Before you dive into the ocean of affiliate marketing, you have to define your niche first. Your failure in this business starts with choosing the wrong niche market.
Below are helpful guidelines that will help you to identify a profitable niche online.
Finding your Niche - An Overview
A niche market is defined as a subset of a larger market. A profitable niche market is a one that has a reasonable number of people who are ready to pay for products or services in the niche.
The main principle of niche research lies in breaking down a broad subject into subcategories until you find a subcategory that has high or moderate demand and low or moderate competition.
One mistake you should always try to avoid is confusing a market with a niche. A market is too broad and too competitive. Read more:
How to find a profitable niche market online
Jan 18, 2012
Building Back links: 3 Things to Take into Account
Back links can be defined as all those links from other websites that points to a particular website. Back links play a very important role in the ranking of websites by search engines. If you trace the history of Google back to its foundation, you'll recall that Google emerged from smart back link calculation. The two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, were able to come up with an algorithm that rank webpages base of the number of back links they have. Up to present day it is clear that back links still play an important role in the way websites are rank, even after the popular Google Panda update.
Attracting traffic to your site is all about building back links from other websites to yours. Back links, in addition to improving your search engine ranking and Google page rank, also send traffic from other sites to yours.
In this article, it is assume that you've already gotten a niche market and a list of keywords you'll be targeting. That is only when you can start thinking of building back links.
To improve the effectiveness of your back links, there are 3 key factors you should always have in mind and do them right. These factors are discussed below.
1. Anchor Text of Back Links: Anchor text of your back links are simply those hyperlinked texts that lead to your site when someone click on them.
As you build your back links, always pay attention to your anchor texts by using your keywords in them. The reason for this is that the anchor texts of your back links tell search engines a lot about what your site is all about. If your back link anchor texts are relevant to a keyword that is being searched, your website will rank higher in the search result than when it is not relevant.
You must have come across some websites that advise you to point all your back links to your home page and then link out to other pages on your site from the home page. This is wrong. The reason some people give to back up this wrong idea is that, if you have all your links pointing to your homepage, its page rank will increase and the page rank will trickle down to other pages on your site. Like I said, this strategy is wrong and here is why. It is very difficult, if not impossible to optimize a page for many different keywords. The winning strategy is to optimize each page on your website for a single, long-tail keyword and then use the keyword in the anchor text while linking to that page from other websites.
Another thing to take note of is that you should diversify the anchor text of your back links. It is going to look very suspicious to Google that all the links pointing to page A have the same anchor text. So you should try to mix things up to make it look natural. You can achieve this by using synonyms of your keywords and a few instances of "click here".
2. Page Rank: The page rank of a webpage is one of the means Google use to determine the authority of a webpage. It has numerical values that range from 1 to 10. The higher the page rank of a page the higher will be its position in SERP (search engine result page) for the keywords that page is optimized for. If a page that has a high page rank optimizes its content for a particular keyword, it will rank higher than another page that has a lower page rank which is also optimized for the same keyword.
For an effective link building campaign, build your back links from pages with high page rank rather than from pages with lower page rank. Doing so will give you an edge over your competitors. But there is nothing wrong with getting a number of links from low page rank pages. In fact it is good to go for a variety of page ranks. This will make it look natural.
3. Source of back links: Your back links should come from a variety of sources such as sites with .edu and .gov extensions. Your back links should also come from different C-class IP addresses. The reason for these is that you have to create diversity in your link building campaign so that search engines won't feel that they're being manipulated.
These 3 important factors will greatly affect your search engine ranking. Doing them the right way will definitely improve your search engine ranking.
Attracting traffic to your site is all about building back links from other websites to yours. Back links, in addition to improving your search engine ranking and Google page rank, also send traffic from other sites to yours.
In this article, it is assume that you've already gotten a niche market and a list of keywords you'll be targeting. That is only when you can start thinking of building back links.
To improve the effectiveness of your back links, there are 3 key factors you should always have in mind and do them right. These factors are discussed below.
