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Affiliate Marketing : The Perfect Internet Income Opportunity for Beginners to Earn Extra Money Online
If you're new to online business but want a fast, easy and legitimate way to get started, then you should start with affiliate marketing. This internet income opportunity is considered one of the best ways to earn extra money online.
So, what is affiliate marketing?
Simply put, affiliate marketing is a revenue sharing venture between a website owner, called affiliate and an online merchant, the website that sells the products or services.
How can you make money from it?
The affiliate will market the merchant's products or services by simply refer people to the merchant's website through various marketing methods. When they purchase products or services, the affiliate will earn commission from that sale.
Let me give you an example on how it works.
Let say that you've created a web site about dogs. Thousands of people search for information on all kinds of topics on dogs every day, such as "dog breeds", "dog names", "dog training", "dog health" and etc. They find your site. They read your pages, enjoy the content, and check out your recommendations.
They click a link on your website, based on your recommendations, to go to Dog.com and buy some dog supplies. You get paid a commission.
Then, they click on another link to DogWise.com and buy a DVD on dog training. You receive another commission.
Finally, they click your link to Amazon.com to buy a book on how to take care of newborn puppies. And, that's another commission.
I believe you get the idea and yes, affiliate marketing makes this happen.
Why affiliate marketing? What's the advantage?
There are practically many and the biggest ones are,
1. You don't need your own products to sell
2. You don't have to process any payment
3. You don't have to handle or ship the products
4. You don't have to handle any complaints
5. You don't have to pay anything to join
6. You can get started immediately, part-time and shoestring
How do I get started?
But first, let me tell you this. If you've little or no knowledge about affiliate marketing, then I urge you to educate yourself by doing some research work before you decide to jump into the bandwagon.
Read as many articles as you can and explore websites covering different areas of affiliate marketing. You'll need to learn a lot about different ways to promote your affiliate products or services. You can learn everything you need to know about affiliate marketing on the internet because there are tons of resources available to you for FREE.
Make no mistake, affiliate marketing may be the easiest and fastest ways to earn extra money online, but that doesn't mean you can just join any affiliate sales program and start selling without any knowledge or training. That's exactly why so many people fail in affiliate marketing. They thought this business is so easy, required no training and didn't take much time to do it. You know what - they're dead wrong.
Let's keep the record straight. There is no short-cut way in earning money on the internet. If you seriously want to earn extra money online, then you have to do the work. Not me. If you don't have what is takes to do it, then stop wasting your time and get a second job at McDonalds or wherever.
Fair enough?
OK, nuff said and back to your question. How do you get started in affiliate marketing?
Affiliate Marketing : How to Get Started
There are a many ways you can get started but I won't discuss it all here because I personally don't have any hands-on experience with any of them.
But instead let me show you how I get started, based on what I've learned personally from the master himself, Dr. Andy Williams. I'm confident with the method taught by him because it's tested and proven, not only by me but many others, including top and successful affiliate marketers. In short, it's a complete blueprint of affiliate marketing.
As a complete novice myself with no HTML knowledge, SEO skills, and totally new to affiliate marketing, I personally use SEO Website Builder to help me to get started. It is not just a piece of a software program created by Dr. Williams but it's a affiliate marketing-in-a-box, complete with training manual which will guide and show everything you need to know about how to get started in affiliate marketing, from your initial idea to a complete affiliate website.
If you're a newbie and want to know how to quickly and easily create search engine optimized affiliate web sites that can make you money, without any HTML knowledge or search engine optimization skills, then find out more about SEO Website Builder to see if it can help you to get started immediately in affiliate marketing. This tool is also suitable for seasoned players who have not been doing so good in their affiliate program ventures.
I will explain the blueprint and cover areas on how to build a money-making affiliate website using Dr Andy's method, which is an eye-opening, in my next post. I will also do an unbiased review on the software program so that you can make an intelligent decision and also to see if it's suits you or not. So, please be sure to check back this lens often.
But instead let me show you how I get started, based on what I've learned personally from the master himself, Dr. Andy Williams. I'm confident with the method taught by him because it's tested and proven, not only by me but many others, including top and successful affiliate marketers. In short, it's a complete blueprint of affiliate marketing.
As a complete novice myself with no HTML knowledge, SEO skills, and totally new to affiliate marketing, I personally use SEO Website Builder to help me to get started. It is not just a piece of a software program created by Dr. Williams but it's a affiliate marketing-in-a-box, complete with training manual which will guide and show everything you need to know about how to get started in affiliate marketing, from your initial idea to a complete affiliate website.
If you're a newbie and want to know how to quickly and easily create search engine optimized affiliate web sites that can make you money, without any HTML knowledge or search engine optimization skills, then find out more about SEO Website Builder to see if it can help you to get started immediately in affiliate marketing. This tool is also suitable for seasoned players who have not been doing so good in their affiliate program ventures.
I will explain the blueprint and cover areas on how to build a money-making affiliate website using Dr Andy's method, which is an eye-opening, in my next post. I will also do an unbiased review on the software program so that you can make an intelligent decision and also to see if it's suits you or not. So, please be sure to check back this lens often.
How to Build Affiliate Websites that Ranks Well and Make You Money : Affiliate Marketing Blueprint - Step 1
Identifying Niche Topics
There's a lot of planning and research involved in building a profitable affiliate website. I know it's very tempting to take all the short-cuts that are available because everyone wants to see quick results. However I cannot emphasize enough the need to take your time.
Step 1 of the blueprint is to identify topics to write for your website. Finding topics is always the biggest stumbling block for those starting out in their affiliate marketing business.
I've seen people asking this question all over the internet, again and again. Some even give-up hope just because they couldn't find a niche topic for them to get started. Welcome to the affiliate marketing game.
Finding a profitable niche topic is a two-step process. First, finding several potential niches and second, check to see which one is most profitable.
Now let me show you one of the many ways to find niche topics. As matter of fact this method is used not only by me but many others too, especially those successful internet marketers. I can say this is a universal way of finding niche topics.
The easiest way to get started is to follow your passion. Get a pen and a piece of paper and write down as many as possible things that you are good at, know a lot about or some type of interest in. I'm sure you can come up with a list of at least 50 things.
If you can't think of anything, then I only have one question for you. "What have you been doing all this years of your life?" So, cut the crap and put on your thinking cap and start writing.
The reason you pick topics based on your passion is because it will make less work for you when you want to build a website. Example, when researching for keywords, it will be easy to spot keywords that you are familiar with or some of the terms used within your chosen topics.
If you're still blank, here's are several places you can get some topic ideas.
Go and surf around Amazon.com. This is a huge online retailer that stocks not only books but also a huge range of other products separated into a large number of niches.
Visit online portal and directories. Example, go to http://dmoz.org/ Drill down some of the categories to find potential niched markets.
Another idea is to go to http://pulse.ebay.com/ and browse and drill down through the categories that excites you.
I believe, these should be enough for you to come up with several niches ideas. Next is checking the profitability of the topics you've chosen.
Step 1 of the blueprint is to identify topics to write for your website. Finding topics is always the biggest stumbling block for those starting out in their affiliate marketing business.
I've seen people asking this question all over the internet, again and again. Some even give-up hope just because they couldn't find a niche topic for them to get started. Welcome to the affiliate marketing game.
Finding a profitable niche topic is a two-step process. First, finding several potential niches and second, check to see which one is most profitable.
Now let me show you one of the many ways to find niche topics. As matter of fact this method is used not only by me but many others too, especially those successful internet marketers. I can say this is a universal way of finding niche topics.
The easiest way to get started is to follow your passion. Get a pen and a piece of paper and write down as many as possible things that you are good at, know a lot about or some type of interest in. I'm sure you can come up with a list of at least 50 things.
If you can't think of anything, then I only have one question for you. "What have you been doing all this years of your life?" So, cut the crap and put on your thinking cap and start writing.
The reason you pick topics based on your passion is because it will make less work for you when you want to build a website. Example, when researching for keywords, it will be easy to spot keywords that you are familiar with or some of the terms used within your chosen topics.
If you're still blank, here's are several places you can get some topic ideas.
Go and surf around Amazon.com. This is a huge online retailer that stocks not only books but also a huge range of other products separated into a large number of niches.
Visit online portal and directories. Example, go to http://dmoz.org/ Drill down some of the categories to find potential niched markets.
Another idea is to go to http://pulse.ebay.com/ and browse and drill down through the categories that excites you.
I believe, these should be enough for you to come up with several niches ideas. Next is checking the profitability of the topics you've chosen.
Affiliate Marketing Blueprint - Step 1...continued
How to Pick a Profitable Niche Topic
Here what you're doing is not only looking for niche topics but profitable as well. Profitable here means whether we can make money out of the chosen topics. And also whether there are products that people are searching for and willing to buy.
OK, let say you've listed down the things that you're passionate with, now let's find out if they're others who share the same interest as yours.
One of the ways you can find out is go to Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool and the good news is, it's FREE.
What you're looking for is how many people are searching for the topics that you've picked. Type in the root word and press enter. Example if your hobby is to go fishing every weekend, then type in the word "fishing".
Here's the top 20 search result figures for the keyword "fishing" for the month of December 2006.
192133 fishing
70918 archery fishing hunting
58647 fly fishing
29016 fishing boat
26144 ice fishing
20240 fishing tackle
18617 fishing report
17833 bass fishing
16042 fishing rods
15861 fishing trip
15592 fishing lure
13310 fishing game
12787 rocket fishing rod
12280 alaska fishing
11723 fishing reel
10562 fishing charter
8735 saltwater fishing
8506 trout fishing
8228 fishing in jojos line
8161 fishing gear
As you can see, generally there are people looking for various type of information on fishing. Based on the search result, the keyword "fishing", yes indeed is profitable but you wouldn't want to pick that topic as it's too broad and competitive.
What you should do is narrow it down. Not too narrow but enough information for you to build a niche website.
OK, let say you've listed down the things that you're passionate with, now let's find out if they're others who share the same interest as yours.
One of the ways you can find out is go to Overture's Search Term Suggestion Tool and the good news is, it's FREE.
What you're looking for is how many people are searching for the topics that you've picked. Type in the root word and press enter. Example if your hobby is to go fishing every weekend, then type in the word "fishing".
Here's the top 20 search result figures for the keyword "fishing" for the month of December 2006.
192133 fishing
70918 archery fishing hunting
58647 fly fishing
29016 fishing boat
26144 ice fishing
20240 fishing tackle
18617 fishing report
17833 bass fishing
16042 fishing rods
15861 fishing trip
15592 fishing lure
13310 fishing game
12787 rocket fishing rod
12280 alaska fishing
11723 fishing reel
10562 fishing charter
8735 saltwater fishing
8506 trout fishing
8228 fishing in jojos line
8161 fishing gear
As you can see, generally there are people looking for various type of information on fishing. Based on the search result, the keyword "fishing", yes indeed is profitable but you wouldn't want to pick that topic as it's too broad and competitive.
What you should do is narrow it down. Not too narrow but enough information for you to build a niche website.
How to Pick a Profitable Niche Topic...continued
Let's drill down further on the keyword, "fishing equipment" and see what are people searching. Here are the top 28 figures.
16042 fishing rods
12787 rocket fishing rod
2799 fishing rod holder
2321 fly fishing rods
1290 custom fishing rods
1125 fishing rod rack
931 fishing kid rocket rod
922 fishing kid rod
875 fishing rods and reel
752 st croix fishing rods
678 ice fishing rods
558 bass fishing rods
555 fishing pole rocket rod
499 fishing rod building
485 fishing rod blank
445 telescopic fishing rods
418 shakespeare fishing rods
410 fishing rod cases
404 fenwick fishing rods
387 fishing rocket rod rod
375 ugly stick fishing rods
368 bamboo fly fishing rods
358 saltwater fishing rods
351 antique fishing rods
343 all star fishing rods
335 allstar fishing rods
332 shimano fishing rods
327 fishing rod building supply
This is a good niche topic. As you can see, there're people looking for information on various types of fishing rod.
Here you can build a website, providing quality and useful information on all types of fishing rod and also latest fishing gadgets available in the market. Then you can recommend (as an affiliate) a few online stores that sell fishing rods. The rule of thumb for choosing a niche topic is searches between 8,000 to 15,000.
Sometimes there are topics that have very high searches but not profitable. Example is "how to tie a tie". This keyphrase has 189776 searches in December 2006.
As I can see most people who are searching for information on how to tie a tie, it means that they are looking for free information to help them out on this problem. When you're researching for demand on don't just based on the results. Use logic thinking too.
Now go and do the research for your topics. Discard the ones that are not in demand and profitable even if they are the topics you love most.
Note: The step above is one of many ways of finding profitable niche topics to write but the result produced, will not be that accurate. The reason being, Overture's Search Term Suggestion tool produces flawed search results.
Here's an alternative keyword research tool, Keyword Results Analyzer , you can use that will give you accurate information on numbers of people searching for any given keywords. This tool will also eliminate most of the flaws generated by Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool.
16042 fishing rods
12787 rocket fishing rod
2799 fishing rod holder
2321 fly fishing rods
1290 custom fishing rods
1125 fishing rod rack
931 fishing kid rocket rod
922 fishing kid rod
875 fishing rods and reel
752 st croix fishing rods
678 ice fishing rods
558 bass fishing rods
555 fishing pole rocket rod
499 fishing rod building
485 fishing rod blank
445 telescopic fishing rods
418 shakespeare fishing rods
410 fishing rod cases
404 fenwick fishing rods
387 fishing rocket rod rod
375 ugly stick fishing rods
368 bamboo fly fishing rods
358 saltwater fishing rods
351 antique fishing rods
343 all star fishing rods
335 allstar fishing rods
332 shimano fishing rods
327 fishing rod building supply
This is a good niche topic. As you can see, there're people looking for information on various types of fishing rod.
Here you can build a website, providing quality and useful information on all types of fishing rod and also latest fishing gadgets available in the market. Then you can recommend (as an affiliate) a few online stores that sell fishing rods. The rule of thumb for choosing a niche topic is searches between 8,000 to 15,000.
Sometimes there are topics that have very high searches but not profitable. Example is "how to tie a tie". This keyphrase has 189776 searches in December 2006.
As I can see most people who are searching for information on how to tie a tie, it means that they are looking for free information to help them out on this problem. When you're researching for demand on don't just based on the results. Use logic thinking too.
Now go and do the research for your topics. Discard the ones that are not in demand and profitable even if they are the topics you love most.
Note: The step above is one of many ways of finding profitable niche topics to write but the result produced, will not be that accurate. The reason being, Overture's Search Term Suggestion tool produces flawed search results.
Here's an alternative keyword research tool, Keyword Results Analyzer , you can use that will give you accurate information on numbers of people searching for any given keywords. This tool will also eliminate most of the flaws generated by Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool.
Affiliate Marketing Blueprint - Step 2
How to Find Good Merchants
Before you start building an affiliate website, it's best if you can identify a few good merchants that sell the products of you chosen niches. If you build a site without first identifying possible merchants, you're planning to fail.
How so? Ask yourself this question. What will happen, when you've finished your site and you couldn't find any good merchants?
Next, what makes a good merchant? Simply put, a merchant that looks after and values its affiliates.
There're a few stringent criterias you should take note in order to identify a good merchant. The most important is the one that I'm going to explain to you next.
As you've already heard, many affiliate marketers complained about their commissions being stolen. Usually, these thieves will replace the affiliate IDs with theirs. This is very common, especially with Clickbank.
Here, merchants should provide affiliate link protection to safeguard their affiliates. But this is not always the case. I'd say 99% of merchants don't provide such service because it's going to cost them money to install affiliate protection software.
So, how can you make sure that you'll get paid for sales generated from your affiliate links? If you can't think of any, then here's one you can use right now. (coming soon)
Make sure you don't move on to the next step until you've found some good and reliable merchants because this step is engrossing and takes a lot of your time. So, don't go wasting your time by researching profitable niches that don't have any potential merchants.
