Sure Fire Web Newsblog

Archive for September, 2007

Thanks for sticking with me as we plow through building my site,
“IM against PP”
–> www.imagainstpp.com

That is, “Internet Marketers Against PayPal”

Building your own Affiliate site is all about comparing two (or more)
products and providing your affiliate link to the products on the site.
The best Affiliate sites are those that can provide quality information
to customers, especially if you’ve read or used the product.

With Affiliate sites you ALWAYS win when people click on a link and
make a purchase from your site, as people love to compare products
prior to making a purchase.

If you can help people with the comparison process, you’re well on
the way to becoming a Top Affiliate Site owner !

** Firstly, Compare your Main Product(s)

Today I’ve integrated the comparison screen between several
alternative merchants, other than PayPal:

http://imagainstpp.com/Alternative_Processors_to_PayPal.html

You can see from this page that I’ve included as many facts as
possible about the online merchants. I’m a member of many of them
already – and for some which I wasn’t, I joined up as an affiliate.

I’ve tried to make the site as “personal” as possible – as if it’s a
recommendation from a friend. I feel that the personal approach has
more of an influence on people, rather than trying to beat up a good
sales story for each product.

** Compare other things as well

In addition, take a tour of the Article Directory list that is on the site:

http://imagainstpp.com/Alternative_Article_Directories.html

When building your own Affiliate site, you can make it a little more
diverse to offer comparisons of other products that would be relevant
to your niche – as in the case with Article Directories.

Feel free to try all the links and check out the offers on this site

** Your F/r/e/e Gifts

Before I leave you today, make sure you access your f/r/e/e
downloads at:

http://imagainstpp.com/Bonus_Free_Internet_Marketing_Downloads.html

On any Affiliate site make sure you have something that people
can download for free – that way they can come back to the site at
a future date. They might make a purchase from a product you’ve
recommended within the gift, so make sure your gift is worthy to
collect “hard drive dust”

You may want to put a signup form (lead capture page) to build
your subscriber list, in exchange for the gift, if you have a really tight
niche themed site.

Make it worth their while to hear from you again, and give them what they want.
Well that’s it for today. You are a great listener !

Next issue I want to complete the Affiliate site, and then we’ll take a
look at SEO and site design to see how to set up the pages to get
f/r/e/e Search Engine Traffic.

And in future issues we’ll look at other techniques to get traffic to the
site.

I hope this is useful to help you build your sites.

Feel fr.e.e. to post this email message – as well as my previous two
emails – to your Blog, send it to your subscriber list, or anywhere else
you can think of.

All I ask is that you please leave the website URL’s intact.
I really appreciate hearing from you, so drop me a line if you like.
Take care and have a great week !

People really loved the information I provided last week about
building your own Affiliate Site, and so I’ve added a little more to it
this week.

Here’s the site we’re building:
http://www.imagainstpp.com

The background: PayPal is a Huge Bully, and there MUST be
alternative means to take online payments other than PayPal.

I’ve put up some genuine information about my experience with
PayPal account closure, but I’m taking this one step further:
“Internet Marketers Against PayPal”
http://www.imagainstpp.com

Not only am I adding alternatives to PayPal, but I’m adding other
things like “alternative press release locations” and “alternative
PDF creation tools”.

You’ll see that I’ve made it a “grunge” site – black and white, with a
Times font, which suggests an Editorial stance on what I’m saying.
You’ll also notice that I’ve strategically placed Google Adsense code
around the outside of the site, and along the header. These don’t
detract from the main message, and are a source of income for me
from visitors.

The main aim of the site will be to evaluate different online merchants
and compare the differences between them – especially if you
don’t have a PayPal account.

This section is still under development – and you’ll get that sometime
next week. I’m trying to narrow down the merchants to a suitable set
as there are many online merchants available !
In the near future, this will be a huge affiliate site where people can
sign up to the merchant account or their choice, and by doing this I’ll
get a commission smart eh ?

That’s how an affiliate site actually works – and you can do the same.
Did you think of a subject for an affiliate site from my last email ?
- eg. online dating
- eg. comparing DVD conversion tools

—> comparing ANYTHING between one product and another
When you compare, be honest, and include your affiliate link to the
actual product so that you can claim your commission.

I’ve seen this done really well with Blogs, too.

All you need to do is compare one item to another, and promote your
comparison site across the net. That way you don’t even need to
own your own products, and can earn an income
Well then, hop to it !

A little while back I took a survey from my list and asked what sort of
information I might be able to provide in order to serve you better.
I’d like to thank the many responses I’ve received, and in return I’d like
to share with you, over the coming few weeks, about How to Build an
Affiliate Site.

Firstly, what is an affiliate site?

t’s a site where you compare a range of products or services, and
allow your visitors to make their own minds up about a product.
The beauty of an Affiliate Site is that you don’t need to own a product,
all you need to do is COMPARE products.

ver heard of Choice Magazine ? I hope so. It’s one of the largest
organisations on this planet that performs rigorous tests on products.
Now you won’t need to be as creative as the Editors from Choice to
create your site, but you can still use the same principles when doing
it.

Let me share with you an example now of a site I’m building so that you
may pick up some ideas. I’m building on the *hot* topic of PayPal
account closures, and providing information about alternative
systems instead of PayPal.

ere’s my site (which is still in progress):
http://imagainstpp.com

As far as HTML Editor goes, I’m using XSitePro, which is one of the neatest programs around – very intuitive, with a realistic price.

Now as you travel through my site you’ll see a lot of the blab about
the PayPal horror stories, etc, but I’ve set the site up with two things in mind:
1. To provide quality alternatives to PayPal, and
2. To cash in on Adsense clicks.
Both streams of income should become quite lucrative, over time.
For now I’ve put up two “alternatives” for systems that internet
mar/keters could use, and this is my “Affiliate Site” in action:
1. Alternative Affiliate Systems, and
2. Alternative PDF Creation Tools
I’ve also got a Bonus Download section for people who want to take
things away with them after leaving the site. The only thing it lacks,
at this stage, is a pop-in form to collect signups and build my list of
anti-PayPal subscribers – but that can come later.
For the meantime, just take a stroll around the site and see what you
think. I aim to upload a lot more information to the site in the coming
weeks, and I’ll share what I’m doing to make the site appealing
and informative.
http://imagainstpp.com
Also along the way I’ll share how to optimise the site for the Search
Engines (SEO) – using “on-page” optimisation.
Here’s Your Assignment, If you choose to take it…
Now that you’ve seen a working live example of an Affiliate Site, I’d
encourage you to think about your own. It doesn’t have to be as
elaborate a topic as mine, and it doesn’t even have to be a site.
You can easily compare products on a Blog, no need to even OWN a
website.
When creating your site, here’s what you need to do:
1. Target a niche – don’t let your topic get too broad
2. Find relevant products – and provide a comparison
3. Add glossy pictures and tell the real truth about the product.
For the last one, you may need to invest in the product, or you may
alternatively approach the owner and ask if you could review their
product.
Make sure you cloak your affiliate links and set your site up to provide a genuine comparison. When ready, start promoting your site. If you
set up your site to attract the search engines, then promoting will be
taken care of for you.
Before I go, here’s a few popular topics that could get your creative
juices moving:
- online dating comparison
- DVD burning kit comparison
- registry cleaner comparison
- membership site comparison
- hosting comparison
- etc …
Once you’ve settled on your topic, find the right programs to compare,
then add your affiliate link to the site.
No matter which way people click on your site, if they make a
purchase you should be credited for the sale !