I have been writing a lot lately about some of my money making affiliate blogs - Tigerdirect and EBay. But truth be told, the most successful (and fun) blog I write sells adult toys and novelties.
Not only is there a massive market in North America for adult toys and novelties, it is also an area that people are willing to spend their disposable income as consumers. There are also plenty of affiliate programs for people who wish to sell Adult toys - Playboy has an affiliate program through Linkshare, and there is Eden Fantasies ( EdenFantasys.com - Adult Toy Store ) and Adam and Eve Toys ( adamevetoys.com
) on Commission Junction, just to name a few.
So how does one sell adult toys through a blog? Well, the easiest way is to use and review the toys yourself - and that alone can be a lot of fun! Next, sign up for cj.com or Linkshare (Become a LinkShare Affiliate!). Then post your review and a sales link to the toy in your blog. Easy as 1,2,3! Not only is it fun, most of these Adult toy affiliate programs pay out 20% or MORE!
Here is an example of an adult toy blog ( Click here to go to The Joyboxxx ).
Good luck to you!
Selling Adult Toys and Lingerie from your Blog
Selling Tigerdirect Products from your Blog
Just like eBay, Tigerdirect has an affiliate program. TigerDirect is a very popular online computer/electronics retailer. I regularly shop for my computer needs on their site. Their prices are unbeatable, the selection is huge and you can even use your paypal account in the checkout process.
So how can you tap into TigerDirect’s success? Easy, become an affiliate!
Step 1: Visit the LinkShare website and sign-up as an affiliate Click here to become a LinkShare Affiliate!
Step 2: Log into your LinkShare account and click on the “Join Programs” button at the top of the website
Step 3: Search for “TigerDirect” and put a checkmark in the check boxes below TigerDirect’s program details and then at the bottom press the “Apply to all checked programs”
That’s it! Once your application is approved you should receive a welcome e-mail. The next thing you want to do is to start promoting TigerDirect’s website and try to get some sales going. To get the banner code and other such promotional items just click on “Create Links” at the top of your LinkShare members page and select the “TigerDirect” option. From there on everything is pretty much self-explanatory.
Here is the commission rates TigerDirect offers:
Monthly Total Sales Commission Rate
$0-2,499 2%
$2500-9,999 4%
$10,000-24,999 5%
$25,000-49,999 5.5%
$50,000+ 6%
So how do you incorporate this into your blog? Easy - Start writing mini-reviews of Tigerdirect products and embed the links you create at linkshare into your blog post. Take a look at this Tigerdirect Sales Blog.
How to Add eBay Listings to Your Blog
Looking to make money easily using eBay and a blog? The secret is to use the eBay Editor Kit, which will produce some Javascript you can insert into your template or post. Here’s the description of the Editor Kit from eBay:
The eBay Editor Kit (EK) is one of the most innovative and effective affiliate tools available. With the EK, affiliates can add relevant, real-time eBay listings to their Web sites in just seconds. Best of all, the EK produces click-through rates two times greater than traditional banners!
Whatever your Web site’s content or user demographic, eBay’s Editor Kit will dynamically list pertinent eBay auctions and listing details, including product information, gallery images, bidding prices, and ending times. Each specification is completely customizable.
Editor Kit is designed to show auction results. The Editor Kit allows you to enter search terms that dictate which ads to show on your site. So how can you use it? Easy! Write a blog post about something ... a movie, a toy - anything that you know about that people buy. Set up an editors kit at the eBay affiliates site and post the code in your blog post. Instant up to date eBay auction listings relevant to your blog topic!
NOTE: You must be an eBay member to use the Editor Kit! (
It doesn't get any easier than that folks ... check it out (EBay Deals) ...
What Types of Blogs can you Keep?
When you hear of a blog these days you think of people making money. Even though it is mainly used for that reason you can actually just have a blog for other fun things. Having a blog does not limit you at all you can use it for whatever reason you chose. Many people use blogs for telling a story about themselves, their family or just sharing information on anything that they are interested in. Below I will share with you some of the ways you can incorporate fun into your blogs.
Blogging to Stay in Touch with Friends
Family and friends can sometimes move away and having a blog can help you stay in touch with them. You can add events on your blog to let them keep up with what you are doing. You can add photos of your different trips that you have recently been on. You may have a new dress that you would like them to see you in and you can add it to your blog. Yes we do have phones and emails but having a blog is so much more fun. You have the site up so they can go back and check it out whenever they feel fit.