Next we'll move on to step 3 which is the most crucial. If you get this wrong, your site will fail to get any visitors and without visitors, you won't make any money. So, stay tuned!
How so? Ask yourself this question. What will happen, when you've finished your site and you couldn't find any good merchants?
Next, what makes a good merchant? Simply put, a merchant that looks after and values its affiliates.
There're a few stringent criterias you should take note in order to identify a good merchant. The most important is the one that I'm going to explain to you next.
As you've already heard, many affiliate marketers complained about their commissions being stolen. Usually, these thieves will replace the affiliate IDs with theirs. This is very common, especially with Clickbank.
Here, merchants should provide affiliate link protection to safeguard their affiliates. But this is not always the case. I'd say 99% of merchants don't provide such service because it's going to cost them money to install affiliate protection software.
So, how can you make sure that you'll get paid for sales generated from your affiliate links? If you can't think of any, then here's one you can use right now. (coming soon)
Make sure you don't move on to the next step until you've found some good and reliable merchants because this step is engrossing and takes a lot of your time. So, don't go wasting your time by researching profitable niches that don't have any potential merchants.
Next we'll move on to step 3 which is the most crucial. If you get this wrong, your site will fail to get any visitors and without visitors, you won't make any money. So, stay tuned!
Affiliate Marketing Blueprint - Step 3
How to Research Keywords
Like I said earlier, this step is very important because it will dictate how people will find you website. The step is keyword research. What you're doing here is to find out the exact keywords people are typing into the search boxes of the search engines, when they're looking for information. I'd say this is the first step of search engine optimization (SEO).
To do this, you'll need a good keyword research tool that can give you accurate search results. As you know, there're a few tools made available to you for free, which I wouldn't recommend. Logic thinking, if it's free, how would these tools produce accurate search results, particularly Overture's Suggestion Tool.
I'm not saying free tools are bad. They do have their important roles to play but not when researching for keywords to build content pages for your website.
As you know, in order to capture free traffic from search engines, your web pages must rank within the top 20 of the search engine results pages (SERP). This is the reason why you must choose the right keywords and to do this, you'll need a good, accurate and reliable keyword research tool.
I know they'll be someone out there telling you otherwise. The best way to find out is to do your own experiment, if you have all the free time. This way, you'll have no one to blame except you, if you picked the wrong tool. The choice is yours.
I personally use Wordtracker to research keywords.
Picking the right keyword tool is not enough and I got some bads news for you. Do you know now Google (maybe Yahoo) uses Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) algorithm to rank web pages? Which means by just researching keywords to target for your web pages is no longer sufficient. If you want to rank high in SERPs, not only you need to look for the best keywords to build web pages but also keywords to determine the theme of your webpages - meaning telling the search engines what's your web page is all about.
What's Latent Semantic Indexing and how it works?
To do this, you'll need a good keyword research tool that can give you accurate search results. As you know, there're a few tools made available to you for free, which I wouldn't recommend. Logic thinking, if it's free, how would these tools produce accurate search results, particularly Overture's Suggestion Tool.
I'm not saying free tools are bad. They do have their important roles to play but not when researching for keywords to build content pages for your website.
As you know, in order to capture free traffic from search engines, your web pages must rank within the top 20 of the search engine results pages (SERP). This is the reason why you must choose the right keywords and to do this, you'll need a good, accurate and reliable keyword research tool.
I know they'll be someone out there telling you otherwise. The best way to find out is to do your own experiment, if you have all the free time. This way, you'll have no one to blame except you, if you picked the wrong tool. The choice is yours.
I personally use Wordtracker to research keywords.
Picking the right keyword tool is not enough and I got some bads news for you. Do you know now Google (maybe Yahoo) uses Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) algorithm to rank web pages? Which means by just researching keywords to target for your web pages is no longer sufficient. If you want to rank high in SERPs, not only you need to look for the best keywords to build web pages but also keywords to determine the theme of your webpages - meaning telling the search engines what's your web page is all about.
What's Latent Semantic Indexing and how it works?
What is Latent Semantic Indexing?
Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) is a term we are hearing more and more in the online business world. While LSI actually has a very complicated formula behind it, we don't have to worry ourselves with the maths behind it.
What is important is what LSI means to us. Simply put, LSI is a technique that analyses a web page so that it can be categorized. To do this, the LSI algorithm will look at the words that make up the web page, and try to group them into related phrases.
By analyzing these groups, the topic of the web page can be identified. Example, if a page contains the word "cream", could you tell me what the page is about?
Well, it could be about the cream that comes from animals, or it might be about a cream that is applied to the body. What you need to do (and what LSI does) is to find other words that can be grouped together with cream so that the topic of the page can be identified.
OK, what if the page also contains:
"cow", "goat", "milk", "fat"
We can be fairly certain that this page is talking about the cream from animals.
However, what if the page also contained these words:
"cheese", "low-fat", "Brie", "Camembert"
We could then further identify this page as one that talks about cheeses.
If the page also contains these words:
"factory", "manufacture", "process", "aging", "mould"
We could probably assume that the page is about cheese-making.
This is basically what LSI does. It looks for groups of related words, so it can determine the theme (incidentally, throughout this course we won't use the phrase "latent semantic indexing", we will call it themeing). The better the LSI algorithm, the better able it is to identify the page topic.
So why am I telling you this?
Well, search engines are now using LSI to determine page relevancy.
Example - Take two web pages.
Page #1 contains: "French, "cheese", "high-fat", "Brie", "Camembert"
Page #2 contains: "cow", "cream", "fat", "cheese", "blue", "Danish", "manufacture" "aging", "mould"
If someone went to the search engines and searched for :
"how blue cheese is made"
Which page would rank better?
If someone searched for:
"French cheeses"
Which page would rank better?
What is important is what LSI means to us. Simply put, LSI is a technique that analyses a web page so that it can be categorized. To do this, the LSI algorithm will look at the words that make up the web page, and try to group them into related phrases.
By analyzing these groups, the topic of the web page can be identified. Example, if a page contains the word "cream", could you tell me what the page is about?
Well, it could be about the cream that comes from animals, or it might be about a cream that is applied to the body. What you need to do (and what LSI does) is to find other words that can be grouped together with cream so that the topic of the page can be identified.
OK, what if the page also contains:
"cow", "goat", "milk", "fat"
We can be fairly certain that this page is talking about the cream from animals.
However, what if the page also contained these words:
"cheese", "low-fat", "Brie", "Camembert"
We could then further identify this page as one that talks about cheeses.
If the page also contains these words:
"factory", "manufacture", "process", "aging", "mould"
We could probably assume that the page is about cheese-making.
This is basically what LSI does. It looks for groups of related words, so it can determine the theme (incidentally, throughout this course we won't use the phrase "latent semantic indexing", we will call it themeing). The better the LSI algorithm, the better able it is to identify the page topic.
So why am I telling you this?
Well, search engines are now using LSI to determine page relevancy.
Example - Take two web pages.
Page #1 contains: "French, "cheese", "high-fat", "Brie", "Camembert"
Page #2 contains: "cow", "cream", "fat", "cheese", "blue", "Danish", "manufacture" "aging", "mould"
If someone went to the search engines and searched for :
"how blue cheese is made"
Which page would rank better?
If someone searched for:
"French cheeses"
Which page would rank better?
What is Latent Semantic Indexing...continued
Your answers above are based purely on a few keywords that appear in the document, and with these, you can make quite accurate decisions. The more words you have to base your decision on, the more accurate your decision will be. Your thinking process is along the same lines as LSI, and this is what you must bear in mind as you build content.
So, if search engines are using LSI to determine which page ranks best for a given term, what should you do to make sure your content has the best chance of ranking well?
Easy, create content that is themed.
By all means select a primary phrase for your content, but make sure that you also include lots of highly related words that will leave the LSI algorithm no doubt as to the topic of your page.
If you are writing a page on French cheeses, make sure the page includes words that you would expect to be included in a page talking about French cheeses.
...as explained by Dr. Andy Williams of Easy SEO News. Get his Internet Marketing newsletter for optimization tips, product reviews and many more.
So, if search engines are using LSI to determine which page ranks best for a given term, what should you do to make sure your content has the best chance of ranking well?
Easy, create content that is themed.
By all means select a primary phrase for your content, but make sure that you also include lots of highly related words that will leave the LSI algorithm no doubt as to the topic of your page.
If you are writing a page on French cheeses, make sure the page includes words that you would expect to be included in a page talking about French cheeses.
...as explained by Dr. Andy Williams of Easy SEO News. Get his Internet Marketing newsletter for optimization tips, product reviews and many more.
Keyword Research
How I Research for Profitable and Niche Keywords
Before I move on, I want you to know that I won't be going through the whole proses of keyword research because there's too much to tell and explain and I could write an ebook just to show you how to do it.
Like I've said earlier, without proper keyword research, there will be no visitors going to your website. If there're no visitors, logically there won't be any affiliate sales or even AdSense clicks, right?
So, how do you do a proper keyword research?
There are many ways to do a keyword research as interpreted by many online marketers but here I'll only share my method. It may not be favorable to you but if you're uncomfortable with it, you can always use whichever method that suits you best. I know my method works, not only to me but many others who uses the same affiliate system that I'm using. Of course, the result varies.
Till today, I only use these 2 tools to help me not only research for keywords but identify profitable keywords. Profitable keywords here mean keyword or keyphrase that have high search count and low competition.
The keyword research tools I use are Wordtracker and Keyword Results Analyzer.
Most people shy away from using Wordtracker because of its expensive subscription fees. There are a few options to choose when you want to subscribe but if you follow my method, you only need to subscribe for 1 day usage which will cost you around 8 bucks.
Once I've subscribed, I straight login to Wordtracker and start researching the keyword based on the niche topic that I've identified earlier.
Once I've done the keyword research, I then transfer all the keywords to my next tool, Keyword Results Analyzer. The reason I'm using this tool is that when all the keywords that I've imported from Wordtracker, they're all raw and unfiltered.
Imagine if you have 5000 potential keywords, how would you know which are the profitable ones to use for building your website.
So, Keyword Results Analyzer will help me to filter out the unrelated keywords simultaneously sort and group them accordingly. With all being done automatically, I can easily pick and choose the keywords that I can use for putting up my site.
Keyword Results Analyzer can also benefit you in many other ways besides filtering and sorting keywords. Read more about the benefits of Keyword Results Analyzer.
Like I've said earlier, without proper keyword research, there will be no visitors going to your website. If there're no visitors, logically there won't be any affiliate sales or even AdSense clicks, right?
So, how do you do a proper keyword research?
There are many ways to do a keyword research as interpreted by many online marketers but here I'll only share my method. It may not be favorable to you but if you're uncomfortable with it, you can always use whichever method that suits you best. I know my method works, not only to me but many others who uses the same affiliate system that I'm using. Of course, the result varies.
Till today, I only use these 2 tools to help me not only research for keywords but identify profitable keywords. Profitable keywords here mean keyword or keyphrase that have high search count and low competition.
The keyword research tools I use are Wordtracker and Keyword Results Analyzer.
Most people shy away from using Wordtracker because of its expensive subscription fees. There are a few options to choose when you want to subscribe but if you follow my method, you only need to subscribe for 1 day usage which will cost you around 8 bucks.
Once I've subscribed, I straight login to Wordtracker and start researching the keyword based on the niche topic that I've identified earlier.
Once I've done the keyword research, I then transfer all the keywords to my next tool, Keyword Results Analyzer. The reason I'm using this tool is that when all the keywords that I've imported from Wordtracker, they're all raw and unfiltered.
Imagine if you have 5000 potential keywords, how would you know which are the profitable ones to use for building your website.
So, Keyword Results Analyzer will help me to filter out the unrelated keywords simultaneously sort and group them accordingly. With all being done automatically, I can easily pick and choose the keywords that I can use for putting up my site.
Keyword Results Analyzer can also benefit you in many other ways besides filtering and sorting keywords. Read more about the benefits of Keyword Results Analyzer.
How I Research Profitable and Niche Keywords ... continued
There are a lot to explain on keyword research but this is the best I can do. It's best if you take some initiative to do some in-depth research on this subject matter to further educate yourself. Remember, there's no free lunch here. You must invest in keyword research tools if you want to build money-making websites.
Some of you may have different opinion on this or maybe they would prefer their own choice of tool. So be it. Like I said, this is how many others and myself did it and produces great results. The choice is yours.
Now you have a bunch of profitable and niche keywords, so, what do you do next?
Some of you may have different opinion on this or maybe they would prefer their own choice of tool. So be it. Like I said, this is how many others and myself did it and produces great results. The choice is yours.
Now you have a bunch of profitable and niche keywords, so, what do you do next?
Affiliate Marketing Blueprint - Step 4
How to Build a Money-Making Affiliate Website
Before you can move on to plan on what to do with the keywords, you must have some sort of a plan on how you want to utilized the keywords to the maximum when building a website. I called it a blueprint, just like you must have blueprint or a house plan or design before build a house. In this case, a blueprint for your website.
This is a very comprehensive topic to discuss and I'll just briefly explain to you on the overall site design that works. This is a proven method that I've learned and used when building most of my websites.
The most important thing to remember when building a website is to pay very close attention on the linking strategy within your site. Each and every page must link to each other systematically so that when your visitors visit your site, they know which page to go next easily by you showing the correct path (link). Just like when you're trap in a maze and you need to follow the right path so that you can get out from it easily. There are other reasons too when you provide a strategic linking within you website.
Sounds complicated, right? I know it is because I've experienced it too and you've no choice but to go through this process. So this is where you need to do some homework yourself to learn more about linking process. This is very important if you want to build a money-making affiliate websites.
OK, let's look at how to design an ideal affiliate website that can make you money. Not only a design that has an overall linking structure but a design that is well optimized for search engines to attract traffic (targeted visitors) to your site.
First, they're many blueprints you can follow but the blueprint that I'm going to go through with you is the one that I personally used, not only by me but many other successful people too.
This is a very comprehensive topic to discuss and I'll just briefly explain to you on the overall site design that works. This is a proven method that I've learned and used when building most of my websites.
The most important thing to remember when building a website is to pay very close attention on the linking strategy within your site. Each and every page must link to each other systematically so that when your visitors visit your site, they know which page to go next easily by you showing the correct path (link). Just like when you're trap in a maze and you need to follow the right path so that you can get out from it easily. There are other reasons too when you provide a strategic linking within you website.
Sounds complicated, right? I know it is because I've experienced it too and you've no choice but to go through this process. So this is where you need to do some homework yourself to learn more about linking process. This is very important if you want to build a money-making affiliate websites.
OK, let's look at how to design an ideal affiliate website that can make you money. Not only a design that has an overall linking structure but a design that is well optimized for search engines to attract traffic (targeted visitors) to your site.
First, they're many blueprints you can follow but the blueprint that I'm going to go through with you is the one that I personally used, not only by me but many other successful people too.
The Blueprint for Website Design
What I'm about to tell you is the blueprint of building an affiliate website that I've used. Like I've said, you can use any other blueprints or methods that suit you best. Fair enough?
Let me lay them out the ideal site design when you want to build an affiliate website, then I'll explain briefly one-by-one for a clearer picture.
Simply put, they are:
1) Homepage or technically called an index page.
2) Main pages
3) Sitemap
4) Articlemap
5) Article pages
That's it. Simple as ABC.
These will represent the structure of your website. They act as a pillar to support your website. Each and everyone of it has its own function and responsibility. I won't go through in details on them but I'll do it briefly. The most important thing is you need to get through the basics of building a website first. Once you've completed, then only you can move on to the next level.
Now let's go through each one of them.
Let me lay them out the ideal site design when you want to build an affiliate website, then I'll explain briefly one-by-one for a clearer picture.
Simply put, they are:
1) Homepage or technically called an index page.
2) Main pages
3) Sitemap
4) Articlemap
5) Article pages
That's it. Simple as ABC.
