My E-Marketing Blog

Being an Amazon Affiliate

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:54:00 +0000

I've now been an Amazon affiliate for over 2 years, and I have to say that I started seeing considerate sales only this year around. The first year I was wary of it, as I am with any NEW thing I try out. Because of this, I didn't have many affiliate links embedded on my sites -- just one here and there. Then I saw my first sale and I was tempted to test out more product links related to my niche topics. Yet, I shied away from taking Amazon too seriously, because I had heard horror stories of how the checks never reached your place especially if you resided in India. Only after I received my first check, that I knew this was a real deal -- even for Indians. It takes around 2-3 weeks for me to get Amazon check. It arrives faster than Clickbank's, and more or less the same time as Google AdSense, ShareASale checks.

If you are thinking of becoming an Amazon affiliate, and are feeling apprehensive of the whole thing -- don't be! If I can get checks whilst staying in a rural place in India, so can you! But yes, you can't expect yourself to get sales by carelessly dropping in links all over your site. The product HAS to be related to what your niche topic is about. For example, you can't expect to sell a Paulo Coelho book when your blog is all about sports. If someone has landed on your sports blog after searching for a sports-related topic on Google, they're more likely to purchase a product that is related to your theme. This is one of the first lessons that I've learnt in affiliate marketing.

I've seen a number of newbie blogs where the author talks about everything under the Sun and then drops in an affiliate link for Amazon Kindle. If you ever get a sale out from those links -- it's pure luck. More often than not, you are NOT going to get a sale for those.

Here are some tips -

1. Search for products that are related to your niche. For example, if your blog is about wedding ideas and supplies, look for products that are useful for weddings.

2. Don't just drop links. I've seen that web pages that have loads of content tend to perform well in terms of sales as opposed to those that don't. So yes, use affiliate links, but take your time in explaining why YOU think they're useful. This is probably one of the reasons why affiliate marketing is not for lazy marketers -- coz you need to convince the visitor why your product is useful through your words as quickly as possible. Why quickly as possible? The attention span of readers browsing through the Web is not so good. They are mostly scanning through pages and if they find that a page doesn't convey what they are searching for in the first few seconds of this "scanning" phase - then quick exit left (or right) it is!

3. Do proper keyword research. If you are targeting a general topic, you won't get anywhere. There are loads of competition for keywords like "wedding", so narrow things down a little. What type of wedding supplies do you want to target? There are so many themed weddings happening nowadays, perhaps you should target one particular theme? I will tell you how I do keyword research in another blog post altogether. After doing your keyword research, you can start a blog on the same topic and include appropriate products.

4. One of my favorite features on Amazon affiliate progam is the ability to link to any page using the cute "Link to this page" option at the top left of the screen of Amazon.com. This saves you a lot of time and you needn't keep going back to the affiliate program to build customized links. Use this as often as possible. You can link to a whole results page, or you can target any one specific product.

5. People love pictures. If you want to use a picture of the product on your site, use the 'Image link' after clicking on the "Link to this page" option. Select size "large image" and copy paste the code to your page. People tend to click on pictures that they like, and if they do -- they'll be taken directly to the product page.

Why Starting A Blog Can Work Wonders For You

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:50:00 +0000

This is the 2nd time this week that I have been contacted for a job proposal. When I ask these people where they got my info from and how they came to know that I love digital marketing, prompt comes the reply - "From your blog!". Gone are those days when employers seek out potential employees from just the online job portals. They are scouring the Web for people who are passionate in doing their work. This is a good sign for people like me who have a certain passion when it comes to work and are looking forward to entering the same zone even when it comes to working in a professional environment. I'm a software engineer by profession but my passion? You might've already guessed that one out -- I've given enough clues already.

I'm not saying dump all your personal stuff and professional jabbers into one single space. The Web is so vast, why not register a different spot altogether for your passion? Set up a new blog or website and start talking about your work. Not many will be interested, but you are putting your knowledge out there on a public platform for the world to see. If you are confident enough to talk about your abilities, employers might just give you that second glance when they hop over to your site.

I have also found that starting a blog which is updated regularly does wonders for a person's business. Just recently I read an article on how Flipkart rose to fame and how they got their initial customers by doing cracking SEO research. The site had a feed on their site which pulled in fresh content from Yahoo! News on related topics. You can check waybackmachine here to see the Yahoo news feed embedded at the bottom of the page. The search engines used to view this as Flipkart updating its site on a regular basis with original content, and if you have done your little research on SEO you will know that the search engines like Google absolutely lurrrrvveee frequently updated sites and blogs. Later on Flipkart had to pull that widget out because it went against Yahoo's terms of the feed being used on a commercial site. Then again, they could have also used a feed for their blog and more or less have achieved the same results provided it was updated frequently.

Whatever it is, if you are someone who is looking forward to rise in business or your profession or just about anything -- you need to get out there and advertise yourself on many platforms as possible. Online marketing is just not an option anymore. Creating your own niche blog or site can be a start.

...So what are you waiting for? :-)

Getting One-Way Links

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Sat, 28 May 2011 14:53:00 +0000

If you are going to promote any product -- yours or as an affliate marketer -- you need to have a model in mind. I usually write down the things I need to do, and this somehow makes the entire process more clear to me. If you want to promote your main website, it is necessary to have many one-way links to the site. Each one-way link to your main website is like a virtual vote, and depending on the number of these "votes" Google determines whether or not your website is useful.

There are many softwares out there that promise one-way links with just a click of a button and other such crap - don't fall for that. Even if it's a lot of work, you need to naturally build up one-way links to your site because search engines likes it that way. An effective way to do this is by writing short articles on high PR sites. For example, I would totally recommend writing on Squidoo and HubPages and pointing them towards your main website. These sites get a lot of traffic and you can make use of it to redirect the traffic you get to the main landing page.

Coming back to the business model, this is a basic one which I have created (for your understanding).

