– Parth

Blogging is an incredibly creative endeavor. The marketing side of it is pretty simple: find keywords to target and write content around them.

The writing content is probably the most difficult aspect about blogging, because frankly, you have to create A LOT of content.

I currently have 1,025 published articles on my site. That’s a lot of content, which took a lot of time to develop.

So how do you continue to develop high quality content while keeping things fresh, relative, and creative?

Here’s the thing I’ve realized about creativity: I’m rarely ever creative when I try to be. This is why for the past few weeks I’ve been trying to “deload.”

To essentially work less, and be more active. I get my ideas when I’m working out, with my friends, or talking on the phone.

I also sometimes get ideas when I’m just sitting and watching TV or reading a book. So sometimes sitting in front of a computer all day is not a practical approach to blogging.

When an idea comes to my head, I try to make something of it right away. I either go to my computer and start working on it, or write it down.

That is why my working hours are so erratic. Some days I don’t even work. Other day’s I’ll work up to 5 hours!

Its all about how creative I am that day. Some days you just don’t have any mental energy to get the job done.

And that’s perfectly fine.

One of the biggest reasons I chose to become a Professional Blogger is so that I would be able to choose my own hours and work on my own terms.

However, at some point, especially if you’re a beginner (and most people reading this blog are not beginners) you need get your hands dirty and focus.

Focus is extremely important. Once you have those ideas in front of you, it takes discipline to turn those ideas into content that users can consume.

Realize that blogging is based on a consumption model, and if there is not enough content for users to consume, they will not return to your blog.

How do You Focus?

The key to focus is to get rid of distractions. Shut off your phone. Lock your door. X out of your Facebook page.

If possible, turn off the internet. Now, I work online using Google Docs. But when I’m working on an article, nothing else comes into my mind.

It’s all about starting and finishing. I don’t get up (unless I have to use the bathroom really badly), until I am complete with my work.

The article may take 20 minutes or 2 hours to complete. It depends on the subject matter. But I do not get up half way unless I absolutely have to.

For some more affiliate marketing tips and tricks, download my free manual here.

Even though I’m not making a WHOLE lot of money with Clickbank, my sales are fairly consistent:
So how do you continually make steady sales?

Well, steady sales comes from steady traffic. Instead of 1000 hits in one day, and then 50 hits the next, try to do around 500 hits per day.

In other words, focus on a steady increase in traffic, as opposed to huge, short term spurts in traffic.

Which traffic sources give you short term spurts?

• Stumble Upon
• Ezine Articles
• Facebook

All these three are great traffic sources, and should be used to help you with your overal marketing strategy.

However, for long term, steady traffic, you need to absolutely focus on search traffic. Now, many marketers claim that spending too much time on search is futile, as when the Search Engine changes your algorithm, it will effect your rankings.

My argument is – how much will they change their algorithms? Titles will still be a huge factor in determining rankings.

Search Engines will not deviate from the basics. The whole idea is to help users find relevant content.

And if your content is relevant, then you will always hold those rankings. So the real key to internet marketing success is to be really good at a content development.

How do You get good at Content Development?

It’s more of an art than a science. But for those “scientists” out there, here are a few tips:

• Focus on bullet points. If you are unable write full, clear sentences and paragraphs, then bullet points will suffice.
• Make sure your audience can understand you. There are no grammar rules in blogging, just common sense.
• Learn english if english is not your first language. English is the language of the world. Strive to improve.
• Write first, SEO second. Once you get into the habit of writing on a steady basis, then you can focus on keyword research.

Alternative Forms of Content

I’m not good in front of the camera, and I sound funny. So I do not do too many podcasts or videos.

However, I’ve tried them. Podcasts and videos are a very popular form of media. Most people will rather watch something than read it.

So if you have a great personality that comes alive in front of a camera, then you may just want stick to Video Blogging.

On the flip side, if you have a great “radio voice” then stick to podcasting.

