Continued from yesterday’s Affiliate Marketing Tips, Brian had several questions in regards to the various types of Affiliate Sites that you might create…

Great questions, too. I decided to create a new post so that you don’t miss my answers to these six questions on creating various types of affiliate sites.

1. Is there a chance you can post up an example of each of the affiliate sites you mentioned above that are successful, so we can see what they look like, and how they work?

Sure, but keep in mind that these are just examples, and you can easily find more by doing a simple search. Also, there are tons of styles and options so these don’t necessarily stand as the only way to do it or even as perfect examples…

Example Ecommerce-Style Affiliate Site:
exerciseequipmentexpert.com
exercise-n-fitness.com
simplynurserybedding.com

Example Affiliate Blog
ClickNewz.com
Roamsters.com (travel blog by Rosalind Gardner)

Example Affiliate Mini-Site
studentcreditcards.com (5 page site, not including blog)

Example Affiliate Squeeze Pages:
Jimmy D. Brown’s Small Reports Fortune
Michael Rasmussen’s Mini Site Profits Exposed

In addition to giving away a freebie to build a list, a lot of people will create & sell a low-cost info product to build a list of qualified buyers – instead of just a list. I actually favor that option over the giveaway model.

2. My understanding that in order to get ranked for a keyword, Google likes sites that are updated with fresh content consistently. So then how does an ‘Affiliate Squeeze Page’ or ‘Affiliate Mini-Site’ get ranked if it’s just put up with no fresh content?

That’s a bit of a myth actually. Google gives more weight to off-page optimization than on-page. Meaning that the number and quality of inbound links carries more weight than the content in regards to rankings.

A frequently updated page will get spidered more frequently, so this can be helpful if you’re adding new pages or new links to the site – as those links will get found and indexed more frequently if the page is spidered more frequently.

Google tends to crawl or spider your page on a frequency relative to the frequency of updates to that page.

This is the reason that new blog posts tend to get indexed super fast, especially on blogs that update daily. Google treats blog posts as newsy or current, and so they’ll often rank them fast & high… but they tank just as quickly as the ‘conversation’ dies or new content appears. See Rank & Tank.

If you have a static page that really doesn’t change much, such as a squeeze page or a mini-site, you just need to get fresh quality backlinks to that page on a regular basis to increase & maintain your rankings.

I have one web page that has been online for over 3 years, that I have not updated or changed since. It ranks in the Top 3 on Google for three different keyword phrases, and makes sales every single week.

3. Out of the above mentioned affiliate site models, which one have you found to be most successful in marketing affiliate products?

I use them all, and often use a combination of models in any one niche. It depends on what I am promoting, and how I can best reach that particular market.

In an earlier post where I answered a question on the best internet business model, you’ll find that I often use these combinations to take a project to max profit potential.

Using one of the site examples above, an ecommerce style site on exercise equipment, there are several options. You could create a free report outlining how to shop for exercise equipment online – features to consider, scams to be aware of, etc. You would create a squeeze page and build a mailing list for this.

You could also set up a blog to target all of the informational searches. I like to add a qualifier to my keyword research, so I would search “how exercise” and “how weight” and similar at WordTracker (or your favorite keyword tool) and create blog posts on all of those keyword phrases.

In both cases you would funnel the traffic into your “money site” (the ecommerce style site) using a strong call-to-action in your emails and blog posts.

No one affiliate model is going to be better than the others. The best model is a combination that works best in your particular niche, with your market, or with your type of product. There are many elements that go into this such as the age of your market, whether they are tech savvy, how they are searching, etc.

Understanding your market, doing your research, and even being a bit intuitive all help. But often you have to test to know for sure.

4. Is it easier to make money with a Affiliate Mini-Site or Squeeze Page site than a traditional blog site?

Not necessarily. I recommend that you build a mailing list in your niche regardless of your site model. You can offer a free guide or report to encourage them to subscribe from any type of site (ecommerce, content, blog).