Here, S=Squidoo (A PR 7 Site), H=Hubpages (A PR 6 Site), and E=EzineArticles (Another PR6 Site) and MW=Your Main Website. As you can see, there are one-ways links from S->H, and H->E. You can even create one more from E->S. All three are pointing towards the main site. Now try adding more Squidoo lenses, Hubs and Ezine-articles with all of them pointing towards your main website. It is recommended though to use different platforms to create one-way backlinks. Other sites you can use include - Tumblr, Blogspot and Amplify. There are many such sites out there that you can use for free and which have a good ranking. Of course, this work can get tedious and most affiliate marketers like to employ others to do the dirty work for them.

A Sureshot Way to Earn Income from eBay!

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:34:00 +0000

I have to start this post by saying that I haven't yet implemented this technique. But I'm sure it will work out if you promote the right products. It seems very doable! The good thing about this technique is that you don't have to write any long articles for selling items. If you suck at writing but still want to earn money online, then this is the method for you! I would love to start a small business on eBay some day and I'm planning on implementing this very technique. I read through a report the other day which mentioned how you can earn some guaranteed income by making sales through eBay using a certain methodology. The person sells branded clothes/accessories. People (women especially) love shopping for these and the demand for these items never dies down! This is why selling clothes is one of the profitable niches on eBay. If you want to earn more money, you can try selling electronic items.

Here's what you need to do in order to sell clothes for a profit on eBay -

1. You get best quality, branded items from malls. You need to raid these malls when there's a huge sale going on. See a 70-80% off sale at an outlet? Get in there and check some of the items out. By getting branded items for a sale, you can make sure that the items you're going to sell on eBay are going to be of good quality. You wouldn't want to sell cheap quality clothes to your clients on eBay and get a bad rating in return -- BAD for your business!

2. You HAVE to get items with the original price tag on them. You don't want your customers to see the sale price tag and think that they got ripped off their money or something! Yes, this is how business is done -- you need to handle things with tact!

3. Take a nice, clear picture of the item using a digicam. Don't have one? Borrow your friend's! The picture should be well lit and of perfect clarity. Somehow people tend to mistrust a vendor for taking shady pictures. Maybe they think that sellers are trying to hide a flaw in the product by taking unclear pictures? Whatever the reason, it has been proven that products with a clear picture tend to attract more sales than those which don't!

4. Select a price less than the original price of the branded item. This is to ensure that the customers believe that your offer is juicy enough to be taken into consideration! Suppose a product's original price was 120 and now it's 60 after a discount. You can sell it for $100 (take the shipping charges in account too and add it to the price).

5. Select a payment mode. Most sellers on eBay use PayPal because it is fast, secure and easy! I'm really worried about the new rule set by RBI for PayPal users in India though. Online revenue more than $500 not accepted per transaction? That just sucks big time and I believe this is going to affect a lot of business owners online. Hopefully, this case will be rectified soon.

6. Pack it up nicely and ship away! You will have to do a little research yourself on how much shipping charges will cost you though.

The people who have followed this method have said it has worked every time for them! I plan to do it soon and my husband fortunately sounds enthusiastic enough to contribute :D Let's see how it turns out. Will keep you posted.

What are You Willing to Do for 5 Dollars?

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 20:47:00 +0000

I recently started using Fiverr.com and I have to say I'm very impressed. You can offer your services at the site for 5 dollars, or you can get tedious tasks done for you for 5 dollars. This is what makes the site so popular -- you get anything and everything for just 5 dollars! I decided to try it out and started a new 'gig'. Within a matter of a day or two, I had an order! The point is to create gigs which others will find a steal for 5 dollars. For example, I'm quite good at creating hubs and Squidoo lenses, so I offered to create new pages for $5. Since I'm an expert now in using these platforms, it doesn't take much time for me to publish new pages whereas it might not be the same case with people who are new but have no time to learn how to use these powerful marketing tools. The result? You get orders!

Fiverr.com pays you via PayPal. After you deliver the work, payment is cleared only after a few days (which is not so good, but still you get paid!).

What type of services should you offer at Fiverr?

Something which is easy for you to do - You wouldn't want to waste too much of your precious time for just five dollars!
Something which can be completed in a jiffy! - But you have to be sure that people will find this service of yours valuable.

Examples -

Writing articles. - NOT 1000 word articles or anything! But you wouldn't want to make them too short either. A 300-500 word article is apt.
Creating videos of yourself giving away testimonials of a product or a website. - Everyone is on the lookout for creating videos especially Internet marketers!
Designing simple graphics. - What's a webpage without one?
..... Anything and Everything!!! You might be surprised at some of the 'gigs' you find there!

You Have to Be Careful About -

People who try to trick you out of more than what is mentioned in the gig - They will say things like 'Oh! I misunderstood the gig! I was actually looking out for more'. Don't fall for that! It's just a way of making you feel guilty and do more work than required! :)
Be sure the gig you started is something that you can actually do! - There is a set delivery time for each gig within which you will have to complete your task. If not, you will just earn a bad rating and that does your profile no good!

If you are looking for a quick five dollars, I would recommend you to hop over to the site and offer your services. It's a legitimate money making site which is getting really popular nowadays.

Additionally to help you, here's a video tutorial on how to use Fiverr. The guy offers some helpful tips for Internet marketers on how to get the best out of Fiverr -

12 Crowdsourcing Websites for the Person Seeking Quick Money Online!

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 20:29:00 +0000

Most probably you don't have the patience to work consistently online -- or maybe you just don't have the time! I had already talked about Amazon Turk earlier, and mentioned how you can use the crowdsourcing site to earn some quick cents for each task you complete. Now there are plenty of other similar crowdsourcing websites that are similar to Amazon Turk, though not as popular, which you can try out. Amazon Turk doesn't have the option of sending money to your PayPal account but you will be pleased to know some of the programs mentioned on this list have that very option.

What are Crowdsourcing Websites?

If you are relatively new to anything connected to earning income online, then you might not still know what crowdsourcing is all about. Crowdsourcing websites are those sites which help an employer delegate his tasks to people who are seeking small part-time jobs in return for monterary compensations. This money is not huge -- because the job in parts is outsourced to numerous other people.

Are these Crowdsourcing Websites Free to Join?

