Mar 18 2009
I recently got in touch with Andrew, the Affiliate Manager for autoanything.com, a leader in providing auto parts online. I wanted to get his thoughts on a few questions I had concerning the sellers side of affiliate marketing. Provided below are a few questions that were asked.
Q1. Besides traffic is there anything else that separates your top performers from the rest of the affiliates within your network?
Continue Reading »
Mar 09 2009
I recently did a study on how Google treats pages that have their registration set to private. For my research I have not found anything that mention there is a problem with having your registration set this way. From a number of articles I read some have mentioned that having your domain registration set to private helps in securing the domain name itself. Doing this can also cut down on spam as well. Others say that there should be no reason for a business domain to be set to private. What does Google think about all this is what I’m trying to figure out. From my research it seems as if Google is keeping a bit quiet on the subject. I do know that search engines use the length of registration and the age of the domain to determine trust. I can only assume more trust will be given to those who do not set the registration to private. I haven’t found any concrete evidence that says better ranking will be given to those who provide their registration information nor have I found anything that says private registration can hurt your rank.
I did find an interesting article written on Web Pro News discussing how Google was found using the title of a business in the whois as the title tag for a website that didn’t have title tags in the website’s code. You can read more about this here. Michael Gray from wolf-howl.com also provided some useful information regarding whois and Google.
If I find any more information regarding this topic I’ll be sure to add it to this post. You know the more information about this feel free to comment.
Mar 04 2009
Affiliate marketing can be exciting yet time consuming. At times it can also get tedious and frustrating. I’ve been marketing online for quite some time and I stepped into affiliate marketing a little over a year ago and have had a decent amount of success with it. The thing I like most about affiliate marketing; no shipping issues and no returns.
Below is my list of affiliate marketing website tips and ideas.
3) Become the affiliate of more than 1 single “related” company. Choice is always good. With valuable content this will help build your authority. Using a single Affiliate Company can make your site look like a doorway.
4) When writing about the topic, don’t ramble on; make sure the information will be useful to your readers. Make it useful enough to come back to.
5) Be patient with your link building. Focus on your content and your website’s unique purpose.
8) Dedicated Hosting IP will help engines see your time is dedicated to that one site.
9) Also stretch out the life of your domain. I prefer to keep my business domain expiration over 4 yrs. Shows search engines your in it for the long run.
10) Purchase and upload tracking software. You may need to add code to the final page of the other website. Work this out with the affiliate company you provide leads/sales to. Implementing tracking and/or affiliate software will show your Affiliate Manager that you are serious and usually the Manager will help you get things tracking properly. If they don’t, another company will.
12) Earning trust will earn you more conversions. I mentioned on #6 to register a Business. If you’re a registered Business for over a year, consider registering with the Better Business Bureau Online.
13) Continue earning trust by investing in mcafeesecure.com and etrust.org services. These services will also help protect your site as well as insure privacy to your visitors. This will also help your site earn credibility with the search engines.
14) Design comes before marketing. Make sure you’re set on all logos, site design, etc. You cannot gain trust by changing your site’s template or logo once a week. Keep your design changes minimal. I’ve considered redesigning this site’s layout. I won’t make a change until I find something I can be satisfied with for the long run.
15) Use a secondary site for your grey hat techniques. One grey hat technique I believe can bring some good business is paid reviews. However the links that come with paid reviews can be seen as paid links which may affect your rank with Google. Your main site may be the one that feeds your kids. Don’t gamble with the site that feeds you.
18) You should already know by now, you must build links as well as trust. Links from directories, press releases, and related websites will help your rank. For Directories like DMOZ, the only way to get an affiliate website listed here is by staying within the Strict DMOZ affiliate guidelines.
19) Make sure the company site you work with are leaders with a competitive offering. The internet makes it easy to shop around and people will do just that. If your company has the best prices or the best service, the shopper will probably come back to make a purchase. Cookie and IP tracking is used to keep tabs on who gets commission for the sale. Cookies or IPs are usually set to expire in a month or even a few months. This way if your shopper revisits the company site and not yours, you can still get paid depending on how long it took the shopper to return because of this cookie or IP.
22) Consider offering a free service related to your affiliate services.
23) The more times the average user will visit your page, they more likely they will bookmark the site.
24) If you haven’t already, maybe its time to think “community”.
25) No affiliate links should be present on the homepage. For an affiliate website I will generally keep all affiliate links about 3 clicks deep. Good content should be primary.
Check out some more seo tips.
Mar 02 2009
So who uses Sitepal’s Characters Animations? For those who haven’t heard of this, Sitepal.com provides animated talking characters for your website. There are a few good things as well as few drawbacks I found about this service. I went ahead and added their youtube video to clearly express some of the benefits to using Sitepal.
From an SEO standpoint, the good thing I see with using a Sitepal is having the ability to maybe reduce bounce rate and be viewed as a better resource. Creating the Character and Video is also kind of fun. You can actually upload a picture of yourself which can then be turned into your own animated character. Service provides a text to talk feature which simply allows you to type in the message for your character to speak. Monthly prices can range anywhere from $10 a month to $250 a month depending on the number of streams your video or videos receive on a month to month basis.