These will represent the structure of your website. They act as a pillar to support your website. Each and everyone of it has its own function and responsibility. I won't go through in details on them but I'll do it briefly. The most important thing is you need to get through the basics of building a website first. Once you've completed, then only you can move on to the next level.
Now let's go through each one of them.
The Homepage aka Index Page
Your homepage represents the overall theme of your site. Just like an introduction page to a book. Meaning, your homepage should tell your visitors what your website is all about. What is the message you're going to tell them? You must make it clear and precise so that they'll know they've come to the right place. You must make them feel at home.
To make them to stay longer, you must provide enough information. What they actually looking for are solution to their problems. So, give them what they want to know.
It also acts as a table of content to your overall site. Once they understand that you're trying to help to solve their problems, and then they'll move on the next page related to what they're looking for.
This is where your main page come in. Let's look at the function of the main page.
To make them to stay longer, you must provide enough information. What they actually looking for are solution to their problems. So, give them what they want to know.
It also acts as a table of content to your overall site. Once they understand that you're trying to help to solve their problems, and then they'll move on the next page related to what they're looking for.
This is where your main page come in. Let's look at the function of the main page.
The Main Page
We've talked about the homepage where it acts as an introduction to your overall site theme. It's very important to stay focus on 1 theme only because the reason your visitor's drop-in to your site is hoping that you can help them to solve their problems.
Next, the main page. The main function of your main page is to introduce your visitors, products that could help to solve their problems. You either introduce your own or other people's products where you act as an affiliate.
Basically a main page is your product page. This is where you make money from your website, either selling your own or merchant's products. Each page for each product.
To entice your visitors to buy the products you recommended, it's very important that you don't "hard-sell" in your content. The most ideal way is to "pre-sell" the products.
What do you mean by "pre-sell"?
Pre-selling is a term used to describe how to get your visitors into a buying mood before they reach your product's or the merchant's site. Sometimes it's also known as "selling foreplay".
So, how do you get your visitor's into a buying mood?
Simply put, don't write for the purpose of selling the product. One of the easiest ways of pre-selling is to write a review on the product that you're promoting. Others include writing Qs & As and reviewing the merchant that sells the product.
An important note I'd like to stress when doing a review on any product is you must own it. Why?
I want you to read an article, which explains it in details. This mainly applies if you're promoting downloadable products such as ebooks, softwares, hosting, membership sites, etc.
Next, the main page. The main function of your main page is to introduce your visitors, products that could help to solve their problems. You either introduce your own or other people's products where you act as an affiliate.
Basically a main page is your product page. This is where you make money from your website, either selling your own or merchant's products. Each page for each product.
To entice your visitors to buy the products you recommended, it's very important that you don't "hard-sell" in your content. The most ideal way is to "pre-sell" the products.
What do you mean by "pre-sell"?
Pre-selling is a term used to describe how to get your visitors into a buying mood before they reach your product's or the merchant's site. Sometimes it's also known as "selling foreplay".
So, how do you get your visitor's into a buying mood?
Simply put, don't write for the purpose of selling the product. One of the easiest ways of pre-selling is to write a review on the product that you're promoting. Others include writing Qs & As and reviewing the merchant that sells the product.
An important note I'd like to stress when doing a review on any product is you must own it. Why?
I want you to read an article, which explains it in details. This mainly applies if you're promoting downloadable products such as ebooks, softwares, hosting, membership sites, etc.
The Main Page ... continued
You Must Be Your Best Customer Before You Can Succeed
As an affiliate marketer your main purpose is to promote products or services and to find customers. For you to achieve this purpose, you must be able to convince your potential customers that certain products and services would help them to achieve their personal goals or fix a problem they may be experiencing.
However, it is difficult and almost impossible for you to do this when you yourself are not your best customer. By this I mean that you must first test the product or service yourself BEFORE you promote it.
If you do not own the product or service yourself, you will not be able to convincingly explain the benefits or disadvantages of the product you're promoting. As a result, your potential customers will be able to instantly spot this and you will lose any credibility you may have built with your readers.
Many new affiliate marketers make this mistake and they pay dearly for their actions with a lack of sales. In order to succeed you need to avoid making the same mistakes.
You need to first try the product or service personally before you sign up as an affiliate to see if it really delivers what it promises. Then simply give an honest and unbiased review of your thoughts on the product and if it helped you, tell your readers how it did, and how it could help them.
If you do this, you can become a credible and living testament to the product. Your customers will then feel the sincerity and truthfulness in your web content and this may just be the trigger for them to try it out for themselves.
OK, back to the purpose of a main page.
By doing pre-selling, you're trying to connect with your visitors. Here you're building relationship with them. Help and guide them by providing quality information on the product or merchant that they're looking for. Once they've gained your trust, they are more likely to buy the product recommended by you.
Acquire as much as possible, information on how to pre-sell effectively on your website. Master it and you'll be laughing all the way to the bank.
However, it is difficult and almost impossible for you to do this when you yourself are not your best customer. By this I mean that you must first test the product or service yourself BEFORE you promote it.
If you do not own the product or service yourself, you will not be able to convincingly explain the benefits or disadvantages of the product you're promoting. As a result, your potential customers will be able to instantly spot this and you will lose any credibility you may have built with your readers.
Many new affiliate marketers make this mistake and they pay dearly for their actions with a lack of sales. In order to succeed you need to avoid making the same mistakes.
You need to first try the product or service personally before you sign up as an affiliate to see if it really delivers what it promises. Then simply give an honest and unbiased review of your thoughts on the product and if it helped you, tell your readers how it did, and how it could help them.
If you do this, you can become a credible and living testament to the product. Your customers will then feel the sincerity and truthfulness in your web content and this may just be the trigger for them to try it out for themselves.
OK, back to the purpose of a main page.
By doing pre-selling, you're trying to connect with your visitors. Here you're building relationship with them. Help and guide them by providing quality information on the product or merchant that they're looking for. Once they've gained your trust, they are more likely to buy the product recommended by you.
Acquire as much as possible, information on how to pre-sell effectively on your website. Master it and you'll be laughing all the way to the bank.
The Sitemap - The Overall Linking of Your Affiliate Website
The overall linking structure of your website is vital if you want to web pages to be found and indexed by Google fast. This means to maximize the visibility of your web pages and to be easily found by the search engines, all your web pages must linked together in its best possible way.
So, how are you going to link these all the pages mentioned in the blueprint?
For easy explanation, let's use a website, www.smartadsense.info (now defunct) that I've built. I did not update this site for more than 6 months and the domain is going to expire soon. Please note that this is not a perfect example of an affilate website but it was built based on the blueprint which I'm sharing with you all here.
One way to get your web pages linked is to use a sitemap. The sitemap is a page that list all the webpages on your site. This page tells the search engines where to find the pages on your site. The sitemap is also the best way to get all your webpages indexed fast, if done correctly.
If you look at the homepage, that's a sitemap link located at the bottom of the menu bar as well as the bottom of the page. Click on the link and you'll go to the sitemap page.
There are links with descriptions of all the main pages on this site as well as the article site map which is located at the bottom of the page. This page also links back to the homepage. Each and every page of the main pages will have the sitemap and homepage links too.
Here' you'll notice that the homepage, the main pages and sitemap page are linked together for the purpose of the search engines to find and include in their index. So, this is how a sitemap links all the pages on a website. Make sure to include a sitemap when you build an affiliate website.
So, how are you going to link these all the pages mentioned in the blueprint?
For easy explanation, let's use a website, www.smartadsense.info (now defunct) that I've built. I did not update this site for more than 6 months and the domain is going to expire soon. Please note that this is not a perfect example of an affilate website but it was built based on the blueprint which I'm sharing with you all here.
One way to get your web pages linked is to use a sitemap. The sitemap is a page that list all the webpages on your site. This page tells the search engines where to find the pages on your site. The sitemap is also the best way to get all your webpages indexed fast, if done correctly.
If you look at the homepage, that's a sitemap link located at the bottom of the menu bar as well as the bottom of the page. Click on the link and you'll go to the sitemap page.
There are links with descriptions of all the main pages on this site as well as the article site map which is located at the bottom of the page. This page also links back to the homepage. Each and every page of the main pages will have the sitemap and homepage links too.
Here' you'll notice that the homepage, the main pages and sitemap page are linked together for the purpose of the search engines to find and include in their index. So, this is how a sitemap links all the pages on a website. Make sure to include a sitemap when you build an affiliate website.
The Article Map
The article map is similiar to the sitemap but only links to the article pages on your site. The main purpose of articles are to get free search engines traffic to you site. For the search engines to find these articles easily, this is why reason why you need to create an article map within your site.
Again, if you look at the sitemap page of this website www.smartadsense.info (now defunct), the article site map link is located at the bottom of the page with a text link "Articles". Click on the link and you'll land at the article site map page that contains all the links to the articles that I've written. You'll notice at this page also links back to the homepage.
So this is how the overall linking structure looks like and why it's important. Here, I've just covered a tiny portion of the importance of a sitemap on your website. You'll need to further educate yourself more on how to use the sitemap on your website effectively.
Again, if you look at the sitemap page of this website www.smartadsense.info (now defunct), the article site map link is located at the bottom of the page with a text link "Articles". Click on the link and you'll land at the article site map page that contains all the links to the articles that I've written. You'll notice at this page also links back to the homepage.
So this is how the overall linking structure looks like and why it's important. Here, I've just covered a tiny portion of the importance of a sitemap on your website. You'll need to further educate yourself more on how to use the sitemap on your website effectively.
The Article Page
Articles Equal Traffic
The article pages have a few functions. According to the blueprint, the purpose of an article is to funnel its traffic back to any of the the product pages (main pages) that you've built earlier, either through the menu bar of your website or text links within the article itself. So, it's best to write an article with low competition key phrases so that it can rank easily at the search engines.
Let say if you have a main page that promote golf clubs. Then write as many article using less competitive key phrases about golf clubs or anything closely related to it. At the end of each article, you can link back to your main page and let that page do the pre-selling. Here your article must provide useful information to your readers based on the key phrase you've chosen.
Here are some other functions of articles. Articles can:
1) get you recognised as a leading expert
2) build convidence in your reader
3) create income through AdSense
4) establish your site as an authority in your chosen niche
Now, let move's on to writing articles.
I know ther're lots of information on how to write articles. They're the experts, in article writing and I'm not, so you need to listen to them. But what I've noticed is they left out the most important process of writing an article. It's either they don't know or purposely don't want to reveal their close guarded secret. What's the fuss about this secret that they're not willing to share? The prosses I'm referring to is not during but before you start writing.
To be honest, I wouldn't call it a secret. As matter of fact, everyone does it. It's either the right way or the wrong way. The process is keyword research. Here's I'll show you the action plan of writing an article based on the blueprint only. You can still apply this process before you want to write an article for your site, blog or even submit to article directories.
Like I've mentioned, the main purpose of an article page is to funnel it's traffic back to the main page of your site. So the article that you're going to write must rank well in the search engines. How do you do that?
By writing based on keywords or phrases with low competition. I know you must be thinking it's very difficult to find low competiton keywords anymore because now people are getting smarter and they know where to find those keywords and grab them first.
Let say if you have a main page that promote golf clubs. Then write as many article using less competitive key phrases about golf clubs or anything closely related to it. At the end of each article, you can link back to your main page and let that page do the pre-selling. Here your article must provide useful information to your readers based on the key phrase you've chosen.
Here are some other functions of articles. Articles can:
1) get you recognised as a leading expert
2) build convidence in your reader
3) create income through AdSense
4) establish your site as an authority in your chosen niche
Now, let move's on to writing articles.
I know ther're lots of information on how to write articles. They're the experts, in article writing and I'm not, so you need to listen to them. But what I've noticed is they left out the most important process of writing an article. It's either they don't know or purposely don't want to reveal their close guarded secret. What's the fuss about this secret that they're not willing to share? The prosses I'm referring to is not during but before you start writing.
To be honest, I wouldn't call it a secret. As matter of fact, everyone does it. It's either the right way or the wrong way. The process is keyword research. Here's I'll show you the action plan of writing an article based on the blueprint only. You can still apply this process before you want to write an article for your site, blog or even submit to article directories.
Like I've mentioned, the main purpose of an article page is to funnel it's traffic back to the main page of your site. So the article that you're going to write must rank well in the search engines. How do you do that?
By writing based on keywords or phrases with low competition. I know you must be thinking it's very difficult to find low competiton keywords anymore because now people are getting smarter and they know where to find those keywords and grab them first.
The Article Page ... continued
Actually there's a way. It's just that you need to look harder. I know it not easy and I've to fork out my own money just to look for the right answer and the good news is, you don't have to because I'm going to share with you right here on my Squidoo lens.
But first, I need you to remember this. The method that I'm going to share with you is not exhaustive. I'm sure they're many other ways you can follow when looking for low competitive keywords. I'm showing you based on what I've learned and experienced.
You may have read some of this method somewhere on the net but hardly being practised. The reason is it's too difficult to follow. I know it's not easy and takes lot of hard work to make it work but the end results is worth while. Hey, no one says it's easy to make money on the internet.
To me this is the greatest method I've seen and used. Moreover, the person who created it, rareley exposed himself to the public. That's why almost nobody seems to know or talks about him or his methods, excepts those who know what it really take to be successful on the internet.
There're 2 keyword research tools involved here and yes you need to buy them, just like any other tool used by other people when researching for keywords. Many people claimed that they produced positive results with free tools. So be it. If you're comfortable with free tools, then continue using it. Don't let me stop you.
But the method I'm about to reveal to you is for those who want to know the actual keyword research being done and those who haven't found great success with free tools. Here's one thing you may not know. Only the real and successful internet marketers use paid keyword research tools because they know the flaw of using free tools. If you don't believe me, go ahead and ask around.
But first, I need you to remember this. The method that I'm going to share with you is not exhaustive. I'm sure they're many other ways you can follow when looking for low competitive keywords. I'm showing you based on what I've learned and experienced.
You may have read some of this method somewhere on the net but hardly being practised. The reason is it's too difficult to follow. I know it's not easy and takes lot of hard work to make it work but the end results is worth while. Hey, no one says it's easy to make money on the internet.
To me this is the greatest method I've seen and used. Moreover, the person who created it, rareley exposed himself to the public. That's why almost nobody seems to know or talks about him or his methods, excepts those who know what it really take to be successful on the internet.
There're 2 keyword research tools involved here and yes you need to buy them, just like any other tool used by other people when researching for keywords. Many people claimed that they produced positive results with free tools. So be it. If you're comfortable with free tools, then continue using it. Don't let me stop you.
But the method I'm about to reveal to you is for those who want to know the actual keyword research being done and those who haven't found great success with free tools. Here's one thing you may not know. Only the real and successful internet marketers use paid keyword research tools because they know the flaw of using free tools. If you don't believe me, go ahead and ask around.
The Article Page ...continued
The truth is you're not going to buy and use it for only once but many times. So, if your long term plan is going to build many websites or blogs for your online ventures, then you can use the same tool again. The keyword research tool that you're going to buy is going to be an asset but an investment too. So, the choice is yours.
Here I'm not just researching keywords but keywords for you to theme your article based on latent semantic indexing algorithm so that your article can rank high in search engine result pages (SERPs). I'm even going to show you how you can grab those low competitive keywords even in a very, I say it again, a very tight niche. You only can acheive these results with the method using the keyword research tools that I'm about to tell you.
So, let me warn you ahead. If you do follow this method, just be prepared to get your hands dirty. Last but not least, if this method doesn't seems favourable to or work for you, it doesn't mean it won't work for others because it did, for me.
I won't be going through the whole process but just enough for you to see how it works.
Here I'm not just researching keywords but keywords for you to theme your article based on latent semantic indexing algorithm so that your article can rank high in search engine result pages (SERPs). I'm even going to show you how you can grab those low competitive keywords even in a very, I say it again, a very tight niche. You only can acheive these results with the method using the keyword research tools that I'm about to tell you.
So, let me warn you ahead. If you do follow this method, just be prepared to get your hands dirty. Last but not least, if this method doesn't seems favourable to or work for you, it doesn't mean it won't work for others because it did, for me.
