Traffic and Trust PDF

H O W T O T U R N
TRAFFIC & TRUST

I N TO
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 A MILLION
DOLLARS IN COMMISSIONS EACH YEAR.
W I T H
A D D I T I O N A L
T H O U G H T S
B Y C H R I S
B R O G A N
CONTENTS
2 FOREWORD
By Chris Brogan
3 INTRODUCTION
7 PART 1:
Mutual Value
14 PART 2:
Creating a Microbrand:
Building Longterm Value
15 PART 3:
Affiliate Traffic: The Building
Blocks of Success
marketing
is just like 26 PART 4:
Your Reputation Precedes You
the referral
process 30 PART 5:
Viewing Trust, Traffic,
found in the and Reputation as One
business
32 PART 6:
world, but Fine Details
the referring
42 PART 7:
process takes Content Development
place online.
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
I think the reason from a few bloggers, like Darren Rowse at Problogger, who gave me just enough
Im still involved understanding of the larger picture to understand just how much I didnt know.
with affiliate And I learned from Christopher S. Penn, who continues to be smarter in one
marketing is that follicle of his hair than I am in my entirety.
I love how it
Nick Reese is pretty darned smart, too. My friend Derek Halpern recommended
works for both
that I ask him to write an ebook on affiliate marketing, because frankly, I needed
sides of the coin.
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 2
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.
WHAT THIS BOOK IS AND ISNT
If youve picked up this book you are like countless others who are interested
in affiliate marketing and the lifestyle it can bring. The unfortunate statistic,
however, is that a large majority of people who read this book will never take
action. This book is not a magic bullet, but if you actively apply the concept of
mutual value in your life and business and take action, you will see results.
As with any business, the vast majority of individuals in the affiliate industry are
stuck in the cycle of analysis paralysis. They are in the planning phase, indefinitely.
I cant tell you how many successful affiliates Ive talked to at Affiliate Summit
I cant tell and other industry conferences who attribute their success to just taking action.
yo u h ow m a ny This is exactly why this book includes a planning guide and blueprint. These two
successful tools will help guide you. However, if you dont plan on putting them to use,
affiliates Ive stop reading now.
talked to who
attribute their Realize that playing it safe rarely leads to success. So if you want to succeed,
success to just read this book, fill out the Planning Guide, and follow the Blueprint. Stop reading
taking action. 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.
WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING

Before continuing, it would be helpful to create a working definition of
affiliate marketing.
Chris adds: When I first got started, I used the Amazon Associates product to
point people to books that I had read and enjoyed. I had no idea that it was
called affiliate marketing. People never seemed to mind, and after a while, I
started getting checks for $100 or $200 here and there. It wasnt a lot, but it felt
like theyd given me a Rolls Royce. I make a bit more from affiliate marketing
these days, but it still feels just as amazing when I get a check for $200 as when I
get one for $11,000. But lets look at what Nick found for a definition.
Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one

or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliates
marketing efforts. (Source: Wikipedia)
This definition is pretty broad, so lets link this to a concept youre probably
familiar with: business referrals.
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.
AFFILIATE MARKETING IS BASED ON REFERRALS

Affiliate marketing is just like the referral process found in the business world,
but the referring process takes place online.
This should light a bulb in your head, as this is the appealing part.
By building a website designed to refer customers to another business, you

essentially create an asset. This asset, if managed effectively, can work for you
by producing passive income. (Passive income is income generated without you
having to take any further action.)
For this asset to be successful, it needs to add real, tangible value to the people
you are referring and to the business you are referring them to.
In this book, were not going to discuss short-term affiliate marketing

opportunities or how to sell over-hyped products and magic bullet products like
the ones often found in the Guru World of internet marketing. Instead, this
book will cover durable affiliate marketing ideas that center on a single idea:
building value.
Chris adds: Nicks done a great job of explaining affiliate marketing. I used to say
this, Affiliate marketing is promoting products and services that you use and
endorse, and making some money for the referral. Now that Ive read Nicks
definition, Im going to use his, especially the part about creating an asset. We
all understand that language. We all know that we want more assets helping us
make money.
WHAT THIS BOOK WILL TEACH YOU
This book has one overarching goal: To teach you how to be an ideal affiliate
candidate for companies with established affiliate programs and position
yourself to profit when you become an affiliate.
Affiliate marketing can be a path to financial freedom and independence, but

many people fall into the numerous traps along the road to success. This book
outlines the path, the hazards, and the pitfalls along the road to becoming a
successful affiliate marketer.
To give you a solid foundation in Affiliate Marketing this book is split into two
sections: Theory and Practice.
The Theory part of the book was developed to help this book stand the test of
time. Just because something works today, doesnt mean it will work forever.
If you understand why things work youll have a much better understanding of
what to do when something doesnt go as planned.
The Practice part of the book has been laid out so you can follow along, and
gives you a blueprint. This format allows you to get started at your own pace.
Remember the blueprint format makes becoming successful a lot easier without
actually having an in-depth understanding of all the mechanics. While deep
understanding may prove to be valuable and offer additional insight in many
situations, the best way to learn affiliate marketing is to practice it. Many people
will simply want to get into the meat of building a website and online business
and the Practice section, along with the blueprint, will help you do that.
P A R T 1
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 Our friendships are typically based on one aspect of value, or the feeling that we
to businesses receive something worthwhile from the friends and companions we choose in life.
ever ything is based
While most of us dont have a value scale weighing each of our relationships
on mutual value.
(hopefully), we are notably sensitive when there exists a possibility that one of
In this age of
our friends might be taking advantage of us. Have you ever had a friend who
specialization, no
always seems to come around whenever they need money? If so you probably
business is solely
know what it feels like when the value equation is severely out of balance.
dependent on itself
for success. 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.
VALUE CHAINS IN BUSINESS

Since were looking at affiliate marketing not as a hobby but as a business, we
need to look at how businesses work and how affiliates can add value to the
businesses they interact with.
When it comes to businesses everything is based on mutual value. In this age

of specialization, no business is solely dependent on itself for success. (Note: If
you find one let me know, because they deserve their own book.)
Take for example a retail clothing store: In most cases, they dont manufacture
the clothes they sell. Instead, they work with manufacturers and suppliers who
specialize in just one part of the value chain.
Fortunately, the concept of core competency or focusing on what you are good
at has resulted in various firms specializing and assisting others with tasks that
fall into their specialty. From an economic perspective the result is higher profits
for both companies. This is a perfect example of a mutual value exchange and
the beginning of what is called a Value Chain.
MU T UA L VA LU E 7
VALUE CHAINS AND AFFILIATE MARKETING
Understanding how value chains work is important because there is a direct
relationship between proximity to customers and profit margins. A traditional
value chain starts with the manufacturer, then transmits through a distribution
network, and arrives at retail establishment.
In this arrangement, with each step before the sale to the consumer, the volume
of units decreases while the profit margin increases. Lets take a look at a typical
value chain.
See Below:
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 8
WHERE AFFILIATES FIT IN THE VALUE CHAIN
This should be another Ah Ha moment. Since affiliates are essentially in the
business of finding customers for retailers, they fit perfectly in the value chain.
Affiliate marketers are the key link between retailers and the clients they
desperately want. This is mutually beneficial because affiliates typically do
not handle anything but the relationship part of the connection between the
customer and the retailer.
From another perspective, you might look at affiliate marketers as a link that
connects the value chain to additional customers. While affiliates do add an
additional link in the value chain, they have a unique position. Unlike the other
links in the value chain, affiliates do not take profits from other vendors, they
only increase earnings throughout the value chain. This works because affiliates
are only paid when a sale is made.
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.
SMART AFFILIATES WORK LIKE GATE KEEPERS

From the surface it would look as if the affiliate only benefits monetarily. While
this is the primary motivation for most affiliates, smart affiliates recognize that
building an audience of customers who value their opinion will result in greater
long-term profits and a recurring revenue stream.
To take this a step further, smart affiliates will only promote products that will be
of benefit to their audience. In essence they act like a gatekeeper for good and
bad products.
As you can readily see, smart affiliates will build long-term value for their
customers, who benefit from an insider or expert opinion. Merchants benefit
from more business and reciprocate by offering affiliates performance-based
rewards. Everyone benefits in this potential value chain or things would fall apart
- much like the relationship with friend who always has their hand out.
Chris Adds: And this falls into my passion for relationship-based selling. I want
people to buy something many more times than once from me. I want to become
their source of information for certain topics and in those topics, I want to be the
one that helps them buy what they need to improve their business.
MU T UA L VA LU E 9
LARGE COMPANIES WANT YOUR HELP WITH INTERNET MARKETING
After speaking with numerous designers, programmers, copywriters, and
business owners it is apparent that in the ever-evolving online world many
companies view in-house online marketing skeptically.
This skepticism is well grounded; after all, its hard for any company or individual
to stay abreast of the latest marketing techniques unless their financial life rope
is on the line, the incentives are all wrong.
This is why more and more companies are moving to performance based
incentives for advertising.
What counts in todays world is sales. Simply put, small and medium businesses
all have finite resources to distribute. As a result, allocating these marketing
resources to external companies where efforts are gauged more easily is
becoming more and more prevalent.
The result of these circumstances is that large print and television campaigns
are still handled in-house by many established companies, but the Internet side
of marketing efforts is still largely outsourced to agencies and, in a growing
number of cases, to affiliate marketers and affiliate networks.
From a companys point of view, outsourcing Internet-based promotion to

affiliates brings with it several advantages:
COST EFFECTIVE Advertising online is extremely cost effective.
NEAR-INSTANT ROI (RETURN ON INVESTMENT) In most cases,

affiliates are paid only when a sale or action is completed. The only
possible loss for the business is the amount of time/effort it takes
companies to get set up for affiliate marketing.
AFFILIATE MARKETING FREES UP RESOURCES Large companies

would rather focus on their existing marketing efforts that they can manage
easily, while running an affiliate program or outsourcing their affiliate work
through a dedicated affiliate network. Either way, it allows a company to
increase revenues while keeping its workforce doing what they do best.
MICRO-CAMPAIGNS - No company or advertising agency can hope to

get the attention of every niche, especially when dealing with large diverse
audiences. This is where affiliate marketing can excel. Each individual
affiliate manages how they attract customers. This results in different
micro-campaigns that can catch those who the primary advertising
campaigns miss for one reason or another.
MU T UA L VA LU E 10
INTRODUCING OUR TEST SUBJECT: GREEN MART
Until now, most of what weve covered has been conceptual, so to help get
the concepts more firmly grounded let me introduce our test subject: Green
Mart. Green Mart will be used throughout this book as a running example to tie
conceptual topics back to a more concrete example.
WALMART BUT MORE EARTH FRIENDLY