From here on end, just use the SEO and Marketing techniques in my Free Manual and start making consistent sales!

Most newbies start off their Affiliate marketing careers by doing lots of article marketing. Most give up because they’re not seeing immediate results from their efforts. However, after 585 articles on Ezinearticles.com, I’ve realized that article marketing is only the beginning of your article marketing, not the end.

What do I mean by this?

Well, there is a popular method out there called BUM marketing, where you write a whole bunch of articles daily to get lots of traffic. This traffic is usually very short-lived, with an article only providing you traffic for 3-4 days (at most).

Hence, setting goals such as “20 articles per day” is pointless if your goal is to make money only through article marketing. Why not instead focus on article marketing only in the beginning of your careers, as a jump-off point for creating a flagship blog – earning a steady revenue over time, like this:

Most of my income now is passive income. Even though I have not yet achieved the level of income that I want to (around 5 grand per month), I’m steadily getting there. But the best feeling is waking up and seeing sales come through.

Also love it when I get lots of sales without working for the entire day, such as the weekends. This is what every Internet Marketer is after: passive income. It all ties into our pursuit of absolute financial freedom.

Anyways, lets get back to Article marking. Here’s what article marketing SHOULD be used for:

Get Traffic for the LONG Term

My top performing article gets around 100 hits per month. And with a 15.1% click through rate, I’m getting around 15 hits from that article per month. That’s pretty good for an ezine article.

I suspect most people’s articles perform at a much lower level than that. But think about it this way, if you can get one article to send you 15 article per month, and you have 500 articles published, you’re getting 7,500 hits per month JUST from article marketing.

Now, frankly speaking, I’ve made the same mistake when I was a newbie – in terms of writing a whole bunch of crappy articles really fast. Some of them did help me get sales, but most stopped working for me after 3 days.

I’m currently not posting any new articles on Ezinearticles.com. But when I do, I’ll be sure to go back and look at my top performing articles and duplicate them. If I can write just 10 top performing articles, that’s 150 hits extra just from Ezinearticles.com.

BOOST your Reputation

Ezinearticles.com works hard to maintain a good reputation on their site. They’ve recently been cracking down on affiliate marketing because of all these newbie affiliates writing dumb articles.

So, your job should be write super high quality articles, and send it back to your blog. You can marketing to visitors on your blog as much as you want, but in your Ezine article, make sure that you are writing 100% quality content.

You will position yourself as an expert in no time, and hence be able to see higher conversions for your products from individuals coming form your Ezine articles.

BUILD Links

At the bottom of each of my article, in my Authors Resource Box, I write the following:

You have permission to publish this article in your web sites, ezines or electronic publication, as long as the piece is used in its entirety including the resource box, all hyperlinks (HTML clickable) and references and copyright info

So if someone is doing research for an article on their blog and comes across your site. They’ll be obliged to either link back to your blog, to the ezine article, or might even decide to reprint your material.

But you need to tell people this. You can’t just assume that just because you’ve written an article, people will start linking to you. You know what happens when you assume.

Bottom line is this: WRITE HIGH QUALITY ARTICLES AND FOCUS ON LONG TERM RESULTS

Analyzing an Ezine Article

Now lets go back to that Ezine article and see why it’s such a great article and what steps you should take to write high quality content. You can also implement these tips in your blog articles.

The article we’ll be analyzing is titled “Interval Training You can Perform at Home.” I wrote this article about 11 months ago, and it’s still performing really good. Look at the traffic it’s getting:

June isn’t over yet, so it’s safe to say that the article is getting 100 hits per month, at least. Here are the search terms it gets traffic for:

So as you can see, I’ve used a long tail keyword to construct my title and topic for the article. The long tailis a socio-statistical theory that suggests that the collective sales of products in low demand can exceed that of popular products and bestsellers.

