I have recently started studying information on becoming an Affiliate / Super Affiliate. I have been at this for about six months now and have spent a majority of that time doing a load of research on both products and programs. I have found a lot of useful information but have also found a lot more useless information, scams, and bogus content.

If becoming an Affiliate or an Internet Marketer is something that you have been looking into then I hope these tips will help you on your way and save you some time.

1. Do your research! Read all you can from other Affiliates and see what they are doing and how they got there. Reading their stories and How-Tos has proven invaluable and has helped me to avoid many Newbie mistakes. Two books I suggest are “Make a Fortune Promoting Other People’s Stuff Online” by Rosalind Gardner and “Affiliate Millions” by Anthony Borelli and Greg Holden. Both books are packed with vital information for understanding and mastering Affiliate Marketing. (You can link to both of these books from the bottom of this post.)

2. Don’t fall for all the scams. There are 1000s if not tens of thousands of products out there that promise to make you an overnight success…JUST SAY NO! One thing I have learned is that there is an abundance of free information out there via blogs and podcasts that can serve the same purpose as those $97 programs everyone is selling. Search iTunes for podcasts on Affiliate Marketing and Internet Marketing. Search for blogs on Internet Marketing and Affiliate Marketing. You can learn so much by just listening/reading.

3. Don’t expect immediate results. Growing a good Affiliate business will take time. Don’t expect to start receiving $1000 checks in the mail tomorrow. If you do…more power to you! (and uh, send me your secrets!) but chances are you will not. Don’t get frustrated…it will come!

4. Expect to put the time in. Building sites, writing quality content, and researching Affiliate programs takes time. Expect to put your nose to the grindstone a bit. If you already work fulltime, spare a few hours each night. Turn off that TV and get to work!

5. Know the products and programs you are promoting. Read the terms and conditions. Also, try to promote products and services you are familiar with. It makes writing reviews and promotion so much easier. If you have never ordered or used the product before, then order it…read through the material…scrutinize the ship time and Customer Service. Offering your customers quality products and services will build trust and keep them coming back.

6. Keep it real. Avoid content generators and programs that write articles for you. Although these tools will save time, they will lack quality and quality is what you want to build…not a lot of useless words on a page.

7. Promote it! Promote yourself…DONT BE SHY!!! Get out there and tell the world what you are doing, what you are writing and what you are reviewing. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo, and Tumblr will help you spread the word and share stories with other Affiliates…so get on it!

I hope these few tips will help you on your way and don’t forget to check out these two great Affiliate Marketing books to get you started.

To Your Success!

If you have a website and have not set your site up with Google Webmaster tools then you are missing out on one of web’s hidden treasures.  Google offers great tools to any webmaster (and if you work on your own website then you ARE the webmaster).  You get tons of information on SEO, Google ranking, forums and more and it is all FREE TO USE.  We love FREE on LIBT!

It is very easy to get set up, submit your site to Google, and start using all the great tools they have.  Just go over to their website and set up your account.  Once you log in they will walk you through adding your account.  You can get the Googlebot to crawl your site and identify common errors.  Google also give great ideas to improve your site for ranking and there is a very active forum full of insider tips and tricks.  All this for ZERO DENARO!

Give Google Webmaster Tools a try.    Let me know what you think.

ROCK ON!

Related articles

• Guide to Using Google’s Webmaster Tools (cash-bandit.com)
• Five Things to Know About Google Webmaster Tools (morevisibility.com)
• Top Four Technical Benefits of Google Webmaster Tools (mediapost.com)
• Google Webmaster Tools: Using it for Keyword Research (morevisibility.com)

Welcome to the next segment in the “Generating Website Traffic” Series.  In the first segment of this series we addressed the power of content in generating a good flow of traffic to your website.  If you haven’t read that segment you can find it here.

In this segment we are going to talk about Inbound Links and how they assist in generating website traffic. If you don’t already know, Inbound links hold a high level of consideration by the search engines when they are ranking your site.  It is a long-term technique that any website owner should be aware of and master.  The more Inbound links you have, the more likely the site will be given value by Google and such.  There are many reputable ways to obtain Inbound links to your site over time.  I’ll list some of these here and then add some links to further reading at the end.

