Seo Goat

This is a guest post by Visio, one of the moderators at the Seo Chat forums. This is some very insightful advice he gave to me and a few others (select members) in a private pm. He has extracted serious money from affiliate programs in the past, and there’s no doubt he posesses lots of valuable information (collected over years of working for himself as a professional seo consultant) which you’ll should be able to put in to practise, as long as you understand everything documented, and more importantly pull your finger out! Visio continues this post.

A few years ago I got into a Forex site because of a competition i had with another guy, we were seeing who could take out a first page ranking before the other. We did pretty well, however afterward I realized I was too focused on competing for the term rather than researching the best affiliate programs and doing more background work. Moral of the story is, never jump right into a campaign, always thoroughly plan it all and make sure all your bases are covered. The time spent doing this is nothing compared to what faces you should you fail to…

Forex Could Be Dying With the Economy
At this point in history I would stay out of Forex trading, you can believe me if you want or you can ignore this warning but in the near future our economy will drastically change and I have a strong feeling that Forex profits will disappear overnight. The world economy and the US economy are not getting better, so when building new sites, try and target them at industries that are more likely to profit under hard times rather than hoping for better times. Better times aren’t coming… don’t be fooled there. If you really want more information on why I believe this I will share… but I warn you, although many people will complain, few actually believe this.

Plan Carefully From The Beginning
Before you jump into the Forex market, you should do some brainstorming and discover some other ideas you might like to look into developing. Once you come up with some, you should look into what affiliate programs are available for your use in that industry.  You don’t have to use traditional affiliate programs either, you can also use drop ship companies so that you handle the complete purchase but never handle a product… you decide the markup and all that. I can’t give you full details due to the business model but I know a couple (I have consulted them many times, so I will refer to them in this message as ‘my clients’) who have developed a business model using a drop ship company, they get a list of items the company has available and the percentage off retail they are offering… they take this list and list the items on popular websites. For instance if they were working with a electronics company (not a suggestion BTW, electronics are so over-targeted that its not worth it) they might list on Ebay and Buy.com.

This business makes considerable money and the great thing is there are no limits, they are making perhaps a 10th of their potential income. This is already a multi-million dollar business… so this is something to look into, however if you are going to search out drop ship companies look for unique niches, areas which you can exploit for high profit because of lower competition. Again a industry like electronics will be extremely hard to compete in. BUT just because a niche is competitive does not mean you can’t make considerable money in it, my clients work a niche where the products they sell can be bought elsewhere cheaper, they are not exploiting people, they are only providing wealthy and impulse-buyers an opportunity to get what they want easily.. you do not have to reinvent the wheel, sometimes you need to use what you got and just find unique ways of doing what other people are already doing. The niche my clients hold is so amazingly profitable that I keep stressing their need to start upgrading and hiring more people so they can greatly increase profits.

This leads me to another thing, always be careful when scaling and resizing that you do it at a pace you can handle, that you don’t put yourself into a position where if the bottom drops out of your business model that you lose everything…. HOWEVER don’t hesitate to make more money if the ability arises. My clients have a great ability with little risk involved, one of the best case scenarios I know of.

Some good ideas on scaling, should the need arise:

http://www.earnersblog.com/scaling/#more-534

Don’t use only one business model, you might have a thriving model but always look for others, that way if one goes bad you always got others. This is extremely important…  years ago I focused all my energies on one site, it did okay but eventually I got sick of the model and had to start from scratch on other models. Don’t fall into this trap, build many models one at a time and make sure you have competent people to handle them so that they are running full pitch. But don’t stretch yourself so thin that catastrophe is just waiting to happen… good help is hard to come by so don’t be afraid to pay for it

Benefits Of Using Drop Ship Companies
If you go with a drop ship company it has many advantages over traditional affiliate programs…

#1, You have the ability to set your own prices and be more competitive, while affiliate programs generally only allow you to sell their software/services or products at a specified price.

#2, It is much easier for a browser(person) to discover a webmaster promoting an affiliate program over someone reselling products… if the latter is done properly.

#3, You control what is sold, how its sold and if you like you can even create your own packages, for instance high-speed internet = cell phone + tethered solution. I have seen guys do this, they provide a package of all items required to use your cell phone to connect to the internet on your laptop while traveling. Packages like this can sell well if you market them properly.

Quality Affiliate Networks
If your serious about affiliate income I suggest you register an account at CJ.com, it is one of, if not the best affiliate network out there.  It offers an easy way of picking the best paying company and realizing what affiliate programs offer the best scenario for your business model.

HOWEVER do not EVER limit yourself to one affiliate network, always do Google searchers for less prominent and less popular programs which you can use. The fact that a program is not popular does not mean it isn’t awesome, I have found many awesome affiliate programs which were so poorly marketed hardly anyone used them. THIS IS AWESOME! It is easy to become one of the top 10 affiliates of these companies, at this point they become endebted to your sales and will do anything for you. ALWAYS use this to gain promotional offers and exclusives that no other affiliate will have.

