The changing world of the Internet

Transcription

James Martell’s Affiliate Marketers Handbook – 2002
The changing world of the Internet
Please Read First
This manual was compiled with the greatest care to
providing the most-up-to-date tips, techniques and
strategies to ensure that the reader gains the very best
assistance in building revenue-generating websites.
However, due to the ever-changing world of the Internet,
the author, it’s publishers and partners cannot be
responsible if third-party companies cease operations or
make policy changes, which adversely affect the viability of
advice offered in this manual.
And although the author makes extensive use of
screenshots as a teaching mechanism, it may occur that
recommended software or third-party websites from which
these educational screenshots were taken, may either
cease operations entirely or make substantive changes to
their sites ‘look’ and navigation, thereby rendering the
above mentioned screenshots and accompanying
instructions fully or partially inaccurate.
But, in an attempt to keep readers informed of any drastic
changes, the publisher, in co-operation with James Martell,
has developed a password protected area of work-athome-net-guides.com (from which this manual was
purchased) to keep readers informed of important
changes.
To access this area you will need to login to the ‘updates’
section and enter the following password: updates
Please use it often to stay abreast of important changes.
www.work-at-home-net-guides.com/updates.html
Please don’t copy this manual
James Martell invested 6 months of his time and many thousands of
dollars to prepare this manuscript for publication. He alone is the
copyright holder. He would very much appreciate it if you do not
make this manual available to others who have not paid for it. Thanks
for your understanding and cooperation.
 Copyright 2002 – James Martell, All Rights Reserved
2
Table of Contents
About The Author .......................................................... 12
Acknowledgements ....................................................... 16
Overview of Affiliate Marketing ..................................... 17
Amazon’s not a jungle anymore.......................................17
Go shopping for merchants .............................................17
eBay spots a trend ........................................................18
eBay chooses Commission Junction to drive results. ...........19
“Know-how” rules ..........................................................21
How about credit card companies sending YOU a check
for a change?................................................................22
Times they-are-a-changing .............................................23
Show me the money ......................................................24
Working for the Yankee dollar .........................................24
Step forward and count yourself in...................................25
Getting The Most From This Manual ............................... 26
There’s danger in dem der hill-o-words.............................26
Are you a Newbie or a Guru?...........................................27
Do simple things repeatedly ............................................27
Get a birds-eye view first................................................28
Celebrate success ..........................................................28
Set a schedule ..............................................................29
Set realistic goals ..........................................................30
Timelines for success .....................................................31
You’ll be on the Internet a lot ..........................................31
First things first.............................................................32
Become resourceful .......................................................33
On your mark, get set…..................................................33
Step #1 How to Get (and stay) Organized ..................... 35
Page 3
Whoops, I forgot! ..........................................................35
Necessity is the mother of invention.................................36
Baby step #1: Shop for Supplies.................................37
Baby step #2: Set-up browser folders .........................37
Baby step #3: Set-up folders to manage your email .......39
Baby step #4: Determine your business address ...........41
Baby step #5: Organize your banking...........................42
Baby step #6: Choose a username and passcode ...........42
Baby step #7: Set-up two e-mail addresses ..................44
Baby step #8: Set up a form-filling service...................44
Baby step #9: Upgrade your browser (optional) ............45
Baby step #10: Set-up a PayPal account.......................45
Baby step #11: Download WinZip ................................46
Baby step #12: Develop a realistic mindset ...................46
Step #2 Finding the Right Industry For You .................. 48
In the beginning – was a decision ....................................48
An affiliates’ role is simple ..............................................49
The 5 most important factors in choosing a category (in
order of priority) ...........................................................50
Take a peek into the industry ..........................................52
Baby step #1: Find the ‘Search All Advertisers’ link at
Commission Junction..................................................53
Baby step #2: Go to the ‘Search All Advertisers’
section shown above ..................................................53
Baby step #3: Get familiar with the many categories ......54
Baby step #4: Compile data on possible topics .............55
Baby step #5: Review and drill down............................57
Baby step #6: Pick your best three ..............................58
Baby step #7: Think boutique – not shopping mall .........59
Step #3 Keywords Are the Building Blocks .................... 61
Know thy keywords .......................................................61
But, first -- a search engine primer ..................................62
Page 4
Spiders at work .............................................................64
Spiders with a purpose...................................................65
Please feed the spiders...................................................65
Baby step #1: Visit Wordtracker ..................................66
Baby step #2: Read more about Wordtracker below .......67
Baby step #3: Take a 1-day subscription ......................67
Baby step #4: Click-thru to #1. Keyword Universe .........69
Baby step #5: Follow their 3-step process .....................69
How many words? .........................................................73
Choose only keywords with at least 50 searches ................74
Be specific ....................................................................75
Run that by me one more time ........................................75
You can’t get this wrong .................................................76
Step #4 Ladies and Gentlemen – Choose Your
Template ....................................................................... 78
Mr. Web speaks the language of HTML .............................78
Viewing this code on any website is easy ..........................80
Servers hold the data.....................................................80
Publishing to the net with FrontPage is a cinch...................81
Templates are good for beginners (or veterans).................82
Sample websites by students using templates ...................83
How easy is it?..............................................................84
Two things to make it easier ...........................................85
Introducing a user-friendly template service......................85
It’s a small world...........................................................87
A little show-and-tell goes a long way ..............................88
Baby step #1: Now it’s time to decide on a keywordbased domain name ...................................................89
A further illustration.......................................................91
Here’s something only a spider would know ......................91
So, what’s it gonna be? ..................................................92
Baby step #2: Register your domain name at Domain
Maniac .....................................................................92
Page 5
Just do it ......................................................................93
Time flies .....................................................................94
Baby step #3: Visit A Pixel Pixie..................................95
Test the waters .............................................................95
Baby step #4: Let’s shop for a template.......................97
A word of caution about animated “enter” pages ................98
Interchangeable graphics may be important ......................99
Free graphics tool........................................................ 100
Design services you may need ...................................... 100
Baby step #5: Okay, I want THAT one ....................... 101
PayPal – a new standard on the Net ............................... 101
Auto-download............................................................ 102
Your template has arrived............................................. 102
Template installation instructions................................... 103
Now open FrontPage .................................................... 106
Step #5 Add Keyword-Focused Content....................... 109
Where the rubber hits the road...................................... 110
Part 1 -- Organize your words ..................................... 112
An overview of my approach to site navigation ................ 112
‘Product’ pages are designed to make money .................. 112
‘Article’ pages are designed to link to your product pages.. 113
‘Article’ pages all point to a ‘product’ page ...................... 113
Articles galore............................................................. 114
The strategic reason for leaving merchants off article
pages ........................................................................ 114
Navigation bar buttons with a difference ......................... 115
Less is more ............................................................... 116
Think like a surfer ....................................................... 116
A good example of a home page.................................... 117
Some definitions are in order ........................................ 119
Follow my lead ............................................................ 124
Page 6
First -- an OVERVIEW of the process of building a product
page before you begin.................................................. 125
Baby step #1: Pick your merchants ........................... 127
Baby step #2: Categorize your merchants.................. 128
Baby step #3: Get your Google eyes ......................... 130
Google PageRank explained .......................................... 130
Example..................................................................... 133
Baby step #4: Narrow down your keyword list ............ 138
If your first list is vague… ............................................. 140
A more focused way to use Wordtracker ......................... 140
Baby step #5: Choose your Primary keywords ............ 141
You can win with 20-40 Backward Links.......................... 142
Who is number one on your list?.................................... 142
Baby step #6: Choose your Tier-1 Secondary
keywords................................................................ 143
Here’s an example of avoiding duplication ....................... 144
Stay on purpose .......................................................... 145
Baby step #7: Choose your Tier-2 Secondary
Keywords ............................................................... 146
Baby step #8: Choose your Navigation Bar Button
names.................................................................... 146
Baby step #9: Select a few merchants for each
Product Page........................................................... 147
Baby step #10: Evaluate your completed ‘Keyword,
Merchant and PageRank’ Chart .................................. 148
Part 2 -- Write your words ........................................... 149
Baby step #11: Write a 150-300 word Product Page ..... 149
Product Page #1 ......................................................... 149
Part 3 -- Modify your template..................................... 154
Baby step #12: Modify the look of your template ........ 154
Open your web template in FrontPage 2000 .................... 154
At first it bears no relation to your topic.......................... 155
Mini baby step #1: Replace graphic ........................... 157
Page 7
Mini baby step #2: Replace the “Your Name Here”
field ....................................................................... 160
Mini baby step #3: Rename your navigation bar
buttons .................................................................. 162
Changing the buttons................................................... 164
Deleting unnecessary buttons is easy ............................. 166
Now you have a gambling site ....................................... 167
Rename your folder names ........................................... 168
Mini baby step #4: Import your content..................... 168
Time to fully optimize................................................... 172
Bolded hyperlink ......................................................... 173
Italicized your Primary keyword..................................... 174
Optimize your headline (H1) ......................................... 174
Optimize your headline (H2) ......................................... 175
Now for the very scary HTML ........................................ 176
How-to insert your Title tag .......................................... 176
How-to insert your Keyword Meta tags ........................... 177
How to insert your Description ...................................... 177
How to insert your Alt tags ........................................... 178
Your Home page is ALSO Product Page ........................... 179
Article Pages explained................................................. 180
Step #6 Join Some Good Affiliate Programs ................ 183
Why Commission Junction is a good place to start ............ 183
Baby step #1: Join CJ and download the 2-page
Getting Started guide for publishers and CJ5 –
Publisher’s Account Managers’ Guide .......................... 186
First, pre-determine your best affiliate programs.............. 188
You are halfway there .................................................. 189
Why a short list of merchants works best ........................ 189
Say NO to flash banners ............................................... 191
Why referrals work best ............................................... 192
Baby step #2: Join only your best affiliate programs..... 193
How-to place a link on your site..................................... 193
What happens when a merchant rejects me?................... 194
Page 8
How to get links from CJ............................................... 194
Betzone looks like a good bet ........................................ 196
Twenty links to choose from.......................................... 196
Network EPC explained................................................. 197
Get HTML ................................................................... 198
Time to cut and paste .................................................. 199
How to modify your Font before previewing..................... 201
Now your advertiser has a link on your site ..................... 202
How to modify your text ............................................... 202
You can easily toggle back and forth .............................. 204
More modifications to Betzone....................................... 205
Tips, tricks and techniques............................................ 206
Don’t forget your Home page ........................................ 207
How to demolish ‘scumware’ ......................................... 207
Preview your site......................................................... 209
Step #7 Submit To The Search Engines The RIGHT
Way ............................................................................. 211
Baby step #1: Get hosting ........................................ 211
Baby step #2: How to use the FrontPage ‘Publish
Web’ tool ................................................................ 212
What is FTP ................................................................ 213
You’re on! Go visit your site! ........................................ 215
Baby step #3: Submit your site to all the major
search engines ........................................................ 215
Site submission in a nutshell ......................................... 217
Yahoo is an exception .................................................. 218
Automatic submission works fine ................................... 218
SelfPromotion in a nutshell ........................................... 218
Time to get “tooter” working for you .............................. 219
Don’t forget about paid submissions............................... 220
Pay-per-click search engines are another option .............. 220
Baby step #4: Begin writing articles .......................... 221
Baby step #5: Add your counter ................................ 222
Page 9
Some of what does HitBoxcentral.com does .................... 223
Hitboxcentral.com is free .............................................. 223
How does it work? ....................................................... 223
Adding it to your website .............................................. 224
An example of your stats .............................................. 226
Step #8 Boost Your Rankings With Link Popularity .... 228
Now for the icing on the cake ........................................ 228
How to use Article pages to increase PageRank for your
Product pages ............................................................. 229
Why a “content rich” site helps too ................................ 230
Link Popularity in a nutshell .......................................... 230
Lineups say a lot ......................................................... 232
Is there a lineup to your site?........................................ 233
A valid lineup to your site works, -- a phony lineup
doesn’t ...................................................................... 233
Play by the rules and win.............................................. 233
Baby step #1: Set up a “link to us” page.................... 234
Here are two ways to offer links to other webmasters ....... 236
Here’s how to modify the HTML ..................................... 237
Baby step #2: Set up a “swap links” page .................. 238
Sample e-mails ........................................................... 239
Some tips................................................................... 240
Baby step #3: Add your site map............................... 241
A schematic on how to fully organize your site................. 242
Here’s what one of my “site map” pages looks like ........... 243
Search engine questions............................................... 244
Search engine news ..................................................... 245
Summing It Up ............................................................ 246
Step-1 – How to get (and stay) organized....................... 246
Step-2 – Finding the right industry for you ...................... 246
Step-3 – Keywords are the building blocks ...................... 247
Step-4 – Ladies and gentlemen – choose your template.... 247
Page 10
Step-5 – Add some keyword-focused content .................. 247
Step-6 – Join some good affiliate programs ..................... 248
Step-7 – Submit to the search engines the RIGHT way ..... 248
Step-8 – Boost your rankings with link-partners............... 248
Now it’s up to you to manage your business for growth..... 249
Recommended Resources ............................................ 250
Affiliate networks: ....................................................... 250
Affiliate directories....................................................... 251
Search engines resources: ............................................ 251
Glossary of recommended links from manual................... 252
Appendix of worksheets .............................................. 253
Product Page Optimization Chart.................................... 254
Article Page Optimization Chart ..................................... 255
Keyword, Merchant and PageRank Chart......................... 256
Article Keyword Chart .................................................. 257
Page 11
James Martell,
Internet author and lecturer
A
bout T
he A
uthor
About
The
Author
James Martell is a Canadian businessman who resides with
his wife and four children in White Rock, B.C., a suburb of
Vancouver, Canada.
Prior to his foray into Affiliate Marketing he owned and
operated two successful businesses in the Vancouver area,
which were by-products of de-regulation in the Canadian
telecommunications industry in the early 90’s.
The first of these services used a simple voicemail platform
to offer extended-local-calling for a flat fee instead of perminute charges.
His second offered residents of Vancouver telephone-based
information hotlines, such as Movie Listings, Winning Lotto
numbers and Road Reports, in exchange for permission to
play a 15-second radio-style commercial prior to these
announcements.
Although both services were wildly popular with the public,
they were eventually disbanded due to the huge amounts
of capital and human recourses needed to maintain
profitability.
In the spring of 2000, on the heels of shutting down his
main business, he discovered the lucrative world of
Page 12
Affiliate Marketing from a associate who was doing well in
the free Internet access business.
Eager for similar success, he built a website using the
basics revealed by his friend and dedicated himself to
informing the public about company’s offering free dial-up
connection to the Internet throughout the U.S. and
Canada.
Then, he started researching the subject of website
promotion and began applying what he learned.
Soon, traffic had skyrocketed to thousands of visitors a
day and he started earning a full-time income from
commissions without any of the usual operational hassles
of a typical business or needing to do any personal selling
whatsoever.
Being now hooked on this exciting industry, he studied all
there was on the subject of Affiliate Marketing, (also called
Associate Programs or Revenue Sharing) at the local
bookstore and on the Internet.
In the winter of 2000, sensing the imminent decline of the
free Internet access business due to the well-documented
Dot Com crash of that same period, he became an affiliate
of the largest Satellite TV provider in the U.S. and
developed a new site, which offered consumers a free
satellite TV dish in exchange for a yearly commitment.
And, of course, he was paid a hefty commission on each
approved installation.
Within a six-month period this business had branched out
into four separate Satellite TV sites, providing him and his
family with total financial security.
Whereas, most webmasters and Internet Gurus tended to
complicate matters, Martell was more inclined to discover
the underlying structure of traffic building, intelligent site
navigation, and functional design.
He disliked all this talk of $5000 websites, techno-webspeak and comments from self-proclaimed experts in the
print media that the Internet was in decline.
Page 13
Although his Free Internet access business took a dive, his
Satellite TV business has performed extremely well ever
since.
And, not being one who is content to sit on his laurels,
Martell has now developed 30 independent web sites in
three industries: Satellite TV, Credit Cards and Cell
Phones.
All are hugely successful, due to the techniques he has
developed to leapfrog above his competitors and rank
highly at the major search engines.
In the summer of 2001, in Vancouver, he and his partner,
Chuck Anderson, began teaching a small core of likeminded entrepreneurs what he had learned. The training
was well received and produced dozens of Internet success
stories.
However, the class became unwieldy, as the demands on
his time took him away from his main business, which was
affiliate marketing.
So, he envisioned a handbook that could be downloaded
off the Internet that would walk a person through the
actual steps he had taken with such great success.
The first edition of this downloadable training is entitled,
JAMES MARTELL’S AFFILIATE MARKETERS HANDBOOK
2002, -- The 8-Steps You Must Take To Succeed With
Affiliate Programs On The Net, and was released in May,
2002.
Being true to the revenue-sharing model that fostered his
early accomplishments, his manual is also being made
available globally through affiliated publishers.
More info on his generous affiliate program can be found
at:
www.work-at-home-net-guides.com
Although Mr. Martell spends most of his time building
traffic to his many web sites and managing the dozens of
affiliate programs he belongs to, he has made himself
Page 14
available for telephone consultation at $1000 per hour or
as a speaker in public forums.
For more information on Mr. Martell’s consulting services
please send an email to the address below, providing
details of your requirements.
Warmest regards,
Charles Johnston, V.P. Affiliate Marketing
mailto:[email protected]
Page 15
A
cknowledg
ements
dg
Acknowled
gements
I wish to thank the students who attended my live
trainings in Vancouver for their many questions on Affiliate
Marketing.
These questions were invaluable in determining what an
entry-level person needs to know to succeed with affiliate
programs.
I’m also grateful for the assistance of Charles Johnston,
who collaborated with me on this project. Charles worked
tirelessly with me for many months to prepare this
manuscript for publication.
I’d like to thank my friend, Sean Bouchard, for showing me
the basics and helping me get started in affiliate marketing
with my very first ISP site. It was this site that showed
me the revenue potential of affiliate programs.
And, I would like to acknowledge some of the better
authors on affiliate marketing, such as Ken Evoy, Corey
Rudl and Stephen Mahaney. These writers were very
helpful in the beginning, as I set the goal of having a full
time career in affiliate marketing.
I’m also thankful to my partner, Chuck Anderson, for the
many hours of discussion and strategic planning that went
into figuring out the very best strategies for winning the
search engine wars. Chucks’ help was immense.
And to my wife, Arlene, thank-you for the support you’ve
provided over the years, through both the good times and
the bad.
Page 16
O
verview ooff A
iate M
arketing
Overview
Affffililliate
Marketing
Amazon’s not a jungle anymore
Although Amazon.Com in now a household word, very few
know that it spawned an entire Industry in 1996 when it
allowed independent webmasters permission to market
their books online.
Amazon’s technical people devised code that would easily
and automatically track sales from thousands of
independent websites and pay a monthly commission to
each Webmaster.
They were soon imitated, creating a sensation in the
advertising and marketing world, as companies large and
small sought to maximize profits with this unique pay-forperformance model.
As of this writing, there are thousands of companies in
several hundred different industries that will pay
commissions to independent webmasters for leads,
registrations or sales.
Go shopping for merchants
With the recent emergence of ‘commission networks’, -companies that act as go-betweens for merchants and
affiliates, -- it has never been easier to get involved,
whether you want to get product to the marketplace or
whether you are seeking to represent products on your
website.
Page 17
To the affiliates, these commission networks provide a
valuable service by collecting the money from merchants
and consolidating the affiliates’ reporting and payments.
To the merchants, they solve the technical headaches, as
well as eliminating the need to recruit their own associates
by providing a virtual army of eager affiliates.
The largest of these networks, Commission Junction (CJ),
out of Santa Barbara, CA, employ 100 full-time staff
members worldwide.
Commission Junction acts as a trusted third party,
managing the network, tracking and reporting on activity
in real time, and handling monthly commission payments.
When a visitor to an affiliate’s website clicks on one of the
merchant’s links, a cookie is set on the visitor’s browser
that identifies the affiliate, the merchant, and the specific
link and payment rates.
Upon recording the transaction, Commission Junction
handles all of the collection and processing required to
ensure fair and timely commission payment for the
affiliate, and all of the administrative and verification
necessary to ensure qualified sales and leads for the
merchant.
Every week dozens of new merchants (called advertisers
by CJ) join because of the vast numbers of affiliated
publishers in their network.
eBay spots a trend
Please read below about eBay.com’s experience after
joining CJ, especially if you are totally new to affiliate
marketing. Success stories like theirs are now
commonplace on the Net.
Before building your first site as an affiliate/publisher you
need to know about the enormity of the opportunity before
you, and how much your work-at-home efforts will be
appreciated by some very large companies in wellestablished industries.
Page 18
Kari King
Affiliate Program Manager, eBay
Commission Junction has exceeded our expectations as a costeffective marketing channel
eBay chooses Commission Junction to drive
results.
eBay, The World's Online Marketplace®, has built a
community of individuals and businesses who buy and sell
goods and services online. With 42 million registered
users, eBay is one of the most popular shopping sites on
the Internet. Knowing that performance-based advertising
is one of the most effective online advertising channels for
generating new customers, eBay turned to Commission
Junction, the largest pay-for-performance advertising
network, to develop a new customer acquisition channel.
eBay chose Commission Junction for its superior
technology and services, including trusted third-party
tracking, real-time reporting and monthly commission
checks to publishers. The online marketplace joined in
March 2001, and with Commission Junction's Web-based
technology, quickly implemented a performance-based
advertising program and began recruiting publishers.
"Commission Junction has exceeded our expectations as a
cost-effective marketing channel," states eBay affiliate
program manager Kari King. "We chose Commission
Junction not only because they have an established
network of quality publishers, but because their service
and technology are able to scale as our program grows."
Page 19
"Commission Junction provides us with an efficient way to
manage our advertising relationships," added King. "The
time and resources that eBay is saving are now being
spent recruiting more publishers who in-turn bring us more
customers."
The eBay pay-for-performance program with Commission
Junction pays publishers $5.00 per new active registered
user that joins eBay's online community. They pay an
additional $.05 each time an eBay-registered user visits
the eBay site through a link on the publisher's site and
places a bid. Currently, eBay is working with 43,000
Commission Junction publishers. Commission Junction
publishers generated a significant amount of qualified
leads for eBay in 2001 and continue to drive results in
2002. Commissions paid to publishers are also steadily
increasing.
The eBay team works closely with its publishers and the
Commission Junction client development team to ensure
that its objectives are being met, including ongoing
recruitment of top quality publishers. The company has
found a great deal of success recruiting publishers from
within the Commission Junction network through their
Member Messaging service.
eBay has launched additional programs through
Commission Junction, including eBay UK, eBay Canada,
and eBay Australia. In addition, Half.com, an eBay
subsidiary, runs a highly successful advertiser program
through Commission Junction. eBay recognizes that its
publishers are part of a team working to build the world's
largest trading community, and Commission Junction
provides the infrastructure and tools to help it grow.
"At eBay, we want our publishers to be part of the most
successful pay-for-performance program on the Web,"
says King. "With the help of Commission Junction, we
believe we will achieve this goal."
Page 20
“Know-how” rules
In today’s Internet age, any web entrepreneur, whether
merchant or affiliate, armed with the knowledge taught in
this manual, can dominate their marketplace in fairly quick
fashion once they become adept with the terminology and
procedures.
You see, unlike traditional methods of advertising and
marketing, merchandisers who embrace affiliate marketing
do not have to invest a great deal of money on promotion
or training a sales force because consumers in droves are
now flocking to the Internet to buy everything from office
supplies to cigars to baby clothes.
The trick for most advertisers or merchants is finding the
traffic.
And, that’s where affiliated publishers come in.
As a rule these publishers already have traffic.
So, by placing banners or text links for relevant merchants
on their sites, these publishers drive customers to
merchants, who would otherwise have not reached those
consumers.
Or, if they did, would have had an up-front customer
acquisition cost, which is usually quite high.
Here’s a typical merchant/affiliate scenario:
Let’s say a person has a web site dedicated to exotic
travel.
And, being successful at building a search-engine friendly
site has established fairly high rankings, so that people
surfing for ‘exotic travel’ tend to land on this site.
Do you think this Webmaster could be of service to his
visitor by offering links to a few good online travel
agencies that specialize in exotic destinations?
I think so.
And, there are many such agencies with affiliate programs.
Page 21
What about travel clothing? Or passport services? Or
travel insurance?
Can you see the opportunity here?
As a successful publisher, you can join several relevant
programs in the above category and pick and choose the
merchants you’d like to feature based on how well they
pay or the strength of their conversion rates.
And as an entry-level person, you will learn all you need to
know in this manual about how-to publish search engine
friendly sites in any category you choose, regardless of
whether you are new to a given industry, or not.
Actually, the research part of the project is no more
difficult than writing a grade nine high school paper.
How about credit card companies sending
YOU a check for a change?
My best Credit Card offer pays $40US per approved
application.
And, my best Satellite TV offer pays $50US.
As you may guess, each of these advertisers has prime
positioning on their respective sites. (I’m currently in
Satellite TV, Cell Phones and Credit Cards, and am rapidly
expanding into many other industries)
And, it’s so simple to add or remove merchants.
As the publisher you are in complete control.
Do not be concerned if you’ve never published anything in
your life before.
Neither had I.
And, I do better than most.
You see, I’ve learned to keep it simple.
And “simple” works.
Page 22
Times they-are-a-changing
If you are willing to follow my lead exactly as it’s laid out
in this manual, then you, too, will succeed.
You see, this industry is still in its infancy.
So getting started “on the ground floor”, so to speak, could
be quite rewarding if you are diligent.
And, there are a number of trends pointing to many years
of continued growth:
1. Companies reducing marketing costs as a way to
survive in tough economic times
2. Dramatically increasing use of the Internet
3. People cocooning
4. Computer literate people seeking legitimate work-athome options
