The Affiliate Journey

The Long Walk to Full-Time Affiliate Marketing Success

The Affiliate Journey header image 1

Stealth Link Building: Get More Back Links From Your Competitors

March 14th, 2009 · Link Building, SEO

A really short post today, but a powerful tip.

Everyone knows you need more quality text links with the right anchor text to increase your page(s) rank.

Of course there’s more science to it then just getting a whack of backlinks (Although a lot of IM product developers certainly don’t want us to think that the case).

In this post I’m going to show you how to

  • check how many backlinks a competitor has
  • Actually view where those backlinks are coming form
  • How to steal a few of them for yourself

To do this we’re going to need one plugin that I use for Fire Fox. If you don’t use Fire Fox as your browser I would suggest you at least download it and have it. There are so many great free plugins you can get to help you in your SEO efforts.

The plugin we need today is from Arron Walls SEO BOOK site. It’s called SEO For Fire Fox

Download the Plugin here from SeoBook

You’ll need to restart Fire Fox after the plugin is installed.

2 – Head over to Google

Ok, do a search for your top keyword, or one of your most lucrative key terms for conversion.

NOTE: Most keywords that make money are known not just by you but other savvy marketers so they are often the ones harder to rank for since more then just you is trying to optimize your site around it.

Note below each SERP there is a smaller line of info you want to click on the question mark beside !Y links (this stands for yahoo links).

picture-2

This will reveal how many links that particular page is showing in Yahoo Site explorer.

A Mention about Yahoo: Why are we using Yahoo to track links? Well truth is Yahoo may not have the majority of Search users but it does have a more upto date visible index of incoming links for sites.

3- Find some Links

Alright. First thing to notice here are sites that appear to have far more links then any other site in the results. Check those first.

When you click on the !Y Links text it will open a new tab or window and bring you to Yahoo where it lists all the links pointing to that page/site.

From there it’s as simple as scouring the links that site has looking for

  • Blogs you could place a comment on that they’ve found
  • Directories you could submit to
  • Potential blogs that could post your content (if you contacted them)
  • Sites to trade links with, or setup 3 way link exchanges
  • Sites you could potentially Buy text links from

We Internet and Affiliate marketers often try to re-create the wheel sometimes when a simple method like this can often yield 10-20 or even 100 new links depending on your niche, page, and competitors.

SO get out there and get some links! This method is easy to do, set aside maybe 30-60 minutes.

Grab one of your sites, download the SEO for FireFox plugin and go through the steps. See how many links you get in that 60 minutes. If you can grab 5 or more new links then the time was well worth it.

If you enjoyed this post, and would like to stay up to date with my new posts daily you can subscribe to get them right to your inbox.

Simply enter your email at the top of the right hand side bar.

→ No CommentsTags:

8 Steps to Increasing your Sales, Conversions, and Performance

March 13th, 2009 · Make More Money

Not settling for your current performance with an affiliate offer is one of the main reasons some people make a ton of money in this business while others just settle for an extra few hundred a month.

NOTE: I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with an extra few hundred bucks a month if that’s your goal.

A real life example.

I’m in a niche where my site is running purely organic search traffic and I’m making about $1000.00 a month with that site. I have minimal expenses other then some on going content creation and monthly link building and promotion I do.

I figured for the niche I was doing quite well, so I decided to shoot an email off to my affiliate manager to see how the top affiliates for this merchant were performing.

Well I nearly fell out of my chair when she emailed me back to say they had a couple of affiliates that were doing $10,000 a month.

That’s 10 TIMES what I’m doing a month in commissions from the merchant.

WOW am I leaving some cash on the table.

This led me to think about how could I expand my marketing for this offer. The rest of this post outlines the plan I’ve developed to look for new profitable keywords in this market, test with PPC, track, tweak and eventually SEO for the keywords.

1 – More Keywords

I have a good handle on most of the popular keywords in this niche, but I haven’t really expanded my horizons yet. So my first stop was to look at the keywords other sites are using both in PPC and the SERPS.

For this I use Google’s free keyword tool.

I went to Google and searched some of the terms I already knew I was ranking for and getting conversions for. I grabbed their URL’s and inputted them into Googles keyword tool. This brought me back a huge list of terms to choose from.

I went through that list and picked out the keywords I felt illustrated a buyer, or at least a good prospect for my offer.

SIDE NOTE: When doing keyword research it’s important not to target really broad terms. This can wasite PPC spend and traffic since you’d basically educating someone else’s customer for a sale later on.

2 – Build AD Groups

When I export the keywords from Googles keyword tool it gives me a CSV file, I open that with Open Office and then manually break the longer list into smaller more focussed mini lists. These will be my ad groups for this campaign.