Having a blog also gives you the advantage to introduce other family members you're your family have never met before. The internet is such a great place isn't it? Blogs also have a great feature which is the comment section. Your family members can post comments on each post that you write. You also have the option to answer back with a comment. Having a blog also allows you to make even more friends. I say this because your blog is there and you are sharing it with your friends and family but also your friends and family could also refer others to check it out and then wow you are getting to know new people.
Blogging To Promote Your TalentsStick Man Comics!
Some bloggers begin blogging to promote themselves. A friend of mine just recently sent me a link to his new blog and it was basically his resume. He is in the Technology field and he just post topics on various projects that he has been involved with. I have a sixteen year old son who loves writing poetry, he is great at writing and he uses a blog to express himself. People would come to read and get inspiration. He also He is also into drawing and he just draws and post his drawings for others to see. Think about the potential if a company who is looking for someone with these talents come across you blog you could get hired to do something you are naturally good at. You may be thinking oh my gosh I don't want everybody viewing my blog, well you can make it private. This is an option where you only allow the people you wish to view your blog. Think of this as online journal instead of writing in a book you can do so on the blog.
As a blogger, you also have to be careful when expressing yourself because you do have some people out there that will invade your life and turn it into a living hell. So be very careful when posting your deepest expressions. Remember your blog will be online for the world to if you chose to so make sure you post topics you are comfortable with.
Blogging to Keep a Record of Events
Blogging can also be use d to record events in your life. Some examples of important events can be vacations, pregnancy, sporting events, weddings, graduation and so much more. As I stated earlier, you can make the blog private but you can use it as a tool to keep track of important things that you can always refer back to and can shear with your family members at a reunion. Think of it as a scrapbook of your life. Wouldn't it be great to have a scrap book of your pregnancy? Later on in life your child could go back and look at the events that leads up to his or her existence. The sky is the limit as to what you can do with a blog, these are just some ideas on how you can use a blog to have fun.Totally Fake Celebrity News
by Denise A Sinclair
How to Earn money as an EBay Affiliate (with no selling)
eBay is one of the most visited websites on the Internet. Did you know you can make some good money with their affiliate program? There are several ways to do this and this article will look at some of those today. The one thing that many people like about their program over others is they are always changing it. The company is always trying to make it better. In fact, it has some different things than most programs do to make you money. Take a look at it right now.
Once you sign up as an affiliate, you will get different links to use to get others to sign up. It is in your best interest to get others to sign up from your link for a couple different reasons. eBay has switched their affiliate program to what is now called the "eBay Partner Network" and this change is for the better. As an affiliate, you can earn a lot more money. You earn money two different ways with their new program. One way is that when people visit your website, they click on an eBay ad and sign up for an account. The second way is through bidding.If they win the bid, you earn money. Every person who now signs up is labeled as an "ACDU" and earns a base amount from 1.00-50.00. More money can be earned through successful purchases on eBay.
NOTE: You must be an eBay member to use creatives like the editors kit ( )
The key to getting this program moving in order to make good money is getting your links out there. All the tools you will ever need is on the website and they help you generate sales with the free tools you get. It is still up to you though to advertise your site and links if you want to see sales. You can generate reports on the website to see how you are doing and payments are made by PayPal monthly. Now, how do you get those sales to get that check from PayPal?
Advertise and advertise your links even more. You can also start a website and put up auctions on it. A good idea is to incorporate them with article information and the click through rates will be much higher. The key with this program is you will need to see what is working for you and what is not. Tracking is something that you will want to keep track of to be sure you are doing well. This way you can see what is working and what is not. The key to this programs success is getting traffic to your links so they will be clicked on. There are many different ways including using blogs, article marketing, websites, and linking with others to just name a few.
This program can make you big money because the eBay name is behind it and it is reorganized by many so the chances of people clicking through is high. In fact, it is rated much higher than it would be if it was another company. Take your time and promote this and you will make some good money. Remember, it takes some time to get this one going, but well worth it in the end.
by Dustin Heath
Optimizing for Google
In today’s online world search engine rankings can make your business succeed, and while rankings in Yahoo and MSN are very valuable, their combined market value is still less than that of Google. This makes achieving top rankings in Google that much more important.
