The success of your affiliate marketing business is greatly reliant on your ability to identify and promote products which have real value to your community. The issue that’s all to present, however, is that there are many lame affiliate products because information-based products are so easily created or rely too heavily on hype despite the item having less features than a well-produced, trusted item.

What will happen, if you begin promoting lame affiliate products, has a double negative effect:

• You won’t earn money because no one will want the product
• You “burn” your community by promoting items without value

Good affiliates are able to make the sale but great affiliates are the ones that have the keen eye for identifying great products since it will build long-term value exchange within the community.

The focus of this article explores the basic process for identifying a lame affiliate product so you can avoid making costly mistakes chasing a promotion of little value.

A case of too much hype

The first step of identification should come from your gut reaction.

There are many, many affiliate opportunities but not everything you find may be exactly “ethical” in nature; there are those that create products and services that are essentially short-gain projects which fail to provide a long-term solution.

For example: It’s very common to see a program, such as a link building automation tool, that bends the line on ethics because it’s essentially a tool for spamming – - though this tool may have been worded and hyped to sound as if it were a legitimate, ethical program.

Do a three second test:

• What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you see the product page?
• What type of wording do they use (emotional versus logical)
• Are there other products you can think of that are already well known and documented?

Basically – - if it looks too good to be true than you’re probably thinking the right way.

There are those that rely solely on using hype to sell the product; it riles the emotions and encourages individuals to purchase a product before there is real feedback for it from the community – - then the marketer dips out with the money and leaves the community void of support.

What’s in it for them?

Information products are very easy to create, as mentioned, and we sometimes see a product come along that is merely a re-hash of freely available information across the Web.

Yes, you will find many information products covering the same topics but can you trust the expertise of a producer that can’t show the real results of their work in a transparent manner?

Would you:

• Buy a product from an individual that is new in the industry
• Buy one from an industry professional

The product needs to display immediate and long-term value for the individual and this can be achieved when it is created by those that have the experience, expertise, and mastery of the topic.

The easiest way to find an appropriate product for your community is by being a customer, yourself.

Spend the money (and time) on the product and to learn how to use it effectively. Not only will you have a thorough understanding of its value but you could offer a real opinion of the product, and support.

Even if you lose out on the monetary investment, after discovering the product doesn’t have value to your community, you still gain the knowledge and dodge a very harmful bullet rather than grabbing an affiliate link to any old product just because it sounds and looks good.

The updates and support really do matter

Finally, you should really take support and updates as a consideration when selecting an affiliate product from the bunch because a producer that makes the effort to revise information, code, or any other element of their product than they’re in for the long-haul rather than the quick buck.

Check back through the history of product development along with the track record of the individual (or business) behind the company. Compare their reviews, support, and update cycle.

Lame products come and go, they can certainly make you money due to the hype but what you really want out of being an affiliate is a stable influx of commissions rather than gigantic spikes that only happen on the rare (unpredictable) occasions.

Widget Context is a WordPress plugin that allows you to specify which areas of your website you’d like to display widgets; the default installation of WordPress generally displays widgets site wide, so the appeal of this plugin is that you can “curate” what’s displayed in areas of your site which, in turn, develops a content “ecosystem”.

And now … the easier-to-understand introduction:

You can use the WordPress plugin ‘Widget Context’ to create unique sidebars which gives you greater control (and design) for your website.

You would do this because:

• It allows readers to find matching content (and promotions) that you specific based on your analytics and determined value.

• You can create heavily-branded content “silos” very much as if there are smaller websites within your main website.

For example: you generally use categories for navigation and topics but the sidebar stays the same so an individual seeking everything related to email marketing may also see items such as popular posts, recent comments, ads, and other items in the sidebar; using the plugin you could morph the category, based on parameters, so only email marketing-related items are displayed such as email marketing services, guides, downloads, or even specific opt-in’s for a segment of your email list.

See the possibilities?

Here is how you’d do it:

A. Read the documentation and installation guide for Widget Context at WordPress.org.

B. Install the plugin either through a manual upload to your server or within the WordPress ‘plugins’ interface/upload.

Once installed, understanding the features is quite intuitive with features such as:

• Title – Like other widgets it’s what shows at the top of the area (like a header)
• Front Page – Only displays the widget on the front page
• Blog Index – Shows the widget within the blog area of your site
• All Posts – Every post will have the widget
• All Pages – Only the pages will display the widgets

These are the main features that you’d most likely use but there are others such as only displaying in tag or author archives, plus you can mix and match so the widget may display on a page but also within specific URL’s based on what you place into the plugin’s feature area.

