Affiliate Marketing Forum

Marg

Hi everyone,

I've been busy for the past 3 weeks putting up pages on my new SBI site. Since my area of expertise is as a writer (fiction, non-fiction. ghostwriter, promo material, writing courses) I decided to go for a site that will feature tips and tricks for web-writing. I plan to show writers how they can start a web business using their writing skills, and web business people how they can tweak their writing in articles, ezines, ebooks etc to make their writing work. I hope this is not too close a niche to copywriting and web marketing - I have to touch on those subjects, but the real aim of the site will be to coach people in all sorts of writing skills - and, I hope, make it as easy as possible for webmasters, ezine editors etc to produce polished work.

I'd really appreciate some feedback on the site - any feedback is welcome, but I have the following specific questions in mind:

1. Should I leave the existing homepage as it is or replace it with the page promoting my ezine, Writing to Win on the Web?

2. I have some affiliate links in place. Most are cloaked via another of my websites. Will Yahoo penalise me for having those affiliate links up? Should I remove them before submitting to Yahoo and then put them up again later? (Allan, I know you said Rupert did that because he didn't want to risk your money - but I'm not really sure if a few links are ok, or if I should take them all out to be on the safe side.)

3. Re. Yahoo in general - does this look like the sort of site they'd approve? I've tried to make it information-rich, and with the aid of SBI kept an eye on the keyword density.

4. I've used free articles from various writers as supplementary reading on level 3 pages in the site. Is this good or bad from Yahoo's point of view, or doesn't it matter?

5. Finally, does the site look ready to submit to Yahoo? Do we have any Yahoo 'experts' out there who might know? Or anyone ready to take an educated guess?

I think those are my main concerns. Thanks, everyone. I appreciate any feedback. The site address is: www.writing-for-success-online.com

Cheers
Marg Smile

_________________
Creating sites to help internet business professionals add sizzle to their web copy, ebooks, ezines and mini-courses.
http://www.writing-for-success-online.com

RichardAdams · Joined: 10 Jul 2003 Posts: 11 Location: UK

Hi Marg,

Firstly, your site is looking pretty good with a very attractive layout. This looks a good start.

However, here are a few points to bear in mind...

(1) The title of your ezine page at the moment reads "SBI template page" - so it's well worth changing this.

(2) You have put lots of effort into producing content but I personally think this is a borderline case at present. A *really* handy tip is to ensure your site is in some way unique. Not unique because you have articles on it you've written that nobody else has but make it *really* unique. This means either having a tool, ebook or service nobody else has that would really excite visitors to your site, or talk about your personal experiences.

What successes have you had with writing? What are your greatest achievements so far? How did you manage them? What were the results.

These two types of unique information make your site *much* more useful, and hence likely to be included in Yahoo.

Like I say, I think it's a gamble at the moment and adding some content like this would greatly increase your chances of acceptance.

With this increase in the "personal touch" you may be safe to submit with affiliate links but I'd take them down just to be on the safe side until you get in.

Adding copyrights to your articles would help increase the professional image.

(3) You have to make accepting your submission to Yahoo idiot-proof as there are numerous stories of sites being accepted, but then entered wrongly.

Yahoo tend to take the site's name as the hyperlink/title to your site. Looking at your site, my initial impression would be to call it "Success Online". Is that what you want? As it's not 100% clear the Yahoo bod may name your site something completely different.

If not, you need to make some changes to make it obvious what title you're looking for for your listing. Remember it's this title that will be of most use in terms of boosting link popularity to your site, and findability in Yahoo so it's got to be perfect.

(4) According to search engine experts, Yahoo spend more time looking at your "About Us" style page than any other on your site. And unless it's hidden away somewhere, I couldn't find it. Give your business name. And a postal (non-PO Box) address to show you're serious. Provide email addresses, phone numbers etc. to make yourself look as "serious" as possible.

It can also be a good idea to add your address to the bottom of every single page on your site, just to be 100% certain Yahoo can find it.

So, so far I think you're doing nicely, but if I was in your position, I'd make the above changes to greatly increase your chances of success. Using these same techniques as above I have had sites accepted without a hitch - with the site called what I wanted - and the exact same description as I suggested used by Yahoo.

Best of luck, and let us know how you get on. It can be very stressful after you submit counting the days until they make their decision!

