Showing posts with label Affiliate Marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Affiliate Marketing. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Free Top Ranking Keywords Report from SEO Link Wheelers

seo link wheelersOver the past few months I’ve been getting back into the game I love, and that’s focusing on building web sites and killer content. As much as I love building web sites, it’s never fun to work on the backlinks and social bookmarks it takes to truly get a web site indexed and getting the search engines to love you. With that said, I’ve been looking at a lot of different solutions for link building and bookmarking management.

I remember when I first paid a few hundred dollars for a company to help with building links and getting my site ranked in the search engines. It was complete crap… I rarely ever hear from them and I don’t recall seeing any results. This was around seven years ago, but it’s just a reminder of how horrible the link building industry can be if you don’t know where to go. With so many to choose from, how are you supposed to know where to go? One of the most trusted solutions around is SEO Link Wheelers, and they are actually heavily promoted and used by ShoeMoney as well.

How SEO Link Wheelers does Link Building

There are many different methods for link building, such as article marketing, social bookmarks, backlinks, using anchor text and forum posting. Trading links with other web sites may seem like a good idea, but one way backlinks is where the link juice really flows. Everyone has a different concept on what works best, but SEO Link Wheelers takes a bit of everything and builds actual “link wheels” to increase backlinks to their customers web sites. In addition to backlinks being spread across article directories, blogs, and web 2.0 directories, SEO Link Builders also creates original content and YouTube videos to build quality backlinks.

SEO Link Wheelers gives you a 100% guarantee that any links they build for your web sites will be Dofollow, all content will be relevant, unique, and created 100% by hand. The video below was created by SEO Link Wheelers to give a better understanding on how their service works, and why it’s important to cover all link methods when building the right link wheel for your web site.

What are Your Target Keywords?

Before even jumping into the SEO and backlinking game, you need to take a look at what your web site is ranking for and how you can improve your results. Head over to SEO Link Wheelers and submit your url into the box on their main page. You will quickly see a report with three of your top ranking searching terms. If you want the full list, just click the “Full Report” link and confirm your email, then you will have free access to a report like the one below.

seo link wheelers

This report is an excellent summary of how your web site is listed and ranking in the search engines. You will see up to 100 keywords and rankings, along with the average CPC, traffic volume and the url of your site that is ranked for that search term. This report is completely free to access. You then have the option to choose a link wheel package to improve your rankings.

Building Your Backlinks and Putting It All Together

Taking everything we’ve covered, SEO Link Wheelers will build a link wheel and campaign just for your web site and the keywords you are looking to rank for. With three different packages available, you can choose from 37 links ($379), 74 links ($479) or 119 links ($664). When you first look at these prices, they may seem high to you, but that is because SEO Link Wheelers is actually building a link wheel with original content just for your web site and backlinks… these aren’t just links thrown around on Twitter, Facebook and dead forums. The value in these links is that they are spread across high content sites with pagerank and original YouTube video is also created. You can see a breakdown of what links are included in each package below.

seo link wheelers

At the very least, I highly recommend you head over to SEO Link Wheelers and grab your free report on what search terms are sending you traffic. If you decide to signup for a backlinks package, be sure to use coupon code “ZACJOHNSON” for 12% off your first order with SEO Link Wheelers.

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Twitter Backgrounds are Branding Machines

I don’t use Twitter as much as I probably should, and I actually use it for more of a blog feed than anything else. No matter how you use Twitter, it’s important to get your name and brand across. With that being said, think about your Twitter account and how many people are visiting your profile page ever day, weekly or even yearly. Even if YOU aren’t actively posting on Twitter, it doesn’t mean that people aren’t visiting your page, so it’s important to leave a lasting impression.

Twitter Backgrounds Leave an Immediate Impression

What’s the first thing you see when you visit someones Twitter page? Most likely it’s their background image. Not only do the backgrounds give us a creative insight on what the person is about, but it’s also a cool way to get your message or web site across. Who are you, what’s your business and how can I learn more about you? These are all different topics that you can use in your background.

Since going live with a new blog design, I thought it would be a good idea to change things up and go with a new Twitter background as well. You can see the new background below, which was designed by DesignPax.com.

twitter backgroundsMy New Favorite Twitter Background – View Full Profile

My first Twitter background had some basic information on myself and where you could visit my blog and social pages. This time around, I just wanted to go for a big branded effort and get “ZacJohnson.com” across to the user.

Excellent Twitter Backgrounds and Resources

What are some of you favorite and most memorable Twitter backgrounds that you’ve come across while scouring around Twitter? Instead of running to Twitter and having to visit all of your followers pages individual, many design blogs have done the work for us. I love looking through galleries of Twitter backgrounds and seeing the creative ideas and designs that people come up with. Below are a few sites that feature some of the best designs we’ve all come across.

twitter backgroundsEffective Twitter Backgrounds: Examples and Current Practices
100+ Incredible Twitter Backgrounds
42 Twitter Backgrounds
40 Cool Twitter Backgrounds
25 of the Best Designed Twitter Homepages

If you don’t have your own unique Twitter background, you should! It’s free branding that may be getting seen by hundreds, if not thousands of people daily. Get creative and design your own Twitter background, or find someone that specializes in design work, like I did with DesignPax.com.

What’s the inspiration for your Twitter background, or some of the favorite designs you’ve come across?

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Monday, February 14, 2011

Writing Content Rich Articles with Powerful Anchor Text

Every business has a customer base. And the job of writing web content for this customer base is often a daunting task, particularly if the business is a specialty or niche business. Who are the customers and what are they looking for? What do they want to spend? How do they want to acquire the product or service? Do they want to buy online or simply just do research? These are just a few of the questions web marketers need to ask before diving into content creation.