They absolutely are! Well -- most of them anyway! If at all you come across sites that ask you for money in exchange for job offers - don't fall for the trap! You need not pay to offer YOUR help to others.

Which are the Different Crowdsourcing Websites?

There are many! But some of the websites I have tried include -

1. Amazon Turk - They have a huge list of tasks available and you can complete them in a jiffy. The best of the lot without a doubt!

2. CloudCrowd - This is an application on Facebook which has a limited number of tasks available on a given time period. They send money directly to your PayPal account. There is no minimum payout level and you get paid immediately. I couldn't do too many tasks in there. Reasons? They gave me a task to do initially as a test, and I was just interested in testing out THEIR site. :) I got paid for my sloppy work immediately but I didn't get enough credit to be considered capable for other available tasks in there. Maybe this crowdsourcing website will work out better for you if you pay careful attention to each task you perform!

3. Clickworker - Payment is done via PayPal. I have joined this site, but haven't got any tasks till now. They have more country-specific tasks I guess.

After testing out a few other websites, I found out that they offer the same kind of tasks with no variety as opposed to Amazon Turk. Most of them include spams -- which include completing surveys and redirecting you to outward sites. I came across these other crowdsourcing sites similar to Amazon Turk and the ones mentioned above which I haven't been able to test as yet. Maybe you will be more interested in trying them out.

4. Agent Anything
5. MiniJobz
6. MyEasyTask
7. MyMicroJob
8. MiniFreelance
9. CrowdFlower
10. DoMyWork
11. 99Designs
12. Innocentive (Pay is huge but tasks are tough and challenging; Science related)

I would still only recommend Amazon Turk as the ultimate crowdsourcing website! But if you are interested in checking out some others, then you might as well try some of the mentioned sites.

My First E-Marketing Book

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:08:00 +0000

I'm wary of spending money online for info products. I'm sure many of you are too! They are so many scams out there and when it comes to info products -- they are more or less the same. Old wine served in a brand, sparkling new bottle you can say! Fortunately, I had taken a resolution to buy a good e-marketing book only after earning a bit of cash online. When I started getting paid by Squidoo, I thought it was time I got some advice from the experts. I needed to know more, learn more and I needed to get notes from the successful. By that time (thanks to a lot of reading!) I was already aware of how to figure out which products were scam and which were not.

'One Week Marketing' by Jennifer shows you how you can market Clickbank products effectively to get a sale within a week or so. The ebook doesn't chalk out stuff like study books. It contains email conversations which she had with one of her students which show how she helped that student out progressively to get his first sale online using Clickbank. I had started implementing her method at the beginning of this year (Feb to be exact), and got some sales. Not within the advertised period of ONE week though ;) It took me two weeks to get a sale, but since my Clickbank earnings stats were less than ordinary, I was absolutely thrilled that a method was working out for me. Here are the stats -

I have only highlighted the sales which were accrued by using 'One Week Marketing' method. As you can see, I earned my first sale using 'One Week Marketing' by 16th of Feb this year. Don't get misled by the total earnings. Those come from various other clickbank product promotions and methods, and not from OWM strategy by itself.

Jennifer makes sure that she gets your full attention by using conversation snippets. It's like peeping into another person's private chat transcripts. Interesting for gossip seekers like us ;) This gives a sort of feel that she's sharing something really personal with you. A thing to be taken note of if you're into Internet marketing? Stats show that people like personal accounts on matters and that they find lecture-like articles boring. This maybe why OWM is so popular -- because it doesn't bore you with lectures plus it gives out private and personal details which makes you, the buyer, feel like as if you have been given the biggest secret to IM success.

Apart from the ebook, you also get some extras like mind maps, check list and an action plan. These resources will help you out further in achieving your target in an organized manner.

If you are an expert in IM, you wouldn't need the book. But if you are a newbie who is still searching for a method that's apt for you, then maybe OWM will do wonders for your online business. You can't really expect results in the first week, but it's guaranteed that you'll get some sales in the following weeks provided you do all the steps mentioned.

Official Site - One Week Marketing

PayLoadz or E-Junkie? - The Best of the Two!

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:19:00 +0000

I have been using PayLoadz till now for safe paid downloads of digital products for my customers. Now imagine my frustration when I checked the site one day to see it was down! Now think about the situation when a possible customer comes to your site, clicks on the download link only to see it's not working. Blergh!

I just googled 'PayLoadz down' and while going through the sites, I saw someone mentioning e-junkie. Now I don't know why I didn't do my research properly before and it's only now I'm seeing numerous people complaining about sucky customer support at PayLoadz. Anyway, I never did contact their customer service because c'mon if the server is down (or maybe my account exceeded the allowed bandwidth limit? hmmm!) they should at least send across a mail informing me about the same!

The pricing at e-junkie.com also seems much much better! They have a fixed rate depending on the number of products which you make available for download. There's no fees involved with each sale you make (which is so good!). I'm on a free trial of its service for now depending on which I will decide whether or not to pay for it. I'm liking it so far. More payment options are available if you use e-junkie.com. Let's see if this one faces any problem. Will keep you updated!

Why, Where and How To Delegate/Outsource Your Online Work

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 17:38:00 +0000

When I feel too lazy to do my own work, at times I just delegate. Not that I can afford to do that all the time nowadays but with the 'extras' that come per month I try to make my online work a wee bit simpler.

All the marketing gurus out there will tell you how it is important to delegate your work so as not to feel stressed out. Being an internet marketer can be really hectic if you end up managing all your blogs, sites and content all by yourself. This can take loads of hours and you'll feel all burned out in no time.

Here are some useful and legitimate websites where you can hire people to do stuff for you -

1. Constant Content - If you are looking for high quality unique articles, you might want to purchase them from Constant Content. They offer really good articles which are keyword rich and search engine optimized. They don't come cheap but they're still worth it. You can either get them with full rights (no one else will ever get to download the article from constant-content again if you purchase full rights) or with usage rights (people can download them even after you purchase). Usage fees are lower than full rights and you can pay for articles using PayPal.

2. Amazon Turk - I had talked about Turk before and I had already mentioned that it's a great place to delegate your work because writers write for you dirt cheap. High quality of content is not assured but you can delegate other simple tasks using Turk. You get to accept or reject a person's work.

