Quite a while ago I wrote a post on building a lasting affiliate network, something that can potentially take 2-3 years to really achieve properly.

I was browsing through the serps recently for a new project that I’m about to launch here on Earners Blog which relates to the web hosting niche. This niche in particular really shits me, it’s as bad as the MMO (Make Money Online) niche – millions of idiots all promoting products because of their commissions rather than the value of the product to the client/shopper. But, everyone’s gotta make a buck…right?

So I stumbled across a networks of sites recently that has started dominating this niche quite well, it just so happens that it’s for all the shitty hosts that pay good commissions but provide a terrible service (how ironic?).

In this post I’m going to take apart his network & show you the things he’s done it & also the mistakes he’s made along the way (without directly linking to the sites).

The Network
Lets firstly look at one of his sites. It’s the #1 SERP for the term Bluehost Review.



Just by looking at it you can tell it’s Wordpress with the iTheme, lots of categories & using the site: operator we can see there’s around 172 pages indexed.

Now this particular affiliate is using three tactics that work incredibly well:

Calling the domain the exact SERP he wants to rank for. In my testing I have noticed that if you’re getting backlinks with an anchor text that matches the name of the domain name it’s less likely to trigger anchor text penalties (because that’s what your domain is called).
Hiring people to write content on every bluehost related search term there is. If you don’t use the Adwords Keyword Tool then you’re crazy.
Interlinking this bluehost review site with all the other sites in his network. Giving each site anywhere from 9k – 14k Yahoo! Backlinks.


The Layout & setup of Wordpress is pretty stock standard. Plenty of categories with optimised title tags & listing them all in the sidebar. I’d personally normally list the posts in the sidebar but if you can include some unique content on each category page using wordpress conditionals (or excerpts) then this method works well too.

Notice how the header of each single.php also has the same Bluehost offer right at the fold line. This is a great technique for grabbing the attention of the reader (after all with these types of sites the content is secondary, you want them to see the offer).


Mistakes
All of his sites are using the same template (iTheme for Wordpress), if anyone is manually reviewing these sites say goodbye.
I can easily find out who this guy is using this search & seeing that he calls himself charlesgan on forums. It appears he calls himself the same on all forums. It also appears that he spends a large amount of time buying & selling links on digitalpoint (& also hiring content writers for Web Hosting Articles). If I can find this sort of stuff out in about 2 minutes I’m sure Google can too.
Interlinking each & every site seems to be working in the SERPS but it’s also very easily spotted. If someone decides they need to take the whole network down for manipulating the SERPS it leaves Charles in a very unfortunate position & 2 years of hard work down the drain.
No mailing list, whilst this isn’t a big thing Charles could potentially build a large mailing list of subscribers (after all someone doesn’t stay with the same host forever), this could turn into quite a nice recurring revenue stream.
Things done well
Whilst I don’t endorse doing this Charles has provided fake whois info for the domains. Which could possibly be helping him in resisting any automatic interlinking penalties with Google. He hasn’t gone as far as setting anonymous nameservers with someone like easydns but that’d probably be the next step.
The layout & organisation of the content is done very well. Plenty of topics all covering all the questions someone might ask about Bluehost. Mysql, Wordpress, Server Speed all that stuff.
He has over 50 domains dominating this niche, quite a bit of work for one person. So I’m guessing most of the content is outsourced.
Charles also interlinks the sites well within the content of the posts. Using keyword rich anchor text. There’s a few plugins for Wordpress that you can set to do this automatically.


Conclusion
I’m guessing that this network is making some pretty decent money, if you consider some hosts pay up to $150 for a signup. This shows that sticking to your guns & focusing on a particular niche can really pay off in the long run. However it does also have its consequences, in that if the network is detected you risk losing everything.

My tip is to diversify, don’t rely on a single network to build your income, but at the same time don’t ignore the potential rewards for putting the hard work into building one. If you can outsource the creation & content you can still work on your other projects.

Other usefull links:

menapause
bunkbed
chapel hill homes
auction website
Marine VHF
cooking light recipes
TX Refinance
FL First Time Home Buyer
GA Refinance
Keller Williams Business Cards

I’m slightly obsessed when it comes to CTR with my campaigns, I’ll always try to push things as hard as I can to get the best bang for my buck. These strategies can be used for established campaigns or new campaigns to get some quick results.