5. Start-up entrepreneurs and merchandisers seeking
low-cost distribution channels
6. Growing consumer confidence in online shopping
7. Fortune 500 companies embracing Affiliate Marketing
8. Technological advances across the board
9. The desire for people to move away from congested
cities
10. The use of search engines as the primary way that
people find relevant websites on any imaginable
subject
11. Emerging “affiliate networks” that act as gobetweens, making it easier to participate for both
affiliates and publishers
Page 23
Show me the money
Most affiliate programs offer a two-tiered plan.
Usually, the bulk of the commission is paid on the first-tier
to the publisher who makes the sale.
But, if this publisher has recruited a sub-affiliate, then a
smaller commission is also paid whenever a second-tier
sale is made.
This recruitment usually takes place on the Internet, as
publishers seeking products and services to represent find
the merchandisers’ affiliate program join links.
All of my sites feature a ‘affiliate program’ link for this
reason.
Joining a bona-fide affiliate program is totally free and
there are no personal purchase requirements. (unlike
network marketing)
Some programs offer a sliding scale of ascending
commissions based on volume, but most simply pay a flat
fee, anywhere from a buck or two all the way up to
hundreds of dollars, depending on the industry and what is
required by the consumer.
Working for the Yankee dollar
Currently, most affiliate programs are U.S. based and
Americans lead the world in online shopping, so
commissions are generally paid in U.S. dollars.
In some cases, applying affiliates must wait a few days for
approval, but usually acceptance is automatic.
This manual offers guidelines that ensure you will be
quickly approved, even if you are just getting started.
Page 24
Step forward and count yourself in
Although there will always be a place for so called brick-nmortar businesses, there will be no putting-the-genieback-in-the-bottle with this one.
So I encourage you to really dig into this manual and take
advantage of the opportunity to be a front-runner in a
brand new industry.
Unlike most books and courses on affiliate programs, this
tutorial provides complete instructions for both novices and
web-savvy types alike.
Simply follow the step-by-step instructions provided and
you, too, will position yourself for financial success on the
Internet.
I guarantee it!
PS- Please read, Getting The Most From This Manual first.
It offers important guidelines to get the maximum benefit
from this course.
Page 25
G
etttiing
ng T
he M
ost FFrom
rom T
his M
anual
Get
The
Most
This
Manual
Desired Outcome
At the completion of this course…
…you will have your own professional looking
website, ranked highly at the search engines,
offering visitors valuable, well written content, -which also features a select group of merchants who
will PAY you whenever one of YOUR visitors
completes a transaction with THEM.
There’s danger in dem der hill-o-words.
As you know, this manual is not a theoretical rambling
about affiliate marketing, but a proven path to success
based on the techniques I use every day.
While learning-the-ropes of this industry, I read all that I
could on the subject, but ultimately concluded that much
that was written was counter-productive. (or dated)
The hazard for anyone wishing to know more about
building their own commercial websites and prospering
with affiliate marketing can be summed up in one word…
…overwhelm.
Have you been there?
I know I have.
Page 26
So, I would caution you to remain FOCUSED on this
manual while learning.
And, complete the 8-steps sequentially, because the logic
of each only makes sense AFTER the previous step is
completed.
If you do this, I can assure you that you’ll avoid the brainnumbing experiences that I had while trying to figure this
thing out by simultaneously studying the works of
numerous Internet ‘experts’.
Are you a Newbie or a Guru?
My guess is that most readers of this manual will either be
newbies, who are totally unfamiliar with the language of
Internet-based affiliate marketing programs or be
someone who has dabbled in this industry for a while, but
has never yet reached the achievement level desired.
I would also bet that some are quite savvy with
computers, while others are not.
No matter where you see yourself along the spectrum of
newbie-to-guru, I can assure you that you will be amazed
at the simplicity of my methods.
That’s because I teach fundamentals.
You will learn only the essentials.
This means, I will assume nothing about your current
knowledge and experience, -- except that you want the
financial freedom that’s possible when succeeding with
affiliate marketing.
Do simple things repeatedly
The great NFL football coach, Vince Lombardi, used to
stand before his team at the beginning of training camp
each year with a football in his hands and say,
“Gentlemen, THIS is a football. Our goal is to get THIS
Page 27
ball over THAT line and prevent THEM from doing the
same.”
Of course, it gets more complicated than that in the NFL as
well as affiliate marketing.
But, if we focus on learning (and re-learning) the basics,
as Lombardi taught, then we increase our chances of
winning in any endeavor requiring the application of
knowledge.
So, if I get overly simplistic, (and repetitive) please
remember the great Lombardi.
Get a birds-eye view first
Before starting your training it will be useful to print and
preview the entire manual before actually implementing
any of the 8-steps.
This will provide a context and give you a sense of where
you are headed. This printed version will also be a good
place to scribble notes.
And, I recommend that you have it spiral bound with a
plastic cover for easy portability and aesthetics.
Celebrate success
As you peruse each module, pay special attention to the
desired outcome of each section.
The achievements of these important outcomes indicate
whether or not you are on course.
By reaching these milestones, you will not only move
yourself closer to your ULTIMATE goal, but you will also
build confidence and a winning attitude, which are both
crucial to your success.
In my live sessions, prior to getting started each week, I
would ask the students to recap the previous weeks
activities.
Page 28
It was always thrilling for me to witness and share in their
pride of accomplishment.
But more importantly, it allowed them to acknowledge
their own progress in public, which fortified their belief in
themselves.
Even students who initially thought they were in-overtheir-heads, soon arrived at a point where you could
almost see the ‘lights go on’ and hear them say to
themselves, “YESSSS, I can DO this”!
So, please take the time to acknowledge yourself at each
step of the way.
In actual fact, you will be learning insider secrets that very
few know about.
So, give yourself a pat-on-the-back after the successful
completion of each module.
Heck, you may even want to buy yourself something
special, as a reward, at every step-of-the-way!
Do whatever it takes to keep yourself motivated, because
there will invariably be times when the frustration level
grows – which is the case in learning any new skill…
…especially when working with technology in a brand new,
ever-changing industry, -- alone from a manual.
Set a schedule
When training my classes in Vancouver, we used to hold
the sessions over the course of three consecutive Tuesdays
and provide a list of things for them to do as homework
assignments.
I believe that much of the success achieved by many of
my Vancouver students can be attributed to the fact that
they were on a schedule.
You, however are on your own.
Page 29
So, I would encourage you to set a pace for yourself
before you begin.
There is no reason why all readers should not have a fully
functioning website on the Net within a month. (although
the income usually takes a few months longer)
Decide in advance what time of the day you’ll get on your
computer (without distractions). And also determine which
days of the week are best.
Then stick to it.
Set realistic goals
Although I do extremely well at this now, I’ll confess that I
struggled for the first 6-months.
And, when the Free ISP business began fading into
oblivion, I sold our family’s second vehicle to stay afloat
while I ventured into affiliate marketing in a serious way
with Satellite TV and Credit Cards.
So, please don’t set yourself up for failure by expecting too
much, too soon.
Now, having said that, I think you will go much faster than
I did because you now possess a blueprint, which I didn’t
have.
After I saw the potential of this business I set the goal of
earning $100 per day.
That’s $3,000 per month, which is very realistic.
When I reached this target, I doubled my goal to $200 per
day.
And, when I reached that benchmark, -- I set a new goal.
This is the recommended approach.
Page 30
Timelines for success
Normally, it takes between 4-6 weeks to become indexed
by the search engines after your site is built.
So, if it takes you a month to build a site, you probably
won’t see revenues for three to four months.
And, it usually starts in a trickle, then builds to a steady
pace as your rankings mature and bookmarked visitors
return.
Yet, many of my students are reporting much faster
results because of the new techniques I teach on
establishing link partners and organizing internal links for
optimal PageRank.
So, it’s hard to say for sure how soon you will make
money.
To some extent we are at the mercy of the search engines
in this regard.
So be patient.
You’ll be on the Internet a lot
This is an action manual.
That’s what sets it apart from the rest.
In each module you’ll be provided with screenshots of
OTHER sites that you will need to visit on a regular basis to
complete this website building process.
Although, I will give detailed instructions on how I
specifically utilize these services, you will eventually need
to broaden your knowledge in those areas by going beyond
my instructions.
As you will learn in Step #1, How-to Get (and stay)
Organized, you should get a binder and a three-hole
punch.
Page 31
Into this binder will go as much printed material from
these sites as necessary to ensure that you have easy
reference points when attempting to gain clarity on a
puzzling procedure.
As many of you probably already know, one of the
Internets’ most frustrating aspects is the lack of uniform
jargon.
For instance, some refer to affiliates as publishers; others
call us resellers or Webmasters.
In some cases merchants are known as advertisers,
vendors and so on.
For a Newbie this can be terribly confusing.
So, make it a point to linger a bit on the sites that I send
you to and get familiar with their lingo, -- but only as it
relates to the specific task you are completing.
The trick is to broaden your knowledge and familiarity with
specific procedures and terminology without swamping
yourself with confusion.
And only you can know where that balance point is.
First things first
I purposely narrow your focus during the 8-step process of
this manual.
But, I DO want you to know of other resources.
For this reason I have included an appendix of
recommended resources at the back.
However, it might be counter-productive for you to dabble
there UNTIL you’ve completed the program.
Trust me on this.
There is a lot to learn within the 8-steps themselves, -and premature attempts to broaden your knowledge too
quickly might become counterproductive.
Page 32
It’s imperative, while learning, that you first use ONLY the
resources described in each module, because I can’t be
there to guide you or answer questions if you attempt to
do too much, too fast.
Once you have completed the 8-step process, though, you
will probably amaze yourself at how proficient you have
become, and how easily you will integrate new knowledge.
So, once again, I recommend patience.
It’s incremental learning that will take you to where you
want to go, -- not fast tracking.
Become resourceful
Although my customer support people are available to
handle technical issues concerning the download of this
manual, or refunds, they are not qualified to answer
questions about Affiliate Marketing.
And, my fees for consulting are now at $1000/hr, -- so
you’ll need to become resourceful whenever you get stuck.
What was invaluable to me as I grew in competence, was
knowing when to stop struggling with something, -- and
just get away from the computer.
I also developed a network of friends and associates who
could answer simple computer, Windows or Internet
related questions.
I encourage you to do the same.
On your mark, get set…
The first module, How To Get (and stay) Organized,
requires some shopping for supplies, so you might want to
wait until you have a complete afternoon of uninterrupted
time before beginning in earnest.
Page 33
When you arrive back with your supplies, please take a
few minutes to review these first few chapters, in order to
set-the-stage before starting.
Then GO for it!
Page 34
S
tep #
1
Step
#1
H
ow tto
oG
et ((and
and sstay)
tay) O
rganized
How
Get
Organized
Desired outcome
At the completion of THIS step…
…your workspace will be equipped with the physical
resources needed to run your business and you will
have a basic set of software tools and procedures to
assist you in better managing important details.
Whoops, I forgot!
In the winter of 2000-2001, after I began a serious effort
to make affiliate marketing a success, I quickly learned
that if I didn’t organize myself I could easily become
sidetracked.
An important turning point occurred one rainy afternoon in
February of that year.
I went to the login area of one of my merchant accounts, - which is a password protected area accessible to affiliates
only, -- to obtain some status reports, but could not
remember my username and password.
I notified them and they replied with the correct info.
But the delay was both frustrating and unnecessary.
Later that month, I wanted to move my existing domain
name from my current website hosting company to
35
another, when I again realized I couldn’t remember my
passcodes.
But, this new situation wasn’t as easily resolved.
That’s because in the month prior, I had changed my email
address. And, they would only send new codes to the
email address I had on file.
So, I had to prove that I owned my domain name by
having my birth certificate and photo I.D. notarized and
sent by courier to California.
What a hassle that was.
Necessity is the mother of invention
So, that evening I developed a better plan to stay
organized.
And over the many months that have followed, I have
refined my methods, so that I rarely encounter these
embarrassing and time-consuming situations.
And now, building new sites is less stressful and faster
because I have a basic operational system.
In this chapter I will outline some easy steps I use to stay
organized.
Each is deceptively simple, -- but essential, -- so please do
not skip these procedures. (especially you like to fly-bythe-seat-of-your-pants)
And keep in mind, if you truly want be proficient with
affiliate marketing, -- and expand beyond the scope of a
single website, -- then you should continually expand upon
these procedures and personalize them to suit your
situation.
They are only offered here as a starting point.
As a way to focus your attention on menial tasks that will
hopefully form organizational habits, which will
dramatically improve your chances of success.
Page 36
Baby step #1:
Shop for Supplies
Get the following: (unless you have them)
!
!
Three-ring binder
A dozen or so divider tabs (numbers okay because
you’ll customize them)
!
Three-Hole punch
!
Computer (one you’re happy with)
!
Word processor
!
Microsoft FrontPage
!
Windows 98 (or higher)
!
Printer (lots of ink and paper)
!
Stapler
!
Internet connection (High Speed or Dial Up)
!
Spiral Notebook (thick with pouches)
!
Other basic office supplies, such as file folders,
comfortable chair, lamps, hanging files, paper clips,
etc.
Baby step #2:
Set-up browser folders
Now, we’ll open Explorer (my preferred web browser) and
set up a few new folders for the many bookmarks you will
create as you progress.
Click the favorites tab at the top of your page and click
‘organize favorites’.
Once that box opens you can choose to create a new
folder.
Page 37
That’s what you will do first.
You will create a few folders just to get started.
And, you can add more as you advance through the
course. Or rename them as you see fit.
First create your main folder.
Name it Affiliate Marketing Business for now.
Then, create a few sub-folders.
Below is a helpful screenshot to illustrate the process.
Eventually you will add many folders and rename them as
you gain clarity.
But start with the process described below to gain
familiarity and establish a good habit.
This is ‘browser tips’ 101.
!
Affiliate Marketing
o Merchants
o Sites of Interest
o Suppliers
Page 38
If you have never given much thought to organizing your
bookmarks, then this new procedure will definitely make
your life easier as your business grows.
Note to Netscape users: Use it if you want, -- but my
research shows that 92% of Internet users now use
Explorer. And it seems that number is growing.
Baby step #3:
Set-up folders to manage your email
Similarly, you will need to set up folders to handle
business related email.
I use Outlook Express. Most use either Outlook or Outlook
Express as their preferred email organizer.
Begin now, by creating a folder called Affiliate Marketing,
as you did with your browser.
Then, create two sub-folders.
Call one “Passcodes”. Call the other “Receipts”.
As you begin to sign-up for services that help you to run
your business, you will need to have a place to efficiently
sort and store the important usernames and passcodes,
which you will receive by email.
Having a place for receipts is also important.
Page 39
There have been many times that I’ve had to show proof
of purchase when troubleshooting a problem.
As your business grows, and you take on merchants,
please get into the habit of creating a separate folder for
each merchant within your main folder.
Then, as you receive email announcements from them,
you can use the “move to” option by “right-clicking” on the
message.
This will quickly allow you to move the message out of
your Inbox into the designated folder.
By doing this, you will help to avoid clutter in your Inbox,
which, if left unchecked, can easily lead to overwhelm.
But, please be creative when designing folders to handle
the many routine emails you will receive.
It is also important to file the login information your
merchants send you so that you have quick access to
commission reports, advertising creative, etc.
You will also want to bookmark these “long” URL’s for
convenience, as you will see outlined below.
Once approved as an affiliate, the merchant will send you
a welcome letter with a link to their login area.
By not filing them right away, you are probably setting
yourself up for problems.
I am in the habit of stopping whatever I’m doing whenever
receiving this info and filing it appropriately.
Here are my simple rules for staying on top of this:
1. Stop what you are doing when a merchant welcome
letter arrives. (it’s tempting to say, “I’ll get to it
later”.
Page 40
2. Right-click on the message, and move it out of your
Inbox to an appropriate folder. (as you learned howto do above)
3. Open the email and print it.
4. Then, stick it into a file folder labeled with the name
of the merchant. Then file it according to whatever
system you use for your paper records.
5. Go to their login area by clicking on the link provided
in the text of the email, -- then immediately
bookmark the login address – which are often very
long, -- for easy access later.
6. If the merchant has assigned you a username and/or
passcode, then you will need to change it right away
to the one that you’ve chosen.
•
NOTE: The importance of this is covered
below, in Baby-step #5.
Baby step #4:
Determine your business address
If you are a non-resident of the United States you may
want to get a U.S. address. It’s not essential, but some
merchants prefer dealing with U.S. based affiliates.
That does not mean you have to be an American or live in
the States. You simply need a U.S. address. It’s perfectly
legal.
The site below will allow you to establish a U.S. address for
you at a reasonable fee. Update: See our website as
outlined on Page 2 for important news regarding this step.
Page 41
www.usmailingaddress.com
Note to U.S. residents: It’s a also good idea for you to
set up an account at a mail service like MailBoxes Etc. for
security, privacy and mobility reasons.
Baby step #5:
Organize your banking
Again, if you are a non-U.S. resident, you should open an
American currency bank account in you own country, since
commissions are paid in U.S. money.
And if you visit the States, I suggest you stop by a major
bank while there and open a checking account with your
new U.S. address.
As a Canadian, I easily set up an account with two
American banks without a social security number as a
foreign depositor.
Both offer excellent online service and greatly simplify
managing my affiliate revenue.
And funds can easily be withdrawn from any ATM
worldwide with the VISA check card they provided.
This VISA debit card (or check card) acts like a credit card,
but only allows withdrawals up to my account balance.
A very handy device for those who like the convenience
and prestige of having a VISA or MasterCard, without the
problems associated with spending borrowed money.
Baby step #6:
Choose a username and passcode
With a pen and paper determine a permanent username
and passcode.
In this business, having multiple passcodes can easily
become a nightmare.
Page 42
So think of an 8-digit username with both letters and
numbers.
The goal here is to have a SINGLE username that can be
used for EVERYTHING from this point forward.
Do the same for the passcode.
I suggest you use 4 letters and 4 numbers in each.
To make it easy to remember, reverse the order when
going from username to passcode.
But, be careful of using one that others may have.
For example, MARK1237 runs the risk of being taken.
So, don’t choose a name like this.
But, by using the SAME numbers and letters, you could
use 12MARK37.
Then, reverse the letters for your passcode. I.e.: 37MARK12.
In many cases a username is not necessary, -- just a
passcode. But, often both ARE needed.
So, you need to be prepared.
In my mind, I always think of the username FIRST, as in,
“username and passcodes”.
This makes it easy to remember which is which.
Trust me on this. It WILL make your life easier on the Net,
especially, since you are now using it as a business.
So, take the time to do this.
When decided, place them in your three-ring binder.
Important: When assigned a password by someone else,
-- login and change it to your preferred passcodes right
away.
Page 43
To get you started, -- once you’ve chosen your permanent
username and passcodes, -- you may want to change as
many of your current codes as possible.
Baby step #7:
Set-up two e-mail addresses
Sign up for two web-based email accounts.
One will be for your important stuff…the other for junk.
That way you won’t have to deal with numerous
solicitations in your business inbox.
And it needs to be web-based for two reasons:
1. So that you will have a permanent email address in
the event that you move or switch Internet
providers, -- thereby losing your POP account with it.
Doing this will prevent the situation described
earlier, where I had to prove my identity. This webbased account can easily be forwarded to your
current POP account and re-forwarded if you move.
2. So that you can manage your business remotely. A
definite convenience when traveling.
I use Microsoft’s Hotmail. It’s free. It’s reliable. It’s easy
to use. And, as a Microsoft service, it should be here for
the long haul.
www.hotmail.com
Baby step #8:
Set up a form-filling service
Sign-up right away for the free service offered below.
Page 44
As a Webmaster, you will often be required to fill out
tedious forms. By joining RoboForm, you’ll have the
option of letting RoboForm fill them in for you.
www.roboform.com
Baby step #9:
Upgrade your browser (optional)
Get the latest version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
www.microsoft.com
Baby step #10:
Set-up a PayPal account
PayPal is fast becoming a standard for exchanging money
on the Internet, -- with 5 million customers worldwide and
growing.
Please take a few minutes to set up your own PayPal
account now.
Page 45
Not only will it come in handy for possibly receiving money
as you pursue your online career, -- but you will be
needing it to purchase your template in Step- 4, Ladies
and Gentlemen – Choose your template.
www.paypal.com
Baby step #11:
Download WinZip
Even if you already have a utility program to unzip files,
you should get a free trial of WinZip, because the
template, which you will order later, is a zipped file that is
WinZip friendly.
www.winzip.com
Baby step #12:
Develop a realistic mindset
If you are very new to the Internet or computers in
general, then you will need to expect a certain amount of
frustration.
The rate of change on the Internet can be breathtaking
and dealing with technical issues can often be a burden, -even for those with experience.
So you will need to learn to relax when things seem
overwhelming.
Plus, do not set yourself up for failure by thinking you will
get rich overnight.
If you’re doing this part-time, while holding down a fulltime job, then it would be wise to set a realistic goal of,
let’s say, $500/month for your first site.
That amount is VERY realistic. And once achieved you can
build from there.
Page 46
So take the time to complete the organizational steps I’ve
outlined above, then sit down with someone close to you
and write down a financial goal.
Then give yourself a 3-month window of opportunity to
achieve it.
Once you have…
…your workspace equipped with the physical
resources needed to run your business and you have
a basic set of software tools and procedures in place
to assist you in better managing important details,
then…
…you are ready for the NEXT step.
Page 47
S
tep #
2
Step
#2
FFinding
inding tthe
he R
ight IIndustry
ndustry FFor
or Y
ou
Right
You
Desired outcome
…you will have chosen at least three possible
industries that offer from 3-6 good affiliate
programs.
In the beginning – was a decision
Although choosing an industry is a relatively simple step, it
was one that many in my Vancouver workshops stumbled
on.
I’m sure that fear of failure played a part, but my guess is
the primary reason was not being aware of the many
different categories of products with lucrative affiliate
programs available to them.
Or realizing that they are not limited to only one topic,
thereby thinking that the must get it right the very first
time out.
Many who saw me succeeding in Satellite TV, Cell Phones
and Credit Cards decided to jump into the same industry,
which is okay, but, I’d like to broaden YOUR horizons a bit
before you get to Step-4, where you register a domain
name and choose a template.
Page 48
Learning about the many options available before
beginning will also prepare you to get the most from the
next step, Keywords Are The Building Blocks.
So please take the time to go through each of the
recommended baby steps that follow, -- even if you are
already in affiliate marketing or familiar with CJ.
The brainstorming you will do could set you upon a whole
new path.
An affiliates’ role is simple
Before you get into researching possible categories for
your new website, I need to point out to you that your site
is NOT designed to have people linger, -- known as
‘stickiness’.
THAT’S the goal of your merchant, or advertiser, as they
are called at Commission Junction (CJ).
So, don’t be intimidated if you feel that you couldn’t
possibly know enough on your chosen topic.
When I got into Satellite TV I had no previous knowledge
on the industry – and I still use cable, even today.
It was the same with Credit Cards.
Like most consumers, I only knew of their convenience and
their potential to bury you in debt when used
inappropriately.
So, no matter what category you choose as the topic of
your website, the LAST consideration should be your
current knowledge base.
I will show you how to broaden your knowledge on any
topic you could think of in Step-5, Add Keyword-Focused
Content.
Page 49
The 5 most important factors in choosing a
category (in order of priority)
1. Are there any affiliate programs in the category
I’m considering? This should be self-evident.
There is no point in having a beautiful site on the
topic of Eskimo Art, let’s say, if there are no relevant
merchants to help you make it profitable. You will
need at least a few different products or services in
order to offer your visitor some comparative choices.
Soon you will be shown where to find thousands of
affiliate programs to choose from.
2. Can I build a decent “keyword list” about this
topic? In the next training module, Step-3, you will
learn of the strategic importance of “keywords”.
Keywords are the exact phrases that people type
into search engines. Amazingly, you will be able to
get an exact count of EVERY SINGLE KEYWORD
PHRASE entered into the major search engines in the
previous month. Although, it’s rare to find areas
that are NOT surfed on the Net, you will need to
factor in the DEMAND for keywords related to your
chosen product category PRIOR to selecting the best
topic. No sense in having a great site on “men’s bow
ties”, -- even if there ARE several good affiliate
programs available, -- if only 6 people searched that
subject in the previous month.
3. How good is their ‘creative’? The word ‘creative’
is an advertising industry term that refers to a
Page 50
websites’ ability to properly communicate to its
target audience. As a visitor to the merchants’ site - are you impressed? Would YOU buy anything
yourself? If not, why not? The thing to remember
is: that conversion rate is king when it comes to
affiliate marketing. Which means, -- what
percentage of total visitors ‘converted’ into
customers. It makes no sense to feature a merchant
whose site is so confusing that people don’t buy. As
you gain experience at this you’ll develop a ‘feel’ for
which merchants will convert well. In other words,
which merchants have good ‘creative’.
4. How generous is their program? Depending on
the industry, there will be a wide variety of
commission options. Some pay a percentage, while
others offer a flat fee. Some pay on 1-teir, while
others pay for 2-teirs. Some have a commission for
inquiries or registrations, while others cut you a
check for only approved transactions. I’ll offer some
guidelines in Step-6, when you join affiliate
programs.
5. Is it a subject I’m familiar with? Of course, it
would be nice to write about topics you’re familiar
with. But, it’s not necessary, because you’re focus
will be on researching the Net for information related
to your industry and distilling the vast amounts of
knowledge found there into 150-300 well-written
words for each page of your site. And the number of
Page 51
pages is directly related to the total number of
keywords related to your category. My sites usually
consist of 50-300 pages. In Step-5, you will be
taught exactly how to research and write your
content using the Internet. For most, it will be no
more difficult than a grade 9 high school composition
assignment. So, forget about your fear on NOT
being a writer. I taught dozens of people this
process that were initially absolutely petrified at the
thought of publishing an article on the Net, who now
delight in the process. So, relax. You CAN do it.
Take a peek into the industry
There are many sources of affiliate programs.
At the back of this manual, in the recommended resource
Appendix, I provide links to some of the best.
However, for the sake of simplicity we will confine our
research to the largest and best-known affiliate network,
Commission Junction. (CJ)
They not only feature THOUSANDS of merchants, but they
now offer a convenient search-tool to non-members.
Please do not skip these easy-to-do, -- but essential CJ
processes described below.
The time you spend doing them will greatly expand your
understanding of affiliate marketing and provide a solid
base for the next 7-steps.
And have your printer, three-hole punch and binder with
tabs ready. (or, at least your printer and a stapler)
You’ll have work to do. So I’d give yourself a full evening
or afternoon to complete this research.
Page 52
Baby step #1:
Find the ‘Search All Advertisers’ link at
Commission Junction
Go to www.cj.com (bookmark once it’s open and save it
in your merchants folder)
Baby step #2:
Go to the ‘Search All Advertisers’ section
shown above
As mentioned earlier, there are thousands of merchants to
choose from at CJ.
You will be able to search for potential advertisers in three
ways:
1. By industry
2. By keyword
3. Alphabetically by company name
Page 53
Baby step #3:
Get familiar with the many categories
This is important.
Spend some time visiting as many categories as you can,
by either clicking from the scroll down menu of choices, or
searching a topic that comes to mind in the Keyword
search tool, -- such as ‘linen’ or ‘car tires’.
I highly recommend that you do not go to the List all CJ
Advertisers tool just yet, -- because each listing will take
you directly to the merchant’s home page or ‘join’ page, -which will be a little premature.
As you open up different categories, in the (All Categories)
pull down menu, you will become familiar with how CJ
presents information on each advertiser.
There will be three columns consisting of.
1. A sample banner ad for each merchant (with a link
to their home page below it)
Page 54
2. Commission Rates
3. Category
Below, is the result of a search in the ‘flowers’ product
category.
The goal here is to have you search as many categories as
you can, -- in order to get familiar with the staggering
amount of companies offering affiliate revenue to budding
Internet publishers like yourself.
Just browse. Get ideas. See what’s possible.
Baby step #4:
Compile data on possible topics
Once you are comfortable with the fact that you have
MORE than enough choices as topics for a profitable
website, then you will need to gather printed information
on at least a dozen different industries.
In other words, you will need to narrow it down a bit, from
the “total” number of industries available to about a dozen.
Page 55
You’re in research mode here.
In later steps you will narrow it down even further, but this
initial research could be very helpful after you’ve built your
first site and want to do another.
As you come across industries that you feel you may want
to pursue, you should gather data according to the process
I’m about to describe:
Here is the procedure:
1. Search a topic.
2. Up comes a complete list of available advertisers at
CJ in that industry.
3. Scroll down the list. Note the total numbers of
potential merchants. Notice the commissions. At
first glance do them seem lucrative?
4. Print this whole page of advertisers if you feel it
could have potential as a product category for you.
(either now, or in the future)
5. Place these pages into a file folder. Label it as the
product category, -- such as ‘flowers’.
6. Keep repeating this process until you have opened
up file folders for about a dozen different industries,
such as flowers, cell phones, baby clothes, cigars,
contact lenses, insurance, etc.
Page 56
Baby step #5:
Review and drill down
Hopefully, the above process has excited you about your
potential as an affiliate marketer.
The only problem now is that, whereas before you had no
clue about where to start, NOW you have too MANY
options.
So, we need to research our list of 12 more fully, so that
we can prioritize.
Remember, the goal of THIS training module, Step-2, is to
find your three best bets.
Here’s how to determine your best three:
1. Prioritize your stack of 12 files. You will be doing
research on 10 or so companies in each category.
So, in case it gets tedious before you cover all 12,
you will want to start with the industries that, -- at
first glance, -- look “most” promising to you, for
whatever reason. Maybe it’s an industry you work
in. Or, it has regional implications. Or, the
commissions look great. Or, you read an article that
projected tremendous growth for online sales in
THAT particular industry. We are essentially
brainstorming here. So, just go with your hunches.
