Affiliate Marketing 101 says that producing regular, original content for your website gives a big boost to ranking, traffic, and conversions. But making time to write articles is hard to do.

But, don’t despair. You can buy Private Label Rights articles (material for which you own all editorial rights to the content), and tailor them to your own needs, giving them your distinctive twist.

You are in control, just as if you had authored the article. But, remember that others can also buy and publish the same article, as they are not copyright free. Often, brokers who sell PLR articles will sell to thousands of purchasers.  This is why services like Stephan Everaet’s Niche Content Packages (http://www.niche-content-packages.com), which limits the number of subscribers for any given pack of articles, is a superior choice.

But whether you’ve bought an article that thousands of others have bought, or one that is offered in limited supply, you’ll want to tailor it. Re-writing it allows you to distinguish that article from all those others, which can help your search engine rank.

Engines factor do factor in whether your content is exactly the same as that found on other sites. More importantly, re-writing also helps give the article that particular spin that best serves your specific niche, merchant, and product.

Fortunately, re-writing articles is a lot easier than writing them from scratch. Even when you do substantial tailoring, the Private Label article — if well written — will help give you ideas and specific facts that stimulate your own writing.

And, with a Private Label article, since you own the content, there’s never any suggestion of plagiarism. (Plagiarism isn’t just unethical and illegal. It could hurt your search engine placement to build a site that consists of nothing but copy from other sites.)

Here are some suggestions that will help even the novice content creator tailor a Private Label article to his or her own needs:

Check grammar, spelling, and length.
Just because you paid money for it, doesn’t mean it was professionally written. Depending on the price and your circumstances, you may want to ask for a refund, or spend the time to clean it up.

Never publish amateurish material. Your sales will suffer. Also, Private Label articles are written with a very general audience in mind, and often targeted at a specific length. That may or may not suit your format and needs. Adjust as needed.

Adapt to your demographic.
Take into account age, gender, educational and income level, cultural differences, and anything else you know about your readers. If your site is targeted toward a less sophisticated audience, you can make the language simpler. If your audience prefers language that’s a little more complex or advanced, you can adapt it to that.

Adapt to your specific product.
Don’t be generic, but rather focus on a current, specific good or service.

Stamp it with your own personality.
No matter how many people buy the same article, they can never be you. No two authors write exactly alike. That individual slant can start with an excellent template and morph into something that is unique – and uniquely your own. And, in the Internet age, where the audience increasingly has access to the same information instantaneously, there’s nothing better than “unique.” Differentiate your article from your competitors.

Combine it with other articles.
Since you have complete editorial control over PLR content, you can alter the length, style, and focus simply by combining multiple articles in creative ways. You could take two wine articles and put them together to meet your need for greater length. Or combine a wine and a beer article into one, in order to attract a wider audience. You could take a game article and a movie DVD or MP3 music article and combine them to create some product synergy. Hollywood marketers do this all the time.

The possibilities may be unlimited, but since your time isn’t, keep in mind the reason you bought the article in the first place: to save you time and effort and allow you to focus on your area of expertise. After all, you have more things to do than write.

Let Private Label content save you that effort, so you can devote your time to other areas, such as making money from your site.

One of the best ways to sell a single complex affiliate product, a high-ticket item, or even your own affiliate upsell is to use a micro-site.

While a micro-site doesn’t have a lot of pages, and is based on a simple concept, it can be one of the most difficult sites to set up successfully.

Why?

Because you need a thorough knowledge of an excellent product, strong copy, and need to collect and present as much factual PROOF of what the product can do as you can.

So, if a micro-site is on your to-do list, take a look at these six tips that will make building and maintaining your micro-site easier.

First, when designing a micro-site, make sure your design is clean, professional and appropriate to a high-ticket product.

Second, every page should be carefully planned to provide the visitor with information, reassurance and proof.

Third, bolster the reputation of the product creator as well as the product itself. You can do this by adding testimonials or endorsements from people who have actually used the product to achieve results.

Fourth, your site should be rich with graphics that illustrate product results. The use of eye-catching graphics is one of the best ways to grab someone’s attention and is an element that will likely be noticed every time. People respond almost instinctively to graphics and pictures and you should use this to your advantage.

Fifth, make sure any audio or video doesn’t interfere with the copy, and that they don’t slow down the loading of your page. A user will lose interest almost instantaneously if the loading time is too slow.

And finally, notice the CONTENT. Many affiliates think you don’t need content for a micro-site, but that isn’t true. In many cases, the content supports the sales process. Take this opportunity to create a site full of substance and rich content to encourage users to learn everything they can about the product.

Once you give the above a try, compare the impact of your micro-site to a typical sales page and you will definitely tell the difference.

Bottom line: Excellent preparation, substantial proof that’s well presented, and a dedication to the product are what you need to make a micro-site work.

In the second half of this two-part article, we will take a look at five more reasons why content is still the king (and queen) of affiliate marketing!

#6 – Content Inspires Clicks
If you think about it, the right kind of content makes an ad click through the logical next step for your visitor. A brief article about the difference between optical zoom and digital zoom might be the perfect appetizer to a feast of clicks on digital camera ads.