Niche business web content should shoot to answer those questions or cater to revealing the answers, all while influencing the reader with a call to action (“Buy this product, use this service!”) Doing research on who will be visiting the site, who might potentially end up there by accident, and what their needs and wants are can help direct the content strategy.

Intermix Useful Advice with Your Own Backlinks

A very effective way to create content for a niche business is to build a value-added blog, intermixing useful tips and advice with links back to the store or website. For example, an office furniture company may post a useful “3 Tips for Buying File Cabinets” article to their blog, then hyperlink popular search phrases like “fireproof filing cabinets,” “office storage,” or “lateral files” to the products they have to offer. The reader clicks on these terms, is brought to the business’ website, and, once there, hopefully looks around, working through the different categories of product offerings, whether they realize they need those items or not. The results can be a new customer, new referral or, at the very least, increased traffic to the business’ site.

As with any website, using key words and search terms in product category headers is key as well. In the instance of a furniture company, using the generic term “chairs” would not be as effective as using “office chairs,” “ergonomic chairs,” or “used office chairs.” Being as descriptive as possible without narrowing the term to the point of being non- searchable is important. It’s a balancing act, and becomes easier with experience.

Think Like a Customer When Writing Your Content

While writing targeted copy can seem perplexing and confusing, it’s really not difficult. Remember to keep the potential customers’ needs in mind, consider what and how they might be thinking and develop useful content around those ideas. Pepper your content with links to the business’ website or products, and strive write “notice-me” content that will get plenty of social media attention. This strategy is sure to help increase site visits…and hopefully business!

This guest post was written by Liberty Kontranowski, a freelance writer with hundreds of articles published online and in print. She regularly writes content for a business which specializes in cubicles and discount office cubicles.

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Thursday, February 3, 2011

Massive Growth at HostGator is Exciting to Watch

hostgatorIt’s always great to see awesome companies online succeed, especially ones that you have been working with for many years. The funny thing about online companies, is that they really don’t need to do “real world advertising”, since they can do it so cost effectively and well online. An extremely well known hosting company in the internet marketing space is HostGator, and not only do they host a great majority of affiliate related sites, but they also make affiliates a massive amount of money as well! Over $400,000 is paid out to Host Gator affiliates every month! How sick is that!?

Host Gator just sent out one of their monthly mailing and it had some pretty exciting highlights for the company, which saw explosive growth in 2010. Here are just a few of their company highlights.

HostGator in the News

In 2010, HostGator grew by over 2 MILLION domains! At the beginning of 2010, the company had 2.9 million domains, and are now at nearly 5 million domains. The company has also expanded to over 500 employees, along with 64 new reps to handle customer support. But even more fun and exciting is how HostGator is making a big name for themselves in the offline world… look out GoDaddy, here comes HostGator!

hostgator

The latest additions to the HostGator branding and marketing campaigns include billboards, a real NASCAR sponsorship and even being seen in an EA Sports UFC video game. Will we soon see a new celebrity sponsor for HostGator next? HostGator doesn’t just spend mad cash on ad campaigns… they’ve also donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross Haiti Relief and Development Fund.

I’m glad to see HostGator doing so well. Not only do they host millions of web sites, but they have also made a ton of affiliates a TON of money over the years with their amazingly successful affiliate program, which is available through their in-house affiliate program and through Commission Junction.

HostGator Web Hosting Solutions – Save 20%

I have a few servers with HostGator and you should too! Web hosting plans start as low as $4.95 a month. Another excellent perk of hosting with HostGator is they have one click install software for many applications and programs like WordPress. If you are setting up a ton of mini sites or completely clueless when it comes to installing software, HostGator makes this extremely easy to setup. Use coupon code ZACJOHNSON to get your first month of only for only 1 penny!

Setup Your HostGator Account Now.

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Thursday, January 27, 2011

How Will I Know if my Idea will be Profitable?

It is a great question, and one that many people starting companies forget to ask. After all, it doesn’t do you any good to sell a lot of units, or provide a wonderful service, if you lose money every time you do. That approach is, as they say, “not a sustainable business model.

Having asked the question, the short answer is this: You can’t know with absolute certainty, before you begin.

The longer answer is while there is no guarantee, you certainly can take two steps to minimize your risks.

How?  By acting as the most successful entrepreneurs do.

If all you did was read the popular press, you would think that serial entrepreneurs, that is those people who have started two or more successful companies, love risk.  They swing for the fences at all times.

Nothing can be further from the truth. They are extremely risk adverse.

So, to make sure they don’t over-extend themselves, invariably:

1. They take small steps in the direction they want to go. They don’t make huge leaps.  (And after they take that small step, they always pause to review what they have learned to make sure the next small step they take is a smart one.

2. They always bring along like-minded potential partners. Not only does this allow them to move faster, it spreads the risk.

Neither of these moves, of course, guarantees success. (Nothing can.) But should things not go as planned, you have minimized your risk which will allow you to try again.

This guest post was written by Len Schlesinger is President of Babson College, and formerly served as Chief Operating Officer for Limited Brands. With his new book, Action Trumps Everything, you can learn more about how to act like an entrepreneur, as well as how to use a new entrepreneurial formula called CreAction to work for your goals. Please visit www.actiontrumpseverything.com for a free copy of the book.

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Sunday, November 28, 2010

U.S. Government Seizes Multiple Domain Names and Sites

Quite some interesting news spreading around the internet today about the government and Homeland Security seizing and shutdown a large amount of domains around the web. “The Hill” has the full articles, which states the following:

The investigative arm of the Homeland Security Department appears to be shutting down websites that facilitate copyright infringement.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has seized dozens of domain names over the past few days, according to TorrentFreak.