2. Open your first file folder and skim down the list
circling about 10 advertisers in each category.
3. Now, go to CJ. You are now ready to visit the List
all CJ advertisers tool. Each advertiser is listed
alphabetically. Working from your new list of 10
advertisers, -- the one’s you’ve circled, -- click-thru
Page 57
to each advertisers’ site and print their join page
info. If, instead, the link takes you to their home
page, print that instead, but find their join page
(affiliate program link) and print this to.
4. Staple these pages together and place them in each
relevant folder. You will review these in detail later.
5. Repeat the process for as many of your 12 product
categories as seems necessary.
What you will end up with is 10 potential advertisers
in each of your 12 files.
Baby step #6:
Pick your best three
Now spend some quality time to thin out your selections.
I suggest getting AWAY from the computer.
Grab your files, your preferred beverage and find a spot
where you won’t be disturbed.
You may even head out to your favorite coffee shop. This
is going to take a few hours.
With pen or highlighter carefully go through each potential
advertiser.
Make note of their commission structure. Look at their
home page.
How does it compare to others in the same category?
Is their affiliate join page user friendly? Or, does it employ
a lot of lawyer jargon and demonstrate an attitude of
restriction in their policy requirements?
Do they seem to appreciate their affiliates?
Page 58
THAT’S the key as far as I’m concerned.
Use your intuition and simply circle the interesting ones.
Although you won’t need to decide on your single best
category until Step-4, Ladies and Gentlemen -- Choose
Your Template, you will want to have chosen at least three
primary industries to make your choice from at that point.
Baby step #7:
Think boutique – not shopping mall
Another stumbling block for my former students was the
tendency to think of topics that were too ‘general’, such as
‘Insurance’ instead of ‘Auto Insurance’ or ‘Clothing’ instead
of ‘Women’s Clothing’ or better yet, ‘Lingerie’.
By building sites around niches you attract the RIGHT
people to your site, -- those most likely to buy.
Shopping online is VERY different than traditional shopping
because the shopper (and merchant) are not limited by the
constraints of ‘brick n’ mortar’.
The consumer can flit around the world in seconds looking
for a place to buy ‘buttons’, for instance.
Whereas in the brick n’ mortar world, they would probably
have to first find a ‘store’, -- that sold a whole array of
different products other than buttons, -- otherwise the
merchant would be unlikely to make a profit.
And, usually these stores are in malls.
But, the Internet itself is a mall.
In fact, it’s the largest shopping mall on earth.
And YOU can set up a simple storefront in this mall and
sell the specific products that are wanted.
If you want to sell a wider selection of products, then by all
means, do so.
Page 59
But, instead of cluttering a single website with many
products, build several with a few.
This online boutique concept serves the consumer very
well, -- because remember, -- you will be building your
sites around topics with a proven interest, based on your
keyword research, which I show you how to do in Step-3,
Keywords Are The Building Blocks.
In reflecting on your OWN surfing experiences, don’t you
derive greater satisfaction when landing on a site that
‘nails it’ as far as your search was concerned?
And conversely, isn’t a pain to open a site that is
completely off topic?
In the next step, you will learn about the amazing role of
“keywords” and how they spell out for you EXACTLY what
consumers want, so that you, -- the clever Internet
marketer that you are, -- can build a site around their
interest and find merchants who will deliver relevant
products and services TO them.
Once you have chosen …
…at least three possible industries that offer from 36 good affiliate programs…
Page 60
S
tep #
3
Step
#3
K
eywords Ar
e tthe
he B
uilding B
locks
Arre
Keywords
Building
Blocks
Desired outcome
…you will have a keyword list of approximately 50300 words (or more) for each of the three industries
you have selected in previous step.
Know thy keywords
Socrates apparently recommended that his students
cultivate self-knowledge as a way to enlightenment.
He said to them often, “know thyself”.
Good advice, I’d say.
And, my advice to anyone contemplating a commercial
website is to “know thy keywords”.
It is critically important that you determine, in advance,
what words and phrases -- keywords -- are being searched
on the Internet before doing ANYTHING regarding your
website.
And, that includes naming it.
And, this is because you will gain an AWESOME strategic
advantage when your domain name contains the most
popular keywords for your industry, -- especially since the
advent of link popularity as a MAJOR search engine
Page 61
ranking technique. (we cover link popularity in Step-8,
How To Boost Your Rankings With Link Popularity)
It wasn’t by accident by that my initial satellite TV site was
named: 1st-free-satellite-tv.com.
By using a low-cost service on the Internet, called
Wordtracker, I had determined in advance that “free
satellite tv” was a very popular keyword.
We’ll be doing some things at Wordtracker in a few
minutes.
But, first -- a search engine primer
Some of you may be familiar with the way that search
engines work. Others may have never given it much
thought.
So, let me review some basics.
In the world today there are 8 major search engines. It’s
been estimated that 90% of all search engine traffic is
handled by the Big-8 below:
1. Google
2. Yahoo
3. MSN
4. Hotbot
5. Excite
6. Altavista
7. Lycos
8. Aol
Search engines are the most popular way that visitors find
out about websites, -- accounting for well over half of all
possible ways that visitors learn about the existence of any
particular site.
Page 62
And, their use is growing.
Nearly all of my success has come from getting my sites
ranked highly at these search engines, -- especially Google
-- which is by far the biggest and most accurate of them
all.
You see, when someone types in the keyword “free
satellite tv” at Google, for instance, a lightening fast
search of its own database occurs, yielding a top-10 page
that surfers view first.
Along the top will be the total number of web pages (not
websites) that contained the phrase “free satellite tv”
somewhere within it, -- in the title, description or text.
The goal of the search engine is to provide the visitor with
a compilation of sites bearing some relevancy to the
keyword or phrase typed by the surfer.
The first page (top 10 listings) offers the most popular
sites, ranked in order of relevancy from top to bottom.
All other pages will also contain lists of 10 sites, each with
decreasing relevancy according to that particular search
engines’ criteria.
And you don’t want to be buried on page 20 if getting
traffic is important to you.
Page 63
I’m sure it’s obvious to you that you’ll get more traffic if
you get ranked in the top one or two pages.
You want your site ranked as highly as possible for the
most appropriate keywords in your industry.
Thankfully, much of your competition will fail to get
noticed at the search engines because no prior thought
went into determining which phrases were important as far
as search engine rankings were concerned.
And because of this oversight their pages get indexed
poorly.
You, however, won’t make that mistake.
Spiders at work
When I first started surfing the Net I was perplexed by
how these search engines could scan the entire Internet
and locate so many sites in seconds.
My confusion was cleared up when I learned about the role
of “spiders”.
Spiders are software programs that scurry across the
World Wide Web of interconnected computers -- hence the
name spiders -- at regular intervals looking for page
addresses to retrieve, index and store in their databases.
They feed on this data, which is why we call keywords
‘spider food’.
Of course, as a Webmaster, you will first need to submit
your site address, -- URL, -- which we cover in Step-7,
How To Submit To The Search Engines The RIGHT Way.
Once submitted, the spiders will index your site and rank it
for relevancy so that the search engines’ visitors get the
best possible selection.
And, they return at regular intervals.
Page 64
So, any changes you’ve made between visits, -- such as
adding more pages or rewriting content, -- can affect your
rankings, either positively or negatively.
For this reason alone, I NEVER touch a page that has
scored highly.
Spiders with a purpose
The mission of these spiders is simple.
They must determine what each page in their database is
about.
Not unlike humans, -- they read to find out.
But, unlike humans – who can think – they substitute
thinking with some quick math and guess the main topic
of each page.
This explains why, on occasion, a search returns some
very odd selections.
Please feed the spiders
These tiny beasts devour the words of your entire page.
In a nano-second, each page of your site has a “score” and
is placed in the appropriate index ACCORDING to that
score.
You score high or low based on the strategic placement of
spider food, which is to say, by the strategic placement of
keywords.
If it finds the words sugar all over the page, instead of,
let’s say, satellite tv, then it concludes, “aha, THIS is a
site about sugar”.
Then, it checks it’s database for ALL pages about ‘sugar’
and adjusts it’s rankings accordingly.
Page 65
Using a mathematical calculation called an algorithm,
these spiders determine whether THIS page about sugar is
MORE relevant than THAT page about sugar.
And, it’s not as simple as putting your keyword into every
sentence.
You need to be careful. Use too many and you’re
penalized with a low ranking.
Use not enough and you’re ALSO penalized.
Have too many DIFFERENT words and the spider gets
confused – and that’s a BAD thing.
In Step-5, Add Keyword-Focused Content, I’ll offer some
delightful recipes for spider food that are guaranteed to
please the palate of even the most discriminating spider!
Are you ready for some baby steps?
Baby step #1:
Visit Wordtracker
Go to www.wordtracker.com and click “Tell me more”.
Page 66
Baby step #2:
Read more about Wordtracker below
We compile a database of terms that people search for. You enter
some keywords, and we tell you how often people search for them,
and also tell you how many competing sites use those keywords.
Wordtracker helps you find all keyword combinations that bear
any relation to your business or service - many of which you might
never have considered.
You'll find out how popular these keywords really are.
Then for each major search engine, we'll show you the chances of
making the top 10.
At this point you can disregard Wordtracker’s other
services.
Your MAIN focus is the “keyword phrases” related to the
three industries you’ve chosen.
Baby step #3:
Take a 1-day subscription
Remember our goal: build “keyword lists” for each of the
three industries you are considering.
It is vitally important that you don’t meander on this site –
or any of the others that you work on throughout this
tutorial – because of the risk of acquiring conflicting
information and thereby losing focus.
So, with the three chosen industry files you have prepared
in Step-2 handy, -- click on Wordtracker’s Order/Pricing
link.
Page 67
The best six bucks you’ll ever spend.
In order to complete your keyword lists you will need a 1day subscription for only $6.12 US (this is a U.K. company
converting pounds into dollars, hence the unusual price)
Simply choose the 1-Day option as shown below.
Page 68
Baby step #4:
Click-thru to #1. Keyword Universe
As mentioned earlier, all the rest is irrelevant for our
immediate purposes.
However, once your site is built, you may want to avail
yourself of their other services or take longer
subscriptions.
Baby step #5:
Follow their 3-step process
In Wordtrackers’ Step-1 below, you simply enter the name
of the industry you would like to research.
NOTE: You should uncheck Thesaurus, though.
Page 69
This will provide hundreds of possible phrases – although
many of them will have no bearing on your industry.
Not to worry, though.
From this long list in the LEFT window you will select the
words and phrases that DO make sense, -- by clicking on
the chosen word or phrase.
This action will automatically generate ANOTHER list in the
RIGHT window. (as shown in the screenshot that follows)
Those words that appear in the RIGHT window are more
specific and become the basis of your eventual keyword
list.
In the “golf equipment” example that follows, you will see
the process more clearly.
Page 70
Here’s the procedure:
1. In the left window click any words or phrases that
make sense for your industry, -- as I have done
above for the phrase ‘golf equipment’.
2. This opens a window on the right.
3. In the right window you will see the precise phrases
– as well as their exact count – compiled from a
search, by Wordtracker, of many of the largest
search engines in the prior month. These are the
keywords that make the difference to your rankings
when strategically placed throughout your site –
even if they are misspelled.
a. Note the count
b. But ignore predicted count
4. Whenever you click on any phrase in this right
window, THAT word gets added to your shopping
cart, while a counter tallies them up.
Page 71
Simply review this list, -- selecting words and phrases as
you go, that, at first glance, seem relevant to the theme of
your potential website.
Each selection will be added to your shopping cart and
increase your total accordingly.
There is no cost per word, so take as many as you want.
You can review and delete later.
NOTE: in fact, you may HAVE to avoid using some of your
very best keywords due to their massive popularity. So
it’s better to take too many at this point, than not enough.
In Step-5, Add Keyword-Focused Content, you will be
shown how-to do a “backwards link check” at Google
before deciding whether to build a keyword-Focused page
around any particular keyword. The procedure you will
learn, -- which is largely unknown, -- will allow you to
predict with great accuracy exactly what it will take, in
terms of link-popularity, to get your page ranked ahead of
those who currently occupy the 1st page at Google for any
keyword on your list. But, for now, -- just build your list, - which becomes the raw material from which you will
ultimately organize your content. Keep going back and
forth between left and right windows – selecting words and
phrases from the left window, -- then choosing from the
right column, which adds them to your cart in preparation
for Step-3 (below) of the Wordtracker process.
Page 72
In Wordtracker’, Step-3 above, your chosen keyword list
has now been organized numerically from top to bottom
according to each keywords’ popularity at the search
engines.
Note the count of 3304 for the keyword: golf equipment.
This means that it was searched 3304 times at the major
search engines in the prior month.
The keyword ‘discount golf equipment’, just below it, was
searched 691 times.
This is GREAT information.
How many words?
You’re looking for a list of between 50-300 or so keywords.
Each keyword offers you the opportunity to optimize a
page on your site primarily about THAT particular keyword.
So if you build a list of 50 keywords, -- and use each one
as a primary keyword for a single page on your site, -then you will have a 50 page website.
Page 73
If you use 300 words, then you will have a 300 page
website.
We will go into more detail on the most appropriate size of
your site and how to use these keywords to your best
advantage in Step-5, Add Keyword-Focused Content.
For now, just become familiar with the Wordtracker
service, by building separate lists of keywords for each of
the three industries you’ve researched at CJ.
As you complete each list, simply email them to you from
Wordtracker.
Then print them for your paper files.
Choose only keywords with at least 50
searches
Many words will not rate as a keyword because they were
not popular enough at the search engines.
For me, the threshold is 50.
I need to see at least 50 searches for any particular
keyword before investing the time to optimize a page of
content about it.
But, do not neglect counts above that threshold.
Many webmasters ignore words with counts of a hundred
or so, thinking they are not worth the effort.
I have a different view.
For me, it makes perfectly good sense to get a high
ranking for a relatively obscure keyword, -- that my
competition may be ignoring, -- because although the
visitors will be few in number, they are HIGHLY targeted,
which means they are more likely to click-thru to a
merchant.
Page 74
Be specific
Remember, your site is a boutique, -- not a mall or a
department store, -- so try to be as specific as possible in
your choices of keywords.
Internet surfers do not t look for malls.
They look for information, -- specific information.
You want these surfers to land on pages within your site, - so that, hopefully, they will click on one of your featured
merchants which offer products and services…
…related to their search.
The more specific you get, the more useful you become to
the visitor, -- plus, you will have less competition from
other websites because most try to be all-things-to-allpeople, -- like a typical mall.
For example, you may have initially thought that a site
about baby items was a good idea, -- only to find that
baby cribs seems to offer a better niche (i.e. – wooden
baby cribs, new baby cribs, baby crib safety and so on)
Run that by me one more time
This really IS a simple process, once you get the hang of
it.
Let’s review Wordtracker’s 3-step process:
1.
In Step-1, enter a search word that best describes
your chosen industry, such as “golf equipment”.
2.
Peruse the list that appears in the left window and
select those, which seem appropriate.
a. This opens a window on the right with the
exact count and precise phrases (including
misspellings) surfed at the search engines in
the prior month.
Page 75
b. Choose the best ones by clicking on them
once. You will see the numerical total in
shopping cart counter increase after each click.
Before adding to your shopping cart, ask your self, “would
my site make sense to someone surfing THIS phrase?”
And, “does it meet my count total criteria?”
3.
Then go back to the left column and select another
word. Keep doing this – going back and forth –
until you’ve built up a list of 50-300 different
keywords.
4.
Proceed to Step-3 and give your list a final review,
before deleting any keywords that might not seem
appropriate upon further consideration.
5.
Then send it to your email address.
6.
IMPORTANT FINAL STEP: Before creating another
list for a separate industry, -- remember, you need
3 lists, -- you must hit the Clear all link in the
shopping cart window, otherwise these new words
get mixed in with the others.
You can’t get this wrong
Please don’t fret about this if it’s your first exposure to
keywords.
Consider this session as practice if it seems daunting.
You definitely WILL get the hang of it as you repeat the
process for each of the three topics you’ve chosen.
The purpose of these keyword lists will become more
apparent in Step-5, Add Keyword-Focused Content, when I
Page 76
instruct you on how-to organize your keywords into
separate groups before starting to write content.
But, please don’t skip this exercise if you think it’ll be
easier to make your lists later.
The practice you will get in this module will be VERY
valuable later, when going through the process of refining
and organizing your lists.
Once you have…
…a printed keyword list of approximately 50-300
words for each of the three industries you’ve
selected…
Page 77
S
tep #
4
Step
#4
LLadies
adies aand
nd Ge
ntlemen –
hooosse
eY
our
Ge
entlemen
–C
Cho
Your
T
emplate
Template
Desired outcome
…you will have a website under construction.
Mr. Web speaks the language of HTML
Before beginning the process of choosing a pre-designed,
FrontPage-based template, -- from a third party company
called A Pixel Pixie, -- I would like to cover some Internet
basics.
Especially for those adventurous souls who purchased this
manual with a burning desire to succeed financially, -- but,
who had never really given much thought to the Internet, - and who might even have an aversion to things technical.
The first thing you need to know, -- with absolute
certainty, -- is that no one has all the answers.
And that would include me as well.
That’s because this vast World Wide Web (www.) of
interconnected computers is a still a-work-in-progress.
Page 78
And we, it’s users, are much like the proverbial blind men
in the ancient parable about 5 blind guys who were asked
to describe the elephant they could only imagine from their
individual grasp of different parts of this enormous beast.
Not surprisingly, they all had conflicting opinions.
And, -- likewise with the Internet, -- because here too, no
one can really see the big picture, -- especially since it’s
still evolving.
But, all YOU really need to know is how it relates to your
purpose of publishing information on the Net and profiting
with affiliates programs.
These days, publishing to the web is relatively easy
because both Microsoft Word and FrontPage will
automatically convert your document into HTML, a
programming code that allows information to be shared on
the Net.
This is a fairly recent development.
Formerly, programmers were needed to convert every
document into HTML code.
This was both expensive and time consuming.
The screen shot below depicts an example of the HTML
that is embedded into every page you view on the net.
The purpose of your browser is to ‘translate’ this code.
Page 79
Below is the same page as above, after it has been
instantly translated into words and graphics.
Much easier on the eyes, don’t you think?
Viewing this code on any website is easy
To view the Source code (HTML) on any site, just use the
View command in your browser as shown below.
Servers hold the data
If you write something that you want to be made available
on the Net, it not only needs to be converted to HTML, but
it must reside on a web hosting companies’ ‘server’.
Page 80
These servers act like hubs, -- that connect all other
servers on the Net, -- transforming them into one HUGE
computer offering accessibility to anyone with a Net
connection.
The hosting companies charge a small monthly fee to host
your data (website) on their server, so that anyone who
knows your Web address (URL) or finds your link in a
search engine can access your site.
Although the surfer only knows your Web address, (i.e.
www.mysite.com), your site actually resides at the hosting
companies’ IP address, -- which is a long number, such as
45.676.672.44, -- which includes a few digits that are
unique only to your particular site, -- much like an
apartment building with a series of door numbers.
The next site that you view, although in London, England,
may actually reside on a server located in Miami, Florida.
Publishing to the net with FrontPage is a
cinch
Once you register your domain name, organize your
content, and choose a hosting service, you will need to
‘upload’ your site to the Net.
FrontPage has a convenient button that publishes your site
automatically in seconds.
All that needs to be done is to let your hosting company
know that you plan to publish with FrontPage and will need
“FrontPage extensions”.
Otherwise you will need FTP software.
Now, FTP software is also easy to use, -- once you know
how, -- but it is far more cumbersome than FrontPage’s
nifty publishing tool.
So don’t forget to ask for “FrontPage extensions” when
arranging hosting later on.
Page 81
My instructions will presume that you are going to publish
with FrontPage, -- but I will include a link to free FTP
software in the recommended resources appendix at the
back of this manual.
Templates are good for beginners (or
veterans)
As you know, I was in the telecommunications and
advertising prior to affiliate marketing.
In those days, I was using Microsoft Word, and had gained
familiarity with Windows 95 and the Internet, -- because
much of the back-end management was done online.
When I decided to build my own site, I had a fairly easy
time of making the transition from Word into FrontPage, -since they are similar in many ways.
But, if I hadn’t already become proficient with Word, prior
to my introduction to affiliate marketing, I would have
definitely started my business using pre-designed
templates.
And in fact, I now use templates exclusively for all of my
new websites.
Templates or themes include a matching color set, pictures
or graphics, navigation bars and a pre-designed layout.
They save time.
And reduce the learning curve required to set up tables in
FrontPage, -- plus completely eliminate the need for
having a ‘designers flair’ for graphics and colors.
If you are really serious about gaining financial
independence with affiliate programs, -- then you should
not limit your thinking to a single site, -- but think in terms
of constructing a series of sites.
And templates provide a low-cost, relatively easy way to
do this, -- while offering a professional look and spicing
things up with a little variety.
Page 82
Let the designers do what they do best.
While YOU focus on what’s important, -- which is high
rankings – because spiders couldn’t give-a-hoot about the
design aspects of your site.
Although a professional, well-organized appearance is
essential to building credibility with your visitor.
Sample websites by students using
templates
What follows are three examples of sites built by some of
my Vancouver students.
Each one of these people had no experience with websites
before launching their affiliate business. Take a look.
Page 83
How easy is it?
Although Microsoft FrontPage enables its users to publish
to the web with amazing efficiency, -- especially so with
Page 84
the 2000 and 2002 versions, -- I need to caution you that
if you are totally new to FrontPage or computers in
general, -- then you will have to be patient with yourself
while you go through the learning process.
If you can find a local class on FrontPage then take it.
Or better yet, hire someone proficient in FrontPage to sit
with you and show you the basics.
Because, even though your templates are pre-designed, -you will still need to know how to keep your folders and
files organized, add and delete pages, cut and paste
graphics or modify buttons and tables.
Even the installation process requires careful procedures,
which you may be totally unfamiliar with.
Two things to make it easier
Although it is not within the scope of this manual to
instruct you on the intricacies of FrontPage, I have given
much thought as to how I could best assist beginners to
gain the necessary proficiency with FrontPage terminology
and processes to successfully complete this vital step in
the overall process of succeeding at Affiliate Marketing.
They are:
1. Find a user-friendly, FrontPage oriented template
design service.
2. Demonstrate the ordering and template set-up
process by purchasing a template for myself.
Introducing a user-friendly template service
I actually delayed publication of this manual for several
weeks because the company that I was originally
recommending did not offer the right stuff:
Page 85
1. For instance, their customer service consisted of
email only. I concluded that this could become
problematic for those wanting a simple answer to a
simple question, -- when a phone call would suffice.
2. In addition to that, there was a technical issue in the
way some of their sites were designed, -- such as
15% of their catalogue being “frames-based”. These
have scrollbars within the sites that consist of
overlapping pages. In many cases this would kill any
chance of getting a high ranking at the search
engines because frames-based sites send a “mixed
message” to the spider, -- who simply ignores the
“static” and throws your site into the bottom drawer,
-- so to speak.
3. While attempting to order a template for
demonstration purposes, I also found their
procedures to be unnecessarily complicated.
4. Although they had a decent sized catalogue of 101
designs, I felt that many were “over designed”. This
reduced my recommended choices to a mere
handful.
5. Also, their installation process was cumbersome.
And I did not want my readers to go through the
hassle of conversing by keyboard (email) if a
problem arose.
Page 86
No need to name this company here, -- for they did indeed
provide some decent templates for my Vancouver students
when I was giving live seminars.
But in that scenario, -- for the considerable fee I was
charging, -- I had a technical team backing them up with
personalized service.
Plus, each of their sites were plugged into an enormously
efficient, highly technical web-management system, which
was co-developed by my partner, Chuck Anderson and
myself.
I only became aware of their deficiencies when attempting
to order a template, so I could walk the readers of this
manual through the process.
It’s a small world
Enter Lynne Robson, owner of A Pixel Pixie, a Canadian
company, which specializes in creating fun and wonderful
themes and templates especially for Microsoft FrontPage, - with nearly 200 beautiful designs (and still growing), -PLUS she provides phone-based customer service.
The irony is that I surfed the Net for weeks searching for
an alternative template service, -- only to find Lynne
Robson in my own back yard, here in White Rock, B.C.
Go figure.
And because of the service she provides you now can
create a wonderful looking site – fast and easy.
Lynne has done an excellent job at simplifying the process
of viewing, installing and customizing your template.
Her instructions are very helpful and her prices for both
templates and customization are excellent.
She is very knowledgeable in FrontPage 2000 and the
latest version, 2002.
And trust me, many designers are NOT.
Page 87
And best of all, you can usually reach her by phone if you
get stuck.
I like that.
But, before visiting her site, -- shown below, -- we need to
discuss how to choose a domain name.
A little show-and-tell goes a long way
A while back, I registered Casino-8.com to promote some
lucrative gaming merchants, -- but got too busy to build a
site.
So, in order to walk you through the process of selecting a
template for the topic you are about to chose from the
three industries you have researched in Step-2, Finding
The Right Industry For You, -- I will demonstrate the
procedure of choosing, installing and modifying one of
Lynne Robson’s templates.
But, first you need to DECIDE on which of your three
industries to start with and register a domain name, don’t
you?
Page 88
Baby step #1:
Now it’s time to decide on a keyword-based
domain name
Before you start looking at template designs, you should
settle on which of the three industries have the most
appeal to you at this point, -- then register your domain
name based on a top keyword from the list you created at
Wordtracker.
Grab this list and a pen.
You are about to doodle a bit.
As I mentioned earlier, the ideal domain name will contain
what is known as a primary keyword (or keyword phrase),
-- which is usually a word that is highly searched and near
the top of your keyword list. (as long as it isn’t a
proprietary trade name)
For some of you the idea of using keyword phrases,
instead of words with snazzy marketing appeal, may
require a major shift in philosophy.
This is because in the Dot Com world you are surrounded
by classic examples of the blind-leading-the-blind.
There are many myths on this subject, such as:
1. Your domain name needs to be short
2. Conversely, avoid long names
3. If it has to be multiple words, then condense them
into one long word
4. Catchy or cute domain names work best
5. Avoid hyphenating (dashes between words)
6. The good domain names are all taken
The truth is…
…the keyword list before you contains the VERY BEST
words to use in your domain name, -- mainly because of
Page 89
the strategic advantage of link-popularity, -- which we
thoroughly cover in Step-8, Boost Your Rankings With
Link-Popularity.
But, it won’t hurt, as far spiders and surfers are concerned
either.
For example, if the first phrase the spider sees when
arriving at your site is golf-equipment.com, -- then it
concludes, “aha, this site is probably about golf
equipment.”
Then it looks for supporting evidence in the title tag,
followed by the headlines and body, -- and in some cases
checks the META tags embedded in the HTML.
If, instead, it reads, Karen’s-online-store.com, you’ve
inadvertently confused it.
Is it about Karen? What kind of online store?
And, what if Karen ran all the words together, -- as so
many do, -- forming Karensonlinestore.com, -- as she sees
all the BIG guys doing?
NOW the spider is really confused!
Doesthismakesensetoyou?
Remember, -- be “kind to spiders”.
And, it doesn’t hurt to be very specific with potential
visitors also.
Have you ever landed on a search engine top 10-page and
eyeballed the list before clicking on a site?
Are you not doing this in an attempt to guess whether a
particular site, -- based on its name, -- has greater
relevancy to the search you’ve just made?
If, for instance, you were looking for a low interest credit
card, -- would you not give more credence to a site named
low-interest-credit-cards.com, over a site named financialproducts.com?
Page 90
I rest my case.
A further illustration
As you now know, the best keywords are those exact
words that surfer’s type into search engines with the most
frequency.
So if, for example, the phrase “low interest credit cards”
was at (or near) the top of a keyword list associated with
the credit card industry, -- then I would know that it gets
searched more often than the others.
So then, -- my preferred choice as a domain name would
be low-interest-credit-cards.com in order to establish
without a doubt to the GREATEST NUMBER of potential
visitors that MY SITE can fulfill their needs best.
IMPORTANT NOTE: although the ‘spiders’ ignore spaces,
the hyphen’s (or dashes) are necessary to satisfy the
domain registrars’ requirements that spaces or commas be
avoided.
And, please, do not worry if your best keyword phrase
appears to be to long, -- because the vast majority of
people who land on your site will have an easy hyperlink
from the search engine listings.
Plus, -- people ‘bookmark’ a lot these days, -- so they
won’t have to type it anyway.
Here’s something only a spider would know
In most cases spiders ignore two-letter words -- and all
numbers, -- seeing them instead as spaces.
This little-known secret will give you MANY more options
for acquiring the best domain name for your keywordfocused site.
For example, -- let’s say I want to represent golf
equipment merchants.
Page 91
So I check on the availability of golf-equipment.com and
it’s gone – as I’m sure it is.
Then, -- just try for A1-golf-equipment.com.
Or, if it’s gone, -- try A2, or AA or golf-equipment-4U and
so on.
That way, you get the keyword you’re after, -- golf
equipment -- even though someone else has registered
another version.
This insider information will allow you to acquire excellent
domain names in some very competitive industries.
So, what’s it gonna be?
Hopefully, the preceding explanation has convinced you to
go with a keyword-based domain name, -- rather than a
“pet name” you may have chosen before starting this
course.
If so, then all you need to do is work down your list of
keywords and jot down some likely choices.
It-really-is-as-simple-as-that.com
Just kidding.
Baby step #2:
Register your domain name at Domain
Maniac
www.domain-maniac.com
Page 92
As you can see in the above screenshot, -- Domain Maniac
also offers hosting, -- next to the frazzled guy – why he’s
frazzled, I’ll never know.
But, disregard hosting for now.
Hosting will be covered later.
You will also notice that they offer the option of --.org,
.net, .biz, .tv, etc.
But, as you now know, getting your preferred name at
.com should NOT be a problem.
All of my sites are either --.com or --.net.
And I only go to .net, -- if my preferred name is not
available at .com but is still available at .net.
By resorting to .net I get the best keyword into my domain
name without adding the above-mentioned letters or
numbers.
But, either way you’re fine.
Just do it
So have your credit (or check) card handy.
Page 93
Then search your name.
