The lessons to be learnt from this are:

If you create a product, make sure you have an affiliate program. It will save you a lot of money and sales will come in faster. If you are fortunate to find a product that you believe in before it gets rolled out, grab it and stick to it.

Two things are happening at this point in time that you need to be very aware of. First of all, owner of product is still busy building his affiliate base and has not yet achieved maximum profitability with his product. Secondly, affiliates had a relatively easy time with little competition for sales.

From this point of time in more affiliates will join program. This is good for owner of program as more sales will be generated. There will however be a lot of competition for affiliates and those affiliates who do not know what they are doing can expect less and less sales. The inexperienced marketer had better hope that this product generates a residual income!

Eventually, market will have received high exposure to product. Customers will have started to use product and provide feedback and creator of product will be made aware of possible improvements that can be made to product.

At this point in time, creator of product can start cycle again by either offering an update on product or by releasing a completely new product that satisfies customer demand.

Although an affiliate as such is unable to modify actual product, he can change packaging/ presentation, include bonuses and to some extent recreate a USP for product. These changes are in fact necessary for an affiliate to stand any sort of a chance with marketing product after initial roll out is completed.

What can be learnt from planning for “Product Life Cycle”?

Get in early with something you believe in and stick to it; Think of a unique presentation for product; Build a referral base; Make sure that your opportunity includes a residual income.

Follow these guidelines for selecting those opportunities that you align yourself with. It will serve you well.

To your success Richard Glanville http://www.statustron.com Publisher@statustron.com

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Lesson 3: Include advertisements.

Pop-ups and other online advertising are a fact of life on free-to-user sites. Major League Baseball demonstrates taste and intelligent implementation with their pop-under, limiting each visitor to a single impression. Banner advertisements and sponsorships are also apparent.

Develop Profit Pulling Marketing Techniques

Lesson 4: Segment your visitors.

The league uses a "hub and spoke" system, which allows visitors to choose their own interests. There is one general site (MLB.com), with links to several specialty sites (stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com, etc.).

This portal approach helps segment visitors into specific interest groups. It is a win-win strategy. Visitors find what they are looking for and league can more easily target its marketing activities.

Lesson 5: Target locally.

Each "spoke" off MLB hub contains local content, which segments visitors regionally. The league targets products and services accordingly.

For example, Cardinals team site includes detailed information for Cardinals baseball events, ticket purchasing for Busch stadium games, and auctions for St. Louis related baseball memorabilia.

Lesson 6: Offer tiered products.

MLB offers subscription services at many levels. By packaging fantasy games into progressively larger bundles, they encourage trial as well as repeat visits. The offering also target customers according to interest level and budget.

There you have it - five lessons in profitable target marketing from Major League Baseball.

Copyright 2003 Bobette Kyle. All rights reserved.

Bobette Kyle draws upon 10+ years of Marketing/Executive experience, MBA, and online marketing research in her writing.