Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
T O
T U R N
SALES
BY NICK REESE
A N I N S I D E L O O K I N T O H OW A T O P A F F I L I A T E
MARKETER
PULLS
CLOSE
TO
MILLION
W I
A D D I T
T H O U
B Y C
B R O
T H
I O N A L
G H T S
H R I S
G A N
CONTENTS
Affiliate
marketing
is just like
the referral
process
found in the
business
world, but
the referring
process takes
place online.
FOREWORD
By Chris Brogan
INTRODUCTION
PART 1:
Mutual Value
14
PART 2:
Creating a Microbrand:
Building Longterm Value
15
PART 3:
Traffic: The Building
Blocks of Success
26
PART 4:
Your Reputation Precedes You
30
PART 5:
Viewing Trust, Traffic,
and Reputation as One
32
PART 6:
Fine Details
42
PART 7:
Content Development
46
PART 8:
Promotion Stand Out
from the Crowd
50
PART 9:
Affiliate Programs
53
PART 10:
Understanding Tracking:
You Cant Afford to Overlook This
57
BLUEPRINT
65
WHAT TO DO WHEN
THINGS GO WRONG
66
CLOSING
67
PLANNING GUIDE
72
THANK YOU
74
RESOURCES
FOREWORD
C H R I S
B R O G A N
I got interested in affiliate marketing back in the second half of 2008. Id dabbled
with Amazon Associates programs, and the occasional attempt at some
Google Adsense, but I wanted to figure out how some people were marketing
products to audiences that not only didnt complain, but who were grateful to
find a product that suited their needs. The thing was, I had a hard time finding
someone to teach me the ropes. Sure, there were some websites, and there was
already a conference in the space (Affiliate Summit), but in both cases, I was a
newbie, and didnt know enough to know what I didnt know.
My early help came from people like Angel Djambazov, who runs Revenews, and
who was kind enough to answer my questions without rolling his eyes. I learned
from a few bloggers, like Darren Rowse at Problogger, who gave me just enough
understanding of the larger picture to understand just how much I didnt know.
And I learned from Christopher S. Penn, who continues to be smarter in one
follicle of his hair than I am in my entirety.
Nick Reese is pretty darned smart, too. My friend Derek Halpern recommended
that I ask him to write an ebook on affiliate marketing, because frankly, I needed
it for my own learning. I still dont know all the little bits and bobs, and Nick had
a lot of that inside knowledge. In reading over this book, I think Nicks done a
great job of not only telling you about the mechanics of it all, but in thinking
about the trust mechanisms and how people do or dont trust.
Ive added just a few tiny bits to the story, mostly clarifying a few things, or
adding anecdotes where I thought it would make sense. In every spot where Ive
messed with something, it says, Chris adds so that you know that Ive come to
muck with it a bit. The book in its entirety is the work of Nicholas Reese. Im just
an interloper.
I think the reason Im still involved with affiliate marketing is that I love how
it works for both sides of the coin: I love showing bloggers and other site
owners how to make money for themselves. But on the other side, I like helping
companies expand the sale of their product or service to a willing and interested
audience. To me, affiliate marketing is a huge and useful part of the marketing
mix for most (all?) products and services.
This book is Nicks effort to show you what you need to know to take on this
interesting part of Internet marketing. Pay attention, as Nick gives you a lot in
these pages. And thanks!
CHRIS BROGAN, President
Human Business Works
IN T R O D U C T I O N
INTRO
N I C K
R E E S E
The affiliate marketing industry has exploded over the past several years.
Anyone who has attended an Affiliate Summit or Pubcon can tell you this
industry isnt just another blip on the radar. With so many people involved and
making at least some portion of their income from affiliate marketing. You, as a
tech savvy individual, probably have friends, acquaintances, or even people you
look up to (Im looking at you Chris Brogan) who are involved in this industry.
Be warned, some people will tell you all you have to do is set up a website and
the money will start magically appearing. The reality couldnt be farther from the
truth, at least starting out.
While it is true that some successful websites and campaigns can run on their
own for some period of time, they didnt get that way over night. They most
certainly took careful planning and preparation.
As author Chris Guillebeau readily points out in his manifesto 279 Days to
Overnight Success, success never happens overnight. It is often well planned
well executed strategy to become a successful Insert Job Title Here. The same
applies to affiliate marketing: Success never happens overnight.
IN T R O D U C T I O N
I cant tell
yo u h ow m a ny
successful
affiliates Ive
talked to who
attribute their
success to just
taking action.
I cant tell you how many successful affiliates Ive talked to at Affiliate Summit
and other industry conferences who attribute their success to just taking action.
This is exactly why this book includes a planning guide and blueprint. These two
tools will help guide you. However, if you dont plan on putting them to use,
stop reading now.
Realize that playing it safe rarely leads to success. So if you want to succeed,
read this book, fill out the Planning Guide, and follow the Blueprint. Stop reading
other how-to blogs and ebooks and just get started.
As with any business endeavor, the first few steps are always the most
intimidating. In the beginning it is hard to see all of the steps to get to your
goal. If you take action and use the knowledge youll learn here, youll be able
to overcome any unique situations you encounter on your journey to become a
successful affiliate marketer.
IN T R O D U C T I O N
BUSINESS REFERRALS
In the professional world there is an accepted practice that one party will be
paid for sending business to another party. For example in real estate, one agent
may refer a client to another agent. In this case, the referring party is only paid
when a sale is completed.
If lovely Mr. and Mrs. Jones dont buy a property while working with Agent Sally
then no money is paid to the agent who referred them to Agent Sally.
You can see this everywhere from apartment complexes to realtors to car
dealerships to lawyers.
IN T R O D U C T I O N
IN T R O D U C T I O N
P A R T
MUTUAL VALUE
Its time to jump into the part of the book that gets me excited. Understanding
mutual value and value chains, as I often refer to them, can have a profound
impact on not just your business but your personal life. As you read the next
part think about how this applies to your life as well. Lets get started.
Value itself can be hard to define; yet its something we experience directly or
indirectly every single day. Since value is such a fluffy or intangible word, lets
look at how it applies to something we know very well: our friends.
When it comes
to businesses
ever ything is based
on mutual value.
In this age of
specialization, no
business is solely
dependent on itself
for success.
Our friendships are typically based on one aspect of value, or the feeling that we
receive something worthwhile from the friends and companions we choose in life.
While most of us dont have a value scale weighing each of our relationships
(hopefully), we are notably sensitive when there exists a possibility that one of
our friends might be taking advantage of us. Have you ever had a friend who
always seems to come around whenever they need money? If so you probably
know what it feels like when the value equation is severely out of balance.
No one likes being taken advantage of, but most of us dont keep a value
spreadsheet in our minds. Instead we go by a gut feeling. This feeling is really
nothing more than an internal scale for mutual value.
Just as mutual value exists in your friendships, youll find it permeates through
all of your relationships, from your most personal relationships on into your
business relationships. This idea of mutual value is at the heart of affiliate
marketing as well.
Youve probably heard the saying: Nothing Happens Until Someone Sells
Something. Well this is true for our value chain example. Since selling is the
pivotal action in any business, this is why the retailer or merchant often have the
highest margins. Now we arent going to get into complex economic theory of
push and pull markets but for the sake of this book, realize that the opportunity
for profit is much higher the closer you get to the customer. (Footnote: Yes, I know
exceptions apply, but those businesses wouldnt be ideal for affiliate marketing.)
Chris adds: I first heard about value chains from Tom Friedmans book, The
World is Flat. He talked about value chain disaggregation, as an important part of
learning how the new economy would work. Namely, that repetitive jobs would
be sourced out or automated, and that only jobs that added value to the process
would be kept. Nicks done a great job in this next part of explaining where
affiliate marketers (you!) fit in the value chain.
