Think about it, how susceptible are thin affiliate sites from being knocked down by the search engines?  Very likely in the changing world of Google wanting to control everything and shutting down every affiliate Adword campaign.  What the search engines and PEOPLE are looking for is value.  You want to offer as much value to your audience as possible.

So what does it take to build an authority site and how do you do it?

Well you don’t build an authority site by using autoblogs which just recycle old, used information back into the net.  You need true unique content written and not spun by a machine.  This may be ok for backlink building, but you need relevant, unique content that is both interesting and informative to the user.

This is why I emphasize on your bounce rate?  You cannot build an authority site with a bounce rate of 80-90%.  This means that visitors don’t really care for your content and the search engines are taking notice of this.  They are seeing that people don’t like to stay on your site very long and so they count it as irrelevant and you drop in the SERPS, eventually.

The great thing about having an authority site is that you can always make money on it.  You might have a thing affiliate site that ends up drying up and it will be good for nothing else.  When you are building an empire with your site you are able to make money off advertisers, and this is where the big money is.

If you are getting even half a million visitors a month you can get advertisers crawling over shards of glass just to put a 125×125 banner on your site.  So by working as hard as possible today, you can reap the benefits tomorrow, or at least in a few years.

So the key ingredients are the 2 things no internet marketer likes to think about:  hard work and patience.  But this is why the drop out rate in marketing online is so great.  Just like with military training, it doesn’t take lone to seperate the boys from the men.

Leave a comment below and let us know what you think….

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There are hundreds and hundreds of IM forums out there, including some paid ones that you can find.  I have been a member of some of the paid ones like on Wealthy Affiliate, but have found that a paid forum is no better than a free one if it is not run and operated by people who know what they are doing.

In fact, I have found the Warrior Forum to be much better than any paid forum I have been on.  I think the people who run these forums usually spend more time on the Warrior Forum as well.

I used to get on the Digital Point forums quite a bit until I noticed how much absolute garbage was being promoted as fact.  Now don’t get me wrong.  There is some garbage on the Warrior Forum too, but not nearly as much spam and blatant commercialized junk that you will find on the DP.

I also enjoy going to Ewealth now and then and have found some very helpful people there.  It is not as busy as some of the other forums, but it is run by some top notch guys and has proven to be a great resource for a lot of IMers.

Terry Kyle has started the Backlinks Forum which is also a great forum to check out.  It’s geared toward SEO and people who want to find better sources for getting quality backlinks that will get them ranking in the SERPs.  I have found Terry to be a great guy who really knows what he is doing and takes the time to help people as well.  So here is a shout out to you Terry.

No matter what forum you join, always remember to keep your focus.  The one bad thing about frequent visits to forums is that you can tend to get pulled in every direction and never do any one thing well.  As an Internet marketer you are a specialist (or you need to learn to be one), and everyone knows that specialists make much more money than general doctors do.

Find that one niche that you can hit out of the park, and keep on swinging until you do.

Any forums that you love to visit that I should have mentioned here?  Let us know with a comment.

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Affiliate marketing is hard enough.  It takes patience, hard work, and a little bit of crazy to be successful.  But then throw in some roadblocks like a new tax law in NC and it can be a real curve ball in your business.  But I am writing this to be optimistic.  To show all of the others who are in the same boat as I am in, to continue to work hard and be creative and diversified with your income opportunities.

1.  NC Tax Laws that Affiliate Marketing Efforts.

The good ole law makers in NC, did not even know what they were doing when they signed into law a new tax known as the nexus law or the Amazon tax.  It was called the Amazon tax because every single Amazon affiliate in North Carolina was fired because of the noose it would tie around Amazon’s neck.  Ok, sure they could have afforded it.  But the tax was very unconstitutional.  Basically NC wanted them to charge a tax to people living in NC even though Amazon is not based in NC.  By having affiliates in NC, the law says that they had a physical presence here.  Now besides that fact that that is completely absurd, we as affiliates do not constitute a physical presence nor were we employed by Amazon. We were merely advertisers, but NC is broke and greedy so they were delusional enough to believe this was a good idea.  Now they are getting ZERO from Amazon and losing a lot of affiliate’s income to other states, putting NC further in debt.  Nice move.

