Start Affiliate Blog - Step by step and COOL Tools

[Linda Buquet]

Discover new tips and tools for using blogs to generate affiliate marketing revenue in this dynamic, short, easy video. Even if you are somewhat of a pro I guarantee you'll get resources you didn't know about. You know I "LIVE" affiliate marketing and blogging and I learned a couple new tricks. If you are a newbie this video will show you step by step exactly what to do.

Below I'll give you direct links to some of the <strong>FREE tools</strong> used in this video so you can put this info into action right away! Ross Goldberg owner of <a target="_new" href="http://www.diamondseo.com/">DiamondSeo</a> did the video.<center><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RQnG04zKem4"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RQnG04zKem4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></center>

NOTE: The video starts off by setting up a free blogger account, which if you are a N00B is a good way to go. If you are mid level or pro, I recommend Wordpress on your own domain, but everything Ross teaches can be used either way. I'm also not a big CB fan, but as he mentions, you could use these tool and techniques for any type of affiliate programs.

VERY COOL NEW TIP - Didn't know about this one. <strong><a target="_new" href="http://www.submitemnow.com/">Submit'em Now FREE FireFox extension</a></strong>. Submits your blog to 113 blog directories and rss directories. To install click the link for the Submit'em Now (Build 11.10.06).

<a target="_new" href="http://clickbank.rssfeedsgenerator.com/">ClickBank RSS FEED GENERATOR</a>. <strong>NOTE: this tool will also let you pull RSS feeds from Amazon and Ebay and does lots of other cool things too. </strong> WARNING - I have no reason to suspect the person giving this tool away for FREE is dishonest. However I would ALWAYS be very careful about any free service where you have to enter your affiliate ID online. Again it may be just fine, but we all know how easily CB links can be changed, so just double check your feed output to be sure all the links are using your ID.

Ross also uses <a target="_new" href="http://www.squidoo.com/">Squidoo</a>, as a tool to drive traffic back to his blog.

Another tool Ross mentions is <a target="_new" href="http://www.pingoat.com/">Pingoat</a>, for pinging your blog after every new blog entry you write. I use Pingoat a lot because it pings more services than Pingomatic and is much faster than pingo.

Happy blogging and happy selling!

 

[Franck S]

Thanks Linda, I will start to submit my blogs to directories now. It's on my to do list for months.

 

[sfod223]

Thanks for the tool Linda..just finished pinging a few of my blogs.

 

[Linda Buquet]

You're welcome guys. Go GET 'em!

 

[Franck S]

Linda, if you didn't, I suggest you to get the authority black book. It is an excellent read,I'd rather say you need to read it really.

It's from Jack Humphrey. I blogged about it. I will be definitively using the techniques in the ebook.

I realized that I really like blogging (I started to blog just to drive traffic to my site), but now Wordpress, Joomla and CMS are becoming the big players over static html sites.

People love them and SE love them. It's a win win situation.

 

[Dorian]

How can I have my autoresponer account automatically send my list an email every tme I update a blog or page like that?

Thanks.

 

[TheCaymanHost]

There are some useful tips there and I'll add another link (not an affiliate one) for those who like the idea of a Clickbank feed but either can't afford or don't want to pay for the service. (This won't serve Amazon or Ebay) You'll have to give up an email address but that's it.

It takes a few seconds to grab your chosen feeds by category and keywords if you choose.

Simple, free and it works.
Ambatch Clickbank Feeds Delivered By RSS

Mo

 

[scorpion68a]

Autoresponder sending notice of new blog posts

If you use Wordpress, then all you have to do is import your subscribers list into it. They will get an email each time you publish a new post.

 

[Linda Buquet]

HI Simonne,

Cute kitty!

Really? I've had Wordpress forever and I didn't know you could do that.
I still have an older version. Is this something new?

Where do you do it? There's no place for subscribers in my admin.
I think you must be referring to a plug-in that does this?

 

[scorpion68a]

Wordpress subscriptions

Hi Linda,

I'm glad you like my kitty.

Yes, I use a plugin, I should have mentioned that. It is called subscribe2 and you can get it from here: Subscribe2 Plugin

 

[Linda Buquet]

Oh cool, thanks for the info. Could come in handy some day.

 

[kuraykillua]

I don't quite understand how that will bring in sales...
I used to use a personal blog, and blogged everyday continuously for about two and a half years. My readers were 99%, my friends. Average 1.5 page views per post.
I've had other blogs, and I ran into similar problems (nobody reads it). Even when I submitted to blog directories, which appears to make no difference. I've had keyword rich content I wrote myself, and I don't think it ever shown up in search engines.
I think it's safe to assume that putting an affiliate link will not increase my traffic.
I'm sure there's something important I'm missing here but as usual I can't figure out what.
Also, posting on related forums. Sometimes there are no forums for my niche, because there just isn't much to talk about, or there are basically empty forums.
I'm sure many people ran into these problems. What were your solutions?

 

[kuraykillua]

Is it just me but the clickbank rss feeds gen site doesn't work right now.
-k

 

[TheCaymanHost]

I don't quite understand how that will bring in sales...
I used to use a personal blog, and blogged everyday continuously for about two and a half years. My readers were 99%, my friends. Average 1.5 page views per post.
I've had other blogs, and I ran into similar problems (nobody reads it). Even when I submitted to blog directories, which appears to make no difference. I've had keyword rich content I wrote myself, and I don't think it ever shown up in search engines.

Hi kuraykillua

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking here but I'll respond as best I can with regard to your blogging efforts.

If your niche is really obscure, there is a possibility that there just isn't much of an audience it's true, but by the same token there should also be little in the way of competition. Having said that, your results do sound rather poor from your blog, which shouldn't be the case.

I don't know if you were using a free blogging platform or were hosting your own but there are several things to bear in mind when trying to drive more traffic to your blog.

Make sure that you do everything in your power to make your blog SE friendly. This includes SE friendly URL's for all your posts, use relevant keywords in all post titles, be sure to ping all the major blog and rss sites every time you update your blog, submit some of your posts to the social bookmarking sites, use relevant 'tags' so that people can find your posts. Do make sure to claim your blogs at Technorati, subscribe to your own feeds through the big names such as Google, Yahoo and MSN to ensure that they will spider and update your postings.

Use free keyword tools to give you an idea just how many searches take place for the subject you are writing about and tailor your posts to get the best results. i.e. if your writing about "blue square widgets" and there are 500 searches a day for that term but 5000 a day for "specialist blue square widgets" work the term into your writing that is likely to bring you the most visitors, as long as they are relevant to the content naturally.

Whatever blogging software you use there are plenty of sites dedicated to helping you get your blog set up to be as SE friendly as possible - Wordpress has countless plugins to ensure that you are making your pages and posts as attractive to the spiders and robots as possible, as do Nucleus CMS - I use both platforms with reasonable success in terms of traffic generation and it doesn't take long to start getting visitors.

You can continuously tweak your blog to improve your results. Sometimes, just choosing a hot topic and writing a post about it can bring you thousands of visitors almost overnight. The first time I ever did this was pure luck, but it made me realize that if you can get a good post in early about something that is likely to generate a lot of interest/controversy/argument and choose the right keyphrases it can often go on bringing you visitors for weeks or months ahead.

Read up on the blogging forums here and seek out other sites where bloggers talk about SEO and the like, there is no shortage of them.

Affiliate links may not bring you more traffic (they can do but this is dependent on a huge number of factors) but the internet is a numbers game - the more people who land on your pages, the greater the chances of them clicking on relevant ads, be they PPC or affiliate links. If you don't have any such links, well............So, in short, there is no guarantee of sales, but much you can do to move the odds a little more in your favor.

I hope this helps a little and points you in the right direction.

Mo - TCH

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks so much Mo for the long in-depth answer.
I appreciate so much that you try to help other members!

Long distance hug being sent virtually your way!

 

[andreww]

Hi,
I've been affiliate marketing, primarily through my blog and started generating income from my first month of Internet Marketing.

Affiliate blogging is like SEO, there's on-site optimization and off-site optimization.

If you've already got the on-site element of your blogging down pat, then you need to look at the off-site element.

Are you posting on related blogs in your niche?
Are you posting on related forums in your niche?
Blogging-related communities like MyBlogLog? Or Google's Blog Search?
How about social bookmaking sites? Like Digg, delicious, stumbleupon?
Have you done JVs, or joint promos with other marketers/content owners in your niche?

I get about 800-1500 uniques per day to my blog, and a lot of it has to do with having a concrete strategy in place.

I'd say, just like SEO, off-site is MORE important than on-site blog optimization.

If you're being more reactive, than proactive, your results will speak for themselves.

I'm not really 'blame-storming' here, but giving you some ideas that if you were to act upon it, would generate you very satisfactory results.

 

[Linda Buquet]

More great feedback.

Thanks so much Andrew!

 

[andreww]

Hi Linda,
My pleasure.

From personal experience, in Internet Marketing a lot of your success comes from your network and alliance of partners. That's why events like Affiliate Summit, SES, ecomxpo are great events to head to and build up your contact base.

You do have to shell out a bit to buy tickets for the events, but I've easily got 100 times what I paid to attend, in terms of joint projects and new business.

 

[TheCaymanHost]

Thanks Linda.....I've earned several things online but never a hug from a forum moderator, could be worth blogging about LOL!

Anyhow, you're welcome. I've received several insights from these pages - and after all forums are about helping each other out.

I think Andrewwee has added a lot of good points to the discussion too and filled in a few more blanks.

Mo - TCH

 

[Linda Buquet]

"I've earned several things online but never a hug from a forum moderator, could be worth blogging about LOL!"

I'm sure you've never gotten a virtual hug from a forum owner either!
Blog that! You'll get a pingback out of the deal. Plus another hug!