One of the advantages to creating a Squeeze Page or Mini-Site for a low-cost digital product is that you can set up an affiliate program and let other people market it for you. A lot of people offer 100% commission on the product, basically paying their competitors to build their niche list of buyers.

5. I just realized that if you don’t like writing articles, there are other options out there for creating affiliate sites, which is cool, I just want to know if they are as successful as creating a traditional blog site?

Sure. You will need content regardless though. For article marketing, for example. The entire web is made up of various types of content. And there are tons of options for creating content. I use PLR, you can outsource content writing, doing interviews is a simple way to create great content, etc.

Also see: How to Optimize an Ecommerce Site

6. How do you determine what type of site to set up based on “Your market, your choice of keyword phrases, the type of product you are promoting, and how you reach your market”…how do you know or determine that?

It has to do with creating that “message to market match”.

If your buyer is searching for information, you have to offer them information first and then strategically lead them into a buying decision.

If they are searching for a specific product by name or type, they already know what they want – they don’t need to be distracted with “content”. In this case you would give them the best places to purchase online with direct links – including a breakdown of best prices and best shipping rates.

The best advice I can give you is to put some thought into the keyword phrases. Try to get in the shoes of your searcher and think about what they are searching for and why. What is the intent of the search? You then create your page that is optimized for that phrase to deliver exactly that.

Best,

p.s. Have questions or examples you want to share? Comment below!

Part EIGHT of the 10 Ways to Make Money Online Series

The 8th method that Jimmy D. Brown suggests to make money online is to “Tweak & Flip Info Products”. You’ll find this topic on pages 23-24 in your PDF.

In Chapter 1, we talked about creating info products. Chapter 8 is similar, except that you don’t have to actually write your own ebook content from scratch.

Jimmy suggests finding content with private label rights, which we generally refer to as PLR content.

PLR comes in all formats – audio, video, reports, ebooks, articles, e-courses, etc. Private label rights give you the option to modify the product, change the format, edit it in any way you like – and claim authorship on the final product.

This opens up A LOT of opportunity!

Even though 20, 200 or even 500 people might have the rights to this same product, very few of them will actually take any action. Of those that take action, most will simply use the PLOR product as-is, without any modifications whatsoever.

This is so true. How many of you have PLR content on your hard drive right now that you have never done anything with? Me too – guilty as charged! And we’re not alone. Most people download it and forget it. In fact, that’s true with most things when it comes to Internet Marketing. The very small percentage of people who actually take action are the ones making money online. Period.

All you have to do is invest an hour or so of your time to modify the product, thereby creating a new and unique product. Then you can change the title, create a new ecover graphic and tweak the sales letter!

It really is this ^ simple.

The great thing about PLR is the number of options that you have. You can use print PLR to create audio or video products. You can use a series of PLR articles to create a report or ebook. You can break a PLR ebook or report up into a series and use it in your autoresponder messages. That’s the beauty of PLR.

I recently bought several PLR packages from a variety of sellers, all on the same topic. I ended up with articles, reports, e-courses and even some videos. My goal is to take all of that PLR and combine it into one very complete ebook on the topic. There will also be plenty of material left over for blog posts, articles and an autoresponder series to complete the package to sell this ebook.

I have less than $100 invested for something that can earn thousands, and continue to earn on auto-pilot for years to come…

Quick Tip: You don’t even have to rework the product yourself! Visit elance or a similar site to find a competent freelancer willing to rewrite and tweak PLR content. Some will do it for just a few pennies per word.

Outsourcing the tweaks is a great idea, especially if you’re already super busy – or you just know you’ll never get around to it yourself. While you can find inexpensive freelancers at some of the popular freelancing sites, I prefer to work with people I know. I usually find them through my forum, my peer network, or through Twitter.

That’s my personal preference, though I’ve heard a lot of great success stories from people who used a site like elance.com or rentacoder.com.

Whatever you invest in rewrites, editing, or even cover graphics & sales page design, it is a drop in the bucket compared to what you can earn long-term with the finished product.

Fast and Easy!

