Associate Programs Newsletter #207
This newsletter comes to you from beautiful Airlie Beach in tropical north Queensland, where Joanna and I are on a working “vacation”, complete with laptops.
Here’s a tropical island we visited yesterday: https://www.southmolleisland.com.au
As usual when I’m relaxing in a beautiful spot, my brain is buzzing with new business ideas.
CONTENTS:
1. Debunking “themed web sites” theory
2. Don’t abandon your one-subject web sites
3. Tell your non-performing affiliates about Rupert
4. First profit – after four years
5. URL frame forwarding: More questions than answers
6. How to buy keyword text link positions
7. What search engines think of meta refreshes
8. Free ebook: Short, sharp, mini-articles
9. Useful free resource: Keyword density checker
10. Thought for today: What’s really important?
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1. Debunking “themed web sites” theory
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Mike Grehan, author of the “Search Engine Marketing” handbook – https://www.associateprograms.com/mike – says he has debunked the theory of “themed web sites”.
I’m not sure who started it, but one of the first people on the Web to start talking about “themed web sites” was Brett Tabke of https://www.SearchEngineWorld.com
In 2000 he wrote an article describing a theory that search engines were now returning results according to the “theme” of an entire web site.
Soon, Ralph Tegtmeier (“Fantomaster”), Michael Campbell and just about every search engine optimization expert were talking about web sites themes.
The THEORY was that search engines no longer looked at words on a page, they now turned them into “vector numbers” and used this information to provide the theme of an entire web site.
People following this theory advise you to create a web site which can be summed up in two words.
Along comes Mike Grehan, who has just spent a year doing intensive research into the algorithms, systems and processes used by search engines.
He’s spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars, studied endless research papers, attended conferences, and – after a lot of persistence – interviewed people who actually create search engines.
The book is winning rave reviews, notably from SEO experts. You can read them on the site.
Mike says: “The idea of having to create web sites which can be summed up entirely in two words has been bandied about on the web for so long.”
Themes ARE important to search engines, he says.
“But that is not what search engines mean by theme. To a search engine it’s about linkage data across the entire corpus of web PAGES in their database. Search engines return web pages at the interface following a query, not web sites.”
At the risk of over-simplifying a complex subject, this means that when search engines look at themes, they’re looking at key phrases in links to web pages and at text immediately surrounding those links. They’re looking at who’s linking to you, and who’s linking to the pages that link to you.
“You can have a themed site where every page is focused and optimized on the same two words,” Mike says. “But the page with the quality links pointing back to it (citation – co-citation) is the one that’s coming up.”
Mike explains why the themed web sites theory is wrong in this article, published by SEO cloaking expert Ralph Tegtmeier:
“Search Engine Myth-Busters: How term vectors became Chinese whispers”
https://www.fantomaster.com/fafnissue0014.html
Ralph describes Mike’s book as the “Ultimate Search Engine Book”. Alexis D. Gutzman of MarketingSherpa says that with this book Mike “may have become the most influential writer in the SEO industry”.
“If there is ever a certification program for search engine optimization professionals (SEOs), this book will be the textbook, and the certification exam will be based on knowing this level of detail,” Alexis says.
However, this book isn’t for everyone. It delves very deeply into the technical stuff, because Mike believes that anyone who is really serious about search engine optimization needs to understand how search engines work.
If you like doing SEO detective work, you’ll love this book.
Learn more about it here:
Mike Grehan’s “Search Engine Marketing” handbook:
https://www.associateprograms.com/mike
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2. Don’t abandon your one-subject web sites
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I received an email the other day from an Internet marketer who said: “You said that themed web sites don’t work…”
No, that’s NOT what I said.
If Mike Grehan has successfully debunked the themed web sites theory, what does that mean for you?
First of all, it does NOT mean that you should dump web sites that concentrate on one subject. It makes perfect sense to build web sites that way.
As Mike quotes Andrei Broder of Alta Vista as saying:
“…obviously, it’s good to have a site which is focused … as opposed to a site which just seems to be about everything.”
What it does mean is that if you’re getting good rankings in search engines, the reasons why you’re getting those good results may not be exactly what you thought they were.