The broad idea here is that I’m going to be adding a bunch of new content to my site. Each page is going to be written around one of these ad groups with of course a strong call to action to buy the product I’m promoting.

You’ll also want to note a few negative keywords in this step. I added negative keywords like free, coupon, torrent (Since the product I was promoting was a dvd product). Brain storm as many as you can think of. Think about the type of people you know won’t buy the product you’re promoting and then think of the words they’d use while searching.

3 – Page Content

Next I’ll write a page of content for each ad group. This will vary for each ad group whether it will be a review page, comparison page, or a straight article/content page.

I won’t get into a complete tutorial on how to write good copy for a PPC landing page but a few things to remember.

Don’t write filler copy, remember to link to the offer above the fold, be informative yet to the point.

A great source for copy information is Copy Blogger. Brian Clark and his team over there have helped me a ton over the past year with my writing skills.

Check his blog out for some great tips. Here are a couple of my favourites I reference quite often

Tutorials for Writing Landing Pages Specifically (GREAT READ)
A Great 10 Step Copy Writing Tutorial
Writing Great Headlines

4 – Write my Ad(s)

Note I said ads, I always run at least two ads in PPC so I can continually test and try to improve CTR. I suggest you take time doing this, there are 101 different tutorials on the web about writing effective ad copy for Adwords.

Here’s a great post by the GoogleLady with several GREAT tips on writing Adwords ads.

31 Killer Ad Writing Tips

This is an important part of the process, especially for me since I’m not an avid PPC marketer. How ever this strategy is one I plan on rolling out across about 10 of my sites to try and increase my revenues.

5 – Setup Tracking

This is a key step that many people forget, and I have sometimes been lazy with before and not implemented it, but it’s key to track and know if a campaign is a success.

For each page and/or link placement setup some form of tracking so you can know.

a.) Where your clicks are coming from to your affiliate offer.
b.) Which links and pages are creating sales

If you don’t do this step then the rest is really a waste because when we get to step 8 below you won’t know what to optimize for.

Each affiliate program is going to be different for how you track unless you’re with one of the big networks (i.e. CJ, LinkShare etc.)

Do a bit of research and testing to find out how your network or offer can do unique sub id tracking.

6 – Start campaign

So I’m ready to launch this campaign into full swing. Set a daily and monthly budget for what you’re going to test with. For me I’m going to test this campaign at $20 a day to see what type of results I get. My sale average commission on this product is around $70 so I know I can afford quite a bit per customer with my revenue being so high per sale.

If you’re performing these same steps then of course you’ll need to consider your potential revenue per sale, position based on how much you bid etc. There are 101 things that go into determining bid size, budgets etc for a PPC campaign, could be an entire course let alone another post.

7 – Track, Compare, Tweak

Once you’ve started to collect some data from your campaign be it sales, clicks etc. you now must start to tweak what you’ve already done from your content to your ads.

You want to try to improve your click through both for your adwords ad and also from your landing page.

For example when you first launch the campaign you might find that you don’t get any click throughs to your landing page, or affiliate offer. That doesn’t mean the whole things a dud, it means you need to improve upon what you already have.

Tweak, test and track to a point where you don’t feel you can improve any longer before you give up.

8 – Start my SEO Campaign

Now we’ll wrap this whole exercise up with why I started it in the first place. To get more organic SERP rankings for keywords that convert for my offer.

If I’ve done all the previous 7 steps correctly, allowed the campaign to run for a few days, weeks (the time frame will depend on the market) I should have some good data to work from to know what keywords get traffic and convert.

Now I want to start link building for those same pages I’m running in adwords to grow their traction in the SERPS. The idea is to replace your PPC positioning with organic search engine rankings. Of course the whole purpose behind this exercise is to ensure that you spend your time ranking for keywords you know

a.) Get traffic
b.) convert to sales

The old method of just building a content site and trying to rank for everything is kind of a waste of time when you consider this method.

That’s it, these 8 steps will allow you to test new keywords, determine which keywords are worth spending time SEOing and grow your affiliate profits without having to build an entire new site or enter a new market/niche.

Remember it’s easier to expand in a niche you’re already in if there’s still room to grow rather then enter an entire new one.

Good luck, and post your comments and thoughts on this.

If you’d like to keep up to date with my new posts each day sign up for my RSS feed in the top of the right hand column. Simply enter your email address and new posts will get delivered right to your inbox.

→ No CommentsTags:

The “Secret” to getting more out of your Article Marketing Efforts

March 12th, 2009 · Link Building, SEO

More is better, but it’s gotta be of the right stuff. That sentence might be a bit confusing, but bare with me while I explain it in the context of article marketing.

If you submit the same article to hundreds of article directories you’re actually diluting the effectiveness of that article.

