Now Google analytics allows you to track visitors to your site live. This function is currently in beta but for most of you with existing accounts you should have a new look when you login to your back office. Inside your back office you will still see your daily, weekly, monthly and yearly reports however there is a new beta for live tracking. (No extra code is needed)

These new stats can be a bit tricky to find so here are the steps you currently need to take in order to find the new beta tools.

1. Login to you Google Analytics account
2. You might see the new changes right away however if you do not there will be a new version and old version link at the top of the page. Make sure your on the new version
3. Open the website you are tracking into your standard report
4. Click on the Home tab for the reports
5. New menu on the left will show Real Time Beta overview

Google Analytics Live Overview

Those marketers who stay on top of things and continue to learn will be able to outperform and stay ahead of others. It’s up to you to give yourself the edge and stay ahead of your competition which means you need to be very self motivated.

What does the future hold for an affiliate marketer and how can they start to capitalize on it?

By simply looking towards ebooks, ebooks allow you to tap into a huge reader base of information seekers. With new devices coming out all the time such as Ipads, smart phones and kindles you can have your digital ebooks up and running in no time allowing them to be sold and read on such devices with little cost to you. This opens your products to a wide new audience you might not of been able to reach before via your blog and other methods.

New advancements in the ebook niche are Amazon announcing new features such as support of HTML5 and the Kindle Format 8 (KF8) which will replace the Mobi 7. The old black and white version of ebooks are out of here and the new age ebooks for interactive and powerful tools for marketers to use is here.

Affiliates are also now getting better tools. These tools allow for either live stats or hourly reports. This helps an affiliate marketer find out exactly when to target their list or push their ads for a higher bid price. As more sites offer these tools you as an affiliate will have a much easier time finding out when your making your sales and where to focus your efforts.

Social media advancements also present something new for affiliate marketers and allow you an instant way to build a following and send traffic to the products you recommend. Since marketing on social networks still is rather new you need to build a solid system in which to use them and build a positive vibe around yourself. A great way of doing this now is with videos, videos allow you to build a higher trust level then any text based version or picture ever could. Video views have increased dramatically over the last year and will continue to do so. Many sales pages have adopted this and now provide video for nearly everything their website is about including the sale page.

While there really is not a solid blue print to make the ultimate affiliate marketer it does come down to a few core basics. Those basics being someone who is able to digest a continues flow of new data and test new products and filter out how to use them best to continue growth. Understanding the audience/customers needs at all times will also make the ultimate affiliate smarter when pushing out products and services.

Keep reading, Keep filtering and Keep trying new innovative things

There are a number of blog platforms out there which include Blogger, WordPress and the growing popular Tumblr. With all of these you will need to test them out and see what one fits you best. Blogger offers a few templates to work with which you are able to customize to the extent that they look unique from any other by adding widgets and other custom fields. WordPress offers registering a domain name and hosting the blog for somewhere around $10 – $40 for the entire year. Tumblr offers more of the cutting edge social platform where you can quickly post pictures, articles, videos and other such data. Depending on what your business needs are, will depend on what service you use. I myself use all of them however WordPress seems to be my favorite.

Once you have your blog up and running you will need to create a steady flow of content. The choice is yours, depending on your niche you may have more to write about then with others. The more quality content you can push out the more traffic you will generate for your blog and overall your business.

There are a number of ways to monetize your blog as well which include selling ad space, selling your products and services, recommending others products and services. However it is important to remember the reason you are starting you blog and that is to create a deeper relationship with your client base.

Get Mobile!

With more users surfing the web via their mobile phones you need to make sure your landing pages grab attention and look good on mobile browsers. The issue just like with any web design is creating a page that is friendly to all types of phones. Since every phone has different screen sizes, browsers and colors you need to narrow it down to a simple layout and a clear area for the call to action. This call to action should be name and email address so you can sell this mobile user later on, perhaps when they are home on their desktop computer or laptop. For an already existing website be sure your tracking your results. I love Google analytic because it also shows me how that person is viewing my site via a smart phone or not. Being able to see what the majority of my visitors are using allows me to customize that design to work best for that phone type.

Clear Call To Action (Flash Is Out HTML5 and CSS3 Are In)

You might have noticed flash is on its way out and being quickly replaced with HTML5 and CSS3. With their new platforms you can do  many things with these programming languages now. Keeping things simple and painting a clear uncluttered picture is the fresh way to go this year. Visitors want to know what they should do next and your site should clearly show them how otherwise they will quickly leave your page and go on to visit something else.

Large images, Videos and Social Networking

Large images on a background with your clear site content overlaying it gives your site an amazing look. For example The Outdoor shop is a clean cut design large beautiful photo and then easy to find content without any scrolling. Also be clear to add your Facebook fan page and other social networks you use to this page allowing easy following.

The key to any of this is finding something you enjoy doing. Do you enjoy writing? Do you enjoy contacting people one on one? or do you enjoy building and creating new things?