2.  FCC Regulations on Affiliate Marketing

This one is not as much an obstacle as it is just a pain in the neck.  The FCC decided that every time we link to an affiliates website we need to specify  that it IS in fact an affiliate link.  And nothing will encourage a visitor to click a link like “Hey, we make money when you buy this and our statements are probably all lies just because we want to make money off you”.

They have not specified exactly HOW they want us to reveal we are being compensated, as long as we do I suppose.  It just means there are thousands of web pages to go through from the past 2-3 years to make all of these changes and make even less money while we are at it.  It seems the government is dead set on killing affiliate marketing, and this is why it’s more important than ever to get involved with local and federal governments and link up with others who want freedom to run our businesses.

3.  Google Adwords Hates Affiliate Marketing Too

So I just got the email from Google Adwords that they have stopped all of my campaigns because the landing pages had poor quality.  I checked them and not only were they filled with unique and relevant content, but it was offering a lot of great free information to the general public as well.  But apparently they do not like it when your landing page links to another site or encourages visitors to click to another site.  Even though this is more money for them, they are cracking down on affiliates, making it near impossible to rely on Adwords as a great source of traffic any more.  Looks like it’s time for us all to turn to Bing.  If Google weren’t such a great search engine I would boycott the thing.  But I do find myself using Bing more and more, if nothing else.. just out of spite.

So what do you all think?  Have you had to face one of these 3 obstacles in your affiliate marketing as well?  Let us know with a comment below.

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Put together by Steven Clayton, Article Blueprint is even easier to use than UAW and I also found I could write articles quicker with it and rewrites as well because of how the articles are rewritten paragraph at a time.

For $67 month you can use UAW, but for only a fraction of that you can use Article Blueprint and use the extra money to outsource the article writing.   But I don’t just use AB by itself.  Steve has a whole arsenal of backlink building tools at your disposal.  For $147 month you get Article Blueprint, Blog Blueprint, Social Bookmarking Blueprint and tons of other tools I won’t even have time to get into here.

Blog Blueprint is a more affordable version of Linkvana and works in the same way with a blog network of PR3-PR6 blogs which are aged.  You supply the content and get some high quality one way backlinks for it.

Ok, here is the sweet part.  With Social Bookmarking Blueprint built in, you can automatically have social bookmarks made to the links on both Blog Blueprint and Article Blueprint and get those links indexed faster, which means you will start ranking for your keywords faster.

I have never seen powerful SEO tools like this all under one roof, so take advantage of this deal while it is still open with a low price.

Get All These SEO Tools Here with the IM Advantage!

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There are always new affiliate networks coming out, new social media marketing tactics, and new “tricks” that someone has uncovered that can easily distract you from your bread and butter.  And what is your bread and butter?  It’s doing what you KNOW makes money.  What has been proven for you.

If you are always chasing that next new project, then your current projects will NEVER reach their full potential.  Staying focused on what business you have already built can make the difference in making huge amounts of wealth with the internet.

So what do you do when you are starting to loose your focus and get distracted?

Here are the two things I concentrate on the most when this happens to me:

1.  Content

2.  Backlinks

You should know by now that this is the lifeblood of your business.  Stop doing one or the other and your traffic can slowly dry up.  By chasing too many “new secrets” your backlinks and content efforts will suffer.

Add new content to your sites no matter how tedious it may seem.  Yes, it’s hard to write and write about the same old topic all the time (that’s why it is important to write about the things you love).  But you don’t have to do all the writing yourself.  I am seeing the awesome power of outsourcing first hand.  More and more I am hiring other people to do that tedious work for me so I can focus on the business as a whole.  When you own over 40 websites it can be a little overwhelming, but by hiring good writers on elance.com or any other site you are able to focus on keyword research and finding this sub niche markets in your niche.

And don’t forget about those backlinks.  Whether your method is profile backlinks, asking webmasters for links, using a blog network,  forum posts or anything else, you should try to diversify your links and make it a habit.

When backlinking and content building are a habit, your business cannot help but thrive.  No matter how many distractions are around you, never forget those two things.  Trust me, someday you will find yourself lost in a sea of distraction with your affiliate marketing progress, and you will remember those 2 basic building blocks for the success of your business, and you will be glad you read this.

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I decided to do a case study and try out the linking service on 4 of my websites with keywords I wanted to rank higher for.    During this case study using Blog Blueprint was my ONLY source of link building, so I knew the results were from this exact service.