ARTICLE WRITING

One of the most common ways to build Inbound links is by writing and submitting articles to article submission sites.  Article sites allow you to spotlight your expertise and give readers the valuable content they are seeking.  After you have written your article, be sure to include links to your site in order to offer the reader additional resources on that topic or to find out more about you, the Author.  Even if you are not familiar with this process it is very easy to get started and there are several ways you can create content even if you are not a great writer or hate writing altogether (I’ll leave that for another article).  The most common ways that this provides Inbound links to your site is through the links you include within the articles and on your AUTHOR PAGE (make sure you complete your Author Page for each site).  Commonly, one of the great advantages of submitting articles to these sites that is overlooked is the potential for gaining hundreds more links through the sites Article sharing features.  Most Article Submission sites allow users to copy the articles which reside on their site and use them in their own websites or blogs so long as all of the links from the original article remain in tact.  That means every time someone copies your article to their site or blog YOU GAIN AN ADDITIONAL LINK FROM THEIR SITE!  MEGA BONUS!  There are many Article Submission Sites available to you.  A simple search in Google will reveal a number of these.  You can see my favorites in the LIBT TOOLBOX in our menu.  I also highly recommend to anyone who is getting started in Article writing to download Josh Spaulding’s “Article Marketing Domination”.  This was one of the first eBooks I ever purchased and it is chock full of very helpful information on Article Marketing.  You can get more information about Josh’s product HERE.  I have purchased this myself and yes, I do promote this as part of Josh’s affiliate program but I do believe, personally, that the information Josh has provided here is good quality information and it has helped me a number a ways in my Article Marketing campaign.

FORUMS

Another great way to get your site out to the masses and links back to your site is through Forums.  There are Forums out there for just about every topic. If, for example, you are selling Widgets, search for “Widget Forum” in your favorite search engine and you will most likely find a few that suit you.  When you find a Forum be sure it is active and has very recent posts.  This process will work best on active Forums.  Once you find one that you like, sign up and be sure to add a Signature Box.  Most forums allow you to add a link or two within your signature box.  Here is where you get the link back.  Add your signature box and then make sure you are an active participant n the forum.  Ask questions, answer when you can, and form relationships with the audience.  You will gain Inbound links from the forum by using this technique.

FREEBIES

We all love to get something for free so give the people what they want!  You can create a free report or resource list and offer it as a freebie on your site.  Once you have created your freebie, be sure to add it to your website and direct people where they can find it through social or other marketing methods.  Then, ask them to share the information and Voila! your link is out there fluttering about!

GUEST BLOGGING

Locate Blogs that are within your area of expertise. Aask the owners if they would be interested in allowing you to do a guest blog spot.  You would be surprised how many bloggers will be happy to give you a spot assuming your content is good quality.  It gives them a chance to get more activity to their blog and they don’t have to come up with content that day! =)   Just be sure the blogger will allow you to link back to your site.  This can be a very valuable and long standing Inbound link if placed on a very active site.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Get Social!  Use the Social Networks to promote your sites.  The easiest is probably Twitter.  You can be up and running very quickly and it is the easiest as far as promotion goes.  I have two quick Tutorials on Twitter if you are not familiar with it.  You can find them here and here.  Try out Facebook as well.  Be sure to promote and promote often.  The more you promote the more chances you have of people finding your site.

VIDEOS

I think this is a great way to get Inbound links.  Create a video and submit it to the various Video Sharing sites.  You can do a simple “Product How To” on something you are selling or a tutorial on using a great tool or software product online.  If you are not familiar with how to create and produce videos then I wouldn’t start with this one but you can definitely keep it on the short list for the future.

There are a number of other great ways you can gain Inbound links and you can find loads of information just by searching this term.  Some things for newbies to avoid initially would be LINK SHARING or BUYING LINKS.  There are so many scams out there and until you are familiar with these services you should avoid them.  Search Engines have also learned to ignore many link sharing and sites so it could just turn into a waste of time and money for you anyway.

The ideas listed above are a just a few to get yo started with building your inbound links.  Below I have listed a few more resources for you to continue your research.

A Word From Google On Inbound Links

How to Get Inbound Links from Government and University Sites

Our Stance on Paid Links & Link Ads – Good article on Link Buying at SEOMoz.org

Link exchanges: The poor man’s SEO – CNET Article

If you have a great idea for building Inbound links, please post them in the comments and I will put them in a future article.

More Traffic To You!

I recently set up a new computer for my friend’s mom.  It was her first “in home” computer and her first time using the internet in her home.

Hard to imagine right?!

Oh she had used the internet before at a friend’s house and the library but she had never had a home computer and never really used the internet for any length of time.  To her this was a new frontier.  It was a thrill to watch her as she explored the web.  It was also a very rare opportunity to gain insight from this point of view.  There were so many things that I take for granted while surfing that seemed so foreign to her.  It became very apparent of how ‘trained’ I was by the internet and how I expected things to be in certain places on a page or within a site.  If they were not where I expected them to be I grew frustrated rather quickly as I was attempting to show my newbie where to look for information.  This was, to say the least,  a great learning experience.