Here’s my interpretation of what you should do:
* Keep building sites that concentrate on one subject. They work beautifully – what better reason do you need?
* Build pages that concentrate on one topic.
* Look carefully at links to your site, and at the keywords in and immediately surrounding those links.
* Do the same with your internal links.
Remember that search engine optimization involves a huge number of factors. From time to time, the search engines explain some factors that help – such as putting keywords in bold – but they don’t tell us everything.
Mike Grehan is a bit brutal in his comments about fellow search engine expert Michael Campbell, saying some of Michael’s comments are “utter rubbish”. Mike refers to Michael as a “former typesetter”. (Mike is a former broadcaster in radio and TV.)
Obviously stung, Michael, who’s usually a really nice, sensible guy, temporarily slipped a cog and criticized Mike’s book while admitting that he hadn’t read it.
Michael probably did get a few things wrong among all the many thousands of words he’s written on search engine optimization.
Does this mean we should stop following all his teachings?
Of course not! In contrast to some search engine observers who merely repeat things they’ve read, Michael does hands-on research. He’s constantly creating new pages, testing to see what works, and reporting on those results.
Most of what he writes about is the result of his own experimenting.
To me, that’s must-have information.
For example, Mike Grehan describes how some search engine spammers make the mistake of building 1,000 web sites linking to one site – and search engines spot the fact that those 1,000 sites have no sites linking to them. Michael describes linking strategies to get around that sort of problem.
Remember that Michael Campbell makes $200,000 a year profit from affiliate commissions, as he describes in “Clickin It Rich” thanks in large part to his expertise with search engines.
He has good, solid practical experience you’d be silly to ignore.
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3. Tell your non-performing affiliates about Rupert
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Affiliate merchants, you know how difficult it is to help struggling affiliates and show them how to boost their commissions (and your profits).
Many of them don’t want to be told how to earn a million dollars. They just want to learn how to make SOME money.
You’re probably too busy to write a training manual for them but what else can you do?
Well, here’s the answer.
Here’s a practical example – a little success story – to tell your non-performing affiliates. It might be just the thing to encourage them and get them started earning dollars for themselves and you.
A few months ago, my assistant Rupert knew NOTHING about marketing or affiliate programs.
He was busy finishing a zoology degree – not exactly ideal training for Internet marketing.
I provided him with Site Build It (SBI) and the Action Guide and told him to build affiliate web sites on subjects he already knew something about.
His results so far…
Site A: $20,870 in sales.
Site B: $24,888 in sales.
Imagine if you had a few dozen Ruperts promoting your products…
What would that do to your bottom line?
They’re not bad results for a newbie affiliate who’s working only part-time on these projects.
What’s more, he’s working unsupervised from his own home.
When he has a question, most of the time I tell him to go back and read the Action Guide manual that comes with Site Build It!
So, if you’re an affiliate merchant, he’s just like most of YOUR affiliates. He’s working part-time, unsupervised, with not much more than a manual to guide him.
Look at the great results he’s achieving…
For both of his sites, this newbie has No.1 rankings in Google for his MOST IMPORTANT key phrases. That’s right – No.1 spots!
He also has a bunch of top 10 spots at Google for other key phrases.
How did Rupert become a search engine expert so quickly? Well, he’s not really.
First, he uses the brainstorming tools in SBI to choose profitable key phrases – and double checks with Wordtracker.com just to be sure.
Then each time he builds a page he clicks on the “Analyze it!” button. SBI checks dozens of things to make sure he’s done it right, and built a search engine friendly page.
Here’s the traffic Rupert has sent to those merchants:
Site A: 19,130 click-throughs.
Site B: 28,128 click-throughs.
Rupert is promoting hard products which pay low percentage commissions, so we’re earning a small proportion of the total $45,758 in sales.
These are low-maintenance sites. So far, they still have almost no links to them except from Yahoo! and DMOZ.org. We’re not capturing email addresses.
Rupert has just begun experimenting, testing little changes in headings etc to see if he can boost his commissions.
However, he has now diverted most of his time to a new project.
In the meantime, the sites continue generating income almost on autopilot.