3. Elance - This is another great place to outsource your work. Loads of people are looking for work at elance and you get some well established writers too. You have to post your request first and then workers start sending your proposals (which includes their work fee etc.). You can then monitor their work using the user workshop.

4. Freelancer - This is similar to elance but not as popular. I haven't used it till now but it seems trustworthy.

5. Forums - If you don't want to advertise anywhere about what your work, then you might want to check out forums. You can get some of the best deals on articles and other services at internet marketing forums like Warrior Forum and DigitalPoint. These two sites are the best forums in online marketing and people are always handing away special deals and offers. Keep an eye out for them!

The Importance of Forums and Clearing Your Doubts

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 10:09:00 +0000

I don't have any mentor when it comes to online marketing. This meant hours of researching online, learning from my own mistakes and rectifying them. But at times it's possible to end up having questions for which you won't find answers anywhere... not even on the first two pages of Google search results. What do you do then?

If you check out my earlier posts, you will find out how highly I talk about PotPieGirl(Jennifer) and Tiffany Dow. You can learn a lot by going through their blogs. I had a question regarding marketing e-books, which Jennifer answered immediately when I mailed her. I had a PayPal question for which Tiffany offered a solution through e-mail within a matter of hours.

The point is, these people are helpful. If you have someone you look up to, then ask for their help when you're really stuck with something. This way you are not wasting much time and energy for researching and you can use that amount of time for taking action. Remember not to flood these people through mail with questions though! You can't be lazy and depend on them for every single problem of yours.

The best option to clear all your doubts is through forums. There are many forums out there, but the best are -

1. The Warrior Forum - It's the forum where affiliate marketers thrive. You will find lots of useful info in there plus get the best solution for your e-marketing problems from some of the best internet marketers.

2. Digital Point Forum - This is also a very useful and popular forum.

3. Wickedfire - You can start posting new threads immediately after registration.

Check these forums out and find truck loads of info!

P.S : These forums contain so much info that it's easy to waste time there by going on reading for hours. Dedicate some time for learning and reading and then don't forget to test things out for yourself!

Submit Your Page or Website To Around 79 Websites With A Single Click - Social Poster

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 11:36:00 +0000

If you read my post on how to get your page indexed by Google within 24 hours, you will notice that I have mentioned social bookmarking your sites. This can be a really difficult task coz there are so many sites on the web. And mostly, you need to find those sites with a good PR and do-follow which will help in increasing relevant backlinks to your site.

In simple terms, more links to your website ----> getting indexed on Google faster (if lots of sites are linking to your page/site, Google will consider your site as a useful one and hence chances are your site will get indexed faster) ----> more traffic ----> more sales

If you do a quick search on google for dofollow social bookmarking sites you will get a detailed list across many pages. I just found out this website called SocialPoster.com which helps you submit your page to 79 social bookmarking sites with just a click. I just tried it now, so I am not sure how good it is. Webutation seems to give it a good ranking though [link]. Try it out!

Note : If you are planning to submit your site only to Dofollow sites you can click on the option found at the RHS of the page and only those sites will be marked. Your site will be sent only to those social bookmarking sites after submission. Use relevant keywords as tags.

Here's a screenshot -

Monsters Have Taken Over Squidoo!

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 09:53:00 +0000

Yup, you've heard it right! Monsters are taking over Squidoo... and I'm actually loving it! :D

They are not profitable (as in terms of cash), but they certainly are making the people at Squidoo more interactive. Most of them are trying to level up, which means there's more commenting on other lenses, taking active part in polls, discussions and what not. I love the increased interactivity.

Monsters pop up whenever you earn points -

Plus, you get cute monster trophies :D The idea of trophies seem to be inspired from Hubpage badges, but squidoo trophies are much more fun! If you're a giant Squid, then you automatically start from level 20. If you are a giant Squid with 100 lenses, then you automatically start from level 25.

You get points when -

1. You get comments on your lenses.

2. Someone 'likes' your lens.

3. People take part in your lens polls.

4. You publish a lens (a lot of points for this)

5. You like someone else's lens!

6. You comment on other lenses (interactivity increased coz of this)

7. People take part in your quiz.

Once you level up, you get special 'items' to unlock like lensrank turboboost. The highest level is level 80 and you really need a lot of points to reach that level. I am really enjoying the new Squidoo for now!

Basic SEO Tips - How To Know if Your Keyword Phrase is Popular

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 09:05:00 +0000

You will have to use a couple of SEO tools (all free) to know whether or not your keyword phrase is popular. The tools I use are -

1. Google Adwords Keyword Tool - Search for your keyword phrase and see if there are any searches. Global monthly searches should be above 1000, else you will just be targeting a keyword that's not popular among users.

2. SEOBook Keyword Suggestion Tool - I love this tool! If you type in a keyword it will give a range of related keyword suggestions for you and how popular they are. You can use one of these keyword suggestions if there's less competition on the web for the phrase.

3. Search Based Keyword Tool - This is a nifty little tool where you can find out how optimized your page is. Enter your webpage URL and see if it has popular keywords or not.

When you have a number of related keyword phrases on hand, try out the methods mentioned in Basic SEO Tips - Part 1 too to figure out the competition and finalize on the main keyword you want to focus on.

If you're undecided on what keyword phrase to use, then you can try -

1. Google Trends - See the most popular searches on Google and decide accordingly.
2. eBay Pulse - To see which products are popular on eBay.
3. Lycos - View current trends and create websites on them.

Basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tips For Your Web Page – Part 1 – Finding Out How Much Competition You Have For Your Specific Keyword Phrase!

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:09:00 +0000

If you are using sites like Squidoo and Hubpages, you really don’t have to worry too much about SEO. These sites are already well ranked and this only helps your page in getting noticed faster by search engines. My hubs tend to get indexed faster (usually within 24 hours) as compared to lenses, but I simply love the extra modules available on Squidoo that cater to my creative needs so I end up making lenses too.