In other words, focusing on low-search, specifically targeted keywords will yield higher results instead of constantly going after more popular keywords (especially when you’re just starting out).

So, instead of “Interval Training” I chose “Interval Training at Home.” I can also do Interval Training for Women, Interval Training for Obese People, or Interval Training for Athletes.

How do you find long-tail keywords?

Simple, use the same exact SEO techniques I wrote about in my free manual. Once you’ve found which primary Keywords you want to target, start creating 3-5 word phrases that increase the specificity.

For example, lets say I wanted to write about Big Biceps. Big Biceps is a tough keyword to target. So what do you we do? We start thinking of things that people would search about using those two words.

Here’s a few I though of off the top of my head:

• Big Biceps Workout without Weights
• Big Biceps Workout you can Do at Home
• Top 10 Exercises for Big Biceps
• How to Get Big Biceps Fast

The BOLD portions are the keywords people would most likely search for. You can also put in BIG BICEPS into Google and see what suggestions they give you. Here are the results I got:

Using this feature, you can come up with a whole slew of article titles fairly easily. For example:

• Get Big Biceps and Triceps at Home
• Big Biceps Routine for the Gym
• Big Biceps Workout for Women

I’ve been using this technique, along with looking at my Google Analytics data to boost traffic. I’m doing ok. I’ve increased my traffic by 7% so far, so my income might match or slightly increase from last month.

I will give you the full update when ready.

One Last Thing: Keyword Density

Ezinearticles.com limits how many times you can mention a keyword in your post. However, lets look at how many times I’ve used a particular keyword in that article:

• Interval Training – 4 times
• Intervals – 3 times
• Interval Workout – 1 time
• Interval – 1 time

So you don’t need to go crazy and put your keyword all over the place, but you should use them frequently. Try to make the article flow well. Get someone to check it for you if you need to.

Hope this little tutorial helps. For more clickbank marketing tips, grab a free copy of my 2 Grand per Month Clickbank Formula.

A few weeks back, I received this comment on my main blog: “you still havent updated livingchill.com. what a waste of time you are.”

Seriously? So what if I didn’t update this blog. When did I ever say that I was going to write every day or every week or anything? I think one status update per month is more than enough.

Anything else and you’d probably become extremely bored. I will update when I have something to report on. And what about the second part of that comment? I’m a waste of time? What the hell!

Am I making you wait for me or something? Am I making you pay for some service that I’m providing? No. Everything on this site is 100% free. I’m basically sharing what’s worked for me and what hasn’t.

I’m not saying I’m some sort of guru that you should follow around 24/7. Wow. I really hope that who ever that was that made that comment never comments on any of my sites ever again.

What really offended me was the fact that he went to my fitness blog to comment, instead of commenting on this site. I get emails when a comment is placed on this site. Just comment on livingchill.com if you have a question that is related to affiliate marketing.

Wow.

Anyways, a lot of you have been asking about back links. Well, one of the vendors, Vince Delmonte, created this small PDF to help out his affiliates with SEO. It’s a really great read and will most likely answer all your questions concerning SEO and getting back links.

You can download it (for free) here: http://www.vincedelmontefitness.com/affiliates/seo_secrets.php

Wow, haven’t posted on this site since May 7. Well, lets do some reporting here.

So, how much money did I make this month? $1581.14. I’m getting close to making 2 grand, WITHOUT a huge product launches. I’ve come to realize that a huge product launch will help you make a lot of money, but it’s futile to rely on just one major launch.

Major launches only come out maybe 1-2 times per year, however product launches come out almost every week. In the past month alone, there were about 3 product launches, and at least 5 promos that I participated in.

Not all of them were super lucrative for me. But even if a promo helps you earn around $100, that’s still great for your monthly total. Anyways, lets take a look at April and May 2010:

So based on these stats, I’m thinking I can boost my income at least 10%, or $1739.25. However, there were a lot of sales made for members sections and partial payments. For members sections, I would get a percentage of the sale as long as the individual stayed in the members section.