MU T UA L VA LU E
This unique position benefits all of the parties in the value chain by driving
more volume, thus allowing everyone involved to achieve greater efficiency
and profits.
MU T UA L VA LU E
10
Green Mar t
realized that
by empower ing
smaller companies
with more
flexibility to
exploit avenues
and small niches
that they might
have otherwise
overlooked, they
could create a
win-win situation.
clone that is a little pricier but more environmentally sound in its offerings and
business practices.
As with most traditional companies, Green Mart has a very large marketing
department of nearly a hundred people, and these people work with advertising
agencies to develop television commercials and print advertisements that have
served Green Mart very well thus far.
GREEN MARTS ONLINE STRATEGY
Green Mart has been around since the early 1990s, and its business model
at launch did not factor in online advertising. Green Mart decided to open a
website and buy advertising space in mid- to late-1990s, but the ensuing chaos
and dotcom collapse have left Green Mart understandably leery of investing
more money in the online arena.
From this frustration the executives at Green Mart reached a solution: Enlist
small companies to do the work for them but on a micro level. Green Mart
realized that by empowering smaller companies with more flexibility to exploit
avenues and small niches that they might have otherwise overlooked, they could
create a win-win situation.
GREEN MARTS AFFILIATES
In short, Green Mart decided to enable a few select smaller third parties to
invest their time into exploiting niches and markets that are too small for Green
Marts own monolithic advertising efforts to effectively address. In return, the
smaller companies received a percentage of each sale generated by their work.
As a result these third parties are called affiliates because they are affiliated
with Green Mart, but do not represent Green Mart wholly.
MU T UA L VA LU E
11
With the onset of this program the managers within Green Mart had one major
concern: These affiliates must grow the pie. Essentially Green Mart did not
want to split profits on sales their traditional advertising campaigns could
have generated on their own, but would rather see entirely new online revenue
streams spring up.
The Affiliate program within Green Mart was so successful that it was expanded
to allow additional businesses to join the program. Within just a few short years
the affiliate program accounted for a large portion of their online sales, making
many affiliates a large profit as well. Green Mart was one of the first to adopt an
affiliate marketing plan but you can bet other companies were watching.
MU T UA L VA LU E
12
As you can see, each affiliate has essentially earned their spot in the value
chain. Each party in the value chain is adding money to the bottom line for Green
Mart. This is an ideal situation to be in for any business. It is also an ideal situation
for the affiliates involved with Green Mart because they can profit from selling
environmentally sound products to their audience. This is definitely win-win.
Never before
h ave s o m a ny
people with so
m a ny d i f f e r e n t
interests been
linked together
i n a w ay t h a t
seems to accept
change as well
as the Inter net.
active affiliate programs. This is just the tip of the iceberg as there are literally
thousands of small lesser-known brands as well as the big brands that you
can represent as an affiliate. All you need to do is add enough value to their
customers and establish a relationship.
CLOSING
The Internet is pretty awe-inspiring in many different ways. Never before have so
many people with so many different interests been linked together in a way that
seems to accept change as well as the Internet.
Take a moment to think of the complexity of the Internet as a whole. Now take a
step back and look at the entire system. As you can probably see now it is built on
value. Nearly every part of the Internet is based on some sort of value exchange.
Search engines rely on value to rank websites, you rely on it to find what you are
looking for.
You follow people on Twitter or Facebook because they give you some sort of value.
You subscribe to some-ones blog or email list because you hope to derive
some value.
In short, we are value seeking machines, and by realizing that value comes into
play in nearly every interaction you now know what to look for on your journey to
building a profitable affiliate-based business and microbrand.
Chris Adds: on one of my blogs, Escape Velocity, we point out the fact that
affiliate marketing allows people to build up another source of revenue that isnt
tied to an employer. In the case of good affiliate marketing, you work for your
buyer, not for a boss. The Internet is what brought this around, though very
primitive forms of this kind of selling were around before. Now, a stay-at-home
parent can do this kind of work from their home, someone in a rural area without
much retail foot traffic can sell very well through affiliates as opposed to in the
town square. Its really a whole new world when it comes to this.
MU T UA L VA LU E
13
P A R T
CREATING A MICROBRAND:
BUILDING LONG TERM VALUE
The rest of this book will have a clear emphasis on how affiliate marketers can add
long-term value to customers and retailers by creating a microbrand. Thus its time
to introduce few more factors that will influence your success as an affiliate:
CR E AT I N G A M I C R O B R A N D
14
P A R T
TR A F F I C
15
TR A F F I C
16
TRAFFIC = ATTENTION
Traditional media is all about attention and on the web traffic is attention. If you
want to get peoples attention you need to do something awesome, or at least
different from the crowd. There are too many mediocre websites. To separate
yourself from the mediocre bunch, you need to do something unexpected or
help people solve a problem. The easiest way to build traffic starts by looking at
traffic from an attention standpoint. In short, what do visitors want to see?
Once you have identified what your visitors are looking for, you need to think
about how theyll find your website. If you dont have massive budgets for
advertising campaigns, you probably thought search engines would be your
primary source of traffic. If this is the route you want to take, you will more than
likely need some help achieving the rankings you want.
Lets face it, modern search engines take more into consideration than just
keywords and title tags. If Ive lost you already, dont worry Ill bring you up to
speed later. While these items are still very important, if you want your website
to rank well, you will need links. By links, we mean links from other websites
referring to your website. In the Search Engine Optimization or SEO industry,
these are often referred to as backlinks or inbound links. Now without going
in depth into the different types of links, you should realize that as a general rule,
links are good.
Now that youre familiar with the importance of links, the next question you
should be asking is: Who wants to link to me and what type of content do
they want to link to? Well the short answer to this complex question is other
webmasters, and these webmasters want to link to quality content.
TR A F F I C
17
The term quality content is extremely overused and is really just another way
of saying Well, it depends. Good content depends on the niche you are in,
how you are planning to make money, and other variables that will be unique
to your specific situation. Instead of just saying create quality content, lets
look at how to intelligently plan out your site content around what is known
as core content.
Chris Adds: someone said to me the other day, I noticed that almost every blog
post you write is evergreen, meaning that it is useful but not time-sensitive. I
replied, Why write a hundred posts when I can write 10 that last forever? Its
not only important to create really useful content (and often, when *I* say content,
When it comes
down to it,
a ny t h i n g t h a t i s
difficult or not
cost effective to
reproduce could
be considered
core content, but
realize it has to
be something the
potential customer
is interested in.
I mean blog posts and the like, but remember that apps and infographics are
content as well), but that you create content that isnt a bear to manage.
TR A F F I C
18
Ask for guest blogging opportunities on blogs in your field. This can be
difficult to do sometimes, but tenacity pays off.
Post articles on blogs in adjacent market segments. Do not expect
immediate compensation, but remember that affiliate marketing is
Try to find sites that will exchange links to reviews and other content.
A mutual exchange is generally a fair trade but be willing to talk up the
TR A F F I C
19
Look for any type of traditional media exposure you can get. Sign up for Help a
Reporter Out (helpareporter.com) and volunteer to be interviewed or cited.
When guest posting, remember quality content often has the following qualities:
I believe in tr ust.
I think that having
y o u r a u d i e n c e s
tr ust is a for m of
c u r r e n c y. W hy ?
Because when I ask
my a u d i e n c e f o r
s o m e t h i n g, t h e y
take action.