As you know, CTR is linked to your ad quality & also the price you end up paying.

AdRank = CTR x Maximum Bid

From my observations quality score merely dictates your minimum entry into the bidding. If you have a high quality score you can eventually bring you bids down to sub 5c, however if you have a low quality score then you might have to bid $5 just to show.

Two Examples of how CTR can Reduce Cost
Stuart is bidding on the same keyword & match type as Jenny. Jenny is bidding $10 with a CTR of 3.3%, Stuart’s maximum bid on the otherhand is $5 & his CTR is 10%. Who’s ad is showing the highest?

Jenny: $10 x 3.3 = AdRank of 33
Stuart: $5 x 10 = AdRank of 50
In this situation Stuart is bidding half of what Jenny is but his ad is much more relevant therefore he’ll end up appearing higher. This is the power of really tuning & testing to increase your CTR.

Tip 1 – Increase your Maximum Bid
Since we’ve already established that your maximum bid can have a huge effect on your positioning you can use this to you advantage. Simply increase your bid to position 1, watch your CTR build then slowly bring the bid back after a few days until your position starts to slide again. I’ve successfully used this method to stay in position 1 & ultimately pay much less than the person below me.

Tip 2 – Split test religiously
I always split test two ads at once, the reason behind this is if you test any more & 1 performs shockingly then it drags your overall performance down. There’s plenty of variations you can try, but simply start with 2 ads, then remove the underperforming one after a few days & rewrite it with your learnings from the previous test.

Tip 3 – Target your Headline
The headline is one of the most important parts of your ad, it’s probably what the user will see first. So try to make this as targeted as possible. i.e. if the user is searching for Health Affiliate Program then ideally that’s what you want as your title.

You can test with variations & also try adding calls to action in there like “Top Health Aff Program” (remember you can’t have more than 25 characters) etc. Quite often you can get away with abbreviations so don’t be afraid to try some.

Using official site in the headline also works well for increasing CTR:

Dell AU – Official Site
Latest Deals on Dell Computers
& Laptops. Buy Online Today!
www.dell.com/au

Tip 4 – Use Description to highlight your USP’s
Once your headline has grabbed their attention you really need to sell them with the description. Try to include the things that separate you from your competitors. This may be price, free shipping, money back guarantee or certain product features. Here’s an example of an ad that makes good use of the body text:

1/2 Price Broadband Sale
6GB for $19.50 for 1st 6 Months on
3’s $39 Mobile Broadband Plan!
www.Three.com.au/MobileBroadband

Tip 5 – The pyramid/arrow theory
You’ll notice that when you search for a keyword if it’s in your ad Google will highlight it. With the right positioning of keywords in your Headline, Description & Display URL it is possible to take advantage of this highlighting to create an arrow or pyramid that helps with drawing the users attention to it.

Instant Ringtones
Get Instant Ringtones
& Latest Rad Ringtones Online
www.Rebcell.com/Ringtones

When a user searches for Ringtones the ad above contains the keyword 4 times. Notice how when bolded the ad looks like a series of steps (or a pyramid), this is a proven method that subliminally attracts users towards your ad over all the others on the page.

Tip 6 – Test with the Search Network on & Off
The search network can have a positive or negative effect on your CTR, there’s really no way to tell how it will impact your overall campaign CTR. Make sure you test it on & off.

Tip 7 – Split out Broad, Phrase & Exact into their own Adgroups
I generally won’t do this for every single keyword in a campaign but for the high traffic / top converting words this really allows you to tweak your ads to best suit the match type. For example the ad that works for an exact match on the word “free ringtones” might not be as effective when you start broad or phrase matching because you’ll be triggering on keywords like “free ringtone downloads” which you’re not targeting in the Headline or Description.

Tip 8 – Test Keyword Insertion
I try to stay away from keyword insertion on the most part but it’s useful when you’re trying to get a campaign up & running quickly. It’s great for CTR since it’ll substitute the keyword into your ad.

Be careful though because keyword insertion can backfire (check out this search for “buy kids online” for example):

Online Kids Buy
Find Over 10,000 Offers From Major
Retailers Online Today With Lasoo!
www.Lasoo.com.au

Tip 9 – Run content campaigns separately
Whilst the content network doesn’t affect your overall search CTR it can confuse you when trying to evaluate your overall CTR for a campaign. I usually split them into two campaigns just so it’s easy to get an overview. I also find it easier to view & evaluate conversion data better by doing this.

