Colin Klinkert Dot Com

Google is the king of the search engines right now, and a good ranking in Google searches can get you a lot of traffic.  If you are just starting out in affiliate marketing, then you need a lot of traffic to build up your initial customer base.  So, how do you leverage the immense reach of Google to help you do that?

The answer is in Web 2.0 sites.

Web 2.0 is a name used to describe the new kinds of websites that have come about in the past few years.  Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, content sharing sites like YouTube and Digg – all of these are Web 2.0 sites.  They  are enormously popular, so they get constantly indexed well by Google and other search engines.

This frequent indexing means that if you submit content to these sites and insert links back to your website, those links will be indexed quickly.

So what’s the strategy?

First thing to do is to prepare a lot of articles about the product you are selling.  You should not use the same article over and over again.  Search engines have duplicate content filters that will block some of them from results.

Once you have these articles, upload them to sites like Associated Content, Ezinearticles, and others like them.  Include a link back to your site in either the content of the article, or in the resource box (some sites have these boxes, some don’t).  Once the article is uploaded, you’ve accomplished two very important things:  you’ve spread word about your product topic on a site that gets lots of traffic every day; and you’ve created a valuable backlink from a website that has a high Page Rank.

Continue to do this (unique content every time) and you will build a lot of traffic for your site.

A Site For Example:

I have a site about Kenneth Cole Shoes and it ranks 4th in Google at time of writing this for the term, Kenneth Cole Shoes. Now that search term gets over 150,000 searches a month and the only sites that beat me out are The main site itself and a very large online shopping site.

Be sure to join my mailing list on the top left of my blog to see a followup post outlining exactly how I did it, so that you can do it too!

If you have the ability to write compelling sales copy, but can’t build a website for the life of you, it’s not really a problem, because a website isn’t required to be a successful affiliate marketer.  This is done by utilizing a variety of Web 2.0 sites,  which allows you to build an online presence using the in-place infrastructure of already popular websites.

There are a lot of content websites that are completely dependent upon user submitted content.  Sites like Associated Content and eHow are comprised almost exclusively of articles that are written and submitted by average users.  These sites get a lot of viewers and are usually at the top of many searches, so use that popularity to your advantage.  This isn’t some sort of nefarious scheme, it is an equal trade; the content sites get quality content you produce, and you get free space to promote your product.

Here’s how you can make it work:  write a bunch of articles about the product you are promoting or the about the topic in general.  Make sure that each of these are unique, because if you submit duplicate articles to many different sites, search engines like Google won’t count them and could even penalize them.  And make sure the articles are rich with the keywords related to your product.

These sites will usually allow you to place affiliate links either in the body of the content or in a special resource box on the page.  People searching for those keywords, will come across your articles on these sites (because web 2.0 sites generally achieve very high page ranks) and, if your sales copy is compelling, they will click through your affiliate link and purchase the product.

The amount of success you will have is completely dependent on the quality of your sales copy, but the beauty of this method is that it requires no start-up costs.  You don’t need to register domain names and build websites.  Just write the articles and start making money.

Blogging has become an incredibly popular way to distribute content in the past few years.  Though subjects may vary, all successful blogs have two certain things in common:  regular content updates and content that is valuable to the reader.

While many who are looking to start a career in online marketing may use a blog as an occasional medium for releasing content, many underestimate just how powerful a good blog can be for developing a “hub” presence for online marketing.

Why spend your time developing a blog instead of working on other aspects of online marketing?  There are a few reasons.

First of all, a blog helps to put a personal face to your online business.  If people are able to regularly read things you are writing, and have access to an About or Contact page where they can learn about you or get in touch with you, that makes you an actual person in their minds, instead of a faceless internet entity.  People are more likely to want to do business with “Bill Jones” instead of “productnameplus.com.”

Second, if you provide quality content on your blog, you are able to attract more customers.  For example, if you build a blog about pet training that provides solid resources for web users, then when you use the blog as a platform for promoting a related product, people will value you as person knows what they’re talking about and who has provided a lot of free information to them already.  Having established this credibility, they will be more inclined to try it if it is recommended by you.

You can also add an “opt-in” box where people can sign up for a newsletter or email updates.  This allows you to set up a customer list and have people ask to be on it!  A strong blog with quality content can provide a central hub for all of your online marketing ventures, and can attract quality customers.