One of the most power ways to use the plugin is by associating a widget to a specific page/category.

For example:

• Display a specific affiliate offer based on the page or topic category
• Include reviews based around the topic discussed in your post to the side
• Remove advertisements or distracting elements from your sales pages

In all, what you’re doing is creating an “ecosystem” in which everything is related to your desired topic or intentions. You can create pages and posts that increase engagement because it’s only that type of information displayed to the reader rather than taking broad strokes at your marketing.

The entire process of setting up your site with this type of unique display should take you less than an hour though it’s important you spend the time to plan the layout to match your needs.

Do you believe you could increase your profits by creating specific “ecosystems” through curated content and sidebars?

Google Image Search is widely used to find images, gifs, infographics, and more. There have been many changes to the layout and image quality throughout the year but one thing has remained the same: people use image search as a tool for website discovery.

As a website owner, you frequently use images throughout your website copy to add engagement; these images are indexed in Google Image Search which attaches your content to the picture. Generally, individuals would need to select ‘View Source’ in order to see the page which doesn’t make it the most important factor in SEO but can certainly give you a trickle of site traffic which may lead to an affiliate sale.

SEO principles can be applied to images to increase their “ranking” in the image search; if you happen to brand and tag your images than you could, in practice, build brand exposure (not just traffic).

The following is a list of to-do items to ensure your images rank well within the image search listing and a few additional tips to convert those image seekers into full site readers.

The SEO Factors that Matter (for Images)

SEO, for images, follow many of the same principles that you’d conduct when applying the strategies to a Web page in the sense that it comes down to proper keyword usage to help search engines identify the content of the image (since, after all, they’re just computers).

• File Name Structure – The file name is where you’d utilize keywords, the most, so take the time to write specific descriptions of the image. For example: if it is a picture of a red rose in a vase than the file name could be red-rose-in-vase.jpg.

• File Extension – There are many file extensions and formats for images including .jpg, .png, .gif – - all are perfectly fine to use but do keep in mind that some individuals may seek certain formats for their image needs.

• File Description/Details – If you truly want to go the extra mile than fill in all of the image information by accessing its ‘details’ properties; do this by right clicking an image, select the ‘properties’ option, open the ‘details’ tab, and proceed to fill in any and all information such as ‘date taken’, ‘subject’, ‘camera’ details, and even ‘rating’; this may add a lot of extra time to the image SEO but some of these can play an important factor in copyright and ownership of your images.

• Image Size – The bigger, the better. Remember that there isn’t much value to someone if they’re seeking a detailed look at a product but it’s the size of a thumbnail. If you can afford the server load (or tools to improve site speed) than go with very large images or at least link to the full size image from within the description/link.

• Context – It’s equally important to fit your image within the right context of your Web copy. Place your images in appropriate areas of your site where relevant keywords are used such as under headings, next to lists, or within specific areas of the topic – - doing so will help search engines understand how the image relates to the Web copy.

Learn more: Optimizing Images for SEO & 6 Tips for Image SEO.

Converting the Image Seekers

The use of Google Image Search as a means for regular web traffic is truly just a flip of the coin (you can’t expect it to be a reliable source). There is, however, a smart way to get the most from images and that’s through branding.

• Infographics are a great choice for branding because they can be themed and tagged with your logo, website URL, and overall marketing message. People seeking these types of images may then visit your full website if you provide quality information. Likewise, fellow website owners may seek these infographics for their content creation which may lead to an attribution link back to your website which gives you better traction in the organic Google search.

• Animated Gifs are very popular these days due to the explosive rise of image macros and memes; you could consider taking some time to create (or commission) custom/unique animated gifs that many individuals may find entertaining or helpful. Then you’ll gain the same opportunities as mentioned with the infographics.

• Pricing may also aid in converting image seekers especially if they are trying to find large images of products they wish to purchase; a bit of branding, pricing, and shipping options is much like a full page ad you’d find in magazines – - the helpfulness of having all of the product information right in the image saves the individual time from having to further explore and research their buying options.

