Affiliate Classroom Blog

Learn from Your Competitors Tip #2: Pretend to be Your Competitor’s Customer!

Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 1:01 pm by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

After you have chosen a product that you know that your competitors are promoting, the next thing you want to know is HOW they are promoting it.

The best way to get the answer is to pretend to be a customer. Go look at your competitor’s ads.

Are your competitors using special punctuation, questions, and shock-value headlines?

Are they using the keyword in the headline? It’s important to see if the ads change depending on the keyword search you do.

Remember, don’t search like a competitor. Search like a customer!

Permalink  Post your comments »  Filed under: Affiliate Marketing

Learn from Your Competitors Tip #1: Copy the Answers!

Sunday, April 27th, 2008 at 9:00 am by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

Look, we’re not in 5th grade anymore, and copying the answers from the biggest competitors in your niche is no longer considered cheating. It just makes good business sense!

Let’s say you want to promote a Clickbank product with PPC in your chosen niche. You want to promote the most profitable product from the best merchant possible, so you need to do a little neighborly research. 

Enter the keywords you plan to bid on into Google Search and then look at the top AdWords ads to see what they are promoting.

If you see the same product or merchant promoted over and over, chances are that merchant pays well and those affiliates are making money!

 

To copy the answers really effectively, it’s best to build a broad keyword list that contains lots of related keywords. Sometimes you’ll be surprised to find that the best performing keywords for a particular product are not the ones you thought they’d be! 

Make sure you do periodical searches and check your competitors regularly.  That way you’ll know when the top promoters stop promoting one product and shift to another.

Permalink  Post your comments »  Filed under: Affiliate Marketing

Project Quick Cash: Make Instant Money over the Weekend

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 10:26 am by AC Staff

It’s not often you read an ebook that just about everyone can learn from - from beginners to experienced marketers. But this is definitely one of them. It shows you how you can break into hot niches with relative ease, fatten up your bank account, and even piggy-back on the “guru launches” - and in as little time as a weekend.

The ebook is Alok Jain’s Project Quick Cash, and it delivers everything it promises. Spend just an hour reading it, and you’ll be able to put two, maybe even three of his five cash-generating techniques to work for you right away - and without spending a lot of time or money.

The five separate techniques are explained fully, and in a step-by-step fashion. As long as you understand some of the basics of online marketing, such as getting a domain name and signing up for an affiliate program, you won’t have any trouble following along.

Here’s what another AC Staffer - who’s relatively new to the publisher side - had to say:

“When I hear about some affiliates building 20,000+ keywords, it just sounds intimidating - so much to build, invest in, and manage! But Alok’s techniques describe easy baby steps that also have the huge benefit of generating cash very quickly.

Technique #1: By the time I got to page 20, I was so motivated, I almost put down the book so I could get started! Most valuable tips: what your maximum keyword bid should be, and WHEN you should tweak your ad copy.

Technique #2: No cost out of pocket, except for buying a domain name. Building a blog exactly as Alok recommends takes a bit of time - but not that much! This one’s well within the reach of anyone with a few dollars, and can yield sales fast.

Technique # 3: So easy - just find a subject I’m interested in, and participate in online communities. And it’s fun! Close to zero out of pocket, and it’s such a nice way to monetize something you enjoy or are passionate about.

Technique # 4: A great introduction to AdWords. The approach is very targeted, so it definitely has a higher chance of return. Best advice: start slow and keep budgets low. Plus you get specific suggestions on a daily budget and click bids.

Technique # 5: I love this - make quick money by riding the coat tails of product launches. Even more valuable: Alok shows you how to expand this long term, with higher results. And once you generate some quick money, it builds on itself - so YOU can be the one who is approached to support new product launches!

Alok is a great teacher, too. “I heard of one of these methods before,” said another of our reviewers, “but didn’t understand it well enough to so it. But it was explained so well in Project Quick Cash - I had no idea it was really this simple!”

After reading Project Quick Cash, you will have no doubt that Alok spent $30 on a project that earned him $13,150 in commissions for just 2 hours of work. But what’s even better, you’ll know exactly HOW he did it, so you can copy his success. Check it out here.

Permalink  4 Comments »  Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Reviews

The Week’s Top Affiliate Marketing News Stories (April 23, 2008)

Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 5:59 pm by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

Search Engines Increasingly Important To Video Sites - “The share of traffic referred by Google (up 44%) and Yahoo! (up 13%) to the video category increased for the week ending April 12, 2008 when compared to the same week last year.” “If these trends continue, content creators might want to start thinking about how SEO principles can apply to their titles and descriptions.”

Alexa Introduces New Ranking System : Beyond the Toolbar - Alexa’s new ranking system leaves some people confused - and demoted! Make sure you know where you now stand.

Should Affiliate Marketers Blog? - Most people think blogging is the best thing to come around since sliced cheese! But there are a few things you should consider before you decide whether a blog is the right marketin gtool for you.

7 Proven Strategies to Double or Triple Your Website Conversion Rate Increasing conversions is at the top of every Affiliate Marketers list. Here are seven things you can start doing today to make sure you’re getting the most sales from your current traffic.

