1. The more specific you can be the better.

2. Physical products sell.

All of my work in Squidoo really helped me learned these lessons ~ on a free platform where I didn’t have anything to lose.   I’ve taken the information I learned there and applied it to virtual real estate I own. (wordpress blogs that I host on my own hosting account) I thought I’d share with you how I design a niche “shopping” site. I call this designing, because it is all done before anything is ever set up, written down, themes chosen ~ it’s creating the foundation for a quality, profitable site.

1.  Identify a site theme.

This is a single topic that the entire site will be based on. The theme is actually a keyword as well. It’s a keyword I want to be sure I can rank for. I’m looking here for general but specific keywords (in the green SOC area on Micro Niche Finder)

Here’s an example: (and I haven’t checked the numbers ~ this really is an example so you can get an idea of the thought process)

Playhouses for Kids

See how that’s a general keyword ~ but specific to playhouses for kids.

2. Identify some topics within that theme

The next piece of the design is to find different types of playhouses ~ that are also good keywords that I can rank for.  These are the “category” keywords. They fit within the theme, but are more specific.

• wooden playhouses
• plastic playhouses
• custom playhouses
• lifelike playhouses
• Instep playhouses
• Playhouse kits

Now I’m going to go one level further. This next step in the design process may not have as much search volume, but they are very targeted and the conversion will probably be higher because you are right at the end of the buying cycle where people are online with cards in hand.  (these keywords are also likely to have very little competition)

3. Identify specific products within those topics

This is also the level that your content will consist of. This is what you will be writing posts about.

In the wooden playhouses category I might find:

• Pennfield Cottage Playhouse 11 x 12 With Floor And Porch
• KidKraft Outdoor Cottage Clubhouse

In the plastic playhouse category I might find:

• Little Tikes Picnic on the Patio Playhouse
• Little Tikes Endless Adventures Tikes Town
• Sweetheart Playhouse by Step 2

In Playhouse kits I might find:

• Heritage Playhouse Kit
• Queen Anne Playhouse Kit
• Country Gal Playhouse Kit

and so on and so on… until I find specific products to fill in for each category keyword.

Once I’ve designed this site and started creating content for it I start promoting it. I will start promoting not only the theme keyword by building links directly to the home page using the theme keyword in the anchor text, but also building links to the category keywords ~ pointing to the category pages using the category keywords as the anchor text, and links to the specific posts using the specific post keyword as the anchor text.

This strategy works well because you may find a bunch of your keywords don’t have a ton of search volume, however, when you add them all up your site will end up getting quite a bit of traffic. This is especially true if you do a good job of researching your theme and category keywords. You want to choose keywords that are specific enough to the niche that they will still convert and make sure your category keywords are completely relevant and related to your  site theme. That way people can easily find more of what they are looking for you on your site.

Setting your site up this way makes it very easy to create a virtual map of what you need to do, and keep track of where you’re at. Here’s a simple mind map I put together for this example.  When you create your mind map you want to take the time to research every possible option to include on your site and fill it in on your mindmap. I would even print it out and hang it on the wall next to my computer. Then as I complete posts/categories I can make a notation. This allows me to stay focused and keep taking actions that are moving me forward.

That’s how I design a shopping niche site. Let’s review the important points.

• One Specific niche.

• Theme keyword ~ encompasses total idea and leaves room for more specific categories

• Category keywords ~ more specific and leave room for specific products.

• Post keywords ~ specific products.

I hope this helps you create a clear plan for your niche sites ~ if you have questions feel free to ask in the comments. If you would like some support from me while you’re building your site join the KISS Club.

No related posts.

I have debated about talking about how to monetize your blogs because people get so wrapped up in the making money part they forget you can’t make any money until you have people visiting your blog ~ and you can’t get any visitors until you are writing and promoting your blog.

However, I know you’re going to do it anyway so maybe it’s best to have a discussion about it so our blogs don’t start looking like big old billboards on the side of the highway. Those big old billboards are ugly and people really only look at them for a second as they’re whizzing by at 80 miles an hour ~ much the same with blogs.

So how to you monetize blog posts then?

1. In content links get clicked MORE than banner ads.

Ex. I fell in love with this free ebook about using LOA and parenting. I put this big old banner on my site. (The theme I use gives space for this big banner and I wanted to see how it would look but that’s an excuse really lol). Anyway, I put the banner up ~ you can see it on my Everyday Life and Balance site.

So the banner was up for a few days ~ it’s a really nice banner, offers something for free etc. No clicks.

I wrote this post a few days later and low and behold ~ clicks. Plenty of clicks.

It just proved to me again, that people need more information, more incentive, more reason to click through than a banner provides. I’ll be taking the banner down.

2. Make sure whatever you’re using to monetize is EXACTLY matched to what you’re talking about.

If you’re talking about growing tomatoes and your ad shows people how to grow Zinnias ~ you’re not going to make sales. Even if your product told people how to grow potatoes ~ you’re probably not going to see the conversion you’re looking for. The people on that post are looking for how to grow tomatoes ~ you have to give them THAT!!

3. Remember, you’re going to have LOTS of posts on this blog.

This means you’re going to have plenty of opportunities to monetize. You don’t need to put every product related to your topic on every page.

4. Make sure product placement flows with the conversation.

For example, yesterday I did the zoo games to play post I used as an example in the title keywords post earlier this week.  I talked about our trip to the zoo, zoo games, offered free resources to download/print zoo bingo ~ and even showed a video of us feeding the Lemurs. None of that is making me money. I like to monetize my posts so it dawned on me Hanna got this awesome Animal Encyclopedia for Valentine’s Day. It fit perfectly with the topic of the post. At the bottom of the post I talked about taking the learning back home from the zoo, and this book is an excellent resource for learning at home ~ put up a picture with an amazon link. Done. Post Monetized.