You will instantly be informed whether you domain name is
available after doing your search.
And, if it is, put it into your shopping cart and pay for it.
Once payment is accepted, you will be notified by email of
your primary and secondary nameserver information and
your IP address.
Also included in this email will be your Username and
Password for logging in when it comes time to upload your
new website to the Net.
When this email arrives, -- please print it and create a
paper file in a folder with the name of your newly
purchased domain name AND registration date on the
outside of the folder for easy reference.
Also, copy or save it to your email based password folder.
Time flies
It is vitally important that you keep track of the
registration dates for every domain name and website that
you register.
This is because, -- although the registrar normally notifies
you prior to your expiration date, -- it is STILL your
responsibility to re-register your domain name in a timely
fashion.
Otherwise, you run the risk of having your site go down, -and possibly having all of your hard-won traffic go to
someone else who registered the domain name after you.
Page 94
Baby step #3:
Visit A Pixel Pixie
www.apixelpixie.com
Let’s go to A Pixel Pixie to look for a good template for my
Casino-8.com site.
Lynne currently has two sets of catalogues.
There are 63 designs to choose from on this site,
accessible when hitting the Theme Catalogue.
Linked from A Pixel Pixie, -- under More Great Themes, -is another site called The Theme Weaver.
At The Theme Weaver you can choose from an additional
72 designs.
Test the waters
I suggest that before you choose a template, you should
have a quick tour of this site to gain an overview of their
services, -- but keep in mind, -- that some of the
Page 95
terminology may be unfamiliar if you are totally new to
FrontPage.
If so, I would suggest that you print as much as you can
and study up.
You will need to learn the ‘lingo’ of FrontPage at some
point anyway, -- and Lynne is a FrontPage pro who
provides written descriptions which can serve as an
excellent FrontPage primer.
So please take the time needed to get comfortable with
Lynne’s site and try to learn some basic FrontPage
terminology in the process.
And if you jump right into the catalogue section, -- also
keep in mind that these templates are geared primarily to
small businesses and hobbyists, -- so the actual advice
given in the text portion of each sample page is not
necessarily geared to Affiliate Marketers, -- which is a new
and rather specialized field.
For instance, your navigation bar buttons will be written
with spiders in mind, -- whereas a traditional web design
will completely fail to bait spiders, -- using instead, words
such as products, press releases, etc.
But this is okay.
Let your competitor’s name their internal links this way, -while you scoot up the ranks with the methods I teach in
the next module.
But, as Lynne says on her site, “we don’t do your
advertising, your web traffic analysis, search engine
submissions or map out your e-commerce strategy.
We do the things we do best.
We design and develop great websites, themes and
templates that are clean and easy to navigate as well as
easy for you to modify.”
Page 96
Baby step #4:
Let’s shop for a template
When you get to The Pixel Pixie catalogue you will be
presented with an easy-to-navigate, horizontal scrollbar
showing a thumbnail image above the price.
The names above each template should give you an idea of
the theme of that site, -- but a short description will also
pop up when holding your cursor above any thumbnail.
A good way to go about this is to have a quick look at this
catalogue and jot down any interesting designs, -- those
that you feel could be ‘a match’ for the category you’ve
chosen.
Then scroll back and open the interesting ones, by clicking
on the thumbnail, for an enlargement.
Printing them for comparison may also be a good idea.
Then repeat with The Theme Weaver catalogue.
Don’t panic if you cannot immediately see a design that’s
even remotely associated with your industry because many
sites can be customized.
As you will see later, I had to choose a site designed
originally for a dentist, -- but with the replacement of a
single graphic was able to transform it quite nicely for my
purposes.
Page 97
A word of caution about animated “enter”
pages
The above screenshot is what is called a Splash or Swish
Entrance page.
Some of Lynne’s designs have them, -- while others do
not. The description will tell you.
IMPORTANT WARNING: When choosing a design with an
‘enter’ page, -- you MUST overwrite them, -- or it won’t
stand a chance of getting ranked at the search engines.
Although these ‘enter’ pages are very impressively
designed and will convey a high degree of technical
sophistication to your visitor, -- because of the animation
effect, -- they are otherwise disastrous when seeking
search engine rankings.
This is because the programming language that drives
them can cause problems for spiders.
But, -- not to worry though.
Page 98
If you find the perfect template and it comes with a
dreaded ‘enter page’, -- you can easily overwrite it with a
more search-engine friendly home page, --such as the one
below, -- in Antique Bath’s welcome page.
Ideally, you want your visitors to arrive on a page similar
to the one below when they arrive on your ‘home’ page, -or what FrontPage calls your ‘index’ page.
Interchangeable graphics may be important
Many of Lynne’s templates have interchangeable graphics.
Others do not.
In the design above, -- please note the upper left graphic
in this particular template cannot be replaced because it is
embedded into the border.
As you peruse the catalogue you may need to check with
Lynne on which graphics are replaceable and which are
not.
Page 99
But, if you have a good eye for this, -- you will probably be
able to tell the difference when you see the way in which
the graphic appears in the Dental Template that I selected
for my casino site.
Free graphics tool
As Lynne says in her Graphics Tools page, (link below) she
has located a good piece of freeware for customizing
graphics.
http://www.thethemeweaver.com/ttw/goodies.htm
I suggest you get it and experiment.
She also notes that many templates come with a -- “Your
Company Name Here” field, -- as with Antique Bath above,
-- which requires the freeware she suggests.
If, however, you would prefer not to experiment with it,
she will do it for you as part of the price, -- which is good
of her. (however, this policy may change if the demand
becomes too great)
Design services you may need
Please check out Lynne’s full list of design services.
However, other than maybe having her assist with
replacing a graphic or adding your site name you really
should be able to do what you need to do to build a
winning site with the basic templates’ she provides.
NOTE: If your full URL will not fit into the “Your Company
Name Here” blank images field, which is a graphic, -- then
simply shorten it.
This is because spiders will bypass any graphic field
anyway and head straight to the words on your page, -which will be delicious spider food, of course.
Page 100
Baby step #5:
Okay, I want THAT one
After getting a good overview of both catalogues, -- I
made the decision to select the Dental File theme from The
Theme Weaver selection because the graphic was easily
replaceable and the layout was generic.
As you will see shortly, this template could easily serve
any number of industries, -- because with the graphic
replaced it had a whole new look.
And for $35 how could you go wrong?
PayPal – a new standard on the Net
So I hit the “Click to Buy” button.
As you will see in the screenshot below, their authorized
payment processor is PayPal.
So, you will need to take the time to open a PayPal
account now, unless you did this as recommended in Step1, How to get (and stay) organized.
Page 101
By the way, PayPal now has over 5 million customers
worldwide.
It’s fast becoming the standard for exchanging currency on
the Net, and is used extensively by eBay.
Auto-download
At the time of this writing (February, 2002) Lynne was in
the middle of setting up an auto-download feature with
PayPal so that you would receive your template within
minutes of ordering.
Otherwise you would get it no later than the next business
day.
Either way, count yourself lucky.
I’ve talked to designers who charge no less than $500 for
a pre-designed template, -- of lesser quality, -- who told
me it would take a week.
Your template has arrived
Your template will arrive by email as an unzipped file.
So, once again, you will have saved yourself some time if
you have already downloaded WinZip as suggested in
Step-1, How To Get And Stay Organized.
Page 102
Otherwise go to www.winzip.com and download their
trial version.
Then you will be able to unzip the attached file, which is
WinZip friendly, according to Lynne.
Template installation instructions
Although Lynne will attach a complete set of instructions
called Tips, Tricks and Installation in your template folder
in a PDF format, -- I’ve decided to give you some basic
instructions here to move you along.
Once WinZip is installed you can proceed.
But first save the file to a location on your hard drive by
clicking on it.
As you go through this process, -- you will be prompted to
save it in a location.
I created a folder called Template-Casino and saved it to
my desktop.
Page 103
If your file does not appear as shown below, in the folder
you created in windows, -- be sure to select All Files from
the menu bar as shown below.
Windows has a nasty habit of not defaulting to the All Files
“Type of File”.
So sometimes your file doesn’t show up until you select All
Files.
Now it is saved on your computer in a zipped format,
tucked away in a folder in a place where you can easily
find it.
Before UNZIPPING it you need to make sure that
FrontPage is closed.
Not just minimized, -- but closed.
Otherwise the installation will fail.
Now find your file through the Windows Start menu as
shown below, -- then Double-Click on it.
Page 104
By Double-Clicking on your selected file as shown above, - WinZip will open in a new window as shown below.
To begin the install process hit the Setup button in the
upper right.
This begins the short installation process.
You will see a note from Lynne Robson “thanking you” for
purchasing a theme by The Theme Weaver or A Pixel Pixie.
After a few more windows, you simple hit the Finish button
and you’re done.
Page 105
It’s a good idea to browse the “Read Me” file, which is
included. (not shown here)
When the process is completed, you will see a screen that
says, “installation successful”. (not shown here)
That means you are finished.
Simply close Windows and get back to your desktop.
And IF for some reason you are not seeing the screenshots
above, then don’t waste time fussing with it.
Just call and ask for help.
And I have learned that it’s ALWAYS best to rely on help
lines instead of getting frustrated over technical issues.
Now open FrontPage
Go to File, New and Web as shown below to create, what
FrontPage calls a “New Web”.
Page 106
By Double-Clicking on Web you will then see your template
appear as shown below.
And there you have it.
All of your folders nicely organized and your pages ready
to be customized. (see below)
Page 107
Once you have…
…a website under construction, then…
Page 108
S
tep #
5
Step
#5
A
dd K
eyword-Focused C
ontent
Add
Keyword-Focused
Content
Desired outcome
…you will have a primary keyword-based navigation
bar, -- where each of your 5-6 buttons will link to a
SINGLE ‘product’ page containing a compelling
headline and between 150-300 words of primary and
secondary keyword-based text, -- plus a strategy for
adding NUMEROUS ‘article’ pages…that each link
back to the most appropriate ‘product’ page…AND
have embedded your primary and secondary
keywords strategically into each pages:
1) Title tag
2) Page description meta tags
3) Keyword meta tags
4) Alt tags
5) Headline #1 (H1)
6) Headline #2 (H2)
PLUS, have completed the page optimization process
by:
! Having strategically placed your Primary
Keyword and your Tier-1 Secondary Keywords
throughout the text.
Page 109
! Bolding and hyperlinking each pages primary
keyword, -- preferably near the top of the page,
to a related product page or merchant.
! Italicizing each pages primary keyword once
somewhere near the top of the page, preferably
in your headline or sub-headline.
! Optimizing each page of text for keyword
density by including your primary keyword and
Tier-1 secondary keyword once in the headline,
once again in a second headline, twice in the
first paragraph, and then once in each
subsequent paragraph.
! Randomly included your Tier-2 secondary
keywords throughout the text.
Where the rubber hits the road
I know the above description for the goal of this step, is
probably quite a handful for some of my entry-level
readers to grasp.
Yet do not despair.
Because once you get through this major step, you are
well on your way to having a profitable website.
I would encourage ‘newbies’ to read this chapter right
through once without implementing, then return and reread it again.
I’m sure the pieces to the puzzle will begin to fall into
place once you’ve read it a few times.
This way you will be more prepared for the required action.
And for those who have experience, -- this module may
also seem difficult.
Page 110
That’s because you will probably see a totally different
approach to website navigation, content development and
page optimization.
Which may result in the very human tendency to resist
new knowledge when it seems to contradict what you have
previously accepted as “the way it is”.
And to those skilled readers, I invite you to follow my logic
and implement the approach I describe, -- exactly.
Otherwise you risk altering key components to a winning
strategy.
So don’t get too ‘creative’.
And remember, -- that because of the breathtaking rateof-change on the Internet, -- what worked 6-months ago
may not work today.
Just follow the steps. You will be glad you did.
Because the “arc” of this chapter is so long, -- I have
divided it into three parts:
1. Organize your words
2. Write your words
3. Modify your template
But, before getting into the precise steps you need to take
to complete this rather lengthy module, I would like to “tee
things up” a bit with an overview of my approach to
building winning sites.
What follows in the next several pages may seem a little
advanced for my entry level readers because I’ll be using
terms that may be new to you.
But everything will be explained in great detail as you
actually implement the steps.
And, as I said earlier, -- just read for now.
Things will begin to make sense as you go.
Page 111
PPart
art 1
rgani
ze yyour
our w
ords
niize
1 ---- O
Organ
words
An overview of my approach to site
navigation
In a nutshell…a site with between 50-300 article-pages (or
more depending on the length of your keyword list) linking
back to 5-6 product pages is a money machine if you
follow my guidelines.
‘Product’ pages are designed to make money
The pages that link off of your navigation bar buttons are
what I call ‘product pages’.
These so called product pages will contain a compelling
headline, plus 150-300 words (4-6 paragraphs) of well
researched, eloquent and concise content, -- optimized
fully for single a primary keyword and partially optimized
for tier-1 and tier-2 secondary keywords -- PLUS have
links to the all important merchants.
And there will be only one product page per navigation bar
button.
Therefore, because I recommend a “short list” of buttons, - between 5-6 is fine, -- that means you will only need the
corresponding 5-6 product pages.
But this does NOT mean you need 10-12 different
merchants.
That’s because many will do double-duty and appear on
several different product pages.
Frankly, I do very well on sites that feature as few as three
unique merchants’ appearing on each product page.
Page 112
‘Article’ pages are designed to link to your
product pages
All of my sites consist of both ‘product’ pages and what I
call ‘article’ pages.
I have any number of article pages linking back to only 5-6
product pages.
An article page is similar to a product page, but has three
important differences:
1. They are each optimized in the same way as your
product pages, -- but utilize the numerous other
words that make up your keyword list, -- as long as
the count for each remains above 50 as you learned
earlier.
2. They have no links to merchants.
3. They provide visitors with a clear path to a product
page. (through the navigation menu and at least
one text link)
‘Article’ pages all point to a ‘product’ page
Article pages are strategically designed for search engine
spiders, -- which will hopefully index them high enough so
that search engine visitors will find them.
And when a visitor lands on any of these relevant ‘article’
pages, -- they are ALSO exposed to your product-page
oriented navigation bar, -- as well as a text link to one of
your product pages.
And hopefully, these kind visitors, -- who found some
pertinent information in the article you wrote, -- will either
click on one of your navigation bar buttons or hyperlinked
keyword, -- opening the all important product page.
Page 113
Articles galore
Once your 5-6 product pages have been written, imported
into your template, fully optimized, merchants added,
submitted to the search engines and link partners sought,
you will begin the task of picking off the remaining
keywords.
Most of you will have keyword lists totaling in the
hundreds, while others will have less than a hundred.
Your task is to research and write at least one article a
day, -- fully optimized for a single primary keyword, and
partially optimized for tier-1 and tier-2 secondary
keywords (more on that later) -- until you have drilled
down your keyword list to where the count no longer
exceeds 50.
Many of my sites have hundreds of article pages, -- scores
of which have high rankings, -- thereby increasing the
exposure to my all important navigation bar and product
page link.
By having a ‘content-rich’ (article-rich) website you ALSO
improve your relevancy score at most search engines, -especially when following my latest techniques for
organizing your internal links.
The strategic reason for leaving merchants
off article pages
And the reason these article pages do not contain links to
merchants is simple, -- merchants come and go.
By limiting their placement to only a handful of pages
rather than including them on every page on your site, -whenever you need to replace or repair a link, -- you won’t
have the tedious task of sorting through dozens or even
hundreds (or thousands – if building many sites) of pages
to do so.
And although your visitor will only see a 5-6 page website,
-- based on their observation of your navigation bar menu,
Page 114
-- the ever important spider sees all of your internal links
and ranks it accordingly.
So you get “brownie points” with the spiders without
distracting your visitor with too many options or creating a
massive workload when managing your links.
The schematic below is a simple illustration of how my
sites are structured, -- and hopefully yours will be too.
Schematic of how my sites are organized:
Home Page –
also a
product page
Merchant #1
5-6 Product
Pages
Merchant #2
50-300
Article pages
Merchant #3
Navigation bar buttons with a difference
Remember, -- the template you have installed on your
computer has been essentially designed as an online
brochure.
It is a destination point, -- meant to inform its visitors
about a company, it’s products, press releases, about us,
etc.
However, your site will be developed with a different
purpose entirely.
It will function as an intermediary, -- acting as a bridge to
ANOTHER company, -- your merchant, -- who will then
fully inform the visitor about their products or services, -and hopefully close a sale, -- so that you get a
commission.
Seeing yourself as a researcher first, -- and clearly
recognizing the difference between your sites’ role and the
Page 115
role of your merchants’ site, -- is ABSOLUTELY essential to
your success with my methods.
Less is more
I saw some of my Vancouver students struggle with this.
They were attempting to do too much with their sites.
Less-is-more is an expression that aptly describes my
approach to publishing eloquent, concise information on
the Net, -- while at the same time succeeding in a BIG way
referring quality merchants to my many visitors.
So, while keeping these important tactical differences in
mind, -- you will completely alter the navigation bar to suit
your purposes, -- even deleting a few buttons because as
you will see, 5-6 works better than 10.
For you, the navigation bar has a single purpose:
Inform your “interested” visitor about the precise topic of
every one of your product pages.
And, they HAVE to be interested, -- or they wouldn’t have
found your site by doing a keyword search in the first place
– am I right?
Think like a surfer
Imagine a visitor lands on an article page. (or product
page)
They linger a bit and notice some relevancy.
But they want more.
With the ever-present BACK button on their browser
looming large, they skim down your navigation bar menu
in a nanosecond.
Sites that name their buttons as, products, press releases,
about us, etc. have wasted an AWESOME opportunity to
Page 116
offer some specific information that might result in an
internal click, rather than a departure. (usually forever)
You however, have stacked the deck in your favor by
choosing the very best (most searched words or phrases)
for your navigation bar menu.
No one searches for ‘products’, ‘about us’ or ‘press
releases’ at search engines.
People want specifics.
So for goodness sakes, give them specifics.
You see, the espionage you did at Wordtracker has alerted
you too some of your industries’ most searched words and
phrases, -- so why not USE this information to clearly
signal to your visitor that they are on the right site.
A good example of a home page
The screenshot below depicts a website that was
developed by one of my Vancouver students.
It’s about pets. (2-pages down)
As you can see, there are 5 other pet-related product
pages on this site, (see navigation bar), -- and probably a
hundred or so article pages feeding back to either this
home page or one of the other product pages, -- if they
have followed my guidelines.
I feel that this site offers the visitor a clean, well-organized
page that would probably peak the interest of most pet
owners.
As we plow through this training module, you will learn all
the tips, tricks and techniques for organizing your
merchant categories, primary keywords, tier-1 and tier-2
secondary keywords, researching and writing compelling
headlines and theme-based text in Word, importing it all
into your template, renaming your navigation bar buttons,
embedding your keywords into the HTML code, renaming
Page 117
your FrontPage files appropriately, -- and finally organizing
your internal links for high link-popularity scores.
Everything described in the above paragraph (which was
quite a mouthful, I know) went into the simple, but
powerful example that follows.
And all you need to do for a similar result is to take it one
step-at-a-time.
Take a close look at online-pet-shop.com.
Page 118
Some definitions are in order
I’ve been throwing a lot of new stuff at you in this module,
so I thought I’d pause a bit for some clarification.
That’s because many of my entry-level readers are
probably scratching their heads right now, -- wondering
how the heck they are going to do what’s required.
And probably some of you pros are seeing a different
picture emerging here, too.
So let me define a few common Webmaster expressions in
addition to some of my own terminology.
And as you read these definitions, please keep in mind that
you will be given precise instructions on how to execute
each throughout the remainder of this module.
1. Keyword list – A list of words generated through
research into the precise words and phrases that are
most often searched by Internet surfers bearing
some relation to your industry.
2. Spiders – Search engine programs that scour the
Net at regular intervals collecting page content data
for use in matching this data to searches done by its
users.
3. Primary keyword – The single word or phrase
chosen from your keyword list that is fully optimized
as ‘spider food’ for any page you add to your site by
giving it top priority across-the-board.
4. Tier-1 secondary keyword – One or two other
keywords (the next best) that are partially optimized
as ‘spider food’ for any page you add to your site by
Page 119
including them with the Primary keyword wherever
possible.
5. Tier-2 secondary keyword – A group of 3-5
additional keywords, which are kept in mind as you
write your content. No attempt is made to fully or
partially optimize them for the particular page you
are writing, -- although each of them will, in all
likelihood, be featured as a Primary keyword or Tier1 Secondary keyword on another page of your site.
They are used editorially and included in the text, as
they would naturally appear, instead of forcing their
repeated occurrence, as you do when fully or
partially optimizing the Primary and Tier-1 secondary
keywords. If spiders detect them, -- then all the
better.
6. Product pages – Fully optimized for a Primary
keyword and partially optimized for one or two Tier-1
Secondary keywords. You will generally select these
words from the top positions of your keyword list
because you want the greatest possible exposure for
these pages, which are limited to only 5-6 per site
and contain links to your merchants.
7. Navigation bar button – Named after a Primary
keyword, they perform the task of alerting your
visitor to the main topic of your 5-6 product pages.
8. Merchant – Sometimes called an advertiser, these
vendors are the main purpose for developing
Page 120
websites if you are intending to succeed with
affiliates programs. Links to them appear only on
product pages.
9. Publisher – Sometimes referred to as a Webmaster
or affiliate, -- these are the people being sought by
the ever-increasing number of company’s embracing
a pay-for-performance model of advertising. It’s
what you DO as an affiliate marketer, -- publish wellresearched information to the Net, while displaying a
graphic or descriptive text (no banners, please) in
order to advocate that your visitor click-thru to one
or more featured merchants bearing some relation to
your content.
10. Affiliate program – Sometimes called associate,
reseller or referral programs, these are one or twotiered commission structures that enable vendors to
compensate affiliated publishers or Webmasters by
setting cookies on each visitor’s browser that identify
the referring affiliate so a commission can be tracked
and paid.
11. Article pages – 150 to 300 words of text, fully
optimized for a Primary keyword and partially
optimized for one or two Tier-1 Secondary keywords.
By default, any keyword that did not rank as one of
the Primary keywords for a Product page can be
used as the Primary keyword for an Article page.
Every Article page links back to one of your Product
pages. You can write as many as your list of
Page 121
keywords allows. No sense in writing for keywords
that got searched less than 50 times, though.
12. Page optimization – Your attempts to alert the
search engine spiders as to the main topic of each
page of your site by strategic placement of predetermined words and phrases (keywords) into both
the hidden “HTML view” and the “text view” seen by
visitors. In addition to embedding your keywords
into the HTML, as described later, -- you will more
fully optimize each page by doing the following also:
a. Bolding and hyperlinking each pages Primary
keyword once to a related product page or
merchant, -- preferably near the top.
b. Italicizing each pages Primary keyword once
somewhere near the top of the page,
preferably in your headline or sub-headline.
c. Optimizing each page for keyword density by
including your Primary and Tier-1 Secondary
keywords:
!
!
Once in your headline with your Primary
keyword appearing first
Twice in the first paragraph with your
Primary keyword appearing first
!
Once in each subsequent paragraph with
your Primary keyword appearing first
!
Once in a sub-headline or second
headline with your Primary keyword
appearing first
d. Randomly included your Tier-2 Secondary
keywords throughout the text in no particular
Page 122
density, but added only as they would naturally
appear editorially.
!
Following the new internal linking
guidelines fully described in Step-8,
Boost Your Rankings With LinkPopularity.
13. Title tag – Every web page has a title, which is
clearly visible in the browsers’ colored bar at the top
of the page. Usually limited to 64 characters, this
Title Tag is written with Primary and Tier-1
Secondary keywords in mind. By opening the HTML
view in FrontPage you can easily embed each pages
title tag.
14. Page description – Also embedded into the HTML, - this is a one or two sentence description written
with keywords, but also bearing in mind that most
search engines copy this description into the view
seen by surfers. Best to limit it to 127 characters.
15. Meta tags – Although not as important as they used
to be, these are your Primary, Tier-1 and Tier-2
Secondary keywords embedded into the meta-tag
area of the HTML.
16. Alt tags – These refer to pictures or graphics on
your page. Usually hidden from view, unless the
cursor is held above them. It’s to your advantage to
name each graphic or picture after that pages
Primary keyword. Easily done with a right-mouse
click.
Page 123
17. Heading 1 (H1) – By highlighting your pages main
headline and selecting the HI view from FrontPages
upper left pull-down menu you automatically insert
your headline into the HTML.
18. Heading 2 (H2) – Follow the same procedure for
the sub-headline or second headline.
Follow my lead
To make it easy to do all of the above I will do a little
show-and-tell.
Everything you will be doing to research, write and
optimize your own site will be demonstrated for you as I
build one of my casino sites’ product pages right before
your eyes, throughout the remainder of this module.
Hopefully, this example will encourage you to take the
recommended baby steps with greater confidence.
However, since each industry has its own peculiarities, you
will be required to exercise your own judgment when
deciding on keywords, navigation bar button names, best
merchant categories, ideal number of merchants per page,
exact number of navigation bar buttons, number of article
pages, etc.
That’s because, although I urge you to follow my steps
exactly, so that you achieve results similar to mine, you
must also exercise your own discretion.
There are indeed many things of a subjective nature that
also go into a winning website.
As you watch the construction of my casino site, you
should be able to determine which of my decisions are
fundamental and which are discretionary.
The fact is, that each of us has our own style.
Page 124
I want you to express that style.
But, I also want you to remain consistent with the
underlying structure that I propose in order to get the
traffic, -- that gets the click-thrus to a merchant, --that
gets the checks-in-the-mail, -- that gives you the lifestyle
you most prefer.
First -- an OVERVIEW of the process of
building a product page before you begin
1. Organize your keywords, merchants and Google
PageRank with the chart provided a little later.
a. Decide on an industry
b. Decide on a dozen or so potential merchants
c. Determine the number of merchant categories
available, -- preferably 5-6 (no lower than 3)
d. From your keyword list choose a Primary
keyword to represent each of your 5-6 product
pages
e. Do a PageRank and Backwards Link check at
Google before committing to your first choice
of a Primary keyword
f. Decide on the name for each navigation bar
button. (usually the Primary keyword exactly,
unless too long)
g. From your keyword list pick 1 or 2 next best
keywords to become Tier-1 Secondary
keywords for each product page
h. From your keyword list pick another 3-5 words
to become Tier-2 Secondary keywords for each
product page
Page 125
2. Research and write 150-300 words of content, -while keeping in mind the rules for keyword density,
-- into a word processor. (i.e. Microsoft Word)
3. In FrontPage rename your navigation bar menu and
delete excess buttons.
4. Import into FrontPage each of your 5-6 pages of
content and fully and partially optimize the HTML.
5. Name each FrontPage file as the corresponding
products pages’ primary keyword.
NOTE: Please open the Keyword, Merchant and PageRank
Chart and print it.
You will need to fill this out as you organize your
merchants and keywords for your 5-6 product pages.
This chart becomes a handy blueprint for reference while
writing your content and optimizing each page.
It is an indispensable tool. Please don’t take shortcuts
here.
I even suggest that you have it padded at a print shop,
along with the similar chart provided for organizing article
pages.
And, I suggest that you work in pencil with an eraser
handy. Trust me, you’ll go through a lot of paper if you
don’t.
Get both charts by visiting the site below or going to the
Worksheets Appendix at the back of this manual. Click
here for Worksheets Appendix.
If you visit the site below, use this passcode: updates
Page 126
Baby step #1:
Pick your merchants
NOTE: from this point forward you will need to have your
Merchant, Keyword and PageRank Chart handy.
The use of this chart will be self-explanatory.
I suggest you use pencil, since various ideas will suggest
themselves to you as you go.
In Step-2, Finding The Right Industry For You, you
developed files on 10 merchants for each category you
were considering.
Now it is time for a careful review of those files.
Assuming that you already know which industry you plan
to represent, you need to pull those files and select the
merchants that, at first glance, would be a good fit.
The list for my casino site is as follows:
1.
Sports Betting.com -- $40
2.
BetZone.com -- $50
3.
EZ Sweeps -- .55
4.
Tropicana Hotel & Resort -- 3.50%
5.
Geisha Lounge Online Casino -- $60
6.
Moneyballs.com -- .50
7.
Only Winners No Down Load Casino -- $50
8.
Attract Women Now -- $15
9.
E-hair-loss -- $10
Page 127
Baby step #2:
Categorize your merchants
You have no idea of the tremendous competitive
advantage you will have against other publishers who
participate in Affiliate Programs by determining what types
of merchants you plan to represent before you even write
a single word of content.
This gives your site focus.
Spiders love focus.
Readers do too.
NOTE: As you may remember, we are only working with
CJ merchants for the sake of simplicity. But the fact is,
that in addition to the numerous independent affiliate
programs available, there are several good affiliate
networks to choose from. You will find a list of other
affiliate networks in the Recommended Resource Appendix
at the back of this manual.
So, now that I have an idea of whom I plan to represent, - I need to take it one step further.
To do that, I group my merchants into their categories, -because this will be VERY helpful in suggesting the best
choices, -- for many, or all, of my primary keywords, -- as
you shall see.
Here are my merchants after being grouped into their
“categories”:
1. Sportsbook
a. Sports Betting.com
b. BetZone.com
2. Lotteries
a. EZ Sweeps.com
b. Moneyballs.com
3. Online casinos
Page 128
a. Geisha Lounge Online Casino.com
b. Only Winners No Download Casino.com
4. Las Vegas Hotels
a. Tropicana Hotel & Resort
5. Of interest to men
a. Attract Women Now.com
b. E-Hair-loss.com
Can you see how the above list (1-5) suggests the Primary
keywords for at least four of my 5-6 product pages?
1. Sportsbook
2. Lotteries
3. Online Casinos
4. Las Vegas Hotels
And I thought that since research shows that gambling
sites are visited by males, -- that there could be some
interest in hair loss prevention and attracting women.
Just a guess, though. (as if)
Now, I probably won’t create a Primary keyword or
navigation bar button for the last two merchants, -- hair
loss and attracting women, -- thereby diluting the topic of
my site, -- but I will toss them into the mix of merchants
on a few of my product pages to see how well they do with
my visitors.
And if they under-perform, -- I yank them.
Page 129
Baby step #3:
Get your Google eyes
Although I deal comprehensively with link-popularity in
Step-8, Boost Your Rankings With Link-Popularity, I need
to get your attention on this subject before you decide on
which keywords to use as your Primary keywords.
Google, as many of you know, is the king of search
engines.
Not only are they more widely used than others, but also
they feed the databases several other search engines.
And so, if you want to be successful with affiliate
programs, then you will need to know about some recent
changes to the algorithms at Google, in order to rank as
highly as possible with them.
Google PageRank explained
When Google’s spiders visit your site they not only do
some quick math on your keywords, -- but they also
assign each page a “PageRank value” of 1 to 10.
Normally, the page with the higher PageRank gets listed
ahead of those pages with a lesser PageRank.
So your goal is to get a higher PageRank than those who
currently occupy the top positions at Google for any
Primary keyword you are considering.
And the main way you get PageRank is with “Backward
Links”.
NOTE: Although the term ‘Backward Links’ is a Google
term, -- other search engines have similar ranking criteria.
So by optimizing for PageRank at Google, you
simultaneously boost your link-popularity across the board.
What Google seems to be saying is, …pages that have links
back to them (backward links) MUST BE IMPORTANT…
Page 130
…so let’s make note of that and score it accordingly, -- so
that our visitors can find the important pages more easily
than the others.
And because you can easily do a “Backward Links” check
at Google, -- for any keyword you are considering
optimizing a page for, -- then you can know in advance…
…how many Backward Links will be needed to outscore any
site which currently hold top positions, -- for that keyword,
-- at Google.
For instance, when I did a Backward Links check for
‘sportsbook’, -- a Primary keyword I’m considering
optimizing one of my product pages for, -- I discovered
that sites occupying the top 5 positions for that keyword
all had a PageRank of between 5 and 6, (high) -- with
Backward Link totals ranging anywhere from 800 to 2,000.
Meaning, -- forget about it!
I’ll find another keyword.
And although it may be less searched than ‘sportsbook’, I
will at least have a shot at high rankings.
But, normally YOU won’t have this kind of competition.
Remember I told you to stay away from casinos, as an
industry.
Well, the above scenario is one reason why.
The casino industry is ruthlessly competitive. Webmasters
think nothing of paying outside consultants $20,000 $30,000 for an optimization package.
Later you will be shown how to specifically organize all of
your internal links for MAXIMUM PageRank.
My strategy for doing this is the most-up-to-date insider
knowledge available, -- so powerful in fact that I
considered writing an entire manual on the subject.
Page 131
So please pay special attention to the Google PageRank
procedures that follow, -- as well as Step-8, the module on
Link Popularity.
There is a right way to do it.
And there is a wrong way to do it.
So, I hope I’ve convinced you that by doing Backward Link
checks at Google for all of your keywords prior to building
pages around them, -- you will gain one heck of a
competitive advantage over Webmasters with no
knowledge of how PageRank works.
I will now walk you through the process of downloading
Google’s’ control menu onto your browser, -- so it’s right in
front of you whenever you need to do the all important
Backward Links check.
Time to get your Google eyes.
Go to Google at www.google.com and select the Google
Toolbar from the bottom menu.
Page 132
This takes you to a full description of the steps needed to
install the Google toolbar.
Just follow the installation instructions.
With your Google Toolbar installed into your browser, you
can now quickly and easily do the following strategic
maneuvers:
1. Search the web for any keyword you’re considering.
2. Make note of the PageRank for each of the top sites
found.
3. Do a Backward Links check for each of the top sites
found.
Example
So, as you know, I’ve already checked the PageRank and
Backward Link totals for ‘sportsbook’ and decided to takea-pass.
Page 133
But, lets say I check on the plural version of ‘sportsbook’, - ‘sportsbooks’. (notice the ‘s’)
The sites that appear in the following screenshot are the
result of that search.
These websites occupy the top positions, -- not only
because they are properly optimized for the keyword,
‘sportsbooks’, -- but also because of their respective
‘PageRank’ and ‘Backward Link’ totals.
As Google says, PageRank is Google’s measure of the
importance of this page.
So, before I attempt to compete for these positions, -- I
would be wise to determine their PageRank AND total
number of Backward Links, -- in order to see what MY
PageRank at Google would need to be in order to match
(or exceed) theirs.
And, as mentioned earlier, -- by scoring a high PageRank
at Google, -- I also establish similarly high link-popularity
scores at other major search engines.
Above are the results of a keyword search for ‘sportsbooks’
Page 134
So, while ignoring the paid sponsored link at the VERY top,
-- as you always do when assessing top-10 search engine
rankings, -- I open the top guy in the free listings area,
sportsbooksgames.com. (see screenshot that follows)
Being in the #1 spot, they have the position I would like to
get, -- if at all possible, -- although any listing on a top-10
page is great.
But let’s say I wanted THAT spot.
With their site open in my browser, I simply hold my
cursor over the PageRank bar, -- to determine its
PageRank.
As you can see in the screenshot above, -- this site has a
PageRank of 5, -- which is good.
www.sportsbooksgames.com
Then I click on the Page Info button, -- next to the
PageRank bar, -- which opens a dropdown menu from
which I can choose to do a Backward Links check. (shown
below)
Page 135
At this point our only interest is the number of Backward
Links to this page.
I click on the Backward Links button, which opens the
screenshot that follows. (several paragraphs below)
As you can see below, -- in the blue bar that shows the
results search, -- similar to a keyword result search, -there are 188 Backward Links to the ‘sportsbooks’ site
above.
Which essentially means that this site beat out EVERY
OTHER site for the top position at Google when a surfer
typed the word ‘sportsbooks’ into their search engine.
So anyone competing for this top spot at Google would
have to consider, -- in addition to proper keyword
optimization, -- getting the same number of backward
links.
Now, the origin of these Backward Links is of little interest
to you, although they can be checked.
What you ARE interested in is the total.
Because normally that total is the number Backward Links
YOU will need to leapfrog ahead of any position you seek.
In the above case, I would probably need 189 Backward
Links, to beat out this spot.
That’s assuming that my Backward Links were high quality
links (more on that later) and my page optimization and
their page optimization were equal.
The good news is that Google counts internal Backward
Links as equally important as Backward Links originating
from other sites.
Page 136
So if, let’s say I was a prolific writer and had 300 ‘Article’
pages on my casino site, -- well, I could point 189 of them
to my ‘sportsbooks’ product page.
And probably become the new occupant of that top
spot at Google for the keyword ‘sportsbooks’.
But a further look reveals even better news.
Because when doing Backward Link checks on the #2 and
#3 spots, -- I found Backward Link totals of 20 and 5
respectively, -- which is easy to compete with.
So I may elect to try and pick off the #2 and #3 spot, -instead of the #1 spot, -- because fewer Article pages
would need to be dedicated to the task. i.e. – 21 and 6
respectively. (all other things being equal)
Because if I were to link 189 Article pages to my
‘sportsbooks’ product page, -- then I could be left short for
Backward Links to my other Product pages.
All of these things need to be considered.
And remember, the full significance of this may not
become apparent to you until you’ve completed this
manual, -- or at least completed this chapter.
So if it seems a little overwhelming, just be patient.
Page 137
Thankfully, the Keyword, Merchant and PageRank
Chart you have been provided will greatly assist you to
properly weigh your options.
But before we go to that chart and begin working with your
keyword list I’ll give you three more definitions:
1. PageRank – The Google search engine’s measure of
the importance of any given page in its database.
2. Backward Links – Total number of links back to
any given web page. (incoming)
3. Outgoing Link – The page from which a Backward
Link originates.
As you will see later, -- it’s important to keep in mind, the
difference between an “incoming” and “outgoing” link, -because by having “too many” outgoing links from one of
your own pages, -- you will inadvertently dilute your
PageRank.
Baby step #4:
Narrow down your keyword list
Earlier in this manual you developed a keyword list at
Wordtracker that may, or may not serve your purposes
well enough to act as a narrowly targeted keyword list for
the industry you have decided to pursue.
The reason I say that is, -- that while working with
students of my methods in Vancouver, -- I witnessed that
in nearly every case their initial keyword lists were too
general in nature.
This is understandable.
When first venturing into Wordtracker most have only a
vague idea of the role of these keywords or the industry
they plan to pursue.
Page 138
So take a good look at your list again.
Can you see 5-6 keywords in the top 20-30 words that
could serve well as Primary keywords?
Do these words bear a close relation to your merchant
categories?
For instance, if you were planning a site in the Sports and
Fitness area, -- can you see keywords bearing a close
relation to any of the merchant categories below, -- which
I researched at CJ?
1. Golf
2. Water Sports
3. Martial Arts
4. Gym Equipment
5. Tai Chi
6. NFL Apparel
The above categories are amply represented with relevant
merchants at Commission Junction.
Even the Denver Broncos and the San Diego Chargers now
have affiliate programs in the Sports and Fitness category,
-- which is a definite sign of things to come for this
industry.
Can you see how the above Sports and Fitness merchant
categories would serve you well if those exact phrases
showed up near the top of your keyword list?
Each could then be the Primary keyword for a product
page about that subject, -- as well as the perfect choice for
a navigation bar button.
So play with these ideas a bit, then…
Page 139
If your first list is vague…
That’s okay.
It can still serve you by providing a point of comparison
when rebuilding a new list at Wordtracker.
And armed with your new understandings, -- I think you
will really “nail it” this time.
A more focused way to use Wordtracker
www.wordtracker.com
When you first created keyword lists you simply used a
‘single’ word that represented, -- in a general way, -- the
industry you were considering.
The result was probably a long list.
But, here is a little trick I use to help sort this ‘long’ list
into ‘separate’ lists for each planned product category.
So go back to Wordtracker and simply enter each
merchant category separately, -- rather than searching the
whole industry with one fell swoop, -- as you did initially.
So, for instance, -- if I were planning to represent Sports
and Fitness merchants, -- instead of searching the Sports
and Fitness category as a whole, -- I would create
individual lists for each category of merchant, such as,
golf, water sports, etc.
Now when the Right Window appears, -- with all words
bearing a relationship to that word, -- then select the ALL
button, so the entire set of keywords are put into your
shopping cart, -- then go back and forth, selecting more
words from the Left window, -- as you did earlier, -- until
you have built up a ‘single list’ around a ‘planned’ product
category, -- instead of the industry as a whole.
Then go to step #3 of the Wordtracker process to review.
Now email yourself that more narrowly defined list.
Page 140
Then do the same for each merchant category you’re
planning.
What you end up with is 5-6 sets of beautifully organized
keyword lists for each product category.
This saves you a lot of time and simplifies the task of
sorting your keywords into different groups.
Because with your 5-6 lists in front of you, -- you can
easily see-at-a-glance, -- which words will serve as the
best choices for Primary and Tier-I Secondary keywords.
Baby step #5:
Choose your Primary keywords
Keyword Optimization all begins with the proper selection
of each pages Primary keyword.
Only a single keyword (or phrase) can occupy that
position.
Of all the keywords on your page, this is the only keyword
that is FULLY optimized.
For instance, it is the first word in your title tag, (only ONE
keyword can be first, all the rest are secondary), the only
one italicized, the only one bolded, etc.
You are looking for the absolute best keyword to fully
optimize for each Product Page.
But this is not a simple matter of selecting the top word
(most searched) on the list.
PageRank and Backward Link checks may scare-you-off
certain keywords, -- which is a good thing, -- unless you
don’t mind being buried on page 40 at Google.
Experience has taught me that you are FAR better off
choosing a Primary Keyword that was searched only 800
times last month, -- if by choosing it you had a decent
shot at a top-10 placement at Google, -- rather than
feverishly optimizing for that ‘very special word’ that gets
Page 141
searched 10,000 times a month, -- only to have no traffic
at all because everybody and his brother is also optimizing
for that very same keyword.
And remember, you have 5-6 unique Product Pages to
optimize for.
So if you could get a top-10 ranking for each of your
lesser-searched keywords, -- let’s say 800 each month, -then THAT would be 4800 people (6 x 800) possibly finding
pages of your site.
Not bad.
The Google PageRank and Backward Link checks are the
benchmark you use to decide whether or not to pass on
any given word as your PRIMARY keyword.
Obviously, you want keywords with the most traffic, but
you will have to balance out your decision with a Backward
Links check.
You can win with 20-40 Backward Links
Generally speaking, you should be able to successfully
compete against sites optimized for your chosen keyword
that have between 20-40 Backward Links.
Because IF you write 100 Article Pages, let’s say, -- you
could then split 100 Article Pages into groups of 20 and
link them back to 5 different Product Pages. (100 ÷ 5 =
20)
Or better yet, write 200 plus Article Pages, -- and then
have an inventory of approximately 40 Backward Links
available for each of your all-important Product Pages.
Who is number one on your list?
So with your Keyword, Merchant and Backward Links
Chart handy do the process described above to determine
a Primary Keyword suitable for each of your planned
Product Pages.
Page 142
You want words near the top of each separate keyword list
that have also been checked for PageRank and Backward
Links.
As in the ‘sportsbooks’ example, -- be sure to check at
least the top three sites, -- as sometimes the Backward
Link totals drop dramatically from the top position to the
second or third position.
I’d even seek the 4th, 5th, 6th, or 10th position for an
excellent keyword.
Once chosen, enter each Primary Keyword into the
appropriate column along with its traffic count.
Also enter the results of your PageRank and Backward
Links check at Google.
Your chart should really be coming to life by now.
Can you see why I suggest using pencil?
Baby step #6:
Choose your Tier-1 Secondary keywords
Once you’ve decide upon which word to FULLY optimize as
your Primary Keyword for each Product Page, you can now
more easily decide on which one or two other keywords
will serve as Tier-1 Secondary keywords.
This is usually quite easy.
As a reminder, here is my definition of a Tier-1 Secondary
keyword:
!
Tier-1 Secondary keyword – one or two other
keywords (the next best) that will be partially
optimized as ‘spider food’ for any page you add to
your site by including them with the Primary
keyword wherever possible.
Later you will see the rules for inserting Tier-1 Secondary
keywords to both your text and your HTML.
Page 143
But there are also important guidelines to follow when
selecting these.
They are:
1. One or two are enough.
2. They must be similar to your Primary Keyword, -but if it’s a phrase, then try to avoid duplication of
your Primary keyword.
3. As with your Primary keyword you will need to do a
PageRank and Backward Links check.
Here’s an example of avoiding duplication
Let’s say I settled on the word ‘lottery’ as a Primary
keyword.
When searching for Tier-1 Secondary keywords, I notice
words such as ‘lottery results’ or ‘Canadian lottery’.
IF I were to choose the above two phrases as Tier-1
Secondary keywords, -- and include them along with my
Primary keyword in the text and HTML in the
recommended manner, -- then I would inadvertently
TRIPLE the density for the keyword ‘lottery’, because it
now appears three times, -- once in each keyword.
No one knows the exact density that a keyword must
achieve for maximum page optimization, -- because not
only does each search engine have its own ratios, -- but
also algorithms change as often as the weather.
Some experts say that a keyword should appear in the text
of your page as little as 5% of the total words on that
page, -- meaning no more than once every twenty words.
Others say it needs to appear as much as once in every
five words, -- or 20%.
Page 144
I have had great success by including my Primary keyword
and Tier-1 Secondary keywords as follows:
!
Once in each headline
!
Twice in the first paragraph
!
Once in each subsequent paragraph
This means that my density is probably on the low side, -yet I do very well.
NOTE: For those who like to be exact with your keyword
density, I have included a link to some very useful
‘keyword density software’ in the recommended resource
appendix.
But rather than focusing on only one or two optimization
strategies, (as many do) -- I think that these days, it is
probably a combination of things, -- when done properly, - helps you to achieve your goal of getting Top-10 listings.
So, back to my ‘lottery’ example.
Given that my rules for keyword density are correct, -then you run the risk of overdoing it, -- as far as spiders
are concerned, -- by selecting Tier-1 Secondary keywords
with duplicate words.
So be careful.
NOTE: to those entry-level people who are wondering why
the need for such precision, -- I should point out that
Search Engines are forever on the alert for ‘keyword
spam’. A few years ago, -- as the Internet began ‘cooking’
as a viable form of marketing, -- the Search Engines got
caught off guard, as unscrupulous marketers, who learned
of their criteria, would simply inundate the Internet with
irrelevant sites filled with keywords in order to market
things of illegal or questionable value.
Stay on purpose
All we are attempting to do with our websites is offer
relevant information and related products and services.
Page 145
The Search Engines love relevancy because THAT’S what
visitors hope for. Don’t you?
So all we are doing is playing by the rules in order to help
visitors find what they want.
If we do our research wisely and optimize accordingly,
then it’s a win for the Search Engine, a win for the surfer,
a win for the merchant and a win for us.
Baby step #7:
Choose your Tier-2 Secondary Keywords
This one is easy.
All you do is select similar, but different words from your
keyword list and enter them into your chart as reference
material while writing content for your pages.
The only time you would optimize for them is to include
them in the META tags along with your Primary and
Secondary keywords.
Other than that, they are not optimized at all.
They are simply randomly included throughout your text in
the ‘off’ chance that a spider finds them important.
The fact is, that if you write numerous Article pages, then
these Tier-2 Secondary keywords will ultimately be
optimized as Primary and Tier-1 Secondary keywords
anyway, -- as you drill down your keyword list.
Baby step #8:
Choose your Navigation Bar Button names
This one is also easy.
For now, -- while working with paper, -- simply go with the
most likely keyword (or phrase).
Page 146
But, when we begin working with your template you may
have to customize its length to fit the text block for
renaming buttons.
And, since the navigation bar is a graphic, spiders ignore it
anyway.
But, the names themselves ARE important, -- meaning
they need to be keyword-based, -- because in addition to
the navigation bar menu, you will include a text-based
version along the bottom of each page.
Baby step #9:
Select a few merchants for each Product
Page
Another easy one…
I used to FILL UP my Product Pages with merchants,
thinking, the more the merrier.
But, over time I have determined that less is definitely
more in this regard for two reasons:
1. A confused mind says no.
a. A friend of mine who sells for a living often
touts the above saying. He concluded that
whenever he had an interested buyer, the
LAST thing he wanted to do was offer too
many choices. The fact is, -- that most of my
revenue from any site is derived from a single
merchant who usually appears above the
others. So what I do now, -- if I want to
represent more merchants, is, -- I simply build
another site.
2. Each outbound link dilutes Google PageRank to some
degree; by conferring a portion of whatever
PageRank score it previously had on the receiving
page. And so, if I had a page with very good
Page 147
PageRank, but, then loaded it with numerous
‘outbound’ merchant links, -- I’m sinking my ship, so
to speak. Many do this without knowing. I did it
too. But, now I know better. And so do you.
a. Once I learned of this, I had even more
motivation to strip many of my Product Pages
of merchants who were not performing in any
case. You, however, will avoid this mistake
entirely, by limiting merchants to no more than
a few per page.
Baby step #10:
Evaluate your completed ‘Keyword, Merchant
and PageRank’ Chart
With your completed chart before you, -- now take a huge
sigh of relief!
You have hit an important milestone.
What you have now is an actual blueprint for each
Product Page of your site.
You’ve completed research that, -- when implemented, -optimizes each page effectively and puts you miles ahead
of the competition.
But before you begin researching your topic and writing
both text and HTML you should pause a bit to double check
that you’re happy with your choices.
When you are convinced that everything seems to line up
nicely, then you are ready to begin writing.
Page 148
PPart
art 2
rite yyour
our w
ords
2 ---- W
Write
words
Baby step #11:
Write a 150-300 word Product Page
I’ve included a handy chart for guiding you in the process
of organizing your content, which you can import into
Word.
It’s called the ‘Product Page Optimization Chart’ and can be
found in the Worksheets Appendix or the link below.
If you visit the site below, use this passcode: updates
By using the ‘Merchant, Keyword and PageRank Chart’ you
have just completed as a guide, -- you now organize each
page of your site by filling in ‘Product Page Optimization
Chart’.
You have two versions, -- one for Product pages and one
for Article pages.
By using my casino site as an example, -- I’ll walk you
through the process of organizing my first Product Page on
the topic of ‘sportbooks’, -- a primary keyword I’ve decided
on.
This way you will see an example of how to use the
‘Product Page Optimization’ chart.
'Below is an example of how my ‘sportsbooks’ Product
page was organized prior to working with my template.
Product Page #1
1. Merchant category - sportsbooks, sports wagering
2. Best merchants - Sportsbetting.com - $40,
BetZone.com - $50, Attract-women-now.com - $10
Page 149
3. Filename - /sportsbooks.html
4. Navigation bar button - sportsbooks
5. Primary keyword - sportsbooks
6. PageRank competitors - sportsbooks
!
#1 – PageRank is - 5, Backward Links is: 188
!
#2 – PageRank is - 3, Backward Links is: 20
!
#3 – PageRank is – 2, Backward Links is: 5
7. Tier-1 secondary keyword - Internet wagering
8. PageRank competitors
!
#1 - PageRank – 5, Backward Links – Zero
!
#2 - PageRank – 5, Backward Links – 32
!
#3 – PageRank – 6, Backward Links – 466
!
#4 – PageRank – 2, Backward Links – 152
!
#5 – PageRank – 3, Backward Links - zero
NOTE: As you can see in the above PageRank and
Backward Link totals for ‘Internet wagering’, there
are some anomalies. Get used to it. The thing to
keep in mind is that listings at Search Engines are in
constant flux. Every indexing can produce different
results. And, sometimes the Search Engines
penalize sites that don’t play by the rules, which is
often the case in the casino industry. In any case,
I’ll include this word because I feel I can beat the #2
position, which has 32 Backward Links. My best
Page 150
guess is that he holds a higher position than #3 with
466 Backward Links and #4 with 152 Backward Links
because he has much higher quality links. (i.e. pages
that are linking to him are very popular)
9. Tier-2 Secondary Keywords - sports gambling,
online betting, NFL football betting.
!
No need for backward link checks. Just pick
words related to your primary keyword.
10. Meta tags - sportsbooks, Internet wagering, sports
gambling, online betting, NFL football betting.
Note: Always list these in order of importance. No
more than eight.
11. Alt tag: sportsbooks
Note: The ‘Alt tag’, -- which is the name you give
your graphics, -- is always the Primary keyword for
each separate page, -- even though the graphic
remains the same. Generally, the public never sees
these alt tags, unless they hold their cursor over it.
It’s spider food.
12. Title tag: sportsbooks, Internet wagering and online
betting information (61 characters) NOTE: all lower
case.
Note: The title tag must be limited to 64 characters;
otherwise the spider simply excludes additional
characters. Add spaces between words as a single
Page 151
character. Always start with your Primary Keyword
followed by Tier-1 keywords. In the example above
I only had one Tier-1 Secondary Keyword, so I threw
in a Tier-2 secondary keyword. Try to make it as
legible as possible, but maximize the use of the
limited number of characters for KEYWORDS. The
title tag is very important spider food. It’s better to
sacrifice good grammar in order to better promote
your keywords.
13. Page description: Sportsbooks tips and Internet
wagering resources for online betting and sports
gamblers. (83 characters)
Note: Write a one or two line description, including
Primary and Secondary keywords. This is to be
written with the Search Engine visitor in mind, since
most search engines copy this text directly into the
view seen by visitors. Limit to 127 characters.
14. HI: If Sportsbooks tips and Internet wagering
secrets are important to you then this page could be
money in the bank!
Note: The rule here is to include your Primary
Keyword as early in your headline as possible, while
still making it readable, then include your Tier-1
Secondary Keyword(s).
And keep your visitor in mind also. Experts say that
80% of the battle for the attention of readers is won
with the headline.
They say that 5 times as many
Page 152
people read the headline of a typical newspaper ad
than those who go on to read the body of that same
ad. Given the extent to which you’ve gone to
actually get a viewer to see your headline, -- doesn’t
it make sense to take the necessary time to write a
compelling headline? In the headline you want to
make bold statements that GRAB the reader’s
attention by stating a BIG BENEFIT…if they were to
read more! Try to offer specifics and aim to be
believable. Make it as long as necessary. May I
suggest that you take a trip to your local bookstore
and buy a book on copywriting? It could serve you
very well. Because by mastering the simple rules for
writing headlines (and copy) that SIZZLE, you will be
so far ahead of other Webmasters that your head will
spin!
15. H2: The very best Sportsbooks and Internet
wagering guide for online betting on the Net!
Note: This can be a sub-headline to your main
headline or be further down the page as a secondary
headline.
16. Content: 150-300 words of eloquent, concise and
relevant information about Sportsbooks and Internet
wagering.
Note: Many of my live students squirmed at the
thought of writing. My only advice to you, dear
reader, is DO IT. You haven’t come this far only to
Page 153
stall at the most important part. All you do is pull
your primary and secondary keywords a little closer
to the computer, -- enter them into a search engine,
-- and print any sites that look interesting. Compile
data. Compile lots of data. Then condense it.
Reduce it. Simplify it. Clarify it. Trim it down to
about 150-300 words, -- about 5-6 paragraphs
depending on the length. That’s it my friend. I can’t
do it for you, -- so you must DO IT!
Oh, and by the way, DO NOT “steal” it. Those who
cut and paste other people’s content are plagiarizing.
It could not only be embarrassing to get a call from
the author, -- but it might cause serious legal
problems.
PPart
art 3
odify yyour
our ttemplate
emplate
3 ---- M
Modify
Baby step #12:
Modify the look of your template
Normally, you would finish researching each of your
Product Pages before modifying your template, -- but for
the sake of demonstration, -- I’ll begin that process now in
preparation for importing and optimizing my ‘sportsbooks’
Product Page.
Open your web template in FrontPage 2000
Before you begin, you should locate Lynne Robson’s Tips,
Tricks and Installation PDF file that accompanied your
template and print it for reference.
Page 154
NOTE: Once again, -- I should remind you that it is not
within the scope of this manual to offer training in
FrontPage, -- although I CAN offer some initial guidelines
to get you going.
Those with very limited knowledge of FrontPage or
computers in general, may need to get some expert
assistance from a local source.
To begin you must first open FrontPage.
1. If using 2000, -- Go to File/New/Web – then choose
a web template
2. If using 2002 – Go to File/New/Page or Web and
click “Web Templates” in the right column
3. Choose your new web template from the available
templates. (the one you downloaded)
4. To the right you will be able to name it…I.e.: C:My
Documents/My Webs/New Web
5. Click Okay and away you go.
At first it bears no relation to your topic
Below is how my template looks as originally designed for
a dental business.
In a few moments you will see how I modify this ‘dental’
look for use as a ‘casino’ site.
Page 155
In the above screenshot you can see how it looks when
opened in the ‘Page’ view with the ‘Normal’ tab selected.
What you see are the Views column, -- at the far left, -The Folder list in the middle column, -- and the Page view
to the right.
In the Folder list column are two folders, -- named
_private and images, plus the 10 files with names
corresponding to the 10 navigation bar buttons that came
with the template.
For our purposes, we are only concerned with the Images
Folder and the 10 pages.
After we have renamed the navigation bar buttons, we will
return to these files and also rename them.
Notice also, in the Page view, the ‘Your Name Here’
graphic, which I will rename as the name of my site.
And the ‘dental themed graphic’ below it, (toothbrush, &
tooth)
Page 156
This I will replace with a gambling relevant photo or piece
of clip art.
And in the screen shot below, you will see that this
particular design has three navigation tabs across the
upper right top, with seven more vertically.
Mini baby step #1:
Replace graphic
There are many sources for graphics.
I’ve listed some online sources in the Recommended
Resources appendix at the back of this manual.
You may already have some of your own.
The important thing to remember is that it needs to be the
exact size of the graphic that appears in your template, -or very close, -- otherwise the tables of your template can
get skewed.
Page 157
To determine the size of any graphic, do a right-mouse
click on the graphic itself, then select ‘properties’…then
appearance.
In the screenshot below you can see the Width and Height,
in pixels, for the ‘dice.jpg’, which is the chosen graphic for
my casino site.
Once you have found a graphic, then you need to do the
following:
1. Right-mouse click it.
2. Select ‘save picture as’
Save it into the ‘images’ folder of your template.
Page 158
Once saved into the images folder, -- which is where all of
the graphical elements of your web site must reside, -then go back to your template.
While in the ‘normal’ view, -- right click on the current
graphic, -- the one you are about to replace, -- and go to
the ‘Insert’ tab at the top of FrontPage and select
‘Picture’… ‘From File’ as shown below.
Then simply select the image you just saved and hit okay.
This will automatically replace your former image with your
newly inserted image.
Below is how my template now appears.
It always amazes me, -- how the power of a simple
graphic can so dramatically modify a websites’
appearance.
Page 159
Mini baby step #2:
Replace the “Your Name Here” field
The ‘Your Name Here’ area of this template is an image,
not a text block.
So it cannot be as easily modified as the text portion of
your template, -- which you simply highlight and type
over.
There are two ways to modify the “Your Name Here”
graphic:
1. Have Lynne Robson do it.
2. Download free software and do it yourself.
Lynne Robson, -- of A Pixel Pixie says, -- “many of our
templates have blank images that you can customize with
your company name etc”.
“Since there is not a graphics program included with the
stand-alone version of FrontPage 2002, -- we have found a
great little program, -- which you can download at
www.ultimatepaint.com. The program download is less
than 2 megabytes”.
This sweet little program is called Ultimate Paint. You can
download this freeware program at:
Page 160
www.ultimatepaint.com
Lynne also says, “…we have a PDF file to walk-you-through
customizing your images, which you can download here…”.
By using Lynne’s PDF instructions and Ultimate Paint
Freeware, -- I was easily able to customize the ‘Your Name
Here’ image to suit my purposes.
Although, I had never before worked with Lynne Robson’s
templates or Ultimate Paint, I completed the process in
under ½ hour.
And even though Lynne will add your site name to the
‘Your Name Here’ image ...at no charge (as of this
writing), -- I really do recommend that you do it yourself.
If you’re new to this, -- it is especially important that you
become as self-reliant as you can.
This will serve you well as you advance with affiliate
marketing.
So download the Ultimate Paint Tutorial and print it.
Then get the Ultimate Paint Freeware.
Just follow the instructions and customize the image, -- as
I have done below.
Page 161
NOTE: I changed my site name to Online-Gambling-8.com
because the keyword ‘casino’ was much too popular in
terms of PageRank and Backward Link popularity.
When I registered Casino-8.com last year, -- I was
unaware of the significance of Google’s PageRank criteria.
So, there you have it.
The new name of my gambling site, -- Online-Gambling8.com, -- nicely embedded into the upper left corner with
a nice pair of ‘Lucky Dice’ below.
Doesn’t look much like a Dental site anymore, does it?
Mini baby step #3:
Rename your navigation bar buttons
Before replacing the sample text with my well-researched
words about Sportsbooks, -- I first need to rename the
navigation bar buttons of my template.
In the design I have purchased, there are three buttons
across the top and seven listed vertically in the blue field
at the right (see below), -- although I will probably delete
a few of the vertical buttons.
Page 162
Below are the button names I have chosen, -- based on
my extensive keyword searches, -- plus PageRank and
Backward Link checks:
1. Sportsbooks
2. Lotteries
3. Internet Casinos
4. Las Vegas Hotels
5. Blackjack
NOTE: Two things:
1. Spiders pay no attention to whether or not a word is
capitalized in a graphic, -- because graphics are
ignored, -- but for aesthetic reasons you should
capitalize your navigation bar buttons.