Chris Brogan
TR A F F I C
20
TRUST IS TRANSITIVE
When exploring trust, you need to understand where trust comes from. Online
trust is not magically created, it is actually a combination of borrowed trust and
trust inherent in the expectations of others. Borrowed trust is a form of trust that
one gives to someone else and is in turn shared in some way.
An introduction between friends is a form of borrowed trust. While this is a basic
example, trust is borrowed many different ways on the Internet. Lets look at a
few examples of how borrowed trust works in terms of online marketing.
TR A F F I C
21
SIGNALS OF TRUSTWORTHINESS
Once traffic is on your site you also have some other ways of boosting the trust
of visitors. Besides well-written content and an appealing layout, visitors take
into consideration other visual cues to determine trustworthiness. Have you
ever seen a sign at a local business displaying that they are part of the Better
Business Bureau? Why would a business want to display this? In short, it is a
form of saying We are trustworthy.
Signs like this can be found all over the Internet. Things such as security
badges, locks, seals from VeriSign and other agencies signal to the user that the
Once traffic is
on your site you
also have some
o t h e r w ay s o f
boosting the tr ust
of visitors. Besides
well-wr itten
content and an
a p p e a l i n g l ay o u t ,
visitors take into
consideration other
visual cues to
tr ustwor thiness.
site is secure. These are known as trust marks and can help increase the level
of trust a user has in a site helping them to make a purchase. Trust marks are
known to make users much more likely to complete a transaction.
Just like trust marks, there are visual cues that extend from the physical world
on into the online world. Like in the physical world, the Better Business Bureau
is just one of many businesses and services that has an online logo you can add
to your website. Think about the real world brands that you trust and see if you
can align yourself with them online to boost visitor trust.
Chris Adds: Julien and I wrote about this in Trust Agents. We talked about
the fact that your about page on your website should have your face and
your short bio. We talked about how a better-designed website with custom
elements is much more trustworthy than an off the shelf design with very little
modification. Its just how people respond. You could run surveys all day showing
a shoddy website and a well-designed site, and the well-designed will win 100
out of 100 times.
TR A F F I C
22
TR A F F I C
23
need to be replenished.
Ensure that your site looks gorgeous and is as error-free as possible.
Invest in a good grammar checker and dictionary if necessary.
Make sure that your host is capable of generating/loading your site quickly.
Nobody likes to wait for a site to load, and long load times erode trust.
TR A F F I C
24
SUMMING UP TRUST
Before covering reputation, it is worth recapping the value of trust. Trust is
what motivates people to take actions, and it is possible to influence trust in a
number of ways. The primary ways to add trust to a website include focusing
on the content and composition of the website as well as establishing content
and links outside the website. A website that only says Hello World has very
little trust value to offer visitors and adds zero value. Content that adds value
also adds trust, and core content can create a situation where other websites
are presented with an option to lend trust via links or try to replicate the core
content themselves in some fashion.
Numerous other methods exist to help entrepreneurs add trust to their website
by borrowing trust (and traffic) from established sites, search engines, and
content directories. Remember that traffic is a sort of trust in and of itself,
partially because of the intrinsic nature of trust and social proof. While the
methods outlined above do help to build trust and credibility, they only work
so long as all parties are receiving something that they perceive as valuable.
In order to get something of value, you will typically have to give something of
value. This is an example of the value chain rearing its head once again, which
should not be surprising considering how integral value is to trust.
TR A F F I C
25
P A R T
RE P U TAT I O N
26
brand-name products maintain their premium because the premium price comes
with some advantages.
This begs two questions: How is this premium ever achieved, and why doesnt
every single company try to inflate the value of their brand?
Why are these companies able to charge a premium? The answer is simple:
They have a reputation that adds value to their product line. Coke, Ford, Toyota,
Apple, and many other companies all charge substantial premiums while offering
products that are reasonably high quality. The high quality products build trust,
and that trust lays the groundwork for a reputation; without trust, there can be
no (positive) reputation to speak of.
What can you take away from this? Your online presence is your brand. Even
though you might not be a multi-billion dollar, multi-national mega-corporation,
you can still build your reputation. If you are presented with opportunities that
seem unethical or less than 100% above-board, then pass them up to protect
your reputation.
RE P U TAT I O N
27
RE P U TAT I O N
28
Use your reputation to network further into related fields. If your site covers
green goods, consider using your influence and reputation to try guest
posting on bigger blogs in the environmental sector.
Expand into new territories. More than one speaking career has been
launched by a website; why not try your hand at public speaking? Even
people who dont attend may convert to traffic, and trust will likely increase
on the whole.
SUMMARIZING REPUTATION
Reputation is merely your track record with any given audience. Trust helps
create a positive reputation, but there is a significant difference between trust
and reputation. The line between trust and reputation is loosely drawn in the
sand someplace between having to go out to find new visitors and having
word of mouth provide visitors. These visitors will only keep coming so long
as what interests them is there, updated, and they are constantly engaged.
Keeping a larger audience returning requires effort, but you have to find
balance in your efforts or risk losing parts of your audience and simultaneously
burning yourself out.
Chris Adds: Reputation is where people get hung up quite often. Its one of those
things where people worry that theyre unknown and that they dont know how
to get known. I think the trick to remember is this: reputation is repetition. If
youre repeating the same behavior over and over, you will earn a reputation. Just
hope that youve made the right behaviors the ones to repeat.
RE P U TAT I O N
29
P A R T
mean that viewers will find it or will think it is a great idea. Always remember to
address the main question in the viewers mind: Whats in it for me? The more
effectively you address this question, the more likely viewers are to come visit
your site.
will be certain to get quality results. Put out a bunch of rubbish and you should
expect rubbish results.
THE WAY YOU INTERACT WITH OTHERS Keep a positive mental attitude in all of
your affiliate marketing dealings and interact with others who do the same.
THE AMOUNT OF EFFORT YOU PUT INTO AFFILIATE MARKETING If you expect
30
nicest of things about you. Other affiliates may steal your sales with dishonest
tactics. You can let these negative problems dominate you or you can simply
shrug and go back to work.
your head up. If other people are sending negativity your way, realize this is
when you know you are on the verge of something good.
31
P A R T
FINE DETAILS
Now that all of the theory has been covered, it is time to start getting into the
details in a way that is actually practical. While the practice part of the book can
be viewed as the framework of action steps and thresholds that guide you
along the path to success, the execution of individual steps will vary depending
on the situation.
Remember that affiliate marketing is like getting a graduate degree in college;
you need to have a foundation in many of the other aspects of the web to really
excel. The practice section of the book will offer stepping stones so you can see
Remember that
affiliate marketing
is like getting a
graduate degree
in college; you
need to have a
f o u n d a t i o n i n m a ny
of the other aspects
of the web to
really excel.
the path you need to follow. The road may be bumpy and frustrating at times but
remember when you hit a roadblock youre learning something!
As mentioned in the introduction, youll find simple guidelines; however to
be successful sometimes you may need to deviate from what is written. The
reasons behind this relate to the sheer number of marketing options available
and the fact that describing the web as dynamic is probably an understatement.
From my experience, once people have taken action and are in the trenches,
solutions typically present themselves quickly.
DE TA I L S
32
DE TA I L S
33
PICKING A TOPIC
Picking a good topic for a website is far harder than it might seem on the
surface. One good rule to live by is that selecting a great topic for a site requires
analyzing three factors: talent, market interest, and the ability to turn a profit.
Each of these could be viewed as a circle on a board like a Venn Diagram and
the areas in which the three circles overlap would be a great area in which to
operate. An example that illustrates this would be simple:
TALENT/PASSION Lets say that youre something of an expert on dogs,
cats, fish, and other common pets. Your list of skills and personal interest level
for pet-related topics is very high.