This month, Site A is averaging 438 visits a day and Site B 477 visits a day.
When you tell your affiliates about SBI, be sure to explain that they need to follow the instructions totally. SBI is a tool, and like any tool it can be used well or used badly.
For best results, you want to make sure they build web sites which are good enough to be listed in Yahoo! and DMOZ.org. That will give them a powerful boost in Google.
The Action Guide provides step-by-step instructions.
If your affiliates are like me, they’ll want to be their own boss. They’ll want to do things THEIR way.
Tell them you understand all that, but for the FIRST site they build using Site Build It!, tell them to repress all that and just follow the darn instructions.
Build a simple web site. Do it the way the instructions say. That works.
Remind them that Rupert has achieved No.1 spots in Google by following the SBI instructions.
When you tell them about SBI, feel free to quote me on any of this stuff.
Do you want to go a step further?
Grab your own copy of SBI and create an affiliate site yourself.
Then you’ll be able to describe from first-hand experience how well it works.
Get your copy of Site Build It! here:
https://www.associateprograms.com/buildit
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4. First profit – after four years
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I love hearing success stories from readers. This one is a bit unusual.
Peter Burtis writes:
“First let me say thanks for your wonderful newsletter. I’ve read every issue for the last 4 years or so.
“I want to thank you. I made my first sale in an affiliate program today and I attribute this entirely to you and your newsletter.
“Four years ago, when I discovered affiliate programs, the first thing I did was put up a banner farm and spend far too much on advertising it. Needless to say this failed.
“A while after this I found your site and subscribed to your newsletter. It became one of my favorite newsletters in no time, and to this day I rush home on Friday looking forward to it.
[It’s now published irreregularly.]“Even though I always read your newsletter and even though I bought and read just about every book you recommended, ever since my first failure with affiliate programs, I somehow got the idea stuck in my head that – although they were fun to read about – affiliate programs wouldn’t work for me.
“Anyway, last week the advice that I’d heard over and over again for the last four years – stop reading about making money on the Web and actually do it – finally sank in. I spent a night setting up a very simple one-page micro site in a good niche, which sent customers to Amazon.com (the only affiliate program I could find which had the product I wanted). Then I bought a few Google ad words and pointed them to my site. Two days later I have my first sale! (And my first profit!)
“I’m just writing to say thanks. If it weren’t for you I would have given up on affiliate programs four years ago. Today I’m on cloud nine thanks to you, and I know it’s just the beginning,” Peter says.
Nice to know that you’re finally on your way, Peter. You’re a prime example of how sometimes we can hear good advice many times without taking it, until one day it just “clicks” as you said, and we’re on our way. Good luck!
If you’re buying advertising, just make sure you pay less than the commissions you earn! Check those stats carefully. It helps if you’re promoting a product that has a large commission.
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5. URL frame forwarding: More questions than answers
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George Ahrens writes:
“I am following your spot-on articles about site forwarding techniques, e.g. NameStick and others. Certainly more valuable info here to learn than in some $19.95 per month membership sites.
“What’s not clear to me so far is the way Google and others react to this. I understand you are basically submitting a page with its own meta tags etc. if you are submitting for instance [This link no longer works]. However, what you really are doing is submitting duplicate content, or more critical trying to get one content page listed twice. Let’s say 100 people promote
Yanik’s site in the same manner, wouldn’t it get all sites banned by Google, since they are only interested in showing relevant content? Relevant for the viewer – actually, not to the search spider.
“And if they start to see it the way the viewer sees it, wouldn’t that reduce Yanik to a mere ‘silver status’ again? Wouldn’t he or other companies want to sue all you guys taking away their SE listings?
“Going into that would clear up a few things nobody talked about so far, and extend the brilliant series (and singular-plural game play)…
“I know Yanik and other marketers do not really depend on search engine traffic. However, many targeted niche sites do. Because it’s such a convenient and convincing way to promote an affiliate program using URL frame forwarding, I guess the temptation on the side of affiliates will be high to catch some of this free search engine traffic.
“If a search engine listing with such a site is really possible or not seems to require some actual proof. I recall reading these ‘advertised benefits’ on at least two of the sales pages of products you mentioned. Let them prove it. This could be fun,” George says.
