Affiliate Marketing Newbie SEO 101

Search engine optimization, better known as “SEO” can be a daunting process for affiliate marketing newbies to learn. However, we cannot stress enough the importance of mastering this process in order to succeed in the business of affiliate marketing. This may seem like a tall order for a newbie to the whole SEO game, but fortunately there are a couple of things you can learn that will help you understand, and hopefully implement, the SEO process to quickly boost your site’s ranking.

What is SEO?

The first step is to get a basic understanding of what SEO is and how it will benefit your affiliate marketing site. Search engine optimization is an important skill that will allow your website or webpage to get better rankings in search engines, such as Google, which in turn makes it easier for people to discover your site so you can make money online. There are a lot of techniques and processes involved in SEO, which is why learning how it works first of all is one of the most important lessons for affiliate marketing newbies.

Basically, SEO helps online businesses get a certain amount of exposure on the web by making them more visible and easier to find through the use of search engine indexing software. This allows the search engines to redirect traffic to your site and business, improving your chances of receiving a steady stream of market.

How is your site or page ranked?

Before your website can make full use of SEO, you must first get it indexed by search engines. How this works is that search engines find your website or webpage through the use of different indexing programs, such as “bots”or spiders that basically follows all links that lead to your site or page and downloads copies of it as it goes.

After this, your site or page will be analyzed and indexed based on some algorithms and criteria set by the search engines, thereby giving your site its ranking. This can be achieved through effective link building, which requires you to create connections to other sites that have similar contents to that of your site.

Benefits of SEO for your site

One of the more obvious benefits of SEO is that It can help improve your site’s web ranking in search engines, thereby increasing the amount of web traffic that your website can generate. Since your site is now easier to locate on the web, it is a safe bet that there will be a significant change in the amount of visits from potential customers that your site can get. Keep in mind that making your site easier to find makes a whole lot of difference in the survival of any online business.

Avoid spamming

Spamming is one way of getting traffic directed to your website, however, this type of method will only work for a short period of time, and will ultimately lead to your site’s failure.

This type of method works by literally tricking traffic to get redirected to your site through the use of some deceptive techniques, such as using irrelevant keywords and using duplicate content on other sites just to try and increase your site’s page ranking.

Initially, this can generate some traffic to your site, but it will create some problems later on for your site, resulting in the loss of some potential customers along the way.

Learning how the entire SEO system works is your first step towards managing your online business or website, especially for an affiliate marketing newbie such as yourself. Understanding how it works can help you determine what other steps you need to take in order to fully realize and take advantage of the entire SEO process in turning your business into a complete online success.

Article Marketing for Affiliate Marketing Success

The use of article marketing is a great way to increase traffic to your website, establish yourself as an expert in your field and get people on your list. Writing and distributing articles online may seem simple but it really can do all of that for you. This is an important lesson for affiliate marketing newbies.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind if you use articles to help with your affiliate marketing:

• Write quality articles. Don’t write articles just for the sake of building incoming links. Sure this is a great reason to write and distribute articles but you also want your article to be more than that for you. By writing a quality article you can get those incoming links and other business owners to place your articles on their websites (even more incoming links, not to mention good traffic).

And the quality content you write can become the icing on the cake if your article gets picked up and published by a large offline or online publication.  Now that’s the way to get in the spotlight! The bottom line is that mediocre articles just won’t get you the same results. So if you’re going to spend the time writing and distributing articles, why not make your articles really work for you.

• Be the expert. When writing see yourself as the expert. You chose this field and it’s your job to communicate your knowledge to your readers who will hopefully become customers. Believe you’re the expert and let it show in your content. Remember if you don’t establish yourself as an expert in your field, no one else will do it for you.

• Write author bios that sell. Many people may the mistake of writing the same mundane author bio at the end of their articles: Joe Bananas is the owner of a website called joeswebsite.com and enjoys writing. Ugh! Don’t waste that valuable Internet real estate at the end of your articles by putting in a weak, ineffective bio. If you’ve written a good article the reader will look at the author bio. If they are intrigued by what you say, they will click over to your website to learn more.

Be precise and write a benefit-oriented author bio like: ‘To learn more about how to build websites that sell, visit joeswebsite.com” or “For a free 15-page report on building sales-producing websites, visit joeswebsite.com”. See the difference? Even in your bio, always concentrate on the benefit to your reader. Following the affiliate marketing newbie tips here can go a long way to helping your success in making money online.

Don’t Get Lonely Out Here – Join A Best Web

If you’re like me, you’ve jumped into this thing called affiliate marketing with both feet. You spend hours on the computer and look up and the day is gone! Well, that’s no way to live, even on this major learning curve we affiliate marketing newbies are on. The whole point of affiliate marketing is that one day you’ll get some freedom to live life the way you want to – on your terms. If you think there’s no time for freedom now, then it’s time for a wake-up call. And you can get that and more over at A Best Web, the online forum and mega resource for affiliate marketers. I did.