However, for the partial/deferred payment, the individual usually payed a trial amount – like $5 – and then would pay the rest in 21-30 days. As long as customers don’t cancel, I should be seeing all those commission payments coming through in June.

My estimate is $326. 34 in rebills. Add that to my previous forecast, and you get $2065.59. So I’ll finally surpass the 2 grand mark without a huge product launch. If a huge product launch does come around (it is, after all, the summer), then I can make even more money!

Lets compare last year and this year:

So last year, I only made $129.87 in the entire month! Now that’s a huge improvement! But more importantly, take a look at my average income. This year, my monthly average income is $1208.82, compared to $198.72 last year.

June 2009 is highlighted because I made the most money that month last year. Meaning that I should be able hit some pretty good numbers this month overall. The second highest is October. Also realize that I didn’t start SERIOUS affiliate marketing until May 2009.

The point is that anyone who is serious can easily make around $100 their first month. Then you just use the momentum to build up your affiliate marketing business and blog, as I’ve done.

I want to take this time, now that I have your attention, and talk about one thing: back links. A lot of my survey responses were focused around how to get traffic and back links. The back links part…I have no idea.

People link to me on a daily basis. Some of the sites are legit, others are automated adsense sites. But the bottom line is that here I am and I don’t know anything about building links. I haven’t had any formal SEO training, and I’m getting 20,000 hits per month with an Alexa ranking of 328,700.

That’s why I keep telling to start a blog around something they know about and enjoy. It makes the whole process easier. Just use the SEO and keyword research tips I shared with you in my free manual, and keep writing.

Keep blogging, and figure out what you’re good at. The information is out there, for free. Are you good at article marketing, link building, writing content, youtube marketing, social bookmarking, facebook, or twitter?

There are hundreds of different ways to make a sale. Keep experimenting, reading, and studying, and you will achieve your goals.

Anyways, back to the analysis -

So, I’ve only increased my traffic by .97%. .97% increase in traffic equals a 7% increase in sales. It’s quite obvious to me I know how to CONVERT traffic, but I just need more of it. At this point, perhaps simply writing on my blog isn’t enough.

I plan to do more guest posts, article marketing, and introduce more higher end products. I will also take another crack at social media. I haven’t decided whether I’m going to rely on twitter, social bookmarking, or facebook.

Perhaps facebook, since I’m more active on it as it is. I will have to study what trainers such as Craig Ballantyne, Funk Roberts, and Mike Mahler are doing on Facebook.

I want to end this analysis with a huge victory. The last time I posted, I stated that my income had stagnated at around 300-400 dollars per week and I wanted to break past the $500 level. Well, I’ve done it!

Check this out:

Yes! It’s actually past $600. I just hope I can keep this steady. I’m also experimenting with a new way of positioning the products that I promote on my blog using this simple to develop spreadsheet, designed to help you feature your top products at optimal locations.

I used to just place whatever product was last sold at the top of my side bar. But I realized that this was a huge mistake! I started this experiment on Wednesday, so…yea look at those stats starting Wednesday.

Will get back to you soon!

Here are my latest screen shots:

So I’m doing around $2-400 per week quiet consistently. Now I just have to figure out how to get that number up to $500 per week.

Will keep you posted.

According to the survey I sent out to my list, everyone has been affiliate marketing for at least 6 months. So, I’m not going to waste my time with beginner concepts.

In the past month, my website traffic has increased by 13.78%. My revenue has increased by 71%. So, traffic DOES equal more money, but only if you have good converting products.

So what have I been doing in the past month that has seen such a grave increase in my traffic? Well, I did one main thing:

I Spent More Time Writing…

…on my blog.

In the month of March, I wrote 78 posts on my blog. In April, I wrote 96 posts on my blog. So I worked only 23% harder in the month of April than in March, which helped me get 13.78% more people to my blog and made me $612.77 more money than last month.