You don’t have to shoot for making a million dollars off every post. You want to give yourself the opportunity to make money on MOST posts ~ (it doesn’t have to be every single one ~ some posts just don’t lend themselves well to monetization ~ and that is OK) . You will have many many posts, as they get ranked and you start getting traffic to many of your posts daily  you’ll find you start making a little money from many of them which really adds up.

How to monetize FREE.

This one can be tough. There is lots of free stuff out there and people love free, hell, I love free. When you offer a lot of freebies on your site you need to find a way to solve another problem those people have that you can monetize. You’ll have to get creative.

Here’s my favorite example.

Free recipes. I’m the queen of free recipes I tell you. I love to cook and as much as I love buying cookbooks I love printing free recipes from the internet.

Here’s my problem.

I’m a sloppy cook, and every time I cook from a printed recipe the recipe gets smeared. Sometimes to the point that I can no longer use it again. I also have no filing system for these printed recipes. They get shoved in a drawer or on a bookshelf near the cookbooks ~ yeah, I can never find them again. Luckily I bookmark them all or save them on cooking sites so I can go back and reprint.

Anyway… late last year I found this site called Tastebook. It’s a site that allows you to pull all your favorite FREE recipes from online recipe places/add your own recipes etc to your account. You then create a cookbook of your favorite recipes. They print out a real book and send it to you. The books are really cool because you buy points and you can use points to have more recipes printed and sent to you. The binding of the books open and you can add the recipes to the books. Fantastic.

So this has become my go to monetization for free recipes. I know I can’t be the only sloppy/unorganized cook out there. So I mention the problem I have with printed recipes ~ and I mention the solution that’s worked for me. People resonate with the problem, click and sometimes buy. YAY. I’ve monetized free.

What do you have that’s free? Does it have an inherent problem associated with it? Can you solve the problem? Does the solution have an affiliate program? If it does, then you’re in luck. If you’ve used this solution personally ~ even better.

Let’s review how to monetize blog posts now:

1. Links in content convert better than banner ads (no matter how cool/easy the ad is)

2. Your product has to match your content and the person’s problem exactly.

3. Don’t go for a million bucks in every post.

4. Make your monetization part of the conversation.

5. Monetize free by finding the problem with the free and solving it.

I hope that helps you get some ideas about how to monetize your posts. Remember, the more cluttered your sidebars/headers with ads the more distracted people will be from your content AND

CONTENT MAKES MONEY!!

Here’s a couple  examples of some of my favorite sites that do a great job of monetizing.

Best Organic Fertilizer

Daddy Craft Day

As you make your way around the internet today take a moment to take notice of how the sites you visit are monetizing. See if they’ve got banners everywhere, or if they are monetizing posts. Think about how you feel when you land there. Look at YOUR buying habits online. Do you buy from banner ads? Do you buy from posts? Remember, what you do is likely what many other people do… so keep it in mind.

YES, I love banner ads. They are so pretty and easy to stick in there. However, when I think about the last time I clicked and bought from a banner ad… well… I can’t even think of one time.  I buy from people. People I trust who tell me about the product and get me excited that it’s just what I want/need.

Here is an excellent example of this. I must admit I love to read, love to read to Hanna, but I’m a bit of a cheapskate when it comes to books. However… when I read this post about One Odd Old Owl I HAD to get it. I trust the source, and well hell… it just sounds like an awesome book!  It was more than I usually spend on books BUT IT DIDN’T MATTER ~ I was too amped up about reading the book to worry so much about the price. ** Did you read that? Maybe go back and read it again.  It’s important. Her content got me so excited about owning THAT book  it didn’t matter it cost more than I usually pay for books.

Banner ads, no matter how well written, just don’t do that. How about you? When was the last time you bought from a banner ad? Is that reflected on how much you use them on your site?

*sigh* this post has given me insight that I really don’t want, but will act on anyway. Thanks for letting me talk this out with you guys. I look forward to hearing your comments and thoughts.

Related posts:

1. Share Your Vacation In a Way Your Readers Will Love
2. Sharing Your Related Posts… My 2 Favorite Options
3. 6 Ninja Tricks for Rocking a Blog Hop

Here’s my deal.

I totally get micro niche sites, why they work, how they work, how to build them and all that, but they just aren’t for me. I can’t get past buying a new domain for every single keyword I want to target. It just doesn’t seem like enough leveraging for me.

I’m not saying they don’t work ~ they do. There are plenty of people making them work, and making plenty of money doing them, I’m just not one of them.

Instead of me half heartedly trying to teach you how to make micro niche sites I’m going to encourage you to go to a teacher who is as enthusiastic, passionate and accomplished in this area as I am in others.

I’m going to suggest you get Commission Ritual.

This product is done by Brian Johnson.  He is currently making scads of money creating these micro niche sites. He walks you through each and every step of creating these micro niche sites, both in pdf and video format.

The product is set up very well, and is very organized. You get a lot of things with this package so let’s start at the beginning.

1. PDF ~ this is the main guide where he explains the whole concept, the theory behind them, how to research them, how to build them, how to promote them. Everything is in here.

2. The site ~ on the site he has created videos for every piece of the puzzle. They follow along with the pdf, so each piece of the pdf has a video that goes with it to not explain the piece ~ but show you exactly how it works. He gives plenty of real life examples so you can see how it works in real life. This is not a bunch of theory. He gives you real sites that are making money to learn from.

3. Extras: there are a few extra pdfs in the pack. One shows you different words you can use to target buying keywords for your sites. One is an update he did recently called the 3 hour profit plan. He goes through and gives you an exact method of how to do this quickly and consistently. There is a desktop reference that is fantastic. It’s like an outline of the process, so you can easily follow along step by step without having to dig back through the books and videos.

4. Makes it easy. There are certain pages every site will have ~ the about/disclaimer etc pages. He has given you awesome templates you can use to copy/paste right into your site. Just make some simple adjustments (change the names to your site name) and you’ve got your pages done.