As we went to one particular site my friend’s mom inquired about the Orange RSS feed button.  “What the heck are those thingys?”, she asked.

I began to explain what the symbols meant and how they were mostly universal across the web.  I further explained how she could set up a reader and centralize her information (I used a newspaper analogy to make it easier) to save her from going back and forth between favorite sites.  After I explained this to her she told me that I should write an article about the icons so that other new users would know what they were as well.  So as promised, here it is!

WHAT ARE THOSE LITTLE THINGYS ANYWAY?

Those bright shiny buttons you often see on web pages, more often blogs, are called Social Icons.  Website owners use them as a way for readers to connect to other accounts that the website owner may have.  You may also see icons that allow readers to subscribe to the sites content.  These are commonly referred to as RSS Feeds. Although there are various designs for these Icons, they generally have the same recognizable look based on the sites they represent.  Below I have outlined some of the most commonly used Icons and what they are for.

FEED ICON

This symbol represents a link to the RSS Feed for that site or blog.  It allows you to subscribe to the content on the site through a reader. You can read more about RSS FEEDS here. You can find a READER here.

TWITTER ICON

This is a link to a site called Twitter. Twitter is one of many Social Networking sites which are common and growing rapidly on the web today. Twitter itself is a micro blogging site that is used to update information about yourself or your company to others in your network of followers. You will also see many people use various types of little blue birds (Twitter’s well known symbol) to represent Twitter. You can learn more about TWITTER here.

FACEBOOK ICON

Facebook is another Social Networking site that is commonly used by websites and individuals. It is extremely interactive and one of the biggest. You can learn more about FACEBOOK here.

MYSPACE ICON

MySpace is yet another Social Networking site which is similar to Facebook but most commonly used by the teen age group. If you know a 12-17 year old I almost guarantee they are on MySpace. You can learn more about MYSPACE here.

YOUTUBE ICON

YouTube has become the single most popular Video Sharing sites on the planet! It allows users to upload and share their videos with the world. It also allows anyone to view some of the millions of videos available from the web. Learn more abut YOUTUBE here.

DELICIOUS ICON

Delicious is a Social Bookmarking site. It allows users to ‘bookmark’ pages they find while surfing the web and “tag” them according to topic. This allows the user access to all of their favorite websites in one centralized location. You can learn more about DELICIOUS and how it works here.

There are just a few of the more common Icons you will see but the complete list is huge and changing all the time. Sometimes you will see these at the top of webpages, other times they will be at the end of articles so that users can share the information on their social network sites.

So now you know.

Keep Learning!

Deirdre J.

Getting traffic to your new website is one of the main obstacles beginners face. Although there is an abundance of information available to us on SEO, Google ranking, keywords and more, we still find it hard to sort through all the information to find the right answer.  The point we seem to miss is that the right answer is not just one quick fix but more a series of steps that need to be taken on a regular basis to build a steady stream of visitors to our new site.

In this series, ‘Generating Website Traffic’, we will explore the many ways you can get more visitors to your new website and keep them coming back.  I will not be writing about third party programs, quick traffic generators or fancy website content tools in this series since much of that software is just hype and will do little more than part you and your hard earned money. Instead, I will write on the proven methods that are both free and easy.

In this segment we will discuss what I believe to be the number one traffic generator and audience magnet; Content!  Yes, it has been said over and over again that Content is King.  But, not just any content will do.  Gone are the days of keyword stuffing and hidden text.  Both readers and robots are more knowledgeable these days and expect consistent and quality content when they visit a website.  The depth and variety of the content is what will get the visitors there, make them want to stay awhile and, if you are really lucky, talk about it when they leave.

So let’s talk about some of the ways you can add and improve your website content and attract more visitors.

Articles

This is a great way to relay valuable information to your visitors on the products or services you provide. You can be as brief or as detailed as you want depending on the subject matter and can utilize the text to gently guide your visitor to other areas of your website. I suggest adding at least 3 articles for your website weekly on a variety of subjects related to your site. That’s well over 1000 articles in a year! How’s that for content? If writing 3 articles a week seems overwhelming, you can try writing 1 or 2 to start and fill in with ‘borrowed’ content. You can find an abundance of well-written articles on hundreds of subjects at EZineArticles.com. This is just one of many articles submission/sharing sites that allow you to utilize their content on your website. For example, if you have a website that sells baby monitors, you can go to EZine Articles and search for articles related to baby monitors. I guarantee you will find at least 10 (usually many more) well written articles on the subject. Then, by following their Terms Of Service you simply cut and paste the article into your site and you have some great content in a fraction of the time. I do not suggest utilizing ‘borrowed’ content as the rule. Use it sparingly throughout your sites as an add-on to your own content. The more unique your content is, the more likely your visitor is to stay once they find it.

