Market+leverage | Affiliate Marketing Tips from Super Affiliate Zac Johnson

5 Smart Ways to Get Traffic without Depending on Google

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I was devastated when I read an article from Zac on John Chow’s blog recently about how Google is shutting down blog networks , the major victim being Build My Rank. I was already considering using Build My Rank when this happened, but what happened proved the importance of not relying on just one traffic source.

You might be thinking the problem is with Build My Rank’s approach to link …

04 April, 2012 Posted by: Zac Johnson Filed Under: Marketing

5 Ways You Can Leverage Pinterest For Your Marketing Efforts

When you examine Pinterest looks only like a place for visitors to discuss photographs regarding wedding ceremonies, cookies, recipes as well as crafting suggestions. This is correct essentially (in large part to their mainly feminine market), and the great looking Pinboards are really easy to use, there is however a lot more under the skin than originally meets the eye. This begs to ask how can I the lowly internet marketer control Pinterest to get more traffic and prospects for my business.

1. Showcase Your Own Brand’s Individuality and Flavor

Pinterest is a great destination to showcase your own brand names picture and function, if you’d like . . . nevertheless it would be much smarter to demonstrate an infinitely more entertaining and light-weight facet of the enterprise. Reaching like-minded pinners and discussing related pins that allude to more about your organization as compared to strictly clients are a powerful way to help improve your boards while at the same time staying strongly related your own interests. You’ll find nothing incorrect with having a few boards which can be associated with the company’s graphics or tangible products. The most effective businesses boards I’ve noticed doesn’t just provide their particular company products, and can additionally show off their staff’s picks regarding movies and guides as well as anything else that tickles their particular taste. Producing your own brand to stand out through exposing several personalities is a great method of getting seen and will aid to increase your Pinterest user profile.

2. Make Sure Your Posts Are Marked

As a website design company I am aware far to often of the perils associated with ripped off articles as well as possible copyright infringements, they take place on a regular basis. So when it comes down time to start revealing my own use the concept of Pinterest, My partner and I felt like it will be sound practice to incorporate a watermark and a footer certification to be able to use my own images. This provides me with exclusivity on them and when they may be shared and also repinned, the users that discover their whereabouts are fully aware that they may be my articles. This might apply nicely to your photography enthusiasts, designers, musicians, and also graphic designers especially. Giving a a way to find their way back to your website is vital and you’ll notice the results in your site visitors increases when you implement this particular tiny yet essential step.

3. Assist – Courses – How-to’s & Infographics

Pinterest not merely allows for you to only pin a number photos, you can also contain videos which is when the actual energy is needed. Simply by featuring simple how-to’s or perhaps training video clips over a wide array of topics linked to your business, you are able to make use of consumers looking to find out more about a specific niche subject matter and as a result they’ll share and also repin you meaning more traffic for your company.

Infographics tend to be an excellent way of “lending any hand” and oftentimes infographics will provide a ton of insightful info about your small business or even specific factors you’re seeking to market.

4. Make Use of Pinterest’s Present Area

Pinterest not just permits you share pins and Pinboards, you might be running a good e-commerce system this will let you concrete service or product you desire to provide, you may use the actual devoted gift area on Pinterest that permits you to draw images through cost whenever uploaded. This process gets all of them instantly listed in the Gift’s section that can assist bring customers and probably sales for the merchandise or providers.

5. Help Additional Pinners Locate Your Content

Inside comparable fashion to be able to Tweets, Pinterest allows you to make posts that consist of #hashtags within your information which along with labeling the hooks as well as panels will make all of them quicker to discover if people are searching for the brand name or perhaps product. Users can easily search simply by entering keywords, planks the ones which means you ought to do your prefer and be sure you use key phrases which can be very easily familiar and allow you to ultimately easily be identified.

