Associate Programs Newsletter #204

If you think you need dozens of incoming links before Google will notice you, here's a pleasant surprise...

CONTENTS:

1. Debunking a Google myth
2. $100,000 a month from only 100 visitors a day
     PART 2: Now you can get the entire process
3. How to stop thieves from stealing your commissions
4. Why Fred Kelley spends $5,000 a year on domain names
5. An affiliate niche with few competitors
6. Useful free resource: ReallyBig.com
7. Thought for today: Laughing all the way...

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=============================================
1. Debunking a Google myth
=============================================

I'm sure you've read that Google places great importance on the number of links you have to your site.

Well, here's the truth...

It's possible to achieve a really good NUMBER ONE ranking in Google even if you have HARDLY ANY links to your site.

My assistant Rupert is doing it. His two sites created with Site Build It! are - this week - receiving more than 400 visits a day.

After I received a letter from Johan Svensson of Sweden I did some research into Rupert's traffic stats - and was very pleasantly surprised.

Johan wanted more details after I said that Rupert's new site had hardly any links to it and was receiving about 200 visitors a day mainly from Google. That's old news. Rupert is doing much better now.

(Full story: "Rupert celebrates his first affiliate sale"
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/articles/159/1/Affiliate-sale-for-Rupert )

Johan wrote:

"To me this sounds incredible! A site without a lot of
incoming links getting so much traffic just from Google?
Either he's really hit the jackpot as far as finding a niche
market/keywords or maybe I'm misunderstanding something?

"For those struggling to get high rankings and visitors from
search engines and knowing how important incoming links are to
Google, this sounds unbelievable. Is this all thanks to Site
Build It? No costs involved (Google Ad Words or Google AdWords
Select)?

"I would like to calculate how much extra costs there would be
involved to promote my sites if I was to purchase Site Build
It! Or can SBI really help me accomplish these kinds of
numbers just from search engines without any additional
advertising?

"How exactly has Rupert accomplished these high visitor
stats?"

Johan, we're not buying ANY advertising of any kind.

Yes, Rupert did identify two niche markets which are nothing to do with Internet marketing.

He chose niches with the help of the brainstorming and research tools in Site Build It! - http://AssociatePrograms.com/buildit - which helped him identify potential topics.

He also did research using Site Build It! to identify PROFITABLE keywords - ones with a high demand and low supply.

Then he built very simple, information-rich web sites, following the step-by-step instructions in the manual that comes with Site Build It!

The key thing here is that Site Build It! leads you by the hand so that you construct simple sites the search engines love. You don't even have to know HTML.

Johan writes:

"A listing in Yahoo costs $299."

Not exactly. It costs $299 for Yahoo! to REVIEW your site for a possible listing. There's no guarantee you'll be listed. Yahoo also has an option where you can buy advertising. We are not buying advertising for either of Rupert's two sites.

We also paid $39 to get in the Inktomi search engine - it's one way of getting into MSN - and paid to be reviewed by LookSmart just before it switched to a pay-per-click version. As far as I can tell, the LookSmart listing was a waste of money.

I'll show you Rupert's visitor stats.

Right now Rupert is on vacation in England and Italy for a month visiting his brother and sister, but while he's away, his visitor numbers have continued to soar.

Site A visits:

Jan: 25
Feb: 76
Mar: 1589
Apr: 3217
May: 6756
Jun: 9327 visits, 22,878 page views

This week it is averaging more than 400 visits a day.

Look at these highly unusual referrer stats, provided by Site Build It!

The top 10 referrers in order are:

http://www.google.com/search
http://google.yahoo.com/bin/query
http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search
http://search.yahoo.com/search
http://www.google.ca/search
http://www.google.co.uk/search
http://dir.yahoo.com/xxxxx
http://search.msn.com/results.asp
http://www.google.de/search
http://www.google.nl/search

How's that for a site created by a guy who knew nothing about Internet marketing a few months ago!

The main page has a Google PageRank of 5. Pretty good for a new site!

We've all heard how you must have lots of links to your site to get a high ranking in Google.

Don't believe it...

I just used the Google toolbar and clicked on Page Info/Backward Links.

Google found 48 links to the site but - here's the important point - they're all either INTERNAL links from the site itself or they're from Yahoo!, dmoz.org or from directory.google.com.

(I've just discovered that the site is now in the Google directory. That can happen if you build an information-rich, useful site, as described in Site Build It!)

Links to your site ARE important. High-quality links - especially from Yahoo! and dmoz.org - are even more important.

But don't concentrate on only one facet of search engine optimization.

Site Build It! tackles the whole picture. It analyzes your pages and tells you how to optimize them for high search engine ranking. And it works beautifully.

