Hello,

Marlon here.

If you’ve never used Yahoo Groups before, it’s basically a free
service that allows you to setup a group (or join an existing
group) where everyone can send system-wide emails to everyone
else. A group can consist of virtually anyone. There are groups
for mothers and for pilots. There are also private groups for
family members, close friends, and alumni of a particular
university. In our application today, I’m going to suggest that
you join a group, rather than create one. I’m also going to
suggest that you be careful in how you select your groups…

For starters, it’s important to understand why you’re using Yahoo
Groups, and what it could potentially offer you as an affiliate
marketer. If you plan to join spam groups, where every member
sends out a slew of advertisements to all other members, you may
be better off ignoring Yahoo Groups and trying something different
altogether. You aren’t likely to make a lot of money sending out
repeated advertisements to people who want to advertise – not buy.

Now, if you are patient and willing to put in a little work, then
you can use Yahoo Groups to your advantage. However, rather than
seeing it as a pulpit for spam, see it as a means of seeking out
and communicating with potential customers. Think about it as you
might think about participating in forum discussions – the more
you do it and the more you contribute, the more people will
respect you and consider purchasing what you offer.

Before we go any further, head to Yahoo Groups now:
http://groups.yahoo.com/. One important part of being successful
with Yahoo Groups involves finding the right place to talk about
things that relate to your particular affiliate products, so start
picking through the groups. If you’re planning to sell luxury
watches as an affiliate, then drill down through the appropriate
categories until you find niche groups that might work well for
you. Additionally, find some general interest groups (mothers,
college students, etc.) that you can join. These also have people
who could be interested in your products.

What next? Actually join the groups. This is similar to using
forums to market. Before you even start posting, you should spend
some time observing the group. Find out how they interact with
each other and find out whether people normally sell things. Try
not to break any of the rules of etiquette before you are
recognized as a regular contributor. Even then, try to avoid it
where possible.

Once you have monitored the groups sufficiently – and have figured
out when it is appropriate to suggest sites and products – you
can start promoting products in subtle ways. I personally suggest
simply using a link to your blog in signatures. In general,
posting an affiliate link in a group is a pretty obvious move; and
few people will take it lightly. If you simply include a link to
your blog in a signature, people will check it out without your
even asking.

If you do ever blatantly refer people to your site, make sure that
you do it in some relevant context; Furthermore, make sure that
the content on your site is high-quality and original. In fact,
you may even want to take the opposite approach: rather than
waiting for things to come up that relate to your blog, you could
generate content based on what’s going on in the groups. In
general, try to use graphs, pictures, and video on your site
whenever you can. This will tend to hold the attention of visitors
better than text.

Also, I’ve mentioned this in previous issues, but if you still
don’t have a blog, I suggest you start one at the following URL:
http://www.blogger.com. It’s quick and easy. Additionally, in
many situations (such as this one), you wont be able to actually
market affiliate products unless you have a website of your own.
This is a fast and free way to set one up.

Now, in addition to joining discussion groups, you will also want
to join article/content distribution groups. Publishers often
setup these groups to solicit material for their sites.
Additionally, article distributors use them to send stuff off to
publishers. If you’re already writing articles and submitting them
to directories, you should consider submitting them to these
groups as well. They could get you massive exposure, since they
are often sent to hundreds of different places. Remember to use
them wisely and to follow the guidelines of each group you join.
Most will require specific formatting. If you ignore that; your
articles will get rejected, and you may end up getting removed or
banned from the group.

One of the best ways to use these groups effectively is to write
reviews for them. Let’s say you join a group of people who have an
interest in some genre of music. Whenever some new release comes
out, try to be the first person to purchase that CD, so you can
listen to it, review it, and then post your review (with an
affiliate link) to the group. This will work especially well if
you are selling digital products or books. The faster you can get
to them and the faster you can review them, the better your
chances will be of selling them the products through your
affiliate links. For a greater effect, try to write PDF reviews
and put the download link on your site or blog.

If you don’t know a whole lot about the products you’re marketing,
or if you’re not a particularly good writer, you can always hire
someone who does/is. Consider finding a college student on a forum
or a writer at http://www.guru.com or http://www.elance.com and
offering to pay him/her to review music, art, or whatever his/her
area of expertise happens to be. You will not only save your own
time, but you may exponentially increase the effectiveness of your
Yahoo Groups campaign.

Best Wishes,

Marlon Sanders