellers who would like to move can’t due to lack of equity. Sellers who have run into tough financial times from job loss, rising interest rates, medical bills and more can be forced to sell a home. These challenges are affecting not just the “average” home, but also luxury homes.

Homes that are over 1 and 2 million dollars have been listed as short sales. In tough economic times seemingly no one is spared. To reach these homeowners in need doesn’t have to be a challenge. Homeowners need help and they need it from a professional who can help them to save their credit (at least to some degree) and avoid foreclosure.

To reach these sellers in their time of need, we invite you to consider a balanced marketing approach. Put them all into action and you will have a raging system that delivers daily leads and closings.

Short Sale Website – There are different styles of websites that you could launch to attack the short sale market. You can create a website that is a landing page focused purely on optins, a full blown website, or one that is a combination of the two. For many agents it is worthwhile to create more than website for each niche. Regardless of the style of website you decide to launch, make it easy for the prospect to request information. Make your optin forms blazingly obvious on every page.
Social Networking – Just opening up a Twitter account, LinkedIn account or Facebook account isn’t enough. With your Facebook Fan Page running and a Twitter account it is important to drive traffic to these sources. You can’t just hope traffic will find you. Launch creative ads that let people know help is just a click away.
Direct Mail – Not just any letter will do. Not just any postcard will do either! With your direct mail strategy consider having a set of different postcards and letters. Track when you send each one to see which letters/postcards bring you the highest response rates. Change your call to action to drive them to your website or 1-800# to see which method of contact your prospects prefer.
As you are looking to dominate your short sale market consider putting these systems into action. As you put a short sale website up, your social networking into action, and your direct mail don’t forget to pick up the phone! Compliment your marketing with great scripts on the phone and you will be taking more listings and closings daily.