Site B visits:

Mar: 27
Apr: 75
May: 1792
Jun: 4998 visits, 13,617 page views

For its most important keywords, this site now has No.1 and No.2 rankings in Google. This week, it also is averaging more than 400 visits a day.

Again, the top referrer is Google and the top 10 referrers are all search engines or directories.

Site B's main page has a Google PageRank of 6. As a comparison, that's better than http://www.LifetimeCommissions.com , which has a tight focus and has been around a lot longer.

Rupert's high PageRanks were earned by building a themed web site as described in the Site Build It! manual.

Google found 58 links to site B, ALL either internal links or from dmoz.org or Yahoo!

Yes, if you choose a good niche, it is possible to rank VERY well without having hundreds - or even a handful - of links to your site.

Site Build It! is a fantastic tool. It allows you to concentrate on writing articles while it does the techie stuff. It builds keyword-rich, information-rich web sites that the search engines - and your visitors - love.

Before you write and ask, let me tell you that the niche you choose does NOT have to be extremely small.

One of the SBI! sites that Rupert created has a No.1 spot on Google for a very good two-word key phrase, for a product with high demand and relatively low supply.

He's No.1 out of 923,000 search results without quotation marks and No.1 out of 33,000 results with quotation marks.

A few months ago, Rupert knew nothing about affiliate programs or Internet marketing. Now the first two web sites he's built for me are attracting a total of 14,000 visits a month.

And there's HUGE potential for more traffic because at this stage of our experiment these are almost "secret" sites. We're trying hard to avoid attracting attention to them because we don't want to spoil the experiment.

Can you do as well as Rupert has? I don't know. He's not the world's best writer but he's intelligent and he loves learning new things.

Actually, using SBI! seemed all too easy to Rupert. Being human, he wanted to put his own stamp on things. So he insisted on occasionally inserting his own bit of HTML, on which he is not an expert.

The only times he ever had any problems with SBI were when he used his own HTML.

So keep it simple. Let the machine do the work.

It's a totally awesome tool.

Discover all the other things SBI! can do here...

http://AssociatePrograms.com/buildit

Footnote: I just checked our latest SBI! stats. On Monday Rupert's first site hit a new high of 509 visits. On Wednesday his other site had a new high of 504 visits.

And we're just getting started...

If Rupert can do it, so can you.

[UPDATE: Several years later, these two sites are STILL earning useful revenue, month after month.]


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======================================================
2. $100,000 a month from only 100 visitors a day
     PART 2: Now you can get the entire process
======================================================

The other day I revealed the ingenious process that Bill Harris uses to earn $100,000 a month from only 100 visitors a day.

You must have your own product to do this.

Imagine bringing in $3,500 every single day. That's $1.2 million a year. That's what Bill does.

When I heard Bill's system described at the Las Vegas Internet Marketing SuperConference, I wondered if he was the "Mr H" in the "Mr H tapes" that I've seen promoted on a major web site.

Yes, that's him. Bill Harris IS "Mr H".

If you're like me, you've seen those "Mr H" ads and thought his system sounds far too good to be true.

Bringing in $3,500 a day from only 100 visitors a day?

You can't be serious! But it WORKS. And I told you how...
("$100,000 a month from only 100 visitors a day" -
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/articles/155/1/Internet-Marketing-Super-Conference )

If you study my description you'll understand the beauty of the simple system Bill uses.

How would you like to get your hands on Bill's ENTIRE marketing plan - every money-making detail - so that you can discover exactly how he makes $3,500 a with 100 visitors a day?

You can. I've done a deal to get those tapes to you.

Learn more here...

[UPDATE: The Mr H Tapes - are now updated and called "How to Profit With a Direct Sales Web Site"].

==============================================
3. How to stop thieves from stealing your commissions
==============================================

Here's a vitally important tip for anyone who promotes any ClickBank-tracked affiliate product.

Come to think of it, this won't just protect your ClickBank commissions, it will protect nearly ALL your affiliate commissions from theft.

As you probably know, ClickBank is a great service but it has serious flaws. It's far too easy for another affiliate to steal the commissions you've earned.

Here's an example of how an affiliate commission can be stolen.

Affiliate Jane Doe goes to ClickBank Marketplace -http://hop.clickbank.net/?assoc/marketplace - to look for affiliate products to promote.

Jane sees Jimmy D. Brown's Profits Vault, clicks on the "Earn 50%" link, inserts her ClickBank nickname and is given an affiliate link which looks something like this...

http://hop.clickbank.net/?assoc/thevault

On her web site, or in her newsletter, she uses that link.

Because she's promoting an Internet marketing product, there's a strong chance that her readers know how to insert their own ClickBank nickname into the link and deprive Jane of her commission. All that work was wasted.