Website optimization.
THE RIGHT KEYWORDS
This article is not about keyword research so I will not spend too much time on this topic, however, I felt it was important to at least brush on this slightly.
Make sure that your targets are achievable. If you select the wrong keywords it can make your entire optimization experience essentially a waste. Choose keywords that are attainable but yet still offer a reasonable search frequency for your industry. Your phrase selection should also be targeted to bring qualified traffic to your site.
Using the hotel industry as an example, targeting the word “hotel” would make very little sense but by narrowing it down to “Victoria BC hotel” you now have less competition, and a more qualified audience. Keep your targets in perspective and go after the obtainable rankings.
WEBSITE OPTIMIZATION
There are many on-site factors that play a role in your search engine rankings. Here are a number of those factors and what you can do to increase your chances of success.
Title Tag
The title tag plays one of the most important roles in search results at Google, and is almost always the heading Google chooses for each of its listings. Placement of your target phrase is best used near the start of the tag and repeated again in the middle or near the end. Three uses of your target phrase may be helpful in some instances, as long as it is not too overwhelming. For best results each page on your site should have a totally unique title tag.
It is also important to remember that because Google will use this title as the main heading for your listing, you will want to keep it attractive to potential searchers. Try to also add a call to action, or other wording to help make your listing appear attractive to searchers.
To help illustrate the fact Google takes this tag into consideration, simply do a search for your target phrase and take a look at the titles of the top 10. I tried a search for a rather broad term “hotel” and saw that all 10/10 listings had it in the title tag, and 6/10 had it as the very first word. A quick scan showed that the entire top 30 either had the word hotel, or hotels in their title tags.
If you do only one thing to your website, make sure that all your title tags are relevant, unique, and contain your target phrase for each page.
Meta Description Tag
The Meta Description tag is still occasionally used by Google as the description which appears in the search results themselves. While this used to be a more common practice Google tends to use it most often on sites with very limited content, or those which are flash based. I have seen it still used for content rich sites, however this is less common.
The Meta Description tag still has an impact on search rankings. Your best bet when using this tag is to keep it short and sweet with your target phrase close to the start and never repeated more than 3 times. Like the title tag, each page on you site should have its own unique description tag.
Meta Keyword Tag
When it comes to Google this tag is useless, and won’t influence your rankings. There is some speculation as to whether a spammy keyword tag can however, have a negative effect on Google rankings. As a result, if you do utilize a keyword Meta tag for the smaller engines, it is best to keep it clean and play it safe.
Density
Keyword density plays a role in overall rankings; however, it is not as cut and dry as it once was. Once upon a time there was a magic number that when used could almost guarantee top rankings.
This is no longer the case. Today the ideal density varies from industry to industry, phrase to phrase. To find out what density you should aim for, take the top 10 or 20 search results and see what percentage those sites are using. In most cases you will find that the majority of these sites have a very similar density to one another, and this average density is a good estimation of what you should aim for.
Body Text and Keyword Placement
The location of relevant text on your site will help establish the overall importance of your target phrase. While you do not want to overwhelm the engines and site visitors with a bombardment of target phrases at the top of the page, try to sprinkle in some instances as close to the top of the page as possible.
Synonyms
Be sure to include various synonyms for your target phrases within your body text on your site. Google will use these synonyms to tie in the overall relevance of the page for your main target phrases, which in turn can improve your odds.
To find possible synonyms you can use a thesaurus, but the best way is to search Google itself and see exactly what they consider to be similar. Simply search in Google for your target phrase preceded with a tilde, such as “~hotels”. Next scan through the search results for any text Google has bolded. These are all words that Google considers to be related. Using the “~hotels” example Google brings up phrases such as ‘travel’, ‘tourism’, ‘accommodation’, as well as various hotel chain names such as ‘Hilton Hotels’.
Keywords in Domain
There is still some speculation if having a target phrase as part of your top level domain (TLD) is of use to search rankings. From my experience, yes, there is value here, although, nothing like it was several years ago.
If you are starting off in the online world and are contemplating which domain to go for, consider one that uses your target phrase, assuming that it is both relevant to your business name, and uses no more than a single hyphen. While multiple hyphens in a domain can be successful, they are very common with highly spammy websites, so it is best to not take that route if possible.