5. Super checklist to stay on track: One of the best things he gives you is a “site setup” checklist. This checklist will help you go from start to profit for each site, keeping all the information you need for every site all in one place. This checklist is thorough and done in a format you can fill out over and over again. (and he explains exactly how to do it ~ which is really nice) It covers everything from targeted keywords to how many links you’ve created and where. It’s not just a checklist either ~ he gives quick little instructions in it so you can easily remember what you’re doing and what information you need to be clear to move to the next step of the process.

4. Continual updates. Brian does a fantastic job of providing updates to the product, and new techniques he’s using to get ranked and make money. In fact, the most recent update was as recently as Feb. 3 of this year.

5. Forum. This used to be an additional charge for “inner circle” people, however, he has now opened it up to all of his customers. The forum is quite active and you can ask all kinds of questions and get answers pretty quickly.

Pros of Commission Ritual

Tons of content
Great step by step information
Excellent customer service
Ability to ask questions and get answers
A community to get support

Cons of Commission Ritual:

Lots and lots of video ~ if you have a slow computer or don’t learn well from video this will probably not be the best product for you. Although most of the videos are under 5 minutes ~ there are a LOT of videos.

Do I recommend Commission Ritual?

If you just wanna see what it is, you’re still debating on whether or not you want to do micro niche sites for real, you’re still jumping from thing 1 to thing 2 to thing 3 ~ then no. Keep your money in  your pocket. I don’t want to see another great piece of content sitting on your hard drive collecting dust.

Have you chosen micro niche sites as the internet marketing strategy you’re going to focus on for at least the next 6 months?

If you can say yes to that question. I mean really YES. Then I absolutely recommend this product. There’s nothing better out there to teach you how to build and profit from micro niche sites.

Have you made a decision? Are you ready to build micro niche sites? Then get started with Commission Ritual. (I bet you can have your first site up and running today!)

I can’t wait to hear how you do! Please come back and tell me!!

No related posts.

How do I get traffic?

Which surprised me a little lot since I just spent an entire month showing you different ways to get traffic. So there must be a piece that is missing. I’m not sure what it is, but I’ve got a couple ideas and I’m going to cover them in this post. (I had a post about getting traffic with video planned for today ~ but it’s getting pushed to Monday).

What’s the difference between getting traffic and building links?

Traffic ~ the holy grail of internet marketing, because if you don’t have traffic you can’t sell anything right? Everyone, myself included has gone on and on and on about how important backlinks are to traffic but at some point I think information overload and confusion has taken over.

Traffic is any person who comes to your site looking for what you offer.  This traffic can come from anywhere ~ twitter, Google, youtube, forums you’ve  participated on, blogs you’ve commented on, articles you’ve written and had published, articles you’ve published that someone else has published on their own site, guest posts you’ve made on other people’s blogs, stumbleupon, Squidoo, free ebooks you create and distribute, email groups you participate in, RSS subscribers. These are all traffic channels and there are probably many many more. These are all ways people can find your site.

Backlinks ~ are one piece of the puzzle that will help you get traffic from Google.

So while everyone talks about backlinks ~ and Google traffic is fantastic it is NOT, by FAR the only way to get traffic to your site.  Do you see how only one of those traffic channels involves backlinks?  Google ~ Google is the reason you build backlinks ~ so you can get traffic from Google. But realize here… Google is not the only game in town.

Here’s a fact.

Brand new websites, whether they are hosted by you, or on Squidoo or on blogger or wherever are VERY likely ~ like 95% likely (I just made up that number but I’m making a point ~ and I’m probably not that far off) to bounce around in the search results and at times get kicked out all together. This is known as “getting sandboxed”.

Getting sandboxed ~ (and I’m sure people will argue with me, but it’s been my experience) happens when you build links quickly to new sites.

So on one hand the “gurus” tell you to build links to your site to get search engine ranking.

On the other hand Google gives you a good slap in the head when you do.

What are you to do?

How about a mental shift? Yes, a mental shift.  Almost everything in the world can be changed with a mental shift.

Anyway…

Let’s change the way we look at this whole situation from

How many links do I have to create to get to the #1 spot of Google?

to

How can I help people find the information they are looking for that I provide?

It is a critical difference. Here’s why ~

As you go about your life helping people find your content you will be doing things that Google loves and you will end up getting where you want to be with them.

However, and this is big. You will be getting traffic all the while you’re waiting on Google to figure out how cool you are.

So how do I do that Jackie?

You start thinking about traffic as “communication channels”. This is what I learned from Yaro Starak, one of my mentors, (here’s his free ebook on getting traffic if you want it) When you start thinking about traffic in terms of communication channels you stop looking at how to game google and start thinking about how you can communicate with people. You actually start to remember that traffic is PEOPLE. Real people looking for real things, and if you’re lucky, you have what they’re looking for.

So how to do this…

Find a couple communication channels you enjoy participating in. There are some that are smaller than others, but they will all work. Some will get you trickles of traffic, some will bring you a ton, and some will surprise you and create huge opportunities for you.

Here are a few you can choose from:

Blogs
Forums
Articles
Twitter
Facebook
Stumbleupon

These are all places you can get into conversation (yeah communication) with people.  Pick one or two of these that you enjoy and do them. Regularly.  Consistently.  Do them. I don’t care if it’s for only 5 minutes a day, but do it every day for 5 minutes. (realizing that 5 minutes is not very much and you will have better results the more you put in to it)

If you choose to comment on blogs ~ find 5 blogs you love and go there everyday. Read the post and participate in the conversation. You will get traffic from blog comments, especially if you are participating in a conversation. You may find the blog owner stops by (especially after you’ve been commenting for a while), they may leave a comment on your blog, they may even tell their readership about you.