The internet has so many roads to take that many get caught up in trying to figure out what to do instead of picking a path and going full steam ahead. This is the biggest mistake I see people make as it limits you in what you can learn and what you can earn. This is because your time and money is split up into so many avenues that there is not enough power behind any one of them to make something of it.

If you enjoy writing then I recommend you start a blog and stick to it. Blogging is still a very profitable niche and if you enjoy writing then creating content for it will be easy and not feel so much as a job. Blogging however does take a few months before you will see any amount of decent traffic coming to it. But with teaching yourself some SEO basics such as on Google Sniper 2.0 you can quickly master it and start driving serious amounts of traffic.

If you don’t mind writing but don’t want to go full blown blogging then the next thing I recommend is starting your own email list in the making money online niche. There are so many products and services you can promote to this list that you will always have something to sell to them or even give them for free. You will need an auto responder for this and the one I always recommend is AWeber as it has out performed any other auto responder I have used.

For building your list your going to need a few things, a website or squeeze page, an auto responder and something to give away. Master Resell Rights has a large collection of great products you can give away to entice people to join your mailing list. Once they are on your mailing list you can continue to offer them free products to download from here and also throw in a recommended product or service which they need to pay for. This is where your money is made.

For those of you who like creating things then building a membership site is the way to go. Your membership site should have something that’s activated monthly or a software program that requires a key monthly. This will ensure those paydays keep coming in month after month instead of just a one time payment. If you have the skills yourself (programers) by all means go for it and feel free to contact me for help in starting out with your projects. Alternatively if you do not have the skills consider hiring someone that can create your ideas from sites like Elance or Guru.com

One of the top things to hold any blog back is what is known as writers block. You know you need fresh new content but you just can’t think of anything to write about. What you need is a way to get data fast and in a way that you can review it and gather up creative ideas you can write about on your own blog.

Content Creation

Storify is a site that brings an easy to use interface to gather information from across all aspects of the web and pull that data into one central spot where you can review it and build ideas.

Diigo much like Storify it allows for a central hub to get the worlds information on specific subjects that relate to you. However one great feature about the site is where members can highlight portions of the web pages that are of particular interest and attach sticky notes to specific parts of the pages.

Screenr is a powerful tool which can take your blog or site on to the next level. It allows quick and easy access to creating compelling product or instructional video. A large number of companies and affiliate marketers are starting to use this service to easily create reviews and other great information on the fly for their subscribers.

Social Media

Sociable is a free WordPress plugin that allows bloggers to automatically distribute their content to more then 30 sites throughout the social web. You also have the ability to select where you want your content posted or post to all and track to see what ones are producing the traffic your site needs.

OnlyWire – Allows for quick bookmarking and posting to your favorite social bookmarking and social media sites. I’ve been using this service for years.

Analytics

Knowing whats going on at your site can be the difference between $10 a month and $1,000 a month. Get the information you need to start making informed decisions.

Crazy Egg is a powerful program that allows you to heat map your site. This ensures you know exactly where people are looking and clicking on your site. These heat maps allow you to rebuild your layout for areas that might be dead or even areas that are hot and place some type of ad there to increase your sales. It also allows you to see if these visitors are scrolling on your site and if so how far down before they leave your site.

ChartBeat – If you like seeing charts and data this is the site for you. While its a bit on the expensive edge having it for a large blog can make all the difference. It tracks actively the amount of active, new and returning visitors reading your content.

Remember information is powerful and having it can make all the difference in building yourself and your business to the next level.

This year in 2011 I launched a number of new membership sites which include Website Traffic Funnel, Lead Crusader, Blog Crusader, ListAblaze along with a few other sites and sites I flipped. When it comes to building and creating unique sites that’s one thing I know how to do and love doing it.

The key with any of these sites however is to build enough targeted traffic to them in order to make them successful. My main sources of traffic and to make these sites a success came from these traffic sources. JV Partnerships, SEO, Backlinking and List Swaps. Below I am going to go over some tips about how to get the best results and least amount of time spent to achieve your goals with these traffic methods.

JV Partnerships – Constant communication with other owners is key. However where you really stand out and build strong relationships is by helping them out. Be it by creating more sales for them as an affiliate, to giving them creative ideas to help grow their income, being proactive and keeping your face in the game is what its all about. Go out of your way to help them first and ask for a favor in return later on down the line. You might be suprised by how kind and respectful some people can be in this industry.

SEO – This is a topic I go over often, the reason is the amount of traffic you can get from SEO and new people to your site really has no limit. By understanding the basics of SEO and putting forth a small effort into creating SEO articles and sales copy you can dramatically improve your overall traffic, leads and income for the year.

Backlinking – An off-page factor of SEO is always a long hard battle. However with recent changes to Google it’s actually much easier then ever to rank for keywords. No longer do backlinking blasts of 5,000 + links in a day help your ranking, in fact they most likely will hurt your rankings. The best backlinking method that has been around for a long time is article marketing and social networking. To accomplish this nearly hands free (I spend at most 30 min a day doing backlinking) I use two programs. One is called Tribe Pro and the other is an article spinner. Tribe Pro allows me, for a monthly cost, to build hundreds of social media backlinks to each of my blog posts.  The article spinner helps take a simple $5 article I paid for and convert it into 20 unique readable versions which I post on other blog sites such as wordpress, tumblr and more. All of these then backlink to my sites and posts within my sites increasing the total flow of traffic and building quality backlinks that get me ranked higher.