I won't be going through the whole process but just enough for you to see how it works.
How to Research Keywords for Your Articles
Before I begin, let me repeat. This article writing process for your article page only applies to the blueprint that you've been reading. You still can follow the same exact method, though, but the results may vary because of the keyword research tools that I'm using may be difference from yours.
When writing articles, they should be informative and helpful to your readers. Like I've said earlier I won't go through the whole step-by-step process because it's going to be very very long. I'll just simplified it and make sure you understand when you read it.
The first step is to find a set of keywords to work with. These keywords must be phrases that people are searching for as well as related to your site theme. To do this, I'm using Wordtracker.
I know you must be thinking why I must use such an expensive tool. Because the search results are almost accurate compared to other tools (there are NO keyword research tools that can produce 100% accurate results). And the good news is you just need to subscribe for 1 day which will cost you about $9.
Through my experience, they'll let you have access for 3 days. With 1 day subscription you can actually research a few niche topics. So, Is that expensive to you?
Please bear in mind you're merely collecting data from Wordtracker. You don't have to refine and sort your keywords yet. You'll do that later. The reason is to fully utilize Wordtracker for the next 3 days and collect as many keywords as possible on the chosen niches. It's going to be thousands of keywords for each niche.
Most biggest mistake people make (I did, the first time) when using Wordtracker is they don't know how to get started once they've subscribed it. It will take quite a lot of your time just to understand the functions on its dashboard. So, the best thing to do before you subscribe, is to read and understand "which button to push" on the dashboard.
Wordtraker do provide a manual,where you can download for free from their website.
When writing articles, they should be informative and helpful to your readers. Like I've said earlier I won't go through the whole step-by-step process because it's going to be very very long. I'll just simplified it and make sure you understand when you read it.
The first step is to find a set of keywords to work with. These keywords must be phrases that people are searching for as well as related to your site theme. To do this, I'm using Wordtracker.
I know you must be thinking why I must use such an expensive tool. Because the search results are almost accurate compared to other tools (there are NO keyword research tools that can produce 100% accurate results). And the good news is you just need to subscribe for 1 day which will cost you about $9.
Through my experience, they'll let you have access for 3 days. With 1 day subscription you can actually research a few niche topics. So, Is that expensive to you?
Please bear in mind you're merely collecting data from Wordtracker. You don't have to refine and sort your keywords yet. You'll do that later. The reason is to fully utilize Wordtracker for the next 3 days and collect as many keywords as possible on the chosen niches. It's going to be thousands of keywords for each niche.
Most biggest mistake people make (I did, the first time) when using Wordtracker is they don't know how to get started once they've subscribed it. It will take quite a lot of your time just to understand the functions on its dashboard. So, the best thing to do before you subscribe, is to read and understand "which button to push" on the dashboard.
Wordtraker do provide a manual,where you can download for free from their website.
How to Research Keywords for Your Articles ... continued
Make sure you know everything on how to operate Wordtraker because it will make you life easier when researching keywords. On thing I can promise you is, it's a very tedious work and will make things worst if you don't know how to use it.
Give up already? Nah, I know you're not that type of person that give up easily. You're a Warrior.
Next, when you've completed your research on each project (niche), e-mail the data to your own e-mail address. And when you received the e-mail, export them to another keyword research tool for refining, sorting and grouping of the keywords. The keyword research tool is Keyword Results Analyzer and here's why you should use it.
When you're doing keyword research on a topic with Wordtracker usually it can spit out around 5,000 - 10,000 keywords. That's huge. Imagine this, how are you going to filter and sort all these keywords. Maybe I can do it if it's around 500 or less but still it's going to take weeks just to sort them. How about 5,000? I just cannot imagine.
Yes, alternatively you can use spreadsheet or Excel program. Yet it will take you weeks to sort them all out, even you're an expert.
With Keyword Results Analyzer, it can help you to analyze, sort and filter all the keywords within minutes. This is absolutely a real time saver.
Click and read more about Keyword Results Analyzer and how it works.
This just came it this month. The latest upgrade on this tool is, not only it can import Wordtracker data but data from just about any other source. This means that Keyword Results Analyzer can now be applied to data from your own favourite keyword research tool such as Overture.
One thing you must know is Keyword Results Analyzer doest not produce keywords by itself. It's simply a software to simplified your keyword research work. Not only that, it can also help you to sort out keywords and grouped them together for you to write a "theme" article. If you do know what is a "theme" article, please refer back to the topic "What is Latent Semantic Indexing?".
Let me give you an example of sorted keywords for the topic on weight loss.
Give up already? Nah, I know you're not that type of person that give up easily. You're a Warrior.
Next, when you've completed your research on each project (niche), e-mail the data to your own e-mail address. And when you received the e-mail, export them to another keyword research tool for refining, sorting and grouping of the keywords. The keyword research tool is Keyword Results Analyzer and here's why you should use it.
When you're doing keyword research on a topic with Wordtracker usually it can spit out around 5,000 - 10,000 keywords. That's huge. Imagine this, how are you going to filter and sort all these keywords. Maybe I can do it if it's around 500 or less but still it's going to take weeks just to sort them. How about 5,000? I just cannot imagine.
Yes, alternatively you can use spreadsheet or Excel program. Yet it will take you weeks to sort them all out, even you're an expert.
With Keyword Results Analyzer, it can help you to analyze, sort and filter all the keywords within minutes. This is absolutely a real time saver.
Click and read more about Keyword Results Analyzer and how it works.
This just came it this month. The latest upgrade on this tool is, not only it can import Wordtracker data but data from just about any other source. This means that Keyword Results Analyzer can now be applied to data from your own favourite keyword research tool such as Overture.
One thing you must know is Keyword Results Analyzer doest not produce keywords by itself. It's simply a software to simplified your keyword research work. Not only that, it can also help you to sort out keywords and grouped them together for you to write a "theme" article. If you do know what is a "theme" article, please refer back to the topic "What is Latent Semantic Indexing?".
Let me give you an example of sorted keywords for the topic on weight loss.
Keyword Results Analyzer in Action
Here's a sample of keywords I extracted from Wordtracker and then refine, sort and group using Keyword Results Analyzer.
179 109 123000 herbal weight loss pills
153 93 2350000 weight loss pill
96 58 36800 loss natural pill program weight
94 57 67900 ****** weight loss pills
84 51 13600 exercise loss no pill weight
83 50 12800 loss patch pill weight
82 50 15600 gnc weight loss pill
72 44 107000 best weight loss pills
58 35 646 advertised loss pill tv weight
53 32 62200 effective weight loss pill
49 30 54800 buy weight loss pills online
47 29 30700 release weight loss pills
47 29 61800 effective weight loss pills
46 28 1300000 weight loss diet pills
44 27 131000 best weight loss pill
39 24 24700 weight loss diet fat pills on line
27 16 36400 fast weight loss diet pills
14 9 40500 diet pills weight loss com
12 7 348000 diet pills weight loss
11 7 87 ****** weight loss ****** diet pills ****** cactus ******
10 6 37400 best diet pills weight loss drugs
10 6 70 ******* lose weight loss diet pills
9 5 26 ******* lose weight loss diet pills
179 109 123000 herbal weight loss pills
153 93 2350000 weight loss pill
96 58 36800 loss natural pill program weight
94 57 67900 ****** weight loss pills
84 51 13600 exercise loss no pill weight
83 50 12800 loss patch pill weight
82 50 15600 gnc weight loss pill
72 44 107000 best weight loss pills
58 35 646 advertised loss pill tv weight
53 32 62200 effective weight loss pill
49 30 54800 buy weight loss pills online
47 29 30700 release weight loss pills
47 29 61800 effective weight loss pills
46 28 1300000 weight loss diet pills
44 27 131000 best weight loss pill
39 24 24700 weight loss diet fat pills on line
27 16 36400 fast weight loss diet pills
14 9 40500 diet pills weight loss com
12 7 348000 diet pills weight loss
11 7 87 ****** weight loss ****** diet pills ****** cactus ******
10 6 37400 best diet pills weight loss drugs
10 6 70 ******* lose weight loss diet pills
9 5 26 ******* lose weight loss diet pills
Keyword Results Analyzer in Action ... continued
Unique Keywords:
advertised
best
buy
cactus
diet
drugs
effective
exercise
fast
fat
gnc
herbal
h*****
i******
line
lose
loss
natural
no
online
patch
pill
pills
program
release
tv
weight
x******
Based on the table, let say you want to write an article on weight loss pills and "weight loss pills" will be your primary keyword . You'll noticed that phrase has high searches but also high competition. This means your secondary keywords are going to do their job and make sure this article can get high ranking for related phrases. So, how to you find these secondary keywords?
If you look at the table again, all of the keywords contain the word "weight loss pill/s", which means all the phrases will be related to "weight loss pills". if you use all these phrases as you secondary keywords, you would have, not only a very lage page, but a very high density on words like "weight loss pills" and "weight loss". You wouldn't want to use these phrases many times because you'll be accuse for spamming by the search engines. So, how do you overcome this?
Again look at the bottom of the table, you'll find a list of words. These are unique words that make up the phrases of all the keywords mentioned in the table. They are all related to the topic of weight loss pills.
These are the words that you need to include into the content of the "weight loss pills" article that you're going to write. Sprinking these words, especially when combined with the words "weight loss pills" will allow this page to rank better for wider range of keywords and set the theme of the article, telling the bots what this page is about. In this case it's about weight loss pills.
You can also include the exact keywords e.g. "effective weight loss pills" or "herbal weight loss pills", but make sure you don't force it in. Same goes to all of the unique words or those that are closely related. It's up to you. The important thing is the article must make sense when someone reads it.
This is how keyword research being done when you want to write a "theme" article for you article page.
advertised
best
buy
cactus
diet
drugs
effective
exercise
fast
fat
gnc
herbal
h*****
i******
line
lose
loss
natural
no
online
patch
pill
pills
program
release
tv
weight
x******
Based on the table, let say you want to write an article on weight loss pills and "weight loss pills" will be your primary keyword . You'll noticed that phrase has high searches but also high competition. This means your secondary keywords are going to do their job and make sure this article can get high ranking for related phrases. So, how to you find these secondary keywords?
If you look at the table again, all of the keywords contain the word "weight loss pill/s", which means all the phrases will be related to "weight loss pills". if you use all these phrases as you secondary keywords, you would have, not only a very lage page, but a very high density on words like "weight loss pills" and "weight loss". You wouldn't want to use these phrases many times because you'll be accuse for spamming by the search engines. So, how do you overcome this?
Again look at the bottom of the table, you'll find a list of words. These are unique words that make up the phrases of all the keywords mentioned in the table. They are all related to the topic of weight loss pills.
These are the words that you need to include into the content of the "weight loss pills" article that you're going to write. Sprinking these words, especially when combined with the words "weight loss pills" will allow this page to rank better for wider range of keywords and set the theme of the article, telling the bots what this page is about. In this case it's about weight loss pills.
You can also include the exact keywords e.g. "effective weight loss pills" or "herbal weight loss pills", but make sure you don't force it in. Same goes to all of the unique words or those that are closely related. It's up to you. The important thing is the article must make sense when someone reads it.
This is how keyword research being done when you want to write a "theme" article for you article page.
Keyword Results Analyzer Video Tutorial Series
I just received this from the creator of Keyword Results Analyzer. He just released a FREE 8 part video tutorial series showing you exactly how to reasearch keyword using Wordtracker and Nichebot 2 and handle all the keywords using Keyword Results Analyzer.
This video series will cover the following (delivered one per day for 8 days):
Day #1 - Wordtracker for Keyword Research
In this video, I'll show you the exact same method I use to research my keywords at Wordtracker. Be warned that my method can result in 1000s of laser-targeted keywords for any niche (this video walks you through the steps I used to research over 2000 phrases for the niche of BBQs).
Day #2 - Nichebot 2 for Keyword Research
In this video, I'll look at how you can use Nichebot 2, a relatively newcomer on the Keyword Research block, to research the same BBQ niche. I'll show you how I found 6000 highly-related phrases in the BBQ niche, with next to no effort.
Day #3 - Importing Wordtracker data into KRA
This video shows how you can import Wordtracker data, with simple copy and paste, and a few clicks of the mouse.
Day #4 - Importing Nichebot Data into KRA
This video shows you how to setup KRA so that it can handle Nichebot 2 data (or data from any other keyword service that you use). In just a few clicks of the mouse, all 6000 phrases from Nichebot 2 are in KRA, and ready for you to work with.
Day #5 - Basic Filtering
This video shows you how to filter in Excel, and then perform similar tasks in KRA. You'll learn that even the basic filtering capabilities of KRA are far easier and faster than a traditional spreadsheet.
Day #6 - Advanced Filtering
This video shows more advanced filtering of data. This is something that is either not possible in your traditional spreadsheet, or requires advanced programming of scripts to achieve.
Day #7 - Finding hidden niches within your research
This video shows you how KRA can dig out hidden niches in your data. This is a real eye opener!
Day #8 - A look at how I use KRA
In the final part of the series, I'll show you how I use KRA to setup a new website. This is an insight into my own site building methods, and one that has worked consistently for me over the last few years.
If you're curious and what to know how Keyword Results Analyzer really works, click to watch these video tutorial.
This video series will cover the following (delivered one per day for 8 days):
Day #1 - Wordtracker for Keyword Research
In this video, I'll show you the exact same method I use to research my keywords at Wordtracker. Be warned that my method can result in 1000s of laser-targeted keywords for any niche (this video walks you through the steps I used to research over 2000 phrases for the niche of BBQs).
Day #2 - Nichebot 2 for Keyword Research
In this video, I'll look at how you can use Nichebot 2, a relatively newcomer on the Keyword Research block, to research the same BBQ niche. I'll show you how I found 6000 highly-related phrases in the BBQ niche, with next to no effort.
Day #3 - Importing Wordtracker data into KRA
This video shows how you can import Wordtracker data, with simple copy and paste, and a few clicks of the mouse.
Day #4 - Importing Nichebot Data into KRA
This video shows you how to setup KRA so that it can handle Nichebot 2 data (or data from any other keyword service that you use). In just a few clicks of the mouse, all 6000 phrases from Nichebot 2 are in KRA, and ready for you to work with.
Day #5 - Basic Filtering
This video shows you how to filter in Excel, and then perform similar tasks in KRA. You'll learn that even the basic filtering capabilities of KRA are far easier and faster than a traditional spreadsheet.
Day #6 - Advanced Filtering
This video shows more advanced filtering of data. This is something that is either not possible in your traditional spreadsheet, or requires advanced programming of scripts to achieve.
Day #7 - Finding hidden niches within your research
This video shows you how KRA can dig out hidden niches in your data. This is a real eye opener!
Day #8 - A look at how I use KRA
In the final part of the series, I'll show you how I use KRA to setup a new website. This is an insight into my own site building methods, and one that has worked consistently for me over the last few years.
If you're curious and what to know how Keyword Results Analyzer really works, click to watch these video tutorial.
How to Write a Pre-Selling Article
As mentioned earlier, the function of your main page is to pre-sell your affiliate products/services. Basically, pre-sell means getting your visitors into buying mood before they reach your merchant's site. One of the easiest ways to pre-sell anything is to do a review.
To create a pre-selling page, you can follow these steps which consist of 7 questions. These are just outline. I advice you to further research on how to write a pre-selling article.
1)What are the problems faced by your visitors?
Write down the problems.
2) Why your visitors still got these problems?
Write down the reasons why the problems still persists. Let them know that you understand their problems.
3) Describe what life can be without the problems.
Write down what's possible. Paint a picture of the things will be when their problems are solved.
4) Introduce your product/service.
Write down how your product/service solves their problems and what differentiates your products/service from others.
5) Feature a list.
List down all the benefits of your product/service.
6) Final call.
Paint another picture to re-emphasize what life could be after using the product/service.
7) Call to action.