ICE appears to be targeting sites that help Internet users download copyrighted music, as well as sites that sell bootleg goods, such as fake designer handbags.

The sites are replaced with a note from the government: “This domain named has been seized by ICE, Homeland Security Investigations.”

For instance, 2009jersey.com, 51607.com, and amoyhy.com have each been seized.

TorrentFreak has another article about the domain seizing and also has a large list of “infringing sites” and domains that are no longer in possession of their original owners. The article includes the following recap:

“Following on the heels of this week’s domain seizure of a large hiphop file-sharing links forum, it’s clear today that the U.S. Government has been very busy. Without any need for COICA, ICE has just seized the domain of a BitTorrent meta-search engine along with those belonging to other music linking sites and several others which appear to be connected to physical counterfeit goods.”

Stay tuned as more information on ICE, site infringements and domain names that have been seized all continue to be released…

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Thursday, November 18, 2010

Adsense Ready Wordpress Themes

Mention Google Adsense to anyone that is making decent money online, and they will probably have something negative to say about it. It’s true… Adsense doesn’t get the love it deserves. As much as everyone loves to hate on the thought of running Google Adsense on their site and losing site visitors for pennies, Google Adsense did help pave the way to online advertising and affiliate marketing. It’s also safe to say, Google Adsense is the “easiest” way to make money with a web site.

Not only is Google Adsense the easiest way for anyone to make money with an established web site, but it’s also become a huge favorite in the blogging space. The thing about blogging, is so many people are blogging simply to blog, not many people are blogging for money or know how to make money. It’s easy enough for a blogger to copy and paste a code and maybe make a few bucks with Google Adsense.

One the other hand, making blogs that are strictly used for building tight niche sites and monetizing them with Google Adsense is another issue. There are literally billions of different tight niche sites that you could build a mini blog about and make a few dollars a day to a few hundred dollars a day (using Google Adsense) if you get indexed into Google, have decent content and the necessary backlinks.

Whether you are just looking for a new blog theme and would like to try out Google Adsense, or you want to take a stab at the mini blog / Google Adsense game, I’ve compiled a list of the top Adsense Ready Wordpress Themes available around the web. All of the themes I have listed here are free to download, and I’ve also listed a few other useful resource sites at the bottom.

Golod Adsense Ready Theme:
A 3 column AdSense ready theme, which leaves a lot of room for customization and improvement with it’s header, social widgets and right/left columns.

Live Demo | Download | Template Home

Prosense Adsense Ready Theme:
A very simplistic 3 column AdSense ready theme that comes in three different colors. Easy user navigation and not forcing Adsense down the user’s throat, makes this a good choice among other Adsense ready themes.

ProSense | Download Prosense | ProSense Gray | ProSense Blue

Blueiz Adsense Ready Theme:
A simple design with a 2-3 column layout, but the proper ad placement and content, it won’t look like your typical bland Adsense ready theme.

Live Demo | Download

Monetizing the Web Adsense Ready Theme:
A very clean design which blends content and Adsense nicely. Leaderboard, skyscraper, regular banner ads and and content area Adsense spot all availalbe with this theme.

Live Demo | Download | Template Home

SEOMaxAds Adsense Ready Theme:
This theme pack comes with 16 different themes for Google Adsense monetization. From the screen shot below you can clearly see how monetized the site is for Adsense placement as it’s right in the users face.

Live Demo | Download

Other Adsense Ready Wordpress Theme Sources

42 Adsense Ready Wordpress Themes Optimized For Monetization

18 Adsense Optimized Wordpress Themes to Maximize your Contextual Ad Earnings

The Ultimate List Of Adsense Ready WordPress Themes

There is actually a large amount of Adsense Ready wordpress themes out there, but the few I selected have the best layouts and color schemes. If you know how to code a bit, you can easily download any of these themes and throw together a decent looking blog, but keeping the same Google Adsense concept in mind.

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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

How to Create a Memorable Business Card

After you leave a conference or meet with anyone that might lead to future business, your business card is the gateway for future contact and how you will be remembered. It’s important to have an exciting, professional and creative business card. The majority of business cards that are collected after a conference are thrown into a box and never looked at again. However, if you make a killer business card, you and your business are that much more likely to be remembered. Here are a few ideas and notes to remember for your next business card design.

1.) Use Your Real Picture or Memorable Logo
Personally, I have the big Zac Johnson cartoon guy on all of my business cards. It’s actually become quite a recognizable logo/symbol over the years. For anyone that doesn’t have a memorable mascot or logo, I would highly recommend adding your picture to your business card. I know when I come back from a conference and look over my business cards, I will see a few and remember the name, but not the face to go with it. Having your face on your business card makes it impossible for anyone to forget who you are!

2.) Add Social Networking Links
No longer is it about adding your full company mailing address, but instead what your social networking links and tags are. It’s becoming a must to your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn urls. My favorite method of online contact is through AIM and EMAIL, so don’t forget those as well.

3.) What’s On Your Back?
Having a solid white background on your business card is just plain and lazy. Why pass up on the opportunity to grab even more attention and creativity to your business. Over the years I’ve used the back of my business cards to show different site properties that I own. I’ve also seen other business cards have calendars, fun designs, funny athlete stats and note pad lines. Add anything you like, and don’t be scared to get creative… do something original and get even more attention for yourself and your brand.

4.) Size Matters
When you are collecting business cards at a conference, you may find that your little stack of business cards aren’t stacking so perfectly. This is because people are getting more creative with their business cards and making them in a wide variation of sizes. Sure, it’s plenty annoying when you are trying to stack all of your collected cards, but they definitely stand out from the rest and grab your attention.