MARKET INTEREST While the market for nearly anything related to pets is
bound to be high, it is also bound to be very competitive. There are niches that
are less served than others, such as region-specific and/or pet-specific training,
and products/services that are unique in some way.
ABILITY TO BE MONETIZED Pets may be one of the easiest things to make
money off of from a business standpoint and thus there should be plenty of
affiliate marketing options. While affiliate marketing is one way to go, there are
also other opportunities to consider such as creating your own product.
DE TA I L S
34
So, where do these circles overlap? The overlap could be very large or very
small. It might be possible to establish a website that serves the needs of
specific regions and/or specific pet owners. Such a site could make money by
affiliate marketing, selling its own products and/or services, selling advertising
space, or a combination of these factors. Ideally, a combination of money
making methods is advisable, but this book will only cover affiliate marketing.
TALENT / PASSION
The talent circle is often the easiest for most people to define. Everyone is
passionate about something and there are countless questions to bring such
When thinking
about your
passions, think
about how they
would work with
the most common
website models.
These models
include: solving
common problems,
sharing unique
insights, viewing
complex problems
i n a s i m p l e w ay,
or otherwise
providing basic
value.
passion to the surface. Career counselors often ask what you would do with
your free time on an ongoing basis if you won the lottery or inherited a very large
sum of money. The answer or answers to this question will help reveal your true
desires and hopefully at least one area that you have some talent or knowledge
in. During this phase it would typically be best to consider as many ideas as
possible without evaluating them; there will be plenty of time to evaluate and
critique later.
Once you have drawn up a list of interests, it would be worth noting how much
you know about the subject or subjects listed. While lack of knowledge may
seem like a negative, there are some websites that actually start as a journey to
some goal and the acquisition of knowledge in a very organic fashion is key to
that process. These tend to be in the minority, but you should remember that
anything is still possible.
When thinking about your passions, think about how they would work with
the most common website models. These models include: solving common
problems, sharing unique insights, viewing complex problems in a simple way,
or otherwise providing basic value. These ideas are all excellent and easy
content models to base a successful business upon.
The key point to take away from any interest/talent list evaluation is that a
combination of knowledge and ability to solve problems is important, but it can
be done while building authority in certain cases.
DE TA I L S
35
MARKET INTEREST
Market interest is well, interesting, because its actually comprised of two types
of interest: existing interest and potential interest.
EXISTING INTEREST
Existing interest is very easy to understand and is comparatively easy to gauge.
There are many tools that provide keyword traffic and/or competitive data based
on statistics from search engines. Most keyword tools operate in almost the
same way in this regard; a user types in a word or phrase, decides whether they
want support for synonyms and clicks the search button. A list of results will
typically include the overall search volume for the exact phrase and many similar
phrases, as well as data on the advertiser competition for those phrases. The
most popular and reliable tool for gauging existing search interest is the Google
External Keyword Tool.
If a keyword search via the Google External Keyword tool does not reveal a high
volume of traffic on a specific set of keywords there might be a reason for this.
If you do find that there is low traffic volume but there is a substantial amount of
advertiser competition, then take a closer look at those keywords as someone is
already making money from them or they wouldnt be competing to bid on them.
When looking at potential niches, identify the keywords that contain commercial
intent. Commercial intent has to do with the consumers drive to spend money to
solve a problem. The more commercial intent a keyword has, the more money can
be made from that keyword. Examples of keywords with commercial intent are
any that contain Buy, Comparison, Review, Promocode, Discount and similar
terms. Keep an eye out for these keywords as they are often worth a gold mine.
Generally speaking, markets worth tackling have greater than 10,000 global
monthly searches on the highest volume keywords. This gives you enough traffic
to make it worth your while even if you capture a small percentage. The larger
the search volume, the smaller percentage of traffic you will need to capture to
be successful. Remember 10,000 is only a general rule of thumb and if you plan
on selling more expensive items you can manage with less traffic.
If you are unsure about the potential size of a market, also check out
www.big-boards.com and see if there are any forums dedicated to a particular
subject. Generally speaking, an active forum with even a few hundred members
in the niche you are looking at might turn out to be a relatively lucrative market.
Dont rule out small niches with active participants. Yeah, there may be only 200
people who collect antique fishing rods (substitute any small passionate group
of collectors), but if these collectors are spending money then they may be a
worthwhile niche.
DE TA I L S
36
POTENTIAL INTEREST
Potential interest is much harder to gauge, and is more of a gut feeling or a
hunch about a specific niche. Steve Jobs once said A lot of times, people dont
know what they want until you show it to them. This is kind of how potential
interest works.
Some creative affiliate marketers even watch quarterly announcements of large
public firms to find out potential future markets. For example, if you were to
guess that an upcoming product line from Green Mart was going to be extremely
interesting and stand the test of time, then arriving before the competition can
be a good thing. This strategy works great from an affiliate perspective and a
Successful
websites generally
have multiple
revenue streams
that fall under one
of three categor ies:
a f f i l i a t e m a r k e t i n g,
selling their own
products/ser vices,
and selling
adver tising space.
traditional perspective.
For example, Dodo Case has sold thousands of their iPad cases and even have
their own affiliate program. This is just one of the successful companies which
has built a brand around a publicly held firm. Personally, I would be leery of
pinning the potential success of a site to that of a product lineup owned by a
third party. You may just want to brand yourself and create your own products to
generate your own interest.
POTENTIAL PROFITABILITY
Critical to the success of any website is the entire idea for how a website will
make money. Successful websites generally have multiple revenue streams that
fall under one of three categories: affiliate marketing, selling their own products/
services, and selling advertising space. Having multiple revenue streams might
mean engaging in multiple affiliate marketing programs or mixing affiliate
marketing with selling your own products and services.
Advertising is another possible way to generate revenue, but it requires a
significant amount of traffic and trust to prove profitable, and that may take
a while to achieve. Realize this book focuses primarily on affiliate marketing
but it would be unwise to overlook the fact that if you can sell someone elses
product, you can also sell your own.
There are a handful of major affiliate marketing programs on the Internet, and
many companies have their own affiliate programs. These programs will play
a part in making decisions on content and theme for anyone looking into an
affiliate marketing-based business model. The only problem associated with
signing up for an affiliate marketing program is that the website often needs to
be complete and operational first.
DE TA I L S
37
This means content and everything else needs to be put in place before it is
possible to even sign up for an affiliate marketing program, and herein lies a major
part of the chicken or the egg problem and one reason why all of the thought
about the area where these individual circles overlap is so critical for so many.
Realize that this chicken and egg problem is much less critical for webmasters
with at least one site under their belt that they can use as a reference.
Finally, remember that profit margins are important and need to be weighed
against traffic. If you feel your site has an honest chance of generating a lot of
traffic then they you dont need to sell items with a high profit margin. If you are
selling something that has an incredibly high profit margin, say custom-built
cars, then the amount of traffic you need to generate will be substantially less
than a website which relies on lower profit margins.
DE TA I L S
38
top email marketing firm in the area, charging a major price premium. One of the
best memories I have was overhearing one of my clients bragging about Gwun
doing their email marketing. Hard work and a brandable domain name definitely
paid off. Choose a brandable domain name if quick rankings arent a factor and
you see yourself being interested in a project over the long term.
If you happen to be in the market for a brandable domain name check out Brand
Bucket. I just found it and love using their service to brainstorm domains.
Keyword Rich Domain Names On the opposite end of the domain spectrum
are keyword rich domain names. These domain names tend to focus particularly
on a product name or keyword followed by a .com. An example would be
CoolWidgets.com. This domain has the highest likelihood of easily achieving
rankings for the key phrase Cool Widgets than any other domain because it
has the keywords in the domain.