State clearly what you want your visitors to do. It can be sign-up for a newsletter or download a free report or click on your affiliate link.
With these answers to your questions, you should have at least some general ideas that you can use to write your pre-selling article.
To create a pre-selling page, you can follow these steps which consist of 7 questions. These are just outline. I advice you to further research on how to write a pre-selling article.
1)What are the problems faced by your visitors?
Write down the problems.
2) Why your visitors still got these problems?
Write down the reasons why the problems still persists. Let them know that you understand their problems.
3) Describe what life can be without the problems.
Write down what's possible. Paint a picture of the things will be when their problems are solved.
4) Introduce your product/service.
Write down how your product/service solves their problems and what differentiates your products/service from others.
5) Feature a list.
List down all the benefits of your product/service.
6) Final call.
Paint another picture to re-emphasize what life could be after using the product/service.
7) Call to action.
State clearly what you want your visitors to do. It can be sign-up for a newsletter or download a free report or click on your affiliate link.
With these answers to your questions, you should have at least some general ideas that you can use to write your pre-selling article.
How to Write an Article
Again, I won't go into details on this topic and I'm sure you can find more information on the net.
Let recap, according to the affiliate marketing blueprint, the main function of an article page is to funnel its traffic back to the main page. You can also build your reputation as an authority and for AdSense purposes.
Besides publishing it on your own site, you can also submit it to article directories. This will get the readers back to your website (traffic), backlinks and again build your reputation as an authority in your field.
Of course, all these will depend on how you write the article. Now, let's look at the process of writing an article.
The first step is to look for keywords to work with. Decide on your primary and secondary phrases. These keywords must me closely related to your main page. Let's take the example on the keywords data on "weight loss pills".
Next is to put yourself in your reader's shoes. Ask yourself when someone searches for "weight loss pills" is really looking for? Obviously, people who are looking for weight loss pills are people what want to lose weight.
Here are a few ideas that I can think of.
1) They are looking for alternative methods where the conventional don't work.
2) They want to know where they can buy, online.
3) They want to know which is the best in the market.
4) They want to know which brand is effective.
It's best if could include your keywords into your ideas. It makes so much easier to put these keywords into your article, naturally when you want to write.
Once you've came up with a few ideas, next is to decide on how you want to write the article - your writing style. All articles should be informative or not it's not worth writing.
There are 2 ways you can write. It can be written as a story based on your personal or another person's experience. This method makes the readers believe that you have been through their situation and can offer valuable help based on experience.
Alternatively, if you don't have any personal experience, you can write using informational approach. It would be much better if you could write both because you'll get 2 articles out of the same research. One can be posted on your site and the other can be submitted to article directories.
Let recap, according to the affiliate marketing blueprint, the main function of an article page is to funnel its traffic back to the main page. You can also build your reputation as an authority and for AdSense purposes.
Besides publishing it on your own site, you can also submit it to article directories. This will get the readers back to your website (traffic), backlinks and again build your reputation as an authority in your field.
Of course, all these will depend on how you write the article. Now, let's look at the process of writing an article.
The first step is to look for keywords to work with. Decide on your primary and secondary phrases. These keywords must me closely related to your main page. Let's take the example on the keywords data on "weight loss pills".
Next is to put yourself in your reader's shoes. Ask yourself when someone searches for "weight loss pills" is really looking for? Obviously, people who are looking for weight loss pills are people what want to lose weight.
Here are a few ideas that I can think of.
1) They are looking for alternative methods where the conventional don't work.
2) They want to know where they can buy, online.
3) They want to know which is the best in the market.
4) They want to know which brand is effective.
It's best if could include your keywords into your ideas. It makes so much easier to put these keywords into your article, naturally when you want to write.
Once you've came up with a few ideas, next is to decide on how you want to write the article - your writing style. All articles should be informative or not it's not worth writing.
There are 2 ways you can write. It can be written as a story based on your personal or another person's experience. This method makes the readers believe that you have been through their situation and can offer valuable help based on experience.
Alternatively, if you don't have any personal experience, you can write using informational approach. It would be much better if you could write both because you'll get 2 articles out of the same research. One can be posted on your site and the other can be submitted to article directories.
How to Overcome Writer's Block
To write an article can often be a hair-pulling experience. You might have a title for your article, and even the keywords you want to target, but where do you start?
One of many ways you can get started is to use a template. By using an article template, you just need to "fill-in-th-blanks" on the template, which will help you to "build" your article.
Remeber, this template is just a guideline and it's not necessary to follow exactly. Always use your creativity. This template is to help you to get things moving when you're stuck, sometimes known as writer's block.
Here are some example of the article templates.
1) The 5 & 5
2) 3 stages
3) What to do when
4) Problem/solution
5) 7 Steps to
3 Stages template.
"a quote or lyric"
present problem
3 stages
mild
moderate
severe
List of things to do
One of many ways you can get started is to use a template. By using an article template, you just need to "fill-in-th-blanks" on the template, which will help you to "build" your article.
Remeber, this template is just a guideline and it's not necessary to follow exactly. Always use your creativity. This template is to help you to get things moving when you're stuck, sometimes known as writer's block.
Here are some example of the article templates.
1) The 5 & 5
2) 3 stages
3) What to do when
4) Problem/solution
5) 7 Steps to
3 Stages template.
"a quote or lyric"
present problem
3 stages
mild
moderate
severe
List of things to do
How to Overcome Writer's Block... continued
Here's an example of an article using the 3 stages template.
Stress Management: How to Defeat Sunday Night Syndrome
"We go from 'Saturday Night Live' to 'Sunday Night Dread"
Picture the following scene:
It's Sunday evening, the weekend is winding down and you're beginning to think about the work week ahead. What are your feelings?
Do you find yourself excited and challenged, looking forward to another week of doing something you love? The most fortunate among us get to feel that way on a regular basis.
Or are you instead feeling something else, perhaps anxiety or even dread? That's a special kind of anxiety and stress I call "Sunday Night Syndrome."
All of us experience some form of SNS from time to time. What's important is how often and how severe it is.
Mild Sunday Night Syndrome
In most people, the anxiety usually begins Sunday evening, but it passes quickly and is gone by the time you arrive at work. This feeling is probably the result of working continuously for five days a week and having only two days off during which to recover.
What to do:
Relax and remember: The feeling will pass.
Rent a movie, play a game, enjoy being with family and friends.
Moderate Sunday Night Syndrome
The next stage of SNS is characterized by increasing anxiety as the work week approaches. The anxiety begins earlier in the day and doesn't pass as easily as mild SNS.
You begin to stay up later and later on Sunday night, in the hope of keeping Monday morning from arriving. As a result, you feel tired and sluggish on Monday, which leaves you ill-equipped to deal with your feelings and your work.
Other symptoms include increased irritability and inattentiveness around family and friends, as well as deteriorating work performance.
Colleagues and supervisors may begin to notice changes at this point.
What to do:
In addition to the above suggestions, make sure you get to bed early enough to be rested the next day.
Identify things about your job that you can feel good about, or even look forward to.
As crazy as it sounds, some people have found that going into the office or doing some work at home seems to help.
If going into the office is not possible, being as prepared as possible can help.
Stress Management: How to Defeat Sunday Night Syndrome
"We go from 'Saturday Night Live' to 'Sunday Night Dread"
Picture the following scene:
It's Sunday evening, the weekend is winding down and you're beginning to think about the work week ahead. What are your feelings?
Do you find yourself excited and challenged, looking forward to another week of doing something you love? The most fortunate among us get to feel that way on a regular basis.
Or are you instead feeling something else, perhaps anxiety or even dread? That's a special kind of anxiety and stress I call "Sunday Night Syndrome."
All of us experience some form of SNS from time to time. What's important is how often and how severe it is.
Mild Sunday Night Syndrome
In most people, the anxiety usually begins Sunday evening, but it passes quickly and is gone by the time you arrive at work. This feeling is probably the result of working continuously for five days a week and having only two days off during which to recover.
What to do:
Relax and remember: The feeling will pass.
Rent a movie, play a game, enjoy being with family and friends.
Moderate Sunday Night Syndrome
The next stage of SNS is characterized by increasing anxiety as the work week approaches. The anxiety begins earlier in the day and doesn't pass as easily as mild SNS.
You begin to stay up later and later on Sunday night, in the hope of keeping Monday morning from arriving. As a result, you feel tired and sluggish on Monday, which leaves you ill-equipped to deal with your feelings and your work.
Other symptoms include increased irritability and inattentiveness around family and friends, as well as deteriorating work performance.
Colleagues and supervisors may begin to notice changes at this point.
What to do:
In addition to the above suggestions, make sure you get to bed early enough to be rested the next day.
Identify things about your job that you can feel good about, or even look forward to.
As crazy as it sounds, some people have found that going into the office or doing some work at home seems to help.
If going into the office is not possible, being as prepared as possible can help.
How to Overcome Writer's Block... continued
Severe Sunday Night Syndrome
The third level of SNS doesn't wait until Sunday to arrive. It begins Saturday or even Friday after work.
By the time Sunday evening rolls around, folks with severe SNS are experiencing strong anxiety and dread.
Some people become physically ill at the prospect of another work week. Depression is common at this point, as well as drinking too much alcohol.
What to do:
What underlies your emotions and reactions? If you don't examine this issue, the feelings might just grow stronger.
It could be time to consider a change, either in the details of your job or perhaps an entire change of job or career.
Consult a career counselor to look at your options.
Make sure you are doing something, from talking about it to physical exercise, in order to relieve the stress.
You might want to seek counseling to help you manage the stress, emotions and decisions involved.
Remember: If it's hurting you, it's not likely to be helping anyone else.
All of us experience some form of Sunday Night Syndrome from time to time. It's how we respond that makes the difference.
The above template and article is written by Jeff Herring. He has been writing a syndicated newspaper column on relationships, parenting and stress management for 12 years. So, I'm not suprised with his professional writing style.
But you don' have to write like that. You can just use layman, like I did. The important thing is the formula or format of writing so that you won't get stuck when you want to start writing.
The good news is he compiled all his templates into an an ebook, 20 Article Templates for Your Writing & Marketing Success and now you can write articles easily using these templates. Each template is accompanied by an example written by Jeff himself.
The third level of SNS doesn't wait until Sunday to arrive. It begins Saturday or even Friday after work.
By the time Sunday evening rolls around, folks with severe SNS are experiencing strong anxiety and dread.
Some people become physically ill at the prospect of another work week. Depression is common at this point, as well as drinking too much alcohol.
What to do:
What underlies your emotions and reactions? If you don't examine this issue, the feelings might just grow stronger.
It could be time to consider a change, either in the details of your job or perhaps an entire change of job or career.
Consult a career counselor to look at your options.
Make sure you are doing something, from talking about it to physical exercise, in order to relieve the stress.
You might want to seek counseling to help you manage the stress, emotions and decisions involved.
Remember: If it's hurting you, it's not likely to be helping anyone else.
All of us experience some form of Sunday Night Syndrome from time to time. It's how we respond that makes the difference.
The above template and article is written by Jeff Herring. He has been writing a syndicated newspaper column on relationships, parenting and stress management for 12 years. So, I'm not suprised with his professional writing style.
But you don' have to write like that. You can just use layman, like I did. The important thing is the formula or format of writing so that you won't get stuck when you want to start writing.
The good news is he compiled all his templates into an an ebook, 20 Article Templates for Your Writing & Marketing Success and now you can write articles easily using these templates. Each template is accompanied by an example written by Jeff himself.
Affiliate Marketing Greatest Secret Ever Told
Today, I'd like to share an article extracted from a book, written by Jim Straw. This article will tell you if you're going to be a succesful or un-successful affiliate marketers. I want you to read this article first, then only comment on it later. Fair enough?
The Difference Between Information and Knowledge
When you have learned that 2 + 2 = 4, you have gained a useful piece of "information". When you have learned that 2 apples + 2 apples = 4 apples, but that 2 apples + 2 oranges = 2 apples and 2 oranges, or 2 pairs of fruit, or 4 fruits, you have gained all-important "knowledge".
Information is nice to know. It lets you answer the questions on tests (or when watching TV game shows). But until you learn to use that information in a practical application, it isn't knowledge.
Any child of 2 or 3 years of age can tell you that 2 + 2 = 4. They have heard it repeated, over and over, until they can repeat it themselves. But when confronted with 4 apples, they are at a loss to apply that information.
The same holds true for older students (and even adults) who can readily tell you that Einstein's Theory of Relativity can be expressed by the formula, E = MC2. Until they know what the E, M & C stand for and can use the formula in a practical application, it is only information, not knowledge.
A fine line exists between information and knowledge. That fine line is nothing more than "use". You can memorize bits and pieces of information all day, every day, but, until you actually use that information, it is not knowledge. Once used, information becomes knowledge and thereby, power.
SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE, whether they be self-employed or wage earners, executive or common laborer, are seekers after knowledge. They absorb information from every direction. The information they can use becomes knowledge, while the information they have no apparent use for is simply stored on the chance that someday it may become useful.
UNSUCCESSFUL PEOPLE, on the other hand, claim to be seekers of knowledge, but they believe that knowledge itself can be imparted.
Because the books they read, the courses they take, and the plans they buy contain only "information" they are forever disappointed. Because it is ONLY INFORMATION (not the "knowledge" they thought they were going to get), they never use the information and, thereby, the knowledge they sought is lost to them forever.
The Difference Between Information and Knowledge
When you have learned that 2 + 2 = 4, you have gained a useful piece of "information". When you have learned that 2 apples + 2 apples = 4 apples, but that 2 apples + 2 oranges = 2 apples and 2 oranges, or 2 pairs of fruit, or 4 fruits, you have gained all-important "knowledge".
Information is nice to know. It lets you answer the questions on tests (or when watching TV game shows). But until you learn to use that information in a practical application, it isn't knowledge.
Any child of 2 or 3 years of age can tell you that 2 + 2 = 4. They have heard it repeated, over and over, until they can repeat it themselves. But when confronted with 4 apples, they are at a loss to apply that information.
The same holds true for older students (and even adults) who can readily tell you that Einstein's Theory of Relativity can be expressed by the formula, E = MC2. Until they know what the E, M & C stand for and can use the formula in a practical application, it is only information, not knowledge.
A fine line exists between information and knowledge. That fine line is nothing more than "use". You can memorize bits and pieces of information all day, every day, but, until you actually use that information, it is not knowledge. Once used, information becomes knowledge and thereby, power.
SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE, whether they be self-employed or wage earners, executive or common laborer, are seekers after knowledge. They absorb information from every direction. The information they can use becomes knowledge, while the information they have no apparent use for is simply stored on the chance that someday it may become useful.
UNSUCCESSFUL PEOPLE, on the other hand, claim to be seekers of knowledge, but they believe that knowledge itself can be imparted.
Because the books they read, the courses they take, and the plans they buy contain only "information" they are forever disappointed. Because it is ONLY INFORMATION (not the "knowledge" they thought they were going to get), they never use the information and, thereby, the knowledge they sought is lost to them forever.
Affiliate Marketing Greatest Secret Ever Told... continued
Since I am the author of a great many books, booklets, reports, articles and editorials about success and making & using money (somewhere over 300 so far), those people stick-out like sore-thumbs on my customer lists. They write me long letters detailing their trials and tribulations and explain to me just why the information won't work for them. But, not one ever writes to say, "I used the information and it didn't work". Had they ever used the information, that information would have turned into knowledge and they could have reaped the rewards they have coveted for so long.
If there was a way I could "force" those people to use the information they have, I could literally GUARANTEE their success. And, in those few cases over the years where I have been able to shame or intimidate people into actually using the information I have provided, those people have achieved successes they had only dreamed were possible.
The RULES OF SUCCESS used by successful people and businesses since the beginning of time have never really changed. Those rules have been written down for all to read, learn and use, but they appear as "information" only and can only be changed to "knowledge" by use. If there were a way to "force" every person and every business to "use" those known and proven rules of success, there would be NO Unsuccessful people or businesses in the world.