1. Anchor Text of Back Links: Anchor text of your back links are simply those hyperlinked texts that lead to your site when someone click on them.
As you build your back links, always pay attention to your anchor texts by using your keywords in them. The reason for this is that the anchor texts of your back links tell search engines a lot about what your site is all about. If your back link anchor texts are relevant to a keyword that is being searched, your website will rank higher in the search result than when it is not relevant.
You must have come across some websites that advise you to point all your back links to your home page and then link out to other pages on your site from the home page. This is wrong. The reason some people give to back up this wrong idea is that, if you have all your links pointing to your homepage, its page rank will increase and the page rank will trickle down to other pages on your site. Like I said, this strategy is wrong and here is why. It is very difficult, if not impossible to optimize a page for many different keywords. The winning strategy is to optimize each page on your website for a single, long-tail keyword and then use the keyword in the anchor text while linking to that page from other websites.
Another thing to take note of is that you should diversify the anchor text of your back links. It is going to look very suspicious to Google that all the links pointing to page A have the same anchor text. So you should try to mix things up to make it look natural. You can achieve this by using synonyms of your keywords and a few instances of "click here".
2. Page Rank: The page rank of a webpage is one of the means Google use to determine the authority of a webpage. It has numerical values that range from 1 to 10. The higher the page rank of a page the higher will be its position in SERP (search engine result page) for the keywords that page is optimized for. If a page that has a high page rank optimizes its content for a particular keyword, it will rank higher than another page that has a lower page rank which is also optimized for the same keyword.
For an effective link building campaign, build your back links from pages with high page rank rather than from pages with lower page rank. Doing so will give you an edge over your competitors. But there is nothing wrong with getting a number of links from low page rank pages. In fact it is good to go for a variety of page ranks. This will make it look natural.
3. Source of back links: Your back links should come from a variety of sources such as sites with .edu and .gov extensions. Your back links should also come from different C-class IP addresses. The reason for these is that you have to create diversity in your link building campaign so that search engines won't feel that they're being manipulated.
These 3 important factors will greatly affect your search engine ranking. Doing them the right way will definitely improve your search engine ranking.
Sep 27, 2010
How to Make Money with Hubpages
What is Hubpages?
Firstly, I’ll have to tell you what Hubpages is all about. Hubpages is a user generated content website that shares its advertising revenue with its writers. What I mean by “user generated content” is that anybody can sign up with Hubpages and start adding content to the site. Users are known as Hubbers and the articles they write are called Hubs.
Other types of user content sites exist but Hubpages differs from most in that Hubbers have complete right over their Hubs. This means that as a Hubber, you can delete or edit your hubs if you like. A Hub can be about any topic under the earth. If you want to make a good sum of money from Hubbing, you have to concentrate on topics that appeal to a very large number of people.
How do you make money with Hubpages?
There are several ways of making money with Hubpages, 2 common ways are Google Adsense and affiliate marketing. Everybody knows about Google Adsense but in case you don’t, it is the program responsible for those ads Google place in websites that run Adsense and in Google search results. To start earning money with Google Adsense, you need to enroll in the program first of all. You also need at least one hub. Hubpages has this option for you during sign up. When the ads start appearing, you’ll earn revenue when people click on those ads. You’ll share this revenue with Hubpages; they will take 40% and give you 60%.
Most of you must have come to grip with the term “affiliate marketing”. It has to do with promoting other people’s products or services for commission. The merchant (the person or company whose product or service you promote) pays you a percentage of every sales made through your affiliate tracking ID. Affiliate programs run by Hubpages include Kontera, EBay and Amazon associate. You can pick other affiliate programs from affiliate networks like ClickBank, CJ, and Linkshare. Your affiliate income would come when you write hubs that promote your affiliate products and include your affiliate links in them.
Getting started
If you really want to make money with Hubpages, the following steps would get you started.