It could take you weeks, or even months, to create your own product from scratch. Using PLR, you could easily have your own product ready to sell in a few short days.

Whether you’re creating short reports, ebooks, or any kind of info product for your market, consider using PLR content as your base. It’s much easier to modify existing content than to start out staring at a blank page with the pressure to write something brilliant!

If you’re not sure where to find good, quality PLR content try these two sources as a start:

• EasyPLR (Use Coupon Code: LYNNROCKS)
• Personal Development PLR

Also download the free 2-part report titled PLR Secrets that you see to the right if you haven’t already. That will give you a great head-start at figuring out how to write an ebook – the easy way!

Best,

p.s. There is an awesome deal this weekend only, expires on Monday, that you definitely want to check out: Special Report Club. Melissa is giving away a HUGE Internet Marketing PLR Package in a weekend fire-sale. A must-see if you need content for the “internet marketing” or “make money online” niches! This is a private offer, so click here to check it out now before it ends

Hi – again. I’m Nicole Dean and I’m a Guest Expert here this week as part of my Blog World Tour.

Yesterday, I chatted about the importance of having a list, but, more importantly the ease of setting up an ecourse. I’m a busy mom and enjoy travel. I go the easy route whenever I can. I count on my autoresponder to keep my business running whether I’m watching karate practice or reading bedtime stories.

If you missed the first post in this series, you can catch up here:  Easy Email Marketing for Busy Marketers

More Praise for Ecourses.

Here’s another reason why ecourses are wonderfully profitable – List Segmenting.

When done correctly an ecourse can help you to segment (and therefore, better serve) your list members. Therefore, when you set up your ecourse, you should be highly targeted in what you’re offering and to whom.

Untargeted Example (Don’t do this!)
I have a mailing list that I set up back in 2005 for work at home moms. Honestly, I never know what to send them. Do they want affiliate marketing info? Traffic generation tips? Content ideas? Infoproduct advice? It’s very hit-and-miss and I never quite feel like I’m able to build the type of relationship that I’d like to build with that list.

I also hear this from mom bloggers all the time. They start a site for moms, and then their lists don’t convert into money. Why? Because it’s very hard to write an email that resonates well with both moms of toddlers who need potty training advice and moms who are interested in helping their teens get through the teen years with their self-esteem in tact. You’d be all over the place, and couldn’t possibly help OR sell very well to either group.

Very targeted Example
Jimmy D. Brown’s PLR Special Offers list is highly responsive. (I know that because I’m his affiliate manager.) The site is simply an autoresponder series that sends special offers about quality internet marketing PLR reports and articles. Easy peasy.

If that sounds interesting to you, you can sign up free here: PLR Special Offers.

Big Tip! Make your Ecourse Appear to Be a Highly Valuable Gift.

Today we’ll move on to a few of the many ways to promote your ecourses, but first, I’ll share a big hint.

Set up a squeeze page for your ecourse on a hidden page of your website. This is handy for referring people to your ecourse as a bonus or freebie. Just be sure to name it something enticing – not www.yourdomain.com/ecourse.html

Name it www.yourdomain.com/gift or www.yourdomain.com/special so that it appears to have more value.

Other hints:

• Include a graphic representation for the ecourse or a special report that people will get when they sign up.
• Show a dollar value for every item that your list members will receive.
• Add testimonials to your squeeze page for your ecourse or for anything that you’ve done that’s relevant.

Then, once you have that set up on a hidden page, you can give the ecourse away as a bonus.

Where can you give away this new bonus of yours?

• When you are interviewed on podcasts, teleseminars, and webinars. During the interview, refer people to the free gift that they can receive just for being on the call.
• In your author bio in articles that you write. This is a great strategy to getting people to click through your author bio for their valuable freebie.
• Inside videos that you submit to YouTube. Offer the free ecourse as your call-to-action in the video.
• Mention the free gift inside all pdf reports that you create.
• Include the gift as a bonus for customers who purchase your products.
• And, of course, mention it during your other ecourses. While I don’t encourage you to automatically sign your readers up for info they didn’t sign up for, you can let them know about your other ecourses as they wrap up the one they’re reading.

