The ML Editor

Sustainable business practices are emerging as a priority within forward thinking organizations. These practices apply to many dimensions of the organization, ranging from minimizing waste to encouraging employees to telecommute.

Building sustainable customer relationships - the kind where customers feel a loyalty that brings them back again and again - is one such practice for evolved organizations.

A good product or service is necessary, but not enough to cultivate lasting customer relationships. Customer loyalty grows out of feeling connected to the organization. Therefore, evolved organizations focus on finding opportunities to communicate with their customers. Further, the warmth of an inspired employee has the capacity to permeate the heart of a customer, bringing him back, for potentially, forever.

One way evolved organizations demonstrate an interest in connecting with the customer is by offering multiple channels of communication in order to make it easy for anyone to make a complaint, suggestion or compliment.

Whether the customer is calling to complain or compliment is not as important as the simple fact that they are calling. Just picking up the phone or sending an email indicates that the customer is interested in continuing to use the product or service.

The evolved organization solicits all feedback, disregarding concerns about complaint numbers going up, and replacing it with a sincere desire to hear exactly what the customer has to say. In fact, using the term “feedback” instead of “complaint” is one tool for cultivating an attitude within the organization that welcomes any kind of communication from customers.

Method Products, Inc., a particularly mindful organization specializing in environmentally friendly cleaning products, is built on sustainable values. Among Method’s many sustainable practices, customer communication is a priority. Customer feedback is the term used at Method Products for all customer communication, and for good reason: a whopping 45% of feedback falls into the compliment category. Comments and suggestions comprise 8%, and questions 32% of customer feedback.

Customer complaints make up a mere 15% of Method Product’s customer feedback. Despite that the complaint numbers are low; Method Products takes them very seriously.

The first part of listening carefully to the customer involves having a solid system in place to capture feedback in a way that is both practical and informative to the organization. Method Products use Everest: Customer Focused Quality, a software product specifically designed to capture customer complaints and feedback.

Each customer who contacts Method Products is greeted by a real person on the phone or receives a candid email response from a passionate and considerate representative of the Method Products team. The data collected in Everest is then reviewed bi-monthly with the brand and product development teams, and quarterly with the management team, all who are eager to hear what customers like, dislike, and suggest.

One illustration of how customer feedback collected through Everest changed product development occurred recently. Everest reports revealed an increase in complaints about a leaky laundry detergent cap. The Method Products team reviewed the data weekly and even questioned customers about their preferences for a new cap. In stores today you will find containers with newly designed leak proof caps.

Method Product’s customers are loyal and enthusiastic. One reason - among many - for this loyalty is a genuine customer focus.

Here are some concrete tips for developing sustainable customer relationships:

•Reframe complaints as feedback within your organization.

•Cultivate channels of communication that allow for authentic connection.

•Capture each and every piece of feedback in a system designed to efficiently track and chart data.

•Review the data often and make real changes as needed.

Organizations may find that even a slight change in how they handle customer feedback will, over time, yield surprising results - sustainable relationships with customers being the most significant.

Kimberly Kingsley, M.Ed. writes on the topics of personal development and organizational integrity. Her website is http://www.kimberlykingsley.com Lynk Software is the developer of Everest: Customer Focused Quality. For more information, visit http://www.lynksoftware.com

In this article we will discuss how to attract affiliates to you program.

One of the biggest fears new Affiliate managers have is in
finding new affiliates. This fear is a stumbling block that
stops many site owners from getting started with affiliate
marketing. Interestingly, with a proper marketing strategy,
getting affiliates may not be very difficult. Given below are
some tips that may help in attracting new affiliates.

Find complimentary sites

“Complementary” sites are a sites that sell products or
services that compliment your offerings. If you sell
“gardening tools”, a site that sells books on “gardening tips”
would be a perfect affiliate. If you sell software, try looking
for sites that sell computers or computer parts. Finding sites
that already attract your target market, and can benefit from
recommending your product or service to their visitors, is the
goal.

Find content sites

There are many sites that do not sell any kind of product or
service but are mainly content-oriented sites. Such sites
promote an idea, concept, study or belief. Content sites that
are used as a resource for your target market are ideal
affiliates.

Finally, there are several sites on the Internet dedicated to
listing affiliate Programs. Get your program listed in these
directories.