Overall, SEO for images really comes down to taking a few extra moments to add the proper information and using the images in appropriate places in your web copy. As noted, it may not be an incredible source of traffic but the small effort certainly does trickle visitors to your site, and going the extra mile to create unique images can certainly turn the image seekers into buyers.

An interactive website keeps visitors on your site – - it allows them to play, explore, and learn – - adding these elements, such as point systems, voting, and live chat, all offer a new level of community building because it encourages your visitors to participate within the community and gives them a “status”.

An extra benefit gained from interactive elements is the boost you will find in your website traffic and page views. People will stay on your site longer which increases that chance of them finding their way to your affiliate offers. Likewise, your site will have a low bounce rate which is beneficial for search placement and online advertising (particularly Google Adwords).

The best part of it all is that adding many of these interactive elements is merely an injection of code or plugins! The following are some of those interactive elements you may want to add on your site to increase visitor engagement.

Toolbars (Wibiya)

Wibiya is an interesting choice for adding interactive elements; it’s a relatively simple (sleek) toolbar which has many flexible options to engage visitors including the ability to display coupons, social media links, translation services, recommended articles, and other custom messages. The toolbar takes two steps to setup and has many rich features for setting parameters depending on your website needs. Consider giving it a try.

Forums (vBulletin)

Forums are excellent for keeping visitors on your site for as long as possible; there’s really no need for explanation since forums have been around since the very early days of the Web but it’s worth noting that vBulletin is, perhaps, the best option if you decide to go this route. Setup is slightly difficult but adding vBulletin to your site will definitely keep people around because it creates a social layer for your community and many individuals will do their part with promotion of the forum if it provides excellent value because they have a vested interest in seeing it succeed.

Points, Badges, and Rewards (PunchTab)

PunchTab is a very cool interactive layer which creates a point system for your website which includes the options to offer rewards for participation – - in an essence it adds a layer of ‘gamification’ which basically turns a visitors activity into a game. The service is free with paid options to expand what you can offer but the basics includes the mentioned reward system, giveaways, user badges, and incentivized social sharing. Overall, it’s a great way to quickly add engaging elements to your site to increase page views and encouragement of deep exploration of your site.

A final note about interactivity

There is, of course, a trade off if you decide to install interactive plugins, scripts, or code, and that is that it may slow down your website which may affect the user experience. Take site load speed into consideration before you go gun-ho with adding the interactive elements; give them a test, track the results, and make a decision if they’re adding value to your site.

What gets you interactive with a website? Does yours have some of these options? Share a comment!

Mother’s Day is on June 12^th and if the trends are right then you can expect the market to spend upward of $15+ billion dollars (according to a survey from 2011).

People will spend nearly $200 for their mother which makes for a very healthy profit for your affiliate marketing if you take the time to run promotions; this article will go over some of the affiliate offers you could promote during Mother’s Day (and a few strategies to maximize the offers’ exposure).

Offers a Mom would Love

Some individuals will really go out of the way to find a completely unique gift for mum but the vast majority will fall back to the “timeless” classics because they’re in a pinch (lots of people forget the holiday, uh-oh!). The following are some of those “classics” you could promote for the holiday.

Spa Packages

Spa packages are big money (in cost and in earnings); they’re one of the ideal gifts for Mother’s Day because everyone wants to ensure their mum has an enjoyable day off where they can be pampered. Promotions of this type of gift can be found on most affiliate networks or in-house programs (just do a Google search and you’ll find what you need). As a bonus, you can promote related items such as household spa items which will greatly improve your profits during the campaign.

Flowers

Flowers, enough said. Arrangements can be very intricate and fetch a hefty price; many online flower providers have affiliate programs with great commission rates. 1800Flowers is one of the programs you should consider since it’s one of the most known and trusted. There is additional opportunity with flowers, as well, if you choose to cross promote items such as greeting cards, chocolates, or even balloons.

Gift Cards

Mum wants to shop and eat; gift cards are always welcome because it gives her a choice in the gift. There are many websites solely dedicated to providing gift cards or it may be possible to promote a business, in general, that offers cards through their website. Gift cards are one of the easiest to promote because of the brand recognition so all you really need to do is put the offer out there and you’re good to go.