Statistically, 90% of small businesses fail, and 90% of people live a life of sustained mediocrity, simply because they will not "use" the information available to them.
In your quest for financial independence you MUST learn to force yourself to use the information you have at your disposal. No one (but YOU) is going to force you to assume that responsibility.
Of course, some smart aleck reading this is going to say, "Yeah! But, I'm not going to use any bad information."
Granted, there is bad (counter-productive) information out there. BUT there is NO WAY of telling good information from bad information, UNTIL YOU TRY IT. Judging the value of information without using it is like trying to judge the flavor of a pie without ever tasting it.
If there was a way I could "force" those people to use the information they have, I could literally GUARANTEE their success. And, in those few cases over the years where I have been able to shame or intimidate people into actually using the information I have provided, those people have achieved successes they had only dreamed were possible.
The RULES OF SUCCESS used by successful people and businesses since the beginning of time have never really changed. Those rules have been written down for all to read, learn and use, but they appear as "information" only and can only be changed to "knowledge" by use. If there were a way to "force" every person and every business to "use" those known and proven rules of success, there would be NO Unsuccessful people or businesses in the world.
Statistically, 90% of small businesses fail, and 90% of people live a life of sustained mediocrity, simply because they will not "use" the information available to them.
In your quest for financial independence you MUST learn to force yourself to use the information you have at your disposal. No one (but YOU) is going to force you to assume that responsibility.
Of course, some smart aleck reading this is going to say, "Yeah! But, I'm not going to use any bad information."
Granted, there is bad (counter-productive) information out there. BUT there is NO WAY of telling good information from bad information, UNTIL YOU TRY IT. Judging the value of information without using it is like trying to judge the flavor of a pie without ever tasting it.
Affiliate Marketing Greatest Secret Ever Told... continued
If you learn nothing else from this book, learn that information only becomes knowledge when you use it and the information you have used or failed to use in the past is the reason you are where you are today.
YOU can be your best friend, or your worst enemy. No one forces you to be what you are, or do what you do (or don't do). What you have today is a direct result of what you did yesterday. What you will have tomorrow will be a direct result of what you do (or don't do) today.
It's up to you!
So, my final word to you is this.
Read, chew and digest all the information here on my lens and act on it!
YOU can be your best friend, or your worst enemy. No one forces you to be what you are, or do what you do (or don't do). What you have today is a direct result of what you did yesterday. What you will have tomorrow will be a direct result of what you do (or don't do) today.
It's up to you!
So, my final word to you is this.
Read, chew and digest all the information here on my lens and act on it!
Affiliate Marketing Guide: Understand The Language
You are about to encounter a language that you have never heard before - the language of Internet Marketing, as it relates to Affiliate Marketing. It is important that you understand what it all means, to ensure that you are signing up for programs that are worth your time.
As you will learn later, it is important to read the terms and conditions for affiliates. Sometimes, you will be presented with those terms before you sign up, and sometimes you will be presented with them after you sign up - but it is important that you read them, and it is important that you understand what is being said.
It is also important that you understand what the following terms or abbreviations mean:
CPC - Cost per click. This relates to how much it costs for each click an ad or link receives when advertising on a CPC basis. In other words, instead of paying a flat rate for the advertisement, you would pay a certain amount of money for each click the ad receives.
PPC - Pay Per Click. This relates to CPC, where you pay for each click that your ad or link receives. Google AdWords is an example of Pay Per Click advertising.
CPA - Cost per action, or cost per acquisition. Basically, this means that you will pay each time an action is taken. The action may be a click, a sign up, or a sale. In fact, many affiliate programs also pay on a CPA basis, meaning that each time someone clicks on your link, or signs up to receive information through your link, you earn a little money. Google AdSense is an example of this.
CTR - Click Through Rate. This number is usually represented as a percentage, and it refers to the number of times your ad was clicked on, in relation to how often the ad was viewed.
CPM - Cost per thousand. The amount of money you pay for every one thousand ad impressions.
URL - Uniform Relay Link, otherwise known as a link, or a website address.
Affiliate Link - A URL or link that is assigned to you by the affiliate program. This is the link that you will promote, as it is used to track your clicks and sales.
Contextual Link or Text Link - A contextual link is a link that looks like content, because it is all text. It may be several words long. A text link is a link such as www.link.com , as opposed to a banner ad.
As you will learn later, it is important to read the terms and conditions for affiliates. Sometimes, you will be presented with those terms before you sign up, and sometimes you will be presented with them after you sign up - but it is important that you read them, and it is important that you understand what is being said.
It is also important that you understand what the following terms or abbreviations mean:
CPC - Cost per click. This relates to how much it costs for each click an ad or link receives when advertising on a CPC basis. In other words, instead of paying a flat rate for the advertisement, you would pay a certain amount of money for each click the ad receives.
PPC - Pay Per Click. This relates to CPC, where you pay for each click that your ad or link receives. Google AdWords is an example of Pay Per Click advertising.
CPA - Cost per action, or cost per acquisition. Basically, this means that you will pay each time an action is taken. The action may be a click, a sign up, or a sale. In fact, many affiliate programs also pay on a CPA basis, meaning that each time someone clicks on your link, or signs up to receive information through your link, you earn a little money. Google AdSense is an example of this.
CTR - Click Through Rate. This number is usually represented as a percentage, and it refers to the number of times your ad was clicked on, in relation to how often the ad was viewed.
CPM - Cost per thousand. The amount of money you pay for every one thousand ad impressions.
URL - Uniform Relay Link, otherwise known as a link, or a website address.
Affiliate Link - A URL or link that is assigned to you by the affiliate program. This is the link that you will promote, as it is used to track your clicks and sales.
Contextual Link or Text Link - A contextual link is a link that looks like content, because it is all text. It may be several words long. A text link is a link such as www.link.com , as opposed to a banner ad.
Affiliate Marketing Guide: Understand The Language... continued
Charge Back - This will be an important term to you. This refers to when customers cancel their orders, or have their credit card companies reverse the charges. It basically means that you lose a sale. Some affiliate programs will hold money back each pay period to cover potential charge backs/refunds, and release that money to you after a specified period.
SPAM - Unsolicited Commercial Email. This term also refers to commercial posts on forums and blogs. Most affiliate programs will have strict anti-spam regulations that you must follow.
Revenue Sharing Program - This is the same thing as an affiliate program.
Co-Branding - Some affiliate programs offer co-branding options, where your company name or logo is placed on a reseller's website, or on the product itself.
Referral Link - The same as an affiliate link.
Tracking - The method or software used to record sales, clicks, leads, and other information that has to do with your affiliate link.
HTML or HTML Code - HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. This is the programming language used to build webpages. HTML code generally refers to a small portion of HTML code, such as that needed to place affiliate links or banners on your webpages.
Partner Program - This is the same thing as an affiliate program.
Super Affiliate - This refers to anyone who is making a lot of money in affiliate marketing, if you are an affiliate. However, if you have an affiliate program for your own product, this refers to your top affiliates - the ones who are making the most sales for you.
Opt-In - This refers to ezine subscriptions, newsletter subscriptions, or email lists in general. Basically, it means that the subscribers on any email list have chosen to receive the information the list owner is sending. Typically, they have confirmed their email address and their request by clicking on a link in a confirmation email, which is known as double opt-in.
1st Tier and 2nd Tier - If you are signing up for an affiliate program, directly through the company, you are first tier. If you are signing up under someone else, you are 2nd tier. However, when someone signs up under you, you are first tier, and they are your 2nd tier. Each tier gets a different commission rate for sales. In other words, when you sign up under someone else, when you make a sale, you get a full commission, and the person you signed up under gets a partial commission.
SPAM - Unsolicited Commercial Email. This term also refers to commercial posts on forums and blogs. Most affiliate programs will have strict anti-spam regulations that you must follow.
Revenue Sharing Program - This is the same thing as an affiliate program.
Co-Branding - Some affiliate programs offer co-branding options, where your company name or logo is placed on a reseller's website, or on the product itself.
Referral Link - The same as an affiliate link.
Tracking - The method or software used to record sales, clicks, leads, and other information that has to do with your affiliate link.
HTML or HTML Code - HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language. This is the programming language used to build webpages. HTML code generally refers to a small portion of HTML code, such as that needed to place affiliate links or banners on your webpages.
Partner Program - This is the same thing as an affiliate program.
Super Affiliate - This refers to anyone who is making a lot of money in affiliate marketing, if you are an affiliate. However, if you have an affiliate program for your own product, this refers to your top affiliates - the ones who are making the most sales for you.
Opt-In - This refers to ezine subscriptions, newsletter subscriptions, or email lists in general. Basically, it means that the subscribers on any email list have chosen to receive the information the list owner is sending. Typically, they have confirmed their email address and their request by clicking on a link in a confirmation email, which is known as double opt-in.
1st Tier and 2nd Tier - If you are signing up for an affiliate program, directly through the company, you are first tier. If you are signing up under someone else, you are 2nd tier. However, when someone signs up under you, you are first tier, and they are your 2nd tier. Each tier gets a different commission rate for sales. In other words, when you sign up under someone else, when you make a sale, you get a full commission, and the person you signed up under gets a partial commission.
Affiliate Marketing Guide: Understand The Language... continued
Joint Ventures - Joint ventures are similar to affiliate programs, but they operate a bit differently. The concept is the same - one person promotes another person's product for a commission. However, usually the commissions are bigger, and the person doing the promoting is working directly with the owner of the product.
Direct Mail - This refers to advertising that is done via postal mail. There are strict laws about direct mail, and many affiliate programs will have terms and conditions relating to direct mail to promote their product.
Cookies - A cookie is a piece of code that is written to the cookie file on a person's computer when they click on an affiliate link - or when they visit sites that use cookies, such as sites that require a login. The cookie does not harm your customer's computer at all, and is simply there to make sure that you get credit for the sale if they come back later to make a purchase.
Affiliate Agreement - The agreement that usually lists the terms and conditions related to an affiliate program. In most cases, you will agree to the affiliate agreement by checking a box when you fill out an online form to join the program. Some affiliate programs, however, will require you to print out, sign, and fax the agreement. Make sure you read these agreements.
Conversion Rate - This is the number of sales in relation to the number of clicks received. Usually portrayed as a percentage.
Commission - The amount of money that you as an affiliate will receive per sale. Some companies will list this as a percentage, such as 50%, while others will list it as a dollar figure.
Associate or Associate Program - This is the same as an affiliate program.
Banner Ad - A graphic that is placed on your website and linked with your affiliate link.
If you come across other terms or abbreviations that you aren't sure of the meaning of, make sure that you stop and go find out what it means before agreeing to anything - or before doing anything. Not knowing can cause problems later on.
Direct Mail - This refers to advertising that is done via postal mail. There are strict laws about direct mail, and many affiliate programs will have terms and conditions relating to direct mail to promote their product.
Cookies - A cookie is a piece of code that is written to the cookie file on a person's computer when they click on an affiliate link - or when they visit sites that use cookies, such as sites that require a login. The cookie does not harm your customer's computer at all, and is simply there to make sure that you get credit for the sale if they come back later to make a purchase.
Affiliate Agreement - The agreement that usually lists the terms and conditions related to an affiliate program. In most cases, you will agree to the affiliate agreement by checking a box when you fill out an online form to join the program. Some affiliate programs, however, will require you to print out, sign, and fax the agreement. Make sure you read these agreements.
Conversion Rate - This is the number of sales in relation to the number of clicks received. Usually portrayed as a percentage.
Commission - The amount of money that you as an affiliate will receive per sale. Some companies will list this as a percentage, such as 50%, while others will list it as a dollar figure.
Associate or Associate Program - This is the same as an affiliate program.
Banner Ad - A graphic that is placed on your website and linked with your affiliate link.
If you come across other terms or abbreviations that you aren't sure of the meaning of, make sure that you stop and go find out what it means before agreeing to anything - or before doing anything. Not knowing can cause problems later on.
Affiliate Marketing Tip: How to Boost Your Affiliate Programs Income Through Expert Articles
Even though the internet is full of money making opportunities on the internet for affiliates, merchants and others, to the average internet user, content is still very much king. That means that in order to be a successful, profitable affiliate, you will need to provide those average internet users with content that they find useful, while at the same time providing those all important affiliate links that generate those big commission checks.
The best way to do this for most affiliates is to compile a list of subscribers who have opted in to obtain a freebie such as a report, ebook or other item of value to them. Many successful affiliates will have several such subscriber, or opt-in lists, representing those with interest in different types of subjects.
Compiling those lists of subscribers, however, is certainly not enough. After all, the end result you are looking for is getting those subscribers to click your affiliate link and buy products from your affiliate partners.
After you have gathered your list or lists of subscribers, it is time to provide those subscribers with content they can use. If you do not provide exciting, useful and compelling content, you will quickly be hit with a rash of unsubscribe, and they will do your merchants no good at all.
The first step, of course, is to create those articles, and the best, most cost effective way to do that, is to buy those articles from one of the many web sites where you can obtain private label articles. Buying private label articles means that you, as the affiliate, will be able to attach your name to these articles as the author.
These articles must contain interesting content that your subscribers will be anxious to read. For instance, if you have compiled a list of subscribers who are interested in fishing, it is important to provide a series of articles, each focused on a particular aspect of fishing and fishing gear.
The best way to do this for most affiliates is to compile a list of subscribers who have opted in to obtain a freebie such as a report, ebook or other item of value to them. Many successful affiliates will have several such subscriber, or opt-in lists, representing those with interest in different types of subjects.
Compiling those lists of subscribers, however, is certainly not enough. After all, the end result you are looking for is getting those subscribers to click your affiliate link and buy products from your affiliate partners.
After you have gathered your list or lists of subscribers, it is time to provide those subscribers with content they can use. If you do not provide exciting, useful and compelling content, you will quickly be hit with a rash of unsubscribe, and they will do your merchants no good at all.
The first step, of course, is to create those articles, and the best, most cost effective way to do that, is to buy those articles from one of the many web sites where you can obtain private label articles. Buying private label articles means that you, as the affiliate, will be able to attach your name to these articles as the author.
These articles must contain interesting content that your subscribers will be anxious to read. For instance, if you have compiled a list of subscribers who are interested in fishing, it is important to provide a series of articles, each focused on a particular aspect of fishing and fishing gear.
Affiliate Marketing Tip: How to Boost Your Affiliate Programs Income Throught Expert Articles... continued
For instance, the first article you send may provide tips on choosing the best lures for various types of fish, while subsequent articles can provide information on the best fishing in Canada, choosing the best fishing rod, catch and release fishing, etc.
Of course, each article will contain an affiliate link to your selected merchant, in this case a seller of fishing equipment. Depending on your affiliate relationship and goals, each article can either contain an affiliate link to the same merchant, or each article could contain an affliliate link to a different merchant.
One advantage of this article series approach is that it sets, you, the affiliate, up as an instant expert or guru. For instance, with the fishing example mentioned above, you instantly appear to be THE one resource for all things related to fishing. You would be the one person any fisherman would want as a resource. Therefore, the recommendations you make, and the merchants you recommend, have instant credibility with those on your subscriber list.
Gaining this type of credibility with your subscriber base will be essential to your success as an affiliate. After you have gained credibility and expert status with your base of opt-in subscribers, they will anxiously await your next email, and eagerly respond to your subtle urging to visit your affiliated merchants. It has been shown that those articles that provide expert level content have much better conversion rates than more general purpose articles, so it definitely pays to provide expert information to your subscriber base.
Of course, each article will contain an affiliate link to your selected merchant, in this case a seller of fishing equipment. Depending on your affiliate relationship and goals, each article can either contain an affiliate link to the same merchant, or each article could contain an affliliate link to a different merchant.
One advantage of this article series approach is that it sets, you, the affiliate, up as an instant expert or guru. For instance, with the fishing example mentioned above, you instantly appear to be THE one resource for all things related to fishing. You would be the one person any fisherman would want as a resource. Therefore, the recommendations you make, and the merchants you recommend, have instant credibility with those on your subscriber list.