If you add a particularly juicy bit to the conversation you may find they go back and edit their post and give you some credit for new information ~ this just happened to me a couple days ago on Josh Spaulding’s blog. Don’t think this only works in internet marketing areas ~ it works for any niche you can think of.

You like to participate in forums? Then go do it. Add to the conversation, participate. Just remember, reading all the posts does not count as participation.

Enjoy social networking? Then do it and do it regularly and consistently.

All of these things will bring you traffic, and in doing all these things you will also be building links that Google loves and will use to rank your site.

Traffic before I even got indexed

I recently started a new site. I’m doing a little quiet experiment. New niche, no followers, not using my current assets, starting from scratch, just like anyone else.

Well it took a while for that site to get indexed. I kept watching it and watching it and getting more and more irritated. One day I was in my statcounter account for some reason and I happened to see the site was already getting 25 to 50 visitors a day ~ and the damn thing wasn’t even indexed yet and was less than a week old. Had less than 10 posts on it and getting traffic. I checked yesterday and it’s still only been 2 weeks since I started the site ~ 21 RSS subscribers.

You can get traffic, it’s not hard ~ you have to do a couple things.

1. LOOSEN UP! The entire internet really goes round on information and more and more on connection. Loosen up, have a little fun and get involved.

2. Quit thinking there’s a “right” way to do this. There’s not. There’s a million different ways and the only right way is the one that you can take action on consistently.

3. Open up to the possibility of getting traffic somewhere besides google. (yes, once established it is THE most kick ass traffic you can get ~ but that takes time and not all of us have that long to wait for traffic)

Now let’s address the BUTS ~ because I can hear you yelling “Yeah, but… Yeah, but… Yeah, but… from here.

This won’t work for small niche sites.

Yep. You’re probably right, which is why I am moving in the direction of focusing on a couple of larger sites instead of a million little ones.

It costs a lot of money to throw stuff up against the wall to see what’s going to stick.

Part of the small niche sites strategy is doing many many many many of those sites so you can find the 20% that will work. I personally can not keep track of that much stuff, and I don’t want to have to rely completely on Google for my traffic, which is what those kind of sites are all about.

If you are doing these micro niche type sites your best bet for instruction is Brian Johnson and Commission Ritual. (I have it, have used it and it is an excellent tool to learn how to do these kind of sites) He is doing it and making it work ~ but don’t be fooled ~ he’s spending a LOT  of money to do it. He also recommends you only build 1 or 2 links when the site is first built and then leave it alone for at least 3 MONTHS. (this is to bypass the whole sandbox thing), so you just keep building and building and building while your sites age. This is also why we tell you to do the basic linking on lenses and then let them SIMMER.

You can NOT MAKE something show up in the Google search results ~ unless you buy your way in with PPC. You have to relax, and give things time to work. If you want traffic in the meantime ~ there are all the other ways.

If you really like doing small sites ~ or you’re working on Squidoo my suggestion is to create them all in a specific “niche” ~ then you can use more communication channels to send traffic to your sites. It’s much easier to build a following of people interested in one niche and then provide them a way to get to your sites than it is if you’ve got sites on a million different topics.

I don’t have time to do all that!

It doesn’t take much more time than anything else. A tweet is 140 characters, seriously, how long can that take? I spend probably 30 minutes a day on Twitter, and maybe 30 minutes to an hour commenting on blogs and building relationships with other bloggers. Do you have an hour to kill two birds with one stone?

I think social networking/blog commenting/forum marketing is a waste of time.

Then you probably have not done it conistently for any period of time.

Challenge yorself to a 7 or 14 day challenge where you consistently do any of those things and then let’s talk.

I did one _______________ (fill in the blank) and I’m not getting any traffic.

If you think one of anything online is going to be enough to get you traffic you are wrong. One will never get you were you want to be. Internet marketing is an ongoing, consistent action business. One article is not going to get you traffic or enough links to rank in google. One blog comment is not going to create a communication channel or a relationship with that blogger. One comment on a forum is not going to help you build a reputation as someone who knows the subject and is willing to help.

So… how do you get traffic?

Pick a couple ways you can connect with other people who like the same thing as you and do them every single day. It’s not magic, and it’s not rocket science. Don’t let being new, or feeling confused make this any harder than it is.

Choose something and do it. Do it every single day.

I’m sure there are questions ~ so fire away.

Related posts:

1. How To Get More Traffic and Have Fun Doing It
2. Build Connections by Creating a Collaborative Ebook

So I’m asking you what you all want to learn next.

There’s been some requests for learning about building lists and creating reports. You want to go there or do you want to do something else?

Other options are (but not limited to)

monetizing a site

building an authority site

micro niche sites

we could do more on keyword research

we could do more on linking (but jeez that’s kind of boring and been covered, but I will if you want)

how to create your own product

** Let me know in the comments section ~ the topic that gets the most requests will be where we journey for March.  (only one vote per person)

No related posts.

He sent me an email as an affiliate and in it provided a prewritten email to use to send to my list or on my blog. Now normally I would never use one of these prewritten things ~ but as I read through it, it said exactly what I would have said if I’d written it myself. So bear with me… today is a sad day for me. One of dogs is leaving our family. I’ve had him for 15 years, he’s old, he’s deaf and with a crazy (not so much listening) 3 year old in the house it’s become a not so safe situation for the dog as well as my daugther. So … today is the day we say goodbye to him.

So please bear with me for the next couple days… and here’s more information about Jimmy’s products being retired.

I just got word from Jimmy D. Brown that he is shutting down
his Small Reports Zone site on February 26th at 10PM.

That's right, ALL of his small reports at the site will
NO LONGER BE AVAILABLE for purchase after that date.

You may have heard by now, but just as a reminder, Jimmy is
"retiring" (IE Removing them from the web and no longer
selling them) ALL OF HIS OFFERS...all of his reports, ebooks,
membership sites, coaching programs, software programs, etc.