Vacation Packages

Vacations are big ticket items you may want to consider especially ones such as cruises, flights, or day-trips. A lot of these vacation packages can be purchased and reserved for a later date which makes it an excellent last minute option for certain individuals. Vacation promotions can also fetch additional earnings through hotel booking or travel items.

The easiest way to take a blanket approach to Mother’s Day affiliate promotions is to work with Amazon Associates since many people will turn to the site for those last minute gifts due to fast shipping (and great pricing). The added benefit is that you may earn extra income if the individual decides to purchase other items on their list while shopping for a gift; get them to the site, let Amazon do the work, and you’ll be good to go without having to wrack your brain over what to promote.

Mother’s Day Promotional Strategies

Google will provide you all the ideas you need to run the gamut of Mother’s Day affiliate promotions. Head over to the search engine and type in “Mother’s Day …” and allow the auto-complete to fill in the sentence – - instant ideas.

Niche it down, you can create specific promotions/ads/content around:

• Gifts for grandmothers
• Gifts for mother’s that a child may purchase
• Gift ideas for a friend’s mother

Get creative with your social media promotion; head over to Pinterest and begin sourcing great looking pictures and use the site for gift ideas. Pepper your social feed with gift ideas and links to those products (Amazon or your preferred affiliate network). Also, take the time to allow your community to chime in by asking open-ended questions like “what gift will you get for your mother?” and follow-up these questions with your affiliate links (or compile the responses into a new blog post!).

Paid advertising is going to be stiff because of how much can be made on the holiday but you can certainly take advantage of the long-tail keywords (as mentioned above). Consider creating a handful of landing pages with gift ideas (with affiliate links) and run a paid advertising campaign sending individuals to the page; tweak as you go. Keep in mind that you can create an evergreen page which could find its way into next year’s promotions during the holiday.

Conclusion

People are going to spend a whole lot of money this Mother’s Day. You still have time to put together a few campaigns and capitalize as an affiliate. Go with the timeless gifts and you’ll do quite well.

Will you run campaigns during Mother’s Day?

Google Adsense, if you didn’t know, is an advertising platform where businesses and individuals can pay for ad placement across the Google network. The publisher end of Adsense allows you to display these ads on your website and earn a percentage of the profit each time an individual clicks on the ad.

Adsense is all good and well but anyone that’s given it a try will tell you that a lot of the profit is mere pennies on the dollar. You may receive a percentage that’s just $0.01 depending on the ad that has been paired on your site or upward of $10.00+ if you’re in a very competitive market.

There is a thin line of balance you can do with your site to improve your earnings but let’s face it … it’s time to move beyond Adsense and begin making real money through product promotions.

This is a guide covers a process to break out of the comfort that is Adsense so you can get your start with affiliate marketing.

Step 1: Reverse Engineering Adsense

The first step in the process of getting out of the mindset of “Adsense-only” is to understand that you’e making just a fraction of the true profit; your best bet is to go directly to the advertisers and offer them a better deal.

How do you find these advertisers?

Simple: You reverse engineer what’s being shown in Adsense.

One of the handiest tools to scope on your competition is Spyfu.

The process is quite simple:

1. Visit SpyFu

2. Input a targeted keyword, competitor domain, or URL into the search

3. Examine the stats for the listings and take note of who’s bidding

Yes, it’s really that simple.

Once you have this list of businesses bidding on keywords you can then go back over to Google and do a search for the company. From there, it’s a matter of using the contact form and pitching the business the idea that you can offer excellent, competitive advertising rates for the same keywords at a discount.

Instead of earning just $0.10 per click on many keywords you could go back to the advertisers that have been displayed on your website and offer them a flat-rate deal for the entire month.

Couple your direct advertising efforts with tracking and you can send regular reports to these businesses to show how many clicks you’ve delivered and, in due time, perhaps raise your rates!

If you choose to upgrade your account you can gain a deeper understanding of the ad campaigns and keywords the competition is using; but the free version is more than enough for the purpose of this exercise.

At this point you’re sourcing direct advertising but hold onto your butts because it’s about to get better …

Step 2: Affiliate Research & Implementation

You didn’t think we’d stop at just earning money through direct advertising, did you?