Green Mart is our hypothetical competitor to Walmart, but Green Mart has a
more environmentally friendly focus. We will discuss reasons for that later, but
for all intents and purposes Green Mart should be considered to be a Walmart
clone that is a little pricier but more environmentally sound in its offerings and
Green Mar t
business practices.
realized that
by empower ing As with most traditional companies, Green Mart has a very large marketing
smaller companies department of nearly a hundred people, and these people work with advertising
with more agencies to develop television commercials and print advertisements that have
flexibility to served Green Mart very well thus far.
exploit avenues
and small niches GREEN MARTS ONLINE STRATEGY
that they might Green Mart has been around since the early 1990s, and its business model
have otherwise at launch did not factor in online advertising. Green Mart decided to open a
overlooked, they website and buy advertising space in mid- to late-1990s, but the ensuing chaos
could create a and dotcom collapse have left Green Mart understandably leery of investing
win-win situation. 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.
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.
VALUE CHAINS APPLICATION IN GREEN MART

To bring the Value Chain conversation back to something more tangible, lets
look at the value chain in play.
As we know, Green Mart sells green items, but like most retailers they buy from
a distributor that in turn buys from at least one manufacturer. In this relationship,
Green Mart handles the advertising (other than branding) and the direct retail
operations, while the distributors Green Mart buys from specialize in bulk
purchasing from factories around the world and distribution to and from the
companys global array of warehouses.
By allowing Green Mart and the distributors to focus on the specific aspects of the
supply chain that each is specifically well suited to handle, it is possible for both
parties to benefit. After all, setting up retail operations and the relationships with
customers or manufacturers is a time-consuming, expensive, and ultimately risky
venture, so Green Mart is happy to work with distributors and pays them well.
Green Marts core competency is its retail division with hundreds of stores in the
western United States. They have an amazing presence and their brand is well
known within the areas they serve. Green Marts customer service is outstanding
but the company is trying to grow as fast as possible and opening up new stores
every month. However, they still arent everywhere they would like to be.
Since the launch of Green Marts affiliate program, its affiliate base has steadily
grown and is quickly approaching 150 active affiliates. Each of these affiliates
are actively growing the pie or adding to the bottom line. These affiliates are
only paid when they make a sale so they are of very little risk to Green Mart.
Over the next several years Green Mart has put its affiliate program as one of its
main areas of growth. Green Mart has noticed that the most successful affiliates
have microbrands of their own and have their own audiences, which helps them
generate new customers for Green Mart.
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.
TAKE AWAYS FROM THE GREEN MART EXAMPLE

While the Green Mart example is hypothetical, more and more companies are
moving this way. Take, for example, Amazon, eBay, AT&T, T-Mobile, Zappos,
Barnes and Noble, Best Buy, Dell, Microsoft, and Sony, all of which have
Never before active affiliate programs. This is just the tip of the iceberg as there are literally
h ave s o m a ny thousands of small lesser-known brands as well as the big brands that you
people with so can represent as an affiliate. All you need to do is add enough value to their
m a ny d i f f e r e n t customers and establish a relationship.
interests been
linked together CLOSING
i n a w ay t h a t
seems to accept The Internet is pretty awe-inspiring in many different ways. Never before have so
change as well many people with so many different interests been linked together in a way that
as the Inter net. 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.
P A R T 2
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:
TRAFFIC Traffic is simply defined as the amount of visitors a website

receives, but as you will learn shortly, there is more to traffic than meets the
eye. Traffic comes in many shapes and forms, but it is one of the key metrics
to pay attention to when trying to monetize your web presence. While traffic
in and of itself is a sign of trust, it can also build trust or take trust away
depending on the conditions.
TRUST Trust is an intangible thing, yet we all use it and many of us

even measure by it every single day. Trust is what causes us to take
leaps of faith and even buy things were not 100% sure we need. Think
about your latest want purchases and the factors that influenced that
buying decision. Was there a website or print review that was part of that
decision? If so, you probably already know about the power of trust.
REPUTATION Reputation is something that comes after trust, but it in

turn will help you establish and cement a more permanent place in your
chosen niche. Trust is required to build a reputation and that reputation
can drive traffic, which in turn promotes trust and converts many viewers
into people who believe in that reputation.
WHAT VALUE DO YOU ADD?

Remember that nearly every action you take as an affiliate marketer will have an
impact on traffic, trust, and/or reputation to some degree. Some of the effects
will be instant, and others will be slower to develop. For every action, there is
an equal reaction, though it tends to flow in the same direction in the realm of
affiliate marketing. If you do something that increases trust, traffic will generally
increase in the long run. This book will teach you the techniques that focus on
trying to build all three at once.
CR E AT I N G A M I C R O B R A N D 14
P A R T 3
TRAFFIC: THE BUILDING
BLOCKS OF SUCCESS
Traffic is one of the key metrics that will be used to measure success by any
affiliate marketer or other web-entrepreneur. It is certainly not the definitive
measurement, which is money in the bank, but before there can be money there
must be traffic. The following overview is pretty basic, so if you have a strong
foundation in the difference between paid traffic and organic traffic you can
probably skim the next section.
Not all first-time

window shoppers UNDERSTANDING TRAFFIC: TYPES OF VISITORS
will retur n for If youve ever glanced at an analytics program such as like Google Analytics or
a second look, Mint you know theres a lot more to traffic than meets the eye. We are going to
but those that do start with the basics. Essentially there are two types of visitors: first-time visitors
will probably be and return visitors.
more likely to buy
because they came First-time visitors are the number of visitors who are making their first visit to
back to a place that your site. Return visitors are people who have been to your site before. Consider
t h e y a l r e a d y k n o w. the difference between first-time visitors and return visitors to be the difference
between first-time window shoppers and repeat customers.
Not all first-time window shoppers will return for a second look, but those that
do will probably be more likely to buy because they came back to a place that
they already know. Of course, it would be excellent (and certainly possible) for a
significant portion of a sites unique traffic to be converted into buyers. A healthy
mix of first-time traffic and repeat traffic can help a site establish itself and
continually add new members to its community, which will in turn continually
increase the bottom line.
In reality you need to worry about two things when you are building a
microbrand online. The first is converting first-time visitors into repeat visitors.
The second is finding more first-time visitors.
This distinction is pretty basic but when you think about building a microbrand
as a way of just finding more first time visitors, the task of generating traffic is
much easier.
As far as converting first time visitors into repeat visitors, well thats up to your
content and site design, but we will cover that later.
This brings us to the obvious question: how can you increase traffic to or
generate new traffic for your website?
TR A F F I C 15
PAID TRAFFIC VS. ORGANIC TRAFFIC
There are two general ways to generate traffic: paid traffic and organic traffic.
Organic traffic is traffic that is earned as a result of creating content or other
work and is the result of ranking well in the search engines. Paid traffic on the
other hand is a result of buying advertisements. Advertisements include Google
AdWords, CPM media buys, and paid links.
The idea behind paid traffic is simple: a certain amount of money changes hands
in order for customers to be driven to a website via online advertisements. While
paid traffic might seem like a great idea to jump-start a website, it is probably
not the most defensible long-term strategy for someone just starting out. This
does not mean that there is no place for paid traffic, but rather that paid traffic
can be volatile due to other parties involved.
Many places on the Internet such as web hosts offer free advertising coupons
for Google Adwords and other Cost Per Click (CPC) advertising, and thus
learning a little bit about paid traffic might be helpful, especially if you spend
your coupons effectively.
If you get anything from this section of the book realize that the most defensible
idea is to use paid traffic intelligently and not to build your business solely
around it. The success of any business venture is really determined by its
bottom line and building a business only on paid traffic is akin to building a
castle on sand. You never know when specific traffic sources may dry up,
leaving you and your business high and dry. That said, methods that boost
traffic (and often trust and/or reputation) organically will be the focus of this text.
This does not mean that paid traffic should be ruled out, it just will not be the
focus of this book.
Chris Adds: One thing that Ive done a lot of work on is building organic content.
Im not smart enough to do paid traffic well. I usually use the help of others when
it comes down to buying ads. But I totally understand how to write good organic
traffic. The best description I ever heard about the difference between paid and
organic traffic is that paid traffic is like steroids versus organic traffic being like
natural weightlifting. The steroids will boost you up, but at a cost. Unlike steroids,
theyre not damaging. Its okay, good, and often recommended to buy some
advertising traffic in affiliate marketing. But you should develop your organic
traffic, too.
TR A F F I C 16
ORGANIC TRAFFIC IS GOOD
Generating traffic in an organic fashion is far superior to paying for traffic in
most cases, but it is going to entail working for little or no immediate return.
The primary ways in which organic traffic can be generated include social
networking, ranking well on search engines, exposure on traditional media
outlets, writing content for websites such as HubPages or eZine Articles, as well
as writing content for websites with a similar focus and/or audience in exchange
for links and traffic. It may also be a good idea to contact websites with a similar
focus and/or audience and establish a relationship. Remember people often link
to people they like and if our goal is ranking, we like links.
All of these methods of generating organic traffic are going to involve

