DishPronto Affiliate Resource Center

Everybody asks for flyers. Whether for trade shows or door-to-door, we've got what you need; just click on the left to autogenerate printable flyers with your promo code already attached.

DISH has removed the $99.99 cost for the additional satellite dish necessary to receive many international channels, meaning there is now NO UPGRADE COST to get the best programming from around the world. This opens up many markets to our affiliates - many niche communities are uninterested in local television because it doesn't feature programming on the home country. For many nationalities, DISH Network is the only way to keep current on the world back hom - wherever that may be. See our international packages for more information.

You asked, we listened. You can now instantly generate a copy of our dishpronto.com homepage to host on your own server; simply click on 'Web template' here to the left, follow the instructions, and post on your own web server. How much easier could it be? Let us know in the Affiliate Sound-off.

The last few blog entries discussed a variety of effective marketing tools including search engine strategies such as relevant keywords, search engine submissions, PPIs, and PFIs. We also gave some tips on how to effectively use electronic advertisements, such ezine and banner ads, and direct advertisements, such as optin lists and safelists.

Well, now it’s your turn. What marketing tools have you used and are currently using? Which do you think work best? Why do you think your way is the best way? Send us your thoughts to the Affiliate Soundoff and we’ll post some of your responses.

I don’t know about the rest of you but my 4th of July was rain, rain, grey clouds, and then more rain ─ as I’m sure many East Coast dwellers had to endure. So, as I sat and waited for my house to fill up with family and friends and waited to dodge the raindrops while grilling, I caught up on some reading. I was reading one of my favorite e-zines when I started browsing through the advertisements, and I started to wonder how many of you take advantage of some of the great electronic marketing tools out there.

E-zine ads and banner ads can be very effective marketing tools, if done right. It is somewhat of an art to write an effective ad. You need to be short and sweet when advertising your product or service and when explaining how it will benefit your customers. You also want to make sure your ad will catch your client’s attention through both its look and placement. Remember, you’ll be competing with many other ads selling the same or similar products or services.

If you want to try to limit your competition, safelists and optin lists may be the way to go. A safelist is a group email list of individuals who have agreed to receive e-mails from one another, and an optin list includes information on individuals who have opted to receive emails from you. Both can be used to send big advertisements (without any competitive advertisements) directly to your target audience.

To learn more about these and other effective marketing tools, visit http://www.colevans.com.

So, you wrote your content and developed your website. Now, you can sit back and wait for your clients to come to you, right? You could, but that’s not exactly the way to success.

Yes, you need a website. Yes, the website needs to have an eye-catching design and motivating content that will keep people interested and coming back for more; but first, you need to get people to your site. So, how do you do that? Well, that’s the difference between online marketing and successful online marketing.

Two of the most crucial necessities to drive traffic to your site are relevant keywords and good search engine strategies. Keywords are the words and phrases that your customers type into search engines to find your site. The keywords you use on your site should match the keywords and phrases that you think your prospective customers would use. Of course, you could easily come up with five or ten keywords that are relevant to your site; but what about the people who don’t know quite as much as you do about the topic. What keywords might they search? Take a survey with friends and family and include people not as knowledgeable as you are about the topic (and maybe even some who are more knowledgeable). Keep track of the keywords mentioned the most and include them in the content of your site.

Okay, so now you have relevant keywords. What’s next? You need to get the search engines to list your site. You can submit your site to directories or search engines for free, or you can pay to have your site indexed. Or, you can do all three.

Submitting your site to a search engine for free or submitting to a directory is fairly similar. Basically, the submission process involves completing a form and waiting to see if they approve your site for listing. Whatever you do, make sure they are quality directories and search engines.

You can also pay to index your site, which is known as Pay For Inclusion (PFI) or Pay Per Inclusion (PPI). Why pay when you can do it for free? PFIs (or PPIs) will get your site indexed quicker than submitting for free, and it could give your site a higher ranking (although it isn’t supposed to guarantee this).

So, you can sit back, relax, and hope your site is chosen over the many other sites that used some great marketing strategies. Or, you can join in the success and start brainstorming those keywords and submitting your site to every relevant directory and search engine.

What better way to learn more about affiliate marketing than to network with other marketing professionals? Yes, DishPronto provides you with links to affiliate forums and blogs, but wouldn’t it be great to network in person rather than online?

Guess what? That opportunity has arrived. From July 9-11, 2006, you can network with other affiliate marketing professionals from around the globe at the Affiliate Summit Conference. The goal of the conference is “to create a unique educational environment and networking opportunity that facilitates the exchange of information about affiliate marketing.”

The first day kicks off the conference with a market and vendor showcase where affiliates share information about their products and services. This showcase would be a great time to network, to learn, or to share some of your tips with other affiliates. The rest of the week includes presentations and panel discussions hosted by a variety of professional marketing affiliates…and, of course, more networking opportunities.