Tip 10 – Curiosity killed the cat
People are curious creatures & you can play to this when writing your ad. This works incredibly well for product based searches. For this example lets use the term “arbitrage conspiracy”. Chances are that if you’re searching on this term you’re looking to buy the book.

Arbitrage Conspiracy Lie
Check Out This Shocking Truth About
The Flaw of Arbitrage Conspiracy!
ShockingReview.com/ArbitrageConspir

Tip 11 – Tweak your Display URL
There’s a few ways of tweaking the Display URL, this can have a moderate to large effect on CTR:

earnersblog.com
www.earnersblog.com
EarnersBlog.com
www.EarnersBlog.com
Keyword.EarnersBlog.com
EarnersBlog.com/Keyword
www.EarnersBlog.com/Keyword
I usually tend to go with option 6, but in some cases I’ve seen option 1 blow it out of the water. It pays to test the variations to get an idea of which display URL’s work best with your demographic.

Tip 12 – Play with Scheduling
I’ve seen scheduling used in some quite ingenious ways to build up history. For example initially only having your ads active for 1 hour during the day (around 8pm at night) to ease your way into a new market without your competitors spotting you & adjusting their bids up too quickly.

Scheduling for your industry may reveal that people are more click happy & night when at home or it may be the opposite, they may click less at home but more at work. You can use this to your advantage if you split test it.

Tip 13 – Use Trademark Symbols
Using trademark symbols for products can increase CTR by insane amounts, (something to do with people thinking that ad is the official site).

Conversions always rule over CTR
Just because an ad has a better CTR doesn’t mean it will convert better. I will always choose an ad that converts better or has a better ROI over one that has a better CTR.

So now you have 13 things that you can test, find the winning combination & take you Adwords Campaigns to the next level.

Other usefull links:

menapause
auction website
kids bunk beds
bunk bed
FL First Time Home Buyer
www.bigdebtconsolidator.com
GA Refinance
beanbag
AZ First Time Home Buyer
Marine VHF

As part of your affiliate link building strategy forums should not be overlooked. They are endless sources of linky goodness waiting to be tapped into.

Why? Well for starters you have the ability to control a large number of factors:

The theme of the page you’re getting the links from
The number of links you’re attaining
The speed at which the links are acquired
The anchor text & associated page for the link (i.e. deep pages)
You also have an almost infinite inventory out there (1.8 billion results).

Negative Press & Controversy
Since you have editorial control over forum links many people in the industry regard them to be of little or no value, including Matt Cutts himself:

For some reason, I hate signature links. Hate them.

Whilst I don’t disagree with Matt & understand his reasons for not liking these particular types of links, but Google has decided to stick to an algorithm that favours “voting” (in the form of links) & whilst that is still the case SEO’s & Online Marketers will continue to do whatever it takes to game the system rank.

This guide will cover all of the techniques surrounding link building with forums, from the very simple to the downright dirty.

Don’t expect to get magical results with just forum links, but if you have a well rounded & natural link profile forum links do work.

These are legitimate ways to build links, as always please try to keep it relevant & useful, there’s no point spamming your links on thousands of forums because:

It won’t look natural to have 90% of your inbound links from forums
You might trip some spam filters & could risk a penalty
More than likely your posts & links will get deleted = waste of time
So sit back, make a cuppa & enjoy.

Keeping Track of Forums
You’ll want to get an excel spreadsheet to track all the forums you use:

Username: Rotate this on every forum, any good mod might search on Google using your username to see if you’ve been doing the same on other forums. Do a search for username generator if you’re running out of ideas.

Passwords: I use Roboform to fill all the other information when signing up. Except the username.

URL’s: You’ll want to keep a record of your Profile URL & the URL to any threads you post in (we’re going to run a check on which links are still live & for how long).