SEARCH ENGINE BENEFITS
At the time this book was written, having keywords within your domain was a
huge ranking factor within the major search engines. While this may seem like a
great thing, search algorithms change frequently and these keyword rich domain
names may not rank as well in future algorithms thus brandable domain names
are appealing for longer-term projects because they are more likely to garner
return visitors.
DE TA I L S
39
CONTENT MANAGEMENT
Once you have your domain name set up with a webhost, its time to
start building your website. If youre new to building websites it is highly
recommended you use a Content Management System (CMS) because it will
take much of the learning curve out of the equation. At the time of this writing,
WordPress is the dominant blogging platform on the market. Using WordPress is
recommended because of the support community it has. If you have a question
you can very quickly use Google to find your answer.
DE TA I L S
40
Realize that there are other content management solutions out there and your
goal is to get your content seen. Many new users spend a lot of time researching
the best content management system and overlook the end goal. Choose one,
learn it and get your content published. There are entire books written on the
subject of just WordPress. Remember if you hit a roadblock, use Google; you
probably arent the first person to have that problem.
DE TA I L S
41
P A R T
CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
Content development is vitally important to your success. This section of the
book outlines how to generate traffic, trust, and authority as discussed in the
theory portion of the book. The goal behind this strategy is to start leaving a
digital paper trail toward your website. There really are countless ways to build
a digital paper trail, but we will briefly cover the tried and true methods. These
methods include:
If you are
questioning
whether a specific
piece of content
youve created is
core content, take
a step back and
see how it
addresses the
r e a d e r s w a n t s
and needs.
CO N T E N T D E V E LO P M E N T
42
Now at first glance, you may be asking how core content helps you generate
organic traffic. As discussed in the theory portion of the book, organic traffic is
often developed as a result of offering value to your visitors. Remember, people
like to link to useful resources. Core content is your point of differentiation. How
do you stand out from the crowd of boring websites?
The more useful resources youve created, the more likely other webmasters are
to link to you. This is where core content comes in; if you create an outstanding
piece of content that assists your visitors in achieving their wants or needs
then people have a reason to link to you, and you have a foundation to build
relationships on.
PRODUCT REVIEWS
One of the easiest ways to find traffic that is in buying mode is to target people
who are on the fence about buying a product. Product reviews are a great way
to target these people. More and more people are relying on the experiences
of other consumers to make informed buying decisions. If you are a savvy
individual in your specific market, why not write a review of a particular product
and include your affiliate link? Make sure you are being honest and detailed in
this review.
Once you have written this review, reach out to some of your fellow bloggers
and webmaster friends and ask if they will link to your review with the anchor
text [Product Name] Review. Within enough links and well optimized site
content you should have no trouble ranking for [Product Name] Review.
Even though the key phrase [Product Name] Review has less traffic that just
[Product Name] the traffic searching for the review is much more likely to buy.
CO N T E N T D E V E LO P M E N T
43
COUPON CODES
If you have purchased something online in the past few years you may have
noticed the opportunity to enter a coupon code. If you are like most users you
probably stopped the buying process and did a quick search for coupon codes.
Since people looking for coupon codes are already in buying mode, the chances
of them completing a transaction is very high. Simply rank organically for
[product name or website] coupon code and you will be targeting some of the
highest converting traffic around.
BRAND NAMES
There are a large
amount of people
looking for a deal
o n e v e r y t h i n g. I f
you can capture
that traffic, they
are often in buying
mode and have
their credit card
in hand.
DEALS
Who doesnt like a good deal? In recent years consumers have come to expect
to find deals online. The search volume has followed it as well. There are a large
amount of people looking for a deal on everything. If you can capture that traffic,
they are often in buying mode and have their credit card in hand. Deals websites
are also extremely easy to build links to because they inherently add value to
people who visit them. There is a huge opportunity to identify profitable affiliate
campaigns and run a small website featuring deals. I can think of more than 10
small websites targeting exclusively deal related keywords that are easily pulling
in at least 4 to 5 figures a month.
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44
REAL-WORLD KNOWLEDGE
Can you create a website that would compete with the local brands in your
area? Great examples of this lie within the loan, insurance, payday loans, and
real estate industries.
Just recently I was mentoring a friend who once was a very experienced
professional within the insurance industry. He now does excellent freelance
design and has a very loyal following.
After some discussion I agreed to sit down with him to help him hatch a strategy
to break into affiliate marketing. When we sat down he asked what industries he
should pursue. He then went on to explain how he would like to compete in the
hosting and WordPress theme industry.
Knowing that he had years of experience in the insurance industry I told him it
would have a huge competitive advantage if he pursued the insurance industry.
We then went on to hatch a game plan to help him compete with the major
players in his geographic area and then he would turn around and then sell the
leads to insurance lead buyers.
The point of this story is to illustrate how if you have experience in an
industry, find out if there are affiliate programs or even lead generation
programs in your industry because you have a preset competitive
advantage over much of the competition.
CO N T E N T D E V E LO P M E N T
45
P A R T
I t i s s a f e t o s ay,
if you have an
audience of people
who tr ust your
judgment and
ideas, you will be
in a ver y favorable
position as the
affiliate marketing
industr y continues
to expand.
this book, you should understand the basics of building an audience. If youve
had time to develop an audience, the promotion part will be much easier. The
whole goal of the promotion phase is to get your audience or visitors to visit the
affiliate offers youre promoting and get them to buy.
The majority of this book has covered how to build traffic, trust, and reputation
centered around the key idea of building a long-term business. It is safe to say,
if you have an audience of people who trust your judgment and ideas, you will
be in a very favorable position as the affiliate marketing industry continues to
expand. By having an established audience, you have the power to endorse any
new product or service, instantly driving traffic to affiliate products. Driving traffic
is the key factor in being successful in the promotion phase. If youre still in the
process of building your audience dont worry, you still have time.
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
Good relationships are the backbone of any successful business, both online
and off. Now if you expect detailed advice on building relationships you should
pick up another book specifically on relationships. Just know that the more
fellow webmasters and bloggers that you have in your network the more likely
it is youll receive links from them. These links will help increase both your
traffic and rankings. Remember the major guidelines are as follows: Be Kind,
Reciprocate, and Treat them like you would like to be treated.
If you are a likable, outgoing person and are serious about affiliate marketing my
best advice would be to attend an industry conference and make friends.
Once youve expanded your network, unforeseen opportunities will often
present themselves. It is almost always worth at least considering opportunities
that inevitably come up. The results of these opportunities could be trades,
exchanges, discounts, or any number of other benefits. These opportunities
may not immediately manifest themselves, but will often come as a process of
getting to know individuals within a community better. Therefore, you should
try to build as many strong relationships as possible. Remember that it pays to
PR O M OT I O N
46
TRADITIONAL PR
I cant tell you how effective traditional PR can be for building trust and driving
traffic. This is one thing that most affiliates completely overlook. If you are
serious about building a microbrand affiliate company then you need to start
leveraging PR.
PR O M OT I O N
47
I t m ay s e e m p r e t t y
basic but in order
to add yourself to
the traditional PR
value chain you
just need to fulfill
a need for them.
PR O M OT I O N
48
As a general rule of thumb, never put your great content on these sites, always
point visitors towards your own site. At this point it is hard to say whether these
sites will last the test of time or not, but such sites seem to have permanently
carved out their own niche in their own value chain. They offer consumers
value by providing free answers to common questions, while simultaneously
providing authors value by generating traffic and trust. Due to the fact that there
are numerous such sites, and those sites are likely to change over time, it is not
possible to offer any concrete advice on which of these sites are best to use.