He's beginning with all of his SR Zone reports.  These short,
meaty, low-cost reports are a gold mine of quality content
for internet marketers.

Here's a list of what's available...

1. Piggyback Launches: 3 Surefire Ways To Get A Steady
Stream Of Free Traffic For Any New Product

2. Homepreneur Habits: How To Run A Successful Home Business 

3. How To Get Free Traffic To Your Website With Ezine Articles 

4. How To Get F.R.E.E. Traffic with PLR Reports

5. 8 Irresistible Ways To Get Super Affiliates To Enlist In
   Your Sales Army

6. How To Improve Your Information W.R.I.T.I.N.G.

7. The Upsell Report: How To Get Customers To Spend More Money

I'm sorry to see Jimmy shut down this site, but I'm glad
he's giving us all a few days to grab up copies of these
gems before he pulls the plug.

**BEST PART**

The REALLY good news is this:  as part of this "goodbye",
Jimmy is discounting the price of EVERY report to only
$10 each!

This makes these reports affordable for everyone, even
those on a strict budget.  It would be smart to order a copy
of each of these.

I *STRONGLY* recommend you grab a copy of "Homepreneur Habits".
It's a 65-page "operations manual".  In it, Jimmy takes you
"behind the scenes" to look at how he runs his own business,
complete with photographs of his home office. He tells you
what software programs he uses, tools and equipment he uses
and even a schedule of tasks he performs.  At only $10, it's
a no-brainer!  EVERY internet marketer should have a copy!

To read through a complete description of each report, visit
the SR Zone site by clicking here

Also, if you want to read all about WHY Jimmy is retiring
ALL of his offers, he has posted all of the details here...

REMEMBER, you only have a limited time to order any of the
small reports that you are interested in.  On February 26th
at 10PM the site will be shut down.  No joke!

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links that
provide compensation to me should you make a purchase.

No related posts.

Well YES. There is, and Rosalind Gardner is one of them and has written this book to show how she did it.  A super affiliate is a person who is the top  earner for a company they promote.  Rosalind carries that title along with Lynn Terry who is the reason I bought this book to begin with. Her review was really good and I realized this book was not just another quickly put together book that would only clutter up my computer.

Rosalind Gardner wrote this book over 5 years ago. Amazing huh? How many ebooks on internet marketing do you know of that are still around and just as pertinent 5 years later? Not many for sure.  Rosalind has updated this book a few times, the most recent being just last year. She has incorporated a lot of new things that have come up and this book is very current.

So let me tell you the story.

A while ago I had an incident that really made me stop and look at my business model and look at how I was doing business on the internet. Yeah, I make a decent living, but what would happen if this … what would happen if that… Those questions starting freaking me out a little and I decided to buy this book to see if I could increase my revenue not just from this blog, but create some other income streams as well.

When I bought the book I wasn’t sure what techniques Rosalind was going to teach, but I really felt like I had to diversify a little bit ~ beyond the Squidoo lenses, and beyond the sites I already had pulling in income. I wanted to move my business to the next level ~ I wanted to reach the bigger income goals I have set for myself. What I’m doing works great, but I wanted something more!

Super Affiliate Handbook

This book is huge. I mean huge. It’s over 200 pages. It took me an entire afternoon to read, and really soak in the information. (which is amazing since most ebooks I spend only a short time with), and I’ve been back to review it a number of times since then.

Is it for beginners?

This book is designed for beginners (she walks you through an entire section on the benefits of affiliate marketing, as well as what it is and how it works for you, an affiliate) as well as people who are already making money with affiliate marketing, but want to ramp up their earnings.  There are plenty of screen shots in the book to help you walk through the steps to get going.

I particularly like how she walks through the entire process, giving you the information in the order you need it so you can follow along and take action as you go. It worked well for the way my mind works.

Checklists ~ ohhh, I love checklists, and this book has them. She has checklists throughout the book to help you come up with ideas, implement tasks, problems to watch out for, things to avoid. The lists are very clear and concise and help you implement the ideas she’s discussing. They are definitely worth printing out.

What kind of affiliate marketing is this?

There are a lot of ways to do affiliate marketing for sure, the way she teaches happens to align very well with my values and the way I like to do business. She’s not about building a million sites with minimal content that will make you a dollar a day. She’s about building quality sites that will pay dividends over the long haul. She’s about giving your reader great content ~ and combining that content with products and services that fit in seamlessly. When I looked at her sites I had clicked through to a product page before I’d even realized she was selling the product. It was just so seamless.She can teach you that.

See live active super affiliate sites

Yes ~ I said I looked at her sites. This is really cool and isn’t done very often. She actually shows you some of her working and in operation sites.  It was fantastic to be able to go to the sites and look at them, study what she’s doing, how she’s doing it, what I like about it, what I could use from it, how I could make it work for me. It completely changed how I look at my affiliate sites for sure.

Get started exercises while you read

She has exercises where you actually write things down, brainstorm get ideas. These exercises really helped me get clear about what I wanted to do and how I could do it.

My biggest takeaway

I’ve been doing internet and affiliate marketing for years now. I have made more sites than I can count. I’ve left more sites than I’d like to admit half done. Through my entire internet marketing career I have never really treated it like a business.

This is the biggest AHA moment I took from this book.

Planning a site ~ before you start.  That means planning all the different elements that make up a site ahead of time. This kind of planning has revolutionized the way I think about sites! It is really remarkable. A business owner doesn’t just go racing in and build stuff without a full plan of what it’s going to do, how it’s going to it and when.

The second part of the business piece I learned was record keeping and organization. OMG. I know I suck at this ~ my husband tells me this every time he does our taxes. But what I didn’t realize is how much money I’m losing out on. When you keep records ~ monthly income/expenditure records you can ask for a raise ~ you know exactly how much you’re worth and so do affiliate managers.