Finding Forums
Google provides some handy operators for finding forums. You’ll obviously need to find something that relates to the keywords you’re using so replace keyphrase with the keyword you want to search for i.e. affiliate marketing.

inurl:forum keyphrase
intitle:forum keyphrase

Vbulletin – inurl:showthread.php keyphrase
Invision – inurl:index.php?showtopic= keyphrase
PHPBB – inurl:viewtopic.php keyphrase
Simple Machines – inurl:index.php?board= keyphrase
Phorum – inurl:list.php? keyphrase
YABB – inurl:YaBB.pl? keyphrase
MyBB – inurl:forum- keyphrase

You’ll also need to check whether the forum allows dofollow links, there’s plenty of useful firefox extensions but I just use the SEO for Firefox, it highlights links that are nofollow which enables you to identify whether or not the forum is passing link equity.

Links in Forum Signatures
Forum signatures are the bread & butter of this link building exercise, your signature will show on every post you make therefore making it quite a lucrative spot.

Quick Tip – If you’re a member of a forum & have thousands of posts already you can utilise this signature space right away. It’s also an option to PM other members & buy advertising in their signatures (this can be good for targeted traffic also if the forum is on topic with your site).

A typical forum signature should contain descriptive links to deep pages within the site(s) you want to promote. Here’s a good example:



The above example is from a webmaster forum & looks pretty spammy. There’s a few tricks you can use to avoid this:

When you sign up to the forum don’t post your signature right away. Join in on the conversation for around 10-20 posts then come back in a few weeks & add your signature then. You’ll draw less attention to yourself this way. With this method you need to be sure that your signature will be added to all your old posts though (some forums disable or don’t have this feature).
Sometimes less is more, 1 link is much less noticeable & spammy.
If you’re trying to post more than 1 link try to create a sentence: I’m in the market for a new web host at the moment, nothing fancy so PM me if you can recommend any, there’s some decent reviews at this affiliate marketing blog but I just can’t make up my mind!
Test what’s working, if you’re having a high removal rate then obviously the way you’re doing things is not optimal.
If the forum allows you to style your links you can make them smaller, or even change the colours to make them look less obvious.
Profile Pages
The good thing about profile pages is that there’s less link leakage then in the main threads. Most profile pages allow you to add a link, Often they’ll show your signature too, so make sure you use this space.

Links in Posts
Naturally you can (other than your signature) add keyword rich links in posts. This can be risky, because you’ll always bring attention to yourself by bumping an old post to the top.

A great example of a company that executed this strategy perfectly is our old friends over at Xrumer (which incidentally is a forum spamming software). They simply used their software to sign up to thousands upon thousands of forums then instead of dropping a link back to their own site they asked a very simple question:

Has anyone heard of Xrumer? What is it?

People would then literally reply back in the thread linking to the Xrumer website with an overview of what the software is. Talk about getting other people to do you legwork?

Editing old posts
There is however a sneakier way to drop links in posts & that’s making 10 – 20 posts in the forum (in authoritative threads about your topic) then going back in a few weeks & editing your post to include your links. Some forums disable this feature so it’s work checking to see if you can actually edit posts.

You can do something similar with signatures, participate for a while then go back & add a signature which will then get added to all your posts. Again some forums disable this feature & will only include the signature you have live when you make the post.

Images & Smilies
Often overlooked these are perhaps the easiest ways to drop links in posts. The smiley in particular is very sneaky, 99/100 no-one ever suspects someone hiding a link in a simile

Something like this should work on vbulletin [url=http://www.earnersblog.com/]:)[/url]

Questions
As I mentioned with the Xrumer example above people on forums love to answer questions & help people out. If you can get them to inadvertently link to you at the same time then you’re onto a winner. This technique works much better with brands than generic affiliate websites, but even if you’re asking a questions like:

Do you know any good places where you can watch sky tv on your pc?

Get people to respond then go back in a few weeks & turn the “watch sky tv on your pc” into a nice anchor text link to your affiliate site.

Final Thoughts
All of the above techniques can be a laborious process. There’s plenty of people on known webmaster forums that will do the grunt work for you. The key here is to do little & often, don’t blast 100 links a day because it won’t look natural at all.

Other usefull links:

trains o scale
auction website
menapause
sofabed
bean bags
chapel hill houses for sale
kids bunk beds
beanbag
GA Refinance
chapel hill homes
CO Refinance

We’re currently working on the beta version of our Affiliate Network Reviews & as such I’m currently signing up to every network out there to really get an idea of how they operate.

