Questions and Answers Round 1
You know the drill. Post any questions you have related to Affiliate Marketing, Landing Pages, PPC and Online Marketing.
Finding The Perfect Domain Name
As I begin working on a new project a regular question comes to mind, what will be the domain name? A domain name, if chosen incorrectly can make things like SEO, Viral Marketing, PPC and Social Marketing incredibly difficult and this is exactly why I want to tell you about a service I recently found called PickyDomains.
This is basically how it works, you deposit $50 and tell them what your site is about, then they come back to you with a bunch of domains that are relevant, easy to read/spell and are memorable. Think about it, if you know anything about domaining you know that a lot of work and research goes into picking a domain name. I analyze my competitors domain names, how well they rank for keywords related to their domain, length of domain name and look for trends when comparing them. Even if you have a massive budget to market your domain it still makes sense to do this preliminary research because it will make your job much easier.
With this said, does $50 really seem that bad? Absolutely not! The company even offers a full refund if you dont like any of the domains they came up with! Simply put, this service is worth it. Add up the hours you spend doing the research and times it by your hourly rate and see if it adds up to under $50, if not, then this service is for you.
Want to Succeed at Affiliate Marketing? Focus.
I am estimating that about 90% of what I know about Affiliate Marketing I learned within the first month in the game. That includes how to get accepted into top affiliate networks, setting up tracking to track everything down to the keyword, how to program dynamic landing pages, how to create massive keyword lists using various tools and how to create landing pages that get great quality scores. The information to do all this is out there, all you have to do is look, but why is it that we still see so many people fail at AM?
Focus. Most people are not disciplined enough to work diligently on a task until it is complete because they lack focus. Focus means having a goal and working towards it, simple as that.
Do you have a goal? Are you actively working towards something every single day? If not, then you might want to reevaluate your dreams, desires and ambitions. Most of us have a vague idea of what we want but being vague is pointless simply because there is no emotion tied to it. Think about it, think about a dream you have. When you imagine that dream what do you see? Do you see a clear picture of your dream and assign a feeling of “I hope I get that, go there or do that one day” or do you see yourself in that picture driving that Ferrari or visiting that exotic place? This is my point, if you allow your dream to be merely a dream, it will, but if you explore the idea of it enough to define it and focus on obtaining it, it will happen.
Train yourself to focus and block out any negative influences. Having a conscious state of mind will open up doors like most of us cant image and that state of mind begins with a goal that you are passionate about achieving and are persistent and focused enough to work towards everyday.
Don’t waste your life away as another clone, doing as all other do. Establish your sense of self, know your strengths and weaknesses and build your knowledge every single day.
Tracking EVERYTHING with Xtreme Conversions
If you’re not tracking EVERYTHING you are probably loosing out on potential sales, simple as that. I use Xtreme Conversions (Yes, thats an affiliate link, hook me up or don’t, I dont care.) for all my tracking and it works great. Instead of beating around the bush and telling you need tracking for a bunch of reasons you probably already know about, I will simply explain how to set it up get it working.
Using XC you can generate a landing page PHP script that you simply add to your page, in almost all cases this works with no problems but for me it didn’t work and all that was wrong was that I did not have CURL enabled, after I enabled CURL it worked perfect.
In AdWords, your link will need to pass along the correct parameters so here is an example:
http://www.yoursite.com/LP/index.php?bid_keyword={keyword}&campaign=CampaignName&ad=Ad1
{keyword} = keyword the person searches in Google, it gets added to the URL and passed to your landing page where it is recorded by XC.
&campaign = Whatever your campaign name is you put that here so for other campaigns you change the name.
&ad = This is your ad name, I use something like AD1DT for First AD with a Dynamic Title or AD2ST for Second AD with Static Title. Since I split test my ADs there are never more then 2 running so tracking what one performs is easy.
On all my landing pages I use a php redirect to hide my affiliate links, that looks like this:
<?php
error_reporting(0);
$cookiename = ‘xconversions’;
$var = $_COOKIE[$cookiename];
?>
<?php
header (”Location:http://www.affiliatelink.com/xxxx?sub=$var”);
?>
This link adds the unique ID passed from Xtreme Conversions and adds it as the Sub Id of the affiliate link so when you look at your sub ids in your affiliate network it will show you a unique number for every click and conversion then all you do is match that unique number to the number in XC and it will tell you exactly what Campaign, AdGroup and Keyword converted.
Thats pretty much it. Tracking can be very frustrating to setup but it is vital to the success of any affiliate marketer, so if you have questions just post them here and I will do my best to help everyone.
How Web Analytics Can Improve Your Affiliate Marketing Business
This guest post is written by Emilia from AffiliateTips.com. AffiliateTips is a resource for anyone who is interested in getting started with affiliate programs or read reviews of programs in all the top paying niches like casino affiliate programs.
How Web Analytics Can Improve Your Affiliate Marketing Business
If you have an affiliate marketing business, you are probably accustomed to using your sales reports to track your success. While this type of report is important, you may be overlooking one of the most important tools for improving your affiliate marketing results. Web analytics is a high-powered information tool that offers detailed data about your website, your customers and your marketing efforts.
How exactly can web analytics improve your affiliate marketing business? By understanding user behavior, you can use this data to adjust your affiliate marketing strategy. If, for example, you notice that one page of your website is far more popular than others, you might consider creating content that is similar or highly related to that page. While it may take some time to truly understand your analytics reports, the time spent will be well worth it in the long run.
Consider How Many People Visit Your Website
According to many affiliate marketing experts, website traffic is essential to effectively promote products and make sales. Web analytics offers detailed information about your site traffic, from the number of visitors per day to how many pages users view per session.