1. Sign up with Hubpages here
2. Create your first hub base on a profitable niche you have researched.
3. Sign up for an Adsense account.
4. Get your affiliate links ready.
5. Add your Adsense and Affiliate IDs to Hubpages - Log into Hubpages and click the “My Account” button. When the page finish loading, click on the “Affiliate Settings” link. This is where you will paste your affiliate codes, except that of Adsense which would be done automatically. For a step by step instruction on how to do this, click here.
Strategies you need to Succeed
Keyword research - Making money with Hubpages starts and ends with keyword research, just like every other online businesses. Keyword research helps you to write your content base on what people in your niche are searching for. It also helps you to pinpoint keywords that sell. A good place to start is to use the Google Keyword Research Tool. This tool enables you to type in keywords and get their global and local monthly searches. It is simple to use and can help you to optimize your content to some extend.
Another keyword research tool is KeywordSpy. This one would help you to know the keywords that made other websites in your niche to rank high. So with this tool you can just watch your competitors do most of the work for you.
When you’ve gotten profitable keywords, use them in your titles, sub-headings and in the content. Be careful not to overdo it. If you do search engines would think of your hubs as spasm and they would rank the page low. Experts recommend a keyword density of 3-4% in the body of your articles.
Write Plenty of Quality Hubs - Quality contents have a lot of advantages. It can keep users long enough on your page for the Google ads to catch their attention. It can also make users to trust your recommendations and this alone can boost your affiliate sales.
The more hubs you write the more revenue you’re likely to generate. Make your hubs at least 500 words. In cases where you have a voluminous hub, make sure you break it up with paragraphs and pictures to make it easy to read on screen.
Get One-way Links - Getting One-way links is a popular way of boosting search engine ranking. You can get one-way links in several ways such as Submitting articles to article directories, leaving comments in popular blogs, setting up your own blog, joining forums and social networking sites from where you link to your hubs in your profiles or signature files.
Join Hubpages Referral Program - You can use this as another stream of income. Just get your referral link and start telling people about Hubpages in your blogs, websites, or hubs – like I’m doing here.
The above strategies can put you on your way to start making money with Hubpages. Feel free to try them out.
Firstly, I’ll have to tell you what Hubpages is all about. Hubpages is a user generated content website that shares its advertising revenue with its writers. What I mean by “user generated content” is that anybody can sign up with Hubpages and start adding content to the site. Users are known as Hubbers and the articles they write are called Hubs.
Other types of user content sites exist but Hubpages differs from most in that Hubbers have complete right over their Hubs. This means that as a Hubber, you can delete or edit your hubs if you like. A Hub can be about any topic under the earth. If you want to make a good sum of money from Hubbing, you have to concentrate on topics that appeal to a very large number of people.
How do you make money with Hubpages?
There are several ways of making money with Hubpages, 2 common ways are Google Adsense and affiliate marketing. Everybody knows about Google Adsense but in case you don’t, it is the program responsible for those ads Google place in websites that run Adsense and in Google search results. To start earning money with Google Adsense, you need to enroll in the program first of all. You also need at least one hub. Hubpages has this option for you during sign up. When the ads start appearing, you’ll earn revenue when people click on those ads. You’ll share this revenue with Hubpages; they will take 40% and give you 60%.
Most of you must have come to grip with the term “affiliate marketing”. It has to do with promoting other people’s products or services for commission. The merchant (the person or company whose product or service you promote) pays you a percentage of every sales made through your affiliate tracking ID. Affiliate programs run by Hubpages include Kontera, EBay and Amazon associate. You can pick other affiliate programs from affiliate networks like ClickBank, CJ, and Linkshare. Your affiliate income would come when you write hubs that promote your affiliate products and include your affiliate links in them.
Getting started
If you really want to make money with Hubpages, the following steps would get you started.