All the best,
Richard

Marg

Hi Richard,

Thank you for taking the time to visit the site and reply. Your feedback has been really helpful. I can't believe I left the title of the ezine page as 'SBI template page'! I'll certainly change this.

1. Re. making my site unique: I was worried that I was focusing too much on the various elements of internet success/marketing rather than writing, and I don't want Yahoo to regard the site as 'success online' - the focus is supposed to be on writing. I think I'll start by making my ezine promo page the index page, so that's the first thing seen - it's all about WRITING for the web. (Would Yahoo ignore the 'Writing' part of the site name?)

2. The 'About Me' page - I'll add that right away. I didn't realise that Yahoo placed so much importance on that.

I was getting to the stage where I wanted to sit down and tweak what I already have, and now I have more to go on.

Thanks again!
Marg Smile

_________________
Creating sites to help internet business professionals add sizzle to their web copy, ebooks, ezines and mini-courses.
http://www.writing-for-success-online.com

Rupert · Joined: 20 Jul 2003 Posts: 38

Hi Marg

I think you have a very nice site there. Richard made a very good point with the "about me" page. You should definitely have that up when you submit to Yahoo!

More unique content is always good, do you have any issues of your ezine you can archive online?

One thing I noticed on this page:

http://www.writing-for-success-online.com/writing-to-win-on-the-web-ezine.html

The style of the site changes dramatically it looks like you've landed on another web site. I'm not sure this will make a good impression in the reviewers mind.

In your oringinal post you mentioned replacing your home page with an advert for your ezine. Definitely don't do this before you submit to Yahoo! It may be worth a try once your site is up and running. You could also try using a pop under to get email addresses instead.

Also I suggest having text links to navigate around your site at the bottom of your pages. The buttons on the left look good but they don't really entice the visitor to surf around your site like a full text link and a description does.

All in all I think you're very close to being ready. Put yourself in the mind of the Yahoo! reviewer. They are going in to try to determine if the web site offers any value besides being one big advert.

Try to make your site look like the useful resource it is and you will have no trouble being accepted into Yahoo!

Marg

Hi Rupert,

Thanks for your input on the site. I wasn't sure whether to reply to you privately or on the forum, but I thought I'd stick to the forum in case others who are wondering how to structure their sites might be interested in the answers too.

You asked if I had any issues of the ezine I can archive online: no, the first one is going out next week. BUT.. I do have copies of its forerunner from an earlier site, Epublishing4success Tipsheet, which I could post - the format will be different, but the tone will be the same. I'll post some of those up.

Which brings me to your comments about feeling as though you'd landed on another website when you read the ezine promo page. I gather you think this smacks too much of hype? This is where I get confused (and I'd say I'm not the only one). When you're starting out (actually I started researching all this about 18 months ago) you read so much info about the way to do things - including the way to promote the benefits of your ezine/ecourse or whatever.... THIS should go on the 'sales page' and THAT should go on the sales page... you know the kind of thing. Yet... it now seems that this is a bit over the top for a content site?

Sigh. Sometimes if feels as though my head is spinning. I know exactly how Kathy feels (see Kathy's post "I'm losing it" of a few days ago.)

Okay. After reading your advice, Rupert, in conjunction with Richard's earlier, I should:

1. Put up the "about me" page.

2. NOT use the ezine sign-up page as the home page? And change the tone it down a bit... go for a friendlier chatty style about the ezine?

3. Add text links at the bottom of the page. (Actually I thought that was the choice I HAD made with SBI; both the buttons and text links. I wasn't sure why they weren't showing up - thought it was maybe because I was uploading my own HTML, although I am using the SBI nav bar?)

4. Add more unique content - i.e. past newsletters plus my own articles/advice - focus more on what I can offer re. easy writing help

5. Eliminate affiliate links until after I submit to Yahoo.

6. Add my address to the bottom of each page. (Need I be concerned about privacy?)

One more question - when I refer visitors to another site, I always do it so it opens in another window, so the visitor won't be taken away from my site. Are these classed as 'pop-ups' and would I be penalised in any way for this?

Thanks again for all the advice. (Actually, I had a thought: given the number of SBI users who seem have questions, would it make sense to have an SBI users forum?)

Marg Smile

_________________
Creating sites to help internet business professionals add sizzle to their web copy, ebooks, ezines and mini-courses.
http://www.writing-for-success-online.com

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