On Page Optimization - A Complete Walkthrough - “Getting a good ranking in a search engine hasn’t been the easiest thing for many. Search engines are getting smarter & more intelligent everyday, so now it takes more than just good content to top your competitors.”

Permalink  1 Comment »  Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Marketing News

Tip #3: Ride the Coat Tail of Success!

Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 6:41 pm by Kathy Jackson

Have you ever asked yourself “Why the huge upswing in the number of people launching their own Internet businesses today?”

Well guess what - the reason for this upswing doesn’t matter. The fact that it is happening - and that it signals an opportunity - is what should matter to you.

There never seems to be a lack of new Internet entrepreneurs, and all of them need information and instruction on the right way to conduct business online. So in spite of the glut of Internet marketing “stuff” out there, there is still an unbelievable demand for these “how to” products.

Established Internet marketers launch five or six new Internet marketing products every month. These launches are done as “joint ventures.” That means several marketers join together to launch a product, and the launch is done with a lot of fanfare.

Sometimes it’s possible for even a relative unknown to grab onto the coat tails of these major product launches and make a nice profit. You need to find out about the upcoming launches, and the way to do that is to monitor JV networks. One such network is JV Notify, but with a Google search, you can find a great many of them.

When you find a product launch, sign up as an affiliate and then think of creative ways you can piggy-back on the big advertising methods of some of the more established marketers. One of the best methods we’ve seen for this is the “Leeching on a Launch” method from Project Quick Cash. Watch for our review of Project Quick Cash tomorrow.

Permalink  1 Comment »  Filed under: Affiliate Marketing

Quick Cash Tip #2: Follow the Money!

Sunday, April 20th, 2008 at 12:05 pm by Kathy Jackson

All of us, even experienced marketers, have to generate cash fast once in a while. When you’re just starting out you may need extra cash to pay the bills, fund some PPC, or build more websites.

And even if you’re working online full time, you might want to generate cash so you can grow your business without taking on debt.

Selling information is an easy way to generate quick cash - if you do it right. The trick is choosing the right information in the right niche.

It may be hard to convince hard-core Internet marketing guru that there is any subject of real value other than Internet marketing (just kidding - most gurus would actually agree with what we’re about to say!).

But the fact is that people (think customers) are interested in all kinds of things: gardening, fishing, dog training, child rearing, and hundreds of other topics, large and small.

And this can work to your advantage when you need to generate cash quickly. These potential customers will buy information on the Internet if it’s highly targeted to their interests - but it’s up to you to find an ebook or other information product that they want, and then take it straight to them. How?

Find a product that is of particular interest to a reasonably large segment of the population who are affluent enough to buy stuff.

Sign up as an affiliate for that product.

Then go promote it directly where the money is!

The money is in the customer’s pockets, and the customers are on forums, blogs and communities on the Internet that are dedicated to the information you are selling.

So if you don’t have time to build a list, or if you don’t have the money to do PPC, keep your marketing simple and cheap. Sell direct to the consumer via communities. Follow the money!

Permalink  1 Comment »  Filed under: Affiliate Marketing

Quick Cash Tip #1 - Paying Attention Can Pay Off!

Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 9:43 am by Kathy Jackson

If you are too poor to pay anything much more than attention, you can still make money in Internet marketing !

Most people think that the very best keywords are the most expensive keywords, but that isn’t necessarily true all the time. It IS true that some keywords are always good, and those keywords will be more competitive and therefore more expensive. But then there are those keywords that suddenly become — hot!

When a new product is launched, for example, a brand new keyword can be born that has absolutely no demand and is therefore cheap…really cheap. Which means that if you’re keeping your eyes open and stay ahead of the trends, you can be the first to bid on those keywords at bargain prices.

How can a keyword suddenly become hot?

When a celebrity does something that the keyword is associated with. Example: A recent Oprah interview sent the keyphrase “pregnant man” into #165 in the worldwide keyword searches. Six months ago that keyphrase wasn’t even on the radar.

When a new toy, gadget, game, or fashion item hits the market but hasn’t gotten “hot” yet. Example: “Webkinz” wasn’t always in the top 20 search terms, but now it is - and will probably stay there for quite some time.

When a major event hits the news - such as when the airlines canceling hundreds of flights for plane maintenance. “Flight departures” became the #10 searched term overnight.

So pay attention to what is happening in the world around you - you may just discover keywords that can be had for pennies, yet will make you a lot of dollars quickly.

Permalink  2 Comments »  Filed under: Affiliate Marketing

Free Pre-Course: Start Your Blog and Get Traffic in 10 Minutes!

Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 5:44 pm by Anik Singal

Ros Gardner and I just launched a FREE Blogging Pre-Course to get everyone ready for the relaunch of our premium Blog Classroom course. If you haven’t signed up for the Pre-Course already, go here right now and watch the video where I explain everything.

Ros and I are doing a whole series of instructional videos on how to set up your blog and get traffic within 10 minutes (yes, just 10 minutes - we guarantee you’ll get traffic fast!). It’s basically a FULL blogging course with us, and it won’t cost you a dime.