Pinterest is a superb local community much like some other social networks on the web nowadays as well as the same rules utilize. Offer top quality content, don’t unsolicited mail your product or service incessantly and also communicate as well as engage folks of the local community to aid develop have confidence in and brand name awareness. Pinterest provides verified it is not going anywhere soon, therefore hop on the pinboard and see what type of good success you are able to push for your business.

This guest post was written by Lorne Fade, an Internet search marketer for 9th sphere a Toronto SEO, web design & marketing firm.

03 April, 2012 Posted by: Zac Johnson Filed Under: Marketing

Simple Steps to Make You a Better Affiliate Marketer

While most people know there is no sure way to get rich quickly, it can still be tempting to check out short cuts to what appears to be “easy” money. If you’re looking for a solid way to earn extra money, you don’t have to fall for scams and schemes, when affiliate marketing can be a great way to add a new revenue stream to your website.

You can learn how to leverage the opportunities presented by affiliate marketing. A professional Internet marketing training course can teach you effective affiliate marketing tools and skills, from engaging your audience to optimizing your website. Of course, a successful affiliate marketer also must employ the basic, proven techniques used in any sales business. If you’re planning on launching an affiliate marketing business, here are some tips to help you get started with a rock-solid foundation you can build upon for years to come.

Know Your Audience

Before you can offer products of interest to your audience, you need to know who they are and what they want. First ask yourself why a visitor comes to your site, and then brainstorm the types of products they might like. Affiliate marketing training can show you how to offer a solution targeted to your audience, so you don’t waste valuable real estate, or turn them off. For example, a blog featuring gluten-free recipes offers a unique solution to a targeted audience. Appropriate affiliate products might include gluten-free packaged goods, kitchen tools, or small appliances. Target your product offerings to make sure your website visitors are getting value from them, as well as from your content.

Build Trust

Consumers buy from people (or companies) they know, like and trust. Developing trust can take some time – but it can be lost in an instant, so tread carefully. One way to build trust is by establishing real relationships with audience and helping them know you better. Another is by offering relevant products your audience values. And finally, it’s always important to be honest and transparent about affiliate marketing. In most cases, your audience will be okay with your affiliate products ads – as long as you don’t overwhelm them with too many.

Likewise, your website visitors will generally accept that you earn a referral credit from their purchase, as long as they know and trust you. But try to avoid making affiliated products the focus of your site. Continue to provide your site visitors with great content – after all, that’s why they’re there. Selling affiliate products is a bonus, and can be a lucrative one – if you learn the necessary skills, build trust and choose the right products.

Choose Your Affiliate Products With Care

When you feature products that are unrelated to your website’s product or service, or that you don’t believe in, you might regret it. So be mindful about promoting products that you know and trust, and can recommend to your audience. Better yet, write up a review and point readers to affiliate ads so they may respond if they choose. Focus on adding value to your site, and always ask yourself, “Will my readers appreciate this?”

When you first become an affiliate marketer, it may take some time to zero in on the right combination of products, terms, payouts and support. Rotate products and ads; change out graphics and copy; and move ads around to see which perform the best. Or, try enrolling in an Internet marketing training course to learn how to create a mix your audience responds to.

Create Relevant, Useful Content

Provide outstanding content and you’ll have a loyal audience that will trust you enough to spread the word about your site, giving you more opportunities to earn extra revenue. Keep your content fresh, original and updated, without focusing solely on your affiliated products. If the quality of your content becomes more about chasing every dollar than providing a service or a solution to your website visitors, you could lose your integrity, your audience’s trust, and your audience. And then, you’ve lost the opportunity to receive revenue on your ads.

An Internet Marketing Training Course Can Help You Become a Successful Affiliate Marketer

Whether you’re a blogger or a business owner, you can learn the specialized techniques and skills needed to monetize your content through affiliate marketing training. Coursework typically covers search engine marketing training, legal and ethical considerations, and relevant topics such as:

Creating compelling content.
Integrating affiliate strategies into your marketing.
Selecting the right networks.
Finding a niche.
Getting approved for affiliate programs.
Understanding he role of search engine optimization (SEO) in affiliate marketing.
Building trust, influence and engagement with customers.
Monitoring and promoting your site.

