Saturn Ascends

Google for ‘leeds builders’ and you’ll see a map right at the top of the search results with the most relevant businesses pinpointed on the map along with their business name, website and contact number to the right.

The map you’re seeing is powered by Google Maps and you can get your business listed on there by using Google Local Business Center. This sort of advertising works great for local businesses which operate in specific geographical locations.

If people are looking for a builder, plumber, cinema or restaurant for example, they’re more likely to prefer ones which are in their local area as this keeps traveling costs low. We can apply this logic to some keyword research to find out if it works. Search for ‘leeds restaurant’ – you’ll see that again, Google Maps along with the businesses are listed right at the top of the search results. Using Google Keyword Tool we can find out how many people in the UK are searching for ‘leeds restaurant’ per month: 33100

I think a figure like that proves that it matters to get your business listed in Google Local Business Center, especially since the map takes up a large amount of space in the search results.

You’ll have to experiment to find which searches Google provides the map view for. I recommend searching using ‘location’ followed by ’service’ eg: ‘birmingham architect’ or ‘leeds hairdresser’.

You’ll need a Google Account to add your business to GLBC, if you use Google Mail, you can use that account to log in. Once you’ve filled in contact details for your business and the address, you can add opening hours, payment options and upload photos. You’ll need to verify that you’re the legitimate owner of the business which is done by entering a PIN which can be sent via text to a mobile number listed in the contact details – this is the easiest option.

Lots of backlink and traffic system products are available. Is the Free traffic System another scam to take your hard earned cash?

Because of the popularity and effectiveness of building backlinks by writing articles as guest posts or for article directories, lots of online services and software has been created to try and make the process of writing and submitting quicker and easier. Everything from mass article submitters, article spinners, and blog searchers are available to buy.

I’ll let you in on a secret. Free Traffic System does all of this. For free.

This service really is a gem, a joy to use, and definitely no scam.

The free traffic system lets you submit an article, it create lots of different versions of it then posts the article on up to 30 different blogs of your choice, and ensures that the owner of the blog doesn’t delete the link from your article. There’s lots of videos on the website to get you started which are fun and interesting to watch, teaching you about all the benefits of the system.

You can have 2 links in each article. That’s a total of 60 backlinks per article. Again, all for free.

No restrictions on the type of link either. Every link in every article could be an affiliate link, and Free Traffic System will allow it.

Become a premium member, and you can have 3 links in every article. A total of 90 backlinks for each article.

A really interesting feature of Free Traffic System, is that you can add your Wordpress blog to it. This has two advantages. First of all, the system gives you 7% more backlinks if you do this, and secondly, you can get free content for your blog submitted by the users of the Free Traffic System. Ensure that you have your categories properly set up, as this is how users wishing to submit articles will find your blog.

The bottom line

This service really is amazing. The article spinner is easy and fun to use, the stats page simple to read and the benefits of signing up for a premium are account amazing. Check out the Free Traffic System today.

So over the weekend, I built a website targeted at a niche product. The website will display the cheapest prices available for this product and include affiliate links to the merchant website where you complete your purchase.

I submitted my application to Affiliate Window yesterday – 23/11/2009,  and just this afternoon I got an email back from ‘webmaster@affiliatewindow.co.uk’ saying “Your Application to Affiliate Window has been declined”. No description why, just a straight “you’ve been rejected”!

So after a quick browse on the AWin website, I found that you could appeal by sending an email to “partnerships@affiliatewindow.com’. I sent off a quick email saying:

“Hi, could you please provide more information as to why my application has been rejected. Could you also confirm that if I correct the outstanding issues, you will be able to accept my application without me having to pay another £5.”

Note: For those of you who don’t know – you have to pay a £5 application fee to AWin, which is then refunded along with your first affiliate commission payment.

Within literally 3 minutes, I received a non-automated response from a genuine person called Jacqueline. It turns out that my application had to be queried with someone because I use the product name in my URL. Once it had been confirmed that I was ok to do that, the wrong button was clicked and I was accidentally rejected! The mistake was corrected straight away and I received an automated email through saying my application has been accepted.

So from receiving the rejection email, to getting the issue resolved and receiving the acceptance email, it took just 27 minutes!

Overall great customer service, I can see why they win so many awards and I’m looking forward to trying out AWin’s services.

So here’s to the start of fun and games with Affiliate Window!