While having a keyword located within your domain can offer some ranking juice, I would not suggest heading out and doing a domain swap. In most cases you would be better off working on your existing site than starting from scratch with a new domain.
Keywords in page specific URL
Using keywords for specific page URL’s can also help add a little bit of value to your site, providing you use them responsibly. Consider using a keyword as a directory name and as part of a file name where it naturally makes sense to do so. If you have a website that focuses on tourism and includes local hotel listings, you may want to consider the following structure for your page on the Hilton:
MyTourismSite.com/Victoria/Accommodations/Hotels/Hilton.html
Heading Tags
Placement of target phrases within heading tags helps to establish the importance of those given phrases. That said do not over do it, or abuse it. Only place target phrases within a heading tag if it makes sense to do so, and don’t flood a page with numerous tags. Heading tags are not as critical as they once were, but still a good contribution to a well optimized page.
Link Anchor text
This is the actual text you click on as part of a link. When full or partial target phrases are used within your text links they help pass on some value to the linked page for those phrases. This is also true when considering surrounding text. When the content around the link is also relevant, the link holds slightly more value.
While a link that simply states “click here” or “www.domainname.com” does have its place, they provide considerably less value than a link that would use “discount hotels” as its anchor.
Image Alt Text
While image alt text still plays a minor role, its biggest part is within the use of image based navigation. If you have an image linked to another page, the alt text will be attributed much the same way as standard link anchor text is.
Image Alt text should always be short and to the point and should accurately describe either the image itself, or the page the image is linking to. Do not use alt tags as a place to stuff keywords.
Inline Links
These are links that are found mid sentence or mid paragraph as opposed to a simple listing of links as found in a menu or possibly on a sitemap. Links found mid paragraph tend to pass on a little more value from the surrounding text and can offer more relevance to the linked page.
Site Navigation
It is absolutely imperative that your website be fully spiderable by the search engines. This may seem obvious, but often webmasters overlook Google’s ability to crawl a website. Google has become very advanced in what links it can follow and how it can spider a website, but there are still some things that can cause significant roadblocks.
- Flash: One of the most commonly made mistakes is the use of flash. If flash is used as a sole means of site navigation then you can count on Google not viewing your internal pages, and having a significant disadvantage in terms of site rankings.
- Java Script / DHTML: These days most Java Script and even DHTML menus can be spidered by Google, however, this is not always the case. If your site utilizes any kind of fancy navigation and you are wondering why Google has not indexed your internal pages, check out Google’s Cached Text version of your page. If you do not see any text links, then your navigation may be invisible to Google.
- Images: Image based navigation has been safe for many years now, but if your site uses this form of navigation it is essential to have brief, relevant alt text on all your buttons. This alt text will act much like standard anchor text for text based links. This is not only for the purpose of search ranking value, but take a look at Google’s cached text version of your page. If you have image based links that do not have alt text, those links do not appear. This doesn’t mean Google won’t follow them, but for anyone viewing your site on a text based browser, your links will be invisible to them.
URL Structure
Avoid long elaborate URL’s with extraneous characters. While Google has reached a point where they can index massive URL strings, it is best to avoid them if at all possible. For dynamic sites consider utilizing mod rewrites to significantly clean up the URL to not only make it more search engine friendly, but more user friendly as well.
MyTourismSite.com/?locid=”victoria”&catid=”accommodations”
&type=”hotel”&comp=”hilton”
stands a better chance if cleaned up to read:
MyTourismSite.com/victoria/accommodations/hotels/hilton.htm
SUMMARY
Basic website optimization is a critical component for successful placement in Google but is only part of the overall picture.
Incoming links as well as using Google Webmaster Tools.
LINKS
Links are very important in today’s Google rankings, but just how many links you need will depend on both the competitiveness of your target phrases, and the quality of the incoming links themselves.
Essentially the number one rule of links is to keep it relevant! Topical relevance is very important in order for inbound links to give your site the most value. If the page that links to you is relevant that is good, if the entire site linking to you is relevant, that is better.
First to get an idea of how many links you may need, take a look at the top 10 ranking sites in Google and record how many links Yahoo is noting for each site. (This is because Google does not display anywhere near all the links they have noted). The average of this count is often a good indication of how many links your site may need.