A Good Tip:

You can signup to my Optin Box top left to see the process I use. Another good Idea would be to follow me on Twitter. Doing so will trigger a DM sent to you on Twitter from me and you can see how I handle my new twitter followers with the video I send them to and the incentive I give to optin

Who hasn’t heard of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, eHow, blogs and forums? The power of these social media platforms has been realized by companies, traditional news media, and individual marketers.

Internet marketers who don’t want to be left behind should have Web 2.0 strategies as part of their whole marketing push, and understanding how to use this platform properly could influence their bottom line dramatically.

With social marketing, people openly discuss products and services they have used or are interested in – and they are quick to condemn, slow to praise. And it’s no secret that your competitors could be lurking in forums quietly feeding negative comments about your products.

For those who have not yet embraced social media marketing – on sites such as ViralNetworks, YouTube, Facebook, Warrior Forum, MySpace, Twitter, and eHow, here are a few tips on its use:

• Get educated: Understand what different platforms are out there, and see if there is one that is devoted to your niche.

• Think strategically: Only target social media sites that are frequently used by your target audience. Don’t spend time on cat sites if you are selling a ‘how-to’ guide to making websites.

• Get involved. You must give and take in social sites. Don’t pack your posts with sales links – you will be banned or ignored. Provide quality information in your poses, and where allowed, and a subtle website link in your signature. Join in conversations – don’t just write posts and forget them. See what others are talking about, and contribute. Valuable posts will be bookmarked and shared.

• On your own blogs and static sites, make sure you have bookmark buttons – help your content to travel.

• Search engines love multimedia, so use videos and podcasts as part of your Web 2.0 strategies. If you find someone asking a ‘how to’ question in a forum, reply with a video of exactly ‘how to’. Interviews are great to podcast, so why not have someone interview you about some new ‘technique’ you’ve developed?

• As with all internet marketing strategies, measuring and monitoring is important with social media marketing too. You should be aware of how many people are reading your posts, becoming your ‘friends’ or ‘followers’, and whether comments on your products and services are negative or positive.

Social media marketing gives you the ability to convert visitors to fans to customers, and you need to allocate a certain time every day for social networking at your chosen sites. It could be as little as half an hour, but if done well, could grow your prospect and client base considerably.

If you are in Internet Marketing or any form of online business, ViralNetworks is a Business Social Network and as such is well targeted to your products and services. Follow the rules above, add value, make and share videos and watch your friends convert to fans and fans convert to buyers. If you haven’t yet, join and start networking with me today on ViralNetworks!

Yesterday Arnie brought his muscle out for McCain, so I decided to even the equation and post a video on my blog! Take THAT Mr. Terminator…

Who will you be voting for in 4 days? I’m not American and can’t vote, I also don’t see as much as you do, but I know who I would be voting for…

This is a wonderful viral marketing campaign, well worth us taking note. I might try and set something like this up one day! Maybe for the launch of my training product coming out next year…

Follow Me on Twitter: http://www.TwitterColin.com/

What Else Can You Do To Become a Pro?

In a previous blog post, I spoke of taking advantage of the great resource StumbleUpon and the different types of marketing that some of the most popular Social Media Networks are looking for.

We discussed that if you are going to Digg, your posts need to appeal to the general masses, but StumbleUpon really likes the individual niches and specialty markets

So, lets go into today what you can do to make sure your posts get online.

• Instead of having a link round up on a weekly basis, change it to a weekly themed-resource list.

• News is great for Reddit and Digg, they love this kind of stuff, but if you are going for StumbleUpon, you need to focus on content that is not time related, something that is just as beneficial to the reader in 6 months from now as it would be today.

• If you have a post that needs to be in context with time, then it probably won’t get picked up by SU.

• You can make your posts short, but you need to have some good content, utilize some great tips and advice to help your readers.
• Remember, when you have a new reader, you need to sell your content right from the beginning. You want something that will help them right from the beginning. You will not keep their attention with a prologue of 500 words or more, they will give up and move on to the next one. Stumble Upon will be bored, uninterested and pass you by. Make your posts clear from the very beginning.

• Keep it simple, but leave the personal stuff out. Your personal stories may be interesting to your loyal readers, but to a brand new reader, they won’t really care.