Affiliate marketing training can help you turn your website into a revenue-generating portal. The industry is projected to experience considerable growth in coming years, so why not get in on this potentially lucrative opportunity? Remember these easy tips when you start, and you’ll have the basics for success. To ramp up your affiliate marketing efforts even more quickly, enroll in a professional Internet marketing training course. You’ll obtain the specialized skills and insider techniques you’ll need to build a thriving affiliate marketing program.

This guest post was provided by University Alliance and submitted on behalf of University of San Francisco. USF offers online marketing courses including SEO training, search engine marketing, social media training, mobile marketing and more. To learn more about USF’s certificate programs visit usanfranonline.com.

13 November, 2011 Posted by: Zac Johnson Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing

Key Insights to Buying and Selling Web Sites

As a long time developer of Internet businesses, I’ve always built things myself. Now with the growth of the Internet, the days of do it yourself are opening up to a real business of buying and selling web sites businesses.

This video and blog post come from my coaching of Zac Johnson while he was developing his new book, Flip This Web Site. What I share below are 3 case studies from Flippa, done live (and I’ve never worked with Flippa or know any of the people involved in these web sites, so this is my opinion only), showing you how to evaluate a web site business purchase by looking at 3 sites that were bought recently on Flippa.

Key Insights to Buying and Selling Web Sites

Buying and selling web sites demands that you know the business you are getting into and have some sense of how to evaluate it.

After all, if you buy a site that needs tons of tech development, and you have no tech skills or don’t know anyone, or can outsource this well, that’s not a smart buy.

But if you know your skills and can leverage the foundation someone else has built, this is a powerful tool. And it’s smarter than building from scratch, or if you want to develop a portfolio of businesses.

What inspired me about reading this book is that there is real value in a web site purchase. This is not just about buying a domain, which is an excellent investment but often requires business development.

Here I’m talking about buying a web site that exists, with assets like steady traffic, email lists, and sometimes revenue. The way Flippa lays it out for you is powerful, easy, and safer than anything I’ve seen before, including eBay.

Here’s the 3 skills I see as important to buying and selling a web site:

Smart Buyer 1. Tech Savvy

Many sites for sale have been developed to a certain stage technically and either need more time, money, or resources to grow.

Those with technical skills may find these kinds of sites lucrative. Of course the nature of coding means you need to look at their code to make sure it makes sense, and you can adapt it your own way.

In a world powered by AJAX, PHP, and MYSQL, it’s a no brainer to buy many of these businesses. Think of it like buying a fixer upper house, can you add the right tech tools to improve performance, and of course drive traffic and revenue?

I’ve seen several examples of purchases, especially on the lower end, based on technical teams who can simply fix and either flip or grow a web site.

If you don’t have technical skills, be sure to research whether you need them for the site you are buying. Bad code is after all, bad, and if you can’t adapt it or improve it, you’ll have to start from scratch…which defeats the purpose of buying a web site if you can do it yourself.

In the video I share an example of a site that has traffic and an iPhone app sold for around $3500; if the iPhone app alone is good, this is a pretty low price to get going, but as with all things Internet, buyer beware…check under the hood before you buy.

Smart Buyer 2. Search Savvy

Flippa has many, many sites with high PageRank, keywords, traffic, and built are search. Search experts have long known the power of acquiring sites and creating a portfolio of high traffic, usually leveraging what they already have and integrating the new site into what they are already doing.

Search sites based on strong keywords may also be smart for a newcomer who simply needs some traffic and an existing site, while they learn the craft. Be careful if you are too much a newbie, but the allure of a search site in this market is easy to figure out.

Just be sure you check all their claims, check their PageRank out using tools like SEOFirefox (among MANY others), and search for the keywords related to the site to see the positioning.

Just like buying a house, do your research and look for what’s lacking; that’s where you can add value, and leverage the existing site to either grow your business or integrate it into what you are doing via search.

Smart Buyer 3. Internet Marketing Savvy

Internet marketing should be a required skill for anyone buying a web site, because if it doesn’t make money, and you can’t help it make more money, what are you doing?

Sure you can buy a site that is generating revenue, but anyone in the business knows you’ll have to keep up and adapt. Knowing how to convert traffic, write copy, and continually test and update the site is crucial to success.

My favorite inspiration from this review was a site called RecruitingBlogs.com, a Ning site with a huge community, traffic, and targeted to a human resources audience. Career sites with traffic and a loyal audience are incredibly valuable, and this one listed as selling for $95,000 on Flippa.

In about 4 years the loyalty this site built enabled the builder to flip it for a nice profit, and give more than just a web site…he sold a loyal audience and traffic that monetizes.

That’s the key to building a business online; loyalty and monetization. Be sure to check out Flippa and see what’s up, this is not only smart, it’s a new trend in this growing business called the Internet!

This guest blog post was written by Declan Dunn, be sure to check out his Pivot and Profit video series here, and on YouTube.

19 July, 2011 Posted by: Zac Johnson Filed Under: Affiliate Marketing, Blogging, Make Money

Top 5 Secrets of Effective Email Marketing

Email marketing may not be as easy it appears from outside. You won’t be able to customize the campaign to reap maximum conversion until you are really knee-deep into it and have experienced yourself what actually works and what doesn’t. Though marketing via email is a powerful means of promoting your products and services, it can also be easily abused.

Given below are some of the most important secrets that can make email marketing less difficult and more powerful for you. I really hope that these email marketing tips prove to be of help to all of you online marketers out there.

#1. Utilize List Building Plugins and Tools

There are a number of awesome tools you can use to help grow your list. List Eruption is a brand new WordPress plugin that I developed to help leverage subscriber referrals and social media to rapidly grow your list. The official launch is today so make sure you check it out for more details and a special price.

When choosing a list building plugin, it’s important to make sure the plugin works with your current mailing list solution. Many plugins are now complaint with all of the major list hosting companies shown above.

There is also a tool called PopUp Domination, which displays a Lightbox Opt-In popup to the reader that entices them to download a free piece of content. This is also been a great help in growing my blogs subscriber rates.

#2. Be Very Clear of Your Expectations

One of the best pieces of advice for all who are looking to make the most of their email marketing campaign is that they know exactly what they are looking for or expecting of their subscribers. In addition, also make sure your subscribers are aware what they can expect of you.

#3. Avoid Spam Looking “$$$” in Your Email

If you are launching an email marketing campaign, ensure the subject or the body of your email is free of “$$$” signs or extraneous characters. Most of the spam emails contain these characters. And many of the email users have anti-spam tools on which can immediately send an email containing “$$$” to their trash folder.

Want to see what might be labeled as a spammy ad copy, or triggered by your spam filter? Just take a look at what Gmail is throwing into the spam box these days.

#4. Don’t Fiddle with Mistyped Email Addresses

Many times, subscribers would just mistype their email addresses while signing up for a newsletter or a free download. Chances are that you will have multiple bouncing email addresses in your campaign. The best advice always is to just remove the repeatedly bouncing emails from your subscribers list, rather than attempting to fix them.

#5. Preview Pane in Your Campaign is Crucial

Most of the email users will have their preview pane on as well. What’s important is that your campaign is designed to show the most important part of the email in the preview panel. The preview pane should only show that part of the email which actually sparks the interest of your subscribers. Try to fill the preview pane with the USP of you campaign or the most intriguing benefit.

This guest post was written by Mark Thompson, a full-time Internet Marketer and the creator of the popular blog, StayOnSearch. He also just launched the newest list building WordPress plugin, List Eruption.