The next part of this affiliate marketing “game”, after you’ve built that connection with the business, is to re-approach them with the intention of selling their products through an affiliate program.

Many businesses may already be present on such networks as CJ.com, Clickbank, MaxBounty, and more – - so give those networks a check before you get in touch so you can expedite the process.

However, you may need to do your research and dig into the business site to see if there are any affiliate programs readily available. At this point you can talk to the company and share your intentions; your previous relationship with the business may lead to them lending a hand in designing graphics and banners for your affiliate ads!

So your next task is this:

1. Get in touch with your previous contact and ask if the business has an affiliate program

2. Ask if they could provide helpful insights and analytics to aid in your promotion

3. Switch out the direct advertising (or Google Adsense blocks) with these affiliate promotions

4. Leverage lead strategies (which you can learn through this blog) to capitalize on cross-promotion

5. Treat the connection as a strategic partnership

The satisfaction of earning money on a day-to-day basis may not be present when you switch out Adsense for affiliate promotions but you’ll earn a whole lot more in the long-run because you’re landing the bigger sales.

This process we’ve described is simple, as you can see by the limited steps, and becomes manageable for anyone getting their start in affiliate marketing.

Google Adsense can certainly give you a nice bump when you’re first getting your go but if you want to make the big bucks than you have to think beyond the penny clicks; this quick guide will have you well upon your way to forging great business relationships without the hassle of slogging through endless amounts of affiliate marketplace fluff and banter.

Have you made the switch from Adsense to Affiliate Marketing? How did you complete the process?

The goal of a marketer isn’t to simply pass off a lead, cross fingers, and hope there is a conversion; it’s one thing to drive traffic to an offer and it’s completely opposite when you’re actively trying to improve the conversion before it takes place.

The following lists out three different methods increase the chances that you’ll sell more offers so you’re not left constantly scraping for fresh visitors, and so you get the most from what you’ve got.

#1: Display Related Items

Consider tweaking your affiliate site to have an “ecommerce appeal” in which products you recommend are shown through big features with pictures, video, and descriptions. Then, alongside these big features, display related items through a small image, headline, and description blurb.

Those individuals managing their way through your site will have the option to compare and contrast products/services which lowers their need to back out of the site to go elsewhere; this will certainly help with improving commissions.

To do this:

1. Set a criteria and category for a product

2. Find and match similar/complimentary products to the former

3. Create a new “ecommerce-style” page for this other product

4. Use the WSYWIG editor in your theme (or hard coding) to display the item features

5. Track analytics for click through and conversions between the pages

If you’ve displayed “related posts” than you’re already 90% prepared to display related products.

#2: Leverage the Trends

Trends can go two ways:

• Skyrocket in popularity and profitability
• Tank and leave the public’s eye

What you’d want to do is find the first, obviously.

To take advantage of these trends all you will need to do is visit a site like Google Trends and input keywords related to your niche, and pay acute attention to the history and current attention it receives within the trend graph.

If you’re having a hard time keeping your finger on the “pulse” of the industry than consider:

• Attending seminars and conferences by thought leaders
• Following forums
• Conducting regular interviews with up-and-comers

What you need to do is create an information network of your own; when you hear of a new product, technology, news piece, or gossip, than jump back to the trend tools, see where it’s going, jump in and start promoting, and ride the wave to prosperity.

#3: Embrace a Responsive Design

Almost 50% of adults own a smartphone whereas just over 30% have tablets; if that doesn’t paint the picture for you than you’re the one missing out on an immense amount of mobile traffic.

You may be reading this from your phone this very minute!

When we talk about the ability to easily display your website/app on any device we’re talking about a responsive layout. You may notice this on some of the bigger sites when you visit the pages between a desktop, phone, and then on a tablet (if you have all three).

For your entry into responsive layout, you’ve got two options:

• Use a fresh design that includes a responsive layout
• Rework your existing layout (coding) and/or use a mobile conversion service

One network you could check to get started with these new layouts is one we’ve reviewed before: Envato. You can find plenty of mobile-friendly themes and plugins to make the site responsive. The other alternative is to use a conversion service like DudaMobile or Conduit.com; these will take your existing design, convert them, and allow you to make additional tweaks so it’s mobile-ready.

