Britians Last Deep Coal Mine Closes

Britians last deep coal mineThe closure of the last deep mining pit at Kellingley Colliery  in Yorkshire, yesterday marks an end of an Era in the UK. I live in in what used to be a coal mining area  in Derbyshire, there is still plenty of coal beneath the ground, however it is uneconomic to mine, because countries such as India and China have lower production costs, probably due to lower safety standards and wages, together with state subsidies

The UK government plans to shut down all coal powered power stations within the next 10 years and it is ironic that once again it is China who will benefit from a building contract for a new nuclear power station.

Yes coal is a dirty fuel, however,  clean power such as solar and hydro power are also having subsidies reduced dramatically from the 1st January, which will make them less economical viable, for example a small hydro plant in a river in a Yorkshire village has just come online to supply some 40 houses. It will pay for itself in 10 years, however anyone planning a similar plant will need to wait 100 years for  payback.

Mining has been a way of Life in the UK and it is sad to see it coming to an end, with the reserves underground  miners thought it was a job for life but now have to seek other ways of earning an income to support their families.  Nowadays the problem is that many job only offer the minimum wage and these are usually snapped up  by foreign workers from Europe who are used to lower wages.

Miners like many others will either have to start looking further afield for work  or take stock of their situation, examine  what skills and interest they have and find a way of monetising them.

A few people who possess drive and enthusiasm might turn to the Internet as an alternative way of working, however it is a different kind of hard work, learning a new trade and there are traps in the way of the unwary in the form of Multi Level Marketing (MLM)schemes which promise a lot but from which few people can earn a living. If you want to earn a living online, it is easier to do so via an Affiliate system, earning a percentage of selling products and services.

Getting started working online can be a daunting prospect, and can raise  many issues, so most people seek advice from entrepenuers who have been successful and are willing to help others succeed in a selfless manner.

I am connected to one such group of people called MarketHive, I was asked to explain this the other day, it a mix of a social media for entrepeneurs to share business and marketing ideas, like a Facebook for business but  on a more professional footing such as LinkedIn. In addition MarketHive provides tools and widgets, to make the likes of WordPress better and enable anyone to get their message to the market place or customer via blogs, video or email

David Ogden
Helping People Help Themselves
MarketHive.com/david-ogden

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Affiliate Marketing Success

affiliate marketingAffiliate Marketing Success

As an affiliate marketer, your main objective is to sell the products and or services offered by your partner merchants. Unless you can do this, you can never hope to make a significant amount of money with affiliate marketing programs. So how do you boost sales? All things being equal, you have to increase your site traffic before you can get more sales. By the law of averages, the more people that are in the know of the products you are offering, the more products you will sell.

Here are three tips that can help you boost your site traffic:

1. Optimize your site for the search engines, SEO. The most successful sites on the Internet are the ones that are seen the most. There are many ways to achieve increased visibility on the Internet, but the best method is that of search engine optimization. A future article details how to help with SEO. In general, the purpose of SEO is to help your site get higher rankings on the search engines. If you have ever used a search engine, such as Google, you will notice that any keyword search will return thousands, if not millions of results. Most people won't bother to browse through page after page of results; they will prefer to look into the sites already shown on the first page. Statistically speaking, the sites listed on the first page will get the highest amount of traffic, putting those sites in a better position to make money.

2. Provide fresh content. Your site must be constantly updated if you expect your visitors to keep coming back. Your site must have useful content, as well as tools that will help your target audience. Make your site as easy to navigate as possible, and be sure that your links work the way that they should. There is nothing more frustrating than a “broken” website, and once your site has been labeled as such, chances are slim that people will want to come back.

3. Build an online community. Join some forums and meet people. Build relationships with your potential customers. You are able to put a signature file in many of the forums so be sure to put a link to your site in your signature. Make your visitors feel welcome and appreciated, and they are likely to come back. Be interested in solving their problems and they will thank you with their business.

More help about Affiliate Marketing

Making your affiliate marketing program work is really not that much different from operating a traditional business. The only way you can keep your customers is to treat them right. As long as you treat your customers with respect and exert effort in trying to meet their needs, you will find that they will be more than willing to help you with yours.

Affiliate marketing is greatly promoted on the internet as the answer to new found wealth. When in reality almost ninety percent that join up as an affiliate earn less than a hundred dollars a month. The Affiliate marketer isn't hurting though because everything they offered was geared to make sure they always win. It's best to remember that the ninety percent who are receiving little value financially are the financial life blood of the marketer.

They purposely design their website "squeeze" page to lure the gullible into believing in the dream of making lots of easy money. Offering free this and free that to help make the small investment required seem like a real deal. Now in all fairness there is the ten percent that achieve that higher income. However, they succeed because they know it's a highly competitive arena and understand what internet marketing practices it takes to succeed.