How do you make sure you’re sensitized to creating this kind of content? Try to think like an advertiser. Whether your goal is to get clicks on contextual ads, encourage your visitor to fill out an email/zip form, or generate commission sales, your traffic needs to generate value for advertisers. After all, they are the ones who keep the whole thing going. Which leads us to…

#7 – Content Increases CTR
Marginal content tends to mean marginal CTR… while quality content tends to boost CTR. But in this context, “quality” doesn’t mean brilliant prose. It means a good mix of relevant keywords and product data.

If you’re an AdSense publisher who wants to maximize your revenues, make sure you include sufficient keyword data in your content so Google can serve up ads that actually MAKE SENSE on page. Then watch those CTRs get higher and higher!  If you want to increase click throughs to merchant sales pages, your content should include inline links on product names, model numbers, or other bits of information that “tempt” the reader to click.

#8 – Content Feeds Those Hungry Subscribers
Even if you don’t market directly to your optin list, consider all the ways content can draw your visitors back to your web site. After all, you don’t have to send the content DIRECTLY to your subscribers in an email. Instead, send them LINKS to your web pages or blog posts. You’ll not only get more ad impressions, you’ll probably get more clicks. Why?

Because you’ve got a relationship with your subscribers. Even in this era of the jealously guarded email address, they signed up for your mailing list and have stayed on it. This means they’re willing to consider reading any web page you send them to. If that page happens to include highly relevant ads that work hand in hand with both your content and design, they’re bound to get click throughs.

#9 – Content Anticipates the “Odd” Niche Query
Here’s a closely held secret that nearly every content webmaster holds dear: the more quality content you’ve got, the more likely you are to get that frustrated visitor who’s been searching, high and low, and has finally gotten to your site by typing in a long, implausible query.

Because YOU – out of the millions of sites out there – probably came up #1 for that highly specialized combination of search terms, that visitor is likely to stay at your site, dig around, sign up for your newsletter, and otherwise explore a little more deeply than the average visitor. What better audience for relevant, targeted ads than this ultra-targeted visitor?

#10 – Content Attracts Quality Links With Minimal Effort
The best link partner in the world is the one you don’t have to beg, bribe, or buy. That’s why content still rules, even if your first priority is serving up landing pages for PPC. With first-class content, and plenty of it, it’s easier to get webmasters to link to you. And you can generally link to just about any related site you wish – and the sites you link to will be glad and grateful.

All that adds up to higher quality, targeted visitors. And THAT adds up to higher CTRs… and higher profits!

As we at Affiliate Classroom welcome a new year, we would like to start it off right with a look at one of the most important aspects of affiliate marketing: content.

We will look at ten reasons why content is still King (and Queen) in this two-part article!

So, let’s take a look…

#1 – Content Feeds Hungry Spiders
It’s been shown over and over that content – especially fresh content – attracts search engine spiders. If you are running AdSense, want to get rid of PSAs, and trigger the display of fresh ads from new, hungry publishers, feed the spiders with text that includes good keywords and useful collateral information.

#2 – More Content = More Ad “Contexts”
Every AdSense publisher should write the formula above on their wall in 3-foot high letters. Since AdSense is CONTEXTUAL advertising, it needs a context – to crawl and analyze so it can churn out relevant ads. If you don’t have enough CONTEXT, you won’t get relevant ads.

Relevant context is even more important when promoting affiliate products. “Filling out” the content on a substantial website can raise the relevancy of your landing pages and increase quality score.

#3 – Content Is Sticky!
If you want people to click on contextual ads, they need to stay on your pages long enough to notice them. Over and over again we hear of publishers running the so-called “lowest performing” ad formats… yet their income goes through the roof! Why? Because their content is so good, people actually stay on their site to read the entire article… scan the rest of the page… and READ the ads.

Content has proven to be the stickiest of stuff in the online world. And the higher the quality, the more likely it is to keep those eyeballs on your page long enough to get the click through. Which leads us to…

#4 – Content Gets The Bookmark
Anyone who thinks that getting added to that Favorites folder isn’t worth much anymore… well, they obviously haven’t got a niche content site! The tighter your niche, and the more your content speaks to them and only them, the more likely you’ll get REPEAT visitors.

Of course, after a while repeat visitors end up with “ad blindness.” That’s why smart contextual ad publishers with a loyal following will vary their ad formats and colors when click throughs start to lag. Combine a little fresh content with a slightly different shade of blue or gray, and you can “wake up” those conversions.

#5 – Content Increases Page Views
If you’re smart about leveraging your content for maximum page views, you are one wise publisher indeed! Yes, it means a little more updating of your pages. But if you are willing to put in the extra time to put a little of your freshest content, along with your ads, above the fold, get ready for a big boost in your income.

In fact, the wisest publishers do what all the big content providers have been doing for years. They break up long articles into chunks of around 350 words or so, divide this content over several pages, and put a “more” or “continued” link at the bottom of each section. This not only maximizes the number of ad impressions, it’s much easier on your readers!

#6 … to be continued in part 2 of this blog …