However, eZine Articles and Hub Pages were the most beneficial at the time of
this writing.
One important concept to keep in mind when you are posting to sites such as
YouTube, eZine, and Hub Pages, is to not give away all the answers. If visitors
have all of their questions answered then they have no need to visit the website
of the person providing the content. It is better to provide small answers to
specific questions or half-answers to general questions and invite the user
to visit the website of the author than it is to provide answers to every single
question that might be posed. The entire idea behind posting on such sites is
to leave a digital paper trail. If a surfer has no questions left, they are unlikely to
follow the digital paper trail immediately. They may pick that trail up again later
and follow it to the website, but it would be better to ensure that they feel that
the author is trustworthy while they still have questions.
Remember, whatever medium you choose to start generating your first bit of
traffic, whether it be guest posting, working with content directories, traditional
PR, or social media, make sure youre keeping your eye on the big picture. This
means wherever you can, leave a digital paper trail. That way if there are still
unanswered questions, readers will follow that paper trail.
PR O M OT I O N
49
P A R T
AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
This is the chapter you have been waiting for. In fact Im willing to bet most of
you skipped ahead. If you did skip ahead make sure to check out the Examples
of Profitable Content area of the book. I cant emphasize how profitable just
exploring those few areas can be. Anyway, it is now time to get into the
nitty-gritty of how you actually get set up as an affiliate.
Once you have developed content and have it published, its time to start getting
connected with the affiliate programs you scouted out earlier. If you are still on
the hunt for potential places to affiliate with, be on the lookout for small links
that read Affiliates at the bottom of some of the websites you visit often. If you
keep your eyes out for these you may stumble across a gem that other people
often overlook. Speaking from experience, there have been more than a few
successful websites built around little known affiliate programs with local or
even regional brands. Next, when looking for affiliate programs, realize there are
four major types of affiliate programs: self-managed, open network managed,
closed network managed, and hybrid networks. While I am not sure these are
the exact classifications, this is how I group them.
AF F I L I AT E P R O G R A M S
50
AF F I L I AT E P R O G R A M S
51
AF F I L I AT E P R O G R A M S
52
P A R T
1 0
Understanding
which traffic is
generating sales
and which isnt
allows you to focus
on what is working
instead of just
throwing stuff out
there and hoping
something sticks.
STEP 2: The visitor is sent through some tracking which will attribute the click
to you by setting a cookie on the visitors computer or logging their IP address.
STEP 3: Once the tracking cookie is set on the visitors computer they have a
set time frame to buy, often 30 to 90 days.
STEP 4: If the visitor buys and still has your cookie on their computer a
commission is credited to your account.
While each network often has its own system of tracking, this understanding is
where nearly every single affiliate stumbles. Successful affiliates realize that they
must leverage all of the resources available at their finger tips. Understanding
which traffic is generating sales and which isnt allows you to focus on what is
working instead of just throwing stuff out there and hoping something sticks.
If the traffic youre sending from one page buys twice as often as another
page, you would do well to figure out how to increase traffic to your profitable
page. This is where good thorough-tracking comes in. Most affiliates fail to be
successful because they do not have a system for tracking what is working and
what isnt.
SUB-IDS
Now that we have addressed the importance of tracking its time to introduce
one of the key tracking mechanisms in your arsenal. These are known as
sub-IDs. Sub-IDs will be available on most large networks and even some
smaller turnkey software. Sub-IDs allow affiliates to attach their own specific
identification code into the URL that a visitor clicks. When the visitor later buys
the product or service, the commission report will allow you to see what Sub-ID
was associated with the link they clicked. Lets look at how this could be used.
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53
SUB-ID EXAMPLE
A traditional tracking link from Commission Junction would look something
like this:
LINK: http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-3567097-10408505
A tracking link with a sub-ID from Commission Junction would look like this:
LINK WITH SUB-ID: http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-3567097-
10408505?sid=SUBIDHERE
The link above, at the time of this writing was for a hosting service known as
HostGator. Now lets say you promote HostGator on your blog and recommend
it to your visitors. Youve written several articles reviewing HostGator on your
blog and detailing how to use their service and are starting to see some
sales come in.
You are happy until one day you decide to add a banner advertisement for
HostGator in your sidebar. Since you know some of your links are making you
money you want to see how effective the banner advertisement is, so you
decide to use sub-IDs.
To gauge its effectiveness you add the sub-ID sidebar1 to the link on
the banner advertisement. Now every click and every sale that that banner
generates you will be able to track via that sub-ID.
EXAMPLE LINK: http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-3567097-10408505?sid=sidebar1
After several months of the using this banner and being able to judge its
effectiveness you decide that you want see how effective the links on your
HostGator Review page are. To do so, you add another sub-ID to your link on
the review page. This time the sub-ID might be hgreview or any other identifier
you can remember.
EXAMPLE LINK: http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-3567097-10408505?sid=hgreview
After adding this second sub-ID to your review page you wait several weeks
to see how that link has performed. Looking back at the data you can now see
how effective the link on your HostGator Review page is compared to your
HostGator banner ad that is in your sidebar.
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54
Sub-IDs are
powerful because
they give you, the
a f f i l i a t e , a w ay t o
track which of your
promotion effor ts
a r e p e r f o r m i n g.
search traffic you might use a software to help you manage sub-IDs. Paid
traffic sub-id tracking is advanced but if you are pursuing a paid traffic strategy
definitely check out Prosper 202. This is very advanced software but it is
available for free and they have an active community of affiliates to help you
get set up. If you were to have the same software they offer for free built you
could easily spent a nice chunk of change.
For a better understanding of how to apply to affiliate programs,
generate affiliate links once you are approved for a program, and add
sub-ids to your affiliate links check out the video tutorial at
http://trafficandtrust.com/v/affiliatelinks/
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As you can see from the example on the previous page, the typical affiliate link
is pretty confusing and looks untrustworthy where as the potential URL redirect
link is much easier to understand. There are many standard ways to accomplish
a URL redirect:
Javascript Redirect
PHP Redirect
Meta Redirect
.htaccess Redirect
If you want to find out more information about how to use each of these
redirects, a simple search on Google will help reveal the technical details of
using each individual method.
If you are less technically inclined and are using WordPress as your content
management system, look at installing the plugin called Redirection. This
plugin will do all the heavy lifting of setting up redirects and will give you one
place to track all your affiliate links.
If you dont know what any of the above listed techniques are, I highly
recommend you use Redirection. By using Redirection and smart sub-ids as
outlined before, you can do almost everything custom designed software can. A
full video tutorial showing you how to effectively use redirection can be found by
visiting http://trafficandtrust.com/v/redirection/
Regardless of what method you choose to do your URL redirects, you can reap
the benefits of only linking to your URL Redirect link and if the corresponding
affiliate link changes for any variety of reasons, you can change it one place
instead of across your entire website.
At the time of this writing there were also several new paid WordPress plugins to
help you manage your affiliate links. If youre serious, you may want to develop
your own system for tracking your links or use one of these paid plugins.
WRAPPING UP TRACKING
While tracking may seem complex, it really isnt. The goal is to know what type
of links and advertisements are working and which ones arent. If you are serious
about affiliate marketing, you will take tracking seriously. I talk to affiliates on a
regular basis who arent setting up URL redirects or using sub-IDs. The advice I
give them is the same advice Ill give you: Be serious about tracking.
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BLUEPRINT
Welcome to the Blueprint. This section of the book has been designed to help
you put what youve learned into practice. The blueprint is meant to be followed
in phases, and some of the phases will have a threshold to be completed before
moving on to the next portion. Remember that the blueprint is simply an outline;
every online business is different so there really are no hard and fast rules,
especially towards the end of the blueprint.