So, if I want to make more money this month, I need to work just a little bit harder, to yield greater results.

Now, just as I surveyed you guys, I survey the list on my blog. And I was able to gather some incredible data that will help me write more targeted articles.

These articles will…

1. Increase my SEO traffic
2. Convert current readers into buyers by giving them the information they want, and in turn promoting the kind of products that match that information (for example, I found that I have a good number of individuals who want to learn how to get and stay in shape at the age of 60. So I’m coming out with a series of articles for individuals over the age of 55, and recommending workout programs specific to their goals. It’s already working!)
3. Attract new readers who are similar to your current readers.

Try it and see if it works for you. I will keep you posted on how this new strategy is working for me.

1. Is it saving me more time?
2. Is it making me more money?
3. Is it generating more traffic?
4. Is it increasing my SEO?

All your answers will be answered after this month, when I start analyzing my results. Until then, use this strategy, and the ones from my free eBook, and start making some money!

Everyone knows that the key to making sales with Clickbank products is to write product reviews, landing pages, comparison landing pages, or pre-sell pages.

Latest Screen Shots - Not Bad

Each of these pages offers a different benefit. However, the main idea is that you still need to see the product before you can write a believable review.

How do you go about doing it? Do you really need to purchase every single product that you review? The short answer is…no. So then, how do you write a review without actually seeing the product?

Starting out, I wrote reviews without seeing the product. It worked.

However, one day I contacted a vendor who’s product I was promoting, just to ask them a question about their product.

A few email messages later, they sent me a copy of their product. I was extremely excited to get a free copy of the product. Sure, I felt special. But that was when I realized the power of being an affiliate.

Vendors need us just as much as we need them. However, at that moment, I did not think to ask vendors for a review copy of their product. I just went on and depended on vendors to send me a review copy as I promoted a product.

Not anymore. I’m much more proactive about my business. In fact, just this past week I’ve contacted at least 10 vendors, and was able to get review copies of 8 products.

A good vendor will be happy to send you a review copy, or at least a sample of their product. But, there are some things you must keep in mind:

Tip #1: It Helps If You Have a Website

The moment vendors see my website, they know I mean business. They see all the product images on the sidebar. They browse through all the in-depth product reviews I write.

Vendors Know I Mean Business

They can see this site gets traffic. If they want to double check, they just go onto Alexa.com and check my traffic rank. But, you don’t necessarily need a high-traffic website to get free review copies.

If you don’t wish to spend $110 per year on hosting and domain name (which comes out to less than $10 a month), then you can use a free blogger.com blog.

However, any business is an investment. And I’d rather you spend your money on setting up a decent looking blog rather than on PPC. I still haven’t conquered PPC marketing, and I’ve been doing this longer than you (I’m guessing).

Tip #2: Be Nice and Be Honest

Don’t send out an email and say, “May I please have a copy of your product?” On the flip side, don’t say, “It would be really nice of you to please, maybe, if possible, but you don’t really have to send me a review copy.”

Be professional, but be honest. If you’re a beginner, say that you’re just starting out and you want their product to be one of the first products you promote.

I just Think this Image is Cool

Here is a sample email template for individuals who already have a few products on their website:

Hi (Vendor Name),

- (Your Name)

Here is a sample email template for individuals who have no products on their website:

Hi (Vendor Name),

#3: Look for Brand New Products

There’s a four-month window you should be familiar with: 1 month before the product is launched, and 3 months after the product is launched. Three months after a product is launched, there is very little guarantee that the product will be able to give you sales.

Open the Window at the Right Time, and You could be Looking at the Solution to all your Financial Problems

This is the biggest mistake newbies make. They try and sell products with a high gravity. Yes, high gravity means that lots of affiliates are making sales of the product.

But high gravity also means that it’s been around for a while. Very few vendors are able to get 100+ gravity within a few weeks. So, keep a look out for brand new products.