Keeping track of the numbers and doing regularly with diligence was the missing piece for me. Rosalind walks you through her entire process for tracking every number you could want or need.  I hate math, I hate numbers ~ but this was actually interesting to me, and it felt like something I could totally do, in fact, I’ve started doing it.

Don’t worry if you haven’t made your first money yet ~ you will be so much better off to start implementing these “business” activities and mindset right from the beginning. I swear it will change your business. (you are in business right?)

What didn’t I like?

She talks a bit about PPC (although it is not her only way to drive traffic), as someone who has never dove into PPC (and is thinking I might like to put my toe in the water) I didn’t feel like there was enough information to really get started on that.

That’s about it. The book is really good but it’s not a PPC training guide.

This book would be great for people who…

• need a real business model they can stick with.

• prefer to focus on one or two topics long term

• have a passion for a topic

• need some help getting their business organized

• need to learn to look at their business AS a business

• want to increase their income

• want to become a super affiliate

Is it right for you?

Only you can say. Learn more about what Rosiland has to say about the Super Affiliate Handbook. If you’re thinking about getting it, know that it is a quality book and will give you a ton of information to move your business forward.  I have to say I wish I had bought this book a few years ago. I think it would have made a big difference in the speed of which I made it to a full time income.

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Where you are: You have no content and you’re just starting

The 1 thing you can do: Do some research and pick an internet marketing strategy that you feel good about that you feel you can do. Start with that strategy and keep doing it (and only it) for the next 6 months.

Where you are: You have some content online, finished lenses or blog posts but no rankings in Google

The one thing you can do: Build more links ~ build links like your site depended on it ~ because it does.

Where you are: You’ve got content and some traffic.

The one thing you can do: If you aren’t ranking in the #1 position for your targeted keywords, build more links ~ than repeat the whole process ~ over and over again. Whether you’re building lenses, a blog, or niche sites internet marketing on some level is a numbers game. If  you’re building lenses shoot for 100 targeted lenses. If you’re building a blog shoot for 100 keyword targeted posts. If you’re building mini-niche sites shoot for 100 keyword targeted niche sites.  It’s a numbers game ~ you will find that you end up making 80% of your income from 20% of your sites. The more sites you have the more you will earn.

This is a lesson I learned the hard way ~ when it comes to niches sites/lenses 10 sites is NOT that many. It seems huge to a beginner, believe me I remember, but please understand when I talk about “numbers game” I’m talking about numbers more like 100 ~ not 10.

So while there may be 1 thing you can do, if you’re just starting out the best 1 thing you can do is find a system, create a plan and do it, consistently, repeatedly and diligently. The system is going to generally look like this:

1. Research
2. Content Creation
3. Promotion (link building)

Where you put your content and how you build your links is really the only thing that changes. So what do you think YOU need to do to start making sales looking at where your business is right now?

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It’s a huge distinction, and when you get there it can be amazing! I rarely if ever buy products just because of the sales letter/sales process. I generally buy products now that I need to work the internet marketing strategy that I’m working, make it easier/make it quicker. Don’t get me wrong, I still go through sales letters, and click their links and follow their sales funnel just to see how they’re doing it, and if it would have worked on me.

There comes a point in time when you mind switches from consumer to marketer. When that happens you might as well forget about ever seeing anything through your consumer glasses ever again. TV is not the same, a trip to the grocery store is never the same, and an online sales page will never look the same to you again.

While this can be very annoying to family members, it’s when you’re business will really start to take off. You’ll begin to notice everything around you. You’ll start to think about why they did that that way, why did they put that there, why did they say that, why did they use THAT font! Because believe me, in the real brick and mortar world, nothing is done without a purpose and usually a lot of money invested in testing. While all this wondering is great, it will seep into just about every area of your business as well. You’ll start remembering things you’ve seen. You’ll start implementing sales funnels that had you to the point of clicking the buy now button. You will become an internet marketer ~ not just someone trying to make money online.

One of my favorite shows is “Shark Tank”. It started last season and in case you don’t know, these small business people come in front of these “sharks”. The sharks are millionaires who have money to invest in small business, and will look at your proposal and may or may not invest in you and your business. My poor husband hates to watch this show with me. At some point in the show I am invariably yelling at the TV.

Last week a guy came on. He had a pretty cool idea about a netflix type thing with ink cartridges for your computer. I HATE running out of printer ink so I was all about it. His entire business model was selling online. The whole process was automated through his website. VERY COOL for me! He goes on and on with his presentation. He didn’t have the numbers they were looking for, and we could all tell the sharks were going to say no. I’m thinking ~ ok, they’re going to say no, at least take advantage of the fact you have all THIS publicity and tell me the name of your DAMN WEBSITE!!

He didn’t. Well, let’s just say my rant went on for a while. How on earth can someone get on national TV to talk about their online store and not give the DAMN ADDRESS??? Before you say he probably couldn’t there have been plenty of other people who have given their web address on the show ~ and of course when you go to the site it has crashed from the load (but that’s a whole other rant lol).

We did end up finding the site, but hello I’m an internet marketer and I know how to find things. Why would you waste that opportunity for your business?

Anyway… this is what I mean ~ everything you watch and see becomes colored by your marketer glasses. The takeaway for me and my business was no matter where you are always take advantage of what is available to grow your business.

There will come a day when you can walk through a “perfect sales funnel” (which simply means the path a marketer takes you on to walk you to the sale), and instead of looking at it from the viewpoint of whether or not I’m going to buy this you are looking from the viewpoint of  OMG this would totally work on me. Then you write down the steps and you figure out how you can put it into action in your own business.

This happened to me last night.

I was on twitter, and saw this tweet.

TWITTER: No One Cares? | Alex Mandossian’s Blog http://bit.ly/57ZlEW

It was actually a retweet someone had done from the tweetmeme button at Alex’s blog. Here’s where the process starts.