2. However, even though the Lynne Robson’s templates
come with graphical navigation bar buttons, -- and
will be ignored by spiders, -- you still need to name
them properly. This is because FrontPage
dynamically generates a text-based version along
the bottom of each page. This means that these
names, -- which have been carefully chosen to
generate traffic, -- must not be altered, except in the
case where the keyword phrase is too long for the
Page 163
graphics field. In this case you may have to shorten
it a bit. (more on this in Step-8, Boosting Your
Rankings With Link-Popularity)
In addition to my 5 Product Page buttons, -- which I will
place in the vertical field, -- I will also dedicate the top
buttons to my:
1. Home
2. Site Map
3. Swap Links?
Changing the buttons
To begin you need to open the ‘Navigation View’ in
FrontPage, as I’ve done in the screenshot that follows.
Follow along, -- as I walk you through the process of
changing the names of your navigation buttons and
deleting unnecessary buttons.
NOTE: I’m working from Lynne Robson’s Tips, Tricks and
Installation PDF to do this, just like you will need to do.
Even if you are very new to FrontPage, you should be able
to accomplish this without much problem.
As you can see in FrontPage’s Navigation View, -- the
structure of your templates navigation bar is laid out with
‘icons’ that represent the three buttons along the top, with
the seven below.
Page 164
Do you see the yellow icons?
Please note, that the Home button should remain the
same, unless you are up to reorganizing the internal links.
To rename these button icons:
1. Switch to the FrontPage Navigation View as I have
done above. (in the Views column…far left gray
field…at the bottom…notice it’s selected?)
2. Right-Click on the page icon that represents the
button you wish to change (have this worked out on
paper before you begin, -- MAKE SURE that you
make note of it’s original name as you go, so you
can rename the corresponding File Name in the
Folders list later.)
3. Type the new name as you wish it to appear.
4. Right-click the blue area and select ‘Apply Changes’.
After the new name has been typed into the icon’s text
field, -- I simply do a right-click anywhere in the light blue
area (background) and click ‘Apply Changes’.
Page 165
Deleting unnecessary buttons is easy
Simply do a right-mouse click on the icon you want to
remove and hit the Delete button.
When prompted to ‘Remove this page from all Navigation
bars’, -- just hit okay.
And it’s gone.
Page 166
Now you have a gambling site
The screenshot below depicts the key elements of my new
site:
1. My site name
2. My gambling logo (dice)
3. My navigation bar buttons
What you see below is a very appealing look for my
purposes.
In a few moments, -- I will import my first page of content
about ‘Sportsbooks’, -- then optimize it for you, -- as a
demonstration of what you will need to do with your own
Product Pages.
Page 167
Rename your folder names
Before doing that you have one more task.
Although the navigation bar has been renamed, -- the
actual Folder Names remain as they were. I.e. – products,
FAQ, etc.
These too, need to be renamed.
Simply do a right-mouse click on each file name in the
Folders View.
When prompted to rename it, -- just do so from the notes
you made earlier of its original name. (you did make
these notes as I recommended, didn’t you?)
By the way, -- for all of you FrontPage newbies, -- the
index.htm is what they refer to as the Home page…AND
you no longer have to add “htm” after your file name
because it is now done automatically.
Mini baby step #4:
Import your content
I suggest that either you write your content directly into
the ‘Product Page Optimization’ chart provided – once
you’ve imported it from the “updates” page, -- or simply
Page 168
organize your own files according to a system that works
best for you, -- rather than working directly on the
template.
Once written in Word, -- and you’re satisfied with it, -you can easily ‘cut and paste’ it later into your template as
I have done below.
Some guidelines:
1. Limit yourself to 150-300 words
2. Stick to Arial or Verdana fonts for the best
readability
3. Use the same font throughout
4. 10 pt is best for the Net
5. Headlines are 14 pt. (bolded)
6. Sub-headlines are 12pt. (bolded)
7. Use black ink
8. Never bold your entire text block
9. Italicize or bold only the keywords according to the
optimization process. Underline for emphasis if
needed
In the following example of text, -- as it appears in my
Word document, -- notice the word count, which I
obviously do not import into the template, -- you will note
the primary keyword in the upper right, -- bolded in 8pt.
This later becomes hyperlinked as part of the optimization
rules.
Page 169
Sportsbooks
If Sportsbooks tips and Internet wagering secrets
are important to you – then this page could be
money in the bank!
This is my first paragraph about sportsbooks betting and Internet wagering.
As you remember learning, we should include the Primary and Tier-1
secondary keyword twice in the first paragraph. The first sentence already has
it. So I’ll repeat them again in the next sentence. Finding the right
sportsbooks is half the battle when gambling with Internet wagering
operations. (60 words) Total: 60
My next paragraph needs to contain the primary keyword, sportsbooks, once
and my Tier-Secondary keyword, Internet wagering, once also. Voila it is
done! (23 words) Total: 83
This paragraph also contains both Primary and Tier-1 Secondary keywords,
which are: sportsbooks and Internet wagering. I always keep the order of
priority consistent. No telling what these spiders are thinking. Our goal is to
inform our reader about both important keywords, while simultaneously
alerting the spiders as to what our page is primarily about. (55 words) Total:
138
The Very best Sportsbooks and Internet wagering guide for online bettors on
the Net
And as we write about sportsbooks tips and Internet wagering secrets, we also
keep in mind our Tier-2 Secondary keywords, which are sports gambling,
online betting and NFL betting. (44 words) Total: 182
It is amazing to find so much information on my Primary keyword sportsbooks
online. The problem is that it is sometimes very unorganized. That’s where I
can be of service to my reader, -- of which I have many, -- because I have
learned know how-to optimize my product pages effectively for both my
Primary keyword, which is mentioned earlier, and my Tier-2 Secondary
keyword, which is Internet wagering, although some pages have two Tier-2
secondary keywords instead of one. (76 words) Total: 258
Page 170
In the above screenshot, -- you will see now see how my
‘sportsbooks’ Product Page appears, once imported into my
template (replacing Lynne’s text) and then displayed in the
‘Preview in Browser’ view.
Page 171
Again, -- for my ‘newbie’ readers, --, in FrontPage, there
are three tabs along the bottom:
1. Normal
2. HTML
3. Preview
You need to first import your text into the Normal view.
Then, whenever you need to edit, you go back to the
Normal view.
Usually, you will toggle back and forth from Normal to
Preview, while making the necessary adjustments.
Then, when you would like to see how it will look on the
web, -- just go up to File (along the top, far left) and scroll
down to ‘Preview in browser’.
Then you can see how your page will appear online.
Time to fully optimize
Now that we have our Product Page text imported into
FrontPage, -- we need to fully optimize the page for high
search engine rankings.
There are two remaining parts to the optimization process.
1. Optimize your text
2. Optimize your HTML
First, -- I’ll give you an overview of each process, -- with
detailed explanations instructions to follow.
In the first part, -- you will go into the page itself, -- in
Normal view, -- and do the following:
1. Hyperlink the upper right, -- bolded, -- 8pt keyword
to a Product page or merchant.
2. Italicize the primary keyword in the headline.
Page 172
3. Optimize your headline (H1)
4. Optimize your sub-headline (H2)
Secondly, you will open the HTML view and do the
following:
1. Insert your Title tag
2. Insert your Page description tag
3. Insert your Keyword meta tags
4. Insert your Alt tags
Bolded hyperlink
Any page that you write should have the Primary Keyword
bolded and hyperlinked, -- to either an appropriate
merchant or Product page.
So, -- every page that I write has a simple rule, -whereby I hyperlink that pages Primary keyword discretely
in the far upper right (or left depending on the template)
and bold it.
I reduce its size to 8pt (Arial font) because it’s really not
for readers. It’s strictly ‘spider food’.
Hungry little creatures aren’t they? Fussy eaters, too!
Page 173
NOTE: Because you do not, -- as yet, -- have other pages
or merchants to link to, -- this rule is something to make
note of and come back to later.
Italicized your Primary keyword
Experts say that your italicized Primary keyword should
appear near the top of the page.
Generally, I simply italicize my Primary keyword, which
always appears first in my main headline.
Optimize your headline (H1)
To do this you simply go to the Normal view in FrontPage
and select your headline, -- as shown in the screenshot
below.
Page 174
Then go up to the upper left, -- where it says ‘Normal’, -open pull down menu and select “Heading 1”.
This does two things:
1. Automatically inserts your selected words into the HI
part of your HTML
2. But, it sometimes changes the font size of your
page.
NOTE: Regarding the font size, simply change it back to
your 14 pt preference for headlines, -- once the procedure
is completed.
If you’re curious to see these changes, -- just go to the
HTML view, (bottom tab in FrontPage)
There you’ll note the designation ‘h1’ now appears at the
beginning and end of the text representing your headline,
as shown below.
Optimize your headline (H2)
Simply repeat the above process.
Page 175
Now for the very scary HTML
What you are about to learn is extremely important.
We are actually going to make some strategically
important changes to the way your page currently opens in
the HTML view.
When done exactly as I will show you, -- you will virtually
skyrocket ahead of most commercial Webmasters.
How-to insert your Title tag
Before you begin, -- be sure to have your written page title
(title tag) handy.
NOTE: This was prepared using your “Product Page
Optimization chart.
Open the HTML view.
Find and select the following: <title>Home</title>
Amazingly enough it needs to be moved up higher on the
page or it doesn’t sufficiently serve our purpose of redflagging our spider friend as to what THIS page is about.
Once selected, we cut and paste it up higher than its
former position, under the word ‘head’.
Then select and delete the black text, -- within the blue
brackets, -- replacing it with your pages title, as you will
see below for my ‘sportsbooks’ title tag.
<title>sportsbooks, Internet wagering and online betting.
</title>
Page 176
How-to insert your Keyword Meta tags
Similarly, you will have to boldly make changes to the way
FrontPage presents the HTML of your template to properly
optimize for each page’s keyword meta tags.
THIS IS IMPORTANT:
In the HTML view, -- that I’ve cut and pasted below, -- so
you can see precisely what to do, -- change the word
“GENERATOR” to the word “keywords” (upper case or
lower case is fine), -- but be sure to leave the quotation
marks intact.
Then insert your Keyword Meta tags, -- as I have done, -by replacing the words, “Microsoft FrontPage 4.0” with
your Primary keyword, Tier-1 secondary keywords and
Tier-2 secondary keywords.
Below is how it first appears in FrontPage:
<meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage
4.0">
Below is how it now appears after I have made these
changes:
<meta name="keywords" content="sportsbooks, internet
wagering, sports gambling, online betting, NFL football
betting ">
NOTE: Be sure to leave the quotation marks intact. Also,
put a comma between each keyword phrase, -- not each
word.
How to insert your Description
Once again go back to the HTML view and select the word
ProgId and replace it as above with the word “description”.
<meta name="ProgId"
content="FrontPage.Editor.Document">
Page 177
Then replace the word “FrontPage, Editor, Document” (see
above) with your pages description as I have done below.
<meta name="description" content="Sportsbooks tips and
Internet wagering resources for online betting and sports
gamblers">
How to insert your Alt tags
Thankfully you are finished with the HTML view for the
time being.
In the next step, -- Join Some Good Affiliate Programs, -we will do a few more things in the HTML view, -- such as
inserting instructions for ‘spiders’ or ‘robots’ to follow ALL
the links on your site.
Plus, you will insert some nifty “code” to demolish
“scumware”, -- which is software that could steal your
traffic if you hadn’t performed this pre-emptive maneuver.
Since this is a PDF document, -- the actual code you’ll
need cannot be copied.
But, at the “updates” page of our site, -- you will be able
to easily find and insert this code.
You will need to login to the ‘updates’ section and enter
the following password: updates
But, -- we will get to that later.
You’ve done enough for now.
To wrap up this monstrous module you need to simply
create your Alt tags.
I usually change the name of a few graphics near the top
of my page to THAT page’s primary keyword, -- regardless
of what the image represents.
Page 178
Once again, -- this is strictly spider food, -- the public
usually can’t see these…unless holding their cursor over
the graphic.
So do a right-mouse click on a graphic and go to Picture
properties.
This brings you to the view below, -- where you enter your
primary keyword into the ‘Text’ field. (in the General tab)
Your Home page is ALSO Product Page
You have read repeatedly that you need 5-6 Product
Pages.
In my gambling site example above, -- you have seen me
choose 5 Primary Keywords to serve as Product Page
content.
But, the main page (home page, index page) that a person
would land on if they simply typed your URL needs to be
organized EXACTLY as I have done in my ‘Sportsbook’
Product Page, -- for it, too, will feature merchants.
Since my site has been named after a good keyword, -online gambling-8.com, -- it will serve perfectly as my
Home/Product Page Primary Keyword.
Page 179
As in every Product page, -- I will also choose one or two
Tier-2 Secondary Keywords and a handful of Tier-2
Secondary Keywords.
The only difference between your Home page and a
Product Page is structural.
Whereas the Home page (index page) is your domain
name (ending with .com or .net or whatever) -- all Product
Pages are linked off the index page with a /file-name.htm,
By using the FrontPage hyperlink tool, -- you simply link
each of your Product Pages from the index page.
So, when you finish modifying your template, -- you
should now have 5-6 Product Pages, (as well as your home
page)
Article Pages explained
At the completion of this manual you will then begin the
task of writing articles, -- or adding content.
When optimizing these Article Pages you simply follow all
the rules offered for preparing Product Pages, -- except
that they will not have merchants.
Plus they will be linked strategically according to rules that
are fully explained in Step-8, How To Boost Your Rankings
With Link Popularity.
But for now, -- just know that the basic rule for Article
pages is this:
Each “Article page” links back to a “Product page”.
When the time comes to write your content, (articles)
simply follow the same steps for organizing Product Page,
as I have done, -- by using the two Article page charts
provided.
As far as your Article page keywords are concerned, -- you
simply work down your keyword list and research and
write as much content as possible, -- choosing each page’s
Primary Keyword, -- one or two Tier-1 Secondary
Page 180
Keywords, -- and 3-5 Tier-2 Secondary Keywords, -- just
like you did for your Product pages.
But the actual writing of these can wait until you have
completed this manual, for there is more work to do.
Once you have…
…a primary keyword-based navigation bar, -- where
each of your 5-6 buttons will link to a SINGLE
‘product’ page containing a compelling headline and
between 150-300 words of primary and secondary
keyword-based text, -- plus a strategy for adding
NUMEROUS ‘article’ pages…that each link back to
the most appropriate ‘product’ page…AND have
embedded your primary and secondary keywords
strategically into each of your pages:
1. Title tag
2. Page description meta tags
3. Keyword meta tags
4. Alt tags
5. Headline #1 (H1)
6. Headline #2 (H2)
PLUS, have completed the page optimization process
by:
! Having strategically placed your Primary
Keyword and your Tier-1 Secondary Keywords
! Bolded and hyperlinked each pages primary
keyword, -- preferably near the top of the page,
to a related product page or merchant.
! Italicized each pages primary keyword once
somewhere near the top of the page, preferably
in your headline or sub-headline.
Page 181
! Optimized each page of text for keyword
density by including your primary keyword and
Tier-1 secondary keyword once in the headline,
once again in a second headline, twice in the
first paragraph, and then once in each
subsequent paragraph.
! Randomly included your Tier-2 secondary
keywords throughout the text.
then…
Page 182
S
tep #
6
Step
#6
JJoi
oin
ome G
oood
ffiliate PPrograms
rograms
in S
Some
Go
dA
Affiliate
Desired outcome
…you will have become a member of the Commission
Junction network as a publisher, downloaded,
printed and studied their 57-page Publisher Account
Manager Guide, joined some of their most lucrative
affiliate programs, selected links from your chosen
advertisers, copied the HTML code for each into the
appropriate Product page, embedded protective
shareware into your pages to protect them from
‘scumware’ (more on that later) and previewed all
Product pages to ensure merchant links are loading
correctly.
Why Commission Junction is a good place to
start
In previous modules I cautioned you about losing focus by
dabbling too much on third party websites in the early
stages of working with this manual.
However, as you prepare to join Commission Junction, I’d
like to advise you to become thoroughly acquainted with
their service.
It will provide a good training ground, especially for my
entry-level readers.
Page 183
And, although there are several good affiliate networks
and scores of quality independents, -- which you will
undoubtedly join as your affiliate marketing career
progresses, -- CJ is definitely your best place to start for a
few reasons:
1. They do not require you to have a fully functioning
website prior to joining. (just a domain name)
2. They have an excellent online educational resource
for members called Commission Junction University
(CJU)
3. Being the largest, -- they attract plenty of new
merchants, – and as of this writing, -- there is a
stampede of new merchants joining weekly, -- as the
word spreads about pay-for-performance-marketing.
4. Their status reporting is second-to-none.
5. Their instructions are easy to understand. (I like it
when Tec-Speak is thoughtfully translated into
English)
Immediately after joining CJ you will need to download and
print two documents:
1. A two page Getting Started overview for publishers
that covers:
a. Using the Account Manager
b. Joining Advertiser Programs
c. Getting Links for Your Site
d. Understanding Commission Junction Tracking
e. Generating a Report
f. Calculating Your Earnings
g. Retrieving Payment Status Information
h. Getting Help
2. CJ5 – Publisher Account Manager Guide
Page 184
a. This guide provides you (a publisher in the
Commission Junction Network) with a walkthrough of the features and options contained
in the Publisher Account Manager area of the
Commission Junction site. It is intended to
assist you in becoming familiar with the
features contained in the following site areas:
#
Home – Customizable start page where
you can quickly get started viewing
relevant information and accessing
advertisers, links and reports.
#
Account – Modify your account and
manage your website(s).
#
Get Links – Access Commission
Junction’s extensive database of links for
placement on your website(s).
#
Run Reports – Generate reports on
commission earnings or traffic levels to
assist you in getting the most out of all
aspects of your program.
#
Mail – Communicate with Commission
Junction members and stay on top of
network developments.
#
CJU online – CJU (Commission Junction
University) online is an educational
resource for publishers and advertisers,
where they can learn about pay-perperformance advertising. NOTE: This is
where you go to download the above
guide.
After you have downloaded and printed these informative
reports, -- I suggest you have them spiral bound and kept
handy as reference material.
The more familiar you become with CJ’s processes and
terminology, the better prepared you will be, as you
broaden your horizons with independents and other
networks.
Page 185
Baby step #1:
Join CJ and download the 2-page Getting
Started guide for publishers and CJ5 –
Publisher’s Account Managers’ Guide
Go to www.cj.com
Click the ‘Publisher’s’ link and go to the ‘Apply To Join’
area.
As mentioned earlier, unlike many affiliate networks, you
do not need a fully functioning website to join.
But, you DO need your own domain name.
You should also be prepared to write a brief description of
your website.
This information is later conveyed to advertisers, -- who
may use this data to determine whether or not to approve
you.
Once you have completed the CJ application, you should
be approved instantly and receive your login information
by email.
Once you receive your password, -- AND change it to your
PERMENANT password, -- then you should login to the
member’s area.
Once logged-in, -- hit the CJU tab, --whose location is
shown in the screenshot below.
This either takes you directly to the “How To Use CJ” page
or to the “What’s New” page.
Page 186
In the latter case, simply hit the “How To Use CJ” tab
shown in the upper left menu of the second screenshot
below.
Once there, you can download and print both guides.
Page 187
First, pre-determine your best affiliate
programs
When I first got started with affiliate programs I had little
guidance, -- so I joined every program I could find.
What a mistake THAT was!
Once again, the expression ‘less is more’ can guide you
here.
Part of the problem with wholesale membership in affiliate
programs is the tedious task of managing it all.
Remember, -- that whenever you join an affiliate program
you have entered into an agreement that will require some
of your time to manage.
If you overdo it when joining programs, you will be
inundated with email.
And this eventually leads to either neglect or overwhelm.
But, you will avoid the hassle I had to go through by
preparing a short list of potential advertisers before joining
ANY of them.
Then join them all in one sitting.
Page 188
You are halfway there
In determining which merchants to go with, -- you already
have a head start, -- because of the reconnaissance I did
in Step-5, Add Keyword Focused Content.
There you saw me select a group of eight probable
merchants for my gambling site. (and eight IS enough)
I think that CJ has done a smart thing by allowing nonmembers the opportunity to preview their database of
advertisers.
This is especially so for readers of this manual, -- who
have been diligent in completing the suggested steps
sequentially, -- and need to pre-determine the best choice
of ‘advertisers’ prior to going online.
In my opinion, -- the preparation you’ve done better
prepares you to join programs, -- because you have more
definite plans for your site than the average publisher.
In fact, you should have a list of the exact merchants you
want for each Product page of your site, -- by simply
referring to your completed ‘Keyword, Merchant and
PageRank Chart’.
Why a short list of merchants works best
Remember that we only have 5-6 Product pages.
The strategic placement of three merchants per page is
quite sufficient to make good money.
Plus, many of your merchant categories will easily overlap.
By that I mean, -- that a single merchant could be
appropriate for several different Product pages.
For example:
Let’s say I want to build a site about Baby Stuff.
A very broad category, -- so I wouldn’t recommend it.
Page 189
But, it will serve as a useful example of how a single
merchant can be included on several different Product
pages, -- thereby reducing the need to represent
numerous merchants on a single site.
So, let’s say I have a Product page about ‘Kids Books’.
Logical merchants for a page about ‘Kids Books’ might
include merchants for:
1. Kids books
2. Toys
3. Baby gifts
Next, I want to build a page about Baby Gifts, -- which
would of course, -- offer merchants for Kids books (which
could be a gift) , but I could easily re-offer the same three
merchants as above, couldn’t I?
So, I’d have 2 Product pages, -- with 3 different
merchants, -- occupying 6 different places.
So you could end up with just a handful of lucrative
merchants being represented across the full spectrum of
all your product pages.
The key here is to realize that a handful of relevant
merchants for each site you build is a money machine!
And the Primary and Tier-1 Secondary keywords for that
Product page will automatically suggest the best types of
merchants.
So there should be very little guesswork.
Many Webmasters mistakenly think that they need to cram
dozens of offers into every page.
My question to you is this.
Whenever you walk into a typical brick n’ mortar store to
buy something, -- do you appreciate it when the staff
swarm all over with cheesy grins accompanied by the
commonplace question, “may I help you?”
Page 190
Or, -- do you prefer being approached by a friendly clerk
who simply says, -- “thank-you for coming in, hopefully
you will find what you want. My name is…if I can be of
any assistance please don’t hesitate to ask.”
A website that opens with an assault of confusing
messages runs the risk of losing impact, -- because the
defenses tend go up in most people, -- when initially
offered too much information, before their needs are
properly addressed.
A few rules of thumb for my sites are to:
1. Be brief
2. Be clear
3. Be helpful
Say NO to flash banners
I have also learned the hard way that animated banners
can be counterproductive, as well.
Oh, I know, they look so neat.
But, the whole dot-com crash of a while back was caused
partially because many people banked too heavily on the
fact that flash banner advertising was the wave of the
future.
Whereas studies show that not only do very few people
click on banner ads, but also, that the eye of the visitor
actually averts them.
Until studies show differently, I’m sticking with text-based
links primarily.
The fact is, that my traffic stats prove conclusively that
text links or banners that appear text based (graphics)
out- perform animated banners by-a-mile!
Page 191
Why referrals work best
As you already know, your site will first provide
informative, concise information (content) related to your
visitors search, -- and then discreetly offer assistance, -- in
the form of a text-based link to a merchant, -- which is
usually placed below the 150-300 words of content.
And a simple text link is all you need.
However I also include a graphic in some cases, -- but NO
distracting banners.
So, even though most advertisers at CJ offer an array of
marketing materials (creative), -- you would be very wise
to heed my advice and go with a simple text link. (which
most also provide)
NOTE: Be sure to modify your text links to have the same
appearance, -- in terms of layout, font and size as the
body of your page.
It is my belief that one reason for my high conversion rate
is that my merchant links blend into the page, -- thereby
attracting the eye, -- rather that distracting the eye as is
often the case with animated banners, -- which viewers
ignore in droves because, to them, it is obviously “just
advertising”.
I liken it to reading about a company in a magazine or
newspaper versus seeing an ad for a company.
The ad seems like a ‘pitch’.
While the article appears like an endorsement, -- since it is
part of the copy.
It is actually a referral made by the author (you) of the
article being read by your visitor.
So simply offer some ‘in context’ words about a merchant
related to that page’s content and include a link.
Remember that if a visitor finds your site, -- and is
interested enough to read some of what you’ve written, - Copyright 2002 – James Martell, All Rights Reserved
Page 192
to the point where they eventually glance at your
merchant text-link, -- then they really are inclined to see
you as an authority.
And you are.
For instance, -- if you chose baby stuff as a category, -then researched the heck out of ‘baby gifts’, -- offering
150-300 words on the subject, -- which your reader
responded positively too, -- then discreetly added that
Arons-Baby-Baskets.com might be a good place to shop
online for excellent baby gifts, -- you have earned the right
to be an expert.
In any case, at that point, you certainly know a lot more
that most of your readers; so don’t be shy to make a
recommendation or two.
Baby step #2:
Join only your best affiliate programs
With your completed ‘Keyword, Merchant and PageRank’
chart you have established not only the group of
merchants you plan to represent, -- but have also
organized these merchants according to their most
appropriate Product page.
This will greatly simplify your task of adding merchants to
each page, because you now have a clear idea of where
you’re headed prior to selecting advertisers at CJ.
How-to place a link on your site
To demonstrate the process you will go though, -- I will
join a program for my gambling site and add a link to the
Sportsbooks Product page.
The merchant I have chosen for the top position on my
Sportsbooks Product page is: Betzone.com.
Let’s join their program at CJ and place a link on my
Sportsbooks Product page, -- so you can more easily
visualize the process YOU will follow as you join CJ affiliate
Page 193
programs and place their links on each of your 5-6 Product
pages.
What happens when a merchant rejects me?
Not all merchants will accept you as an affiliate for a
variety of reasons.
Don’t take it personally.
Simply wait a week or two and e-mail the merchant
directly in the “Mail” area of CJ. Explain to them why you
feel they should reconsider your application.
This works about 50% of the time.
And if it doesn’t, -- simply move on to the next merchant
on your list.
With so many to choose from at CJ alone, -- you will never
have a shortage of merchants.
How to get links from CJ
First hit the “Get Links” tab from the CJ login area.
Page 194
Then, as you will see in the above screenshot, there are
two ways to find merchants:
1. By Product Categories
Page 195
2. By Advertiser List
Since I already know who I’m looking for, -- I simply go to
the Advertiser List and scroll down the alphabetical
directory until I find BetZone.com.
Betzone looks like a good bet
I chose Betzone.com to be placed ahead of the others on
my ‘Sportsbooks’ Product page because they pay $50 and
Sportsbetting.com only pays $40.
I’ll place Sportsbetting.com in the #2 position.
Now it’s not always true that the higher commission
merchant will make more money for you, but, over time,
as I analyze my tracking reports, I’ll get a better idea of
who coverts best.
If I find that my $40 commission merchant actually makes
more money that the $50 merchant, -- because the
conversion rate for the former is greater, -- then I simply
change their position.
And when I say ‘position’, -- I am referring to the order in
which they appear on my site.
Generally, I gain many more ‘click-thrus’ from merchants
listed first.
So it’s important to have your higher paying, -- or better
converting, -- advertiser ahead of the others.
Twenty links to choose from
As you can see by the screenshot below, -- I have many
choices in Betzone.com’s Links area.
They actually offer 20 different links, -- although not all
are shown in the following screenshot.
Page 196
And out of the total of 20 ads, -- I found only 4 text links.
No problem however, because all I need is one.
Network EPC explained
But, before I grab a link, I usually consider the Network
EPC for that link.
EPC means Earnings Per Click.
CJ offers a 3-Month Network EPC and a 7-day Network
EPC.
Obviously, the longer time period gives a more accurate
picture.
But, -- notice in the screenshot above, -- that out of a total
of 20 flash banners, a simple text link is rated in the #2
position, -- falling only slightly behind one of their small
banners. (although not all banners have offensive
animation, most do. So when I refer to banners, I am
referring to animation)
Now, having a banner with a greater EPC than my chosen
text link doesn’t dissuade me from going with the text link,
-- because there are many other factors involved.
Page 197
But I DO take note of the higher performing text links’
copy, -- and when modifying I DO attempt to retain the
‘winning words’.
Get HTML
Once you have selected your text link and hit the ‘get
HTML link’, -- the screenshot that follows illustrates the
window you will see.
In the above screen shot, -- I would like to point out some
things that are important for you to know:
1. Use the Highlight All button to ensure that the entire
HTML is copied.
2. Check Yes, You Want The Link To Open a New
Browser Window.
3. Check Yes, You Want To Hide Tracking code (for
security reasons).
In #2, you are requesting that your visitor will still remain
on your site after hitting a merchant link by opening a new
browser over top of your site, -- rather leaving your site
entirely.
Page 198
This is important because you don’t want to lose a visitor
who may click on a merchant that doesn’t interest them.
In the screenshot below you will see what a visitor to my
1st-free-satellite-tv.com site sees when clicking through to
a merchant.
Notice that my 1st-free-satellite-tv site remains open in
the background, -- so if my visitor closes the VMC Satellite
merchant site, -- they still remain with me, -- and may
either bookmark, read further or click on another
merchant.
Time to cut and paste
So now that you’ve checked off the above-mentioned
boxes and highlighted your HTML, -- just hit Ctrl-C on your
keyboard to copy it from CJ. (with your precious pay
codes embedded. Trust me, they are there).
Now go to FrontPage and open the page of your site where
you are intending to place your link.
NOTE: Be sure that you have selected the ‘Page’ view in
FrontPages ‘Views’ column as well as the ‘Normal’ tab at
the bottom.
It is also important that you select the formatting tool in
the toolbar at the top right. (shown below)
Page 199
In the screenshot below you will see the sequence to
follow:
1. Scroll to the position where you wish to insert your
link and right-click your mouse so that the flashing
cursor appears.
2. Hit the Insert tab in the toolbar at the top.
3. Choose Advanced.
4. Select HTML
Paste the copied links into the HTML Markup box.
In the screenshot below you will see the HTML Markup box
that first appears empty until you paste your HTML into it.
Page 200
To do this on your keyboard just hit Ctrl-V.
Then your HTML should appear in the box as above.
This is where you modify your text. (when necessary)
Later I will show you how to do this.
But for now, let’s assume I’m happy with the text link as it
is.
So I hit ‘Okay’ and the above window closes, -- having
embedded the code into FrontPages’ Normal view as a
“little yellow box” where previously my cursor was flashing
(as seen below)
How to modify your Font before previewing
For aesthetic reasons it is important to keep the Font
styles and sizes of your links consistent with your content.
To do this you simply ‘Select’ the “little yellow box”, -which may appear a different color on some computers, -then go to the FrontPages Format tool and select Font, -which opens the window below and allows you to make
style changes.
Page 201
Now your advertiser has a link on your site
Once done, then hit the Preview tab at the bottom in the
Page view to see how your text link will appear to visitors.
The screenshot below shows my text link in the ‘Preview in
Browser’ view.
Notice that I modified the font style to match my content
and bolded the pre-text.
