Monday, July 19, 2010

Small Changes in Article Marketing that Tripled my Income in 3 Weeks

I am one of these unorganized fly by the seat of your pants people. When I started article marketing to drive traffic I would just do a little key word research and write. I would toss the keywords around in the article and I was done. I got traffic, some articles did really well, some not so hot. I was still making money so I really didn't pay it any attention. About a month ago, I realized I had to get more cash in the door. Daughter graduating High School, need I say more.

I went back to those articles and studied the ones that performed well. Now some got lots of clicks but the click through rate was low, others few clicks but high percentage of click through rates. Hmmm, what did I do right and what did I do wrong. Do let me note here though, Travis that teaches Bum Marketing techniques inspired me to research this through the emails I get from him.

Titles are big, the ones that got a lot of views always had a catchy title, something emotional, something that created a need. Example: "How to text a girl" had 459 views last month. "How to text a girl and push her buttons", 1471 views. Same keywords for both articles. Some of the corniest titles are the best. Usually when someone is online, they are alone, no one can see how corny they are so they will get clicked on. The corny titles often do stir emotion. Take your keyword and build emotion into it. Push buttons!

Keywords, I used to always add those to the article last, I knew what they were going to be, but I waited until the end to add them. Now I do that before I write the article, some are long tailed keywords by the way. I have them in that little box typed above or below the article. This reminds me to toss all of them into the article in some form. After I finish the article, I go back through looking for an opportunity to add them a few more times. You would think this time consuming, but once you have done it about 10 times, it's a breeze really. I can spit out an article now in about 10 minutes. I do not know why these things work, I just know that these articles with the rich keyword content seem to often end up on the first page of Google.

The call to action. The bio box at the end of an article is huge. In the article, hopefully if you played on the emotions. Fear is a good one, such and such could happen if you don't fix this. You created a problem, you have set the bait. Now you have to offer the solution and create some urgency. Reminder of what might happen if you don't fix the problem. If you don't get your ex back he will land in the arms of another tomorrow. Maybe not that drastic, but you get the drift. Remember this person is probably alone, behind their computer maybe worried about something, feeling vulnerable.

So about 3 weeks ago, after this I started paying more attention. I put out roughly 25 articles in that time. I also picked 10 of my existing articles with high views and edited the bio box and improved the call to action. Results, in 3 weeks my income tripled. Now I am not rich, not even close. I do all of this the bum marketing way. No money, no outsourcing, yet. The long road, but I am still learning, I am still a Newbie by the way, so this information may be old news to some, but to me, it was Grand!

Also note, I only use blogs and Squidoo Lens. No huge sites, just following the one week marketing guide.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Affiliate Marketing with a Blog

I have people ask me all the time how do I make money off of a blog. Well it's something called affiliate marketing. Now there are thousands and thousands of programs out there to do this, some rather costly, some just a few bucks and then you can do like me and go the free route or what us affiliate marketers call bum marketing.

While the free route may take a bit longer, it can be done. You just have to have a plan and implement it consistently. It is as simple as setting up a blog, perhaps a squidoo lens and writing a few articles and setting it free on the Web. In a short time if you followed your steps, your blog gets indexed.

I have 5 blogs and about 14 Squidoo lens. It has taken time to build these, but I did purchase a guide that detailed it step by step. This guide is by called One Week Marketing. It is simple, easy to follow and it works. I have made my investment back a thousand times over.

The beauty of it is I just rinse and repeat the same steps, if I don't want to take it any further or learn anymore than this one simple guide, I can still have unlimited income over time.

I have come back when I notice sales dwindling down and add content to the blog just like I am doing today, ping it, and I am done. The blog goes back out there on auto pilot. Pretty simple actually. For your guide click here.