1. Alex Mandossian is a trusted name. I like his stuff and wanted to see what he had to say about twitter. I clicked the link

(right there the funnel has begun, and I’ve taken the action he desired me to take ~ I clicked through to his blog)

Turns out it’s a guest post by Jeff Herring (the article marketing guy) It’s a short post. It appears the purpose is to get me to click the link in the article. I didn’t click the link (right away).  I read the article and the comments and everyone was talking about doing twitter by talking about LIFE. I kept thinking, what they heck? That’s not gonna work. So he created curiosity, not only in the post, but in the comments and I went back and clicked the link.

2. Click the link to the next step in the funnel ~ which happens to be an EZA article.

This is so smart of him because Jeff Herring is THE article marketing guy ~ that’s what he teaches, and what he does. How to use EZA to drive traffic and make money.

The article was really good and as I suspected there was more to life than I thought!! It made a lot of sense and was done in a way that made it memorable and easily implemented.  I read the whole article all the way to the resource box because it was that interesting.

3. Resource box. This is where you’re choosing what you want people to do ~ send them to a sales page, get them to your site, get them on your list. Jeff chose getting them on his list (which is always smart) Here’s his resource box.

To learn more about how to leverage Social Marketing tools for waves of traffic and more, get your FREE Instant Access to our Social Marketing Video Training Series when you visit http://SocialMarketingBlueprint.com/7laws.

Look at that ~ more FREE content, deeper learning, and in another format. This guy’s a genius! Well needless to say I moved to step 4.

4. Clicked through to the opt in page. Do I sign up or not?

Here’s the real conversion rate we’re looking for. Will people do what you want them to do at this point? Will they pull out their wallets or their email addresses?

Well with all the great content he’s already given me ~ although it was cursory so I had an idea of how it works, but I don’t have all the details ~ heck yeah I’m going to fill in the blanks!

Now I’m on yet another of Jeff Herring’s list.  I immediately got my pdf download, I also had immediate access to the 4 videos he promised me, it all worked like a chanp. Now Jeff is free to contact me at will because my name is now a double opt in on his list.

I have to say it was getting really late, and I was enjoying the process more than I wanted to read more information last night, but I did bookmark  the videos (which is my least favorite way to get info) and I put reading the pdf and watching the videos on my calendar for today.

I highly recommend you click the link from that tweet and then walk through the process. Try to keep your eyes in marketing mode instead of consumer mode. It doesn’t matter if you sign up for the videos or not ~ if you’d like more info about how to use twitter effectively I’m sure they will be of great use, if not, then don’t. We’re looking at this from a marketing perspective, not a consumer perspective. When you’ve gone through the process come back and let’s talk about it.

I’d love to hear from you on a few things.

1. Did this sales process work on you? Why/why not?

2. If you hadn’t had your marketer’s glasses on would you have even seen it as a sales process?

3. Where did the process “break down” if it did for you.

4. What could you develop from this process that you could implement in your own business?

5. Anything else you want to comment on?

Looking forward to the conversation!!

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photo credit: dhilgart

I know I said we were going to cover installing wordpress today, but I really wanted to talk about how to stay organized in your business ~ well more than how to stay organized, I want to talk to you about creating a system of organization for yourself and your business.

If there was one thing I could go back and do differently it would be this one element of my business. I did not even THINK about an orgnizational system until I was in the thick of things, couldn’t find things, didn’t know what my passwords were, or where to find my affiliate links. It was a mess, and a huge hassle to go back and find everything to get it organized. It would have been so much easier to just get organized from the beginning.

When creating an organizational system it’s  a good idea to look at what others are doing, but like most things in internet marketing you will probably have to tweak it to fit your situation and your learning/organizing style.  The thing is, someone can have the “perfect” system for staying organized but if it doesn’t work for you and you don’t actually use it it does you absolutely no good.

What are you going to need to organize?

There are going to be quite a few things you are going to need to keep organized. You will need to be able to find things, access them and track them over time. You may only have 1 or 2 sites now, and only a couple affiliate programs, but over time you will have many more, and while it’s easy to keep track of 1 or 2 things, not so much when it’s 20, 30 or 100.

Website usernames and passwords.

Each time you create a website, whether it’s a blog you plan to make money from or a link blog or a lens, hub or wetpaint site you’re going to need to keep track of the login information.

You may also want to keep track of the keywords the site targets, as well as the platform the site is on. As time goes on you will expand your linking network to many platforms and it will be important to know where your sites are located.

Affiliate programs:

This one is going to be key. You are going to apply to a lot of affiliate programs ~ you will probably use a lot of them as well. It can be very confusing to keep track of as time goes on.

Earnings:

You will want to keep track of how much money you are making ~ but more than that you want to keep track of which sites are earning. This way you can make the most out of each piece of online real estate you have. I can’t even tell you how many sites I put up and then got distracted with something else ~ if I had been keeping track of things it would have been easier to stay focused and get all my properties up and running and earning ~ which would have gotten me to my income goals a LOT faster.

Creating a system to stay organized.

Like I said, there are a million ways you can stay organized. Lynn Terry did a great post recently on her system to stay organized. It’s a great system and a great read. I’m going to talk about how I try to stay organized ~ although my system is not quite as organized as Lynn’s lol ~ it’s still a work in progress.

Website usernames/passwords:

I’ve tried a couple different things to keep these in order. The one that has worked best for me is a plain old rolodex. I bought it at Walmart for like 7 bucks. Each time I create a new site I write down the username and password, and file it under W for wordpress. If it’s on blogger I file it under B.

I also have a “master network” spreadsheet. I started this when I realized my business was out of control and I couldnt’ find anything. I went back and found every site I’ve made ~ including lenses and hubs ~ every place I created (and I’m quite sure I missed a few only because I forgot about them). I put them all in a spreadsheet. I made pages for different niches/topics and then added them on the corresponding page. I included the name of the site ~ the url ~ keywords targeted ~ platform ~ and username and password.

