Choosing Affiliate Programs

Considering the loads of Affiliate Programs available online, how do you know which one is meant for you and which isn't? Below are a few things that you should keep in mind while selecting Affiliate Programs.

1. The program you select needs to complement the website that you own. It wouldn't make sense if you have a weight loss website and are promoting a website that deals in chocolates or scrumptious cuisine.

2. Review as many programs as possible and check to see for the commission payouts and their popularity.

3. Visit as many forums as possible and go through the various discussions on several affiliate programs. If you wish you can also actively participate and clear your doubts about the various programs.

4. Affiliate program directories are also a good source for selecting an ideal program. Most of the affiliate directories list the various programs as per different categories. Check out one of my fav affiliate directory website under My Fav Sites.

5. Select a program that will interest you as you will need to spend a lot of time on the affiliate programs and if you aren't passionate about the program you have opted for, then you will not stand to make a lot of money.

Cheers!

Do you have it in you to Affiliate Market?

If you think that you can sell a comb to a bald man, then you definitely have what it takes to build a successful affiliate marketing business. Affiliate marketing is nothing but promoting services/products of another website through yours. Sounds a little confusing? Let me explain.

In affiliate marketing, there are 3 parties involved. One is the Merchant (the one who needs his/her products/services advertised/sold), second is you or the Affiliate Marketer (AM) (the one who advertises/sells the services/products of the Merchant's website), and the third one is the visitor (the one who will help both the Merchant and the Affiliate Marketer make money). The Merchant's services/products are advertised on the AM's website linking back to the Merchant's website. As soon as the visitor clicks on one of those links and is directed to the Merchant's website, the AM stands a chance of making money depending on the Affiliate Program s/he has signed up for.

In today's day and age, more than 80% of the Affiliate Programs use Cost Per Sale (CPS) as a compensation method. This means that if the visitor who is directed to the Merchant's website through the AM's website buys a certain product/service, then the AM will be given a commission. This is where the AM's marketing skills come into play. If the AM is successful in diverting a prospective customer to the Merchant's website, then the battle is won as the visitor is definitely interested and will make a purchase.

Cheers!

Does it make sense to Google Adsense?

The answer to that question would depend on what do you intend to achieve through your website? Do you want to make it solely a money-making machine or simply share your knowledge with like-minded people? I am sure there are very few who wouldn't love to make quick bucks through Google Adsense. But it has to be said that making money through Google Adsense is not a piece of cake and your cash registers won't start ringing overnight. You will need to put in your share of effort, time, and dedication to start minting through adsense.

Although, the signing up procedure is relatively easy, the difficult part starts after that. The working of adsense is fairly simple. Once you start populating your website with content, Google will automatically start displaying ads related to your content. Google adsense even lets you customize the colours and the look of the ads. This means that you can display ads matching to the look and feel of your website. No prizes for guessing that Google has zillions of advertisers, so finding niche ads for your website will not be a problem at all.

All you need to do is update your website or blogs with unique content frequently. In case, you are not able to come up with orginal and unique content, then you can approach the various Unique Article Writing Services available online. Once you build a decent visitor base on your website and they start clicking on the ads that appear on your website will you start making money. The minimum payout that Google offers is $100. Until you make $100 through adsense, Google will not pay you.

Cheers!

Are Sitemaps Important?

Let’s look at a few things and analyze how a Sitemap can make life easier for the webmaster as well as the Internet surfers. At the end of the article, I am sure even you will be in a position to answer the question on your own.

The Internet surfers generally come to your site looking for some kind of information. As the name suggests, a Sitemap is sort of a map that will enable the visitors of your site to navigate themselves with ease. They can go directly to whatever interests them on your site. This will ensure that they visit your site frequently.

Isn’t that one of the main reasons for your site? Some good, quality, and ever-increasing traffic to your site!

One of the other main reasons of building a Sitemap is that it enables Google to index your pages faster than the time Google would take otherwise to index sites without a Sitemap. If you own one of those sites that need constant upgrades, then a Sitemap on your site is a great way to keep the search engines and the regular visitors of your site informed of all the recent developments.

After you build a Sitemap, you will need to upload it. After uploading, it is vital that you inform Google about the Sitemap.

Once you have a Sitemap on your website, you will soon notice the difference in your site traffic. Have you figured if Sitemaps are important or not? If you haven’t, then the answer is Yes, they are important.

The importance of Sitemaps has been underestimated to this day. My advice, do not underestimate the Sitemap.

Cheers!

SEO Secrets Given Away

In one of my earlier posts, Google Comes Crawling, I talked about how your website is noticed by the search engines. Before the search engines rank your website, you need to ensure that your website is optimized in the correct way. How do you do that? That is what Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is all about. Read further…

Optimize using Meta Keywords
It does not matter if your content is the best because if the search engines do not notice your website, then how will the target audience know about you. For this, you need to ensure that your content has relevant keywords with the help of a proper Keyword Tool. However, you need to remember not to overuse the keywords on a page, as it will only hamper the flow of your content.

Optimize using Page Titles
You need to ensure that the website titles need to be different on each page. Preferably, a short one-liner on what your page talks about. Since not all your website pages would talk about the same things, it would be a good idea to describe the content of your page. For instance, if you own a travel website and are talking about different cities on each page, then your page titles should not be more than 60 to 80 characters and include at least one keyword in the page title that appears on that page.

Optimize using Heading Tags
The H1, H2, H3, etc. heading tags can be optimized by mentioning the most important keywords as the headings. However, ensure that the page title and the heading tags differ.

Optimize using Unique Content
Last, but not the least, unique content on your website is equally important. Google hates plagiarism and so do most of the search engines.

Optimize using Meta Descriptions
Meta description comes under the title of your website on the search engines. For instance, the title of the page appears underlined as below and the description of what the entire website is all about comes under that, which is the Meta description. Note the use of keywords.

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Free 'SEO Secrets' eBook - The only eBook you need to master Google ... Your Free ebook – SEO secrets is full of fantastic information! ...www.divinewrite.com/seosecrets.htm - 13k - Cached - Similar pages

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