WHY? Well the same thing on hundreds of different sites isn’t going to

a.) Get indexed
b.) get ranked in the SERPS

So what can you do about it?

I’ve been following a simple routine for each article I distribute I wanted to share with you today that will help you increase the number of articles you get ranked, the number of visitors you can get from an article, and of course the power of that back link you can get from an article directory in your bio box.

I’m going to give you two methods, one is the full-blown method I outsource for each of my articles, the second is a good alternative if you don’t have the time.

Re-write paragraphs and Titles

The first step is to break your article into paragraphs. I then re-write each paragraph twice, and the title usually 5-7 times.

Bio Boxes

Now re-write your bio box for that article a few times using slightly different anchor text for each keyword or use totally different links all together in each one. Make 3-5 bio boxes.

Mix and Match

Now with each submission grab one version of each paragraph, one title variation and one bio box. BAM! You now have a semi unique article, with unique links back to your website.

The benefit: First off you have a better chance of that article getting indexed and ranked for the key word it was written about because the exact same article isn’t going to be published on 50 other article directories. Secondly, the bio boxes are now randomized so you’ve increased your back link power.

EXAMPLE: Say you were going to link to “red widget review” or even better let’s say you were going to link to SEO elite review, a page on your site that reviews Brad Callen’s product SEO elite.

You could randomize how you link to that page in each bio you write this way:

  • SEO Elite Review
  • Review of SEO Elite
  • Review on SEO Elite
  • SEO Elite reviews

You get my point, it looks more natural and you’re going to be helping that page rank for a lot more variety of terms then just the ‘SEO elite review’ term. This is smart in the long run as you want links with varying anchor text for each page.

This is how I’ve been article marketing, and I’ve seen good results with it, but I know it takes time and/or money to make it work. So below is a method you can do quicker, but I would suggest you try to get to this level at some point.

The Lazy Way

Rotate titles

Re-write your title 4-5 times and select a random title each time. This way not every title will be the same. Most article directories use the article title as the title tag for the page. Search engine spiders will figure out pretty quickly if there’s 100 versions of a page with the same title tag and the content looks the same that it’s probably the same article.

This is a quick change you can make to help improve the uniqueness of your article. If you have a bit more time I’d suggest even re-writing the first and last paragraphs of your articles and rotating those to help with a bit more uniqueness.

Rotate Bios

If nothing else always rotate your bio boxes. It’s some what of a waste to link the same article 50 times with the same anchor text to the exact same page. There may be experts that disagree, but I’d suggest varying it. My results suggest it works better for back linking.

I’m sure someone like Jerry West who tests hundreds of domains and concepts could be more conclusive about this, and me with my 20-30 domains don’t have the clout to perform huge tests, but just the common sense aspect of it suggests it should work.

So get out there and start article marketing more effectively. Do it a lot and do it consistently to get results.

→ No CommentsTags:

Niche Selection: Are you Hiding in the Woods? Or Playing Out in the Open?

March 9th, 2009 · General

Hiding in the bush, trying to stay un-noticed will usually get you sub par results.

What exactly do I mean?

If you’re one of those affiliate marketers that is always looking for a secret niche that’s never been tapped by another marketer so you can make your millions you’re scraping at the bottom of an almost empty barrel.

NOTE: I’m not saying that there are no un-developed or under developed markets out there, because their are. How ever you’ll spend a lot of time looking for them. I’m going to give you two tips today as an alternative to looking for that hidden niche to go after the big money where it’s already being made.

Make a better mouse trap

Yup that’s right, the ol tried and tested method of improving on someone else’s products, systems or concept. This works like a charm in the affiliate marketing world for those that are willing to spend the time, risk failure (or huge success) and get back up and do it again if it doesn’t work.

What exactly am I talking about?

I’m talking about searching for new and unique methods of marketing affiliate offers. This could be

  • creating a unique community for a specific niche of people (maybe a new social media website, or video sharing site)
  • creating a unique bonus product to go along with the product(s) you’re promoting (maybe a manual to help the buyer get up to speed with their new item more quickly, or a set of videos on how to get the most out of the product or service)
  • Going offline to promote specific offers in offline advertising or even selling direct to consumers or businesses (I’m going to create a post about this one day, I have some great ideas on how this could work well for many scenarios)

Go Head to Head… well almost

The big markets like Weight loss, Web Hosting, and pretty much anything in the sub prime market are crazy competitive. How ever that doesn’t mean there isn’t room some where for you to make a buck.

here’s why it’s worth looking at the hyper competitive markets.

1.)They’re hyper competitive for a reason. There’s lots of money being spent here, therefore there’s lots of competition. You can get your small piece of the huge pie.