This is also the time when vendors start looking for affiliates. They want lots of affiliates sending traffic to their site 1 month before the product is actually launched.

You really shouldn’t start promoting a product that’s not going to be released for another 3 months because if you send traffic to the website, and the vendor is capturing emails, then you have 60 days to make a sale, or else it won’t be credited to you.

1 month before is the best time, since the buzz about the product will be at it’s peak. On launch day, you can easily grab 5-10 sales for a high end product, or 20-30 for a lower end product.

There are three ways to seek out new products:

Method #1: Instant Affiliate Accelerator

Antone Roundy has a product called the Instant Affiliate Accelerator. The product helps you perform a lot of affiliate marketing tasks such as delivering bonuses and creating squeeze pages.

But, the product didn’t really work for me, so I canceled my membership. However, they kept me on their newsletter. Antone’s weekly newsletter is a great resource to find new products.

He focuses on four types of products:

#1 – Rising Stars

Reminds you of Kindergarten

These are products that have seen a boost in their sales, gravity, and are offering high commissions. They also see low returns. Usually, these are the products that have just experienced a huge launch.  This is where you want to choose most of your products from.

#2 – Falling Rocks

These are the products that are doing poorly in the Clickbank marketplace. Their commissions are not that good, sales are plummeting, and refund rates are rising. It’s not uncommon to see a product a rising star one week, and a falling rock the next. If a product you’re promoting is on the Falling Rocks list, abandon immediately!

#3 – Dinosaur Killers

These are the products you want to avoid like the plague! The focus is mostly on refund rates. The market has clearly rejected the product, and if you’re promoting them, it’ll damage your reputation.

#4 – New Products

This is just a list of brand new products. This is where you will most likely find a product that is about to be launched. Most of the new products are still in the testing phase.

I’ve also found vendors of new products are the most difficult to convince to give away a free version of their product. This is because for most this is their first product, and they are not seasoned Internet marketers yet.

Method #2: CBengine

If you do not want to sign up for Instant Affiliate Accelerator (I think there’s a 14-day free trial), then you can simply use the myriad of free Clickbank – tracking websites such as CBengine.

Is this your Goal? Then do your Research!

These websites will give you listings of brand new products, and specific information about the product. Frankly, I don’t use the websites too much, so I can not tell you how best to use them.

However, I thought I’d mention them.

Method #3: Relationships with Vendors

I advise you to get on the mailing list of as many vendors in your niche as possible. Now, I’m not talking about their affiliate newsletters. I’m talking about their customer newsletters.

Most good vendors will have an op-tin form on the front page of their site. Get on that newsletter. This is because most vendors stick together, and you can get a sense of an upcoming product launch if all of a sudden you’re getting emails from a vendor promoting someone else’s product.

In addition, some of the vendors who’s products you’re currently promoting will eventually create a new product in the future. If they know you by first name, and if you’re making them at least 3-5 sales per week (very doable), then they’ll most likely contact you and inform you of an upcoming launch.

There are more than enough methods here to 1) help you choose the right products and 2) to get your hands on a review copy of the product you’re promoting.

Getting a review copy will also help you make a better decision on what products you want to spend more time promoting. I feel kind of guilty not promoting a product once I have a review copy (unless the product is an absolute piece of junk, in which case the vendor should be punished for being so lazy/sinister (whatever you want to call it)).

Can you Imagine this Lady Writing a Fitness eBook?

But on a side note if you come across a product that you do not agree with 100%, then write a review of it, put it on your site, and let it sit there. If the vendor asks you why your sales are low (which they won’t, ever), then you can just say you’re trying your best.

Of course, this strategy is only useful for people who have a guilty conscience. If you don’t care, then you don’t care. Sometimes not caring is better for your business.

For more Clickbank Marketing Tips, check out my free eBook, The 2 Grand Per Month Clickbank Formula (click here).