Even if Jane uses a meta refresh redirect it's still possible for her commission to be stolen. No, I won't tell you how.

Maybe you don't see this as stealing. Perhaps you think it's just sound business practise because it enables you to buy a ClickBank product at a discounted rate.

Let's hope that your readers don't think the same way, because if they do, you're going to lose a LOT of commissions. In fact, some affiliates avoid ClickBank precisely because of this problem.

There's a good solution for affiliate merchants - EasyClickGuard. ("EasyClickGuard helps prevent ClickBank hijackings"

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/articles/158/1/How-Phil-Wiley-helps-affiliates )

However, most merchants don't use EasyClickGuard. I wish they did. It's a top-notch script.

Fortunately, you don't have to wait for merchants to do something.

You can fix this problem yourself - quickly and easily.

The answer is Click Bank Guard -
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/protect-commissions

Wouldn't it be reassuring if you could promote a ClickBank merchant and know for sure that you'll receive ALL the commissions to which you're entitled?

Wouldn't that give you peace of mind?

As an affiliate, you can protect your commissions by encoding your ClickBank links.

It really is remarkably simple. You don't have to know CGI or anything like that. There's no software to install.

All you need is to have a web site and know how to upload a file to it.

If you wish, you can alter that file to improve your search engine rankings. But you don't have to do that - you can just click, paste and upload.

Here's an example of an affiliate link created using Click Bank Guard. It's for "Gary Shawkey's Secrets." When you click on the link, watch the address box at the top of the screen.

See how my domain name stays in the address box...

[UPDATE: Gary Shawkey's book is off the market.]

Ellery Coleman, who invented the new tool, calls it "The Super Affiliate's Secret Marketing Tool".

It's a very simple way to boost your affiliate earnings.

Learn more here...

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/protect-commissions

============================================
4. Why Fred Kelley spends $5,000 a year on domain names
============================================

In the last newsletter I praised http://www.DeletedDomains.com and said I didn't know if the site would remain free.

Fred Kelley of http://www.quitsmoking.com writes:

"I've been using DeletedDomains.com for over a year now. It's been free the whole time.

"I've purchased over 500 domains, many related to quitting smoking. Using this technique, I have seen a sizeable increase in traffic to my main site, QuitSmoking.com.

"I purchase my domains through http://www.DirectNIC.com, which gives free web hosting with every domain. Domains are $15 (US) each. I purchase domains in bulk, so my cost per domain is $10.80. By the way, DirectNIC has an affiliate program.

"Whenever I find a domain that I like, I buy it and set up free web hosting. I can simply redirect the domain to any site I want, or actually create a site and post it. This is included in the $15 per year domain registration fee.

"For about $5,000 per year, I'm getting just about the best kind of advertising I can purchase. I get type-in traffic, plus some domains have pre-existing traffic from previous search engine registration.

"Also, I have set up multiple mini-sites that drive traffic to other affiliate programs."

Fred's site's include:

http://www.quitsmoking.com
http://www.i-quit-smoking.com

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================================
5. An affiliate niche with few competitors
================================

Are you looking for a niche without many competitors?

Here's a little gem I noticed in Corey Rudl's latest success stories.

Jordan McAuley, whose http://www.ContactAnyCelebrity.com generated $200,000 last year, has an affiliate program which looks useful. It pays 50% commission per sign-up and a 20% monthly recurring commission.

However, Jordan hasn't done much to promote the program.

He has only about 75 affiliates.

He says most of the site's traffic comes from ONE affiliate - a fan site called http://www.StarPulse.com.

If you're interested in Jordan's program, your target market could be either fans or authors who want to get high-profile testimonials from celebrities and other notable VIPs. Jordan believes this is a huge untapped market.

If you want to learn how Jordan brings in $200,000 a year, subscribe to "Secrets To Their Success."

You get fresh, genuine success stories every month. I've been a subscriber since the first issue. It always has incredibly useful tips I haven't seen anywhere else. Real how-to stuff.

Get your free trial here...

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/success-secrets

=============================================
6. Useful free resource: ReallyBig.com
=============================================

Here's a site for do-it-yourselfers.

ReallyBig.com has more than 5,000 resources for web builders including free scripts, CGI, counters, fonts, HTML, java, clipart, animation, backgrounds, icons, HTML editors, buttons, photographs and site promotion.

http://www.ReallyBig.com

===============================================
7. Thought for today: Laughing all the way...
===============================================

"...some people think that my celebrity addresses site is kind of dorky, but guess who's laughing all the way to the bank while they complain about their 9-5 jobs?"

        - Jordan McAuley
        http://ContactAnyCelebrity.com

 

All the best

Allan Gardyne