Video

This is one of the hottest content items you can have on your site. Visitors love video! It provides instant gratification and interaction. All they have to do is push that play button and watch. What could be simpler? You can add your own videos (perhaps tutorials) or find third-party videos for your site in numerous places on the web. A short list for newbies would be YouTube, Vimeo, Google Video and eHow. Each of these video sharing sites offer video content that you can embed within your site. The subjects are endless and you are sure to find something that suits your website.

Tutorials

Another great way to offer your visitors quality content is through Tutorials. No matter who you are, at some point everyone is going to search the web for a How-To item r tutorial of some type. If you offer this content on your site regularly you will give your visitors a reason to stop back often. There are as many ways to offer tutorials. You can write step-by-step text instructions for using your product, a video tutorial on a software installation, or quick overview on how to use an online service. Any tutorial that you feel would both engage and assist your visitor is always an added value item and will keep them on your site longer.

Product Reviews

This is another great way to keep your visitors coming back. Especially if you offer physical products on your site. Product Reviews can help your visitors understand your product line better and assist in the sales process. If your site is more informational, like this one, you can offer reviews on products or services you believe may prove useful to your key audience or on items they frequently ask questions about. I do suggest that if you are going to add reviews to your site that you offer them only on products or services you have actually purchased and used personally. It is much easier to write on a subject when you have first hand knowledge and you don’t want to have to deal with the backlash if you gave a product a rave review without first trying it and then found out later from your audience that they all had a horrible experience with it. You will surely loose all credibility with your visitors in that scenario.

Links

People love to find links to useful information…so feed their need to click. If you are writing an article or preparing a product review, be sure to include links to the products or services you are writing about. It gives the reader easy access to the items and saves them the time of having to search for it themselves. Another great way to add links to your site is with a TOOLBOX or favorite links page. Here you can centralize all of your most valued links and give your visitors a resource area that they can revisit regularly. Be sure to keeps your links fresh and check regularly for broken links on your site. I offer a free link checker tool in the TOOLBOX on this site. It is easy to you and will save your visitors the dreaded dead link frustration.

Newsletters

Newsletters are a great way to get your content out after the visitor has left your site. Offering a weekly or monthly newsletter gives you the opportunity to reach your visitors more often and also to remind them of the products or services you offer. If you don’t offer a newsletter at this time then you may want to give it some thought. It is a great way offer coupons and ‘unadvertised specials’, notify customers of updates, share tips and insider tricks, and just continuously engage your visitors. Your newsletters do not need to be lengthy. You could offer a simple quick tip or a brief synopsis of a review you have on your site with a link back to your site that states, “Read More Here”. If you are going to offer a newsletter to your visitors keep it consistent but not overwhelming. You want to remind them you exist without annoying them with endless items in their inbox.

So here you have just a few ideas for adding consistent and quality website content that will attract and engage your visitors and bring more traffic to your website.

In the next segment in this series, The Power of Inbound Links, we address the value of Inbound Links and the part they play in generating traffic to your new website.  Make sure to also read Viral Marketing Techniques to learn even more ways to bring valuable traffic to your site!

To Your Success!

ps. If you have some great content ideas, please leave a comment and tell us about it.
pps. If you enjoyed this article, please tweet it by clicking the TWEET button below.

Have you ever been faced with the task of having to write an email promotion to your list, and
then realized that you didn’t know what to say or how to say it?

Michael Rasmussen’s new video course “Email Promos Exposed” promises to solve that problem
for you by walking you through the actual process of creating killer email promos step-by-step.

I decided to see if Michael’s videos live up to their promise by trying them out myself. Here’s
what I found:
(more…)

If you are getting started with Affiliate Marketing you will soon begin to notice the abundance of sites that offer Affiliate programs. There are so many and this article will not go into Affiliate Marketing and finding the best Affiliate programs. What I offer here is a quick tip.

Managing your Affiliate Programs will be much easier if you keep your information in one location. Create a text document or a spreadsheet to keep affiliate sign up information organized. You can keep track of your signon, passwords, tracking codes, banners, buttons, and more in one neat place. This way, when you need to find your info you can pull it all up with a click of the mouse.

I use a spreadsheet but you can use anything that works for you and remember it must be secure.

If you would like a free copy of the spreadsheet template I use, just let me know and Ill send you a free copy.