In all, you can’t afford to pass up on this great opportunity if all it takes is a small theme conversion or a few site tweaks – - you’re missing out on a lot of conversions if you’re not catering to mobile devices.

Conclusion

To be honest: it doesn’t require a major commitment to increase conversions on your offers.

Take a look back through this list and ask “how long would this really take me to implement?”

You’d be surprise but most will be less than a few hours; an afternoon working on one of the items, on this list, could be the thing you’ve been needing to boost that online income so give them a try, test them, and keep up with what works.

Information Overload came from the book Future Shock which simply means that a person will find difficulty in understanding and making a decision because of too much information.

For a good while this really hadn’t been the case with operating a business because the basic channels were either already established (like print media) or were outside of the budget for many small business owners (like high-tech product development). In essence, you generally approached a business you could either do, yourself, or at least had friends and a network to aid in your business development.

Fast forward to the invention of the World Wide Web and the mass adoption of computers and the barrier to create a business has virtually dissolved because anyone that has enough drive can form one around their interest, hobby, or expertise (whether it’s information-based or physical).

The issue that we now face, as entrepreneurs, Web workers, and business owners (online), is that there’s simply too much to choose from whether it’s platforms to take our business, channels to connect with customers, products/services to offer, or information to help our understanding.

When we freeze due to information overload we fail to act and when we fail to act we fail to grow our business.

Combating Information Overload

Every individual will find a purpose and path to combating information overload in their own ways but take it from me – and my suggestions – because I’ve been there all too frequently; understanding of the cause/effect of information overload will certainly put you one step beyond the hurdle and one step closer to your goals.

Understand: “There is no best” – Best is a term everyone loves to throw around whether it’s “the best website platform”, “the best social network”, or “the best business idea”, but just forget it. You’re approaching your business with a unique set of skills and experience which means the “best” may not apply to your situation. Instead of going for “the best” you should think “what compliments my business”; choose the tools and resources that have specific solutions to your problems than one that has a blanket term for the industry.

Turn it off (but if you open it, do it) – Get into the habit of turning off the Internet when you have a great deal of work to be done. Gather your resources in an open tab or through an offline mode viewer and get busy. It will be a little steep but it will instantly cut out distractions like email, instant messaging, or the need to read an article. Also, don’t pick up the phone and start browsing! However, if you do remain online than make a habit out of completing whatever you open right then and there. Don’t skim through an article, take a mental note, and go to the next – make the commitment that if you chose to look up a business strategy than you’ll learn it in its entirety and then immediately implement the strategy the moment you’re done learning.

Limit the Channels – There’s so much choice when it comes to channels to promote your business, offer products, and connect with your customers but this isn’t always a good thing because you end up stretching too thin to accurately reach your desired results. Instead of joining every social network under the sun, distributing products on as many commerce platforms, or stretching your budget into any and all advertising platforms – - just choose one or two, from each, that your customers use frequently. Limiting your social networking to where the majority of your customers frequent will let you focus on utilizing the platform to its fullest while cutting back on wasted efforts on the others. Just one or two commerce platforms (such as your site and the Amazon marketplace) will reduce the annoyance and stress that comes from having to pay and track the various platforms which, quite truthfully, may not even perform for your business. Finally, stick to a few advertising channels until you understand what they bring to the table, keep the ones that work, and test a new one when you have enough funds in the budget.

There’s not a whole lot to combating information overload because you’re the one consuming the information; it’s certainly out there but you’re the one making the conscious decision to become overwhelmed instead of being focused. You can do a search and find a laundry list of strategies for combating the distractions and overload but those lists, in themselves, cause overload.

Give these ones a try – they’re basic but effective – and before you know it you’ll develop great habits for completing your work and growing your business.

A lot of website owners, marketers, and content producers seem to have it stuck in their heads that once a post goes live there next action is to begin on the next piece for their site; this is a fallacy in the way of thinking because each piece of content becomes a “salesperson” for your message for as long as you have it hosted and what often happens is that its information becomes outdated and fails to meet its full potential for all project-based work thereafter.

The focus of this “Quick Improvements” part puts its attention on a two-part act of updating existing content with fresh information and spending the time, while editing, to link to relevant articles to create a robust interlinking strategy.