How to modify your text
NOTE: Even though CJ discourages the practice of
modifying links, -- because they don’t want people causing
routing problems, -- I will instruct you on how to safely do
this, -- so that you can strategically place your Primary
keyword as the “linked” portion of the text.
Page 202
As you will see later, it is vitally important to have the
“anchor text” portion of your links “keyword-focused”.
And often this is not the case with the text links offered by
merchants.
It is one more reason why YOU will get more traffic than
your competitors.
In my betzone.com text link, -- as in all text links, -- there
are three parts that you can modify.
They are:
1. The ‘Pre-Text’ - the words prior to the ‘link’.
2. The ‘Link-Text’ - the hyperlinked words.
3. The ‘Post-Text’ - the words after the ‘link text’.
All the rest is ‘Code’ - which of course, you must NOT alter.
Once you become more familiar with HTML and learn to
decipher the difference between the ‘code’ and the ‘words’,
-- then you can really-go-to-town to make your links as
productive as can be, -- such as changing the hyperlink to
your Primary keyword as I have suggested.
Below you will see the HTML for the Betzone link that now
appears on my site.
On my site it currently reads: If you know who will win,
then bet on it with betzone.com!
What follows is the HTML:
*****************************************
If you know who will win, then <a
href="http://www.qksrv.net/click-1067183-439944"
target="_blank"
onmouseover="window.status='http://www.betzone.com';
return true;" onmouseout="window.status=' ';return
true;"> bet on it with betzone.com! </a><img
src="http://www.qksrv.net/image-1067183-439944"
width="1" height="1" border="0">
Page 203
*****************************************
To make it easier for you to see the location of the ‘text’
portions, I have bolded the text and highlighted the
brackets.
As you can see these >brackets< indicate the text portion
and always point inwards and encapsulate the text, which
CAN be modified.
And if I understood HTML I could probably determine
which text field was hyperlinked.
But I can’t.
So, -- to determine this, -- I first paste it into my site to
get a look.
Then it becomes obvious, -- since the hyperlinked portion
is in blue and underlined.
Then I simply reopen the HTML Markup box, -- select the
hyperlinked part and change those words to suit my
purposed.
Once again, this is spider food. The ‘spider’ will note
‘where’ your links go by the name of the link. “Click here”
tells it nothing. Your primary keyword tells it a lot.
You can easily toggle back and forth
Anytime you want to modify your link, -- just open the
‘Normal’ view, -- select the “little yellow box”, then rightclick it and select the HTML Markup Properties from the
menu, -- which reopens the HTML Markup box with your
HTML appearing there, -- as shown below.
Page 204
More modifications to Betzone
As alluded to above, because of the importance of linkpopularity, I always try to ‘hyperlink’ that pages Primary
keyword, -- or at least have it contain the Primary
keyword.
For this reason you will almost never see a link on any of
my sites that say, for instance, ‘click here’.
In the case of a, -- Click Here hyperlink -- the ever
important spider, has NO IDEA of its relevancy, -- unless
your page is all about “click here”. (which I’m sure it isn’t)
Whereas if the linked text was: the very best sportsbooks ,
or just, sportsbooks, -- then I’ve automatically scored
more relevancy points.
So look below at how I might modify the betzone.com text
link to not only inform my visitor, but also feed my spider.
Page 205
*****************************************
If you know who will win, then bet on it with the
very best location for sportsbooks and Internet
wagering on the Net! Click now at: <a
href="http://www.qksrv.net/click-1067183-439944"
target="_blank"
onmouseover="window.status='http://www.betzone.com';
return true;" onmouseout="window.status=' ';return
true;">Sportsbooks </a><img
src="http://www.qksrv.net/image-1067183-439944"
width="1" height="1" border="0">
*****************************************
Tips, tricks and techniques
Okay, now you know how to get CJ links for your site.
If you run into problems just talk to either your FrontPage
helper or CJ customer service person.
Additionally, here is a short list of ideas to help you to get
the most click-thrus and higher search engine rankings:
1. Link the Primary keyword that appears in your first
paragraph to a merchant…and/or do the same with
the bolded 8pt Primary keyword that appears upper
left, or upper right on your page.
2. As a rule, I place my merchants below the content
portion of my page, -- but sometimes I disperse
them throughout the page, -- separated by
paragraphs of text. It’s up to you.
Page 206
3. Remember, that all words in your text link count for
density. So when rewriting these links be sure to
include your Primary and Tier-1 Secondary keywords
as you would any other paragraph, if you are writing
a full blown endorsement.
4. You can make these text links appear as copy and
make them as long as you want, however, try to
bold only the first part. Even the Betzone example
I’ve shown you is probably bolded too much.
Don’t forget your Home page
As you know, -- your home page, -- called the index page
in FrontPage, -- and often referred to as your ‘main’ page
is also a Product page.
Since this is the gateway to all of your Product pages, it
should be optimized for your three best Primary keywords,
‘borrowed’ from three of your Product pages.
Just assign one as the Primary keyword and the other two
as Tier-2 Secondary keywords.
That way the spider really gets a sense of what your site is
MOST about when first visiting your home page.
How to demolish ‘scumware’
As you will learn while pursuing your new career in affiliate
marketing, things are continually evolving.
A recent ‘development’ is the appearance of software that
secretly hyperlinks keywords appearing on Internet web
pages, -- sending visitors to merchants who have
absolutely NO affiliation with the owner’s of these pages, -hence, the term scumware.
Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is maybe one of the greatest
offenders, -- which has allegedly resulted in major
lawsuits.
Page 207
There is a big legal battle looming, as Webmasters around
the globe claim, -- and rightfully so, -- that this
unauthorized software ‘steals’ their traffic.
But, the wheels of justice turn slowly.
In the meantime, I have found some free code, -- which
once imbedded into the HTML portion of each Product
page, -- completely CANCELS scumware.
Below is the “code” I’m referring to, -- which, of course
you cannot copy from this PDF format.
But, as mentioned earlier, you can easily get it by
following the link below and entering the password:
updates
******************************************
<meta name="robots" content="index,follow ">
<meta http-equiv="imagetoolbar" content="no">
<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing"
content="TRUE">
<SCRIPT language="JavaScript"
src="http://www.searchking.com/servlet/ezulafix"></SCR
IPT>
******************************************
When inserting it into the HTML it is very important that
this code be inserted between the <head> at the top and
the </head> at the bottom as shown in the screenshot
that follows. (notice the forward slash in the bottom one)
NOTE: You may notice that the top tag, -- with the word
“robots” in it, -- is not related to scumware prevention, -but, is actually an important Meta tag that instructs spiders
to follow the links of your entire site. I’ve included it here
to simplify things for you, rather than have you perform a
separate step.
Page 208
Preview your site
As you add merchants to each of your product pages it is
best to check them as you go, to ensure that the links are
working.
This makes it easier to sleep at night.
Once you have finished each Product page, you are
definitely in the home stretch.
…you have become a member of the Commission
Junction network as a publisher, downloaded,
printed and studied their 57-page Publisher Account
Manager Guide, joined some of their most lucrative
affiliate programs, selected links from your chosen
advertisers, copied the HTML code for each into the
appropriate Product page, embedded protective
shareware into the HTML of your pages to protect
Page 209
them from ‘scumware’ and previewed all Product
pages to ensure ads are loading correctly.
Then…you are ready for the NEXT step.
Page 210
S
tep #
7
Step
#7
S
ubmit T
oT
he S
earch E
ngines T
he
he
Submit
To
The
Search
Engines
Th
R
IGHT
ay
HT W
RIGH
Way
Desired outcome
…you will have arranged hosting, uploaded your site
to the Net, submitted your site to the major search
engines, begun the process of writing and
continually adding Article pages, plus have added a
traffic analysis counter.
Baby step #1: Get hosting
In Step-4, Ladies And Gentlemen Choose Your Template, I
showed you where to register your domain name.
Now is the time to retrieve your password and arrange for
hosting.
But, since you registered your domain name with Domain
Maniac, -- I suggest that you use them, -- since they
already have the DNS info on file.
www.domain-maniac.com
Otherwise, do a Google search for “website hosting”.
In either case, -- you’ll be guided by your chosen hosting
company about their procedures.
Page 211
All you need is a basic package in the price range of $5$10/month.
It usually takes 24-48 hours for your URL to propagate and
show up on servers throughout the Internet.
Once this propagation is completed you are ready to
publish to the Net.
NOTE: be sure to say YES to “FrontPage extensions”,
otherwise you won’t be able to use FrontPage’s nifty
publishing tool.
Baby step #2:
How to use the FrontPage ‘Publish Web’ tool
In the screenshot below you will see how easy it will be to
publish your site, -- i.e. upload it from your computer to
the host computer.
After you select the ‘Publish Web’ tool, -- you will be asked
to specify the location of your site.
Just enter your URL and hit the ‘Publish’ button.
Page 212
In seconds it will be uploaded and you will be prompted to
visit your site.
Then, whenever you edit your site on your computer or
add new pages, -- you simply hit the ‘Publish Web’ button
and all your changes will instantly be uploaded.
NOTE: be sure to hit the ‘save’ button before the ‘Publish
Web’ tool; otherwise your changes won’t be uploaded, -AND, when checking the web to verify, -- you must hit the
‘refresh’ button to see your changes.
IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT FTP: The following is
included only to explain the other way to upload sites.
Although a little more technical, -- it, too, is relatively
easy.
What is FTP
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a way to exchange files over
the Internet when FrontPage is not being used.
You will need to download WS_FTP shareware (students
only) or the Pro version ($39.95) from a company called:
www.ftp-planet.com
Once either version is on your computer, (both work
equally well) you will then be able to transfer files backand-forth between two computers over the Internet.
Then you will be able to “upload” or “transfer” files from
your computer to your hosting companies’ computer.
You will be using FTP Client software to do this.
The classic FTP Client look is a two-pane design. (see
below)
The pane on the left displays the files, which are on your
computer.
The pane on the right displays the files on the remote
computer.
Page 213
File transfers are as easy as dragging-and-dropping files
from one pane to the other.
Or by highlighting a file and clicking one of the direction
arrows located between the panes.
Each successful transfer is accompanied by an assuring
sound, -- just to confirm that your file upload was
complete.
And, as you busy yourself over the coming months
uploading newly written Article page files, -- you can rest
assured that the sound your hear as you upload, is the
pleasing sound of “cha-ching”, -- as in more money
coming your way because of the awesome power of these
Article pages to generate additional traffic for your Product
pages by conferring “PageRank” or link-popularity upon
them. (Step-8)
Everything you need to know to master the FTP process is
fully explained in ftpplanet’s informative tutorials.
Please take the time to print and become familiar with the
FTP process before you dig in.
If there is one thing that heralds your arrival as an
Internet expert, it’s mastering the process of uploading
your site to the Net.
Page 214
Although, it may look daunting to some of you “non-techy”
types, trust me, it really is a piece of cake.
If you have a computer-type friend, this would be a good
time to enlist their help to get a handle on the basics.
www.ftp-planet.com
But, as easy as this FTP process is, I still suggest the
FrontPage Publish tool mentioned earlier.
You’re on! Go visit your site!
Assuming you’ve uploaded your initial Product page files,
then you have entered the Internet age.
Congratulations!
Although your site is far from complete, -- given that it
only consists of a main page and 5-6 Product pages, -- and
none of the search engines or indexes know about it yet, -it can still make you money, (plus, you can show your
mom) since it’s a fully functioning website.
That’s because it DOES contain relevant content, plus
some affiliated merchants.
And visitors to your home page can click thru to your
Product pages, -- although your site map hasn’t been
organized yet (Step-8).
So take a deep breath.
You’re in the home stretch.
Baby step #3:
Submit your site to all the major search
engines
Until the search engines index you, -- which can take
between 5 minutes to 5 months, -- you essentially have a
lonely brochure that relies solely on your promotional
efforts to drive eyeballs to it.
Page 215
But, thankfully your site has been carefully optimized to
rank highly with search engines so that people find you.
But THAT can only take place after your site gets
submitted to the search engines.
Since the beginning of my affiliate marketing career, I
have relied on a “by donation only” service called
SelfPromotion.com to submit to all the major search
engines and indexes.
One of the key components of this service is an extremely
powerful and automated submission tool.
The owner, Robert Woodhead, originally created this site
because of being repeatedly spammed by scam artists who
promised they’d register his URL at the top 500 search
engines.
As he says, “there aren’t anywhere near 500 search
engines, -- only about a dozen major English-language
search engines that generate 90% of all traffic. Plus, there
are about 200 general and special purpose indexes that
are useful.
NOTE: A ‘search engine’ is a database of web pages, while
an ‘index’ is a database of web sites. Your listing in an
index depends on what you tell them, -- not what’s on
your page, -- as with search engines.
Page 216
He goes on to say, “So, having been quite annoyed, and
given that there is nothing more dangerous than an
annoyed hacker (in the original, honorable meaning of the
word), he decided to build a site that would let everyone
properly register their URL to all major search engines and
indexes.”
Robert states the purpose of his site as follows:
If you want more people to visit your website, you must
know how to create search-engine-friendly web pages, and
then submit your URL to all the major search engines.
That's what this site is all about.
The good thing about Robert Woodhead is that he’s
reliable, -- has a great sense of humor, -- and is always
up-to-date with the ever-changing world of Web
promotion.
Site submission in a nutshell
All that is required by indexes and search engines is a onetime registration that takes about 30 minutes.
And since you want to be included in each of the 200
indexes and ALL the search engines for maximum
exposure, -- then SelfPromotion.com can really make life
easy for you, -- especially since Robert stays up-to-date on
the new engines and indexes as well as their ever
changing protocols.
SelfPromotion.com ingeniously automates the process by
generating a custom form that you fill out only once.
Then “Tooter” his tireless submission daemon goes around
the Net and does all the typing for you, which saves you a
huge amount of time.
www.selfpromotion.com
Page 217
Yahoo is an exception
While “tooter” will automatically submit your site to a ton
of places, it does not auto-submit to major indexes such as
Yahoo, Open Directory or Snap.
The reason is that listings in these indexes are sufficiently
valuable that a hand-done, optimized submission is well
worth taking the time to craft.
And, thankfully, Robert conveniently provides the correct
rules.
Automatic submission works fine
Some will say that manually submitting your site works
best.
But, these are people who usually have a vested interested
in doing it on your behalf for a fee.
Notwithstanding the exceptions mentioned above,
automatic submissions done by SelfPromotion.com are
absolutely as good as manual promotion.
Robert’s rule of thumb is, if “tooter” can’t do the
submission as well, or better, than you could manually,
then instructions will be provided on how to do it manually.
SelfPromotion in a nutshell
1. Robert’s submission service is free. He calls it a
“shareservice”. However, for as low as a $10 annual
fee he offers “extras”, such as an “espionage” tool
that analyses competitor’s sites and “multi-submit”
which turbo-charges the whole process.
2. Tooter is comprehensive. It knows how to talk to all
the important search engines and indexes, (and a lot
of the semi-important ones) and the list is growing
daily. He has even compiled a list of over 500
specialty indexes and search engines targeting
particular topics and regions.
Page 218
3. What I like the best is that the tedious (and
important) task of submission now takes only
minutes. And as you build more sites, this can really
be a time saver. He’ll let you submit for up to 10
sites per account.
4. And I trust the guy. There are many scam artists
out there offering to do a few free submissions, -- in
order to get you on the hook for fees up to $500.
5. His “Secret Net Tools” have been indispensable to
my growth in affiliate marketing. I recommend, -that as soon as you have opened a free account and
“tested” his service by submitting your site with
“tooter”, -- that you return and “make a donation” to
gain access to the Secret Net Tools.
Time to get “tooter” working for you
Please set aside some time to review SelfPromotion.com
after opening a free account.
I especially suggest printing the following from the
“Navigate” menu:
1. Tutorials:
a. Preparing your pages for Search Engine
Submission.
b. Getting listed in Yahoo.
c. Overture.com & Realnames (pay-per-clicks)
2. Articles:
a. Trends in Submission
b. Glossary of Useful Terms
3. About the Site:
a. How it works
Page 219
Don’t forget about paid submissions
Also, -- be sure to pay particular attention to Robert’s
advice on www.dmoz.com (known as the Open Source
Directory) -- which is edited by humans.
Google will give your site ‘big’ marks if it’s listed there, -but it’s tricky to get into.
Although it will cost you for a listing, -- it could easily pay
for itself.
Robert has all the latest info.
Pay-per-click search engines are another
option
Another area that will cost you for traffic is what is known
as “pay-per-click” services.
These are covered adequately at Selfpromotion.com.
Essentially, you “bid” on keywords and pay a fee, -anywhere from a nickel on up to several dollars for every
“click-thru” to your site.
You simply put money into your account, -- let’s say fifty
bucks, -- which gets used up as people visit your site.
It’s not a bad way to go when you want to quickly measure
conversion rates or accelerate traffic in the beginning.
I suggest you learn more about this from Robert’s site and
buy a little traffic in the beginning, just to get you started.
Your first “traffic” is a thrilling thing to experience.
www.selfpromotion.com
Page 220
Baby step #4:
Begin writing articles
Although your site is now submitted, it usually takes 6-8
weeks for it to be indexed.
In this time you should now turn your attention to writing
articles, -- using up the entire Keyword list you have
generated for your category.
The process of doing this is identical to how you
researched, wrote and optimized each of your Product
pages.
Please use the handy ‘Article Page Optimization’ chart
provided to help organize your Title, Description, Meta
tags, Primary keyword, Tier-1 Secondary keyword, Tier-2
Secondary keywords, -- as you did for your Product Pages.
Simply research and write 150-300 words of content about
each keyword from your lengthy keyword list(s).
I generally write 5 or more articles, and then upload them
at the same time.
Once uploaded, the spiders will automatically find them on
their next trip to your site.
So be patient.
And DON’T alter with them once their done.
Just go full bore, writing your brains out because “content
is king”.
The more fully optimized Article pages you have on your
site, -- which will be strategically linked back to your
Product pages, (which I’ll explain in the final step) -- then
the better off you are, -- as you shall see when we get to
the Step-8, Boost Your Rankings With Link-Popularity.
Page 221
Baby step #5:
Add your counter
One of my great pastimes these days is going online to
check my traffic stats.
Until recently this type of tracking would have required
very costly technical help to set up.
But, thankfully, -- there are now companies who will
provide fabulous back-end functionality without cost, -- in
exchange for placing a discreet, advertising supported
“counter” on your pages. (I stick mine at the bottom)
Although they are known as ‘counters’, -- they do much
more that count total visitors.
The one I use can generate up to 300 different reports.
By getting “real time” data on how each of your pages are
doing on the Net, -- you will definitely be in the drivers
seat and be able to make modifications with confidence.
To sign up and download go to: www.hitboxcentral.com
Page 222
Some of what does HitBoxcentral.com does
1. Shows where your site visitors are coming from
2. Reveals what keywords your visitors use to find you
3. Follows the path each visitor follows through your
Web site
4. Generates multiple graphs for easy analysis
Hitboxcentral.com is free
As mentioned above, -- in exchange for allowing you to
use their traffic analysis software, -- all they ask is for
permission to place a small banner at the bottom of your
page.
As you know, I do not use banners, -- but if they want to,
in exchange for this valuable service, then it’s up to them.
You’ll have so much fun showing your friends how your
new business works when using this service.
So, don’t deprive yourself, -- or your friends.
Please do it.
www.hitboxcentral.com
How does it work?
You simply install a small piece of HitBoxcentral.com code
on all the site pages you wish to track.
This code includes a small advertisement that will be
displayed to your visitors.
Each time a visitor accesses a page coded with
HitBoxcentral.com’s code, the advertisement is served,
and HitBoxcentral.com is able to collect statistical
information about your visitors.
These statistics are available to you in real time, 24 hours
a day, from any Web browser.
Page 223
Adding it to your website
Just follow their instructions by completing their form.
Then, -- choose your banner style, -- agree to the
“HitBoxcentral Terms and Conditions”, -- and select next.
I prefer the squares. They’re less obtrusive.
There are two options to setting the counter up on your
site…
Page 224
1. Installation Wizard – Allows you to add
HitBoxcentral.com’s code to multiple Web site pages
at once, -- without having to open a single HTML file.
(best option for newbies)
2. Select all code – Allows you to add
HitBoxcentral.com’s code to multiple Web site pages
by using the “Insert” advance HTML function of
FrontPage. (not recommended unless you are highly
technically oriented)
Once you are signed up you will receive email with
instructions about accessing your statistics and more.
Be sure to read them carefully.
If you have any questions, you simply contact
HitBoxcentral.com’s Customer Help at Websidestory:
http://websidestory.custhelp.com
Page 225
An example of your stats
In the screenshot below you will see how some of your
reports will look.
It always amazes me at how much tracking is possible with
online businesses.
At a glance you are able to see exactly what is happening
on your site.
In no other business I’ve been involved in can I get this
much reporting.
I can even measure the “best hour” of any given day.
I know you will enjoy this aspect of affiliate marketing as
much as I do, -- so please take the time to download this
software and get it working to your satisfaction.
You will be glad you did!
Once you have…
Page 226
…arranged hosting, uploaded your files to the Net,
submitted your site to the major search engines,
begun the process of writing and continually adding
Article pages, plus have added a traffic analysis
counter.
…then, you are ready for the NEXT step.
Page 227
S
tep #
8
Step
#8
B
ooosst
tY
our R
ankings W
ith LLink
ink
Bo
Your
Rankings
With
PPopularity
opularity
Desired outcome
…you will have begun adding Article pages to your
site, linked them strategically to your Product pages,
have a good understanding of Link Popularity, added
a “link to us” page, a “swap links” page, a site map
page that includes a link partner directory.
Now for the icing on the cake
You have accomplished a lot if you have completed all 7steps successfully.
Now you are ready to finish things up.
The final touches you are about to do are very simple
when compared to the work you’ve done so far.
But, don’t be fooled by their simplicity.
By gaining a firm grasp on what I’m about to reveal, -- you
will position yourself to profit in a big way with affiliate
programs, -- in ANY industry you choose.
By properly executing the few final steps in this module
you will dramatically improve your chances of getting
Page 228
massive exposure on the Net at the search engines, -especially Google.
How to use Article pages to increase
PageRank for your Product pages
By now you have learned to write Keyword-focused
Product pages.
You will now begin the task of “adding content”, by
researching the remaining keywords on your list and
creating “pages of content” for your site.
Everything is done exactly as you did with the Product
pages, -- except that no Product links are added.
Instead, you simply place a hyperlink to an appropriate
Product page on your site.
As you know from earlier references, each link back to a
Product page increases the “Backward Links” total at
Google for the “receiving” Product page, -- thereby
boosting THAT Product pages PageRank, -- which means
more traffic.
So, if you have written 100 Articles, let’s say, -- they could
ALL assist your rankings Product page rankings at Google
(and others) by this very simple maneuver.
And if you write 200 Articles, -- each optimized for a single
Primary keyword, of course, -- which on it’s own generates
traffic for THAT keyword, -- then you’d have 200 links
“back” to your group of 5-6 Product pages.
So these Article pages perform “double duty”.
It’s pretty exciting to contemplate the power of this.
And you know what?
VERY few Internet marketers know about this concept.
So please do this as I suggest.
And don’t delay.
Page 229
As I have found out, -- things can change fast on the Net.
Why a “content rich” site helps too
Another reason why it pays to have a lot of content is that
the spiders will score your site highly as a result.
I do not know the exact criteria, -- but I DO know that the
“robot” HTML that you inserted along with the scumware
HTML instructs the spider to follow ALL links on your site.
This means, that as they return, they automatically search
out each page and add it to their database, along with the
new “keywords”.
Then, as time proceeds, -- and you keep adding good,
relevant, properly optimized content, -- your site gains
relevancy and automatically climbs in the rankings because
of it.
Link Popularity in a nutshell
Search engines have a tough job.
It’s estimated that Google alone indexes 10 million pages
daily!
That’s right.
A single search engine must properly sort and rank 10
million web pages every day.
Of course, this presents a huge challenge to its engineers
who must devise algorithms that effectively prioritize these
pages.
In previous modules you have learned the very best
techniques for optimizing your content to attract the
attention of search engine spiders, -- plus you learned how
to do your submissions the right way.
And, until very recently, that was all that was needed to
win the search engine wars, as far as I knew.
Page 230
But, now you must do more.
The reason is that Google, -- along with several major
search engines, -- has started to “factor in” another
important criteria in determining rankings.
So in addition to the optimization you have done, -- the
search engines also want to know who else is linking to
you.
As the name implies, -- the term “link popularity” is a
measure of how popular your site is based on the
“number” and “quality” of incoming links.
Or, how important a particular page is within your site, -based on how many internal links point are pointing to that
page, -- signifying THIS page is IMPORTANT….more
important than the rest.
Of course, your “money” pages are Product pages, -- so all
Article pages “point” there.
Simple really.
Most of the major search engines now factor link
popularity into their relevancy algorithms, in one form or
another.
As a result, -- by increasing the number of links to your
site, (or page) -- you can dramatically improve your
rankings.
But it is also important to have “quality” links.
A quality link is a link from a site (or page) that already
has high link-popularity.
I regularly get PageRank at Google of between 4 and 6, -on many of my pages, -- which is very good.
If you find a page on the Net with a similar PageRank at
Google, -- AND can get a link ‘back” to a Product page on
your site, -- then a “measure” of its PageRank is conferred
on your receiving page, -- which boosts that page’s
ranking accordingly.
Page 231
Some say, up to 85% of the “sending” pages’ PageRank is
transferred to the “receiving” page this way.
So, if you found a page with a PageRank of 5, -- let’s say,
- (whether external or internal) and put a link on it to a
page with a PageRank of 1, -- then the PageRank of the
receiving page would jump to about 5 overnight!
I see evidence of this process all over my sites every day.
So please pay close attention to the precise way that I go
about this below.
It could be worth a lot of money to you.
Lineups say a lot
The idea of “ranking” based on popularity is easy to grasp
when thought of in human terms.
A friend of mine, -- who used to run dances in the 60’s, -says that although his dances always started at 8:pm
sharp, -- he never opened the doors until the last minute.
And that’s because the lineup, which started about 20
minutes before the doors opened, would invariably attract
the attention of others driving by.
Competition for attendance at dances in the 60’s was
tough.
Kids usually had several choices on any given Friday or
Saturday night.
Uppermost in these teenagers’ minds were thoughts like,
“will the band be good?”, “will there be lots of cute girls?,
or nice guys?, “who’s going?”
What the lineup inferred was this…
…. everybody’s going!
Page 232
Is there a lineup to your site?
Are there any links to your site?
Is there a “lineup of links” pointing towards your site?
Or is it being ignored.
A valid lineup to your site works, -- a phony
lineup doesn’t
As is ever the case with the Internet, there is always a
small group of technically savvy people, who will attempt
to “beat the system”, so to speak.
So once it got out that “link popularity” could boost
rankings, -- some began setting up “link farms” that would
act like spiders and automatically develop huge lists of
links, -- which could be posted on your site for a fee.
This worked until Google and the gang caught on and
began banning or penalizing the offending sites.
Play by the rules and win
There is a lot of misinformation about link popularity.
I caution any reader to avoid spending much time in the
“chat rooms” on this subject.
That’s because people who are “guessing” write much of
what you read there.
The real secret to understanding link popularity is to
recognize that these changes are simply another way for
Google (and others) to improve their search results.
If you have a bona fide site about automotive products, -with Product pages about leasing, parts, accessories, tools
and loans, -- then all you have to do is devise ways to “red
flag” the spiders about the true nature of your site.
Page 233
There is no need to try and fool anybody with “link
spamming”.
Simply follow the rules I have used successfully to gain
maximum rankings by organizing your internal links
properly and by swapping links strategically with other
Webmasters.
Baby step #1:
Set up a “link to us” page
The easiest, -- and most overlooked, -- strategy for getting
other sites to link to you is to provide instructions for
remote webmasters who may stumble upon your site, -and like it (for whatever reason), -- and want to provide a
link for their visitors to your site.
This happens all the time on my sites.
And this even occurs with sites that have no relation to my
sites topic, -- which seems to boost PageRank, regardless.
It is truly remarkable to check the Backward Links status
for some of my sites and notice than 10 new sites placed a
link on their site to mine in the last month, -- without even
asking.
So to make it even easier for them to do so, -- I always
place a ‘link to us’ page on my sites to ensure that I get
the maximum benefit.
You saw me do this for my gambling site.
Now you know why.
The important thing to remember is that you should
provide the exact text for them to use in their link to you.
Otherwise you risk not informing their “spider” where the
link goes.
As you now know, -- your Primary keywords should be
used as often as possible with hyperlinks.
Page 234
By writing text for your “link partner”, -- you insure that
the most appropriate “anchor text” is used.
The thing you want to avoid is the scenario where a
Webmaster places a link on his site about Home and
Garden Directories, let’s say, -- to your site about Home
and Garden, -- but then unknowingly hyperlinks “click
here” portion.
You did get a link, -- which is good, -- but what does “click
here” that tell the spider?
Well, unfortunately, nothing.
Whereas, -- if you had taken the time to provide your
Internet friend with some anchor text that was already
hyperlinked for the text, “outdoor decor”, let’s say, -which you’ve written a page about, -- then you would have
signaled loud and clear to Google’s spider that THIS page,
-- which already scores high because it is linked from a
Home and Garden site, -- is even MORE relevant because
it is about outdoor décor, -- which is a popular keyword.
This way you turbo-charge your link-popularity by adding
more precision, -- and relevancy.
Obviously, since you will be posting a single set of
instructions for other webmasters, you cannot get links to
multiple pages.
But as you will see in the example below, -- I usually
provide a link to my home page, -- which, as you know,
already has a Primary keyword in it and some of my best
merchants.
Now, if you have a site without one of your best Primary
keywords in it, -- then simply “hyperlink” the keyword of
your choice from the text.
I’ll explain how to do this a little later.
Page 235
Here are two ways to offer links to other
webmasters
1. Simply suggest the text, -- and indicate which words
you would prefer hyperlinked.
2. Or, you can be more specific and offer HTML code
that they simply cut and paste into their site.
Of course, the second option offers more control, -- so I
use it exclusively.
Below is the HTML I use, which you, too, can use to get
sites to link to the exact page you want, -- using the best
keyword as the hyperlink.
You can cut-and-paste the following HTML from our
“updates” page, -- then modify it to suit your purposes.
To access this area you will need to login to the ‘updates’
section and enter the following password: updates
***********************************************