Those are just a few ideas off the top of my head.

Picture a spider web. You know how all of the lines cross over each other? Your ecourses and offers should look like that. Lead your visitors from one piece of valuable content to another. (Note again: “Valuable”) Your readers should always feel like you’re overdelivering and be excited about your next ecourse/offer/etc.

Reminder: Resources to Learn More.

Did you read these yet? They won’t do you any good on your hard drive. (hint, hint)

How to Create an Ecourse in One Day

6 Steps to 6 Figures with List Marketing

I’ll be back tomorrow with more.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

Last week Nicole Dean was on vacation with her family here in Tennessee, which is where I live, and so we took the opportunity to get together and see some of the local sites.

We hiked Burgess Falls and toured Cumberland Caverns, and basically just hung out and had a fabulous time. This is not the first time I’ve met Nicole in person – we had roomed together at Willie Crawford’s event earlier this year too.

Nicole and I have become fast friends, and in addition to being an all-around fun person to hang out with… Nicole is truly brilliant. We talked for hours, shared resources, and even hung out here in my home office (where she totally raided my book shelf! ). Not only did I welcome her into my home, but I’ve also invited her to my blog – and would love for you to welcome her here too as she ‘takes over’ here at ClickNewz for the week…

Nicole is doing a Summer Blog Tour across the blogosphere. She is making appearances as a guest blogger at places like Sparkplugging, Bob “the teacher” Jenkins’ blog, Jimmy D. Brown’s blog – and this week: here at ClickNewz!

Her topic for us is “5 Ways to Promote an eCourse other than Adwords”. This should make for an excellent series and some great resources, no matter what you’re selling online.

Nicole is one of those people that practices what she teaches. She is a niche affiliate marketer, and a true online business owner, managing multiple websites in a wide variety of niches. She has a strong sense of integrity, a smart way of doing things, and personally… I pick her brain every chance I get!

We’ll be rooming together again in a couple of weeks for StomperNet Live 8 in Atlanta, and we’re also both attending the NAMS Workshop in August as well.

I hope you enjoy Nicole’s guest appearance here at ClickNewz, and her series on marketing. I’ll be reading along as well so I’ll join you in the comment area for the discussions following each post…

Give Nicole Dean a warm welcome, and Enjoy!

Best,

p.s. Things have been a bit quiet around here, so Nicole’s timing is fabulous. I’ve been super busy reworking Self-Starters Weekly Tips, which is my primary site and online community. So that’s where I’ll be this week while Nicole is taking over the reigns here at ClickNewz. Thank you, Nicole!

I have (very quietly) reopened membership into my Private Brainstorming Group, which will close again in the next 24 hours. Last time it remained closed for 6 months, so if you’d like to join us now would be a good time to do that!

Part SEVEN of the 10 Ways to Make Money Online Series

The 7th method that Jimmy D. Brown suggests for making money online is that you turn your digital info products into physical products. You’ll find this on pages 21-22 in your PDF.

If you missed the post in this series on creating your own info products, you’ll find that here.

Jimmy offers three reasons you may want to consider creating physical products:

1) They carry a higher perceived value.
2) Result in fewer refunds.
3) Position you as an expert and elevate your status within the niche.

Example: A small ebook package that you charge $100 for could easily become a $500 home study course. The actual printing cost ends up being just a few dollars per book… and you get the pocket the rest as pure profit!

Pros and Cons

There are actually a number of reasons you may want to turn your digital products into physical products. For starters, targeting your market offline with a mail order type campaign could prove to be very profitable.

If you plan to speak at industry events, you’ll want to offer a physical version of your info-product for sale. Even if you just attend conferences and meet-ups, sharing a copy of your book or a well-done CD will really get people’s attention.

All that aside, keep in mind that people get into the info-product business online because it’s easy. While you still have customer support & service to manage, there is no cost incurred in replacing digital products due to “lost shipment” (ie lost download link) and the overall risk is much lower.