5.) Paper, Plastic… Metal!
You can simple, creative or very plan with your card design, but one of the best ways to get noticed is to have high quality business cards made out of metal or plastic. These cards can run a few dollars each, but will leave a lasting impression that will make others want to show your cards to their friends. If cost is an issue for you, only hand out these premium type of cards to your best potential contacts, and hand out your regular cards to everyone else.

Whether you are designing your next business cards, brochures, company flyers or anything, make sure that you take the time to make your work stand out and be more than just another business card tossed into a box after an event.

Feel free to share your business card design in the comments section, or talk about some of the coolest business card designs you’ve received over the years.

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Thursday, October 14, 2010

Staying Motivated While Running Your Own Business

Working online, especially on your own is a job in itself when it comes to staying motivated and going in the right direction. So much so that recently procrastination has played a huge role in my day to day schedule. I’ve had a short break from affiliate marketing whilst working on something else, now that’s in the beta stages I want to pick up where I left off getting various campaign ideas off the ground.

That’s the first problem, I have so many ideas I want to actually do I never seem to move forward. I’m a big fan of a notepad and sticky notes, if you could see my desk you would have to wade through paper just to get to the keyboard to begin work. Don’t get me wrong you should write down all of your ideas down so that you can keep on working fluently but the main issue I’m having is starting a campaign and then having a ‘aha’ moment for another that probably would do better – instead of sticking to the half complete campaign I just switch to the next. Before you know it your still making no income and never given yourself the chance to.

A solution I’ve just started using which is working (and simple) is to write each idea down on paper as a to-do list – pick one and just grind until it’s complete and up and running but put the list out of sight in a draw or wherever until you are ready to get onto the next thing. Often when you have completed something you will have to wait for it to get approved on whatever traffic source you have chosen so you can begin on the next to save just sitting at your computer doing nothing. I guess my problem was the fact I could constantly see it on my desk so I was never 100% focused on the task I was working on.

Everybody’s different so you will have to find the balance between having too much on your plate and just sitting around doing nothing. I’ve yet to find the perfect number out myself as I’m concentrating on PPV a little more so I can bang campaigns up fairly quickly depending on how I’m approaching it and should be able to manage a fair few at the same time.

When it comes to motivation you have to find what makes you tick, whether it’s to quit your 9-5, get a new car or just pay off your mortgage each month. Be sure to write down your goals and have them visible for a constant reminder. I’ve only just been able to say no to my mates when they want to go for a game of pool or have a drink – I’ve got my mind set and I’m not stopping until I reach it.

I highly recommend taking frequent breaks, even if it’s just to read a blog or something to take your mind off what you’re working on briefly. It gets to a point where all I think about is work, even when I’m done for the day and trying to get to sleep. I often find myself jumping out of bed to jot some notes down for the morning – keep a notepad close by at all times you never know when you will have a burst of inspiration.

What are some of your methods for staying motivated and not getting lost in new ideas and unfinished tasks?

This guest post was written by Richard Bonner, a successful affiliate marketer and blogger at RichardBonner.net.

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Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Keyword Winner – Targeted Keyword at Your Fingertips

We already know that blogs are a winning formula for any business, but you can’t simply expect to throw a blog up there and hope for success. Instead, you need to focus on producing quality content, then leveraging social media, seo and wordpress plugins to make that magic happen. A new wordpress plugin called Keyword Winner will soon be released from my friend and fellow blogger Daniel Lew.

What Can Keyword Winner Do For You?

The end goal of this wordpress plugin, is to get you more traffic and better rankings in the search engines. How is does this, is by helping you with writing your blog post titles and other key points to getting that extra edge in the search engines.

With so many of us focusing on paid advertising, it’s always important to never forget about the BILLIONS of free targeted traffic that is out there every day in organic search results. Keyword Winner can help you get there.

While the product hasn’t officially launched for sale yet, many beta testers and bloggers are seeing the first results of what Keyword Winner can do. To give a better idea on what Keyword Winner can do for you, check out this promo video.

Make Money with Keyword Winner

Right now Daniel Lew is doing an amazing job of getting pre-launch promotion for his Keyword Winner wordpress plugin, and he’s still looking for more! The launch is going to be big and many people will be ready to buy when it becomes available. This leave a big window of opportunity open for you to cash in. Join the Keyword Winner JV program and you will earn 50% commissions on top of a bunch of bonus prizes.

Be sure to check it out and sign up to the mailing list where Daniel will show you how others are already creating review sites and getting ready to cash in at launch time.

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What’s the Best Way to Contact You?

Last week I was speaking at the Performance Marketing Expo and one of the questions for the panel was “What’s the best way to get in contact with you?” and another was “How do I get the attention of big affiliate marketers to promote my products?“. I thought both of these were good questions and wanted to expand on this subject through the blog post.

Here’s my response and how I would answer the questions.

“What’s the best way to get in contact with you?

Honestly… if you aren’t using email or AIM instant messenger, you probably won’t get in touch with me. I rarely ever answer my cell if it’s an unknown number. If you send me a text, I’ll get right back to you. For me it’s just so much easier to reply by email, instant messenger or text than having to get into a full conversation over the phone. Many people are phone people and love to talk… but I’m not one of them. This seems to be a growing trend among many affiliate marketers.

“How do I get the attention of big affiliate marketers to promote my products?”