BLU E P R I N T
57
One thing I do recommend is paying for a unique IP address for your domain.
Without getting into all the technical details, this will keep your websites IP
address separate from being hosted alongside porn, warez, gambling, and other
unwanted domains.
Please realize that few markets change as rapidly as the hosting market. At the
time of this writing I would highly suggest going with a VPS solution because of
the ability to scale your resources as needed. Do your own research but dont
get stuck on this small detail. Making progress is more important than saving a
couple dollars a month.
STEP #5: SET UP DOMAIN HOSTING
Once you have purchased your domain and hosting, you need to point your
domain to your hosting servers. There are many different ways of doing this
and it can sometimes be confusing. Typically you will have to change your
Nameservers to point to the hosting company. When in doubt, talk with your
hosting provider.
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2.
3.
4.
5.
Google Sitemap
6.
PC Robots.txt Used for easy editing of your robots.txt file. Pros will
upload that file manually but this saves you some FTP time.
STEP #3: CHOOSE A THEME OR DESIGN
Many webmasters choose WordPress as their development platform because
of the various themes readily available. While there are thousands of free
themes, you will also want to check out the premium theme market as these
themes will do most of the heavy living for you. At the time of this writing I would
recommend looking at the following premium themes: Thesis Theme, Genesis
Theme, and Headway Theme.
STEP #4: INSTALL ANALYTICS SOFTWARE
As outlined earlier, tracking is vital to your success so youll want to get a good
analytics package installed. At the time of this writing Google Analytics was
the standard tracking package used by most webmasters. Simply sign up an
account and add it to your theme. If you are using a premium WordPress theme,
some will have an interface to add it for you.
STEP #5: SET UP PRIVACY POLICY
Privacy on the web has always been a concern. Most affiliate programs wont
accept you without a privacy policy. Do some research and/or talk to a lawyer if
youre concerned. Unless you are doing something shady one of the generators
listed in the resources section might work, but then again I am not a lawyer and
this isnt legal advice.
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If you are using WordPress, the plugin listed above is great for generating
sitemaps for you. Once you have it generated you will want to claim it within
Google Webmaster tools. This will give you a lot of options and allow you to see
what Google is seeing about your website.
With a little experience setting up a site map and claiming a listing under
Google Webmaster tools can be a trivial task. If you have never used
Google Webmaster tools check out this video for a hands on how-to:
http://trafficandtrust.com/v/webmastertools/
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61
Once you are positive you have done it correctly, update your file.
You have now told Google not to index your affiliate links along with banning
many malicious web crawlers. This is a standard best practice, however many
beginners often miss it.
Setting up your robots.txt can be confusing at first. For a full tutorial on how to
use PC Robots.txt as described above check out this video which will show you
how to implement it on your website. http://trafficandtrust.com/v/robotstxt/
STEP #5: WRITE PROFITABLE CONTENT
Once your affiliate links are setup, its time to write content to push traffic to
those affiliate programs. Revisit the section on examples of profitable content
and put that information into good use.
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STEP #5: GIVE VIEWERS A REASON TO FOLLOW THE DIGITAL PAPER TRAIL
Regardless of the promotion strategy you choose to leverage, take time and
create content that will drive visitors to your site and generate trust. Always offer
more answers and solutions on your website. Users will only follow a digital
paper trail if given a reason to do so.
STEP #6: LEVERAGE TRADITIONAL MEDIA
Dont forget to think about reaching out to traditional media outlets like
newspapers, TV stations, and radio stations. All of these outlets have an awesome
audience of viewers that have needs. Help the traditional media outlet educate or
entertain their audience and you will reap the rewards of extra exposure.
STEP #7: TRACK REFERRERS
Once content is posted, it is time to track how much traffic each post sent your
way. This can usually be identified via the referrers section of most analytics
packages. Consistently repeat the process of posting new content and tracking
the results in order to know where to spend time in the future. This entire
process will need to be balanced with posting new content to your own website.
If you have done a good job promoting your microbrand, at some point you will
start to build a reputation. This is when something interesting happens. More
opportunities that were unforeseen will present themselves. You will have people
start asking to do interviews with you and you may even start having reporters
coming to you. Essentially a reputation can be seen as a gravity field. More
opportunities will appear as you start acting on your current opportunities.
Try to reach out to blogs and sites in related fields that are high-volume. This
should be an ongoing process that will drive traffic and trust for countless
new visitors.
STEP #2: KEEP EXPANDING YOUR NETWORK
As outlined earlier in the book, you are only as good as your network. Reach
out to people and promote others just as much as you promote yourself. Chris
Brogan is great at this. Keep your eye out for other people doing awesome
things and reach out to connect with them either online or in person. If you live
in a tech-heavy city you might be surprised at the number of people interested
in what youre doing in your area.
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WHAT TO DO WHEN
THINGS GO WRONG
Despite the very best of intentions, no game plan is going to survive contact
with the real world 100% intact. There will always be unforeseen situations.
Tenacity is essential to success. The bottom line is that things are going to go
wrong, and that is the only thing that you can truly count on.
Where to go from there is the big question. Depending on where things go
wrong, there are many different options as to what to do. The first question
will be: Are things truly going wrong? It could be that you set unreasonable
expectations, such as a flood of visitors following a news post added to the
site. Rome wasnt built in a day, and establishing a profitable microbrand wont
happen overnight either.
Traffic comes in small doses, and the trick is to always be working on new
traffic while keeping old traffic happy. A few new visitors each day should not
be considered a bad thing, as that will hopefully translate into a few repeat
visitors. Websites that follow the blueprint outlined above and make necessary
adjustments should be able to reach a point where over a hundred visitors come
every day in relatively short order, and if youre reviewing products and services
that your audience is interested in you should see a profit as well.
When things do go wrong, take a good hard look and try and identify what went
wrong. If you have no idea, then ask a friend in your network. Someone has
probably dealt with the problem you are facing. The mere act of identifying what
went wrong can often open doors to a solution.
The biggest piece of advice that I can give you is learn to love using Google.
If you encounter a problem throughout your affiliate journeys, try doing a quick
Google search. Many of the obstacles you may encounter on the road to
success others have already overcome and shared their solution. In many cases
there will already be a posted solution to your problem.
Learning to solve problems by using search engines is one of the most vital
skills to being successful online. Master this skill and you will be shocked at the
solutions and even opportunities you find.
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IN CLOSING
After reading this book, you should have gained the knowledge necessary to
navigate the basics of establishing a successful web-based business. If there
was any parting knowledge worth leaving, it would be that only the dynamic and
committed seem likely to survive in the affiliate marketing business. Tenacity will
take you far, but not as far as tenacity backed by flexibility. Being successful will
require being dynamic and intrepid, and that should never be forgotten.
It also pays to be gregarious. This involves not burying your head in the sand
and only focusing on work but taking breaks and socializing. Life is about
relationships, and so is business. Web-based businesses are no exception
to this rule. Be willing to consider networking, even if it means doing things
like going to conferences that you see little immediate value in. The value of
contacts can be extremely high depending on the situation.
CLOS I N G
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PLANNING GUIDE
Getting started in the affiliate world can be confusing if you dont plan for success. This planning worksheet is
designed to help you ask yourself important questions so you prepare for success. Remember the best advice I can
give you is to do something AWESOME. If you create something that you are proud of and something you want to
share with others, most of these questions will answer themselves.
IDENTIFYING TOPICS:
TASK: IDENTIFY THE NICHE YOU
WANT TO COMPETE IN.
What are you passionate about or know a
lot about and want to share with others?
