Prodinst(def) - Effective services increase productivity (and value)

Events Rule

2008-08-24T22:17:00.004-04:00

My article on The National Networker discusses one organization that emphasizes the importance of attentding events. In our highly connected environment with blogs, social networking, etc., do you agree with their premise?

How important do you think attending events is? I look forward to your feedback.

Affiliate Prodinst – Consulting Referrals As Another Source of Revenue

2008-08-03T17:08:00.004-04:00

(Part 3 of 3) This article first appeared for ETP Network

Affiliate marketing is a means by which an affiliate can earn money through a product sale or referral for services. Prodinst requires that this service provide value and enhance productivity.

Most affiliate programs involve the selling of products to people brought to that target website. Relatively few affiliate programs involve the providing of referrals for consulting services. The general reason for this is that once you have your affiliate structure – usually a website – in place, theoretically, it can generate globs and globs of money and recurring revenue while consulting services referrals are usually only good for a short-term basis.

So, what is the problem? The problem is the 80-20 rule. 20% of the affiliate marketers are responsible for 80% of the revenues generated. In fact, what seems – and what is often promised – as globs and globs of money to be made, usually doesn’t materialize.

How you can evaluate your prodinst

Make sure that the products and services that you represent provide fair compensation for your efforts. Something is wrong if you are working just as hard for a $5 fee as for a $100 fee for the same quantity of sales. Your prodinst for this is low. Similarly, if you are expending large amounts of time and resources to achieve only – at best - modest success, something is also wrong.

Assign a value to the amount of time (this has value!) and effort you have expended and add this to whatever setup, maintenance and promotion costs you have incurred. Compare this to the amount of income generated on a weekly basis across a few months. If you do not see an increased progression of income or if the cost to income ratio does not significantly decrease over time, you have a low prodinst – and a problem.

One simple way of improving your prodinst

There are many companies that seek affiliates to help promote their services. Often, this merely requires that they provide referrals to those companies. Sometimes, this can initially be established by providing information on a networking tree. They can usually also utilize a click-thru on their website and/or some type of simple advertising to attract attention.

The advantage of this type of affiliate marketing is that its prodinst can be quite high where the cost to income ration is quite low. Obviously, this depends on the affiliate program and rewards offered to the affiliate marketer so they must carefully evaluate each potential program before proceeding.

A second advantage of this approach is that it can complement the products and services that the affiliate is already promoting. For example, if you are already selling accounting software, why not also promote accounting services? Or, if you promote handbags, also promote marketing or even sales training services?

The key point here is to first evaluate your prodinst and then devise ways of significantly improving it.

Bruce Newman is a long-term ETP Network member and Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC which provides a free matching service between rated outstanding consultants and the specific software products and services needs of almost any company, thereby providing excellent prodinst and value. It also offers an extensive and well-supported affiliate program that can manually or automatically track referrals. Additional product and service information is available at: http://www.prodinst.com/

Affiliate Marketing – Alternative Income Opportunities

2008-07-27T17:18:00.004-04:00

(part 2 of 3) This article first appeared for ETP Network

The reason why people promote affiliate products is simple: it’s for the money – which can be substantial and a secondary or even primary income stream. Yet, with the many affiliate programs and products currently available, how do you determine what and how you decide to promote? Some important factors include:

Revenue produced. For the same amount of effort, would you want to receive a $5 or a $100 commission? (This is a rhetorical no-brainer.)

Consider the products or services you want to promote. Are they things that you are familiar with or believe in? It’s always much easier to promote things in this category – and achieve significantly better results. People can easily distinguish between enthusiasm and insincerity.

Determining what your requirements are to be successful. Is a website required? Is there an extensive learning curve? How much of your time and effort is required? Can you utilize your current network? These (and other considerations) are important considerations that can greatly affect your success and time management.

How supportive is the company for which you are an affiliate? Is there someone who can answer questions and provide information and documents to you on request? The support (or non-support) services can have a large effect on whether your efforts as an affiliate are successful.

Do you have a referral network you can utilize? Depending on the product or service, some of your existing contacts and many more contacts from them can help you form an extensive referral tree with many branches originating from people who know people, who know people, etc.

Being able to answer these questions will help you choose the right products or services to promote and generate money as a successful affiliate.

Bruce Newman is a long-term ETP Network member and Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC which provides a free matching service between rated outstanding consultants and the specific software products and services needs of almost any company, thereby providing excellent prodinst and value. It also offers an extensive and well-supported affiliate program that can manually or automatically track referrals. Additional product and service information is available at: http://www.prodinst.com/

Affiliate Marketing as a Secondary or Primary Income Source

2008-07-22T16:44:00.010-04:00

(part 1 of 3) This article first appeared for ETP Network

Affiliate marketing is usually defined as the reward for each customer brought to a target website; in short, an Internet-based marketing method of driving traffic to a particular site. To clarify this further, let’s say I’m an affiliate for a website that sells pet products. For each customer who I bring to that website, I will receive some reward – usually money. (This may also require that they purchase at least one item.)