What is SEO? It is optimizing your pages in such a way that is search engine friendly. Many people ‘Google’ for whatever they want, so keeping that in mind you need to make the search engines ‘like’ your page. Once your page is properly optimized, they arrive on search results faster and easier. For that you need to do some tasks prior to creating a web page. To get a clearer, more apt definition of SEO click here.

There are two ways in which you can make your page appear on search results -
1. The Organic Way - Where your site appears on one of the many pages of search engine results.
2. The Paid Method - Where you pay to ensure that your page gets maximum exposure on the first page. Try searching for something on Google, you can see some results appearing at the top right hand side of search results. These are sponsored links -- where people like us have paid to ensure max exposure to their pages.

I haven't tried the paid method yet and according to many experts, you shouldn't venture into it until many months of doing Internet marketing and SEO. I will be discussing about the 'natural/organic' method of SEO for now.

You can try some basic SEO tips and techniques mentioned below (keeping Google in mind since it’s the most used search engine) :

1. Go to Google.com and type your keyword phrase in the following format :

intitle:”keyword phrase” inanchor:”keyword phrase”

If you get less than 5000 results, it means you have less competition from others for the same keyword. Then, chances are you can obtain yourself a decent position on the first page of search results. Intitle is the syntax used to return pages that have the keyword phrase in their title and inanchor is the syntax which shows pages that have the keyword phrase as part of the anchor text (don't overexert yourself trying to figure out what all this means if you're a newbie -- you will get it later when you're more experienced).

Example : inanchor:"dogs" intitle:"dogs" will yield 4,990,000 results.

You shouldn’t even bother with this keyword (dogs) because there’s way too much competition.

2. Even if there’s less competition, you might want to check out the page rank of those web pages which are on the first page of results. Page Rank can be anywhere from 0-10. The higher the Page Rank (PR) the better the web page i.e, a page having PR 7 is better than a page having PR 1.

If the first page of results are filled with pages that are old (Google likes old pages – it’s like wine, the older the better for them ;)) plus having a good PR (PR 6 and more), it would be better to stay away from that keyword phrase too coz yup, as you guessed it – too much competition!

You can manually check the page rank of each web page result (first page only) using this page rank checker – [link]

But that is too tedious a task. I would recommended downloading Traffic Travis which does all this work for you (from obtaining page rank of search results to telling if you the competition is too much for a keyword phrase).

Next, I will be talking about how to see whether if people are actually searching for your keyword phrase or not! Stay tuned! :)

P.S : I crossed over $1000 last month for Squidoo alone. Adsense payment too is looking up. Yay! :D

Free Images and Where To Find Them

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 09:47:00 +0000

Most of us use pictures from Google search. If you notice carefully you might see a warning there that some pictures are subject to copyright. Certain pictures are NOT meant to be used whatever the reason maybe. You have credited the site for taking the photo? That doesn’t make it legal either. You have to take prior permission from the owner before using any picture from any site. The thing is, even if you take a picture from a site, you can never be sure that it’s actually theirs. You can see the same pictures displayed on a number of sites in search results. Is copyright infringement such a big deal then when all these people seem to be going against Internet rules and regulations?

Some photo owners (or let’s just say all) are very passionate about their work and are not really willing to share their art with anyone else. I take extra care while selecting images for my lenses and hubs because I market these pages heavily and I don’t want people to report my work for stealing their images. I earn money through these two sites and if I am serious about my work, I might as well go for legitimate stuff. Be safe than sorry.

Asking permission from owners can be a tedious task. I remember asking a Flickr owner if he would allow me to use his picture on a page of mine. That page was earning enough traffic and I told the user that I would credit him for the usage. He just replied with – ‘All of you only want free stuff!’. Now I dunno if he was looking forward to selling his photos online for him to act so pricey when I asked him to share a photo – but oh well, to each his/her own! I just thanked him for replying to my mail and got a photo from someone else.

If you don’t want to ask for image permissions from owners, you have to look out for sites that offer free images/clip arts. There are loads of sites out there that help you with the same. Here are some of them –

Stock.Xchng (http://www.sxc.hu)
LightBox (http://www.morguefile.com/archive)
Image After (http://www.imageafter.com)
Free Foto (http://www.freefoto.com)
Big Foto (http://www.bigfoto.com)
Digital Dreamer (http://www.adigitaldreamer.com)
Photo Rack (http://www.photorack.net)
Public Domain Picture (http://www.publicdomainpictures.net)
Public Domain Image (http://www.public-domain-image.com)
Open Photo (http://www.openphoto.net/)
Open Clip Art (http://www.openclipart.org)
Royalty Free Clipart (http://www.clker.com/)
Barry’s Clipart (http://www.barrysclipart.com/)
Photoshop Backgrounds (http://www.psdgraphics.com/)

You can use images or clip arts from these sites mostly for free, but some of them need you to credit their site for doing the same. Check the instructions carefully before using them.

And presenting MY favorite free image search engine –

Creative Commons Search (http://search.creativecommons.org/#) – You can alter your search results depending on what you’re looking for. If you want to use images for commercial purposes you might find some here after ticking on the respective box right next to the search box.

P.S : I don’t really bother with all of this when I am blogging but for affiliate marketing I make sure to use free images/clip art only.

Is Amazon Turk A Cash Machine?

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 10:22:00 +0000

I am always on the look out for legitimate programs online which help me in making some extra cash aside affiliate marketing. Internet programs are so unstable that you can't really place all your hopes on one single method of earning money. Anyone and everyone around the Web will tell you to multi-task, to try out new things and select the best from the few so you can eventually earn a substantial income from all of these sources.

One of the programs I came across online was Amazon Turk. If you want to earn some quick 'cents' you can do so here. Once you register you will get thousands of HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks) to choose from. After completing the task, your work will be on review for a day or two (or maybe even upto a week). If the requester likes your work, then your work will be accepted and you will be rewarded with the HIT money immediately. You can see these earnings on your dashboard. You can withdraw your money in Indian rupees albeit a processing fee (4 dollars). I transferred the money I earned from Amazon Turk to my Amazon Affiliate Program account as part of my gift certificate balance.