The bonus to all of this will come about in the form of additional passive income sources (which will be explained in detail at the end).

For now, let’s get started on how to make improvements to your site and business by doing regular revisions and updates to your content and interlinks.

30 Minutes to Improve the Site

Content you’ve produced some time ago have the added advantage of being indexed in search engines and have already begun to build links which makes it quite the asset when compared to a new post which hasn’t yet seen traction.

Take a look at your site analytics, use the content drilldown, and identify the popular content pages.

With a spreadsheet or notepad, write down your top 10 – 20 posts and categorize them based on whether they promote a product. Include elements like the publication date, comment count, length, and a personal note how you feel about the piece.

Now we get to the fun stuff …

Take thirty minutes to re-read the article with a fresh set of eyes; you probably haven’t viewed the post in some time. Create a notepad for each of the articles and take notes as you work your way back through.

Identify some of the missed opportunities:

• Could you make mention of a new affiliate product within the old post?
• Could you expand on a section based on your newfound knowledge?
• Are there sections that need to be removed because they’re no longer relevant?

Take the role of an editor.

In essence, you’re transforming an old, popular post into an evergreen piece.

Image by RocketMedia.

Continually updating your best posts will keep the information relevant to your current understanding of the topic and allows you to avoid having to touch the subject with new posts. In many ways, your content follows the “Wikipedia” approach – why write a dozen new articles on the topic when you already have one high performing that has already been indexed and gaining traffic?

Let’s finish with an example:

You may have wrote a tutorial-style post for your niche a year ago but, during that time, you refrained from adding too many links because you didn’t want to distress regular readers by coming across as “too promotional”. The regular readers have moved on so it’s perfectly okay to retouch that article and add those promotional items for those finding the page in search engines. Likewise, the expansion of the post will deliver a “wow” factor to new visitors as it forms into a lengthy piece that’s truly defines the topic (so why search anywhere else?).

By doing this 30 minute procedure you’ll transform older posts into pieces that are relevant to the information found today. Individuals that land on these pieces will feel it provides just as much value with what they’re trying to find, now, rather than landing on a page with outdated information.

A Better Interlinking Strategy

While you’re in there, with your notepad open, take a look at the keywords you used in the older posts and try to identify if there are any that could be linked to newer posts – and vice versa.

You’d be surprised by the amount of links you could add to older posts.

There are two gains when you revise articles with links:

• Newer posts gain a higher traction because it’s being linked to from an authority page that has already been indexed and shared.

• Older posts regain attention which it may have missed since you’ll have built a larger community since its original publication date.

This is where a spreadsheet can come in handy if you really want to go into a deep interlinking strategy.

Image by SearchEngineLand.

We’d suggest you start with some of the basics like linking keywords to review pages or content series but step up this strategy, in due time, by creating a spreadsheet that collects and lists which keywords and URL’s you are linking within each. What this does is provide a content “map” so you can quickly do a search, within the spreadsheet, and identify posts you could link based on keywords and topics.

In the end, a quick update of the internal links can do wonders for site navigation; people will be inclined to dig deeper into the site which may not have been present at the time of the original production.

Improved Affiliate Profits

Last, but not least, is the added benefits:

• Each revision you do increases the authority of the post which aids in building your online brand; in turn, you will have an easier time to sell products because your community trusts your insight and opinions. Plus, the older, authoritative posts will have higher search ranking which means your affiliate offer is bound to be found.

• Adding additional links to new and existing posts will give a greater experience to your site users and aid in building your search engine optimization and ranking; you will also direct people to your money pages which should have been optimized for conversions – that’s extra eyeballs on your affiliate offers on the pages known for landing the sale.

This may sound like a lot to do but it doesn’t have to be done at once.

Try this sometime today:

1. Identify just one of your best posts.

2. Expand on the sections using new information.

3. Find and add links to newer/older resources on your site.

4. Add affiliate offers, better call-to-actions to money pages, or improve your sales pitch.

Doing so may not show immediate gain in your online income but it will certainly improve its chances; check with your affiliate marketplace analytics and you’ll see certain campaigns gain a bump in attention, that’s for sure.

How do you improve existing content? Share a comment!