Feeling more than a little intimidated by the sheer number of members – 57,400 strong, I signed up today to be part of this affiliate marketing community. Yes I felt like a newbie, but I got out there anyway. When you sign up, make sure not to just blow past the rules. Yeah, you know what I’m talking about – the form comes up, you click OK and don’t read what it says. Well here’s some of what you’ll miss if you do that at A Best Web:

• You can’t reveal your name or website in your posts.
• No recruiting anyone for something you’re selling – BIG no-no!
• You earn the right to display a signature or send private message other members after you make 250 posts.
• And break the rules and you’ll be banned and banished.

So it’s a commitment to join this forum. But my sense is that if you participate, read and post, you’ll get back tenfold for your efforts. Ask questions, get to know not only affiliates like us but the affiliate managers who are members. Learn everything you can on how to make money and how to get a life in affiliate marketing. The information is all there for the taking over at A Best Web. After you register, look me up and give a shout to a fellow affiliate marketing newbie. I’m “Midlifetrip”.

Now turn off your computer and take a break!

6 Copywriting Tips for Affiliate Marketing Newbies

Copywriting is the one skill that all affiliate marketing newbies should learn. As an affiliate marketer you communicate through words and if those words aren’t effectively conveying your message, then you’re in for a long, bumpy and unproductive ride.

Here are a few copywriting tips to help you get started writing in a way to get the right attention:

1. Know your target market. Good copywriters know exactly who they’re writing for – and to – before starting. They speak directly to ONE person and keep that same person in mind at all times. If you try to reach too many people with your copy you’ll end up missing your target altogether and even worse not reach anyone at all. Decide exactly who you’re writing your copy for and stick to it.

2. Use headlines that intrigue. Use clear headlines throughout your copy to guide the reader. Your main headline should be in bold and large letters to grab the readerís attention. It is often the headline which can either make or break your copy. Use a benefit-focused headline, which explains in powerful detail how you can help solve the customerís problem. Then use sub-headlines throughout the copy to keep the reader intrigued so they will keep reading.

3. Don’t use big words. Online writing is different from the writing you did in English class. Throw out the text book and forget all those rules your teacher taught you. Online writing is casual and should convey emotion and a clear purpose. Speak to the reader as though you’re sitting down with them, chatting over a cup of coffee. Avoid big words and long adjectives like the plague or risk boring (and losing) your prospects.

4. Be persuasive. You may love your product thatís great but you’re biased. Your customers want to hear about unbiased people who have used your product. Include customer testimonials, if you have them. Remember that not just any testimonial will do – the more information you can include the better. Try to include the person’s full name, city, state, website URL and if possible a picture of that person. A video or even audio testimonial is better yet. The more information your testimonial includes the more persuasive and believable it will be.

5. It’s not about you. In fact, it’s not about you at all. Effective copywriting is concerned with and focused on the needs of the customer. This is a big first lesson for affiliate marketing newbies. The writer doesn’t really matter! Of course, you may want to add a little personal information about yourself in order to build a connection with the reader and explain why they should trust you, but even in this case it’s all about what you can do for them. Go through your copy, does it contain a lot about what you think, then it’s time for a serious re-write. Your writing should always be about the customer and the benefits to them.

6. Don’t forget the call. The call to action that is. You must guide your readers and tell them exactly what you want them to do. If you want them to click over and purchase your weight loss product, then say so and say it in a clear way that promotes all the benefits of your products. For example “Click here to learn how you can lose those last 10 pounds and keep them off for good”. Be precise in your wording and always include a call to action that leaves the reader with no doubt as to what to do next.

If you follow these 6 tips, you’ll find that you can have success at copywriting – even as an affiliate marketing newbie.

Ten “Must-Know” Acronyms for Affiliate Marketing Newbies

Affiliate marketing newbies take note. You will quickly discover that visions of acronyms and affiliate marketing terms are haunting your sleep. Relax, you’re not alone. It’s not the least bit unusual for affiliate marketing newbies to experience acronym overload at some point in the learning process. Well we’ve been there too, and we understand the need to have one place to find the definitions of those acronyms that are most relevant to this business.

We’ve discovered that there’s a whole new lingo that all affiliate marketing newbies need to learn. In the following quick reference guide we share the ten most common acronyms. We’ll provide updates periodically, so stay tuned.

1. CTR – Click-Thru-Rate – The percentage of people who actually click on a banner.

2. PPC – Pay Per Click – This is when you get paid each time a customer clicks a certain link.

3. RSS Feed – Really Simply Syndication, Rich Site Summary, Raw Data Feed Site Summary – You have certain reader programs (Google Reader, Internet Explorer has a reader) that allows you to subscribe to the RSS Feeds of different websites and see the updates on those sites as soon as they make them.

4. SEO – Search Engine Optimization – Used to ensure that a website ranks at the top of a search engine result. This is a popular marketing technique that uses articles, keywords and other methods to help ensure the website is within the top results and thus more likely to be seen by searchers.

5. CPA – Cost-Per-Action – Refers to a click, lead or sale. For example, a merchant offers its affiliates $0.30 per newsletter sign-up. Even if the visitor doesn’t buy anything, the merchant will still pay you for the “action” or in this case, the newsletter sign-up.

6. CR – Conversion Ratio – The percentage of clicks, views, etc., needed to achieve a specific action (sale, lead, etc.). Translation: If one out of one hundred visitors to your website signs up for your report or newsletter, your website has a two percent signup ratio for that item.

7. SEM – Search Engine Marketing – Promoting websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs). Methods include: search engine optimization (SEO), paid placement, paid inclusion, digital asset optimization and contextual advertising. This term is also used to describe an individual (Search Engine Marketer).

8. HTML – Hyper-Text Markup Language – the authoring language used to create documents on the internet and to define the layout and structure of web documents using various attributes and tags.

9. URL – Uniform Resource Locator – the global address of documents on the internet specifies the protocol identifier and the resource location name (IP address or domain name) which are separate by a colon and two forward slashes.

10. ISP – Internet Service Provider – a company that provides access to the Internet for a monthly fee. Service includes a modem which allows you to log on to the Internet to browse, and also allows you to send and receive email.

Affiliate marketing newbies: These are important acronyms to know and understand. They are critical not only to online marketing but also to everyday life on the world wide web (WWW) in the 21st Century.

We Love Making Money While We Sleep

OK, I’ve heard the hype that affiliate marketing can make you money while you sleep. Well it’s true!!! I woke up this sunny Saturday morning, turned on my laptop and lo and behold, there was an email from one of our affiliate programs saying that we made $50 overnight. I called my sister and fellow Extreme Newbie with the news. We couldn’t believe that we made our first money while we slept.Wooo Hoooo!!!!!

Now you may be thinking that $50 isn’t much. But guess what. If we made $50 last night while we slept, ya think we can do it again? We flat out know we can through affiliate marketing. But it’s not for the faint of heart.

Getting started in affiliate marketing requires a lot of grunt work – and we’ve been doing it, day in and day out since we started this website and our Internet marketing business. Success is starting to dribble in and one day soon – we know that the dribble will become a flow.

How do we know that? Well what we have here at Extreme Newbies is a little special combo called faith and believing. This combo gets us up each day, keeps us at our computers for hours, has us learning things we never thought we ever want to know let alone become passionate about. There’s a saying we live by now:

Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe. ~ Gail Devers

If you’re thinking that these two Extreme Newbies are overly optimistic – think again! What we are is relentlessly optimistic and more focused now than ever because guess what – we really like making money while we sleep!

How about you?

The Extreme Newbie Buddy System

You don’t have to go into the affiliate marketing business with a partner; although for my sister, Karen and me it has turned out to be the perfect business venture. You will definitely benefit from having a few buddies, throughout the process. Karen and I each bring different talents and skill sets to the table, which works well, especially during the stressful times. Of course, you can do this alone, but our experience has proven that a helping hand here-and-there is a good thing.

Our greatest business asset, outside of each other, was our decision to share the learning curves in this experience with two other newbies. We began with a weekly, one-hour conference call to learn each stop of the process together, sharing tips, resources and lessons learned. We chose to use Affilo Blueprint 2.0 as our primary training tool, so each week we had tasks to complete, which kept us moving forward.

Along the way, each member of our team found resources and information to share that enhanced our learning experience. Together we’ve made these recent newbie discoveries we want to share with you:

You can build your own affiliate website or hire a contractor to do the work or purchase a pre-built website.

• If you buy a pre-built website, your purchase generally includes the domain name, a number of articles about your niche, an opt-in box and products to monetize the site.

• Buyer Beware: Find out if the seller will take care of replacing the their affiliate links with yours, i.e., your Click Bank name, so that subsequent sales from visitors to the site are properly credited to you. You don’t want to buy a website that’s set up to pay someone else. Many sellers will also take care of minimal installation of the site, for a small additional fee; some will even coach you through establishing your first affiliate marketing site. Just figure out exactly what you’re getting.

You can write your own content, hire a freelance writer online or purchase private label rights (PLR) articles that target your specific niche/topic.

• PLR content is written by someone and available for fee or free for you to edit, rewrite and claim as your own. We recommend changing the title and make word changes and text edits. Some PLR vendors require that you change an article by 30% or more.  Be sure to check the list of rights you get with a PLR purchase and always do spell and grammar checks before you publish.

Continue to grow your buddy list as needed. The goal of building a network of relationships is to help you sustain and grow your affiliate marketing business, whether it consists of one site or a hundred. Some good ways to network include:

• Join a group like Warriors Forum. It’s an amazing place to get quick answers to questions, referrals for various resources to help you build your business and those must-have tips and tricks.

• Learn about the tools and resources you need to maintain and market your site. Take the time to learn how to use these tools. Your learning curve will lead to profits down the road.

The point is that just like building a house, you don’t have to do everything yourself. This is the true key to your ultimate success. So hang in there, Extreme Newbies. There’s light – and income – at the end of the tunnel.

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