Status Update: Marketing Operations

I will start with a little background. I am doing affiliate marketing, and I have been part of an affiliate network for quite some time now. The perk of being part of a network is that you:

1. Do not have to busy yourself with setting up new affiliate programs as the network is busy doing that for you.
2. You do not need to busy yourself with the ever changing legalities of contracts between affiliate and merchant.
3. In my case, one does not need to worry about the maintenance of the actual affiliate website. (Though I am responsible for the layout, tracking code, and whatnot)
4. Following 3, one does not have to be busy with keeping the website in compliance with each of the affiliate offers, as the network does that.
5. This frees the affiliate up to focus on the pure marketing of the website via CPC/CPM campaigns, SEO, and other efforts/innovations.

Now, in keeping with the above points, it does not mean that one can become complacent with the way the website is being run, nor the way traffic is going to and from the site. Though my marketing efforts, focus on back-links and link popularity I ran across an issue. My Google links seemed to be pointing to another site that, while very similar to mine, was not mine. This is not my CPC/CPM ads that I am talking about. I am talking about back-links. That raised a big red flag, and led me to begin the process of talking to those that maintain my website, as well as Google. I am still working on getting that straightened out but it is important to note how this sort of mix-up can easily happen.

I do not know if there are others out there that have a similar kind of structured affiliate business, but I do urge vigilance when it comes to making sure everything is in order, from page links, all the way down to back links. It does no good to have all of your efforts go to benefit someone else.

I will continue writing about how things go and how the situation was solved as the days progress.

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Internet Marketing: Amazon Affiliate Program

This is an easy one. For those of us that have blogs, or even websites, it is a win-win situation. By that I mean it costs nothing join the Amazon affiliate program, and only involves a few minutes of your time to register for the program.

To get started you will have to first go to the Amazon affiliate program’s main page. Once there you either must sign up (register) if you do not already have an account with Amazon, or sign in using your existing credentials.

Once you have registered and or signed in you will be directed to enter a website URL to the site that you wish to display ads on.

 

After entering your site URL, you will be asked to enter information for the method in which you wish to be paid. This will require you to enter individual tax information , or business tax information if you will be doing this through a business entity. When I started this blog I spent a little time talking about the merits of setting up one business type over another. I chose S-Corp. You can have a look at earlier posts for how to go about doing that and why it is a good idea. The tax information is for them to be able to send you tax forms, as it would be another form of personal or business income which must be reported.

Now then, you must note the choices at the bottom of the form. I personally like the direct deposit option. Being paid by check requires a fee for each check paid to you. That eats into profits so I would stay away from that one.

Once you have completed this step you should take the “Get Started Now” tour just to become familiar with the process. The “Get Started Now” button is on the left frame of the page. You will find as you go through the tour that there are a few ways to “monetize” your site with Amazon content. You can use links in the body of your pages, you can use banners, and widgets, and even an online store containing Amazon items.

Throughout the tour you are able to create banners, links, and your aStore (Amazon Store). You will also see reporting tools so you can track your progress in the Amazon program.

Once you have created content within Amazon, all that remains is taking the new content to your blog or website. For example. My blog is primarily about business, marketing, and affiliate programs, so I will place books/software on such topics within my Amazon content. You will most likely see such content appear in my blog in the coming days.

So, there you have it. Another tool to perhaps further monetize your marketing/business efforts.

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Free Marketing Strategies: Social Bookmarking

I touched on social bookmarking in the past but really did not really give details about the benefits of social bookmarking and the types of things that can be done within the bookmarking community. A few sites to consider are:

• stumbleupon.com
• digg.com
• del.icio.us
• reddit.com

The premise of social bookmarking is the allowance to bookmark sites of interest on the actual bookmarking site rather than on your desktop, allowing you to access to your bookmarks from any computer. I am sure you are thinking, how would that possibly help me with marketing my business. I urge you to keep reading as it will become clear momentarily.

The added perk to being able to bookmark sites online rather than on your desktop is the added flexibility that is involved. You are able to add comments to the bookmark, leave comments/feedback for the owner of the website, submit your own sites into this pool of sites that can be bookmarked, as well as others being able to see. You can share these bookmarks/interests with family and friends.

For sites like stumbleupon, and digg, the point is to leave reviews for websites. Start at 20 reviews. Once you have reached that point start adding others as friends. Continue reviewing sites. Most typically when you review sites of others that will have a look at your site and or review your site as well. Once your network of friends is large enough you can do interesting things like request that users look at your blog, or websites, and even request that they click on adsense links. I am sure now you are wondering why someone would do that. To understand that you would first need to understand the nature of those that are regular bookmarkers. Those that are regulars on the sites are really serious about what they are doing. So, if you were to suggest such things to them they would actually follow suit. Keep in mind that courtesy states that if this is done for you, if others have such a request you should also play along.

For example: You have an instance where you update your blog, and you simply let your bookmarking friends know about the post, and while they are there you ask that they click on an adsense link or two. It is a simple yet interesting way to drive additional traffic to your site(s).

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Internet Marketing: Tip Of The Day

For my friends that are also doing affiliate marketing, and more specifically online malls, and credit cards here are the hot deals.

Online Mall:

1. Reservatrol
2. iDebtAssistance.com

Credit Cards:

1. Identity Lookout
2. GoFreeCredit.com

I have mentioned these here because they are high converting offers. So if they are within your network or you are part of their affiliate programs, it is in your best interest to implement campaigns to market these items.

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Google Page Rank: On The Move Again

It looks like Google is messing with the page rank algorithm again. I have once again noted that my page rank is changing, and not for the better. I mention this because I have been keeping my efforts constant. What efforts? The social bookmarking, blog entries, web directory entries, and the efforts to make CPC ads as relevant as possible.

Again news and blogs are buzzing to the tune of changes that Google is implementing. There is a rumor that Google will shake up how they deal with backlinks and give less relevance to less relevant backlinks. There are complaints of page ranks changing several times a day at this point. There is a webmasterworld.com post stating:

“I received a communication last night that discussed a buzz going around that Google is going to shake up how it deals with backlinks. Specifically that Google is going to give less weight to less relevant linkage. This source also heard from another direction that a big change was coming in the next few days. “

I guess for the most part there when creating backlinks we are working in a scope of relevancy so there would be no need to worry about a change such as this, but it is still worrisome.

I guess only time will tell how things will be once all the changes are implemented. If anyone has any input on this, please leave a comment.

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