Why Another Website?

I was like you when I stared to see all the coverage for this new website.  Actually I was teaching a internet marketing class when I was asked about it.

Another social website to work?  Really?  Another “must be on” website to manage?? Not interested. So I thought.  Seriously not interested when I heard that they change your affiliate marketing links to their own.  That was a big turn off.  Cashing in early, I grumbled.

Affiliate Marketers Dream

Than this morning, I could not get out of bed fast enough to get signed up.  I remembered I received an invite last week and buried it in my email.   Its in beta and by invite only.  (if you need an invite, drop me a line)  Thankfully I saved mine.

So now you are asking “Why the sudden change??”  I thought about it.  Actually I dreamed about it….  Pinterest is a photo/video driven website.  Populated mostly by women (major decision makers) and its all about what the members like.   Think of it as a world wide community bulletin board. Following me so far??

According to stats, this site is driving more traffic than almost any other social website. Driving huge amounts of traffic to e-commerce sights.

“But Mark, They change your affiliate codes if you are posting an affiliate link. I can’t make any money on Pinterest.”  Oh Yes… You Can…   Don’t post the affiliate link, post the photo from your blog that has the affiliate links in it,   You blog about the affiliate product.  With a photo of the product.  Your affiliate code is on the link on your website.  they don’t change that!!

Double Bonus Points!

So you update your blog more frequently, talking about products and services.  Or if you are niche blogging, you update a variety of websites, you “pin” the posts to your account under the appropriate category.

You are now updating the blog more often.  This means Google is spidering your blog more.  Keep it quality, and Google gives you more juice.  You start working your account on Pinterest, start liking and linking, you will quickly start to get more traffic from your Pinterest profile to your website.

Finally, if Pinterest is such a popular website, you get juice from the search engine for linking properly to a popular website. You, as an affiliate marketer, can’t lose by being on Pinterest.

Remember: Quality.  Not quantity.   Kick the tires.  Look around before you start posting or pinning…  Get the lay of the land and see how others do it.  Be creative when you name your categories and when you write a brief description.

This is an Affiliate Marketing person’s Dream website!!

As the internet matures and Americans become more attached to our mobile devices, those of us marketing to them will have to get serious about mobile traffic.

My Wake Up Call

At the end of 2011, I went through the stats for all the websites I manage or own.  The amount of traffic from mobile devices at least doubled from January 2011 to December 2011.  It doubled in one year!!

On the newer sites or general information websites, mobile traffic averaged around 18-20%.  Older and niche specific websites saw on average of 25-30% was mobile traffic. No matter how you look at it, That’s a lot of traffic (and growing).  A lot of potential business just from the mobile world.

For brick and mortar type of businesses, the number one source of their internet/mobile traffic was Google Places. With social media coming in second.

On average, 13% of all my traffic came from a social media profile.  (Facebook, twitter, G+, etc…)  That percentage rose when it came from a mobile device.  (example:someone on their iPad, clicking a link in twitter or other platform).

With that much traffic coming from mobile devices, you will see a lot more websites convert over to the WordPress platform.  Starting in 2012, most reputable theme makers will adapt what’s call “Responsive Web Design”.  Meaning their WordPress theme will adapt to the mobile device.  I use Genesis Themes on all my WordPress sites and they are already converting their theme library to RWD.

Final Answer

Unless you want to alienate over a quarter of your sites visitors, I would start to take mobile traffic very seriously.  Make your website more user friendly and adaptable.  Make sure your website(s) is connected to your most popular social platforms and you are keeping everything fresh and original.

Keeping everything connected and fresh, will make the search engines happy and help drive more potential customers to your business.

Need help with this?  Give me a call and let’s talk.

Mark Anthony