This is an interesting question and can be broken down into two parts; how to entice big affiliates, and how to get their attention. Many affiliate manager just don’t get how the affiliate world works. New affiliate manager will expect all affiliates to want to join and promote their program, but it’s anything further from truth. If you are going to want super affiliates and high volume web sites promoting your web site, you need to cater to them. This means building custom landing pages, branded web sites, higher commissions or anything else the affiliate / site needs to deliver leads. After all, that big affiliate or web site that you are desperately trying to get to promote your web site… they probably have a good idea what works and what does. For big time affiliates and web sites, it almost always comes down to what makes money and what doesn’t.

Now let’s talk about how to get big marketers and web sites attention. How many emails do you get every with a new network or affiliate program saying “we have the best offers and highest payout!”… I get a ton, and I know you do too. These are the types of emails that just go unread and unnoticed. You will get no where with template based emails sent out at random and hope for success. Instead, take some time to send a formal email and make it exclusive and worth the time to read. Another great way to grab the attention of a big marketer, is to find something they are interested in, and just send them a gift. Yea… it may sound like a bribe, but it works! If someone sends me a new iPad, a gift card or even just something simple cheap and simple, but is focused on something I’m interested in… you got my attention. It’s the time and details others put in, that gets my attention.

So…What’s the Best Way to Contact You?

That was my take on how I’ve conducted business and contact with thousands of people over the years. Other people love the phone and never want to respond to email or text messages, then there are others who are the complete opposite. No way is right or wrong, and it’s all based on preference. The end results is what is driving results for you and your business.

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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Performance Marketing Expo Recap

Today was the first day of the Performance Marketing Expo event in Miami, Florida. Last night I arrived with a bunch of other speakers and friends, like John Chow, Ian Fernando and Eric Schechter to mention a few. PMA sponsored a nice dinner for all of the speakers at a classy restaurant. It was great for all of us to meet up again… especially since we were all just together last week at ThinkTank in Del Mar, CA!

As for the event, it was smaller than most affiliate conferences, with around 80 attendees, but these are the smaller types of conferences I enjoy. Instead of getting lost in a sea of hundreds of attendees, you actually can meet up with everyone at the event and meet some new people. If Performance Marketing Expo decides to hold another event next year, I’m sure it will at least double in size, as inaugural events usually start off slow, then grow a decent amount in the following years.

The day kicked off with a keynote from Michael Tchong of UberCool, who is an excellent speaker. I first saw Michael Chong speak a decade ago at CJU 2000! At that time, Tchong was actually the first keynote I ever saw, since CJU 2000 was my first conference, and he always stood out as one of my favorite and best speakers. It was great to see Michael still has it, as he delivered an excellent session on how social networking and technology is changing the world we live in.

Next we had Stephanie Nelson from CouponMom, who delivered a more personal session and told her story of how she went from building a small site about how to clip coupons, save money and help provide food for food drives and shelters, to building the massive web site CouponMom.com is today. Stephanie also has quite the list of television appearances, with 17 appearances on Good Morning America and even Oprah. Oh yea… did I mention all of this was accomplished by Stephanie while being a stay at home mom? This was a great story and Stephanie did a great job delivering it to the audience.

After lunch was the keynote panel “Getting on the Affiliate Fast Track“, which included Eddie Alberty, Matthew Cherif, Greg Brynes and myself. This session also went very well. We actually couldn’t fit everything we wanted to talk about into the one hour session, but a lot of content and Q&A was covered. Main discussions were on coupon advertising, market / customer trends and Facebook advertising. John Chow did a good job of blogging the session while it was going on.

The last session I made it to was “If You Build It, They Will Come: How I Lost $500,000” with Sherry Comes of CoffeeCakes.com. The title sounds awesome enough, and the session was packed with the full story. In short, back in 1995 Sherry had the idea for an internet cafe and spent around half a million dollars building and implementing her idea. With many problems, such as hiring and dealing with staff, the world not really being ready for the internet yet, and not enough market research… the business failed. Sherry then took her idea online and is now killing it with CoffeeCakes.com. I talked with Sherry a bit on how she can improve her existing web site and hit even better number by adding her own affiliate program. I’m looking forward to hearing back from Sherry and how much her business grows after having an army of affiliates pushing traffic ans sales to her site.

I’m heading back home in the morning, but it was great to attend the first Performance Marketing Expo event and I look forward to seeing what they have in store for next year. Photo credits to John Chow, and Thank you PME for the invite!

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Friday, September 17, 2010

Interview: Justin Goff

Justin Goff runs 31DayFatLossCure.com, which is a fitness/fat loss product that helps people to lose belly fat (here’s affiliate info). He’s also one of the highest paid copywriters when it comes to sales letters & video scripts for the fitness & internet marketing niches...

Tell us a little background info about yourself. Where are you from? How old are you? How long have you been working in this industry?
I grew up in a very small town in Ohio - after graduating from high school I went to Ohio State, where I majored in Sport & Leisure studies (real tough major ;) . I actually got started with affiliate marketing in college to pay off some gambling debts that I got myself into. I'm currently 26, and this has been my career ever since...

What accomplishments so far are you the most proud of?
I’ve busted my ass for the last year to become a good copywriter and that’s really paid off lately. I’ve written copy for some of the biggest internet marketing product launches, and also copy for the sales video for our own product which I’ve actually gotten some kudos from the big A-list copywriters for....

I’ve spent tons and tons of hours learning how to write copy and I feel like it’s all coming together for me now...

How did you come to learn about this industry? Why did you choose this career? When did you first realize the full potential in affiliate marketing? When did you first “hit the big time?”
I used to be a big sports bettor in college, and I was really good at it. I wouldn’t bet much, but I would win like $5k for a college football season, and that would be enough money to keep me from having to get a real job in college.