Whether it’s a blog, company website or ecommerce site, you’ve got to do your keyword research before deciding on which keywords to optimize for. What’s the point in optimizing for a set of keywords that no one is searching for? On the other hand, it’s going to be difficult to achieve high rankings for keywords with a really high search volume due to their competitiveness.

There’s two free tools you can use for your research. Google Trends and Google Keyword Tool.

Google Trends

Google Trends shows historical graphs of search volumes. By entering different searches separated by commas, you can compare two or more sets of keywords side by side in the same graph to see how they’ve performed over time.

So in the search below, you can see over the past five years, there’s been more searches for “sony tv”, with search volumes peaking around christmas time. Since the beginning of 2009 however, searches for “samsung tv” have started to become more popular.

The scale at the top which says “samsung tv: 1.00, sony tv: 1.26″ means that on average for every person searching for samsung tv, there are 1.26 people searching for sony tv.

Google Keyword Tool

Google Keyword Tool allows you to see the average number of searches performed on certain keywords each month. You’ll see a column titled “Local Search Volume”, this means the number of searches per month in your country. You can choose the country from the scroll box at the top of the page.

I’ll use the example again of “samsung tv”. You can check the “Use synonyms” box. If you do, Google will display results for searches including the word “tvs”, as Google counts tv and tvs to be a similar thing.

You can use the results to narrow down the keywords you’re targeting on your site and choose something more specific. So in this case, it’s best to avoid trying to optimize just for the words “samsung tv”. Because of the really high search volume, 2,240,000 monthly global, those keywords are going to be really competitive. I would choose “buy samsung tv” or “samsung flat tv”.

Your aim as an affiliate

Your job as an affiliate is to presell. The reader should already be sufficiently interested enough in buying the product before clicking on your affiliate link to visit the product website.

Increasing affiliate link click through and conversion rate is all about creating great content, relevant links and building trust with your site visitors.

You should make the affiliate link relevant to the page content and include a description about the product or service that you’re linking to, to make clicking the link and buying more attractive.

In yesterday’s article on affiliate marketing I talked about how review websites are really good candidates for affiliate marketing. A really good example is MTB 198, a mountain bike review website, by Robb Sutton. Robb has been given around $100,000 of gear to review, and has been able to keep around $50,000 of it.

Even when you give a negative review to a really bad product, if it’s something fairly low cost such as a book, game, CD or DVD, your readers may be interested in giving the product a go just to see how bad it is!

You should make the affiliate link text descriptive.

Bad

Buy cheap web hosting at http://www.somehost.com/aff?13569.

This just looks messy, the reader shouldn’t have to see the URL itself.

Better

Buy cheap web hosting by clicking here

Better, because the reader isn’t left trying to read the URL. This method still has it’s problems. The link text itself doesn’t describe what is being linked to.

Best

Buy cheap web hosting at Somehost

This is the best way to display an affiliate link because it doesn’t interrupt the flow of the article. The link text isn’t intrusive and the whole thing makes sense as a sentence. You know you’re going to be sent to a website about cheap web hosting because the link says so.

Affiliate links or affiliate marketing allow you to make money from the sale of someone else’s product. All you have to do is get people clicking on your affiliate link, buying the product, and you then earn a percentage of the sale price.

In affiliate marketing, the person linking to the product, such as a blog owner is known as the affiliate. The person or company which is being linked to is known as the seller.

The really great thing about affiliate marketing is if you link someone to a product which is then subscribed to on a monthly basis such as web hosting, even if your blog drops off the face of the earth, you will continue to get paid as long as the people who clicked on your affiliate link stay subscribed.

What kind of products should I become an affiliate for?

The products which you choose to be an affiliate for should be relevant to the content of your blog. If you run a blog about golfing, then become an affiliate for golf clubs. A blog about outdoor sports could be an affiliate for outdoor gear.

Affiliate marketing works really well on review blogs. You review a product you like, give some really good information about it and generate positive feedback in the comments. Include your affiliate link a few times throughout the review to get readers clicking through.

How do I get paid?

Sellers will pay mostly via Paypal or direct bank transfer but sometimes by cheque. Because of the cost involved with processing electronic payments, the seller may have a limit to how much you must earn before they pay out.

Where can I find products to become an affiliate for

Sellers will include information on their websites of how to become an affiliate. If you’re unable to find a link on their website, email them to find out more.There are also affiliate networks such as Clickbank and Commission Junction. They hold lists of products you can search through and also show products that have the highest conversion rate.