Classifying Affiliates for better management

The hardest part of administrating an Affiliate Program is
deciding what your affiliates need to help make the sale.
But, by carefully categorizing your affiliates, you can easily
determine what their needs are and how to accurately meet
them. The plan given below helps in categorizing affiliates in
order to manage your affiliate program better.

The first step is to pick at least three types of affiliates. Take
a look at your affiliates and try to determine one outstanding
characteristic that can easily be compared across the board
and choose at least three types of the characteristic. Here are
some examples:

* Level of Sales - You may find that your affiliates are so
completely different that it’s hard to find something to
classify them by. Try classifying them by the level of sales
they’ve reached with you. You’ll most likely find that you
have a few forerunners that lead the pack with a number of
sales, quite a few affiliates that have sporadically made a sale
or two and some that have yet to make a sale. This will help
you classify them based on sales.

* Products - If you sell a wide variety of products for specific
interests/needs you may be able to classify your affiliates by
product. For instance, a financial site could classify types like
Personal Finance, Small Business Finance, and Corporate
Finance.

* Industry - If you market commodities like office supplies,
health and beauty products, house wares and so on, you may
find that your affiliates come from a wide variety of
industries. You can most likely classify your affiliates
according to their industry.

The Second Step is to determine the needs of each type. Each
of your affiliate types will have different needs; some of their
needs will overlap, but you should find a distinct difference
in many of their needs. If you find that all of them have the
same needs, go back to step one and re-think your types.

Here are some basic things to look for:

* Linking Methods - Different types of affiliates will need
different linking methods. Let’s use the example above where
we had different groups based on sales. Your low sales group
may be satisfied with a banner or two to place on their site.
Your medium sales type may be interested in an article or
two for added content on their site. Your high sales group
will probably pass up banners for articles, guestbooks, email
ads and signature files.

* Capturing visitors is what you want. In order to do so –you
have to know what they want. Visit your affiliates’ sites to
see what visitors are looking at and looking for.Ask yourself,
“How does my product relate to what I am seeing?”

* Different types of affiliates may expect different
commissions. You’ll have some Affiliates that have joined
your program “on the side” and others that plan on earning a
substantial income from the program. Determine what effort
they are putting into advertising, how much other programs
in your industry are paying, and the amount of time they
devote to your program.

The Third Step involves the process of creating and
compiling linking methods for each group of affiliates.
Based on the needs you identified in Step two, create and
compile linking methods for each type. Here are a few
linking methods to think about.

* Banners - Though they aren’t as effective as other linking
methods, banners are still widely used and expected. Make
banners in a variety of sizes to fit tops of pages, bottoms,
toolbars, sidebars and other miscellaneous areas.

* Articles - These are great for affiliates that need content for
their websites and newsletters. Be sure that your articles are
articles and not ads.

* Email Ads - Your active affiliates may be interested in
placing ads in e-zines or their own newsletters. Try writing a
few ads in different lengths.

* Signature Files - Dedicated affiliates may even add your
tag to their signature line. Give them a few witty lines to
choose from.

* Guestbooks: - Let your affiliates help you build your Opt-
In email lists with guestbooks. Offer them a Commission for
each email address they send you, or each resulting sale from
the subscribers they send you.

* Product Images - Give your affiliates images that show and
link directly to specific products. They’ll be able to choose an
image specific to their site, or choose several images to
display.

* Review each affiliate Type and match them up with your
new linking methods. You may have some linking methods
that overlap Types — this is okay. Just be sure you are
concentrating on the affiliates’ needs.

The Fourth Step is to decide commission levels. Your first
decision will be to determine whether you want to pay a flat
rate or percentage of each sale. Based on the needs you
identified above for each of the affiliate types, decide on a
commission amount for each Type. If you have a two-tier
program, consider the possibility of different second tier rates
as well.

The Fifth Step is to devise promotions for affiliate groups.
Once you have your affiliates properly categorized and your
system under control, consider developing promotions for
your affiliate groups. Give them special incentives to sell
more during a certain time frame, move seasonal products, or
increase business during your slow months. Offer them
additional commissions, or even bonuses for reaching a
specific amount of sales.

In conclusion, if you follow the steps I have just outlined and
if you are ready for a little work and a lot of organization,
your affiliate program should be up and running in no time.