Start by carefully tracking this information in order to understand exactly how people are utilizing your website. Look for trends, such as traffic spikes on certain days of the week. If you do notice a consistent trend in your traffic reports, use this information to help promote your site. For example, if your website tends to generate more traffic on Mondays, be sure to highlight your best affiliate offer in prominent location on that particular day.
Assess Incoming Links
One of the best ways to optimize your website for search engines is to get a lot of incoming links from other high quality sites in your industry. When you look at your web analytics, spend some time noting how many other sites are linking to yours and how much traffic enters your site via these links. If there are relatively few sites linking to yours, invest some time and energy into a link building campaign. If you have many incoming links from low-quality websites, create a greater link balance and spend time cultivating relationships with some of the top-ranked sites in your field.
Analyze Landing Pages
The landing page is the first page your viewers see on your site. While people often think of the home page as the primary landing page, it is important to realize that almost any page on your site can become a landing page. If viewers find your site via an online search, chances are that they will land on a specific content sub-page of your site.
As you look at your web analytics, determine which pages serve as the most popular landing pages on your site. Next, optimize those pages carefully by including links to related information or products at the bottom of every page.
Web analytics can be an important tool to improve your affiliate marketing business, but only if you understand the data and know how to act upon it effectively. Start tracking your website data today and establish a basis on which to compare future data. In addition to making improvements to your marketing strategy, web analytics also provides a useful way to measure your progress and keep track of your affiliate success.
Affiliate Marketing and MeetUp.com
Well, the hammer from MeetUp.com has come down. In a recent letter from them here is what they said:
Hello,
Your Meetups recently came to our attention. Upon review, we’ve found them to be primarily for the purpose of promoting a service, advertising merchandise, or otherwise highlighting a commercial offer, which is against our Terms of Service.
As a result of our inquiry into this matter, we will be closing your Meetups within the next 24-48 hours, refunding your subscription and closing your account.
We thank you for your interest in Meetup and apologize that we are not able to serve your needs at this time.
Sincerely,
Meetup.com
I was shocked to see that they are refunding my subscription but I’m not complaining about it.
How I am using Affiliate Marketing to pay back my College Tuition
This revenue comes from only two of my websites and the traffic is not paid for, so no PPC here. I am using mainly SEO and clever marketing tactics to achieve this. I spend no money marketing these websites. These are only two sources of my online income but its enough to cover my college tuition payment of $351.32.
Commission Junction Earnings:
Azoogle Earnings:
Again, these are only 2 sources of income but its enough to cover my college tuition. Muahah!
Now go out and build some sites!
Learning Patience - Not as easy as I thought…
More times then I’d like to remember I have been very inpatient in life! Numerous times I have rushed getting things done and have missed small details, I have made decisions way too fast without completely thinking them through and I have rushed myself to reaching goals without fully enjoying the journey, assuming I reached them at all. This post is all about how you might be chasing your dream, and stopping yourself from reaching it all at the same time!
Like Aristotle said, “patience is a virtue”, but why?
I firmly believe that we all have an energy within us that cannot be seen or touched. It is something we give off to the universe and depending on how we view ourselves is ultimately how others see and treat us. If you give off the energy that you are positive, optimistic and confident then that is exactly what you get back. So where does patience play a part? Patience, at the root level is what determines how needy you are of any one thing. It can be anything from patience for success or patience for love. If you pursue success and have to have it or else you won’t be happy, you most likely won’t reach it, simply because the energy you are putting out is negative. You are putting out into the universe that you are not happy now but if you have this, this and this, you will be happy. That’s not how it works!
The most important tip I can give you is this… Think. Think about your thoughts. Your thoughts control everything, your actions, emotions and happiness. If you start thinking of something negative or start doubting something, interrupt the thought and change it with something positive. Condition yourself to think about thinking. After some times passes you will not need to remind yourself anymore and your negative thoughts will slowly disappear and you will emerge a better and happier person.
So if you want to be patient, think, don’t act. Patience illustrates self control. Control your thoughts and you will control everything else in your life no matter it be success, love or anything else!
Goodluck and remember, be patient, this will take time! Enjoy the journey.
It Pays to be Persistent, Literally.
I own multiple sites, most of which I started years ago and have been growing since day one. Five year ago I didn’t know how to build a site, Four years ago I didnt know CSS, Three years ago I knew nothing about quality content, Two years ago I had no clue what SEO was, One year ago I only made about $150-$200/month with Affiliate marketing. The point is, I learned by being persistent and keeping my eyes on the prize.
Be persistent, work hard and let no one hold you back - These are words I live by & work by. If you can’t tell yet, I’m trying to get you motivated! Stop reading this blog and start living YOUR dream!
If you’re like me and like to read books that motivate you, try Quantum Success, it has literally changed my life. And no, that is not an affiliate link so I can make a quick buck off of you, I personally have read that book a few times and love it.
Have a wonderful day!
Marko Nikolic
Why I LOVE .Edu Backlinks
If you’re looking to gain organic traffic you probably already know how important back links are, but what you might not be aware of, is the power of .edu back links. Simply put, 1 .edu back link with no Page Rank is easily equivalent to 50 back links with PR1 or 2. If you want to rank for a heavily competitive keyword try building some .edu back links and see how drastically it changes your rankings.
I have seen .edu back links bump sites as much as 20 spots within days of the link going live.
Building .edu links is not easy. Often times you will find blogs on .edu domains and can leave comments in them, but in most cases they are assigned a “no follow” attribute so you’re link gets no juice! Check out the forums or Google around for creative ways to build these links and find out for yourself the power of them. Better yet, if you’re in college or know someone that is, hit them up and see if they have a site or blog on one of these domains. Most colleges provide students with websites, so check with your college!