When you are trying to get your blog noticed by Stumble Upon, don’t waste your time on the things that won’t interest them, but use the tips that will grab their attention, and you will see your traffic numbers soar.

Please Write your Review and Stumble My Blog HERE – Thank You

What can you do to become a pro-blogger?

Well, you need to get a lot of traffic to your blog.

And now you thinking….’I already know that, but HOW am I going to do it? I have some trade secrets to let you in on. By using these trade secrets, you too, can become a pro blogger.

Today, you are going to learn some great tricks of the trade to grab the attention of StumbleUpon, and use their platform to set your blog on fire. These tips and tricks will get you anywhere from the hundreds up to the thousands of StumbleUpon visitors each day.

StumbleUpon does lean toward some niches more than others, and you need to use this to work for your advantage. You will find that StumbleUpon can be one of the greatest viral marketing tool out there. So here are some tips:

• If you do have a niche that is lacking in the mass appeal, StumbleUpon will be a great boost for you where the others won’t. Digg uses a broad forum which keeps their power from weakening in traffic. StumbleUpon works a bit differently by creating more specific categories, providing a more targeted audience.

• Write posts that appeal to the particular social media, if you go for the general appeal, you are going to lose your followers. For instance, Del.icio.us likes anything that their users prefer, Digg likes the appeal of the masses. You have to have content that is going to get thousands of hits, or you won’t become a pro-blogger.

• When you are writing for StumbleUpon, you don’t need to worry about pleasing the masses, matter of fact, you benefit more by sticking with your niche, yes, even your small ones, and this will bring you some highly targeted traffic.

• So, write your content for your niche, not for the general public. By doing this, you will increase your chances to your post will be submitted to receive more traffic in a more specific category.

In another blog, I will go into the types of posts you should and should not be making. I will go into the types of content and the things you can do to make your blog more appealing to StumbleUpon.

Please Write your Review and Stumble My Blog HERE – Thank You

No I’m not quitting

Having said that, I am sick of people new to the industry feeling they need to spam their affiliate links all over the web. 99.99% of the time with no result other then to make yourself look like a tosser!

Comments are moderated these days so it’s a waste of time making spam posts, they won’t get approved. It wastes your time, my time and does nothing but hurt your reputation.

This is a short ‘Rant’ post because like a second hand car salesman business, there are some VERY good and VERY honest people that sell used cars; but if you say you are ‘used car salesman’ what is the response you get from others? Friends, Family? Do they say ‘wow, that is awesome!’? I doubt it…

Well our industry has a similar connotation! Even though we have so many great, amazing marketers who’s main focus and goal is to educate others and help them lead a better life… there are, due to the ease of labeling, ‘internet marketers’ who spam, fail and clog up our industry and with it the reputation of those of us who want to be positive and make a real difference!

Where am I going with this? Well anyone can be an ‘internet marketer’ even if you lose money at it! You can still self proclaim yourself an ‘internet marketer’. Guess what, if you post a bunch of spam, or even comment on forums promoting a product or service, you are ‘marketing’ on the ‘internet’, welcome: ‘internet marketer’.

From now on, I am an…. Interactive Marketer!

The difference? I interact with people both followers and friends and we work together to produce better results then are currently available, we work to advance the standard and truly help and educate people.

I challenge you to label yourself an ‘Interactive Marketer’ and walk the walk!

Check out the Posting Contest I have running: Click HERE to learn how you can win $100!

Myspace is the largest social networking site in the USA and along with Facebook, one of the largest in the world.

So when they launch a brand new ads module that is now open to the public, it is worth standing up and taking notice. Whilst they have a tonne of traffic and a huge market, they also have the ability to target the users your ads are shown to.

Myspace Ads works on a CPC module and min bid is 25cents. Here is a chance to get a lot of traffic, fast for decent prices. 25 cents a click may sound a bit expensive, but surely it’s worth a test, some of the keywords you can get will be much cheaper then you would pay on adwords.

This is big news for anyone that does PPC marketing as it creates a chance to capture a lot of leads into your sales funnel.

Don’t know what a sales funnel is or how to set one up? Don’t know PPC marketing, niche marketing or Facebook ads? Please be sure to signup to my RSS feed as these are topics I will be covering shortly.

Check out the Posting Contest I have running: Click HERE to learn how you can win $100!