About 2 years ago I started using an affiliate program I found while searching for a specific service, I registered for the service and loved everything about it so I signed up for their affiliate program. For a good while I held a high position on their top affiliates…I got personal emails from the owners and had my service upgraded for free (of course that wasn’t nothing compared to the sales but still nice) – the point is, there are many hotels in the city, if one smells of mold move on, you don’t stay there because 500 stupid people do…

Again to make money in affiliates you do not have to come up with something new, maybe you just have to market it in a new way. For instance the products my client was selling are available all over the world but they still make considerable money because they have found a way to market them competitively while making a very good income as well. Find out some ideas of sites you might be interested in starting and then do Google searches for affiliate programs or drop ship companies (whichever is more relevant) and start comparing options and start ruling out programs or whole ideas. Build a list of ideas that are worth looking further into, hot ideas and those that aren’t panning out… work with the hot ideas first and see if you can’t get yourself into a hot niche.

I am willing to look at any idea you come up with, however you may want a NDA for protection and due to that fact I will not be able to do that for free… I guess if you trust me and want me just to look over an idea I can do that, and I would never steal someone elses business model but I wouldn’t want to be suspected of it either.

Rearching Affiliate Programs
When researching affiliate programs, always research their products, they might offer high returns but if their products are crap you will get a bad rap for it. Find the highest quality products from companies which offer the best payouts… if you have to purchase some products to test pilot then do it.  The ability to honestly say “I USE THIS!!!” and explain why is great, although many marketers fake it, even that works… although I will never stoop that low.

I just spent $1k on products for an idea I am just looking into, I am not sure it will pan out but so far it looks promising. I needed to test the leading companies products before moving in to make sure they were high class and I could honestly recommend them.

Harness SEO & PPC To Your Advantage
Also keep in mind that SEO is great, but PPC and other forms of advertising is also advisable for affiliates.  My client (I have repeatedly referred to one of my clients, I have not mentioned named to protect this mans business model. I hope this hasn’t been too confusing) has high rankings in Google for many good terms but the vast majority of these searchers (I have found) where looking for free material and not the clients products… so my client makes the greater portion of their money off alternative methods.

Don’t be afraid to use Google Adwords, make sure you know what your doing or get somebody who does but you can make considerable profit off PPC. I know a guy who advertises on Adwords and then makes his money off Adsense, this is stupid and Google does not like it. Instead use affiliates, they make way more money and can be used much more naturally.  Gary Beal at SeoChat is a great guy to ask about PPC, I get into it but it is not my strongpoint… I make most of my money off natural methods,the greatest portion being SEO.

Get Noticed
Once you determine your niche, try and get noticed by the leading men of the industry. For SEO it might be a few of the top members at SeoChat, Aaron Wall, Rand Fishkin, Danny Sullivan, Grey Wolf etc… if you can get one of them to recognise even in the least it will put your name and site on the map and give you credibility… this means that whatever your selling gains credibility as well, don’t abuse this if you experience it… it can be a gold mine. This is a SEO tip but works in the affiliate industry as well because ultimately you trying to get traffic that will convert into sales.

The bottom line is that making your first million is not hard, it just takes alot of planning and brainwork to get the thing started, the only problem is when you become cocky and think you have things made. That is what happened to a number of foolish stock brokers who are now dead after committing suicide… why? Because they were spoiled rotten and thought they had things made. Never fall into this trap, always be WILLING to learn and listen. Just because somebody is making less money then you does not mean that they don’t have ideas or thoughts that could make tons of money. Perhaps they just don’t have the ability to execute their own plans, in other words look under every rock for good advice. You will always be watching your sites, your aff programs and your models and keeping an eye out for problems or changing trends.  I have attempted to describe an overview of some thoughts and ideas hoping to spark your own research. I am willing to answer specific questions if need be however I am growing increasingly busy so expect it to take a few days, although I have offered to do this for free I would appreciate a positive commentary/testimonial from you… it gives me an incentive at least.

Do searches on Google for the popular affiliate blogs and look for good advice, I try and frequent a number of them daily… but I keep looking for new ones because, yet again, just because something is not yet “popular” does not mean that it isn’t good advice. I have found many gems this way, many new bloggers come along daily that have exceptionally great information.  Always keep an eye out for them.

Someday I do intend to write a E-Book on affiliate marketing so I won’t do that here however here are a few tips:

Three secrets to making a LOT more money by EGOL:
http://forums.seochat.com/seo-help-general-chat-16/three-secrets-to-making-a-lot-more-money-156560.html

You may have read this before but it is worth a repeat, it is very important that your articles are catchy… the squeaky wheel will always get the grease so make sure your articles stand out and they will get “greased” -

Steps to making that first million
I have kind of given an overview in the beginning, let me try and give a bit more concise step-by-step process.

#1. Dig your trench, finding a unique niche
Specifically focus on one niche, don’t try and promote solar power panels (btw I did a little bit of analysis of this niche a while ago and from my brief look at it I would say that there is tons of money to made here which I found very tappable… I setup some mock ppc campaigns and made $50K the first month. Worth looking into if your looking for a niche… but research it out, don’t just jump in because I recommend it) and mobile satellite dishes on the same site… focus on one particular niche and stick to it.