Amazon Turk is a 'quick' way to earn money but not LOTS of money. Each task will be worth anywhere from a cent (yeah, just a cent!) to 5 dollars each. I would say that Amazon Turk is highly useful if you want to get things done -- for delegation purposes coz you get your work done for a small amount. If you hate writing articles for affiliate marketing you can dump this work on others at Amazon Turk.

I am more interested in programs that will earn me money even if I am not using my comp all the time -- which is why I prefer affiliate marketing. But if you want some timepass and earn money without much hard work, go for Amazon Turk!

What You Should Keep In Mind While Using Amazon Turk

1. Always be cautious about tasks that offer a high reward (anything around 5 dollars or more). Scammers lurk around on Amazon Turk because there is no monitoring of tasks.

2. Try to do tasks that don't require you to visit an outside website. These tasks are safe, plus you don't have to unnecessarily waste time on scanning other websites.

3. Those tasks which require you to complete surveys on other websites should be avoided if possible. Some of them are legitimate but then some others are not. Legitimate ones do not usually require any registration on websites whereas the others do. These people earn money if you enter your details into the registration form with your personal details like phone number and zip code.. and you get nothing in return, just a whole lot of spam in your inbox.

4. If you feel comfortable with a particular type of task, try to do as many of them as possible. These tasks will get completed soon by other turkers and you won't find them again later on.

5. Don't do tasks if you are unsure of them. HIT approval rate plays an important role when it comes to acceptance for tasks. If you have a rate below 90 it might be difficult for you to get tasks to do.

6. Don't get misled by tasks that promise you a 'bonus'. No one has ever reported getting one.

I did this for 2 weeks or so (earned 18 dollars) but then got fed up of all the mechanical work and decided to let it go. In between work time maybe you can complete a task or two and be glad that you wasted your time in a productive manner ;)

Happy Turking! (Amazon Turk Link)

P.S : This new blog of mine crossed 1000 visitors. Cheers! :D

How To Get Your Adsense Account Approved In India

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 12:40:00 +0000

If you have been trying to get your Google Adsense account approved for months now, I won't be surprised. It was so much easier few years back. All you just had to do was fill out the form and you get approved immediately. Google is much more strict now when it comes to approving accounts and many Asian countries are suffering because of this.

Why are people from the Asian sub-continent being targeted? The primary reason for this is the rise of click frauds. If you have entered a program which pays you to click on ads, then you are doing something which is not allowed! If Google senses you are paying people to click on your ads, then your Google account can get banned forever. Stay safe, coz it can be VERY difficult (next to impossible) to get approved by Google again. I saw a member of a forum informing everyone that he saw a group on Facebook made by an Indian which pays people for clicking on his site ads. You can even see newspaper ads now and then where people claim you can get 'fast' money by joining their click fraud program. It really sucks that coz of these few people, all of us have to suffer for it. India tops the list when it comes to click frauds [link].

Things to keep in mind before applying for Google Adsense in India -

1. Your site or blog should be at least 6 months old. If it's not, rest assured your application will be rejected. A Google Adsense account is required on revenue sharing sites like Hubpages. Your Hubpages account in this case should be 6 months old too before you can apply for Adsense and should contain 6 months worth of information. A 6 month old site/blog with just a single post also won't get accepted. People in India have it rough, don't we? :(

2. If you want to put ads on your blog (blogspot) which contains loads of affiliate links then chances are your blog will get rejected inspite of waiting for 6 months.

3. Be sure that your site/blog has only original content.

4. Read the Google Adsense policies before applying. Are you following all the rules and regulations?

It is easier to apply for Google Adsense through Blogger. If you don't want to wait for 6 months then you can try the following (to be used only if you have a reliable relative/friend outside of India) -

1. Register a new gmail account. You have to choose the blog location as outside of India where your relative/friend resides.

2. Create a new blog.

3. Publish some 5-6 posts.

4. Apply for Google Adsense from your blog.

5. Wait for approval (it might take a day or two).

6. After approval, enter your friend's/relative's address and phone number. Changing the country later can be a big hassle so be dead sure about the address you want your details to be forwarded. A change of address and payee name is more easier. For changing country, you might have to submit a form again to Google and this new location should not include any Asian sub-continent.

7. You can then use the publisher account number on any site that you want.

8. Your friend/relative will be the one getting those Google Adsense PIN code and checks, that is why I stressed on the 'reliability' part ;)

I recently changed my location to Dubai on my Adsense account coz I will be there in few months time and it took nearly 2 weeks and 2 form submissions to get it changed. The first time I sent a submission, I got no response. I tried again after a week and got it changed by Google themselves. They require a little persuasion in some cases ;) Btw, I am really excited that if you are from UAE, then you can get Google Adsense money through Western Union Money Transfer. This means no more waiting for checks and you can get your money within a day after payment is issued. Yay :D

Hope this helps!

Time For Some Bum Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 13:31:00 +0000

If you were thinking of some x-rated material, then sorry to disappoint you - 'bum marketing' is a type of article marketing that e-marketers do to promote their products ;)

I will cut the lecture short (I know how boring THAT can be), and I will give you a really useful resource.

The best person to explain article marketing to you would be Travis who started it all. He is offering a short tutorial for absolutely FREE which explains everything about bum marketing and what bum marketers need to do. You will need to supply an email ID to get access to those free lessons.

If you haven't already created a separate gmail address for all your emarketing purposes, do so now. If you don't like the hurdle of managing multiple gmail accounts, use gmail filters instead. Another option is to create a new gmail account for e-marketing and then forward the mails in that account to your main gmail account.

Learn Bum Marketing From Travis

The 52 Week Challenge On Making More Amazon Sales Online

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:55:00 +0000

Did you know that most people SCAN through what they come across online, rather than read? Usually they are so busy to sit down and read properly, that they look around the page to see what appeals to them and then decide whether or not to read the entire document properly.

Why do they do this? Read the reasons here.

In order to get a person's full attention, a video can be highly useful. Of course, the video has to be interesting. Personally, I find those videos showing slideshows with bullets, numbering and fully hi-fi theory with no action plans mentioned as REALLY BORING! When I see a video, I want them to tell me what to do next. I want the person making the video to give me tasks to do, but not everyone does that. Finding such videos can then be really time consuming, but some of the videos which I have found have been really useful to me and in this post I am going to mention these very videos that are a must-see!