opportunity cost or the trading of ample amounts of time for traffic. That traffic
will yield long-term results, but only so long as the time is continually put into the
building your sites audience. Realize that often it is far easier to continually add
content and keep the site relevant than it is to regain lost momentum.
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 I mean blog posts and the like, but remember that apps and infographics are
down to it, content as well), but that you create content that isnt a bear to manage.
a ny t h i n g t h a t i s
difficult or not KNOW YOUR CONTENT: CORE CONTENT
cost effective to
It would be fair to ask the difference between core content and regular high-
reproduce could
quality content, and the answer is simple: Core content is high quality content
be considered
that is too difficult or expensive to reproduce by other sites, and so these sites
core content, but
will often choose to link to your content instead. For example, if you were to
realize it has to
become an affiliate marketer for Green Mart, you could certainly add value to
be something the
customers by posting reviews, but so could anyone else. Why would one affiliate
potential customer
marketer want to share their piece of a larger pie with a new affiliate marketer
is interested in.
just offering reviews? Mere reviews are easily replicable and everyone has their
opinion of a product.
Things would be much different if you could get some exclusive interviews
with Green Marts corporate officers regarding the companys future plans,
commitment to the environment, operations in economically challenged regions,
or other areas that might interest Green Mart customers. Or perhaps if you
created a site that had a large grid of products compared in a complex way that
nobody else could replicate.
When it comes down to it, anything that is 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.
To think about it another way, what would you say if someone were to email you
about you linking to their website? If their website was an affiliate for Green Mart
and covered similar products in a similar way, what would you say?
It would be reasonable to assume that the average person would probably

answer such a question with a polite (or resounding depending on their level of
tact) no unless there was some good reason to say yes.
Core content gives other webmasters and bloggers and other interested parties
a reason to say yes to your request.
TR A F F I C 18
PUT IT INTO ACTION: HOW TO GENERATE TRAFFIC
To generate traffic, you need to leave digital breadcrumbs for visitors to find. If
you want to be found by people searching, they need a way to find you. Your job
is to make it easy for them to find you.
More and more, people are relying on search engines to find websites relevant
to their needs. In order to rank well in search engines, you will need to have
relevant content and links. While keyword-dense content may help you rank
better, it is generally a good idea to start producing content that addresses
the needs of people you want to attract. To do this you should be focusing on
generating core content; content that is hard to reproduce and valuable to your
potential customer. Core content will naturally generate links, thus helping boost
your search engine rankings.
To further leave a digital breadcrumb trail, you could start producing content
on websites such as eZine Articles, Squidoo, Hub Pages, and other article
directories. Content placed on these article directories should address the needs
of consumers while linking to your core content. Alternatively, it is possible to
start branching out to other blogs and websites in the same field or an adjacent
field and ask to guest post. As you guest post, ask the host blog to point traffic
and links to your core content.
Another great way of getting links and exposure is to leverage traditional media.
Remember our talk about value chains? Well newspapers and traditional media
have needs too. They need news, they need experts, they need to entertain their
audience. What can you provide that will help them? Are you willing to be an
expert or create something to help them entertain or educate their audience?
HERE ARE SOME IDEAS TO GENERATE TRAFFIC:
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
about the long game.
Post on forums related to your subject. Forums that allow links back to
your content are valuable sources for generating traffic.
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
other site if you expect them to do the same.
Write content and submit it to popular article directories linking back to
your website.
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:
Is well written and error checked

Is formatted versus being presented in plain text
Comes with media or other artwork to draw attention
Answers a common question or addresses a concern
Provides a new way to view a complex problem
Offers useful advice
I believe in tr ust.
I think that having
TRUST IS THE CURRENCY OF A MICRO BRAND
y o u r a u d i e n c e s Trust is a difficult thing to define. Not only will the definition depend on whos
tr ust is a for m of providing the definition, but also the context in which that trust exists. The good
c u r r e n c y. W hy ? news is that virtually everyone on the planet has experience with trust, and
Because when I ask that means trust as a concept is trustworthy. In other words, everyone has
my a u d i e n c e f o r experience using trust and trust is used online very similar to the way its used in
s o m e t h i n g, t h e y the real world.
take action.
Before delving deeper into that subject, we should take a step back and look
Chris Brogan where trust originates. As infants, we (hopefully) learned to trust our parents. As
we got older, that trust grew and we learned to expand it to encompass relatives,
neighbors, friends, and authority figures. We even learn to trust each other in
abstract ways, such as trusting everyone on the road to behave in a reasonably
responsible and/or predictable fashion. We learn to trust that people will follow the
laws of the land, and learn not to trust certain people and/or offers.
We as social creatures have developed trust to work together on a greater scale

and psychology tells us that people automatically subconsciously trust everyone
they meet and see to some point. The question for you is how to create an
environment that a potential customer will trust and feel safe visiting.
Chris Adds: Okay, I wrote a book with Julien Smith called Trust Agents. I believe
in trust. I think that having your audiences trust is a form of currency. Why?
Because when I ask my audience for something, they take action. Where some
people who havent earned their trust ask for the same thing or even a better
request, people dont take action because they dont feel that they can trust the
source. Trust makes me money every day. Trust is why Im successful. Building
and earning trust is one of the CORE elements you should think about as an
affiliate marketer, not just how do I make a million bucks? Because I think the
answer to B is inherent in A.
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.
SEARCH ENGINES AND TRUST

If traffic is coming from a search engine, then that search engine acts as a
friend making an introduction. Search engines provide users a way to search
for what they want, adding value to the lives of consumers everywhere. Search
engines also provide value to the sites that they send traffic, but here is where
mutual trust and added value meet; search engines only maintain their value to
customers when the results they provide are relevant.
This mutual value exchange allows for search engines to continually improve
their ranking algorithms and consumers to trust search engines more and more.
As a result, traffic coming from relevant keywords from large search engines
inherit some trust from simply ranking well. This is why both paid and organic
traffic from search engines is so desirable. The visitors coming to your website
from search engines will trust your site more than those who find you through
other methods. In essence, your site has been predetermined by the search
engine to be trustworthy and users count on the links they click being helpful.
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
site is secure. These are known as trust marks and can help increase the level
Once traffic is
of trust a user has in a site helping them to make a purchase. Trust marks are
on your site you
known to make users much more likely to complete a transaction.
also have some
o t h e r w ay s o f Just like trust marks, there are visual cues that extend from the physical world
boosting the tr ust on into the online world. Like in the physical world, the Better Business Bureau
of visitors. Besides is just one of many businesses and services that has an online logo you can add
well-wr itten to your website. Think about the real world brands that you trust and see if you
content and an can align yourself with them online to boost visitor trust.
a p p e a l i n g l ay o u t ,
visitors take into Chris Adds: Julien and I wrote about this in Trust Agents. We talked about
consideration other the fact that your about page on your website should have your face and
visual cues to your short bio. We talked about how a better-designed website with custom
tr ustwor thiness. 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.
BRANDS AND TRUST

When you think of trustworthiness, the first things that probably come
to mind will often be household names or brands. Many of these will be
large corporations, news sources, government agencies, and not-for-profit
organizations. If you have an opportunity to work with any of these major trust
sources or even your local news television station, you can often use their logo
to boost the trust visitors to your website experience. This is why many websites
feature the As Seen On section. This is just yet another tactic to increase
consumer trust.
TR A F F I C 22
CORE CONTENT IS THE BASIS OF YOUR MICRO BRAND
Above and beyond any visual signals is the content a website has. Core content
is arguably one of the easiest ways to earn the trust of visitors and fellow
webmasters. This is why core content is vital to the success of any new venture
and arguably one of the reasons why so many endeavors fail.
Core content offers value that others cannot or are unwilling to replicate, and
that will in turn build trust that can be borrowed and built upon.
In the marketing world there is a notion of what is called the Unique Selling
Proposition. Essentially this can be summed up as what you offer that your
competitors cant compete with.
Core content is like your websites or microbrands unique selling proposition.

Webmasters and visitors know youve done the work and created a great
resource and would rather point their visitors to your site than reproduce that
hard work.
In our running Green Mart example, it is worth revisiting the idea of offering core
content based around exclusive interviews with executives. It might take some
time to convince the powers that be to allow their executives to sit down
for a series of brief interviews, but this type of content is something few other
affiliates will be able to compete with. This kind of core content lends its own
innate value to any site, but the fact that other sites will need to link to it and/or
reference it in their news section will further establish trust.
Visitors are also impressed with core content, but they probably arent thinking
Wow awesome content! unless theyre webmasters too. They are probably
thinking Im glad I found that, that was useful.
What might impress a user more than the actual core content itself is the fact
that the site(s) that they know and trust link to your core content. This is the
transitive property of trust which can be used to build readership as well as
build your brands trust.
TR A F F I C 23
SITE DESIGN: NOBODY LIKES AN UGLY SITE
The appearance of your site is like going on a first date. You want to put your
best foot forward. Good design and a clean layout can go a long way to making
your site trustworthy. Realize trust can be very volatile, especially when it is
borrowed, so make sure your site looks trustworthy and the user isnt staring
at an unattractive website complete with serious grammatical and/or spelling
errors. Youll also want to take into account how long it takes for your page to
load, and make sure you dont have any broken graphics or other significant
problems that can easily be addressed.
The important takeaway here is that trust is a highly volatile commodity.