One of the seasons though, I got in over my head, went on a little bender and ended up owing some shady people over $3,000. At the time, I didn’t have the money. I ended up getting a job as a valet to pay it back - and then I also made a website where I decided to sell my football picks. The site was ugly as HELL, but I made like $1,000 that first year and I was absolutely hooked.

From there, I went on to dabble as a poker/gambling affiliate. I did that for a few years and learned a ton about SEO. Since then I’ve sold most of that stuff off, and now I focus solely on the 31 Day Fat Loss Cure site....

What do you think it takes to be successful as an affiliate?
1. The right mindset
2. The willingness to see failure as a learning experience
3. The willingness to find a mentor
4. A deep understanding of what influences people
5. Discipline

What have been your biggest failures and frustrations?
I had a lot of bad “mental blocks” when it came to making money when I first started.

Growing up in a small town in a middle class family I always thought that $50k was a ton of money to make in a year...

That kind of thinking really held me back in a lot of ways. I would make a bunch of money with something but when it came to leveraging that and making even more money, I would always put my foot on the brake and sabotage myself.

I read Dan Kennedy’s Wealth Attraction For Entrepreneur’s book and within about 2 months my income went wayyyy up. Dan’s been one of the biggest influences on my business and this book really helped me get over a lot of mental blocks that I had that were preventing me from making money (I highly recommend this book to all entrepreneurs)

What is the single toughest problem you've had to face, and how did you get through it?
Honestly one of the hardest things I’ve had to deal with are going through a break up. I’m sure I’ll catch shit for saying that in the comments, but it’s true. When you work from your house and you don’t interact with co workers throughout the day, going through something tough like a break up, or a death in your family is 2x as hard.

I think a lot of entrepreneurs are constantly thinking about their business so we mostly live “in our heads”. And when you live like this, you don’t have the same outlets that most people have with a typical office setting...

Is there anything that you don’t like to do, that you just hate working on?
Honestly I hate writing copy. I’m really damn good at it, and I get paid a boatload of money to do it for clients, but I just don’t really like to do it. Just the thought of writing for 5 straight days makes me tense up.

That’s why I'm pretty picky about who I take on as a client. I probably get 3-4 proposals a week from people who want me to write a sales letter/video for them but I only take on the projects I really want to do...

I really like to play around more with the testing side of things once the copy is done. That’s when it gets fun for me...

If it’s possible for you to share, are there any particular niches that you currently favor? Or that you aren’t necessarily in right now but that you would recommend?
All I do is the fitness/fat loss niche right now. I’m pretty much just focused on promoting our product and helping our affiliates to promote our product so that I can build a real, sustainable business.

But being in this niche, I do know there are a lot of opportunities...

Here’s one that I think is going to blow up...

- Gluten free diets

If you’re not familiar with it, gluten is a protein found in foods like wheat, barley, oats etc...

A lot of people are intolerant to it, and millions more are intolerant to it and they don’t even know about it. It’s catching on with a lot of people, and the Hollywood crowd is beginning to notice it as well. It’s probably a smaller niche now, but easily something that you could build a product and make 6 figures a year with.

As we get more and more health conscious, more people will start to learn about it and it’s going to be the next big “diet craze” in this country...

What niche has worked best for you?
I used to be in the poker/gambling niche and did really well in that. A lot of my friends are still in that niche and they’re all raking in the dough.

Anyways, poker/gambling and then fat loss are the only 2 I've ever really done any serious work with...

Which methods of promotion do you favor?
I used to be a big SEO & blogging guy, but I've fallen in love with paid traffic. I'm just getting my bearings with paid traffic since I could never use it back when I did poker stuff. But I’m doing a lot with Facebook, POF and some smaller media buys...

If anyone wants to coach me with media buys I’d be forever grateful to you ;)

What have you been up to recently? What projects are you working on?
Mostly recruiting affiliates for our product, and then working on dialing in our upsells so that we can make more money off each sale. We’ve seen a big increase in the value of our customers from testing our upsell process.

What are your greatest strengths?
I understand what influences people and I truly understand the fat loss market. I’m pretty relentless when it comes to learning new things, so you’ll always catch me reading 1-2 books on advertising, and then I’m always learning new things from the guys in my mastermind group as well.

If you want to be successful you have to keep learning from other people...

What are your greatest weaknesses?
Getting complacent. I always have to remind myself to not settle when stuff starts going well. This was a big problem for me back when I had a lot of the mental blocks about money. I would let off the gas before things got really good and just try and stay in my comfort zone. I've learned to recognize that now, and I understand that I need to keep pushing when I get to that point...

What motivates you?
Hitting my goals. I’m nowhere near where I want to be financially, but I make sure I remind myself everyday about what my goals are and what I need to do today to get closer to them.

What is the best advice you’ve been given and try to apply to your life?
The day I realized that I was solely responsible for everything (good or bad) that happened in my life was a big day and a big shift in my mindset for me.

I used to have a victim mentality when it came to a lot of things - so once I got over that and figured out that I was solely responsible for all of my success, I really started to see a big difference in how I looked at everything.

As human beings, whenever we don’t reach a goal or we aren’t satisfied with where we are in life, we always rationalize it to ourselves and put the blame on something outside of ourselves. Sometimes we even say it’s our own fault, but deep down there’s a rationalization that we let ourselves use.

It’s this kind of thinking that allows us to rationalize our existence when we’re not living up to our potential.

Understanding that was probably the biggest change in my life...

Who has impacted you most in your career, and how?
Dan Kennedy and Shoemoney - I've read almost all of Dan’s books, and I get so much out of every book & seminar I listen to of his. You can pick them up on Amazon for like $12 each, and they are just filled with useful business knowledge.

And then Shoemoney has been a massive help ever since I met him 2 years ago at Elite Retreat. He’s one of the most helpful people I know, and he’ll do anything for people that he actually knows and cares about... Just getting to know him and helping him out has opened a lot of doors for me...

What kinds of people do you have difficulties working with? Any good stories?
I'm a terrible employee. I really am. If you were to ask any of my former bosses back when I had a job in high school, they would probably all tell you I wasn't cut out for being an employee, haha...

What are some of your long-term goals? How much is enough? If money was no object, what would you be doing?
Honestly, I love what I do. I wake up on Saturdays and Sundays and have to force myself to not get on the computer and work. Even if I had 50 million in the bank, I would still be doing stuff like this...

How do you like to spend your free time? What does work-life balance mean to you?
Working out, boxing, being on the lake. I'm a pretty simple guy. Anything to do with sports or the outdoors is where I like to be...

I also spend a lot of time with my dogs... I usually take them to the park or for a long walk everyday. They hang out in my office with me so making sure they are worn out is always a priority when I have work to do...

If you could go back to being 18, what different career choices would you make?
Start with building my business sooner - and also stick with 1 business until it was successful. I fell into the trap of jumping from niche to niche for a while before I really settled on the fitness niche.

Once you have a plan, just stick with it until it works. Most people don’t need more information or the “newest thing” to get started. All of that is useful as you have a business is growing, but just get started with 1 or 2 things and make those successful.

Do you have a Twitter account or Facebook “Like” page?
facebook.com/justingoff is my personal one. I have a Twitter, but don't use it anymore...

Ending
I personally work with our affiliates for the 31 Day Fat Loss Cure - if you’re interested in promoting a legit product with high conversions, and no shady rebills then get a hold of me. You can check out the affiliate page on our site here....
- Justin Goff

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Split Testing Your Landing Pages

It doesn’t matter if you are promoting your own product, an affiliate offer or event a contest… the bottom line is, you need a killer landing page! You can send the best and most targeted traffic in the world to your site, but if it’s not designed properly, how much business are you losing? That is why you MUST split test your landing pages.

I’m currently using a service called Conversion Doubler for split testing tracking on my Six Figure Affiliate Blogging opt in pages. I’m going to start setting up a few ad campaigns on the major search engines and through social networking, so it’s important to have a good idea what’s working and what’s not. Here are the three landing pages I will be split testing with.


(Landing Page 1)                                     (Landing Page 2)                                    (Landing Page 3)

I haven’t done any split testing yet on these landing pages, so I’m anxious to see how they compare. I have a good idea which will convert best, but I will also let you decide. Leave a comment on which landing page you think will convert best and I will follow up with actual split test results.

How to Setup Your Own Split Testing

In this series of split testing, I’m going to be using Conversion Doubler, which is an amazing took for split testing A/B Multivariate solutions. Since my Six Figure Affiliate Blogging landing pages are more image based than text, I’m truly not putting the full power of Conversion Doubler to use, so I will show you want I mean.

Instead of dealing with the hassle of running an ad campaign, sending traffic to your landing page, then repeating the process after changing an area to see if it helps your conversions, Conversion Doubler let’s you start your campaigns while testing different text and changes in the beginning. In short, let’s pretend I want to split test ZacJohnson.com’s blog and how I can increase conversions to the newsletter subscribe on the right side of the page. When I log in to Conversion Double, I would setup a new experiment and after listing my site, it will show the actual landing page and you can hover and click on any area you would like to split test. You can see in the preview below how the ad copy in the newsletter section is highlighted with a blue dotted line, you can hover and select any area of your site to split test within the Conversion Doubler admin.

This probably sounds complicating to some of you, and that’s understandable… it’s much easier to learn from a visual standpoint. Fortunately Conversion Doubler took the time to create a short video on the step by step process for split testing your landing pages.

This is a really amazing split testing service Conversion Doubler has to offer, and definitely one of the best I’ve seen. They actually make it so easy to split test, that I will write up a few landing page split testing case studies over the next couple of weeks. I will also be following up next week with the results of the Six Figure Affiliate Blogging landing page split test. Be sure to leave your guess at which landing page will convert best.

Setup a free account at Conversion Doubler and see how you can double your conversions.

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Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Earn Cash on Auto-Pilot With WP-Answers

How many times have you asked a search engine like Yahoo or Google a question, then you find yourself at a site like Answers.Yahoo.com where someone is asking that same exact question? It happens quite often, and it’s actually been extremely profitable for companies like Yahoo to run these types of sites. Not only are they actual content generating sites from their users, but they also provide a huge value to anyone searching for a topic, then ends up on their site.

Wouldn’t it be cool to have a type of Yahoo Answers site of your own? Now you can with a new wordpress plugin called WP Answers. I first received an email from Oliver, the creator of WP Answers last month. Oliver wanted to show me his new wordpress plugin, how it worked and the amount of traffic and revenue this plugin can actually generate. I loved the idea of the plugin and how powerful it could be in tiny niche markets, or even used to build out a large questions and answers type of site.

You can see a live working version of the theme at the WP Answers Demo. While at first the theme may look very clean and basic, the plugin does allow for a lot of customization and features, includes 6 premium themes, which are loaded with widgets that allow you to play around with logo, header and ad spot customization.

The real meat and power of running a questions/answers site with WP Answers, is it’s ability to grow over time, increase user activity and index very well in the search engines. Build up your own database of users and site loyalty by having visitors register and ask questions. The person who created the question can then award points to the person with the best answer.

GROWING YOUR SITE ON AUTO-PILOT

If you don’t have the time to build up your own site and rely on site visitors for Q&A submissions, you can also pull questions straight from Yahoo Answers using their API. All questions and answers are posted on your site, so it can look like you have a full content and busy site. There is no limit to the amount of search terms you can target, and when posting through Yahoo Answers, your content can be updated hourly, daily or whenever you like.