Clive Harman is a professional trainer with 38 years
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The uncertain global job market is forcing people to find alternative means of making a living. Statistics show that approximately 8,000 new home-based businesses start daily in the U.S. alone. This means that a new home-based business starts every 11 minutes! It is estimated that by 2010, a whopping 69% of all households will support themselves from some form of home-based business, and an affiliate business is a proven vehicle for testing the waters without needing to have the usual infrastructure and financial backing that a new business normally requires.

So why are people still hesitant about the affiliate home-based business industry? Security! People are afraid to leave what they see as a secure job for an affiliate home-based business. Yet analysts have proven that people who work from home are in better control of their destiny and therefore much more secure.

Unfortunately, many people who are uninformed about the nature of online affiliate businesses have the mistaken belief that starting an online home-based business is expensive. Sure, there are online home-based businesses that cost a fortune to start and run but they are not the norm. When you take a closer look at what is needed to start an online home-based business, especially an affiliate online business, you will see that the arguments advanced purporting great expense fail to stand up under scrutiny. Starting an online business is simple and inexpensive.

Presumably you already have a computer, a printer and an Internet connection, and know how to use them. If you would like to take the plunge into the field of affiliate marketing, find a few programs that you are interested in and sign on as an affiliate to sell their products. Most of these programs cost nothing to join and in the rare cases where there is a fee involved it is typically less than $30.

So what are the real costs?

Membership Fees
Most affiliate programs are free.
Others charge a small fee of $10 - $30 per month

Domain Name and Hosting:
If you are going to be successful at the home business industry even if you are selling affiliate products and services, you need your own website with your choice of a domain name, and web hosting (maintenance service). To register a domain name costs between $9-$30 per year with discounts if you sign up for 2 - 10 years. Good website hosting costs from $9 - $25 per month. Choose a hosting package to suit your pocket. I would advise against free hosting. Not only are free-hosted websites not taken seriously but with free hosting comes the hosting service’s ads on your site.

Building your website
Free, to as much as you wish to spend. I had my first website built for me and quickly learned to build my own. It really is not that difficult.

Autoresponder
An autoresponder is a must if you plan to stay up to date with communicating with your customers. Plan on spending $4 - $20 per month

Advertising your business
$50 - $100 per month

To set up your own affiliate home-based business can range from $70 - $205 with on-going monthly operating costs of $65 - $175. Have you ever heard of an offline business you can start for under $100 that has the potential to earn you thousands each month?
Of course you can spend much more, but compared to the cost of setting up and running an offline business, the costs of setting up an online affiliate home-based business are minimal. Most people spend more money eating out each month.

A prudent approach would be to begin while you still have a job and continue in your job until you start making enough money to allow you to work at home full-time.

Home Business Entrepreneur Janice Sharman has helped lots of ordinary people start profitable Home Businesses. For FREE information on how you can start a successful Home Business email: janice@profits4sure.com and join the thousands of successful Home Business Entrepreneurs.

Affiliates are always on the lookout for ways to add value to their site without cluttering it up, diffusing its niche feel, or
Confusing their loyal visitors. One way to give site visitors extra value is to add a highly targeted search box or two. There are many available for download to your site, on almost any imaginable topic. Choose from dictionaries, kids, business, health, law, maps and everything in between. A good place to start researching what’s available is
http://www.writerswrite.com/research/sbox.htm.

By adding a search box, you give your site visitor the ability to look up information without leaving your site to go to a search engine. Consider this scenario: a mother has been reading a blog on your site with entries and advice about car seats for toddlers. People have given her the benefit of their personal experience in properly installing the seats, what to fabrics are easiest to clean, and what features are best for large and tall toddlers.

Your site has product reviews of the most popular seats, complete with “best value” and “best overall” categories. What else does she need? She has two children and one old seat, and needs to know how the regulations for car seats have changes since her first born was a toddler. She doesn’t have to go out on the web searching for regulations if you have a search box for “everything kids” that turns up the regulations in a few clicks.

Isn’t she much more likely to buy from you than someone else when she only needs to click on her back button and be right at an authoritative place to shop?

Karen Kari’s articles and more information on the affiliate business can be found at:

http://www.affiliatebandit.com

http://www.advertisingcellar.com

http://www.billionfreeads.com