There are situations in which trust levels must reach a certain point before an
action will be taken, such as clicking a link or submitting an email address and
contact information.
PUT IT INTO ACTION: BUILDING AND KEEPING TRUST

Building and keeping trust can be a real challenge, especially if you are not
innately disposed to coloring within lines. The temptation to abuse trust can be
strong, but realize that doing so is in violation of your long-term goals and will
ultimately undermine all your efforts.
To build trust, you should:
Participate in forums and community comments, both on your site and on

others when possible.
Be active in social media circles.
Answer questions, and have an honest appreciation of the problems
facing visitors.
Check your facts. Obvious factual errors or opinions poised as facts can
offend and turn people away.
Be willing to be wrong in a public setting. We arent all right all the time.
Focus on quality content. Poor quality content will turn people away, but it
takes a lot of high-quality content to keep people coming back.
Constantly network with other blogs and keep leaving digital breadcrumbs.
Nothing brings people back like a community, and communities constantly
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 4
YOUR REPUTATION PRECEDES YOU
Reputation, we are all familiar with it. Im sure you can quickly think of a
company with a great reputation and maybe even one with a bad reputation.
A fine line exists between reputation and trust, and it is possible to have a
reputation without trust.
For example, many people know the reputation of local businesses and/or
people that are disreputable. This is not that kind of reputation that anyone
planning a defensible strategy should be aiming for. Instead, the goal of building
a reputation will be to move your visitors to a point where they are confident that
you are providing them with solid, reliable information.
TRUST AND REPUTATION ARE RELATED BUT NOT EQUAL

While reputation and trust are related, they are not the same. A reputation is
built over time and is more durable. Basically you can think of your personal
reputation as your track record. As you may have guessed, the website you are
building should have a reputation too.
To build a reputation you need not only trust, but you need a group of people or
traffic as discussed earlier to believe similarly about your website.
For example, if you specialize in breaking news on Green Mart, you may build
some buzz in the community and begin to be known for breaking news. This type
of reputation is good because you become an indispensable part of that niche.
This is the goal of the microbrand youre creating. You want to create enough core
content and distribute it to enough people that you become irreplaceable.
To get a better understanding of how to build your microbrands reputation, lets

take a look at how real-world brands use reputation to their advantage.
RE P U TAT I O N 26
BRANDS HAVE REPUTATIONS. YOU WANT TO BE A BRAND.
Brands, we all know them. From cars to laundry detergent, we are inundated
with brands. The key to any brands success is its reputation.
At some point in time, most of us have walked through a local supermarket and
noticed that the generic products bearing the store brand were significantly
less expensive than their brand-name counterparts. This is true even when
the actual ingredients and methods of creating the actual food or drink are not
substantially different. Its easy for the brand to claim that the marketing costs
justify the premium price, but that doesnt add value to the consumer. Makers of
brand-name products maintain their premium because the premium price comes
The high quality
with some advantages.
products build
tr ust, and that This begs two questions: How is this premium ever achieved, and why doesnt
t r u s t l ay s t h e every single company try to inflate the value of their brand?
groundwork for a
reputation; without Why are these companies able to charge a premium? The answer is simple:
tr ust, there can They have a reputation that adds value to their product line. Coke, Ford, Toyota,
be no (positive) Apple, and many other companies all charge substantial premiums while offering
reputation to products that are reasonably high quality. The high quality products build trust,
speak of. 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
BUILDING AN ONLINE REPUTATION
So we have covered traffic and trust, but without a reputation your microbrand
isnt really a brand at all, it is just a business. To fully understand how trust and
traffic are interconnected, let us take a step back.
Essentially look at the trust, traffic, and reputation as a spiral that your effort
powers. You can compare building a reputation to bicycling, as it makes for an
easy analogy. In order to go from stop to top gear, you need to accelerate, and
this is like starting an affiliate market site.
The first few pedals take a lot of effort compared to the next two and this
would translate into getting a site setup, taking care of all the other details
such as establishing guest posting relationships and setting up initial content
for article repositories.
The first few pedals could be substantially harder if you have chosen to compete
in a densely packed field. This would be the cycling equivalent of starting a
bike in a mid-range or upper-range gear. It might take a lot of effort to spin the
pedals even once. Similarly, it takes a lot more effort to crack a competitive set
of keywords.
On the other hand, tackling a new set of keywords and waiting for traffic can be
like cruising in low gear for a long period of time. After all, there is only so much
you and your site can do without an audience.
The next few pedals are a bit easier and a pattern builds. Occasional shifts bring
greater momentum and speed and could be represented by changes in efficacy
in your tactics. Reputation is like the momentum you would create while cycling.
If you stop pedaling for a few seconds, you lose a little momentum but can
resume your efforts relatively easily. Hit the brakes or stop pedaling for a longer
period of time, and it takes more effort to resume your ride. Your reputation will
similarly cruise by itself on autopilot for a while, but not forever.
RE P U TAT I O N 28
PUTTING REPUTATION INTO ACTION
Reputation is the most difficult part of getting started online and is the last
discussed partially because its the last to present itself; first comes traffic, then
comes trust, and reputation may follow if everything is done correctly. The real
trick is to learn how to leverage reputation. Here are some ideas on how to build
a reputation and make it work for you:
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.
The line between Expand into new territories. More than one speaking career has been
tr ust and reputation launched by a website; why not try your hand at public speaking? Even
is loosely drawn in people who dont attend may convert to traffic, and trust will likely increase
the sand someplace on the whole.
between having to
go out to find new SUMMARIZING REPUTATION
visitors and having
word of mouth Reputation is merely your track record with any given audience. Trust helps
p r o v i d e v i s i t o r s. 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 5
VIEWING TRUST, TRAFFIC,
AND REPUTATION AS ONE
So we have gone through the main three forces that will help push your
microbrand to the top. Trust is the force that causes visitors to believe what your
website has to say. The trust of only one person is not worth much, which is
why traffic is important. That traffic can come from your own effort or as a result
of your reputation. Your own efforts and the reputation you build will in turn
increase the amount of trust others afford you, and that will translate into more
opportunities to maximize your income online. Remember, you cannot control
anything other than your site and your relationships, so keep the following
lessons in mind.
TRAFFIC: WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL

THE AMOUNT OF EFFORT YOU PUT INTO BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS Building
relationships is an important part of being an affiliate marketer. If you want to be
successful, spend time developing your interpersonal skills and then using them.
No empire was built without the help of others, the same goes on the Internet.
Building relationships with other people is the quickest way to build traffic.
TRAFFIC: WHAT YOU CANT CONTROL

THE SUCCESS RATE Just because you have a great idea does not necessarily
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.
TRUST: WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL

THE QUALITY OF YOUR WORK Always be sure to produce quality work and you
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
great results, then you need to put in a good deal of effort.
YOUR WEBSITE If your website looks basic or even horrible, then you need to
add some polish.
TR U ST, T R A F F I C & R E P U TAT I O N 30

TRUST: WHAT YOU CANT CONTROL
WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT YOU Other websites or forum users may not say the
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.
REPUTATION: WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL

YOUR OWN ACTIONS Evaluate every action. Think about the long-term
consequences of what you choose to do and what content you publish. As
a rule of thumb, dont publish anything you wouldnt want tattooed on your
forehead years later.
REPUTATION: WHAT YOU CANT CONTROL

HOW OTHERS VIEW YOU OR HOW THEY PORTRAY YOU. Remember just keep
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.
TR U ST, T R A F F I C & R E P U TAT I O N 31

P A R T 6
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 the path you need to follow. The road may be bumpy and frustrating at times but
affiliate marketing remember when you hit a roadblock youre learning something!
is like getting a
graduate degree As mentioned in the introduction, youll find simple guidelines; however to
in college; you be successful sometimes you may need to deviate from what is written. The
need to have a reasons behind this relate to the sheer number of marketing options available
f o u n d a t i o n i n m a ny and the fact that describing the web as dynamic is probably an understatement.
of the other aspects From my experience, once people have taken action and are in the trenches,
of the web to solutions typically present themselves quickly.
really excel.
CREATING A GAME PLAN
The rest of the book is designed to be the bridge between theory and practice.
Consequently, it is time for you to step up and start thinking about the project
you are interested in developing. If you dont have a project in mind, then this
section of the book will help you ask the right questions. By the end of this
section you should have everything you need to complete the Planning Guide
associated with this book and get started on the Blueprint. Feel free to print that
out now and answer the questions as we go along.
In this chapter we will be covering how to choose a topic, what to look for in a
domain name, what to do after you acquire your domain name all the way up to
promoting your affiliate content.
Without anymore hang-time, lets get to the tangibles of the book.
DE TA I L S 32
WHAT TOPIC WILL THE SITE FOCUS ON?
The focus of a site plays a role in every aspect of your game plan, from picking
a domain name to developing content. A singular, laser-targeted focus will help
the site find its true purpose.
As with all businesses, it is recommended that anyone trying to make a profit

from a website do so by sticking to their core competency. Ford does not make
hamburgers and Burger King does not make pickup trucks for a reason. Your
website should specialize in something and not be a jack of all trades. Be the
best and you will naturally attract an audience.
WHO WILL VISIT THE SITE?

Knowing your demographic is important in any business, and that is certainly
true of anyone trying to profit from a web-based business. Art, content, and
even language will all be based upon understanding the visitors as a whole.
Understanding who your ideal target audience is will help you craft your
message to appeal to them. It will also help answer the next question.
HOW WILL VISITORS GET TO THE WEBSITE?

It will initially prove difficult to rely on search engines for traffic, so you need to
have a strategy in place from the outset to leave a trail of bread crumbs around
the Internet. An effective trail of breadcrumbs will allow web surfers to find
enough references to a site to eventually find it. By the end of this chapter you
should have a good idea of the tools and strategies at your disposal to drive
traffic to your website.
WHAT WILL YOUR VISITORS WANT TO SEE WHEN THEY VISIT?

Visitors may expect many things, but they will keep visiting a website they find
has value. This is usually where effective core content comes into place, but
other kinds of content are important too. Generally speaking, it is a good idea
to address common needs, find new ways to explain things, and/or simplify
complex problems or things to attract attention. We will discuss other ideas for
core content within this chapter as well.
HOW WILL THE SITE MAKE MONEY?

The ability to make money from a site should be clearly scoped out before any
steps are made towards actually developing a site. When you are learning about
your audience start looking at potential affiliate programs and products which
you can sell.
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 passion to the surface. Career counselors often ask what you would do with
about your your free time on an ongoing basis if you won the lottery or inherited a very large
passions, think sum of money. The answer or answers to this question will help reveal your true
about how they desires and hopefully at least one area that you have some talent or knowledge
would work with in. During this phase it would typically be best to consider as many ideas as
the most common possible without evaluating them; there will be plenty of time to evaluate and
website models. critique later.
These models
Once you have drawn up a list of interests, it would be worth noting how much
include: solving
you know about the subject or subjects listed. While lack of knowledge may
common problems,
seem like a negative, there are some websites that actually start as a journey to
sharing unique
some goal and the acquisition of knowledge in a very organic fashion is key to
insights, viewing
that process. These tend to be in the minority, but you should remember that
complex problems
anything is still possible.
i n a s i m p l e w ay,
or otherwise When thinking about your passions, think about how they would work with
providing basic the most common website models. These models include: solving common
value. 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 traditional perspective.
websites generally
For example, Dodo Case has sold thousands of their iPad cases and even have
have multiple
their own affiliate program. This is just one of the successful companies which
revenue streams
has built a brand around a publicly held firm. Personally, I would be leery of
that fall under one
pinning the potential success of a site to that of a product lineup owned by a
of three categor ies:
third party. You may just want to brand yourself and create your own products to
a f f i l i a t e m a r k e t i n g,
generate your own interest.
selling their own
products/ser vices,
and selling
POTENTIAL PROFITABILITY
adver tising space. 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.
CHOOSING A DOMAIN NAME

Before tackling issues relating to how visitors find a site in more detail, its worth
covering one of the major hurdles to consider during the start-up phase: the
domain name or names your business will use. While volumes have been written
on how register a domain name, I highly suggest using a well-known registrar
such as Moniker or GoDaddy. I am personally not a fan of GoDaddy because of
some of their business policies, but it is the worlds largest registrar for a reason.
While the whole process of choosing a domain name and getting it setup will be
unique to every situation lets talk about it in broad terms.
Registering a domain name isnt particularly difficult, but over the past several
years many of the short and descriptive domain names have been snatched
up. You would be hard pressed to find short website names or very common
website names available for registration. After all, there are many companies and
individuals that have been making a living buying and selling domains for years
now. Coming late to the proverbial game means that you will have to take what
is left or be creative.
All of that set aside, you really only have two major options for choosing a
domain name. These options are Brandable vs Keyword Rich. Brandable
domain names are recommended for long-term projects. Keyword rich domain
names are great for gaining quick rankings.
DE TA I L S 38
Lets take a look at an example of each:
Brand-able Domain Names Gwun.com Well use this as an example.

Gwun.com was the domain I used for my first business before I got into
affiliate marketing. I happened to accidentally pick up Gwun.com when
I bought a bundle of domain names off eBay. While my first business
focused on Email Marketing in Sarasota, using a domain name that wasnt
EmailMarketingSarasota.com gave me some advantages.
In this case I could determine the pronunciation of the word (sounds like G-One)
and what the word meant. Low and behold Gwun was quickly established as the
top email marketing firm in the area, charging a major price premium. One of the
Search algor ithms
best memories I have was overhearing one of my clients bragging about Gwun
change frequently
doing their email marketing. Hard work and a brandable domain name definitely
and these keyword
paid off. Choose a brandable domain name if quick rankings arent a factor and
rich domain
you see yourself being interested in a project over the long term.
n a m e s m ay n o t
rank as well in If you happen to be in the market for a brandable domain name check out Brand
future algor ithms Bucket. I just found it and love using their service to brainstorm domains.
thus brandable
domain names Keyword Rich Domain Names On the opposite end of the domain spectrum
are appealing are keyword rich domain names. These domain names tend to focus particularly
for longer-ter m on a product name or keyword followed by a .com. An example would be
projects because CoolWidgets.com. This domain has the highest likelihood of easily achieving
they are more rankings for the key phrase Cool Widgets than any other domain because it
likely to gar ner has the keywords in the domain.
retur n visitors.
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
TIPS FOR FINDING THE RIGHT DOMAIN
Now that you understand the difference between keyword rich and brandable
domain names, take a minute to think about which one is right for you. Once
you have determined which variety you are going to go with, grab a pad of paper
or open an Excel document and thinking of several potential domain names.
Once you have thought of a few names, test them out to see if they are available
with your favorite registrar. Most good registrars have integrated and intelligent
domain name tools that will automatically handle checking synonyms and other
top level domains (.net, .org, .com, and so on). If all of the domain names you
check are unavailable then it would be worth writing down more alternatives.
If you are going the keyword rich domain route, check out the Google External
Keyword tool and find out which keywords have the most traffic. Ideally you
want to find keywords that have quite a bit of search volume and are still
available for registration. If all the major keywords are taken try going back to
the keyword research phase and seeing if any of the synonyms are available.
If you are really stumped and have a budget there are many places you can buy
domains on the aftermarket from places like Sedo, Flippa, and even eBay.
One final word of caution: Dont buy a domain name with a trademark in it.
Some brands are very protective of their trademarks and will take legal action
if you acquire a domain with their trademark. One such trademark to stay away
from is Realtor. While Im sure many others exist, be cautious if you plan on
using someone elses trademark in your domain. My good friend Markus Urban
learned this lesson first hand losing more than $500 on a domain that contained
the word Realtor.
AFTER BUYING THE DOMAIN NAME

Once you purchase your domain name it is time to get it setup with a webhost
which will host your domain. If you have questions about how this process
works, talk with your hosting company. They will often have a how-to guide.
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.
DEVELOPING & PUBLISHING CONTENT

Once you have chosen a domain name, CMS, and have your hosting figured
out, it is time to really get to work. This will initially mean putting together plans
for core content as well as developing some content that is not necessarily
core content so your site doesnt look barren. Having content in place is often
a must before you can apply for an affiliate marketing program. In the planning
phase you should have mapped out at least 10 pieces of content, and now
is the time to start publishing them. Once you have the content up on your
site, then you can worry about the appearance. Worrying about it before the
content is developed is like putting the cart before the horse and will only lead to
headaches down the road.
DE TA I L S 41
P A R T 7
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:
Creating core content

Building relationships
If you are Guest posting
questioning Traditional PR
whether a specific Posting on article repositories
piece of content
youve created is CORE CONTENT CONTENT THAT STANDS OUT
core content, take
a step back and In the theory portion of this book we covered core content. As you remember,
see how it core content is simply explained as content that is difficult to reproduce. If you
addresses the are looking for organic traffic to your website, simply create something that gives
r e a d e r s w a n t s you an advantage over the competition.
and needs.
This can be an authoritative guide, a list of resources, a great How-to
resource, a series of informational posts, an interview with an authority in your
industry, and authoritative reviews of products or services. While there are tons
of other ideas that may apply directly to your industry, these are major types
of content that have helped propel websites to the top. 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 readers wants and needs.
Remember, successful core content always addresses the question Whats in it

for me? from the readers point of view.
Here is a list of different types of core content:
Interview someone influential

Create a very thorough guide on a topic
Teach something complex in a simple manner
Solve a problem with a simple solution
Take a strong stance
Create a long list of examples
Release a case study
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.
EXAMPLES OF PROFITABLE CONTENT

Thus far in this book there has been a lot of discussion regarding getting your
website up and running, but if you take one gem away from this entire book
it should be found in this section. Lets face it, we both know you didnt pick
up this book to only learn about how affiliate marketing works and how to get
started. You picked this book up to try and get an advantage over the other
people failing at affiliate marketing. While earlier in the Theory part of the book,
we talked a bit about commercial intent, in this section you will see how smart
affiliates target customers who are already in buying mode and capture the
low-hanging fruit.
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.
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 As discussed in the theory section of the book, brands are a force to be
looking for a deal reckoned with. With that in mind, there are also a lot of people searching on
o n e v e r y t h i n g. I f brand-related keywords. If you can break into the top 10 rankings for brand
you can capture names you will often notice that people searching on these brand keywords
that traffic, they are much more likely to buy. While this is a pretty advanced tactic because it
are often in buying requires quite a bit of work and a good working knowledge of search engine
mode and have optimization, there is definitely money to be made.
their credit card

in hand. INDUSTRIES WITH CHURN
Think of industries where there is always a new group of consumers. A few big
competitive ones come to mind: Insurance, Loans, Parenting, and Cell Phones.
But there are smaller ones to be found as well. A few industries I see ripe for
the picking are data backup, travel tours, insurance, loans, job seekers, and
anything health or injury related.
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.
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.
P A R T 8
PROMOTION STAND OUT
FROM THE CROWD
Now you have your website set up, youve decided on your target audience,
youve outlined your target keywords, and youve developed content and core
content. You are ready to start promoting your website and driving traffic to your
selected affiliate programs.
The promotion phase is where most affiliates falter because there is no one
correct way to do it. If you have read and understood the theory portion of
I t i s s a f e t o s ay, this book, you should understand the basics of building an audience. If youve
if you have an had time to develop an audience, the promotion part will be much easier. The
audience of people whole goal of the promotion phase is to get your audience or visitors to visit the
who tr ust your affiliate offers youre promoting and get them to buy.
judgment and
ideas, you will be The majority of this book has covered how to build traffic, trust, and reputation
in a ver y favorable centered around the key idea of building a long-term business. It is safe to say,
position as the if you have an audience of people who trust your judgment and ideas, you will
affiliate marketing be in a very favorable position as the affiliate marketing industry continues to
industr y continues expand. By having an established audience, you have the power to endorse any
to expand. 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
be tactful whenever dealing with anyone in a business capacity. This includes
everyone from the most annoying forum troll to suppliers or representatives from
other websites.
Side note: Twitter, its been all the rage for the past few years. I think I would
be remiss to leave out how great of a networking tool it is, specifically for
connecting with hard to reach people. While many people use it to drive traffic
my biggest personal gains have been from the relationships built solely through
twitter. People that you otherwise would have no connection with are now
within reach via twitter. If there is someone you wish to reach out to use twitter
first, people are much more sociable on twitter. I now use twitter as my number
one outreach tool when I dont have direct contact with someone. I have met
venture capitalists, authors, entrepreneurs, readers, and even mini-celebrities by
reaching out through twitter. Give it a shot, you never know what might happen.
GUEST POSTING FOR LINKS AND AUTHORITY

While building relationships in your respective industry you may be offered the
chance to guest post on another industry blog. Guest posting can be a great
source of additional exposure and links. If you determine that guest posting on
the prospective blog would benefit your audience and exposure, definitely go for
it! There are whole books and other how-to series written on this subject.
Whenever you are given the opportunity to guest post, be very careful to double-
check your work. This is not the time to be lazy and make a bad first impression.
Instead, this is the time to spend extra time researching and polishing a piece
off, as this will often be an introduction to many potential new readers. That
translates into the first opportunity to borrow and earn some trust as well as
generate some traffic.
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
In the past Ive leveraged traditional PR outlets to successfully outrank major
corporations for very competitive keywords. The same PR campaign garnered
over 100,000 quality inbound links to an affiliate site using a well-designed value
oriented message.
Remember the entire section on value chains? Well if you took a step back and
looked around you, Im sure you found value chains everywhere.
It may seem pretty basic but in order to add yourself to the traditional PR value
chain you just need to fulfill a need for them. In the world of instant news and
ever-demanding consumers, traditional news outlets are always looking for
awesome stories or content to present to their consumers. If you can readily
I t m ay s e e m p r e t t y
fulfill this need by offering them a free PDF, an infographic, or even an interesting
basic but in order
story, youve got their attention.
to add yourself to
the traditional PR In the example mentioned above, I took publicly available information and
value chain you made it more accessible to the audience of newspapers around the nation. This
just need to fulfill resulted in a flood of interviews, links, and citations which created a sort of trust
a need for them. snowball effect. Soon, because the website had already been cited, it was
getting cited again and again.
If you are looking to pitch something to a traditional PR outlet, you have to

look at it from their angle and offer something of value. I have also found
personalized emails perform substantially better than a mass email, and phone
calls are even more powerful.
WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS ARTICLE MARKETING

In some very competitive industries or industries that are just developing, guest
posting and building relationships may not be an option. If you run into these
issues you can leverage content directories to help you get some traction and
build authority.
Content directories such as eZine Articles, Hub Pages, and Squidoo can be
valuable for getting your website noticed and building some momentum.
However if you have other options available to you take 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 9
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.
IDENTIFYING POTENTIAL AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

Once you have developed content and have it published, its time to start getting
Speaking from connected with the affiliate programs you scouted out earlier. If you are still on
exper ience, the hunt for potential places to affiliate with, be on the lookout for small links
there have been that read Affiliates at the bottom of some of the websites you visit often. If you
more than a keep your eyes out for these you may stumble across a gem that other people
few successful often overlook. Speaking from experience, there have been more than a few
websites built successful websites built around little known affiliate programs with local or
around little known even regional brands. Next, when looking for affiliate programs, realize there are
affiliate programs four major types of affiliate programs: self-managed, open network managed,
with local or even closed network managed, and hybrid networks. While I am not sure these are
regional brands. the exact classifications, this is how I group them.
SELF MANAGED AFFILIATE PROGRAMS

Self managed affiliate programs are just what they sound like. Small and large
companies manage their own affiliate program with out-of-the-box or
custom-built software. Large examples of these include Amazon and eBay.
Small examples of this can be found all over the web. These are often small
operations and will often require a website to be built before you can be
accepted. As the web evolves over the years I think more and more self
managed programs will be migrated to an open network managed solution
as small business realize how difficult it can be to manage an affiliate program.
Be aware that small companies running their own affiliate programs may or may
not be trustworthy, however there are definitely huge successes to be found
with small self managed affiliate programs because other larger more seasoned
affiliates often overlook these.
AF F I L I AT E P R O G R A M S 50
OPEN NETWORK MANAGED
Open Network Managed affiliate programs are what large online retailers like
ClickBank and E-Junkie would fall into. These Open Network affiliate programs
are handled by a website which does all the major tracking and delivery of
products. This is outstanding for digital goods and you do NOT have to have
a website to check out what products you could be able to promote. Visiting
websites like these is outstanding for finding what markets currently exist and
which ones might be underserved.
CLOSED NETWORK MANAGED

Closed network managed affiliate programs are essentially a large company
that works as an intermediary between affiliates and other large companies.
These are traditionally known as affiliate networks. The huge examples of
these affiliate networks would be companies such as Commission Junction,
ShareASale, and LinkShare. These networks represent affiliates and companies
and will almost always require you to apply for acceptance into their network.
Each has different requirements but nearly all require that you have a website
or an email list. Dont worry about being accepted into these networks. If you
follow the steps and build a website that adds value to consumers like what is
outlined in this book, you will be accepted with relative ease.
HYBRID AFFILIATE NETWORKS

Though the majority of the networks fall into the above listed categories, some
hybrid models have sprung up over the past several years. One example of a
hybrid network is Skimlinks. Skimlinks is great for people who already have a lot
of content published. What Skimlinks does is finds the links on your site which
have an affiliate program and switches out the standard link out for an affiliate
link. Skimlinks also offers an integrated tracking system however they do take a
percentage of the affiliate commissions. I would not be surprised if more hybrid
models pop up over the coming years as they facilitate an easy transition into
affiliate marketing for already established webmasters.
APPLICATIONS WITH AFFILIATE NETWORKS
If you choose to work with one of the major affiliate networks you will definitely
have to go through an application process. While each network has its own
requirements for acceptance, if you follow the advice given in this book you
should get accepted with no problem. If for some reason you dont get accepted,
take some initiative and call the affiliate network and see why your application
was declined. Be persistent, address their concerns, and apply again.
Once accepted you will often receive a log-in to check out what affiliate
programs they have available. Most larger networks such as CJ and ShareASale
will require you to apply with the specific program within their network and have
stringent requirements for being accepted as well. Dont fret, read the legal
terms and if you have questions, contact your affiliate manager.
A WORD ON AFFILIATE MANAGERS

It is necessary to understand the relationship between yourself and your
affiliate manager. Realize that they are on your team but also realize they profit
when you profit and the harder they can get you to work the more money they
too will make.
If you have questions about the legal terms of a program or what you need to
do to be in compliance with those terms, they should be able to help. Keep in
mind that people do funny things when money is involved. Be wary of overly
interested affiliate managers, especially if you are dealing with paid traffic.
Never give out the keywords you are bidding on or ones that you are ranking for.
Remember the stated sale percentage or payout can often be bumped up if you
are doing well with a program, so ask for an increase once you have made some
sales. Understanding that affiliate networks profit when you profit is vital to your
success because it gives you a better understanding of the value chain involved.
P A R T 1 0
UNDERSTANDING TRACKING: YOU
CANT AFFORD TO OVERLOOK THIS
Tracking is vital to your success as an affiliate marketer. When you get set up
with the affiliate program of your choice you will be given banners and links that
you can place on your website. The way these links traditionally work
is as follows:
STEP 1: A visitor from your website clicks on the link pointing to the affiliate
program of your choice.
Understanding
which traffic is STEP 2: The visitor is sent through some tracking which will attribute the click
generating sales to you by setting a cookie on the visitors computer or logging their IP address.
and which isnt
STEP 3: Once the tracking cookie is set on the visitors computer they have a
allows you to focus
set time frame to buy, often 30 to 90 days.
on what is working
instead of just STEP 4: If the visitor buys and still has your cookie on their computer a
throwing stuff out commission is credited to your account.
there and hoping
something sticks. 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.
UN D E R STA N D I N G T R AC K I N G 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.
THE POWER OF SUB-IDS
After looking at this prior example you should see the power of sub-IDs.
Sub-IDs are powerful because they give you, the affiliate, a way to track which
of your promotion efforts are performing. Most networks dont have a limit on
the number of sub-IDs you can use so be as specific as you want. However,
make sure you check each networks specific guidelines as to how their sub-ID
tracking works. If you have questions ask your affiliate manager.
Ideally you will want to assign as many sub-IDs as makes sense. In a perfect
situation you would use a unique sub-ID on each individual link, and for paid
search traffic you might use a software to help you manage sub-IDs. Paid
Sub-IDs are
traffic sub-id tracking is advanced but if you are pursuing a paid traffic strategy
powerful because
definitely check out Prosper 202. This is very advanced software but it is
they give you, the
available for free and they have an active community of affiliates to help you
a f f i l i a t e , a w ay t o
get set up. If you were to have the same software they offer for free built you
track which of your
could easily spent a nice chunk of change.
promotion effor ts
a r e p e r f o r m i n g. 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/
EASY MANAGEMENT AND URL REDIRECTS

Regardless of what type of promotion strategy you use, you will want to make
sure your affiliate links are easy to manage and look professional. Depending on
what segment of the affiliate industry youre in, offers can change from time to
time. When this happens, you dont want to have to change your link in every
single place you use it. Trust me, changing affiliate links on 40 WordPress pages,
stinks. If you are going to use an affiliate link multiple places use a URL redirect.
This will prevent serious migraines caused by having to hunt down all your
affiliate links. Wise affiliates use URL redirects.
URL redirects benefit both the affiliate and the visitor. The affiliate benefits as
they allow for easy management, and the visitor benefits because they make the
URL easier to understand. Lets look at an example.
TYPICAL AFFILIATE LINK: http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-3567097-10408505
POTENTIAL URL REDIRECT LINK: http://www.somedomain.com/hostgator/
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.
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.
1 PHASE 1: GET STARTED WITH GREAT PLANNING

Threshold: This phase will be complete once a domain has been purchased and
hosting has been established.
STEP #1: COMPLETE PLANNING WORKSHEET
Associated with this book is a planning worksheet. Print it out and complete
the questions.
STEP #2: DOES THE PLANNING WORKSHEET MAKE SENSE?
Once you have completed the planning sheet, ask a friend to go over the
planning sheet with you. During this conversation ask them to give you
honest feedback.
STEP #3: BUY YOUR DOMAIN
During the planning guide you should have chosen a domain name. Once you
are sure this is the domain you want to use, buy it. For more insight, review the
section on choosing a domain name. Remember, keywords should also be part of
the domain name whenever possible if youre using a keyword rich domain name.
STEP #4: RESEARCH & BUY HOSTING
Buying a website hosting plan is obviously of key importance, but that does not
necessarily make it an easy task. There are literally thousands of hosts, and even
more plans available for consumers to choose from. Fortunately, most plans
break down into one of three types of hosting arrangements: shared hosting,
virtual private servers (VPS), and dedicated servers.
Each of these three solutions has its own relative strengths and weaknesses,
including performance, capacity, and price. A good rule of thumb for anyone just
getting started would be to look for a host that allows easy upgrades between
shared hosting, VPS plans, and dedicated servers. This allows for you to start
small and grow large.
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.
2 PHASE TWO: ESTABLISHING A WEBSITE SHELL

Threshold: This phase will be complete once you have installed a content
management system configured on your website and submitted your site
map to Google.
STEP #1: CHOOSE A CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
At the time of this writing, the dominant platform for blogging is WordPress,
which will probably change at some point in the future; nothing lasts forever on
the peaks of the Internet. Whatever platform technology youre planning to use,
now is the time to follow its installation instructions.
BLU E P R I N T 58
STEP #2: INSTALL PLUGINS
Most platforms, such as WordPress, are extensible and have plenty of plugins
and themes to choose from. If you are using WordPress, here is a quick list
of plugins that most webmasters find useful. Please realize these may have
changed if you are reading this book long after it was published.
1. Contact Form 7 - Easy Contact Form

2. SEO Ultimate - Offers additional SEO Options.
3. Redirection - Great for redirecting affiliate links
4. Viper Video Quicktags - A must-have for anyone embedding video
5. Google XML Sitemap generator - Quickly generate an XML-compliant
Google Sitemap
6. PhotoDropper - Outstanding for finding royalty-free creative commons
photos to use on your website
7. 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.
BLU E P R I N T 59
STEP #6: SET UP DISCLAIMER
If youre making money from a website, you should have a disclosure. The FTC
and US Government have become much stricter over the past few years. Take
the time and create a disclaimer.
STEP #7: CREATE SITE MAP AND CLAIM YOUR

WEBSITE IN GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS
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/
PHASE THREE: BUILDING OUT YOUR SITE AND

3 APPLYING FOR AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
Threshhold: Upon having your profitable content written and your affiliate
tracking setup, you can move on to promotion.
STEP #1: Create and Publish Core Content
In the planning guide you wrote down several ideas for Core Content. Now is the
time to create that content. Make it awesome! This is your time to shine.
A website should have some core content at launch and probably some content
that is not core content as well. It would be advisable to have content scheduled
for release over the first few weeks in order to provide ample time to get used
to the new tools and start handling the promotion aspect of building your
microbrand.
STEP #2: Apply to Affiliate Programs
It is time to apply for the affiliate programs you scoped out in the planning guide.
Once youve applied, make sure to follow up if you dont get accepted right
away. Some affiliate networks are picky about who they accept but if you talk
with the person doing approvals and tell them you are serious and are just
getting started, you typically wont have any issues getting accepted.
BLU E P R I N T 60
STEP #3: SET UP TRACKING FOR AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
Once you get accepted into the affiliate programs it is time to set up your
tracking. If you are using WordPress I highly recommend the plugin called
Redirection. It does a great job of allowing you to manage your 301 redirects
and set up clean URLs.
Remember to create a URL that looks as follows:
http://www.yourwebsite.com/folder/link-discription/
When setting up these links, you will want the folder part to be the same on
most of your URLs. This will help for the next step. Instead of naming it folder,
name it something like: out, recommended, link, or something creative. Since I
only recommend products I like on my personal sites, I often use /awesome/.
STEP #4: SET UP ROBOTS.TXT
While there are multiple ways of managing your robots.txt I recommend using
the WordPress plugin PC Robots.txt for beginners. Once you have installed
and activated this plugin, visit the settings page.
Here you will be able to edit the information included in the robots.txt. You will
probably see a large list of user-agents that are disallowed. Scroll all the way to
the bottom and add the following:
Disallow: /folder/
Make sure that whatever folder name you used in the step before this one, you
use the same folder. It is also important that you type this in exactly correct
or you may mess up your entire site. Double check your code to make sure it
matches this. The final block of code should look like this:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /cgi-bin/
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Disallow: /wp-includes/
Disallow: /wp-content/plugins/
Disallow: /wp-content/cache/
Disallow: /wp-content/themes/
Disallow: /wp-login.php
Disallow: /wp-register.php
Disallow: /folder/
BLU E P R I N T 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.
4 PHASE FOUR: PROMOTION AND BUILDING TRAFFIC

STEP #1: START LEAVING BREAD CRUMBS
Now that you have built your website and are regularly publishing content, its
time to start leaving breadcrumbs for people to find you. If you are reading this
its safe to say you probably have at least a Facebook or Twitter account. Start
letting your followers know what you are up to. Be passionate and fearless and
share what you have built.
STEP #2: CRAFT A PROMOTION STRATEGY
Determine where time will be spent, and in what quantities. Will you be guest
posting? If so, start by establishing relationships and seeing how many guest
posting options are even available. Begin signing up for services such as eZine,
Hubpages, and so on if you choose to promote your site via content marketing.
This is where self-discipline techniques and principles will definitely come into
play. Remember success doesnt happen over night.
STEP #3: GUEST POST
Depending on your industry, guest posting may be an option. If it is, jump on

it. Reach out to other bloggers and portray yourself as a reliable person who
knows what youre talking about. When it comes to giving them the guest post,
format it for them so they dont have to.
STEP #4: GUEST POSTING NOT AVAILABLE? USE CONTENT MARKETING
In some industries guest posting wont be available. Earlier in the text we outlined
pretty thoroughly how to use existing article directories and how-to sites to build
a digital breadcrumb trail. Now is the time to take action and build it.
BLU E P R I N T 62
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.
5 PHASE FIVE: BUILDING REPUTATION

STEP #1: THE SNOWBALL EFFECT - KEEP GUEST POSTING
AND LEVERAGING TRADITIONAL MEDIA
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.
BLU E P R I N T 63
STEP #3: ATTEND CONFERENCES
Conferences are an outstanding way of meeting people involved in the same

industry as you. Scope out the conferences in your industry and plan on
attending one. If you are interested and qualified you might even be able to
speak at the conference.
STEP #4: HORIZON SCANNING
Continue to look for new opportunities to make money. Affiliate marketing is

just one of the many tools available to a successful microbrand. The very act
of building reputation will cause others to gravitate to you. Always be willing to
listen and find new solutions to complex problems.
STEP #5: FIND MORE FIRST TIME VISITORS
To continue to build your brand you will need to find new streams of visitors who
have yet to be exposed to your brand. Converting these new first-time visitors
to return visitors is the mark of a successful microbrand. Try exploring new
potential sources of first-time visitors not discussed in this book such as paid
advertising or viral marketing. There are millions of ways to get attention; do
something unique and be awesome.
STEP #6: TRACK AFFILIATE STATISTICS
As youre building your reputation youll want to keep a close eye on your affiliate
tracking. Having good tracking numbers to dive into and analyze can be the
difference of hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Some pages and advertisements
just convert better than others. If you know which pages and affiliate programs are
your profitable ones then you know where to funnel your traffic.
6 PHASE SIX: MONITORING AND TWEAKING FOR SUCCESS

STEP #1: ADAPT TO CHANGE
Once you have successfully established your microbrand you will be exposed
to new opportunities outside affiliate marketing. This could be publishing a
book, developing an interactive course, speaking opportunities, and everything
in between. Relying fully on affiliate marketing is an option but with other
opportunities available as a microbrand you will have to pick and choose where
to spend your time.
BLU E P R I N T 64
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.
WHEN THINGS GO WRONG 65

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 66
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?
Of the items you are passionate about

is there any market interest?
(Are people spending money?)
Are you willing to produce content about

this topic for an extended period of time?
Would you be excited about talking

to your neighbor or new acquaintance
about your project?
PL A N N I N G G U I D E 67
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.
While research these keywords also write

down any keywords where the user would
have intent to spend money (buy, review,
coupon code, etc).
Add up the total search volume of your

keywords. Determine whether this niche
is worth targeting. Generally niches
containing more than 10,000 searches
can be profitable.
DOMAIN:
TASK: CHOOSE A DOMAIN.
Before visiting your favorite registrar

(GoDaddy, Moniker) brainstorm
5 choices for domains.
Will you be using a keyword rich domain

or a brandable domain?
If you are using a keyword rich domain,
what is the global monthly volume in the
Google keyword tool? Would ranking well
for this keyword help you?
https://adwords.google.com/select/
KeywordToolExternal
Before you register this domain, complete

this worksheet.
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?
What are the problems that people in

your niche are having? Can you help
them solve them?
What will your website be known for?
How will your website add value
to its viewers?
Do you have access to interview anyone

unique in your niche that other people
wouldnt? This might be great core content.
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?
Is there a tool or a service that everyone

in your niche uses? Do they have an
affiliate program?
Search the ClickBank marketplace for items

in your niche. Do any of them have gravity
over 20, 50, or 100? If so that means there
is money to be made in this niche for info
products. Are you interested in selling any
of these products?
Do a Google search for the main keywords

in your industry. View the advertisements
and check if the products and services they
are promoting have affiliate programs.
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?
Are there any conferences held in your

niche? If so when and where? How
could you get on the radar of the people
attending and speaking at this conference?
Find their personal websites and try and
build a relationship with them. Remember,
people link to people they like.
RESOURCES
REGISTRARS HOSTING COMPANIES
Moniker HostGator
My Registrar of Choice One of the biggest webhosts. Allows
http://www.Moniker.com for easy upgrade/downgrade between
Here you will find a list of Godaddy different plans.
Worlds Largest Registrar http://www.hostgator.com
resources I recommend, some
http://www.Godaddy.com VPS.net
were mentioned in the book,
DOMAIN NAME AFTERMARKETS Reliable VPS provider. Scale your web
some were not. You wont
resources as you need them.
find any affiliate links within Flippa http://www.vps.net
this list, though many of these Buy entire sites or domains at auction.
http://www.flippa.com Page.ly
products and services do have Managed Wordpress hosting.
affiliate programs. Sedo I hear good things about their service.
Huge Domain Aftermarket http://www.page.ly
http://www.sedo.com
PREMIUM WORDPRESS THEMES
BRANDABLE DOMAIN NAMES
Thesis Theme
Domainr Premium WordPress theme framework
Great for finding creative domain names with outstanding support and an
using lesser known domain extensions. active community.
http://www.Domai.nr http://www.diythemes.com
Brandbucket Genesis Theme
Buy domains with a predesigned Premium WordPress theme framework
brand image. Can be pricey but that has many different design options.
great for inspiration. http://www.studiopress.com
http://www.brandbucket.com
Headway Theme
BRAND IDENTITY Premium WordPress theme framework
99Designs that allows for drag and drop design.
Outsource design and more. One price http://www.headwaythemes.com
many different design options. People Woo Themes
work and you select your favorite. Prebuilt WordPress designs
http://www.99Designs.com http://www.woothemes.com
Crowd Spring USEFUL WORDPRESS PLUGINS
Great for outsourcing logo design and
even web design. I have had a lot of work Contact Form 7
done through CrowdSpring. Easy Contact Form integration
http://www.crowdspring.com http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
contact-form-7/
IDENTIFYING POTENTIAL NICHES
SEO Ultimate
Big Boards Offers additional SEO Options. Make
Ranks the largest forums sure to fill out your title tags and meta
on the web. Great for identifying descriptions on your posts and pages.
potential niches. http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
http://rankings.big-boards.com/ seo-ultimate/
Clickbank Marketplace Redirection
To get an idea of market size browse Great for redirecting affiliate links.
your potential market and sort by http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
Gravity. Gravity is the number of distinct redirection/
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 72
Viper Video Quicktags NOT TO MISS PAID TRAFFIC
A must-have for anyone
Disclosure Policy Generator Facebook Ads
embedding video.
Stay legal with a disclosure policy Target users by demographic.
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/
generator. Remember this isnt http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/
vipers-video-quicktags/
legal advice.
Google Adwords
Google XML Sitemap generator http://disclosurepolicy.org/
Target users by keyword or key phrase.
Quickly generate an XML-compliant
Privacy Policy Generator Remember keyword intent.
Google Sitemap for use with Google
Stay legal with a privacy policy generator. http://adwords.com/
webmaster tools.
Remember this isnt legal advice.
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ Prosper202
www.freeprivacypolicy.com
google-sitemap-generator/ Outstanding PPC software. Very
Google Webmaster Tools advanced professional grade software.
PhotoDropper
Amazing free tools offered by Google to http://prosper202.com/
Outstanding for finding royalty-free
webmasters. Claim your site if you
creative commonsphotos to use on LIST BUILDING TOOLS
havent already.
your website. Aweber
http://webmasters/tools/
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ Very popular email service provider.
photo-dropper/ ANALYTICS TOOLS
http://www.aweber.com
PC Robots.txt Google Analytics
Mailchimp
Used for easy editing of your robots.txt This is the industry leading analytics tool.
Awesome email service provider.
file. Pros will upload that file manually but Most websites use Google Analytics.
Offers up to 1,000 email addresses free.
this saves you some FTP time. http://www.google.com/analytics/
http://www.mailchimp.com
http://www.wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ Crazy Egg
TRADITIONAL PR
pc-robotstxt/ Crazy Egg offers heatmap analytics
allowing you to see where people are Help a Reporter Out
AFFILIATE NETWORKS
click on your website. Great for getting media exposure
Clickbank http://www.helpareporter.com
http://www.crazyegg.com
Large open managed affiliate network.
KISSMetrics Prweb
http://www.Clickbank.com
I have heard good things about Great for sending out Press Releases
Commission Junction http://www.prweb.com
KISSMetricss services.
Large closed network managed affiliate
http://www.kissmetrics.com Top 100 newspapers in the US
network. Huge player that represents
SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Great for sending personalized emails to
numerous big brands.
specific writers.
http://www.cj.com Seomoz
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_
Share a Sale Great SEO Tools but can be a little pricey.
newspapers_in_the_United_States_
Large closed network managed affiliate Has an awesome beginners section.
by_circulation
network. Represents many different Seomoz.org
brands of all shapes and sizes. Raventools
http://www.ShareASale.com Outstanding service for tracking where
Skimlinks you rank on multiple keywords.
Hybrid Affiliate Network. Great for people Raventools.com
with large amounts of content already ARTICLE MARKETING
developed that want to get started in
Ezine Articles
affiliate marketing.
Ezine Articles is one of the most well
http://www.Skimlinks.com
known article directories around.
KEYWORD TOOLS Google loves them and their stuff ranks
Google External Keyword Tool pretty well.
The granddaddy of keyword tools. http://www.ezinearticles.com
https://adwords.google.com/select/ Hub Pages
KeywordToolExternal Another great site to post your articles on.
Market Samurai You will need a user score for 75+ in order
Excellent tool for discovering for your links to be worth while.
untapped keywords. http://www.hubpages.com
http://www.marketsamurai.com
RE S O U R C E S 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 74

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H O W T O T U R N

TRAFFIC & TRUST

SALES BY NICK REESE

CHRIS BROGAN, President

WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING

Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one

AFFILIATE MARKETING IS BASED ON REFERRALS

By building a website designed to refer customers to another business, you

In this book, were not going to discuss short-term affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing can be a path to financial freedom and independence, but

VALUE CHAINS IN BUSINESS

When it comes to businesses everything is based on mutual value. In this age

SMART AFFILIATES WORK LIKE GATE KEEPERS

From a companys point of view, outsourcing Internet-based promotion to

COST EFFECTIVE Advertising online is extremely cost effective.

NEAR-INSTANT ROI (RETURN ON INVESTMENT) In most cases,

AFFILIATE MARKETING FREES UP RESOURCES Large companies

MICRO-CAMPAIGNS - No company or advertising agency can hope to

WALMART BUT MORE EARTH FRIENDLY

GREEN MARTS AFFILIATES

VALUE CHAINS APPLICATION IN GREEN MART

TAKE AWAYS FROM THE GREEN MART EXAMPLE

TRAFFIC Traffic is simply defined as the amount of visitors a website

TRUST Trust is an intangible thing, yet we all use it and many of us

REPUTATION Reputation is something that comes after trust, but it in

WHAT VALUE DO YOU ADD?

Not all first-time

All of these methods of generating organic traffic are going to involve

It would be reasonable to assume that the average person would probably

HERE ARE SOME IDEAS TO GENERATE TRAFFIC:

Is well written and error checked

We as social creatures have developed trust to work together on a greater scale

An introduction between friends is a form of borrowed trust. While this is a basic

SEARCH ENGINES AND TRUST

BRANDS AND TRUST

Core content is like your websites or microbrands unique selling proposition.

The important takeaway here is that trust is a highly volatile commodity.

PUT IT INTO ACTION: BUILDING AND KEEPING TRUST

To build trust, you should:

Participate in forums and community comments, both on your site and on

TRUST AND REPUTATION ARE RELATED BUT NOT EQUAL

To get a better understanding of how to build your microbrands reputation, lets

TRAFFIC: WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL

TRAFFIC: WHAT YOU CANT CONTROL

TRUST: WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL

TR U ST, T R A F F I C & R E P U TAT I O N 30

REPUTATION: WHAT YOU CAN CONTROL

REPUTATION: WHAT YOU CANT CONTROL

TR U ST, T R A F F I C & R E P U TAT I O N 31

Remember that affiliate marketing is like getting a graduate degree in college;

Without anymore hang-time, lets get to the tangibles of the book.

As with all businesses, it is recommended that anyone trying to make a profit

WHO WILL VISIT THE SITE?

HOW WILL VISITORS GET TO THE WEBSITE?

WHAT WILL YOUR VISITORS WANT TO SEE WHEN THEY VISIT?

HOW WILL THE SITE MAKE MONEY?

TALENT/PASSION Lets say that youre something of an expert on dogs,

ABILITY TO BE MONETIZED Pets may be one of the easiest things to make

Some creative affiliate marketers even watch quarterly announcements of large

Advertising is another possible way to generate revenue, but it requires a

CHOOSING A DOMAIN NAME

Brand-able Domain Names Gwun.com Well use this as an example.

AFTER BUYING THE DOMAIN NAME