Gaining this type of credibility with your subscriber base will be essential to your success as an affiliate. After you have gained credibility and expert status with your base of opt-in subscribers, they will anxiously await your next email, and eagerly respond to your subtle urging to visit your affiliated merchants. It has been shown that those articles that provide expert level content have much better conversion rates than more general purpose articles, so it definitely pays to provide expert information to your subscriber base.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Newbies - Where to Start
Design your website first and foremost for your visitors. Design and content are the top priorities. The website has to be easy for your visitors to understand and navigate. The page should be easy to scan (most people will not read it all) and the major component of every page should be the text.
Don't use crazy color schemes that are hard on the eyes or add fancy add-ons because they seem "cool" as many people won't want or like them. Be careful who you'll alienate. Remember the easiest pages to read have white or light backgrounds and dark text. People are very visual, so pictures are good, but make sure you have optimized them to load quickly. And do not rely too heavily on pictures - as text is necessary for search engines as well had for the visually handicapped. Today, also, many are using hand-held, text only browsers. You want to be accessible to as many people as possible no matter what device they use to reach you.
A "clean" website will be accessible to multiple browsers and will be handicap accessible. It will not use JavaScript menus and is better without using a template¹ than using one. It will use no (or very little) flash, sound, movies, marquees/scrolling text. Avoid using a site with "session id's" in the urls. These are killers to the search engine spiders.
A page laid out in headline - paragraph, headline - bullet points - headline - picture - etc - will be easy to read. Keep paragraphs short and highlight or bold occasional words to aid in people scanning/skimming your pages.
After the basic design, with text and pictures, is complete, go back through each page and make sure that you know exactly what each page is emphasizing. Remember that search engines simply want to find the best and most relevant pages for the terms that people use them to search for. It is your job to present those pages to the search engines.
Don't use crazy color schemes that are hard on the eyes or add fancy add-ons because they seem "cool" as many people won't want or like them. Be careful who you'll alienate. Remember the easiest pages to read have white or light backgrounds and dark text. People are very visual, so pictures are good, but make sure you have optimized them to load quickly. And do not rely too heavily on pictures - as text is necessary for search engines as well had for the visually handicapped. Today, also, many are using hand-held, text only browsers. You want to be accessible to as many people as possible no matter what device they use to reach you.
A "clean" website will be accessible to multiple browsers and will be handicap accessible. It will not use JavaScript menus and is better without using a template¹ than using one. It will use no (or very little) flash, sound, movies, marquees/scrolling text. Avoid using a site with "session id's" in the urls. These are killers to the search engine spiders.
A page laid out in headline - paragraph, headline - bullet points - headline - picture - etc - will be easy to read. Keep paragraphs short and highlight or bold occasional words to aid in people scanning/skimming your pages.
After the basic design, with text and pictures, is complete, go back through each page and make sure that you know exactly what each page is emphasizing. Remember that search engines simply want to find the best and most relevant pages for the terms that people use them to search for. It is your job to present those pages to the search engines.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Newbies - The Basic
Following are some of the basics for you to follow for each website page:
1) Do research FIRST for what keyword/keyword phrases are being used to search for what your website will cover.
2) Title Tag: Use your #1 keyword phrase for each page at the start of the Title Tag. Title tags are best if not wordy and should never be longer than the space allowed for them. If you feel you have to use your business name, use it at the end. For example if your website is about porcelain dolls and is called The Doll Shop - here's an appropriate title tag: Porcelain Dolls from The Doll Shop. Remember - this tag is what will be saved to someone's computer if they bookmark you - so they need to see right away what it is when they're looking at their bookmarks.
3) Meta Description: This should be a short advertisement for this page of the website - again start with your best keyword phrase for the page but now you can include some other information. The idea here is to entice people with this. Using the above doll store for example purposes a possible description would be. Find your collectible porcelain doll for sale including fairy and baby dolls. Add to your porcelain doll collection today with these and all the dolls available from The Doll Shop.
4) Meta Keywords: These are no longer used by most search engines. But, since some still might use them, fill them in. Remember, only list keywords/phrases that you are using on this page.
5) Headlines on your pages: Like the title - these headlines will let your customer (and the search engines) quickly know what the page is about. It's best if you use the h tags when entering headlines, so that the search engines can recognize that this is a headline. A headline is just that. It is not a sentence. It is not wordy. A good headline for the Doll Store would be Collectible Porcelain Dolls.
1) Do research FIRST for what keyword/keyword phrases are being used to search for what your website will cover.
2) Title Tag: Use your #1 keyword phrase for each page at the start of the Title Tag. Title tags are best if not wordy and should never be longer than the space allowed for them. If you feel you have to use your business name, use it at the end. For example if your website is about porcelain dolls and is called The Doll Shop - here's an appropriate title tag: Porcelain Dolls from The Doll Shop. Remember - this tag is what will be saved to someone's computer if they bookmark you - so they need to see right away what it is when they're looking at their bookmarks.
3) Meta Description: This should be a short advertisement for this page of the website - again start with your best keyword phrase for the page but now you can include some other information. The idea here is to entice people with this. Using the above doll store for example purposes a possible description would be. Find your collectible porcelain doll for sale including fairy and baby dolls. Add to your porcelain doll collection today with these and all the dolls available from The Doll Shop.
4) Meta Keywords: These are no longer used by most search engines. But, since some still might use them, fill them in. Remember, only list keywords/phrases that you are using on this page.
5) Headlines on your pages: Like the title - these headlines will let your customer (and the search engines) quickly know what the page is about. It's best if you use the h tags when entering headlines, so that the search engines can recognize that this is a headline. A headline is just that. It is not a sentence. It is not wordy. A good headline for the Doll Store would be Collectible Porcelain Dolls.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Newbies - The Basic... continued
6) Text on pages: Make sure that the keyword/keyword phrases for the page are being used on the page. Do not spam them. Do not force them. Make the copy feel natural, never forced. If you aren't sure, try reading your text out loud and see how it sounds to you. If you cringe, you've overdone the keywords.
a. Spelling is important. Use a spell checker.
b. Grammar is important. If need be, get other people to read and check your text for you.
c. Bulleted lists are good
d. Highlight/Bold words
e. Use anchor text to link to interior pages from page text.
f. Unique content is VITAL. If you cannot write copy that is unique and will work well for your site, this is the place to spend the money to get it done right.
g. Do NOT use provided copy: If you are selling products - do not use the copy provided by your supplier, but write your own content - again it should be unique.
7) Do not spam in any of the elements. In other words, don't use keywords inappropriately in the title, meta, on the page, etc. Do not try to "fool the search engines in anyway.
8) Start a blog and keep it up-to-date. If you can't keep it going daily - don't do it.
9) Join other forums, blogs, etc in your websites related field where you can useyour expertise, even if you can't directly link to your website. Become a member of the community.
a. Spelling is important. Use a spell checker.
b. Grammar is important. If need be, get other people to read and check your text for you.
c. Bulleted lists are good
d. Highlight/Bold words
e. Use anchor text to link to interior pages from page text.
f. Unique content is VITAL. If you cannot write copy that is unique and will work well for your site, this is the place to spend the money to get it done right.
g. Do NOT use provided copy: If you are selling products - do not use the copy provided by your supplier, but write your own content - again it should be unique.
7) Do not spam in any of the elements. In other words, don't use keywords inappropriately in the title, meta, on the page, etc. Do not try to "fool the search engines in anyway.
8) Start a blog and keep it up-to-date. If you can't keep it going daily - don't do it.
9) Join other forums, blogs, etc in your websites related field where you can useyour expertise, even if you can't directly link to your website. Become a member of the community.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Newbies - The Basic... continued
10) Linking: There are 3 major types of linking: One-way, Reciprocal, and Paid Links
a. One-way links: These are the most valuable links you can have to your website. This means someone has found your site worthwhile enough to give it a vote of confidence from their own website/blog/forum, etc. If you are able to put the link in a blog or forum, make sure you use the best possible anchor text in doing so.
For example in the doll store - good anchor text could be either Porcelain dolls or collectible porcelain dolls. Placing links to authority sites and sites you feel will be worthwhile to your customers is good for your site. And having a site that others will feel is worthwhile to link to you is VITAL for your site. Linking, to be valuable to search engines, should be TEXT links.
Banner links are valuable for advertising, but not for rating. A link within the text on a site (like in a blog or newsletter or paragraph), using good anchor text, is the goal for a good link.
b. Reciprocal Linking: Reciprocal links happen when you and someone else agree to exchange links to each other. Some search engines are no longer giving credit (or giving much reduced credit) to this type of linking.² While they are still helping with some search engines, it could still be worthwhile to do reciprocal linking, but keep your eyes on what the future in linking will bring.
c. Paid links: A paid link is simply one that you pay to have on a site. These are usually text links (a site may sell space on their site.) Use these if you feel you will get visitors to come to your site and purchase or do what your website is looking for. Do not use these for help with search engine ranking.
a. One-way links: These are the most valuable links you can have to your website. This means someone has found your site worthwhile enough to give it a vote of confidence from their own website/blog/forum, etc. If you are able to put the link in a blog or forum, make sure you use the best possible anchor text in doing so.
For example in the doll store - good anchor text could be either Porcelain dolls or collectible porcelain dolls. Placing links to authority sites and sites you feel will be worthwhile to your customers is good for your site. And having a site that others will feel is worthwhile to link to you is VITAL for your site. Linking, to be valuable to search engines, should be TEXT links.
Banner links are valuable for advertising, but not for rating. A link within the text on a site (like in a blog or newsletter or paragraph), using good anchor text, is the goal for a good link.
b. Reciprocal Linking: Reciprocal links happen when you and someone else agree to exchange links to each other. Some search engines are no longer giving credit (or giving much reduced credit) to this type of linking.² While they are still helping with some search engines, it could still be worthwhile to do reciprocal linking, but keep your eyes on what the future in linking will bring.
c. Paid links: A paid link is simply one that you pay to have on a site. These are usually text links (a site may sell space on their site.) Use these if you feel you will get visitors to come to your site and purchase or do what your website is looking for. Do not use these for help with search engine ranking.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Newbies - The Basic... continued
11) Link Baiting: This is the most important factor today in linking. Link baiting is creating your website and its content so that others WANT to link to you. This means finding a niche, product, idea, etc that will create the excitement or interest that causes others to look to you/for you. For example, offer something free that might entice others to send their own traffic to you. Become an authority
on something in your field that brings those natural links to you. For example, maybe that doll site could become an authority on the history of porcelain dolls, or the repair of porcelain dolls. Do so in such a manner that people come to those pages for that information - then they use the doll stores navigation to find their products.
Link baiting is a viral marketing method that doesn't have to cost any money. But it will take time to come up with an appropriate idea for your website. And it can't be something that can be found everywhere else on the web. Or if it is prevalent, you have to have a unique twist on it - something that will make people come to you, not the others.
on something in your field that brings those natural links to you. For example, maybe that doll site could become an authority on the history of porcelain dolls, or the repair of porcelain dolls. Do so in such a manner that people come to those pages for that information - then they use the doll stores navigation to find their products.
Link baiting is a viral marketing method that doesn't have to cost any money. But it will take time to come up with an appropriate idea for your website. And it can't be something that can be found everywhere else on the web. Or if it is prevalent, you have to have a unique twist on it - something that will make people come to you, not the others.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for Newbies - More SEO
One page cannot be properly optimized for more than 2 or 3 keyword phrases. Ideally, 1- 2 maximum will be the best. So, having various pages that are optimized properly will be the key to making or breaking most businesses. (There are exceptions - when a business is really targeted to the point that a single page might be all it needs - if it can get the proper traffic to that page.)
Keywords and keyword phrases need to be carefully selected. If the porcelain doll site tries to compete for the term dolls - it might take a long time to get anywhere near the results it could get for collectible porcelain dolls. Use the phrases that will bring the targeted visitors and will have less competition, while you slowly move up for the more general terms.
Also remember, most people do not purchase the first time they visit a website. In fact, it normally takes 8 or MORE searches before someone clicks to purchase. And during this time, they may use different search phrases. One time they might search for porcelain dolls, another time collectible porcelain dolls, yet another it might be unique porcelain dolls. The more time your name appears when they search, the better the chance that when they are ready to buy, your site will be the one they purchase from (if your site is user-friendly, easily navigable and welcoming to them). People generally start with more broad terms, then continue narrowing their searches down to more specific terms, though.
So, if you aren't showing up in the broad terms, you might later show up in the specific search and have exactly what the person has been looking for. Now, it's vital that your site be ready for the searcher.
The author:
Beth Burgess has her own internet businesses including helping people with basic SEO and web-design. Feel free to dowload the above information in the complete pdf e-book, SEO, The Basics. This book is updated once or twice per year. To find out more about Beth and her online businesses, visit http://www.moxie-enterprises.com.
Keywords and keyword phrases need to be carefully selected. If the porcelain doll site tries to compete for the term dolls - it might take a long time to get anywhere near the results it could get for collectible porcelain dolls. Use the phrases that will bring the targeted visitors and will have less competition, while you slowly move up for the more general terms.
Also remember, most people do not purchase the first time they visit a website. In fact, it normally takes 8 or MORE searches before someone clicks to purchase. And during this time, they may use different search phrases. One time they might search for porcelain dolls, another time collectible porcelain dolls, yet another it might be unique porcelain dolls. The more time your name appears when they search, the better the chance that when they are ready to buy, your site will be the one they purchase from (if your site is user-friendly, easily navigable and welcoming to them). People generally start with more broad terms, then continue narrowing their searches down to more specific terms, though.
So, if you aren't showing up in the broad terms, you might later show up in the specific search and have exactly what the person has been looking for. Now, it's vital that your site be ready for the searcher.
The author:
Beth Burgess has her own internet businesses including helping people with basic SEO and web-design. Feel free to dowload the above information in the complete pdf e-book, SEO, The Basics. This book is updated once or twice per year. To find out more about Beth and her online businesses, visit http://www.moxie-enterprises.com.
SEO Tips for Newbies - How to Increase Your Search Engine Ranking
The methods employed to increase your Search Engine rankings may seem like rocket science to you, so you have probably avoided dealing with this issue. I am here to tell you - the time has come to face your website! A high Search Engine ranking for your website is so essential that if you have the slightest desire to actually succeed in your business, there is no way you can continue to avoid this issue.
At least 85% of people looking for goods and services on the Internet find websites through Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pages for high Search Engine rankings is to attract targeted customers to your site who will be more than likely to make a purchase. The higher your page comes up in Search Engine results, the greater the traffic that is directed to your website. That's what Search Engine optimization is about.
You can immerse yourself in all the technical information available online to figure out how to optimize your web pages to achieve higher rankings. Or you can look at a few simple items on your pages, make some small adjustments, and most likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. The first item you should examine is the title bar on your homepage.
The title bar is the colored bar at the top of the page. Look at the words that appear there when you access your home page. To increase Search Engine rankings, the words on your homepage's title bar should include the most important keywords or phrases, one of which would include your company name.
Then click on all your links and examine the title bars on the pages you access. Each title bar on every single page of your site should contain the most important keywords and phrases taken from the page itself. However, avoid very long strings of keywords, keeping them to six words or less. Avoid repeating keywords more than once in the title bars, and make sure that identical words are not next to each other.
At least 85% of people looking for goods and services on the Internet find websites through Search Engines such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN. The idea of optimizing your pages for high Search Engine rankings is to attract targeted customers to your site who will be more than likely to make a purchase. The higher your page comes up in Search Engine results, the greater the traffic that is directed to your website. That's what Search Engine optimization is about.
You can immerse yourself in all the technical information available online to figure out how to optimize your web pages to achieve higher rankings. Or you can look at a few simple items on your pages, make some small adjustments, and most likely see improved rankings quite rapidly. The first item you should examine is the title bar on your homepage.
The title bar is the colored bar at the top of the page. Look at the words that appear there when you access your home page. To increase Search Engine rankings, the words on your homepage's title bar should include the most important keywords or phrases, one of which would include your company name.
