building and growing branded affiliate blog [blog world nyc 2011]

How To Build, Grow, AndMonetize Your Own Branded

Affiliate Blog

Shane Ketterman

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Agenda• What Is Branded Affiliate Blogging (B.A.B)• Building Your Brand • Growing Your Brand• Monetizing Your Brand


Branded Affiliate Blogging

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Types Of Affiliate Marketing


Types Of Affiliate Marketing

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Affiliate Mini-SitesNiche Affiliate SitesPPC (Pay Per Click)

CPA (Cost Per Action)Amazon Affiliate Marketing

And much much more....



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Brand:The Identity Of A Specific

Product, Service, or Business



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Brand + Blogging + Affiliate Marketing =

Branded Affiliate Blog



• Bankrate.com• Lowermybills.com• BBGeeks.com• TCGeeks.com

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• The Secrets To Success• Visualize Your Blog As A Business• Traffic Is Dead. It’s Customers.• What Customers Really Want...

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I visualize a storefront on the street with my blog name on it. And I treat people that come into my “store” as customers. Thus, I don’t use the term ‘traffic’ rather I refer to people as readers and customers. And here are 5 things that your customers really want.


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Customers want an experience - they want something that actually moves them forward. Think of it like walking into a store and having someone do something completely out of the ordinary. In Blogging I would do this by doing things like giving away a free iPad app when someone took the time to retweet an article....it would surprise them and that’s the whole point - deliver something unexpected but appreciated.


Compelling Experience

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Customers want an experience - they want something that actually moves them forward. Think of it like walking into a store and having someone do something completely out of the ordinary. In Blogging I would do this by doing things like giving away a free iPad app when someone took the time to retweet an article....it would surprise them and that’s the whole point - deliver something unexpected but appreciated.


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People want to feel special and heard. Give them that personal focus by answering their comments, sending them a personal email to thank them for reading, or hear your readers frustrations and write posts directed right at them.


Personal Focus

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People want to feel special and heard. Give them that personal focus by answering their comments, sending them a personal email to thank them for reading, or hear your readers frustrations and write posts directed right at them.


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Customers want loyalty. If you say you will do something then do it. So in blogging, if your post headline says it will teach you how to do something then make sure you stay on track and TEACH it


Reciprocal Loyalty

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Customers want loyalty. If you say you will do something then do it. So in blogging, if your post headline says it will teach you how to do something then make sure you stay on track and TEACH it


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Customers want different. They want something new and fresh. So for a blog it can be the angle you take or it can be the way you teach or the way you treat your readers. It does not have to be BIG, just different and unique.


Differentiation

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Customers want different. They want something new and fresh. So for a blog it can be the angle you take or it can be the way you teach or the way you treat your readers. It does not have to be BIG, just different and unique.


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Customers want coordination. Basically - they want to to be told where to go. And by this, I mean they want a vision for where your blog is going to take them. I do this in a page called “about you” where I lay out the exact way my blog will help them and where it will take them.


Coordination

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Customers want coordination. Basically - they want to to be told where to go. And by this, I mean they want a vision for where your blog is going to take them. I do this in a page called “about you” where I lay out the exact way my blog will help them and where it will take them.

Building Your B.A.B.• Market Research (quick and fast)• Point Of Differentiation• Platform• Design• Technical

• SEO

• Site Structure

• Plugins

• Social Sharing

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Your Point Of Differentiation is how your blog will stand out and be different than the others in your niche. The technical aspects are those things that we all know of which are good SEO planning (the best book on this is called The Art Of SEO by Rand Fishkin).

Growing Your B.A.B• Posting• Guest Posting• Keywords• Trend Blogging• Press Releases• But Here’s Two More Things...

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Trend Blogging, also known as Event Blogging is the concept of using events that happen in your niche to draw traffic to your blog...for example, when the iPad 2 was announced I had 10 posts waiting to publish that day which were 1000 word guides on the features, how to use it, and comparing the various 3G data plans.