Each site received 5 backlinks a day for 2 weeks.  At the current time, only 20 links a day will be published on the system, so I chose to put 5 backlinks on each of the four sites.  If you were to use all of these links towards one site, I am sure you would see even better results.

And here are the results in Google:

Keyword #1:   moderate competetion

Search Engine results in quotes :  369,000

Ranking before Blog Blueprint:  Page 4  #3

Ranking after 1 week:  Page 2  #7

Ranking after 2 weeks: Page 2  #3

*****************************

Keyword #2:  Little Competition

Search Engine results in quotes: 90,000

Ranking before Blog Blueprint: Page  7  #2

Ranking after 1 week:  Page 6  #5

Ranking after 2 weeks:  Page 2  # 7

Update:  Currently, I am on page 1 #7 for this keyword, and this is after I stopped building links to the page with BB.

********************************

Keyword #3:   Moderate to Heavy Competition

Search Engine results in quotes: 484,000

Ranking before Blog Blueprint:  Page 17  #5

Ranking after 1 week:  Page 12  #5

Ranking after 2 weeks:  Not listed in first 20 pages

Ranking after 3 weeks:   Page 8  #6

********************************

Keyword # 4:  Light to Moderate Competition

Search Engine results in quotes: 45,000

Ranking before Blog Blueprint:  Page 3 #3

Ranking After 1 week:  Page 1  #10

Ranking after 2 weeks:  Page 1 # 7

*********************************

Summary:

So as you can see, I was able to get results.  And even though Keyword #3 was in the sandbox for a few days (all a part of Google’s Dance)  it was back to ranking a few pages higher in no time.  This is a great tool to use for anyone who can’t seem to get their sites to budge in the rankings.  For the super high competitive keywords, Blog Blueprint probably will not be able to get you listed #1 in Google, but for any keyword with even decent competition you can beat out your competitors with this.

I got lazy and stopped writing those 100 word posts right now, but I am still seeing boosts in the rankings for the 4 keywords and I am able to make money off them as well, so it has been well worth the investment as my ROI has been considerable.

Blog Blueprint with extra bonuses:

Here is the cool part.  Right now you can get Blog Blueprint (which is like Linkvana), Article Blueprint (which is like UAW), Social Bookmarking Blueprint and a ton of other tools and resources for one small monthly fee that is the same price as Linkvana.

Check out all these Internet Marketing tools under one roof here!

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These CPA offers are easy to promote because the consumer does not have to buy anything.  They are simply looking for information and will often be glad to fill out a small form to get the information they are looking for.  Companies in CPA networks and affiliate marketing networks will pay you for these leads and they are the ones who will try to sell them something down the road.  So yes, you do the easy part, and they do the hard part… making the sale.

But with all of the CPA networks out there popping up all the time it can be hard to know where to start or what network to join first.  That’s why I recommend starting out with ShareaSale first.  They have over 2,000 pay per sale affiliate programs and over 200 CPA programs that will pay you for leads as well.  It’s a top notch company and always pays out on time as well.

Get sign up with ShareaSale Here.

Once you join them you will see those 200 plus CPA offers to join and see which one fits your niche market the best.  They are very transparent and you can see the EPC (earnings per click) for the last 7 days and 30 days for each product, as well as the average commission on each sale or lead.  I have found their tracking to be very accurate and has never let me down yet.  Besides this, once you join you can promote the company and get commission on all the affiliates that join and make sales themselves.  A win-win for everyone.

So go head and Get signed up with ShareaSale Today.

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I have a site that is in position #1 for my main keyword in Google right now and ever since it has been #1 has been making me a solid $100 a day.  (Now let’s just hope it stays there.=)  Do you know how much I was making on that site when it was in position # 20 a few weeks ago… Zip!  Not a dime.  So you can see why SEO should be a regular part of your day if you are an internet marketer, an affiliate marketer, or just a person who wants more targeted traffic to your site.

So the question is, “Should you BUY text links?”  This debate will go on long after this article, but you need to know the skinny on this topic.

Some marketers will say to never do it because it will hurt your rankings of Google finds out, but these same people have never even tried it to find out.

First, if you are working with a reputable company your links will be discrete and will not be branded as being bought.  Secondly,  having some good anchor text in your text links can propel your site to position #1 MUCH faster than old fashioned Search Engine Optimization ever could.  Old fashioned being to just wait for other people to link to you and not building any links yourself.

You will never make solid money this way, and this is why.  There is more competition out there all the time and THEY are buying text links on high PR websites and shooting their sites to the first page of Google and rakingin the dough.  By the time you wait for your website to be at the top spot in Google, that niche may be dried up and worthless.   I have learned that 1 week being number 1 in Google or Yahoo or Bing is better than being number 12 for a few months.  In that one week you will probably make more than you would have made the entire year on the second page of the SERPs.

I do not normally recommend buying text links, but if you need your sites to be propelled to the top of the search engines in a short period of time, this may be an option for you.  Just make sure you do it professionally and work with only the best company out there.  Which company is this?  Good question.  If you have any suggestions lets us know below.

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Well first of all you need to see that your content has value, and as tempting as it is to put all of your articles on Ezine Articles and get an immediate traffic boost, it can be just as useful on your website for the long haul.

So what happens if you post an article on your blog or website and then add the exact same article to an article directory?  Can they both get indexed and rank in the SERPs?  In short, yes.

I won’t say the duplicate content is a myth, but it is a very misunderstood concept.  Even if you have  a website that consists completely of duplicate content or PLR articles, you can rank and get organic traffic.  The key is backlinks.

As a little experiment you can find an article that is indexed online and put that same article on your site.  Build as many quality backlinks as you can to it and in a few weeks you will see your article above the one in the directory.  Of course, this will depend on the competitiion of the keywords.  This can really be a waste of time for the average person though.  It’s been done time and time again.  You can take any duplicate content and rank for it on your own website.

So why don’t we all just use someone else’s content online?  Well, even though you can rank for dup articles it will take a lot of work to outrank the current content online.  And the quality of your content should always take first priority as well.

Focus on creating articles that you would want to read yourself.   Always keep the reader in mind rather than the search engines.  This way you will not just get people to stay longer on your site and improve your bounce rate, but you can also build a following of people who are addicted to the great content you produce.

So don’t be afraid to use dup content every once in a while.  It will not hurt your website and you just might outrank the original content that was indexed.  I would not build a site exclusively with it, but myth about it just might be true after all.

What do you think about duplicate content?  Have you used it and experienced any bad side effects from the search engines?

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You might pour 2 hours of time into the content of your article to make it absolutely perfect and to make sure that no moderator in his right mind would reject it.  If you spend that same kinf of energy into writing the resource box you will see a major increase in click thrus.  After all, the whole point in publishing your article is not so the rest of the world can appreciate your fine writing skills, but to send them to your site.

So how can you get those readers to click the links?

Well one common mistake is to fill the resource box with biographical information that– yawn– no one cares to read.  I know that Ezine articles says you need to write a bit about yourself but this is completely voluntary.  If your purpose is to build a big name for yourself than you can put in a killer bio, but if the point of the article is to generate more traffic to your site than you need to make a few changes.

Make the resource box feel like an extension of the article instead of a completely separate entity.  For instance, you can say something like, “… and another good reason to find quality backlinks can be found here…”  This way you are doing the whole “to be continued” routine that gets us hooked on pointless shows on TV.  The article on Ezine is part one and to read part 2 they have to visit your site.

Use a call to action in the resource box as well.  Ezine articles has millions of articles on it and you have worked hard enough just to get your article seen by a human being.  Now you have to give them a reason to click your link.  When you write you should always put yourself in your readers shoes.  Ask yourself, “why would someone want to click on this link?”  If you don’t have a good answer than don’t expect someone else to.

Don’t sound like a salesman.  Although you need to have a call to action it should be a soft sell.  Otherwise, even if they click the link they are on the defensive and ready to fend off any offer you hurl at them.  Be as personable as possible because they will relate to you more and be more inclined to listen to what you have to say on your landing page or squeeze page.

Some of the best advice on getting more clicks from your ezine articles I found from the Ezine articles underground manifesto.  It details all kinds of strategies for getting more views as well as more clicks and how to get your article approved every time in very little time.  Worth a look if you ask me, as Dean has done a great job with this program.

As much as you need to have content on Ezine articles for traffic you should be building up your own site content as well.  Google loves a website that is updated regularly.  I know, I need to take that to heart and update this blog more.  But I am too busy earning a living on my other sites.

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