Monthly Archives: October 2008

Friday Podcast: Blogging Strategies With Brian Gardner

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brian gardnerBrian Garnder is known as the creator of the popular WordPress theme, Revolution.

In a recent blog post, he mentioned that Revolution arose out of a site design which had been rejected by a real estate client.

Good thing too, because it’s gone on to be one of the most popular magazine-style WordPress templates.

I invited Brian on to the Friday Podcast and we talked about:

  • How he got started in online marketing 2 years ago
  • Balancing blog design and blog usability to build user stickiness
  • How you can test out new templates on your blog before you go live with them
  • Tips on becoming more efficient with your blog
  • Shifting his business model from a paid premium blog template now to an open source business model in November

Check out the podcast below:

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Be sure to check out:

Important note: The Revolution themes will only be available till Oct 31st, so you should get them before they’re taken off the market.

Amit Mehta and Anik Singal’s PPC Classroom 2.0 Product Review

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You’ve probably seen numerous blog posts and received even more emails about Amit Mehta and Anik Singal’s PPC Classroom product launch and might want to get an idea if it’s all it claims to be.

ppc classroom

The product which had been speculated to run into the thousands during the product’s pre-launch phase, has finally been revealed to cost only $77 (accurate at the time of this blog post, but might be revised…).

What do you get from that?

A comprehensive 9-module course spanning topics like:

  • Marketing research, including finding and screening affiliate offers
  • Keyword research
  • Direct linking vs creating landing pages
  • Setting up your Google AdWords campaign
  • Designing landing pages optimized for high conversions
  • Understanding and enhancing your Google quality score (QS)
  • Launching your PPC campaign
  • Introducing split testing into your campaign (to further increase conversions)
  • PPC bid optimization strategies

Having worked with Amit on a PPC coaching program for a select group of clients previously, I have seen firsthand how he goes through in a detailed, step-by-step manner the system which he has developed and follows.

Granted about 60% of the course material might be found on Amit’s SuperAffiliateMindset blog or in Google AdWords documentation or during his presentations at events like the first PPC Classroom live event in Vegas last year or in his Affiliate Summit presentations.

What makes Amit different from other affiliate marketers is Continue reading →

Is MySpace’s MyAds Destined To Reap My Success?

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WebProNews has mentioned that MySpace has launched it’s MyAds ad serving platform, which is old news if you’ve read Chad Frederiksen’s AKA CDF Networks’ first impressions of the MyAds platform last month.

myspace myads

I’ve spoken to a number of affiliates who say they turn off social networks like MySpace during their content network targeted campaigns because the conversions can be very poor.

With MySpace setting a $0.25 cost per click, you’re going to have to look at an offer payout of at least $2.50 (if not, a higher payout) to make it worth your while.

What might work on a social network might be a lead generation zip or email submit offer and if MySpace’s demographic targeting works as promised, it could be a goldmine for smart affiliates.

You can check out MySpace MyAds.

Friday Podcast: Affiliate Marketing Strategies With Amit Mehta And Anik Singal

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amit mehtaI had the opportunity to invite Amit Mehta and Anik Singal on the Friday Podcast to discuss challenges facing affiliate marketers these days, together with the impending launch of the PPC Classroom 2.0 program.

Amit’s is gaining a reputation as the $2.4m super affiliate and a regular speaker at events like Affiliate Summit and PPC Classroom.

Anik is founder of Affiliate Classroom and AC Certified, and recently ranked #2 in Business Week’s “Top 25 under 25” article.

anik singalDuring our podcast, we discussed:

  • How Amit’s affiliate campaigns differ from other marketers
  • How to build your income to 4 figures a day
  • Steps you can take today to put together successful campaigns
  • The importance and how you can incorporate long-tail keywords in your affiliate campaigns
  • Whether there’s a conflict of interest between a merchant’s in-house SEO/SEM efforts and the efforts of affiliates
  • Amit’s “Hybrid Model” that he’s currently testing and will be teaching in PPC Classroom 2.0
  • Details of PPC Classroom 2.0.

Tune in to the Friday Podcast:

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Links:

Affiliate Blogger Panel At Affiliate Summit West 2009

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Nickycakes had a headstart in making this announcement.

The speakers for the workshop element of the Affiliate Summit have been selected, and I’ll be moderating a session “Affiliate Bloggers Speak Out: Tips on SEO, PPC and Sales Conversion” at the upcoming Affiliate Summit which is from Jan 11-13 in Las Vegas next year.

Together with me for the session will be the panelists:

nickycakes geordie carswell miles baker

Affiliate Bloggers Speak Out Panelists: (Left to Right)Nickycakes, Geordie Carswell, Miles Baker

This’ll be a great session not only because the three panels are highly skilled affiliate marketers, but they have very different strengths too. Although Nickycakes and Geordie (former affiliate network Revenuewire CEO turned affiliate) use Continue reading →

Is Your Business Prepared For The SEO Earthquake?

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The thing about internet marketing is given the constantly changes, you can expect a lot of excitement (or stress) in the field.

If you’re relying on organic traffic generation methods, especially from the search engines, there have been recent developments which may cause a change in your strategy.

Some of these include:

  • The Rise of Blackhole Seo
  • Changes in ranking alogorithmn like Google PageRank (a number of websites and blogs saw their PR score drop by 1 or more in recent weeks) and Alexa rankings have fluctuated greatly since the system was change a number of months ago
  • Looming changes Google plans to or has implemented since as lower weightage given to directory links (thanks Wil Reynolds for the heads-up), including paid Yahoo directory submissions.

Which can be like an earthquake sending ripples through your business and earnings if you’re not prepared.

earthqake

I was speaking with Geordie Carswell, former RevenueWire CEO who’s now involved with Continue reading →