I thought this would be a good opportunity to outlay some of the key things you should do before applying to a network:

What you’ll need
Name
Email
Other contact details (Daytime & Evening Phone)
Current Address
Business Name
Payment details (Paypal or DD)
Tax Information / SS (Unless outside USA)
Website details including UB’s & niche
How you intend to send traffic (i.e. Email, PPC or SEO)
If Email you may be asked for the IP address of your mail server
Other affiliate networks you’re working with

Domain
You’ll be asked to provide the domain that you’re using to carry out any activities. Make sure the domain is active & isn’t a holding page. Also make sure that this is a reputable domain that has potential to provide leads/sales to the network.

Avoid putting adwords.com or anything similar as your domain because this probably won’t get accepted (depending on the Network, most are fine with PPC only affiliates as long as you specify). If you’re just doing SEM I wouldn’t bother putting any website down.

I submitted Earners Blog as the domain for most of the networks since this is where I’m doing the reviews. Funnily enough I did get one application declined by CX Digital Media because they don’t accept sites hosted on free hosting. I don’t know if they’re retarded over there but it doesn’t take much intelligence to figure out that I’m not hosting on a free blog host.

Email Address
This is a vital part of the equation. It’s best to provide an email address that corresponds with the domain name you’ve submitted above, this helps to cement the fact that you’re legitimate with the network you’re applying to. Try to avoid free email accounts like hotmail, gmail or yahoo.

Verification
Quite a large number of networks will now ask you to verify that you either own the website or ask you to call up & have a chat with them. This is a good opportunity to start up a conversation with an AM before you get accepted. This may give you some insights into how knowledgeable they are.

I was even asked by one network to put up a text link to one of their partner sites as verification. Um no.

What not to do when accepted
Don’t lie about the website that you own
Don’t start trying to get a better payout on offers right away, wait until you start pushing volume
Don’t hassle the hell out of your AM, use them wisely
Avoid brand bidding, you’ll get booted fairly quickly for this
Be careful with incentivized traffic, some offers allow it but most don’t
How you should use your AM
Account Managers are a wealth of information at some Networks, the bottom line is that the better you do, the more money they make.

Ask the right questions, don’t bust balls:

Which offers are converting well currently?
Which landing pages are kicking ass? (most won’t tell you this but it doesn’t hurt to ask)

This should be all you need to really start rolling.

Other usefull links:

Marine VHF
Dog Stroller
watches uk
weight bench
archery accessories
o gauge
Couples Counselling
Indy Race
auction website
TX Refinance

This is one of those extremely creative and potentially very lucrative hybrid business concepts. It combines local internet marketing, vertical marketing and performance marketing in a new and exciting way.

If you are one of the sharp affiliates that’s exploring or even already doing local affiliate marketing, then this post is a MUST read!

I’ve been interested in local affiliate marketing ever since reading these posts: ShoeMoney – How to Make 41K a Month Setting up a LOCAL Affiliate Program and AdHustler’s Local Online Advertising Series At A Glance.

I’m also interested in local affiliate marketing because a great in-depth course is about to be released that teaches exactly how to do it. Details coming soon…

OK so on to today’s topic… local affiliate marketing for dentists… Hmmm… I found this particularly interesting since I used to be a Dental marketing consultant, wrote a top selling book for Dentists and used to do give seminars for Dentists on how to build their practice. Plus I obviously know a little about affiliate marketing as well. So my 1st thought when I read the press release below was “why didn’t I think of this?”

Now don’t go and copy this exact idea. This basic concept could be applied to so many different small businesses and various types of medical practices.

This new pay for performance Dental marketing service just launched. Here is a quote from the Nampora Dental site.

“Unlike traditional advertising and referral services, Nampora does not charge you based on the number of people that see your advertisement, click on a link or visit your website. We understand that, as a dentist, these are not the most important metrics to your practice. Nampora is different than other dental practice marketing services, because Nampora’s services are priced based on the number of patients we refer to your office.”

Other usefull links:

Marine VHF
Dog Stroller
sunglasses uk
watches uk
flowers uk
Eating Raw
weight bench
Depression Treatment
archery arrows
model trains ho

I don’t think a lot of affiliates that play primarily with traditional affiliate networks fully realize how big of a hit some CPA networks have taken over the past few months, due to the crack down on continuity (rebill) offers by the FTC and the Credit Card Merchant companies.