I initially checked out Sitepal.com for using the image characters to create videos for Youtube use. The problem with this service is you cannot download the videos. Therefore uploading to Youtube or Metacafe is a problem. All videos are streamed from their site which creates video distribution problems. They charge you by the number of streams your Sitepal receives. It would be nice to see them make it possible to download these Sitepal videos for a small fee. I understand they want to make a profit but not having the ability to download these videos makes this service seem limited. I also hope to see better character designs throughout the future. The characters they have right now are not bad but there’s always room for advancement.
Feb 23 2009
There are a number of traditional ways many bloggers earn a few bucks from their daily writings. These traditional ways include post ad services, Adbrite, Adsense and affiliate marketing. I’m also going to discuss how compelling content can earn you thousands and finally, from an “ad buyers” point of view, how Bloggers can take post level advertising to the next level. I’ll tell you what serious companies really want. Before I begin with the numerous ways Bloggers can earn an income online; I want to provide to some new online Entrepreneurs. After some research I found a couple blogging resources I’d like to share with those who are considering taking blogging on as a new hobby. If you’re fresh to the whole internet and blogging scene and want to get a little taste of blogging check out wikihow.com. There are a decent amount of free resources, services and tips for people new to blogging. If your sure you want to blog for the long run check out 9 successful blogging tips.
Bloggers who sign up with a blog advertising services can earn small commissions for each sponsored post they publish. A typical blogger may get paid an average $10 per post written when a few links are included within the content of the blog post. So for instance, lets say you have a well established blog and you want to make a little extra money. When you sign up for one of these programs, you will be contacted when an link advertising opportunity arises. You will then need to make the choice whether or not you want to accept the job. The problem I see with these programs is they can destroy your pagerank; especially if every single post you write is sponsored. Some paid to blog services may require you to disclose. The federal trade commission explains why failure to disclose can be a problem. So what happens when a Blogger adds a Disclosure Policy to their blog. They make what they’re doing more legal yet less inviting to advertisers. In other words, if you disclose, many advertisers no longer see the seo advantage of buying links from you. By disclosing you threw up an “I sell links” flag to search engines. How useful can those links be if Search Engines, primarily Google, makes it clear paid links are a bad thing. While many of these online services pay little and require disclosure statements, why not personally search for advertisers related to your blog post, get paid more and not be forced into anything? Just a thought… You can read more about this idea here.
Back to Top
Adbrite can earn you small commissions every time someone clicks on a banner or text ad. Adbrite has a CPM option also which will earn you commissions for every thousand impressions a company’s banner receives when placed on your website. I’ve seen major websites use this service to earn money online. Some include Facebook, the whitepages, and myspace. Although selling links is now a grey to blackhat method of earning money online, using the Adbrite service is a much safer way to advertise online since the method doesn’t pass pagerank. If I place ads on my site, I would rather see less than 10% of my visitors clicking through them. I’d rather see the majority of my visitors click through to another article on my site. When a search engine follows users through my site instead of in and out, this can only help my site gain page rank. If most of my users are clicking out; page rank may be lost.
Back to Top
Google Adsense links may not pay much for clicks earned on random blog posts. If you write a post about a competitive industry such as finance or insurance, your click commissions can range anywhere between $1 and $3. I recommend these ads be placed somewhere out of the way from your main content area. From an SEO standpoint, it’s important for your visitors to stay on your site for awhile before clicking out to another. If 90% of your viewers come and click out with a few quick moments, this will just help the search engine programs to believe your content isn’t all that compelling.
Back to Top
Compel the reader to continue reading. Compel readers to bookmark and revisit from time to time. Make bookmarking an easy task. Many of us readers can be lazy. Even better if your content is good enough to receive a few links your doing it right. How much is it worth for an advertiser to get banner placement on a blog post receiving 10,000 views daily? If your blog post is good enough you can charge $1000 a month for a post level ad placement.
Quality Blogging Continued…
A good blog post takes time, research and creativity. You want to build a post full of great content and useful information that readers will come back to read over and over. Since you’re going for repeat visits, writing a post about the 2009 mustang may only bring good traffic during “2009″. You want to write something that will stay useful for a long time. Writing a post about electronics may find itself to be non-useful in the future. This is the reason why writing lists have worked out so well for some bloggers. 101 link building tips is a great list of link building strategies. I’ve visited this page more than once because who could ever remember 101 strategies after reading it one time? This post probably receives well over, you know what… I’m not going to even guess how many visits this page gets. But if I wanted to start a new online directory, I’d pay good money to be included somewhere on that post. So what you need to ask yourself is, “how much effort do I want to put into my post?”. If your only making ten bucks for every post you write, it’s kind of hard to spend too much time on one post. Now what if you wrote a great post about auto finance, buying a car and selling a car. At the bottom of the post create a block that reads, “Auto Resources” and add a couple great resources you know about. It will be only a matter of time before other related companies find you and offer you anywhere from $25 to $100 to be added as an additional resource. If you need to get paid right then and there, you can ask other related websites if they would like to be placed for a reasonable one-time fee. Now since you have a great post, it will get more advertising offers, more visits, more adsense clicks, earn more links (which increase the post value) and overall help your pagerank.