There are many different ways to get links to your site including the age old reciprocal link trade, directory links, article based links, and links from press releases.
Reciprocal Links
Reciprocal linking has seen its value drop considerably over the past few years, however, if the site you are trading with is relevant you can still receive value from these links.
Paid Links
Google frowns on paid links, however that is not to say that they don’t work. Often you can find highly reputable and relevant websites which are offering paid advertising spots. If these links are coded to link directly to your website without passing through any tracking redirects, you will in many cases see value in the form of both direct traffic and increased link densities and rankings.
Articles
Writing and distributing industry specific articles is a great way to help increase both your link counts and site traffic; for examples of such content see StepForth’s SEO Blog News articles. Consider writing articles on a regular basis and submitting them to some of the more popular services such as EzineArticles. Be sure to include a link to your site from somewhere within the article, or at the very lest within your bio. Try to use a target phrase as part of the anchor text for additional value.
Press Releases
If something of importance has happened to your company such as a new product launch, or other notable achievement - essentially anything news worthy, put out a press release. Submit this press release through services such as PRWeb or PRNewsWire. Again, be sure to include a target phrase as part of the anchor text.
There are also a number of places you can get links that have basically turned south, and are not generally recommended. These include signatures in form posts, guest books, and other typically free links.
Forum Posts
Forum posts can help to marginally increase your link counts; however, with this one you must be careful. Only add a link to your site in your signature if both the forum allows it, and you are a respected member of the forum. If you are a solid contributor and your posts have depth and meaning, and the forum is highly relevant to your site, then having a link in your signature may give your site some juice. Posting wildly to random forms will in most cases get yourself banned, and will be both a waste of time and potentially make you and your site look bad.
Guest Books
In nearly all cases, do not post your link to guest books. If you happen to stumble upon a guestbook that is highly relevant to your site, the other comments are relevant to your site, and you have something useful (and again relevant) to say, then perhaps consider it, but typically focusing on links from guest books is considered SPAM and is best avoided all together.
Blog Comments
Having a link from your blog comments is not necessarily a bad thing. If you find a relevant blog post of use, and have something relevant and constructive to say, don’t be afraid to enter your link into the “URL” field of the form, but don’t try stuffing links into the comment itself.
Link Farms & Bad Neighborhoods
These are sites that allow you to simply post your link no strings attached. They are mostly long scrolling pages with countless links. Stay away from them. If you see one, run in the other direction. These links are bad, will not help with your rankings, and in some cases can actually damage your rankings.
Stay away from sites that cross link with obvious spammers. These networks of SPAM sites are not ones you would want your site associated with, and if you achieve links from enough of these sites it can adversely impact your rankings. Even more important, NEVER link to any of these sites - as that will certainly tie in your connection to them and give Google reason to discount your rankings.
DMOZ, Yahoo and Other Directories
Directory based links can be of significant help, especially if they are from highly reputable directories, the two biggest being DMOZ.org and the Yahoo Directory.
Getting a site into DMOZ is like Gold. Google loves links from DMOZ and your site will reap the benefits. The big catch however is actually getting your site into the directory in the first place. Find the perfect category for your site and check to see if it has an editor. If you see a link “Volunteer to edit this category” try and find another relevant location. Pages without active editors take much longer to get listed into. Once you find the perfect directory submit your site every 4-6 months until listed. If you are lucky you will get in eventually.
Yahoo Directory is seen as an authority in the eyes of Google, and getting your site in will help your link reputation. This link does come at a price of $299 per year, but will play a role in helping your website achieve top rankings.
There are a number of other valuable directories out there that can help you with your search rankings. Before submitting to any directory the key is a combination of relevance and authority. If the directory is relevant and active it may be worth considering.
GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS
Google Webmaster Tools can be very useful for your optimization efforts. It may not directly help you obtain higher rankings, but can help you trouble shoot if you are experiencing problems. It will also allow you to remove URL’s that you don’t want indexed and set various preferences such as your domain, crawl rate, and geographic target.
XML Sitemaps
This is the most common reason people use Google Webmaster Tools - the submission of their XML sitemap. While you can use your robots.txt to have Google find your XML sitemap, by submitting it directly to Google you can check up on the spidering status.