Is it worth my while?

The answer is both yes and no. It depends on the terms of the affiliate agreement and the amount of effort you are willing to expend. If it was so easy for these companies to just bring in business, they wouldn’t need an affiliate program. However, every company knows that generating new business is hard; it’s expensive, time consuming, exhausting and a slow process. They have calculated that it helps to have an unpaid (or minimally paid) sales force providing them with leads (and customers). The question for you to determine is, “Are the rewards worth my effort?”.

What is required from me?

Sometimes being an affiliate can initially be very easy and profitable. If you have a network of friends with a need for the affiliate product or service that you represent – such as pet supplies, you can easily make a few dollars. But what happens then? What is required for you to continue to provide new customers? And, how will you do it? These are questions you must be able to answer before becoming an affiliate of any program.

How much money can I make?

You can make a lot of money as an affiliate, particularly if you are an affiliate member for several websites and have an effective operating strategy. Having a solid networking tree is also quite helpful. Unfortunately, few affiliates fall into this category. Some affiliates enjoy a solid secondary income stream. However, most affiliates make little to no money, usually because of a lack of effort or difficulties with the company they are an affiliate for. We will discuss this further in another article.

Why become an affiliate?

Being an affiliate can supply you with a secondary source of income. Even if you are employed in a job, an affiliate income can make a significant difference in your total income. Possibly, as you continue to refine your strategies and affiliate agreements, it can even become a primary source of income. In any case, it requires work on your part. Just remember, money won’t come rolling in once you sign up as an affiliate without your effort.

Next week, we will discuss how to select an affiliate program(s) from the many programs currently available.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President and token male at The Productivity Institute, LLC a 100% woman owned company which matches the specific software products and services needs of companies to rated outstanding consultants who can meet those needs. He is also one of the initial members of the ETP Network and the mid-Atlantic editor for The National Networker. The Productivity Institute has a well-supported affiliate program that works both manually and automatically in generating referrals and affiliate compensation. Additional product and service information is available at: http://www.prodinst.com/

Outstanding consultants provide good prodinst – but, Be Careful!

2008-06-12T16:40:00.000-04:00

Consulting services can benefit any company. By using outstanding consultants, companies can greatly increase their prodinst (increased value through productivity) by designing and completing tasks that both cost and time effectively. In essence, an outstanding consultant can significantly increase productivity and the bottom line.

Conversely, consultants who are unable to do the work can cost a company time, money, good will and severely impact on project schedules and completion. In these situations, the cost of re-working a project can sometimes exceed even the initial cost of the project. In short, poor consulting work generates a low prodinst.

Unfortunately, there are incompetent specialists in every field. My father went to a dentist - a friend of his – twice a year for several years. One time, just before my father left for a long trip to Florida, he had a toothache. Unfortunately, his dentist friend found nothing wrong despite an oral examination and an x-ray. While still in pain, but now in Florida, my father visited a new dentist. This dentist looked at my father’s teeth and exclaimed, “Why haven’t you seen a dentist in the past ten years”? In short, my father had an abscess that was causing the pain and a year of painful and costly dentistry in front of him with several dentists and specialists to fix his teeth.

The point of this story is simple: Know what you are looking for in a consultant. Often, companies are dismayed when they discover that many consulting firms are much better at selling services than actually providing them. Friends or personal referrals are not always the solution. It is therefore important to determine and strongly adhere to key criteria when evaluating and selecting consultants.

Although the criteria used may vary from between companies, several key criteria are usually considered. These include: experience, knowledge and the quality of the consultant’s references. Often trust is an important consideration. Highly rated, outstanding consultants by their clients are usually a good indication of consultants who provide excellent prodinst.

Whatever criteria you decide to use, make sure that you apply it to all consulting candidates – not just to those who aren’t friends or personal referrals. Otherwise, you too may find yourself having made a painful and costly mistake.

Bruce Newman invites you to complete a short, anonymous survey ranking key consulting criteria http://consultingsurvey.prodinst.com and consulting background factors. Bruce is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC. which provides excellent prodinst by matching the specific needs of companies to the expertise of rated outstanding consultants. Any company that wishes to improve their productivity can sign up for this free service and be contacted by up to five rated outstanding consultants. Additional product and service information is available at: http://www.prodinst.com/