This has turned into quite a resource, because now when I need to do some linking I can easily find sites in my own network to link from.  I named it “my network” and keep it right on my desktop so I can easily find it and use it.

If you don’t have excel you can download open office. It’s a whole suite of office type tools and it has a spreadsheet program ~ it’s free. There is a LOT that comes with it so don’t get sucked in and think you have to know how to use ALL of it ~ just use the pieces you need. Spreadsheets can be confusing ~ in fact, I still only know how to do what I need to do and I’m not sure I’m doing it “right” lol ~ but it works. Here are some very thorough spreadsheet tutorials, to help you get started.

I have to admit I’m not as consistent about adding information to the spreadsheet as I’d like to be, but I absolutely add every new site to my rolodex. For some reason there are times when my computer forgets my password to a site  ~ but it’s been doing it automatically for so long that I don’t remember what it is ~ being able to quickly look it up is invaluable, and keeps me from having to change the password so I can get in.

Affiliate programs:

I LOVE Lynn’s plan for managing affiliate programs. I wish I had started this sooner. I however ~ use gmail for my mail. I love gmail for a number of reasons ~

1. you can have unlimited messages come to your inbox. (and I get a lot of email)
2. You can easily label things ~ which is similar to putting it in a folder. (I wish gmail had folders so I could put folders inside of folders, but I’m making due)
3. You can color code stuff ~ I LOVE this feature. It makes it so easy to catch important emails coming through.
4. You can search through every email you’ve ever received.

I have to admit the search function has really kept me from getting really organized in gmail. Since I can search for whatever I’m looking for and it comes up I haven’t gotten very organized thus far. The other day I wanted to log into my lunarpages affiliate account. I couldn’t remember the username or password lol ~ so I just searched in my gmail lunarpages affiliate ~ and up popped my welcome email with the information I was looking for.

It’s pretty easy to use the search, but it would be really nice to have it all organized into labels and here’s why. Sometimes I apply to affiliate programs and then I forget that I’ve done it, what’s worse is I forget what program it was. I may go back to revamp a site and not remember half the programs I could be using to monetize that site. If I have all the affiliate programs for a particular niche labeled with that niche I’ll be able to pull up all the merchant related to that niche.

You could also add this information to your rolodex. It’s another option. Just make sure you file it in a way you will be able to remember.

You could also put the information in your spreadsheet. This would be best if you have created a spreadsheet for each niche, then you would have all your info for that niche all in one place. If you do this ~ make sure you back it up. If your computer crashes your spreadsheet could be lost, so back up to a disk or a portable hard drive or something so you don’t lose it all.

Whenever you get a new welcome email from a merchant site you need to log the info somehow. You will have to figure out which method of logging works best for you, but really ~ figure it out now while you don’t have a million things to keep track of. It will help immensely down the road.

Earnings:

This I have gotten much better about. (thanks to a very cranky husband when it comes time to do taxes)  I am not an attorney nor am I an accountant so please don’t count any of this as tax or legal advice, but here’s what I do to keep track of my income and expenditures.

Income:

I  have a spreadsheet with the months going across the top. Down the side I have each and every place I get paid from, this includes affiliate programs, my coaching stuff, my own products etc ~ everything that sends me money gets logged.  If I get a check from commission junction my total goes there. This is an overall income spreadsheet, if you want to keep track of how much each site is making I’d suggest taking some time at the beginning of each month to log which specific merchants/sites have made the money and then log that separately with the specific niche site it belongs to.

Each time I get paid I go in and log it on my spreadsheet. At the end of the month I add up the total so I know exactly how much I’ve made each month. You can easily do this in a spreadsheet by using the Fx bar at the top of the spreadsheet ~ it will add it all up for you. This helps me keep on track, and see what’s working and maybe what needs some extra work. It also keeps me motivated to keep moving forward, building and linking to increase my income next month.

Each time I get paid from a new merchant I add them to the spreadsheet so I always have a running account of where my money is coming from.

This also makes it very easy at the end of the  year to just total across my monthlyl income to create an annual income to put in the proper box on the tax forms.

Expenditures:

This one got me in huge trouble with my hubby. I never used to keep track of what I spent ~ probably because I didn’t want him to see how much money I was “wasting on this internet marketing thing”. However, many of the things I spend money on can be tax deductions. Now every time I spend money, whether it’s for an ebook, a membership site, hosting, domain names ~ anything work related  I print out the receipt. If you buy anything related to your niche I’d print that out too ~ then let your tax man figure it out later. I have folders in my filing cabinet for each month of the year. I just put the printed receipt in the corresponding folder.  This has made doing taxes MUCH easier.

There you have it ~ my not so organized system for staying organized. As I have said, it’s a work in progress, as I’m sure it probably always will be. So will yours ~ but do yourself a favor and get started now before it gets so overwhelming you don’t want to do it at all.

If you have any questions about the techniques I’ve described in this post I’d be glad to describe them further to help you get started.

I promise Monday we’ll be installing wordpress. To be ready make sure you’ve got your hosting account set up, your domain name purchased, your nameservers forwarded, and an addon domain added to your hosting account (unless your hosting domain is your niche site domain).

Action steps for the weekend:
Begin putting together a system for organizing your business.
–> Log all of the usernames/passwords for sites you’ve created ~ squidoo/wp/blogger/hub ~ all of them.
–> Go through and find all the affiliate programs you belong to ~ log them somehow that works for you
–> Find all the sites you have ~ lenses, blogger, hubs ~ it all counts ~ get them logged in a spreadsheet
–> Create a spreadsheet for your earnings (or use a notebook if it works for you) Doesn’t matter if you haven’t made money yet ~ best to be ready.

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