Even if you use POD – or Print on Demand – services, lowering your upfront investment, you have the added task of dealing with shipping issues and damaged goods etc. These things ultimately affect your reputation – not the company that prints your product or fulfills your orders. I think we’ve all seen a few good examples of this in the IM industry over the last couple of years.

For those that prefer to keep the production in-house, it could easily become a full-time job. And if you are in a US state that has sales tax, you’ll need to register and collect that sales tax on orders shipped within your state. Ideally you’ll take the first option and use a POD or fulfillment company that will handle all of that for you.

Pricing & Format

Your info products can easily be formatted as hardcopy books, workbooks, home study courses, DVD or CD quality audio/video courses. Your first task is to look at the various options and choose the format that works best for your product.

Rosalind Gardner, for example, sells a paperback version of The Super Affiliate Handbook on Amazon.com for $53.10, or a digital version on her website that you can download for $47. (see my sneak peek post into Rosalind Gardner’s affiliate accounts)

It’s rare to pay $50+ for a paperback book, but it would be hard to sell the digital version for $47 if the paperwork were available at normal book rates. Does it sell at that price? Amazon.com states that 30% of the viewers buy, and it is listed as a bestseller in it’s category.

John Reese originally sold the Traffic Secrets Home Study Course for $997.00. He sold Traffic Secrets 2.0 for only $397.

Lately we’re seeing the top internet marketers move to lower price points, and working more toward a long-term continuity model. Even John Reese has recently released Opportunity.com, which is only $39.95/month.

The best way to choose your price point, whether your product is digital or physical, is to research similar products in your market that are selling well. Look at the price points of those products and price your producing comparatively.

Resources

Jimmy mentions a few resources in his guide for your printing and fulfillment needs: Lulu.com, CafePress.com and Disk.com. Another popular company to use is Kunaki.com.

If you know of similar resources for creating CDs, DVDs, or printing your info-products professionally please share them in the comments section below.

Best,

p.s. If you’re interested in self-publishing, my absolute favorite book on the topic is The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing by Tom & Marilyn Ross. I have the 3rd Edition, but I linked you to the newer 4th Edition on Amazon.com. A great resource if you’d like to self-publish a book on your topic!

Part SIX of the 10 Ways to Make Money Online Series

The 6th method that Jimmy D. Brown suggests for making money online is blogging. You’ll find this on pages 18-20 in your PDF.

Some of you may raise your eyebrows at the idea of making $10,000/month just by blogging, but I did a post almost 3 years ago featuring a number of people who were earning much more than that: Can Blogging Make You Rich?

All of the successful bloggers featured in that article devoted time and energy to a focused blogging project. They didnt set up 27 spam blogs (aka splogs) in 27 different niche markets and try to flip a switch on for automated profits…

So how do bloggers earn their bucks? A number of ways. And most use a combination of methods to monetize their blog. Jimmy outlines 4 ways to make money blogging in his report, and I’ll add a 5th:

• Promoting Your Own Products
• Promoting Affiliate Programs
• Google Adsense
• Accepting Donations
• Selling Ad Space

The most important thing that you can do is define your purpose upfront. This will help you choose the best combination of ways to make money blogging. For example, if you set up a blog as a means to promote your own products then it doesn’t make sense to also use Google Adsense – which will likely publish links that compete with yours for the buyers’ attention. Would you want to lose a potential lifelong customer in exchange for 23 cents? I didn’t think so…

When you define your blog’s purpose, it should include more than just your monetization strategy. You also want to consider what’s in it for the visitor. You need to know who will read your blog, and why they will read it.

The biggest mistake I see people make with blogging is too much focus on making money, and not enough focus on building a readership and staying true to the original purpose of the blog.

I’m going to leave you with 3 links for now, and of course you’ll want to read this section in your PDF file and check out the link I mentioned earlier – there are some good tips there, still as true today as they were 3 years ago.

