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My uncle sat at the kitchen table with a perplexed look on his face, in a state of total shock.
He tried to open his mouth to ask a question, but despite his best effort, all that came out was an incoherent response.
I had just explained to my uncle the concept of “recommendation marketing”, which basically left him speechless.
The aftermath wasn’t a pretty sight.
It was comical seeing this usually well spoken man, who seemed to have an opinion on everything (especially other people’s business), stricken speechless.
I am not afraid to admit I reveled in the moment.
He couldn’t believe how much I made each month, by simply recommending high quality products and services to my customers.
What really blew him away, was when I revealed that it only took me an hour to set everything up, and I continue to make this residual income each and every month.
If I choose to go and play ice hockey, work out, or do something else I enjoy, I will still be earning the same amount.
This is the power of recommendation marketing.
The principle behind this technique is quite simple, but you must earn people’s trust for it to be effective (This means being honest and not trying to make a quick buck).
I compiled a list of my favorite products and services, and then created a page with a condensed review of these products. (Luckily for me most of them have an affiliate program, which is how I earn the residual income)
You can see how I did this by visiting:
http://www.freeclassifiedlinks.com/recsites.html
I only recommend something I believe in, that has personally worked for me or someone I trust.
If the product is full of hype and not up to my standards of excellence, I will not put it on my recommendation page. Period.
Here is a quick start guide to getting your own recommendation page up and turning a profit:
- Compile a list of your favorite products and services within your niche
- If the product/service has an affiliate program, be sure to join up.
- Tell your customers about this page. (You can do this with newsletter subscribers as well)
If someone trusts you enough to buy your products, it is very likely they will buy something you recommend.
If you are struggling to find something positive to say about one of these products/services, that should be an instant red flag. You should only recommend products you have purchased and believe in.
Never compromise your customer’s trust in you. Trading money for a damaged reputation can be fatal to your online business.
Once you lose someone’s trust, you can never truly gain it back. This can mean lost sales and profits for your business.
Try putting this simple plan into action, and I can almost guarantee that you will be thrilled with the results.
As an Internet marketing professional, one truth of the business is that when your Website doesn’t work, you have no business. Server interruptions can cost serious Internet Marketers thousands of dollars in just a few hours of down time. Funny enough, most marketers don’t have a backup plan in place when a server goes down and the money making entity, namely your Website is not accessible by existing and potential customers.
Your Support Should Be On a Different Server or Host
When your business Website server goes down, there is not much you can do about it. It is a fact of doing business online, and unless you actually own your servers and pay an employee to maintain them, you are at the mercy of your hosting company. Savvy Internet marketers know the importance of having customer service and support areas of the Website hosted on a different server or with a different hosting service altogether. This means that if the main site goes down, the support site does not. Existing and potential clients can still access certain parts of your site such as their accounts. You can also use the support section of your Website to post alerts about the server situation on the rest of the site. By keeping customer service and support services on a separate server or host, you are assured that you still have a certain level of continuity and communication with your customers, without dropping off the face of the Internet altogether.
Choose a Hosting Company that Offers Auto Backup Service
Many quality hosting companies offer a backup service. This can work in one of two ways. The economy version of backup services means that your host will regularly (usually daily) and automatically back up the entire contents of your Website. This means that if the server outage is severe and any of your Website content is lost or corrupted, your host has a recent and full back-up of the entire site that can be reinstalled when the server issue is fixed. The better version of back-up services means that the hosting company actually has a mirror site so that if a server goes down, a visitor is automatically and seamlessly forwarded to the mirror site, which is an exact replica of your original site. This type of service generally costs more money but if your livelihood depends on your site being up and accessible at all times, it may be well worth the extra money.
Keep Off-Server Customer Information
You would not believe how many Internet marketers do not keep hard copy information of their customer database on a local computer. How silly is that? If the server goes down and damage is done, all this valuable information could be lost. Furthermore, you need to be able to reach important clients when your server goes down. You need to make it a critical task to continually back up your customer information including name, address, telephone number, and email address and order history. This way, when your servers go down, you can contact and reassure customers that you are working diligently to resolve the situation and your customers will feel connected and valued.