The weekend seems to be devoid of content updates and marketing messages. A lot of this stems from the fact that people are stepping away from their computers to spend time with friends and family but it’s equally done in part by the marketer.

The focus of this “Quick Improvements” part puts the focus on going the extra mile to turn the weekend into a prime time spot to capture loyal members of your website’s community.

Your general traffic (search engine stuff) may be down during the weekend but your most loyal followers are there awaiting your message because they’re working through the weekend to gain an edge on their competition – this means your message hits closer to home because people are ready to take action instead of just passing time throughout the work week.

An extra 1 – 2 hours of your time will show amazing results for lead generation and community engagement; here’s what you should know about weekend updates …

Make the Commitment

To begin, it’s worth noting that there is a certain level of commitment behind doing weekend updates.

We try to keep work out of our “play” time which is why so few affiliates do a whole lot of work on the weekends; it’s important to step away from work and enjoy the spoil of our rewards.

Despite the inherent slump in traffic you find in your weekend analytics – people still access your site.

Give them something fresh during the weekends, when they’re still active, and you’ll satisfy their urge to keep learning and taking action on Saturday and Sunday (which may be the only days they have time to work on side-projects throughout the week).

Image source: GalaxyNinja.com

With that being said, consistency is key for doing your weekend updates. You don’t want to spend the next two weeks doing regular updates and then bail on the activity for months on end.

Do this: set aside just one hour of your weekend to put together some form of content. That’s it.

In a month that’s four hours which isn’t a whole lot of time especially when you measure it against a nice bump in site traffic because you’re delivering information during the times that competitors are taking the days off.

Test the Various Formats

It’s about the content.

People finally have the time to mull over their bookmarks, pinned tabs, and take action on what they’ve read throughout the week which may have been busy because of work and their lifestyle.

The content doesn’t have to be ground-breaking or some magnificent piece that brings tears to their eyes – - just something to give them some entertainment, actionable items, and solid information.

Consider using the weekend updates as simple updates or “quick fix” pieces that someone can read over in a few minutes and do one simple action.

Here are a few that we’d recommend:

• Weekend Email Updates – Email is very easy to schedule so there shouldn’t be a problem with putting this type of weekend update together; you could set it to go out on Saturday morning around 9am just as you would for regular, weekly updates (like we do on AffiliatePrograms.com). The email could be a round-up of your latest posts, offers, or an exclusive email to loyal subscribers. People will check their email on the weekends so you might as well strike it while the iron is hot.

• Weekend Blog Wrap-Ups – Perhaps you should use your weekend update as some form of “wrap-up” where you share the things you’ve learned through the week, feedback received from community members, new resources you’ve discovered, products you’ve enjoyed, services that “wowed” you, or any other item that has significance that you may not have covered throughout the work week. People will find these relaxed posts easy to read and it may spur up a sale or two if you make mention of a product.

• Weekend Event/News Coverage – The world doesn’t stop with you or the workweek; there are plenty of news and events worth devoting coverage especially if no one else takes the time to cover these items until it hits Monday. You could share local events, conferences, big news items related to your industry, events/news about what’s happening with you. These two items aren’t really “evergreen” content so they don’t have to be professional (for the most part) – they’re there to hold individuals over until everything starts back up again.

Play with the formats and delve into your creativity to see what other types of content you can come up with; there really is no limit and it’s more than nothing (when you think about it).

Lead into the Next Week

One final note: make the content you’re sharing on the weekends lead into the week.

You don’t necessarily need to make the weekend updates as part of an overall series or tie-in tightly with existing content but it should tell those active on the weekend what they can expect for the following week because it will build excitement and have them coming back.

A simple strategy would be to keep a closing section of the work explaining what you have in the works for the coming week which could become a regular recurrence if you update your weekend readers the following weekend with the goals you’ve accomplished set the in the previous.

Other ideas could be:

• Showing a snippet of your up-coming content
• Doing a cryptic screenshot of a new release
• Asking what they want to see and publishing the answers

Again, let your imagination take over and play with the format.

Overall, a quick update can be a nice bump in your website traffic during the usual slump that’s caused by the weekend. You may even find you’ve increased affiliate sales because you’re landing a marketing message right after an individual got paid – - plus they have the time to take action! Give it a try and see what works for your website – make the commitment – have some fun with it.