Of course you know us, even though the course is free, there are homework assignments ! You can see what some students have already done by going here.

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll release even more free video instruction, plus we’ll do 2 webinars. And I’ve lined up some amazing interviews with some of the top bloggers in the world. All this is free, just go here now and sign up for the class.

On April 29th Ros and I will be launching the full version of Blog Classroom. If you take the Pre-Course, you will be well ahead of the game with an active blog that’s getting traffic (in fact, in the free course we show you how to get traffic within 10 minutes of your first blog post!).

Also don’t forget to tell your friends about our free blogging course - just send them to the video here. After all, blogs are about sharing - sharing ideas, information, and traffic.

So hey, if you and a friend both started a blog tonight, you could both be sharing traffic (even building a community) by tomorrow morning! Sound like fun? Just click here to start our Blog Classroom Pre-Course now!

Permalink  1 Comment »  Filed under: Affiliate Marketing

Video Marketing for Affiliates - Made Easy!

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 9:25 am by AC Staff

Once in a while a new service comes along that makes life so much easier for affiliates, we slap our foreheads and say “Why didn’t somebody think of this sooner?” We all know that video reviews of affiliate products can generate a lot of traffic and sales, but getting your video review online and in front of the right eyeballs can be a real challenge.

Now thanks to Customer Review Videos, both affiliates and consumers have a central place to post honest reviews of products and services.

And for affiliates, Customer Review Videos not only makes it easy to build video review web sites in just about any niche you want - you can also start making money with those videos in multiple ways.

Three members of our staff tested Customer Review Videos out. Let’s look at their findings…

Multiple Ways to Make Money

Membership to Customer Review Videos includes the ability to create squeeze pages AND build your own niche websites. You can easily embed brand new videos, or simply use videos that have already been placed on YouTube.

If that wasn’t enough, what really grabbed the attention of our reviewers were the many ways affiliates can make additional money. The system allows you to add all the proven components of a high conversion page such as “Get It Now” links, and eBay and Amazon links - all automatically coded with your affiliate URL.

But it isn’t just about making money from the video itself - which is pretty good on its own. Customer Review Videos adds in additional viral marketing benefits. For example, your referral ID gets embedded in the video, and you earn all additional commissions if someone adds a social bookmark (like with Digg), if someone embeds the video into their blog, or even they email the video to a friend.

Using the Site

Basic membership in Customer Review Videos is free, so you can sign up and look around with no risk. We were delighted to find that the interface was extremely easy to use (unlike some sites we’ve tried to figure out). Everything you might want to do is all laid out in a simple format.

What if you’re new to the whole video marketing game, or new to affiliate marketing? Detailed instructions are provided on how to select a niche, how to find a product and sign up as an affiliate, and how and where to search for appropriate videos.

The Platinum account is $69 a month, and completely worth it. You’ll need a Platinum account to do a few of the more advanced things, but it’s really a small price to pay for saving you so much time and money in building sites from scratch.

With the Platinum account you can:

• Build Squeeze Pages
  It doesn’t matter whether you have ever built a squeeze page before in your life. You are taken by the hand and guided through the process.
• Build Niche Websites
  We tested this out by inputting a video for our new Article Marketing site. This took all of 5 minutes to complete (of course, we did have the video already created on YouTube). But just being able to click a few times and build an actual site saved hours and hours, and we didn’t have to pay a web designer to do it.

To sum up Customer Review Videos:

Very easy to use.

With the Platinum account, you can quickly build video squeeze pages and niche websites.

Plenty of high quality videos to choose from, so you’re likely to find something that suits your niche.

Easy plug-ins to add multiple ways to make money (Amazon, eBay, etc.)

You can make a lot of additional money through viral video marketing - much more than simply embedding a video into your own site.

We give Customer Review Videos 5 stars - click here to check it out now!

IMPORTANT UPDATE - GET $20 OFF YOUR SUBSCRIPTION UNTIL APRIL 30!

Use coupon code april2008 when you checkout to get $20 off your monthly subscription for life.

Permalink  Post your comments »  Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Reviews

The Week’s Top Affiliate Marketing News Stories (April 16, 2008)

Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 12:04 am by Evelyn Grazini, AC Student and Staff Writer

Here are some of the interesting things that have been in the news lately:

Affiliate Summit Session Videos, Transcripts, Audio and Presentation Slides - If you’ve always wondered what type of information is delivered at the Affiliate Summit, you can now watch the videos, even if you didn’t register or go to the show. Here’s the password to get into the videos.

Free SEO Optimized WordPress Themes – Where to find search engine optimized WordPress themes that are SEO ready. This means they have been checked for hidden links, and errors, and are modified to be more efficient with Google, Yahoo, and other search engines.

How Will Mobile Browsing Change Web Marketing? - Here are 5 tips to make sure your web site is ready for the mobile future. Get your share of the 1.5 Billion future users!

New LinkConnector Affilate Widgets - Give your site more graphics and MORE affiliate income opportunities with Widgets. Find out more here.

Permalink  Post your comments »  Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Affiliate Marketing News