Many times the more successful affiliate marketers offer a free website as part of their road to wealth package. Oh, they keep their word all right. They will provide easy access to getting a domain name, web hosting, and the installation of the free website. However, it's usually a one-page website designed and optimized to benefit the affiliate marketer not the new affiliate. On top of that the marketers don't care if the new sign up understands what he is doing.

There's no "Before You Start" manual offered explaining established internet marketing technique. Even the hosting, which is an additional cost, is often also owned by the affiliate marketer. Those ten percent who are doing will either have enough capital to have well designed websites made or know how to make one themselves. To succeed as an affiliate, you must have a good website.

In order for an affiliate to earn income from their new one-page website they need one crucial thing. Customers! And on the internet that only happens if you get "traffic". This is when the small investment ends and the novice finds out that they have to again dig deep into their wallet. To make things worst most free websites have the HTML code search engine optimized to benefit the affiliate marketer. The internet newbie doesn't realize this having no understanding of the mechanics of websites.

Also even though they have access to the websites control panel it's meaningless. They have no way of making changes to their advantage unless they already own and know how to use an HTML editor which most folks usually don't. The novice affiliate is pretty much forced to use pay per click advertising to generate any traffic to their sight causing again more drain on the finances. The point being made here is that being an affiliate can be very profitable but it's not an accident.

Anyone who wishes to improve their income by being an affiliate needs to be patient and do their homework. Don't be sucked in by promises of wealth. One doesn't have to be a webmaster but they do need to understand how affiliate marketing works. There are hundreds of digital eBooks and paperbacks available to assist one on their research in this area.

There's also reputable software products that are specifically designed to assist the new affiliate in their endeavor to be more profitably productive. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a part of the American dream of moving on up. Go for it. Just be careful so that when all is said and done it doesn't end up being an expensive nightmare instead of a dream come true.

Article by:
Brian Walters SEO

Skype: tuneup_bj

Brian Walters MarketHive
http://brian-walters-online.com/

http://briansmarketing.net/

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Starting an Affiliate Marketing Campaign

Starting an Affiliate Marketing CampaignStarting an Affiliate Marketing Campaign

Some business owners opt to start an affiliate marketing campaign as part of their overall marketing strategy. In most cases the affiliate marketing campaign is only a small portion of the overall marketing strategy but there are some business owners who opt to rely exclusively on this type of marketing. The main purpose of doing this is to save money while still achieving valuable advertising.

However, once a business becomes more successful they should consider being more proactive and combining affiliate marketing with other types of Internet marketing such as placing banner ads and orchestrating an email marketing campaign. This article will take a look at what affiliate marketing is and will provide insight into why this is popular and how it can be used effectively.

An affiliate marketing campaign is essentially a situation where other website owners place ads for your business on their websites. These website owners are known as affiliates. It is important to understand how this type of marketing works. In general the affiliates are given code for your banner ad to place on their website and given the freedom to promote their own website as they see fit. In promoting their website they are also attracting attention to your website because of the banner ad directing visitors to your own website.

One of the most appealing elements of affiliate marketing is the affiliate is only compensated when he produces a desired result. This means the business owner is not obligated to pay the affiliate unless the affiliate is successful. Success may be defined as generating traffic to the website, resulting in a sale or even resulting in the Internet user registering on your website or filling out a survey.

The compensation for affiliates is generally based on cost per click, cost per lead or cost per sale. Cost per click and cost per lead are usually paid in terms of a flat fee which is awarded to the affiliate each time an Internet user either simply clicks through the banner ad on his website or performs a specific action after clicking through the ad. Cost per sale may result in the affiliate being awarded a flat fee or a percentage of the sale depending on the agreement between the business owner and the affiliate.

The most effective use of affiliate marketing is to actively seek out affiliates with a proven track record of promoting the businesses which they support. Most affiliate programs are open to anyone with a website and it is not necessarily damaging to allow those who are not particularly knowledgeable about marketing to run your banner ad but it is far more worthwhile to seek out affiliates who are quite adept and generating website traffic to their own website. This is important because the more visitors they receive each month the more likely your website it to receive interest from visitors who click on the affiliates banner ad.

Another aspect of affiliate marketing which can contribute to success or failure is the design of your banner ads. It is important to remember affiliate marketing is viewed the same way other types of marketing are viewed and care should be taken to create banner ads which will be appealing to your target audience. This means everything from the colors of your ad to the size and style of the font should be carefully considered to create an appealing advertisement.

Article by:
Brian Walters SEO

Skype: tuneup_bj

Brian Walters MarketHive
http://brian-walters-online.com/

http://briansmarketing.net/

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member