I came across Tiffany Dow's 52 Week Challenge Videos online from YouTube. They are short videos where Tiffany gives you tasks to do each day of the week.

The 52 Week Challenge here is to create a lens (that's right, only ONE lens) per week. And by the end of 52 weeks, you would definitely be doing quite well for yourself - provided you don't get lazy or give up! ;)

They come really jumbled up on YouTube so I thought I would arrange them for you to make things easier. The sequence you have to follow is -

52 Week Challenge Intro

Monday Tasks For The Challenge

Tuesday Tasks

What If There Is No Bestseller Category?

Wednesday Tasks Part 1

Wednesday Tasks Part 2

Wednesday Tasks Part 3

Making The Most Out Of The 52 Week Challenge

Squidoo - Your Questions Answered

Thursday Tasks

Keep An Eye On Your Squidoo Stats

Friday Tasks

Uploading To A Blog To Cross Promote Your Lens

Which Keywords Are Important To Rank High in Google

Using Labels To Separate Your Lenses

How To Promote Mother Lens and Baby Lens

Pulling in Related Keywords To Your Lens

These videos are simple to follow and are suitable for both beginners as well as experts looking to learn more. You won't get much tasks to do per day, so if you have a day job you can pretty well finish them up fast!

Happy learning! :)

How To Get Your Site/Page Indexed By Google Within 24 Hours!

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:23:00 +0000

Ok, this is the method that has worked for ME! Hopefully it will work out for you too.

Usually, sites/pages can take weeks if not months to get indexed by Google - if you don't do anything about it i.e. It's obvious that if you don't get any visitors, you won't get any sales! ;) I get my lenses indexed by Google within 24 hours by following the exact same methods as below:

1. Submit RSS feed URL to Feedage. In case of Squidoo lenses, you can get this URL by clicking the RSS feed button which you will see along with 'Email' and 'Favorite' button. Do the same at Feedest.

2. Promote your blog and site at 3StepAds. This site ranks well on Google, so you might want to make the most of it. You will have to register and after that you can write an article with your site URL mentioned in it.

3. Submit your page/site URL to :

a. Google

b. Bing

c. Yahoo

4. Use social bookmarking sites like Digg and Stumbleupon to promote your sites and pages. Even better, tweet about your page/lens!

5. Last but not the least, make sure to set a Google alert for your main site URL, so that you get to know when your site is indexed by Google. Getting notified by Google that you have got indexed by them - how cool is that? :D

6. Put the link of your website/page as your signature on forums and post relevant topics! This leaves a link of your website behind, and this helps!

Hopefully this well do. Try it out and let me know.

Why Staying Motivated Is Very Important While You're Marketing On The Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Sun, 30 May 2010 21:45:00 +0000

I have seen dozens of people complaining in forums on how they are not able to make enough money. When you ask them how long they have been into Internet Marketing, they say 2 weeks or maybe even shorter.

Let me tell you something from personal experience - I had told my relatives that I was keeping myself busy with Internet marketing for the last few months. They didn't seem interested then and just gave a very disinterested 'okay'. Now months later, when I told these very relatives how much I am earning, they all of a sudden want to know how it's done. But the problem is they are not willing to work for it. The result? They gave up after a try.

So you have tons and tons of info on your hands, and you keep on taking in info without any action -- will that work? Obviously, you will know everything about affiliate marketing but then again it won't work out for you when you thought it would. This is because there are so many methods and techniques out there to carry out e-marketing, and you can attain success only with 'some' of these methods and techniques. Unless or until you try you will never know what works for you and what does not.

If you are into affiliate marketing, staying motivated is important because :

1. It's not a get-money-quick-and-easy scheme.
2. You will need to work hard.
3. There are times when you can feel burned out, but if you keep a goal then you will be able to work towards it more effectively.

For starters, my target is to earn $500 a month (a very small achievable target) and I am almost there!!!!

If you are totally burned out and can't even move an inch further, I would suggest taking a break! Come back after a month or so, and you will see that you're able to perform better.

If you are feeling bored and lonely, why not go for it? If I can get something out of e-marketing, so can you!

Read success stories here.

The Affiliate Networks That Have Worked For Me!

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Sun, 30 May 2010 12:11:00 +0000

I am not here to list down dozens of affiliate networks that exist out there which I am skeptical about. All the links listed down here are legitimate and highly beneficial!

#1 - Amazon Affiliate Program

I get most of my sales using this program. You get almost anything and everything here but they offer a low commission as compared to other programs.

#2 - Clickbank

This program offers the highest comission - around 75%! Mainly because the products are digital which can be downloaded. I have made a few sales using Clickbank too. Presently I have only used a few Clickbank affiliate links because I wanted to test it out first. Now that I see it's working nicely for me, I intend on increasing the links to Clickbank products.

#3 - ShareASale

ShareASale can be confusing at first, but soon you will get the hang of it. You get thousands of programs to choose from in this network.

#4 - Commission Junction

Another great network with lots of programs to join. The interface is more simpler as compared to ShareASale but getting into programs can be tough if you don't get enough traffic to your site.

The last two - ShareASale and CJ - haven't worked that well for me. I barely make sales using these networks because I have so few links. But these networks have proved very beneficial for loads of other people.

Other Popular Affiliate Programs (which I haven't tried) :

PepperJam
LinkShare
Google Affiliate Network
AffiliateBot

After you get approved to an affiliate program, you will get HTML codes - banner links and text links - which you can copy paste onto your page or website. Then you're all set to promote your products!

Step 3 : Selecting Amazon Products To Promote

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Sun, 23 May 2010 23:31:00 +0000

So, now you know everything you need to know regarding Squidoo and Hubpages. What next? How about promoting some products related to the topic you wrote? Since Step 1 includes signing up with Amazon Associates, I am guessing here that you already have an account ready to use and benefit from.

How To Select Amazon Products To Promote

1. Go to Amazon.

2. Select a category which goes with your topic. Do you want to promote books or other items related to your topic? Select the category appropriately. As an example, I will choose Electronics -> TV & Video.

3. Go to the bestsellers list. These are the items you can earn a profit in because they are popular and people are actually looking for them online!

4. The more customer reviews there are for the product, the better! People like to read around a bit before they purchase stuff, so if you direct them to a product page you have to make sure that the landing page is effective enough -- customer reviews help in just that! On the same page, also check out 'Hot New Releases'. You will find more items (new ones) in there to promote.

On Squidoo

1. Use the Amazon Spotlight module (check modules list) for highlighting single products. These modules provide a bigger and a more attractive product display picture. I have made max sales using this module.

2. If you want to highlight multiple products use the Amazon module.

3. Make sure you have the following options enabled on Amazon modules - "Availability", "Ratings", "Used Price". I would recommend leaving out "List Price", because sometimes (rarely though) the list price might be lower than the Amazon Price. You don't want to drive your customers away with that info! ;)

4. Save.

On Hubpages

1. Load the Amazon capsule and enter the URL of the product.

2. Save.

Sharing Commissions With Squidoo and Hubpages

Since you're using Squidoo and Hubpages for promoting products, they take a part of your commission. If you want to earn the entire commission yourself, you will have to link products directly using 'Link This Page' option present at the top of each Amazon Page (you will have to be signed in to your affiliate account to view this). Then select 'Text Only' and post the code/link to Squidoo and Hubpages.

Learn How Squidoo Amazon Commissions Work.

With hubpages there is a 60-40 sharing of affiliate revenue. When you are using Amazon capsules, 60% of the time when the page loads, your affiliate code would be embedded in them, 40% of the time you will see the hubpages code. If you think you can avoid using Amazon capsules and use only the direct affiliate URL (as shown above), then think again -- Hubs allow only maximum 2 links to the same site (other than to hubpages of course!).

Hubpages - More Traffic Than Squidoo?

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Thu, 20 May 2010 11:37:00 +0000

Don't get me wrong. I am in no way comparing Hubpages to Squidoo or telling you that Hubpages is better. I like them equally, but if you are lazy and you intend on driving that extra income primarily through Adsense, then I would suggest Hubpages for you coz -

a. Hubs get more traffic than lenses. I have half the number of hubs as compared to lenses, but they are getting almost as much traffic from search engines. So yes, I would say my hubs get more traffic as compared to Squidoo and that they seem to get ranked on search engines faster. Hubpages is also ranked ahead of Squidoo at Alexa. Squidoo - #237 ; Hubpages - #230.

b. Hubs are easier to create. You just have to drag and drop modules without loading the page each time.

c. There is a WYSIWYG editor unlike Squidoo. If you want to add some HTML code of your own, you can do that too by clicking the 'source' option on text modules.

Since it's so damn easy to use, I won't be offering any help pages -- coz I am certain you won't need them. You can rearrange the modules or 'capsules' by clicking on the arrow buttons present at the top right corner of each capsule. Using these arrows you can adjust the width or arrange the capsules as right-aligned or left-aligned.

I have heard people getting their Adsense disabled on hubs that are overtly promotional, so try to avoid promoting too many products on your page and instead concentrate on using Hubpages to drive traffic to your site, blog or lens (which promotes such products) instead.

Just promoting stuff is not enuff, you have to market yourself -- go introduce yourself in the forums! Forums are the best place to be on both Squidoo and Hubpages... coz there is a wealth of information available there. Read a lot but don't forget the carry out the tasks! ;)

Need Some Motivation?

Janet is there at Hubpages too! - See her keeping track of her earnings at Hubpages.

I Squidoo. Do You?

noreply@blogger.com (Dhanya) — Fri, 14 May 2010 19:55:00 +0000

This is just a basic tutorial to tell you how to make lenses at Squidoo.

How To Create A Lens And How To Select A Page/URL Name

Creating a lens is easy. You can create lenses on anything and everything you want. If you want to promote your blog/site, set up a lens and write about it. Direct the easy traffic to your site and earn more readers.

All you have to do is click on 'Create A Lens' on your Squidoo dashboard and you are all set to go. Enter the topic title but when you are selecting the page name, make sure to separate words by a hyphen. Google likes this better as it is more comprehensible. Eg : If you want to a make a lens on your sports blog, then you might want to name it as 'sports-blog' (with the hyphen) instead of 'sportsblog'.

Modules and HTML

You will have to know some simple HTML code at Squidoo because as of now they don't have a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor like blogger has. Because of this editor we are able to make text bold, underlined, italic without having to do anything else other than a click... but it's not the same at Squidoo. You will have to add HTML code to add extra text effects.

If you dunno anything abt HTML, I would suggest the following pages -

Basic HTML For Squidoo
Advanced HTML For Squidoo
HTML For Photos
Borders For Squidoo Images

Go through some of the codes to make your lens more presentable, but it's really not required if you like things to be kept simple and clean.

You can add these codes to the introduction module plus any text module (you can see these modules to the right hand side of your workshop). You have lots of options when it comes to modules - "Text", "Text With Big Picture", "Video", "Twitter Search" etc etc. Always add a guestbook module for comments by the end. When you have lots of comments on your lens, it just increases your lens ranking.

Change Your Payment Settings (Important!)

Go to 'My Payments' tab on your Squidoo dashboard and enter your Paypal address properly plus edit your global lens settings where you can decide whether you want to get the entire money or you want to contribute a small part to charity. If you don't edit these settings, all your money by default will go to charity. I have seen on the Squidu forum, people complaining about all their money going to charity. It wouldn't have happened if they had checked their payment settings. ;) Get to know more about Squidoo Payments.

Finally, Some Recommended Reading -

1. Learn How Janet Made It Big At Squidoo. - This is a lensmaster who is vocal about her earnings per month. She has inspired a lot of people to take Squidoo seriously.

2. Learn Tips and Tricks From Jennifer - Another go-getter! I love her quote - "If you're willing to do for a year what others won't, you can do for a lifetime what others CAN'T!"

3. Captain Squid Blog - The best Squidoo blog!