Thoroughly research your potential niche and write down the pros and cons of each idea you have. – if you don’t have a Gmail account yet get one, it is extremly useful for many things, it has proven invaluable for Google Docs. I use this all day long, WHENEVER you come up with a great idea or when you think of something and you decide to look into it later, go over to your Google Docs and write it down and save it, that you way you never lose it.  – Use Google Docs to write down all your findings of each niche, its affiliates and competition, then analyze which of your ideas is proving to be the most promising and go for it.

#2. Fall in love your product
Whether its real or fake, the impression that you love the product your promoting and use it yourself incredibly increases conversion rates on an affiliate site. If its authentic then you will also gain credibility and you will be known, not for promoting a product but for recommending GOOD products. When you reach this status for one of your niches, this is NOT the time to start promoting the highest payout affiliates.  Keep doing what you have been doing….you need that credibility.

#3. Don’t be a square, develop your own angle
Brainstorm how you can uniquely promote your newly found niche website, as I mentioned previously you do not always need to find a new way of doing things HOWEVER doing so will greatly increase both your ability to make money and how much you can make. Sometimes it takes days to come up with one good idea for one site but, if that idea ends up making you $500K in one month i’d very well say it was worth the days of pain and anguish.

#4. Give people what they want… or make them want what YOU have.
It doesn’t matter, either way they think they have to have what you are offering. Unfortunately this is either said then done, many things have been and can be used to get people to buy something they don’t really need or even worse what they don’t even want. For instance the TV ad “your not fat… are you?” puts doubt into the mind of the listener and they keep listening, this is the opening wedge. Once you got that little idea in their mind you need to quickly follow it with the reasons why they need what you have.

#5. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
When you find a money-making idea always scale it and keep trying to milk it however, you also want to have other eggs in your basket just in case your prize dairy cow stops giving milk.  Always keep your eyes open for new ideas and new ways of promoting old ideas. If you are researching these while you are doing well with a current idea you will have the resources to make wiser decisions and invest more into them.

#6. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater
When you find one of your ideas is not panning out, make sure you don’t throw the whole idea out until you determine that is the problem. Perhaps the water is so dirty you can’t see the baby, make sure you don’t let an idea slip because of poor marketing decisions on your part. Rethink your campaign if it isn’t working out and look for holes in your plans, make wiser decisions and try different methods… I have seen too many people do this and it is really sick to realize in hind-sight that you lost out on a million-dollar idea because of your own stupidity. In other words don’t give up right away, make sure something is really a dud before throwing it out. Sometimes it just takes time.

#7. Change is inevitable. Change for the better is a full-time job
Be willing to embrace change but also be careful that change is good. New tools, new ways of doing things always are coming by, make sure they really make your life easier, make you more money or are somehow beneficial, otherwise they are just wasting your time, as pretty as they might be.

With a new affiliate campaign I try and do something new everyday, it keeps me on my toes and when dealing with my visitors it gives them something to look forward to. They think they know me and then I throw them a curve.

#8. Google is your friend
I mentioned before that I use Google Docs an aweful lot for quick documentation of ideas and thoughts, writing articles, creating spreadsheets and emails. It is awesome because it can be connected to Gmail so it is all in one place. It is there, use it… Google has many good tools such as Google Adwords Keyword Tool, Google Trends, Google Docs, Google Webmaster Tools, Google Reader (awesome, USE THIS!), Google Notebook (nice for saving Google search results for later reference), FeedBurner, Google Alerts.

I have listed the Google tools I actively use that I can trace direct or indirect benefits to my affilaite campaigns from. Look at each of these tools and consider using them yourself, if you don’t already. They are actually really great. Google Alerts is awesome for keeping an eye on upstarts and discovering good advice before anyone else sees it. Whats great is this is all free stuff!

#9. Grab the torch and run
You’ll never make your first million if you spend all your time counting the costs, as I have said earlier this is VERY important and you need to do your pre-work but if it never materializes into action it is all worthless. Put everything you got into your campaign, dedicate yourself to it and you will make it. Don’t be afraid to sacrifice to make your campaign work, cut out video games, idle time wasted or useless shopping.  You don’t have time for it, you need to focus on more important things… HOWEVER don’t skimp on areas such as exercise, fitness and health, these are areas you CANNOT afford to neglect. Someone once said that most of the population spends half their life looking for a fortune at the expense of  their health, they then spend the latter half of their life spending their wealth to gain their health back. I am dedicated to my sites, my clients and my campaigns but I won’t sacrifice my health for it, I am active in sports and athletic activity. No matter how much you make you can never get your health back after you ruin it.

I have to run, I got a very important appointment in a little bit and need to get ready. I hope this has given you a glimpse of my approach and some of my recommendations… I am willing to answer specific questions so feel free to ask, also if I didn’t make something clear just let me know. I could write 10 pages just covering finding a niche, there is just so much information to share. I look foward to hearing from you soon on some of your successes.

Whatever you do in affiliate marketing always be ethical and honest, treat others the way you would want to be treated… believe me in the end it pays. Good luck!

Randy
Senior Seo Consultant,
www.1stsearchenginerankings.com