MONETIZATION AND TRAFFIC

Whether you are going to focus on generating your own traffic and Q&A submissions, you are eventually going to want to make a profit with your site. Outside of selling your 125×125 ad spots on the site, you can also place Google Adsense strategically through out the site. Since your site content is all about detailed questions and topic, all of your ads should be relevant to your visiting traffic.

Building a site around questions and answers is also great for search engine traffic. Every day millions of people are flocking to search engines to answer their every day questions about pretty much anything. How many of these questions could be syncing up with your own Q&A site? The bottom line is, WP Answers will drastically help send traffic to your site. You can see a stats chart from one of Dale’s site’s which is doing extremely well using WP Answers, and his growth from search engine traffic.

Another method for generating revenue, is through the WP Answers affiliate program, where you earn 35% of all sales, which can be up to $87 per sale.

20% DISCOUNT COUPON CODE

WP Answers is a quality product and I look forward to playing around with it more on a few sites of mine. Oliver was also kind enough to offer ZacJohnson.com readers an exclusive coupon to save 20% off your purchase. The current price for WP Answers ranges from $80 to $249 depending on your license purchase, so a 20% discount will definitely help. Use coupon code “ZACJOHNSON567” at the time of check out.

WP Answers

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Saturday, September 4, 2010

Affiliate Marketing Blogs Get a Redesign

There’s nothing like a new custom wordpress theme to shake things up and get you motivated! I’m crazy about having a custom theme for my established blogs, it’s the best way to show you mean business and stand out from the crowd. With that said, I noticed two of my favorite affiliate marketing blogs recently had their own blogs completed redesigned. Let’s take a look!

JonathanVolk.com

The new theme over at JonathanVolk.com has added a lot more features, content and color to the blog. Created by Unique Blog Design, you know the quality and color design is going to be top notch. Jon also did a great job with ad management, there are ad spots all over the site, but not too overwhelming. I really like the new magazine feel with the thumbnail posts on the mail page, and the addition of IntenseComments on the post pages. Good stuff!

MrGreen.am

Lorenzo’s (Mr. Green) first blog theme was pretty basic, but the content made the blog stand out. The new theme is just excellent! I love the use of colors.. the background and “coupon” look edges make the content just stand right out. Still focusing heavily on content, there is only one ad banner on the site; which is for EWA Network. The new blog design definitely backs out that MrGreen.am is still “The Best Internet Marketing Blog*”… (*to come out of New Zealand)

SixFigureAffiliateBlogging.com

A few months ago I released my first free ebook called “Six Figure Affiliate Blogging: How You Can Be the Next $100,000 Blogger“. At the time I thought it would be a good idea to launch the ebook off it’s own domain instead of through ZacJohnson.com. The major launch for the ebook has now ended, but the domain is still loaded up with juicy back links and great search engine listings. I always had the idea to eventually turn the domain/site into a full blog focusing on blogging and affiliate marketing, and I finally got the time last week to get started. The focus of this blog will be towards wordpress/blogging themes, advertising methods and how to make money with affiliate marketing and blogging. While it’s quite the task to write daily for two blogs at the moment, it’s always exciting to start a new blog. Shoot me an email if you have ideas for a post, or would like to guest post.

Take a look at these new blog designs and let me know what you think!

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Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Shut Up and Podcast

Last week I attended Affiliate Summit in New York. While I was there I was able to attend the Podcasting 101 session with my Geek Dads Weekly co-hosts Daniel M. Clark and Joe Magennis. They were part of the session along with Trisha Lyn Fawver of Affiliate Marketing Fanatics. Trisha is on the Affiliate Marketing Fanatics podcast with Mike Buechele. The panel was moderated by Lisa Picarille, who has such a fantastic voice and who is the co-host of the Affiliate Thing podcast with Shawn Collins. What I learned from this session was that podcasting is such an easy way to get your voice out there and gain an additional audience.

Basically all you need are a few things to get started podcasting. A voice, a mic and recording software. Luckily every since computer has the last two pieces and if you are blogging you should already have a voice. If not then why are you blogging?

A Voice

As a blogger you have a unique voice in your writing and because of that you have a unique perspective on things that can translate to the spoken word. Do you review blogs, how about an interview series with the bloggers that you review, you can review the blog in writing and then do an interview with the blog owner via Skype as something extra to add to your post. Then make that an actual podcast and you can tap into a whole other audience.

A Mic

Many laptops have an internal mic that you can use to record your voice. It isn’t the greatest but it works. If you want to step up you can get an external mic and record better sound. You can even use a telephone to call into sites like Blog Talk Radio. There are many ways to record your voice.

Recording Software

If you are a MAC user then you have it all set with Garage Band but as a PC user I use Audacity to record my own voice. I also use a program called G-Recorder to record my own voice and the people that I talk with with Skype. When I record on Skype I can download the MP3, open it with Audacity edit it. This is a very easy thing to do.

Get it on Itunes

You also need a way to get your podcast onto iTunes. If you are using WordPress then you have some great options like PowerPress and PodPress. These plug ins will help you get your new content uploaded into iTunes. Once it is there you can use all your blogging and SEO skills to get that show seen by an entirely new audience and also give your existing audience something new and fresh from you.

Practicing what I Preach

Personally I am working on a video podcast. I am learning how to do this correctly and in the meantime I am creating the content anyway and posting it to Vimeo and Youtube. Once I figure out how to do the video podcast the best I can it will go up to iTunes and it will be an enhancement to my current blog.

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