Back to Top
Affiliate marketing is another good way to earn an extra income online. Becoming an affiliate marketer for a Company can be very profitable if the marketing strategy is designed right. Do you have a product or service and need more sales? Affiliate programs can work well for increasing your business also. Some of the largest industries have created affiliate programs to gain additional leads and sales online. For anyone wanting to learn more about affiliate marketing click here.
Feb 01 2009
I wanted to quickly through up this post for anyone who is searching for a small office space in Tucson, AZ
If you just want to test it out I have 4 months left on my current lease that you may take over just to see how things work. If you like it, there will be no rate increase you you’ll be able to re-lease it out for another year at the current price.
The monthly rate is $350, If your interested just give me a call at 520-850-0598
Jan 23 2009
When advertising in competitive markets pay per click advertising can get very expensive. Some pay per click advertising on sites such as Google and Yahoo can range anywhere in between $2-$20 per click depending on how competitive your industry is. Competitive industries include insurance companies, mortgage and other lending companies and law firms. One thing you must watch out for when PPC advertising is the bounce rate of your landing page. Are sending shoppers to a clean design? Always make sure your pages function properly before setting up your campaign. Also be aware that there is such thing as click fraud that you must watch out for. If you have your ads selected to be shown on other people’s websites, “Adsense Websites”, you run the risk of a few extra clicks that should not have happened. Then searched you may also have a competitor going through checking their natural keyword placement and see your ad. They might want to check out your business, which will cost you click. You may be able to avoid some of these issues by using PPC advertising for your long tail keywords such as “affordable internet marketing in Tucson Arizona”.
Continue Reading »
Jan 21 2009
I run maybe one or two blogs as well as a couple websites online. Keeping up with providing the information to the user can be difficult at times. But with there only being one of me, I can only provide so much information to my readers at once. This has bugged me for quite some time. I continued looking for ways to provide fresh information to the readers as quickly and as effectively as I can. Continually updating your content on your blog is crucial and you can ask this to any blogger, they will tell you the same.
Although I type pretty fast I often find myself clicking on the backspace. Sometimes I have to stop and stretch my wrist out and get the blood circulating so I can type some more. I came across a program that I thought might be able to help me out. It cost about $100 at your local OfficeMax. This program is called Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10. Once installed on your machine you basically put on this headset, open up word and talk. The words you speak type out into your Word document. If you can only type 20, 30, 40 words per minute, you’ll find yourself twice as productive. The drawback is it only works with 32-bit OS. Some people with new machines running Vista have mentioned problems with the software. Also you can’t talk too fast otherwise it won’t pick up what you’re saying. One good thing about it is sometimes whenever you’re typing the old-fashioned way you have these thoughts running through your head but by the time they hit paper they’re kind of diminished. With this you can just talk freely and have your thoughts instantly typed for you. The program is not perfect so if you do choose to purchase this program expected to a few edits here and there as or after your program is done typing it out for you. Below is an example paragraph of how it comes out as I speak it.
Example paragraph: I underlined typos:
today I went to OfficeMax. I picked up a program called Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 it has been pretty successful program with minor issues. I plan to provide my visitors now with more updated content since this will save me more time when it comes to anything
After I Edited paragraph:
Today I went to OfficeMax. I picked up a program called Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10. It has been a pretty successful program with minor issues. I plan to provide my visitors now with more updated content since this will save me more time when it comes to typing.
In conclusion:
I feel this program will be a great hit. I plan to also use it to write my articles for article marketing and I also plan to use a voice recorder to get other people’s thoughts outside the office which I can then translate into text. I’m not exactly sure how other people’s voices will work since during the install there is a session where you help the program learn your voice characteristics.
Jan 15 2009
The other day I was browsing Youtube videos while working on some design stuff. Half the time I use Youtube I’m not even watching the videos; just listening to music or marketing discussions tips and strategies. I came across a series of videos that I felt were very interesting. One interesting study they discussed had to do with the threshold at which normal people like you and me will turn down an idea knowing someone else may benefit more from this idea, even if the idea would potentially help some of this person make a profit. When people feel like they’re getting the short end of the stick, many times they won’t even listen to an idea. People naturally want to be on top. Check out the video, it may change the strategy in how you develop new partnerships.
Dec 22 2008
I’ve talked with a number other Bloggers and it has been determined that writing fresh content on a daily basis can be a challenge for many. Common questions include, “How can I manage to write every day?” “I need some fresh ideas, how can I come up with some?” Continue Reading »
|
Offer a service in exchange for a link. I've done this an d picked up some great links and made some good friends. Read Another |