What more could you ask for? Well, did I mention it is being held at the Walt Disney World resort. You can take your family, stay a few extra days, and make it your summer vacation. Visit http://www.affiliatesummit.com/ to learn more about this great opportunity as well as the great rates and perks that Affiliate Summit is offering.

Wait! There’s more! If your enjoy golf or even if you just want to mix work with pleasure, head out a day early and join the Kowabunga! Open. This new promotional sponsorship is a great way to network. Find out more about this event at http://www.kowabunga.com/golf_outing.asp.

Now your customers know what HDTV is and how it works. What do they need to get this high-quality television? For starters, they’ll need an HDTV-ready television.

Second, (this is where were come in), they’ll need DISH Network’s ViP HDTV receivers. The ViP211 supports one TV and displays 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i. DISH’s ViP622 DVR receiver displays the same format as the ViP211, but it can also support a second TV that displays 480i. In addition, the ViP622 comes equipped with a digital video recorder.

Finally, your customers will need high-definition programming from DISH Network. DISH’s programming packages offer a great variety of channels including up to 25 HD channels, over 200 standard definition channels and 30 movie channels. (Need a refresher on DISH’s programming packages? Check them out here.)

So, your customers know everything they need to know about HDTV. They’re still not convinced that HDTV is the way to go? Well, if the crystal clear image, large viewing area and high quality surround sound doesn’t convince them; tell them about the future of HDTV.

The Federal Communications Committee (FCC) has mandated that all United States TV stations have to be able to broadcast HDTV programs by February 2009 at which time TV stations will stop broadcasting on their analog channels. What does this mean for consumers? Well, they’ll still be able to watch their analog TV but they will still have to invest in new equipment. Analog television sets will require a top-box to convert digital signals back to analog signals. So, instead of investing in equipment to watch TV the old-fashioned way three years from now, tell them to invest in the future of home theater TV today?

Adding offline marketing efforts to your online presence can help increase profits. For those of you who steer clear from the highly competitive marketplace of Internet advertising all together, there are many cost-effective offline methods that can increase exposure to consumers. Traditional offline media – print, radio, and television – are expensive and difficult to use; I will discuss other offline methods cost less and are easily adoptable.

Print advertising is a good way to get your message in front of a large audience. However, advertising in mainstream magazines or national newspapers can be pricey. A great place to start your print advertising efforts is in trade magazines, local newspapers, or weekly/monthly specialty publications. These ads are less expensive and reach a more targeted audience. For example, an ad in the Chicago Sports Review – which reaches 50,000 sports enthusiasts in the Chicago area monthly – runs $25.00 for a 15-word ad. When choosing a publication find out the circulation compared to the cost and take your time to find the best deals. Print advertising delivers your sales message to the greatest number of prospects at the lowest cost per prospect. Buyers prefer to learn about a product or service through a print campaign because they perceive it as informative and a credible source of information.

Another option is to distribute stickers or magnets at shops or special events that cater to your target niche. You can get 250 custom stickers for around $25. Giving something away that can be taken home enables your promotion to be recalled later. Try using seasonal items such as distributing coasters during football season to promote your business. You can get coasters custom printed for only $.30 each.

Placing an insert into a newspaper, postcards, or ads on grocery bags are other ideas. Insert media costs are only 15% of an average direct mailing. A simple flyer is a great way to promote your business to a large audience. Try placing stacks at local restaurants, dry cleaners, movie theaters or other places of business in your area.

Many people overlook the power of making your website visible. The following are places to include your URL to help increase traffic to your site:
• Business card
• Letterhead and envelopes
• Personal brochures about you and your company
• Signature tag of all email messages (even personal emails)
• Fax cover sheets
• At the end of your voicemail message

Of course, DON’T forget to include your promo code!

We’ve given you the basics of HDTV ─ sharp image, large viewing area and high quality sound. But, how does HDTV work? When you finish reading this primer, you’ll be able to explain it to your most technology illiterate customers; and, they’ll understand!

The images on a television screen are hundreds of horizontal lines that are continuously refreshed. The number of lines that are refreshed at each scan determines the resolution, or dots per inch, of the image, which in turn determines the format used to display the image. DTV displays images through 1 of 18 different formats; six of these formats define HDTV. A standard analog TV set usually displays images at a resolution of 500x525. The resolution for DTV begins at 640x480 and increases up to 1080x1920.

DISH Network’s ViP HD receivers display four formats: 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i. The numbers refer to the resolution. For instance, 720 denotes that the displayed image is 720 horizontal lines. The i or p, which follows the number, denotes progressive or interlace technology. Interlace (i) displays one-half of an image in each frame rate; whereas progressive displays the whole image. Frame rates describe how many times it creates a complete image every second. DTV frame rates range from 24 frames per second to 60 frames per second.

There you go. The simplest, quickest way for you to explain how HDTV works.