Error checking
Webmaster Tools is also quite useful for checking on various error URL’s that Google may know about. Under the Diagnostics > Web Crawl you can view any errors that Google has to report on your site. By cleaning up any errors you can help increase your chances of rankings.
Links
From inside Google Webmaster Tools you can get a much clearer look at what sites Google is noting as having links to you, and give you a better indication of the need, if any, to increase your link counts.
WWW Preference
Be sure to select your domain preference under Tools > Set Preferred Domain. In nearly all cases you will want to select the version including the “www”
SUMMARY
Inbound links play a significant role in successful Google rankings. By focusing on relevant links, as well as by diversifying where you get those links from, you can build a solid foundation for your search rankings today and into the future.
Completing Optimization: Other Considerations
Redirects
If you need to use redirects on your site it is very important to use the correct one. If a page is moving to a new location, or being removed all together, it is very important to have this page redirected to either the new location or the next closest page using a Permanent 301 Redirect.
While rare, if a page is being moved to a new location for a short term, with the intent of it returning to the original location, then and only then, will you want to use a Temporary 302 redirect. For more information please see Redirects: Permanent 301 vs. Temporary 302
Non WWW Redirects
To help eliminate page rank split, and provide your site with a little extra value, implement a non-www redirect. What this redirect will do is change the URL to include the "www" whenever a URL is accessed that does not include it. This can help to consolidate links to the correct page and give your site some additional strength. For more help on Non WWW redirects please see: How to 301 Redirect Non-WWW to WWW URL's
HTTP Headers
Check your page headers! If you have implemented any form of redirect on your site including mod rewrites, check your HTTP headers. You may be surprised at what you find. Some forms of redirects may use a 302 code where you really want a 301. By checking your headers you can ensure all is well, and troubleshoot problems. On our website we have added our own HTTP Header Checker for your convenience.
Home Page URL
Never have more than one URL for your home page. If your home page is available and displays on more than one URL, then utilize 301 redirects on all but the main URL you want to focus on - in most cases "http://www.xyzname.com/". All your links pointing to the home page should direct to the exact same URL otherwise you will split the value of your home page into multiple duplicate URL's.
Google sees "http://www.xyzname.com" and "http://www.xyzname.com/index.shtml" as different pages, but displaying the same content. This splits the overall value of your home page, and can decrease the chances of rankings. By keeping it consistent with a single URL, you eliminate this split and retain more of the strength.
In theory having your home page split like this could bring with it duplicate content penalties, however, I have yet to see this actually happen - that said, it is best to avoid the risk all together.
XML Sitemap
XML Sitemaps are great for ensuring that Google and the other engines are able to spider your entire site. While an XML sitemap will not directly impact your search rankings it can help as Google is more likely to see any SEO based changes more quickly, which in turn can have an impact.
Robots.txt
This is the first file all search engines look for every time they visit your site. While placing a blank robots.txt file in your root folder will not help with search rankings, it will help reduce 404 errors appearing in your log files.
It is also highly recommended that if your site utilizes an XML sitemap, to include a call to this sitemap within the Robots.txt file. Simply add the following line to ensure that the major engines (including Google) can find your sitemap:
Sitemap: http://www.xyzname.com/sitemap.xml
Potential Blockages
If you are finding that your site is simply not being indexed, it is possible that you are blocking the spiders in one way or another.
Start with checking your main site navigation, if you are using Flash or some other fancy form of navigation that could be your problem right there. Next check your HTTP headers to ensure that your home page is returning a 2xx code which indicates that the clients' request was successfully received. Finally take a look at your Google Webmaster Tools for any noted errors. If you are blocking Google, chances are you will be able to uncover the issue with these steps.
Duplicate Content
Duplicate content can be quite damaging to your rankings. Ensure that all content on your site is unique. Don't steal or "borrow" content from another site, and don't cut and paste large portions of text from one page of your site to the next. By keeping all pages of your site entirely original you stand the best chances of getting a thumbs up from Google.
Fresh Content / Regular Updates
Update your content. In highly competitive markets, sites with old static content can often slip away. Keep your content fresh and updated to keep bringing Google back to your site. If they find new pages and updated pages with every visit, they will come back more often.
Site Age
The age of your site can also have an effect on search engine rankings. While there is little you can do (short of keeping the same domain) to help on this matter, remember that the longer your site is online, the better its chances for success. It pays to select the perfect domain right from the start and not to change domains mid-stream. Older sites that stand the test of time add a level of authority in Google's eyes. New sites seldom see rankings for competitive terms in their first year.