Then click on all your links and examine the title bars on the pages you access. Each title bar on every single page of your site should contain the most important keywords and phrases taken from the page itself. However, avoid very long strings of keywords, keeping them to six words or less. Avoid repeating keywords more than once in the title bars, and make sure that identical words are not next to each other.
SEO Tips for Newbies - How to Increase Your Search Engine Ranking...continued
The next item to put under your microscope is your website content. Search Engines generally list sites that contain quality content rather than scintillating graphics. The text on your site must contain the most important keywords - the words that potential customers will be typing into Search Engines to find your site.
Aim to have around 250 words on each page, but if this is not desirable due to your design, aim for at least 100 carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a high ranking on Search Engines, this text is essential. However, the Search Engines must be able to read the text, meaning that the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.
To find out if your text is in HTML format, take your cursor and try to highlight a word or two. If you are able to do this, the text is HTML. If the text will not highlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case, ask your webmaster to change the text into HTML format in order to increase your Search Engine rankings.
Next we come to what is called META tags. I know, this sounds like something out of science fiction, but it is really just simple code. Many people believe that META tags are the key to high Search Engine rankings, but in reality, they only have a limited effect. Still, it's worth adding them in the event that a Search Engine will use META tags in their ranking formula.
To find out if your page is set up with META tags, you must access the code. To do this, click the "view" button on the browser menu bar, and select "source." This will pull up a window revealing the underlying code that created the page. If there are META tags, they usually appear near the top of the window. For example, a META tag would read: META name="keywords" content=. If you do not find code that reads like this, ask your webmaster to put them in. This may not do much for your Search Engine rankings, but any little boost helps.
Aim to have around 250 words on each page, but if this is not desirable due to your design, aim for at least 100 carefully chosen words. If you want to achieve a high ranking on Search Engines, this text is essential. However, the Search Engines must be able to read the text, meaning that the text must be in HTML and not graphic format.
To find out if your text is in HTML format, take your cursor and try to highlight a word or two. If you are able to do this, the text is HTML. If the text will not highlight, it is probably in graphic form. In this case, ask your webmaster to change the text into HTML format in order to increase your Search Engine rankings.
Next we come to what is called META tags. I know, this sounds like something out of science fiction, but it is really just simple code. Many people believe that META tags are the key to high Search Engine rankings, but in reality, they only have a limited effect. Still, it's worth adding them in the event that a Search Engine will use META tags in their ranking formula.
To find out if your page is set up with META tags, you must access the code. To do this, click the "view" button on the browser menu bar, and select "source." This will pull up a window revealing the underlying code that created the page. If there are META tags, they usually appear near the top of the window. For example, a META tag would read: META name="keywords" content=. If you do not find code that reads like this, ask your webmaster to put them in. This may not do much for your Search Engine rankings, but any little boost helps.
SEO Tips for Newbies - How to Increase Your Search Engine Ranking...continued
Lastly, we come to the issue of link popularity. This is a factor that is extremely important in terms of Search Engine rankings. Almost all Search Engines use link popularity to rank your website. Link popularity is based on the quality of the sites you have linked to from your links page.
If you type in "free link popularity check" in a popular Search Engine, the Search Engine will then show you what sites are linked to your site. In the case that there aren't many sites linked up to yours, or that the sites that are linked up have low Search Engine rankings, consider launching a link popularity campaign.
Essentially, this entails contacting quality sites and requesting that they exchange links with your site. Of course, this requires checking out the rankings of the websites you want to link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites not only boosts your Search Engine ranking, but it also directs more quality traffic to your website.
Search Engine rankings are extremely important for a successful Internet marketing campaign. Before you go out and hire a Search Engine optimization company, try taking some of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can't boost your rankings yourself. Don't ever ignore this all-important factor in Internet marketing. Remember, the higher your Search Engine ranking, the more quality customers will be directed your way.
If you type in "free link popularity check" in a popular Search Engine, the Search Engine will then show you what sites are linked to your site. In the case that there aren't many sites linked up to yours, or that the sites that are linked up have low Search Engine rankings, consider launching a link popularity campaign.
Essentially, this entails contacting quality sites and requesting that they exchange links with your site. Of course, this requires checking out the rankings of the websites you want to link up with. Linking to popular, quality sites not only boosts your Search Engine ranking, but it also directs more quality traffic to your website.
Search Engine rankings are extremely important for a successful Internet marketing campaign. Before you go out and hire a Search Engine optimization company, try taking some of the simple steps listed above, and see if you can't boost your rankings yourself. Don't ever ignore this all-important factor in Internet marketing. Remember, the higher your Search Engine ranking, the more quality customers will be directed your way.
Search Engine Optimization - 14 Simple Tips on How to Increase Ranking and Traffic
Here are 14 basic principles you can follow to increase website traffic and search engine rankings.
1) Create a site with valuable content, products or services.
2) Place primary and secondary keywords within the first 25 words in your page content and spread them evenly throughout the document.
3) Research and use the right keywords/phrases to attract your target customers.
4) Use your keywords in the right fields and references within your web page such as title, meta tags, headers, etc.
5) Keep your site design simple so that your customers can navigate easily between web pages, find what they want and buy products and services.
6) Submit your web pages i.e. every web page and not just the home page, to the most popular search engines and directory services. Hire someone to do so, if required. Be sure this is a manual submission. Do not engage an automated submission service.
7) Keep track of changes in search engine algorithms and processes and accordingly modify your web pages so your search engine ranking remains high. Use online tools and utilities to keep track of how your website is doing.
8) Monitor your competitors and the top ranked websites to see what they are doing right in the way of design, navigation, content, keywords, etc.
9) Use reports and logs from your web hosting company to see where your traffic is coming from. Analyze your visitor location and their incoming sources whether search engines or links from other sites and the keywords they used to find you.
10) Make your customer visit easy and give them plenty of ways to remember you in the form of newsletters, free reports, reduction coupons etc.
11) Demonstrate your industry and product or service expertise by writing and submitting articles for your website or for article banks so you are perceived as an expert in your field.
12) When selling products online, use simple payment and shipment methods to make your customer's experience fast and easy.
13) When not sure, hire professionals. Though it may seem costly, but it is a lot less expensive than spending your money on a website which no one visits.
14) Don't look at your website as a static brochure. Treat it as a dynamic, ever-changing sales tool and location, just like your real store to which your customers with the same seriousness.
1) Create a site with valuable content, products or services.
2) Place primary and secondary keywords within the first 25 words in your page content and spread them evenly throughout the document.
3) Research and use the right keywords/phrases to attract your target customers.
4) Use your keywords in the right fields and references within your web page such as title, meta tags, headers, etc.
5) Keep your site design simple so that your customers can navigate easily between web pages, find what they want and buy products and services.
6) Submit your web pages i.e. every web page and not just the home page, to the most popular search engines and directory services. Hire someone to do so, if required. Be sure this is a manual submission. Do not engage an automated submission service.
7) Keep track of changes in search engine algorithms and processes and accordingly modify your web pages so your search engine ranking remains high. Use online tools and utilities to keep track of how your website is doing.
8) Monitor your competitors and the top ranked websites to see what they are doing right in the way of design, navigation, content, keywords, etc.
9) Use reports and logs from your web hosting company to see where your traffic is coming from. Analyze your visitor location and their incoming sources whether search engines or links from other sites and the keywords they used to find you.
10) Make your customer visit easy and give them plenty of ways to remember you in the form of newsletters, free reports, reduction coupons etc.
11) Demonstrate your industry and product or service expertise by writing and submitting articles for your website or for article banks so you are perceived as an expert in your field.
12) When selling products online, use simple payment and shipment methods to make your customer's experience fast and easy.
13) When not sure, hire professionals. Though it may seem costly, but it is a lot less expensive than spending your money on a website which no one visits.
14) Don't look at your website as a static brochure. Treat it as a dynamic, ever-changing sales tool and location, just like your real store to which your customers with the same seriousness.
Affiliate Marketing Guide : How to Promote Your Affiliate Programs
Here I'll reveal 8 promotion methods you can use to boost your affiliate commissions from your affiliate programs. I'll discuss some of the methods you've probably not heard of, whereas other methods you've thought would never work. In a real essence, it's really only a matter of doing it right.
Of course, like everything else in life, it takes multiple practices to make these methods work. But I let me assure you that what you're about the learn, will reduce your learning curve significantly. This can definitely reduce the guesswork and mistakes.
Now let's move on to the first of the 8 methods you can use in boosting your affiliate promotion and your commissions.
Of course, like everything else in life, it takes multiple practices to make these methods work. But I let me assure you that what you're about the learn, will reduce your learning curve significantly. This can definitely reduce the guesswork and mistakes.
Now let's move on to the first of the 8 methods you can use in boosting your affiliate promotion and your commissions.
How to Promote Affiliate Programs - Using Classified Ads
The process of using classified ads to generate sales for any product whether it be an original product or an affiliate product is often over-simplified and discouraged. This is, in part, because it actually is one of the harder ways in which you can advertise.
It requires you to use a small amount of words to communicate an important point, which will either make or break your ability to garner interest in the product in question. In most cases, supposed experts will discourage you from using classified ads because they themselves have never had much luck using them - NOT because classified ads aren't a viable method of advertising.
So how can you use classified ads correctly to generate a considerable amount of traffic to your affiliate product sales page?
The first step entails finding viable places to advertise. Again, many of the so-called experts will jump in and either tell you to use free sites or that free sites never work. The truth here, too, is somewhat in between: free sites can work, but you must use them carefully. For instance, if you want to generate traffic from sites that allow you to post free classifieds, you will have to find ones that actually receive traffic themselves.
One example of a site that receives a massive amount of traffic, but also allows you to post classified ads for free is craigslist, which you can find at the following URL:
http://www.craigslist.com
As long as you post classified ads in the proper section, you can do it completely free of charge. Additionally, you can do this on each of the craigslist sites for the metropolitan areas in the United States.
Another place you can post free classified ads is Yahoo. You can find this feature at the following URL:
http://classifieds.yahoo.com/.
Again, as long as its on topic, you can post a classified at for whatever you want.
It requires you to use a small amount of words to communicate an important point, which will either make or break your ability to garner interest in the product in question. In most cases, supposed experts will discourage you from using classified ads because they themselves have never had much luck using them - NOT because classified ads aren't a viable method of advertising.
So how can you use classified ads correctly to generate a considerable amount of traffic to your affiliate product sales page?
The first step entails finding viable places to advertise. Again, many of the so-called experts will jump in and either tell you to use free sites or that free sites never work. The truth here, too, is somewhat in between: free sites can work, but you must use them carefully. For instance, if you want to generate traffic from sites that allow you to post free classifieds, you will have to find ones that actually receive traffic themselves.
One example of a site that receives a massive amount of traffic, but also allows you to post classified ads for free is craigslist, which you can find at the following URL:
http://www.craigslist.com
As long as you post classified ads in the proper section, you can do it completely free of charge. Additionally, you can do this on each of the craigslist sites for the metropolitan areas in the United States.
Another place you can post free classified ads is Yahoo. You can find this feature at the following URL:
http://classifieds.yahoo.com/.
Again, as long as its on topic, you can post a classified at for whatever you want.
How to Promote Affiliate Programs - Using Classified Ads... continued
Now, with this in mind, you will want to consider the best way in which you can construct your classified ad. I personally suggest creating a headline or first line that uses psychological triggers.
Remember, with classifieds, you're not paying by the click. It's either free or you're paying for a certain period of time or impressions, so your goal should be to generate as many clicks as possible, so use words like "cheap," "free," "proven," and "shocking" to draw attention to your ad.
Once you have successfully drawn attention to your ad through the headline, you will then want to seal the deal by providing viewers with a reason to click through, provided that your affiliate product is something they will want to buy. You can do this by explicitly stating a quantifiable benefit in the second line of the classified ad - and then stating a crucial feature in the third line.
Once you have gained some experience posting ads on free classified ad mediums, you will want to move on to major electronic publications, including large e-zines and authority sites; however, before you do this, you could be confident in the classified ad and your conversion rate.
Remember, with classifieds, you're not paying by the click. It's either free or you're paying for a certain period of time or impressions, so your goal should be to generate as many clicks as possible, so use words like "cheap," "free," "proven," and "shocking" to draw attention to your ad.
Once you have successfully drawn attention to your ad through the headline, you will then want to seal the deal by providing viewers with a reason to click through, provided that your affiliate product is something they will want to buy. You can do this by explicitly stating a quantifiable benefit in the second line of the classified ad - and then stating a crucial feature in the third line.
Once you have gained some experience posting ads on free classified ad mediums, you will want to move on to major electronic publications, including large e-zines and authority sites; however, before you do this, you could be confident in the classified ad and your conversion rate.
How to Promote Affiliate Programs - Using E-zine Advertising
Before you get started with this method, please go to an Internet marketing forum and post a question asking how well e-zine advertising fares in comparison to other marketing methods.
The answers you get are likely to be diametrically opposed. This is not only because each marketer has his own product to sell and it is in his best interest to justify the purpose of that product but it is also because there has been a genuine debate raging for the past few years about the effectiveness and direction of e-zines and e-zine advertising.
There are those who posit that e-zine advertising is dead or is near the bottom of a very steep decline. They see the average person as being overwhelmed by superfluous emails on a daily basis some coming from friends and others coming from businesses and e-zines.
In their eyes, this amounts to a continuing decrease in attention paid to any emails that look business related, even if they specifically subscribed to them.
Additionally, they argue that many people forget that they joined lists and eventually begin to ignore emails coming from that address. And all of this is true which is precisely why it is important to take it into consideration when you are conducting e-zine advertising campaigns.
So how can you affectively advertise in e-zines and reap a profit from affiliate products?
The answers you get are likely to be diametrically opposed. This is not only because each marketer has his own product to sell and it is in his best interest to justify the purpose of that product but it is also because there has been a genuine debate raging for the past few years about the effectiveness and direction of e-zines and e-zine advertising.
There are those who posit that e-zine advertising is dead or is near the bottom of a very steep decline. They see the average person as being overwhelmed by superfluous emails on a daily basis some coming from friends and others coming from businesses and e-zines.
In their eyes, this amounts to a continuing decrease in attention paid to any emails that look business related, even if they specifically subscribed to them.
Additionally, they argue that many people forget that they joined lists and eventually begin to ignore emails coming from that address. And all of this is true which is precisely why it is important to take it into consideration when you are conducting e-zine advertising campaigns.
So how can you affectively advertise in e-zines and reap a profit from affiliate products?
How to Promote Affiliate Programs - Using E-zine Advertising...continued
There are a number of different ways, of which, I will cover three below:
1) Target e-zines that are related to your specific affiliate product.
Create a viral report that is related to your affiliate product (as we discussed in the previous lesson). Purchase sponsor ads in reputable e-zines and send all of those interested to a page where they can download your viral report for free. This report will have an embedded affiliate link, which will generate sales on your behalf.
2) Create a persuasive solo ad.
Again, start off by purchasing solo ad space in cheaper e-zines ones that are responsive, but have a low subscription count. Test your solo ads to determine your approximate conversion rate with the given affiliate product. Once you have a rough handle on your profit margin, attempt to market your solo ads in larger publications, including e-zines with subscriber bases of over 100,000. Keep in mind tha
1) Target e-zines that are related to your specific affiliate product.
Create a viral report that is related to your affiliate product (as we discussed in the previous lesson). Purchase sponsor ads in reputable e-zines and send all of those interested to a page where they can download your viral report for free. This report will have an embedded affiliate link, which will generate sales on your behalf.
2) Create a persuasive solo ad.
Again, start off by purchasing solo ad space in cheaper e-zines ones that are responsive, but have a low subscription count. Test your solo ads to determine your approximate conversion rate with the given affiliate product. Once you have a rough handle on your profit margin, attempt to market your solo ads in larger publications, including e-zines with subscriber bases of over 100,000. Keep in mind tha