Good afternoon, or whatever time it is in your part of the world. Today, we’re going to start getting into the nitty gritty. This is the first part in a series of articles about the advantages of having your own website and a key concept in marketing: branding.

So, why do you want a website? Or to put it better, why do you need a website? After all, all that we’ve done so far is share affiliate links where and when we can. That doesn’t require a website… does it?

The truth of the matter is, a website is absolutely essential to really getting your campaign off the ground. It doesn’t have to be anything expensive, although I would encourage anyone and everyone who wants to be truly successful to own their own website and domain. We’ll get into the why of that in a bit. To properly answer the question of “why a website?” let’s look at how we are doing things now.

Let’s say that you are trying to recruit people under your affiliate link at PrizeLive. Maybe you share your link with some friends, maybe you post it on some forums, put it in a forum signature, even buy some cheap advertising somewhere to get your link out there. And that will probably bring you some referrals. The truth of the matter, though, is that it won’t bring you enough to really be worth the effort you’ve put in. Consumers need, on average, to be shown something and the advantages thereof an average of five times before they will give it serious consideration. That’s not easy to achieve with a simple referral link.

With a website, however, you have a lot of power. Firstly, you can keep bringing people back. If you have a website with good content and you keep working on it, people will come back. Secondly, you can list a variety of your affiliate links on a single site. Remember that conversion is going to be difficult. No matter how good the program is, no matter how greatly you extol its virtues, perhaps one in 100 people who view it will actually follow through, and most of those referrals will quickly go inactive. Bringing in good, active referrals is hard work. So if you are signed up to several different programs that appeal to different interest groups (note the cross-section that I have on the blog – each program is picked not only because they’re all damned good programs, but because each covers a slightly different niche) you are more likely to see conversion.

There are plenty of other reasons to own your own website, including being able to track who comes to your site, and from where, and we’ll get into those some more later on in the series. For now, I’d like to move on to one of the most incredible tools that you can have in marketing: branding and brand power.

Building Your Brand: Introduction

When it comes to making money online, there is a critical component to success that is often overlooked; building a recognized brand.

If you truly want to be successful in your industry, you need to develop a reputation for value, and with that comes the opportunity to establish yourself within your market, while building brand awareness.

Think about the authorities in your niche and you’ll quickly discover the one thing that they all have in common.

Not only have they worked towards developing credibility as an expert in their field, but along with that, they have solidified their place within their industry by building a solid brand that is instantly distinguishable and recognized by their market.

You can begin to develop your own brand through a variety of different ways, some of which can help you become an authority figure in just a matter of a few days, while other methods require a bit of time and patience, as you consistently work towards maximizing your outreach.

You’ll discover that as you grow your brand, your ability to expand your profits will also grow significantly.

It’s a simple equation, people buy from those they trust, and the more you can work towards building a solid relationship with your market, the easier it will be to eliminate any skepticism regarding your products or services.

In addition to branding yourself this way, you also need to brand yourself as someone who is knowledgeable about a specific subject. You want to become the ‘go-to’ guy/gal whenever someone asks about a certain topic.

Here are a few quick examples:

When you think of copywriting, what names jump out at you?

When you think of the Internet’s largest marketplace, what website is instantly in the front of your mind?

When you think of a soda company that utilizes the colour ‘red’, what company name do you think of?

These are all prime examples of branding, whether it be by the use of slogans, color schemes, quality or exposure as an authority source.

So how can you create a brand all your own that is unique and memorable?

That’s what online branding is all about; learning exactly how standing out and being different will ultimately lead to increased traffic, maximum exposure and loyal customers.

So, there you have it… this is what is meant by online branding. In a nutshell, it’s building your own name to be recognizable. The more recognizable you are, the better off you are.

Click here to learn more about just how to do that, in the second article in the website series. If you want to be notified when the new articles are released, please subscribe to our Twitter feed (on the right side of the page) or our RSS feed (at the bottom).

Thanks for reading! Again, the second article is here.

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