Growing Your B.A.B• Shane’s 5 Pillars Of Growth

• Customer Experience• No Comment Left Behind• Give 10 Take 1• Readers, Not Traffic• The Storefront

• Authority Blogging

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Authority Blogging is important. It’s how people will trust your brand, blog, and your entire message. It allows people to not only trust you, but become your own marketing department - they market for your blog by sharing it out, talking about it, and drawing others in.

I learned this from Chris Garrett and by taking his Authority Blogging course which was what really opened my eyes to growing the blog.

Monetizing Your B.A.B• Advertising• Amazon• In-Text Ads• Finding Products Within Your Niche• Launching A Business Off The Blog• How I made $4,500 In One Month• Selling Your Blog

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Monetizing Your B.A.B• Advertising

• Main source of advertising is either Adsense or other premium content networks such as NetShelter or Federated Media

• It is critical to place ads in the right places or it will drastically affect your income

• Be careful about Ad to Content ratios

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Monetizing Your B.A.B• Amazon Associates

• Low percent return but ability to make money from “other” products

• How I sold toasters and heard defibrillators

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Monetizing Your B.A.B• In-Text Ads

• Kontera And Chitika• Low percentage of return but you have leverage...

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Monetizing Your B.A.B• Finding Products Within Your Niche

• Clickbank, Commission Junction, Linkshare

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Monetizing Your B.A.B• Launching A Business From Your Blog

• Mobile PRWire• Smarter App Marketing Course

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Monetizing Your B.A.B• How I Made $4,500 In One Month

• Adsense Readjustment Tricks• Trend Blogging

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Adsense readjustment tricks are really not tricks but they are testing various locations on where to place your ads. In my case, I used Google Analytics’ feature called “In-Page Analytics” to see where people were clicking the most on my pages and then I placed those ads around those places.

Monetizing Your B.A.B

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Adsense February


This is before a major event


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Adsense March


This is the income AFTER a major event


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Analytics With Trends


This shows traffic over time and you can see here how the events I was getting traffic from increased the baseline.


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Amazon Prior To Event


This is amazon income before an event (the iPad 2 announcement)


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Amazon After To Event


This is Amazon income AFTER the event

What Google Can Do To You

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Crushed By Panda


Be aware. I was hit by the Google algorithm changed called Panda. This dropped my readership significantly and it also caused me to learn a few things:

1. Never rely solely on one source of readers like organic search2. Never rely solely on one source of income like Adsense3. Look for your blog being scraped and if it is, file DMCA requests to have them banned but also use a plugin like PubSubHubbub to notify Google immediately that you are the source of the original content.

Some Google Guidelines For Quality Content

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• Would you trust the information presented in this article?• Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shallow in nature?• Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations?• Would you be comfortable giving your credit card information to this site?• Does this article have spelling, stylistic, or factual errors?• Are the topics driven by genuine interests of readers of the site, or does the site generate content by attempting to guess what might rank

well in search engines?• Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research, or original analysis?• Does the page provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?• How much quality control is done on content?• Does the article describe both sides of a story?• Is the site a recognized authority on its topic?• Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual

pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?• Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?• For a health related query, would you trust information from this site?• Would you recognize this site as an authoritative source when mentioned by name?• Does this article provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?• Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?• Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?• Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?• Are the articles short, unsubstantial, or otherwise lacking in helpful specifics?• Are the pages produced with great care and attention to detail vs. less attention to detail?• Would users complain when they see pages from this site?


These are some indicative guidelines as posted in the Google Webmaster Forums on what they are seeking out when it comes to quality content. This is not everything they look for by far, but it gives an idea for your own content.

THANK YOU!

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You can reach me anytime at the following places:[email protected]

@rewirebusiness

“If it weren’t for great people like you, I’d probably be bored” - sjk


building and growing branded affiliate blog [blog world nyc 2011]

Technology

branded afliate blogging

readersand customers

customers reallywant

whereyour blog

exact way

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free ipad app

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