<a href="http://www.1st-free-satellite-tv.com"
target="_new">1st-Free-Satellite-TV.com - Free Dish
Network & DIRECTV equipment.</a>
***********************************************
I’ll explain how to modify the above HTML in a minute.
But first, take a look at the screenshot below.
That is my “link to us” page on 1st-free-satellite-tv.com.
Just go to this site and model the text that I use.
Page 236
www.1st-free-satellite-tv.com/link-to-us.html
Then cut and paste the HTML we provide from the
“updates” page onto your “link to us” page and modify it.
As you will see below, -- my HTML is in a menu box, -- but
all you need to do is paste anywhere on your page.
Here’s how to modify the HTML
***********************************************
<a href="http://www.1st-free-satellite-tv.com"
target="_new">1st-Free-Satellite-TV.com - Free Dish
Network & DIRECTV equipment.</a>
***********************************************
A few pointers:
1. Be sure to grab the entire block, including the “start
link code” above and below.
2. Notice the yellow highlighted brackets <
a. NOTE: I put these there just to show you.
Page 237
3. The first one, -- < a href=, -- refers to the
destination for the link. It’s known as the Hyperlink
Reference “a href”. Between the quotation marks is
where you put the address of the page you want
their link to land on. As you see above, I’m sending
them to the home page for 1st-free-satellite-tv.com.
4. Following the words -- target=”_new”>is where I put
the text I want linked<. (between the brackets) In
the example above I hyperlinked the whole text.
5. If you only want to hyperlink a single word or
phrase, then all you do is place the word between
the “pointing inwards” brackets as follows >Ist-FreeSatelite-TV. com</a> – Free Dish Network &
DIRECTV equipment. Everything that follows the >
(outward pointing) bracket will not be hyperlinked.
Below is an example of what I say on my “link to us” page.
Hello,
If you've found this site helpful, we would
really appreciate a link from your site to ours.
It's simple; using the code below, provide us a
link from your site. It's easy and only takes a
minute to do so.
Thanks in advance.
Baby step #2:
Set up a “swap links” page
A “swap links” page is similar to a “link to us” page.
But the “swap links” page is targeted to other Webmasters
who are aware of the importance of Link-popularity and
want a reciprocating link.
My most successful approach is this:
1. With my handy Google toolbar I’m in the habit of
checking PageRank continually.
Page 238
2. Whenever I find pages with PageRank of 4 (and
above), I send an email with a link to my “swap
links” page.
This approach can be very effective, -- since you can
actually “target” sites that already have good PageRank.
This is what I mean about a “quality” link.
Remember: the page that links to you confers a
“percentage” of its PageRank on the receiving page.
So, if you get a link from a page with a PageRank of 4 or
5, -- lets say, -- it will confer more PageRank than a link
from a page with a PageRank of 1.
This is important to remember.
Sample e-mails
E-mail #1
Dear Bob,
I've already placed a link to your web site along with
a description at www.1st-free-satellitetv.com/links.html. I'd appreciate if you'd place a
link back to my site using the following link and
description:
#
1st-free-satellite-tv.com – chose from a selection
of free satellite tv offers from the Dish Network
and DIRECTV.
If you'd like the description of your site modified or
if you have any other cross-promotion ideas just drop
me a line.
Best regards from James Martell,
******************************************************************
E-mail #2
Dear Bob,
Since you had a links page up, we are requesting a
link from you as a satellite tv resource.
Page 239
#
1st-free-satellite-tv.com – chose from a selection
of free satellite tv offers from the Dish Network
and DIRECTV.
We have received a lot of email from our readers and
hope you find the site interesting even if you decide
not to link us.
Kind regards,
James Martell
E-mail:
Some tips
1. Be assumptive by placing their link on your site in
advance, -- and show them in your email. Then
check back to their site in a few days. If they do not
reciprocate, then delete them.
2. Ask these webmasters if they have other websites.
You could hit the motherload. Often they have no
idea of their PageRank, or the importance of it and
will be glad to help you out.
3. Since this is “insider information”, -- which you have
paid for, -- there is no need to fully explain your
strategy.
4. I periodically check on who is linking to me.
Knowing who links to your site is an important part
of any web site promotional effort. You can get
some cool software to assist with this at the link
below:
www.linkpopularity.com
Page 240
5. There is also a new software program that helps you
to establish many high quality reciprocal links. If
you would like to fast track this whole process, then
you may want to get a free trial, by clicking the link
below.
www.axandra.com
Baby step #3:
Add your site map
Your site map is set up for a few reasons:
1. It catalogues all of your:
a. Product pages
b. Article pages
2. Provides a link to your directory of link partners
Once again, there are important strategic reasons and
rules for setting up this site map page.
The main thing to keep in mind is, -- it’s not really
designed for “human” visitors, -- but IS designed for
“spiders”.
Essentially, we are setting up a “repository” of links on a
few pages, -- so that we do NOT dilute PageRank at our
Product pages or Article pages.
Most visitors to your site will never see these lists of links,
but your spider will make note of them all, -- which is what
you want.
That little spider will see a few things:
1. The name of every Article page (keyword focused, of
course)
Page 241
2. The name of every Product page (also keyword
focused)
3. The name of every link partner (and if you’ve used
“keywords” here it helps a lot)
a. NOTE: both you and your link partner get the
full benefit of reciprocating links even though
they are not very visible to visitors, -- because
your “spider” sees all, regardless.
4. That your site is NOT a “link farm”.
For this reason I NEVER put more than 30 links on a
page. As my list of Article pages and link partners
grows, -- I split-off to new pages, -- and reorganize
things to provide single links to these new subdirectories. This is VERY important. If you get a “zero
PageRank” penalty at Google, -- because its spider has
determined you are a link farm, -- (whether you are or
not, -- you may never get it back. So be forewarned.
A schematic on how to fully organize your
site
Earlier in this manual, -- near beginning of Step-5, Add
Keyword Focused Content, -- I showed you the “basic”
structure of my sites, -- Product pages going to
merchants, -- Article pages going to Product pages, -Home page going to product pages.
Now you are ready to see how I fully organize my sites.
Page 242
Home Page –
also a
product page
5-6 Product
Pages
Site Map
Merchant
Article List
(Max 30)
Link Partner
List
(Max 30)
50-300
Article pages
Link Partner
In the schematic above, you will see that I also include the
above mentioned site map, listing links to:
1. Product pages
2. Article pages
3. Link partners
Below is a simple illustration of how my sites are
structured, -- and hopefully yours will be too.
Here’s what one of my “site map” pages
looks like
In the screenshot below you can easily see that this is a
simple process.
The page itself is a directory or directories, so to speak, -linking off to other pages of no more that 30 links.
This way your entire site is catalogued without diluting
PageRank.
Page 243
Search engine questions
As you begin to work through the traffic building process,
specific questions about the search engines will arise.
A source for answers is www.searchengineforums.com,
-- a site offering individual forums for all of the major
search engines.
A Word of Caution: A lot of the “advice” you get here is
the personal opinion of another member.
Take it with a “grain of salt”.
Keep in mind that just because somebody answered a
question in a search engine forum doesn’t mean the
answer is valid.
Forum #1 - www.searchengineforums.com
Forum #2 - www.searchengineworld.com
Page 244
Search engine news
Another piece to the search engine puzzle
is keeping on top of their ongoing evolution
and changes.
To do so, I recommend the SearchEngineNews.com “The UnFair Advantage Book on
Winning The Search Engine Wars” training
guide with monthly updates.
www.searchengine-news.com
Once you have…
…have begun adding Article pages to your site,
linked them strategically to your Product pages,
have a good understanding of Link Popularity, added
a “link to us” page, a “swap links” page, a site map
page that includes a link partner directory.
…then you have finished your training and are ready
to begin your new career on the Internet with a very
good chance of succeeding!
Page 245
S
umming IIt
tU
p
Summing
Up
Congratulations on joining an elite group of people!
Those with the “know-how” to successfully publish to the
Net are few and far between.
So, if you’ve been diligent, and followed the steps I’ve
outlined in this manual, -- then you may want to give
yourself a hearty pat on the back!
THIS, my friend, could be the beginning of something
HUGE for you, because the Internet is still in its infancy.
And, I’m extremely pleased that you chose my manual as
a guidebook to help you learn the ropes and prosper as an
affiliated publisher for some great companies.
Here’s a review of what you’ve accomplished:
Step-1 – How to get (and stay) organized
Your workspace was equipped with the physical resources
needed to run your business and you acquired a basic set
of software tools and procedures to assist you in better
managing important details.
Step-2 – Finding the right industry for you
You chose at least three possible industries that offered
from 3-6 good affiliate programs.
Page 246
Step-3 – Keywords are the building blocks
You developed a keyword list of approximately 50-300 (or
more) words for each of the three possible industries you
selected.
Step-4 – Ladies and gentlemen – choose your
template
You got your website under construction.
Step-5 – Add some keyword-focused content
You developed a primary keyword-based navigation bar, -where each of your 5-6 buttons link to a SINGLE ‘product’
page containing a compelling headline and between 150300 words of Primary and Secondary keyword-based text,
-- plus you have a strategy for adding NUMEROUS ‘Article’
pages…that each link back to the most appropriate
‘Product’ page…AND you have embedded your Primary and
Secondary keywords strategically into each pages:
1. Title tag
2. Page description
3. Meta tags
4. Alt tags
5. Headline #1 (H1)
6. Headline #2 (H2)
PLUS, you completed the page optimization process by:
1. Strategically choosing your Primary Keyword and
your Tier-1 Secondary Keywords to gain maximum
PageRank at Google.
2. Bolding and hyperlinking each pages Primary
keyword once to some text within the page you are
writing.
Page 247
3. Italicizing each pages Primary keyword once
somewhere near the top of the page, preferably in
your headline or sub-headline.
4. Optimizing each page of text for keyword density by
including your Primary keyword and Tier-1
Secondary once in the headline, once in a second
headline, twice in the first paragraph, and then once
in each subsequent paragraph.
5. Randomly including your Tier-2 secondary keywords
Step-6 – Join some good affiliate programs
You became a member of the Commission Junction
network as a publisher. Downloaded, printed and studied
their 57-page Publisher Account Manager Guide. Joined
some of their most lucrative affiliate programs, selected
links from your chosen advertisers, copied the HTML code
for each into the appropriate Product page, embedded
protective shareware into the HTML of each Product page
to protect them from ‘scumware’ and previewed all Product
pages to ensure ads are loading correctly.
Step-7 – Submit to the search engines the
RIGHT way
You arranged hosting, uploaded your site, submitted your
site to the major search engines through
SelfPromotion.com, began the process of writing and
continually adding Article pages and added a traffic
analysis counter.
Step-8 – Boost your rankings with linkpartners
You have begun adding Article pages to your site, linked
them strategically to your Product pages, have a good
understanding of Link Popularity, added a “link to us”
Page 248
page, a “swap links” page, a site map page that includes a
link partner directory.
Now it’s up to you to manage your business
for growth
The biggest challenge facing you now is staying up-to-date
without getting sidetracked.
At the back of this manual, I’ve provided a list of reliable
resources that have guided me as I’ve attempted to sort
out what makes sense and what doesn’t.
Hopefully, you too, will find a way to prosper on the Net as
I have done.
A recent Nielsen survey estimated that 8% of the planet’s
households currently have Internet access from home.
That’s half a BILLION surfing the Net from home!
Hopefully, some of them will find your site.
Good luck to you!
Regards,
James Martell,
Vancouver BC Canada
Page 249
R
ecomm
nded R
esources
Recom
meended
Resources
For convenience we’ve added this “Recommended
Resources area listing all websites mentioned throughout
this manual.
Affiliate networks:
1. CJ.com - The grand daddy of commission networks
is Commission Junction. Choose from thousands of
merchant in hundreds of industries.
2. LinkShare.com - Representing more than 500+
merchants, LinkShare has emerged as one of the top
affiliate programs on the Net.
3. CommissionSoup.com - Although a relatively new
kid on the block, Commission Soup offers a handful
of top financial services related merchants.
4. Reporting.net - Reporting offers a wide range of
merchants with categories ranging from clothing and
accessories, to travel and entertainment, etc.
5. JohnsonLane.com - Primary a provider of
financially based merchants programs including
credit cards, mortgages, credit services, etc.
Page 250
6. ClickBank.com - Offering a variety of merchants in
the areas of software, ebooks and other electronic,
downloaded product and services.
7. QuinStreet.com - A smaller affiliate/merchant
exchange featuring a few dozen merchants. They
offer quality products and services.
8. DirectLeads.com – Growing quite rapidly
DirectLeads represents hundreds of merchants. Easy
interface and good commissions.
Affiliate directories
1. Refer-it.com – Directory of affiliate programs.
2. Associate-it.com – Directory of affiliate programs.
Search engines resources:
1. SearchEngineForums.com – As you begin to work
through the traffic building process, questions about
the search engines will arise. The site offers
individual forums for all of the major search engines.
2. SearchEngine-News.com – Another piece to the
search engine puzzle is keeping on top of their
ongoing evolution and changes. To do so, I
recommend the “The UnFair Advantage Book on
Winning The Search Engine Wars” training guide with
monthly updates.
Page 251
Glossary of recommended links from manual
1. Hotmail.com – Provider of free e-mail.
2. Roboform.com – Fill in forms and passwords.
3. Paypal.com – Send and receive money online.
4. USmailingaddress.com – Set-up a private mailbox.
5. Winzip.com – Makes zipping and unzipping easy.
6. Domain-Maniac.com – Hosting and domain names.
7. Apixelpixie.com – Source of FrontPage templates.
8. WordTracker.com – Target the right keywords.
9. Ultimatepaint.com – Free graphics software.
10. SelfPromotion.com – Search engine submission.
11. Microsoft.com – Upgrade to Internet Explorer.
12. Ftp-planet.com - Ftp software and tutorial.
13. LinkPopularity.com – Test your sites popularity.
14. HitboxCentral.com – Traffic analyzer for your site.
15. Axandra.com – Simplify your link partner search.
16. KeywordDensity.com – Measure web page density.
Page 252
A
ppendix ooff w
orksheets
Appendix
worksheets
1. Product Page Optimization Chart
2. Article Page Optimization Chart
3. Keyword, Merchant and PageRank Chart
4. Article Keyword Chart
253
Product Page Optimization Chart
Product Page Optimization Chart
Merchant Category:
Best Merchants:
File Name:
_____________________________________________
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
___________________________________________
/______________________.htm
Navigation Bar Button:
_____________________________________________
Tier-1 Secondary Keywords:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
______________________________________________
____________________________________________
Meta tags:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Alt tag:
_____________________________________________
Title tag:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
(Recommended not to exceed 64 characters)
Page Description:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Heading 1 (H1):
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Heading 2 (H2):
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
254
Article Page Optimization Chart
Article Page Optimization Chart
File Name:
/______________________.htm
Navigation Bar Button:
_____________________________________________
Primary Keyword:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Meta tags:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Alt tag:
_____________________________________________
Title tag:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
(Recommended not to exceed 64 characters)
Page Description:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Heading 1 (H1):
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Heading 2 (H2):
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Content (200-400 words):
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
255
Keyword, Merchant and PageRank Chart
Keyword, Merchant and PageRank Chart
Product Pages
Primary
Keyword
Navigation
Bar Name
Tier-1
Secondary
Keywords
Tier-2
Secondary
Keywords
Best
Merchants
Merchant
Category
PageRank /
Backward
Links
Product Page #1:
Product Page #2:
Product Page #3:
Product Page #4:
Product Page #5:
Product Page #6:
256
Article Keyword Chart
Article Keyword Chart
Page Names
Primary Keyword
Tier-1 Secondary Keywords
Tier-1 Secondary Keywords
Product Page #1:
Product Page #2:
Product Page #3:
Product Page #4:
Product Page #5:
Product Page #6:
257

The changing world of the Internet

Transcription

Similar documents

June 2015

America`s Test Kitchen Affiliate Program

Getty Images keyword guide

Instructions on How to Place the Sign Up Form on Your

travel - IAB UK

why every marketeer should take up lifehacking

Geno Prussakov - Affiliate Management Days

NewsLine Newsletter

Google Cash