PL A N N I N G G U I D E
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KEYWORD RESEARCH:
TASK: IDENTIFY 5 OR MORE
KEYWORDS YOUR WEBSITE
WILL TARGET.
Open up the Google Keyword Tool. Identify
what people in your niche are searching for.
DOMAIN:
TASK: CHOOSE A DOMAIN.
Before visiting your favorite registrar
(GoDaddy, Moniker) brainstorm
5 choices for domains.
PL A N N I N G G U I D E
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CONTENT:
TASK: CREATE A LIST OF CONTENT
THAT YOU COULD SHARE WITH
YOUR AUDIENCE. These can be just
titles or jumping off points. At minimum
you should identify 4 Core Content
ideas, 4 linkbait ideas, and two types
of profitable content.
What value can you provide to the world
that no one else can?
PL A N N I N G G U I D E
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IDENTIFYING AFFILIATE
OPPORTUNITIES
TASK: CREATE A LIST OF
POTENTIAL AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
AND PRODUCTS.
What are the big brands in your niche?
Do they have any affiliate programs?
PL A N N I N G G U I D E
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MARKETING/PROMOTION
TASK: IDENTIFY MARKETING
OPPORTUNITIES. Write down any
opportunities to gain extra exposure.
Be detailed about your approach. A good
marketing strategy is vital to success.
Do you have relationships with any
webmasters/bloggers in the niche or a
related niche? If so, ask them if you could
write a guest post on their website. If not,
how could you reach out to them to build
a relationship?
How are other individuals in your niche
promoting their website? Identify 5
competitors and put them into
www.opensiteexplorer.org and see if
you see any common websites. See if
you can contribute to them. Also look to
find out how they are getting backlinks.
If you plan to pitch your website to a
traditional PR outlet, what will your angle
be? Why should they pay attention to you?
What is in it for them or their customers?
Are you providing value? This could be
something like a useful PDF that they can
give to their audience. Will you be open
for interviews if they have questions? If so,
what will you talk about?
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS:
How will people know you exist? Will you
be active in social media? How will you
stand out from the crowd there?
PL A N N I N G G U I D E
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RESOURCES
Here you will find a list of
resources I recommend, some
were mentioned in the book,
REGISTRARS
HOSTING COMPANIES
Moniker
My Registrar of Choice
http://www.Moniker.com
HostGator
One of the biggest webhosts. Allows
for easy upgrade/downgrade between
different plans.
http://www.hostgator.com
Godaddy
Worlds Largest Registrar
http://www.Godaddy.com
Flippa
Buy entire sites or domains at auction.
http://www.flippa.com
Sedo
Huge Domain Aftermarket
http://www.sedo.com
BRANDABLE DOMAIN NAMES
Page.ly
Managed Wordpress hosting.
I hear good things about their service.
http://www.page.ly
PREMIUM WORDPRESS THEMES
Domainr
Great for finding creative domain names
using lesser known domain extensions.
http://www.Domai.nr
Thesis Theme
Premium WordPress theme framework
with outstanding support and an
active community.
http://www.diythemes.com
Brandbucket
Buy domains with a predesigned
brand image. Can be pricey but
great for inspiration.
http://www.brandbucket.com
Genesis Theme
Premium WordPress theme framework
that has many different design options.
http://www.studiopress.com
BRAND IDENTITY
99Designs
Outsource design and more. One price
many different design options. People
work and you select your favorite.
http://www.99Designs.com
Crowd Spring
Great for outsourcing logo design and
even web design. I have had a lot of work
done through CrowdSpring.
http://www.crowdspring.com
IDENTIFYING POTENTIAL NICHES
Big Boards
Ranks the largest forums
on the web. Great for identifying
potential niches.
http://rankings.big-boards.com/
Clickbank Marketplace
To get an idea of market size browse
your potential market and sort by
Gravity. Gravity is the number of distinct
affiliates who earned a commission by
referring a paying customer to the
vendors products.
http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace.htm
RE S O U R C E S
VPS.net
Reliable VPS provider. Scale your web
resources as you need them.
http://www.vps.net
Headway Theme
Premium WordPress theme framework
that allows for drag and drop design.
http://www.headwaythemes.com
Woo Themes
Prebuilt WordPress designs
http://www.woothemes.com
USEFUL WORDPRESS PLUGINS
Contact Form 7
Easy Contact Form integration
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
contact-form-7/
SEO Ultimate
Offers additional SEO Options. Make
sure to fill out your title tags and meta
descriptions on your posts and pages.
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
seo-ultimate/
Redirection
Great for redirecting affiliate links.
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
redirection/
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RE S O U R C E S
NOT TO MISS
PAID TRAFFIC
Facebook Ads
Target users by demographic.
http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/
Google Adwords
Target users by keyword or key phrase.
Remember keyword intent.
http://adwords.com/
Prosper202
Outstanding PPC software. Very
advanced professional grade software.
http://prosper202.com/
LIST BUILDING TOOLS
Aweber
Very popular email service provider.
http://www.aweber.com
Mailchimp
Awesome email service provider.
Offers up to 1,000 email addresses free.
http://www.mailchimp.com
TRADITIONAL PR
Help a Reporter Out
Great for getting media exposure
http://www.helpareporter.com
Prweb
Great for sending out Press Releases
http://www.prweb.com
Top 100 newspapers in the US
Great for sending personalized emails to
specific writers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_
newspapers_in_the_United_States_
by_circulation
Raventools
Outstanding service for tracking where
you rank on multiple keywords.
Raventools.com
ARTICLE MARKETING
Ezine Articles
Ezine Articles is one of the most well
known article directories around.
Google loves them and their stuff ranks
pretty well.
http://www.ezinearticles.com
Hub Pages
Another great site to post your articles on.
You will need a user score for 75+ in order
for your links to be worth while.
http://www.hubpages.com
73
THANK YOU!
This book would have never been possible without the help of these amazing
individuals. I owe you all for the impact you had on this book and my life.
CHRIS BROGAN - Master Relationship builder
www.chrisbrogan.com
Chris is an amazing ability to connect people and ideas. I feel fortunate to have
his guidance in writing this book.
DEREK HALPERN - Brilliant thinker, Branding Conieleri, and overall
awesome individual
www.derekhalpern.com
Derek is an amazing critical thinker who finds creative solutions to complex
problems. He was pivotal in helping craft this books brand and connecting me
with Chris Brogan. I am lucky to call him a friend.
KAARI BUSICK - Outstanding Editor
kaaribusick.com
Kaari helped me polish this book to the finished form you see today. She did
it in record time with amazing accuracy. She is one of those people you can
count on in a pinch.
RICH STAATS - CSS Wizard
www.secretstache.com
Rich pieced together the web design for this project in record time. He took a
concept and made it into the final design. He is one of my go-to guys when it
comes to anything web design related. He knows his stuff and his work has
never been less than perfect.
ANDREA GOODLIN - Designer Extraordinaire
www.andgodesign.com
Andrea has been a life saver. As this book was getting wrapped up, I was
heading off to El Salvador where the Internet connection was less than superb.
Andrea took the books title and ran with it. Her design skills are undeniable (as
you can see). She was incredibly considerate in working with our tight schedule
and with little guidance.
JAN HARRIS - Mom & Mentor
I wouldnt be the man I am today without the influence of my amazing Mom. She
is the wonderful woman who helped make sure my head was on straight and
taught me to think outside the box. From the time I started my first business she
was always there to mentor me and help me plan for success.
DUANE ANDERSON - Business Partner
Duane has been one of the biggest influences in my online career. He is an
amazing business partner and outstanding individual. I am lucky to have such
a close friend.
TH A N K YO U
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