2.)Some of these markets are never satisfied. Customers are continually looking for new products to replace or do a better job then the old ones. (Think Golf)

3.)There’s a ton of traffic and also key terms to target you just need to carve out your little piece of the market

Getting unique with your key word research, and not just going after the same old terms as everyone else is the key to being successful in a hyper competitive market. Don’t be scared though, if you put the work in you can grab a nice piece of some of the action.

Both of these methods allow you to start getting traffic in competitive niches where conversions and traffic are out of this world.

Think about it this way, would you rather be fishing in a pond where you know there are hundreds of thousands of fish (Pretty good chance you’ll catch something) or a lake that maybe has a dozen or so fish in it?

Sure you might catch a fish in that second scenario, but you might be waiting a while. You’re going to have to try different areas, maybe even different baits. While in the pond with thousands of fish, you can probably dip your hook in just about any where and pull something out.

You’re job is now to find the best place on the side of that pond with thousands of fish so you can dip your net in and pull out a half a dozen every time.

Think outside the box, but go where the money is. That’s the moral of this post.

If you’re nervous about getting in competitive markets, or don’t know where to start stay close because that’s what I’m going to help you understand in the coming weeks and months with new posts.

Sign up for my RSS feed at the top right of this page with you email to stay subscribed and receive notifications of new posts right in your inbox.

→ No CommentsTags:

Are you Committed? 5 Ways to make more money with a current Affiliate Offer

March 8th, 2009 · Make More Money

money

We hear about diversification in investing, it’s the only free lunch says MSNBC investing guru Kramer. How ever, what if I was to tell you it could slowly be stunting the growth, if not killing your affiliate business?

That’s right, being in to many markets or niches at once without the man power to effectively address the audience and make it worth while financially is a waste of time.

A mentor I had in the past told me never leave an offer and move to another one until you’re sure you’re making the maximum amount possible from that offer.

Are you doing that with each market/niche/affiliate offer you’re working on right now? If not, here are 5 ways to get you back on track to maximize your affiliate income from each market and offer you work on.

Start Article Marketing

I know there has been a ton of buzz the past few years about “BUM MARKETING”. I don’t support this method as a business model as per se, how ever if you can use it as one of your tools in the tool box why not right?

Writing a few articles a week and posting them to high traffic sites such as Ezinearticles.com, Squdioo and Hubpages might get you a few more clicks to that affiliate merchant and make you a few more bucks.

Remember to link back to a redirect domain for the product you’re promoting in the article (You can’t link direct to a merchants website from ezine articles).

Why Not Organic SEO

If you’re a PPC affiliate and have a crazy converting offer why not start a competing site, or use the same site as your PPC campaign to start taking over the natural search rankings for you top converting paid search keywords.

When you’re into SEO you usually stick your nose up at PPC marketers and vice versa. How ever using these two methods together can be the one-two punch that knocks your revenues out of the park.

Pay Per Click

Like what I said above, if you do natural search and SEO for your traffic why not add in a spice of PPC. This servers two benefits in my eyes. Of course it’s going to allow you to target different keywords to test, and make more money, but it’s also going to show you more converting keywords you can target for your natural search rankings.

There’s a lot more to be said on this topic but you can create quite the money machine if you learn to master the marriage of SEO and PPC.

With PPC don’t just do search ads but consider running ads on the Google Content network as well. Again a post all on its own, but do your research on it there can be some diamonds found in there.

Social Media Advertising

I can’t claim to be an expert in this, but I have read a lot about Facebook ads and the likes. Mike Geary, author of top selling ClickBank product The Truth about abs has made some serious money promoting his product this way and revealed it to his affiliates in a private email newsletter a few months back.

Don’t go gang busters on Facebook ads right away, but test them out on an offer or two and track your clicks and conversions. You’ll likely see lower conversions then your regular methods since the visitor wasn’t likely looking for what you advertised but if you can pick up a sale or two in there why the heck not.

Off Line Methods

Another method I don’t claim to be an expert in but it works well for certain markets. Think about picking up local business for certain offers that pay on a per lead basis or for products that have huge mass appeal.

You could look at classified ads in local papers, direct mailings, local and community flyers or newspaper advertising, even direct selling  face-to-face with a business card or brochure that directs visitors to a URL owned by you that redirects to the merchants web site.

This can work really well for B2B offers, lead generation offers, and specific niches such as credit repair and other sub prime markets where people are desperate for solutions.

These are five methods can could double, or even triple your current income from an offer, but don’t stop there. If you know you’re promoting something that a huge market wants keep going, be creative. Super affiliates are the ones doing the same old thing over and over. While you have to often start with you tried and tested method be it PPC, SEO or Bum marketing once you find a hot offer expand on the methods of marketing it.

→ No CommentsTags: