IM101 Step 7: Using Blogger to Build Your Affiliate Site

I've talked about Blogger many times before on The Agile Marketer. It is, in my mind, the easiest way to get a site online that can generate revenue for you quickly. With built-in RSS feeds, Adsense and the ability to customize using Javascript or HTML additions you can actually build a fully functional website.

However, your goal is not to get too wrapped up in site design - remember, the key to your success is getting content out there quickly and to notify blog search engines that content is being updated.

I'm not going to go into the details of how to sign into Blogger and set up your account - you can find many tutorials out there on how to do this - here's a great one if you need it: Vance's Blogger Tutorial

Make sure you choose a more vanilla, or sparse template. The reason for this is that you can make things stand out much better - the colors of a header or inline page photos really stand out when the template is mostly white. In case you haven't noticed, The Agile Marketer is a Blogger blog (highly customized, though).

I realize it has been a while since my last tutorial - but, part of the reason was to show you how this Blogger affiliate site I was building, namely, The Diet Solution Program, is doing in Google!!

Take a look at: The Diet Solution Program

I completed the first part of the blog in October and submitted only some free press releases and one, single article. Over time I added some more blog posts, submitted my site to a few social sites such as Spicypage and Blogcatalog, submitted the single article to some more directories and pinged some blog search services. Actually, not much work overall - I didn't do some of the standard traffic building techniques such as YouTube or a load of article submissions.

So, in two and half months - how are we doing with our keywords?
1. 'The Diet Solution Program' - now ranked 42nd in Google (534,000 results)
2. 'Isabel De Los Rios' - now ranked 22nd in Google (361,000 results)
3. 'healthy diet plan' and 'natural weight loss' - (524,000 and 2,640,000 Google results) no ranking yet for those specific phrases (but indexed by Google if the search is refined)

I haven't spent any time on optimizing the keyword phrases in #3 yet - just letting organic growth work with these. However, my future approach will be to add keyword density in my Blogger posts as well as articles that focus on these.

Not bad for the small amount of work I've put into the site - I would guess I've put in about 8-16 hours of work. With only a single article, six submissions to article sites, three press releases, about seven social site networks I'm generating some traffic, getting Adsense revenue and a few Clickbank sales.

The key with Blogger was getting my content posts out there so that they will be searched by Google right away. Keywords make the difference - you can see how just a little work can get a site moving up the organic search result ladder. Just image if you have 5 to 10 of these Blogger affiliate sites working over time....

IM101 Step 6: Tuning Your Affiliate Product Keywords

Finding the best keywords for your affiliate site is not too difficult but essential to learn how to make money online. The key is finding the right terms that will have the highest density on your page with hopefully the additional benefit of a low competition in the search engines. This also works for your own product or informational sites as well.

Since I had picked a dieting product this is not as easy as something with a smaller niche such as a hobby or an aspect of a professional skill. The basic strategy for a high competition keyword subject area is to narrow it down to smaller segments by using longer keyword phrases. From my last article using the keyword tools provided can give me a very good indication of what keyword phrase is going to a) have less competition, b) ranked faster and c) visible in the first ten results of a Google search. It is important to try and analyze this before you kick into gear building your sites.

For example, the word 'diet' alone has a Google page return of 163 millions results - that is, 163 million references to external web sites. Getting to the top ten results in Google for just the word 'diet' would be a very, very tough task.

You may have noticed that I waited some time before continuing this article to work on my own articles and my ebook. But, I was also waiting for my affiliate sample site to start gaining rank in Google. Part of this plan was to focus on my core keyword phrases within the affiliate site's content.

For my example I knew that a couple of key phrases had to be part of my solution. Since I was focusing on a diet guide I had to use both the guide's title and author as keyword phrases. This is an important step for the future since I knew the guide was going to gain in popularity over time. In this case - 'The Diet Solution Program' and 'Isabel De Los Rios'. It is key to use these for future keyword phrase searches as the product gains popularity.

But, I also wanted to find a keyword phrase that has a more general health and diet search with a smaller Google result. After a couple of hours on the tools using the words 'diet', 'dieting', 'health', 'nutrition', 'diet plan', 'healthy diet' I finally hit the phrase I wanted - 'healthy diet plan' which I found to have a decent set of results in search but low enough to get ranked quickly. (Remember, to use these tools just type in the core one or two word phrases and see what results come back. Then, go to Google and see how many results come back from your phrases. The lower the number of results the easier it is for you to get ranked in the top ten.)

I typically look for keyword phrase results in Google with near one million results. Here's an example that is close:







If you focus on key phrases with results under 100,000 but greater than about 25,000 then you can get ranked very quickly in Google. The downside is that the daily search volume for your phrase may be too low so this would only generate 10-20 hits a day.

I was able to get a keyword site ranked in the top ten of Google for a result of over 25 million in the search return. However this took about six months and a lot of work. Be sure you pick one keyword phrase that has about one million results - but, don't focus on it first. Let it become a natural part of your site as you build it.

So, now I'm ready to start building a site. I'm now armed with my keyword phrases 'The Diet Solution Program', 'Isabel De Los Rios', 'healthy diet plan' and 'natural weight loss'. Enter these into Google as full search phrase enclosed in both quotes and not enclosed and you'll be able to see for yourself how many results are returned for each.

Next up, using Blogger as a simple, free way to build your site.

Your Best Weapon to Make Money Online During These Times

Writing. Ah, that word that makes me cringe in an avoidance panic! Yet, I know I have to get back to it again and again. Writing is something that I just can't seem to do naturally yet it is such an integral part of my online work.

If you're new or haven't noticed, I haven't posted my next marketing steps in quite a while. Why? Well, there are many reasons but the main one was all about writing - my ebook, articles and other older material that needed refreshing.

You see, this is NaNoWriMo month (if you haven't heard of it - National Novel Writing Month). NaNoWriMo was started as an online community event to get budding writers to write more and think less (that's my addition - but, mainly true. Writers worry too much about structure and plot.) The goal is to write 50,000 words in the month of November - which, is a pretty daunting - 1666 words a day. Translate that into internet marketing work; that's three 560 word articles a day!

But, when you think about it - if you just keep writing and start to ignore the wandering mind a bit your productivity soars. Can this be translated from novel writing to content writing? Probably not at 50,000 words. Nevertheless, the concept is still the same - just doing it!

Back to my story - I've been using the NaNoWriMo concept to write my next ebook which has left much of my other work shelved for a bit. This is something I think any budding online marketer should do. It helps you get past the block and into a flow. Try it - you may see a big payoff!

This has been beneficial for another reason as well - my test affiliate marketing site that I'm using right now in the Marketing 101 steps has seen a great upswing in traffic as well as a rise in Google rankings due mainly to articles I wrote just before the end of October. If you're going to learn how to make money online - this is it.

If you go back a couple of posts you'll see that I had picked the affiliate product called 'The Diet Solution Program' to use as that educational example. Well, now my example site is ranked well in Google and rising fast. The real key to this is simple - writing original content and submitting it to article directories, forums, blogs - you name it.

It's hard and takes time - but believe me - if you do it you will see the real payback in no time which is the most exciting . So, do it! Create your own NaNoWriMo month in December and keep writing.

What is the Best Method to Make Some Money Online?

Recently, I was scanning around Yahoo Answers and found this particular question. Since I spent the time answering it for that person I thought it might be useful for any of the Agile Marketer readers. Enjoy!

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This is a difficult question to answer because most of your answers are going to be pitches for products or services that claim to make you money.

I'll say right up front that even though I have made some good money online most of the money making systems are really a bad mix of techniques and promises that typically burn people out right away because of one of the following:

1. You have to pay too much money to learn or get into this business

2. You don't have the computer skills to work online

3. You are trying to make money on something you know nothing about or care about (this is my pet peave!)

4. You don't have the diligence to do the day to day work

5. You are not thinking like a small business

6. You are desperate for money and will do anything

These statements are what typically splits those who make little or nothing to those who make millions online.

I started out like you wondering what to do and how to do it and was left with a lot of frustrated mistakes. But, if there is anything I've learned online in the last 5 years is that if you don't pursue something you love (your interest, hobbies, life dreams, etc) you probably won't make much.

My advice to you is to:

1. Start with a business mindset first - what is your plan? what will you sell? do you have knowledge that is marketable? (Don't worry - many things are marketable - I've seen successful online businesses just on simple home ice dam removal because the person doing it loved construction - and saw another make a mint on care of pet fish - yes, pet fish!!!).

2. Be sure to really start your business - as a sole propietor or LLC. You get huge tax breaks for anything you buy for your business - books, computers, software, desks, phones, etc. Don't buy anything until you do this!!!! It will save you a ton of money.

3. List every thing that you love to do or know about and write them down. Then, pick what you think you could market online as a product, service or knowledge (such as a blog)- stick to it!! Don't go online trying to sell diet plans if you know nothing about nutrition or dieting. If you know something about specific pets, legal forms, cameras, - the sky is the limit! Use that knowledge to your advantage and build on it.

4. Not give into desperation - let things work out over time. You can't build a business in a day. Making big money online takes time - you have to prove yourself and have the motivation to work on it every day.

5. Invest in your education. Learn as much as you can on how to do this - buy a few online business guides. I'm constantly amazed that people are not willing to spend a couple hundred dollars to learn how to make money online when they are willing to pay thousands for a MBA or even an online college degree.

6. Don't get distracted - probably the #1 killer of online hopes and dreams. Once you start learning this business you will definitely see more opportunities - hold off!! You will spread yourself too thin. Be focused.

I hope this helps you. I've lived it and think that anyone can do this.

IM101 Step 5: Focusing on Keywords

One of the very first mistakes I made when building my first marketing site was not paying attention to the main keyword search terms I was trying to focus on. At that time I didn't understand how keyword density worked nor did I get the benefits of keyword rich backlinks to my site.

So, to help you with this I'm going to take a very specific example from Clickbank and build out a low cost, ebook marketing site for you. You're welcome to follow along with the same Clickbank product, or, just find one you're really interested in. My focus for this article is validating the product and getting the keyword search terms in place.

After spending a couple of hours scanning through both Clickbank.com and CBEngine.com I found the product I wanted to market - it's called The Diet Solution Program by Isabel De Los Rios.

My key criteria were a) the product is relatively new on the market, b) it is starting to see some gravity, c) the payout per sale is reasonable (see my last article), and d) it is something I have some knowledge and passion for (my grandmother and mother were both wellness and nutrition fanatics).

One additional thing that I typically do is search Google for product reviews to make sure that the response is positive - I don't want to market something people think is a waste of money. If all looks good I go ahead and purchase the product for my last validation - making sure the final product is something I truly want to promote. From everything I could see, Isabel's Diet Solution Program looks like a great candidate.

Finding Good Affiliate Product Keywords

Next, I spent a couple of hours determining my core keyword phrases that will be the main driver to this site and get it ranked in Google. My favorite free keyword tools are Google Adwords Keyword Tool and Trellian's Keyword Discovery. At a high level these tools give me enough information to build my phrases. (I suggest that you download the Free Ebook SEO Made Easy to learn more).

Generally I like to focus on three to four key terms that give me search exposure on Google in a way that will be in the top ten results for each. Typically, one is the main term and the other two are lower volume search returns.

The first thing you want to do is identify the key terms associate with the product you're promoting - in my example it is The Diet Solution Program which was definitely a keyword challenge due to the shear number of diet and nutrition products on the market today. I had to dig down the keyword list to find just the magic phrase.

Coming next - how I identified the right keywords for my affiliate product.

IM101 Step 4: Finding Your First Product to Market

I've spent some time in my earlier tutorials discussing how to make money online by pre-marketing your website. Now that you understand the basics let's get started building something easily and quickly.

There's probably no easier way to start than to market an existing electronic product. I prefer starting with Clickbank only because the products are affiliate ready - that is, they are structured in a way that every product Clickbank promotes must allow the same affilite linking, terms of service, disclaimers, refund policy, etc. Plus, they are all electronic downloads which makes your profits that much less stressful. This means you only have to pick a product that matches something you are interested in (remember, focusing on your passions will make this much easier - see Passions to Profits for more information).

The other part of Clickbank that I like is the easy way to see what products are the most popular and their gravity (a term meaning the products are accelerating in sales). I prefer picking a fairly new product that shows some gravity but is not yet in the top sellers. Here's an example from their Marketplace tab:

As you can see - I searched by highest gravity in the Fitness section of Health and Fitness. The stats underneath give you an idea about the amount you make per sale and how popular the ebook is.

Researching the Clickbank History

If you want more data on the specific product from Clickbank then I like to use another site called CBEngine.com. They have more data you can use to see how a product has been doing over time. CBEngine has both a free service and a paid service if you want more than just data (you can get specific recommendations).

Another aspect you should pay attention to before picking your product is to see how much that author is willing to pay you, the affiliate marketer, for selling their product. The payout to you for a product can range from $5 to $80 per sale which is a pretty wide spread.

When I first started I focused on the highest paying products only to find that there seems to be a price threashold for many buyers won't cross. A $99 Clickbank product is a much harder sell than a $30 one. Keep in mind that you would have to sell three to six times as many products to match a high priced one. My rule of thumb is to focus on products for less than $50 with at least a 50% affiliate payout (meaning you get at least $25 of a $50 sale).

Signing up with Clickbank is a simple task - just be sure that you have your online business ready to go (see Business Before Web) and that your TaxID is setup so you can start.

Clickbank is a very easy way to start your internet marketing business. All you need is an affiliate site, some traffic tricks (more to come!), and the perseverence I'm mentioned so many times before. Remember, the product is only a small part of the bigger picture. Getting your site ranked with traffic will be the winning formula. Imagine now that your site is #1 in Google for the keywords tied to your product - that's the real goal. I've done it and made thousands on Clickbank products - so can you.

Next up - getting your product keywords ready (before you doing anything else!) to dominate a Google search result.

IM101 Step 3: Ten Easy Power Methods to Promote Your Site Early

Someone recently asked me why you would ever want to promote a site before finishing it? If you happened to read my article Get Listed in the Search Engines Early you would have some of that answer. However, would I promote a site before it is started? No, I wouldn't - but I would as soon as I had the very basic structure and content ready.

One thing to remember is that promotion does not have to be a direct link - it can be indirect such as an author account, profile or configuration setting that points back to your site. This has become even more important with Web 2.0 sites because of their high popularity and page rank.

So, where would you begin with something like this? First and foremost you must have a Yahoo ID. Yahoo is important because there are some very highly ranked tools within Yahoo you can use as indirect ( and some direct ) promotion. Other than that you'll need to use individual IDs for the other sites (be sure to read my previous entry on the proper use of IDs before you begin).

Here we go - the ten power methods:

1. Twitter - I hope everyone has figured out the power of Twitter. But, if you haven't be sure to sign up and start tweeting! You can set a backlink in your profile as well as talk about what you're doing on your site. Start very early with this - you can tweet about your site, news, ideas, etc! Don't worry, someone will start following you.

2. StumbleUpon - This is a powerful way to track interesting websites either randomly or related to your marketing topic. Better yet, you can follow others picks, start groups and link back with your profile. Again, this is one you can start very early with a profile and links similar to your site - just be sure not to add your own site for stumbling too soon.

3. YouTube - If you're adept at creating videos this is an extremely powerful way to get backlinks to your site. However, you don't even have to do that - just create your own YouTube group with a backlink to your site. Then, add videos to that group of quality, related content. Over time people will join your group if you pick your videos well!

4. Zoho and Zoho Planner - Zoho is a provided of online productivity software - spreadsheet, word processor, database, etc. One very easy idea is to use Zoho Planning while your building your project. Why? Planner allows you to publish your plan publicly as you go - which you can use to track your own progress, create backlinks, and even stir up some ideas going forward. I use it just as a simple tracking mechanism.

5. Digg - Most of you are probably pretty familiar with this. Much like StumbleUpon you can track and vote for you favorite articles that tie to your site concept. You can enter your site in the profile.

6. Propeller - very much the same as StumbleUpon or Digg you can use Propeller to find and rate similar articles to your own.

7. MyBlogLog - this is a blog tracking and rating site (uses a Yahoo ID). Many blogs place a MyBlogLog widget on their site showing who has visited. This will show what users have stopped by - which you can map back to your Yahoo ID.

8. Flickr - most of you already know what this is (uses a Yahoo ID). However, you should seriously consider using it to indirectly or directly promote your site depending on the topic. For example, in my last article I mentioned the sample Travel Photo Tips site. Well, of course you would want to have photos on Flickr. But, if your site is informational only - you can get creative and find themes that fit your market!

9. Yahoo Answers - since you are promoting something that you love you should be able to answer questions about it. At some point your own site can become a reference to those answers - just be careful not to spam your site, that is, use answers to only try to get a link back. Be honest to those looking for answers and include many different references

10. Spicypage - finally, use this community site ranking tool to add your own site, rate others and collaborate with other, similar users.

There you have it! Ten simple power methods to boost your own site early. Just be consistent to work with two or three of each every day so you can build your successful ranking early to make money online.