The first is a new post by Darren Rowse, aka Problogger – and the other two are for setting up a blog:

How to Optimize Ads on a Blog for Higher Profit

Checklist: How To Start A WordPress Blog

Are you struggling to set up a blog?

Are you blogging? I’d love to hear your thoughts & experiences with blogging as a means to make money online. Leave us a comment below, and as always feel free to post your blogging questions as well!

Best,

p.s. You can still get 25% off the Beginning Blogger course by using this link: http://beginningblogger.com/LTspecial.html

Part FIVE of the 10 Ways to Make Money Online Series

By now I assume you have already downloaded and read the special report by Jimmy D. Brown that we’re discussing in this 10-part series. If not, click the link above to see the original post and download the 30-page report.

The 5th method that Jimmy discusses for making money online is website flipping, or to buy and sell websites for profit. See pages 16-17 in your PDF. Jimmy suggests one of two models, or a combination of both: creating and selling websites, or buying websites to resell…

Whether you create the websites yourself, or buy them cheap at various places online, you will earn a much higher return by investing time into the profit potential. A website that is already monetized, getting traffic and proving it’s earning potential will command a much higher selling price.

Spend a few months building the content, traffic and income – and then you can sell the site at a much higher price. Since the site is pulling in traffic and a profit (even if it’s a small profit), it commands a higher price because there’s proof that it’s profitable. People are now buying into proven profits rather than profit potential. (page 16)

The general rule of thumb for the price point is 12-months earnings. So if the site is earning $100 consistently every month, you can sell it for around $1,200.

Let me just stop there and make a confession: I’ve never sold a website, or purchased a website with the intention to resell. I’ve browsed the listings, and I’ve watched a few people go through the process, but I have never actively participated in this particular method of making money online.

That’s one of the great things about writing this series from Jimmy’s 10-point report: getting to explore methods and topics that I wouldn’t normally bring up for discussion here on ClickNewz. I think it is incredibly useful in helping us all to expand our vision on the opportunities available, don’t you?

Here’s my line of thinking:

If I have a website that is fairly new, say around 90 days old, and consistently making $100/month… I don’t say to myself, “I could sell this today for $1200!”.

My mind doesn’t work that way. Instead I say, “I could triple the earnings on this site easily by investing some time into it now, and earn more than $3,000 over the next year.”

Not only could I tweak the site until it’s running at it’s full earning potential, and let it continue to run and generate passive income on the side while I work on other projects… but that little site has even more potential for me in the long run. As it becomes more established in the search engines, it also begins to have link value among other things.

Now this could be considered smart thinking, or it could be completely flawed.

If you know yourself well enough to realize you’ll leave that poor little site sitting on the back burner and never really do anything with it, you may be better off selling it to someone who will.

How many people have websites, or even just domain names, sitting on the back burner? That would be 99.9% of us, I’m sure . That being the case, it’s like eBay: it makes sense to “clean house” and put the cash back into what you are actively working on in your online business.

I can also see where Website Flipping would be an ideal model for the person who has high energy in the start-up phase, but has discovered they have zero follow-through on any project they start. If you have half a dozen low-profit website projects scattered around, but fail to follow through on any of them to substantial profit, this may just be the perfect online business model for you.

It’s also worth pointing out that you should always consider selling over just deleting a website or letting a domain expire. I have seen this happen so many times over the years, and it always stumps me. Keep in mind that one man’s virtual junk is another man’s virtual treasure

I’ll close this post with some helpful resources on how to buy and sell websites, and open this up for discussion in the comments. You can right-click on each link to open it in a new tab or a new browser window.

Resources:

• Finding Websites to Flip
• Flipping a WordPress Blog
• Shopping For Websites: What Makes Them Valuable
• How To Buy A Website And Flip It For Profit
• Case Study – Flipping a Site for Profit

I’d love to hear your thoughts, or your personal experiences if you’ve dabbled in Website Flipping yourself.

Best,

p.s. Jimmy recommended Flip Mastery in his report, as the best (and most current) course for learning more about Website Flipping: