Affiliate Marketing Blog

How to Drive Organic Search Traffic to an Affiliate Site in No Time [Case Study]

jasonacidre — Mon, 20 May 2013 16:32:12 +0000

Despite the negative impact of Google's algorithm updates to many affiliate sites these past 3 years, many experts still believe that affiliate marketing will still be a very profitable online business model (well, I also do).

The truth is, most affiliate sites are hit by updates such as Panda and Penguin, not because of their site’s build/form/architecture or because they are just 3rd party sites. I believe that it’s mostly caused by the tactics many have used in the past that they have thought will be forever effective.

But if you're offering real value and great experiences to your visitors, I'm certain that it would be a different story. That's what both Google and users are after anyway. It's best to keep this principle in mind.

Anyway, I've been testing a lot of things these past few months, particularly in proving that building a steady growth in search traffic to an affiliate site is still very possible.

I have this basic formula when it comes to search engine optimization, which I also believe will work efficiently on any type of website – and yes, even on affiliate sites.

The core concept of this formula is based around 2 basic SEO principles:

Optimize the site for both users and search engines (basically means making it easier for users and search engines to access the site).
Create signals to build trust, authority and more traffic/usage data.

So in this post, I’ll be using two affiliate sites as samples (a relationship advice blog and a gaming guide site). These sites are owned by friends that I’ve been helping out for several weeks now, and I’m really grateful that they allowed me to use their data for this study.

Both sites have shown tremendous improvements in terms of its organic search traffic since I started working on them:

Relationship advice blog (which had 765% increase in search traffic since I started working on it on the first week of January 2013)

Gaming guide site (which was only launched last March 4, 2013, is continuously getting solid search traffic since we’ve started – and now reaching almost 500 search visitors a day).

Now let’s get to the part where I share the very replicable process we have come up that can easily generate search traffic to an affiliate website.

Step 1 - Build a Site First

You’ll definitely need to put up a site first. Both of the sites I’ve shared as examples above are built using the AffiloTheme and were also based on AffiloJetpack’s model.

Along with the process of building your affiliate site, make sure that you’ve also done keyword research, as it’s very important in building your site’s content strategy and site architecture.

Also, the great thing about using AffiloTheme for your affiliate sites is that it can easily help your sites become more search-friendly.

Another thing that you might want to consider is hiring a good copywriter who can continuously build content for your site. You can usually hire a freelance writer for $5 - $20 per article (depends on the length and depth of the content you need).

Step 2 - Optimize Your Site & Its Key Pages

Once your site is up and running, it’s important to optimize it for both users and search engines. I have covered a few things that you can optimize on your site on my last post here on Affilorama.

Publish new content on a regular basis

Focus your content strategy on the keywords that your site will be targeting (based from your keyword research). Having new content on the site on a regular basis is a good signal that search engines can use to recrawl, index and re-rank your site’s inner pages.

Implement Authorship Markup

Authorship markup is a great trust indicator for both searchers and search crawlers. It will also prepare your site for the future, once Google start using AuthorRank as a ranking factor.

Another advantage of having authorship markup is that it increases your site’s search listing click-through rate.

For more tips on this, you can check out AJ Kohn’s step-by-step guide on how to implement authorship markups.

Basic and Advanced SEO for your affiliate site

There are ton of things that you can do to make it easier for search engines to access and understand your site’s pages. For basic on-site optimization techniques you can check out Affilorama’s free SEO lessons.

And you can also check out my extensive guide on advanced SEO tactics once you’re through with the basic optimizations.

Step 3 - Build Strong & Appropriate Signals

Building signals – the right ones – is the other vital part of getting steady flow of search-driven traffic. There are so many types of signals that you can create for your site to be found by search engines and users. They could come in the form of links, brand mentions and/or social shares.

In this part, I have a few rules or set of metrics that we strictly follow. Since the main point of building signals is to build trust, to pass authority and to ensure that search engines will regularly see the constant changes happening on the site.

The main metrics we use to identify sites where we want to get signals from are:

Have high domain authority (DA).
High-traffic sites (which can be measured through Alexa Rank, Compete or SEMRush traffic price).
Topical relevance of the site that we’ll be acquiring links from.

Signal building, in my opinion, is quite different with the link building that most of us have been accustomed to.

Because in building strong signals, you don’t need hundreds of unique root domains or sites linking back to yours. In this marketing practice, you’ll only need a few (like 3 – 5 strong domains or high traffic publications in your niche/industry) where you can continuously build signals from – that can send strong signals to search engines, and also send back qualified referred traffic to your site.

Finding high quality sites to build signals from

There are plenty of ways to find sites where you can get high quality links and signals from. Start with Google Search (you can also try this link prospecting method in making the process faster).

On our experiment, we’ve focused on finding high-traffic and high-DA publications that accept regular contributors. We chose 5 high quality sites where we can contribute content regularly to (so that we can build strong signals through them whenever we do changes/improvements on the site).

Basically, the main objective of getting signals from high-quality sites is to make certain that search engines will recrawl and recalculate the site’s overall search rankings every time we add new content or reoptimize some of its already existing pages (which I’ll be discussing next).

Step 4 - Study Analytics Search Traffic Data & Optimize For Effective Long-Tails

For a new site, if you’ve followed everything mentioned above, then you’ll probably have a few useful data that you can extract from your Google Analytic’s search traffic data on your first 2 weeks.

Download the list of keywords sending traffic to your site from Google Analytics (in CSV format). Identify the keywords (especially the long-tail keywords) that have high-engagement rates. You can easily determine these keywords by looking closely on these 2 metrics:

Average Visit Duration
% New Visits

Segment and make a list of the keywords that have good engagement rates (have high time on page and have high percentage of new visitors).

Reoptimize the pages where these effective long-tail keywords are sending qualified and targeted traffic to. Here are the areas of the page(s) that you can optimize them for or areas where you can include your newly found long-tail keywords:

Title tags
Meta descriptions
Internal links

The purpose of doing this kind of optimization is to achieve better search rankings for the search terms that are already sending your site good traffic (which can easily convert).

For more tips on using this method, you can read my comprehensive guide on increasing your search traffic using Google Analytics and basic on-site reoptimization.

Step 5 - Scale The Process

We’re continuously growing the search traffic of the 2 affiliate sites I’ve cited by simply being consistent in implementing Step 2 to Step 4.

We’re constantly adding more new content on the site (on a weekly basis), so that we can target more keywords that will send traffic and potential leads to the site.
The more we grow the number of inner pages on the site, the more we can get keyword data from their Analytics. This translates to more opportunities (effective long-tails) that we can uncover and target, by continuously reoptimizing the site.
We are continuously building signals to the site as we grow its pages and along the reoptimization processes we implement. This allows search engines to see the continual changes happening on the sites, and thus impact the sites’ ranking ability.

The entire process is not tedious and it’s so easy-to-replicate. We’ve even proven this to work in less than a month (and not just once).

If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment below. You can also follow me on Twitter @jasonacidre.

What if I had to start again?

markling — Thu, 09 May 2013 01:51:09 +0000

Hi everyone,

I recently received a question from one of my students and I thought I'd answer it here as a blog post.

"What would you do if you had to start all over again?"

Well, to answer that question in detail, I'll give you some background on what worked when I first started, what I'm doing now, and then what I would do if I had to start over from scratch....

When I first started in affiliate marketing back in 1999, it was almost too easy. You'd put a webpage online, put the keywords you wanted to target in the title and headline of the page, submit it to yahoo, excite, etc, and bam... a week or 2 later you were ranking #1 in yahoo, and top 10 in excite for that search term.

Earning money as an affiliate was easy, so long as you picked the right search terms and a profitable affiliate program.

Nowadays I'm doing extremely well in affiliate marketing, but not in the same way.

I've had to do more than just be the middle man. Unless you have a big budget for doing media buys and driving traffic directly to CPA offers, then you'll need to do what I do, which is build authority sites, and build a newsletter mailing list.

An authority site is where you build a website that has a substantial amount of great quality content on your niche, and one that you keep building on over time to make it better and better (as opposed to a tiny set-and-forget website).

In niches where I'm doing really well, I usually have chosen to create my own products too. That way I can bring higher quality products to the niche and affiliates can also promote my products.

Right now, I'm working on entering the Paleo niche (it's basically a raw food diet). This is a project that we're working on, on the side, so it doesn't take up too much time each day.

A few of my staff and I have been filming ourselves cooking a lot of different Paleo friendly dishes, our intention is to launch a website with 100+ different recipes, videos etc. And later monetize the website with affiliate weight loss offers and also eventually with our own Paleo products, including kindle books.

In fact, the plan is to launch our first Paleo kindle book in a couple of weeks from now, even before the site itself is online in its fullest form.

We have already been filming a lot of these recipes etc, so we plan on releasing a kindle book that has 25 of these recipes, this book will be on Paleo Smoothie Recipes, and then we'll sell it for say $2.99.

People will then be able to go and opt in to our mailing list in order to get access to the video versions of these recipes.

We'll then build a relationship by releasing great quality free recipes and weight loss tips in our newsletter, and we'll monetize the newsletter with affiliate promotions of high quality weight loss offers, and also the occasional promotion of our own kindle book(s).

Later we'll create and sell our own larger Paleo related digital product, that affiliates can also promote.

I've mentioned the Paleo example because it relates to the initial question of what I'd do if I had to start all over again.

I do already own some really high performing websites, particularly in personal development related niches such as dating and relationships e.g. www.meetyoursweet.com

However that kind of website would be tricky to build right away if I had to start again from scratch.

Starting from scratch, I'd plan out an authority site in a niche that I was interested in. In this case, I am starting from scratch in the Paleo niche.

I'd then look to create a 30-60 page book for release on Amazon Kindle, at the same time as planning and making content for the website.

I'd make some sort of 'opt in bribe' to encourage people to opt in to my newsletter series.

Then I'd produce an autoresponder series that included a lot of high quality relevant content, and promotions of relevant products.

If anyone bought my kindle book, then I'd hope that maybe 30-40% of them would opt in to my mailing list (as I'd link people to the opt in bribe).

I'd also be doing a lot of guest blogging, and participating on forums and the like in order to spread word about my website and the kindle book, to get it off the ground.

If I had the money I may even buy traffic to start building that mailing list faster.

If things were going well, I would either grow the website to get more natural organic traffic and/or make more kindle books.

And at some point I'd make a product that other affiliates can sell and earn commissions from promoting.

The real money is in the list, the key is to build a strong relationship with that list by providing great quality content, and then to promote products that will enhance their lives.

I hope this answers the question and that I haven't blabbed on for too long here :)

I look forward to your comments and suggestions!

All the best to your success,

Mark Ling

AffiloTools Easter Egg!

jonathan_l — Mon, 20 May 2013 04:02:02 +0000

Hello all!

Remember those new AffiloTools dashboard redesigns I told you about a few weeks ago?

Just a quick easter egg for your weekend - the first of those design/usability changes is now available!

If you log into AffiloTools, you should see our new, designs in the header navigation and sidebar.

There's still some stuff from the old designs and color scheme which won't change just yet (e.g. the project dropdown), but the sidebar menu should already look better and be more usable!

Enjoy!

Get early access to the Beta with an Affilorama Premium Trial; click here to get started

P.S. Did you know: any redesigned part of Affilorama can now be used on a mobile browser? We'll be bringing the same functionality to AffiloTools soon :)

Make Traffic Count - How To Convert Traffic Into Sales

marytordecilla — Fri, 17 May 2013 02:15:53 +0000

The primary goal of internet marketing is to bring traffic to a website. But let’s face it: While a lot of us are successful in bringing in traffic to our website, this does not mean that we are successful at our marketing campaign unless we make a sale.

Unfortunately, it has never been easy to convert website traffic into sales. A lot of websites are very successful in attracting visitors but very few can really convert visitors into customers.

If you are not gaining any sale from your web traffic, you are wasting a lot of your time, energy, and money in your marketing campaign. If this is the case then it’s time to re-evaluate things and figure out what’s wrong with your online strategy.

Below are handy online marketing tips that can significantly contribute change to visitor response rate in your website:

The target market

When it comes to your market, it is very important that you really ‘target’ your website visitors. The more targeted your market is, the better it is for you to provide them the right information that cater to their needs.

Additionally, try to find visitors who are ready to buy. You can do this by carefully selecting your keywords. While it is better to consider high volume searches like women's watches, try to also get more specific keywords like product names such as Timex GPS watch or Timex 1440 Sports.

If you are successful at targeting your market by choosing carefully your keywords, it’ll be easier for you to attend to their specific needs and you’ll be able to easily address these needs in your marketing materials.

Content

After you conduct a thorough research of your target market, the next step is to figure out how to effectively communicate with them.

It is very important that you consider “humanizing” your content rather than being too sale-sy. For example, instead of providing customers with 500-800 word content on the benefits of using your product why not give them something that will connect you to them personally? You may write something about how your previous customers felt and experienced after using the product.

Of course, if you are able to target your market, you should also be successful in creating the right content for your market. This means that you supply your market with complete and right details as much as possible. This is another way to connect to your market.

If your website is about hair straighteners, do not just provide your readers a list of products with pictures. Try to give as much information as possible to fulfil your market’s need for information. You should also include important details like features, pricing, and reviews.

The problem with most website owners is that they supply information that does not really ‘connect’ to their target market. Again, it is very important that you think of your market- what are they looking for in the first place? What are their needs?

Quite importantly, do not forget to do on-page optimization. Make sure that your webpages are well optimized. Like for example, your title tag and meta description are the first content that your visitors will see when they search online.

Thus, make sure that these sections are well optimized using your keywords and at the same time include a sentence or two that describes your product or service. Try to also add a call to action type of message to draw attention.

Design and navigation

You need to know how your visitors use your site. If you want to make a sale, you need to seamlessly combine content and page layout to get your visitors to purchase.

Most customers who are ready to buy often seek these things- contact information (specifically a phone number), satisfaction guarantee, and good support or customer service.

Again, when it comes to content, always create something that will ‘speak’ to your customers- provide them with clearer messages, assist them with their needs, and then eventually place a ‘call to action’ at the end of your message.

You’ll be surprise how little things can make a huge difference in online shopping. Make sure that your website is set-up in a way that people can find their way around effortlessly.

This is where split testing is needed. Most website owners only focus on their content and marketing strategies that they do not even bother to install a split testing software into their site.

Always consider and treat your website like it’s your real (offline) store and you are the store owner. All store owners know everything that is going on around their stores. This includes the number of people going in and out, the number of people buying, the products purchased, and so on.

Store owners have all these information and at the end of the day, they evaluate everything and check which needs replacement and which needs to be improved.

As a website owner, running and maintaining a website should also work that way. Having a split testing software installed will help you keep track of all elements that are working and not working in your site.

A good split testing software is able to provide you with good comparison between two or several elements in your site (like the headline or opt-in form) and suggests you the version that provides you with better results.

By constantly conducting split tests in your site can get you ahead of your competition since this will mean you’re always finding ways to improve your website pages.

Web analysis

Analysis and measurement of results should not be neglected. Make sure that your tracking software is accurate so all your efforts won’t be put to waste.

Always allot time to analyze your website statistics. This is the only way to know your visitors and to find for ways to convert them to customers.

Google Analytics for example can provide you with important information about your visitors and your website- the keywords that bring them to your site, the page entry, the exit pages, the links they click, and so on.

Use all this information to improve your website and develop ways on how you can convert visitors to customers.

That’s it guys! Go ahead and try to incorporate these things in your website. Hopefully, you can also share your thoughts here. I would love to hear them! :)

PS: Are you still looking for good SEO analysis tool? Download Traffic Travis for free! I also recommend you try Affiloblueprint 3.0 for in-depth step-by-step video tutorials on website building, SEO, PPC, and more.

AffiloTools Friday Awesomeness

jonathan_l — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:29:46 +0000

Woohoo! It's nearly the weekend, which means it's time for some end-of-the-week AffiloTools awesomeness!

There's a lot of you using the Beta, and I've been getting a lot of really useful feedback - keep it coming!

We've been working hard behind the scenes, adding new features, and improving the usability and stability of the software (it's definitely still a Beta).

Today I wanted to show you the biggest thing we've been working on; I'm really excited about this, because it's the first of some really awesome changes coming to AffiloTools - a completely redesigned Dashboard!

Here it is, side-by-side with the current version (current on the left, new on the right):

Click on the image to view a full-sized version

As I said, I'm really excited for this (not least because it took me a lot of work to get it to where it is now). Serge (our designer) is just finishing his design tweaks, so I can't wait for our developers to start putting it into the software! We're hoping that this redesign will give us the chance to bring a more up-to-date look to the software, as well as overhaul a lot of the backend code to be more stable and a lot faster.

Hope you guys enjoy the new design - keep an eye out: it should appear in the software over the next month.

Let me know what you think! Have a great weekend!

P.S. For the duration of Beta, your Premium account has unlimited access to all the features of AffiloTools (unlimited projects, unlimited backlink analysis, unlimited keyword research), at absolutely no extra cost!

Click here to try our Premium membership for just $1, or get started with your existing Premium account