I’ve gotten to experience the trickle down effect personally in my business, even though I don’t do much in the CPA space. Recently a small CPA network, a previous client, could not afford to pay me and when I tried for the umteenth time to collect, they finally told me they were $250,000 in the hole and are going out of business. Yet they continue to accept new affiliates. Will THEY be paid???

Another previous client who is a HUGE brand and has been playing the continuity game longer than almost anyone else (except maybe Columbia House) – well I’ve been trying to collect since September and they are not out of business yet, but are desperately trying to get an infusion of capital to pay their debts. Meanwhile they continue to HEAVILY promote their offers on TONS of CPA networks and I have a big concern some affiliates could end up not getting paid, if the company does not resolve it’s financial problems soon. I already know of one network who is suing to try to get their money.

Like Pace said in his article below, I’m not going to play the name game, as tempting as that is. I do want to share with you however, his thoughts as he has a lot more inside info in the CPA space than I do. If you do business with any CPA companies, heed his warning and do credit checks.

Affiliate Marketing Dirty Little Secret

Several major companies that had seen huge profits over the previous quarter were now faced with not being paid by multiple companies. I’ve heard that some of the major affiliate networks suddenly were owed as much as $15-20 million – much of it they could never collect because it was from companies that were basically non-existent, with no assets, no guarantees.

Here’s the dirty secret, no one is talking about. It’s now April, four months after all of this happened — most companies only have 60-90 days cash flow (some less). Companies that had announced in 2010 great expansion, possibly going public, perhaps buying other companies are faced with the real dilemma that they have a huge loss that they can no longer afford.

Credit right now to affiliate companies should be given sparingly. Consider who you do business with, how they made their money and more importantly if they can really pay. A company in a good position will often stick with what they are doing best, focus on their company growth – a company with a bad position will be out there looking for ways to save themselves from being shut down.

Other usefull links:

gatwick airport hotel
disneyland paris hotels
chicago hotel packages
luxury hotels in seattle
Marine VHF
Dog Stroller
Herbal Colon Cleanse
Herbal Remedies
toddler girls dresses
I Write Unique Articles
weight bench

What’s the Secret to Success in Affiliate Marketing?

What determines whether one affiliate will be a super affiliate and the other a newbie quitter? The most important key to success is really all in your head!

This post isn’t going to teach you to build mini niche sites or tell you that content is king. All the nuts and bolts training and all the best tools won’t help you if you don’t have the right mindset.

I believe some of the most important traits of successful affiliates are positive attitude, determination, discipline and motivation. So how do you go about staying positive, determined and motivated, day-after-day in spite of any obstacles you may encounter???

One way to do it is with positive affirmations. ShareResults recently had a great post with some positive affirmations for affiliates. Head over and read theirs, then read my #1 affirmation below.

Daily Affirmations for Affiliate Marketers

Do you have a morning routine? Does it involve getting ready for your day and making your plan of attack? Having a plan for the day is important, and, as many of you may know, having daily affirmations to give yourself the mental preparedness you need for a day of hard work can also help grow your business. Here are a few daily affirmations that we think will help get affiliate marketers on the road to success!

Linda’s Positive Affirmation – My business is very successful. In fact, most people in the industry would be VERY surprised at how much money I make, because my model is pretty unique. Would you like to know my #1 affirmation? It’s one that would help any affiliate marketer as well.

The more I give, the more I receive!

I never think about how much money I make, or how I can make more. I always ask myself how I can help more people or how I can better help the people I already reach. It sounds altruistic, but it works very well for me!

So affirm the above today and spend some time focusing on more ways to help your visitors, more ways to add value, more ways to reach more people so you can help them solve their problems. I think if you make this your focus, it can result in increased revenue over time.

More on the affiliate mindset… Andrew Wee once said: “The major obstacle and stumbling block for 99% of online marketers is your mindset. And it’s not something you can rationalize, but rather an emotional response. Sure, all of us can think we theoretically earn a million dollars a month, but the question is whether you feel you have the ability and are motivated to achieve it.’

Other usefull links:

info prodigy
garage heaters
greenhouse plans
build your own greenhouse
audio equipment
gatwick airport hotel
ME mortgage
Camping
Tamarindo hotels
disneyland paris hotels