1. Sign up with Hubpages here
2. Create your first hub base on a profitable niche you have researched.
3. Sign up for an Adsense account.
4. Get your affiliate links ready.
5. Add your Adsense and Affiliate IDs to Hubpages - Log into Hubpages and click the “My Account” button. When the page finish loading, click on the “Affiliate Settings” link. This is where you will paste your affiliate codes, except that of Adsense which would be done automatically. For a step by step instruction on how to do this, click here.
Strategies you need to Succeed
Keyword research - Making money with Hubpages starts and ends with keyword research, just like every other online businesses. Keyword research helps you to write your content base on what people in your niche are searching for. It also helps you to pinpoint keywords that sell. A good place to start is to use the Google Keyword Research Tool. This tool enables you to type in keywords and get their global and local monthly searches. It is simple to use and can help you to optimize your content to some extend.
Another keyword research tool is KeywordSpy. This one would help you to know the keywords that made other websites in your niche to rank high. So with this tool you can just watch your competitors do most of the work for you.
When you’ve gotten profitable keywords, use them in your titles, sub-headings and in the content. Be careful not to overdo it. If you do search engines would think of your hubs as spasm and they would rank the page low. Experts recommend a keyword density of 3-4% in the body of your articles.
Write Plenty of Quality Hubs - Quality contents have a lot of advantages. It can keep users long enough on your page for the Google ads to catch their attention. It can also make users to trust your recommendations and this alone can boost your affiliate sales.
The more hubs you write the more revenue you’re likely to generate. Make your hubs at least 500 words. In cases where you have a voluminous hub, make sure you break it up with paragraphs and pictures to make it easy to read on screen.
Get One-way Links - Getting One-way links is a popular way of boosting search engine ranking. You can get one-way links in several ways such as Submitting articles to article directories, leaving comments in popular blogs, setting up your own blog, joining forums and social networking sites from where you link to your hubs in your profiles or signature files.
Join Hubpages Referral Program - You can use this as another stream of income. Just get your referral link and start telling people about Hubpages in your blogs, websites, or hubs – like I’m doing here.
The above strategies can put you on your way to start making money with Hubpages. Feel free to try them out.
Sep 24, 2010
How to increase Your website traffic.
You must have been very happy when you hosted your website. But after a while you realize that you’re not just getting enough traffic. This article will show you how to increase your website traffic In three steps.
Before you start your hunt for more traffic, make sure that your website contains quality contents otherwise you’ll be wasting a lot of time. It is the quality of your contents that would determine whether visitors would visit your site repeatedly or not. If your website meets this criterion, applying the methods below would definitely increase your website traffic.
1. Submit your website to search engines and web directories. This is a very important step because millions of people worldwide search for information using search engines and web directories. There are over 700 search engines and web directories but the most popular ones are Google, Bing , MSN , Yahoo and DMOZ. Submit your site to as many as possible because you’ll be getting a lot of free traffic this way.
Use keyword research tools to find out popular and profitable keywords to use in your articles. This would help you to rank high in the search results of search engines and web directories. Examples of these tools are Google Keyword Tool, Keyword Discovery, Word Tracker, and Keyword Spy.
Use free or paid services that would help you to submit your website to as many as 600 search engines and web directories. An example of such service is Submit Express.
2. Create back links. Back links are links on other sites that lead anyone who click on them to your site. Creating back links is one of the most important ways of increasing traffic to your website. Back links do not only increase your site’s rank in search engines and web directories, it also tap some traffic from those sites linking to yours. You can create back links by linking to your site from blogs, article directories, forums, social networking sites, and user-generated content sites like Hubpages and Sqidoo.
To increase the value of your back links to search engines and web directories, use keywords in the anchor text of the back links and place the back links on sites that are related to yours in subject. Also put the back link on pages that have high page rank.
3. Use paid advertising. With paid advertising you pay to place your website’s url on other sites. A very popular paid advertising program is the pay-per-click program. This is an automated advertising strategy where you place your adverts on other websites and pay for every click received by those adverts. Among the other pay-per-click campaigns available, Google Adwords
This is just an introductory post. We shall go into great detail in subsequent posts, feel free to check back and comment.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)