List Swaps – This ones a bit new that I started just a month ago. The results have been amazing! By paying or swapping emails with others in your industry you can quickly build a opt in list of thousands of fresh leads ever month. If you are just starting out you will need a decent sum of money to get started. This investment however is well worth it and soon I will be allowing others to buy email ads from me. This is a great way to make additional money and keep a fresh flow of new faces checking out your products.

The future of success in 2012 for affiliate marketers as always is increasing traffic flow and converting that traffic into leads and sales. Always be sure to be using creative ways to get others to share your content and build your opt-in list.

#1 – Be active with other leaders

The core user base of Google + are bloggers and other key people which see the true potential of the network. This is a great way to meet other leaders and start gaining exposure and connecting with them. By being active and adding these key players to your circles now will yield you massive results in the months and years to follow. Take action now, be proactive and easy to reach on Google +.

• Comment wherever you can – provide valuable helpful content within circles and pages. This will help increase your exposure and if you have a new Google + page be sure to sign in and use that. For more information about setting up your Google + page see my other blog at Setting up your Google + page.
• Promote where needed – Promote your products and services where they are needed. Always keep in mind there is a fine line between promotion and spam. Keep it simple and don’t overkill it. You will see much better results this way.
• Be sure to fill out your profile fully with detailed information about your sites and other social networks you belong to. This gives people extra areas to connect with you and find out more about what you do and who you are.

#2 – Manage your large circles with Sparks

Sparks is a hot tool to use with large circles. Think of them as Google Alerts and using them will allow you to jump in on hot topics which you can add your insightful information too. Think of creative ways to build circles and use sparks to gain more exposure for yourself and your business Google + page.

#3 – Use hangouts as podcasts or educational tools

Hangouts allow you to become an authority figure and allow you to connect with all your Google + friends in that circle. It’s a great way to start a pod cast and build up a brand online.  Your pod casts should be related to your circle and as informational and helpful as possible. This is a great way to increase exposure through others telling their friends about what you are offering.

Using these 3 tips to Google + will get you on the right track to building yourself up as an authority figure on Google + and yield you benefits for months and years to come.

The site works by taking various sources of traffic from networks I have built over the years and converts it into a main rotator which is then split up into slots. Each slot gets the same amount of traffic as the others but there is no limit to the amount of slots you can buy. Buying extra slots will increase your traffic flow and thus in theory increase your leads as well.

This site may also be expanded soon to include email swaps or click buys and a banner co op rotator as well which will get you banner seen all across the web. This will create a central hub for you to tap into my 11+ years of network building giving you the edge on your competition and you in profit faster.

The best pages to work with this system are lead capture pages. However there are a number of rules you will need to follow such as no pop ups, exit pop ups or anything that impedes the visitor from leaving your site. A fresh clean cut nice looking squeeze page is all you need to start building leads with this system.

Pick up your slots now and start building your business faster only at Lead Crusader.

The first thing you should learn is SEO which is search engine optimization. While there are many great bloggers out there that write fantastic information, what good does it do if no one reads it? Understanding SEO will allow you to write both attention grabbing headlines and keyword rich headlines and content. This will in turn help get you more traffic from your writing and increase your exposure. A solid program in which I learned the best SEO tactics from is a program called Google Sniper 2.0  I wrote a review you can read here Google Sniper 2.0 Review.

The next thing you need in order to become a successful blogger is having an easy way for people to both share your content and then view the new content you release later. A plugin I use to allow for easy sharing on my blog is called Digg Digg which is linked to go to their plugin page. You can install this plugin and have just about any share button you want along with the vote numbers next to it.

You also need a way for people to easily be able to see when you have added new content to you blog. Before bloggers did this by adding a RSS feed button to their blog and allowing people to subscribe to this feed. While this is still a viable option there are a number of other methods you should use. One includes building an email list in which each new post you add goes out to your list and links back to your blog. I do this via an auto responder called AWeber. You should also add your RSS feed to a program called feedburner which will give your RSS feed more exposure across many RSS readers and mobile devices.

The last tips are some odd and end plugins I have found for wordpress that help increase conversion rates for your list building. These little tools once set up and functioning allow for both higher conversions and also helped my blog to go viral.

Plugin 1 – Popup Domination – Is a plugin that allows you to have a lightbox display on your blog that overlays it asking them to opt in for an ebook, webinar, report or whatever you want to give away. Its a great conversion tool that has built over half of the email list I have today.

Plugin 2 – List Eruption – This one I just started using but have had huge success with so far. It works great tied into a Facebook page and works like this: When a visitor opts in for a product you can then reward them for referring others that opt in via their referral link. For every so many referrals they bring to your list they can unlock other reports, ebooks, webinars or anything you want to give away.