You ask some good questions, George, and I don’t have answers to all of them.
The best reason to go into “pre-sell mode” is that when you add your recommendation to a product, you’re sending visitors to the merchant’s site in ready-to-buy frame of mind.
I was surprised when Kevin Wilke of [This link no longer works] said some people using URL frame forwarding were having success in the search engines. From what I’ve read, search engines can identify – and don’t like – sites that have large blocks of content that are the same on many pages. I don’t think aiming to get URL frame forwarding sites found in search engines is a good strategy. However, I could be wrong. It’s results that count, not theory.
As for being sued, that won’t happen if you always ask the merchant for permission before using URL frame forwarding.
Take [This link no longer works] for example. The search engine will “see” exactly what you see on the page.. Plus it will see stuff in the the meta tags.
In your browser, click on View/Source and you’ll see the meta tags. I could add a significant amount of keyword-rich copy in the NOFRAMES BODY part. However, I think if I did, the search engines might regard that as keyword-stuffing.
Have your say in this interesting discussion. Look under N for NameStick on the Associate Programs Message Board:
https://www.associateprograms.com/discus/index.php
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6. How to buy keyword text link positions
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If you’re frustrated with search engines, you can always buy traffic instead.
You know about Overture and Google’s Adwords Select, but you may be surprised to learn how many other places there are where you can quickly get traffic by buying keyword text link positions.
Catherine Seda has written a sensible, practical ebook called “Increase Your Sales with Search Engine Advertising”, which describes all the options.
She tells you how to create a simple strategy that will work.
[UPDATE: Catherine’s latest book is “Search Engine Advertising. Buying You Way to the Top to Increase Sales” – https://www.associateprograms.com/textlinks ]===============================================
7. What search engines think of meta refreshes
===============================================
In Mike Grehan’s “Search Engine Marketing” handbook – https://www.associateprograms.com/mike – in the section on spamming he warns against using meta refreshes.
I have a special interest in this because I have top-ranking pages which contain several meta refresh affiliate links.
Mike’s paragraph on meta refreshes is very brief and written with uncharacteristic vagueness, so I asked him to explain.
Here’s Mike’s explanation:
“If you’re referring to what I wrote about using meta refreshes in the Spam section, it’s all about the link that the search engine returns.
“If that link is to a doorway page which just redirects to another page/site that’s the problem. It’s been so over-used by the ‘adult industry’ that it’s as much of a ‘no no’ as cloaking really. If your refresh is longer than five seconds so that the visitor actually gets to see the page with a note saying we’re not here any more, and then redirect, usually OK. But if you do
a one-second refresh to another ‘off topic’ site i.e. adult then that’s trouble.
“If the target page has no refresh in the head, you can have as many refresh links as you like on the actual page your visitor lands on,” Mike says.
https://www.associateprograms.com/mike
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8. Free ebook: Short, sharp, mini-articles
===============================================
Neil Shearing of Scam Free Zone has produced a new free ebook called called “101 Short, Sharp, Mini-Articles To Help Your Online Business Succeed”.
Unfortunately it’s for PCs only, not Macs.
I have a lot of respect for Neil. He built up a thriving Internet business while completing his PhD. He has learned how to avoid distractions and concentrate on techniques that work.
His new book is crammed with original articles based on Neil’s own experience as a successful Internet marketer.
You can get it here:
https://scamfreezone.com/101/indexa.shtml
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9. Useful free resource: Keyword density checker
===============================================
A friend of mine, Jay Stockwell, has created a useful new free tool.
“It calculates keyword density on the fly on a given body of text,” Jay says. “This means that you can change the text so it will reflect the keyword density that you are chasing.”
Jay has also done a good job of compiling a list of what he considers the best search engine optimization resources.
You can find it at https://www.live-keyword-analysis.com
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10. Thought for today: It’s not all that important
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“Work is good, but it’s not all that important. Just ask any retiree.” – Source unknown.
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How to advertise in this newsletter
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Send a blank email to:
classads AT AssociatePrograms DOT com
All the best
Allan Gardyne
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