Note: Site Age is determined not by the date the domain was originally registered but rather by the date Google first discovered content on your site.
Load Time
Load time can have an impact in your Google AdWords Quality Score but it is unknown for sure if it can also impact your organic search rankings. It is best to keep your load time to as little as possible. If it is not already a part of the Google Algorithm, it likely will be soon. Besides, it is also best in order to give your site visitors the best experience possible.
Server Up Time
This can be a rather significant issue. If you find that your web hosting company has a history of down time, change hosts. If Google comes to visit your site once and it is down, not to worry, they will come back, but if Google visits your site often only to find that it is unavailable, you can find yourself with drastically depleted rankings.
Google Local
If you have a traditional brick and mortar store, consider submitting to Google Local. While this will not directly impact your regular organic rankings, you may find your site ranking above the organic results with a "local business results" map listing. This tends to be most common when your business is near the geographic center of a city, and when the search phrase uses a geographic modifier.
By Scott Van Achte
Become an Affiliate Marketer with No Cash investment
Ok, what you are about to read is about the closest thing to a “How to make money with no money” affiliate marketing guide as you will find (for free) on the internet. If you are wondering why I am offering this information for free when others are charging $50 and even up to $499 for it, well, first of all I believe there is enough room for all of us to make some affiliate money. Second, I am not going to reveal my personal niche in the article, and third it is not a “get rich quick” method, so most of you will just give up anyways.
So what is this affiliate marketing method? Well, you can call it the “article method” or the “workhorse method” or “review method”. Basically what it is all about is writing article reviews on various products and then posting them on the web with a link to buy. Sounds simple doesn’t it? Well, don’t kid yourself, it’s not. But with hard work and some luck you can easily make $50 to $500 a day with this method within 2 to 3 months.
So how do you do it?
1. Find an product to promote and become an affiliate
This can be an electronic product from Clickbank.com, or a real physical product from cj.com or Linkshare.com. As a general rule of thumb, I like to choose a product I know about that either I would use or I have used. Choosing a product you like will add enthusiasm to your review (whether you realise it or not) and create enthusiasm with the potential buyer.
I also try to choose products with a decent return (50-75% affiliate payout for electronic products, 15-25% affiliate payout for physical products) for my primary campaigns. More on this later …
2. Keyword Research
Brainstorm a list of keywords for your product and check how popular they are in Google. Remember, if you are not in the top 5 in Google then you might as well not be in there at all. Filter your keyword list down to about 15 that you think you could actually be competitive in.
3. Write an Article
Pick one or 2 keywords or phrases from your list and write your article to these keywords with a 4-6% keywords density. Be sure to write 5-6 articles for each product you wish to promote.
4. Submit your article
This is where your primary and secondary products become important. Remember that Google penalizes same content, so you want to make sure that the articles for your “primary” product only go to one article directory, and preferably that is ezinearticles.com, with a secondary option of articledashboard.com (this is just my preference, other affiliate marketers probably have their own).
For products that you consider secondary, either because of a low affiliate payout, or maybe you just aren’t excited enough about the product to really sell it, I would suggest “spamming” articles sites. I would also suggest using software to do this so you don’t waste too much time on your secondary products.
5. Add your affiliate link!
Most sites will allow you one or 2 links in your author bio or in the text of your article however most will frown on direct affiliate links. So if you don’t already have a website, now is the time to get one. The easiest way is to set up a blog on blogger.com (free) and post your article there as well, but with your affiliate links embedded (real or cloaked, it’s up to you).
6. Of course, repeat. Repeat. REPEAT.
You need to do this over and over until you have about 5 articles for each of 10-20 products for which you are an affiliate. Yes, that’s right, you will have to write 50-100 original articles (you can borrow ideas and flow from other web sites and articles, but not words – remember the lectures on plagiarism from High School?). They don’t call this a “Workhorse” affiliate marketing method for nothing.
As you can see it is possible to become a successful affiliate marketer without spending any capital of your own. Of course you will have to invest your own time, but for some people that seems to be an easier initial investment than actual cash money.
Of course if you are serious about affiliate marketing, here are some resources that are well worth the small cash investment:
